The power within: Mass media, scientific entertainment, and the introduction of psychical research into China, 1900-1920.

How did a new science initially promoted by only a few individuals eventually become a widespread cultural phenomenon practiced and known by thousands of people? Following a transnational approach, this article traces the introduction of psychical research into China during the first two decades of the 20th century. Known in the Republican period (1912-1949) as Spiritual Science (xinling kexue or xinling yanjiu), psychical research flourished between the 1920s and 1930s, playing a key role in the popularization of applied psychology and mind-cure across China. This article takes a step back from the heyday of Spiritual Science by looking at the period that immediately preceded and helped define it. Focused on wide-circulation newspapers, popular manuals, and stage performances, it teases out the ways in which Chinese popular culture translated European, American, and Japanese psychical research to local Chinese audiences in the midst of China's search for modernity. By naturalizing the reality of psychic powers, spiritual scientists blurred the boundaries between science and superstition in a period when these were posited as diametrically opposed.

Kitchen layouts and consumers' food hygiene practices: Ergonomics versus safety.

Our paper emphasizes the importance of the kitchen layout in facilitating consumers' food hygiene practices. A significant correlation was found between the sink placement (inside or outside the kitchen) and hygienic practices during food handling based on a survey performed on consumers from ten European countries, indicating that those who had the sink in the kitchen were more likely to perform proper hygiene practices than those who have not. The self-reported practices were supported by observed practices in 64 households from five European countries. The observational study combined with the examination of kitchen layouts revealed that the kitchen work triangle with its apexes represented by the kitchen sink, cooking stove and refrigerator, which is recommended for ergonomic reasons by architects and designers, did not necessarily support food hygiene practices in kitchens. Cross-contamination events were associated with the sink - countertop distances longer than 1 m. Based on this, a new kitchen triangle with its apexes represented by the kitchen sink, working place (usually countertop) and cooking stove, with the distance between the sink and the working place less than 1 m is proposed to be used as norm in kitchen designs for combining ergonomics with safety. This triangle is proposedly named the food safety triangle and is aimed to mitigate the risks of foodborne illnesses by creating an arrangement that facilitates hygiene practices. This study is the first to highlight the importance of implementing the concept of food safety in the kitchen design based on significant correlations between kitchen equipment placement and consumers' food safety practices.

Revealing Secrets: Talismans, Healthcare and the Market of the Occult in Early Twentieth-century China.

This article analyses the place and value of occult arts in the healthcare market of Republican China (1912-1949). Medical historiography has long neglected the resilience of such occult arts as talismans, astrology and divination in the context of China's search for modernity. Focusing on the production, trade, and consumption of goods and services related to talismanic healing, I give voice to Chinese occultists by investigating the formation of a 'market of the occult' in the Republican era. I adopt a global perspective to clarify the changes that occult healing underwent following the popularisation of new printing technologies, mass media and transnational spiritualism in early twentieth-century China. Erstwhile embraced in secrecy, the occult was now being made public. Cheap manuals, wide-circulation newspapers and book catalogues reveal that in contrast to past studies that herald the disenchantment of the world as the hallmark of Chinese modernity, occult healing did not simply survive but thrived in the face of modern science and technology.

Data on European kitchen layouts belonging to vulnerable consumers (elderly people and young families with children or pregnant women) and risk-takers (young single men).

The data presented here capture the structure of kitchen layouts belonging to consumers vulnerable to foodborne diseases and food risk-takers. Data were collected in the frame of the SafeConsume project by multidisciplinary research teams that visited consumers during preparing a meal and had the possibility to examine their cooking routines. Distances between sink and stove, sink and refrigerator, stove and refrigerator, sink and working place (countertop or table), stove and working place were analyzed to correlate food safety practices applied during cooking with kitchen arrangements. The results arising from analyzing the ergonomics of kitchens versus potential cross-contamination events are presented in Mihalache et al., [1]. These data contribute to a better understanding of real kitchen layouts and can be used as a starting point for future research regarding food safety-oriented arrangements instead of ergonomics-focused designs, for food safety risk assessments, as study cases for explaining specific measures that can be established to improve food handling and hygiene practices in homes and for sociological research pointing consumers' behavior during cooking.

Cross-contamination of lettuce with Campylobacter spp. via cooking salt during handling raw poultry.

Campylobacter spp. are the most common bacterial pathogens associated with human gastroenteritis in industrialized countries. Contaminated chicken is the food vehicle associated with the majority of reported cases of campylobacteriosis, either by the consumption of undercooked meat or via cross- contamination of ready-to-eat (RTE) foods during the handling of contaminated raw chicken parts and carcasses. Our results indicate that cooking salt (used for seasoning) is a potential vehicle for Campylobacter spp. cross-contamination from raw chicken to lettuce, through unwashed hands after handling contaminated chicken. Cross-contamination events were observed even when the chicken skin was contaminated with low levels of Campylobacter spp. (ca. 1.48 Log CFU/g). The pathogen was recovered from seasoned lettuce samples when raw chicken was contaminated with levels ≥ 2.34 Log CFU/g. We also demonstrated that, once introduced into cooking salt, Campylobacter spp. are able to survive in a culturable state up to 4 hours. After six hours, although not detected following an enrichment period in culture medium, intact cells were observed by transmission electron microscopy. These findings reveal a "novel" indirect cross-contamination route of Campylobacter in domestic settings, and a putative contamination source to RTE foods that are seasoned with salt, that might occur if basic food hygiene practices are not adopted by consumers when preparing and cooking poultry dishes.

Consumption orientations may support (or hinder) transitions to more plant-based diets.

There have been increasing calls for triggering and sustaining a large-scale transition toward healthier and more sustainable food systems. To help materialize this transition, the present work aims to inform efforts for developing, marketing and promoting plant-based meals and plant-forward lifestyles, following a consumption-focused approach. The findings (Nparticipants = 1600, Portugal; 52.6% female, Mage = 48.30) allowed to identify trends and differences on three sets of variables - (a) current eating habits (i.e., meat, fish, and plant-based meals), (b) consumer willingness to change (i.e., reduce meat consumption, follow a plant-based diet, maintain the status quo), and (c) enablers for eating plant-based meals more often (i.e., capability, opportunity, motivation) -, considering consumer orientations toward consumption in general, and food consumption in particular. Taken together, the results suggested that some consumption orientations were aligned with the transition to more plant-based diets (e.g., food orientation toward naturalness), others were open to - but not yet materialized in - the transition (e.g., general orientation toward consumption as exploration), and still others were in tension with the transition (e.g., food orientation toward pleasure). The discussion calls for developing and testing pathways to reduce meat consumption and increase plant-based eating which capture and build upon a range of consumption orientations, rather than against them.

N-Myristoyltransferases as antileishmanial targets: a piggyback approach with benzoheterocyclic analogues

Leishmaniasis is one of the neglected diseases that remain in need for pharmacological alternatives. In this context, N-Myristoyltransferases (NMT) arise as interesting targets to explore since they are involved in the co/post-translational processing of peptides which are responsible for host cell invasion. Studies that consider these enzymes as targets point out the potential of benzoheterocyclic compounds as inhibitors of Candida albicans's N-myristoyltransferase. Here we applied a combination of comparative binding site analysis and molecular docking studies based on a Piggyback approach in the search for new Leishmania major NMT ligands. Our results revealed that NMT enzymes from both pathogens present enough structural similarity to allow extrapolation of the knowledge available from C. albicans studies to develop new L. major NMT inhibitors. Molecular docking studies with benzoheterocyclic analogues indicate the potential of benzothiazole derivatives as L. major NMT ligands, giving rise to a completely new class of chemical compounds to be explored in the development of antileishmanial drugs.

Considerations on a formative and active method in the teaching of histology

The use of a formative and active method in presenting the theoretical and practical material in histology has shown that it is possible to develop student participation in the learning process, developing his or her skills in observation, analysis and interpretation of images, while reducing classroom time load, without prejudice to the course program.