The function of lactic acid bacteria and brine solutions on biogenic amine formation by foodborne pathogens in trout fillets

The influences of lactic acid bacteria and brine solutions on the biogenic amine formation by Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Listeria monocytogenes, Aeromonas hydrophila and Salmonella paratyphi A in fermented trout fillets were investigated. Fish fillets were divided into four groups, group 1 without any lactic acid bacteria inoculation, group 2 and group 3 with different salt concentration inoculated with lactic acid bacteria and food-borne pathogens, and group 4 inoculated with lactic acid bacteria and food-borne pathogens without a salt solution. The histamine content in trout fillets in group 4 was found to be more than 10 mg/100 g, while the other groups contained less than 7.5 mg/100 g. The highest tyramine production was found for group 1 and group 3, ranging from 3 to 18 mg/100 g. Lactic acid bacteria did not seem to play an important role on biogenic amine production by food borne pathogens, while adding brine solution on fillets has inhibitory effects on some of the biogenic amines.     

The extraction of zinc(II) from sulphate and perchlorate solutions by di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid dissolved in Isopar-H

The extraction of zinc from sulphate and perchlorate solutions at constant ionic strength, by di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid, DEHPA, in Isopar-H has been studied at 25°C as a function of metal and DEHPA concentrations. The distribution data have been analyzed both graphically and numerically, using the computer program LETAGROPDISTR [33]. The results showed that the species extracted into the organic phase have the composition ZnA₂HA and ZnA₂H₂A₂ for both perchlorate and sulphate systems. The formation constants for each system are given in Table 2. An estimate of the formation constant of ZnSO₄ in aqueous phase was obtained from the extraction data in sulphate solutions.     

Biochemical,sensory and microbiological attributes of wild turbot (Scophthalmus maximus), from the Black Sea,during chilled storage

Freshness of wild turbot (Scophtalmus maximus) stored in ice was assessed by chemical, sensory and microbiological methods. The limit for sensory acceptability of wild turbot stored in ice was ∼12–15 days. The quality of turbot decreased on day 15 (B) and they were no longer acceptable on day 19 (C). The TVB-N level showed fluctuations during storage, indicating that TVB-N could not be a good indicator of turbot quality. The release of FFA increased from an initial value of 6.33 (expressed as % of oleic acid) to a final value of 20.6 during the storage period. The initial PV value was 5.60 meq/kg for turbot stored in ice and it started to increase to 21.6 meq/kg on day 12 and then started to decrease to 13.6 meq/kg at the end of storage period. The level of TMA in wild turbot increased sharply from an initial value of 9.36 mg/kg to a final value of 38.9 mg/kg. Linear regressions (r²) obtained from K, K_i, G, P, H and F_r were 0.92, 0.89, 0.99, 0.89, 0.96 and 0.89, respectively, for the wild turbot stored in ice. Turbot maintained high (E) and good quality (A) during the first 12 days of chilled storage when the average K, K_i and P values were ∼78–85%, and H, F_r and G values were ∼45%, 15% and 149%, respectively. Eight biogenic amines were investigated, namely, histamine, putrescine, cadaverine, spermidine, spermine, tryptamine, tyramine, and 2-phenylethylamine, three amines (histamine, tyramine, and tryptamine) were not detected in any of the fish samples during the storage period. As storage time progressed, putrescine and cadaverine became the dominant amines, reaching 22.7, and 16.9 mg/kg, respectively, at 19 days of storage in ice. Total viable counts of whole gutted turbot increased from the initial value of 3.3 log cfu g⁻¹ (day 0) to 7.87 log cfu g⁻¹ (day 19) over the period of storage. If 10⁶ microorganisms/g are considered to be the TVC limit of acceptability, the shelf life of turbot was approximately ∼13–14 days.     

The potential of Hazara phosphates for phosphoric acid manufacture

The phosphate reserves in Pakistan are small. The largest ore body (Lagarban area) of Hazara Administrative Division located in the North East of the country has 3.25 (measured) and 6.71 (inferred) million tons phosphates rock of silicious and dolomitic nature with 25.8% average P₂O₅ contents besides high impurities of R₂O₃ (3.3%) and MgO (up to 6%).The deposits are not beneficiable by dry and wet screening due to significant phosphate losses which take place. Phosphate flotation recoveries are also low. Heavy intensity magnetic separation removes iron after the removal of dust from classified fraction. Acid leaching is efficient for removing MgO (up to 84%) with low P₂O₅ losses. However, removal of iron and MgO by these methods is not considered feasible on economic grounds.Laboratories and pilot plant processing trials showed that phosphoric acid of 23–25% P₂O₅ can be manufactured from Lagarban rock. As most of the impurities of the rock Fe₂O₃, Al₂O₃, MgO and part of SiO₂ are washed down during processing the resulting product acid is of poor quality with high viscosity.Triplephosphates prepared from this acid are hygroscopic and have low P₂O₅ availability (86%).To overcome the problem of these objectionable impurities in the product acid, removal of these impurities during the processing of phosphoric acid is required, i.e. aggolomeration with gypsum crystals-Pembrook pocess, Occidental process.     

Modality and cueing in multimedia learning: Examining cognitive and perceptual explanations for the modality effect

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of modality (written text vs. spoken text) and visual cueing (low cueing vs. high cueing) on the learning and mental effort of participants studying a computer-based static diagram at their own pace. Participants were randomly assigned to four versions of the computer-based materials formed into a 2 × 2 factorial design by crossing modality with cueing. The results revealed a reverse modality effect, wherein participants studying written text outperformed those studying spoken text on tests of free recall, matching, comprehension, and spatial recall, but not mental effort. Information cueing did not significantly affect either performance or mental effort. These findings are discussed in the context of two popular explanations of the modality effect: the cognitive resources explanation and the perceptual resources explanation. The results were best explained from a perceptual resources viewpoint.     

A hybrid tracking method for scaled and oriented objects in crowded scenes

Traditional kernel based means shift assumes constancy of the object scale and orientation during the course of tracking and uses a symmetric/asymmetric kernel, such as a circle or an ellipse for target representation. In a tracking scenario, it is not uncommon to observe objects with complex shapes whose scale and orientation constantly change due to the camera and object motions. In this paper, we propose a multi object tracking method which tracks the complete object regions, adapts to changing scale and orientation, and assigns consistent labels to each object throughout real world video sequences. Our approach has five major components: (1) dynamic background subtraction, (2) level sets, (3) mean shift convergence, (4) object identification, and (5) occlusion handling. The experimental results show that the proposed method is superior to the traditional mean shift tracking in the following aspects: (1) it provides consistent multi objects tracking instead of single object throughout the video, (2) it is not affected by the scale and orientation changes of the tracked objects, (3) its computational complexity is much less than traditional mean shift due to using level set method instead of probability density.     

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SUGAR PLANTS BY FUZZY TECHNIQUE FOR ORDER PERFORMANCE BY SIMILARITY TO IDEAL SOLUTION (TOPSIS)

This study presents the performance evaluation of sugar plants using the technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) under a fuzzy environment. First, the decision criteria used to evaluate the performances are determined, and then the data from financial statements are collected from sugar plants. Accordingly, the ratings of various alternatives under various criteria and the importance weights of various criteria are assessed by evaluators using linguistic terms. The data obtained are converted into a fuzzy triangular number system and then the fuzzy TOPSIS method is applied to make a final decision. According to the closeness coefficients, the sugar plants are ranked from strong to weak. A real case study involving eight evaluation criteria and nine sugar plants assessed by nine evaluators is provided to illustrate the proposed method. The results show that this method is an effective tool for evaluating investment risks based on the heuristic knowledge acquired from experts.     

An optical gate for simultaneous fusion of four photonic W or Bell states

In order to create large-scale polarization entangled W states, there have been several proposals and some experimental demonstrations. An outstanding proposal is a simple setup which probabilistically fuses two W states of arbitrary sizes $n\ge 3$ and $m\ge 3$ , creating a W state of size $n+m-2$ (Ozdemir et al., in: New J Phys 13:103003, 2011). Using this setup as building blocks, we propose a new setup which can fuse four W states simultaneously. The proposed setup can fuse W states of size 2, i.e. Bell states, as well. We study the resource cost of our fusion process for two main scenarios, i.e. starting from sizes 2 and 3. We present some cost efficient cases, as compared to the previous work.     

Personnel selection based on intuitionistic fuzzy sets

One of the most important activities carried out by human resource management is personnel selection, concerned with identifying an individual from a pool of candidates suitable for a vacant position. Traditionally, personnel selection is a group decision‐making problem under multiple criteria containing subjectivity, imprecision, and vagueness, which are best represented with fuzzy data. In this article, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method extended to intuitionistic fuzzy environments is proposed to select appropriate personnel among candidates. An intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS), which is characterized by membership function, nonmembership function, and hesitation margin, is a more suitable way to deal with vagueness when compared to a fuzzy set. To demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS method, a numerical example of personnel selection in a manufacturing company for a sales manager position is given. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A new congestion control algorithm for improving the performance of a broadcast-based multiprocessor architecture

Congestion occurring in the input queues of broadcast-based multiprocessor architectures can severely limit their overall performance. The existing congestion control algorithms estimate congestion based on a node’s output channel parameters such as the number of free virtual channels or the number of packets waiting at the channel queue. In this paper, we have proposed a new congestion control algorithm to prevent congestion on broadcast-based multiprocessor architectures with multiple input queues. Our algorithm performs congestion control at the packet level and takes into account the next input queue number which will be accessed by the processor, which form the fundamental differences between our algorithm and the algorithms based on the idea of virtual channel congestion control. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated by OPNET Modeler with various synthetic traffic patterns on a 64-node Simultaneous Optical Multiprocessor Exchange Bus (SOME-Bus) architecture employing the message passing protocol. Performance measures such as average input waiting time, average network response time and average processor utilization have been collected before and after applying the algorithm. The results show that the proposed algorithm is able to decrease the average input waiting time by 13.99% to 20.39%, average network response time by 8.76% to 20.36% and increase average processor utilization by 1.92% to 6.63%. The performance of the algorithm is compared with that of the other congestion control algorithms and it is observed that our algorithm performs better under all traffic patterns. Also, theoretical analysis of the proposed method is carried out by using queuing networks.