QUALITY-OF-SERVICE ADAPTIVE CONTROL OF MULTIMEDIA SERVICES IN SHORT-TERM RESOURCE RESERVATION NETWORKS

ABSTRACT

Present multimedia services are provided through a heterogeneous set of networks. Because of the heterogeneity of the networks, long-term resource availability guarantees are difficult to obtain. Consequently, even if the resource requirements throughout the service could be accurately mapped, it would not be feasible to provide overall performance guarantees. Application adaptation arises as an appropriate solution for quality-of-service assurance in such dynamic service infrastructures. Application adaptation basically involves adapting application characteristics according to the network resource availability. We formulate the problem of adaptation of multimedia applications to network infrastructure as well as to user- and application-imposed constraints and preferences. We benefit from the good approximation, identification, and control capabilities of recurrent high-order neural networks and we introduce an algorithm that guarantees the resource constraints of the network infrastructure will not be violated while maintaining the user and application requirements.     

Glass Transition State Diagram of a Baked Cracker and Its Relationship to Gluten

The polymer science approach can be applied to the understanding of physical changes in foods such as loss of texture upon moisture gain. The glass transition temperature (T_g) of a commercial cracker was measured by Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis (DMTA) as a function of water content. The final state diagram showed that the cracker was plasticized by water with a glass transition temperature that decreased as water content increased. When compared with published glass transition data on cereal ingredients, gluten may be the main component responsible for the mechanical changes and loss of crispness of such products when moisture content is increased.     

COMPOSITION AND INSECT ATTRACTING ACTIVITY OF THE ESSENTIAL OIL OF <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rosmarinus officinalis</Emphasis>

The essential oil and a number of extracts of Rosmarinus officinalisL. in solvents of increasing polarity were isolated, and their components identified and tested as pest control agents. Ethanol and acetone extracts attract grape berry moth Lobesia botrana. However, none of the extracts had a significant effect on western flower thrips Frankliniella occidentalis, which is attracted by 1,8-cineole, a major essential oil component.     

BREAD MAKING OF DURUM WHEAT WITH CHICKPEA SOURDOUGH OR COMPRESSED BAKER'S YEAST

Two ways of improving durum wheat bread-making quality were evaluated.
First, durum wheat (cultivar "Papadakis") was blended with bread wheat flour of good (A-flour) or medium (B-flour) quality (70% durum and 30% bread wheat flour). Durum wheat flour displayed the γ-gliadin 45 electrophoretic band and acceptable bread-making quality. Breads from flour blends had better volume, particularly the durum and A-flour blend. The addition of ascorbic and citric acid and malt flour improved dough rheological properties and thus bread volume, as well as staling rate and sensory characteristics. These were more pronounced in the blend of durum with B-flour.
Second, durum wheat flour alone was used to prepare chickpea sourdough-leavened bread, as flavor is important for consumer acceptance. With the addition only of salt, the chickpea sourdough-leavened durum wheat bread displayed acceptable loaf volume, distinguished flavor and longer shelf life compared with bread prepared with compressed baker's yeast.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

One of the practical applications of this study is the possibility of using a common durum wheat cultivar instead of local varieties as is the case with traditional breads. Results of this work may be useful for promoting greater acceptance of durum wheat breads as well as expansion of the use of a traditional Mediterranean chickpea sourdough-leavened durum wheat bread with distinguished flavor and taste.
This work may serve as a guide for determining the quality of flours suitable for production of "home made" or "village" bread (which has high market value as specialty bread) by blending durum and bread wheat flours. Best results are obtained with good-quality bread wheat flour, regardless of the good quality of durum wheat cultivar used, together with the use of the dough improvers implemented in this work.