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\"Forensic pathologist and bestselling author of Unnatural Causes, Dr Richard Shepherd, brings his unparalleled honesty and insight to a new book about life and death. What can death teach us about life? In his career conducting thousands of post-mortems, Dr Richard Shepherd has examined death at every stage of life. From old to young, murder to misadventure, and from illness to accidental death, each autopsy is its own unique investigation, revealing secrets about life, mortality, and even about himself. From the author of Unnatural Causes comes a powerful, endlessly fascinating and above all reassuring new book about death - how to understand it, postpone it, and, when our time comes (as it must come), how to embrace it, as our last and greatest adventure\"--Publisher's description.

There have been many studies of what influences consumers in their decisions to purchase or consume organic foods, mainly concerned with fresh organic foods. These show a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior with people being positive about organic foods but often not purchasing them. This discrepancy seems to be explained by the fact that consumers do not consider “organically produced” to be an important purchase criterion, that organic foods are not perceived to surpass conventional foods regarding taste and shelf life (two qualities rated to be of great importance), and because of the perceived premium prices of organic foods. In two Swedish studies, health benefits were demonstrated to be more strongly related to attitudes and behavior toward organic foods than were perceived environmental benefits. A new European Union (EU) project will investigate the influences on both fresh and processed organic foods and investigate the role of moral, ethical, and affective influences on choice across eight EU countries.

\"How do you tailor education to the learning needs of adults? Do they learn differently from children? How does their life experience inform their learning processes? These were the questions at the heart of Malcolm Knowles' pioneering theory of andragogy which transformed education theory in the 1970s. The resulting principles of a self-directed, experiential, problem-centred approach to learning have been hugely influential and are still the basis of the learning practices we use today. Understanding these principles is the cornerstone of increasing motivation and enabling adult learners to achieve. The 8th edition of The Adult Learner has been revised and updated. Holton and Swanson have enlivened the latest edition in terms of content and style. The new supporting website and added chapter level reflection questions make this latest edition more accessible than ever. This new edition includes: Updates to the book to reflect the very latest advancements in the field. Addition of two new chapters: on related cutting edge realms, Neuroscience & Learning and Information Technology & Learning. Creation of a supporting website: This website for The Adult Learner 8th Edition will provide basic instructor aids. For each chapter there will be a PowerPoint presentation, learning exercises, and added study questions. Revisions throughout to make it more readable and relevant to your practices. If you are a researcher, practitioner or student in education, an adult learning practitioner, training manager, or involved in human resource development, this is the definitive book in adult learning you should not be without\"-- Provided by publisher.

One of the central problems in nutrition is the difficulty of getting people to change their dietary behaviours so as to bring about an improvement in health. What is required is a clearer understanding of the motivations of consumers, barriers to changing diets and how we might have an impact upon dietary behaviour. This book brings together theory, research and applications from psychology and behavioural sciences applied to dietary behaviour. The authors are all international leaders in their respective fields and together give an overview of the current understanding of consumer food choice.

Background Precautionary 'may contain' warnings are used to indicate possible allergen contamination. Neither food safety nor foods labelling legislation address this issue. The aim of this study is to understand how peanut and nut allergic adults interpret 'may contain' labelling and how they use this information when purchasing food. Methods Qualitative methods were used to explore both behaviour and attitudes. The behaviour and 'thinking aloud' of 32 participants were recorded during their normal food shop. A semi-structured interview also explored participants' views about 13 potentially problematic packaged foods. Transcribed data from these tasks were analysed to explore the interpretation of 'may contain' labelling and how this influenced food choice decisions. Results Peanut and nut allergic individuals adopt a complex range of responses and strategies to interpret 'may contain' labelling. Many claimed such labelling was not credible or desirable; many ignored it whilst some found it helpful and avoided products with all such labelling. Interpretation and consequent decisions were not only based on the detail of the labelling but also on external factors such as the nature of the product, the perceived trustworthiness of the producer and on the previous experience of the nut allergic individual. Conclusions 'May contain' labelling was interpreted in the light of judgements about the product, producer and previous personal experience. It is vital that these interpretation strategies are taken into account by those responsible for labelling itself and for the provision of advice to nut allergic individuals. Suggestions to improve labelling and advice to the allergic individual are considered.

Background European consumers are faced with a myriad of food related risk and benefit information and it is regularly left up to the consumer to interpret these, often conflicting, pieces of information as a coherent message. This conflict is especially apparent in times of food crises and can have major public health implications. Scientific results and risk assessments cannot always be easily communicated into simple guidelines and advice that non-scientists like the public or the media can easily understand especially when there is conflicting, uncertain or complex information about a particular food or aspects thereof. The need for improved strategies and tools for communication about food risks and benefits is therefore paramount. The FoodRisC project (\"Food Risk Communication - Perceptions and communication of food risks/benefits across Europe: development of effective communication strategies\") aims to address this issue. The FoodRisC project will examine consumer perceptions and investigate how people acquire and use information in food domains in order to develop targeted strategies for food communication across Europe. Methods/Design This project consists of 6 research work packages which, using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, are focused on development of a framework for investigating food risk/benefit issues across Europe, exploration of the role of new and traditional media in food communication and testing of the framework in order to develop evidence based communication strategies and tools. The main outcome of the FoodRisC project will be a toolkit to enable coherent communication of food risk/benefit messages in Europe. The toolkit will integrate theoretical models and new measurement paradigms as well as building on social marketing approaches around consumer segmentation. Use of the toolkit and guides will assist policy makers, food authorities and other end users in developing common approaches to communicating coherent messages to consumers in Europe. Discussion The FoodRisC project offers a unique approach to the investigation of food risk/benefit communication. The effective spread of food risk/benefit information will assist initiatives aimed at reducing the burden of food-related illness and disease, reducing the economic impact of food crises and ensuring that confidence in safe and nutritious food is fostered and maintained in Europe.

The repertory grid method was used to determine what terminology respondents use to distinguish between different applications of genetic engineering drawn from food-related, agricultural, and medical applications. Respondents were asked to react to fifteen applications phrased in general terms, and results compared with a second study where fifteen more specific applications were used as stimuli. Both sets of data were submitted to generalized Procrustes analysis. Applications associated with animals or human genetic material were described as causing ethical concern, being unnatural, harmful, and dangerous. Those involving plants or microorganisms were described as beneficial, progressive, and necessary. The results were validated in survey research, which indicated that general applications of genetic engineering were perceived as either positive or negative, whereas specific applications were more highly differentiated in perceptual terms. The results imply that the public debate about genetic engineering must take due account of the complexity of public concerns.

Background: There are little data available on the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland Cost and Epidemiology of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (NICECOPD) study is a two-stage survey to examine the prevalence of obstructive lung disease in a general population sample in the Greater Belfast area. Methods: In stage one 4000 subjects aged 40-69 years were selected at random from the general population. They were posted a short screening questionnaire concerning respiratory symptoms. Respondents were divided into 'symptomatic' and 'asymptomatic' groups according to their responses. In stage two, a sample of symptomatic and asymptomatic subjects completed a more intensive assessment that included a detailed questionnaire on medical history, spirometry, skin allergy testing and serial peak flow measurements. Spirometric criteria for airflow obstruction were FEV1/FVC ratio of <70% with FEV1 < 80% predicted. Subjects were assigned diagnoses according to a pre-arranged protocol. Results: The survey was conducted from May 1999 to May 2001. There was a 67% response rate to the stage 1 screening questionnaire and 1330 responders were identified as being eligible to take part in stage 2. In total, 722 subjects completed a detailed assessment (50.8% Male, symptomatic, n = 326; asymptomatic, n = 396). COPD was diagnosed in 12.3% (8.8, 15.8) of the symptomatic and 2.2% (0.8, 3.6) of the asymptomatic group. The estimated prevalence of obstructive lung disease in the total population age 40-69 years was 14.4%: 6.3% COPD; 7.2% asthma; 0.9% with indeterminate airflow obstruction. In men, the prevalence of COPD varied from 4.9% in those aged 40-49 years to 12.3% in those aged 60-69 years and in women, varied from 1.4% in 40-49 years of age to 4.5% in 60-69 years. Conclusion: The data suggest that COPD and asthma are common conditions in the general population and should inform future plans to address the burden of disease.

Dietary changes can be difficult to effect both at an individual and at a population level, and even when changes do occur they are often far slower and less pronounced than might be expected. Three possible reason for this situation will be considered: the complexity of food choice and competing influences, attitudinal ambivalence and optimistic bias. Food choice is influenced by a large number of factors, not only health considerations, and therefore it is not surprising that interventions based primarily on health concerns have been ineffective. Another concern is that people do not always have clear-cut attitudes, but rather can be ambivalent about foods and about healthy eating, and this factor might impact on the translation of beliets and attitudes into behaviour. A third possible reason is optimistic bias, where individuals believe themselves to be at less risk from various hazards than is the average person. This effect has been demonstrated for nutritional risks, and this factor might lead people to take less note of health education messages. The stages-of-change model from health psychology has been proposed as a method for improving the effectiveness of behaviour change interventions. However, there are a number of problems in transferring such a model from smoking, where it was originally developed, to dietary behaviours, including the lack of clear-cut specific behaviours and behaviour change targets in the dietary field.

Food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) have primarily been designed for the consumer to encourage healthy, habitual food choices, decrease chronic disease risk and improve public health. However, minimal research has been conducted to evaluate whether FBDG are utilised by the public. The present review used a framework of three concepts, awareness, understanding and use, to summarise consumer evidence related to national FBDG and food guides. Searches of nine electronic databases, reference lists and Internet grey literature elicited 939 articles. Predetermined exclusion criteria selected twenty-eight studies for review. These consisted of qualitative, quantitative and mixed study designs, non-clinical participants, related to official FBDG for the general public, and involved measures of consumer awareness, understanding or use of FBDG. The three concepts of awareness, understanding and use were often discussed interchangeably. Nevertheless, a greater amount of evidence for consumer awareness and understanding was reported than consumer use of FBDG. The twenty-eight studies varied in terms of aim, design and method. Study quality also varied with raw qualitative data, and quantitative method details were often omitted. Thus, the reliability and validity of these review findings may be limited. Further research is required to evaluate the efficacy of FBDG as a public health promotion tool. If the purpose of FBDG is to evoke consumer behaviour change, then the framework of consumer awareness, understanding and use of FBDG may be useful to categorise consumer behaviour studies and complement the dietary survey and health outcome data in the process of FBDG evaluation and revision.