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Although it is possible to achieve a balanced diet by eating a variety of foods, it is clear that there is a gap between the ideal and the reality of what people actually eat. For individuals at all stages of life and with changing lifestyles where food selections may compromise optimal nutrition, nutrient‐dense foods including fortified foods and food supplements can serve as an effective means of ensuring that micronutrient needs are fulfilled. Populations at risk include the elderly, women at various life stages, children and adolescents, and people trying to lose weight. Efficacy and safety are key health issues: efficacy refers to the ability of vitamins and minerals either to prevent a deficiency, to enhance a physiological effect or to reduce the risk of disease; safety refers to the safe intake of a micronutrient to avoid adverse effects. Safety is the fundamental tenet of the scientific risk assessments and the cornerstone of food safety policy and legislation. Harmonisation of laws on food fortification and food supplements at EU level will help to ensure a high level of public health and consumer protection and facilitate the free circulation of food products within the community.

This paper argues for an increased volume of references to Gabriel Tarde and Georg Simmel in the field of organization sociology. The text emphasizes the importance of these two sociologists in understanding the role of imperfection in organizing and the phenomena of fashion and imitation in contemporary organizations. Tarde’s theory challenged the antinomy between continuity and discontinuity, considering finite entities as cases of infinite processes and stable situations as transitory. Simmel’s theory of fashion explores the democratic and democratizing nature of fashion, which satisfies the demand for social adaptation and differentiation. They both saw fashion as a selection mechanism for organizational forms and managerial practices. Furthermore, referring to Tarde and Simmel can help counter the overemphasis on identity construction and the neglect of alterity in social sciences. The construction of identity often overlooks the inevitability of difference and alterity, which are essential aspects of collective projects. Lastly, this paper discusses Simmel’s concept of the stranger and its relevance in analyzing the experiences of foreigners and their potential advantages as “double strangers” in academia and society. The conclusion is that Tarde and Simmel’s contributions offer valuable insights for understanding the dynamics of management, organizing, and social interactions in contemporary organizations.

This comparative and qualitative study-in-progress focuses on two early childhood teacher education (ECTE) programs in contexts where the participants are undergoing rapid social and personal change: a program in Namibia and a training program for immigrant childcare educators in Canada. The objective is to provide in-depth understanding of the ways in which differing ideas about ECTE are reflected in practice. It is important to ensure that ECTE programs prepare teachers to dovetail children’s preparation for school with meaningful connections to the culture and language of the home community, since more and more children spend their preschool years in early childhood (EC) centers that are becoming increasingly westernized in character. Without such connections, children in settings undergoing rapid change will continue to drop out of school before literacy and other skills are firmly established. The data will stem from analysis of early childhood care and education and ECTE curricula; policy and other documents; focused observations in ECTE classrooms and teaching practica; and interviews with teacher educators, education officers, teachers, parents, and community leaders. The results are expected to illuminate issues and strategies which are most likely to be effective for ECTE programs, with implications for teacher education in a range of settings in both the majority and minority worlds.

This paper critically reviews the motivations for introducing different connected healthcare to support Assisted Living in older and other vulnerable groups. The aim is to develop a new approach that will be sustainable in the future.

The methodology involves a consideration of assessment criteria currently being employed and the resulting costs and limitations in providing a person centred approach. The implications of introducing new technologies such as plesiocare and mCare are then considered.

It was found that one of the most cost‐effective applications of technology is in the support of informal carers but the telecare equipment that they are offered may not be the most appropriate.

The findings are limited by a lack of formal risk assessments that are person centred. The implications include the need for improved training in assessment processes and access to a wider inventory of technologies.

Existing telecare services will need to change in order to adopt more plesiocare and self‐care approaches and to engage more actively in the development of models based on mcare.

Governments and health ministries may achieve better and lower cost support for their ageing population by adopting a model that includes multiple layers of technology, including easier access to self‐care and mCare technologies.

This paper includes the first discussion on plesiocare and its relative advantages over telecare in supporting informal carers.

Some months ago a national organisation established to keep a watchful eye on the Nation's diet expressed concern over the eating trends of people in what to them appeared to be developing inbalances of necessary nutrient factors and the inadeuacy not so much of calories and energy values but in the nature and quality of main food factors. It was recommended that the national diet should be improved, but the authorities pointed to the National Food Survey results to show that the diet was not deficient; that the average daily intake of protein, vitamins, minerals and overall energy requirements were satisfied; all of which is true for the not‐too‐generous levels set. Even the pensioner households included in the Survey sample appear well‐fed. What causes concern is the year‐by‐year decrease in staple foods consumed—milk, red meat, bread, fresh vegetables—and the heavy reliance on refined, processed foods. In its annual reports on NFS reviews, the BFJ has almost monotonously referred to this downward trend. Individual NFS Reports do not reveal any serious deficiencies, as yet, but in the trend over the years—and herein lies the real value of the Survey and its data—few if any of the changes have been for the better; movements in food groups have tended to be downwards. If these trends continue, the time must surely come when there will be real deficiencies; that substitution within a food group cannot make good essential foods severely rationed by high prices.

Metadata has many potential uses and benefits. One of those is to aid in the considerable challenge we with respect to the issue of digital preservation. The many potential uses of metadata however raise the question of how we can avoid having a whole plethora of standards.

The decision to split Internepcon/UK into two component parts, the production and the packaging sectors, seemed justified in April when over 9,000 representatives from the electronics industry visited the Show over its three‐day duration.