University of Bedfordshire

About: University of Bedfordshire is a education organization based out in Luton, Bedford, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Social work. The organization has 3860 authors who have published 6079 publications receiving 143448 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Luton.

Alternating pressure pad

Abstract: An alternating pressure pad has two sets of alternately inflatable cells. The alternately inflatable cells overlie additional base cells in a lower layer of the mattress. These base cells are all simultaneously inflated whilst each of the sets of upper cells are repeatedly inflated and deflated in alternation over an inflation and deflation cycle. During a cycle each set of upper cells is deflated at least once while the patient is primarily supported by the other inflated set of cells. During each inflation and deflation cycle, the additional base cells are reduced in pressure at least once. In this way, even if a part of the patient is temporarily supported only on the lower base cells, the support pressure is temporarily reduced each cycle to minimize pressure effects on the patient.

Risk-Benefit Considerations of Mitigation Measures on Acrylamide Content of Foods - A Case Study on Potatoes, Cereals and Coffee

Abstract: This report produced by an independent Expert Group is the second commissioned by the ILSI Europe Task Force on Process-related Compounds. The first report, which reviewed human exposure and internal dose assessments of acrylamide in foods, stressed the need for comparison of added risks or reduced benefits ν. the benefit of acrylamide reduction. This second Expert Group was established to examine and report on the considerations for risk-benefit analysis of the mitigation measures on acyrylamide in commodities which contribute significantly to acrylamide exposure, and their impact on safety, quality, nutritional and organoleptic parameters; to position the relevance of the suspected side effects and to quantify their potential impact. The Expert Group was asked to focus on the impact of mitigation on exposure scenarios and the risk to human health using multidimensional risk assessment approaches. The report has four main objectives: 1. To summarise the impact of pre-harvest, post-harvest and processing conditions on acrylamide formation in potatoes, cereals and coffee. 2. To evaluate the impact of pre-harvest, post-harvest and processing conditions on the formation of acrylamide in these commodities. 3. To consider the nutritional value and beneficial health impact of consuming these commodities. 4. To calculate the impact of mitigation using probabilistic risk-benefit modelling to demonstrate the principle of this approach. Animal studies have shown that acrylamide is a genotoxic carcinogen. Under the premise that for genotoxic carcinogens no threshold levels of effect exists, exposure is to be minimized as far as possible. Minimization strategies therefore have been and consistently are developed, although direct evidence of carcinogenic effects in humans as a result of acrylamide intake is not available. The margin of exposure (MOE), representing the ratio between a defined point on the relevant dose-response curve, the bench mark dose lower limit (BMDL, 300 μg/kg body weight (bw) per day) and average (1 μg/kg bw per day) or high (4 μg/kg bw per day) consumer exposure has been estimated at 300 and 75, respectively. According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) a MOE of ≥ 10 000 would indicate low concern, underlining that the relatively low MOE for acrylamide calls for rapid and effective mitigation measures in order to lower consumer exposure. Acrylamide production in foods is a consequence of the Maillard reaction between asparagine and reducing sugars. Therefore, factors affecting the concentration of these precursors in food, together with processing conditions during food preparation and storage will affect the final concentration of acrylamide in food. The commodities giving the highest exposure to acrylamide in the western diet are potatoes, cereals and coffee. The first two of these are staple foods providing for the majority of carbohydrate and some protein in the diet. Coffee is not an essential food, but has a high level of intake as a beverage, chosen not only for its flavour and hedonic value but also as a provider of caffeine. Acrylamide formation in foodstuffs depends on the concentrations and availability of the precursor molecules asparagine and reducing sugar(s).

Online behaviour of luxury fashion brand advocates

Abstract: Purpose – Over the past few years online fashion communities have proliferated becoming an increasingly powerful forum for user-generated content, and consequently, the fashion industry has shown great interest in such communities. The purpose of this paper is to review and analyse brand advocacy behaviour within luxury brand accessory forums: to analyse the role these communities play in influencing purchase intention; assessing their contribution to fashion brand love. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a netnographic approach to the phenomenon of online luxury accessory communities. The research reports observational data including blog texts and audience comments for four popular forums: The Purse Forum, The Fashion Spot, The Bag Forum (TBF) and Shoe Forum (SF). Although the forums are open to all and are designed to be internationally relevant; the observations were conducted from a base in the UK. Findings – Findings indicate that informants display some unifying characteristics cluster...

Applying FDTD to the coverage prediction of WiMAX femtocells

Abstract: Femtocells, or home base stations, are a potential future solution for operators to increase indoor coverage and reduce network cost. In a real WiMAX femtocell deployment in residential areas covered by WiMAX macrocells, interference is very likely to occur both in the streets and certain indoor regions. Propagation models that take into account both the outdoor and indoor channel characteristics are thus necessary for the purpose of WiMAX network planning in the presence of femtocells. In this paper, the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is adapted for the computation of radiowave propagation predictions at WiMAX frequencies. This model is particularly suitable for the study of hybrid indoor/outdoor scenarios and thus well adapted for the case of WiMAX femtocells in residential environments. Two optimization methods are proposed for the reduction of the FDTD simulation time: the reduction of the simulation frequency for problem simplification and a parallel graphics processing units (GPUs) implementation. The calibration of the model is then thoroughly described. First, the calibration of the absorbing boundary condition, necessary for proper coverage predictions, is presented. Then a calibration of the material parameters that minimizes the error function between simulation and real measurements is proposed. Finally, some mobile WiMAX system-level simulations that make use of the presented propagation model are presented to illustrate the applicability of the model for the study of femto- to macrointerference.