Partial drying of apple fruits to improve freeze/thaw quality during long term frozen storage

[EN] Apple samples were submitted to partially drying prior to freezing. Then, quality assessments were achieved in order to evaluate the quality of these various frozen samples during frozen-storage. Significant positive effects of water content were observed on thaw exudate water and total color difference of dehydrofrozen/thawed apples. Total polyphenol content and total flavonoid content losses were important for samples without any dehydration pretreatment. They noticeably decreased when water content decreased during the whole period of storage. Thus, a partial removal of water prior to freezing is a relevant way to maintain the stability of fruit quality during long-term frozen-storage.Ben Haj Said, L.; Bellaga, S.; Allaf, K. (2018). Partial drying of apple fruits to improve freeze/thaw quality during long term frozen storage. En IDS 2018. 21st International Drying Symposium Proceedings. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1195-1202. https://doi.org/10.4995/IDS2018.2018.8372OCS1195120

Impacts of air drying and DIC pretreatments on textural properties of frozen/thawed apple fruits

[EN] This research work is about dehydrofreezing assisted by DIC treatment as an innovative conservation process of apple fruits. Samples previously dehydrated and DIC treated were frozen at -30 °C and at two different practical freezing rates. The effects of sample water content (W) and practical freezing rate (PFR) on freezing characteristics and apple texture were examined. Thaw exudate water (TEW) of 200% and 100% db samples was approximately 3 g/100 g water. Whereas, it was lower than 0.5 g/100 g water for samples with 30% db W during thawing at 4 °C. Moreover, the impact of PFR on TEW was significant and very important only for high W samples. For samples whose water content was lower than 100% db, firmness was as higher as the W was lower, without any significant impact of PFR.Ben Haj Said, L.; Bellaga, S.; Allaf, K. (2018). Impacts of air drying and DIC pretreatments on textural properties of frozen/thawed apple fruits. En IDS 2018. 21st International Drying Symposium Proceedings. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1187-1194. https://doi.org/10.4995/IDS2018.2018.8371OCS1187119

Comparative Study of the Impacts of Conventional Freezing and Dehydrofreezing on Apple Fruit Quality During Storage

The present study deals with the impact of storage time on the quality of dehydrofrozen versus conventionally frozen apple. Samples were submitted to freezing as fresh fruit or following the first stage of air drying. The quality was evaluated along a freezing storage period of 18 months under –18 °C. Thaw exudate water (TEW), total colour difference (TCD), and total polyphenol content (TPC) of dehydrofrozen/thawed samples were assessed regarding the water content (W) versus the frozen storage time (FST) (0–18 months). Dehydrofreezing exhibited significant effects on TEW and TCD of dehydrofrozen/thawed apples. Indeed, the lower the W, the lower the TEW content and TCD of partially dried frozen/thawed samples. TPC losses were significant for samples without any pre-dehydration stage and decreased when initial water content decreased. The 18-month frozen storage at –18 °C had the most insignificant effects on all quality response variables for the previously most dried samples. Thus, adequate drying of fruit before freezing is a relevant way to maintain the stability of fruit quality during long-term storage

Abces amibien cerebral: a propos de trois cas avec revue de la litterature

Introduction L’abcès amibien cérébral est une infection rare mais mortelle. Depuis son identification en 1965, peu de cas ont été observés dans le monde entier.Matériel et méthode Les objectifs de cette étude étaient de caractériser les aspects cliniques, radiologiques, histologique, pronostic ainsi que thérapeutique de cette pathologie avec une revue de la littérature. Nous rapportons trois cas d’abcès amibien cérébral qui ont été admis dans notre service entre 2010 et 2013.Résultats Il s’agit de deux hommes et une femme, âgés respectivement de 33, 43 et 56 ans qui ont été opérés. Le diagnostic a été confirmé par les examens histologique et sérologique. Nous n’avons observé aucune mortalité.Conclusion Il s’agit d’une atteinte sporadique mais représente un problème de santé publique et dont le pronostic est habituellement sombre.Mots clés : amibiase; abcès cérébral; IRM ; TDM; examen histologiqu

First impressions and perceived roles: Palestinian perceptions on foreign aid

This paper summarizes some results of a wider research on foreign aid that was conducted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2010. It seeks to describe the impressions and feelings of Palestinian aid beneficiaries as well as the roles and functions they attached to foreign aid. To capture and measure local perceptions on Western assistance a series of individual in depth interviews and few focus group interviews were conducted in the Palestinian territories. The interview transcripts were processed by content analysis. As research results show — from the perspective of aid beneficiaries — foreign aid is more related to human dignity than to any economic development. All this implies that frustration with the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict inevitably embraces the donor policies and practices too

‘They Called Them Communists Then … What D'You Call ‘Em Now? … Insurgents?’. Narratives of British Military Expatriates in the Context of the New Imperialism

This paper addresses the question of the extent to which the colonial past provides material for contemporary actors' understanding of difference. The research from which the paper is drawn involved interview and ethnographic work in three largely white working-class estates in an English provincial city. For this paper we focus on ten life-history interviews with older participants who had spent some time abroad in the British military. Our analysis adopts a postcolonial framework because research participants' current constructions of an amorphous 'Other' (labelled variously as black people, immigrants, foreigners, asylum-seekers or Muslims) reveal strong continuities with discourses deployed by the same individuals to narrate their past experiences of living and working as either military expatriates or spouses during British colonial rule. Theoretically, the paper engages with the work of Frantz Fanon and Edward Said. In keeping with a postcolonial approach, we work against essentialised notions of identity based on 'race' or class. Although we establish continuity between white working-class military emigration in the past and contemporary racialised discourses, we argue that the latter are not class-specific, being as much the creations of the middle-class media and political elite

Customer acceptance of humanoid service robots in hotels: moderating effects of service voluntariness and culture

Purpose: The current study proposes a research model integrating TAM3 constructs and human aspects of humanoid service robots (HSRs), measured by the Godspeed questionnaire series (GQS), and tested across two hotel properties in Japan and the US. Design/methodology/approach: Potential participants were approached randomly by e-mail invitation. A final sample size of 395, across two hotels, one in Japan and the other in the US, was obtained and the data were analyzed using structural equation modelling. Findings: The results confirm that perceived usefulness (PU), driven by subjective norms and output quality, and perceived ease of use (PEOU), driven by perceived enjoyment and absence of anxiety, are the immediate direct determinants of users' re-patronage intentions for HSRs. Results also showed that users prefer anthropomorphism, perceived intelligence, and the safety of an HSR for re-using it. Implications: The findings have practical implications for the hospitality industry suggesting multiple attributes of an HSRs that managers need to consider before deploying them in their properties. Originality: The current study proposes an integrated model determining factors that affect the re-patronage of HSRs in hotels

Helminth Fauna in Carnivoran Mammals from Uzbekistan

Helminths, or parasitic worms, are a group of organisms that can infect various animal species, including humans. In Uzbekistan, previous studies on the helminth fauna of mammals have mainly focused on domestic animals and some wildlife species, with little attention given to carnivoran mammals. This survey aims to conduct a comprehensive study for the first time in Uzbekistan on the helminth fauna of Carnivora. In this study, helminths were collected from 1002 carnivorans (Canidae, n = 710; Mustelidae, n = 167; and Felidae, n = 125) from five locations in Uzbekistan (Northeastern, Eastern, Central, Southern and Northwestern). A total of 71 species of helminths were identified in domestic and wild carnivores by necropsy and faecal examination, of which 36, 23, 9, and 3 species belonged to the higher taxon Nematoda, Cestoda, Trematoda and Acanthocephala respectively. The highest number of helminth species was recorded in studied Canidae (51 species), followed by Felidae (40 species) and Mustelidae (35 species). The overall infection rate of carnivorans was 79.8 %. Infection intensity ranged from a single to dozens of specimens. The statistical analysis indicated that the diversity of helminth species is significant among members of Canidae, with foxes having 42 species and dogs having 41 species (P < 0.05). Our study proves that the parasitic worm species that inhabit predatory mammals in Uzbekistan are a diverse and complex group that can cause helminthiases, which may be dangerous to livestock and humans

Synthesis, characterization, structures, and DFT study of zinc(II) complexes with tributylphosphine chalcogenides

The authors are grateful to the Tunisian Ministry of High Education and Scientific Research for financial support (LR99ES14) of this research.Four new zinc(II) complexes of the type [ZnCl2(n-Bu3PE)2] (E = O ( 1 ), S ( 2 ), Se ( 3 ) or Te ( 4 )) have been synthesized from zinc(II) chloride and the ligands n-Bu3PE giving yields of 56-88%. The adducts were characterized by multinuclear (31P, 13C and 77Se) NMR, conductivity, IR spectroscopy and by X-ray analyses. The zinc complexes 1 – 4 are comprised of two ligands coordinated to the metal centre in a distorted tetrahedral arrangement. The P=E bond lengths of 1.497(7) (E = O), 2.000(4) (E = S) and 2.178(2) Å (E = Se) in these complexes are slightly elongated compared to those in the free ligand. In addition, a DFT/B3LYP theoretical study on the geometry optimization of the title ligands and their zinc complexes has been carried out in order to support and complement the experimental data and to further investigate the nature of the chalcogenide-metal interaction. The results show good agreement between the experimental and theoretical data.PostprintPeer reviewe

First Observation of CP Violation in B0->D(*)CP h0 Decays by a Combined Time-Dependent Analysis of BaBar and Belle Data

We report a measurement of the time-dependent CP asymmetry of B0->D(*)CP h0 decays, where the light neutral hadron h0 is a pi0, eta or omega meson, and the neutral D meson is reconstructed in the CP eigenstates K+ K-, K0S pi0 or K0S omega. The measurement is performed combining the final data samples collected at the Y(4S) resonance by the BaBar and Belle experiments at the asymmetric-energy B factories PEP-II at SLAC and KEKB at KEK, respectively. The data samples contain ( 471 +/- 3 ) x 10^6 BB pairs recorded by the BaBar detector and ( 772 +/- 11 ) x 10^6, BB pairs recorded by the Belle detector. We measure the CP asymmetry parameters -eta_f S = +0.66 +/- 0.10 (stat.) +/- 0.06 (syst.) and C = -0.02 +/- 0.07 (stat.) +/- 0.03 (syst.). These results correspond to the first observation of CP violation in B0->D(*)CP h0 decays. The hypothesis of no mixing-induced CP violation is excluded in these decays at the level of 5.4 standard deviations.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter