The Future Food Chain: Digitization as an Enabler of Society 5.0

in Building the Future of Food Safety Technology, 1st Edition, Blockchain and Beyond (2020)

Food systems and food supply chains (FSCs) have undergone significant changes in their operations and structure over the last decade as globalization expands both food choice and availability. As FSCs ... [more ▼]

Food systems and food supply chains (FSCs) have undergone significant changes in their operations and structure over the last decade as globalization expands both food choice and availability. As FSCs lengthen, and food passes through extended trading relationships, transparency on food origins, methods of cultivation, harvest, processing as well as labor conditions and sustainability is reduced, along with food trust. Moreover, while the rapid pace of technology innovation benefits FSCs, we are witness to the usage of social media platforms by citizen-consumers to amplify the rhetoric related to recurring incidents and crises in food quality, food safety, food fraud, food security, sustainability, and other ethical lapses. Furthermore, we are witness to new evidence on the global burden of foodborne diseases, including non-communicable diseases that range from severe malnutrition to morbid obesity and from severe illnesses requiring hospitalization to mortality. The World Health Organization claims that thirty-one foodborne hazards cause six-hundred million illnesses and four-hundred and twenty thousand deaths annually. Overcoming these challenges requires a holistic reframing of our food systems and societal challenges. The emergence of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides an overarching framework for collaboration and alignment. Japan has put forward a vision for a human-centric, technology-enabled future branded as "Society 5.0". Increasingly, the redesign of FSCs necessitates a concerted, multi-stakeholder effort and the development of digitization strategies in order to cope with the evolution toward the vision of Society 5.0 and to achieve the UN SDGs. [less ▲]

The Future of Asset Management Law - Financial Operating Systems

Presentation (2019, December 09)

The Future of Data-Driven Finance and RegTech: Lessons from EU Big Bang II

in Stanford J. of Law and Policy (2020)

The Future of Education Research: Education Systems in Historical, Cultural, and Sociological Perspectives

Book published by Sense Publishers (2011)

The Future of Money in the Digital Age

Scientific Conference (2020, October 09)

Research Seminar “The Future of Money in the Digital Age" (Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies. Digital Currencies vs Sovereign Currencies: Potential Implications for the Economic and Monetary Union.)

Future planning of intercultural couples: A case study of a couple migrating to New Zealand

in Aleksic, Gabrijela (Ed.) Experiencing Culture in Intercultural Intimate Relationships (2022)

There has not yet been any research done on future planning in international and intercultural couples. The purpose of this case study is to give a first insight into the process of future planning in ... [more ▼]

There has not yet been any research done on future planning in international and intercultural couples. The purpose of this case study is to give a first insight into the process of future planning in intercultural couples. A qualitative case study with two participants, one from New Zealand and one from Belgium who are immigrating to New Zealand. One interview with each participant was held before the couple moved to New Zealand for three months and one more interview with each participant after they returned. Results are plentiful. A clear sign that different cultural backgrounds influence future planning seems to exist. Further the couple reported multiple projects and events in which decision making, goal hierarchy and future planning existed. Not all results have been analysed and are available for further use.This case study offers a first insight into future planning of international and intercultural couples. The next step would be to try to support the findings with quantitative data. [less ▲]

Future Scenarios for the European Higher Education Area: Exploring the Possibilities of "Experimentalist Governance"

in Curaj, Adrian; Matei; Pricopie, Remus (Eds.) et al The European Higher Education Area: Between Critical Reflections and Future Policies, Part 2 (2015)

Future water quality monitoring: improving the balance between exposure and toxicity assessments of real-world pollutant mixtures

in Environmental Sciences Europe (2019), 31(1), 12

Environmental water quality monitoring aims to provide the data required for safeguarding the environment against adverse biological effects from multiple chemical contamination arising from anthropogenic ... [more ▼]

Environmental water quality monitoring aims to provide the data required for safeguarding the environment against adverse biological effects from multiple chemical contamination arising from anthropogenic diffuse emissions and point sources. Here, we integrate the experience of the international EU-funded project SOLUTIONS to shift the focus of water monitoring from a few legacy chemicals to complex chemical mixtures, and to identify relevant drivers of toxic effects. Monitoring serves a range of purposes, from control of chemical and ecological status compliance to safeguarding specific water uses, such as drinking water abstraction. Various water sampling techniques, chemical target, suspect and non-target analyses as well as an array of in vitro, in vivo and in situ bioanalytical methods were advanced to improve monitoring of water contamination. Major improvements for broader applicability include tailored sampling techniques, screening and identification techniques for a broader and more diverse set of chemicals, higher detection sensitivity, standardized protocols for chemical, toxicological, and ecological assessments combined with systematic evidence evaluation techniques. No single method or combination of methods is able to meet all divergent monitoring purposes. Current monitoring approaches tend to emphasize either targeted exposure or effect detection. Here, we argue that, irrespective of the specific purpose, assessment of monitoring results would benefit substantially from obtaining and linking information on the occurrence of both chemicals and potentially adverse biological effects. In this paper, we specify the information required to: (1) identify relevant contaminants, (2) assess the impact of contamination in aquatic ecosystems, or (3) quantify cause--effect relationships between contaminants and adverse effects. Specific strategies to link chemical and bioanalytical information are outlined for each of these distinct goals. These strategies have been developed and explored using case studies in the Danube and Rhine river basins as well as for rivers of the Iberian Peninsula. Current water quality assessment suffers from biases resulting from differences in approaches and associated uncertainty analyses. While exposure approaches tend to ignore data gaps (i.e., missing contaminants), effect-based approaches penalize data gaps with increased uncertainty factors. This integrated work suggests systematic ways to deal with mixture exposures and combined effects in a more balanced way, and thus provides guidance for future tailored environmental monitoring. [less ▲]

Fuzzy clustering with prototype extraction for census data analysis

in Soft Computing: State of the Art Theory and Novel Applications (2013)

Fuzzy control system navigation using priority areas

in Ruan, D (Ed.) COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN DECISION AND CONTROL (2008)

This paper presents an improvement for the software implementation (MOFS) of a user adaptive fuzzy control system for autonomous navigation of mobile robots in unknown environments. This improvement ... [more ▼]

This paper presents an improvement for the software implementation (MOFS) of a user adaptive fuzzy control system for autonomous navigation of mobile robots in unknown environments. This improvement consists of a priority areas definition where the environment is measured by a PLS laser sensor, in order to get a reduction in the number of fuzzy rules and also in the computational cost, and hence obtaining improvements in the trajectory. This system has been tested in a pioneer mobile robot and on a robotic wheelchair, odometry sensors are used to localize the robots and the goal positions. The system is able to drive the robots to their goal position avoiding static and dynamic obstacles, without using any pre-built map. This approach improves the way to measure the danger of the obstacles, the way to follow the walls of corridors and the detection of doors. These improvements reduce the zigzag effect of the previous system by making the trajectories significantly straighter and hence reducing the time to reach the goal position. [less ▲]