Metabolite profiling of heat treated whole palm oil extract

The chemically complex and diverse nature of the plant metabolome require different platform technology to entire range of metabolites. An ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) technique was developed to profile and identify a set of small-molecule metabolites found in heat treated whole palm oil extract. An investigation was carried out on the effect of heat treatment on the yield, quality and metabolites profile for whole palm oil extract. Palm fruits were collected, cleaned and sterilized for 0, 20, 40 and 60 minutes. The kernels were then stripped from the sterilized fruit to get the pulp (mesocarp part) and later the pulp was pressed using small scale expeller. The resulting puree was centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 20 minutes. The results show that there was a significant difference between sterilization time of 0 minute and 40 minutes in yield and quality. Of all, the highest yield of oil of 19.9% was obtained at sterilization time of 40 minutes with DOBI value of 5.95 ± 0.08 and FFA of 1.44 ± 0.10. The MarkerView software version 1.2.0.1 analysis of the UPLC-ESI-MS/MS preliminary experimental data demonstrated the distribution and identity of several compounds in the whole palm oil extract for 40 minutes sterilization and 0 minute of sterilization

HRM in Multinationals’ Operations in China: Business, People, and HR Issues

This paper presents the results of a study on the HR function in the Chinese operations of large multinational companies. Surveys of both line and HR executives in these firms were conducted. Results reveal that line executives are more sensitive than HR executives to criticality of people management issues as business issues, and that they see HR\u27s strategic orientation as the most critical area for improvement. The challenges and opportunities implied by these results are discussed

Memristive excitable cellular automata

The memristor is a device whose resistance changes depending on the polarity and magnitude of a voltage applied to the device's terminals. We design a minimalistic model of a regular network of memristors using structurally-dynamic cellular automata. Each cell gets info about states of its closest neighbours via incoming links. A link can be one 'conductive' or 'non-conductive' states. States of every link are updated depending on states of cells the link connects. Every cell of a memristive automaton takes three states: resting, excited (analog of positive polarity) and refractory (analog of negative polarity). A cell updates its state depending on states of its closest neighbours which are connected to the cell via 'conductive' links. We study behaviour of memristive automata in response to point-wise and spatially extended perturbations, structure of localised excitations coupled with topological defects, interfacial mobile excitations and growth of information pathways.Comment: Accepted to Int J Bifurcation and Chaos (2011

Evidence for Factorization in Three-body Bˉ→D(∗)K−K0\bar B\to D^{(*)} K^- K^0 Decays

Motivated by experimental results on $\bar B\to D^{(*)}K^-K^{0}$, we use a factorization approach to study these decays. Two mechanisms concerning kaon pair production arise: current-produced (from vacuum) and transition (from the $B$ meson). The kaon pair in the $\bar B {}^0\to D^{(*)+}K^-K^0$ decays can be produced only by the vector current (current-produced), whose matrix element can be extracted from $e^+e^-\to K\bar K$ processes via isospin relations. The decay rates obtained this way are in good agreement with experiment. The $B^-\to D^{(*)0}K^-K^0$ decays involve both current-produced and transition processes. By using QCD counting rules and the measured $B^-\to D^{(*)0} K^- K^0$ decay rates, the measured decay spectra can be understood.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figures. Talk presented at EPS2003 Conference, Aachen, Germany, July 200

A threshold for a q-sorting methodology for computer-adaptive surveys

© 2017 Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS 2017. All rights reserved. Computer-Adaptive Surveys (CAS) are multi-dimensional instruments where questions asked of respondents depend on the previous questions asked. Due to the complexity of CAS, little work has been done on developing methods for validating their content and construct validity. We have created a new q-sorting technique where the hierarchies that independent raters develop are transformed into a quantitative form, and that quantitative form is tested to determine the inter-rater reliability of the individual branches in the hierarchy. The hierarchies are then successively transformed to test if they branch in the same way. The objective of this paper is to identify suitable measures and a “good enough” threshold for demonstrating the similarity of two CAS trees. To find suitable measures, we perform a set of bootstrap simulations to measure how various statistics change as a hypothetical CAS deviates from a “true” version. We find that the 3 measures of association, Goodman and Kruskal's Lambda, Cohen's Kappa, and Goodman and Kruskal's Gamma together provide information useful for assessing construct validity in CAS. In future work we are interested in both finding a “good enough” threshold(s) for assessing the overall similarity between tree hierarchies and diagnosing causes of disagreements between the tree hierarchies

A test of a computer-adaptive survey using online reviews

© 26th European Conference on Information Systems: Beyond Digitization - Facets of Socio-Technical Change, ECIS 2018. All Rights Reserved. Traditional surveys are excellent instruments for establishing the correlational relationship between two constructs. However, they are unable to identify reasons why such correlations exist. Computer-Adaptive Surveys (CAS) are multi-dimensional instruments where questions asked of respondents depend on the previous questions asked. Assessing the validity of CAS is an underexplored research area as CAS differs from traditional surveys. Therefore, validating a CAS requires different techniques. This study attempts to validate the conclusion validity of a CAS about café customer satisfaction using online customer reviews. For our CAS to have conclusion validity, there should be a high correspondence where most respondents in CAS and online reviewers both agree that certain constructs are the cause of their dissatisfaction. We created a Computer-Adaptive Survey (CAS) of café satisfaction and used online customer reviews to assess its conclusion validity. Our research thus contributes to the measurement literature in two ways, one, we demonstrate that CAS captures the same criticisms of cafes as that in online reviews, and two, CAS captures problems about customer satisfaction at a deeper level than that found in online reviews

A Q-sorting methodology for Computer-Adaptive Surveys - Style "Research"

Computer-Adaptive Surveys (CAS) are multi-dimensional instruments where questions asked of respondents depend on the previous questions asked. Due to the complexity of CAS, little work has been done on developing methods for validating their construct validity. This paper describes the process of using a variant of Q-sorting to validate a CAS item bank. The method and preliminary results are presented. In addition, lessons learned from this study are discussed

Does von Neumann Entropy Correspond to Thermodynamic Entropy?

Conventional wisdom holds that the von Neumann entropy corresponds to thermodynamic entropy, but Hemmo and Shenker (2006) have recently argued against this view by attacking von Neumann's (1955) argument. I argue that Hemmo and Shenker's arguments fail due to several misunderstandings: about statistical-mechanical and thermodynamic domains of applicability, about the nature of mixed states, and about the role of approximations in physics. As a result, their arguments fail in all cases: in the single-particle case, the finite particles case, and the infinite particles case

Relationship Analysis of Keyword and Chapter in Malay-Translated Tafseer of Al-Quran

A number of studies have gained popularity to study the unseen knowledge categories and relationship of subject matters discussed in the Al-Quran or the Tafseer. This research investigates the relationships between verses and chapters at the keyword level in a Malay translated Tafseer. A combination technique of text mining and network analysis is developed to discover non-trivial patterns and relationships of verses and chapters in the Tafseer. This is achieved through keyword extraction, keyword-chapter relationship discovery and keyword- chapter network analysis. A total of 130 keywords were extracted from six chapters in the Tafseer. The keywords and their relative importance to a chapter are computed using term weighting. A network analysis map was generated to visualize and analyze the relationship between keyword and chapter in the Tafseer. The relationship between the verses and chapters at the keyword level are successfully portrayed through the combination technique of text mining and network analysis. The novelty of this approach lies in the discovery of the relationships between verses and chapters that is useful for grouping related chapters together

Does von Neumann Entropy Correspond to Thermodynamic Entropy?

Conventional wisdom holds that the von Neumann entropy corresponds to thermodynamic entropy, but Hemmo and Shenker (2006) have recently argued against this view by attacking von Neumann (1955) and his argument. I argue that Hemmo and Shenker's arguments fail due to several misunderstandings: about statistical-mechanical and thermodynamic domains of applicability, about the nature of mixed states, and about the role of approximations in physics. As a result, their arguments fail in all cases: in the single-particle case, the finite particles case, and the infinite particles case