Seafood safety and quality: an analysis of the supply chain in the Sultanate of Oman

The globalization of trade in fish has created many challenges for the developing world specifically with regard to food safety and quality. International organisations have established a good basis for standards in international trade. Whilst these requirements are frequently embraced by the major importers (such as Japan, the EU and the USA), they often impose additional safety requirements and regularly identify batches which fail to meet their strict standards. Creating an effective national seafood control system which meets both the internal national needs as well the requirements for the export market can be challenging. Many countries adopt a dual system where seafood products for the major export markets are subject to tight control whilst the majority of the products (whether for the local market or for more regional trade) are less tightly controlled. With regional liberalization also occurring, deciding on appropriate controls is complex. In the Sultanate of Oman, fisheries production is one of the countries' chief sources of economic revenue after oil production and is a major source of the national food supply. In this paper the structure of the fish supply chain has been analysed and highlighted the different routes operating for the different markets. Although much of the fish are consumed within Oman, there is a major export trade to the local regional markets. Much smaller quantities meet the more stringent standards imposed by the major importing countries and exports to these are limited. The paper has considered the development of the Omani fish control system including the key legislative documents and the administrative structures that have been developed. Establishing modern controls which satisfy the demands of the major importers is possible but places additional costs on businesses. Enhanced controls such as HACCP and other management standards are required but can be difficult to justify when alternative markets do not specify these. These enhanced controls do however provide additional consumer protection and can bring benefits to local consumers. The Omani government is attempting to upgrade the system of controls and has made tremendous progress toward the implementation of HACCP and introducing enhanced management systems into its industrial sector. The existence of strengthened legislative and government support, including subsidies, has encouraged some businesses to implement HACCP. The current control systems have been reviewed and a SWOT analysis approach used to identify key factors for their future development. The study shows that seafood products in the supply chain are often exposed to lengthy handling and distribution process before reaching the consumers, a typical issue faced by many developing countries. As seafood products are often perishable, they safety is compromised if not adequately controlled. The enforcement of current food safety laws in the Sultanate of Oman is shared across various government agencies. Consequently, there is a need to harmonize all regulatory requirements, enhancing the domestic food protection and to continue to work towards a fully risk-based approach in order to compete successfully in the global market

Hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) in seafood processing: an analysis of its application and use in regulation in the Sultanate of Oman

When considering the supply of fish products to consumers, the adoption of food safety management systems throughout the 'net to plate' continuum is of a paramount importance. It is essential to safeguard consumers and to facilitate regional and international trade. This study has assessed the technical barriers and benefits associated with the implementation of management system incorporating HACCP and related pre-requisite programmes in the seafood processors in the Sultanate of Oman. A survey, using qualitative surveys and interviews, was conducted out to verify the level of implementation of the seafood safety and quality requirements. A total of 22 (92% returned) HACCP processors, and 15 (83% returned) non-HACCP processors and 15 (75%) officials completed the questionnaires. Differences between processors operating with or without a HACCP system in place have been identified. The survey of local officials provided an additional perspective on the issues involved. The implications of handling practices in the seafood supply chain, seafood trade and the cost implications of implementing HACCP-based food safety management systems were also assessed. In comparison to the non-HACCP processors, the results indicated that HACCP firms were more diversified in their export markets and were able to target the more lucrative markets such as EU, Japan and America. However, the processors felt that the main barrier for exporting to these markets was the restriction imposed by the government on exporting certain species which reduced their ability to meet contracts with these countries. The study has also shown inadequate execution of prerequisite programmes due mainly to lack of training delivered to food handlers and a poor knowledge of food safety concepts. In particular there is an overreliance on the use of CCPs to control hazards when prerequisite programmes would be more appropriate is many situations. When considering whether to implement HACCP-based control systems, the seafood processors identified barriers linked to costs as their main concerns. However, whilst recognising this issue, the officials also highlighted barriers linked to the lack of expertise, skills and commitment of the staff. In general, the study highlighted significant gaps which undermine the effectiveness and success of implementing safety and quality requirements to meet national legislative obligations. These include: poor attitudes and understanding toward HACCP and its pre-requisite programmes, lenient enforcement by the authorities, the lack of training and consultancy organizations in the country, a lack of awareness. The overlapping structure of the regulatory authorities in the country and the distribution of national inspection resources have also been identified as an issue of concern

Coupling of Smoothened to inhibitory G proteins reduces voltage-gated K

SMO (Smoothened), the central transducer of Hedgehog signaling, is coupled to heterotrimeric Gi proteins in many cell types, including cardiomyocytes. In this study, we report that activation of SMO with SHH (Sonic Hedgehog) or a small agonist, purmorphamine, rapidly causes a prolongation of the action potential duration that is sensitive to a SMO inhibitor. In contrast, neither of the SMO agonists prolonged the action potential in cardiomyocytes from transgenic GiCT/TTA mice, in which Gi signaling is impaired, suggesting that the effect of SMO is mediated by Gi proteins. Investigation of the mechanism underlying the change in action potential kinetics revealed that activation of SMO selectively reduces outward voltage-gated K+ repolarizing (Kv) currents in isolated cardiomyocytes and that it induces a down-regulation of membrane levels of Kv4.3 in cardiomyocytes and intact hearts from WT but not from GiCT/TTA mice. Moreover, perfusion of intact hearts with Shh or purmorphamine increased the ventricular repolarization time (QT interval) and induced ventricular arrhythmias. Our data constitute the first report that acute, noncanonical Hh signaling mediated by Gi proteins regulates K+ currents density in cardiomyocytes and sensitizes the heart to the development of ventricular arrhythmias. © 2018 Cheng et al

Rangkap Jabatan Presiden sebagai Ketua Partai Politik dalam Sistem Ketatanegaraan Indonesia

Dual position of president as the head of a political party is the practice ofgovernance that has existed since the early days of Indonesian independence.President prohibition setting for concurrent positions in any public office has actuallybeen set explicitly in the constitution of RIS and the Provisional Constitution 1950.But such arrangements are no longer contained in the application of the Consitution1945. Government system Indonesian is now a presidential system. If the presidentdoubled as head political party, that would result in the instability goverment. Besidesee where political parties are dysfunctional resulting in worsening theimplementation of the wheels of government and no longer in accordance with thegeneral principles of good governance. So that the necessary rules for the presidentialban concurrently. Therefore required political study of law by law makers toduplicate the legal establishment of the post the president who poured into the law

'Asking the right question'. A comparison of two approaches to gathering data on 'herbals' use in survey based studies

BACKGROUND:Over the last decade academic interest in the prevalence and nature of herbal medicines use by pregnant women has increased significantly. Such data are usually collected by means of an administered questionnaire survey, however a key methodological limitation using this approach is the need to clearly define the scope of 'herbals' to be investigated. The majority of published studies in this area neither define 'herbals' nor provide a detailed checklist naming specific 'herbals' and CAM modalities, which limits inter-study comparison, generalisability and the potential for meta-analyses. The aim of this study was to compare the self-reported use of herbs, herbal medicines and herbal products using two different approaches implemented in succession. METHODS:Cross-sectional questionnaire surveys of women attending for their mid-trimester scan or attending the postnatal unit following live birth at the Royal Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, North-East Scotland. The questionnaire utilised two approaches to collect data on 'herbals' use, a single closed yes/no answer to the question "have you used herbs, herbal medicines and herbal products in the last three months"; and a request to tick which of a list of 40 'herbals' they had used in the same time period. RESULTS:A total of 889 responses were obtained of which 4.3% (38) answered 'yes' to herbal use via the closed question. However, using the checklist 39% (350) of respondents reported the use of one or more specific 'herbals' (p<0.0001). The 312 respondents who reported 'no' to 'herbals' use via the closed question but "yes" via the checklist consumed a total of 20 different 'herbals' (median 1, interquartile range 1-2, range 1-6). CONCLUSIONS:This study demonstrates that the use of a single closed question asking about the use of 'herbals', as frequently reported in published studies, may not yield valid data resulting in a gross underestimation of actual use

DECK: Distance and environment-dependent, coarse-grained, knowledge-based potentials for protein-protein docking

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Computational approaches to protein-protein docking typically include scoring aimed at improving the rank of the near-native structure relative to the false-positive matches. Knowledge-based potentials improve modeling of protein complexes by taking advantage of the rapidly increasing amount of experimentally derived information on protein-protein association. An essential element of knowledge-based potentials is defining the reference state for an optimal description of the residue-residue (or atom-atom) pairs in the non-interaction state.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The study presents a new Distance- and Environment-dependent, Coarse-grained, Knowledge-based (DECK) potential for scoring of protein-protein docking predictions. Training sets of protein-protein matches were generated based on bound and unbound forms of proteins taken from the D<smcaps>OCKGROUND</smcaps> resource. Each residue was represented by a pseudo-atom in the geometric center of the side chain. To capture the long-range and the multi-body interactions, residues in different secondary structure elements at protein-protein interfaces were considered as different residue types. Five reference states for the potentials were defined and tested. The optimal reference state was selected and the cutoff effect on the distance-dependent potentials investigated. The potentials were validated on the docking decoys sets, showing better performance than the existing potentials used in scoring of protein-protein docking results.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A novel residue-based statistical potential for protein-protein docking was developed and validated on docking decoy sets. The results show that the scoring function DECK can successfully identify near-native protein-protein matches and thus is useful in protein docking. In addition to the practical application of the potentials, the study provides insights into the relative utility of the reference states, the scope of the distance dependence, and the coarse-graining of the potentials.</p

Pregnancy, prescription medicines and the potential risk of herb-drug interactions:a cross-sectional survey

Funding All funding was from institutional resource. JSM, AS are employed by the University of Aberdeen. DS is employed by the Robert Gordon University. BP and CR are employed by NHS Scotland. ARP and MAH are employed by the Hamad Medical Corporation. Qatar. NI is a postgraduate student at the University of Aberdeen.Peer reviewedPublisher PD