Microbes versus microbes: control of pathogens in the food chain

Foodborne illness continues as a considerable threat to public health. Despite improved hygiene management systems and increased regulation, pathogenic bacteria still contaminate food, causing sporadic cases of illness and disease outbreaks worldwide. For many centuries, microbial antagonism has been used in food processing to improve food safety. An understanding of the mode of action of this microbial antagonism has been gained in recent years and potential applications in food and feed safety are now being explored. This review focuses on the potential opportunities presented, and the limitations, of using microbial antagonism as a biocontrol mechanism to reduce contamination along the food chain; including animal feed as its first link. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry     

A correlation model to compute the incidence angle modifier and to estimate its effect on collectible solar radiation

Radiation transmittance and absorptance of materials vary according to the angle of incidence of the incoming solar radiation. Therefore, the efficiency of most solar converters (thermal or photovoltaic) at a given radiation amount is a function of the sun's position through the angle of incidence. This problem is accounted for by the Incidence Angle Modifier, which is considered in this paper. An analytic expression for the incidence angle modifier, based on meteorological data or on geographic and geometric parameters, has been developed; this expression includes the effect of beam and diffuse radiation as well as the global influence. A comparison between measured data and computed from our model has given a very good correlation, the results being within a ±3% of difference for horizontal and tilted planes, and within ±17% for vertical surfaces, on average. The method also computes the collectible solar energy within a 5% error for thresholds up to 300 W m⁻². The method has been validated for more than 30 locations of south and west Europe.     

Efficient encryption of wavelet-based coded color images

An efficient, secure color image coder incorporating Color-SPIHT (C-SPIHT) compression and partial encryption is presented. Confidentiality of the image data is achieved by encrypting only the significance bits of individual wavelet coefficients for K iterations of the C-SPIHT algorithm. By varying K, the level of confidentiality vs. processing overhead can be controlled. For K=2, adequate security is achieved and an average of only 0.40% of bits needed encrypting for test images coded at 0.8 bpp.     

Evolutionary Approach to Quantum and Reversible Circuits Synthesis

The paper discusses theevolutionary computation approach to theproblem of optimal synthesis of Quantum andReversible Logic circuits. Our approach usesstandard Genetic Algorithm (GA) and itsrelative power as compared to previousapproaches comes from the encoding and theformulation of the cost and fitness functionsfor quantum circuits synthesis. We analyze newoperators and their role in synthesis andoptimization processes. Cost and fitnessfunctions for Reversible Circuit synthesis areintroduced as well as local optimizingtransformations. It is also shown that ourapproach can be used alternatively forsynthesis of either reversible or quantumcircuits without a major change in thealgorithm. Results are illustrated onsynthesized Margolus, Toffoli, Fredkin andother gates and Entanglement Circuits. This isfor the first time that several variants ofthese gates have been automatically synthesizedfrom quantum primitives.     

Influence of roasting conditions on the acrylamide content and the color of roasted almonds

ABSTRACT:  The influence of roasting conditions on the acrylamide content and on the color of roasted almonds of 3 cultivars was investigated. The temperature inside the almond kernel, the water content, the color, and the acrylamide content were determined at different roasting temperatures and times. The formation of acrylamide started only when the kernel temperature had exceeded approximately 130 °C. The activation energy for the acrylamide formation during the roasting of almonds was 123 kJ·mol⁻¹. The color as measured by the degree of brightness correlated well with the acrylamide content as acrylamide content increased with increasing darkness. Therefore, control of roasting temperature presents the critical factor for limiting the acrylamide concentration in the final product. At constant roasting conditions, almonds with higher initial moisture content contained less acrylamide after roasting, which is probably due to the influence of moisture on the development product temperature during roasting.     

Strontium Zirconate TBC Sprayed by a High Feed-Rate Water-Stabilized Plasma Torch

A novel thermal barrier coating (TBC) material, strontium zirconate SrZrO₃, was sprayed by a high feed-rate water-stabilized plasma torch WSP 500. Stainless steel coupons were used as substrates. Coatings with a thickness of about 1.2 mm were produced, whereas the substrates were preheated over 450 °C. The torch worked at 150 kW power and was able to spray SrZrO₃ with a high spray rate over 10 kg per hour. Microstructure and microhardness, phase composition, adhesion, thermal conductivity and thermal expansion were evaluated. The coating has low thermal conductivity under 1 W/m K in the interval from room temperature up to 1200 °C. Its crystallite size is slightly over 400 nm and thermal expansion 12.3 µm K^?1 in the similar temperature range.     

Single-sensor imaging in consumer digital cameras: a survey of recent advances and future directions

This paper surveys in a systematic way recent advances in single-sensor imaging. In particular, the most distinctive elements of a single-sensor imaging pipeline, such as color filter array configurations, image interpolation solutions, and picture storage approaches are reviewed and commented upon. New perspectives in the field are proposed, suggesting that the demand for consumer digital camera solutions and digital color imaging applications will continue.     

Output energy characteristics of optimally pumped rotating mirrorQ-switch lasers

The author develops a simple analytical formula for the key laser resonator and Q-switch parameters of an optimally pumped rotating mirror Q-switch laser. The analytical expression developed relates the maximum attainable single pulse output energy to the laser parameters such as rotating mirror speed, output mirror reflectivity, length of the resonator, and the absorption cross section of the laser media on the basis of the experimentally measured mechanical Q-switch loss form. Good agreement between theory and the output performance of a test Nd-glass laser has been demonstrated     

A multichannel order-statistic technique for cDNA microarray image processing

This paper introduces an automated image processing procedure capable of processing complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) microarray images. Microarray data is contaminated by noise and suffers from broken edges and visual artifacts. Without the utilization of a filter, subsequent tasks such as spot identification and gene expression determination cannot be completed. By employing, in a unique cascade processing cycle, nonlinear filtering solutions based on robust order statistics, the procedure: 1) removes both background and high-frequency corrupting noise and 2) correctly identifies edges and spots in cDNA microarray data. The proposed solution operates directly on the microarray data, does not rely on explicit data normalization or spot separation preprocessing, and operates in a robust manner without using heuristically determined design parameters. Other routine microarray processing operations such as shape manipulations and grid adjustments can be used in conjunction with the developed solution in the processing pipeline. Experimentation reported in this paper indicates that the proposed solution yields excellent performance by removing noise and enhancing spot location determination.