Fuzzy risk analysis using similarity measure of interval-valued fuzzy numbers and its application in poultry farming

Similarity measure plays an important role in the decision-making process under an uncertain environment where parameters involved are linguistics terms. Mostly, similarity measure is discussed on generalized fuzzy numbers. However, a few efforts have been made to study this measure on interval-valued fuzzy numbers. Sometimes, methods involving interval-valued fuzzy numbers depict limitations and drawbacks. Moreover, some of the methods are just confined to interval-valued fuzzy numbers. Hence, these methods fail when similarity has to be determined between crisp-valued fuzzy numbers and interval-valued fuzzy numbers. Hence, a new method of similarity measure has been developed based on the concepts of geometric distance, heights and the radius of gyration of the interval-valued fuzzy numbers. Although the method is being discussed on interval-valued fuzzy numbers, yet it is not just confined to such numbers. This method can be applied efficiently to generalized fuzzy numbers too. The method seems to out-perform in many situations and overcome the drawbacks and limitations of existing methods. A few sets of fuzzy numbers are considered for a comparative study and draw out the out-performance of the proposed method. A real-life problem of risk analysis in poultry farming has been discussed using the proposed similarity measure.     

New copper phthalocyanine oligomers for high dielectric constant polymer films

We report here the synthesis of two new oligomeric copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) derivatives by esterification of the corresponding carboxylic acids with tri(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether. The solubility of these derivatives in N,N′‐dimethylformamide (DMF) enabled us to perform dielectric studies with poly(vinylidene fluoride‐trifluoroethylene) P(VDF‐TrFE), acting as the host polymer matrix. The highest room temperature dielectric constant achieved is 94 at 100 Hz, compared with 12 for the base polymer host matrix. Thermogravimetric analyzes of the polymer films showed that they are thermostable at 100°C for a long period of time. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the films have also been analyzed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Low-sodium meat products: retaining salty taste for sweet health

There is a positive correlation between excessive intake of sodium and incidence of hypertension. As diet is the main source of sodium, awareness among people regarding its possible role upon health has driven demand for various low sodium foods including meat products. Meat products contribute a significant amount of dietary sodium, thus maligning their own image. However, this is not an easy task as common salt affects taste and flavor, functional attributes, stability, and food safety of meat products. The various properties such as taste and flavor, binding, as well as microbiological characteristics should be given due care while developing low salt meat products and accordingly different approaches have been proposed for processing of such products. Potassium chloride has been mostly used to replace sodium; however, a number of other salts, flavor enhancers, bitter blockers and water, as well as fat binders have also been attempted either alone or in different combinations. A number of low sodium meat products have been developed but their economy and consumer acceptability are the major concerns needing proper attention. In future it is anticipated that these challenges would be overcome to provide well acceptable and cost-effective healthier meat products to the consumers.     

Verifiability in Systems and Data Engineering: Preface by the Special Issue Editors

Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering -