Organisational learning and food safety crises : a critical case study of the Sanlu and Fonterra crises : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Massey University, New Zealand

This study explores crisis-induced organisational learning in the Chinese and the New Zealand food safety authorities, or CFSA and NZFSA. While many crisis management scholars have sought to examine food safety crises, including the 2008 Sanlu melamine infant formula scandal and the 2013 Fonterra botulism scare, from the perspective of business organisations, food safety government agencies’ role in handling such crises, especially crisis-induced learning in the food safety authorities to prevent or better prepare for future crises, has been neglected. This thesis seeks to address this research gap by examining the two food safety crises under the lens of crisis-induced organisational learning to investigate changes in CFSA and NZFSA triggered by the biggest-ever food safety crises happened in China and New Zealand. Qualitative content analysis approach is employed to analyse the data corpus consisting of news articles and government documents recording the dairy food safety incidents and their socio-economic and political contexts and ensuing policy changes. A comparison between the two cases offers a deep understanding of the dairy food safety landscapes in the two countries and approaches employed by the government agencies in handling the dairy food safety crises. It also provides insights into dynamics of internal and external factors facilitating or inhibiting crisis-induced organisational learning in the two dairy food safety authorities. Though the two crises in this research have different socio-economic and political roots, they both caused unprecedented reputational damage not only to the dairy industries but to the whole food sectors in China and New Zealand. This research identifies multiple loopholes and underlying problems in the two dairy food safety regulatory systems leading to the incidents in question. It also finds systemic changes in the food safety authorities and the dairy food safety regulatory systems to address the loopholes. Political pressure and social emotion provoked by the dairy product crises are found to be the main factors facilitating learning in the public organisations. Conflict of interest incorporated into the dairy food safety system is seen as a key factor inhibiting deep learning in the two food safety authorities. This study therefore argues double-loop learning needs to happen in CFSA and NZFSA to uproot the underlying problem that led to lax regulation and other dairy food safety regulatory problems

On-line near-infrared spectroscopy optimizing and monitoring biotransformation process of γ-aminobutyric acid

AbstractNear-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) with its fast and nondestructive advantages can be qualified for the real-time quantitative analysis. This paper demonstrates that NIRS combined with partial least squares (PLS) regression can be used as a rapid analytical method to simultaneously quantify l-glutamic acid (l-Glu) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in a biotransformation process and to guide the optimization of production conditions when the merits of NIRS are combined with response surface methodology. The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) reference analysis was performed by the o-phthaldialdehyde pre-column derivatization. NIRS measurements of two batches of 141 samples were firstly analyzed by PLS with several spectral pre-processing methods. Compared with those of the HPLC reference analysis, the resulting determination coefficients (R2), root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) and residual predictive deviation (RPD) of the external validation for the l-Glu concentration were 99.5%, 1.62g/L, and 11.3, respectively. For the GABA concentration, R2, RMSEP, and RPD were 99.8%, 4.00g/L, and 16.4, respectively. This NIRS model was then used to optimize the biotransformation process through a Box-Behnken experimental design. Under the optimal conditions without pH adjustment, 200g/L l-Glu could be catalyzed by 7148 U/L glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) to GABA, reaching 99% conversion at the fifth hour. NIRS analysis provided timely information on the conversion from l-Glu to GABA. The results suggest that the NIRS model can not only be used for the routine profiling of enzymatic conversion, providing a simple and effective method of monitoring the biotransformation process of GABA, but also be considered to be an optimal tool to guide the optimization of production conditions

Study on the Emission Characteristics in Renewable Energy Combustion under Different Working Conditions of Marine Two-Stroke Diesel Engine

In this paper, MAN 6S35ME-B9 two-stroke diesel engine is taken as the research object. By constructing a detailed combustion reaction mechanism including CH4, C4H10O, nitrides and other substances, CHEMKIN-PRO is used to simulate the same fuel mixing ratio and excess air coefficient. Under the condition of 1.5, the temperature, NO mole fraction and NH3 mole fraction in the reactor change and study the factors affecting the pollutant emission of marine diesel engine with the crank angle under different working conditions. The simulation shows that with the decrease of diesel engine speed, the maximum temperature of combustion reaction and the temperature at exhaust opening are obviously reduced. At the same time, mole fraction of NO and NH3 decreases with the decrease of rotational speed, and there is no nitride production in the combustion reaction at 25%

Locally advanced rectal cancer with dMMR/MSI-H may be excused from surgery after neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 monotherapy: a multiple-center, cohort study

ObjectiveExamine patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) with deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) or microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) who received neoadjuvant immunotherapy (nIT), and compare the outcomes of those who chose a watch-and-wait (WW) approach after achieving clinical complete response (cCR) or near-cCR with those who underwent surgery and were confirmed as pathological complete response (pCR).MethodsLARC patients with dMMR/MSI-H who received nIT were retrospectively examined. The endpoints were 2-year overall survival (OS), 2-year disease-free survival (DFS), local recurrence (LR), and distant metastasis (DM). The efficacy of programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) inhibitor, immune-related adverse events (irAEs), surgery-related adverse events (srAEs), and enterostomy were also recorded.ResultsTwenty patients who received a PD-1 inhibitor as initial nIT were examined. Eighteen patients (90%) achieved complete response (CR) after a median of 7 nIT cycles, including 11 with pCR after surgery (pCR group), and 7 chose a WW strategy after evaluation as cCR or near-cCR (WW group). Both groups had median follow-up times of 25.0 months. Neither group had a case of LR or DM, and the 2-year DFS and OS in each group was 100%. The two groups had similar incidences of irAEs (P=0.627). In the pCR group, however, 2 patients (18.2%) had permanent colostomy, 3 (27.3%) had temporary ileostomy, and 2 (18.2%) had srAEs.ConclusionNeoadjuvant PD-1 blockade had high efficacy and led to a high rate of CR in LARC patients with dMMR/MSI-H. A WW strategy appears to be a safe and reliable option for these patients who achieve cCR or near-cCR after nIT

Detection, formation and algal toxicity of polar brominated disinfection byproducts in chlorinated saline sewage effluents

Chlorine is the most widely used disinfectant for disinfecting sewage effluents before their discharge into receiving water bodies. Hong Kong, where seawater is used for toilet flushing, has largely decided to use chlorine for disinfecting its 1.7 million cubic meters per day of saline sewage effluents. Upon chlorination, however, the extremely high levels of bromide ions in saline sewage effluents can be oxidized to hypobromous acid/hypobromite which could then react with the organics in the sewage effluents to form large quantities of brominated disinfection byproducts (DBPs). It has been demonstrated that brominated DBPs are significantly more toxic than their chlorinated analogues. The chlorinated saline sewage effluents with brominated DBPs are discharged into receiving water bodies. In Hong Kong, the receiving water body is the coastal marine water, which covers 41 gazetted swimming beaches and many ecologically sensitive habitats. Due to the shortage of fresh water resources, many coastal cities around the world may adopt the practice using seawater for toilet flushing. Therefore, detection, formation and toxicity of brominated DBPs during chlorination of saline sewage effluents have become an imminent issue that needs to be investigated and evaluated. In this study, a precursor ion scan method with electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (ESI-tqMS) with/without ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) preseparation was improved. The improved method was then applied to fast selective detection of polar brominated DBPs in disinfected wastewater. Numerous polar brominated DBPs were detected in chlorinated saline sewage effluents; many of them are new brominated DBPs that have not been reported previously; three of them including 5-bromosalicylic acid (5BSA), 2,6-dibromo-4-nitrophenol (DBNPh) and bromomaleic acid (BMA) were identified with authentic standard in chlorinated saline sewage effluents. The formation of polar brominated DBPs, especially those newly detected ones, were studied for the first time in chlorinated primary and secondary saline sewage effluents. For a secondary saline sewage effluent, the number and levels of brominated DBPs formed during chlorination varied with chlorine dose. The numbers of brominated DBPs formed at chlorine doses of 6 and 10 mg/L as Cl2 were similar, and more brominated DBPs formed at chlorine dose of 15 mg/L as Cl2. Over 18 nitrogenous brominated DBPs were detected in the chlorinated secondary saline effluent, and most of them reached their maximum intensities at chlorine dose of 10 mg/L as Cl2. The application of chlorine dose at breakpoint without significant free chlorine residual generally reduced nitrogenous DBP formation in the chlorinated secondary saline effluent with well nitrification. The formation of total organic halogen (TOX) increased with chlorine dose from 6 to 10 mg/L as Cl2, but did not increase further when chlorine dose was increased to 15 mg/L as Cl2; also, a higher total organic bromine (TOBr) to TOX ratio was observed at a higher chlorine dose. Compared to the secondary saline sewage effluent, the primary saline sewage effluent generated less brominated DBPs in number and levels, and rarely generated nitrogenous brominated DBPs. A primary saline sewage effluent with a high ammonia concentration was chosen for investigating the chlorination mode. As expected, the inactivation efficiency (for contact time 30 min) increased with increasing chlorine dose. To meet the temporary discharge standard (20,000 cfu/100 mL), a minimum chlorine dose of 6.0 mg/L as Cl2 was required. When chlorine dose exceeded 4.0 mg/L as Cl2, the formation of TOBr and TOX during chlorination increased dramatically. Accordingly, an appropriate chlorine dose should be 6.0 mg/L as Cl2. The variation of the inactivation efficiency (for chlorine dose 6.0 mg/L as Cl2) with contact time included three phases, a slightly descending one, a rapidly descending one, and a slow descending one. In consideration of the normalized TOBr and TOX values by the inactivation efficiency, an appropriate contact time should be 40 min. Moreover, a three-step chlorination (i.e., chlorine dose 6.0 mg/L as Cl2 was conducted by dosing 2.0 mg/L at 0, 5 and 10 min, respectively) was found to have a higher inactivation efficiency and lower TOBr and TOX values per unit inactivation efficiency than the one-step chlorination with the same chlorine dose. The mechanism for the inactivation could be ascribed to the synergistic effect of free chlorine and monochloramine. The chlorinated sewage effluents stimulated algal growth at low dilution factors (i.e., low effluent to seawater volumetric ratios), but inhibited algal growth at high dilution factors. Among the three kinds of sewage effluents, the chlorinated secondary freshwater effluent displayed the highest algal inhibition rate, and the chlorinated primary saline sewage effluent exhibited higher algal inhibition rates than the chlorinated secondary saline sewage effluent. The algal inhibition rate of the chlorinated primary saline sewage effluent decreased with the increase of chlorine dose, whereas the algal inhibition rate of the chlorinated secondary saline sewage effluent increased with the increase of chlorine dose. Of the three newly identified brominated DBPs, 5BSA inhibited algal growth in the pure medium, but stimulated algal growth when spiked in the corresponding chlorinated saline sewage effluent; BMA showed little effect on algal growth; DBNPh stimulated algal growth at low concentrations, but inhibited algal growth at high concentrations

A Picture of Polar Iodinated Disinfection Byproducts in Drinking Water by (UPLC/)ESI-tqMS

Iodinated disinfection byproducts (DBPs) are generally more toxic than their chlorinated and brominated analogues. Up to date, only a few iodinated DBPs in drinking water have been identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. In this work, a method for fast selective detection of polar iodinated DBPs was developed using an electrospray ionization-triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (ESI-tqMS) by conducting precursor ion scan of iodide at m/z 126.9. With such a method, pictures of polar iodinated DBPs in chlorinated, chloraminated, and chlorine-ammonia treated water samples were achieved. By coupling state-of-the-art ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) to the ESI-tqMS, structures of 17 iodinated DBPs were tentatively proposed. The results fully demonstrate that, with respect to the DBP number/levels among the three disinfection processes, chloramination generally generated the most/highest iodinated DBPs, chlorination generally produced the fewest/lowest iodinated DBPs, and chlorine-ammonia sequential treatment formed iodinated DBPs lying in between; the numbers of iodinated DBPs in chloraminated Suwannee River Fulvic Acid (SRFA) and Humic Acid (SRHA) were nearly the same, but the levels of aliphatic iodinated DBPs were higher in the chloraminated SRFA while the levels of aromatic iodinated DBPs were higher in the chloraminated SRHA; a couple of nitrogenous iodinated DBPs were found in chloramination and chlorine-ammonia treatment. The ratio of total organic iodine levels in chlorine-ammonia sequential treatment and chloramination could be expressed as a function of the lag time of ammonia addition