Digital Commons Network^™

Use Of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy And Chemometric Data Analysis To Evaluate Damage And Age In Mushrooms (Agaricus Bisporus) Grown In Ireland, Aoife O'Gorman, Gerard Downey, Aoife Gowen, Catherine Barry-Ryan, Jesus Maria Frias

Articles

The aim of this research was to investigate whether the chemical changes induced by mechanical damage and aging of mushrooms can be (a) detected in the mid-infrared absorption region and (b) identified using chemometric data analysis. Mushrooms grown under controlled conditions were bruise-damaged by vibration to simulate damage during normal transportation. Damaged and non-damaged mushrooms were stored for up to 7 days post-harvest. Principal component analysis of FTIR spectra showed evidence that physical damage had an effect on tissue structure and the aging process. Random forest classification models were used to predict damage in mushrooms producing models with error rates …

Influence Of Cultivation Conditions On The Production Of A Thermostable Extracellular Lipase From Amycolatopsis Mediterranei Dsm 43304, Dharmdendra Dheeman, Jesus Maria Frias, Gary Henehan

Articles

Among several lipase producing actinomycete strains screened, Amycolatopsis mediterranei DSM 43304 was found to produce a thermostable, extracellular lipase. Culture condition and nutrient source modification studies involving carbon sources, nitrogen sources, incubation temperature and medium pH were carried out. Lipase activity of 1.37 ± 0.103 IU/ml of culture medium was obtained in 96 h at 28 °C and pH 7.5 using linseed oil and fructose as carbon sources and a combination of phytone peptone and yeast extract (5:1) as nitrogen sources. In optimal culture conditions the lipase activity was enhanced 12-fold with a 2-fold increase in lipase specific activity. The …

Process Optimization For The Developmenht Of A Functional Beverage Based On Lactic Acid Fermentation Of Oats, Shilpi Gupta, Sabrina Cox, Nissreen Abu-Ghannam

Articles

Oats (Avena sativa) have received considerable interest for their high content of soluble and insoluble fibre and for their high fermentability upon applying probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB). In the present study, Box–Behnken optimization design was used to optimize three different levels of oat, sucrose and starter culture concentration on the final viable cell population of Lactobacillus plantarum for the development of a fermented drink. A second-order polynomial response surface equation was developed indicating the effect of the studied variables on L. plantarum growth. Contour maps generated using the response surface equation showed that the experimental variables significantly affected the …

Effect Of Drying Method On The Antioxidant Capacity Of Six Larniaceae Herbs, M. Hossain, Catherine Barry-Ryan, Ana Belen Martin-Diana, N. Brunton

Articles

The present study investigated the changes in total phenols (TP), rosmarinic acid content and antioxidant capacity of six Lamiaceae herbs (rosemary, oregano, marjoram, sage, basil and thyme) after three drying treatments (air-, freeze- and vacuum oven-drying) stored for 60 days at −20 °C and compared to fresh samples. Ferric reducing antioxidant property (FRAP) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) were used as markers for antioxidant capacity. Air-dried samples had significantly (p < 0.05) higher TP, rosmarinic acid content and antioxidant capacity than had freeze-dried and vacuum oven-dried samples throughout the storage period. Fresh samples had the lowest values for the parameters tested. Vacuum oven-drying resulted in higher TP and FRAP values in rosemary and thyme during 60 days of storage than did freeze-drying. In ORAC assay, the difference was significantly higher only in thyme. Storage did not show any effect on the dried samples for the parameters tested.

Quality And Safety Assessment During The Ozonation Of Cloudy Apple Juice, Sonal Patil, B. Torres, Brijesh Tiwari, Hilda Wingaard, Paula Bourke, Patrick J. Cullen, C. O'Donnell, Vasilis Valdramidis

Articles

Traditionally, ozone processing within the food industry has focused on solid foods by either gaseous treatment or washing with ozonated water. However, with the FDA’s approval of ozone as a direct additive to food, the potential for liquid applications has emerged. This study investigates the effect of ozone processing on microbial inactivation (E. coli ATCC 25922 and NCTC 12900), and quality parameters (colour, phenolic content) of apple juice. Apple juice samples were ozonated at room temperature (20±1.5^oC) with an ozone concentration of 0.048 mg O₃ min^-1 ml^-1 and treatment time of 0 to 10 …

In Vitro Mammalian Cytotoxicological Study Of Pamam Dendrimers -Towards Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships, Sourav Prasanna Mukherjee, Maria Davoren, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Dendritic polymer nanoparticles such as polyamidoamine dendrimers (PAMAM) show exciting potential for biomedical applications. While the potential commercial applications of such dendrimers have received considerable attention, little is known about their possible adverse effects on both humans and the environment. In this study, the in vitro cytotoxicocity of full generation PAMAM dendrimers to two mammalian cell lines was investigated. Generations G4, G5 and G6 were chosen. Metabolic, lysosomal and mitochondrial activities were evaluated after 24 h exposure. Long term toxicity was evaluated using the clonogenic assay. Particle size and zeta potential were measured in all media. In culture medium, the …

Resonant Mie Scattering (Rmies) Correction Of Infrared Spectra From Highly Scattering Biological Samples Analyst, Paul Bassan, Achim Kohler, Harald Martens, Joe Lee, Hugh Byrne, Paul Dumas, Ehsan Gazi, Michael Brown, Noel Clarke, Peter Gardner

Articles

Infrared spectra of single biological cells often exhibit the “dispersion artefact” observed as a sharp decrease in intensity on the high wavenumber side of absorption bands, in particular the Amide I band at ~1655 cm-1, causing a downward shift of the true peak position. The presence of this effect makes any biochemical interpretation of the spectra unreliable. Recent theory has shed light on the origins of the ‘dispersion artefact’ which has been attributed to resonant Mie scattering (RMieS). In this paper a preliminary algorithm for correcting RMieS is presented and evaluated using simulated data. Results show that the ‘dispersion artefact’ …

A Comparative Study Of The Interaction Of Different Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons On Different Types Of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes, Sourabhi Debnath, Qiaohun Cheng, Theresa Hedderman, Hugh Byrne

Articles

A comparative study of the solubilising effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) on single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) produced by high pressure decomposition of carbon monoxide (HiPco) and the arc discharge (AD) method has been carried out with the aid of fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy. For this study, polyphenyl and polyacene PAHs of different lengths are used. From the study it has been found that the binding energy of PAHs with AD SWCNTs is the same as that with HiPco SWCNTs. Shorter PAHs molecules better solubilise SWCNTs and in general smaller diameter SWCNTs. Thus, given their smaller diameter profile, significantly …

A Systematic Study Of The Dispersion Of Swnts In Organic Solvents, Qiaohuan Cheng, Sourabhi Debnath, Luke O'Neill, Theresa Hedderman, Elizabeth Gregan

Articles

Dispersions of as-produced HiPco single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in a series of organic solvents were prepared by dilution with the aid of tip sonication. Mild centrifugation (945 g) was carried out to remove large bundles. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies revealed that the bundle size decreased as the dispersion was diluted. By measuring the UV−vis−NIR absorption before and after centrifugation as a function of the concentration, the dispersion limit of SWNTs in each solvent can be determined. Correlations between the dispersion limit and solvent solubility parameters, including the Hildebrand solubility parameter and three-dimensional Hansen solubility parameters, are explored, demonstrating that …

Protection Of Upqc Against The Load Side Short Circuits, Iurie Axente, Malabika Basu, Michael Conlon, Kevin Gaughan

Articles

This study presents a protection scheme for protecting the series inverter of a unified power quality conditioner (UPQC). The proposed scheme protects the series inverter from overcurrents and overvoltages, which appear during short-circuit faults on the load side of the UPQC. The main protection element is a crowbar connected across the secondary of the series transformer and consists of a pair of antiparallel connected thyristors, which is governed by a simple Zener diode-based control circuit. In the case of an overvoltage, the crowbar short circuits the secondary of the transformer, thus removing the overvoltage and diverting the fault current from …

A Machine Learning Approach To Hierarchical Categorisation Of Auditory Objects, William Coleman, Sarah Jane Delany, Charlie Cullen, Ming Yan Dr.

Articles

With the advent of new audio delivery technologies comes opportunities and challenges for content creators and providers. The proliferation of consumption modes (stereo headphones, home cinema systems, ‘hearables’), media formats (mp3, CD, video and audio streaming) and content types (gaming, music, drama & current affairs broadcasting) has given rise to a complicated landscape where content must often be adapted for multiple end-use scenarios. The concept of object-based audio envisages content delivery not via a fixed mix but as a series of auditory objects which can then be controlled either by consumers or by content creators & providers via accompanying metadata. …

Rise Of Political Populism And The Trouble With The Legal Profession In China, Dongsheng Zang

Articles

This essay looks into recent efforts by the ruling party in China to tighten control of the judiciary, the lawyers and prosecutors under the slogan of "harmonious society" in the last couple of years. This reversed the direction of judicial reform under the leadership of Xiao Yang, during his tenure as President of the Supreme People's Court before 2008. The trouble with the legal profession in China, the essay asserts, is not only that it loses its professional autonomy thus its ability to act as a sociopolitical force that is independent from the ruling political party; but also, by virtue …

Fourth Amendment Remedial Equilibration: A Comment On Herring V. United States And Pearson V. Callahan, David B. Owens

Articles

In two recent decisions, the Supreme Court addressed remedies under the Fourth Amendment by assuming that this remedial construction did not alter the value of the underlying right meant to be protected by the Constitution. First, in Herring v. United States, the court broadened exceptions to the exclusionary rule and implied that suppression may not be required for "negligent" errors generally. Then, in Pearson v. Callahan, the Court abandoned it's "battle-of-order" rule - which required courts to consider the right before inquiring whether that right was "clearly established" at the time of the violation - when considering qualified …

Equity And Efficiency In Intellectual Property Taxation, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Articles

This article examines the federal income tax regime governing intellectual property using normative criteria in evaluating taxes: equity and efficiency. The article first evaluates the current intellectual property tax scheme in terms of horizontal equity, identifying differences in tax treatment of what appear to be similar intellectual property activities. It argues that disparate tax treatments between seemingly similar intellectual property owners signal that flaws may exist in the tax system. The article then assesses the efficiency of the intellectual property tax system, examining numerous tax subsidies for intellectual property and their effectiveness in promoting economic growth. It argues that many …

Policymaking By The Japanese Judiciary In The Criminal Justice Field, Daniel H. Foote

Articles

When one speaks of policymaking by the judiciary, the image that often comes to tnind is the U.S. judiciary, especially the Supreme Court of the United States. That reaction is understandable. Examples abound of policymaking by courts in the United States; and a seemingly never-ending stream of books and articles discuss, analyze, and, depending on the authors'point of view, praise or decry "policymaking" or "judicial activism" by U.S. courts. The field of criminal justice frequently is offered as a prominent example of judicial policymaking in the United States. Expansion in due process protections and other rights for criminal suspects and …

Taking The High Road: Why Prosecutors Should Voluntarily Waive Peremptory Challenges, Maureen A. Howard

Articles

In this Article, I review the efficacy of peremptory challenges and conclude that both empirical and anecdotal evidence confirm such challenges are of little utility. I contend that the marginal benefit of peremptory challenges to a criminal prosecutor is outweighed by the damage done to both the actual and perceived fairness of the system, and that imbalance should persuade prosecutors to consider a wholesale voluntary waiver of peremptory challenges.

Customary Practice And Community Governance In Implementing The Human Right To Water--The Case Of The Acequia Communities Of Colorado's Rio Culebra Watershed, Gregory A. Hicks, Devon G. Peña

Articles

This paper offers commentary on the appropriateness of viewing, as a human right, the authority to manage water and to participate meaningfully in watershed governance, and it takes as an example the community of Hispano farmers of the Rio Culebra watershed of Southern Colorado in the headwaters of the Upper Rio Grande. In earlier work, the authors have written about the uneasy relationship between the formal system of appropriative water rights under Colorado law and the enduring set of local water norms practiced within acequias—the traditional water governance institutions and irrigation systems of the Culebra's Hispano farmers. The present …

Indian Water Rights, Practical Reasoning, And Negotiated Settlements, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

This Article first reviews the few Indian water rights cases that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided. The Article then traces a threshold issue common to Indian water rights litigation in the federal and state courts: how to determine the purposes of a reservation for which a reserved water right should be implied. A review of major Indian water rights cases demonstrates the generally confusing state of the law in significant respects, especially with regard to the "purposes" determination.

This Article posits that the relative uncertainty in this area has created an environment in which creative, practical solutions to conflicts …

Direct Examination: Lawyer As Director, Maureen A. Howard

Articles

A trial lawyer presenting her case in chief through direct examination is somewhat like a film director: the lawyer thoroughly analyzes the case and develops a plan for the most effective way to present the case to the jury to best advance her theme and theory. Just as no script would play out on film the exact same way in the hands of different directors, no case would be presented in exactly the same way by different trial lawyers. Yet there are constants to be found in the steps effective trial lawyers take during their case in chief when presenting …

Racial Paradox In A Law And Society Odyssey, Mario L. Barnes

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Post-Race Equal Protection?, Mario L. Barnes, Erwin Chemerinsky, Trina Jones

Articles

No abstract provided.

From Chevron To Massachusetts: Justice Stevens's Approach To Securing The Public Interest, Kathryn A. Watts

Articles

During the past three decades, one Supreme Court justice— John Paul Stevens—has authored two of the most significant administrative law decisions that speak to the judiciary’s role in checking agency interpretations of the statutes that they administer. In Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., Justice Stevens’s landmark 1984 decision unanimously upheld the EPA’s construction of a term found in the Clean Air Act. Subsequently, in Massachusetts v. EPA, Justice Stevens’s 2007 opinion for a five-justice majority handed a major win to global environmental security by ordering the EPA to reconsider its refusal to regulate greenhouse …

People Can Be So Fake: A New Dimension To Privacy And Technology Scholarship, M. Ryan Calo

Articles

This article updates the traditional discussion of privacy and technology, focused since the days of Warren and Brandeis on the capacity of technology to manipulate information. It proposes a novel dimension to the impact of anthropomorphic or social design on privacy.

Technologies designed to imitate people-through voice, animation, and natural language-are increasingly commonplace, showing up in our cars, computers, phones, and homes. A rich literature in communications and psychology suggests that we are hardwired to react to such technology as though a person were actually present.

Social interfaces accordingly capture our attention, improve interactivity, and can free up our hands …

Taking Narrow Channel Collision Prevention Seriously To More Effectively Manage Marine Transportation System Risk, Craig H. Allen

Articles

This Article locates the narrow channel rule in the larger context of risk management in confined waters. It begins by examining the risks posed by vessel navigation in narrow channels and fairways in the United States and the risk management measures employed to eliminate or reduce those risks, including the narrow channel rule in the applicable rules of the road. The Article then identifies problems with the existing rule and examines several alternatives to address the problems. The Article concludes that mariners deserve clearer guidance on how to identify the waters where Rule 9 applies than they have so far …

"I'M Dying To Tell You What Happened": The Admissibility Of Testimonial Dying Declarations Post-Crawford, Peter Nicolas

Articles

This Article demonstrates the existence and delineates the scope of a federal constitutional definition of "dying declarations" that is distinct from the definitions set forth in the Federal Rules of Evidence and their state counterparts. This Article further demonstrates that states have state constitutional definitions of "dying declarations" (for purposes of interpreting state constitutional analogues to the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment) that may differ in important respects from the federal constitutional definition of "dying declarations."

This Article then shows that some of the definitions of "dying declarations" contained in federal and state hearsay exceptions exceed the federal and …

Peeping Hals: Making Sense Of Artificial Intelligence And Privacy, Ryan Calo

Articles

The field of artificial intelligence, broadly defined as the study and practice of designing intelligent agents, is at least six decades into its existence as a formal discipline. Sometimes called “computational” or “synthetic” intelligence, AI borrows from and informs a wide variety of subjects, including philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, statistics, economics, and law. Techniques of AI underpin all manner of industrial and consumer applications - from the complex neural nets used in data mining, down to the ‘fuzzy logic’ used by commercial washers and driers.

Insofar as “the issues of AI are directly related to [the] self-image of human beings”, …

Shared Understanding Or Consensus-Masked Disagreement? The Anti-Torture Framework In The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, Janet E. Lord

Articles

No abstract provided.

Lessons From The Experience Of U.N. Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities: Addressing The Democratic Deficit In Global Health Governance, Janet E. Lord, David Suozzi, Alyn L. Taylor

Articles

No abstract provided.

Broadening Ethics Teaching In Engineering: Beyond The Individualistic Approach, Eddie Conlon, H. Zandvoort

Articles

There is a widespread approach to the teaching of ethics to engineering students in which the exclusive focus is on engineers as individual agents and the broader context in which they do their work is ignored. Although this approach has frequently been criticised in the literature, it persists on a wide scale, as can be inferred from accounts in the educational literature and from the contents of widely used textbooks in engineering ethics. In this contribution we intend to: (1) Restate why the individualistic approach to the teaching of ethics to engineering students is inadequate in view of preparing them …

Multi–Component Nls Models On Symmetric Spaces: Spectral Properties Versus Representations Theory, Vladimir Gerdjikov, Georgi Grahovski

Articles

The algebraic structure and the spectral properties of a special class of multicomponent NLS equations, related to the symmetric spaces of BD.I-type are analyzed. The focus of the study is on the spectral theory of the associated Lax operator to these nonlinear evolutionary equations for different fundamental representations of the underlying simple Lie algebra g. Special attention is paid to the spinor representation of the orthogonal Lie algebras of B type.