Development, evaluation and impact assessment of the Food Composition Study Guide

Der ‘Food Composition Study Guide’ (Lernprogramm zur Lebensmittelzusammensetzung) wurde entwickelt, um eine globale, jedoch besonders in Entwicklungsländern bestehende Wissenslücke in Lebensmittelzusammensetzung zu füllen. Er ist ein Fernlehrmittel (distance learning tool), das in 17 Module unterteilt ist, und alle wichtigen Themen über die Zusammensetzung und Biodiversität von Lebensmitteln in Form von Fragen, Űbungen und Antworten abdeckt. Der Study Guide umfasst folgende Themen: Grundlagen und Verwendung von Daten über die Zusammenstzung von Lebensmitteln, Lebensmittel- und Komponentennomenklatur, Probenahme, Datenqualität, Kompilation, Dokumentation und Berechnung von Daten, und Lebensmittelbiodiversität. Die englische Version des Study Guide wurde 2009 in zwei Bänden als FAO Dokument veröffentlicht und kann kostenfrei von http://www.fao.org/infoods/publications_en.stm heruntergeladen werden. Die Module wurden unter Anwendung der Prinzipien des Instruktionsdesign und Blooms Taxonomie der kognitiven Lernziele entwickelt und basieren auf Ergebnissen einer Bedarfserhebung, sowie wichtigen themen-relevanten Publikationen (hauptsächlich von der FAO, INFOODS, und EuroFIR). Der Study Guide wurde von Experten begutachtet und danach erfolgreich getested und angewandt: in drei internationalen Lehrgängen über die Lebensmittelzusammensetzung im Direktunterricht, im Rahmen der Universitätslehre sowie von Fachleuten im Selbststudium. Der Einsatz der Module zeigte, dass sie für Lehrer und Lernende nützlich sind: Lehrende können damit Unterrichtsmaterial erstellen und ganze Kurse geben, und Lernende können damit Wissen und Können gewinnen oder vertiefen und danach erfolgreich Aufgaben im Bereich der Zusammensetzung und Biodiversität von Lebensmitteln ausführen. Mit dem Study Guide können neue und innovative Lehrgänge durchgeführt werden (z.B. interaktiv and ergebnisorientiert). Lebensmittelzusammensetzung kann dadurch in Universitäten vielseitig unterrichtet werden: als Fernlehrgang mit kurzem Direktunterricht, in Seminaren, oder einfach in Vorlesungen. Űber 35 Universitäten haben bereits Interesse gezeigt, den Study Guide in der Lehre anzuwenden. Die weite Anwendung des Study Guide sowohl in Lehrgängen und an Universitäten, als auch im Selbststudium wird gefördert durch seine Űbersetzung ins Französische und Spanische. Es wird erwartet, dass der Gebrauch des Study Guide zusammen mit dem simplen Datenmanagementsystem “Compilation Tool“, das von der FAO/INFOODS in Excel entickelt wurde, in vielen Entwicklungsländern zu Veröffentlichung von nationalen Nährwerttabellen führt.The ‘Food Composition Study Guide’ was developed to fill a global knowledge gap in food composition and food biodiversity, especially in developing countries. It is a distance learning tool divided into 17 modules, covering all relevant topics on food composition and food biodiversity in the form of questions, exercises and answers. The main topics covered are basic principles and use of food composition data, food and component nomenclature, sampling, quality of data, compilation, documentation and calculation and food biodiversity. In 2009, the English version of the Study Guide was published electronically by FAO in two volumes and can be freely downloaded from http://www.fao.org/infoods/publications_en.stm. The modules were based on the principles of instructional design, Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive objectives, the results of a need assessment, and on available authorative documents (mainly from FAO and INFOODS but also EuroFIR). The Study Guide was peer reviewed, pilot tested and successfully used in different settings: in conjunction with three international classroom-based food composition courses, in a university setting, and by self-learners. The implementation of the modules demonstrated that they represent a useful tool for teachers to prepare lectures or to run a complete course and for learners to acquire and deepen their knowledge and skills, being afterwards able to successfully carry out tasks related to food composition and food biodiversity. The Study Guide permits to develop new innovative approaches to carry out food composition courses (i.e. more interactive and result-oriented) and to introduce food composition into the curricula of universities, e.g. as distance-learning courses, seminars, or simply in selected lectures. Over 35 universities around the world have already indicated their interest in using the Study Guide. It is expected that it will be widely used among the above mentioned potential user groups, which will be enhanced through its translation into French and Spanish. It is hoped that the Study Guide together with the simple food composition database management system “Compilation Tool”, developed as an Excel file by FAO/INFOODS, will allow more developing countries to develop and publish a national food composition database including its food biodiversity

The LHC Dipole Geometry as Built in Industry

The LHC dipoles magnets are produced in 5 industrial production sites in Europe. The production is well underway and more than half of the total quantity has been delivered to CERN. One of the important characteristics of the dipole magnets is their geometry. To achieve the requested mechanical tolerances on the magnets, which are 15 m long and have a 28 t mass, the final assembly operations includes precise optical measurements. To ensure the good quality and high production rate, the final assembly procedure has been automated as much as possible. The authors report here about the assembly procedure, the features of the software that guides the optical measurements (and consequently the assembly operations) and the results obtained on the geometry in the different sites

Guidelines on assessing biodiverse foods in dietary intake surveys

FAO produced these guidelines in collaboration with Bioversity International with the aim of facilitating the work of researchers who wish to capture biodiversity aspects (appropriate levels of taxonomic identification of foods) incommonly used dietary surveys, including 24-hour recall, food records, food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) and dietary diversity surveys. For the sake of simplicity, these guidelines focus on plant foods, which is where the expertise of Bioversity International lies, but similar principles could be applied to animal foods, insects, fish and other aquatic species, with the support of appropriate experts. The guidelines are intended as a practical tool, and describe the preparatory steps involved in assessing and documenting local foods, with appropriate levels of detail in taxonomic identification.This is followed by suggestions on how to adapt dietary assessment instruments to collect information on biodiverse foods

Safety and immunogenicity of TetractHib (a vaccine combining DTP vaccine and Haemophilus influenza type b conjugate vaccine) administered to infants at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age

The safety and immunogenicity of TETRActHIB (a vaccine combining diphtheria and tetanus toxoids-pertussis vaccine (DTP) with Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine (polyribosyl ribitol phosphate conjugated to tetanus protein) (PRP-T)) was assessed in 131 Cape Town infants immunised at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age. Serological responses to all component antigens were measured before the first dose and at 18 weeks of age. In addition, anti-PRP antibodies were measured at 9 and 18 months of age to determine long-term immunogenicity. The vaccine was well tolerated by infants and no significant side-effects were reported. Responses to Hib at 18 weeks of age were good in that most infants achieved a level of anti-PRP antibodies <". 0.15 μg/ml, indicative of short-term protection, and 70% achieved a level<". 1 μg/ml, indicative of long-term protection. The proportions of children with protective levels<". 0.15 μg/ml and<". 1 μg/ml were similar at 9 and 18 months of age, i.e. approximately 75% and 45%, respectively. Responses to tetanus and diphtheria toxoids were excellent and all infants achieved protective serological levels. Responses to pertussis were moderate in that approximately 65% achieved 'protective' serum levels of pertussis agglutinins, i.e. titres <". 320. In conclusion, this study has shown that the DTP /PRP-T vaccine is safe, immunogenic and well tolerated in infants immunised at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age. TETRActHIB is therefore suitable for inclusion in the World Health Organisation Expanded Programme on Immunisation (WHO EPI) schedule

Functionality and Storability of Cookies Fortified at the Industrial Scale with up to 75% of Apple Pomace Flour Produced by Dehydration

Apple pomace flour (APF) with high content of dietary fibers (DF), total polyphenolics (TPCs) and flavonoids (TFCs) was produced at the industrial scale. Bulk and tapped density, swelling, water and oil holding capacity, solubility and hydration density of fine and coarse APF with average particle size 0.16 and 0.50 mm were compared. The effect of wheat flour substitution with 25%, 50% and 75% of fine and coarse APF was studied upon cookies production at the industrial scale and after one year of storage. Coarse APF performed better in respect to sensorial properties, content and retention of dietary compounds and antioxidant (AO) activity. The cookies with optimal share of coarse APF (50%) contained 21 g/100 g of DF and several times higher TPC, TFC as well as AO activity than control cookies, retained well health promoting compounds and maintained an intensely fruity aroma and crispy texture. They were acceptable for consumers according to the hedonic test

Influence of toolpath and clamping strategies on stainless steel plates distorsion after machining

Heat exchangers in nuclear power generation plants are made of thin stainless-steel plates assembled together in order to improve their efficiency and compactness. To ensure the assembly, the global distortion of those plates must be mastered and minimized, mainly by predicting the evolution of the residual stress field during their manufacturing process chain. The residual stresses generated during rolling are removed by heat treatments process that also induce another stress field while cooling. During machining, those residual stresses are redistributed to reach another equilibrium state, leading to a macroscopic part distortion. The objective of this work is to study the influence of the machining toolpath and clamping strategies on the global part distortion so as to optimize the manufacturing process chain

Models and experimental results from the wide aperture Nb-Ti magnets for the LHC upgrade

MQXC is a Nb-Ti quadrupole designed to meet the accelerator quality requirements needed for the phase-1 LHC upgrade, now superseded by the high luminosity upgrade foreseen in 2021. The 2-m-long model magnet was tested at room temperature and 1.9 K. The technology developed for this magnet is relevant for other magnets currently under development for the high-luminosity upgrade, namely D1 (at KEK) and the large aperture twin quadrupole Q4 (at CEA). In this paper we present MQXC test results, some of the specialized heat extraction features, spot heaters, temperature sensor mounting and voltage tap development for the special open cable insulation. We look at some problem solving with noisy signals, give an overview of electrical testing, look at how we calculate the coil resistance during at quench and show that the heaters are not working We describe the quench signals and its timing, the development of the quench heaters and give an explanation of an Excel quench calculation and its comparison including the good agreement with the MQXC test results. We propose an improvement to the magnet circuit design to reduce voltage to ground values by factor 2. The program is then used to predict quench Hot-Spot and Voltages values for the D1 dipole and the Q4 quadrupole.Comment: 8 pages, Contribution to WAMSDO 2013: Workshop on Accelerator Magnet, Superconductor, Design and Optimization; 15 - 16 Jan 2013, CERN, Geneva, Switzerlan

Importance of cattle biodiversity and its influence on the nutrient composition of beef

Livestock make a substantial contribution to achieving food and nutrition security due to various factors including the high nutritional quality of animal-source foods. Conservation and sustainable use of cattle genetic resources are important due to the multiple benefits provided by local breeds. These benefits include multiple direct uses, additional market value provided by specialty products, social and cultural roles, and adaptations that local breeds have to climate and diseases in harsh environments. Meat composition varies across cattle breeds. Whereas genetics play a role in this variation, management practices, such as diet, and other environmental factors also affect nutrient composition. Compositional data for cattle breeds have been added to the FAO/INFOODS Food Composition Database for Biodiversity. The database is publicly available and has value for use by researchers, nutritionists, producers, the general public and other stakeholders. More compositional data, including amino acids, minerals, and vitamins, are needed from local breeds in order to understand better the nutritional benefits of sustainably managing animal genetic resources

Towards a Harmonised Total Diet Study Approach: a guidance document:joint guidance of EFSA, FAO and WHO

A Total Diet Study (TDS) can be a complementary approach to traditional monitoring and surveillance programs, which instead of focusing on compliance is designed to provide a solid basis for calculating population dietary exposure and assessing potential impact on public health. A TDS includes the selection of foods based on food consumption data to represent a large portion of a typical diet, their preparation to food as consumed and the subsequent pooling of related foods before analysis. There is already a wealth of international TDS data available, but to better enable comparisons it is important that methods are harmonised to the extent possible. The Working Group of experts provides a definition of the TDS approach highlighting its inherent value; it gives guidance for a harmonised methodology starting from the TDS planning to the collection of analytical results, exposure assessment calculation and communication of TDS results; and it proposes a general approach to facilitate the use of TDS information at international level. A TDS can be used for screening purposes or as a more refined exposure assessment tool. It provides background concentration and exposure levels of chemical substances in a range of representative foods prepared for consumption, while monitoring and surveillance programs can better capture highly contaminated individual food items. Their complementarities would allow the identification of the relative importance of individual sources of chemical substances from the whole diet. In conclusion, a TDS is considered to be a good complement to existing food monitoring or surveillance programs to estimate population dietary exposure to beneficial and harmful chemical substances across the entire diet. Harmonising the TDS methodology will enhance the value of these programs by improving the comparability at international level

Performance of the Superconducting Corrector Magnet Circuits during the Commissioning of the LHC

The LHC is a complex machine requiring more than 7400 superconducting corrector magnets distributed along a circumference of 26.7 km. These magnets are powered in 1446 different electrical circuits at currents ranging from 60 A up to 600 A. Among the corrector circuits the 600 A corrector magnets form the most diverse and differentiated group. All together, about 60000 high current connections had to be made. A fault in a circuit or one of the superconducting connections would have severe consequences for the accelerator operation. All magnets are wound from various types of Nb-Ti superconducting strands, and many contain parallel protection resistors to by-pass the current still flowing in the other magnets of the same circuit when they quench. In this paper the performance of these magnet circuits is presented, focussing on the quench behaviour of the magnets. Quench detection and the performance of the electrical interconnects will be dealt with. The results as measured on the entire circuits are compared to the test results obtained at the reception of the individual magnets