Origin of Listeria monocytogenes on meat products

Listeria monocytogenes is a relevant food safety hazard in ready to eat products. Inactivation during processing, prevention of recontamination and control of multiplication are the main instruments to secure the safety of meat products. Intensive microbiological monitoring of products and the production environment are valuable tools to assess the level of control in a meat processing plant. During the course of a year all isolates found during hygiene monitoring at a meat processing plant were stored at -70 degrees Celsius. A total of 94 L. monocytogenes isolates have been analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and were divided into 30 different types

Automatische classificatie van marineschepen met behulp van een beslissingsboom

In dit afstudeerverslag wordt het scheepsclassificatie-onderdeel van het Surround-TV project van Thales Nederland besproken. Het afstudeerwerk is uitgevoerd in de periode van 1 februari 2001 tot I juli 2002, waarvan 6 maanden (tot 1 september 2001) als stage bij Thales in Hengelo. Schepen worden gescheiden van het achtergrondbeeld door middel van een contour-based segmentatie-techniek. Van de silhouetten van deze schepen worden kenmerken geextraheerd. Dc kenmerken van een aantal schepen worden gebruikt bij de constructie van een beslissingsboom, waarna de boom getest wordt met dezelfde kenmerken van andere schepen. Dc schepen worden onderverdeeld in vijf klassen: AircraftCarrier, Corvette, Frigate, Destroyer en Cruiser. Met de gebruikte methode wordt 64% van de schepen goed geclassificeerd. Er worden resultaten behaald die aangeven dat een verdere ontwikkeling van de gebruikte methode zeker de moeite waard zat zijn.

Origin of Listeria monocytogenes on meat products

Listeria monocytogenes is a relevant food safety hazard in ready to eat products. Inactivation during processing, prevention of recontamination and control of multiplication are the main instruments to secure the safety of meat products. Intensive microbiological monitoring of products and the production environment are valuable tools to assess the level of control in a meat processing plant. During the course of a year all isolates found during hygiene monitoring at a meat processing plant were stored at -70 degrees Celsius. A total of 94 L. monocytogenes isolates have been analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and were divided into 30 different types.</p

A Software Environment for an Adaptive Human-Aware Software Agent Supporting Attention-Demanding Tasks

This paper presents a software environment providing human-aware ambient support for a human performing a task that demands substantial amounts of attention. The agent obtains human attention-awareness in an adaptive manner by use of a dynamical model of human attention, gaze sensoring by an eye-tracker, and information about features of the objects in the environment which is parameterised for characteristics of the human specified above. The agent uses a built-in adaptation model to adapt on the fly, the values of these parameters to the personal characteristics of the human. The software agent has been implemented in a component-based manner within the Adob

Mapping ways of detecting and handling antimicrobial residues in pigs and pig meat in- and outside Europe

Withdrawal periods after antimicrobial treatment have been defined as preventing in meat the presence of residues above the maximum residue limits (MRLs). However, errors can lead to residues above MRLs. The RIBMINS COST Action network investigated the question of how detection and handling are applied in different countries, and what the best practices may be, when balancing consumer safety with EU policy on minimising food waste. Two questionnaires were developed focusing on pigs, targeting the competent authority and the food business operator. The survey was undertaken in spring 2022 and resulted in 78 answers representing 27 countries. The results showed that most countries operate their system as a kind of monitoring, where the tested carcass is not detained. We suggest two best practice models where Model A (monitoring) could reflect small abattoirs placing meat on the national market, whereas Model B (surveillance) could reflect abattoirs also trading and exporting. In Model A, detection of a residue above the MRL is interpreted in the same way as a process hygiene criterion, requires on-farm inspection to correct mistakes only, and therefore no retention of tested carcases. In Model B, detection of a residue above the MRL is interpreted as a food safety criterion, requires onfarm inspection and the tested carcass is retained to avoid expensive recalls in case residues are found

Design and Validation of a Model of a Human's Functional State and Performance

This paper presents a computational model of the dynamics of a human's functional state in relation to task performance and environment. It can be used in intelligent systems that support humans in demanding circumstances. The model takes task demand and situational aspects as input and calculates internal factors related to human functioning, such as the experienced pressure, exhaustion, and motivation, and how they affect performance. Simulation experiments under different parameter settings pointed out that the model is able to produce realistic behavior of humans with different types of personalities. Moreover, by a mathematical analysis the equilibria of the model have been determined, and by automated checking a number of expected properties of the model have been confirmed. In addition to this "internal" validation of the model, an experiment has been designed for the purpose of external validation, addressing the estimation of aspects of the human process that are relevant for its practical application. Output from the experiment, like information about personality characteristics and performance quality, has been used to perform estimation of the parameters of the model. By the parameter estimation, a set of parameter values has been identified by which an adequate representation of a person's functional state when performing a task is achieved. © 2011 World Scientific Publishing Company