Purpose: The primary goal of this study was to establish a normative data set representing intraoral time series swallow pressure profiles for healthy adults using a novel wearable intraoral pressure sensing system, OroPress, developed to help with dysphagia (swallow disorder) clinical screening. Methods: Swallow intraoral pressure-time profiles for 35 healthy adults (17 male, 18 female) swallowing water (3 × 5cm 3 ; 3 × 10cm 3 ) and custard (3 × 5cm 3 ) boluses (N = 9 × 35 = 315) were recorded using OroPress. Results: General swallow profile traits are identified to characterise an effective, efficient swallow. A profile-specific swallow envelope function is devised which in combination with profile metrics, provides a simple means of categorizing swallows as effective or impaired. Conclusion: The swallow profile data trace with superimposed and colour coded peaks, envelope function and related swallow metrics provides a simple human readable graphic to aid the real-time instrumented identification of subjects warranting more in-depth clinical assessment. It may also prove useful in the selection of training set profiles for machine learning and other analysis tools which could improve the discriminatory capabilities of intraoral pressure measurement in dysphagia diagnostics.

Horse control is regularly achieved through the application of pressure by a bit against tissue surfaces in the horse's mouth. The precise method of action of the bit in the mouth is still poorly understood. In an assessment of damage and changes seen on the surfaces of bits used in horse control, 5 independent assessors scored 60 photographic images of 15 bits on the most common signs of wear. Each photographic image of the bit was divided into 4-5 separate zones so that different areas on the bit surface could be individually scored. The signs of wear scored for were changes in luster (burnishing), bite marks, food deposits, and salivary staining. Using Cronbach α values, interobserver reliability was found to be high (0.94). Kruskal-Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U tests identified a higher frequency of bite marks on the central or medial areas of the bits compared with the lateral areas (P < 0.001), whereas burnishing was distributed along the whole length of the bits (P > 0.5). The least amounts of both food deposits and salivary staining were found on the caudal aspect of the bits. The findings may reflect the type, level, and location of pressures exerted by oral surfaces against the bit. In addition, the location of bite marks may help identify how the equine reacts orally to the presence of a bit within the oral cavity. This study will help inform experiments seeking to quantify tissue-bit interface pressures under routine exercise conditions.

Here, we present experimental evidence of the direct piezoelectric effect in the globular protein, lysozyme. Piezoelectric materials are employed in many actuating and sensing applications because they can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice versa. Although originally studied in inorganic materials, several biological materials including amino acids and bone, also exhibit piezoelectricity. The exact mechanisms supporting biological piezoelectricity are not known, nor is it known whether biological piezoelectricity conforms strictly to the criteria of classical piezoelectricity. The observation of piezoelectricity in protein crystals presented here links biological piezoelectricity with the classical theory of piezoelectricity. We quantify the direct piezoelectric effect in monoclinic and tetragonal aggregate films of lysozyme using conventional techniques based on the Berlincourt Method. The largest piezoelectric effect measured in a crystalline aggregate film of lysozyme was approximately 6.5 pC N−1. These findings raise fundamental questions as to the possible physiological significance of piezoelectricity in lysozyme and the potential for technical applications.

Nosebands are used by riders to prevent the horse from opening its mouth, to increase control and, in some cases, to comply with the competition rules. While equestrian texts traditionally recommend that two adult human fingers should be able to fit under a fastened noseband, noseband tightness levels are not, in general, regulated in competition. Possible detrimental consequences for the horse, of excessively tight nosebands, include discomfort, pain or tissue damage. The current study investigated noseband usage in equestrian competition. Data regarding noseband type, position, width and tightness were collected from 750 horses in eventing (n = 354), dressage (n = 334) and performance hunter (n = 62) competitions in Ireland, England and Belgium. Data were collected immediately before or after the performance. Using the ISES taper gauge as a guide, results were classified according to the number of 'fingers' that could fit under the noseband at the nasal planum, and assigned to six groups: greater than 2 fingers; 2 fingers; 1.5 fingers; 1 finger; 0.5 fingers; zero fingers. A calliper was used to measure noseband width and position relative to the facial crest. The data were not normally distributed so Kruskall-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were used. In all, 44% of horses fell into the zero fingers classification while only 7% were in the two fingers classification. Significant differences emerged between disciplines (p<0.001), with the highest levels of noseband tightness measured among eventers followed by dressage horses with lowest levels among performance hunters. Noseband tightness did not differ significantly with horse age (p>0.05), which ranged from 4 to 19 years. The flash noseband was the most commonly used noseband (n = 326) and was significantly tighter than the cavesson (p < 0.001), drop noseband (p < 0.001) and the Micklem (p < 0.005). Noseband width ranged from 10 to 50 mm. Noseband position varied widely with the distance between the facial crest and upper noseband margin ranging from 0 to 70 mm. The high proportion of very tight nosebands found in this study raises concerns regarding the short and long term behavioural and physiological consequences of such tight nosebands are for the horse. Although these data are currently lacking, the findings are of concern.

Noseband tightness is difficult to assess in horses participating in equestrian sports such as dressage, show jumping and three-day-eventing. There is growing concern that nosebands are commonly tightened to such an extent as to restrict normal equine behaviour and possibly cause injury. In the absence of a clear agreed definition of noseband tightness, a simple model of the equine nose-noseband interface environment was developed in order to guide further studies in this area. The normal force component of the noseband tensile force was identified as the key contributor to sub-noseband tissue compression. The model was used to inform the design of a digital tightness gauge which could reliably measure the normal force component of the noseband tensile force. A digital tightness gauge was developed to measure this parameter under nosebands fitted to bridled horses. Results are presented for field tests using two prototype designs. Prototype version three was used in field trial 1 (n = 15, frontal nasal plane sub-noseband site). Results of this trial were used to develop an ergonomically designed prototype, version 4, which was tested in a second field trial (n = 12, frontal nasal plane and lateral sub-noseband site). Nosebands were set to three tightness settings in each trial as judged by a single rater using an International Society for Equitation Science (ISES) taper gauge. Normal forces in the range 7-95 N were recorded at the frontal nasal plane while a lower range 1-28 N was found at the lateral site for the taper gauge range used in the trials. The digital tightness gauge was found to be simple to use, reliable, and safe and its use did not agitate the animals in any discernable way. A simple six point tightness scale is suggested to aid regulation implementation and the control of noseband tightness using normal force measurement as the objective tightness discriminant.

Rabbits are common pets in many European countries, including Italy. However, little is known about their behavior and general welfare. The purpose of this study was to explore behaviors of Italian domestic rabbits as perceived by their owners and to investigate the effect of sex on these behaviors after puberty. A group of 308 adult does was compared with a group of 326 adult bucks. Owners were asked to complete an online questionnaire eliciting information on themselves, their rabbits, and whether the animals exhibited any of 16 common behaviors. Pearson χ2 test of independence in 2 × 2 contingency tables and binary logistic regressions were used to analyze the effects of sex on behavioral patterns while controlling for various owner- and rabbit-related variables. The odds of displaying owner-directed aggression and stranger-directed aggression were significantly greater for the does and neutered males than for the intact males. Bucks had a significantly higher likelihood of seeking contact with their owner. Our findings may provide insight into pet rabbit sex-related differences in behavior that may contribute to improving animal welfare and the rabbit companionship experience. These findings may have implications for future research aimed at studying behavioral disorders in pet rabbits.

Background: Commercially available tools for measuring oro-lingual pressures during swallowing or isometric (tongue 'pushing') tasks have either poor, or unknown, psychometric properties (stability, reliability) which means their validity in a clinical setting is unknown. A new wireless tool, OroPress, has been designed to address the shortcomings of existing devices. In this pilot cohort study of normal adults (i.e., people without dysphagia), the face validity of OroPress was examined when it was used to measure oro-lingual pressures during (i) isometric tongue strength (ITS) tasks and (ii) isometric tongue endurance (ITE) tasks.The effects of gender on isometric oro-lingual data, captured using OroPress, were compared to published oro-lingual pressure data recorded using either the Kay Swallowing Workstation or the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument (aka commercial tools).Methods: Thirty five adults (17 males, 18 females), were purposefully recruited at the University of Limerick (UL), Ireland. They attended one session at the university-based clinic where their oro-lingual pressures were recorded while undertaking two isometric tasks by speech and language therapy student clinicians. OroPress was used to capture tongue strength and tongue endurance pressures during two trials of each condition and data were downloaded and analysed post-hoc. An independent-samples t-test and an ANOVA were used to examine the effect of gender on ITS pressures (as data were normally distributed) and an independent-samples t-test was used for the effect of gender on ITE pressures (where data were not normally distributed).Results: OroPress is a portable tool that was reported as being 'easy to use' by student SLT clinicians. The intra-oral sensor was reportedly comfortable and 'felt non-invasive' for participants. Data from 34 participants (16 males, 18 females) are reported.Males did not demonstrate significantly higher mean ITS pressures than females (P = 0.057), although this approached significance, and there was no gender effect for ITE oro-lingual pressure. These results were consistent with published data from studies where other tools have been used to measure ITS pressures.Conclusions: Preliminary face validity of OroPress as a tool for recording isometric oro-lingual pressures was supported. This new wireless tool shows promise for being a criterion standard for recording oro-lingual pressures during isometric tasks.

Junctional tourniquets capable of controlling haemorrhage from distal sites are being actively developed for pre-hospital and emergency settings. One category of device uses a rigid mechanical effector head to occlude a target artery. It is important to minimize the forces, pressures, and pressure gradients used in order to avoid tissue and organ damage and to ensure subject comfort and safety. However, little is known about the magnitude of the forces and pressures necessary in order to affect artery occlusion with such devices. This work is a preliminary instrumental exploration of the pressure and force parameter space likely to arise when rigid mechanical tourniquet effector heads are used to occlude junctional arteries. Interface pressure data are measured for a commercially available system, namely the Combat Ready Clamp (CRoC), using biomedical interface pressure transducers (BIPTs) embedded in flexible low-profile pads sandwiched between the CRoC effector head and the target tissue site. Occlusion is produced in both iliac and femoral arteries at peak interface pressures in the range of 250–275 mmHg. A dynamometer is used to simultaneously measure the force applied to the actuator handle of improvised effector heads while also logging the interface pressure using either embedded or pad-based BIPT arrays. Measured forces in the range of 175–220 N and average interface pressures in the range of 250–310 mmHg are found to produce iliac and femoral artery occlusion using these improvised effector heads. Correct effector head location over a target artery can significantly reduce the forces required to affect occlusion. For instance, the force required to occlude the iliac artery using improvised effector heads is reduced from 175 to 110 N using an integrated Doppler probe to locate the target artery.

Tongue-palate interface pressure during swallowing is of interest in dysphagia research. Interface pressure data collected with a new intra-oral pressure measurement system, OroPress is examined using principle component analysis (PCA). PCA indicated a feature difference between male and female swallowing pressure profiles. This difference is expressed in high dimensional space, where the power in female swallowing pressure was found to have a denser distribution in the eigenvector basis than that of males. This paper presents a method for classifying the testing probes between the two genders in terms of PCA reconstruction.

The pressures applied to horses via restrictive nosebands are of growing concern to equitation scientists and horse sport administrators. They prevent the expression of normal behavior, may compromise blood flow, and even damage bone. This report describes an approach to estimate in vivo pressures applied to the dorsal and ventral aspects of a horse's nose via a so-called crank noseband. A load cell calibrated over a load range of 0-100 N was integrated into a commercially available crank noseband. These force values were combined with anatomical curvature data to estimate the pressure applied by the noseband to the underlying tissue at any point along the internal surface of the noseband using Laplace's law. Partial profiles of both dorsal and ventral aspects of the horse's nose, at a position corresponding to that of the noseband, were taken by contouring a flexible curve ruler to the nose. The ruler was stiff enough to retain the profile when removed from the nose, thereby allowing faithful transfer of the profile to paper for digitization. Once digitized, straightforward mathematical algorithms were used to provide an analytical expression describing each profile, to calculate profile curvature point by point, and, using measured noseband force values, to transform the curvature into a corresponding sub-noseband pressure profile. This process was used to study pressures applied when the horse chewed hay, chewed concentrate mix, and when it was cued to step backward. The calculated pressures ranged from 200 to 400 mm Hg; pressures that, in humans, are associated with nerve damage and other complications. As such, these preliminary data strongly suggest the need for more research in this domain. The current approach should inform some of the welfare concerns in ridden horses but should also be of use in studies of oral behaviors around foraging as well as crib biting and wind sucking. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A new flexible sensor technology has been developed for use in non-invasive biomedical pressure sensing application. Supporting electronic systems were developed to facilitate use of the sensors for bandage training workshops and for outpatient and sub-acute compression therapy pressure monitoring. Preliminary results indicate that the technology provides quantitative data relating to applied pressure, pressure gradients and pressure fluctuations occurring under bandages routinely used in compression therapy. The availability of such quantitative data should allow clinicians correlate satisfactory medical outcomes with specific treatment regimes.

This paper reports on existing and novel transducers for improved quantitative investigations of the levels of applied pressures and pressure gradients produced on human limbs by non-pneumatic tourniquet straps, and by non-pneumatic elastic bandages and elastic rolls when used as tourniquets, for comparison to benchmark data for pneumatic tourniquet cuffs commonly used in surgery at present.

An automated, simple, and reproducible method based on isotope dilution headspace gas chromatography/mass spectrometry developed previously for the determination of benzene in soft drinks was further improved by adding sodium sulfate to samples, lowering the gas chromatography oven starting temperature to narrow benzene peak width, and increasing sample injection volume. This improved method had a lower detection limit (0.016 µg l−1) and good repeatability, and was used in a follow-up survey to assess benzene levels in 139 samples of soft drink products. Benzene was detected in 67% of the 139 products tested. Compared with the previous survey, the average benzene concentrations in most products from this survey were lower, and only a few products had benzene at elevated levels.

An automated, simple, and reproducible method was developed for the determination of benzene in soft drinks, based on isotope dilution headspace gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in the selected-ion monitoring mode. The method was used to assess benzene levels in samples of 124 soft drinks and beverages. Benzene was not detected in 60% of the 124 products. The average benzene levels in 6 products exceeded the Canadian maximum acceptable concentration of 5 microg/L for benzene in drinking water, and 2 of the 6 products had benzene levels above the World Health Organization guideline of 10 microg/L. The highest level of benzene, 23 microg/L, was found in a soft drink product specifically marketed to children.

This meeting, held in the Limerick Institute of Technology, on Thursday 1 June 2006, was organised by the Munster Group of the Institute of Physics in Ireland to commemorate the life and work of John Desmond Bernal. Bernal, was born in Nenagh in 1901. Alan Mackay, who worked with Bernal at Birkbeck College coins the word 'Polytropic' to describe Bernal. He was active and hugely influential in a wide range of areas such as science, politics and society, and was instrumental in the creation of whole new areas of intellectual endeavour such as the 'science of science', molecular biology, and operations research. Andrew Brown's analogy for Bernal's mind is that 'it was like a diamond—beautifully structured, multifaceted and dazzling to behold'. In relation to Bernal, Helena Sheehan states that: 'His legacy is complex. All the more so because he was marxist in philosophy, communist in politics, polyamorous in sexuality.'. Like religion, these are areas that conventional scientists tend to shy away from or at the very least consign to very separate and often neglected 'compartments'. According to Sheehan, 'Bernal came to marxism seriously and intelligently. He found in its philosophical framework a structure in which he could live, think, create, pursue science, act politically and develop further. It opened him radically to the world, rather than closing him down or constricting him, as critics imply.'. And his contributions to science and to society are significant and enduring. Just two areas of 'his science' were addressed in some detail at this meeting. Martin Caffrey treats the area of structural biology in the context of modern developments but focusing on Bernal's role in its evolution. John Finney gives an account of Bernal's 'two bouts of activity' on the structure of water and as Bernal's last PhD student he gives unique insights on how Bernal worked and why he 'did science'. Bernal writes in response to a well wisher on his 70th birthday: 'I am sure that you share my hope that in the not too distant future science may come to be used exclusively for the benefit of all mankind.'. On the occasion of the unveiling of a plaque by the 'National Committee for Science and Engineering Commemorative Plaques' in honour of J D Bernal in his hometown of Nenagh, Martin Bernal (JD's son) wrote 'Now, 35 years after his death, John Desmond Bernal has received this ultimate accolade'. It is to be hoped that this meeting and these proceedings will help further an awakening to Bernal's enduring bequest: 'his vision of science as inextricably tied to philosophy and to politics'—Helena Sheehan. Roy Johnston, an active 'bernalite' has been promoting the idea of a national Bernal Center or Institute in Ireland. Dare we hope for a more enlightened and scientifically informed social order? Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the help and support of my colleagues on the Munster Group of the IOPI, John Corr, Denise Gabuzda, Gabriel Gallagher, Niall Smith and particularly Leah Wallace who shared much of the responsibility for organising the meeting. Thanks are also due to Maria Hinfelaar, Director, Limerick Institute of Technology who gave the opening address and to Martin Bernal who closed the meeting with some personal reminiscences of times spent with his father. A big thank you to Sheila Gilheany and Alison Hackett, as always, for their support and encouragement and Peter van der Burgt for his help with the meeting website. The Munster Group of the Institute of Physics in Ireland would like to acknowledge with gratitude sponsorship of this event by Limerick Institute of Technology, University of Limerick (Research Office; J D Bernal Science and Society Centre; Physics Department), Institute of Physics History of Physics Group and the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland. Most memorable tours of areas of 'Bernal-interest' in Nenagh were organised for the speakers by Nancy Murphy of The Ormond Historical Society. Thanks also to North Tipperary Genealogy and Heritage Services who opened their doors to the touring party. Sincere thanks to Nancy Riggs-Miller for the tea reception, to Henrietta Swan for the tour of Brookwatson, Bernal's homeplace, and to Chris and Kate Lind and Celine O'Connor for all their help and advise. Finally, I would like to thank all the speakers, not only for their excellent contributions, but also for their patience, guidance and above all their enthusiasm. It has been an honour and a privilege to work with you all. Vincent Casey Editor

Furan was previously detected in foods that had undergone thermal treatment. Because furan is now classified as a possible human carcinogen, a model system was developed to investigate the origins of furan. Also, a simple, rapid isotope dilution (d4-furan) headspace method was developed to measure furan. Two pathways of furan formation have been identified in the model systems tested so far. The first is the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids at elevated temperatures, and the second is linked to the decomposition of ascorbic acid derivatives. The analytical procedure, based on the use of a 50 microL injection (from the headspace of a 1.5 mL vial containing 0.5 mL water) into the split/splitless injection port of a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (electron ionization, selected-ion monitoring), showed linearity in the 10-1000 ng/g range with a limit of detection of 1 ng/g.

In the past furan had been found to form in foods during thermal processing. These findings and a recent classification of furan as a possible human carcinogen prompted us to develop a simple isotope dilution method for its determination in foods. We also investigated effects of furan volatility, sample matrix and partitioning of furan between water and fat constituents of sample on the analytical determination of furan. The method is based on headspace sampling of a 2 ml vial containing 1 g of sample. For analysis, samples were spiked with d4-furan, homogenized in a blender at 0 degrees C, with water if required, and sub-sampled to vials containing sodium sulphate. After equilibration at 30 degrees C, 50 microliter of headspace was injected into the split/splitless injection port of a GC/MS (EI, SIM). The method is linear in the 0.4-1000 ng/g range with a limit of detection of 0.1 ng/g.