Using the right messaging strategies, churches can help promote behavior change. Frequencies of disease-specific messages in 21 African-American churches were compared to overall and cancer-specific mortality and morbidity rates as well as church-level variables. Disease messages were found in 1025 of 2166 items. Frequently referenced topics included cancer (n=316), mental health conditions (n=253), heart disease (n=246), and infectious diseases (n=220). Messages for lung and colorectal cancers appeared at low frequency despite high mortality rates in African-American communities. Season, church size, and denomination showed significant associations with health messages. Next steps include testing messaging strategies aimed at improving the health of churchgoing communities.
The artillery fungus (Sphaerobolus stellatus) is a common, white-rotting wood decay fungus that grows on landscape mulch. During colonization, the fungus produces dark-brown, sticky spore masses (gleba) that it shoots from the mulch towards a source of light or light-colored objects. The gleba adhere tightly to surfaces such as the sides of houses or cars. Twenty-five landscape mulches were evaluated in the field and laboratory to determine which mulches supported or inhibited the artillery fungus. Although the artillery fungus eventually grew on most types of mulch, some mulches supported more sporulation than others. The artillery fungus did not grow or sporulate well on mulches made from large pine bark nuggets, Atlantic white-cedar, or cypress. We recommend these mulches for use in areas having an existing or potential artillery fungus problem. However, even these mulches should be replaced with new mulch on a regular basis.
Three strains of the fungus Trichoderma harzianum Rifai and two strains of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis (Ehrenberg) Cohn were evaluated for their ability to suppress colonization and sporulation of the artillery fungus (Sphaerobolus stellatus Tode:Pers.) on oatmeal agar. All five biological control agents inhibited growth of S. stellatus, but efficacy depended on time of application. Simultaneous inoculation of agar with S. stellatus and the biocontrol agents, as well as inoculation of biocontrol agents 14 days prior to S. stellatus, resulted in complete inhibition of S. stellatus. Inoculation of agar with biocontrol agents 14 days after inoculation with S. stellatus reduced, but did not completely suppress S. stellatus colonization and sporulation. In this experiment, gleba (spore masses) treated with all strains of T. harzianum and strain GBO3 of B. subtilis did not germinate, but 13% of gleba treated with strain MBI 600 of B. subtilis did germinate. Trichoderma harzianum was more effective than B. subtilis as a biocontrol agent.
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