Search results for: food processing industry food traceability

Authors: Hannah Gutmann, Rick Richardson, Richard Bryant

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Intrusive memories following a traumatic event are not uncommon. However, in some individuals, these memories become maladaptive and lead to prolonged stress reactions. A seminal model of PTSD explains that aberrant processing during trauma may lead to prolonged stress reactions and intrusive memories. This model explains that elevated arousal at the time of the trauma promotes data driven processing, leading to fragmented and intrusive memories. This study investigated the role of elevated arousal on the development of intrusive memories. We measured salivary markers of arousal and investigated what impact this had on data driven processing, memory fragmentation, and subsequently, the development of intrusive memories. We assessed 100 healthy participants to understand their processing style, arousal, and experience of intrusive memories. Participants were randomised to a control or experimental condition, the latter of which was designed to increase their arousal. Based on current theory, participants in the experimental condition were expected to engage in more data driven processing and experience more intrusive memories than participants in the control condition. This research aims to shed light on the mechanisms underlying the development of intrusive memories to illustrate ways in which therapeutic approaches for PTSD may be augmented for greater efficacy.

Keywords: stress, cortisol, SAA, PTSD, intrusive memories

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Authors: Niyanta Mehra, Aakriti Khurania, Kshitij Rastogi, S. K. Garg

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There is plenty of literature available that accounts for complexity management in a supply chain. A major fraction of this literature considers a large number of parameters in order to devise management techniques. However, multiple such parameters do not directly affect the result, and incorporating these can make the analyses overly complicated. Most of the causes of supply chain inefficiencies are due to the interconnectedness and interdependencies in the structure, processes, and environment of the supply chains. The level of complexity varies across industries in terms of intensity and ease of management. After a review of the literature related to complexities in supply chains, the paper attempts to build a framework to study the relative significance of these complexities. This paper aims to identify critical complexities for the garment industry. Understanding and controlling these complexities open avenues for better supply chain management and also assist decision-makers in the garment industry in formulating risk mitigation strategies.

Keywords: complexity dimensions, garment industry, supply chain complexity, supply chain management

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Authors: Lalita Subedi, Jae Kyoung Chae, Yong Un Park, Cho Kyo Hee, Lee Jae Hyuk, Kang Min Cheol, Sun Yeou Kim

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Neuroinflammation may mediate the relationship between low levels of estrogens and neurodegenerative disease. Estrogens are neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory in neurodegenerative disease models. Due to the long term side effects of estrogens, researches have been focused on finding an effective phytoestrogens for biological activities. Daidzein present in soybeans and its active metabolite equol (7-hydroxy-3-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-chroman) bears strong antioxidant and anticancer showed more potent anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective role in neuroinflammatory model confirmed its in vitro activity with molecular mechanism through NF-κB pathway. Three major CNS cells Microglia (BV-2), Astrocyte (C6), Neuron (N2a) were used to find the effect of equol in inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase (COX-2), MAPKs signaling proteins, apoptosis related proteins by western blot analysis. Nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) was measured by the Gries method and ELISA, respectively. Cytokines like tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and IL-6 were also measured in the conditioned medium of LPS activated cells with or without equol. Equol inhibited the NO production, PGE-2 production and expression of COX-2 and iNOS in LPS-stimulated microglial cells at a dose dependent without any cellular toxicity. At the same time Equol also showed promising effect in modulation of MAPK’s and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) expression with significant inhibition of the production of proinflammatory cytokine like interleukin -6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor -α (TNF-α). Additionally, it inhibited the LPS activated microglia-induced neuronal cell death by downregulating the apoptotic phenomenon in neuronal cells. Furthermore, equol increases the production of neurotrophins like NGF and increase the neurite outgrowth as well. In conclusion the natural daidzein metabolite equol are more active than daidzein, which showed a promising effectiveness as an anti-neuroinflammatory and neuroprotective agent via downregulating the LPS stimulated microglial activation and neuronal apoptosis. This work was supported by Brain Korea 21 Plus project and High Value-added Food Technology Development Program 114006-4, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Keywords: apoptosis, equol, neuroinflammation, phytoestrogen

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Authors: Alvaro Marin

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This paper explores the challenges in Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS) conceptual development to accommodate professionals’ perceptions in the language industry into CTS established theoretical apparatus, empirical research projects, and university pedagogical proposals. A comparative conceptual assessment framework is developed from a pluralist epistemological stance that promotes interdisciplinary explorations of the translation process. The framework is used to review key notions such as expertise or feedback, as understood by language industry stakeholders. This review is followed by an analysis of how these notions can enrich research constructs to be applied in empirical investigations of translators’ cognitive processes from an embedded, situated cognition perspective. Thus, it will be proposed to apply the conceptual assessment framework as an effort towards strengthening the interpretative research tools and bridging the gap between industry and academia. The conclusions of this analysis will serve as a basis to further discuss how professional practices, combined with our current knowledge about expertise development in cognitive science and Expertise Studies, can enhance the learning experience of university translation students and help them better understand the processes and requirements of professional cross-linguistic mediation.

Keywords: language industry, cognitive translation studies, translation cognitive theory, translation teaching

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Authors: Kriti Jain, Sucha Singh Gill

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Subsidies have been a major part of agricultural policies around the world, and more extensively since the green revolution in developing countries, for the sake of attaining higher agricultural productivity and achieving food security. But entrenched subsidies lead to distorted incentives and promote inefficiencies in the agricultural sector, threatening the viability of these very subsidies and sustainability of the agricultural production systems, posing a threat to the livelihood of farmers and laborers dependent on it. This paper analyzes the economic and ecological sustainability implications of prolonged input and output subsidies in agriculture by studying the case of Indian Punjab, an agriculturally developed state responsible for ensuring food security in the country when it was facing a major food crisis. The paper focuses specifically on the environmentally unsustainable cropping pattern changes as a result of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and assured procurement and on the resource use efficiency and cost implications of power subsidy for irrigation in Punjab. The study is based on an analysis of both secondary and primary data sources. Using secondary data, a time series analysis was done to capture the changes in Punjab’s cropping pattern, water table depth, fertilizer consumption, and electrification of agriculture. This has been done to examine the role of price and output support adopted to encourage the adoption of green revolution technology in changing the cropping structure of the state, resulting in increased input use intensities (especially groundwater and fertilizers), which harms the ecological balance and decreases factor productivity. Evaluation of electrification of Punjab agriculture helped evaluate the trend in electricity productivity of agriculture and how free power imposed further pressure on the extant agricultural ecosystem. Using data collected from a primary survey of 320 farmers in Punjab, the extent of wasteful application of groundwater irrigation, water productivity of output, electricity usage, and cost of irrigation driven electricity subsidy to the exchequer were estimated for the dominant cropping pattern amongst farmers. The main findings of the study revealed how because of a subsidy has driven agricultural framework, Punjab has lost area under agro climatically suitable and staple crops and moved towards a paddy-wheat cropping system, that is gnawing away the state’s natural resources like water table has been declining at a significant rate of 25 cms per year since 1975-76, and excessive and imbalanced fertilizer usage has led to declining soil fertility in the state. With electricity-driven tubewells as the major source of irrigation within a regime of free electricity and water-intensive crop cultivation, there is both wasteful application of irrigation water and electricity in the cultivation of paddy crops, burning an unproductive hole in the exchequer’s pocket. There is limited access to both agricultural extension services and water-conserving technology, along with policy imbalance, keeping farmers in an intensive and unsustainable production system. Punjab agriculture is witnessing diminishing returns to factor, which under the business-as-usual scenario, will soon enter the phase of negative returns to factor.

Keywords: cropping pattern, electrification, subsidy, sustainability

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Authors: Laxman Budhathoki, Lal Bahadur Shrestha, K. C. Laxman

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Hundreds of people are being lost their life by flood disaster in Nepal every year. Community-based disaster management committee has formed to formulate the disaster management plan including the component of EWS like EWS tower, rain gauge station, flood gauge station, culverts, boats, ropes, life jackets, a communication mechanism, emergency shelter, Spur, dykes, dam, evacuation route, emergency dry food management etc. Now EWS become a successful tool to decrease the human casualty from 13 to 0 every year in Rapti River of Chitwan District.

Keywords: disaster risk reduction, early warning system, flood, participatory approach

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Authors: H. Emari, Z. Emari

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The main objective of this research was to determine the dimensions of service quality in the banking industry of Iran. For this purpose, the study empirically examined the European perspective suggesting that service quality consists of three dimensions, technical, functional and image. This research is an applied research and its strategy is casual strategy. A standard questionnaire was used for collecting the data. 287 customers of Melli Bank of Northwest were selected through cluster sampling and were studied. The results from a banking service sample revealed that the overall service quality is influenced more by a consumer’s perception of technical quality than functional quality. Accordingly, the Gronroos model is a more appropriate representation of service quality than the American perspective with its limited concentration on the dimension of functional quality in the banking industry of Iran. So, knowing the key dimensions of the quality of services in this industry and planning for their improvement can increase the satisfaction of customers and productivity of this industry.

Keywords: technical quality, functional quality, banking, image, mediating role

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Authors: Shivani Kolarkar

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Splendid growth in Indian IT has generated women employment on a large scale in India and continues to do it. Indian IT industry has achieved this in spite of total masculine dominance in other Indian engineering industries, where the ratio of women employment is almost negligible as compared to men. Indian IT today proudly enjoys a strong pool of technically educated, intellectual, and skillful women employees. IT industry has encouraged technical education for women in India, to a great extent. The software industry has definitely contributed to developing a positive and dignified role and status of women employees in Indian IT industry. It has promoted women’s social and economic role and status. In spite of all, gender discrimination still persists in Indian IT, also, which is low as compared to other industries, but it is a matter of concern. An Indian woman is bound to carry dual roles which are equally over-stressed for IT women employees. Long working hours, night shifts, work pressures and insufficient safety majors and necessary facilities for women contributes to making her physical-mental life, family and married life troublesome. Which forces her either to cluster at low-end jobs in IT/elsewhere or to sacrifice her career. Nature, role and status of HRM needs to be broadened, deepened and shaped into research-oriented multidimensional perspective in the context of really enhancing role and status of Indian IT women with high appreciation of women employees’ dignity and entity.

Keywords: attrition, gender discrimination, HRM, Indian IT, software industry, job satisfaction, safety, technical education, women employment

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Authors: Marta Fernández Batalla, José María Santamaría García, Maria Lourdes Jiménez Rodríguez, Roberto Barchino Plata, Adriana Cercas Duque, Enrique Monsalvo San Macario

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Background: Primary Care Nursing is taking more autonomy in clinical decisions. One of the most frequent therapies to solve is related to the problems of maintaining a sufficient supply of food. Nursing diagnoses related to food are addressed by the nurse-family and community as the first responsible. Objectives and interventions are set according to each patient. To improve the goal setting and the treatment of these care problems, a technological tool is developed to help nurses. Objective: To evaluate the computational tool developed to support the clinical decision in feeding problems. Material and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out at the Meco Health Center, Madrid, Spain. The study population consisted of four specialist nurses in primary care. These nurses tested the tool on 30 people with ‘need for nutritional therapy’. Subsequently, the usability of the tool and the satisfaction of the professional were sought. Results: A simple and convenient computational tool is designed for use. It has 3 main entrance fields: age, size, sex. The tool returns the following information: BMI (Body Mass Index) and caloric consumed by the person. The next step is the caloric calculation depending on the activity. It is possible to propose a goal of BMI or weight to achieve. With this, the amount of calories to be consumed is proposed. After using the tool, it was determined that the tool calculated the BMI and calories correctly (in 100% of clinical cases). satisfaction on nutritional assessment was ‘satisfactory’ or ‘very satisfactory’, linked to the speed of operations. As a point of improvement, the options of ‘stress factor’ linked to weekly physical activity. Conclusion: Based on the results, it is clear that the computational tools of decision support are useful in the clinic. Nurses are not only consumers of computational tools, but can develop their own tools. These technological solutions improve the effectiveness of nutrition assessment and intervention. We are currently working on improvements such as the calculation of protein percentages as a function of protein percentages as a function of stress parameters.

Keywords: feeding behavior health, nutrition therapy, primary care nursing, technology assessment

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Authors: Charles Chijioke Dike, Hugh Clifford Chima Maduka, Chinwe A. Isibor

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Fish is among the products consumed at a very high rate. In most countries of the world, fish are used as part of the daily meal. The high cost of commercial fish feeds in Africa has made it necessary the development of an alternative source of fish feed processing from organic waste. The objective of this research is to investigate the efficacy of fish feeds processed from various animal wastes in order to know whether those feeds shall be alternatives to commercial feeds. This work shall be carried out at the Research Laboratory Unit of the Department of Human Biochemistry, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Nnewi Campus, Anambra State. The fingerlings to be used shall be gotten from the Agricultural Department of NAU, Awka, Anambra State, and allowed to acclimatize for 14 d. Animal and food wastes shall be gotten from Nnewi. The fish shall be grouped into 1-13 (Chicken manure only, cow dung only, pig manure only, chicken manure + yeast, cow dung + yeast, pig manure + yeast, chicken manure + other wastes + yeast, cow dung + other wastes + yeast, and pig manure + other wastes + yeast. Feed assessment shall be carried out by determining bulk density, feed water absorption, feed hardness, feed oil absorption, and feed water stability. The nutritional analysis shall be carried out on the feeds processed. The risk assessment shall be done on the fish by determining methylmercury (MeHg), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) in the fish. The results from this study shall be analyzed statistically using SPSS statistical software, version 25. The hypothesis is that fish feeds processed from animal wastes are efficient in raising catfish. The outcome of this study shall provide the basis for the formulation of fish feeds from organic wastes.

Keywords: assessment, feeds, health risk, wastes

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Authors: Chien-Chun Huang, Yi-U Chiou, Chiun-C.R. Wang

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For longer shelf life of noodles, air-dried method is the traditional way for the noodle preparation. Microwave drying has the specific advantage of rapid and uniform heating due to the penetration of microwaves into the body of the product. Microwave-assisted facility offers a quick and energy saving method during food dehydration as compares to the conventional air-dried method. Recently, numerous studies in the rheological characteristics of pasta or spaghetti were carried out with microwave–assisted air driers and many agricultural products were dried successfully. There are few researches about the evaluation of physicochemical characteristics and cooking quality of microwave-assisted air dried salted noodles. The purposes of this study were to compare the difference between conventional and microwave-assisted drying method on the physicochemical properties and eating quality of rice bran noodles. Three different microwave power including 0.5 KW, 0.75 KW and 1.0 KW installing with 50℃ hot air were applied for dehydration of rice bran noodles in this study. Three proportion of rice bran ranging in 0-20% were incorporated into salted noodles processing. The appearance, optimum cooking time, cooking yield and losses, textural profiles analysis, sensory evaluation of rice bran noodles were measured in this study. The results indicated that high power (1.0 KW) microwave facility caused partially burnt and porous on the surface of rice bran noodles. However, no characteristic of noodle was appeared on the surface of noodles preparing by low power (0.5 KW) microwave facility. The optimum cooking time of noodles was decreased as higher power microwave or higher proportion of rice bran was incorporated into noodles preparation. The higher proportion of rice bran (20%) or higher power of microwave-assisted dried noodles obtained the higher color intensity and the higher cooking losses as compared with conventional air dried noodles. The firmness of cooked rice bran noodles slightly decreased in the cooked noodles which were dried by high power microwave-assisted method. The shearing force, tensile strength, elasticity and texture profiles of cooked rice noodles decreased with the progress of the proportion of rice bran. The results of sensory evaluation indicated conventional dried noodles obtained the higher springiness, cohesiveness and acceptability of cooked noodles than high power (1.0 KW) microwave-assisted dried noodles. However, low power (0.5 KW) microwave-assisted dried noodles showed the comparable sensory attributes and acceptability with conventional dried noodles. Moreover, the sensory attributes including firmness, springiness, cohesiveness decreased, but stickiness increased, with the increases of rice bran proportion. These results inferred that incorporation of lower proportion of rice bran and lower power microwave-assisted dried noodles processing could produce faster cooking time and acceptable quality of cooked noodles as compared to conventional dried noodles.

Keywords: microwave-assisted drying method, physicochemical characteristics, rice bran noodles, sensory evaluation

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Authors: Kristina Karapetyan, Flora Tkhruni, Tsovinar Balabekyan, Arevik Israyelyan, Tatyana Khachatryan

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The ability of the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to prevent and cure a variety of diseases, their protective role against infections and colonization of pathogenic microorganisms in the digestive tract, has lead to the coining of the term probiotics or pro-life. LAB inhibiting the growth of pathogenic and food spoilage microorganisms, maintaining the nutritive quality and improving the shelf life of foods. They have also been used as flavor and texture producers. Enterococcus strains have been used for treatment of diseases such as diarrhea or antibiotic associated diarrhea, inflammatory pathologies that affect colon such as irritable bowel syndrome, or immune regulation, diarrhea caused by antibiotic treatments. The obtaining and investigation of biological properties of proteinoceous antibiotics, on the basis of probiotic LAB shown, that bacteriocins, metabiotics, and peptides of LAB represent bactericides have a broad range of activity and are excellent candidates for development of new prophylactic and therapeutic substances to complement or replace conventional antibiotics. The genotyping by 16S rRNA sequencing for LAB were used. Cell free culture broth (CFC) broth was purified by the Gel filtration method on the Sephadex Superfine G 25 resin. Antimicrobial activity was determined by spot-on-lawn method and expressed in arbitrary units (AU/ml). The diversity of multidrug-resistance (MDR) of pathogenic strains to antibiotics, most widely used for treatment of human diseases in the Republics of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh were examined. It was shown, that difference of resistance of pathogens to antibiotics depends on their isolation sources. The influences of partially purified antimicrobial preparations (AMP), obtained from the different strains of Enterococcus genus on the growth of MDR pathogenic bacteria were investigated. It was shown, that bacteriocin containing partially purified preparations, obtained from different strains of Enterococcus faecium and durans species, possess bactericidal or bacteriostatic activity against antibiotic resistant intestinal, spoilage and food-borne pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, and Salmonella. Endemic strains of LAB, isolated from Matsoni made from donkey, buffalo and goat milk, shown broad spectrum of activity against food spoiling microorganisms, moulds and fungi, such as Salmonella sp., Esherichia coli, Aspergillus and Penicillium species. Highest activity against MDR pathogens shown bacteria, isolated from goat milk products. High stability of the investigated strains of the genus Enerococcus, isolated from samples of matsun from different regions of Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR) to the antibiotics was shown. The obtained data show high stability of the investigated different strains of the genus Enerococcus. The high genetic diversity in Enterococcus group suggests adaptations for specific mutations in different environments. Thus, endemic strains of LAB are able to produce bacteriocins with high and different inhibitory activity against broad spectrum of microorganisms isolated from different sources and belong to different taxonomic group. Prospect of the use of certain antimicrobial preparations against pathogenic strains is obvious. These AMP can be applied for long term use against different etiology antibiotic resistant pathogens for prevention or treatment of infectional diseases as an alternative to antibiotics.

Keywords: antimicrobial biopreparation, endemic lactic acid bacteria, intra-species diversity, multidrug resistance of pathogens

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Authors: Elijah Acquah-Andoh

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The UK has had its fair share of the shale gas revolutionary waves blowing across the global oil and gas industry at present. Although, its exploitation is widely agreed to have been delayed, shale gas was looked upon favorably by the UK Parliament when they recognized it as genuine energy source and granted licenses to industry to search and extract the resource. This, although a significant progress by industry, there yet remains another test the UK fracking resource must pass in order to render shale gas extraction feasible – it must be economically extractible and sustainably so. Developing unconventional resources is much more expensive and risky, and for shale gas wells, producing in commercial volumes is conditional upon drilling horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing, techniques which increase CAPEX. Meanwhile, investment in shale gas development projects is sensitive to gas price and technical and geological risks. Using a Two-Factor Model, the economics of the Bowland shale wells were analyzed and the operational conditions under which fracking is profitable in the UK was characterized. We find that there is a great degree of flexibility about Opex spending; hence Opex does not pose much threat to the fracking industry in the UK. However, we discover Bowland shale gas wells fail to add value at gas price of $8/ Mmbtu. A minimum gas price of $12/Mmbtu at Opex of no more than $2/ Mcf and no more than $14.95M Capex are required to create value within the present petroleum tax regime, in the UK fracking industry.

Keywords: capex, economical, investment, profitability, shale gas development, sustainable

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Authors: S. Vignesh, K. S. Rangasamy

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The paper deals with the device capable of detecting and disabling digital cameras. The system locates the camera and then neutralizes it. Every digital camera has an image sensor known as a CCD, which is retro-reflective and sends light back directly to its original source at the same angle. The device shines infrared LED light, which is invisible to the human eye, at a distance of about 20 feet. It then collects video of these reflections with a camcorder. Then the video of the reflections is transferred to a computer connected to the device, where it is sent through image processing algorithms that pick out infrared light bouncing back. Once the camera is detected, the device would project an invisible infrared laser into the camera's lens, thereby overexposing the photo and rendering it useless. Low levels of infrared laser neutralize digital cameras but are neither a health danger to humans nor a physical damage to cameras. We also discuss the simplified design of the above device that can used in theatres to prevent piracy. The domains being covered here are optics and image processing.

Keywords: CCD, optics, image processing, D3CIP

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Authors: J. K. Kapoor, Shagufta Jabin, H. S. Bhatia

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Polyamine flocculants were synthesized by poly-condensation of diphenylamine and epichlorohydrin using 1, 2-diaminoethane as modifying agent. The polyelectrolytes were prepared by taking epichlohydrin-diphenylamine in a molar ratio of 1:1, 1.5:1, 2:1, and 2.5:1. The flocculation performance of these polyelectrolytes was evaluated with rice industry waste water. The polyelectrolytes have been used in conjunction with alum for coagulation- flocculation process. Prior to the coagulation- flocculation process, air flotation technique was used with the aim to remove oil and grease content from waste water. Significant improvement was observed in the removal of oil and grease content after the air flotation technique. It has been able to remove 91.7% oil and grease from rice industry waste water. After coagulation-flocculation method, it has been observed that polyelectrolyte with epichlohydrin-diphenylamine molar ratio of 1.5:1 showed best results for the removal of pollutants from rice industry waste water. The highest efficiency of turbidity and TSS removal with polyelectrolyte has been found to be 97.5% and 98.2%, respectively. Results of these evaluations also reveal 86.8% removal of COD and 87.5% removal of BOD from rice industry waste water. Thus, we demonstrate optimization of coagulation–flocculation technique which is appropriate for waste water treatment.

Keywords: coagulation, flocculation, air flotation technique, polyelectrolyte, turbidity

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Authors: Rassima Salimbayeva, Kaliash Stamkulova, Gulparshyn Satbayeva

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In order to adapt projects to promote Sustainable Development Goal 11. «Ensuring openness, security, resilience and environmental sustainability of cities and human settlements», presented in the UN Concept, it is necessary to assess the environmental sustainability of cities. From the analysis of the problems of sustainable development of cities in Kazakhstan, it can be seen that the industrial past created a typical range of problems -transport, housing, environment, and, importantly, image. Currently, the issue of air pollution in cities whose economies are dominated by one industry or company should be studied in more detail at the level of projects. In this research, using ecological, economic, and social indicators of five single-industry towns of the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, an assessment of the risks of the negative impact of environmental factors on the health of the population was carried out, including by paying special attention to air quality. In order to investigate the relationship between the structure of industry, environmental pressure, and environmental sustainability of resource-oriented cities, an analysis of the main components was carried out to measure the structure of industry, environmental stress, and environmental sustainability of single-industry towns. It has been established that in resource-based cities, economic growth mainly depends on the development of one main industry, which primarily depends on local natural resources. Empirical results show that the regional structure of industry has a significant negative impact on the environmental sustainability of cities, in particular on the health of the population living in them. The paper complements the study of the theory of urban sustainability and clarifies the relationship between industrial structure and environmental pressure on health safety and environmental sustainability of cities and towns, which is crucial for further promoting the "green" development of single-industry towns based on natural resources.

Keywords: public health risks, urban sustainability, suspended solids, single-industry towns, atmospheric air, environmental pollution

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Authors: Elena Iacob, Marie-Louise Ionescu, Elena Ionescu, Carmen Elena Tebrencu, Oana Teodora Ciuperca

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Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) is an advanced technique frequently used to authenticate both raw materials and final products using their specific fingerprints and to determine plant extracts biomarkers based on their functional groups. In recent years the market for Hypericum has grown rapidly and also has grown the cases of adultery/replacement, especially for Hypericum perforatum L.specie. Presence/absence of same biomarkers provides preliminary identification of Hypericum species in safe use in the manufacture of food supplements. The main objective of the work was to characterize the main biomarkers of Hypericum perforatum L. (St. John's wort) and identify this species in herbal food supplements after specific FT-IR fingerprint. An experimental program has been designed in order to test: (1) raw material (St. John's wort); (2)intermediate raw materials (St. John's wort dry extract ); (3) the finished products: tablets based on powders, on extracts, on powder and extract, hydroalcoholic solution from herbal mixture based on St. John's wort. The analyze using FTIR infrared spectroscopy were obtained raw materials, intermediates and finished products spectra, respectively absorption bands corresponding and similar with aliphatic and aromatic structures; examination was done individually and through comparison between Hypericum perforatum L. plant species and finished product The tests were done in correlation with phytochemical markers for authenticating the specie Hypericum perforatum L.: hyperoside, rutin, quercetin, isoquercetin, luteolin, apigenin, hypericin, hyperforin, chlorogenic acid. Samples were analyzed using a Shimatzu FTIR spectrometer and the infrared spectrum of each sample was recorded in the MIR region, from 4000 to 1000 cm-1 and then the fingerprint region was selected for data analysis. The following functional groups were identified -stretching vibrations suggests existing groups in the compounds of interest (flavones–rutin, hyperoside, polyphenolcarboxilic acids - chlorogenic acid, naphtodianthrones- hypericin): oxidril groups (OH) free alcohol type: rutin, hyperoside, chlorogenic acid; C = O bond from structures with free carbonyl groups of aldehyde, ketone, carboxylic, ester: hypericin; C = O structure with the free carbonyl of the aldehyde groups, ketone, carboxylic acid, esteric/C = O free bonds present in chlorogenic acid; C = C bonds of the aromatic ring (condensed aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic compounds) present in all compounds of interest; OH phenolic groups: present in all compounds of interest, C-O-C groups from glycoside structures: rutin, hyperoside, chlorogenic acid. The experimental results show that: (I)The six fingerprint region analysis indicated the presence of specific functional groups: (1) 1000 - 1130 cm-1 (C-O–C of glycoside structures); (2) 1200-1380 cm-1 (carbonyl C-O or O-H phenolic); (3) 1400-1450 cm-1 (C=C aromatic); (4) 1600- 1730 cm-1 (C=O carbonyl); (5) 2850 - 2930 cm-1 (–CH3, -CH2-, =CH-); (6) 338-3920 cm-1 (OH free alcohol type); (II)Comparative FT-IR spectral analysis indicate the authenticity of the finished products ( tablets) in terms of Hypericum perforatum L. content; (III)The infrared spectroscopy is an adequate technique for identification and authentication of the medicinal herbs , intermediate raw material and in the food supplements less in the form of solutions where the results are not conclusive.

Keywords: Authentication, FT-IR fingerprint, Herbal supplements, Hypericum perforatum L.

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Authors: Mona Almansoori, Ahmed Mustafa, Ahmad Elshamy

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Wireless nodes in a sensor network gather and process critical information designed to process and communicate, information flooding through such network is critical for decision making and data processing, the integrity of such data is one of the most critical factors in wireless security without compromising the processing and transmission capability of the network. This paper presents mechanism to securely transmit data over a chain of sensor nodes without compromising the throughput of the network utilizing available battery resources available at the sensor node.

Keywords: hybrid protocol, data integrity, lightweight encryption, neighbor based key sharing, sensor node data processing, Z-MAC

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Authors: Abdulsamad Qadir Hussien

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This paper examines the impact of funders on the media industry in the Kurdistan Region Iraqi (henceforth KRI). The key objectives of the study are also looking at: how the media industry funder influences the media organization and journalists’ practices in the Kurdish community; how the media organizations attempt to utilize the available capabilities to serve the goals of the funded entities, whether they are parties, NGOs, governments, commercial companies or have individual ownership of media institutes. Further, the research project seeks to discover the influence and role of the funder on the media content and determine the prioritizing that will broadcast on the media. Furthermore, the project tries to understand to what extent the media organizations have a commitment to achieve the public interest and public affairs by following the key ethical principles. The study also attempts to explain the situation of the public service media. These variables are measured through a survey questionnaire distributed among a sample of 108 journalists and media practitioners. This research project, therefore, explores a new topic for study in the Kurdish community regarding the media industry, funding, and financial support. This article adopted surveys (n=108) as data collection tools by using a statistical method (SPSS 21). The data of the study have been tabulated, coded, and presented in a descriptive form.

Keywords: funding, journalists’ practices, Kurdish media industry, public services media

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Authors: K. Larysz, E. Grochowska-Niedworok, M. Kardas, K. Brukalo, B. Calyniuk, R. Polaniak

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Eating behaviours and habits are one of the main factors affecting health. Abnormal nutritional status is a growing problem related to nutritional errors. The number of adolescents presenting excess body weight is also rising. The body's demand for all nutrients increases in the period of intensive development, i.e., during puberty. A varied, well-balanced diet and elimination of unhealthy habits are two of the key factors that contribute to the proper development of a young body. The aim of the study was to assess the nutritional status and selected eating behaviours/habits in adolescents attending middle school. An original questionnaire including 24 questions was conducted. A total of 401 correctly completed questionnaires were qualified for the assessment. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Furthermore, the frequency of breakfast consumption, the number of meals per day, types of snacks and sweetened beverages, as well as the frequency of consuming fruit and vegetables, dairy products and fast-foods were assessed. The obtained results were analysed statistically. The study showed that malnutrition was more of a problem than overweight or obesity among middle school students. More than 71% of middle school students have breakfast, whereas almost 30% of adolescents skip this meal. Up to 57.6% of respondents most often consume sweets at school. A total of 37% of adolescents consume sweetened beverages daily or almost every day. Most of the respondents consume an optimal number of meals daily. Only 24.7% of respondents consume fruit and vegetables more than once daily. The majority of respondents (49.40%) declared that they consumed fast food several times a month. Satisfactory frequency of consuming dairy products was reported by 32.7% of middle school students. Conclusions of our study: 1. Malnutrition is more of a problem than overweight or obesity among middle school students. They consume excessive amounts of sweets, sweetened beverages, and fast foods. 2. The consumption of fruit and vegetables was too low in the study group. The intake of dairy products was also low in some cases. 3. A statistically significant correlation was found between the frequency of fast food consumption and the intake of sweetened beverages. A low correlation was found between nutritional status and the number of meals per day. The number of meals consumed by these individuals decreased with increasing nutritional status.

Keywords: adolescent, malnutrition, nutrition, nutritional status, obesity

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Laura Boschis, Elena D. Ozzello, Enzo Mastromatteo

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Point of care diagnostic finds growing interest in medicine and agri-food because of faster intervention and prevention. EliChip is a microfluidic platform to perform Point of Care immunoenzymatic assay based on ready-to-use kits and a portable instrument to manage fluidics and read reliable quantitative results. Thanks to miniaturization, analyses are faster and more sensible than conventional ELISA. EliChip is one of the crucial assets of the Europen-founded Flamingo project for in-line measuring inflammatory markers.

Keywords: lab on chip, point of care, immunoenzymatic analysis, synovial arthritis

Procedia PDF Downloads 187

Authors: Dina Magnaye

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In the Philippines, the performance of the agricultural sector is gauged through crop productivity and returns from farm production rather than the biodiversity in the agricultural ecosystem. Agricultural development hinges on the overall goal of increasing productivity through intensive agriculture, monoculture system, utilization of high yielding varieties in plants, and genetic upgrading in animals. This merits an analysis of the role of agro-biodiversity in terms of increasing productivity, food security and economic returns from community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises. These enterprises conserve biodiversity while equitably sharing production income in the utilization of biological resources. The study aims to determine how community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises become instrumental in local climate change adaptation and agro-biodiversity conservation as input to local green economic development planning. It also involves an assessment of the role of agrobiodiversity in terms of increasing productivity, food security and economic returns from community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises. The perceptions of the local community members both in urban and upland rural areas on community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises were evaluated. These served as a basis in developing a planning modality that can be mainstreamed in the management of local green economic enterprises to benefit the environment, provide local income opportunities, conserve species diversity, and sustain environment-friendly farming systems and practices. The interviews conducted with organic farmer-owners, entrepreneur-organic farmers, and organic farm workers revealed that pro-biodiversity enterprise such as organic farming involved the cyclic use of natural resources within the carrying capacity of a farm; recognition of the value of tradition and culture especially in the upland rural area; enhancement of socio-economic capacity; conservation of ecosystems in harmony with nature; and climate change mitigation. The suggested planning modality for community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises for a green economy encompasses four (4) phases to include community resource or capital asset profiling; stakeholder vision development; strategy formulation for sustained enterprises; and monitoring and evaluation.

Keywords: agro-biodiversity, agro-biodiversity conservation, local green economy, organic farming, pro-biodiversity enterprise

Procedia PDF Downloads 362

Authors: Efren Lopez Jimenez, Maria Isabel Cajero, J. Irving-Vasqueza

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The use and processing of digital images have opened up new opportunities for the resolution of problems of various kinds, such as the calculation of different vegetation indexes, among other things, differentiating healthy vegetation from humid vegetation. However, obtaining images from which these indexes are calculated is still the exclusive subject of active research. In the present work, we propose to obtain these images using a low cost embedded system (Raspberry Pi) and its processing, using a set of libraries of open code called OpenCV, in order to obtain the Normalized Red-Green Difference Index (NGRDI).

Keywords: Raspberry Pi, vegetation index, Normalized Red-Green Difference Index (NGRDI), OpenCV

Procedia PDF Downloads 291

Authors: Elif Cakir, Görkem Özülkü, Hatice Bekiroğlu, Muhammet Arici, Osman Sağdic

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It is important to be able to formulate cakes with a wide consumption mass with gluten-free and high nutritional value ingredients to increase the consumption possibilities of people with limited nutrition opportunities. Although people do not prefer Prunus spinosa (PS)because of its sour taste and its use in the food industry is limited on a local scale, the potential of using PS, which is a naturally rich source of many micronutrients and bioactive compounds, in glutenfree cake production has been investigated. In this study, the potential of using PS, a natural wild fruit, in the production of functional gluten-free cakes was investigated. It was aimed to evaluate the effects of freeze-dried and powdered PS-enriched rice flour cakes on tech functionality, nutrition and eating quality. In terms of physicochemical properties, PS raises increased the ash, protein, and moisture values of the cakes. PS with high phenolic content, phenolic component content, and radical reducing power made by ABTS, FRAP, and DPPH techniques were higher in all samples than control, and the highest 4% PS was determined in cakes. In terms of the glycemic index (GI), which is an important feature of diet products, it was determined that the GI in cakes decreased by 86.30±1.04.75.05±1.16 and 69.38±1.21, respectively, with the increase in PS ratio. Except for the 1%, PS added sample, the increase in PS caused a decrease in specific volume, % porosity and increase in hardness, including 4 days of storage. PS increase decreased the L* and b* values and increased a* value and redness of the cake. Sensory liking of the cake samples containing PS was scored significantly (p<0.05) higher of control.

Keywords: Prunus spinosa, gluten-free cake, antioxidant, phenolic, glycemic index

Procedia PDF Downloads 137

Authors: Akintayo E. Akinsunmade

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The digestion optimization algorithm is a novel biological-inspired metaheuristic method for solving complex optimization problems. The algorithm development was inspired by studying the human digestive system. The algorithm mimics the process of food ingestion, breakdown, absorption, and elimination to effectively and efficiently search for optimal solutions. This algorithm was tested for optimal solutions on seven different types of optimization benchmark functions. The algorithm produced optimal solutions with standard errors, which were compared with the exact solution of the test functions.

Keywords: bio-inspired algorithm, benchmark optimization functions, digestive system in human, algorithm development

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Authors: I. Oikonomou, I. Lappa, D. Daferera, C. Kanakis, L. Kiokakis, K. Skordilis, A. Avramouli, E. Kalli, C. Pappas, P. A. Tarantilis, E. Skotti

Abstract:

Grape seeds are waste products of wineries and often referred to as an important agricultural and industrial waste product with the potential to be used in pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic applications. In this study, grape seed oil from traditional Ionian varieties was examined for the determination of the quality and the characteristics of each variety. Initially, the fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles were analyzed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, after transesterification. Furthermore, other quality parameters of the grape seed oils were determined by Spectroscopy techniques, UV-Vis and Raman included. Moreover, the antioxidant capacity of the oil was measured by 2,2'-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) and 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays and their antioxidant capacity expressed in Trolox equivalents. K and ΔΚ indices were measured in 232, 268, 270 nm, as an oil quality index. The results indicate that the air-dried grape seed total oil content ranged from 5.26 to 8.77% w/w, which is in accordance with the other grape seed varieties tested in similar studies. The composition of grape seed oil is predominated with linoleic and oleic fatty acids, with the linoleic fatty acid ranging from 53.68 to 69.95% and both the linoleic and oleic fatty acids totaling 78-82% of FAMEs, which is analogous to the fatty acid composition of safflower oil. The antioxidant assays ABTS and DPPH scored high, exhibiting that the oils have potential in the cosmetic and culinary businesses. Above that, our results demonstrate that Ionian grape seed oils have prospects that can go further than cosmetic or culinary use, into the pharmaceuticals industry. Finally, the reclamation of grape seeds from wineries waste stream is in accordance with the bio-economy strategic framework and contributes to environmental protection.

Keywords: antioxidant capacity, fatty acid methyl esters, grape seed oil, GC-MS

Procedia PDF Downloads 204

Authors: Abdullahi Marshal Idris, Murtala Mohammed Alamai, Adama Jummai Idris, Bello Mohammed Gwagwada

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The technological revolution of the 1990s have brought about many new opportunities and challenges for the tourism and hospitality industries mostly in Nigeria and with tourism having global industry information as its life-blood and technology becoming fundamental to the ability of the industry to operate effectively and competitively. The whole system of information technologies is being rapidly diffused throughout the tourism industry and no player will escape information technologies impacts. The paper gives an insight into the importance of destination branding and the application of information technologies and the use of Internet in tourism and hospitality industries in Nigeria giving strategic frameworks, providing analysis of the Internet and its impact on these sectors. It also aims to show how technological innovations and information system can be beneficial for destinations companies like game reserves national parks, and other resorts by using the literature of existing efforts in global industry players as well as documented evidences where recommendations for destinations and companies is made to seek to foster the development of this connection by investing considerable resources in marketing activities on social networks and by reinforcing the trust of users, because credibility and reliability are still critical in this area.

Keywords: branding, marketing, technology, tourism product

Procedia PDF Downloads 446

Authors: Cheng Wen, Zhang Jianhua

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This paper aims to probe into the general rules of industry specialization or diversification in a region during its process of economic growth and the specific reasons for the difference of industry specialization development in the eastern, central and western regions of China. It is found in this paper that the changes of regional industry specialization in China, like most of countries in the world, also present the U-shaped curve. Regional industrial structure is diversified in the first place. And when the per capita income exceeds a certain level, distribution of economic resources in this region will be concentrated again. From the perspective of rising total factor productivity and falling of transaction cost in the process of economic development, this paper comes up with a theoretical model to explain the U-shaped curve. Through the empirical test of China's provincial panel data, this paper explains the factors that cause the inequality of the industry specialization development in the eastern, central and western regions of China.

Keywords: u-shaped curve, regional industrial specialization, technological progress, transaction costs

Procedia PDF Downloads 308

Authors: Nurul-Akidah M. Yusak, Rahmah Mohamed, Noor Zuhaira Abd Aziz

Abstract:

The introduction of degradable plastic materials into agricultural sectors has represented a promising alternative to promote green agriculture and environmental friendly of modern farming practices. Major challenges of developing degradable agricultural films are to identify the most feasible types of degradation mechanisms, composition of degradable polymers and related processing techniques. The incorrect choice of degradable mechanisms to be applied during the degradation process will cause premature losses of mechanical performance and strength. In order to achieve controlled process of agricultural film degradation, the compositions of degradable agricultural film also important in order to stimulate degradation reaction at required interval of time and to achieve sustainability of the modern agricultural practices. A set of photodegradable polyethylene based agricultural film was developed and produced, following the selective optimization of processing parameters of the agricultural film manufacturing system. Example of agricultural films application for oil palm seedlings cultivation is presented.

Keywords: photodegradable polyethylene, plasticulture, processing schemes

Procedia PDF Downloads 518

Authors: John M. Frimpong, Matilda K. Owusu-Bio, Caleb Annan

Abstract:

Business today is highly competitive, and the automobile industry is no exception. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the customer value and service quality measures that lead to customer satisfaction which in turn lead to customer loyalty. However, in the automobile industry, the role of logistics service support in these relationships cannot be undermined. It could be inferred that logistics service supports and its management has a direct correlation with customer service and or service quality. But this is not always the same for all industries. Therefore, this study was to investigate how automobile companies implement the concept of customer service through logistics service supports. In order to ascertain this, two automobile companies in Ghana were selected, and these are Toyota Ghana Limited and Mechanical Lloyd Company Ltd. The study developed a conceptual model to depict the study’s objectives from which questionnaires were developed from for data collection. Respondents were made up of customers and staff of the two companies. The findings of the study revealed that the automobile industry partly attributes their customer satisfaction to the customer value, service quality or customer value. It shows a positive relationship between logistics service supports and service quality and customer value. However, the results indicate that customer satisfaction is not predicted by logistics services. This implies that in the automobile industry, it is not always the case that when customer service is implemented through logistics service supports, it leads to customer satisfaction. Therefore, there is the need for all players and stakeholders in the automobile industry investigate other factors which help to increase customer satisfaction in addition to logistics service supports. It is recommended that logistics service supports should be geared towards meeting customer expectations and not just based on the organization’s standards and procedures. It is necessary to listen to the voice of the customer to tailor the service package to suit the needs and expectations of the customer.

Keywords: customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, customer service, customer value, logistics service supports

Procedia PDF Downloads 495