Modelling the exposure to Cronobacter sakazakii by consumption of a cocoa-milk-based beverage processed by pulsed electric fields

peer-reviewedM.C. Pina-Pérez is grateful to CSIC for providing a DOCTOR contract linked to the INNPACTO project IPT-2011-1724-060000. This study was carried out with funds from BISOSTAD project PSE-060000-2009-003, Generalitat Valenciana I+D+I emergent research groups GV/2010/064 and CYCIT project AGL2010-22206-C02-01.Infants’ exposure (Nf ) to Cronobacter sakazakii via the consumption of infant-rich-inpolyphenols cocoa-milk-based beverages (CCX-M) treated with high-intensity pulsed electric fields (PEF) was evaluated. Monte Carlo simulation enabled the prediction of the variability in C. sakazakii load in beverages at the time of consumption to be estimated. Different scenarios (initial contamination levels; PEF treatment conditions; and time-temperature combinations of CCX-M beverages storage after treatment) were simulated. Cocoa addition and PEF treatment resulted in the most influential input factors to control bacterial final load. Cronobacter spp. exposure risk was reduced by a maximum of 100 times at 95% of iterations due to addition of cocoa at 5 g/100 mL, corresponding to scenario 3 (PEF: 15 kV/cm–3,000 μs; storage 120 h at 8 °C). Moreover, the probability of illness for a healthy population was reduced from 2.15 × 10-8, in the baseline scenario, to 4.78 × 10-10 due to cocoa addition and application of 15 kV/cm–3,000 μs PEF treatment.BISOSTAD projec

Towards deployment-time dynamic analysis of server applications

© 2015 ACM.Bug-finding tools based on dynamic analysis (DA), such as Valgrind or the compiler sanitizers provided by Clang and GCC, have become ubiquitous during software development. These analyses are precise but incur a large performance overhead (often several times slower than native execution), which makes them prohibitively expensive to use in production. In this work, we investigate the exciting possibility of deploying such dynamic analyses in production code, using a multi-version execution approach

Stochastic evaluation of sewer inlet capacity on urban pluvial flooding

In this paper we present an innovative methodology to stochastically assess the impact of sewer inlet conditions on urban pluvial flooding. The results showed that sewer inlet capacity can have a large impact on the occurrence of urban pluvial flooding. The methodology is a useful tool for dealing with uncertainties in sewer inlet operational conditions and contribute to comprehensive assessment of urban pluvial risk assessment

On the use of semi-distributed and fully-distributed urban stormwater models

Urban stormwater models comprise four main components: rainfall, rainfall-runoff, overland flow and sewer flow modules. They can be considered semi-distributed (SD) or fully distributed (FD) according to the rainfall-runoff module definition. SD models are based on sub-catchments units through which rainfall is applied to the model and at which runoff volumes are estimated. In FD models, the runoff volumes are estimated and applied directly on every element of a twodimensional (2D) model of the surface. This poster presents a comparison of SD and FD models based on two case studies: Zona Central catchment at Coimbra, Portugal, and Cranbrook catchment at London, UK. SD and FD modelling results are compared against water depth and flow records in sewers, and photographic records of a flood event. In general, FD models are theoretically more realistic and physically-based, but the results of this study suggest that the implementation of these models requires higher resolution (more detailed) elevation, land use and sewer network data than is normally used in the implementation of SD models. Failing to use higher resolution data for the implementation of FD models could result in poor-performing models. In cases when high resolution data are not available, the use of SD models could be a better choice

Using pairwise comparisons in the online social moderation of performance assessment

Assessing the performance of a student involves some form of judgement, and where more than one assessor is involved this usually requires some form of moderation to ensure consistent and fair results. Often this involves meetings or communication between assessors, which is referred to as social moderation. This paper reports on a study that investigated the use of online technologies to support a form of social moderation of artworks submitted for assessment in a senior secondary school course in Western Australia. Online systems were used to facilitate communications and provide access to digital representations of the submissions along with assessment tools. In particular a pairwise comparison judging online tool was used. This approach to social moderation was tested in a realistic context involving a sample of 12 teachers from rural schools for whom face-to-face meetings would be difficult. The aim was to investigate whether the use of these online systems would support good moderation outcomes and valuable professional learning for those involved. The study found that this approach to online social moderation was feasible, and participants perceived that it had improved the consistency of their judgements because they had developed an improved understanding of the assessment criteria and standard of work. However, analysis of scores and reliability data suggested some were not adequately consistent, and it was likely that this was due to their inexperience in assessing such work. Therefore some changes to the processes of this form of online social moderation were recommended