Hyperspectral imaging for non-destructive prediction of fermentation index, polyphenol content and antioxidant activity in single cocoa beans

The aim of the current work was to use hyperspectral imaging (HSI) in the spectral range 1000-2500 nm to quantitatively predict fermentation index (FI), total polyphenols (TP) and antioxidant activity (AA) of individual dry fermented cocoa beans scanned on a single seed basis. Seventeen cocoa bean batches were obtained and 10 cocoa beans were used from each batch. PLS regression models were built on 170 samples. The developed HSI predictive models were able to quantify three quality-related parameters with sufficient performance for screening purposes, with external validation R2 of 0.50 (RMSEP=0.27, RPD=1.40), 0.70 (RMSEP=34.1 mg ferulic acid g-1, RPD=1.77) and 0.74 (60.0 mmol Trolog kg-1, RPD=1.91) for FI, TP and AA, respectively. The calibrations were subsequently applied at a single bean and pixel level, so that the distribution was visualised within and between single seeds. HSI is thus suggested as a promising approach to estimate cocoa bean composition rapidly and non-destructively, thus offering a valid tool for food inspection and quality control

Grazing reduces bee abundance and diversity in saltmarshes by suppressing flowering of key plant species

Global declines in pollinator populations and associated services make it imperative to identify and sensitively manage valuable habitats. Coastal habitats such as saltmarshes can support extensive flowering meadows, but their importance for pollinators, and how this varies with land-use intensity, is poorly understood. We hypothesised that saltmarshes provide important bee foraging habitat, and that livestock grazing either suppresses or enhances its value by reducing the abundance - or increasing the diversity - of flowering plants. To test these hypotheses, we surveyed 11 saltmarshes in Wales (UK) under varying grazing management (long-term ungrazed, extensively grazed, intensively grazed) over three summers and investigated causal pathways linking grazing intensity with bee abundance and diversity using a series of linear mixed models. We also compared observed bee abundances to 11 common terrestrial habitats using national survey data. Grazing reduced bee abundance and richness via reductions in the flower cover of the two key food plants: sea aster Tripolium pannonicum and sea lavender Limonium spp. Grazing also increased flowering plant richness, but the positive effects of flower richness did not compensate for the negative effects of reduced flower cover on bees. Bee abundances were approximately halved in extensively grazed marshes (relative to ungrazed) and halved again in intensively grazed marshes. Saltmarsh flowers were primarily visited by honeybees Apis mellifera and bumblebees Bombus spp. in mid and late summer. Compared to other broad habitat types in Wales, ungrazed saltmarshes ranked highly for honeybees and bumblebees in July-August, but were relatively unimportant for solitary bees. Intensively grazed saltmarshes were amongst the least valuable habitats for all bee types. Under appropriate grazing management, saltmarshes provide a valuable and previously overlooked foraging habitat for bees. The strong effects of livestock grazing identified here are likely to extend geographically given that both livestock grazing and key grazing-sensitive plants are widespread in European saltmarshes. We recommend that long-term ungrazed saltmarshes are protected from grazing, and that grazing is maintained at extensive levels on grazed marshes. In this way, saltmarshes can provide forage for wild and managed bee populations and support ecosystem services

No thermoregulatory or ergogenic effect of dietary nitrate among physically inactive males, exercising above gas exchange threshold in hot and dry conditions

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of five days dietary nitrate (NO3-) consumption on exercise tolerance and thermoregulation during cycling in hot, dry conditions. In a double-blind, randomised crossover design, 11 healthy males participated in an exercise tolerance test (Tlim) in the heat (35°C, 28% relative humidity), cycling above the thermoneutral gas exchange threshold, after five days of dietary supplementation, with either NO3--rich beetroot juice (BR; ~ 9.2 mmol NO3-) or placebo (PLA). Changes in plasma [NO3-] and nitrite [NO2-], core and mean skin temperatures, mean local and whole-body sweat rates, heart rate, perceptual ratings and pulmonary gas exchange were measured during exercise, alongside calorimetric estimations of thermal balance. Mean arterial pressures (MAP) were recorded pre-Tlim. There were no differences in Tlim between conditions (BR = 22.8 ± 8.1 min; Placebo = 20.7 ± 7.9 min) (P = 0.184), despite increases in plasma [NO3-] and [NO2-] (P 0.05). Dietary NO3- supplementation had no effect on exercise tolerance or thermoregulation in hot, dry conditions, despite reductions in resting MAP and increases in plasma [NO3-] and [NO2-]. Healthy, yet physically inactive individuals with no known impairments in vasodilatory and sudomotor function do not appear to require BR for ergogenic or thermolytic effects during exercise in the heat

Opportunities for authentic simulated patients

Background and aim/objectives: Traditionally, simulated patients are played by actors and / or fellow peers taking part in the simulation-based training. Literature indicates that there are many benefits to employing real people in simulation scenarios especially when the training addresses empathy and communication (Oh et al. 2015). The question therefore is why do we not involve actual service users as ‘authentic simulated patients’ or ‘authentic standardised patients’ (abbreviated to ‘authentic SPs’) in the scenarios? Yet, literature also points to the need for consistency (Wilbur et al. 2018, Lewis et al. 2017) in simulation-based learning concerning exam situations such as Objective Standardised Clinical Examination (OSCE)s, which may be more difficult to achieve when a person contributes with their lived experience rather than their acting skills. Additionally, the training of simulated patients / standardised patients is variable and inconsistent, which calls for a renewed approach that acknowledges and adapts to the requirements and abilities of authentic SPs. The aim of this talk is to present a framework and checklist for the involvement of SPs with the lived experience to explore what the opportunities for the employment of ‘authentic simulated patients’ is. The anticipated benefits they bring to the learning experience will be discussed, whilst considering the risks for the services user, learners, and educators alike. Method or activity: A framework using a checklist for the involvement of ‘authentic SPs’ has been developed, which is based on a systematic search of literature reviews as well as on discussions with simulation practitioners and educators. It draws on examples from practice of those involving persons with learning disabilities in the structuring of the simulation learning activities in an undergraduate nursing course. Results/Findings discussion: The talk will present the overall ‘authentic SP’ framework and how the checklist could be applied. For this, examples from practice will be given such as involving persons with learning disabilities as SP in simulation-based learning. Conclusion: The framework and checklist will provide simulationists with an approach and tool to consider the involvement of ‘authentic SPs’ to enrich the learning experience in a mutually beneficial way. References: Lewis KL, Bohnert CA, Gammon WL, Hölzer H, Lyman L, Smith C, Thompson TM, Wallace A, Gliva-McConvey G. The association of standardized patient educators (ASPE) standards of best practice (SOBP). Advances in Simulation. 2017 Dec;2(1):1-8. Oh PJ, Jeon KD, Koh MS. The effects of simulation-based learning using standardized patients in nursing students: A meta-analysis. Nurse education today. 2015 May 1;35(5):e6-15. Wilbur K, Elmubark A, Shabana S. Systematic review of standardized patient use in continuing medical education. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions. 2018 Jan 1;38(1):3-10

Producing interventions for AIDS-affected young people in Lesotho's schools: Scalar relations and power differentials

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Geoforum. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.Children and youth are a key target group for interventions to address southern Africa’s AIDS pandemic. Such interventions are frequently implemented through schools, and are often complex products of negotiation between a range of institutional actors including international agencies, NGOs, government departments and individual schools. These institutions not only stand in different (horizontally scaled) spatial relationships to students in schools; they also appear to operate at different hierarchical levels. Empirical research with policy makers and practitioners in Lesotho, however, reveals how interventions are produced through flows of knowledge, funding and personnel within and between institutions that make it difficult to assert that any intervention is manifestly more international or more local than any other. Scale theory offers the metaphor of a network or web which usefully serves to move attention away from discrete organisations, sectors and scalar positionings and onto the relationships and flows between them. Nevertheless, organisations and development interventions are often partly structured in scalar hierarchical ways that express substantive power differentials and shape the forms of interaction that take place, albeit not binding them to strict binaries or nested hierarchies. A modified network metaphor is useful in aiding understanding of how particular interventions are produced through intermeshing scales and diverse fluid interactions, and why they take the form they do.RGS-IB

No thermoregulatory or ergogenic effect of dietary nitrate among physically inactive males, exercising above gas exchange threshold in hot and dry conditions

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of five days dietary nitrate (NO3-) consumption on exercise tolerance and thermoregulation during cycling in hot, dry conditions. In a double-blind, randomised crossover design, 11 healthy males participated in an exercise tolerance test (Tlim) in the heat (35°C, 28% relative humidity), cycling above the thermoneutral gas exchange threshold, after five days of dietary supplementation, with either NO3--rich beetroot juice (BR; ~ 9.2 mmol NO3-) or placebo (PLA). Changes in plasma [NO3-] and nitrite [NO2-], core and mean skin temperatures, mean local and whole-body sweat rates, heart rate, perceptual ratings and pulmonary gas exchange were measured during exercise, alongside calorimetric estimations of thermal balance. Mean arterial pressures (MAP) were recorded pre-Tlim. There were no differences in Tlim between conditions (BR = 22.8 ± 8.1 min; Placebo = 20.7 ± 7.9 min) (P = 0.184), despite increases in plasma [NO3-] and [NO2-] (P 0.05). Dietary NO3- supplementation had no effect on exercise tolerance or thermoregulation in hot, dry conditions, despite reductions in resting MAP and increases in plasma [NO3-] and [NO2-]. Healthy, yet physically inactive individuals with no known impairments in vasodilatory and sudomotor function do not appear to require BR for ergogenic or thermolytic effects during exercise in the heat

Chronique archéologique de la religion grecque (ChronARG)

01. Athènes, Attique, Mégaride (Joannis Mylonopoulos) Athènes 01.00 – Généralités – Le catalogue d’une exposition tenue au Centre Culturel Onassis à New York offre plusieurs brefs chapitres introductifs sur l’archéologie des cultes d’Artémis, d’Aphrodite, de Déméter, de Dionysos, et de diverses héroïnes à Athènes et en Attique, ainsi que sur l’iconographie des prêtresses. N. Kaltsas, A. Shapiro (eds.), Worshipping Women. Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens, New York, 2008. – Une tête fragm..

The Origin of the Universe as Revealed Through the Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background

Modern cosmology has sharpened questions posed for millennia about the origin of our cosmic habitat. The age-old questions have been transformed into two pressing issues primed for attack in the coming decade: How did the Universe begin? and What physical laws govern the Universe at the highest energies? The clearest window onto these questions is the pattern of polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which is uniquely sensitive to primordial gravity waves. A detection of the special pattern produced by gravity waves would be not only an unprecedented discovery, but also a direct probe of physics at the earliest observable instants of our Universe. Experiments which map CMB polarization over the coming decade will lead us on our first steps towards answering these age-old questions.Comment: Science White Paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey. Full list of 212 author available at http://cmbpol.uchicago.ed