The impact of roasting on the ochratoxin A content of coffee

Roasting coffee led to a drop in the ochratoxin A (OTA) concentration, as measured by the reference method, especially for dark type roasts. The way the beverage was prepared also affected the OTA content, which could paradoxically be higher than that of the initial roasted coffee. Assays on the thermal stability of pure OTA showed that it ought to be found in larger quantities in roasted coffee. This suggested that OTA was masked by reactions with the substrate during roasting. The absence of OTA in green coffee is therefore the best guarantee of safety.     

Mathematical modelling of the alcoholic fermentation of glucose by Zymomonas mobilis mobilis

The kinetics of alcoholic fermentation of a strain of Zymomonas mobilis, isolated from sugarcane juice, has been studied with the objective of determining the constansts of a non-structured mathematical model that represents the fermentation process. Assays in batch and in continuous culture have been carried out with different initial concentrations of glucose. The final concentrations of glucose, ethanol and biomass were determined. The following kinetic parameters were obtained: μ_max, 0·5 h^?1; K_s, 4·64 g dm^?3; P_max, 106 g dm^?3; Y_x/s, 0·0265 g g^?1; m, 1·4 g g^?1 h^?1; α, 17·38 g g^?1; β, 0·69 g g^?1 h^?1.     

An experimental study on the applicability of evolutionary algorithms to craniofacial superimposition in forensic identification

Photographic supra-projection is a forensic process that aims to identify a missing person from a photograph and a skull found. One of the crucial tasks throughout all this process is the craniofacial superimposition which tries to find a good fit between a 3D model of the skull and the 2D photo of the face. This photographic supra-projection stage is usually carried out manually by forensic anthropologists. It is thus very time consuming and presents several difficulties. In this paper, we aim to demonstrate that real-coded evolutionary algorithms are suitable approaches to tackle craniofacial superimposition. To do so, we first formulate this complex task in forensic identification as a numerical optimization problem. Then, we adapt three different evolutionary algorithms to solve it: two variants of a real-coded genetic algorithm and the state of the art evolution strategy CMA-ES. We also consider an existing binary-coded genetic algorithm as a baseline. Results on several superimposition problems of real-world identification cases solved by the Physical Anthropology lab at the University of Granada (Spain) are considered to test our proposals.     

Link-Node Characterization for Energy-Efficient Communication in a Static Random Wireless Sensor Network

Studies of wireless networks often work with a relatively high communication range so that each node typically communicates with a high number of neighbors. This is necessary, with a random placement, to avoid loss of coverage or connectivity. However, communicating through remote neighbors requires more energy, which can be a severe disadvantage since energy is often critical in this type of network. By comparing two-ranges, one to ensure coverage and one to save energy, we identify link-nodes which play an essential role to keep the network connected. Characterizing these nodes and their occurrence in communication routes will help to save energy and increase lifetime of the overall network. Without precautions, these link-nodes receive a high traffic load. Using simulations we find that slightly longer routes can avoid link-nodes and thus reduce average energy consumption. Network lifetime can be extended by identifying these nodes at startup and reducing their energy consumption wherever possible.     

Performance Evaluation of Video Streaming Over Ad Hoc Networks Using Flat and Hierarchical Routing Protocols

A performance evaluation of real time services (such as video streaming) over mobile ad-hoc networks using both hierarchical and flat routing protocols is shown in this paper. A variety of workload and scenarios, as characterized by mobility, load and size of the ad hoc network have been simulated using NS-2. We use OLSR (Optimized Link State Protocol) as the flat routing protocol and our own implementation of HOLSR (Hierarchical OLSR)—which uses HNA (Host and Network Association) messages—as the hierarchical one, modifying other previous HOLSR version and maintaining the maximum compatibility with the flat OLSR. We carry out a complete comparison between these protocols focused on video evaluation. The simulation lets us compare the quality of service (QoS) of the video streaming paying attention to objective parameters (PSNR, packet delivery ratio, packet delay and interruptions). Some drawbacks of the hierarchical environment are also analyzed, as the link load between cluster heads and the lack of QoS-state-aware in HOLSR design. Quantitative results indicate that the protocol overhead is reduced (more than 40% in larger networks) and the video quality is improved (from 1 to 6 dB in certain cases) using hierarchical protocols.     

Implementation of Digital Unbiased FIR Filters with Polynomial Impulse Responses

This paper addresses the design and implementation of digital unbiased finite impulse response (FIR) filters with polynomial impulse response functions. The transfer function, its fundamental properties, and a general block-diagram are discussed for the impulse response represented with the l-degree Taylor series expansion. As a particular results, we show a fundamental identity uniquely featured to such filters in the transform domain. For low-degree impulse responses, the transfer functions are found in simple closed forms and represented in compact block-diagrams. The magnitude and phase responses are also analyzed along with the group delays. A comparison with predictive FIR filters is given. As examples of applications, filtering of time errors of local clocks is discussed along with the low-pass filter design employing a cascade of the unbiased FIR filters.     

Generalized overlap measures for evaluation and validation in medical image analysis

Measures of overlap of labelled regions of images, such as the Dice and Tanimoto coefficients, have been extensively used to evaluate image registration and segmentation algorithms. Modern studies can include multiple labels defined on multiple images yet most evaluation schemes report one overlap per labelled region, simply averaged over multiple images. In this paper, common overlap measures are generalized to measure the total overlap of ensembles of labels defined on multiple test images and account for fractional labels using fuzzy set theory. This framework allows a single "figure-of-merit" to be reported which summarises the results of a complex experiment by image pair, by label or overall. A complementary measure of error, the overlap distance, is defined which captures the spatial extent of the nonoverlapping part and is related to the Hausdorff distance computed on grey level images. The generalized overlap measures are validated on synthetic images for which the overlap can be computed analytically and used as similarity measures in nonrigid registration of three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain images. Finally, a pragmatic segmentation ground truth is constructed by registering a magnetic resonance atlas brain to 20 individual scans, and used with the overlap measures to evaluate publicly available brain segmentation algorithms.