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Joint crypto-blockchain scheme for trust-enabled CCTC video sharing
No full textDoes the selective encryption serve the purpose of Data Protection
Regulation compliant privacy protection of monitored individuals by
CCTV cameras?
What information can be helpful for the validation of visual data
using chain-of-evidence in remote court services?
Do the remotely conducted courts consider the presented CCTV
footage trustworthy for legal decision making
Incorporation of roe, milt and liver from plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), herring (Clupea harengus) and cod (Gadus morhua) in newly developed seafood Pâtés: Sensory evaluation by teenage consumers in Ireland and their attitudes to seafood
No full textRoe, milt and liver of marine fish caught in Irish fisheries are generally discarded at sea or processed on-shore as low-value fishmeal. This study aimed to 1) develop new added-value seafood products using roe, milt and liver; 2) determine eating quality and acceptance among teenagers; and 3) survey teenagers' attitudes towards seafood consumption. Four pâtés were developed by combining marine ingredients in varying proportions: 1) 100% plaice roe (RO), 2) 75% roe/25% milt (RM), 3) 75% roe/25% liver (RL) and 4) 75% roe/12.5% liver/12.5% milt (RLM) with plant-based ingredients. Physico-chemical, colour and texture analyses were conducted. Sensory evaluation using temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) and acceptance testing (hedonic and JAR scales) with 72 subjects aged 15–16 years were undertaken. Fat content ranged from 4% in RO to 15% in RL, while protein ranged from 21% to 17%, respectively. Significant L*a*b* differences (p < 0.05) resulted in a ‘great’ total colour difference (ΔE* = 11.56) between RO and RL. TDS curves indicated fish flavour and saltiness as the main attributes significantly dominating during oral processing. Flavour was important in overall acceptance, with perception of products being ‘too-fishy’ negatively impacting overall liking. Cumulative positive responses (‘like slightly’ to ‘like extremely’) for RO, RLM, RL and RM were 52%, 48%, 39% and 36%, respectively. Reported seafood consumption was relatively low (9% of respondents eating fish more than twice a week and 36% once a month or less). A positive correlation between overall liking and ‘desire to eat more seafood’ was observed. Approximately 33% of students stated they would consider snacking with the new pâtés. Positive acceptance of new products, along with positive attitude towards seafood and willingness to try new species suggests that roe, milt and liver could be incorporated into seafood formulations for healthy snacks in the Irish teenage market. Incorporation of roe, milt and liver from plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), herring (Clupea harengus) and cod (Gadus morhua) in newly developed seafood pâtés: sensory evaluation by teenage consumers in Ireland and their attitudes to seafood.ye
The medicinal properties of Irish honey
Get PDFManuka honey is an internationally recognized honey licensed as a medicinal product for wounds1
. Medicinal honeys
are often used in hospitals for partial thickness burns2
to surgical wounds and in veterinary clinics for surgical and
traumatic wounds3
. Outside of the osmotic action and acidic environment of any honey a number of other
components contribute to their medicinal properties. These components vary depending on the floral origin of the
honey4
. A preliminary sign that a honey is medicinally active is the total phenolic content (TPC) which correlates with
the honeys potential antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Many honeys have exhibited immunomodulatory effects
where stimulation or inhibition of pro-inflammatory components (TNF-α , IL-1β , NF-κB, and IL-6) as well as antiinflammatory components (IL-10, TGF- β, and VEGF) is observed after exposure. Because of their
immunomodulatory and antioxidant properties honeys can be used for chronic wounds arrested in the inflammatory
phase due to high reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, poor circulation (diabetes), and infections5
Enhancing drug solubility through advanced polymer extruded shellac-based matrix drug delivery systems
Get PDFThe main objective of this study is to enhance the solubility of the model drug
fenofibrate, by forming amorphous solid dispersions using a hot melt extrusion process.
Hot melt extrusion offers an efficient way of increasing the solubility of a poorly soluble
drug by forming amorphous solid dispersion. Shellac has potential as a pharmaceutical
matrix polymer that can be used in extrusion processes, with further advantages for use
in enteric drug delivery systems because of its unique pH-sensitive properties. The
rheological property of a material affects the extrusion process conditions by their flow
and deformation behaviour inside the barrel. However, there was a distinct lack of data
on the processability of various shellac materials in the literature. Hence the initial step
in this study was to explore various types of shellac and characterize their
physicochemical and thermal properties along with their processability in the hot melt
extrusion application. The analysis indicated that there was no chemical difference
between the various shellac types compared in this study. It was found that the extrudable
temperature ranges and rheological properties of different shellac types varied. SSB 55
Pharma FL had the lowest processing temperature and glass transition temperatures.
Moreover, due to the shear-thinning behaviours, shellac can be extruded at lower
temperatures.
Subsequently, a prototype delivery construct was produced using hot melt extrusion
which was based on fenofibrate as an amorphous solid dispersion, with shellac as the
polymeric component. From the analysis of the data, enhanced solubility was achieved
as evidenced by an increase in the dissolution rate of the drug in dissolution media. The
amorphous solid dispersion formulation improved the solubility by over 8-times relative
to untreated fenofibrate. The fenofibrate-shellac binary system provides a different
approach from the traditional strategies and can be considered a convenient choice for
optimising the oral delivery of fenofibrate. Moreover, a shellac base drug delivery system
has an innate advantage due to its pH-sensitive nature and can be potentially used as a
colon target delivery system. However, this section highlighted the disadvantages of a
universal screw configuration due to insufficient mixing of the kneading section. The drug
content in the drug formulation is varied, resulting in the error bar in the dissolution
experiment being too large. In the dissolution experiment, the dissolution profile was
similar when the maximum solubility of the drug in the aqueous solution was reached.
Numerical simulation was used to understand the impact of two classical geometrical parameters on the mixing: the influence of different screw speeds and the
stagger angles of a twin-screw extruder. The mixing performance was studied based on
mixing characteristic parameters such as the maximum shear rate, stretching rate, mixing
index, time-averaged efficiency, and residence time distribution. Based on these studies,
it was found that the best mixing performance was achieved at a screw speed of 60 rpm.
In the aspect of kneading block stagger angle parameters, the increase of stagger angle
can promote the mixing performance of the extruder. On the contrary, the residence time
increase with the increase of the stagger angle.
Based on the simulation result, a new screw design was created and used to produce
a new batch of drug formulations. The final section report, on amorphous solid
dispersions of fenofibrate prepared with different types of shellac polymers and
employing a hot melt extrusion process with optimized screw configuration. The
predominant characteristics of the compositions were amorphous nature, reduced particle
size, and improved uniformity, which resulted in an enhancement of drug dissolution and
solubility. The rapid in vitro dissolution and the high degree of supersaturation
demonstrated the success of these amorphous solid dispersion systems prepared by the
hot melt extrusion process. The standard error of drug content, error bar in the dissolution
and the SEM image confirmed the success of the newly designed screw configuration
having a better mixing performance than the universal screw design.ye
Workshop: Introduction to adaptive comparative judgement: a holistic assessment for design problems
Get PDFThis workshop is an interactive session where participants will experience an exciting approach for holistically assessing design problems, Adaptive Comparative Judgement (ACJ). ACJ is an adaptive software tool that can be used by students and faculty to assess students’ work holistically and reliably. This tool can be used to reduce the grading load associated with project work and reduce the time taken to grade and provide feedback to students. The goal of this workshop is to introduce participants to the ACJ approach. The process underpinning the ACJ software tool will be explored, and participants will be taken through the procedure of setting up an ACJ session and given the opportunity to experience the process of assessment using the ACJ tool. Following this hands-on experience of ACJ, participants and facilitators will discuss the possible benefits and challenges of using ACJ in a formative and summative assessment capacity with first-year engineering students. Workshop attendees will require a device that is wireless fidelity enabled.ye
D5.3.Open Science Skills Training Workshop Programmes
Get PDFRUN-EU PLUS is a strategy integrated into the Regional University Network European University (RUN-EU) which has been established in 2020. This European University aims to develop and promote progress in the respective regions. Sustainability, inclusion and multiculturalism are core values. It aims to ensure sustainable economic, social, cultural and environmental progress by providing students, researchers and academics with green, digital and inclusive skills.
RUN-EU consists of seven higher education institutions in Portugal, Ireland, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands and Austria. The network comprises 83410 students, 8179 staff and eighty-five faculties and ninety-seven research centres and groups.
The Erasmus + funded RUN-EU project is complemented by the Horizon 2020 funded RUN-EU PLUS project which commenced in October 2021. ‘PLUS’ stands for Professional Research Programmes for Business and Society. This project forms an integrated long-term strategy to strengthen and further develop cooperation between science and business in the areas of research and innovation
The use of digital media in community development projects in the West of Ireland
Get PDFThe use of digital media in community development projects in the West of Ireland has experienced rapid growth in recent years. But since the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, community organisations and initiatives have become even more reliant on the power of digital. Community development has long been an integral part of life in the harsh climate of the West of Ireland (Cearbhaill and Cinnèide, 1986), but the pandemic seriously threatened its tried and test methods. A lot of communities adapted and successfully turned to digital media to help raise awareness and raise money to promote the various community development projects in their respective areas. While rural Ireland also found opportunity in the pandemic, with the rise of working from home and subsequent digital hubs creating a new landscape of long-term possibility. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate and analyse in qualitative multiple case study form, how various communities in the West of Ireland are successfully using digital media in their community development efforts, with the aim of creating a policy and strategy of best practice for future use. The findings strongly suggest that digital media, when used correctly, can be a significant tool for communities in the West of Ireland to utilise in their community development efforts and that communities are creating digital strategies both by themselves and by third party digital agencies. The study also finds that more focus needs to put on securing long-term sustainability for digital hubs. The conclusion can be drawn that community development organisations should seriously consider implementing a strategic digital marketing plan to help promote community development, or if they have the resources available, that they should consider hiring a third-party agency to do it for them. A systematic case study approach was employed, triangulating and validating findings in this important study, which proposes some crucial digital media strategies and recommendations for community development organisations, in this period of rapid change.n
Workplace spirituality as a mediator between organizational trust and thriving at work.
Get PDFThis study examines workplace spirituality as a mediator between organizational trust
and thriving at work. Using a survey research design, data was collected from 157
employees across three hotel companies operating in the tourism and hospitality
management sector in Turkey and was then analyzed with structural equation
modelling. The results suggest that workplace spirituality plays a significant mediating
role in the relationship between organizational trust and thriving at work. We discuss
how workplace spirituality can support an environment where employees trust their
organization and can thrive at work. Practitioners can support a spiritual workplace by
developing a set of foundational attributes that convey a purpose-driven and meaning based culture where both openness and trust are supported. The findings contribute to
the workplace spirituality literature and have several important implications.
Limitations and future research directions are outlined.ye
Argument Mapping
No full textAn argument map (AM) organizes any prose or text inclusive
of an inferential signaller (e.g. but, because, however) into
a hierarchical representation, with propositions arranged
in coloured boxes (i.e. green = support; red = objection) and
connected by arrows that further highlight such relations
between propositions (van Gelder, 2002; 2003). As such,
AMs are designed in such a way that if one proposition is
evidence for another, the two will be appropriately juxtaposed
(van Gelder 2001). Simply, an AM (see Fig. 1) as distinct from
a ‘mind-map’, is a visual representation of an argument’s
structured network of reasoning, making it unambiguous and
explicit, with no need for attention switching from paragraph to-paragraph or page-to-page in search of reasons and
objections to the argument’s central claim. Moreover, having
available the structure of an argument facilitates logical
reasoning, the ready construction of a ‘mental image’ of the
whole argument and the answering of specific questions
about the relation between one proposition and others.
Thus, AMs remove obstacles to learning regarding the need
to simultaneously read the text and mentally visualize the
relational structure of the presented argument (e.g. see
Dwyer, 2017; Dwyer, Hogan & Stewart, 2010 2011; 2012; 2013
The development of novel polymeric delivery systems for the controlled release of therapeutic agents to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases
No full textThe potential for zoonotic transmission - a disease transmitted from animals to people
- of many disease pathogens is a significant concern worldwide. It is estimated that
60 of human emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19, are zoonotic [1].
Our research addresses zoonoses associated with livestock that are mainly caused
by helminth endoparasites.
Fenbendazole or methyl N-(6-phenylsulfanyl-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)carbamate is a
broad-spectrum anthelmintic from the class of organic compounds known as
benzimidazoles [2]. Despite its pharmacological potential, fenbendazole has a limited
application in oral pharmaceutical dosage forms due to its low aqueous solubility and
poor absorption from the gastrointestinal tract [3].
The aim of this research is to develop a range of novel controlled release bolus
devices to avoid spreading zoonotic diseases from cattle to humans contributing to
improve animal welfare and food safety