CMO letter - Supplies of beef products to NHS providers

Letter to the health and social care service from the Chief Medical Officer on supplies of beef products to NHS providers.For further information see - http://www.food.gov.uk/news-updates/�

Effective exposure to solar UV in building workers: influence of local and individual factors.

Excessive exposure to solar UV light is the main cause of skin cancers in humans. UV exposure depends on environmental as well as individual factors related to activity. Although outdoor occupational activities contribute significantly to the individual dose received, data on effective exposure are scarce and limited to a few occupations. A study was undertaken in order to assess effective short-term exposure among building workers and characterize the influence of individual and local factors on exposure. The effective exposure of construction workers in a mountainous area in the southern part of Switzerland was investigated through short-term dosimetry (97 dosimeters). Three altitudes, of about 500, 1500 and 2500 m were considered. Individual measurements over 20 working periods were performed using Spore film dosimeters on five body locations. The postural activity of workers was concomitantly recorded and static UV measurements were also performed. Effective exposure among building workers was high and exceeded occupational recommendations, for all individuals for at least one body location. The mean daily UV dose in plain was 11.9 SED (0.0-31.3 SED), in middle mountain 21.4 SED (6.6-46.8 SED) and in high mountain 28.6 SED (0.0-91.1 SED). Measured doses between workers and anatomical locations exhibited a high variability, stressing the role of local exposure conditions and individual factors. Short-term effective exposure ranged between 0 and 200% of ambient irradiation, indicating the occurrence of intense, subacute exposures. A predictive irradiation model was developed to investigate the role of individual factors. Posture and orientation were found to account for at least 38% of the total variance of relative individual exposure, and were also found to account more than altitude on the total variance of effective daily exposures. Targeted sensitization actions through professional information channels and specific prevention messages are recommended. Altitude outdoor workers should also benefit from preventive medical examination.

Determination of nicotine and nicotine metabolites in urine by hydrophilic interaction chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry: Potential use of smokeless tobacco products by ice hockey players.

Consumption of nicotine in the form of smokeless tobacco (snus, snuff, chewing tobacco) or nicotine-containing medication (gum, patch) may benefit sport practice. Indeed, use of snus seems to be a growing trend and investigating nicotine consumption amongst professional athletes is of major interest to sport authorities. Thus, a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the detection and quantification of nicotine and its principal metabolites cotinine, trans-3-hydroxycotinine, nicotine-N'-oxide and cotinine-N-oxide in urine was developed. Sample preparation was performed by liquid-liquid extraction followed by hydrophilic interaction chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS/MS) operated in electrospray positive ionization (ESI) mode with selective reaction monitoring (SRM) data acquisition. The method was validated and calibration curves were linear over the selected concentration ranges of 10-10,000 ng/mL for nicotine, cotinine, trans-3-hydroxycotinine and 10-5000 ng/mL for nicotine-N'-oxide and cotinine-N-oxide, with calculated coefficients of determination (R(2)) greater than 0.95. The total extraction efficiency (%) was concentration dependent and ranged between 70.4 and 100.4%. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) for all analytes was 10 ng/mL. Repeatability and intermediate precision were ?9.4 and ?9.9%, respectively. In order to measure the prevalence of nicotine exposure during the 2009 Ice Hockey World Championships, 72 samples were collected and analyzed after the minimum of 3 months storage period and complete removal of identification means as required by the 2009 International Standards for Laboratories (ISL). Nicotine and/or metabolites were detected in every urine sample, while concentration measurements indicated an exposure within the last 3 days for eight specimens out of ten. Concentrations of nicotine, cotinine, trans-3-hydroxycotinine, nicotine-N'-oxide and cotinine-N-oxide were found to range between 11 and 19,750, 13 and 10,475, 10 and 8217, 11 and 3396, and 13 and 1640 ng/mL, respectively. When proposing conservative concentration limits for nicotine consumption prior and/or during the games (50 ng/mL for nicotine, cotinine and trans-3-hydroxycotinine and 25 ng/mL for nicotine-N'-oxide and cotinine-N-oxide), about half of the hockey players were qualified as consumers. These findings significantly support the likelihood of extensive smokeless nicotine consumption. However, since such conclusions can only be hypothesized, the potential use of smokeless tobacco as a doping agent in ice hockey requires further investigation.

Building Capacity in Developing Countries : OER for Food Safety

The Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) was developed through the collaboration of Michigan State University and a professional network of international food industry retailers and manufacturers. The key objective of the FSKN project is to provide technical resources, in a cost effective way, in order to promote food safety in developing countries and for small and less developed companies. FSKN uses a competency based model including a framework, OERs, and assessments. These tools are being used to support face-to-face training, fully online training, and to gauge the learning outcomes of a series of pilot groups which were held in India, Egypt, and China.

AgShare : Building Community and Content with Multiple Partners

Michigan State University and OER Africa are creating a win-win collaboration of existing organizations for African publishing, localizing, and sharing of teaching and learning materials that fill critical resource gaps in African MSc agriculture curriculum. By the end of the 18-month planning and pilot initiative, African agriculture universities, faculty, students, researchers, NGO leaders, extension staff, and farmers will participate in building AgShare by demonstrating its benefits and outcomes and by building momentum and support for growth.

Building a Manifesto for OER sustainability : UK experiences

Evidence of sustainability, or the potential to achieve this, is increasingly a pre-requisite for OER activity, whether imposed by funders, by institutions requiring a 'business case' for OER, or practitioners themselves - academics, educational technologists and librarians, concerned about how to justify engagement with a unfamiliar, and unproven practices, in today's climate of limited resource. However, it is not clear what is meant by 'sustainability' in relation to OER, what will be needed to achieve or demonstrate this, nor who the expectation of sustainability relates to. This paper draws on experiences of UK OER projects to identify aspirations that those involved in delivering OER activity have for OER sustainability ¿ what a 'manifesto' for OER sustainability beyond project funding, based on OER use, might look like.

Chemical products : basic guide on labelling and safety data sheets

Hazardous chemical products have to comply with, amongst others, the provisions of a correct classification of danger, labelling and compilation of the safety data sheets. The aim is to protect people's health and the environment from exposure to hazardous chemicals- especially the health and safety of direct users, professionals or not, and the general public, via environmental exposure. This publication is intended to contribute to the knowledge of the objectives and basic aspects of these legal provisions, and thereby increase their degree of compliance in Andalusia and other european regions. This Guide is directed toward those people who, in the development of their professional activities, are in one way or another in contact with dangerous chemical products.

Chemical products : basic guide on labelling and safety data sheets

Hazardous chemical products have to comply with, amongst others, the provisions of a correct classification of danger, labelling and compilation of the safety data sheets. The aim is to protect people's health and the environment from exposure to hazardous chemicals- especially the health and safety of direct users, professionals or not, and the general public, via environmental exposure. This publication is intended to contribute to the knowledge of the objectives and basic aspects of these legal provisions, and thereby increase their degree of compliance in Andalusia and other european regions. This Guide is directed toward those people who, in the development of their professional activities, are in one way or another in contact with dangerous chemical products.

Monitorización de estructuras y gestión de edificios: Building Management

El objetivo del proyecto es realizar un sistema de monitorizacion de estructuras y gestión de edificios para controlar en todo momento el estado de los mismos. Se controlará cualquier aspecto que pueda afectar al edificio, como es la temperatura, la humedad, la oscilación del edificio; además de otros aspectos que ayuden a que el edificio se mantenga seguro y en perfecto estado como alarmas de seguridad, luminosidad, etc.

On spectral approximation, Folner sequences and crossed products

In this article we review first some of the possibilities in which the notions of Fo lner sequences and quasidiagonality have been applied to spectral approximation problems. We construct then a canonical Fo lner sequence for the crossed product of a concrete C* -algebra and a discrete amenable group. We apply our results to the rotation algebra (which contains interesting operators like almost Mathieu operators or periodic magnetic Schrödinger operators on graphs) and the C* -algebra generated by bounded Jacobi operators.

Therapeutic switching: from antidermatophytic essential oils to new leishmanicidal products

This study examined whether the antidermatophytic activity of essential oils (EOs) can be used as an indicator for the discovery of active natural products against Leishmania amazonensis. The aerial parts of seven plants were hydrodistilled. Using broth microdilution techniques, the obtained EOs were tested against three strains of dermatophytes (Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Microsporum gypseum and Microsporum canis). To compare the EOs antifungal and antiparasitic effects, the EOs activities against axenic amastigotes of L. amazonensis were concurrently evaluated. For the most promising EOs, their antileishmanial activities against parasites infecting peritoneal macrophages of BALB/c mice were measured. The most interesting antifungal candidates were the EOs from Cymbopogon citratus, Otacanthus azureus and Protium heptaphyllum, whereas O. azureus, Piper hispidum and P. heptaphyllum EOs exhibited the lowest 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) values against axenic amastigotes, thus revealing a certain correspondence between both activities. The P. hispidum EO was identified as the most promising product in the results from the infected macrophages model (IC50: 4.7 µg/mL, safety index: 8). The most abundant compounds found in this EO were sesquiterpenes, notably curzerene and furanodiene. Eventually, the evaluation of the antidermatophytic activity of EOs appears to be an efficient method for identifying new potential drugs for the treatment of L. amazonensis.

Molecular and immunological evaluation of the expression of cancer/testis gene products in human colorectal cancer.

Tumor-specific gene products, such as cancer/testis (CT) antigens, constitute promising targets for the development of T cell vaccines. Whereas CT antigens are frequently expressed in melanoma, their expression in colorectal cancers (CRC) remains poorly characterized. Here, we have studied the expression of the CT antigens MAGE-A3, MAGE-A4, MAGE-A10, NY-ESO-1 and SSX2 in CRC because of the presence of well-described HLA-A2-restricted epitopes in their sequences. Our analyses of 41 primary CRC and 14 metastatic liver lesions confirmed the low frequency of expression of these CT antigens. No increased expression frequencies were observed in metastatic tumors compared to primary tumors. Histological analyses of CRC samples revealed heterogeneous expression of individual CT antigens. Finally, evidence of a naturally acquired CT antigen-specific CD8(+) T cell response could be demonstrated. These results show that the expression of CT antigens in a subset of CRC patients induces readily detectable T cell responses.

The association between need for touch and desire for unique products and consumer (inter)dependent problem-solving

Some people cannot buy products without first touching them, believing that doing so will create more assurance and information and reduce uncertainty. The international consumer marketing literature suggests an instrument to measure consumers' necessity for pohysical contact, called Need for Touch (NFT). This paper analyzes whether the Need for Touch structure is empirically consistent. Based on a literature review, we suggest six hypotheses in order to assess the nomological, convergent, and discriminant validity of the phenomenon. Departing from these, data supported four assumptions in the predicted direction. Need for Touch was associated with Need for Input and with Need for Cognition. Need for Touch was not associated with traditional marketing channels. The results also showed the dual characterization of Need for Touch as a bi-dimensional construct. The moderator effect indicated that when the consumer has a higher (vs. lower) Need for Touch autotelic score, the experiential motivation for shopping played a more (vs. less) important role in impulsive motivation. Our Study 3 supports the NFT structure and shows new associations with the need for unique products and dependent decisions.

Building energy saving techniques and indoor air quality : a dilemma

In European countries and North America, people spend 80 to 90% of time inside buildings and thus breathe indoor air. In Switzerland, special attention has been devoted to the 16 stations of the national network of observation of atmospheric pollutants (NABEL). The results indicate a reduction in outdoor pollution over the last ten years. With such a decrease in pollution over these ten years the question becomes: how can we explain an increase of diseases? Indoor pollution can be the cause. Indoor contaminants that may create indoor air quality (IAQ) problems come from a variety of sources. These can include inadequate ventilation, temperature and humidity dysfunction, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The health effects from these contaminants are varied and can range from discomfort, irritation and respiratory diseases to cancer. Among such contaminants, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) could be considered the most important in terms of both health effects and engineering controls of ventilation. To perform indoor pollution monitoring, several selected ETS tracers can be used including carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), respirable particles (RSP), condensate, nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitrosamines, etc. In this paper, some examples are presented of IAQ problems that have occurred following the renewal of buildings and energy saving concerns. Using industrial hygiene sampling techniques and focussing on selected priority pollutants used as tracers, various problems have been identified and solutions proposed. [Author]

Adequació de la infraestructura de l'Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova per a la implantació de S.A.P. (System Application & Products)

En aquesta memòria s'explica com, per la implantació de SAP en l'Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova s'ha de realitzar una adequació tant de xarxa, com de parc d'ordinadors i impressores, instal·lació d'un nou cpd. Es fa un anàlisi previ de la situació i s'expliqen quins canvis es fan i perquè.