Meaningful Learning for Deep Facial Emotional Features

Neural Processing Letters - Facial expression is an important aspect to recognize emotions between humans. However, this task remains difficult for machines. Several approaches have been developed...     

Stability enhancement of garlic essential oil using new opopanax gum/gelatin nanofibres

Opopanax gum/gelatin nanofibre was produced by the electrospinning method, and the efficiency of this new technique for encapsulation of garlic essential oil was investigated. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy results showed the physical and weak interactions between opopanax gum and gelatin, as well as the improvement of their thermal stability in the nanofibres structure. Incorporating 10% garlic essential oil based on biopolymer weight in nanofibres was considered the best percentage. The results confirmed the presence of garlic essential oil in the nanofibres and the improvement of its thermal stability by entrapment to the nanofibre structure. The data of analysis of the stability of garlic essential oil in the forms of free and encapsulated conditions showed that its stability increased at 25 °C from 20 days to more than 60 days. It indicated the efficiency of opopanax gum/gelatin nanofibres as an applicable coating material for stability enhancement of essential oils.     

Cometabolic degradation of para-nitrophenol and phenol by Ralstonia eutropha in a Kissiris-immobilized cell bioreactor

Ralstonia eutropha was able to degrade p-nitrophenol (PNP) at concentrations ranging from 5 to 15mg l ^?1 in the presence of phenol which was kept at the constant concentration of 200 mg l ^?1. More than 90% of phenol was degraded within 30 h and in the absence of PNP. While in this time period and in the presence of 15 mg l ^?1 less than 30% of phenol was degraded and PNP removal ability of the test bacterium was about 20%. Kissiris as a natural source of silicon dioxide having a very rigid structure with many micropores irregularly distributed throughout its surface was used to evaluate effectiveness of the cell immobilization using a Kissiris-immobilized cell bioreactor [ICB]. By applying phenol-feeding regime in the ICB operated in a batch recycling mode, simultaneous degradation of phenol in total amount of 1,000 mg l ^?1 with 15 mg l ^?1 PNP was achieved within 40 h.     

Are Iranian scientists recognized as their productivity enhances? A comparison of Iran’s impact to global norms in different subfields of Science Citation Index during 2002–2005

Witnessing a substantial growth rate in its scientific production, Iran is considered as one of the recently rising stars in scientific contribution scene. However, its impact in science progress is widely unknown, especially at global level. Studying Iran’s scholarly publications and recognition in SCI, the present communication tries to clarify the country’s science system performance using regression analyses and then to compare its performance to that of the world, using Relative Citation Rate (RCR) and Relative Subfield Citedness (RW). The results of the regression analyses reveal that although Iran displays considerable weaknesses in its performance, it is increasingly recognized as its outputs grow. According to the RCR values, Iran performed at/above the global level in 21 subfields. However, the RW values show that the country’s performance is above the global level in only two subfields. Although Iran is very far from an ideal situation; these evidences can be considered as heralds of a successful movement towards a wealthy scientific future.     

Chemical composition changes in four green olive cultivars during spontaneous fermentation

Changes in some physico-chemical characteristics (pH and free acidity) and chemical composition (sugars, total phenolic and flavonoid contents) of four olive cultivars during spontaneous fermentation in brine were investigated. The cultivars were typical of the Moroccan market: “Moroccan Picholine”, “Languedoc Picholine”, “Ascolana” and “Sevillana”. The physico-chemical changes of olives and brines during fermentation process were monitored. A similar pattern of pH was noticed for the “Moroccan Picholine”, “Languedoc Picholine” and “Ascolana” cultivars with a final pH ranging between 4.4 and 4.6. The profile of free acidity measured throughout fermentation period in brines was in agreement with the pH trend. The concentration of sugars, total phenolic and flavonoids contents in olives flesh and brines during fermentation is reported. The loss of flavonoids, sugars and total phenolic contents in the olive flesh by the end of fermentation process was up to 60%, 63% and 79% in “Languedoc Picholine”, “Sevillana” and “Moroccan Picholine”, respectively. The main phenols identified and quantified in the different brines at the end of brining process were hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, (+)-catechin and quercetine. The highest total phenolic content and antioxidant activity were obtained in Moroccan Picholine brine after 71 days of fermentation.