•Three eating styles were highlighted with specific food habits and preferences.•Despite exceptions, the elderly were not selective towards fruit and vegetables.•We report consensual fruit and ...vegetables for dependent elderly people in Europe.•All cooking methods were well appreciated for vegetables.
As the population ages and dependency for food-related activities increases, it becomes crucial to better understand food expectations of elderly consumers. Fruit and vegetables (F&V) are generally appreciated by elderly people. However, few studies have investigated elderly peoples’ F&V liking, taking into account their dependency and countries’ specificities. The present study aims to identify the liking of F&V, eating styles and food selectivity depending on the country of residence and levels of dependency. A European survey was conducted with 420 elderly people delegating meal-related activities, living at home or in nursing homes. Based on general food preferences, three eating styles were identified. Results showed that F&V liking is a segmenting variable. Elderly people from the style 1 (n=145) do not really appreciate fruits nor desserts. On the contrary, elderly people from style 2 (n=121) are really fruit lovers. Finally, elderly people from style 3 (n=126) liked desserts, fruits, and even more vegetables. Results showed that elderly people were nor selective towards F&V, even if there were some exceptions as exotic fruits (disliked by 19%) and fennel (disliked by 33%). Fruit and vegetables selectivity was significantly different between countries (p<0.001), but not between men and women, or between categories (p>0.05 in both cases). Selectivity for F&V was very variable and could reach 32 vegetables among 42 and 28 fruits among 34. The most selective participants were from Finland and the least ones, from the UK. These results can be used to design and/or adapt F&V-based products according to elderly consumers’ liking, taking into account their country of origin and their dependency.
Detectors manufactured on p-type silicon material are known to have significant advantages in very harsh radiation environment over n-type detectors, traditionally used in High Energy Physics ...experiments for particle tracking. In p-type (n+ segmentation on p substrate) position-sensitive strip detectors, however, the fixed oxide charge in the silicon dioxide is positive and, thus, causes electron accumulation at the Si/SiO2 interface. As a result, unless appropriate interstrip isolation is applied, the n-type strips are short-circuited. Widely adopted methods to terminate surface electron accumulation are segmented p-stop or p-spray field implantations. A different approach to overcome the near-surface electron accumulation at the interface of silicon dioxide and p-type silicon is to deposit a thin film field insulator with negative oxide charge. We have processed silicon strip detectors on p-type Magnetic Czochralski silicon (MCz-Si) substrates with aluminum oxide (Al2O3) thin film insulator, grown with Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) method. The electrical characterization by current–voltage and capacitance−voltage measurement shows reliable performance of the aluminum oxide. The final proof of concept was obtained at the test beam with 200GeV/c muons. For the non-irradiated detector the charge collection efficiency (CCE) was nearly 100% with a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of about 40, whereas for the 2×1015neq/cm2 proton irradiated detector the CCE was 35%, when the sensor was biased at 500V. These results are comparable with the results from p-type detectors with the p-spray and p-stop interstrip isolation techniques. In addition, interestingly, when the aluminum oxide was irradiated with Co-60 gamma-rays, an accumulation of negative fixed oxide charge in the oxide was observed.
To maintain wellbeing, independence and nourishment of elderly population, one promising strategy is to provide home care by delivering food using “meals on wheels” (MoW) system. Even when the food ...is home‐delivered, the difficulties encountered by elderlies during the overall eating process can be a limiting factor. Hence, the objective of this self‐reported study was to explore the difficulty perception in the entire eating process from opening up the package, reheating, hand manipulation and oral processing of the food to bolus swallowing in 405 elderly consumers from five European countries (Finland, France, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom) with three different levels of dependency (category 1: participants living at home with help needed for food purchasing; category 2: participants living at home who need help for meal preparation or meal delivery; category 3: participants living in nursing homes/sheltered accommodation). Frequencies of responses and cross tabulation test were calculated for the difficulties perceived. Results show that the most difficult package to open was the cap irrespective of country or dependency levels (at P < 0.05). Although, glass was the most preferred packaging material, category (P = 0.034) and country (P = 0.001) had significant influence. Self‐feeding dependency was correlated with the eating difficulties perceived, category 1 participants did not perceive difficulties in the meal preparation and reported minimal difficulties in the hand manipulation and oral processing (<30%), whilst the difficulties perceived by categories 2 and 3 were significantly higher (∼60% of participants). The insights generated might be helpful for designing efficient MoW systems with appropriate user‐friendly features.
Practical Applications
Ageing population is in significant increment in Europe. For elderlies, who are unable to cook due to a various forms of functional incapability, “meals on wheels” (MoW) is a promising approach to extend their independence. In this work, difficulties in the eating process (opening of packaging, meal preparation and self‐feeding) of European elderly population with different levels of self‐eating independency have been investigated using self‐reporting from 405 participants. The most difficult packaging to open was the screw‐cap. Individuals who needed help for only food purchasing did not perceive difficulties in meal preparation and oral processing. Dental status was driving difficulty perception during biting and chewing. It is expected that with the insights generated in this study, MoW operators will improve the packaging in the meals; provide adaptive cutleries and design food with suitable texture ensuring optimum and easy oral processing.
Presents a theoretically very simple, yet efficient, multiresolution approach to gray-scale and rotation invariant texture classification based on local binary patterns and nonparametric ...discrimination of sample and prototype distributions. The method is based on recognizing that certain local binary patterns, termed "uniform," are fundamental properties of local image texture and their occurrence histogram is proven to be a very powerful texture feature. We derive a generalized gray-scale and rotation invariant operator presentation that allows for detecting the "uniform" patterns for any quantization of the angular space and for any spatial resolution and presents a method for combining multiple operators for multiresolution analysis. The proposed approach is very robust in terms of gray-scale variations since the operator is, by definition, invariant against any monotonic transformation of the gray scale. Another advantage is computational simplicity as the operator can be realized with a few operations in a small neighborhood and a lookup table. Experimental results demonstrate that good discrimination can be achieved with the occurrence statistics of simple rotation invariant local binary patterns.
The Silicon Beam Telescope (SiBT07) at the CERN H2 beam is a position-sensitive beam telescope targeted for LHC upgrade tests. The telescope consists of eight consecutive silicon microstrip detectors ...and slots for two test detectors. This article describes the reconstruction of reference tracks with the CMS data analysis software CMSSW. The related data analysis and calibration procedures, including pedestal corrections, common-mode corrections, and track-based alignment, are also described.
FinnCRack, a cosmic muon telescope for detector studies Mäenpää, T.; Moilanen, H.; Ungaro, D.
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
06/2009, Letnik:
604, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The Finnish Cosmic Rack (FinnCRack) is a position-sensitive telescope measuring the tracks of cosmic particles. The FinnCRack is based on silicon strip detectors and CERN CMS tracker data acquisition ...electronics. We present the FinnCRack as a reference tracker suitable for the characterization of novel detectors. The FinnCRack is unencumbered by accelerator beam time availability but suffers from a low tracking rate. The resolution of the reference tracks is
18.5
μ
m
.
The implementation of a technology such as health information exchange (HIE) through a Regional Health Information System (RHIS) may improve the mobilization of health care information electronically ...across organizations. There is a need to coordinate care and bring together regional and local stakeholders.
To describe how HIE had influenced health care delivery in one hospital district area in Finland.
Trend analysis was used to evaluate the influence of a regional HIE. We conducted a retrospective, longitudinal study for the period 2004-2008 for the eleven federations of municipalities in the study area. We reviewed statistical health data from the time of implementation of an RHIS. The t-test was used to determine statistical significance. The selected outcomes were the data obtained from the regional database on total appointments, emergency department visits, laboratory tests and radiology examinations, and selected laboratory tests and radiology examinations carried out in both primary care and special health care.
Access to HIE may have influenced health care delivery in the study area. There are indications that there is a connection between access to regional HIE and the number of laboratory tests and radiology examinations performed in both primary care and specialized health care, as observed in the decreased frequency in outcomes such as radiology examinations, number of appointments, and emergency department visits in the study environment. The decreased frequencies of the latter suggest an increased efficiency of outpatient care, but we were not able to estimate to what extent the readily available comprehensive clinical information contributed to these trends.
Outcome assessment of HIE through an RHIS is essential for the success of health information technology (HIT) and as evidence to use in the decision-making process. As health care information becomes more digital, it increases the potential for a strong HIE effect on health care delivery.
Aim: To generate information on how school nurses in Finnish primary schools describe cooperation with the school‐aged (7–12 years) children's parents.
Background: Cooperation between the school ...nurse and parents is essential for health promotion with primary school children. The topic has not been widely investigated in international research.
Methods: The data consist of descriptions written by 20 Finnish primary school nurses in 2003 and 2005. The data were analysed by the method of grounded theory.
Findings: Cooperation with parents aims at outlining the child's life situation, ascertaining the family's health situation and helping when the child has difficulties. The school nurses described meetings with parents, providing health information and bolstering parental resources as the forms of cooperation. Cooperation is professionally rewarding and school nurse‐centred. Confidentiality and familiarity are perceived as facilitating factors while difficulties in communication, factors connected with family and structural factors of work were perceived as barriers.
Conclusions: It is necessary to develop cooperation between school nurses and parents in primary schools. Cooperation and communication skills should be emphasized more in school nurses' training. The findings enable an understanding of the phenomenon of cooperation in school health services and they add valuable point of views to the discussion and the development of children's health services.
Silicon beam telescope for LHC upgrade tests Mäenpää, T.; Luukka, P.; Betchart, B. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
08/2008, Letnik:
593, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A beam telescope based on the CMS Tracker data acquisition prototype cards has been developed in order to test sensor candidates for S-LHC tracking systems. The telescope consists of up to eight ...reference silicon microstrip modules and slots for a couple of test modules. Beam tracks, as measured by the reference modules, provide a means of determining the position resolution and efficiency of the test modules. The impact point precision of reference tracks at the location of the test modules is about
4
μ
m
. This note presents a detailed description of the silicon beam telescope (SiBT) along with some results from its initial operation in summer 2007 in the CERN H2 beamline.
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