Defining Food Safety Inspection

Food safety inspections are a key health protection measure applied by governments to prevent foodborne illness, yet they remain the subject of sustained criticism. These criticisms include inconsistency and inadequacy of methods applied to inspection, and ineffectiveness in preventing foodborne illness. Investigating the validity of these criticisms represent important areas for further research. However, a defined construct around the meanings society attributes to food safety inspection must first be established. Through critical examination of available literature, this review identified meanings attributed to food safety inspection and explicates some of the key elements that compose food safety inspection as a social construct. A total of 18 meanings were found to be attributed to food safety inspection. Variation in meanings were found between consumers, food business associates and food safety inspectors. For some, inspection meant a source of assurance, for others a threat to fairness, while most view inspection as a product of resources and inspector training. The meanings were then examined in light of common criticisms directed at food safety inspection, to expound their influence in how food safety inspection is realized, shaped, and rationalized. This review highlights the influence of sociological factors in defining food safety inspection.

Strengthen resilience to rivers flooding by the drag reduction technique

Urban agglomerations face the risk of overflowing rivers due to intense urbanization in flood-prone areas and the climate change effects. Despite the important protective measures deployed to reduce the fluvial flooding risk, additional efforts are still needed. This work aims to propose a new complementary non-structural protection measure, used to reduce the river flooding risk. The study is part of the NABRAPOL (NEBRASKA POLYMER) project, which aims to improve knowledge of the drag reduction effect by adding polymers in open-channel flows. The addition of polymers, even in limited concentrations, allows high friction to decrease with the typical Manning coefficient reduced up to 45%. An application case on a real watercourse is presented in this article. Two measurement campaigns are carried out on a river along 30 km. Experimental devices are deployed, and non-intrusive hydraulic measuring instruments are installed at the study field. Surface velocities are evaluated by the Large-Scale Particle Image Velocimetry (LSPIV) technique, and water depth is measured using ultrasonic radar sensors over the river. Measurement results show that the addition of 20 ppm of polymers in the flows results in a marked drag reduction by decreasing the water depth to 18% of its initial depth. The drag reduction technique by addition of small concentrations of polymers can be considered as a new and effective method to reinforce the measures already deployed in the flood risk management strategy since it allows the water depth to be decreased thus avoid overflowing rivers in the extreme flooding event.

Modelling the effect of the interaction between vaccination and non-pharmaceutical measures on COVID-19 incidence

Since December 2019, the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread rapidly from Wuhan (China) across the globe, affecting more than 200 countries by mid-2021, with over 190 M reported cases and around 4 M fatalities. During the first year of the pandemic, affected countries implemented a variety of non-pharmaceutical interventions to control virus transmission. In December 2020, countries started administering several authorised vaccines under a limited supply scenario. In this context, a SEIR-type continuous-time deterministic disease model was developed to explore the effect of vaccination in terms of vaccination rate and efficacy, together with varying non-pharmaceutical protection measures, on disease incidence in the initial phase of vaccination. For this, the model incorporates (i) a protection measure including low (self-protection), medium (mobility limitation), high (closure of indoor facilities) and very high (lockdown) protection levels, (ii) quarantine for confirmed cases, and (iii) vaccination rate and efficacy of four type of vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, Astra Zeneca or Janssen). The model was verified and evaluated using the response timeline and vaccination strategies and rates in the Basque Country (N. Spain). Once the model performance was validated, different initial phase (when 30% of the population is vaccinated) vaccination scenarios were simulated, including (i) a realistic vaccine limited supply scenario, and (ii) four potential full vaccine supply scenarios where a unique vaccine type is administered. The Pfizer scenario resulted in the lowest prevalence of infection and cumulative mortality, particularly for low- and medium-level protection rates. However, regardless of the administered vaccine, a high-level protection scenario is the most effective to control the virus transmission and disease mortality in the studied initial phase of vaccination. The model here, which is based on this example, could be easily applied to other regions or countries, modifying the strategies implemented and initial conditions.

Incipient motion of Armorflex articulating concrete blocks on steep slopes

Armorflex is an articulating concrete block erosion protection measure that has been used as an alternative to riprap for many years. Even though extensive research and hydraulic testing have been conducted on Armorflex, the principal constraint on the use of concrete blocks has been the lack of information on prototype performance. Furthermore, there are no standards for Armorflex or articulating concrete block revetments in the South African National Standards, and design guidelines from Armorflex manufacturers are insufficient. The aim of this study was to improve the understanding of the critical flow conditions under which Armorflex blocks are lifted and removed by flowing water in open channel flow applications. Scaled laboratory tests were conducted on Armorflex 140 and Armorflex 180 blocks. Liu's theory of 1957 is applied in an attempt to define the point where block movement is initiated.

Child Protection Measures as a Legal Instrument for Child Protection at Tirana Municipality

For Albanian institutions and society, application of the protection measures comes not only as an innovation in the field of child rights and protection but especially as a legal instrument that for the first time attains to put the highest interest of the child and to guarantee his/her protection in time and according to the simplified legal procedure. This paper presents types of protection measures, child characteristics for which these measures have been in place, analysis of the process starting with the identification and evaluation of the risk till in confirming of the protection measure from the Court as well as all the progress of implementation of the Individual Protection Plan. The paper offers an analysis of the demographic and analytic factors on the motives and cases where protection measures are applied. 74 measures analyzed are 74 children's’ life's where the protection system has intervened to stave off from the risk and offer the services in a safe place. In 36 of them is being realized specialized supervision in family environment where through the Individual Protection Plan, despite family services, specialized support from child protection unit is being more intensive in family. In absence of foster families, the protection measure for child placement in alternative care is applied in residential care institutions or at their relatives. For emergent protection cases, all 23 children are placed in residential care institutions for children; 8 cases taken under immediate protection and other 13 cases taken under protection and placed in alternative care actually are not leaving in street condition but placed in a safe place meanwhile that child protection structure continue with empowering plans for families aiming at returning of child close to biological families. Received: 31 May 2021 / Accepted: 4 September 2021 / Published: 5 November 2021

Prediction of Carbon Monoxide (CO) Atmospheric Pollution Concentrations with Machine Learning and Time Series Analysis in Langkawi, Malaysia

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a non-irritant toxic and odourless gas produced from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. Long-term exposures to lower levels of carbon monoxide have wide implications for human health. Thus, an early warning system for CO atmospheric concentration with an accurate and reliable forecasting method is crucial. Studies for predicting CO atmospheric concentration are still limited in Malaysia especially using data science approaches. This study aims to develop and predict future CO concentration for the next few hours by using the statistical time series approach and machine learning approach. The data used for the project is the air quality data of the monitoring station in Langkawi, Malaysia. The data mining tool used for this project is RapidMiner Studio. Based on the results, it showed that Time Series analysis with deep learning gave a reasonably good CO concentration prediction for the next 3 hours with a relative error of approximate 10%. The model developed in this project can be used by authorities as public health’s protection measure to provide an early alarm for alerting the Malaysian populations on the air pollution issue.

Modelling airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 using CARA: Risk assessment for enclosed spaces

The global crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for a proper risk assessment of respiratory pathogens in indoor settings. This paper documents the COVID Airborne Risk Assessment (CARA) methodology, to assess the potential exposure of airborne SARS-CoV-2 viruses, with an emphasis on the effect of certain virological and immunological factors in the quantification of the risk. The proposed model is the result of a multidisciplinary approach linking physical, mechanical and biological domains, benchmarked with clinical and experimental data, enabling decision makers or facility managers to perform risk assessments against airborne transmission. The model was tested against two benchmark outbreaks, showing good agreement. The tool was also applied to several everyday-life settings, in particular for the cases of a shared office, classroom and ski cabin. We found that 20% of infected hosts can emit approximately 2 orders of magnitude more viral-containing particles, suggesting the importance of super-emitters in airborne transmission. The use of surgical-type masks provides a 5-fold reduction in viral emissions. Natural ventilation through the opening of windows at all times are effective strategies to decrease the concentration of virions and slightly opening a window in the winter has approximately the same effect as a full window opening during the summer. Although vaccination is an effective protection measure, non-pharmaceutical interventions, which significantly reduce the viral density in the air (ventilation, masks), should be actively supported and included early in the risk assessment process. We propose a critical threshold value approach which could be used to define an acceptable risk level in a given indoor setting.

ROLE OF GRAM PANCHAYAT IN HANDLING POST-COVID MEASURES IN INDIA: AN EVALUATIVE STUDY

Dealing with globally spread Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-2021 is a big issue for India, like most of the other countries of this world. Restrictions of lockdown have shattered various sections of our country. These sections need national attention with top priority to bring back normalcy. In this area, protecting health and livelihood of rural areas come as signicant parts in a Covid protection measure. Here, we should particularly mention the role of Gram Panchayat without whom, this task would certainly be difcult to handle. Rural areas of India are still very backward if we compare them with our urbanized zones. In those remote villages, Gram Panchayat is the self-governance body that is functional to maintain safety and well-being of the rural people. Our Government has launched a number of arrangements and schemes in current years providing Gram Panchayat surplus and improved support for handling rural issues. In a crucial time as this Covid-19 pandemic, such initiatives and even more should be sanctioned for our Gram Panchayats boosting their efciency to keep safe our rural population, make them properly aware about the deadly disease as well as ensure provisions and security to stabilize them. Issues, such as, migrant villagers and supporting their dropped economy are something that become their additional responsibilities. In our Evaluative Study, we have found exclusive methods in which our Gram Panchayats have worked to support all the above stated problems. We have identied certain innovative approaches applied as post-covid preventions measures in rural areas that can be further enhanced to deal similar crisis.

What are the odds? Lower compliance with Western loot box probability disclosure industry self-regulation than Chinese legal regulation

Loot boxes are purchased to obtain randomised rewards in video games. These mechanics are frequently implemented, including in children’s games, and are psychologically akin to gambling. Emulating gambling harm reduction measures, disclosing the probabilities of obtaining loot box rewards is a consumer protection measure that may reduce overspending. Presently, this has been adopted as law only in China, where a 95.6% disclosure rate was previously observed. In other countries, the industry has generally adopted this measure as self-regulation. This study assessed the compliance rate of self-regulation amongst the 100 highest-grossing UK iPhone games to be 64.0%, significantly lower than that of Chinese legal regulation. Additionally, only 6.7% of games containing first-party implemented loot boxes made reasonably prominent disclosures. Non-enforced Western self-regulation needs substantial improvements before it can be as effective as legal regulation: until then, uniform and prominent disclosures should be required by law to maximise their consumer protection benefits.

CONTENTS OF THE RIGHT TO CITIZENSHIP: CERTAIN ASPECTS

The article is devoted to the research of current tendencies changes of the content of the right of citizenship under the influence of general integration processes and practices of European Court of human rights. The content of the right of citizenship is subjected under new tendencies assessment taking place in the process of realization of the Association Treaty between Ukraine and European Union. Analyzing the notion of citizenship in the context of Constitution, national legislature, European convention of citizenship differentiation of formal and legal status of an individual, legal relations between an individual and a state, combination of rights and duties according to the current tendencies of the conception of citizenship evolution are carried out. It’s indicated in the work that according to the current realization of the content of the right of citizenship it’s appropriate to maintain practical intention of regulation of legal nature and essence of absent nationality, improving of contextual and legislative principles concerning citizenship and legal identity of an individual in Ukraine as one of the basic constitutional human right. The right of citizenship, as institution of constitutional law, in recent years was proved as subjective right, changing owing to interpretation of citizenship by European Court of human rights within conventional rights and freedoms. At the same time a state, that is the subject of the definition of citizenship policy, regulates all spectrum of issues, connected with citizenship and derivative from above mentioned institution by national legislature. The sphere of citizenship minimally influenced by the norms of international law, that refers legal regulation of citizenship to the internal affairs of a state. A state owns the possibilities to determine a circle of citizens, correcting grounds of citizenship admission, setting restriction for citizens. The right of citizenship is a protection measure of possible behavior directing for the gratification of human interests, appeared in connection with acquirement, changing and outgoing of citizenship. The effectiveness of guarantees of the realization of right of citizenship in Ukraine consists of making legal guarantees that are contained in the norms of laws and depends on logic and systematic expediency, accurate focus and certainty relating specific subject and appropriate social relationship.