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Exploring Novel Technologies to Enhance Food Safety Training and Research Opportunities
Get PDFIn food safety research, be it focused on consumers in the domestic setting, or food handlers in the industry; technology capabilities have enhanced in recent years that have improved the rigour of research findings, reduce research biases, simplified data collection methods or enhanced the delivery of food safety education and training. For example, utilisation of online surveys can save time compared to paper-based surveys where the task of data entry is eliminated and approach to data analysis is simplified(43).The cost, availability and portability of surveillance equipment has enabled an increase in covert observational research of consumer food safety practices in domestic environments (33, 34, 81) or of food handlers in industry based settings (19, 35, 36).The 21st century has become the era of new technologies which afford many new opportunities to interact with target audiences. These evolving technologies are changing the way in which screens are used and could be the next big thing that the food industry and researchers can take advantage of; creating new and stimulating experiences that benefit areas such as food safety behaviour, cognition and training. Given advancements in technology, a food safety researcher and a user centred design researcher, have joined forces to explore novel technologies that can be utilised to enhance food safety training and research opportunities. The aim of this general interest article is to explore alternative technologies such as biometric and realities technologies that can be utilised by food safety researchers to enhance understanding of food safety practices, increase industry insight on food safety behaviours and present opportunities to optimise food safety education prospects.Additionally, this article gives an overview of several physiological and psychological technologies which are utilized alongside simulated environments, within applied user testing, product development and behavioural analysis research
Virtual Frames as Long-Term Reference Frames for HEVC Inter-Prediction
Get PDFHigh Efficiency Video Coding(HEVC) employs both past or future frames when encoding the current frame in a video sequence. This paper proposes a framework for using virtual reference frames, to achieve increased coding gains in the long-term for repetitive scenes in static camera scenarios
Participatory Design Research of Vegetable-based Snack Products with Adolescent Participants
Get PDFThe childhood obesity epidemic is often attributed to the widespread marketing of High Fat, Salt and Sugar (HFSS) foods. Currently, there is a lack of vegetable-based New Product Development (NPD) targeting adolescent consumers. The study aimed to investigate adolescents’ willingness to incorporate three vegetables: cauliflower, potatoes and cabbage into vegetable-based snack products. Two participatory design research sessions were conducted with Welsh adolescents aged 12- to 13-years-old (n=41). The adolescents undertook three activities: (1) listing snack products currently eaten; (2) determining foods they associated with cauliflower, potatoes and cabbage; and, (3) designing a new vegetable-based snack product. Abductive thematic analysis resulted in four themes: taste preferences, commercial branding, convenience, and health consciousness. Developing healthy vegetable-based snack products could potentially improve the dietary quality of adolescents. This is one of the first participatory design research studies to include adolescents in the NPD process for healthy snack products
A Review of Cyber-Ranges and Test-Beds: Current and Future Trends
Get PDFCyber situational awareness has been proven to be of value in forming a comprehensive
understanding of threats and vulnerabilities within organisations, as the degree of exposure is
governed by the prevailing levels of cyber-hygiene and established processes. A more accurate
assessment of the security provision informs on the most vulnerable environments that necessitate
more diligent management. The rapid proliferation in the automation of cyber-attacks is reducing
the gap between information and operational technologies and the need to review the current
levels of robustness against new sophisticated cyber-attacks, trends, technologies and mitigation
countermeasures has become pressing. A deeper characterisation is also the basis with which
to predict future vulnerabilities in turn guiding the most appropriate deployment technologies.
Thus, refreshing established practices and the scope of the training to support the decision making of
users and operators. The foundation of the training provision is the use of Cyber-Ranges (CRs) and
Test-Beds (TBs), platforms/tools that help inculcate a deeper understanding of the evolution of an
attack and the methodology to deploy the most impactful countermeasures to arrest breaches. In this
paper, an evaluation of documented CR and TB platforms is evaluated. CRs and TBs are segmented
by type, technology, threat scenarios, applications and the scope of attainable training. To enrich the
analysis of documented CR and TB research and cap the study, a taxonomy is developed to provide
a broader comprehension of the future of CRs and TBs. The taxonomy elaborates on the CRs/TBs
dimensions, as well as, highlighting a diminishing differentiation between application areas
‘Much learning hath made thee mad’: Academic Communities, Women’s Education and Crime in Golden Age Detective Fiction
Get PDFIn the narrative of higher education, women and their communities have always posed as a threat to the male stronghold. Turning on the idea that women have historically been perceived as interlopers, and thus symbolically criminalised by their desire for admittance to scholarly and educational spaces, this article examines a cluster of Golden Age detective novels from the 1930s and 1940s (published at a time when it was still possible for women to study for but not receive a degree) in which educated women and criminality come into violent contact. Dorothy L. Sayers’s Gaudy Night (1935), Muriel Doris Hay’s Death on the Cherwell (1935), Gladys Mitchell’s Laurels are Poison (1942), and Josephine Tey’s Miss Pym Disposes (1946) are all set in women’s residential academic communities and place the question of women’s right to learning at the crux of their narratives. By invoking the concomitant history of women’s education, this article examines the way in which these authors use the genre’s tropes—guilt, criminality, and punishment as well as the generally stark dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘bad’—to perform contemporary concerns about educated women and more specifically the fear that women are made monstrous, deviant, or corrupt by their contact with Higher Education. In the process they reveal the vulnerability of women’s institutions in the 1930s and 1940s and acknowledge the competing and incompatible demands of educated women’s personal and professional lives. Much of this is explored through a preoccupation with territory and the act of trespass: the communities, and the women in them, are perceived as dangerous and threatening and yet are themselves consistently under attack. By staging the educated woman as a criminal, or at least a suspected criminal, these texts make manifest her symbolic position in early twentieth century society: she is a woman made transgressive by her crossing of figurative and literal boundarie
Predatory Organisms with Untapped Biosynthetic Potential: Descriptions of Novel Corallococcus Species C. aberystwythensis sp. nov., C. carmarthensis sp. nov., C. exercitus sp. nov., C. interemptor sp. nov., C. llansteffanensis sp. nov., C. praedator sp. nov., C. sicarius sp. nov., and C. terminator sp. nov.
Get PDFCorallococcus spp. are common soil-dwelling organisms which kill and consume prey microbes through the secretion of antimicrobial substances. Two species of Corallococcus have been described previously (Corallococcus coralloides and Corallococcus exiguus).
A polyphasic approach was taken to characterise antimicrobial, biochemical and phenotypic properties of eight Corallococcus spp. strains and the two type strains. We also report here the genome sequence of the C. exiguus type strain (DSM 14696T).
The genomes of the eight candidate strains, C. exiguus DSM 14696T and C. coralloides DSM 2259T, had an average nucleotide identity below 95% and digital DNA-DNA hybridisation scores less than the 70% lower bound for species identity, indicating they belong to distinct species.
All ten strains, including the two type strains, were thoroughly characterised, including biochemical analysis of their fatty acid methyl esters, substrate utilisation and sugar assimilation. Each strain gave a distinct profile of properties, which together with their genomic differences supports the proposal of the eight candidate strains as novel species: Corallococcus exercitus sp. nov. (AB043AT = DSM 108849T = NBRC 113887T), Corallococcus interemptor sp. nov. (AB047AT = DSM 108843T = NBRC 113888T), Corallococcus aberystwythensis sp. nov. (AB050AT = DSM 108846T = NBRC 114019T), Corallococcus praedator sp. nov. (CA031BT = DSM 108841T = NBRC 113889T), Corallococcus sicarius sp. nov. (CA040BT = DSM 108850T = NBRC 113890T), Corallococcus carmarthenensis sp. nov. (CA043DT = DSM 108842T = NBRC 113891T), Corallococcus llansteffanensis sp. nov. (CA051BT = DSM 108844T = NBRC 114100T) and Corallococcus terminator sp. nov. (CA054AT = DSM 108848T = NBRC 113892T)
Fit to Perform: A Profile of Higher Education Music Students’ Physical Fitness
Get PDFMusicians are often called athletes of the upper body, but knowledge of their physical and fitness profiles is nonetheless limited, especially those of advanced music students who are training to enter music’s competitive professional landscape. To gain insight into how physical fitness is associated with music making, this study investigated music students’ fitness levels on several standardized indicators. 483 students took part in a fitness screening protocol that included measurements of lung function, flexibility (hypermobility, shoulder range of motion, sit and reach), strength and endurance (hand grip, plank, press-up), and sub-maximal cardiovascular fitness (3-min step test), as well as self-reported physical activity (IPAQ-SF). Participants scored within ranges appropriate for their age on lung function, shoulder range of motion, grip strength, and cardiovascular fitness. Their results for the plank, press up, and sit and reach were poor by comparison. Reported difficulty (22%) and pain (17%) in internal rotation of the right shoulder were also found. Differences between instrument groups and levels of study were observed on some measures. In particular, brass players showed greater lung function and grip strength compared with other groups, and postgraduate students on the whole were able to maintain the plank for longer but also demonstrated higher hypermobility and lower lung function (FEV1) and cardiovascular fitness than undergraduates. 79% of participants exceeded the minimum recommended weekly amount of physical activity, with singers the most physically active group and keyboard players, composers, and conductors the least active. IPAQ-SF scores correlated positively with lung function, sit and reach, press-up and cardiovascular fitness suggesting that, in the absence of time and resources to carry out comprehensive physical assessments with musicians, this one measure alone can provide useful insights. The findings indicate that music students have adequate levels of general health-related fitness, and we discuss whether adequate fitness is enough for people undertaking physically and mentally demanding activities such as making music. We argue that musicians could benefit from strengthening their supportive musculature and enhancing their awareness of strength imbalances
Perspectives on innovation within medium-sized firms in Wales
Get PDFThe Welsh economy is heading towards a post-Brexit future with historically lower levels of productivity continuing to leave the country lagging behind the UK average (Huggins and Williams, 2011; Welsh Government, 2017). An understanding of how new models of innovation are constructed and developed are then particularly important for policy makers and academia in Wales. As noted by Baughan (2015), innovation accounts for 25-50% of labour productivity growth
New data envelopment analysis models for assessing sustainability Part 1: A dynamic data envelopment analysis approach
Get PDFSustainability implies business resilience over time through robust economic, social and environmental systems. Sustainable business practices lead to the creation of economic value, healthy ecosystems and strong communities. Sustainable business practices are fostered through engagement with stakeholders, effective environmental management systems and good governance, all underpinned by effective measurement and evaluation (Shabanpour, Yousefi, & Farzipoor Saen, 2017).
Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a technique which helps decision makers to assess the efficiency of decision making units (DMUs) (Ahmady, Azadi, Sadeghi, & Farzipoor Saen, 2013; Charnes, Cooper, & Rhodes, 1978). Recently, new DEA models have been developed to assess sustainability issues. However, DEA research into sustainability is sparse and there is a need for greater focus on this important topic. In this special issue, ground‐breaking research into new DEA models to assess sustainability of DMUs is presented. Such research will assist decision makers to manage organizations with a focus on sustainability.
The special issue also provides an opportunity for practitioners to develop and increase understanding of DEA models in sustainability evaluation. For maximum utility, authors should not only develop new DEA models but also show efficacy of real‐world applications. The responses to the call for new DEA models and applications are presented in the following six accepted articles published in Part 1 of this special edition. In the next section, we summarize the main contributions of these articles
“Bionic Women and Men”: The Unique Physiology of Left Ventricular Assist Device Patients – Keep your finger on the pulse!
Get PDFAcross many countries in the world, advanced heart failure patients who are eligible for a heart transplant face the same dilemma: there are not enough donor hearts available for all. The current next-best alternative to a heart transplant is the surgical implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). Although the purpose of the LVAD is to relieve the overloaded left ventricle of heart failure patients and restore a normal cardiac output, patients have presented with high levels of stroke gastrointestinal bleeding and right-heart failure. One potential reason for this increased risk is the continuous flow of the implanted LVAD. As a result, the majority of LVAD patients do not have a palpable pulse (Purohit et al., 2018), creating a unique arterial biology in these humans (Castagna et al., 2017). Perhaps surprising is the superior health outcome of patients supported with continuous-flow (CF) compared with pulsatile-flow LVADs. In addition, the reduced/absent pulsatility in these CF-LVAD patients (see figure 1.) enables the investigation of unique arterial physiology and cardiovascular regulation, which has already revealed some unexpected observations. For example, continuous-flow patients appear to have a higher sympathetic activity (Cornwell et al., 2015), and suffer complications above a low systolic blood pressure of ~100 mmHg, atypical of non-LVAD populations in whom hypertension (>140 mmHg) is a predictor of stroke (Pinsino et al., 2019). Thus, the medical debate whether continuous flow is truly better for the health of advanced heart failure patients also necessitates a more generic, fundamental discussion into ‘normal’ arterial physiology & health. The comprehensive study investigating the detailed cardiovascular response and adaptations to drastically altered haemodynamics in heart failure, with and without LVAD support, at rest, during physical activity and in combination with cardiovascular acting medication, is essential. This unique area of research presents an opportunity to significantly increase our fundamental physiological understanding of the interaction between cardiac dynamics (volume, force, ejection pattern) and arterial regulation (flow, blood pressure, sympathetic activity, endothelial function, pulsatility). Therefore, the symposium entitled “Bionic women and men – Physiology lessons from implantable cardiac devices” held at the 2019 Annual Meeting of The Physiological Society in Aberdeen, UK, brought together clinicians and scientists from a previous CrossTalk debate (Cornwell et al., 2019; Stöhr et al., 2019) to review the current knowledge of LVAD patients and identify outstanding questions in the field. In total, four presentations were given and each of them have been published as symposium reports in this edition of Experimental Physiology