Effects of distillation cut on the distribution of higher alcohols and esters in brandy produced from three plum varieties

The purpose of this investigation was to determinate effects of distillation cuts on the distributions of higher alcohols (1‐propanol, 2‐methyl‐1‐propanol, 3‐methyl‐1‐butanol, 2‐methyl‐1‐butanol, 1‐butanol, 2‐butanol, 1‐hexanol and 1‐pentanol) and esters (ethyl acetate, isopentyl acetate + ethyl lactate, isobutyl acetate, ethyl propionate and ethyl butyrate) in plum brandy. The volatiles were determined by gas chromatography–flame ionization detection. The three most popular plum varieties used in plum brandy (Sljivovica) production, Stanley, Pozegaca and Bilska rana (Buhler), were distilled using a traditional distilling pot and fraction distillation. Three distillation cuts were considered. After separating the head fraction, in the amount of 1.7% of the distilling pot volume, heart fractions were cut at 40, 45 and 50% (v/v) ethanol and tail fractions, analogous to the heart fraction, were collected up to 10% (v/v) ethanol. The ratio of the content of 2‐methyl‐1‐propanol and 3‐methyl‐1‐butanol was 1:1 in the plum brandy produced from Stanley and Pozegaca and the ratio was 2:1 in the plum brandy produced from Bilska rana. This ratio can be used as a ‘mark’ of variety recognition in plum brandy production. The main differences in the heart fraction were accounted for by the content of the higher alcohols and esters for the distilling cut at 40 and 50% (v/v) ethanol. Copyright © 2013 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling.     

P2P data replication and trustworthiness for a JXTA-Overlay P2P system using fuzzy logic

P2P systems are very important for future distributed systems and applications. In such systems, the computational burden of the system can be distributed to peer nodes of the system. Therefore, in decentralized systems users become themselves actors by sharing, contributing and controlling the resources of the system. This characteristic makes P2P systems very interesting for the development of decentralized applications. Data replication techniques are commonplace in P2P systems. Data replication means storing copies of the same data at multiple peers thus improving availability and scalability. The trustworthiness of peers also is very important for safe communication in P2P system. The trustworthiness of a peer can be evaluated based on the reputation and actual behaviour of peers to provide services to other peers. In this paper, we propose two fuzzy-based systems for data replication and peer trustworthiness for JXTA-Overlay P2P platform. The simulation results have shown that in the first system, replication factor increases proportionally with increase of number of documents per peer, replication percentage and scale of replication per peer parameters and the second system can be used successfully to select the most reliable peer candidate to execute the tasks.     

Two Fuzzy-Based Systems for Selection of Actor Nodes inWireless Sensor and Actor Networks: A Comparison Study Considering Security Parameter Effect

A group of wireless devices with the ability to sense physical events (sensors) or/and to perform relatively complicated actions (actors), is referred to as Wireless Sensor and Actor Network (WSAN). In WSANs, sensors gather information about the physical events, while actors perform appropriate actions upon the environment, based on the sensed data shared by sensors. In order to provide effective sensing and acting, a distributed local coordination mechanism is necessary among sensors and actors. In this work, we propose and implement two Fuzzy Based Actor Selection Systems (FBASS): FBASS1 and FBASS2. We focus on actor selection problem and implement two fuzzy-based system. The systems decide whether the actor will be selected for the required job or not, based on data supplied by sensors and actual actor condition. We use three input parameters for FBASS1: Type of Required Action (TRA), Distance to Event (DE) and Remaining Power (RP). In FBASS2, we add the Security (SC) parameter as additional parameter. The output parameter for both systems is Actor Selection Decision (ASD). The simulation results show that the proposed systems decide the actor selection in order to have short delays, low energy consumption and proper task assignment. Comparing FBASS1 with FBASS2, the FBASS2 is more complex than FBASS1, because it has more rules in FRB. However, FBASS2 is able to decide secure actor nodes, which makes the system more secure.     

Application of SmartBox end-device for medical care using JXTA-Overlay P2P system

During last decade more and more old people live alone and the number of old people that need medical care is increased. The lack of doctors and the increase of the medical cost is becoming a big problem. Therefore, IT-based information systems should be implemented to help solve this problem. In this paper, we present the experimental results and evaluation of the SmartBox stimulation device for medical applications using a P2P system which is based on JXTA-Overlay. The SmartBox is integrated with our P2P system as a useful tool for monitoring and controlling patients activities. We found by experimental results that by SmartBox we can check the patient’s situation. We carried out experiments with a patient in the bed and changed the temperature of the room. From the experimental results, we conclude that the use of SmartBox is an effective way for medical applications.     

Aroma compounds in barrel aged apple distillates from two different distillation techniques

The major fermentation and maturation related congeners in apple distillates from two different distillation techniques (alembic and column), matured in oak for 18 months, were measured by GC‐MS and HPLC. Together with a higher ethanol content, column distillates had higher ethyl acetate, methanol and n‐propanol levels compared with alembic distillates. A higher content of acetaldehyde was characteristic of the alembic distillates. The concentrations of i‐butanol, n‐butanol, amyl alcohols and n‐hexanol were not affected by the distillation technique used. Increasing the ageing time of distillates in oak resulted in an increase in the contents of acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate and amyl alcohols while the content of methanol decreased during ageing. Throughout ageing, there were no significant changes in the concentrations of n‐propanol, i‐butanol, n‐butanol and n‐hexanol. Among the maturation related compounds, gallic acid, ellagic acid, vanillin and syringaldehyde were determined in apple distillates with ellagic acid being the most abundant. The contents of gallic acid and ellagic acid increased during ageing whereas vanillin and syringaldehyde slightly increased throughout the 18 months of maturation. © 2019 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling     

Trustworthiness in P2P: performance behaviour of two fuzzy-based systems for JXTA-overlay platform

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, will be very important for future distributed systems and applications. In such networks, peers are heterogeneous in providing the services and they do not have the same competence of reliability. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate whether a peer is trustworthy or not for file sharing and other services. In this paper, we propose two fuzzy-based trustworthiness system for P2P communication in JXTA-overlay. System 1 has only one fuzzy logic controller (FLC) and uses four input parameters: mutually agreed behaviour (MAB), actual behaviour criterion (ABC), peer disconnections (PD) and number of uploads (NU) and the output is peer reliability (PR). System 2 has two FLCs. In FLC1 use three input parameters: number of jobs (NJ), number of connections (NC) and connection lifetime (CL) and the output is actual behavioural criterion (ABC). We use ABC and reputation (R) as input linguistic parameters for FLC2 and the output is peer reliability (PR). We evaluate the proposed systems by computer simulations. The simulation results show that the proposed systems have a good behaviour and can be used successfully to evaluate the reliability of the new peer connected in JXTA-overlay.     

Effects of population size for location-aware node placement in WMNs: evaluation by a genetic algorithm--based approach

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are cost-efficient networks that have the potential to serve as an infrastructure for advanced location-based services. Location service is a desired feature for WMNs to support location-oriented applications. WMNs are also interesting infrastructures for supporting ubiquitous multimedia Internet access for mobile or fixed mesh clients. In order to efficiently support such services and offering QoS, the optimized placement of mesh router nodes is very important. Indeed, such optimized mesh placement can support location service managed in the mesh and keep the rate of location updates low. This node location-based problem has been shown to be NP-hard and thus is unlikely to be solvable in reasonable amount of time. Therefore, heuristic methods, such as genetic algorithms (GAs), are used as resolution methods. In this paper, we deal with the effect of population size for location-aware node placement in WMNs. Our WMN-GA system uses GA to determine the positions of the mesh routers and mesh clients in the grid area. We used a location-aware node placement of mesh router in cells of considered grid area to maximize network connectivity and user coverage. We evaluate the performance of the proposed and implemented WMN-GA system for low and high density of clients considering different distributions and considering giant component and number of covered users parameters. The simulation results show that for low-density networks, with the increasing of population size, GA obtains better result. However, with the increase in the population size, the GA needs more computational time. The proposed system has better performance in dense networks like hot spots for Weibull distribution when the population size is big.     

Controlled Release of LL‐37‐Derived Synthetic Antimicrobial and Anti‐Biofilm Peptides SAAP‐145 and SAAP‐276 Prevents Experimental Biomaterial‐Associated Staphylococcus aureus Infection

The present study aims to develop an implant coating releasing novel antimicrobial agents to prevent biomaterial‐associated infections. The LL‐37‐derived synthetic antimicrobial and anti‐biofilm peptides (SAAP)‐145 and SAAP‐276 exhibit potent bactericidal and anti‐biofilm activities against clinical and multidrug‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains by rapid membrane permeabilization, without inducing resistance. Injection of SAAP‐145, but not SAAP‐276, along subcutaneous implants in mice reduces S. aureus implant colonization by approximately 2 log, but does not reduce bacterial numbers in surrounding tissue. To improve their efficacy, SAAP‐145 and SAAP‐276 are incorporated in a polymer–lipid encapsulation matrix (PLEX) coating, providing a constant release of 0.6% daily up to 30 d after an initial burst release of >50%. In a murine model for biomaterial‐associated infection, SAAP‐145‐PLEX and SAAP‐276‐PLEX coatings significantly reduce the number of culture positive implants and show ≥3.5 and ≥1.5 log lower S. aureus implant and tissue colonization, respectively. Interestingly, these peptide coatings are also highly effective against multidrug‐resistant S. aureus, both reducing implant colonization by ≥2 log. SAAP‐276‐PLEX additionally reduces tissue colonization by 1 log. Together, the peptide‐releasing PLEX coatings hold promise for further development as an alternative to coatings releasing conventional antibiotics to prevent biomaterial‐associated infections.