The assessment of commercial beef and chicken bouillons in terms of heterocyclic aromatic amines and some of their precursors

Herein, the assessment of commercial beef and chicken bouillons in terms of heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) and some of their precursors was evaluated. Creatine and creatinine levels were ranged between 0.57–0.80 and 0.28–0.94 mg g⁻¹, respectively. Glutamic acid was found to be the most abundant amino acid in both bouillons. 2-amino-3,7,8-trimethylimidazo[4,5-ƒ]quinoxaline (7,8-DiMeIQx, up to 0.03 ng g⁻¹) was the only quantified analyte in beef bouillons, whereas it (up to 0.08 ng g⁻¹) was determined in addition to 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-ƒ]quinoxaline (IQx, up to 0.08 ng g⁻¹) in chicken bouillons. Creatine, creatinine and free amino acid composition did not have the capacity to initiate the formation of HAAs. Therefore, bouillons do not pose risk in terms of HAAs. However, it should be noted that multiple factors, such as the substrate amount and production conditions, may affect the results. Glutamic acid content is remarkable in commercial bouillons sold in Turkey.     

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2020

International Journal of Computer Vision -     

Phase behavior,density, and crystallization of polyethylene in n‐pentane and in n‐pentane/CO2 at high pressures

The phase behavior and volumetric properties of polyethylene (PE) in solutions of n‐pentane and n‐pentane/CO₂ were studied in a temperature (T) range of 370–440 K at pressures up to 60 MPa. Measurements were conducted with a variable‐volume view‐cell system equipped with optical sensors to monitor the changes in the transmitted light intensity as the P or the T of the system was changed. Lower‐critical‐solution‐temperature‐type behavior was observed for all of the liquid–liquid (L–L) phase boundaries, which shifted to higher pressures in solutions containing CO₂. The solid–fluid (S–F) phase boundaries were investigated over a P range of 8–54 MPa and took place in a narrow T range, from 374 to 378 K in this P interval. The S–F phase boundary showed a unique feature in that the demixing temperatures showed both increasing and decreasing trends with P depending on the P range. This was observed in both the PE/n‐pentane and PE/n‐pentane/CO₂ mixtures. The density of these solutions were measured as a function of P at selected temperatures or as a function of T at selected pressures that corresponded to the paths followed in approaching the phase boundaries (S–F or L–L) starting from a homogeneous one‐phase condition. The data showed a smooth variation of the overall mixture density along these paths. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 2201–2209, 2003     

Visual, cognitive, and neurodevelopmental outcome at 51/2 years in children with perinatal haemorrhagic-ischaemic brain lesions

To determine predictive values of early visual and neurocognitive assessment in children with perinatally acquired haemorrhagic or ischaemic brain lesions selected on the basis of ultrasound, 63 children (37 boys, 26 girls), who had been followed and examined until the age of 18 months, were reexamined at 5 1/2 years. Good correlations between visual and neurodevelopmental assessments at 18 months and at 5 1/2 years were found. When ultrasound abnormalities were combined with early visual and neurocognitive assessment data, good predictive values, especially for the group of children who had grade 2 to 4 leukomalacia, were found for visual acuity and neurodevelopment.     

Dynamic stability of a shaft system connected through a Hooke's joint

Dynamic stability of the torsional vibrations of a shaft system consisting of two torsionally elastic shafts interconnected through a Hooke's joint is investigated by means of a two degree-of-freedom model. The linearized equations of motion are shown to consist of a set of Mathieu-Hill equations and stability of their solutions is analyzed by means of a monodromy matrix method. Results are presented in the form of stability charts constructed on various parameter planes visualizing the effect of various selected pairs of system parameters on the stability.     

A color-based face tracking algorithm for enhancing interaction with mobile devices

A color-based face tracking algorithm is proposed to be used as a human-computer interaction tool on mobile devices. The solution provides a natural means of interaction enabling a motion parallax effect in applications. The algorithm considers the characteristics of mobile use-constrained computational resources and varying environmental conditions. The solution is based on color comparisons and works on images gathered from the front camera of a device. In addition to color comparisons, the coherency of the facial pixels is considered in the algorithm. Several applications are also demonstrated in this work, which use the face position to determine the viewpoint in a virtual scene, or for browsing large images. The accuracy of the system is tested under different environmental conditions such as lighting and background, and the performance of the system is measured in different types of mobile devices. According to these measurements the system allows for accurate (7% RMS error) face tracking in real time (20–100 fps).     

A combined fuzzy linear regression and fuzzy multiple objective programming approach for setting target levels in quality function deployment

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a systematic process for translating customer needs into engineering characteristics, and then communicating them throughout the enterprise in a way to ensure that details are quantified and controlled. The inherent fuzziness of relationships in QFD modeling justifies the use of fuzzy regression for estimating the relationships between both customer needs and engineering characteristics, and among engineering characteristics. Albeit QFD aims to maximize customer satisfaction, requirements related to enterprise satisfaction such as cost budget, extendibility, and technical difficulty also need to be considered. This paper presents a fuzzy multiple objective decision framework that includes not only fulfillment of engineering characteristics to maximize customer satisfaction, but also maximization of extendibility and minimization of technical difficulty of engineering characteristics as objectives subject to a financial budget constraint to determine target levels of engineering characteristics in product design. A real-world quality improvement problem is presented to illustrate the application of the decision approach.