Sensory quality and food safety of boneless chicken breast portions thawed rapidly by submersion in hot water

Boneless chicken breast portions were thawed by submersion in hot water (60 °C) and compared to refrigerator thawing. Thawing in hot water was significantly quicker (2–8.5 min) than refrigerator thawing (10–15.5 h). Thawing time in hot water increased with an increase in meat thickness. Sensory panelists could not distinguish a difference between hot water versus refrigerator thawed and subsequently grilled chicken breast portions. A model for Salmonella growth predicts that thawing chicken breast at the slowest rate in this study (0.5 °C/min) would result in a lower increase in the Salmonella concentration than that expected for room temperature storage for 4 h.     

The way ahead for London's bus priority at traffic signals

London has a long history of successful schemes for bus priority at traffic signals. Recently, transport for London (TfL) has procured a modern automatic vehicle location (AVL) system for bus fleet management, passenger information and bus priority. The new system is known as iBUS and is based on Global Positioning System (GPS) and supporting technologies for bus location. The system eliminates the need for on-street hardware for detecting buses and provides more flexibility and opportunity for using bus detectors. However, bus location based on this system is less accurate than location based on fixed infrastructure (e.g. beacons) and could result in reduced benefits from bus priority. This paper first summarises how bus priority at traffic signals works within iBUS, and then explores the effects of GPS locational errors on bus priority benefits. This is followed by a discussion of opportunities available in the context of iBUS to build an even more efficient and beneficial bus priority system by taking advantage of its cost-effective multiple detection capabilities. The paper is based on various studies carried out by the Transportation Research Group (TRG) at the University of Southampton for TfL.     

Copper(I) Bromide‐Dimethyl Sulfide‐Catalyzed Direct Sulfanylation of 4‐Hydroxycoumarins and 4‐Hydroxyquinolinones with Arylsulfonylhydrazides and Selective Fluorescence Switch‐ On Sensing of Cadmium(II) Ion in Water

An efficient protocol for the direct sulfanylation of various 4‐hydroxycoumarins and 4‐hydroxyquinolinones in good yield with arylsulfonylhydrazides as sulfanylating agents was developed via copper(I) bromide⋅dimethyl sulfide‐catalyzed S–O, S–N bond cleavage and C–S cross‐coupling reactions. A highly selective fluorescence turning‐on sensing of cadmium(II) ions in water using the synthesized 3‐sulfanyl‐4‐hydroxycoumarin derivative was also investigated.

     

Oil price,biofuels and food supply

The price of oil could play a significant role in influencing the expansion of biofuels, but this issue has yet to be fully investigated in the literature. Using a global computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, this study analyzes the impact of oil price on biofuel expansion, and subsequently, on food supply. The study shows that a 65% increase in oil price in 2020 from the 2009 level would increase the global biofuel penetration to 5.4% in 2020 from 2.4% in 2009. If oil prices rise 150% from their 2009 levels by 2020, the resulting penetration of biofuels would be 9%, which is higher than that would be caused by current mandates and targets introduced in more than forty countries around the world. The study also shows that aggregate agricultural output drops due to an oil price increase, but the drop is small in major biofuel producing countries as the expansion of biofuels would partially offset the negative impacts of the oil price increase on agricultural outputs. An increase in oil price would reduce global food supply through direct impacts as well as through the diversion of food commodities and cropland towards the production of biofuels.     

Enhancing the prediction of type 2 diabetes mellitus using sparse balanced SVM

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The natural population-based prediction of type 2 diabetes is costly since it needs a high number of resources. Even though much research has used machine...     

Switching characteristics of an optically controlled GaAs-MESFET

The switching characteristics of an optically controlled Metal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MESFET), popularly known as Optical Field Effect Transistor (OPFET), have been derived analytically. The limitations of the existing model have been overcome in the present model. Calculations are being carried out to examine the effect of illumination on the current-voltage characteristics, drain-to-source capacitance (C_dc), internal gate-to-source capacitance (C_gs), drain-to-source resistance (R_ds), the transconductance (g_m), the input RC time constant and the cutoff frequency (f_T) of a GaAs-MESFET. The variations of these parameters with gate length L_g and the doping concentration N_d have also been studied in dark and illuminated conditions. The results of numerical calculations show that there is an overall decrease in the input RC time constant of the device in the illuminated condition arising from the internal gate-to-source capacitance and the transconductance. The results obtained on the basis of the model show a close agreement with the reported experimental findings. The simple model presented here is fairly accurate and can be used as a basic tool for circuit simulation purposes     

Artificial intelligence in predicting extraction of anti-cancer compounds

Saponins from the particulate Saponaria vaccaria L. seeds (0.29–0.84 mm, 15.35–61.40 g H₂O/100 g dry mass) were extracted for methanol concentrations (MeOH) of 30, 50, 70, and 90 mL/100 mL H₂O and temperatures (T) of, 30, 45, and 60 °C at ten extraction intervals (t) between 1 and 180 min. A calibration equation was developed from the liquid-chromatogram–mass spectroscopy peaks to quantify the extract yields (mg mL⁻¹) for various types of saponins. An artificial neural network (ANN) with three inputs, MeOH, T, and t predicted the extraction kinetics and the yields with less than ca. 12% error. The ANN model not only slightly outperformed the numerical diffusional model, but it also made the prediction simple and faster eliminating the use of the partition coefficient and the effective diffusivity. Therefore an ANN model can be a right approach to predict the yields of saponins and similar products.     

Water‐use efficiency under two irrigation technologies

Water‐use efficiency under drip‐ and furrow‐irrigation in Hawaii's sugar industry was studied. The study method consisted of a quadratic production function describing tons of sugar per acre (TSA) with respect to water use, fertilizer use, plant cycle, cane age, irrigation method used, cane varieties, harvesting months, and field characteristics. Drip irrigation in Hawaii's sugar industry was found to be a preferred alternative, resulting in yield increases of about 15% and water‐use reduction of almost 12%. This superior performance of drip over furrow irrigation was largely due to the land‐quality‐augmenting characteristics of drip technology.     

Effect of various processing techniques on digestibility of starch in Red kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and two varieties of peas (Pisum sativum)

The effect of common domestic processing methods, such as splitting, soaking, boiling and pressure-cooking on the nutritionally significant starch fractions such as rapidly and slowly digestible starches (RDS and SDS), resistant starch (RS) and total starch (TS) in two legumes, Red kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and Yellow and Green peas (Pisum sativum) were studied. The legumes had comparatively high amount (>30%, dry basis) of RS. Soaking of all legumes resulted in reduced starch fractions, possibly due to leaching of soluble fractions. Ordinary cooking of soaked as well as unsoaked seeds led to a significant (P < 0.01) decrease in RS and increase in RDS, SDS and TS. Pressure-cooking led to even greater reduction in RS and a greater increase in RDS. Cooking of legumes gelatinizes the starch and opens up the starch structure which makes them vulnerable to α-amylase hydrolysis. Splitting of legumes markedly affects the digestibility as well as RS content of raw as well as processed legumes indicating that the seed coat plays a key role in the digestibility of starches in these seeds. Overall, the enzyme resistant starch fraction of legumes was rendered more digestible by all the domestic cooking methods used.     

Continuum Bed Model for Estuarine Sediments Based on Nonlinear Consolidation Theory

The goal of this note is to examine a continuum theory that describes the evolution of sediment beds when subjected to time-dependent shearing forces resulting from surface water movement. The bed was conceptualized as a medium with continuously varying properties such as shear strength and void ratio. The nonlinear equation describing finite strain consolidation, and the complicated nature of the shearing forces acting on top of the bed, preclude the possibility of analytical solutions. Ramifications of linearizing the governing flow equations were explicitly evaluated for applications in bed modeling. Numerical solutions were obtained for the linear and nonlinear models under transient boundary conditions. Model results indicated that the linear model typically predicts lower void ratios, and consequently underestimates the amounts of sediment eroded from the bed as compared to the nonlinear model.