A common measurement of body temperature during exercise in a hot, humid environment is mean skin temperature collected from 3-12 sites on the body. However, such an approach fails to demonstrate localized differences in skin temperature that are likely to exist as a function of gender. The purpose of this study was to examine potential differences in skin temperature between men and women at 17 different locations on the body. Young women (21 ± 1 y; n = 11) and men (23 ± 3; n = 10) were recruited to complete a 60-min walk/jog interval protocol in a hot (34 ± 1 °C), humid (64 ± 8%) environment while skin temperature was measured. Data was analyzed using a repeated-measures ANOVA (p < 0.05) and location of interaction effects determined using a Fisher’s least squares difference test. We observed a higher change (p < 0.05) from baseline skin temperatures (ΔTsk) for women in three locations: left upper back (women: avg. ΔTsk = 4.12 ± 0.20 °C; men: avg. ΔTsk = 2.70 ± 0.10 °C), right upper back (women: avg. ΔTsk = 4.19 ± 0.07 °C; men: avg. ΔTsk = 2.92 ± 0.05 °C), and right mid-back (women: avg. ΔTsk = 4.62 ± 0.14 °C; men: avg. ΔTsk =3.55 ± 0.09 °C). Individual time differences between genders occurred after 7- (left upper back) and 15-min (right upper back, right mid-back) of exercise and were maintained until the end of exercise. Women have a greater increase in skin temperature at three locations on the back following the onset of exercise in a hot, humid environment. This report provides important information regarding the implications of women exercising in a hot, humid environment.

Student Number: 0218322F Master of Science School of Physiology / The high morbidity and mortality of wild mammals and livestock during capture and transport is generally ascribed to thermal stress. Consequently, capture operators can benefit from improved methods that may reduce thermal stress. The aim of my study was to develop a practical method of measuring the body temperature of mammals during capture and transport operations. Firstly, I determined whether intermittent temperature recordings, which allow for minuteby- minute monitoring of an animal’s temperature, could accurately reflect continuous measures of an animal’s rectal temperature. Intermittent temperatures were measured via telemetry while continuous and off-line recordings were measured with data loggers. Secondly, I compared rectal and abdominal temperatures to determine if rectal temperature can provide a practical, noninvasive method of estimating core body temperature. Additionally, I measured body temperature and environmental conditions throughout transportation and compared pre- and post-transport levels of faecal cortisol, and blood cortisol, haematocrit and catecholamines. Measuring rectal temperatures seems to be the only feasible, non-invasive technique to obtain temperature during transport operations. However, rectal temperature records required about 30 minutes to stabilise after inserting a thermometric device. After rectal temperature stabilised, generally the difference between abdominal and rectal temperatures varied greatly for individual animals, while the average differences in temperatures between the body sites were not significant for all, except one, species. I have also shown that telemeters and data loggers can be used interchangeably to measure the body temperature of animals. The differences between temperatures measured by the devices were not significant, except for substantial differences shown in two animals. The addition of earphones and a large aerial inside the vehicle improved the telemetry results, by limiting the extraneous noise of the capture and transport environment. These conditions probably caused the anomalous readings in the two animals. General thermal responses to stress are that animals showed a peak in temperature due to capture and a decrease in temperature during transport. Therefore, capture-related stress and the likelihood of animals dying during capture could be minimised by ensuring that the animals are not chased longer than a set cut-off time. Further, globe temperature should be monitored to ensure that animals are not captured in high thermal conditions. In contradiction with the current guidelines regarding the appropriate time of day for capture, I recommend that animals should not be caught at the end of the day, as my results show that this is when their body temperatures are the highest. Body temperatures during transport and differences in faeces cortisol before and after transport seem to indicate that animals adapt to repeated stress events.

This study was aimed at exploring data analysis techniques for generating accurate estimates of the loss in quality of fresh fruits, vegetables and cut flowers in chilled supply chains based on data from advanced sensors. It was motivated by the recent interest in the application of advanced sensors, by emerging concepts in quality controlled logistics, and by the desire to minimise quality losses during transport and storage of the produce. Cut roses were used in this work although the findings will also be applicable to other produce. The literature has reported that whilst temperature was considered to be the most critical post-harvest factor, others such as growing conditions could also be important in the senescence of cut roses. Kinetic modelling was the most commonly used modelling approach for shelf life predictions of foods and perishable produce, but not for estimating vase life (VL) of cut flowers, and so this was explored in this work along with multiple linear regression (MLR) and partial least squares (PLS). As the senescence of cut roses is not fully understood, kinetic modelling could not be implemented directly. Consequently, a novel technique, called Kinetic Linear System (KLS), was developed based on kinetic modelling principles. Simulation studies of shelf life predictions for tomatoes, mushrooms, seasoned soybean sprouts, cooked shrimps and other seafood products showed that the KLS models could effectively replace the kinetic ones. With respect to VL predictions KLS, PLS and MLR were investigated for data analysis from an in-house experiment with cut roses from Cookes Rose Farm (Jersey). The analysis concluded that when the initial and final VLs were available for model calibration, effective estimates of the post-harvest loss in VL of cut roses could be obtained using the post-harvest temperature. Otherwise, when the initial VLs were not available, such effective estimates could not be obtained. Moreover, pre-harvest conditions were shown to correlate with the VL loss but the correlation was too weak to produce or improve an effective estimate of the loss. The results showed that KLS performance was the best while PLS one could be acceptable; but MLR performance was not adequate. In another experiment, boxes of cut roses were transported from a Kenyan farm to a UK distribution centre. Using KLS and PLS techniques, the analysis showed that the growing temperature could be used to obtain effective estimates of the VLs at the farm, at the distribution centre and also the in-transit loss. Further, using post-harvest temperature would lead to a smaller error for the VL at the distribution centre and the VL loss. Nevertheless, the estimates of the VL loss may not be useful practically due to the excessive relative prediction error. Overall, although PLS had a slightly smaller prediction error, KLS worked effectively in many cases where PLS failed, it could handle constraints while PLS could not.In conclusion, KLS and PLS can be used to generate effective estimates of the post-harvest VL loss of cut roses based on post-harvest temperature stresses recorded by advanced sensors. However, the estimates may not be useful practically due to significant relative errors. Alternatively, pre-harvest temperature could be used although it may lead to slightly higher errors. Although PLS had slightly smaller errors KLS was more robust and flexible. Further work is recommended in the objective evaluations of product quality, alternative non-linear techniques and dynamic decision support system.

The master´s thesis describes the basic information on the reporting of water losses. Means and methods to reduce water losses. Devices used to monitoring water supply, or detect malfunctioning of water supply line. Describes and evaluates the functionality of UFR on the laboratory model.