Using XML and XSLT for flexible elicitation of mental-health risk knowledge

Current tools for assessing risks associated with mental-health problems require assessors to make high-level judgements based on clinical experience. This paper describes how new technologies can enhance qualitative research methods to identify lower-level cues underlying these judgements, which can be collected by people without a specialist mental-health background. Methods and evolving results: Content analysis of interviews with 46 multidisciplinary mental-health experts exposed the cues and their interrelationships, which were represented by a mind map using software that stores maps as XML. All 46 mind maps were integrated into a single XML knowledge structure and analysed by a Lisp program to generate quantitative information about the numbers of experts associated with each part of it. The knowledge was refined by the experts, using software developed in Flash to record their collective views within the XML itself. These views specified how the XML should be transformed by XSLT, a technology for rendering XML, which resulted in a validated hierarchical knowledge structure associating patient cues with risks. Conclusions: Changing knowledge elicitation requirements were accommodated by flexible transformations of XML data using XSLT, which also facilitated generation of multiple data-gathering tools suiting different assessment circumstances and levels of mental-health knowledge

Vergleichende Darstellung der toxischen Wirkung nativer sowie durch herkoemmliche Verarbeitungsmethoden oder Strahlenbehandlung entstandener Schadstoffe in Lebensmitteln und Methoden ihrer toxikologischen Pruefung

In this review, tasks and methods of food toxicology as well as the application of the different toxicity tests for the risk assessment of food ingredients are described. Particular reference is made to short-term genotoxicity tests. Enzymatic digestion and extraction methods for complex foodstuffs which are used in the toxicological testing of foods in in vitro systems are described. Radiolytic products which result from irradiation of foods or components of foodstuffs and corresponding results of toxicity testing are reviewed. Foodstuffs irradiated with doses of up to 10 kGy are regarded as toxicologically safe. A survey of the toxicologically tested irradiated foodstuffs as well as the applied maximum doses are given in tables at the end of chapter 8. Among the great number of toxicological studies of irradiated foods those are especially mentioned which have given rise to discussions on the health risks involved. In addition, the difficulties associated with the testing of toxicity of irradiated foodstuffs in feeding experiments are discussed. Short-term tests used to establish the benotoxicity of irradiated foods and essential results of toxicological testing are also presented in tables. An overview is given of the occurrence, frequency and health risks of natural toxins in foods and harmful substances produced by conventional methods of cooking and preservation, in order to enable a comparison with the health risks of irradiated foods. The relevance of animal experiments and in vitro investigations for the prediction of toxic effects of harmful substances of foodstuffs in man is discussed in the final chapter. (VHE)Es werden Aufgaben und Methoden der Lebensmitteltoxikologie sowie der Einsatz der verschiedenen Toxizitaetstests bei der Pruefung der gesundheitlichen Unbedenklichkeit von Lebensmittelinhaltsstoffen beschrieben. Besonders eingegangen wird auf Kurzzeittests zur Pruefung der Genotoxizitaet. Ausserdem werden enzymatische Aufschlussverfahren und Extraktkonsmethoden fuer komplexe Lebensmittel dargestellt, die bei der toxikologischen Pruefung von Nahrungsmittlen in in-vito-Systemen verwendet wurden. Die durch Strahlenbehandlung von Lebensmitteln und Lebensmittelbestandteilen gebildeten Radiolyseprodukte und die Ergebnisse ihrer Toxizitaetspruefung werden behandelt. Lebensmittel, die mit Strahlendosen bis zu 10 kGy behandelt werden, gelten als toxikologisch sicher. Eine Uebersicht der toxikologisch geprueften bestrahlten Lebensmittel sowie der dabei applizierten Maximaldosen liefern Tabellen am Ende des Kapitels 8. Unter den toxikoligischen Untersuchungen an bestrahlten Lebensmitteln finden vor allem jene Erwaehnung, die Anlass zu Diskussionen ueber gesundheitlich bedenkliche Effekte so behandelter Produkte gegeben haben. Daneben wird auch auf die Schwierigkeiten der Toxizitaetspruefung strahlenbehandelter Lebensmittel im Fuetterungsezperiment eingegangen. Die verwendeten Kurzzeittests zur Ermittlung der Genotoxizitaet strahlenbehandelter Lebensmittel und wesentliche Ergebnisse der toxikologischen Pruefung sind in Tabellen dargestellt. Ein Ueberblick zum Vorkommen, der Haeufigkeit und den gesundheitlichen Risiken nativer Toxine und durch herkoemmliche Zubereitungs-und Konservierungsmethoden erzeugter Schadstoffe in Lebensmitteln soll den Vergleich mit eventuellen gesundheitlichen Gefahren strahlenbehandelter Lebensmittel ermoeglichen. Im Schlusskapitel wird die Aussagekraft von Tierexperimenten und von in-vitro-Untersuchungen fuer die Voraussage der toxischen Wirkung schaedlicher Substanzen in Lebensmitteln beim Menschen diskutiert. (VHE)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 1068(1994,3) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Thermoluminescence analysis to detect irradiated fruit and vegetables - an intercomparison study A report in English and German

This report describes in detail an intercomparison study to detect the irradiation of fruit and vegetables with a dose upwards of approx. 1 kGy. The 12 participating laboratories determined the thermoluminescence (TL) of mineral contaminations isolated from coded samples. Papayas, mangos, strawberries and mushrooms, which were either non-irradiated or irradiated with doses of between 1.4 and 1.6 kGy were chosen for examination as well as potatoes, which were either nonirradiated or treated with 200 Gy (for prevention of germination). The results of this intercomparison study were largely identical with those of the thermoluminescence intercomparison study on spice products. Therefore, it was applied to publish the method in the official collection of methods under article 35 of the German Foods Act (LMBG). In this method the integration of glow curves in a certain temperature range is recommended. The threshold value for the TL signal to distinguish irradiated and non-irradiated samples is fixed at 0.6. Under these conditions, all the non-irradiated samples in this intercomparison study and approx. 66% of the samples irradiated with doses of 1.4 to 1.6 kGy would have been correctly identified. As expected, the potato samples treated with a 200 Gy dose were not recognized as irradiated after normalization of the TL intensity using a re-irradiation dose of 1 kGy. Nevertheless, much higher TL intensities were recorded for the irradiated samples than for the non-irradiated samples in the first TL reading. By using different re-irradiation doses for the same mineral sample or by determining the re-irradiation dose that is required to obtain a TL signal value of approx. 1, however, it is possible to detect samples given a dose of below 1 kGy. The doses used to irradiate these samples can probably also be determined. The report deals briefly with this modified normalization procedure. (orig./VHE)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 1068(1993,3) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Gas chromatographic analysis of volatile hydrocarbons to detect irradiated chicken, pork and beef - an intercomparison study A report in English and German

This report provides a detailed description of an inter-laboratory study to detect irradiation treatment of chicken carcasses, pork and beef using a method suitable for routine application. The 17 participating laboratories determined the quantity of four different radiation-induced hydrocarbons (1-tetradecene, pentadecane, 1,7-hexadecadiene, 8-heptadecene) in coded samples approx. 3 and 6 months after irradiation. The quantities detected were used to identify the samples as irradiated or non-irradiated. The samples of each type of meat to be examined had been supplied by two different producers. The dose range that was tested (approx. 0.6 to 7.5 kGy) included commercially used doses (approx. 1 to 5 kGy). The method employed enable 98.3% of a total of 864 samples to be correctly identified as irradiated or non-irradiated. This result is remarkable: Although the marker concentrations in the various samples showed a clear dose dependency, the variation was quite marked. The high rate of correct identifications could be achieved by defining a sample only as irradiated if certain quantities of at least 3 of the radiolytic products to be determined had been found. A similar identification rate was achieved if quantification of markers was omitted to identify a sample only as irradiated when all the expected radiolysis products could be clearly detected. For all three types of meat, no significant differences in marker yields could be shown for the products of the respective two producers. Also, in none of the types of meat, any significant difference could be revealed for the quantiatitive results achieved three and six months after irradiation. These results show that irradiation of chicken carcasses, pork and beef in the commerically used dose range can be clearly detected throughout the entire period in which products are normally stored and that the method described is suitable for routine analyses in food control laboratories. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 1068(1993,1) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman