Total aflatoxins in complementary foods produced at community levels using locally available ingredients in Ethiopia

This study was conducted to determine the occurrence and levels of total aflatoxins in complementary foods (CFs) and their ingredients. A total of 126 samples collected from 20 Districts from Amhara, Tigray, Oromia, and Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) regions were analysed for levels of total aflatoxins using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Aflatoxins were detected in 62 out of 66 pre-milling samples with mean range of 0.3–9.9 µg/kg. Aflatoxins were also detected in 19 out of 20 post-production CFs and in all of the one-month stored CFs at households and grain banks, with a mean range of 0.5–8.0, 3.6–11.3, and 0.2–12.4 µg/kg, respectively. Overall, 3 out of 126 samples exceeded the maximum limit (10 µg/kg). Although most aflatoxin levels were below the maximum limit and thus considered to be safe for consumption, more effort should be implemented to reduce contamination, as these CFs are intended for consumption by young children.     

Techno-economic analysis of microsystem based hybrid energy combination for island application

Microsystem Technologies - The analysis of hybrid PV/diesel/storage energy system in southern island of the province of South Leyte, Philippines is presented in this paper. Appropriate selection of...     

Photo-Responsive Supramolecular Micelles for Controlled Drug Release and Improved Chemotherapy

Development of stimuli-responsive supramolecular micelles that enable high levels of well-controlled drug release in cancer cells remains a grand challenge. Here, we encapsulated the antitumor drug doxorubicin (DOX) and pro-photosensitizer 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) within adenine-functionalized supramolecular micelles (A-PPG), in order to achieve effective drug delivery combined with photo-chemotherapy. The resulting DOX/5-ALA-loaded micelles exhibited excellent light and pH-responsive behavior in aqueous solution and high drug-entrapment stability in serum-rich media. A short duration (1–2 min) of laser irradiation with visible light induced the dissociation of the DOX/5-ALA complexes within the micelles, which disrupted micellular stability and resulted in rapid, immediate release of the physically entrapped drug from the micelles. In addition, in vitro assays of cellular reactive oxygen species generation and cellular internalization confirmed the drug-loaded micelles exhibited significantly enhanced cellular uptake after visible light irradiation, and that the light-triggered disassembly of micellar structures rapidly increased the production of reactive oxygen species within the cells. Importantly, flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that laser irradiation of cancer cells incubated with DOX/5-ALA-loaded A-PPG micelles effectively induced apoptotic cell death via endocytosis. Thus, this newly developed supramolecular system may offer a potential route towards improving the efficacy of synergistic chemotherapeutic approaches for cancer.     

Isolation and characterization culturable microbes on the surface of ‘Granny Smith’ apples treated with electrolyzed water during cold storage

Food Science and Biotechnology - Response of culturable microbes on the surface of apples treated with slightly alkaline electrolyzed water (SAIEW) is largely unexplored. Thus, the aim of this...     

Magnetic field distribution of magnetic encoder with TMR sensor using finite element analysis

Microsystem Technologies - Selecting a cost effective magnetic encoder is an important step in electrical machines motor drive system design. Resolvers and high-resolution encoders provide...     

A comparison study of control charts for Weibull distributed time between events

Monitoring decreases in the mean of Weibull time between events data to address process quality deteriorations is an important task in reliability analysis. Two new control charts such as Weibull exponentially weighted moving average and mixed cumulative sum‐exponentially weighted moving average by transforming the Weibull data to the exponential data are proposed and compared with 2 existing control charts such as Weibull cumulative sum and mixed exponentially weighted moving average‐cumulative sum. The performance comparison provides a way to select a specific control chart in a given situation. The average run length and the standard deviation of the run length are used as performance measures. The relative mean index is also utilized to measure the overall performance. The smaller the value of the relative mean index, the better the performance of the control chart and vice versa. Two illustrative examples are provided to show the applications of the proposed control charts.     

The information content in NIR spectral data for slurries of organic crystals

Despite being widely used in agriculture, food production and environmental monitoring and regarded as on-line chromatograph in petrochemical and biochemical industries, near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) has found difficulties in its application to processes of particle formation through crystallisation or precipitation where solids suspended in solutions cause problems in instrumentation as well as distortion of the spectra. The research work reported here was motivated by the hypothesis that the effect of particles on the NIR spectra in effect brings an opportunity instead: the spectra might contain useful information of both the solid and liquid phases. Through carefully designed experiments using both glutamic acid solutions and slurries of varied solid concentrations and particle size and temperature ranges and with the help of chemometric data analysis, it was found that the NIR spectra clearly contain sensitive information about the size, solid concentration, liquid concentration as well as polymorphs of crystals, providing the possibility of using the instrument for simultaneous measurement of the multiple properties of both phases.     

Polarisation preserving single-mode-fibre coupler

A polarisation-preserving single-mode-fibre coupler made by an etch-fusion technique with Hitachi single-polarisation fibre is reported. Polarisation isolation of 10?20 dB is typically maintained through the coupler. Power division of ? 45?55% is achieved with an excess loss of 0.2 dB.     

The context of preschool children's sleep: Racial/ethnic differences in sleep locations, routines, and concerns.

Cross-national research suggests cultural factors affect how parents manage and perceive their children's sleep. In the United States, however, it is unclear whether documented racial/ethnic differences in these aspects of children's sleep reflect culturally distinct parental values and practices or confounding sociodemographic factors. This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Well Being Study to examine potential racial/ethnic differences in how parents manage and perceive the sleep of their preschool children (n = 3,068), while controlling for potential sociodemographic (e.g., family structure), environmental (e.g., number of available bedrooms), and pragmatic (e.g., parental shift work) confounds. Results suggest racial/ethnic differences exist in where children sleep, how they are put to bed, and the level of concern mothers have about their child's sleep, beyond the effect of confounding factors. These differences may reflect distinct cultural values, as well as diverse goals for family and parent-child relationships. As our country becomes increasingly heterogeneous, it is important for developmental researchers and pediatric providers to understand the various ways diversity may be reflected in family life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low temperature sintering of (Ba0.85Ca0.15) (Ti0.90Zr0.10)O3 lead-free piezoceramic with the additive of MnO2

Lead-free (Ba_0.85Ca_0.15) (Ti_0.90Zr_0.10)O₃ (15/10 BCZT) piezoelectric ceramics were prepared by a standard solid solution and sintered at different temperature of 1300 °C and 1500 °C at a time. The 15/10BCZT piezoceramics were prepared at 1300 °C sintering temperature by doping different amount of MnO₂.The ceramics show a phase transition from a freoelectric tetragonal phase to a rhombohedral and tetragonal ferroelctric phase and to a single rhombohedral phase with increasing MnO₂ content. The addition of MnO₂ significantly improves the sinterbility of the 15/10BCZT piezoceramics, and reducing the sintering temperature from 1500 °C to 1300 °C by 200 °C but showing comparable piezoelectric properties. With 0.4 mol% of the dopant, ～96.5% of the theoretical density of the ceramics was achieved with excellent piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ ~ 534pC/N, which is nearly equal to the value obtained from the ceramics sintered at 1500 °C which has a piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ ~ 570pC/N, high density (~ 5.59 g/cm³), maximum remnant polarization (P_r = 24 μC/cm²), relatively large grain size (10.4 μm) and the least coercieve field (E_c = 0.42 kV/mm). However, a high concentration of MnO₂ deterioated the properties of the ceramics because of increasing of oxygen vacancies and associated defects. The results indicate that the BCTZ-y mol% MnO₂ ceramics are one of the promising lead-free piezoelectric candidates for high temperature applications.