Study of qualitative parameters of fruit juices and possibilities of their modification via technological modifications

Ovocné šťávy jsou celosvětově nejoblíbenějšími nealkoholickými nápoji. Kromě vitamínů a minerálů jsou také bohatým zdrojem polyfenolů, které jsou považovány za látky přispívající k celkové antioxidační aktivitě. Zvyšující se požadavky konzumentů na kvalitu a bezpečnost potravin nutí výrobce k zvyšování výrobních a kvalitativních standardů potravin. Nedávné inovace ve výrobě ovocných šťáv vedly k modifikacím výrobních podmínek, které zahrnují změny ve složení šťávy (např. přídavek ovocné dužiny nebo malých ovocných kousků), vylepšování vlastností obalových materiálů a modifikace produkční atmosféry. Cílem diplomové práce bylo pomocí metod EPR a UV-VIS spektroskopie posoudit vliv různých výrobních postupů na vybrané kvalitativní znaky (antioxidační aktivita, změna barvy a koncentrace vybraných fytochemikálií) pomerančových šťáv s dužinou a ananasových šťáv, a charakterizovat jejich změny v průběhu dlouhodobého skladování. Získané výsledky byly zpracovány metodami multivariační statistické analýzy s cílem posoudit vliv původu suroviny, roku produkce a použitých výrobních podmínek na sledované parametry a celkovou kvalitu ovocných džusů. Výsledky jasně prokázaly, že pasterizace ovlivňuje kvalitu výrobku; ačkoli byla použita „šetrná“ pasterizace, byl u těchto vzorků pozorován mírný pokles prakticky všech monitorovaných parametrů v porovnání s čerstvými – nepasterizovanými šťávami. Avšak pokud jde o po-pasterizační změny, byl prokázán významný vliv produkční atmosféry na monitorované kvalitativní parametry šťáv, prokazující, že náhrada kyslíku inertními plyny může výrazně prodloužit trvanlivost šťáv. Kinetické studie změn sledovaných parametrů na době skladování ukazují, že ve většině případů dochází k postupnému zhoršování všech monitorovaných parametrů, a to bez ohledu na technologii zpracování šťávy. Ve vzorcích vyrobených použitím modifikované atmosféry bylo, v závislosti na typu inertního plynu, pozorováno zpomalení poklesu jednotlivých kvalitativních parametrů šťáv jako výsledek aplikace inertní atmosféry. Tento trend byl zřejmý především pro delší skladovací období, zatímco na začátku skladování (6 - 7 týdnů po výrobě dané šťávy) byly pozorované trendy nejednoznačné. Lze proto předpokládat že tento „ochranný“ efekt inertní atmosféry je ovlivňován fyzikálně-chemickými vlastnostmi jednotlivých plynů, zejména jejich rozpustností v kapalném médiu. Výsledky také prokázaly že vlastnosti šťáv jsou ,bez ohledu na druh ovoce, výrazně ovlivňovány také sezónními vlivy a původem surové šťávy. Z výsledků statistické analýzy vyplývá, že rok výroby je silným diskriminačním faktorem. Na základě všech monitorovaných charakteristik, bylo dosaženo absolutní diskriminace vzorků pomocí kanonické diskriminační analýzy. Pokud jde o původ surovin, byla dosažena pouze částečná diferenciace, i když s poměrně vysokým klasifikačním skóre. Pokud jde o technologii výroby, byla dosažena pouze částečná diferenciace vzorků podle typu použitého inertního plynu. Získané poznatky pomohou výrobcům ovocných šťáv s optimalizací výrobních podmínek s cílem získat výrobek s maximem prospěšných vlastností, které by si udržel po celou dobu expirace, jejíž délka může být také optimalizovány na základě prezentovaných výsledků.Fruit juices belong to the most popular drinks worldwide. Besides vitamins and minerals they represent rich source of phenolic compounds recognized for their antioxidant activity. Increasing consumer’s demands towards high quality and safe food products push their producers to increase the production and qualitative standards of the products. Recent innovations in juices production resulted in modification of production conditions, comprising the modification of composition (e.g., addition of fruit pulp and/or small fruit pieces) innovations in packaging materials and the production atmosphere modification. In the diploma thesis, the effects of production conditions of fresh orange juices with pulp and pineapple juices and their modification, as well as the effect of conditions of their long-term storage on selected qualitative characteristics (antioxidant activity, color changes and concentration of selected phytochemicals) are assessed and evaluated dominantly by EPR and UV-VIS spectroscopy. Results obtained were processed by multivariate statistics in order to evaluate the effects of sample origin and season or production technology on the monitored characteristics and overall quality of fruit juices. Results obtained indicated that pasteurization influence the quality of the product, although the slight pasteurization was applied, as in comparison to the fresh – non-pasteurized samples, slight decrease of values of the monitored parameters was observed. However, as regards the post-pasteurization changes, significant influence of the production atmosphere on the monitored qualitative parameters of juices was noticed, proving that replacement of oxygen by inert gases prolongs significantly the juices shelf live. Kinetic study of the changes of the monitored parameters upon the storage period indicate that in majority of cases, gradual worsening of all the monitored parameters was observed, without respect on technology of juice processing. In the samples processed under the modified atmosphere, generally the retardation of the decrease as a result of inert atmosphere application in dependence on type of production gas was noticed. This trend was particularly obvious for longer storage periods, whereas in the beginning of storage (6 - 7 weeks after production), the observed trends were unambiguous. Thus, it can be supposed that this “protecting” effect of inert atmosphere is influenced by the physico-chemical properties of gases, mostly by their solubility in the liquid juice medium. It was also proved, that the properties of juices, are significantly affected by the effects of season and raw juice origin. As follows from the results of statistical analysis, the year of production is strong discriminant factor as on the basis of all the monitored characteristics, absolute discrimination of the samples by canonical discrimination analysis was achieved. As regards raw material origin, only partial differentiation, although with high classification score was obtained. As regards the effect of production technology, the partially successful differentiation of samples according to the inert gas applied was obtained. The obtained results will help the juice producer in optimization of the juice production conditions in order to obtain the product with maximum beneficial properties kept during the whole expiration period. Its length can also be optimized on the basis of the presented results.

Kinetic of lactic acid formation in kefir

Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá kinetikou tvorby kyseliny mléčné a spotřebě laktózy při fermentaci kefíru, z jednoho druhu mléka za stejných podmínek. Teoretická část obsahuje informace na téma kefíru a kefírových zrn, laktózové intolerance, antimikrobiálních vlastnostech a vysokoúčinné kapalinové chromatografie. V experimentální části jsou popsány metody/postupy práce použité pro samotnou výrobu kefíru, stanovení kyseliny mléčné a laktózy. Vzorky kefíru byly v přesně daných časových intervalech testovány na množství laktózy, kyseliny mléčné a množství laktobacilů. Data byla graficky vyhodnocena a okomentována. Výsledky této práce mohou posloužit spotřebitelům s poruchou trávení laktózy a také spotřebitelům hledajících zdroj laktobacilů vhodných pro vylepšení střevní mikroflóry bez použití komerčně dostupných suplementů.This bachelor thesis deals with the kinetic production of lactic acid and consumption of lactose in the kefir fermentation from one type of milk under the same conditions. The theoretical part contains information on kefir and kefir grains, lactose intolerance, antimicrobial properties and high-performance liquid chromatography. The experimental part describes the methods and procedures used in the manufacture of kefir itself, the determination of lactic acid and lactose. Kefir samples were tested at precise time intervals for lactose, lactic acid and lactobacilli. The data was graphically evaluated and commented. The results of this work may be beneficial for consumers with lactose maldigestion and for consumers searching for qualite source of lactobacilli for enhancing their gut microflora.

A Web Service for Video Summarization

This paper presents a Web service that supports the automatic generation of video summaries for user-submitted videos. The developed Web application decomposes the video into segments, evaluates the fitness of each segment to be included in the video summary and selects appropriate segments until a pre-defined time budget is filled. The integrated deep-learning-based video analysis and summarization technologies exhibit state-of-the-art performance and, by exploiting the processing capabilities of modern GPUs, offer faster than real-time processing. Configurations for generating video summaries that fulfill the specifications for posting on the most common video sharing platforms and social networks are available in the user interface of this application, enabling the one-click generation of distribution-channel-specific summaries

Study of yogurt composition in process of its preparation

Tato diplomová práce se zabývá studiem přípravy jogurtu a změn doprovázejících jeho skladování. Teoretická část obsahuje informace o parametrech ovlivňujících jak přípravu, tak vlastnosti výsledného produktu. V experimentální části jsou popsány metody a postupy využité pro stanovení kritických parametrů jakými jsou koncentrace kyseliny mléčné, laktózy, glukózy a galaktózy (HPLC–RI), množství streptokoků a laktobacilů. Data byla graficky vyhodnocena a okomentována. Součástí práce byla i senzorická analýza, při které byl připravený jogurt porovnáván s komerčně dostupnými výrobky. Výsledky této práce mohou posloužit jak spotřebitelům, tak menším provozům vyrábějících jogurt.This thesis deals with the study of yogurt preparation and changes during its storage. The theoretical part contains information about parameters affecting both the preparation and properties of the final product. The experimental part describes methods and procedures used for determination of critical parameters such as lactic acid, lactose, glucose and galactose concentrations (HPLC-RI), amounts of streptococci and lactobacilli. The data was graphically evaluated and commented on. The work also included sensory analysis in which the prepared yogurt was compared with commercially available products. The results of this work can serve both consumers and smaller yogurt producers.

AMNet: Memorability Estimation with Attention

In this paper we present the design and evaluation of an end-to-end trainable, deep neural network with a visual attention mechanism for memorability estimation in still images. We analyze the suitability of transfer learning of deep models from image classification to the memorability task. Further on we study the impact of the attention mechanism on the memorability estimation and evaluate our network on the SUN Memorability and the LaMem datasets. Our network outperforms the existing state of the art models on both datasets in terms of the Spearman's rank correlation as well as the mean squared error, closely matching human consistency

Unsupervised Video Summarization via Attention-Driven Adversarial Learning

This paper presents a new video summarization approach that integrates an attention mechanism to identify the signi cant parts of the video, and is trained unsupervisingly via generative adversarial learning. Starting from the SUM-GAN model, we rst develop an improved version of it (called SUM-GAN-sl) that has a signi cantly reduced number of learned parameters, performs incremental training of the model's components, and applies a stepwise label-based strategy for updating the adversarial part. Subsequently, we introduce an attention mechanism to SUM-GAN-sl in two ways: i) by integrating an attention layer within the variational auto-encoder (VAE) of the architecture (SUM-GAN-VAAE), and ii) by replacing the VAE with a deterministic attention auto-encoder (SUM-GAN-AAE). Experimental evaluation on two datasets (SumMe and TVSum) documents the contribution of the attention auto-encoder to faster and more stable training of the model, resulting in a signi cant performance improvement with respect to the original model and demonstrating the competitiveness of the proposed SUM-GAN-AAE against the state of the art

A Comparison of Embedded Deep Learning Methods for Person Detection

Recent advancements in parallel computing, GPU technology and deep learning provide a new platform for complex image processing tasks such as person detection to flourish. Person detection is fundamental preliminary operation for several high level computer vision tasks. One industry that can significantly benefit from person detection is retail. In recent years, various studies attempt to find an optimal solution for person detection using neural networks and deep learning. This study conducts a comparison among the state of the art deep learning base object detector with the focus on person detection performance in indoor environments. Performance of various implementations of YOLO, SSD, RCNN, R-FCN and SqueezeDet have been assessed using our in-house proprietary dataset which consists of over 10 thousands indoor images captured form shopping malls, retails and stores. Experimental results indicate that, Tiny YOLO-416 and SSD (VGG-300) are the fastest and Faster-RCNN (Inception ResNet-v2) and R-FCN (ResNet-101) are the most accurate detectors investigated in this study. Further analysis shows that YOLO v3-416 delivers relatively accurate result in a reasonable amount of time, which makes it an ideal model for person detection in embedded platforms

Ethnic disparities in progression rates for sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy in diabetic eye screening: a population-based retrospective cohort study

INTRODUCTION: The English Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (DESP) offers people living with diabetes (PLD) annual eye screening. We examined incidence and determinants of sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy (STDR) in a sociodemographically diverse multi-ethnic population. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: North East London DESP cohort data (January 2012 to December 2021) with 137 591 PLD with no retinopathy, or non-STDR at baseline in one/both eyes, were used to calculate STDR incidence rates by sociodemographic factors, diabetes type, and duration. HR from Cox models examined associations with STDR. RESULTS: There were 16 388 incident STDR cases over a median of 5.4 years (IQR 2.8-8.2; STDR rate 2.214, 95% CI 2.214 to 2.215 per 100 person-years). People with no retinopathy at baseline had a lower risk of sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy (STDR) compared with those with non-STDR in one eye (HR 3.03, 95% CI 2.91 to 3.15, p<0.001) and both eyes (HR 7.88, 95% CI 7.59 to 8.18, p<0.001). Black and South Asian individuals had higher STDR hazards than white individuals (HR 1.57, 95% CI 1.50 to 1.64 and HR 1.36, 95% CI 1.31 to 1.42, respectively). Additionally, every 5-year increase in age at inclusion was associated with an 8% reduction in STDR hazards (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Ethnic disparities exist in a health system limited by capacity rather than patient economic circumstances. Diabetic retinopathy at first screen is a strong determinant of STDR development. By using basic demographic characteristics, screening programmes or clinical practices can stratify risk for sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy development

Two-year recall for people with no diabetic retinopathy: A multi-ethnic population-based retrospective cohort study using real-world data to quantify the effect

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The English Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (DESP) offers people living with diabetes (PLD) annual screening. Less frequent screening has been advocated among PLD without diabetic retinopathy (DR), but evidence for each ethnic group is limited. We examined the potential effect of biennial versus annual screening on the detection of sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy (STDR) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) among PLD without DR from a large urban multi-ethnic English DESP. METHODS: PLD in North-East London DESP (January 2012 to December 2021) with no DR on two prior consecutive screening visits with up to 8 years of follow-up were examined. Annual STDR and PDR incidence rates, overall and by ethnicity, were quantified. Delays in identification of STDR and PDR events had 2-year screening intervals been used were determined. FINDINGS: Among 82 782 PLD (37% white, 36% South Asian, and 16% black people), there were 1788 incident STDR cases over mean (SD) 4.3 (2.4) years (STDR rate 0.51, 95% CI 0.47 to 0.55 per 100-person-years). STDR incidence rates per 100-person-years by ethnicity were 0.55 (95% CI 0.48 to 0.62) for South Asian, 0.34 (95% CI 0.29 to 0.40) for white, and 0.77 (95% CI 0.65 to 0.90) for black people. Biennial screening would have delayed diagnosis by 1 year for 56.3% (1007/1788) with STDR and 43.6% (45/103) with PDR. Standardised cumulative rates of delayed STDR per 100 000 persons for each ethnic group were 1904 (95% CI 1683 to 2154) for black people, 1276 (95% CI 1153 to 1412) for South Asian people, and 844 (95% CI 745 to 955) for white people. INTERPRETATION: Biennial screening would have delayed detection of some STDR and PDR by 1 year, especially among those of black ethnic origin, leading to healthcare inequalities