Identification of vegetable oil botanical speciation in refined vegetable oil blends using an innovative combination of chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques

European Regulation 1169/2011 requires producers of foods that contain refined vegetable oils to label the oil types. A novel rapid and staged methodology has been developed for the first time to identify common oil species in oil blends. The qualitative method consists of a combination of a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to profile the oils and fatty acid chromatographic analysis to confirm the composition of the oils when required. Calibration models and specific classification criteria were developed and all data were fused into a simple decision-making system. The single lab validation of the method demonstrated the very good performance (96% correct classification, 100% specificity, 4% false positive rate). Only a small fraction of the samples needed to be confirmed with the majority of oils identified rapidly using only the spectroscopic procedure. The results demonstrate the huge potential of the methodology for a wide range of oil authenticity work.

Bringing practice closer to research - seeking integrity, sincerity and authenticity

This article tackles the abundance of inconsistent terminologies that surround the discourse on practice and research. The text builds on recent debates on creative practice and education, sparked through the EU funded project SHARE. I argue that a shift in contemporary continental philosophy in the 1970s, which nudged the body into a more central position, allowed for creative practice and with it ‘embodied knowing’ to slowly push open the doors of the academies. I will show that practice today is already well embedded in some UK institutions, and I put forward that rather than thinking of an apologetic Practice as..., Performance as .., we should refer more resolutely to what I here term ‘Practice Research’. I demystify notions of validation of creative practice by re-emphasising the artistic qualities of ‘integrity, sincerity and authenticity’, borrowed from the 2013 BBC Reith lecturer and artist/potter Grayson Perry.

DRHA 2015: Bringing practice closer to research - seeking integrity, sincerity and authenticity

A paper on 'practice as research' (or as I emphasise in this presentation as "Practice Research") debating current dialogue around the issue of practice and research.

Living in the Skin That I Am: An Organizational Autoethnography of an Adult Educator's Plight to Survive the Stigma of Invisible and Episodic Disability in an Academy of Administritiva

Through the reflective lens of an adult educator with invisible and episodic disabilities, this paper has been written as an organizational autoethnography. Through a process of autoethnographical sensemaking, it is intended to illuminate important gaps in organizational theory. Feminist/relational care ethics, critical reflection, and transformative learning serve as the educational theories that comprise its framework. In telling my story, embodied writing and performance narrative are used to convey the felt existence of a body exposed through words—where my “abled” and “disabled” professional teaching and learning identities may be studied against the backdrop of organizational policies and procedures. Words used to describe unfamiliar experiences and situations shape meaning for which new meaning may emerge. At the conclusion of this paper, an alternative frame of reference—a view from the margins—may be offered to articulate authenticity in the expectancy of workplace equity for adult educators with disabilities. Taken collectively on a larger level, it is hoped that this research may provide a source of inspiration for systemic organizational change in adult learning environments.

Contextualisation and authenticity in TBLT: voices from Chinese classrooms

In view of ongoing debates about the future of TBLT in EFL contexts (Thomas & Reinders, 2015; Zheng & Borg, 2014), we present a detailed case study of teacher beliefs and practices regarding TBLT conducted in a secondary school in mainland China with a long history of communicative and task-based teaching approaches. We used a mixed-methods approach to gather a broad range of triangulated data, combining individual interviews, material analysis and observations coded using a novel task-focused version of the COLT scheme (Littlewood, 2011; Spada & Fröhlich, 1995). Quantitative and qualitative findings revealed positive beliefs about TBLT principles in general, reflecting strong institutional support for communicative teaching. However, there was marked variability between beliefs and practices in using tasks, especially with beginner-level learners. Most teachers demonstrated an intrinsic lack of confidence in using tasks as more than a communicative ‘add-on’ to standard form-focused teaching. We argue this demonstrates a need for building teacher autonomy (Aoki, 2002; Benson, 2007), in implementing TBLT, even in supportive settings, to support successful authentic contextualising TBLT principles in different EFL contexts.

The effects of attitudes and personality traits on mode choice

We hypothesise that differences in people's attitudes and personality traits lead them to attribute varying importance to environmental considerations, safety, comfort, convenience and flexibility. Differences in personality traits call be revealed not only in the individuals' choice of transport, but also in other actions of their everyday lives-such as how much they recycle, whether they take precautions or avoid dangerous pursuits. Conditioning on a set of exogenous individual characteristics, we use indicators of attitudes and personality traits to form latent variables for inclusion in an, otherwise standard, discrete mode choice model. With a sample of Swedish commuters, we find that both attitudes towards flexibility and comfort, as well as being pro-environmentally inclined, influence the individual's choice of mode. Although modal time and cost still are important, it follows that there are other ways, apart from economic incentives, to attract individuals to the, from society's perspective, desirable public modes of transport. Our results should provide useful information to policy-makers and transportation planners developing sustainable transportation systems.

Let's kill the 'C' word: notions of authentic and synthetic in the teaching of journalism

One of the less desirable aftermaths of the so-called "Media Wars" - the intellectual debate over the role of cultural studies in the study of journalism - was reinforcement for some of the notion of fortress journalism: a Windschuttlian purist version of the Empire. This paper uses the alleged confrontation between the forces of that Empire (that is, proponents of pure journalism) and the forces of the Dark (that is, critics from a cultural studies tradition) as a means of examining the teaching of journalism in universities. The paper questions how the discipline of journalism should interface with others within the academy and asks what notion of journalism underpins our pedagogy and our epistemology. It is argued that it is time to discard an outdated craft model with its associations of authenticity and replace it with a model of synthetic professionalism.

The longitudinal influence of home and neighbourhood environments on children's body mass index and physical activity over 5 years : the CLAN study

Objective: To determine the independent contributions of family and neighbourhood environments to changes in youth physical activity and body mass index (BMI) z-score over 5 years.

Methods: In 2001, 2004 and 2006, 301 children (10–12 years at baseline) had their height and weight measured (BMI was converted to z-scores using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reference charts; see http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) assessed using accelerometers. In 2001, parents reported on the home environment (social support, role modelling, rules and restrictions, physical environment) and perceived neighbourhood environment (local traffic, road safety, sporting venues, public transport), and Geographic Information Systems were used to map features of the neighbourhood environment (destinations, road connectivity, traffic exposure). Generalized estimating equations were used to predict average BMI z-score and MVPA over time from baseline home and perceived and objective neighbourhood environment factors.

Results: Among boys, maternal education and heavy traffic were inversely associated, and sibling physical activity, maternal role modelling of MVPA and the presence of dead-end roads were positively associated with MVPA. Having unmarried parents, maternal MVPA role modelling and number of home sedentary items were positively associated with BMI z-score among boys. Among girls, having siblings, paternal MVPA role modelling, physical activity rules and parental physical activity co-participation were positively associated with MVPA. Having unmarried parents and maternal sedentary behaviour role modelling were positively associated, and number of sedentary behaviour rules and physical activity items were inversely associated with BMI z-score among girls.

Conclusion: The home environment seems more important than the neighbourhood environment in influencing children's physical activity and BMI z-score over 5 years. Physical activity and weight gain programmes among youth should focus on parental role modelling, rules around sedentary and active pursuits, and parental support for physical activity. Intervention studies to investigate these strategies are warranted.

Portfolios, performance and authenticity

This text reviews literature on authentic assessment in the context of Australian education over the last twenty years. It examines the practices advocated for beginning teachers as assessors of students and the key issue of authentic assessment of teachers themselves.

The experience of Singapore in raising awareness of natural and cultural resources

The city-state of Singapore has a major role in the urban development. Majority of the innovative projects are initiated by the government agencies. For this paper, I would like to highlight the two distinct themes of innovation that, I believe preoccupied the authority for its urban issues, they are innovation which concern nature and culture. Land in Singapore is scarce. Natural resources are strictly protected. At the same time they are challenged to return the maximum benefit to their own population. The water catchment area and the prime forest on the whole island is the most valuable natural resources to be preserved. The paper will demonstrate how Singapore challenges with its own resources (water and greenery) in which the holistic planning around these themes become more than just spaces of protection but integrated with the public space system and turned into more valuable spaces for the well being of its population. The second theme is the issue related to culture. Singapore's economy is the most advance compare to other Southeast Asian countries, however when it comes to culture and identity, the city state struggles with the over constructed image of branding Singapore's culture. The paper will discuss several examples around the theme of arts and culture, how the city state bench-mark itself with the world class cities. It is one of the most challenging topic in urban planning and policy making. It is worth discussing on its success and failure. We can learn form Singapore that innovation at the level of policy maker can be achieved in some urban aspects such as the management of natural resources and urban design projects related to it. However when it comes to the issue related to art and culture, the top down policy alone cannot assure the achievement of city's identity as it aspired. Tracing the historical development of the environmental and cultural policies of Singapore the paper intends to study and analyze various case studies reflecting these attempts of natural and cultural instillation. In the process of comparison of these two drastically contrasting actors and approaches, the paper will argue that it has mostly been driven by economic aims, and careful thought. The results have been limited and restrictive. Further arguing that 'creativity' is the essential factor of arts and culture, it evaluates the authenticity and the ultimate implications on cultural spirit.

Obtain confidentiality or/and authenticity in Big Data by ID-based generalized signcryption

Recently, the Big Data paradigm has received considerable attention since it gives a great opportunity to mine knowledge from massive amounts of data. However, the new mined knowledge will be useless if data is fake, or sometimes the massive amounts of data cannot be collected due to the worry on the abuse of data. This situation asks for new security solutions. On the other hand, the biggest feature of Big Data is "massive", which requires that any security solution for Big Data should be "efficient". In this paper, we propose a new identity-based generalized signcryption scheme to solve the above problems. In particular, it has the following two properties to fit the efficiency requirement. (1) It can work as an encryption scheme, a signature scheme or a signcryption scheme as per need. (2) It does not have the heavy burden on the complicated certificate management as the traditional cryptographic schemes. Furthermore, our proposed scheme can be proven-secure in the standard model. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The role of anxiety and dissociation in young Australian gamblers

The aim of the present study was to examine predictors of 'escape style' problem gambling among young Australian gamblers. Anxiety and dissociation are considered to be predictors of 'escape style' gambling behaviour although this assessment has neglected consideration of different modes of gambling. This study builds on existing research, to examine the role of anxiety and dissociation in the gambling habits of young Australian male and female gamblers. One hundred and forty-two participants aged between 18 and 35 years self-selected and completed an online questionnaire. The hypothesis that gamblers would have similar levels of dissociation and anxiety despite different modes of gambling was supported. The hypothesis that anxiety and dissociation would both together and uniquely predict problem gambling behaviour across a range of gambling modalities was supported. Further, the hypothesis that there would be an interaction effect between anxiety and dissociation such that their presence together would predict a higher degree of problem gambling behaviour was supported. Results suggest that anxiety and dissociation play an important role in 'escape style' gambling and that strategies to combat problem gambling may benefit from research targeting anxiety and attempting to rechannel dissociative behaviour into healthier pursuits.