Effect of pre-germination time of brown rice on serum cholesterol levels of hypercholesterolaemic rats.

Background: Brown rice is unpolished rice with immeasurable benefits for human health. Brown rice (BR) and pre-germinated brown rice (PGBR) are known to contain various functional compounds such as gamma-oryzanol, dietary fibre and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). In the present study, the experimental diets containing BR and PGBR (24, 48 h pre-germination) were used to investigate the influence of pre-germination time of brown rice on blood cholesterol in Sprague-Dawley male rats. Result: Hypercholesterolaemia and elevation of LDL-cholesterol were successfully ameliorated by the experimental diets containing BR and PGBR (24 and 48 h pre-germination). As compared to the control sample, the pre-germination time had a significant (P < 0.05) effect on blood cholesterol of Sprague-Dawley male rats. It was also found that the significantly (P < 0.05) better effect on lipid profile of hypercholesterolaemic rats was observed by prolonging the pre-germination time. As compared to non-germinated brown rice, the germinated brown rice showed the higher cardio-protective effect on hypercholesterolaemic Sprague-Dawley male rats. Conclusion: The present study suggests that the changes of blood cholesterol can be mainly modulated by using the PGBR rather than BR. The prolonging of pre-germination time led to an increase in the bioactive components, thereby providing a more efficient functional diet affecting the high blood cholesterol. This study suggests that PGBR can be used instead of BR and polished rice in the human diet

The effect of bone choice on quantification of mineralization in broiler chickens up to 6 weeks of age

An experiment was conducted to assess the most appropriate bone type for measuring bone mineralization in male broiler chicks up to 42 d. A total of 72 male broilers were raised in 0.64 m2 pens on a litter floor. The study design included 2 dietary treatments (Control and Low) containing differing levels of total phosphorus (7.8 and 4.4 g/kg for Control and Low diets respectively) and calcium (22.7 and 13.1 g/kg for Control and Low diets respectively) with each fed to 6 replicate pens of 6 birds. Each wk, 6 birds per diet were euthanized and leg bones removed to measure ash percentage. Foot, toe, tibia, and femur ash were compared using the mean of both legs from each bird, via t-tests to separate Control and Low diets. At the end of wk 1, diets could not be separated using any of the bone ash measures. From wk 2 to wk 5, both tibia and foot ash differentiated between the Control and Low diets, and tibia continued to show significant differences between the diets into wk 6. Femur ash did not show any dietary differences until wk 3, but then showed significant differences between the diets until wk 6. Toe ash only differentiated between diets at wk 2, and variation both within and between birds was high, particularly with younger birds. These results suggest that bird age has implications when choosing a bone for assessing possible differences in dietary phosphorus and calcium uptake. Femur ash may be more appropriate for showing differences in broilers aged 6 wk and older. Foot ash provides a comparable alternative to tibia ash in birds aged 2 to 5 wk of age, providing a labor- and time-saving alternative

NorthStar, a support tool for the design and evaluation of quality improvement interventions in healthcare

Background: The Research-Based Education and Quality Improvement (ReBEQI) European partnership aims to establish a framework and provide practical tools for the selection, implementation, and evaluation of quality improvement (QI) interventions. We describe the development and preliminary evaluation of the software tool NorthStar, a major product of the ReBEQI project. Methods: We focused the content of NorthStar on the design and evaluation of QI interventions. A lead individual from the ReBEQI group drafted each section, and at least two other group members reviewed it. The content is based on published literature, as well as material developed by the ReBEQI group. We developed the software in both a Microsoft Windows HTML help system version and a web-based version. In a preliminary evaluation, we surveyed 33 potential users about the acceptability and perceived utility of NorthStar. Results: NorthStar consists of 18 sections covering the design and evaluation of QI interventions. The major focus of the intervention design sections is on how to identify determinants of practice (factors affecting practice patterns), while the major focus of the intervention evaluation sections is on how to design a cluster randomised trial. The two versions of the software can be transferred by email or CD, and are available for download from the internet. The software offers easy navigation and various functions to access the content. Potential users (55% response rate) reported above-moderate levels of confidence in carrying out QI research related tasks if using NorthStar, particularly when developing a protocol for a cluster randomised trial Conclusion: NorthStar is an integrated, accessible, practical, and acceptable tool to assist developers and evaluators of QI interventions

An exploratory study of the association between reactive attachment disorder and attachment narratives in early school-age children

To explore attachment narratives in children diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD). Method: We compared attachment narratives, as measured by the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task, in a group of 33 children with a diagnosis of RAD and 37 comparison children. Results: The relative risk (RR) for children with RAD having an insecure attachment pattern was 2.4 (1.4-4.2) but 30% were rated as securely attached. Within the RAD group, children with a clear history of maltreatment were more likely to be Insecure-Disorganised than children without a clear history of maltreatment. Conclusions: Reactive attachment disorder is not the same as attachment insecurity, and questions remain about how attachment research informs clinical research on attachment disorders

Influence of different cultivation methods on carbohydrate and lipid compositions and digestibility of energy of fruits and vegetables

BACKGROUND Environmental as well as cultivation factors may greatly influence the chemical composition of plants. The main factors affecting the chemical composition of foodstuff are level and type of fertilizer (conventional and organic cultivation systems), location or soil type, and year of harvest. Organic foods are defined as products that are produced under controlled cultivation conditions characterized by the absence of synthetic fertilisers and very restricted use of pesticides. Very limited information is available regarding the impact of organic cultivation systems on the composition of carbohydrates and fatty acids of fruits and vegetables. The objective was to investigate the influence of organic and conventional cultivation systems on the carbohydrate and fatty acid composition and digestibility of the energy of apple, carrot, kale, pea, potato, andrapeseedoil. RESULTS Carbohydrate and lignin values ranged from 584 g kg−1 dry matter in kale to 910 g kg−1 DM in potato, but with significant differences in the proportion of sugars, starch, non-starch polysaccharides, and lignin between the food stuffs. Triacylglycerol was the major lipid class in pea, with 82% of total fatty acids, as opposed to apple, with only 35% of fatty acids of the ether extract. The most important factor influence in the digestibility of energy, and consequently faecal bulking, was the content of dietary fibre. CONCLUSION The cultivation system had minor impact on the carbohydrate and lipid composition in the investigated foodstuffs or on the digestibility of energy when assessed in the ratmodel. Faecal bulking was related to dietary fibre in a linear fashion

Building Information Modelling adoption in the European Union: An overview

Building information modelling (BIM) is one of the most promising recent developments in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation (AECO) industry. However, its adoption remains a challenge for the AECO industry because it requires a shift to a new way of working, leading to a current discrepancy in the adoption of BIM in the EU. The paper aims at assessing the gaps in the BIM adoption between the 28 EU countries and the barriers related to its implementation. The methodology adopted here is twofold: first, secondary data are given by a systematic literature review, completed with the review of current projects funded by the European Commission, and dealing with fostering the BIM adoption. Second, primary data are provided by a questionnaire survey to classify BIM initiatives regarding policies, the level of adoption and the barriers encountered in the 28 EU countries. In order to grade the heterogeneity of BIM adoption in the EU, we have classified the countries into four categories with different levels of awareness, from early adopters (BIM already mandated) to countries without any plan. The survey has enabled the analysis of twenty barriers to BIM adoption using the four grades in relation to the respondent country. We found barriers that are acknowledged by all countries irrespective of their level of BIM adoption. Other barriers have been already tackled by the early adopters but not by the newcomers who have yet to experience some of these issues. Finally, the assessment of the disparities of BIM adoption within the EU can help the European Commission towards unifying European standard on BIM

Numerical and experimental investigation of a lightweight bonnet for pedestrian safety

A topic of great consideration in current vehicle development in Europe is pedestrian protection. The enforcement of a new regulation trying to decrease the injuries to head, pelvis, and leg of pedestrian impacted by cars, is imposing great changes in vehicles' front design. In the present work a design solution for the bonnet, which is the main body part interacting with the human head during a car to pedestrian collision, is proposed. This solution meets the stiffness and safety targets, takes into account the manufacturing and recyclability requirements and gives a relevant contribution to vehicle lightweight. Thus this proposed solution puts in evidence that safety and lightweight are not incompatible targets. The amount of potential injury to the pedestrian head is evaluated, as prescribed by the standard test procedures, by means of a headform launched on the bonnet. However, the standard approach based on the head injury criterion (HIC) value only is reported to be largely unsatisfactory: therefore, a new experimental methodology for the measurement of the translational and the rotational accelerations has been developed, and the experimental results are reported. This would be a starting point for the evolution of currently adopted injury criteria to increase the safety of the vulnerable road user

The incidence function model as a tool for landscape ecological impact assessments

Landscape-scale approaches to assessing the impact of land-use change on species' persistence are necessary because species depend on processes acting at varying scales, yet existing approaches to ecological impact assessment tend only to be site-based. A further major criticism of current ecological impact assessments is that they tend to be qualitative. Here we develop methods that apply the Incidence Function Model (IFM) in real urban planning contexts, by generating repeatable and comparable quantitative measures of ecological impacts. To demonstrate the methods for a case study (Nottingham, UK), we estimated landscape-scale measures of species' persistence that indicate metapopulation viability. We based these on Nottingham’s landscape when urban developments were recently proposed, then adjust the land cover to include the proposed developments, and also for two projected landscapes where 10% and 20% of the original natural or semi-natural land cover is lost. We find that the IFM shows promise as a tool for quantitative landscape-scale ecological impact assessment, depending on the size of the impact. We detected minimal differences in the species' viability measures between the original and post-development landscapes. This suggests that for small (around 2%) cumulative losses of natural/ semi-natural space, current site-based approaches are sufficient. However, when the cumulative effect of continued development was modelled by increasing the losses of natural/semi-natural land cover to 10–20% of existing cover, the impact on many of the species studied was more substantial. This indicates that a landscape-scale approach is necessary for larger, prolonged and cumulative habitat losses

Gamma-convergence et singularités vortex au bord dans des films ferromagnétiques minces avec interaction de Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya

Cette thèse porte sur l'analyse asymptotique d'un modèle variationnel pour les films ferromagnétiques minces. On étudie l'énergie micromagnétique, définie pour des applications d'un ouvert de R^3 à valeurs dans la sphère S^2, appelées aimantations, en prenant en compte l'effet antisymétrique dû à l'interaction de Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya. Dans le premier chapitre de la thèse, on étudie la Gamma-convergence de l'énergie micromagnétique dans un régime de film mince qui favorise l'émergence de vortex au bord de taille epsilon>0, via une pénalisation au bord obtenue dans la Gamma-limite de l'énergie. Cette limite est en fait définie pour des aimantations invariantes dans l'épaisseur du film et à valeurs dans le cercle unité S^1, ce qui signifie que le modèle général en trois dimensions se réduit à un modèle en deux dimensions. On cherche ensuite les minimiseurs locaux de l'énergie Gamma-limite dans le demi-plan supérieur. Pour cela, on étudie d'abord ses points critiques, qui satisfont un problème de Neumann non linéaire similaire au problème de Peierls-Nabarro. On en déduit, sous certaines conditions, l'unicité des minimiseurs locaux de l'énergie au sens de De Giorgi. Ceux-ci correspondent à des applications qui tendent à présenter un vortex de taille epsilon>0 sur le bord du domaine. Dans le second chapitre de la thèse, on considère un autre régime de film mince favorisant les singularités vortex au bord. Grosso modo, ce régime consiste dans l'analyse du modèle précédent lorsque epsilon tend vers 0. On montre que l'étude du modèle général en trois dimensions se ramène ici aussi à l'étude d'un modèle intermédiaire en deux dimensions, mais dans lequel figurent à la fois une pénalisation intérieure (les applications ne sont plus à valeurs dans S^1) et une pénalisation au bord du domaine. D'abord, on étudie ce modèle intermédiaire en deux dimensions. Grâce à la notion de Jacobien global, on obtient des résultats de compacité et un développement asymptotique au second ordre par Gamma-convergence de l'énergie micromagnétique. Le terme d'ordre un montre que les singularités vortex sont localisées au bord du domaine, tandis que le terme d'ordre deux est une énergie renormalisée, semblable à celle rencontrée dans le modèle de Ginzburg-Landau, qui permet d'estimer le coût d'interaction entre les vortex au bord. On calcule explicitement cette énergie renormalisée, influencée par l'interaction de Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya, et on étudie la structure des minimiseurs. Enfin, grâce à ces résultats, nous déduisons la Gamma-convergence à l'ordre deux dans le modèle en trois dimensions.This thesis deals with the asymptotic analysis of a variational model for thin ferromagnetic films. We study the micromagnetic energy for three-dimensional maps with values into the unit sphere S^2, called magnetizations, by taking into account the antisymmetric effect of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. In the first chapter, we study the Gamma-convergence of the micromagnetic energy in a thin-film regime that favors boundary vortices of size epsilon>0, via a boundary penalization in the Gamma-limit energy. This limit is in fact defined for magnetizations that are invariant in the thickness of the film and take values into the unit circle S^1. It means that the general three-dimensional model reduces to a two-dimensional model. We then focus on local minimizers in the upper-half plane of the Gamma-limit energy. To do so, we begin with studying its critical points, that satisfy a nonlinear Neumann boundary value problem, similar to the Peierls-Nabarro problem. We deduce, under certain conditions, the uniqueness of the local minimizers of the energy in the sense of De Giorgi. These minimizers correspond to maps having a vortex of size epsilon>0 on the boundary of the domain. In the second chapter, we consider another thin-film regime for boundary vortices. Roughly speaking, this regime corresponds to the limit epsilon tends to 0 in the previous model. The study of the three-dimensional general model reduces here to an intermediate two-dimensional model for R^2-valued maps (not S^1-valued maps), that combines an interior penalization and a boundary penalization on the domain. First, we study this two-dimensional intermediate model. Using the notion of global Jacobian, we prove compactness results and an asymptotic expansion at the second order by Gamma-convergence for the micromagnetic energy. The first order term indicates that the singularities are located on the boundary of the domain, while the second order term is a renormalized energy, similar to the Ginzburg-Landau model, that measures the interactions between the boundary vortices. We compute explicitely this renormalized energy, that depends on the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, and study the structure of its minimizers. Finally, thanks to these results, we deduce the Gamma-convergence at the second order for the general three-dimensional model

Climate change adaptation, flood risks and policy coherence in integrated water resources management in England

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) assumes coherence between cognate aspects of water governance at the river basin scale, for example water quality, energy production and agriculture objectives. But critics argue that IWRM is often less ‘integrated’ in practice, raising concerns over inter-sectoral coherence between implementing institutions. One increasingly significant aspect of IWRM is adaptation to climate change-related risks, including threats from flooding, which are particularly salient in England. Although multiple institutional mechanisms exist for flood risk management (FRM), their coherence remains a critical question for national adaptation. This paper therefore (1) maps the multi-level institutional frameworks determining both IWRM and FRM in England; (2) examines their interaction via various inter-institutional coordinating mechanisms; and (3) assesses the degree of coherence. The analysis suggests that cognate EU strategic objectives for flood risk assessment demonstrate relatively high vertical and horizontal coherence with river basin planning. However, there is less coherence with flood risk requirements for land-use planning and national flood protection objectives. Overall, this complex governance arrangement actually demonstrates de-coherence over time due to ongoing institutional fragmentation. Recommendations for increasing IWRM coherence in England or re-coherence based on greater spatial planning and coordination of water-use and land-use strategies are proposed