Using SPICES for a better service consumption

In this poster we present SPICES (Semantic Platform for the Interaction and Consumption of Enriched Services), a Web based tool that automates the process of consuming a Web service by making use of the semantic annotations that describe them. SPICES supports both traditional WSDL services and RESTful ones and offers end-users the possibility of interacting with them in an easy yet personalised manner, without the need of advanced technical skills -which were traditionally required-, being the complexity that lies underneath hidden to them. SPICES is being developed within the European project SOA4All

Phytochemical Content and Antioxidant Activity in Tradisional Balinese Babi-guling Spices

The traditional Balinese richly spiced swine-grill (Babi-guling) has been increasingly popular even among both the domestic and foreign tourists. The traditional grill is very unique in taste as it contains two main components, i.e. the pork and the unique Balinese spices, which probably could work antagonistically one against the other in affecting people health. The pork because of its rich content of saturated fatty acid is a risk of atherosclerosis, while the spices appear to be rich in antioxidatns. This is a preliminary atherosclerosis experimental study designed to screen qualitatively the phytochemical contents of the spices and to test their antioxidant activity and strength in different concentrations in vitro. The methods used included Willstater test, NaOH 10% test, Meyer test, Leiberman-Burchard test, test for saponin, and test for phenol. The antioxidant activity was estimated by using DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-pricrylhydrazyl) test. The treatment applied to the spice before testing was raw and cooked by heating it inside the pig's body cavity. The concentrations of spices tested were 100, 1000 and 8000 ppm. The results of our study revealed that the phytochemical content of the spices were flavonoids, terpenoids and phenolic compounds, but saponin and alkaloids were not detected. The antioxidant activity was ineffective in concentration of 100 ppm (percentage of reduction < 50%), effective in concentration of 1000 ppm (percentage of reduction 50-60%), and too thick in concentration of 8000 ppm (percentage of reduction >100%. We inferred that the traditional Balinese richly spiced swine-grill contains flavanoids, terpenoids and phenol which can act as antioxidants in vitro, and the most effective concentrations to decrease the free radicals were between 1000-8000 ppm

Text Localization in Video Using Multiscale Weber's Local Descriptor

In this paper, we propose a novel approach for detecting the text present in videos and scene images based on the Multiscale Weber's Local Descriptor (MWLD). Given an input video, the shots are identified and the key frames are extracted based on their spatio-temporal relationship. From each key frame, we detect the local region information using WLD with different radius and neighborhood relationship of pixel values and hence obtained intensity enhanced key frames at multiple scales. These multiscale WLD key frames are merged together and then the horizontal gradients are computed using morphological operations. The obtained results are then binarized and the false positives are eliminated based on geometrical properties. Finally, we employ connected component analysis and morphological dilation operation to determine the text regions that aids in text localization. The experimental results obtained on publicly available standard Hua, Horizontal-1 and Horizontal-2 video dataset illustrate that the proposed method can accurately detect and localize texts of various sizes, fonts and colors in videos.Comment: IEEE SPICES, 201

Mixed Spices at Culinary Doses Have Prebiotic Effects in Healthy Adults: A Pilot Study.

Spices were used as food preservatives prior to the advent of refrigeration, suggesting the possibility of effects on microbiota. Previous studies have shown prebiotic activities in animals and in vitro, but there has not been a demonstration of prebiotic or postbiotic effects at culinary doses in humans. In this randomized placebo-controlled study, we determined in twenty-nine healthy adults the effects on the gut microbiota of the consumption daily of capsules containing 5 g of mixed spices at culinary doses by comparison to a matched control group consuming a maltodextrin placebo capsule. The 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing data were used for microbial characterization. Spice consumption resulted in a significant reduction in Firmicutes abundance (p < 0.033) and a trend of enrichment in Bacteroidetes (p < 0.097) compared to placebo group. Twenty-six operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were different between the spice and placebo groups after intervention. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between fecal short-chain fatty acid propionate concentration and Firmicutes abundance in spice intervention group (p < 0.04). The production of individual fecal short-chain fatty acid was not significantly changed by spice consumption in this study. Mixed spices consumption significantly modified gut microbiota, suggesting a prebiotic effect of spice consumption at culinary doses

Analysis of Demand for Major Spices in India

India is the largest producer, consumer, and exporter of spices in the world. The demand scenario for major spices in India has been comprehensively examined in the study. The shift in preferences of domestic consumers for food items, increasing urbanization and rising incomes, altered demographic and social factors and the changes in productivity of spices have brought about changes in the pattern of their consumption and demand. A two-stage budgeting framework, which is a recent development in the theory, of demand with quadratic terms of total expenditure / food expenditure and is an appropriate technique for computing the expenditure elasticities, has been employed to work out the expenditure elasticities for spices in India. The resultant expenditure elasticities range between 0.40 and 0.60 and do not show much disparity across different income classes or regions and over the years. Also, the household consumption demand projections for important spices in the country for the years 2005, 2010 and 2015 show that the domestic demand for spices would increase further in the coming years.Agricultural and Food Policy,

SPICES: Spectro-Polarimetric Imaging and Characterization of Exoplanetary Systems

SPICES (Spectro-Polarimetric Imaging and Characterization of Exoplanetary Systems) is a five-year M-class mission proposed to ESA Cosmic Vision. Its purpose is to image and characterize long-period extrasolar planets and circumstellar disks in the visible (450 - 900 nm) at a spectral resolution of about 40 using both spectroscopy and polarimetry. By 2020/22, present and near-term instruments will have found several tens of planets that SPICES will be able to observe and study in detail. Equipped with a 1.5 m telescope, SPICES can preferentially access exoplanets located at several AUs (0.5-10 AU) from nearby stars ($<$25 pc) with masses ranging from a few Jupiter masses to Super Earths ($\sim$2 Earth radii, $\sim$10 M$_{\oplus}$) as well as circumstellar disks as faint as a few times the zodiacal light in the Solar System

Microbial Profile, Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activities of some Imported Spices in Nigeria

Spices are commonly used in most Nigerian dishes as flavour and colour enhancer, nutrient supplements or to serve as preservatives, medicine and as part of cultural inclinations. They are naturally of plant parts and in recent times, certain synthetic creations of flavorists have found use in food as flavour and colour enhancers. The upsurge in quest for dishes of other cultures, and for food containing plant products deemed to have antioxidant properties have resulted in large import of different spices into the Nigerian market. This study was conducted to determine the microbial profile, antibacterial and antioxidant activities of some imported spices in Nigerian market. Fifteen each, of five different brands of imported spices packaged in polyethylene containers were purchased from supermarkets in different regions of Nigeria. The mean (cfu/g) total aerobic plate counts in the samples range from 1.8 x103 to 7.0x104, Coliform count was 1.1x102 to 4.1x103 and mean fungi count was 1.0x101 to 2.9x103. Microorganisms isolated from some of the spices include spp of Bacillus, Staphylococcus, Proteus, Enterobacter, Pseudomonas, Aspergillus, Rhizopus and Fusarium. Some of the spices had antimicrobial effects on the clinical isolates tested with MIC ranging from 6.25 to 25.0 mg/ml. The spices contain Phenolics and flavonoids and have DPPH, Hydrogen peroxide and Nitric oxide scavenging activities. Adequate HACCP evaluation and GMP in the processing of spices is advanced, further studies are necessary to harness the full antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of these spices for therapeutic purpose

Turmeric and black pepper spices decrease lipid peroxidation in meat patties during cooking.

Spices are rich in natural antioxidants and have been shown to be potent inhibitors of lipid peroxidation during cooking of meat. Turmeric contains unique conjugated curcuminoids with strong antioxidant activity. Piperine, one of the main constituents of black pepper, is known to increase the bioavailability of curcuminoids in mouse and human studies when consumed with turmeric. We investigated whether adding black pepper to turmeric powder may further inhibit lipid peroxidation when added to meat patties prior to cooking. The addition of black pepper to turmeric significantly decreased the lipid peroxidation in hamburger meat. When investigating the antioxidant activity of the main chemical markers, we determined that piperine did not exhibit any antioxidant activity. Therefore, we conclude that other black pepper ingredients are responsible for the increased antioxidant activity of combining black pepper with turmeric powder