Opportunities for predicting and manipulating beef quality

Meat quality is a complex concept and can be defined as the characteristics of meat which satisfy consumers and citizens. The quality concept can be divided into intrinsic quality traits (which are the characteristics of the product itself) and extrinsic quality traits (which are more or less associated to the product for instance the price, a major determinant of purchase, or any brand or quality label). Quality can also be generic for the mass market or specific for niche markets. The relative importance of the different quality traits varies with human culture and time with a general trend of an increasing contribution of healthiness, safety and extrinsic quality traits. This review underlines the need for the development of methods to interpret and aggregate measures under specific rules to be defined in order to produce an overall assessment of beef quality. Such methods can be inferred for example from genomic results or data related to muscle biochemistry to better predict tenderness or flavor. A more global assurance quality scheme (the Meat Standards Australia System) based on the aggregation of sensory quality traits has been developed in Australia to ensure palatability to consumers. We speculated that the combination of indices related to sensory and nutritional quality, social and environmental considerations (carbon footprint, animal welfare, biodiversity of pasture, rural development, etc.) and economic efficiency (incomes of farmers and of others players along the supply chain, etc.) will provide objective assessment of the overall quality of beef (i.e. incorporating an all encompassing approach) not only for the mass market but also to support official quality labels of niche markets which are so far mainly associated with the geographical origins of the products.     

Time Synchronization for Cooperative Communication in Wireless Sensor Networks

Time synchronization is crucial for the implementation of cooperative communication in wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we explore the effect of synchronization error on cooperative communication utilizing distributed Alamouti code. The analysis and simulation results show that small synchronization error has negligible effect on bit error rate (BER) performance. In order to synchronize the distributed sensor nodes within an acceptable error, we propose a physical layer synchronization scheme. This scheme consists of an initial synchronization of the cooperative transmitters, synchronization error estimation at the cooperative receiver and finally a feedback phase. A maximum likelihood method is proposed to make the synchronization error estimation. It achieves better performance than the matched filter method at the price of moderate increase in computational complexity and memory space. Two strategies after synchronization error estimation have been analyzed. They provide better BER performance in the existence of initial synchronization error. They are practical to be implemented in the sensor nodes before the Alamouti decoding.     

Towards the Use of Biochemical Indicators in the Raw Fruit for Improved Texture of Pasteurized Apricots

Quality of canned apricots is seriously compromised by the loss of their flesh firmness during pasteurization. This work conducted a comprehensive characterization of the biochemical properties of raw apricots, as well as of the tissue softening during pasteurization using a multimethodology approach. Biochemical and textural results were analyzed to seek possible correlations, with the aim to elucidate which properties could be used as indicators in raw fruit for obtaining pasteurized products with better texture. There were large effects of cultivar, ripening stage, and intra-fruit zone on the biochemical and textural properties of apricots. The titratable acidity, amongst ethylene production, soluble solid content, and pectinolytic enzyme activities, was the biochemical property that correlated more robustly to the loss of texture. It had significant correlation coefficients of ?0.9 and 0.5 with firmness of pasteurized fruit and loss of firmness, respectively. We propose titratable acidity to be used as indicator for raw material selection and/or to be modulated during apricot food processing.     

Programmable unitary spatial mode manipulation

Free space propagation and conventional optical systems such as lenses and mirrors all perform spatial unitary transforms. However, the subset of transforms available through these conventional systems is limited in scope. We present here a unitary programmable mode converter (UPMC) capable of performing any spatial unitary transform of the light field. It is based on a succession of reflections on programmable deformable mirrors and free space propagation. We first show theoretically that a UPMC without limitations on resources can perform perfectly any transform. We then build an experimental implementation of the UPMC and show that, even when limited to three reflections on an array of 12 pixels, the UPMC is capable of performing single mode tranforms with an efficiency greater than 80% for the first four modes of the transverse electromagnetic basis.     

Electrolytic Oxidation of Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Creosote Solution Using TI/IRO2 and TI/SNO2 Circular Mesh Electrodes

The electrooxidation of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in solution was investigated. Most of the PAHs compounds are toxic and hardly biodegradable, so that a chemical or physicochemical treatment is required. In this paper, we reported treatment of synthetic creosote oily effluent (COE) containing several PAHs by using Ti/IrO2 and Ti/SnO2 circular or cylindrical mesh anode electrodes. COE was prepared with distilled water and a commercial creosote solution in the presence of an amphoteric surfactant (CAS). In addition to anode material, different operating parameters were investigated such as current density, reaction time, recycling flow rate, and oxygen injection flow rate. The first series of experiments carried out in the recirculating batch reactor showed that circular Ti/SnO2 electrode was found to be more effective in removing PAHs than circular or cylindrical Ti/IrO2 electrodes. Current density and retention time played important roles for PAHs degradation efficiency, whereas circulation flow rate and oxygen injection slightly influenced the removal efficiency. Finally, the best and simplest operating conditions (82–84% of PAHs removal) determined for PAHs degradation in COE were obtained at a current density of 15?mA/cm2 through 90 min of treatment with a recycling rate of 3.6 L/min but without O2 injection in the close loop. Likewise, in the recirculating batch tests, PAHs decomposition exhibited behaviors of the fist-order reaction with a rate coefficient (k) of 0.015?min?1. The energy consumption was 7.5?kWh/m3. The second series of experiment using successively batch and continuous treatment of COE shows that the percentage of PAHs degradation could be maintained above 80% up to 18 h of treatment, thereafter, removal efficiency decreased owing to the formation of organic substances on the electrodes surface.     

Structure-Texture Image Decomposition—Modeling, Algorithms, and Parameter Selection

This paper explores various aspects of the image decomposition problem using modern variational techniques. We aim at splitting an original image f into two components u and ρ, where u holds the geometrical information and ρ holds the textural information. The focus of this paper is to study different energy terms and functional spaces that suit various types of textures. Our modeling uses the total-variation energy for extracting the structural part and one of four of the following norms for the textural part: L², G, L¹ and a new tunable norm, suggested here for the first time, based on Gabor functions. Apart from the broad perspective and our suggestions when each model should be used, the paper contains three specific novelties: first we show that the correlation graph between u and ρ may serve as an efficient tool to select the splitting parameter, second we propose a new fast algorithm to solve the TV − L¹ minimization problem, and third we introduce the theory and design tools for the TV-Gabor model. First online version published in February, 2006     

Oil strategies benefits over different driving cycles using numerical simulation

95 g/kin is the allowed quantity of CO2 emission normalized to NEDC to be set in 2020.In addition,NEDC will be replaced by more severe driving cycles and will be united worldwide.To respond to those criteria,automotive industries are working on every possible field.Thermal management has been proved to be effective in reducing fuel consumption.Cold start is a primordial reason of overconsumption,as the engine highest efficiency is at its optimal temperature.At cold start,the engine's oil is at its lowest temperature and thus its higher viscosity level.A high viscosity oil generates more friction,which is one of the most important heat losses in the engine.In this paper,hot oil storage is studied.Numerical simulations on GT-suite model were done.The model consists of a 4-cylinder turbocharged Diesel engine using a storage volume of 1 liter of hot oil.Ambient temperature variation were taken into consideration as well as different driving cycles.Furthermore,different configurations of the thermal strategy (multifunction oil sump) were proposed and evaluated.Lubricant temperature and viscosity profiles are presented in the article as well as fuel consumption savings for different configurations,driving cycles and ambient temperatures.     

From 3D magnetic resonance images to structural representations of the cortex topography using topology preserving deformations

We propose an algorithm allowing the construction of a structural representation of the cortical topography from a T1-weighted 3D MR image. This representation is an attributed relational graph (ARG) inferred from the 3D skeleton of the object made up of the union of gray matter and cerebro-spinal fluid enclosed in the brain hull. In order to increase the robustness of the skeletonization, topological and regularization constraints are included in the segmentation process using an original method: the homotopically deformable regions. This method is halfway between deformable contour and Markovian segmentation approaches. The 3D skeleton is segmented in simple surfaces (SSs) constituting the ARG nodes (mainly cortical folds). The ARG relations are of two types: first, theSS pairs connected in the skeleton; second, theSS pairs delimiting a gyrus. The described algorithm has been developed in the frame of a project aiming at the automatic detection and recognition of the main cortical sulci. Indeed, the ARG is a synthetic representation of all the information required by the sulcus identification. This project will contribute to the development of new methodologies for human brain functional mapping and neurosurgery operation planning.     

Epidemiological analysis of Salmonella enterica from beef sampled in the slaughterhouse and retailers in Dakar (Senegal) using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and antibiotic susceptibility testing

Seventy-eight isolates of Salmonella spp. isolated from beef sampled from the official city slaughterhouse and from retailers in Dakar, Senegal were analyzed using serotyping, antimicrobial testing and macrorestriction profiling by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE). These analyses were done to identify clonal relationships and potential transmission routes in beef channel. XbaI macrorestriction allowed defining 17 genotypes among the six main analyzed serotypes: Salmonella bredeney (3 genotypes), S. muenster (6), S. waycross (1), S. corvallis (3), S. kentucky (1) and S. brandenburg (3). The cross analysis of PFGE profiles and origin of the beef samples reveals a wide range of contamination sources in the beef channel in Dakar. Comparison of PFGE and antimicrobial resistance types shows that the Salmonella contamination sources are equally shared by the slaughterhouse (56% of the isolates) and by the distribution channel (44% of the isolates) by handlings and houseflies.     

Prevalence and characterization of antibiotic resistant Enterococcus faecalis in French cheeses

Prevalence of enterococci and antibiotic resistance profiles of Enterococcus faecalis was analyzed in 126 French cheeses from retail stores. Forty-four percent of pasteurized or thermised-milk cheeses, and up to 92% of raw-milk cheeses contained detectable enterococci. A total of 337 antibiotic resistant enterococci were isolated in 29% and 60% of pasteurized-milk and raw-milk cheeses, respectively. E. faecalis was the predominant antibiotic resistant species recovered (81%), followed by Enterococcus faecium (13%), and Enterococcus durans (6%). The most prevalent antibiotic resistances were tetracycline (Tet) and minocycline (Min), followed by erythromycin (Ery), kanamycin (Kan) and chloramphenicol (Cm). The most common multiple antibiotic resistance phenotype was Cm Ery Kan Min Tet. The occurrence of antibiotic genes, as searched by PCR, was 100 % for aph3′IIIa, 96 % for ermB, 90 % for tetM and 80 % for catA in isolates resistant to Kan, Ery, Tet or Cm, respectively. MLST analysis of 30 multidrug resistant E. faecalis revealed that ST19, CC21, CC25 and CC55 isolates were the most common in cheeses. In conclusion, as in many other European countries, French cheeses do contain enterococci with multiple antibiotics resistances. However, low occurrence of high-level gentamicin resistant or sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim-resistant enterococci and absence of vancomycin- or ampicillin- resistant enterococci indicate that cheeses cannot be considered as a major reservoir for nosocomial multi-drug resistant enterococci.