Oxidative stability of tuna fat spreads (O/W/O emulsions) using conventional lipid oxidation methods, SPME-GC/MS and sensory analysis

Oxidative analysis of omega-3-enriched fat spreads (oil-in-water-in-oil, O/W/O emulsions) was carried out using conventional lipid oxidation methods (lipid hydroperoxide and p-Anisidine values) and compared with volatile compound analysis using SPME-GC/MS and sensory evaluation. Fat spreads were produced using novel double-emulsion technology. More volatile compounds were detected in tuna oil-enriched spreads (Ross and Smith in Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf 5:18–25, 2006) than control (no tuna oil) (Lund and Hølmer in Eur Food Res Technol 212:636–642, 2001). As storage time of spreads increased, volatile concentration increased. Conventional lipid oxidation results correlated well with the GC/MS results, as the tuna spread had consistently higher values than the control spread. Lipid hydroperoxides and GC/MS volatile compounds increased with storage time, whereas p-Anisidine values remained level. The control spread achieved the highest score from the sensory panel for odour and flavour acceptability. Flavour of all tuna spreads became unacceptable after 8 weeks. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study-detecting volatiles using SPME-GC/MS, in omega-3-enriched double-emulsion fat spreads.     

Embedding off-the-shelf filter in PDMS chip for microbe sampling

Filtration for microfluidic sample-collection devices is desirable for sample selection, concentration, preprocessing, and manipulation, but microfabricating the required sub-micrometer structures is an elaborate process. This article presents a simple method to integrate filters in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) devices to sample microorganisms in aqueous environments. An off-the-shelf membrane filter with 0.22-μm pores was embedded in a PDMS layer and sequentially bound with other PDMS channel layers. No leakage was observed during filtration. This device was validated by concentrating a large amount of biomass, from 15 × 10⁷ to 3 × 10⁸ cells/ml of cyanobacterium Synechocystis in simulated sample water with consistent performance across devices. The major advantages of this method are low cost, simple design, straightforward fabrication, and robust performance, enabling wide-utility of chip-based devices for field-deployable operations in environmental microbiology.     

Planning for Happy Neighborhoods

Problem, research strategy, and findings: There is increasing interest in planning for healthy communities, but little is known about how planners can affect mental health and wellbeing in neighborhoods, although much is known about how planners can affect physical health through neighborhood design. In this review essay, we draw lessons from a cross-disciplinary set of studies to reveal how the neighborhood built environment may affect one aspect of residents' wellbeing: happiness. Providing residents access to open, natural, and green space may directly increase their happiness. Incorporating design features that allow for social interaction and safety also may promote residents' happiness.

Takeaway for practice: Planners have the capacity to contribute to greater opportunities for happiness in neighborhoods. Strategies include integrating happiness-related indicators into health impact assessments and employing a new, participatory neighborhood planning process, the Sustainability Through Happiness Framework.     

Atlanta's Last Demolitions and Relocations: The Relationship Between Neighborhood Characteristics and Resident Satisfaction

Using data from an Atlanta-based longitudinal study following 311 public housing residents relocated between 2009 and 2010 as the city's housing authority demolished its remaining public housing, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between changes in relocated residents' satisfaction with home and neighborhood and the socioeconomic, racial composition, and crime characteristics of their destination neighborhood. Consistent with previous research, we find that residents moved to somewhat safer neighborhoods with less poverty than those of the public housing. In addition, we find that residents view their new homes and neighborhoods as improvements over public housing. However, subjective pre- to postmove changes in satisfaction are not driven by changes in neighborhood characteristics (i.e., reductions in poverty and crime), but rather by decreases in perceived social disorder and increases in community attachment. Thus, our findings challenge some of the assumptions of poverty deconcentration. Policy implications are discussed.     

Interpreting vernacular space in Ireland: a new sensibility

ABSTRACT

Performative analysis of the use of landscape strategies in pre-industrial vernacular architecture indicates that there is more design agency involved in the creation of these environments than conventional and historical interpretations would suggest. The development of this interpretation, referred to here as the Utilitarian-Landscape approach, has been described in the Irish architecture media as pioneering because it posits a counter-reading to typological classifications of vernacular architecture. Moreover, it challenges the entrenched scenic understanding of vernacular architecture’s relationship to landscape that underpins rural policymaking in Ireland. However, the limitations—indeed the dangers—of these two expressions of vernacular architecture, the typological and the scenic, have already started to be recognised in much emerging scholarship and practice. This article considers aspects of this scholarship and practice context in light of the Utilitarian-Landscape investigation, and points to a shift in approach to understanding vernacular environments and a new sensibility towards rurality in Ireland.     

Methods to assess potential reduced exposure products.

The availability of tobacco products purported to reduce toxin exposure or potentially reduce health risks necessitates the development of methods and identification of biomarkers that can be used to assess these products. These assessments occur on multiple levels and stages, from identifying constituents in the tobacco products and smoke, to human exposure and health effects trials, to postmarketing surveillance. A conference of multidisciplinary experts was convened to present and discuss methods and biomarkers to assess these products and to consider the infrastructure necessary to facilitate the evaluation process. Although no currently available set of measures was thought to be sufficient for determining the relative health risk of potential reduced exposure products, this paper provides a blueprint for future research toward this end.     

CERA: a collaborative environment reference architecture for interoperable CWE systems

In this paper, we present the collaborative environment reference architecture (CERA) with the aim of supporting collaborative work environment (CWE) interoperability. The vision of CERA is to support users who are engaged in common collaborative spaces with similar work processes to work and collaborate seamlessly together, despite their use of proprietary CWE tools and systems. The underlying CERA concepts, design principles, and models are discussed, as well as the architectural decisions made as a result of the extended requirements analysis exercise. Furthermore, we present results from the Ecospace () project as an example of a CERA instantiation which focuses on facilitating users collaborating across different CWE systems, namely BSCW, NetWeaver, and BC. We conclude with future research and implementation directions.     

Stabilization of Camelina Oil with Synthetic and Natural Antioxidants

Camelina oil was found to have a much lower Oil Stability Index and higher p-anisidine rates in the oven storage test than either rapeseed or sunflower oils. Stabilization of camelina oil was evaluated with 21 food grade synthetic and natural antioxidants and antioxidant formulations, using both the Oil Stability Index (OSI) and the oven storage test. The Oil Stability Index of camelina oil was able to be increased above that of rapeseed oil with TBHQ and its formulation with citric acid, and above that of sunflower oil with EGC, EGCG, carnosic acid, propyl gallate, rosemary extract with ascorbyl palmitate or with gallic acid. para-Hydroxyphenols were found to be more effective than ortho-hydroxyphenols and monohydroxyphenols had no significant effect on the OSI. Good correlation (R ² = 0.96) was found between the stabilizing effect of ortho-hydroxyphenols and the molarity of the phenyl hydroxyl groups per weight of antioxidant. The oven storage test carried out with six of the evaluated antioxidants indicated that p-anisidine rates of camelina oil stabilized with commercial formulations of TBHQ with citric acid or rosemary extract with ascorbyl palmitate were about the same as that of sunflower oil, an almost 90% rate reduction when compared to camelina oil. Accordingly, camelina oils stabilized with TBHQ/citric acid and rosemary extract/ascorbyl palmitate formulations were more stable than rapeseed and sunflower oils, respectively in terms of OSI induction times and p-anisidine rates.