Effects of different cooking methods on chemical compositions,in vitro starch digestibility and antioxidant activity of taro (Colocasia esculenta) corms

The impacts of different cooking methods (boiling, steaming, baking, microwaving and frying) on chemical compositions, starch digestibility and antioxidant activity of taro corms were investigated. Compared with raw taro, boiling and frying reduced crude protein and ash contents. Frying significantly increased crude fat and fibre contents but decreased carbohydrate content. All cooking methods reduced oxalate content, especially frying. Among the cooked products, the boiled taro had the highest rapidly digestible starch (RDS) but the lowest resistant starch (RS) contents. In contrast, the fried taro provided the lowest RDS but the highest RS contents. All cooking methods reduced the total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of taro. The boiled taro had the lowest antioxidant activity but the fired taro provided the highest. Frying was able to retain most of the health-promoting compounds with the lowest oxalate content; however, the high consumption of high-fat fried taro may adversely affect human health.     

Nyquist plots,finite gain/phase margins & dissipativity

The relation between the small gain theorem and ‘infinite phase margin’ is classical; in this paper we formulate a novel supply rate, called the ‘not-out-of-phase’ supply rate, to first prove that ‘infinite gain margin’ (i.e. non-intersection of the Nyquist plot of a transfer function and the negative half of the real axis) is equivalent to dissipativity with respect to this supply rate. Capturing non-intersection of half-line makes the supply rate system-dependent: a novel feature unobserved in the supply rates considered in the literature so far.     

Rats fed linseed oil in microemulsion forms enriches the cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum lipids with docosahexaenoic acid and lower calcium transport

The effect of feeding rats with whey protein or lipoid microemulsion of n-3 rich linseed oil (LSO), and n-6 rich sunflower oil (SNO) compared to native or microemulsion forms of each oil for 60 days on fatty acid composition, Ca²⁺Mg²⁺ ATPase, Ca²⁺ uptake and membrane fluidity of rat cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) were assessed. Rats consuming LSO in lipoid microemulsion showed higher levels of ALA (18:3, n-3) conversion to DHA (22:6, n-3) when compared to rats given LSO in native form. Compared to all other dietary treatments, the alterations in the n-6/n-3 PUFA composition of SR of rats given LSO in lipoid microemulsion effected the greatest changes in Ca²⁺Mg²⁺ ATPase activity and Ca²⁺ uptake which effectively reduced Ca²⁺ transport. Therefore, the LSO in lipoid microemulsion confers similar heart healthy fatty acid compositional and calcium transport changes and potentially anti-arrhythmic effects similar to fish oils.     

Learning under a VEDIC teacher

The problem of parametric learning under a vicissitudinous teacher,i.e., a teacher with unknown variable characteristics, is the topic of this study. The concept central to the technique developed here is that learning the variable characteristics of the teacher aids the parametric learning under such vicissitudinous environment. This is demonstrated effectively through presentation of simulation results. It is shown that the efficiency of the parametric learning under randomly varying levels of supervision is significantly enhanced by tracking the variable characteristics of the VEDIC teacher (for each pattern class) during the learning process.VEDIC denotes Vicissitudinous Environment-Defining, Imperfectly Counseling.     

CHITRA: Cognitive handprinted input-trained recursively analyzing system for recognition of alphanumeric characters

A novel system for recognition of handprinted alphanumeric characters has been developed and tested. The system can be employed for recognition of either the alphabet or the numeral by contextually switching on to the corresponding branch of the recognition algorithm. The two major components of the system are the multistage feature extractor and the decision logic tree-type catagorizer. The importance of good features over sophistication in the classification procedures was recognized, and the feature extractor is designed to extract features based on a variety of topological, morphological and similar properties. An information feedback path is provided between the decision logic and the feature extractor units to facilitate an interleaved or recursive mode of operation. This ensures that only those features essential to the recognition of a particular sample are extracted each time. Test implementation has demonstrated the reliability of the system in recognizing a variety of handprinted alphanumeric characters with close to 100% accuracy.Most of this work was carried out at the School of Automation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.