Sulfuryl fluoride fumigation effects on the safety,volatile composition,and sensory quality of dry cured ham

A randomized complete block design with three replications was utilized to evaluate the effects (P < 0.05) of various fumigation concentrations of sulfuryl fluoride (SF) (0, 12, 24, 36 and 72 mg/L) on the fluoride, sulfuryl fluoride, and volatile flavor compound concentrations in dry cured ham. Fluoride and SF concentrations increased (P < 0.05) in dry cured hams as SF fumigation concentration increased, but all samples contained fluoride and SF concentrations below the legal limits of 20 and 0.01 ppm, respectively. Minimal differences existed (P > 0.05) in the presence and concentration of aroma active compounds, but oxidation compounds were slightly more prevalent (P < 0.05) in the 72 mg/ml treatment when compared to the control. A triangle test (n = 54) indicated that consumers could not discern (P > 0.75) between hams that were fumigated with SF at 0 and 36 mg/ml. This study revealed that there were minimal aroma/flavor differences among the ham treatments between 0 and 36 mg/ml, and that dry cured ham that was fumigated with SF was safe and met legal requirements for consumption.     

Efficient and fair scheduling for two‐level information broadcasting systems

In a ubiquitous environment, there are many applications where a server disseminates information of common interest to pervasive clients and devices. For an example, an advertisement server sends information from a broadcast server to display devices. We propose an efficient information scheduling scheme for information broadcast systems to reduce average waiting time for information access while maintaining fairness between information items. Our scheme allocates information items adaptively according to relative popularity for each local server. Simulation results show that our scheme can reduce the waiting time up to 30% compared with the round robin scheme while maintaining cost‐effective fairness. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.