Incorporating HACCP into national food control systems - Analyzing progress in the United Arab Emirates

Today governments and other parties involved in food control are under constant pressure to find more efficient and effective mechanisms to carry out their mandates for food control. This has led to international recognition of the importance of the HACCP system as a food control tool and guidance on the role of government agencies in the application of such a system has been developed. Based on this international guidance, four main elements identified as key activities have been used in this study to evaluate the progress of HACCP implementation in the UAE. The internal Strengths and Weaknesses, as well as the external Opportunities and Threats that the government is facing towards the implementation of a HACCP-based food control system have been identified. The analysis shows that the government’s dedicated role has been an essential driving force to encourage the implementation of a HACCP-based food control system. Some areas of difficulty, including the dependence on high levels of food imports, are highlighted.

Modal coupling in linear control systems using robust eigenstructure assignment

Eigenvalue assignment methods are used widely in the design of control and state-estimation systems. The corresponding eigenvectors can be selected to ensure robustness. For specific applications, eigenstructure assignment can also be applied to achieve more general performance criteria. In this paper a new output feedback design approach using robust eigenstructure assignment to achieve prescribed mode input and output coupling is described. A minimisation technique is developed to improve both the mode coupling and the robustness of the system, whilst allowing the precision of the eigenvalue placement to be relaxed. An application to the design of an automatic flight control system is demonstrated.

Organocatalytic domino reaction of cyanosulfones: access to complex cyclohexane systems with quaternary carbon centers

When ε-nitro-a,β-unsaturated esters are added to conjugated cyanosulfones in the presence of a bifunctional thiourea catalyst, a highly stereoselective domino reaction occurs to generate complex cyclohexanes with up to four stereogenic centers, one of which is quaternary in nature. Therefore, it is demonstrated that, like nitro compounds, sulfones can undergo an asymmetric intramolecular conjugate addition to r,β- unsaturated esters in the presence of a bifunctional organocatalyst.

Securing critical infrastructures and critical control systems: approaches for threat protection

The increased use of technology is necessary in order for industrial control systems to maintain and monitor industrial, infrastructural, or environmental processes. The need to secure and identify threats to the system is equally critical. Securing Critical Infrastructures and Critical Control Systems: Approaches for Threat Protection provides a full and detailed understanding of the vulnerabilities and security threats that exist within an industrial control system. This collection of research defines and analyzes the technical, procedural, and managerial responses to securing these systems.

Change escalation processes and complex adaptive systems: from incremental reconfigurations to discontinuous restructuring

This study examines when “incremental” change is likely to trigger “discontinuous” change, using the lens of complex adaptive systems theory. Going beyond the simulations and case studies through which complex adaptive systems have been approached so far, we study the relationship between incremental organizational reconfigurations and discontinuous organizational restructurings using a large-scale database of U.S. Fortune 50 industrial corporations. We develop two types of escalation process in organizations: accumulation and perturbation. Under ordinary conditions, it is perturbation rather than the accumulation that is more likely to trigger subsequent discontinuous change. Consistent with complex adaptive systems theory, organizations are more sensitive to both accumulation and perturbation in conditions of heightened disequilibrium. Contrary to expectations, highly interconnected organizations are not more liable to discontinuous change. We conclude with implications for further research, especially the need to attend to the potential role of managerial design and coping when transferring complex adaptive systems theory from natural systems to organizational systems.

Assessment of the food control systems in the Sultanate of Oman

National food control systems are vital tools in governing the safety and quality of food intended for human consumption. This study of the Omani system was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the current food controls in place for protecting, in particular, the public health from emerging biological and chemical hazards. In response to this situation, a survey was undertaken within the different food safety authorities in Oman to examine the different elements of the national food control systems in terms of their existing food control management, food legislation, food inspection, food analysis laboratories and information, education and communications. Officials from the different authorities were interviewed and results were captured in prepared questionnaires. Overall examinations of the challenges, strength and weakness of the existing system have been highlighted. The findings of the study indicate significant progress is being made and the creation by the government of a national Centre for Food Safety and Quality is a significant positive step.

Integrable Hamiltonian systems defined on the Lie groups SO(3) and SU(2): an application to the attitude control of a spacecraft

This paper considers left-invariant control systems defined on the Lie groups SU(2) and SO(3). Such systems have a number of applications in both classical and quantum control problems. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, the optimal control problem for a system varying on these Lie Groups, with cost that is quadratic in control is lifted to their Hamiltonian vector fields through the Maximum principle of optimal control and explicitly solved. Secondly, the control systems are integrated down to the level of the group to give the solutions for the optimal paths corresponding to the optimal controls. In addition it is shown here that integrating these equations on the Lie algebra su(2) gives simpler solutions than when these are integrated on the Lie algebra so(3).

A web 2.0 user interface for wide-area resource monitoring

Resource monitoring in distributed systems is required to understand the 'health' of the overall system and to help identify particular problems, such as dysfunctional hardware or faulty system or application software. Monitoring systems such as GridRM provide the ability to connect to any number of different types of monitoring agents and provide different views of the system, based on a client's particular preferences. Web 2.0 technologies, and in particular 'mashups', are emerging as a promising technique for rapidly constructing rich user interfaces, that combine and present data in intuitive ways. This paper describes a Web 2.0 user interface that was created to expose resource data harvested by the GridRM resource monitoring system.

Norms-based simulation for personalised service provision

User interfaces have the primary role of enabling access to information meeting individual users' needs. However, the user-systems interaction is still rigid, especially in support of complex environments where various types of users are involved. Among the approaches for improving user interface agility, we present a normative approach to the design interfaces of web applications, which allow delivering users personalized services according to parameters extracted from the simulation of norms in the social context. A case study in an e-Government context is used to illustrate the implications of the approach.

Identification of nonlinear systems using generalized kernel models

Nonlinear system identification is considered using a generalized kernel regression model. Unlike the standard kernel model, which employs a fixed common variance for all the kernel regressors, each kernel regressor in the generalized kernel model has an individually tuned diagonal covariance matrix that is determined by maximizing the correlation between the training data and the regressor using a repeated guided random search based on boosting optimization. An efficient construction algorithm based on orthogonal forward regression with leave-one-out (LOO) test statistic and local regularization (LR) is then used to select a parsimonious generalized kernel regression model from the resulting full regression matrix. The proposed modeling algorithm is fully automatic and the user is not required to specify any criterion to terminate the construction procedure. Experimental results involving two real data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed nonlinear system identification approach.

CASCADE: An Agent Based Framework For Modeling The Dynamics Of Smart Electricity Systems

The Complex Adaptive Systems, Cognitive Agents and Distributed Energy (CASCADE) project is developing a framework based on Agent Based Modelling (ABM). The CASCADE Framework can be used both to gain policy and industry relevant insights into the smart grid concept itself and as a platform to design and test distributed ICT solutions for smart grid based business entities. ABM is used to capture the behaviors of diff erent social, economic and technical actors, which may be defi ned at various levels of abstraction. It is applied to understanding their interactions and can be adapted to include learning processes and emergent patterns. CASCADE models ‘prosumer’ agents (i.e., producers and/or consumers of energy) and ‘aggregator’ agents (e.g., traders of energy in both wholesale and retail markets) at various scales, from large generators and Energy Service Companies down to individual people and devices. The CASCADE Framework is formed of three main subdivisions that link models of electricity supply and demand, the electricity market and power fl ow. It can also model the variability of renewable energy generation caused by the weather, which is an important issue for grid balancing and the profi tability of energy suppliers. The development of CASCADE has already yielded some interesting early fi ndings, demonstrating that it is possible for a mediating agent (aggregator) to achieve stable demandfl attening across groups of domestic households fi tted with smart energy control and communication devices, where direct wholesale price signals had previously been found to produce characteristic complex system instability. In another example, it has demonstrated how large changes in supply mix can be caused even by small changes in demand profi le. Ongoing and planned refi nements to the Framework will support investigation of demand response at various scales, the integration of the power sector with transport and heat sectors, novel technology adoption and diffusion work, evolution of new smart grid business models, and complex power grid engineering and market interactions.

Designing flexible procurement systems

The systems used for the procurement of buildings are organizational systems. They involve people in a series of strategic decisions, and a pattern of roles, responsibilities and relationships that combine to form the organizational structure of the project. To ensure effectiveness of the building team, this organizational structure needs to be contingent upon the environment within which the construction project takes place. In addition, a changing environment means that the organizational structure within a project needs to be responsive, and dynamic. These needs are often not satisfied in the construction industry, due to the lack of analytical tools with which to analyse the environment and to design appropriate temporary organizations. This paper presents two techniques. First is the technique of "Environmental Complexity Analysis", which identifies the key variables in the environment of the construction project. These are classified as Financial, Legal, Technological, Aesthetic and Policy. It is proposed that their identification will set the parameters within which the project has to be managed. This provides a basis for the project managers to define the relevant set of decision points that will be required for the project. The Environmental Complexity Analysis also identifies the project's requirements for control systems concerning Budget, Contractual, Functional, Quality and Time control. The process of environmental scanning needs to be done at regular points during the procurement process to ensure that the organizational structure is adaptive to the changing environment. The second technique introduced is the technique of "3R analysis", being a graphical technique for describing and modelling Roles, Responsibilities and Relationships. A list of steps is introduced that explains the procedure recommended for setting up a flexible organizational structure that is responsive to the environment of the project. This is by contrast with the current trend towards predetermined procurement paths that may not always be in the best interests of the client.

Requirements for building information modeling based lean production management systems for construction

Smooth flow of production in construction is hampered by disparity between individual trade teams' goals and the goals of stable production flow for the project as a whole. This is exacerbated by the difficulty of visualizing the flow of work in a construction project. While the addresses some of the issues in Building information modeling provides a powerful platform for visualizing work flow in control systems that also enable pull flow and deeper collaboration between teams on and off site. The requirements for implementation of a BIM-enabled pull flow construction management software system based on the Last Planner System™, called ‘KanBIM’, have been specified, and a set of functional mock-ups of the proposed system has been implemented and evaluated in a series of three focus group workshops. The requirements cover the areas of maintenance of work flow stability, enabling negotiation and commitment between teams, lean production planning with sophisticated pull flow control, and effective communication and visualization of flow. The evaluation results show that the system holds the potential to improve work flow and reduce waste by providing both process and product visualization at the work face.