Search results for: meat identification

Authors: Mirza Mohibulla Baig, Imil Hamda Imran, Tri Bagus Susilo, Sami El Ferik

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The paper deals with system identification and control a nonlinear model of semi-autonomous underwater vehicle (UUV). The input-output data is first generated using the experimental values of the model parameters and then this data is used to compute the estimated parameter values. In this study, we use the semi-autonomous UUV LAURS model, which is developed by the Sensors and Actuators Laboratory in University of Sao Paolo. We applied three methods to identify the parameters: integral method, which is a classical least square method, recursive least square, and weighted recursive least square. In this paper, we also apply three different inputs (step input, sine wave input and random input) to each identification method. After the identification stage, we investigate the control performance of yaw motion of nonlinear semi-autonomous Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) using feedback linearization-based controller. In addition, we compare the performance of the control with an integral and a non-integral part along with state feedback. Finally, disturbance rejection and resilience of the controller is tested. The results demonstrate the ability of the system to recover from such fault.

Keywords: system identification, underwater vehicle, integral method, recursive least square, weighted recursive least square, feedback linearization, integral error

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Authors: Amal Balila, Maria Vahdati

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Earth is a green building material with very low embodied energy and almost zero greenhouse gas emissions. However, it lacks strength and durability in its natural state. By responsibly sourcing stabilisers, it's possible to enhance its strength. This research draws inspiration from the robustness of termite mounds, where termites incorporate glycoproteins from their saliva during construction. Biomimicry explores the potential of these termite stabilisers in producing bio-inspired adobe bricks. The meat industry generates significant waste during slaughter, including blood, skin, bones, tendons, gastrointestinal contents, and internal organs. While abundant, many meat by-products raise concerns regarding human consumption, religious orders, cultural and ethical beliefs, and also heavily contribute to environmental pollution. Extracting and utilising proteins from this waste is vital for reducing pollution and increasing profitability. Exploring the untapped potential of meat industry waste, this research investigates how glycoproteins could revolutionize adobe brick construction. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) from cows' blood and mucin from porcine stomachs were the chosen glycoproteins used as stabilisers for adobe brick production. Despite their wide usage across various fields, they have very limited utilisation in food processing. Thus, both were identified as potential stabilisers for adobe brick production in this study. Two soil types were utilised to prepare adobe bricks for testing, comparing controlled unstabilised bricks with glycoprotein-stabilised ones. All bricks underwent testing for unconfined compressive strength and erosion resistance. The primary finding of this study is the efficacy of BSA, a glycoprotein derived from cows' blood and a by-product of the beef industry, as an earth construction stabiliser. Adding 0.5% by weight of BSA resulted in a 17% and 41% increase in the unconfined compressive strength for British and Sudanese adobe bricks, respectively. Further, adding 5% by weight of BSA led to a 202% and 97% increase in the unconfined compressive strength for British and Sudanese adobe bricks, respectively. Moreover, using 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.5% by weight of BSA resulted in erosion rate reductions of 30%, 48%, and 70% for British adobe bricks, respectively, with a 97% reduction observed for Sudanese adobe bricks at 0.5% by weight of BSA. However, mucin from the porcine stomach did not significantly improve the unconfined compressive strength of adobe bricks. Nevertheless, employing 0.1% and 0.2% by weight of mucin resulted in erosion rate reductions of 28% and 55% for British adobe bricks, respectively. These findings underscore BSA's efficiency as an earth construction stabiliser for wall construction and mucin's efficacy for wall render, showcasing their potential for sustainable and durable building practices.

Keywords: biomimicry, earth construction, industrial waste management, sustainable building materials, termite mounds.

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Authors: Seyedeh Banafsheh Bagheri Marzouni, Sona Rostampour Yasouri

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Salmonella is one of the most important common pathogens between humans and animals worldwide. Globally, the prevalence of the disease in humans is due to the consumption of food contaminated with animal-derived Salmonella. These foods include eggs, red meat, chicken, and milk. Contamination of chicken and its products with Salmonella may occur at any stage of the chicken processing chain. Salmonella infection is usually not fatal. However, its occurrence is considered dangerous in some individuals, such as infants, children, the elderly, pregnant women, or individuals with weakened immune systems. If Salmonella infection enters the bloodstream, the possibility of contamination of tissues throughout the body will arise. Therefore, determining the potential risk of Salmonella at various stages is essential from the perspective of consumers and public health. The aim of this study is to isolate and identify Salmonella from chicken samples distributed in the Tehran market using the Gold standard culture method and PCR techniques based on specific genes, invA and ent. During the years 2022-2023, sampling was performed using swabs from the liver and intestinal contents of distributed chickens in the Tehran province, with a total of 120 samples taken under aseptic conditions. The samples were initially enriched in buffered peptone water (BPW) for pre-enrichment overnight. Then, the samples were incubated in selective enrichment media, including TT broth and RVS medium, at temperatures of 37°C and 42°C, respectively, for 18 to 24 hours. Organisms that grew in the liquid medium and produced turbidity were transferred to selective media (XLD and BGA) and incubated overnight at 37°C for isolation. Suspicious Salmonella colonies were selected for DNA extraction, and PCR technique was performed using specific primers that targeted the invA and ent genes in Salmonella. The results indicated that 94 samples were Salmonella using the PCR technique. Of these, 71 samples were positive based on the invA gene, and 23 samples were positive based on the ent gene. Although the culture technique is the Gold standard, PCR is a faster and more accurate method. Rapid detection through PCR can enable the identification of Salmonella contamination in food items and the implementation of necessary measures for disease control and prevention.

Keywords: culture, PCR, salmonella spp, salmonella enteritidis

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Authors: Emine Yilmaz, Ismail Yilmaz, Harun Uran

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Food-borne problems have been placed among the most leading problems of the society especially in recent years. This state arises as a problem which affects the society wholly such as the supply of food stuffs that are necessary for an individual to perform his physiological and biological functions, their amount, compound, their effects on health and distribution by individuals. This study was conducted in order to determine the sensitivities and criteria of people, who have different socio-economic backgrounds and live in Süleymanpasa Town of Tekirdag City, in their preference of food stuffs. The research data were collected by means of Interview Technique with individuals within the scope of the study (300) and applying surveys with convenience sampling. According to the research results, quality appears in the first rank among the factors by which consumers are affected while buying food stuffs. Consumers stated that they try to be careful with not buying food sold outdoors. The most preferred food among the ones being sold outdoor were found to be breakfast food. Also, food stuff which consumers become the most selective for while buying was determined to be meat and meat products. Due to general knowledge about the food stuff consumed in human nutrition may affect their health negatively; consumers expressed that they are very relevant with their diets and this circumstances affects their purchase preferences.  

Keywords: consumption, food safety, consumer behaviour, purchase preferences

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Authors: Javad Khazaei, Rick Blum

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Distributed control is an efficient and flexible approach for coordination of multi-agent systems. One of the main challenges in designing a distributed controller is identifying the governing dynamics of the dynamical systems. Data-driven system identification is currently undergoing a revolution. With the availability of high-fidelity measurements and historical data, model-free identification of dynamical systems can facilitate the control design without tedious modeling of high-dimensional and/or nonlinear systems. This paper develops a distributed control design using consensus theory for linear and nonlinear dynamical systems using sparse identification of system dynamics. Compared with existing consensus designs that heavily rely on knowing the detailed system dynamics, the proposed model-free design can accurately capture the dynamics of the system with available measurements and input data and provide guaranteed performance in consensus and tracking problems. Heterogeneous damped oscillators are chosen as examples of dynamical system for validation purposes.

Keywords: consensus tracking, distributed control, model-free control, sparse identification of dynamical systems

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Authors: S. Kherchaoui, A. Houacine

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This paper presents a facial expression recognition system. It performs identification and classification of the seven basic expressions; happy, surprise, fear, disgust, sadness, anger, and neutral states. It consists of three main parts. The first one is the detection of a face and the corresponding facial features to extract the most expressive portion of the face, followed by a normalization of the region of interest. Then calculus of curvelet coefficients is performed with dimensionality reduction through principal component analysis. The resulting coefficients are combined with two ratios; mouth ratio and face edge ratio to constitute the whole feature vector. The third step is the classification of the emotional state using the SVM method in the feature space.

Keywords: facial expression identification, curvelet coefficient, support vector machine (SVM), recognition system

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Authors: Saule Mussabekova

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Forensic investigation of human teeth plays an important role in detection of crime, particularly in cases of personal identification of dead bodies changed by putrefactive processes or skeletonized bodies as well as when finding bodies of unknown persons. 152 teeth have been investigated; 85 of them belonged to men and 67 belonged to women taken from alive people of different age. Teeth have been investigated after extraction. Two types of teeth have been investigated: teeth without integrity violation of dental crown and teeth with different degrees of its violation. Additionally, 517 teeth have been investigated that were collected from dead bodies, 252 of which belonged to women and 265 belonged to men, whatever the cause of death with death limitation from 1 month to 20 years. Isohemagglutinating serums and Coliclons of different series have been used for the research of tooth-group specificity by serological methods according to the AB0 system. Standard protocols of different techniques have been used for DNA purification from teeth (by reagent Chelex 100 produced by Bio-Rad using reagent kit 'DNA IQTM System' produced by Promega company (USA) and using columns 'QIAamp DNA Investigator Kit' produced by Qiagen company). Results of comparative forensic investigation of human teeth using serological and molecular genetic methods have shown that use of serological methods for forensic identification is sensible only in cases of preselection prior to the next molecular genetic investigation as well as in cases of impossibility of corresponding genetic investigation for different objective reasons. A number of advantages of methods of molecular genetics in the dental investigation have been marked, particularly in putrefactive changes, in personal identification. Key moments of modern condition of personal identification have been reflected according to dental state. Prospective directions of advance preparation of material have been emphasized for identification of teeth in forensic practice.

Keywords: dental state, forensic identification, molecular genetic analysis, teeth

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Authors: Rodriguez Diego, Del Valle Martin, Hargreaves Matias, Riveros Jose Luis

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Nutrient deficiencies due to a diet low in quantitative and qualitative terms, are prevalent throughout the developing world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Children and women of childbearing age are especially vulnerable. Limited availability, access and intake of animal foods at home and lack of knowledge about their value in the diet and the role they play in health, contribute to poor diet quality. Poor bioavailability of micronutrients in diets based on foods high in fiber and phytates, the low content of some micronutrients in these foods are further factors to consider. Goats are deeply embedded in almost every Sub-Saharan African rural culture, generally kept for their milk, meat, hair or leather. Goats have played an important role in African social life, especially in food security. Goat meat has good properties for human wellbeing, with a special role in lower income households. It has a high-quality protein (20 protein g/100 meat g) including all essential amino acids, good unsaturated/satured fatty acids relationship, and it is an important B-vitamin source with high micronutrients bioavailability. Mozambique has major food security problems, with poor food access and utilization, undiversified diets, chronic poverty and child malnutrition. Our objective was to design a nutritional intervention based on a dietary diversification, nutritional education, cultural beliefs and local resources, aimed to strengthen food security of children at Barrio Broma village (15°43'58.78"S; 32°46'7.27"E) in Chitima, Mozambique. Two surveys were conducted first of socio-productive local databases and then to 100 rural households about livelihoods, food diversity and anthropometric measurements in children under 5 years. Our results indicate that the main economic activity is goat production, based on a native breed with two deliveries per year in the absence of any management. Adult goats weighted 27.2±10.5 kg and raised a height of 63.5±3.8 cm. Data showed high levels of poverty, with a food diversity score of 2.3 (0-12 points), where only 30% of households consume protein and 13% iron, zinc, and B12 vitamin. The main constraints to food security were poor access to water and low income to buy food. Our dietary intervention was based on improving diet quality by increasing the access to dried goat meat, fresh vegetables, and legumes, and its utilization by a nutritional education program. This proposal was based on local culture and living conditions characterized by the absence of electricity power and drinkable water. The drying process proposed would secure the food maintenance under local conditions guaranteeing food safety for a longer period. Additionally, an ancient local drying technique was rescued and used. Moreover, this kind of dietary intervention would be the most efficient way to improve the infant nutrition by delivering macro and micronutrients on time to these vulnerable populations.

Keywords: child malnutrition, dietary diversification, food security, goat meat

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Authors: Li Bixia, Ren Shouwen, Fu Yanfeng, Tu Feng, Xiaoming Fang, Xueming Wang

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The utilization of dietary crude fiber in different breed pigs is not the same. Su-shan pigs are a new breed formed by crossing Taihu pigs and Yorkshire pigs. In order to understand the resistance of Su-shan pigs to dietary crude fiber, 150 Su-shan pigs with 60 kg of average body weight and similar body conditions were allocated to three groups randomly, and there are 50 pigs in each group. The percentages of dietary crude fiber were 8.35%, 9.10%, and 11.39%, respectively. At the end of the experiment, 15 pigs randomly selected from each group were slaughtered. The results showed as follows: average daily gain of the 9.10% group was higher than that of the 8.35% group and the 11.39% group; there was a significant difference between the 9.10% group and the 8.35% group (p < 0.05. Levels of urea nitrogen, total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein in the 9.10% group were significantly higher than those in the 8.35% group and the 11.39% group (p < 0.05). Ratios of meat to fat in the 9.10% group and the 11.39% group were significantly higher than that in the 8.35% group (p < 0.05). Lean percentage of 9.10% group was higher than that of 8.35% group and 11.39% group, but there was no significant difference in three groups (p > 0.05). The weight of small intestine and large intestine in the 11.39% group was higher than that in the 8.35% group, and the 9.10% group and the difference reached a significant level (p < 0.05). In conclusion, increasing dietary crude fiber properly could reduce fat percentage, and improve the ratio of meat to fat of finishing Su-shan pigs. The digestion and metabolism of dietary crude fiber promoted the development of stomach and intestine of finishing Su-shan pig.

Keywords: Su-shan pigs, dietary crude fiber, growth performance, serum biochemical indexes

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Authors: Young Ik Suh, Taewook Chung, Glaucio Scremin, Tywan Martin

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In May of 2016, the Philadelphia 76ers announced that StubHub, the ticket resale company, will have advertising on the team’s jerseys beginning in the 2017-18 season. The 76ers and National Basketball Association (NBA) became the first team and league which embraced jersey sponsorships in the four major U.S. professional sports. Even though many professional teams and leagues in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America have adopted jersey sponsorship actively, this phenomenon is relatively new in America. While the jersey sponsorship provides economic gains for the professional leagues and franchises, sport fans can have different points of view for the phenomenon of jersey sponsorship. For instance, since many sport fans in U.S. are not familiar with ads on jerseys, this movement can possibly cause negative reaction such as the decrease in ticket and merchandise sales. They also concern the small size of ads on jersey become bigger ads, like in the English Premier League (EPL). However, some sport fans seem they do not mind too much about jersey sponsorship because the ads on jersey will not affect their loyalty and fanship. Therefore, the assumption of this study was that the sport fans’ reaction about jersey sponsorship can be possibly different, especially based on different levels of the sport fans’ team identification and various sizes of ads on jersey. Unlike general sponsorship in sport industry, jersey sponsorship has received little attention regarding its potential impact on sport fans attitudes and buying intentions. Thus, the current study sought to identify how the various levels of team identification influence brand attitude and buying intention in terms of jersey sponsorship. In particular, this study examined the effect of team identification on brand attitude and buying intention when there are no ads, small size ads, and large size ads on jersey. 3 (large, small, and no ads) X 3 (Team Identification: high, moderate, low) between subject factorial design was conducted on attitude toward the brand and buying intention of jersey sponsorship. The ads on Philadelphia 76ers jersey were used. The sample of this study was selected from message board users provided by different sports websites (i.e., forums.realgm.com and phillysportscentral.com). A total of 275 respondents participated in this study by responding to an online survey questionnaire. The results showed that there were significant differences between fans with high identification and fans with low identification. The findings of this study are expected to have many theoretical and practical contributions and implications by extending the research and literature pertaining to the relationship between team identification and brand strategy based upon different levels of team identification.

Keywords: brand attitude, buying intention, Jersey sponsorship, team identification

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Authors: Muhammad Sheeraz, Mehwish Ejaz

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This study endeavors to enhance the understanding of the determinants of oppositional brand loyalty, particularly within the context of fans of a sports brand. The primary focus is on investigating how oppositional brand loyalty fosters rivalry among the fans and exploring the interplay between various variables, namely self-congruence, consumer brand identification, consumer brand engagement, and narcissism, in influencing the likelihood of endorsing a rival team. The research adopts a cross-sectional survey methodology, employing a structured questionnaire distributed both online and onsite to gather responses from a representative sample of 460 PSL fans in Pakistan. The data collection process involved obtaining responses from diverse settings, including universities, shopping malls, and other public spaces frequented by PSL enthusiasts. Participants were prompted to indicate their allegiance to a specific PSL team and subsequently respond to the questionnaire based on their preferences. The findings of the study reveal that narcissism, as a moderating factor, exhibits no significant influence on consumer brand identification, consumer brand engagement, and oppositional brand loyalty. However, it does emerge as a significant moderator in the relationship between self-congruence and consumer brand identification. Particularly, consumers express brand identification through self-congruence, elucidating the existence of oppositional sentiments among PSL fans and their counterparts supporting rival teams. The implications of these results underscore the importance for marketers to establish a brand identity that resonates with consumers on a personal level. Such an approach fosters a strong sense of identification with the brand, prompting consumers to vigorously defend and support their favored brands, even in the face of opposition from rival teams. Marketers are encouraged to focus on cultivating long-term consumer loyalty, as it proves pivotal in maintaining a competitive advantage over industry counterparts.

Keywords: oppositional brand loyalty, consumer brand identification, consumer brand engagement, narcissism, self-congruence

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Authors: Sarah Aldhalaan, Tanzila Saba

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Healthcare sectors are increasing rapidly to fulfill patient’s needs across the world. A patient identification is considered as the main aspect for a patient to be served in healthcare institutes. Nowadays, people are presenting their insurance card along with their identification card in order to get the needed treatment in hospitals however, this process lack security preferences. The aim of this research paper is to reveal a solution to introduce and use biometrics in healthcare hospitals. The findings show that the people know biometrics since they are interacting with them through different channels and that the need for biometrics techniques to identify patients is essential. Also, the survey relevant questions are used to analyze and add insights on what is are the suitable biometrics to be used in such cases. Moreover, results are presented to exhibit the effectiveness of the used methodology and in analyzing usage of biometrics in hospitals in an enhancing way. Finally, an interesting conclusion of overall work is presented at the end of paper.

Keywords: biometrics, healthcare, fingerprint, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Sundus Mona, Atif Adnan, Babar Ali, Fareeha Arshad, Allah Rakha

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Molecular diversity is the variation in the abundance of species. Forensic entomology is a neglected field in Pakistan. Insects collected from the crime scene should be handled by forensic entomologists who are currently virtually non-existent in Pakistan. Correct identification of insect specimen along with knowledge of their biodiversity can aid in solving many problems related to complicated forensic cases. Inadequate morphological identification and insufficient thermal biological studies limit the entomological utility in Forensic Medicine. Recently molecular identification of entomological evidence has gained attention globally. DNA barcoding is the latest and established method for species identification. Only proper identification can provide a precise estimation of postmortem intervals. Arthropods are known to be the first tourists scavenging on decomposing dead matter. The objective of the proposed study was to identify species by molecular techniques and analyze their phylogenetic importance with barcoded necrophagous insect species of early succession on human cadavers. Based upon this identification, the study outcomes will be the utilization of established DNA bar codes to identify carrion feeding insect species for concordant estimation of post mortem interval. A molecular identification method involving sequencing of a 658bp ‘barcode’ fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) gene from collected specimens of unknown dipteral species from cadavers of Lahore was evaluated. Nucleotide sequence divergences were calculated using MEGA 7 and Arlequin, and a neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree was generated. Three species were identified, Chrysomya megacephala, Chrysomya saffranea, and Chrysomya rufifacies with low genetic diversity. The fixation index was 0.83992 that suggests a need for further studies to identify and classify forensically relevant insects in Pakistan. There is an exigency demand for further research especially when immature forms of arthropods are recovered from the crime scene.

Keywords: molecular diversity, DNA barcoding, species identification, forensically relevant

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Authors: I. S. R. Butswat, D. Zahraddeen

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This study identified and described some skill-based and necessity-driven entrepreneurship in animal agriculture (AA). AA is an integral segment of the world food industry, and provides a good and rapid source of income. The contribution of AA to the Sub-Saharan economy is quite significant, and there are still large opportunities that remain untapped in the sector. However, it is imperative to understand, simplify and package the various components of AA in order to pave way for rapid wealth creation, poverty eradication and women empowerment programmes in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries. The entrepreneurial areas of AA highlighted were animal breeding, livestock fattening, dairy production, poultry farming, meat production (beef, mutton, chevon, etc.), rabbit farming, wool/leather production, animal traction, animal feed industry, commercial pasture management, fish farming, sport animals, micro livestock production, private ownership of abattoirs, slaughter slabs, animal parks and zoos, among others. This study concludes that reproductive biotechnology such as oestrous synchronization, super-/multiple ovulation, artificial insemination and embryo transfer can be employed as a tool for improvement of genetic make-up of low-yielding animals in terms of milk, meat, egg, wool, leather production and other economic traits that will necessitate sustainable job and wealth creations.

Keywords: animal, agriculture, entreprenurship, wealth

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Authors: Hassan Nabipour Afrouzi, Naser Mahmoudnia

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Broiler production has increased rapidly in tropical and subtropical regions in the past and sustained growth is forecast for the future. One of the greatest challenges to efficient production in these regions is reduced performance from warm and hot weather conditions. There are many ways to decrease these detrimental effects of heat on broiler chickens. One way is to supplement broiler diet with betaine added to feed or drinking water. A review of the results of this study suggest that betaine supplement was effective to significantly improve body weight and feed conversion ratio at the initial stages of growth but not in the finisher stages (P<0/05). It was also demonstrated that the use of betaine significantly reduced the percentage of abdominal meat and the percentage of breast meat (P<0/05), but had no effect on other carcass compositions. Betaine may improve the digestibility of specific nutrients. Betaine, as a methyl donor provides labile methyl groups for the synthesis of several metabolically active substances such as creatine and carnitine. Oil in a broiler diet is known to promote a response to dietary betaine supplements, that is, chicks have a higher demand for betaine with a high fat diet. This study implies that betaine supplement may stimulate protection of intestinal epithelium against osmotic disturbance, improve digestion and absorption conditions of the gastrointestinal tract and promote amended use of nutrients.

Keywords: heat stress, betaine, performance, broiler‚ growth

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Authors: Nitin Shravan, Sudarsun Santhiappan, B. Sivaselvan

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Subsection identification, in the context of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), is identifying the important sections for down-stream tasks like auto-coding. In this work, we classify the text present in EHRs according to their information, using machine learning and deep learning techniques. We initially describe briefly about the problem and formulate it as a text classification problem. Then, we discuss upon the methods from the literature. We try two approaches - traditional feature extraction based machine learning methods and deep learning methods. Through experiments on a private dataset, we establish that the deep learning methods perform better than the feature extraction based Machine Learning Models.

Keywords: deep learning, machine learning, semantic clinical classification, subsection identification, text classification

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Authors: L. E. Mphahama, A. Mushunje, A. Taruvinga

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Although broiler production does not generate any large incomes among the smallholder community, it represents the main source of livelihood and part of nutritional requirement. As a result, market for broiler meat is growing faster than that of any other meat products and is projected to continue growing in the coming decades. However, the implication is that a multitude of factors manipulates transformation of smallholder broiler farmers participating in the mainstream markets. From 217 smallholder broiler farmers, socio-economic and institutional factors in broiler farming were incorporated into Binary model to estimate the probability of broiler farmers’ participation in the mainstream markets within the Maseru district in Lesotho. Of the thirteen (13) predictor variables fitted into the model, six (6) variables (household size, number of years in broiler business, stock size, access to transport, access to extension services and access to market information) had significant coefficients while seven (7) variables (level of education, marital status, price of broilers, poultry association, access to contract, access to credit and access to storage) did not have a significant impact. It is recommended that smallholder broiler farmers organize themselves into cooperatives which will act as a vehicle through which they can access contracts and formal markets. These cooperatives will also enable easy training and workshops for broiler rearing and marketing/markets through extension visits.

Keywords: broiler chicken, mainstream market, Maseru district, participation, smallholder farmers

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Authors: Fuad M. Alkoot

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DNA data have been used in forensics for decades. However, current research looks at using the DNA as a biometric identity verification modality. The goal is to improve the speed of identification. We aim at using gene data that was initially used for autism detection to find if and how accurate is this data for identification applications. Mainly our goal is to find if our data preprocessing technique yields data useful as a biometric identification tool. We experiment with using the nearest neighbor classifier to identify subjects. Results show that optimal classification rate is achieved when the test set is corrupted by normally distributed noise with zero mean and standard deviation of 1. The classification rate is close to optimal at higher noise standard deviation reaching 3. This shows that the data can be used for identity verification with high accuracy using a simple classifier such as the k-nearest neighbor (k-NN). 

Keywords: biometrics, genetic data, identity verification, k nearest neighbor

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Authors: Aouiche Abdelaziz, Soudani Mouhamed Salah, Aouiche El Moundhe

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The present paper addresses the utilization of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Fuzzy Inference Systems (FISs) for the identification and control of dynamical systems with some degree of uncertainty. Because ANNs and FISs have an inherent ability to approximate functions and to adapt to changes in input and parameters, they can be used to control systems too complex for linear controllers. In this work, we show how ANNs and FISs can be put in order to form nets that can learn from external data. In sequence, it is presented structures of inputs that can be used along with ANNs and FISs to model non-linear systems. Four systems were used to test the identification and control of the structures proposed. The results show the ANNs and FISs (Back Propagation Algorithm) used were efficient in modeling and controlling the non-linear plants.

Keywords: non-linear systems, fuzzy set Models, neural network, control law

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Authors: Di Yao, Gunther Prokop, Kay Buttner

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Dynamic parameters, including the center of gravity, mass and inertia moments of vehicle, play an essential role in vehicle simulation, collision test and real-time control of vehicle active systems. To identify the important vehicle dynamic parameters, a systematic parameter identification procedure is studied in this work. In the first step of the procedure, a conceptual parallel manipulator (virtual test rig), which possesses three rotational degrees-of-freedom, is firstly proposed. To realize kinematic characteristics of the conceptual parallel manipulator, the kinematic analysis consists of inverse kinematic and singularity architecture is carried out. Based on the Euler's rotation equations for rigid body dynamics, the dynamic model of parallel manipulator and derivation of measurement matrix for parameter identification are presented subsequently. In order to reduce the sensitivity of parameter identification to measurement noise and other unexpected disturbances, a parameter optimization process of searching for optimal exciting trajectory of parallel manipulator is conducted in the following section. For this purpose, the 321-Euler-angles defined by parameterized finite-Fourier-series are primarily used to describe the general exciting trajectory of parallel manipulator. To minimize the condition number of measurement matrix for achieving better parameter identification accuracy, the unknown coefficients of parameterized finite-Fourier-series are estimated by employing an iterative algorithm based on MATLAB®. Meanwhile, the iterative algorithm will ensure the parallel manipulator still keeps in an achievable working status during the execution of optimal exciting trajectory. It is showed that the proposed procedure and methods in this work can effectively identify the vehicle dynamic parameters and could be an important application of parallel manipulator in the fields of parameter identification and test rig development.

Keywords: parameter identification, parallel manipulator, singularity architecture, dynamic modelling, exciting trajectory

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Authors: Yu Qin

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In order to tackle the ever-growing problem of the lack of parking space, this paper presents the design and implementation of a smart unmanned parking system that is based on RFID (radio frequency identification) technology and Wireless communication technology. This system uses RFID technology to achieve the identification function (transmitted by 2.4 G wireless module) and is equipped with an STM32L053 micro controller as the main control chip of the smart vehicle. This chip can accomplish automatic parking (in/out), charging and other functions. On this basis, it can also help users easily query the information that is stored in the database through the Internet. Experimental tests have shown that the system has the features of low power consumption and stable operation, among others. It can effectively improve the level of automation control of the parking lot management system and has enormous application prospects.

Keywords: RFID, embedded system, unmanned, parking management

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Authors: Megha Gupta, Nupur Prakash

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Identification of plant diseases has been performed using machine learning and deep learning models on the datasets containing images of healthy and diseased plant leaves. The current study carries out an evaluation of some of the deep learning models based on convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures for identification of plant diseases. For this purpose, the publicly available New Plant Diseases Dataset, an augmented version of PlantVillage dataset, available on Kaggle platform, containing 87,900 images has been used. The dataset contained images of 26 diseases of 14 different plants and images of 12 healthy plants. The CNN models selected for the study presented in this paper are AlexNet, ZFNet, VGGNet (four models), GoogLeNet, and ResNet (three models). The selected models are trained using PyTorch, an open-source machine learning library, on Google Colaboratory. A comparative study has been carried out to analyze the high degree of accuracy achieved using these models. The highest test accuracy and F1-score of 99.59% and 0.996, respectively, were achieved by using GoogLeNet with Mini-batch momentum based gradient descent learning algorithm.

Keywords: comparative analysis, convolutional neural networks, deep learning, plant disease identification

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Authors: Desmond F. Bellamy

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Discourses about animal rights usually assume an ontological abyss between human and animal. This supposition of non-animality allows us to utilise and exploit non-humans, particularly those with commercial value, with little regard for their rights or interests. We can and do confine them, inflict painful treatments such as castration and branding, and slaughter them at an age determined only by financial considerations. This paper explores the way images and texts depicting human cannibalism reflect this deprivation of rights back onto our species and examines how this offers new perspectives on our granting or withholding of rights to farmed animals. The animals we eat – sheep, pigs, cows, chickens and a small handful of other species – are during processing de-animalised, turned into commodities, and made unrecognisable as formerly living beings. To do the same to a human requires the cannibal to enact another step – humans must first be considered as animals before they can be commodified or de-animalised. Different iterations of cannibalism in a selection of fiction and non-fiction texts will be considered: survivalism (necessitated by catastrophe or dystopian social collapse), the primitive savage of colonial discourses, and the inhuman psychopath. Each type of cannibalism shows alternative ways humans can be animalised and thereby dispossessed of both their human and animal rights. Human rights, summarised in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights as ‘life, liberty, and security of person’ are stubbornly denied to many humans, and are refused to virtually all farmed non-humans. How might this paradigm be transformed by seeing the animal victim replaced by an animalised human? People are fascinated as well as repulsed by cannibalism, as demonstrated by the upsurge of films on the subject in the last few decades. Cannibalism is, at its most basic, about envisaging and treating humans as objects: meat. It is on the dinner plate that the abyss between human and ‘animal’ is most challenged. We grasp at a conscious level that we are a species of animal and may become, if in the wrong place (e.g., shark-infested water), ‘just food’. Culturally, however, strong traditions insist that humans are much more than ‘just meat’ and deserve a better fate than torment and death. The billions of animals on death row awaiting human consumption would ask the same if they could. Depictions of cannibalism demonstrate in graphic ways that humans are animals, made of meat and that we can also be butchered and eaten. These depictions of us as having the same fleshiness as non-human animals reminds us that they have the same capacities for pain and pleasure as we do. Depictions of cannibalism, therefore, unconsciously aid in deconstructing the human/animal binary and give a unique glimpse into the often unnoticed repudiation of animal rights.

Keywords: animal rights, cannibalism, human/animal binary, objectification

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Authors: Chih Hung Shih

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Eyewitness identification is one of the efficient information to identify suspects during criminal investigation. However eyewitness identification is improved frequently, inaccurate and plays vital roles in wrongful convictions. Most eyewitness misidentifications are made during police criminal investigation stage and then accepted by juries. Four failure investigation case studies in Taiwan are conduct to demonstrate how misidentifications are caused during the police investigation context. The result shows that there are several common grounds among these cases: (1) investigators lacked for knowledge about eyewitness memory so that they couldn’t evaluate the validity of the eyewitnesses’ accounts and identifications, (2) eyewitnesses were always asked to filter out several suspects during the investigation, and received investigation information which contaminated the eyewitnesses’ memory, (3) one to one live individual identifications were made in most of cases, (4) eyewitness identifications were always used to support the hypotheses of investigators, and exaggerated theirs powers when conform with the investigation lines, (5) the eyewitnesses’ confidence didn’t t reflect the validity of their identifications , but always influence the investigators’ beliefs for the identifications, (6) the investigators overestimated the power of the eyewitness identifications and ignore the inconsistency with other evidence. Recommendations have been proposed for future academic research and police practice of eyewitness identification in Taiwan.

Keywords: criminal investigation, eyewitness identification, investigative bias, investigative failures

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Authors: Fidel Lòpez Saca, Carlos Avilés-Cruz, Miguel Magos-Rivera, José Antonio Lara-Chávez

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Automated object recognition and identification systems are widely used throughout the world, particularly in assembly lines, where they perform quality control and automatic part selection tasks. This article presents the design and implementation of an object recognition system in an assembly line. The proposed shapes-color recognition system is based on deep learning theory in a specially designed convolutional network architecture. The used methodology involve stages such as: image capturing, color filtering, location of object mass centers, horizontal and vertical object boundaries, and object clipping. Once the objects are cut out, they are sent to a convolutional neural network, which automatically identifies the type of figure. The identification system works in real-time. The implementation was done on a Raspberry Pi 3 system and on a Jetson-Nano device. The proposal is used in an assembly course of bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. The results presented include studying the efficiency of the recognition and processing time.

Keywords: deep-learning, image classification, image identification, industrial engineering.

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Authors: Abed Hannane, Rouag Noureddine

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The present study aims to evaluate the association of fresh garlic (Allium sativum L.) and storage at 4°C in preserving the microbiological, nutritional, and sanitary quality of Merguez-type sausages prepared and sold locally from meat offal. The analysis focused on the evaluation of the microbiological quality of fifteen samples randomly taken from several butcheries in the wilaya of BBA, eastern Algeria. The bacteriological analysis revealed the presence of 6.88.10⁵ CFU/g of total aerobic bacteria, 5.39.10⁵ CFU/g of total coliforms, 2.23.10⁵ CFU/g of fecal coliforms, 2.43.103 CFU/g of Escherichia coli and 1.8.10⁵ CFU/g of coagulase-positive staphylococci, values higher than Algerian standards. The addition of fresh garlic as an antibacterial preservative at concentrations of 0.06, 0.12, 0.18, and 0.24 g/g to ground beef samples and stored in the refrigerator at 4°C for 15 days. The addition of garlic to Merguez made it possible to significantly reduce the presence of different bacterial groups during their refrigerated storage, compared to untreated meat, bringing it below the standards defined in the matter. Thus, the use of garlic as a food additive at a concentration of 0.12 g/g was sufficient to obtain levels according to Algerian standards equal to 1.8.10⁴ CFU/g of total aerobic bacteria, 9.48.10³ CFU/ g of total coliforms, 3.68.10³ UFC/g fecal coliforms, 4.56.10² UFC/g of E.coli 2.39.10⁴ UFC/g of coagulase-positive staphylococci. It is clear that thanks to the addition of garlic to Merguez, the sanitary quality has been improved by reducing the aerobic bacterial load and increasing the shelf life at 4°C.

Keywords: antimicrobial effect, garlic, sausage, storage

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Authors: M. Chňapek, M. Tomka, R. Peroutková, Z. Gálová

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Processes of plant breeding, testing and licensing of new varieties, patent protection in seed production, relations in trade and protection of copyright are dependent on identification, differentiation and characterization of plant genotypes. Therefore, we focused our research on utilization of wheat storage proteins as genetic markers suitable not only for differentiation of individual genotypes, but also for identification and characterization of their considerable properties. We analyzed a collection of 102 genotypes of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), 41 genotypes of spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L.), and 35 genotypes of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.), in this study. Our results show, that genotypes of bread wheat and durum wheat were homogenous and single line, but spelt wheat genotypes were heterogenous. We observed variability of HMW-GS composition according to environmental factors and level of breeding and predict technological quality on the basis of Glu-score calculation.

Keywords: genotype identification, HMW-GS, wheat quality, polymorphism

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Authors: Sergey Sorokin, Irina Sorokina, Alexander Yazenin

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We present a solution to the Maxmin u/E parameters estimation problem of possibility distributions in m-dimensional case. Our method is based on geometrical approach, where minimal area enclosing ellipsoid is constructed around the sample. Also we demonstrate that one can improve results of well-known algorithms in fuzzy model identification task using Maxmin u/E parameters estimation.

Keywords: possibility distribution, parameters estimation, Maxmin u\E estimator, fuzzy model identification

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Authors: Merih Şimşek, Recep Keşli, Özgül Çetinkaya, Cengiz Demir, Adem Aslan

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Bacteremia is a clinical entity with high morbidity and mortality rates when immediate diagnose, or treatment cannot be achieved. Microorganisms which can cause sepsis or bacteremia are easily isolated from blood cultures. Fifty-five positive blood cultures were included in this study. Microorganisms in 55 blood cultures were isolated by conventional microbiological methods; afterwards, microorganisms were defined in terms of the phenotypic aspects by the Vitek-2 system. The same microorganisms in all blood culture samples were defined in terms of genotypic aspects again by Multiplex-PCR DNA Low-Density Microarray System. At the end of the identification process, the DNA microarray system’s success in identification was evaluated based on the Vitek-2 system. The Vitek-2 system and DNA Microarray system were able to identify the same microorganisms in 53 samples; on the other hand, different microorganisms were identified in the 2 blood cultures by DNA Microarray system. The microorganisms identified by Vitek-2 system were found to be identical to 96.4 % of microorganisms identified by DNA Microarrays system. In addition to bacteria identified by Vitek-2, the presence of a second bacterium has been detected in 5 blood cultures by the DNA Microarray system. It was identified 18 of 55 positive blood culture as E.coli strains with both Vitek 2 and DNA microarray systems. The same identification numbers were found 6 and 8 for Acinetobacter baumanii, 10 and 10 for K.pneumoniae, 5 and 5 for S.aureus, 7 and 11 for Enterococcus spp, 5 and 5 for P.aeruginosa, 2 and 2 for C.albicans respectively. According to these results, DNA Microarray system requires both a technical device and experienced staff support; besides, it requires more expensive kits than Vitek-2. However, this method should be used in conjunction with conventional microbiological methods. Thus, large microbiology laboratories will produce faster, more sensitive and more successful results in the identification of cultured microorganisms.

Keywords: microarray, Vitek-2, blood culture, bacteremia

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Authors: Louise H. Gracioso, Marcela P.G. Baltazar, Ingrid R. Avanzi, Bruno Karolski, Luciana J. Gimenes, Claudio O. Nascimento, Elen A. Perpetuo

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Introduction: Higher copper concentrations promote a selection pressure on organisms such as plants, fungi and bacteria, which allows surviving only the resistant organisms to the contaminated site. This selective pressure keeps only the organisms most resistant to a specific condition and subsequently increases their bioremediation potential. Despite the bacteria importance for biosphere maintenance, it is estimated that only a small fraction living microbial species has been described and characterized. Due to the molecular biology development, tools based on analysis 16S ribosomal RNA or another specific gene are making a new scenario for the characterization studies and identification of microorganisms in the environment. News identification of microorganisms methods have also emerged like Biotyper (MALDI / TOF), this method mass spectrometry is subject to the recognition of spectroscopic patterns of conserved and features proteins for different microbial species. In view of this, this study aimed to isolate bacteria resistant to copper present in a Copper Processing Area (Sossego Mine, Canaan, PA) and identifies them in two different methods: Recent (spectrometry mass) and conventional. This work aimed to use them for a future bioremediation of this Mining. Material and Methods: Samples were collected at fifteen different sites of five periods of times. Microorganisms were isolated from mining wastes by culture enrichment technique; this procedure was repeated 4 times. The isolates were inoculated into MJS medium containing different concentrations of chloride copper (1mM, 2.5mM, 5mM, 7.5mM and 10 mM) and incubated in plates for 72 h at 28 ºC. These isolates were subjected to mass spectrometry identification methods (Biotyper – MALDI/TOF) and 16S gene sequencing. Results: A total of 105 strains were isolated in this area, bacterial identification by mass spectrometry method (MALDI/TOF) achieved 74% agreement with the conventional identification method (16S), 31% have been unsuccessful in MALDI-TOF and 2% did not obtain identification sequence the 16S. These results show that Biotyper can be a very useful tool in the identification of bacteria isolated from environmental samples, since it has a better value for money (cheap and simple sample preparation and MALDI plates are reusable). Furthermore, this technique is more rentable because it saves time and has a high performance (the mass spectra are compared to the database and it takes less than 2 minutes per sample).

Keywords: copper mining area, bioremediation, microorganisms, identification, MALDI/TOF, RNA 16S

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