Digital Commons Network^™

Ef Fi Cacy Of Steamer Jet-Injection As Alternative To Chlorine In Fresh-Cut Lettuce, Daniel Rico, Ana Belen Martin-Diana, Jesus Maria Frias, J. Barat, Gary Henehan, Catherine Barry-Ryan

Articles

The use of calcium lactate solutions has been shown to be a healthy alternative to chlorine washing in order to maintain the shelf-life of fresh-cut products. The aim of this research was to analyse the effects of calcium lactate (15 g L⁻¹) treatment at 25 °C and 50 °C (heat-shock) on the textural properties of sliced carrots and to compare those with the chlorine treatment (120 mg L⁻¹) widely used in industry. Several direct and indirect markers of textural changes in carrots during storage were used: Instron textural analysis, Cryo-SEM and optical microscopic, sensory analysis, pectin …

Efficacy Of Steamer Jet-Injection As Alternative To Chlorine In Fresh-Cut Lettuce, Ana Belen Martin-Diana, Daniel Rico, Catherine Barry-Ryan, Jesus Maria Frias, Gary Henehan, J. Barat

Articles

Short-time steam processing was used as an alternative to chlorine (100 mg L⁻¹) in sanitising fresh-cut lettuce. Quality (pH, water content, colour, potential browning, browning-related enzymes and texture), safety (mesophilic counts) and antioxidant markers (ascorbic and carotenoids) were monitored in lettuce stored for 10 days at 4 °C. The steam treatment produced a shocking effect on lettuce metabolism, showing a significant (p < 0.05) reduction in respiration (from day 3 to 7) and a partial inactivation of browning-related enzymes. Both effects were reflected in a significant reduction of browning. From a safety point of view, steam treatment kept the mesophilic load as low as chlorine treatment, and significantly lowers than the water control. However, antioxidant content, especially ascorbic acid but also carotenoids in a lower degree, showed a reduction compared with chlorine-treated samples. Despite the lower visual browning in steam-treated samples, the sensory panel scored similar values of acceptability and fresh appearance for both samples similarity.

Extending And Measuring The Quality Of Fresh-Cut Fruit And Vegetables: A Review, Ana Belen Martin-Diana, Daniel Rico, Gary Henehan, Jesus Maria Frias, J. Barat

Articles

The market sales of ready - to - use vegetables have grown rapidly in recent decades as a result of changes in consumer attitudes especially consumption of fresh-cut lettuce and carrot due to their use in prepared salads. Chlorine solutions have been widely used to sanitise fruit and vegetables in the fresh-cut industry. However, the association of chlorine with the possible formation of carcinogenic chlorinated compounds in water has called into question the use of chlorine in food processing. There is a real need to find alternatives for preservation of fresh-cut fruit and vegetables in order to improve the efficacy …

Torsion-Free Groups And Modules With The Involution Property, Brendan Goldsmith, C. Meehan, S.L. Wallutis

Articles

An Abelian group or module is said to have the involution property if every endomorphism is the sum of two automorphisms, one of which is an involution. We investigate this property for completely decomposable torsion-free Abelian groups and modules over the ring of -adic integers.

Use Of The Mitsunobu Reaction In The Synthesis Of Orthogonally Protected A,B-Diaminopropionic Acids, Fintan Kelleher, Keith Ó Proinsias

Articles

Orthogonally protected a,b-diaminopropionic acids have been synthesised in good yields by the reaction of N-trityl L-serine esters with N-substituted sulfonamides under Mitsunobu reaction conditions (DEAD, PPh₃, THF). The best isolated yields were obtained when N-Boc p-toluenesulfonamide was used as the nitrogen nucleophile precursor in the Mitsunobu reaction. Subsequently, the N-trityl group was efficiently replaced with the more stable allyloxycarbonyl (alloc) group.

A Novel Processing Route For The Production Of Nanoparticulate Zinc Oxide Using An Isophthalate Precursor, Grainne Duffy, Declan Mccormack, Suresh Pillai

Articles

Zinc oxide nanoparticles have been processed from a novel isophthalate precursor. In contrast to those processed from an oxalate precursor, this material exhibits three-dimensional, non-directional aggregation behaviour.

Such non-directional aggregation of uniaxial crystallites may allow for the production of structures with a higher proportion of catalytically active surfaces than can be prepared through conventional sol–gel methods. XRD,

FTIR, TEM and SEM were used to characterize the synthesized materials.

Zinc oxide particles synthesized by using isophthalic acid (C6H4-1,3-(COOH)2) are found to be slightly smaller than the previously reported materials prepared through chelation with oxalic acid (H2C2O2・2H2O).

Optimal Neuro-Controller Synthesis For Impulse-Driven System, Xiaohua Wang, S. N. Balakrishnan

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a new controller design technique for systems driven with impulse inputs. Necessary conditions for optimal impulse control are derived. A neural network structure to solve the resulting equations is presented. The solution concepts are illustrated with a few example problems that exhibit increasing levels of difficulty. Two linear problems-one scalar and one vector-and a benchmark nonlinear problem-Van Der Pol oscillator-are used as case studies. Numerical results show the efficacy of the new solution process for impulse driven systems. Since the theoretical development and the design technique are free from restrictive assumptions, this technique is applicable to many …

Assessment Of The Source And Transformation Of Nitrate In The Cedar River Watershed By Using Stable Isotopes Of Nitrogen, Sushil Gautam

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Stable isotopes of nitrogen were used to assess the source and fate of nitrate in the Cedar River Watershed, Iowa. Ground water samples from 20 private wells and surface water samples from 10 sites in the Cedar River and its tributaries were collected. A total of 90 samples were collected during the growing season from May through September 2006. In 35% of the wells, nitrate concentration exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recommended maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 45 mg/1 (as NO3-) for drinking purposes. Eight (8) out of 10 samples exceeded MCL for nitrate in the first set of …

Greedy Population Sizing For Evolutionary Algorithms, Ekaterina Smorodkina, Daniel R. Tauritz

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The number of parameters that need to be man ually tuned to achieve good performance of Evolutionary Algorithms and the dependency of the parameters on each other make this potentially robust and efficient computational method very time consuming and difficult to use. This paper introduces a Greedy Population Sizing method for Evolutionary Algo rithms (GPS-EA), an automated population size tuning method that does not require any population size related parameters to be specified or manually tuned a priori. Theoretical analysis of the number of function evaluations needed by the GPS EA to produce good solutions is provided. We also perform …

Verifying Noninterference In A Cyber-Physical System The Advanced Electric Power Grid, David Cape, Xiaoqing Frank Liu, Bruce M. Mcmillin, Yan Sun

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The advanced electric power grid is a complex real-time system having both cyber and physical components. While each component may function correctly, independently, their composition may yield incorrectness due to interference. One specific type of interference is in the frequency domain, essentially, violations of the Nyquist rate. The challenge is to encode these signal processing problem characteristics into a form that can be model checked. To verify the correctness of the cyber-physical composition using model-checking techniques requires that a model be constructed that can represent frequency interference. In this paper, RT-PROMELA was used to construct the model, which was checked …

Spatial Diversity In Signal Strength Based Wlan Location Determination Systems, Anil Ramachandran, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Literature indicates that spatial diversity can be utilized to compensate channel uncertainties such as multipath fading. Therefore, in this paper, spatial diversity is exploited for locating stationary and mobile objects in the indoor environment. First, space diversity technique is introduced for small scale motion and temporal variation compensation of received signal strength and it is demonstrated analytically that it enhances location accuracy. Small scale motion refers to movements of the transmitter and/or the receiver of the order of sub-wavelengths while temporal effects refer to environmental variations with time. A novel metric is introduced for selection combining in order to improve …

Training Winner-Take-All Simultaneous Recurrent Neural Networks, Xindi Cai, Danil V. Prokhorov, Donald C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The winner-take-all (WTA) network is useful in database management, very large scale integration (VLSI) design, and digital processing. The synthesis procedure of WTA on single-layer fully connected architecture with sigmoid transfer function is still not fully explored. We discuss the use of simultaneous recurrent networks (SRNs) trained by Kalman filter algorithms for the task of finding the maximum among N numbers. The simulation demonstrates the effectiveness of our training approach under conditions of a shared-weight SRN architecture. A more general SRN also succeeds in solving a real classification application on car engine data.

An Online Approximator-Based Fault Detection Framework For Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems, Balaje T. Thumati, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a fault detection scheme is developed for nonlinear discrete time systems. The changes in the system dynamics due to incipient failures are modeled as a nonlinear function of state and input variables while the time profile of the failures is assumed to be exponentially developing. The fault is detected by monitoring the system and is approximated by using online approximators. A stable adaptation law in discrete-time is developed in order to characterize the faults. The robustness of the diagnosis scheme is shown by extensive mathematical analysis and simulation results.

Asymptotic Stability Of Nonholonomic Mobile Robot Formations Using Multilayer Neural Networks, Jagannathan Sarangapani, Travis Alan Dierks

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a combined kinematic/torque control law is developed for leader-follower based formation control using backstepping in order to accommodate the dynamics of the robots and the formation in contrast with kinematic-based formation controllers that are widely reported in the literature. A multilayer neural network (NN) is introduced along with robust integral of the sign of the error (RISE) feedback to approximate the dynamics of the follower as well as its leader using online weight tuning. It is shown using Lyapunov theory that the errors for the entire formation are asymptotically stable and the NN weights are bounded as …

A Proportional-Integrator Type Adaptive Critic Design-Based Neurocontroller For A Static Compensator In A Multimachine Power System, Salman Mohagheghi, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Yamille Del Valle, Ronald G. Harley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel nonlinear optimal controller for a static compensator (STATCOM) connected to a power system, using artificial neural networks, is presented in this paper. The action dependent heuristic dynamic programming, a member of the adaptive critic designs family is used for the design of the STATCOM neurocontroller. This neurocontroller provides optimal control based on reinforcement learning and approximate dynamic programming. Using a proportional-integrator approach, the proposed neurocontroller is capable of dealing with actual rather than deviation signals. Simulation results are provided to show that the proposed controller outperforms a conventional PI controller for a STATCOM in a small and large …

A Growth Theory Perspective On The International Diffusion Of Electronic Commerce., S.C Ho, Robert John Kauffman, T.P. Liang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) continue to have a profound effect on the economies and societies where they are used. In this article, we propose three related theories to describe the underlying mechanism for growth in e-commerce revenues at the national level. Endogenous growth theory posits that the primary drivers of e-commerce growth are internal to a country. Exogenous growth theory suggests that the primary drivers of e-commerce growth are external to an economic system, and reflect the forces of the regional economy. A blend of these, a mixed endogenous–exogenous growth theory, incorporates drivers from both the economy and …

A Comparison Of Print Advertisements From Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates And The United States, Gilberto De Los Santos, Caroline Fisher, Salma Ghanem, Morris Kalliny, Anshu Saran

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study examines cultural differences between the United States and the Arab world regarding low/high context, collectivism/individualism, time orientation and man's relationship with nature in print advertising. Study reveals that the main differences between the United States and the Arab world include cultural values that are embedded in religious values and beliefs.

Cultural Values Reflected In Arab And American Television Advertising, Morris Kalliny, Lance Gentry

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study examines cultural values as reflected in U.S. And the Arab world television advertising. A total of 866 television commercials from Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United States were analyzed. Contrary to the common notion that the U.S. culture and the Arabic culture are vastly different, we found many similarities between the two cultures regarding TV advertising content and appeal. The findings contribute to the debate of standardization versus adaptation of international advertising.

Forecasting Consumer Adoption Of Technological Innovation: Choosing The Appropriate Diffusion Models For New Products And Services Before Launch, Roger Calantone, Lance Gentry

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

There are many good articles on various forecasting models. There is consensus that no single diffusion model is best for every situation. Experts in the field have asked for studies to provide empirical-based guidelines for recommending when various models should be used. This research investigates multiple diffusion models and provides recommendations for which diffusion models are appropriate for radical and really new products and services before the launch of the innovation.

Probing Reactivity And Substrate Specificity Of Both Subunits Of The Dimeric Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Fabh Using Alkyl-Coa Disulfide Inhibitors And Acyl-Coa Substrates, Sarbjot Sachdeva, Faik Musayev, Mamoun M. Alhamadsheh, J. Neel Scarsdale, H. Tonie Wright, Kevin A. Reynolds

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The dimeric Mycobacterium tuberculosis FabH (mtFabH) catalyses a Claisen-type condensation between an acyl-CoA and malonyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) to initiate the Type II fatty acid synthase cycle. To analyze the initial covalent acylation of mtFabH with acyl-CoA, we challenged it with mixture of C6-C20 acyl-CoAs and the ESI-MS analysis showed reaction at both subunits and a strict specificity for C12 acyl CoA. Crystallographic and ESI-MS studies of mtFabH with a decyl-CoA disulfide inhibitor revealed a decyl chain bound in acyl-binding channels of both subunits through disulfide linkage to the active site cysteine. These data provide the first unequivocal evidence that …

Good Things Come In Small Packages: Tiny Plankton Producing Oxygen Near Dead Zone, Abbie Basile

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

(First paragraph) For many, the words “Lake Erie” bring to mind large things: big sport fish, sprawling waterfront homes, and an enormous body of water bordering four states and two countries. Similarly, much of the Lake Erie research of which the public is aware deals with larger biological organisms—larger algae and zooplankton, the small fish that eat the zooplankton, and the large fish that feed on those smaller fish. Over the years, the smaller lake life have been somewhat overlooked.

Trampling, Peeling And Nibbling Mussels: An Experimental Assessment Of Mechanical And Predatory Damage To Shells Of Mytilus Trossulus (Mollusca: Mytilidae), Carlos E. Cintra-Buenrostro

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Shell damage, if properly recognized, can provide information about biotic interactions between molluscs and their predators. However, it can be difficult to distinguish predatory damage from mechanical breakage, thus making interpretation of damaged modern and fossil shells problematic. To establish a clear-cut distinction between antemortem predatory crab damage and ante- and postmortem mechanical damage in Mytilus trossulus shells, a combined field and experimental approach was used. Mussels were exposed to predation by crabs, tumbled-live, tumbled-dead, and trampled. After 100 h of tumbling, live-collected mussel shells were abraded and disarticulated but not otherwise damaged. Eight percent of the dead-collected shells were …

Building Bridges: The Transition From Preschool To Primary School For Children In Ireland, Mary O'Kane

Doctoral

The overarching aim of this study was to provide an information base on the transition from preschool to formal schooling in Ireland, and to improve understanding about how best to support children’s learning during this time. The theoretical framework for the project was based on the ecological systems model of development proposed by Bronfenbrenner. As there was no previous Irish research in this area, the study took an exploratory approach, and drew on a variety of sources to present the perspectives of preschool practitioners, primary school teachers, parents and children themselves. Phase 1 involved a questionnaire being completed by a …

Visual Signatures In The Irish Neolithic Landscape: A Wider Perspective On Irish Passage Tombs, Frank Prendergast

Conference Papers

Arising from archaeoastronomical surveys undertaken as part of continuing doctoral research on Irish passage tombs by the author, extended tomb intervisibility has emerged as a frequent and potentially significant cultural factor, warranting further investigation and analysis. This new data type is discussed in terms of its potential to contribute towards a broader understanding of the motivation and symbolism behind the siting of these Neolithic monuments.

A Brief Introduction To Speech Synthesis And Voice Modification, Alan O'Cinneide, David Dorran, Mikel Gainza

Conference papers

For both engineers and linguists, the computer synthesis of natural speech is an objective that would provide many useful applications to human-computer interaction, including the realm of electro-acoustic music. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the area of speech synthesis by providing an overview of the three main methods of computer speech synthesis; namely concatenative, articulatory and formant syntheses. Some aspects of the current state of the technology are illuminated and the final section will explain the author’s motivation and current research approach to the field of voice modification.

Blind Source Separation And Automatic Transcription Of Music Using Tensor Decompositions, Derry Fitzgerald

Conference papers

Recent advances in the use of tensor decompositions for the analysis of music are described. In particular, the use of such decompositions for sound source separation and the automatic transcription of music are explored.

Risk Management Through Derivatives Securitization, Stefan Filip '07

Honors Projects

With the fluctuations in the financial markets reaching tens ofbillions of dollars in just one day, using complex financial instruments instead oftypical insurance could be more effective and cheaper to finance high-severity and low frequency risk exposures. Insurance-linked derivatives such as catastrophes bonds and weather bonds have been used for some time in the United States and European Union. The risks that they cover vary from property catastrophes, weather, general liability, and extreme mortality risks. As the number ofissuers for these securities increases and new over-thecounter (OTC) products appear on the secondary markets there is a growing need to understand …

Effective Use Of Process Capability Indices For Supplier Management, Elizabeth A. Cudney, David Drain

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Process capability indices were originally invented to enable an organization to make economically sound decisions for process management. Process capability is a comparison of the voice of the process with the voice of the customer. Current practice is to use Cp and Cpk regardless of the validity of the underlying assumptions necessary for their use. Even if all necessary assumptions are satisfied, important problems can be missed if these indices are the sole process evaluation examined. Customer-supplier axioms are introduced to motivate more useful process evaluations and foster long-term harmonious relationships. This paper explores the alternative capability indices Cpm, Cpmk, …

Quantification Of Steroid Sex Hormones Using Solid-Phase Extraction Followed By Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Youssef Filali-Meknassi, Muriel Auriol, Craig D. Adams, Rao Y. Surampalli

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, the occurrence of trace amounts of natural and synthetic steroid estrogens in the aquatic environment was studied using liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray mass spectrometry, following solid-phase extraction (SPE). the SPE was performed with C18 and NH2 cartridges. the first objective was to develop a reliable method for analyzing steroid estrogens (resulting from human and animal excretions) in different matrices. the method developed was then applied to quantify the occurrence of natural and synthetic hormones (estrone [E1], 17β-estradiol [βE2], 17α-estradiol [αE2], estriol [E3], and 17α-ethinylestradiol [EE2]) in environmental samples in surface water and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) …

Error Performance Of Double Space Time Transmit Diversity Systems, Jingxian Wu, Y. Rosa Zheng, Ashwin Gumaste, Chengshan Xiao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The theoretical error performance of double space time transmit diversity (DSTTD) system with optimum combining receiver is analyzed in this paper. by employing both spatial multiplexing and transmit diversity in one system, DSTTD provides practical tradeoff between system spectral efficiency and diversity gain. We derive exact analytical expressions to describe the symbol error rate for DSTTD systems. The effects of both diversity gain and antenna interference introduced by spatial multiplexing are quantified in the results. In addition, the performance of DSTTD system with successive interference cancellation is also investigated. Simulation results are in excellent agreement with the theoretical results obtained …