Extending Gardiner’s code for Hieroglyphic recognition and English mapping

Multimedia Tools and Applications - “Knowledge is power”… Writing is the main way to preserve the humanity knowledge across the ages. Therefore, an automatic and accurate mapping...     

Synchronised interrelationship between lipid/protein oxidation analysis and sensory attributes in refrigerated minced beef meat formulated with Punica granatum peel extract

Microbiological, chemical and sensory effects of pomegranate peel ethanol extract (EE) at 0.1, 0.5 and 1% (w w⁻¹) on refrigerated minced beef meat were undertaken. Chemical analyses revealed that the treated meat underwent significant decrease (P < 0.05) of primary and secondary lipid oxidation. By the end of storage, EE at 1% reduced the MetMb, carbonyl group accumulation and the disappearance of sulphydryl proteins by 56.68, 65.71 and 59.69% respectively, compared with control samples. EE at 1% showed also the highest scores for colour, appearance, odour and overall acceptability (OA) attributes using a 9-point hedonic scale. Chemometric approaches showed that lipid/protein oxidation analysis, sensory attributes and storage time allowed the samples discrimination. Oxidative stability parameters were equally used to predict OA by linear regression analysis. The reported data provide an approach to strengthen the interpretation of sensory quality and how they are affected by chemical changes in newly formulated meat products.     

Polyphenol extraction from Origanum dictamnus using low-transition temperature mixtures composed of glycerol and organic salts: Effect of organic anion carbon chain length

Novel low-transition temperature mixtures (LTTMs), composed of glycerol and sodium acetate, sodium propionate, and sodium butyrate, were synthesized with the aim to investigate the organic anion chain length effect on the performance of polyphenol extraction from the medicinal plant Origanum dictamnus. The LTTMs used as hydrogen bond donor:hydrogen bond acceptor molar ratio of 6:1 and after establishing optimal conditions of water content and liquid-to-solid ratio by response surface methodology, kinetics was performed to identify the highest efficient system. The results drawn indicated that the longer the anion chain length, the higher the requirement for water content to achieve optimal total polyphenol yield. Extractions with LTTMs comprising of sodium propionate and sodium butyrate gave virtually equal yields in total polyphenols, yet extraction with the former solvent was significantly less energy-demanding, with the activation energy being 8.77?kJ?mol^?1. Liquid chromatography-diode array-mass spectrometry analyses revealed that the extract obtained with glycerol/sodium propionate at 70?°C also displayed a richer polyphenolic profile, while the antioxidant activity of the extract was not negatively affected up to this temperature. This novel green solvent is therefore proposed as a highly efficient means of recovering bioactive polyphenols from plant material.     

Control of Discrete‐Time Systems Composed of Linear Blocks in Series with Saturation Components

We consider the problem of controlling cascade systems consisting of two linear dynamic blocks and two saturation elements arranged according to the N‐L‐N‐L series configuration. A cascade controller is considered and its performances are formally analyzed using input–output stability tools. In addition to global boundedness of all signals of the closed‐loop system, the controller is formally shown to enjoy a l₂ ‐tracking performance in presence of arbitrary‐shape inputs (i.e. reference signal, disturbance).     

Relationships Between Textural Modifications,Lipid and Protein Oxidation and Sensory Attributes of Refrigerated Turkey Meat Sausage Treated with Bacteriocin BacTN635

In this study, bacteriocin “BacTN635” was used to maintain quality and extend shelf life of refrigerated turkey meat sausage. Connections between lipid and protein oxidations and instrumentally textural changes using Bayesian networks during storage of turkey meat sausage were also studied. BacTN635 slowed down metmyoglobin and carbonyl group accumulation and delayed the disappearance of sulphydryl proteins (P < 0.05) in turkey meat sausage. This bacteriocin led to a decrease in primary and secondary lipid oxidation (P < 0.05) and enhanced texture characteristics of sausage by reducing hardness (P < 0.05) and controlling the elasticity lose during refrigeration. We have also investigated the correlations between protein and lipid oxidation and instrumentally measured the parameters of turkey meat sausage treated by BacTN635. The developed model, based on Bayesian network techniques, can automatically learn emerging models in data to explain protein and lipid oxidation and texture modification relationships. Equally, sensorial parameters were used for constructing regression models to predict overall acceptability. In conclusion, BacTN635 could be a promising tool for extending the safety and quality of refrigerated turkey meat sausage. This bacteriocin could be a strong candidate for future applications in a wide range of meat products.     

Optimal business process deployment cost in cloud resources

Cloud computing is the fastest emerging technology that proposes several resources under various pricing strategies that are specified based on temporal constraints. The main aim of cloud computing is to enhance the performance level and minimize operating costs. Thus, organizations looking towards optimizing their spending on IT infrastructure find such pricing strategies very attractive, especially, to deploy their business process models. However, discovering the optimal deployment cost of a business process in cloud resources proposed under various pricing strategies becomes a highly challenging problem. So, the objective of the present paper is to present an approach that assists business process designers in finding an optimal assignment or scheduling based on the variety of pricing strategies. We use linear programming models with an objective function under a set of constraints. Besides, we propose an extension of the famous cloud simulator provided in the market, CloudSim, to simulate the cloud resources consumed to deploy a business process model. The experimental results show the feasibility, effectiveness, and performance of our approach.

     

Primary repair of colorectal injuries in childhood

A retrospective survey of 44 children with colorectal perforating injuries secondary to shrapnel and high velocity bullets is presented. Seven patients had the injury limited to the colon or rectum. All patients were operated upon within 7 hr from the their colonic wounds and 20 underwent a colostomy. Five of the patients repaired primarily had their injuries to the left side of the colon or rectum. None of the patients undergoing primary repair suffered from an anastomotic leak. The mortality rate after primary repair was 16.6% and after colostomy 10%. The mortality was significantly different in the group of patients who had additional injuries where a colostomy procedure was associated with a lower mortality rate (11% versus 21%). Shock on admission and during operation affected survival adversely in all patients. The average hospital stay of survivors was 24 days with "primary repair" and 36 days with "colostomy."     

Determinants of e-consumer productivity in product retrieval on a commercial website: An experimental approach

This article investigates what determines e-consumer productivity, in the specific case of product retrieval, on a commercial website. With a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design on 292 participants, an online experiment reveals that productivity in product retrieval (measured in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and time) relates to website design (e.g., abstraction level of labels, animation), user characteristics (e.g., Internet experience, product category familiarity, cognitive absorption), and situational characteristics (e.g., task nature). The results also confirm interactive effects among the type of strategy used, the nature of the task, and the website design. These findings have notable implications for both research and practice.