A narrative review investigating the potential effect of lubrication as a mitigation strategy for whey protein-associated mouthdrying

Whey is consumed by active adults to aid muscle recovery and growth, the general population as a nutritious convenient food, and by older adults to prevent sarcopenia due to its high leucine content. However, whey protein has poor consumer acceptance in this latter demographic, partially due to mouthdrying. This is thought to result from electrostatic interactions between whey and salivary proteins, mucoadhesion to the oral mucosa, and the inherent astringency of acidity. Previous unsuccessful mitigation strategies include viscosity, sweetness and fat manipulation. This literature review reveals support for increasing lubrication to reduce mouthdrying. However, of the 50 papers reviewed, none have proposed a method by which whey protein could be modified as an ingredient to reduce mouthdrying in whey-fortified products. This review recommends the use of modern technologies to increase lubrication as a novel mitigation strategy to reduce mouthdrying, with the potential to increase consumer acceptance

Sound as affect: Difference, power and spatiality

This article considers what happens when sound is understood as affect. It begins by recounting a minor event in which sound moved my body. I use this as a starting point for defining sonic affect as the vibrational movement of bodies of all kinds, moving away from anthropocentric notions of sound based on human perception. The vibration of bodies can be understood as a ‘base layer’ of sound, which may activate or accrue layers of feeling, significance and meaning, but which is not reducible to them. Developing this conceptualisation of sonic affect, I argue that: (i) there are repeating affective tendencies of sound, but these unfold differently in context; (ii) sonic affect exercises power over bodies, sometimes by combining with meaning; and (iii) sound propagates affect through space in distinctive ways, some of which I discuss. These arguments are grounded in numerous examples, reflecting the variety of both sound and affect

Teaching Africa and international studies: Forum introduction

Africa has often been defined and represented by outsiders. In International Studies, the continent is frequently viewed as peripheral and uninteresting. This is clearly a problem, and an increasingly apparent one as the number of courses on Africa and IS grow, both in Africa and beyond. Many academics who run these courses are keen to challenge the continent’s traditional marginalisation and perceived dependency, but they are limited by the resources available to them, and the fact that many are establishing new courses from scratch. This article outlines some of the key debates around teaching Africa and IS, setting the scene for the articles that follow

Identification of priorities for improvement of medication safety in primary care: a PRIORITIZE study

Background Medication error is a frequent, harmful and costly patient safety incident. Research to date has mostly focused on medication errors in hospitals. In this study, we aimed to identify the main causes of, and solutions to, medication error in primary care. Methods We used a novel priority-setting method for identifying and ranking patient safety problems and solutions called PRIORITIZE. We invited 500 North West London primary care clinicians to complete an open-ended questionnaire to identify three main problems and solutions relating to medication error in primary care. 113 clinicians submitted responses, which we thematically synthesized into a composite list of 48 distinct problems and 45 solutions. A group of 57 clinicians randomly selected from the initial cohort scored these and an overall ranking was derived. The agreement between the clinicians’ scores was presented using the average expert agreement (AEA). The study was conducted between September 2013 and November 2014. Results The top three problems were incomplete reconciliation of medication during patient ‘hand-overs’, inadequate patient education about their medication use and poor discharge summaries. The highest ranked solutions included development of a standardized discharge summary template, reduction of unnecessary prescribing, and minimisation of polypharmacy. Overall, better communication between the healthcare provider and patient, quality assurance approaches during medication prescribing and monitoring, and patient education on how to use their medication were considered the top priorities. The highest ranked suggestions received the strongest agreement among the clinicians, i.e. the highest AEA score. Conclusions Clinicians identified a range of suggestions for better medication management, quality assurance procedures and patient education. According to clinicians, medication errors can be largely prevented with feasible and affordable interventions. PRIORITIZE is a new, convenient, systematic, and replicable method, and merits further exploration with a view to becoming a part of a routine preventative patient safety monitoring mechanism

Presidents, Assembly Dissolution and the Electoral Performance of Prime Ministers

Many European presidents have extensive constitutional powers to affect the timing of early parliamentary elections, which enables them to influence when incumbent governments must face the electorate. This paper examines whether presidents use their assembly dissolution powers for partisan benefit. To date, presidential activism in the electoral arena of parliamentary and semi-presidential democracies remains poorly understood. We hypothesize that presidents use their powers to influence election calling for the advantage of their political allies in government. To test this argument, we use data on 190 elections in eighteen European democracies. Our results suggest that presidents with significant dissolution powers are able to shape the electoral success of incumbents. Prime ministers whose governments are allied to such presidents realize a vote and seat share bonus of around five per cent. These findings have implications for our understanding of presidential activism, strategic parliamentary dissolution and electoral accountability

Seismic geomorphology of cretaceous megaslides offshore Namibia (Orange Basin):Insights into segmentation and degradation of gravity-driven linked systems

This study applies modern seismic geomorphology techniques to deep-water collapse features in the Orange Basin (Namibian margin, Southwest Africa) in order to provide unprecedented insights into the segmentation and degradation processes of gravity-driven linked systems. The seismic analysis was carried out using a high-quality, depth-migrated 3D volume that images the Upper Cretaceous post-rift succession of the basin, where two buried collapse features with strongly contrasting seismic expression are observed. The lower Megaslide Complex is a typical margin-scale, extensional-contractional gravity-driven linked system that deformed at least 2 km of post-rift section. The complex is laterally segmented into scoop-shaped megaslides up to 20 km wide that extend downdip for distances in excess of 30 km. The megaslides comprise extensional headwall fault systems with associated 3D rollover structures and thrust imbricates at their toes. Lateral segmentation occurs along sidewall fault systems which, in the proximal part of the megaslides, exhibit oblique extensional motion and define horst structures up to 6 km wide between individual megaslides. In the toe areas, reverse slip along these same sidewall faults, creates lateral ramps with hanging wall thrust-related folds up to 2 km wide. Headwall rollover anticlines, sidewall horsts and ramp anticlines may represent novel traps for hydrocarbon exploration on the Namibian margin.The Megaslide Complex is unconformably overlain by few hundreds of metres of highly contorted strata which define an upper Slump Complex. Combined seismic attributes and detailed seismic facies analysis allowed mapping of headscarps, thrust imbrications and longitudinal shear zones within the Slump Complex that indicate a dominantly downslope movement of a number of coalesced collapse systems. Spatial and stratal relationships between these shallow failures and the underlying megaslides suggest that the Slump Complex was likely triggered by the development of topography created by the activation of the main structural elements of the lower Megaslide Complex. This study reveals that gravity-driven linked systems undergo lateral segmentation during their evolution, and that their upper section can become unstable, favouring the initiation of a number of shallow failures that produce widespread degradation of the underlying megaslide structures. Gravity-driven linked systems along other margins are likely to share similar processes of segmentation and degradation, implying that the megaslide-related, hydrocarbon trapping structures discovered in the Namibian margin may be common elsewhere, making megaslides an attractive element of deep-water exploration along other gravitationally unstable margins

The assessment of population exposure to chlorination by-products: a study on the influence of the water distribution system

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The relationship between chlorination by-products (CBPs) in drinking water and human health outcomes has been investigated in many epidemiological studies. In these studies, population exposure assessment to CBPs in drinking water is generally based on available CBP data (e.g., from regulatory monitoring, sampling campaigns specific to study area). Since trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) are the most documented CBP classes in drinking water, they are generally used as indicators of CBP exposure.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this paper, different approaches to spatially assign available THM and HAA concentrations in drinking water for population exposure assessment purposes are investigated. Six approaches integrating different considerations for spatial variability of CBP occurrence within different distribution systems are compared. For this purpose, a robust CBP database (i.e., high number of sampling locations selected according to system characteristics) corresponding to nine distribution systems was generated.</p> <p>Results and conclusion</p> <p>The results demonstrate the high impact of the structure of the distribution system (e.g., presence of intermediary water infrastructures such as re-chlorination stations or reservoirs) and the spatial variability of CBPs in the assigned levels for exposure assessment. Recommendations for improving the exposure assessment to CBPs in epidemiological studies using available CBP data from water utilities are also presented.</p

Romania - Polity Contestation and the Resilience of Mainstream Parties

ERC POLCON project funded