21436 research outputs found
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Ergonomics/human factors and the future of work: A global systems perspective
No full textIn a webinar series hosted by the International Ergonomics Association, the Future of Work Committee of the International Ergonomics Association gathered inputs about the future of work from ergonomics/human factors (E/HF) experts representing different regions around the world. Through these insights, four global megatrends relevant to E/HF driving the future of work were identified: labour-market supply; work informality; technology; and climate change. Next, we applied an E/HF systems approach, using causal loop diagrams, to explore the unfolding interrelationships between these megatrends at a global level and with a national level example to determine what novel insights can be uncovered using systems analysis. We demonstrate the power of E/HF systems thinking that can enable national E/HF societies and regional think-tanks to move beyond a siloed approach to megatrends. We conclude with some high-level suggestions for E/HF to consider in order to meet the future of work challenges.fals
Attachment of L. ferrooxidans to Pyrite Mineral Surfaces
No full textL. ferrooxidans and their metabolic products have been explored as viable flotation reagents of pyrite and chalcopyrite for froth flotation. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and captive bubble contact angle measurements have been used to examine the surface physicochemical properties of pyrite upon exposure to L. ferrooxidans grown in HH medium at pH 1.8. C K-edge NEXAFS spectra, collected using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM), indicate hydrophilic lipids, fatty acids, and biopolymers are formed at the mineral–bacterium interface within hours of exposure. The Fe L-edge NEXAFS show oxidation of the mineral surface from Fe (II) sulfide to Fe (III) oxyhydroxides. The leaching of the iron species at the pyrite surface is accelerated in the presence of L. ferrooxidans and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) as compared to HH medium controls, as shown by ToF-SIMS. The surface chemical changes induced by the interaction with L. ferrooxidans show a significant decrease in surface hydrophobicity within the first 2 h of exposure. The implications of these findings are the potential use of EPS, produced during early attachment of L. ferrooxidans, as a depressant for bioflotation or to enhance bioleaching.fals
From the agora to the algorithm: Aristotle’s rhetoric as a theoretical framework for understanding social media persuasion
No full textfals
GatedFusion-Net: Per-pixel modality weighting in a five-cue transformer for RGB-D-I-T-UV fusion
No full textWe introduce GatedFusion-Net (GF-Net), built on the SegFormer Transformer backbone, as the first architecture to unify RGB, depth ( D ), infrared intensity ( I ), thermal ( T ), and ultraviolet ( UV ) imagery for dense semantic segmentation on the MM5 dataset. GF-Net departs from the CMX baseline via: (1) stage-wise RGB-intensity-depth enhancement that injects geometrically aligned D, I cues at each encoder stage, together with surface normals ( N ), improving illumination invariance without adding parameters; (2) per-pixel sigmoid gating, where independent Sigmoid Gate blocks learn spatial confidence masks for T and UV and add their contributions to the RGB+DIN base, trimming computational cost while preserving accuracy; and (3) modality-wise normalisation using per-stream statistics computed on MM5 to stabilise training and balance cross-cue influence. An ablation study reveals that the five-modality configuration (RGB+DIN+T+UV) achieves a peak mean IoU of 88.3 %, with the UV channel contributing a 1.7-percentage-point gain under optimal lighting (RGB3). Under challenging illumination, it maintains comparable performance, indicating complementary but situational value. Modality-ablation experiments reveal strong sensitivity: removing RGB, T, DIN , or UV yields relative mean IoU reductions of 83.4 %, 63.3 %, 56.5 %, and 30.1 %, respectively. Sigmoid-Gate fusion behaves primarily as static, lighting-dependent weighting rather than adapting to sensor loss. Throughput on an RTX 3090 with a MiT-B0 backbone is real-time: 640 × 480 at 74 fps for RGB+DIN+T, 55 fps for RGB+DIN+T+UV, and 41 fps with five gated streams. These results establish the first RGB-D-I-T-UV segmentation baselines on MM5 and show that per-pixel sigmoid gating is a lightweight, effective alternative to heavier attention-based fusion.fals
Molecular detection of Clostridium and Bacillus species in foods: recent advances and applications
No full textSpore-forming bacteria, especially Clostridium spp. and Bacillus spp., are ubiquitous in food systems, and their ingestion can cause serious diseases in humans and animals. Their persistence in diverse food matrices and resistance to conventional treatments make rapid and accurate detection essential for effective monitoring and control. Traditional culture-based and biochemical assays remain the standard for identifying these bacteria but are often time-consuming, labor-intensive and limited in sensitivity. In contrast, nucleic acid-based methods provide rapid, specific and sensitive alternatives by directly targeting genetic markers of pathogenic or spoilage strains. This review summarizes how nucleic acid methods, including PCR, FISH, LAMP, RPA, WGS, and the emerging CRISPR/Cas systems, have been applied specifically to detect Clostridium spp. and Bacillus spp. in food systems. Each method offers unique advantages and limitations. PCR-based methods enable accurate quantification but require thermal cycling. FISH-based methods are simple but require microscopy and have limited validation in food. WGS-based methods provide strain-level characterization but depend on informatics and specialized equipment. Isothermal techniques such as LAMP- and RPA-based methods allow rapid field detection but involve complex primer design or poor discrimination of closely related genes. CRISPR/Cas-based platforms further enhance simplicity, specificity, sensitivity for on-site detection, though the validation for spore-forming bacteria remains limited. Overall, this review provides an overview of gene targets, methodological adaptations, and analytical performance of nucleic acid-based assays for detecting Clostridium spp. and Bacillus spp., highlighting current progress and future opportunities for improving food safety monitoring.fals
Thermal energy storage–coupled heat pump systems: Review of configurations and modelling approaches
No full textHeat pump systems (HP) are effective technologies for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions for space heating and cooling of buildings. However, with large-scale deployment, increased electrical demands can place significant stress on power networks. Integrating Thermal Energy Storage (TES) with HP systems offers a viable strategy to mitigate peak power demands and enhance overall energy efficiency by decoupling heat generation and use, hence power intensive heat-generation can be shifted to off-peak and more efficient times. Due to these benefits, the combination of HP and TES systems have gained increasing attention. A number of reviews have examined specific HP-TES configurations and applications, however a comprehensive analysis of HP-TES coupled systems and particularly their modelling approaches remains limited. This paper classifies HP and TES technologies, highlighting their respective benefits and limitations. It further examines various HP-TES system configurations and applications, with a particular focus on modelling approaches. By providing a structured and comparative overview of available modelling methods, this review supports researchers and engineers in selecting the most suitable modelling approach based on system complexity, computational constraints, and specific objectives, facilitating the optimization of HP-TES systems for enhanced energy efficiency and sustainability.fals
The antithesis of hospitality: Unpacking workplace bullying and advancing a Maori-centric response
No full textThis paper examines workplace bullying in the hospitality sector - an industry paradoxically defined by welcoming others - through a mixed-method approach integrating large-scale quantitative analysis with an in-depth qualitative case study. Study 1 draws on survey data from 2,302 hospitality employees in Aotearoa, New Zealand, to identify the prevalence, patterns, and perpetrators of bullying, and employees' confidence in employer responses. Over half (56%) reported experiencing or witnessing bullying, with women and supervisors most affected. Study 2 explores a Maori hospitality business guided by manaakitanga (care), whanaungatanga (relationships), and tika (fairness), illustrating how Maori values can counter bullying behaviours. Together, the studies reveal the gap between hospitality's ideals and workplace realities, proposing Maori-informed approaches as a pathway towards more respectful, inclusive, and restorative organisational environments. The paper contributes to management and hospitality scholarship by demonstrating how Indigenous relational ethics can operationalise organisational care as an antidote to workplace harm.fals
Determination of chemical composition and metabolizable energy of chickpea, faba bean, field pea, lentil and lupin compared to soybean meal for broiler chickens
No full textThe chemical composition, apparent metabolizable energy (AME) and nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn) of lupin, faba bean, field pea, lentil, chickpea and soybean meal were determined for growing broilers. Grain legumes were incorporated into experimental diets either raw or after being steam-conditioned at 80°C for 30 seconds. Assay diets were developed by replacing (w/w) 300 g/kg of formulated basal diet (maize-soybean meal) with one of the legumes (raw or heat-treated) or soybean meal (test sample). Each assay diet was randomly allocated to 4 replicates (8 birds per cage) and fed in mash form for 7 d (d 14 – 21 post-hatch). Feed intake and total excreta were measured in the last 4 days of the trial. Among the grain legumes, starch content was lowest in lupin (4.3 g/kg) and highest in field pea (425 g/kg). Apart from lupin, grain legumes were greater in starch than soybean meal. Crude fat of soybean meal (13.5 g/kg) was lower than that of faba bean (14.1 g/kg), field pea (18.6 g/kg), lupin (47.2 g/kg) and chickpea (58.3 g/kg), but greater than lentil (10.9 g/kg). The gross energy of grain legumes ranged from 4,275 Kcal/kg (field pea) to 4,681 kcal/kg (lupin), and that of soybean meal was 4,514 Kcal/kg. Heating of grain legumes had no effect on AME and AMEn, except for lupin, where it increased by 23.9 and 23.5 %, respectively. The AME values among the raw legumes, were highest in lentil (2,438 Kcal/kg) and lowest in lupin (1,595 Kcal/kg), with the intermediate values for chickpea (2,206 Kcal/kg), faba bean (1,923 Kcal/kg) and pea (1,970 Kcal/kg). The AME of raw legumes were lower (P < 0.05) than that of soybean meal (2,673 Kcal/kg), but N-corrected AME of lentil was not different to that of soybean meal. The current results showed that steam conditioning at 80°C was not effective to improve energy availability of grain legumes, except for lupin. Soybean meal is superior to grain legumes in terms of energy availability for broiler feeding.fals
Sequential treatment of psychrotrophic pseudomonad biofilms with sodium hydroxide and commercial enzyme cleaners
No full textPseudomonads are psychrotrophic spoilage bacteria that can form biofilms at the air-liquid interface. Food processing utensils and equipment often facilitate the air-liquid interface biofilm formation. Pseudomonads produce thermostable enzymes and pigments that affect the organoleptic quality of perishable food products. In this study, Pseudomonas lundensis, Pseudomonas cedrina were allowed to form biofilms at 4 °C under continuous flow of nutrients in a CDC reactor (CBR 90; Biosurface Technologies, USA). The mature biofilms were treated with commercial enzyme cleaners, EnduroZyme (protease), DualZyme (protease and lipase), and TriZyme (protease, amylase, and cellulase). The dispersion with EnduroZyme was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than the other enzyme cleaners. Then the biofilms were treated with hot water and sodium hydroxide, and enzyme cleaners (sequential treatment). The cell counts after sodium hydroxide + Enzyme cleaners were below the detection limit. The microscopic observations with epifluorescence microscopy showed that the coupons had less fluorescence after the sequential treatment. FTIR observations showed that the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) isolated after sodium hydroxide + enzyme cleaners differed from the untreated and sodium hydroxide-only-treated EPS. Biofilm regrowth was significantly (p < 0.05) lower in the biofilms treated with sodium hydroxide + EnduroZyme compared to acid-treated control coupons. The sequential treatment with sodium hydroxide and enzyme cleaners reduced the biofilm footprints, representing a better clean than enzyme treatment alone or sodium hydroxide-only cleaning.fals
