2,005 research outputs found
Analysis of Media Agenda-Setting Effects on Consumer Confidence in the Safety of the U.S. Food System
Results from continuous tracking of consumer confidence and media coverage of food safety events over a 67 week period between May 2008 and August 2009 are reported. An ordered probit model is used to test the hypothesis that media coverage of food safety events affects consumer confidence in the safety of the U.S. food system. The results show that media coverage significantly and negatively affected consumer confidence in the safety of nation’s food supply during the sample period. Socioeconomic and demographic factors such as geographic region, use of media source, household size, age, ethnicity, education, and gender also had significant affects on consumer confidence in the safety of United States food supply.Food Safety, Consumer Confidence, Mass media, ordered probit, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,
Consumer Confidence in the Food System, Media Coverage and Stock Prices of Food Companies: A Regression Analysis
A series of recent and serious food safety incidents have generated a national debate over the significant costs that they impose on various stakeholders - consumers, industry, or the government. This paper examines the impact of media coverage of food safety and defense issues on consumer confidence in food safety, and measures the response of stock prices of food companies to changes in consumer confidence. Results show that, increases in media coverage have a negative impact on consumer confidence, and that decreases in the levels of consumer confidence on food safety have a negative impact on stock prices of food companies, in particular for the larger firms. These findings confirm that the financial performance of food the industry is negatively affected by category-specific food safety events, and the effects of media coverage on consumer confidence in the safety of the food system.Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,
The “Hypertension Approaches in the Elderly: a Lifestyle study” multicenter, randomized trial (HAEL Study): rationale and methodological protocol
Background: Hypertension is a clinical condition highly prevalent in the elderly, imposing great risks to
cardiovascular diseases and loss of quality of life. Current guidelines emphasize the importance of
nonpharmacological strategies as a first-line approach to lower blood pressure. Exercise is an efficient lifestyle tool
that can benefit a myriad of health-related outcomes, including blood pressure control, in older adults. We herein
report the protocol of the HAEL Study, which aims to evaluate the efficacy of a pragmatic combined exercise
training compared with a health education program on ambulatory blood pressure and other health-related
outcomes in older individuals.
Methods: Randomized, single-blinded, multicenter, two-arm, parallel, superiority trial.
A total of 184 subjects (92/center), ≥60 years of age, with no recent history of cardiovascular events, will be
randomized on a 1:1 ratio to 12-week interventions consisting either of a combined exercise (aerobic and
strength) training, three times per week, or an active-control group receiving health education intervention,
once a week. Ambulatory (primary outcome) and office blood pressures, cardiorespiratory fitness and
endothelial function, together with quality of life, functional fitness and autonomic control will be measured
in before and after intervention.
Discussion: Our conceptual hypothesis is that combined training intervention will reduce ambulatory blood
pressure in comparison with health education group. Using a superiority framework, analysis plan prespecifies
an intention-to-treat approach, per protocol criteria, subgroups analysis, and handling of missing data. The
trial is recruiting since September 2017. Finally, this study was designed to adhere to data sharing practices.
Trial registration: NCT03264443. Registered on 29 August, 2017
MĂdias, Tecnologias e Sociedade em Debate: Pensar o Futuro Transdisciplinar
As relações entre mĂdias, tecnologias e sociedade se estabeleceram a partir de diversas perspectivas, sejam elas filosĂłficas, sociolĂłgicas e antropolĂłgicas, sejam econĂ´micas, polĂticas e cientĂficas. Todos esses ângulos guardam uma singularidade independente do tempo e do espaço; a possibilidade de uma análise histĂłrica. Ao longo dos sĂ©culos XIX e XX, diversas análises cientĂficas e obras literárias apropriaram-se das tecnologias em suas narrativas, sempre as colocando de forma utilitarista, tanto com a visĂŁo de que elas seriam Ăşteis ao progresso da humanidade, quanto postas como algo que viria a substituir o ser humano. Apesar dessas representações, a ideia de um sentido de mera utilidade foi desafiada nas Ăşltimas dĂ©cadas do sĂ©culo XX, particularmente pela revolução tecnolĂłgica que marcaria a Era Digital
Modelling secondary particle tracks generated by high-energy protons in water
1 pág.; XXIX International Conference on Photonic, Electronic, and Atomic Collisions (ICPEAC2015); Open Access funded by Creative Commons Atribution Licence 3.0We present interaction probability data of low-energy secondary electrons and positrons produced due to the proton impact. The probability distribution functions serve as input data for the Low Energy Particle Track Simulation (LEPTS) approach which allows one to include the effect of low-energy species in medical applications of radiation and in ion-beam cancer therapy, in particular.This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of EconomĂa y Productividad (Project FIS2012-31320). We
also acknowledge partial funding from the
Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(FCT-MCTES), research grant PEstOE/FIS/UI0068/2011,the
EU/ESF COST Actions Nano-IBCT - MP1002 and CELINA CM-
1301, and from the FP7 Multi-ITN Project ”Advanced
Radiotherapy, Generated by Exploiting Nanoprocesses and Technologies” (ARGENT) (Grant Agreement n◦608163).Peer Reviewe
Remote Labs Accessible through 3D environments: A Case Study with Open Wonderland
3D immersive environments have been spreading through domains such as enterprise activities, education and entertaining, due to the Second Life growth. This and other 3D environments can be used to increase the sense of immersion of users accessing remote laboratories, namely when controlling & observing measuring instruments. This paper contributes to the overall research efforts, on this domain, by presenting a case study of how to remotely access a digital multimeter, through a 3D environment developed in Open Wonderland.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Modeling secondary particle tracks generated by high-energy protons in water
ICPEAC 2015, Toledo, Spain on 22 –28 July 2015; http://www.icpeac2015.com/We present interaction probability data of low-energy secondary electrons and positrons produced due
to the proton impact. The probability distribution functions serve as input data for the Low Energy Particle Track
Simulation (LEPTS) approach which allows one to include the effect of low-energy species in medical applications
of radiation and in ion-beam cancer therapy, in particular.his work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of EconomĂa
y Productividad (Project FIS2012-31320). We
also acknowledge partial funding from the
Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(FCT-MCTES), research grant PEstOE/FIS/UI0068/2011,the
EU/ESF COST Actions
Nano-IBCT - MP1002 and CELINA CM-
1301, and from the FP7 Multi-ITN Project ”Advanced
Radiotherapy, Generated by Exploiting
Nanoprocesses and Technologies” (ARGENT)
(Grant Agreement nâ—¦608163).Peer Reviewe
Elastic differential cross sections for C4F6 isomers in the 1.5-200 eV energy electron impact: Similarities with six fluorine containing molecules and evidence of F-atom like scattering
11 págs.; 4 figs.; 4 tabs.© 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. We report absolute elastic differential cross sections for electron interactions with the C4F6 isomers, hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (1,3-C4F6), hexafluoro-2-butyne (2-C4F6), and hexafluorocyclobutene (c-C4F6). The incident electron energy range is 1.5-200 eV, and the scattered electron angular range for the differential measurements varies from 15° to 150°. In all cases the absolute scale of the differential cross section was set using the relative flow technique, with helium as the reference species. Atomic-like behaviour in these scattering systems is shown here for the first time, and is further investigated by comparing the elastic cross sections for the C4F6 isomers with other fluorinated molecules, such as SF6 and CnF6 (n = 2, 3, and 6). We note that for all the six-F containing molecules, the scattering process for electron energies above 30 eV is indistinguishable. Finally, we report results for calculations of elastic differential cross sections for electron scattering from each of these isomers, within an optical potential method and assuming a screened corrected independent atom representation. The level of agreement between these calculations and our measurements is found to be quite remarkable in all cases.F.B. and G.G. acknowledge the partial financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Project No. FIS 2012-31230). This work forms part of the EU/ESF COST Action CM0805 programme “The Chemical Cosmos”.Peer Reviewe
Real time determination of physical impact damage in packing lines and under laboratory conditions and its effects in tomato fruits quality
Tomatoes are one of the most important vegetable crops grown in Brazil and are among the crops that have one of the highest post-harvest losses indexes in the country. The present work aimed at evaluating impact damage observed in packing lines of fresh tomatoes as well as to determine, under laboratory conditions, quality alterations of tomato fruits submitted to impact damage in different surface types. Critical points evaluation was accomplished using an instrumented sphere. Critical transference points found showed variations in acceleration levels from 30 to 129 G (m s-2). Tests carried out under laboratory conditions showed that padded surfaces reduced up to 31% impact damage. Incidence of severe internal physical damage was evaluated by a subjective scale and increased by 79% on hard surfaces for the highest fall drop. On the other hand, it was observed an effective reduction in physical damage on fruits when padded surfaces were used. When a 10-cm drop was performed, the maximum reduction measured was 10% for hard surfaces and 5% for previously padded surfaces. For quality parameters, it was observed for high drops on hard surfaces, highest values for weight loss, total acidity, lower values for vitamin C and Soluble Solids.O tomate de mesa Ă© uma das principais hortaliças consumidas no Brasil e apresenta elevados Ăndices de perdas pĂłs-colheita. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a magnitude dos impactos verificados em linhas de beneficiamento para tomate de mesa, bem como determinar, em laboratĂłrio, as alterações na qualidade de tomates submetidos a danos fĂsicos controlados em diferentes superfĂcies. Para a avaliação dos pontos crĂticos e registro da magnitude dos impactos, foi usada uma esfera instrumentada. Os pontos crĂticos de transferĂŞncia demonstraram valores de aceleração entre 30 e 129 G (m s-2). Os testes laboratoriais evidenciaram que superfĂcies acolchoadas reduziram em atĂ© 31% a magnitude de impacto. A incidĂŞncia de danos fĂsicos internos foi crescente e atingiu 79% em superfĂcies rĂgidas para a maior altura de queda livre. Por outro lado, observou-se redução na incidĂŞncia de danos fĂsicos nos frutos quando superfĂcies protetoras foram utilizadas, verificando-se na altura de 10 cm um limite mĂnimo de 5% de danos severos, enquanto para superfĂcie rĂgida o mĂnimo correspondeu a 10%. As variáveis de qualidade foram alteradas, verificando-se maior perda de massa, maiores valores de acidez total, menores valores de ácido ascĂłrbico e sĂłlidos solĂşveis para maiores alturas de queda livre sobre superfĂcies rĂgidas.630641Fundação de Amparo Ă Pesquisa do Estado de SĂŁo Paulo (FAPESP
A transcriptomic analysis of Echinococcus granulosus larval stages : implications for parasite biology and host adaptation
- …