19 research outputs found
Are consumers beef quality perceptions in accordance with objective beef quality?
No full textThe consumer has the final word in food choice, which is determined by his perceived quality. Within a project coordinated by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine we tried to relate objective quality with the consumer quality evaluation. To do so, we have measured the expected and experienced quality of a sample of Portuguese consumers towards three types of beef (PDO, national and imported) at the shop, and compared this subjective evaluation with the beef objective quality. Results at the consumer level show that respondents perceived PDO beef to be of higher quality than the two other types of beef for different attributes and for overall quality at the shop location. In terms of objective quality results, the three types of beef showed highly similar physicochemical characteristics and there were no differences, on average, in terms of the aspects mostly considered by the consumers - tenderness, colour and fat content. Hence, it was not possible to show that physicochemical characteristics are good predictors of consumer preferences. However shear force revealed a positive asymmetry showing a higher probability to find a tender beef in PDO than in the other types of beef. This should constitute an area for further research.PDO beef, perceived quality, objective quality, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q130,
Confidence in the Beef Production System as a Key Factor to Mitigate the Impact of BSE on Beef Consumption
No full textRecent food scares in the food market has caused a reduction in consumer's confidence in the food system that it has induced a significant reduction in consumption in a sector, the beef sector that was already characterized by a saturated trend in quantity terms. In this context, all participants in the beef production system are facing to a great challenge, to retrieve consumer's confidence in the food chain and to mitigate the reduction in beef consumption. The aim of the paper is to analyse the impact of consumer's confidence in the food system as well as other factors on the explanation of food consumption reduction. A structural modelling approach has been used to analyse factors affecting the reduction in beef consumption in two different regions characterised by different production systems and different marketing strategies (PGI beef label). Results indicate that main factor explaining the reduction in beef consumption is the confidence in the beef and a positive relation has been found. Moreover, confidence in a product is directly related to the perceived quality offered by farmers and other decision makers on the beef chain, and to the consumer involvement with the product. Therefore, the main implication is that participants in the food chain has to develop adequate communication strategies such as quality labelling in order to increase consumers perceive quality because, higher quality perception will recover consumers' confidence in beef, and therefore, it will mitigate beef consumption reduction.food confidence, consumer behaviour, structural equation modelling, beef sector, quality label, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,
Nitrogen Deposition on Danish Nature
No full textEutrophication events are frequent in Inner Danish waters and critical loads are exceeded for much of the Danish sensitive terrestrial ecosystems. The Danish air quality monitoring program combines measurements and model calculations to benefit from the complementarities in data from these two sources. Measurements describe actual status, seasonal variation, and temporal trends. Model calculations extrapolate the results to the entire country and determine depositions to specific ecosystems. Measurements in 2016 show annual depositions between 7.5 and 11 kg N/ha to terrestrial ecosystems, and a load to marine waters of 5.3 kg N/ha. The deposition on Danish marine waters in 2016 was calculated to be 73,000 tons N with an average deposition of 6.9 kg N/ha. For terrestrial areas, the deposition was calculated to be 57,000 tons N with an average deposition of 13 kg N/ha. This is above critical loads for sensitive ecosystems. Long-term trends show a 35% decrease since 1990 in measured annual nitrogen deposition. At two out of four stations in nature areas, measured ammonia levels exceeded critical levels for lichens and mosses. Conclusions: Nitrogen loads and levels to Danish nature is decreasing, but critical loads and levels are still exceeded for sensitive ecosystems. Combining measurements and model calculations is a strong tool in monitoring
Variability in gaseous elemental mercury at Villum Research Station, Station Nord, in North Greenland from 1999 to 2017
No full textSpecial issue Research results from the 14th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP 2019), MercOx project, and iGOSP and iCUPE projects of ERA-PLANET in support of the Minamata Convention on Mercury (ACP/AMT inter-journal SI).-- 13 pages, 9 figures, 1 tableMercury is ubiquitous in the atmosphere, and atmospheric transport is an important source for this element in the Arctic. Measurements of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) have been carried out at Villum Research Station (Villum) at Station Nord, situated in northern Greenland. The measurements cover the period 1999–2017, with a gap in the data for the period 2003–2008 (for a total of 11 years). The measurements were compared with model results from the Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model (DEHM) that describes the contribution from direct anthropogenic transport, marine emissions and general background concentration. The percentage of time spent over different surfaces was calculated by back-trajectory analysis, and the reaction kinetics were determined by a comparison with ozone.
The GEM measurements were analysed for trends, both seasonal and annual. The only significant trends found were negative ones for the winter and autumn months. Comparison of the measurements to simulations using the Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model (DEHM) indicated that direct transport of anthropogenic emissions of mercury accounts for between 14 % and 17 % of the measured mercury. Analysis of the kinetics of the observed atmospheric mercury depletion events (AMDEs) confirms the results of a previous study at Villum of the competing reactions of GEM and ozone with Br, which suggests that the lifetime of GEM is about a month. However, a GEM lifetime of 12 months gave the best agreement between the model and measurements. The chemical lifetime is shorter, and thus, the apparent lifetime appears to be the result of deposition followed by reduction and re-emission; for this reason, the term “relaxation time” is preferred to “lifetime” for GEM. The relaxation time for GEM causes a delay between emission reductions and the effect on actual concentrations.
No significant annual trend was found for the measured concentrations of GEM over the measurement period, despite emission reductions. This is interesting, and together with low direct transport of GEM to Villum as found by the DEHM model, it shows that the dynamics of GEM are very complex. Therefore, in the coming years, intensive measurement networks are needed to describe the global distribution of mercury in the environment as the use of models to predict future levels will still be highly uncertain. The situation is increasingly complex due to global changes that most likely will change the transport patterns of mercury, not only in the atmosphere but also between matrixesThis research has been supported by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DANCEA funds for Environmental Support to the Arctic Region project; grant no. 2019-7975) and by the European ERA-PLANET projects of iGOSP and iCUPE (consortium agreement no. 689443 for both projects)With the funding support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S), of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI)Peer reviewe
Estimation of exposure to air pollution in Denmark: a step towards activity-based dynamic exposure assessment framework
No full textTraditionally in air pollution epidemiology, only the air pollution at the address location is considered in assessment of air pollution exposure. Such static approach does not take into account time-activity patterns of individuals, and may lead to a bias in exposure assessments. The present study demonstrates how consideration of time-activity-based information of individuals and space and time variability of air pollutants’ concentrations affect personal exposure using the newly updated Danish AirGIS system. The study provides an overview of presently ongoing work, where new AirGIS is being updated in terms of dynamic exposure assessment to air pollution using measured and modelled data. The focus is on developing a novel dynamic exposure assessment framework to facilitate health-related studies. Our preliminary findings suggest that the exposure estimates based on time-activity patterns of individuals depend on the level of one’s mobility as well as location of workplace relative to home etc. The presentation will provide a summary of results based on model calculations. Measurements are planned to be performed soon.</p
Visualization of subcutaneous insulin injections by x-ray computed tomography
No full textWe report how the three-dimensional structure of subcutaneous injections of soluble insulin can be visualized by x-ray computed tomography using an iodine based contrast agent. The injections investigated are performed ex vivo in porcine adipose tissue. Full tomography scans carried out at a laboratory x-ray source with a total acquisition time of about 1 min yield CT-images with an effective pixel size of 109 × 109 μm2. The depots are segmented using a modified Chan–Vese algorithm and we are able to observe differences in the shape of the injection depot and the position of the depot in the skin among equally performed injections. To overcome the beam hardening artefacts, which affect the quantitative prediction of the volume injected, we additionally present results concerning the visualization of two injections using synchrotron radiation. The spatial concentration distribution of iodine is calculated to show the dilution of the insulin drug inside the depot. Characterisation of the shape of the depot and the spatial concentration profile of the injected fluid is important knowledge when improving the clinical formulation of an insulin drug, the performance of injection devices and when predicting the effect of the drug through biomedical simulations
Micronucleus frequency in Danish school children and their mothers from the DEMOCOPHES population.
No full textMicronucleus (MN) frequency is a biomarker for early genetic effects which is often used in humanbiomonitoring studies. Increased frequency of micronuclei has been associated with high levelsof traffic exposure. Further high MN frequency was found predictive for cancer development inseveral studies of adults. In the present study, the MN frequency in blood samples from the Danishparticipants of the European pilot project DEMOCOPHES was analysed and related to the area ofresidence, self-reported and calculated exposure to road traffic as well as to mercury in hair andblood concentrations of persistent organic pollutants and dioxin-like activity measured in the sameparticipants. The MN frequency analysis was performed with the cytokinesis-block micronucleus(CBMN) assay and included 100 children and 119 mothers. We found a significant correlationbetween mothers and children in the levels of micronuclei in 1000 binucleated T lymphocytes(‰MNBN) and in the proliferation index. Further the levels of ‰MNBN were significantly higherin mothers compared with their children. No significant associations were found for ‰MNBNfor traffic related exposure in neither children nor their mothers. In children, a 2.5 times highermicronuclei in mononuclear T lymphocytes were found in children living within 50 m of a busyroad, however, this was not found in mothers or in MNBN and the effect of exposure to road trafficon MN frequency needs further investigation. No significant associations were found between MNfrequencies and the other biomarkers measured in the same participants
Prediction of beam hardening artefacts in computed tomography using Monte Carlo simulations
No full textWe show how radiological images of both single and multi material samples can be simulated using the Monte Carlo simulation tool McXtrace and how these images can be used to make a three dimensional reconstruction. Good numerical agreement between the X-ray attenuation coefficient in experimental and simulated data can be obtained, which allows us to use simulated projections in the linearisation procedure for single material samples and in that way reduce beam hardening artefacts. The simulations can be used to predict beam hardening artefacts in multi material samples with complex geometry, illustrated with an example. Linearisation requires knowledge about the X-ray transmission at varying sample thickness, but in some cases homogeneous calibration phantoms are hard to manufacture, which affects the accuracy of the calibration. Using simulated data overcomes the manufacturing problems and in that way improves the calibration. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Optimization of Postprocessing parameters for abdominal Forensic CT scans
No full textAim: Postmortem Computed Tomography (PMCT) is gradually introduced at forensic institutes. Image reconstruction software can increase diagnostic potential in CT by increasing distinction between structures and reduction of artifacts. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate novel image reconstruction parameters for postmortem conditions, to increase image quality and diagnostic potential of CT scans. Method: Twenty PMCT scans of deceased hereof two in severe decay were subjected to four reconstruction techniques: a standard reconstruction algorithm, the detail reconstruction algorithm and two novel algorithms based on the standard algorithm, but with different Hounsfield settings. Image quality was evaluated by visual grading analysis (VGA) by four forensic radiologist observers. Results: The VGA did not prove that any of the reconstruction techniques were superior to the others. For standard and detail, the two pre-defined reconstruction algorithms, VGA scores were indiscernible and were superior to the equally indiscernible Hounsfield reconstructions on parameters translated into Sharpness and Low Contrast Resolution. The two alternative Hounsfield settings were superior with respect to Noise and Artifacts/Beam Hardening. Conclusion: The study elucidates the possiblity for multiple reconstructions specialized for PMCT conditions, to accommodate the special conditions when working with the deceased. Despite the lack of clear improvements in the tested reconstructions, this study provides an insight into some of the possibilities of improving PMCT quality using reconstruction techniques.</p
