P - Journal Author

Proteolysis in Serbian Traditional Dry Fermented Sausage Petrovská klobása as Influenced by Different Ripening Processes

Year: 2014 Volume: 8 Issue: 9 1004 - 1007 Pages

Abstract: The aim of the study was to determine how different ripening processes (traditional vs. industrial) influenced the proteolysis in traditional Serbian dry-fermented sausage Petrovská klobása. The obtained results indicated more intensive pH decline (0.7 units after 9 days) in industrially ripened products (I), what had a positive impact on drying process and proteolytic changes in these samples. Thus, moisture content in I sausages was lower at each sampling time, amounting 24.7% at the end of production period (90 days). Likewise, the process of proteolysis was more pronounced in I samples, resulting in higher contents of non-protein nitrogen (NPN) and free amino acids nitrogen (FAAN), as well as in faster and more intensive degradation of myosin (≈220 kDa), actin (≈45 kDa) and other polypeptides during processing. Consequently, the appearance and accumulation of several protein fragments were registered.

Surfactant-Free O/W-Emulsion as Drug Delivery System

Year: 2014 Volume: 8 Issue: 9 591 - 594 Pages

Abstract: Most of the drugs used for pharmaceutical purposes are poorly water-soluble drugs. About 40% of all newly discovered drugs are lipophilic and the numbers of lipophilic drugs seem to increase more and more. Drug delivery systems such as nanoparticles, micelles or liposomes are applied to improve their solubility and thus their bioavailability. Besides various techniques of solubilization, oil-in-water emulsions are often used to incorporate lipophilic drugs into the oil phase. To stabilize emulsions surface active substances (surfactants) are generally used. An alternative method to avoid the application of surfactants was of great interest. One possibility is to develop O/W-emulsion without any addition of surface active agents or the so called “surfactant-free emulsion or SFE”. The aim of this study was to develop and characterize SFE as a drug carrier by varying the production conditions. Lidocaine base was used as a model drug. The injection method was developed. Effects of ultrasound as well as of temperature on the properties of the emulsion were studied. Particle sizes and release were determined. The long-term stability up to 30 days was performed. The results showed that the surfactant-free O/W emulsions with pharmaceutical oil as drug carrier can be produced.

Lipase Catalyzed Synthesis of Aromatic Esters of Sugar Alcohols

Year: 2011 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 393 - 398 Pages

Abstract: Commercially available lipases (Candida antarctica lipase B, Novozyme 435, Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase, and Lipozyme TL IM), as well as sol-gel immobilized lipases, have been screened for their ability to acylate regioselectively xylitol, sorbitol, and mannitol with a phenolic ester in a binary mixture of t-butanol and dimethylsulfoxide. HPLC and MALDI-TOF MS analysis revealed the exclusive formation of monoesters for all studied sugar alcohols. The lipases immobilized by the sol-gel entrapment method proved to be efficient catalysts, leading to high conversions (up to 60%) in the investigated acylation reactions. From a sequence of silane precursors with different nonhydrolyzable groups in their structure, the presence of octyl and i-butyl group was most beneficial for the catalytic activity of sol-gel entrapped lipases in the studied process.

A Novel Multiresolution based Optimization Scheme for Robust Affine Parameter Estimation

Year: 2008 Volume: 2 Issue: 9 679 - 684 Pages

Authors:
J.Dinesh Peter

Abstract: This paper describes a new method for affine parameter estimation between image sequences. Usually, the parameter estimation techniques can be done by least squares in a quadratic way. However, this technique can be sensitive to the presence of outliers. Therefore, parameter estimation techniques for various image processing applications are robust enough to withstand the influence of outliers. Progressively, some robust estimation functions demanding non-quadratic and perhaps non-convex potentials adopted from statistics literature have been used for solving these. Addressing the optimization of the error function in a factual framework for finding a global optimal solution, the minimization can begin with the convex estimator at the coarser level and gradually introduce nonconvexity i.e., from soft to hard redescending non-convex estimators when the iteration reaches finer level of multiresolution pyramid. Comparison has been made to find the performance of the results of proposed method with the results found individually using two different estimators.

Transform-Domain Rate-Distortion Optimization Accelerator for H.264/AVC Video Encoding

Year: 2009 Volume: 3 Issue: 11 2183 - 2193 Pages

Abstract: In H.264/AVC video encoding, rate-distortion optimization for mode selection plays a significant role to achieve outstanding performance in compression efficiency and video quality. However, this mode selection process also makes the encoding process extremely complex, especially in the computation of the ratedistortion cost function, which includes the computations of the sum of squared difference (SSD) between the original and reconstructed image blocks and context-based entropy coding of the block. In this paper, a transform-domain rate-distortion optimization accelerator based on fast SSD (FSSD) and VLC-based rate estimation algorithm is proposed. This algorithm could significantly simplify the hardware architecture for the rate-distortion cost computation with only ignorable performance degradation. An efficient hardware structure for implementing the proposed transform-domain rate-distortion optimization accelerator is also proposed. Simulation results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm reduces about 47% of total encoding time with negligible degradation of coding performance. The proposed method can be easily applied to many mobile video application areas such as a digital camera and a DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) phone.

Force on a High Voltage Capacitor with Asymmetrical Electrodes

Year: 2010 Volume: 4 Issue: 9 900 - 904 Pages

Abstract: When a high DC voltage is applied to a capacitor with strongly asymmetrical electrodes, it generates a mechanical force that affects the whole capacitor. This phenomenon is most likely to be caused by the motion of ions generated around the smaller of the two electrodes and their subsequent interaction with the surrounding medium. A method to measure this force has been devised and used. A formula describing the force has also been derived. After comparing the data gained through experiments with those acquired using the theoretical formula, a difference was found above a certain value of current. This paper also gives reasons for this difference.

The Comparisons of Average Outgoing Quality Limit between the MCSP-2-C and MCSP-C

Year: 2012 Volume: 6 Issue: 9 1366 - 1369 Pages

Abstract: This paper presents a comparison of average outgoing quality limit of the MCSP-2-C plan with MCSP-C when MCSP-2-C has been developed from MCSP-C. The parameters used in MCSP-2- C are: i (the clearance number), c (the acceptance number), m (the number of conforming units to be found before allowing c nonconforming units in the sampling inspection), f1 and f2 (the sampling frequency at level 1 and 2, respectively). The average outgoing quality limit (AOQL) values from two plans were compared and we found that for all sets of i, r, and c values, MCSP-2-C gives higher values than MCSP-C. For all sets of i, r, and c values, the average outgoing quality values of MCSP-C and MCSP-2-C are similar when p is low or high but is difference when p is moderate.

FEA Modeling of Material Removal Rate in Electrical Discharge Machining of Al6063/SiC Composites

Year: 2012 Volume: 6 Issue: 3 729 - 734 Pages

Abstract: Metal matrix composites (MMC) are generating extensive interest in diverse fields like defense, aerospace, electronics and automotive industries. In this present investigation, material removal rate (MRR) modeling has been carried out using an axisymmetric model of Al-SiC composite during electrical discharge machining (EDM). A FEA model of single spark EDM was developed to calculate the temperature distribution.Further, single spark model was extended to simulate the second discharge. For multi-discharge machining material removal was calculated by calculating the number of pulses. Validation of model has been done by comparing the experimental results obtained under the same process parameters with the analytical results. A good agreement was found between the experimental results and the theoretical value.

Rigid Registration of Reduced Dimension Images using 1D Binary Projections

Year: 2010 Volume: 4 Issue: 9 1460 - 1463 Pages

Abstract: The purpose of this work is to present a method for rigid registration of medical images using 1D binary projections when a part of one of the two images is missing. We use 1D binary projections and we adjust the projection limits according to the reduced image in order to perform accurate registration. We use the variance of the weighted ratio as a registration function which we have shown is able to register 2D and 3D images more accurately and robustly than mutual information methods. The function is computed explicitly for n=5 Chebyshev points in a [-9,+9] interval and it is approximated using Chebyshev polynomials for all other points. The images used are MR scans of the head. We find that the method is able to register the two images with average accuracy 0.3degrees for rotations and 0.2 pixels for translations for a y dimension of 156 with initial dimension 256. For y dimension 128/256 the accuracy decreases to 0.7 degrees for rotations and 0.6 pixels for translations.

Ultrasound Assisted Method to Increase the Aluminum Dissolve Rate from Acidified Water

Year: 2012 Volume: 6 Issue: 5 494 - 498 Pages

Abstract: Aluminum salt that is generally presents as a solid phase in the water purification sludge (WPS) can be dissolved, recovering a liquid phase, by adding strong acid to the sludge solution. According to the reaction kinetics, when reactant is in the form of small particles with a large specific surface area, or when the reaction temperature is high, the quantity of dissolved aluminum salt or reaction rate, respectively are high. Therefore, in this investigation, water purification sludge (WPS) solution was treated with ultrasonic waves to break down the sludge, and different acids (1 N HCl and 1 N H2SO4) were used to acidify it. Acid dosages that yielded the solution pH of less than two were used. The results thus obtained indicate that the quantity of dissolved aluminum in H2SO4-acidified solution exceeded that in HCl-acidified solution. Additionally, ultrasonic treatment increased the rate of dissolution of aluminum and the amount dissolved. The quantity of aluminum dissolved at 60℃ was 1.5 to 2.0 times higher than that at 25℃.

Delay Specific Investigations on QoS Scheduling Schemes for Real-Time Traffic in Packet Switched Networks

Year: 2008 Volume: 2 Issue: 12 4239 - 4247 Pages

Abstract: Packet switched data network like Internet, which has traditionally supported throughput sensitive applications such as email and file transfer, is increasingly supporting delay-sensitive multimedia applications such as interactive video. These delaysensitive applications would often rather sacrifice some throughput for better delay. Unfortunately, the current packet switched network does not offer choices, but instead provides monolithic best-effort service to all applications. This paper evaluates Class Based Queuing (CBQ), Coordinated Earliest Deadline First (CEDF), Weighted Switch Deficit Round Robin (WSDRR) and RED-Boston scheduling schemes that is sensitive to delay bound expectations for variety of real time applications and an enhancement of WSDRR is proposed.

Numerical Study of Iterative Methods for the Solution of the Dirichlet-Neumann Map for Linear Elliptic PDEs on Regular Polygon Domains

Year: 2007 Volume: 1 Issue: 9 459 - 464 Pages

Abstract: A generalized Dirichlet to Neumann map is one of the main aspects characterizing a recently introduced method for analyzing linear elliptic PDEs, through which it became possible to couple known and unknown components of the solution on the boundary of the domain without solving on its interior. For its numerical solution, a well conditioned quadratically convergent sine-Collocation method was developed, which yielded a linear system of equations with the diagonal blocks of its associated coefficient matrix being point diagonal. This structural property, among others, initiated interest for the employment of iterative methods for its solution. In this work we present a conclusive numerical study for the behavior of classical (Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel) and Krylov subspace (GMRES and Bi-CGSTAB) iterative methods when they are applied for the solution of the Dirichlet to Neumann map associated with the Laplace-s equation on regular polygons with the same boundary conditions on all edges.

Reliable Face Alignment Using Two-Stage AAM

Year: 2008 Volume: 2 Issue: 5 1732 - 1736 Pages

Abstract: AAM (active appearance model) has been successfully applied to face and facial feature localization. However, its performance is sensitive to initial parameter values. In this paper, we propose a two-stage AAM for robust face alignment, which first fits an inner face-AAM model to the inner facial feature points of the face and then localizes the whole face and facial features by optimizing the whole face-AAM model parameters. Experiments show that the proposed face alignment method using two-stage AAM is more reliable to the background and the head pose than the standard AAM-based face alignment method.

Motor Skill Adaptation Depends On the Level of Learning

Year: 2011 Volume: 5 Issue: 5 796 - 800 Pages

Abstract: An experiment was conducted to examine the effect of the level of performance stabilization on the human adaptability to perceptual-motor perturbation in a complex coincident timing task. Three levels of performance stabilization were established operationally: pre-stabilization, stabilization, and super-stabilization groups. Each group practiced the task until reached its level of stabilization in a constant sequence of movements and under a constant time constraint before exposure to perturbation. The results clearly showed that performance stabilization is a pre-condition for adaptation. Moreover, variability before reaching stabilization is harmful to adaptation and persistent variability after stabilization is beneficial. Moreover, the behavior of variability is specific to each measure.

Development of Reliable Web-Based Laboratories for Developing Countries

Year: 2010 Volume: 4 Issue: 5 1030 - 1036 Pages

Abstract: In online context, the design and implementation of effective remote laboratories environment is highly challenging on account of hardware and software needs. This paper presents the remote laboratory software framework modified from ilab shared architecture (ISA). The ISA is a framework which enables students to remotely acccess and control experimental hardware using internet infrastructure. The need for remote laboratories came after experiencing problems imposed by traditional laboratories. Among them are: the high cost of laboratory equipment, scarcity of space, scarcity of technical personnel along with the restricted university budget creates a significant bottleneck on building required laboratory experiments. The solution to these problems is to build web-accessible laboratories. Remote laboratories allow students and educators to interact with real laboratory equipment located anywhere in the world at anytime. Recently, many universities and other educational institutions especially in third world countries rely on simulations because they do not afford the experimental equipment they require to their students. Remote laboratories enable users to get real data from real-time hand-on experiments. To implement many remote laboratories, the system architecture should be flexible, understandable and easy to implement, so that different laboratories with different hardware can be deployed easily. The modifications were made to enable developers to add more equipment in ISA framework and to attract the new developers to develop many online laboratories.

The Impact of ERP Systems on Accounting Processes

Year: 2010 Volume: 4 Issue: 6 1438 - 1443 Pages

Abstract: Advances in information technology, recent changes in business environment, globalization, deregulation, privatization have made running a successful business more difficult than ever before. To remain successful and to be competitive have forced companies to react to the new changes in order to survive and succeed. The implementation of an Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) system improves information flow, reduce costs, establish linkage with suppliers and reduce response time to customer needs. This paper focuses on a sample of Greek companies, investigates the ERP market in Greece, the reasons why the Greek companies are investing in ERP systems, the benefits that users have achieved and the influence of ERP systems on the use of new accounting practices. The results indicate a greater level on information integration, flexibility in information access and greater functionality provided by ERP systems but little influence on the use of new accounting practices.

Analysis of Modified Heap Sort Algorithm on Different Environment

Year: 2008 Volume: 2 Issue: 6 1261 - 1263 Pages

Abstract: In field of Computer Science and Mathematics, sorting algorithm is an algorithm that puts elements of a list in a certain order i.e. ascending or descending. Sorting is perhaps the most widely studied problem in computer science and is frequently used as a benchmark of a system-s performance. This paper presented the comparative performance study of four sorting algorithms on different platform. For each machine, it is found that the algorithm depends upon the number of elements to be sorted. In addition, as expected, results show that the relative performance of the algorithms differed on the various machines. So, algorithm performance is dependent on data size and there exists impact of hardware also.

Network Analysis in a Natural Perturbed Ecosystem

Year: 2012 Volume: 6 Issue: 7 465 - 468 Pages

Abstract: The objective of this work is to explicit knowledge on the interactions between the chlorophyll-a and nine meroplankton larvae of epibenthonic fauna. The studied case is the Arraial do Cabo upwelling system, Southeastern of Brazil, which provides different environmental conditions. To assess this information a network approach based in probability estimative was used. Comparisons among the generated graphs are made in the light of different water masses, application of Shannon biodiversity index, and the closeness and betweenness centralities measurements. Our results show the main pattern among different water masses and how the core organisms belonging to the network skeleton are correlated to the main environmental variable. We conclude that the approach of complex networks is a promising tool for environmental diagnostic.

Evaluation Method for Information Security Levels of CIIP (Critical Information Infrastructure Protection)

Year: 2008 Volume: 2 Issue: 2 598 - 601 Pages

Abstract: As the information age matures, major social infrastructures such as communication, finance, military and energy, have become ever more dependent on information communication systems. And since these infrastructures are connected to the Internet, electronic intrusions such as hacking and viruses have become a new security threat. Especially, disturbance or neutralization of a major social infrastructure can result in extensive material damage and social disorder. To address this issue, many nations around the world are researching and developing various techniques and information security policies as a government-wide effort to protect their infrastructures from newly emerging threats. This paper proposes an evaluation method for information security levels of CIIP (Critical Information Infrastructure Protection), which can enhance the security level of critical information infrastructure by checking the current security status and establish security measures accordingly to protect infrastructures effectively.

Damage of Tubular Equipment in Process Industry

Year: 2011 Volume: 5 Issue: 11 2504 - 2506 Pages

Abstract: Tubular process equipment is often damaged in industrial processes. The damage occurs both on devices working at high temperatures and also on less exposed devices. In case of sudden damage of key equipment a shutdown of the whole production unit and resulting significant economic losses are imminent. This paper presents a solution of several types of tubular process equipment. The causes of damage and suggestions of correction actions are discussed in all cases. Very important part is the analysis of operational conditions, determination of unfavourable working states decreasing lifetime of devices and suggestions of correction actions. Lately very popular numerical methods are used for analysis of the equipment.

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