Search results

Heat treatment, in view of later knowledge, is seen to have other effects than to destroy or lower the vitality of micro‐organisms initially present; there are the more obvious changes of flavour and of consistency brought about by the partial cooking, but there are also the possible lowering of the vitamin potency and the still more subtle changes in the salts which may, after heat treatment, be rendered less available than in the raw product. The importance of these considerations cannot be too much stressed when it is remembered that heat treatment is, generally speaking, an inherent stage in the process of canning. It is the heat treatment which preserves the goods, the sealing of the can being merely a means of prevent re‐contamination. The chemist, no less than the physiologist, has been much concerned with the changes in foods caused by heat treatment as a method of preservation, and, as a result of his investigation, there is now a better understanding of the changes which take place, with a consequent improvement in the methods of processing. For a number of years, however, this country, in common with many others, has relied, in so far as its supplies of meat are concerned, on products preserved by “cold,” and the freezing of beef, the chilling of mutton, have made available to us the cattle of the Argentine and the sheep of New Zealand. Initially the processes employed were crude, the post‐mortem changes were imperfectly understood, conditions of storage, before, during and after shipment, were haphazard, and the methods of defrosting far from scientific. How far the methods have advanced, and to what extent the scientist has been concerned in the elucidation of the many problems, will be realised from the reports of the Food Investigation Board. It is not suggested that all the advance is due to the work of the Low Temperature Station a Cambridge—much has been done in other countries‐but the investigations carried out by the scientists a this station have been fundamental. Food producers in America were the first to realise the importance of the latest development in freezing, the advent of the “ Quick Freezing Processes ” marking a distinct advance in technique. When cellular tissue is normally frozen and subsequently defrosted, rupture of the cells may have occurred and the structure of the substance consequently partially broken down. When, however, the tissue is quickly brought down to a very low temperature, it is found that in many cases this breakdown in tissue does not take place. These principles have been applied to commercial installations, and fish, meat, fruit and vegetables so treated show on defrosting remarkably little change in character. Preservation by desiccation is a method employed for certain materials with great success. Sun‐drying of fruits (sultanas and dates, to quote but two) and the sun‐drying of cereal products such as macaroni is still practised. An important industry concerned with the drying of milk has developed in most milk‐producing countries, whilst dried eggs and dried egg‐albumin form important items of commerce. It is obvious that the object of concentrating such substances as fruit juices, milk and vegetables and animal liquid extracts is ideally to reduce the water content and obtain a product which, when the water is ultimately restored, gives a solution or material having the original taste, aroma and food value. The effect of heat is often, however, to change these characteristics, and although by the use of a vacuum the temperature to which the substance is submitted is lowered, changes still take place, and much of the aroma depending on volatile constituents is lost. To a very great extent this has been overcome by a method of desiccation which is essentially partial freezing, a method which has not yet received much publicity as it has only lately emerged from the experimental stage. The practical application of this principle is due to Dr. G. A. Krause, of Munich, who has invented and designed a dual process of concentration. In this process the liquid is first concentrated by freezing out water as ice, which is removed by mechanical separation in a centrifuge. By ingenious mechanical and regenerative devices this process has been made extremely efficient, the losses being only 1–2 per cent. of the original juice, although the efficiency is not maintained when the solids‐content of the product has been raised to 40–50 per cent. This liquid is then further concentrated by evaporation at a low temperature, about 10°–15° C. The differential evaporation of water as compared with the aromatic flavour constituents occurs because the removal of water as vapour at this temperature depends solely on the rate of diffusion of the molecules into the gas space. As water has a small molecule compared with the large molecules of the esters, ethers and alcohols of the flavouring substances, it escapes more readily ; the conditions of evaporation as given in the patent are all designed to aid this escape. A reduction in pressure may be used to speed up the process without interfering with the differential diffusion, and the provision of an atmosphere of small molecules (e.g., hydrogen) also has the same effect. A large surface for the evaporation is made by spreading the liquid as a thin continuously renewed film. The condenser is situated very near the evaporating liquid to remove the water molecules quickly (a distance of 3 cm. is the maximum diffusion path). The atmosphere may be circulated or disturbed to hasten the diffusion and, most ingenious of all, it may be blown towards the evaporating liquid when, if a velocity is used just greater than that of the heavy molecules leaving a liquid surface, the loss of flavour may be entirely eliminated while the rate of water evaporation is only reduced by 10 per cent. By these means a concentrate containing as much as 65 per cent. solids and capable of storage without deterioration at ordinary temperatures may be prepared, and 80 per cent. of the original vitamins retained. The use of refrigeration in the preservation of food has necessitated the use of refrigerated transport to complete the links between producer, manufacturer, retailer and customer. The variety of commodities and the different conditions they need create varying demands on the methods of insulating and refrigerating transport vehicles. The British railways have 4,000 refrigerated railway vans, and such vans, containing perishable produce, came regularly to England from Austria and Italy by way of the train ferries. These vans are designed for fairly high temperatures, 35–40° F., and long hauls, and use ice as a refrigerant. At the other end of the scale is the road vehicle, which may have a temperature as low as 0° F., but is only on its journey about 12 hours. It is in these road vehicles that the greatest advances have been made, for conditions in England do not justify the railways in expenditure on elaborate equipment. The early road vehicles were insulated boxes on a lorry chassis and were refrigerated by ice and salt, which was “messy” and caused bad corrosion of the chassis. The introduction of an eutectic solution, virtually a mixture of a freezing salt and water in a definite proportion, which was frozen as a whole in a sealed tank, was made some few years ago. This removed the “messiness,” conserved the salt and produced greater efficiency and a more stable temperature.

The authors discuss the challenges and successes in implementing a peer reference service model in a community college library.

The authors present a case study about the development of a peer reference service at a community college library. The article includes a chronological overview of the program, a brief literature review, the authors’ own observations, interviews with student employees, comments from librarians working with the students and reference service data. They reviewed local reference service data, conducted a limited review of the literature, interviewed librarians at a university with a peer reference assistance program and incorporated their own observations to create the Pellissippi Ambassadors for Library Success program.

Findings suggest that peer reference services benefit student employees, student researchers and librarians.

The article does not include a comprehensive literature review.

The study discusses peer reference services in a community college library setting and can be of use to librarians implementing peer reference services.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), this study aims to investigate the impact of social capital, namely, structural (information sharing), cognitive (shared value) and relational (relationship commitment) capital in the supplier and the customer side on supply chain performance in a longitudinal design. It further aims to examine the moderating effect of change in competition intensity.

Based on two-wave data collected from 203 manufacturers in China, this study uses the ordinary least square and first-difference regression methods to test the proposed relationships.

The results show the effect of social capital on supply chain performance and the dynamic nature of supply chain social capital. The causal analysis further reveals the significance of supplier-side structural and relational capital in improving supply chain performance. Moreover, competitive intensity plays an important moderating role.

This study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is one of the first to demonstrate the longitudinal effect of supply chain social capital on supply chain performance.

This study examined 46 articles in total, which yielded 5 recurring themes: perceived discrimination, language barriers, socioeconomic barriers, cultural barriers and educational/knowledge barriers. The two most dominant themes found were the inability to speak the country's primary language and belonging to a culture with different practices and values from the host country. The review provides vital insights into the numerous challenges that immigrants and refugees encounter as they navigate through the primary care systems of English-speaking (E-S) countries and potential solutions to overcome these barriers.

Access to adequate healthcare plays a central part in ensuring the physical and mental wellbeing of society. However, vulnerable groups such as immigrants and refugees, face numerous challenges when utilizing these healthcare services. To shed further light on the barriers impacting healthcare quality, the authors’ team performed a scoping thematic review of the available literature on immigrant and refugees' experiences in primary healthcare systems across E-S countries. Articles were systematically reviewed while focusing on healthcare perceptions by immigrants, potential barriers and suggestions to improve the quality of primary care.

This work looked at qualitative and quantitative information, attempting to combine both paradigms to give a rich and robust platform with which to devise a further study through focus groups. Qualitative inquiry accounted for 28/46, or 61%, of studies, and quantitative inquiry made up 9/46, or 20%, while 9/46 or 20% combined both qualitative and qualitative. Emerging themes are -perceived ethnic discrimination faced by immigrants accessing primary care, language barriers, socioeconomic barriers, cultural barriers and educational barriers.

Most medical journals rely on quantitative data to relate “results” and cases. The authors set out to change ways in which medical reports can be done. Most of the authors were solely trained in quantitative research; consequently, they had to learn to isolate themes and to use a narrative approach in the article.

Research implications clearly indicated that using a qualitative (phenomenological) approach with quantitative data created a human and reachable discourse around patient comfort and the realities of immigrants and refugees to E-S countries. The use of this research opens medical practitioners (and patients) to a richer understanding within a usually difficult arena.

By understanding the qualitative nature of medical research, practitioners, students and mentors are able to bridge medical quantitivity to the human, widening doors to social science and medical collaboratory research.

As stated above, this work is important as it understands the human/patient element and de-emphasizes the medical obsession with quantifying the lives of patients through hard data. This is a unique collaboration that relies on the qualitative to pinpoint and define the difficulties of newcomers to E-S countries.

THE Fifty‐First Conference of the Library Association takes place in the most modern type of British town. Blackpool is a typical growth of the past fifty years or so, rising from the greater value placed upon the recreations of the people in recent decades. It has the name of the pleasure city of the north, a huge caravansary into which the large industrial cities empty themselves at the holiday seasons. But Blackpool is more than that; it is a town with a vibrating local life of its own; it has its intellectual side even if the casual visitor does not always see it as readily as he does the attractions of the front. A week can be spent profitably there even by the mere intellectualist.

The paper sets out to provide a selected bibliography of books influential to the librarian's teaching and learning philosophy.

The paper introduces and annotates books identified by LOEX‐of‐the‐West 2006 attendees as influential to their instruction activities, teaching philosophy, or meaning of education.

The paper provides information about each source, including an introductory discussion on the classification of the titles into six major genres of instruction inspiration and four major (generic) philosophies of education and learning.

The information presented in the paper may be used by librarians and interested parties to solidify and broaden their own thoughts and values on who they are as an instructor.

The staffing of the county libraries proceeds apace and all kinds of appointments are reported. It is rumoured that a retired army man has been selected in one case and a school teacher in another, both of whom, without special library experience, will be entrusted with the organisation of their respective library schemes. It is further reported that a discussion among Directors of Education brought forth the opinion that trained men were not necessary on these jobs, “men of commonsense” being preferred.

CANADA, until the last generation or two, has been basically a pioneer country but two world wars have changed all this and the economy has moved from an agricultural to a manufacturing community able to provide a standard of living second to that of the United States. (At the present time only 10.8 per cent of Canadians live on farms according to the 1961 census.) Natural resources, such as timber, wheat and mining, continue to play, however, an important role in the life of the nation. As in most developing and pioneer countries, learning has had to assume a secondary role compared with other enterprises and activities. This is gradually beginning to change as more people continue in school and the percentage of individuals attending university increases. Established organizations, like the National Film Board and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, catering to mass culture, have been strengthened and enlarged and new establishments, like the Canada Council and the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, of narrower function and appeal, have been set up. The Library movement, not the least of learning agencies, is gaining strength every day. In this paper some of the interesting new developments of the last ten years in the latter field will be discussed. Of necessity, much is abbreviated; a lot is ignored. Data selected has been based on the most recent sources; hence the variety in dates.