Electrochemical,surface analytical and quantum chemical studies on Schiff bases of 4-amino-4H-1, 2, 4-triazole-3,5-dimethanol (ATD) in corrosion protection of aluminium in 1N HNO<Subscript>3</Subscript>

The present study describes the inhibition of aluminium in 1N HNO₃ with different concentrations of 1,2,4-triazole precursors ATD, BATD and DBATD using gravimetric method, potentiodynamic polarization studies (Tafel), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), adsorption studies, surface morphological studies and quantum chemical calculations at 298 K. Polarization studies clearly showed that ATD, BATD and DBATD act as mixed type inhibitors. As the electron density around the inhibitor molecule increases due to substitution, the inhibition efficiency also increases correspondingly. Quantum chemical approach was used to calculate some electronic properties of the molecule to ascertain the correlation between inhibitive effect and molecular structure of the inhibitor. The corrosion inhibition efficiencies of these molecules and the global chemical reactivity relate to some parameters, such as E _HOMO , E _LUMO , gap energy (ΔE), electronegativity (χ), global hardness (η) and the fraction of electrons transferred from the inhibitor molecule to the metallic atom (DN\Delta \emph{N}). In addition, the local reactivity has been analysed through the Fukui function and condensed softness indices. Both the experimental and theoretical studies agree well in this regard and confirm that DBATD is a better inhibitor than BATD and ATD. The adsorption behaviours of molecules on the copper surface have been studied using molecular dynamics method and density functional theory. The order of inhibitory action is DBATD > BATD > ATD.     

Fuzzy clustering and Whale-based neural network to food recognition and calorie estimation for daily dietary assessment

The calorie value of the food items taken by the person in everyday life needs to be monitored to reduce the risk of obesity, heart problems, and diabetes, etc. The calorie estimator in the existing models has reduced accuracy since the calorie value of each food varies with mass. This paper introduces a dietary assessment system based on the proposed Cauchy, Generalized T-Student, and Wavelet kernel based Wu-and-Li Index Fuzzy clustering (CSW-WLIFC) based segmentation and the proposed Whale Levenberg Marquardt Neural Network (WLM-NN) classifier. The proposed CSW-WLIFC based segmentation segments the image based on the existing WLI-FC algorithm. A novel CSW based kernel function is utilized in the segmentation process. Feature vectors such as color, shape, and texture are extracted from the segmented image. The Neural Network is trained with the Whale-Levenberg Marquardt (WLM) model to recognize each food item from the tray image. The proposed calorie estimator calculates the calorie value of each food item. From the simulation results, it is evident that the proposed model has the improved performance than the existing models with the values of 0.999, 0.9643, 0.9627, and 0.0184 for the segmentation accuracy, macro average accuracy, standard accuracy, mean square error, respectively.     

Gel-strength in Restructured Potato Products Affects Oil Uptake during Deep-fat frying

A controllable food system consisting of a restructured potato product was employed to study the effect of gel-strength on oil uptake. Water loss and oil uptake were affected markedly by gel-strength. Oil uptake decreased as gel-strength increased. The oil uptake ratio, U_R′ (weight ratio of the oil uptake to the water evaporated during frying) was utilized to assess the effectiveness of reducing oil absorption during frying. This criterion was useful for comparison of restructured potato products with different initial or final moisture contents.     

ISOLATION, ENUMERATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF AEROMONAS SP.

Methodologies for the isolation of Aeromonas sp. from various sources, utilizing a broad range of media, are presented. Recommendations are made for the identification of Aeromonas isolates to the species level. The current nomenclature of Aeromonas sp. is discussed with reference to previously used taxonomic systems.     

CHARACTERISTICS OF FERMENTED NATTO PRODUCTS AS AFFECTED BY SOYBEAN CULTIVARS

The characteristics of four soybean cultivars, grown in the Northern plain region of the U.S.A. and harvested in different years were investigated. These soybeans were fermented into natto products. The characteristics of the intermediate and finished products were analyzed. Correlation coefficients among certain physical, chemical, sensory characteristics of raw soybeans, intermediate products and finished products were significant (P < 0.05). The ammonia content significantly correlated with firmness of the natto products made from these cultivars (r = 0.65). Minnatto and MN 91‐468 cultivars were similar to the Danatto cultivar in objective measurements and sensory properties. Compared with the other cultivars, Natto King had a higher solid matter content (1.92%) in the soaking water, a higher broken bean ratio (22.71%) after steaming and the hardest texture of the finished natto products. The effect of harvest year of Danatto cultivars and the quality attributes of the finished natto products varied with Bacillus natto strains.     

Limits of the quasi-induced exposure method when compared with the standard case-control design. Application to the estimation of risks associated with driving under the influence of cannabis or alcohol

The disparities between the quasi-induced exposure (QIE) method and a standard case–control approach with crash responsibility as disease of interest are studied. The 10,748 drivers who had been given compulsory cannabis and alcohol tests subsequent to involvement in a fatal crash in France between 2001 and 2003 were used to compare the two approaches. Odds ratios were assessed using conditional and unconditional logistic regressions. While both approaches found that drivers under the influence of alcohol or cannabis increased the risk of causing a fatal crash, the two approaches are not equivalent. They differ mainly with regards to the driver sample selected. The QIE method results in splitting the overall road safety issue into two sub-studies: a matched case–control study dealing with two-vehicle crashes and a case–control study dealing with single-vehicle crashes but with a specific control group. Using a specific generic term such as “QIE method” should not hide the real underlying epidemiological design. On the contrary, the standard case–control approach studies drivers involved in all type of crashes whatever the distribution of the responsibility in each crash. This method also known as “responsibility analysis” is the most relevant for assessing the overall road safety implications of a driver characteristic.