Processing of oat: the impact on oat's cholesterol lowering effect

Epidemiological and interventional studies have clearly demonstrated the beneficial impact of consuming oat and oat-based products on serum cholesterol and other markers of cardiovascular disease. The cholesterol-lowering effect of oat is thought to be associated with the β-glucan it contains. However, not all food products containing β-glucan seem to lead to the same health outcome. Overall, highly processed β-glucan sources (where the oat tissue is highly disrupted) appear to be less effective at reducing serum cholesterol, but the reasons are not well understood. Therefore, the mechanisms involved still need further clarification. The purpose of this paper is to review current evidence of the cholesterol-lowering effect of oat in the context of the structure and complexity of the oat matrix. The possibility of a synergistic action and interaction between the oat constituents promoting hypocholesterolaemia is also discussed. A review of the literature suggested that for a similar dose of β-glucan, (1) liquid oat-based foods seem to give more consistent, but moderate reductions in cholesterol than semi-solid or solid foods where the results are more variable; (2) the quantity of β-glucan and the molecular weight at expected consumption levels (∼3 g day−1) play a role in cholesterol reduction; and (3) unrefined β-glucan rich oat-based foods (where some of the plant tissue remains intact) often appear more efficient at lowering cholesterol than purified β-glucan added as an ingredient

Moving, waiting, searching across borders: Gendered geographies of violence, disappearance and contestation in southern Mexico

Women displaced by violence from Central America are the protagonists of this dissertation. Their intimate stories and acts of survival and care are foregrounded as they move, wait and search in social spaces in southern Mexico. They are mobilized to reconceptualize mainstream academic, political and humanitarian thinking about bordering practices as integral parts of states’ tactics to control people’s movement only. The dissertation delves into migrant and body-territory epistemologies of everyday politics, arts-based contestations and performative acts, revealing and making present the bodies, spatialities, and knowledges that populate a geopolitically manufactured border and migration “crisis” in southern Mexico. The research explores bordering practices at the scale of their everyday implementation on the ground, theorizing how borders and bordering as a violent state-driven apparatus operate, how it is experienced differently, whom it impacts, and how it is negotiated across space and time. The research is situated at the intersection of political geography, critical border studies, refugee studies and transnational feminist approaches. The study and grounded analysis originate from feminist ethnographic and participatory action research with migrant women, feminist and women’s groups, collectives searching for the disappeared and others accompanying border-crossers in 2022-23. The methods applied include life history narratives, in-depth semi-structured interviews, workshops, and the accompaniment of people moving, waiting and searching along migratory routes. This dissertation contributes to debates on bordering practices, gender violence, migrant disappearances, and care, making four unique contributions to the literature. First, the methodological approach fosters novel narratives about borders and the acts of people crossing them despite fears. Second, the research reveals a gendered and intimate geopolitical analysis that highlights women’s experiences and survival strategies and considers their exclusion to move quickly across borders that shape and are shaped by state practices. Third, the research re-conceptualizes the outcomes of bordering practices, exposing the protagonism and spaces of care while underlining the experience of waiting in borderlands, all of which are frequently overlooked and undocumented. Finally, the research reads disappearances as violence towards (feminized) migrant bodies and territories and probes subsequent performative searches by friends and family that defy the salient maternalist and state-centric discourses

Improving the working routines with outgoing articles - A research project at IKEA San Diego

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to improve IKEA San Diego’s existing working routine related to the out phasing process of outgoing articles. At the retailer IKEA San Diego, the process of phasing in and out articles was not working efficiently. To this day there have been several problems to get the process of phasing in and out articles that approach their end date sale (EDS) to work smoothly. Management has been reluctant to act and the routines have been poorly communicated. During the last year numerous events have taken place that further demands the out phasing process to be enhanced. The IKEA Corporation is currently changing their supply strategy which affects the out phasing routines. The store is transforming its operational ownership from franchise to a corporate ownership, thus decreasing the possibilities to set prices independently. The store is missing space to ensure growth and the Logistics Department at IKEA San Diego is failing a must-pass review, where one of the main issues was – to handle outgoing articles. All these factors are related to the purpose of this thesis and have been explored and evaluated. The research process has been executed in a cyclic and intimate manner with the sponsor company. Data have been collected through a global benchmark web survey and by continuous observation within IKEA. Once the problems have been identified and evaluated there has been a successive implementation, followed by further examination and new implementations. It is an Action Research based thesis and the method is inspired by Cunnigham’s Organizational Development theory. As a result of the authors work the IKEA San Diego store is now experiencing a more efficient and clear routine for how to handle the out phasing process. Administrative tasks have been reduced and improved, management have a higher awareness and a greater proactive attitude and are as result less reluctance to action. The average amount of outgoing articles has during the execution of this thesis been decreased by 35%