AKTive Food: Semantic Web based knowledge conduits for the Organic Food Industry

We present a vision and a proposal for using Semantic Web technologies in the organic food industry. This is a very knowledge intensive industry at every step from the producer, to the caterer or restauranteur, through to the consumer. There is a crucial need for a concept of environmental audit which would allow the various stake holders to know the full environmental impact of their economic choices. This is a different and parallel form of knowledge to that of price. Semantic Web technologies can be used effectively for the calculation and transfer of this type of knowledge (together with other forms of multimedia data) which could contribute considerably to the commercial and educational impact of the organic food industry. We outline how this could be achieved as our essential objective is to show how advanced technologies could be used to both reduce ecological impact and increase public awareness

Airborne forward pointing UV Rayleigh lidar for remote clear air turbulence (CAT) detection: system design and performance

A high-performance airborne UV Rayleigh lidar system was developed within the European project DELICAT. With its forward-pointing architecture it aims at demonstrating a novel detection scheme for clear air turbulence (CAT) for an aeronautics safety application. Due to its occurrence in clear and clean air at high altitudes (aviation cruise flight level), this type of turbulence evades microwave radar techniques and in most cases coherent Doppler lidar techniques. The present lidar detection technique relies on air density fluctuations measurement and is thus independent of backscatter from hydrometeors and aerosol particles. The subtle air density fluctuations caused by the turbulent air flow demand exceptionally high stability of the setup and in particular of the detection system. This paper describes an airborne test system for the purpose of demonstrating this technology and turbulence detection method: a high-power UV Rayleigh lidar system is installed on a research aircraft in a forward-looking configuration for use in cruise flight altitudes. Flight test measurements demonstrate this unique lidar system being able to resolve air density fluctuations occurring in light-to-moderate CAT at 5 km or moderate CAT at 10 km distance. A scaling of the determined stability and noise characteristics shows that such performance is adequate for an application in commercial air transport.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures. Pre-publish to Applied Optics (OSA

Learning the dynamics of French stance taking in an Alternate Reality Game: a study of Concept-Based Pragmatics Instruction

Following the social turn in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) in the 1990s (Block, 2003), researchers have increasingly focused on the emic perspective of learners. As a result, identity, subjectivity, and agency have come to the forefront in SLA research. In an effort to afford learners the means to negotiate meaning more freely and to position themselves socially through their linguistic choices, Concept-Based Instruction (CBI) has recently gained prominence. A good example is van Compernolle (2012), a study that assessed the outcomes of explicit instruction of the concept of “order of indexicality”, and the sub-concepts of “social power”, “social distance”, and “self-presentation” on the pragmatic awareness of beginning learners of French as a foreign language. Even though participants grasped the sub-concepts, they failed to demonstrate an understanding of the main concept of indexicality. Despite the study’s innovative application of CBI to L2 pragmatics, there were several limitations, namely a series of communicative tasks that limited the agentive use of the L2 and a relatively short duration (six weeks) which did not afford participants with the opportunity to dynamically renegotiate their relationship with their interlocutor in role-play. The present study addresses the limitations of van Compernolle (2012), by replicating it and expanding it over an observation period of 15 weeks which comprised 11 weeks during which eight participants took part in an Alternate Reality Game. In lieu of “orders of indexicality”, the proposed study included explicit instruction of the concept of “stance taking”. In keeping with the tenets of CBI, learners also explored the sociopragmatic constructs of power relations, social distance, and self-presentation through the conceptual lens of stance taking. Following the design and methods of van Compernolle (2012), learners performed communicative tasks such as metalinguistic verbalizations, grammaticality judgments, and role-plays in order to internalize the concept of stance taking. The goal of the ARG implemented in the present study was to promote greater experimentation and language play than possible in the other communicative tasks. The ARG required the learners to engage in regular digitally mediated communication with characters over the period of 11 weeks. Qualitative analyses of the learners’ performance data, including their metalinguistic commentary, showed that participants internalized the focal concepts but cited them with various degrees of explicitness during their verbalization. Despite a general absence of language play in participants' performance, they demonstrated agency in their ability to dynamically renegotiate their interactions with their interlocutors in the simulated yet realistic environment of the ARG over time. These findings emphasize the potential of ARGs as ecologically valid possibility spaces for learners to develop their identities and abilities as multicompetent speakers.French and Italia

Near-infrared Fourier transform room-temperature photoluminescence of erbium complexes

A modified Fourier transform (FT) Raman bench spectrometer designed for the detection of weak light emission in the 800–1700 nm wavelength region has been used to demonstrate the advantages of FT spectroscopy for measuring near-infrared photoluminescence spectra of lanthanide complexes with a good resolution and very good sensitivity. This apparatus has been tested with an ultraviolet laser source (325 nm) on three standard erbium complexes. The 4I13/24I15/2 emission of tris-(acetylacetonato) (1,10 phenanthroline) erbium [Er(acac)3(phen)], tris-(4,4,4,-trifluoro-1-(2 thenoyl)-1,3-butenedione) (1,10 phenanthroline) erbium [Er(TTFA)3(phen)] and tris(8-hydroxyquinolinato) erbium [Erq3] has thus been recorded in solution and in the solid state and compared with literature. ©2003 American Institute of Physics

An Action-Systems Level Examination of Emergent Service Innovation within Multi-unit Service Organisations

This thesis investigates the adaptive and innovative practices required to solve the management problem of balancing service customisation simultaneously with service standardisation, in a variant of the public house or ‘pub’, comprising a nationally dispersed multi-site chain of community eateries. Due to the characteristics of this inter-organisational form (or multi-site structure) that includes dispersed site-level management with large numbers of front-line employees, each site must balance the routine and repetitive operationalisation of a standardised brand with adaptive practices to tailor the service to meet local needs. The thesis asks: What is the phenomenon of adaptive practice and how does it emerge at site level? Does it lead to innovative outcomes, and if so, how? And what do site-level managers need to do to develop this as an innovative capability to remain competitive in the local market? Existing contributions from the literature are fragmented, not sector specific and fail to reflect the complexity of adaptive and innovative practice leaving a research gap. This thesis establishes and operationalises an activity level perspective to capture emerging adaptive and innovative practice at site level, using a combination of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and grounded analysis of a case study. Two different geographical sites delivering the same brand were investigated generating interview and observation data analysed in NVivo. One site was purpose built whilst the second site was an acquisition with legacy issues. Site level situations were modelled, as the activity system transitioned between calm and chaos, and the data was further interrogated to identify innovative practice adaptations embodied in an Innovation Matrix. The research surfaced how an activity system assembles and mobilises routine practices with contingent practices as participants delivered a service experience. Innovative adaptive practice evidenced as both temporary and permanent coping responses to the evolving problem space, focused primarily on balancing productive capacity, supported by agency and social capacity, with customer requirements. The study confirms the role of contingent, situated site level informal practice-based service innovation adaptations in mitigating embedded tensions, contradictions, and inherent systemic failures within the service operation. As such practices appear as simultaneous fluid, flexible and rigid structures encompassing loose-tight activities that recursively either enable or disable innovative adaptive practice to occur. This thesis contributes to the development of informal practice-based service innovation theory by defining adaptive capability in practice terms as a routine based dynamic capability impacted by socialisation, staff retention, informal learning and mastery, and leadership. The research makes a further contribution by proposing a framework to support and guide both site and multi-site managers to develop a dynamic adaptive capability to produce innovative outcomes. Finally, this thesis contributes to developing a novel research methodology to investigate activity systems within hospitality service-based contexts

Evolución posqurúrgica de los niños a quienes se les realizó colecistolitotomía como tratamiento quirúrgico de colelitiasis en el Hospital Infantil Manuel de Jesús Rivera durante el período 1 de Enero 2014 al 28 Febrero 2015

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo Conocer la evolución postquirúrgica de niños a quien se les realizó Colecistolitotomia como tratamiento para la colelitiasis en el servicio de cirugía del Hospital Infantil de Nicaragua Manuel de Jesús Rivera desde el 1ro de enero del 2014 al 28 de febrero del 2015. Para alcanzar nuestro objetivo nos planteamos un estudio Descriptivo; tipo serie de casos cuya muestra se obtuvo a través de un muestreo no probabilístico por conveniencia, para un total de 10 niños que correspondió al total del universo. La información se obtuvo de los expedientes clínicos a través de una ficha de recolección previamente elaborada con las variables de interés, la información se procesó manualmente con el método de los palotes y se plasmó en tablas de frecuencias y porcentaje obteniendo los siguientes resultados: La edad media de los pacientes fue de 5.5 años y en su mayoría eran procedentes de Managua. El método diagnostico usado fue el ultrasonido abdominal en todos los pacientes y a todos los niños se les realizo colecistolitotomia con una duración media de la cirugía de 48 minutos. La mayoría de los niños evolucionaron satisfactoriamente y la única complicación fue un calculo residual en uno de los pacientes. La estancia intrahospitalaria fue menor a 24 horas en el 90% de los pacientes y actualmente todos los niños tienen dieta general. Se concluyó que la colecistolitotomia es una técnica segura que elimina el riesgo que conlleva un calculo en la vía biliar preservando la vesícula y sus funciones, beneficiando así al niño quien conserva sus hábitos alimenticios, además es una técnica segura que por sus bajas complicaciones reduce costos a la institución y por su estancia hospitalaria corta beneficia a los familiares. Por lo que recomendamos continuar realizando esta técnica y continuar este estudio para avaluar a largo plazo los resultados de la mism

Trends in provision of photodynamic therapy and clinician attitudes: a tracker survey of a new health technology

BACKGROUND: There has been debate about the cost-effectiveness of photodynamic therapy (PDT), a treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. We have been monitoring trends for the provision of PDT in the UK National Health Service. The fourth annual 'tracker' survey took place as definitive National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance was issued. We assessed trends in PDT provision up to the point of release of the NICE guidance and identified likely sources of pressure on ophthalmologists to provide PDT. METHODS: National postal questionnaire survey of clinicians with potential responsibility for PDT provision. The survey explored reported local provision, beliefs about the effectiveness of PDT and what sources of opinion might influence attitudes towards providing PDT. RESULTS: The response rate was 73% (111/150). Almost half of the surveyed ophthalmology units routinely provided PDT, as part of a trend of steady growth in provision. The proportion of respondents who believed that further proof of effectiveness was required has also declined despite the absence of any new substantial evidence. Attitudes towards providing PDT were positive, on average, and were more strongly associated with perceived social pressure from local colleagues than from other sources. Local colleagues were seen as being most approving of PDT. CONCLUSION: Those responsible for implementing the NICE guidance need to address ophthalmologists' beliefs about the evidence of effectiveness for PDT and draw upon supportive local individuals or networks to enhance the credibility of the guidance

Tuning the self-assembly of the bioactive dipeptide L-carnosine by incorporation of a bulky aromatic substituent

The dipeptide L-carnosine has a number of important biological properties. Here, we explore the effect of attachment of a bulky hydrophobic aromatic unit, Fmoc [N-(fluorenyl-9-methoxycarbonyl)] on the self-assembly of Fmoc-L-carnosine, i.e., Fmoc-Beta-alanine-histidine (Fmoc-BetaAH). It is shown that Fmoc-BetaAH forms well-defined amyloid fibril containing Beta sheets above a critical aggregation concentration, which is determined from pyrene and ThT fluorescence experiments. Twisted fibrils were imaged by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. The zinc-binding properties of Fmoc-BetaAH were investigated by FTIR and Raman spectroscopy since the formation of metal ion complexes with the histidine residue in carnosine is well-known, and important to its biological roles. Observed changes in the spectra may reflect differences in the packing of the Fmoc-dipeptides due to electrostatic interactions. Cryo-TEM shows that this leads to changes in the fibril morphology. Hydrogelation is also induced by addition of an appropriate concentration of zinc ions. Our work shows that the Fmoc motif can be employed to drive the self-assembly of carnosine into amyloid fibrils

Expression of the bacterial type III effector DspA/E in Saccharomyces cerevisiae downregulates the sphingolipid biosynthetic pathway leading to growth-arrest

Erwinia amylovora, the bacterium responsible for fire blight, relies on a type III secretion system and a single injected effector, DspA/E, to induce disease in host plants. DspA/E belongs to the widespread AvrE family of type III effectors which suppress plant defense responses and promote bacterial growth followinginfection. Ectopic expression of DspA/E in plant or in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is toxic indicating that DspA/E likely targets a cellular process conserved between yeast and plant. To unravel the mode of action of DspA/E, we screened the Euroscarf, S. cerevisiae library for mutants resistant toDspA/E-induced growth arrest. The most resistant mutants (Δsur4, Δfen1, Δipt1,Δskn1, Δcsg1, Δcsg2, Δorm1, Δorm2) were impaired in the sphingolipid biosynthetic pathway. Exogenously supplied sphingolipid precursors such as the long chain bases(LCBs) phytosphingosine and dihydrosphingosine also suppressed DspA/E-induced yeast growth defect. Expression of DspA/E in yeast downregulated LCBs biosynthesis and induced a rapid decrease in LCB levels,indicating that SPT, the first and rate limiting enzyme of the sphingolipid biosynthetic pathway was repressed. SPT downregulation was mediated by dephosphorylation and activation of Orm proteins that negatively regulate SPT. A Δcdc55 mutation, affecting Cdc55-PP2A protein phosphatase activity, prevented Orm dephosphorylation and suppressed DspA/E-induced growth arrest