Fate of hydroxyapatite nano particles during in vitro gastrointestinal digestion : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Food Technology at Massey University, Riddet Institute and Massey Institute of Food Science and Technology, Palmerston North, New Zealan

The following figures have been removed for copyright reasons, but may be accessed through their sources listed in the References: Figures 2.2 (Yada et al., 2014, Fig.1), 2.3 (Rivera-Munoz, 2011), 2.4 (Sakae et al., 2015, Fig. 2 & 3), 2.5 (Ehrlich et al., 2009, Fig. 3), 2.6 (Lynn & Bonfield, 2005, Fig. 1), 2.7 (Ehrlich et al., 2009, Fig. 6), 2.8 (Mafé et al., 1992, Fig. 1), 2.9 (Gaucheron et al., 2005, Fig. 2). Composite Figure 2.10 remains for clarity's sake.There is an increasing change in population demographics towards an aging population in the world, which had led to the availability of various commercial nutritionally supplemented products. Hydroxyapatite (HA), with chemical formula Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, is an insoluble calcium salt used for calcium supplementation because of its similarity to the minerals found in human bone and teeth. The insoluble calcium salts are preferred over the soluble ones because of their high heat stability during milk processing under high heat treatment. However, the drawback of insoluble calcium salts is the tendency to sediment during storage resulting in unfavourable gritty texture. Thus, reduction in particle sizes into micron to nano-size improves the dispersion of these insoluble salts. However, the application of nano-sized particles in food products have raised concerns from both the regulatory organizations and consumers on the implications related to both the environmental and health safety aspects. Thus, the objective of the study is to determine the digestion behaviour of nano-sized needle/rod shaped HA (nHA) when added into skim milk during in vitro gastrointestinal digestion. Determination of calcium such as soluble and ionic calcium was conducted to determine the dissolution of nHA. The structural changes and the crystallographic changes of nHA were determined using electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction techniques. The results of in vitro gastric digestion showed presence of undissolved nHA particles even after 240 min of gastric and 120 min of intestinal digestion when examined under TEM, while the XRD analysis detected the presence of crystalline nHA in the first 120 min of gastric digestion. Thus, the possible mechanisms leading to the incomplete dissolution of nHA under acidic conditions of the stomach are discussed subsequently

Global business and human rights: the UN “norms on the responsibility of transnational corporations and other business enterprises with regard to human rights” - a requiem

On 11 June 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the ‘Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights’ as a new set of guiding principles for global business designed to provide a global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse impacts on human rights linked to business activity. This outcome was preceded by an earlier unsuccessful attempt by a Sub-Commission of the UN Commission on Human Rights to win approval for a set of binding corporate human rights norms, the so called “Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights”. This article identifies and discusses the reasons why the Norms eventually failed to win approval by the then UN Commission on Human Rights. This discussion is important in order to understand the difficulties in establishing binding ‘hard law’ obligations for Transnational Corporations with regard to human rights within the wider framework of international law. It is crucial to understand possible motives as well as the underlying rationale which lead first to the adoption and then the rapid abandoning of the Norms: such a discussion will also shed light on the prospects and trends of concepts of indirect, vague voluntarism of business human rights compliance, as well as on prospects of finding alternative solutions, and finally the rationale and effect of the ‘Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights’

The Impact of Cultural Folklore on National Values: A Preliminary Study with a focus on Bhutan

Video of the National Storytelling Conference 2009. A male introduces Her Royal Highness Ashi Sonam Dechan Wangchuck who delivers the keynote address. This is followed by a presentation by Mr Steve Evans on the impact of cultural folklore on national values in Bhutan.World Oral Literature Project: an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record

Peggy J. Blair on Commercial Law and Human Rights edited by Stephen Bottomley and David Kinley. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001. 356pp.

A review of: Commercial Law and Human Rights edited by Stephen Bottomley and David Kinley. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001. 356pp

Effectiveness of appropriately trained nurses in preoperative assessment: randomised controlled equivalence/non-inferiority trial

Objective To determine whether preoperative assessments carried out by appropriately trained nurses are inferior in quality to those carried out by preregistration house officers. Design Randomised controlled equivalence/non-inferiority trial. Setting Four NHS hospitals in three trusts. Three of the four were teaching hospitals. Participants All patients attending for assessment before general anaesthesia for general, vascular, urological, or breast surgery between April 1998 and March 1999. Intervention Assessment by one of three appropriately trained nurses or by one of several preregistration house officers. Main outcome measures History taken, physical examination, and investigations ordered. Measures evaluated by a specialist registrar in anaesthetics and placed in four categories: correct, overassessment, underassessment not affecting management, and underassessment possibly affecting management (primary outcome). Results 1907 patients were randomised, and 1874 completed the study; 926 were assessed by house officers and 948 by nurses. Overall 121/948 (13%) assessments carried out by nurses were judged to have possibly affected management compared with 138/926 (15%) of those performed by house officers. Nurses were judged to be non-inferior to house officers in assessment, although there was variation among them in terms of the quality of history taking. The house officers ordered considerably more unnecessary tests than the nurses (218/926 (24%) v 129/948 (14%). Conclusions There is no reason to inhibit the development of nurse led preoperative assessment provided that the nurses involved receive adequate training. However, house officers will continue to require experience in preoperative assessment