Recovery of polyphenols from camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia H.B.K. McVaugh) depulping residue by cloud point extraction

In this study the potential of cloud point extraction formed by a non-ionic surfactant was used in order to separate polyphenols from industrial residues of camu-camu. The effects of operational conditions of the cloud point extraction (CPE) on the polyphenol recovery and volumetric ratio were investigated. The results showed a maximum recovery of 95.71% that was obtained using 7.0 wt% Triton X-114, native pH (3.25), and 80 wt% polyphenol extract at 30 °C. The use of cloud point extraction was successful to recover the polyphenols from agroindustrial residue since it is a simple as well as of low-cost technique.     

A Tool Support for Reusing ELAN Rule-Based Components

The adaptation of software components developed for a specific application in order to generate reusable components often includes some kind of generalization. This generalization may be carried out, for instance, by the renaming of some identifiers or by its parameterization. In our work, we are specially interested in the generalization by parameterization of algebraic specification components. Generalization and some other transformations on algebraic specifications are being integrated in the FERUS tool. This tool was initially developed for the Common Algebraic Specification Language, called CASL, and we show in the paper its adaptation to the new version of the rule-based programming language ELAN.     

Are electronic white canes better than traditional canes? A comparative study with blind and blindfolded participants

Visually impaired individuals often rely on assistive technologies such as white canes for independent navigation. Many electronic enhancements to the traditional white cane have been proposed. However, only a few of these proof-of-concept technologies have been tested with authentic users, as most studies rely on blindfolded non-visually impaired participants or no testing with participants at all. Experiments involving blind users are usually not contrasted with the traditional white cane. This study set out to compare an ultrasound-based electronic cane with a traditional white cane. Moreover, we also compared the performance of a group of visually impaired participants (N = 10) with a group of blindfolded participants without visual impairments (N = 31). The results show that walking speed with the electronic cane is significantly slower compared to the traditional white cane. Moreover, the results show that the performance of the participants without visual impairments is significantly slower than for the visually impaired participants. No significant differences in obstacle detection rates were observed across participant groups and device types for obstacles on the ground, while 79% of the hanging obstacles were detected by the electronic cane. The results of this study thus suggest that electronic canes present only one advantage over the traditional cane, namely in its ability to detect hanging obstacles, at least without prolonged practice. Next, blindfolded participants are insufficient substitutes for blind participants who are expert cane users. The implication of this study is that research into digital white cane enhancements should include blind participants. These participants should be followed over time in longitudinal experiments to document if practice will lead to improvements that surpass the performance achieved with traditional canes.

     

Untersuchung des Datenverkehrs aktueller Smart-TVs

Das Internet der Dinge (IoT) bezeichnet die Anbindung von Gegenständen des alltäglichen Gebrauchs an das Internet. Der Fernseher ist als Smart-TV bereits Teil des Internets. Einige Untersuchungen haben hier in jüngster Vergangenheit deutliche Missstände in Bezug auf Datenschutz und Datensicherheit aufgezeigt. Der Beitrag fasst die Ergebnisse einer aktuellen, umfangreichen Untersuchung von fünf Smart-TVs zusammen.     

Estimation of extreme percentiles in Birnbaum-Saunders distributions

The Birnbaum-Saunders distribution has recently received considerable attention in the statistical literature, including some applications in the environmental sciences. Several authors have generalized this distribution, but these generalizations are still inadequate for predicting extreme percentiles. In this paper, we consider a variation of the Birnbaum-Saunders distribution, which enables the prediction of extreme percentiles as well as the implementation of the EM algorithm for maximum likelihood estimation of the distribution parameters. This implementation has some advantages over the direct maximization of the likelihood function. Finally, we present results of a simulation study along with an application to a real environmental data set.     

Improving image mining through Geoprocessing

Geoprocessing Information Systems (GIS) deal with structured information concerned some geographical localization. So one uses three-dimensional image representation systems in a huge database, where it is possible to insert many data about some interest domain, say, agriculture, economics, industry, demographics and so on. Images are powerful information sources that can soundly support decision making processes. An image can be seen as a set of elements with spatial localization and color. To interpret an image includes deriving clusters and relations between such elements. This article proposes an integration of Geoprocessing and Image Mining to support image based decisions in several domains such as healthcare.     

Decreasing GAD neonatally attenuates steroid-induced sexual differentiation of the rat brain.

During development, exposure to gonadal steroids results in brain sexual differentiation. Postnatally, hypothalamic gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels are almost double in males versus females. We hypothesized that increased GABA neonatally results in masculinization. Males, females, and androgenized females were infused intrahypothalamically with antisense oligonucleotides against glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) mRNA at birth to reduce GABA synthesis. GAD protein and GABA levels were reduced 24 hr later without obvious toxic effects, as determined by histological examination. As adults, neonatally antisense-treated, androgenized females showed reduced intromission-like behavior and lordosis quotients compared with vehicle and scrambled controls. Lordosis quotients were reduced about 50% in nonandrogenized females versus vehicle and scrambled controls. These data suggest that GABA is involved in mediating brain sex differentiation and may act in both males and females. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Landsat ETM+ image applications to extract information for environmental planning in a Colombian city

Latin American cities have witnessed rapid and unplanned growth causing social, economic and environmental problems. To solve these problems, urban planners require information and indicators that normally are not available. In this study, the applicability of remote sensing data to extract environmental data was examined. A Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) image was used to gather information about land surface temperature (T_s) and its relationship with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Leaf Water Content Index (LWC). A strong negative relationship between T_s and NDVI and between T_s and LWC was observed. Analysis of variance points out statistically significant differences in the averages of T_s, NDVI, and LWC among neighbourhoods. Areas with high density housing, with a deficient urban design and those with commercial establishments had the lowest means of NDVI and LWC, and higher means of T_s. On the other hand, neighbourhoods with a higher proportion of trees and green zones had higher NDVI and LWC, and lower T_s. Finally, all neighbourhoods were classified into those that have lower to higher T_s. Therefore, the greening campaigns and new landscape design of the city should be directed specifically at neighbourhoods with the lowest level of NDVI or LWC.     

Transfer learning by mapping and revising boosted relational dependency networks

Machine Learning - Statistical machine learning algorithms usually assume the availability of data of considerable size to train the models. However, they would fail in addressing domains where...