Positioning Food Safety in Halal Assurance

Muslims follow the religion of Islam and the food they eat should be Halal, meaning lawful or permissible. Muslims are allowed to eat halal and wholesome food that has been provided for them. However, some of the main prohibitions are swine flesh, blood, carrion, animals not slaughtered according to Islamic laws and alcoholic drinks. At present Halal assurance is in a complicated state, with various Halal standards differing from each other without gaining mutual acceptance. The world is starting to understand the need for an influential globally accepted standard that would open doors to global markets and gain consumer confidence. This paper discusses issues mainly related to food safety in Halal assurance. The aim was to discover and describe the approach to food safety requirements in Halal food provision and how this is incorporated in the Halal assurance systems. The position of food safety regulation within Halal requirements or Halal standards’ requirements for food safety is still unclear. This review also considers whether current Halal standards include criteria in common with internationally accepted food hygiene standards and emphasizes the potential of using the HACCP system for Halal assurance

Smartphone-based, rapid, wide-field fundus photography for diagnosis of pediatric retinal diseases

PurposeAn important, unmet clinical need is for cost-effective, reliable, easy-to-use, and portable retinal photography to evaluate preventable causes of vision loss in children. This study presents the feasibility of a novel smartphone-based retinal imaging device tailored to imaging the pediatric fundus.MethodsSeveral modifications for children were made to our previous device, including a child-friendly 3D printed housing of animals, attention-grabbing targets, enhanced image stitching, and video-recording capabilities. Retinal photographs were obtained in children undergoing routine dilated eye examination. Experienced masked retina-specialist graders determined photograph quality and made diagnoses based on the images, which were compared to the treating clinician's diagnosis.ResultsDilated fundus photographs were acquired in 43 patients with a mean age of 6.7 years. The diagnoses included retinoblastoma, Coats' disease, commotio retinae, and optic nerve hypoplasia, among others. Mean time to acquire five standard photographs totaling 90-degree field of vision was 2.3 ± 1.1 minutes. Patients rated their experience of image acquisition favorably, with a Likert score of 4.6 ± 0.8 out of 5. There was 96% agreement between image-based diagnosis and the treating clinician's diagnosis.ConclusionsWe report a handheld smartphone-based device with modifications tailored for wide-field fundus photography in pediatric patients that can rapidly acquire fundus photos while being well-tolerated.Translational relevanceAdvances in handheld smartphone-based fundus photography devices decrease the technical barrier for image acquisition in children and may potentially increase access to ophthalmic care in communities with limited resources

Statistical Modeling of Single Target Cell Encapsulation

High throughput drop-on-demand systems for separation and encapsulation of individual target cells from heterogeneous mixtures of multiple cell types is an emerging method in biotechnology that has broad applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, genomics, and cryobiology. However, cell encapsulation in droplets is a random process that is hard to control. Statistical models can provide an understanding of the underlying processes and estimation of the relevant parameters, and enable reliable and repeatable control over the encapsulation of cells in droplets during the isolation process with high confidence level. We have modeled and experimentally verified a microdroplet-based cell encapsulation process for various combinations of cell loading and target cell concentrations. Here, we explain theoretically and validate experimentally a model to isolate and pattern single target cells from heterogeneous mixtures without using complex peripheral systems.Wallace H. Coulter Foundation (Young Investigator in Bioengineering Award)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01AI081534)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R21AI087107

Portable Microfluidic Integrated Plasmonic Platform for Pathogen Detection

Timely detection of infectious agents is critical in early diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. Conventional pathogen detection methods, such as enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), culturing or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) require long assay times, and complex and expensive instruments, which are not adaptable to point-of-care (POC) needs at resource-constrained as well as primary care settings. Therefore, there is an unmet need to develop simple, rapid, and accurate methods for detection of pathogens at the POC. Here, we present a portable, multiplex, inexpensive microfluidic-integrated surface plasmon resonance (SPR) platform that detects and quantifies bacteria, i.e., Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) rapidly. The platform presented reliable capture and detection of E. coli at concentrations ranging from ∼105 to 3.2 × 107 CFUs/mL in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) fluid. The multiplexing and specificity capability of the platform was also tested with S. aureus samples. The presented platform technology could potentially be applicable to capture and detect other pathogens at the POC and primary care settings. © 2015, Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved

Coherent diffraction of single Rice Dwarf virus particles using hard X-rays at the Linac Coherent Light Source

Single particle diffractive imaging data from Rice Dwarf Virus (RDV) were recorded using the Coherent X-ray Imaging (CXI) instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). RDV was chosen as it is a wellcharacterized model system, useful for proof-of-principle experiments, system optimization and algorithm development. RDV, an icosahedral virus of about 70 nm in diameter, was aerosolized and injected into the approximately 0.1 mu m diameter focused hard X-ray beam at the CXI instrument of LCLS. Diffraction patterns from RDV with signal to 5.9 angstrom ngstrom were recorded. The diffraction data are available through the Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank (CXIDB) as a resource for algorithm development, the contents of which are described here.11Ysciescopu

The determination of physical activity, nutrition and self-sufficiency levels of sedanter individuals of fitness club member

Purpose : This study was planned to determine the physical activity (PA), nutrition and self-efficacy levels of sedentary individuals have long been members of fitness clubs Material : A total of 80 participants were divided into two groııps according to body mass index (BMI) according to their obesity status: Group 1 (overvveight obesity (OW)) and Group 2 (Normal Weight (NW)). All participants were watched for a year. The stııdy includes questionnaires on PA, eating habits, nutrition knovvledge and self-efficacy. Descriptive statistics including frequency, percentiles, ınean and Standard deviation were used. The T test was used to examine differences between PA, eating habits, nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy. Statistical significance was accepted as P <0.05. Results : Regarding participants' eating habits, the OW group was less frequent breakfast (P <0.05) and snack (P <0.01), ate more meals (P <0.01). When coınpared with the NW group, they showed less desirable behavior during the meal (P <0.05 for men). OW men spent less time (P <0.01) during vveekdays or weekends while doing less PA (P <0.01). OW woınen sat more in the vveekdays or weekends (P <0.01) and spent less time walking or riding a bicycle (P <0.05) than the NW group. The nutritional information of the OW and NW groups was not significantly different. Especially PA self-efficacy in OW was significantly lower than in NW group (P <0.01). Conclusion : This study revealed differences betvveen PA, eating habits and self-efficacy betvveen OW and NW individuals. Sedanter individuals who are members of fitness clubs should exercise exercise programs to prevent obesity and to increase the confidence about exercise or physical activity

The relationship between scale-based SME credits and economic growth in Turkey: Cointegration and causality analysis (2006-2016)

KOBİ’ler hem gelişmekte olan hem de gelişmiş ülkelerde istihdama, katma değere, ihracata ve inovasyona yüksek oranlarda katkıda bulunmaktadır. Ekonomilerin stratejik birimleri olan KOBİ’ler, karakteristik olarak sınırlı özkaynaklarla kurulduklarından ve faaliyet gösterdiklerinden dolayı; dış kaynaklardan sağlanan finansman, KOBİ’lerin büyüyebilmeleri için zorunlu hale gelmektedir. KOBİ’lerin büyümesi ile ekonomik büyüme arasında pozitif ilişki bulunmakta ve bu noktada bu işletmelerin en çok kullandıkları dış finansman kaynağı konumundaki banka kredileri ile ekonomik büyüme arasındaki ilişki de önemli hale gelmektedir. Çalışmada ekonomik büyümeyi temsilen sanayi üretim endeksi ile yurtiçi bankaların mikro, küçük ve orta büyüklükteki işletmelere kullandırdığı nakdi kredi hacmi arasındaki ilişkiler; 2006-2016 dönemi aylık verileriyle Türkiye için Johansen eşbütünleşme testi, VAR modeline ve VECM’ye dayalı Granger nedensellik testleri ile araştırılmıştır. Ekonometrik analiz sonuçları; ekonomik büyüme ve mikro işletme kredilerinin eşbütünleşik olduğunu, aralarında pozitif bir ilişkinin bulunduğunu ve uzun dönemde ekonomik büyümeden mikro işletme kredilerine doğru bir nedenselliğin varlığını göstermektedir. Kısa dönemde ekonomik büyümeden küçük işletme kredilerine doğru da nedensellik tespit edilmiştir. Analiz sonuçları; finansal sektörün reel ekonominin ihtiyaçlarına göre şekil aldığını savunan talep-takipli görüşü, mikro ve küçük işletme kredi piyasaları ve ekonomik büyüme ekseninde, desteklemektedir.SMEs contribute to employment, value-added, export and innovation at high rates in both developing and developed countries. Because SMEs that are strategic units of economies are established and operate characteristically with insufficient owners’ equities, external financing sources are compulsory to grow. There is a positive relationship between SMEs growth and economic growth and at this point relationship between bank credits which are most used external financing source by SMEs and economic growth becomes important. In this article relations between industry production index used as a proxy for economic growth and volume of cash credits to micro, small and medium sized enterprises given by domestic banks have been searched for Turkey with 2006-2016 monthly data by using Johansen cointegration test, VAR model and VECM based Granger causality tests. Econometric analysis results show that economic growth and bank credits to micro enterprises are cointegrated, there is a positive relationship between these variables and causality from economic growth to micro enterprise credits in the long run. And causality from economic growth to small enterprise credits in the short run has also been found. Analysis results in the axis of micro and small enterprise credit market and economic growth support the demand following view stating that financial sector follows real economy