Undeclared animal species in dry and wet novel and hydrolyzed protein diets for dogs and cats detected by microarray analysis

Abstract Background Although the European Pet Food Industry Federation (FEDIAF) stated that labels must be accurate and provide detailed information on the ingredients, mislabeling of pet food has been documented by several authors. This phenomenon is of particular concern when related to products used as elimination diets for the diagnosis of adverse food reaction (AFR) in dogs and cats because the presence of undeclared ingredients may negatively interfere with the trial and prevent the veterinarian from making an appropriate diagnosis. The aim of this study was to shed light upon the problem of contamination and mislabeling in both dry and wet novel protein diets (NPDs) and hydrolyzed protein diets (HPDs) using a microarray-based commercial kit which tests for the presence of 19 animal species. Results Of the 40 analyzed products (9 dry NPDs, 22 wet NPDs, 6 dry HPDs and 3 wet HPDs), ten presented a content that correctly matched the label, while five did not contain the declared animal species, twenty-three revealed the presence of undeclared animal species, and two had a vague label that did not allow the evaluation of its accuracy. The most frequently contaminants identified in both dry and wet pet foods were pork, chicken and turkey. The presence of undeclared animal species was higher in dry than wet pet foods; furthermore, a lower number of contaminating animal species was identified in HPDs than NPDs (4 vs 10), and a lower number of contaminated HPDs (6 out of 9, 67%) than contaminated NPDs was detected (24 out of 31, 77%). Thirteen out of 14 brands tested presented at least one mislabeled product. Conclusions Mislabeling seems to be a widespread issue in pet foods used as elimination diets. Contamination can occur in all types of products used for the purpose, although dry NPDs are the main issue. Due to the high risk of contamination, particular attention should be given to both the selection of raw material suppliers and the production process

Deep Architectures on Drifting Concepts: A Simple Approach

Many real-world problems may vary over time. These non stationary problems have been widely studied in the literature, often called drifting concepts problems. Recently, deep architectures have drawn a growing attention, given that they can easily model functions that are hard to approximate with shallow ones and an effective way of training them have been discovered. In this work we adapt a deep architecture to problems that present concept drift. To this end we show a way of combining them with a widely known drifting concept technique, the Streaming Ensemble Algorithm. We evaluate the new method using appropriate drifting problems and compare its performance with a more traditional approach. The results obtained are promising and show that the proposed variation is effective at combining the expressive power of a deep architecture with the adaptability of SEA.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Deep Architectures on Drifting Concepts: A Simple Approach

Many real-world problems may vary over time. These non stationary problems have been widely studied in the literature, often called drifting concepts problems. Recently, deep architectures have drawn a growing attention, given that they can easily model functions that are hard to approximate with shallow ones and an effective way of training them have been discovered. In this work we adapt a deep architecture to problems that present concept drift. To this end we show a way of combining them with a widely known drifting concept technique, the Streaming Ensemble Algorithm. We evaluate the new method using appropriate drifting problems and compare its performance with a more traditional approach. The results obtained are promising and show that the proposed variation is effective at combining the expressive power of a deep architecture with the adaptability of SEA.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Frequency Estimation in OFDM Direct-Conversion Receivers Using a Repeated Preamble

This paper investigates the problem of carrier frequency offset (CFO) recovery in an OFDM receiver affected by frequency-selective in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) imbalances. The analysis is based on maximum-likelihood (ML) methods and relies on the transmission of a training preamble with a repetitive structure in the time domain. After assessing the accuracy of the conventional ML (CML) scheme in a scenario characterized by I/Q impairments, we review the joint ML (JML) estimator of all unknown parameters and evaluate its theoretical performance. In order to improve the estimation accuracy, we also present a novel CFO recovery method that exploits some side-information about the signal-to-interference ratio. It turns out that both CML and JML can be derived from this scheme by properly adjusting the value of a design parameter. The accuracy of the investigated methods are compared with the relevant Cramer-Rao bound. Our results can be used to check whether conventional CFO recovery algorithms can work properly or not in the presence of I/Q imbalances and also to evaluate the potential gain attainable by more sophisticated schemes

Práticas sexuais em geolocalização entre homens : corpos, prazeres, tecnologias

As mídias locativas, com os operadores de geolocalização, e os espaços na web de homosocialização são problematizados no sentido de promover certo distanciamento das armadilhas normalizadoras e patologizantes. Estes desdobram-se em em prazeres protéticos a partir das experimentações dos corpos em sua multiplicidade acoplados a tecnologias que provocam as (des)territorializações. Questiona-se como a Psicologia pode pensar conceitos/dispositivos diante dos novos sexos/gêneros/prazeres nas redes sociais digitais e algumas armadilhas normativas que se colocam à intervenção nestes espaços.Locative media, geolocation applications, as well as homosocialization web spaces are problematized so as to promote some separation from the traps of normalization and pathologization. These unfold themselves into prosthetic pleasures that take their place in the experiencing of bodies and of their multiplicity linked to technologies of (de)territorialization. We question how Psychology can think of concepts/devices towards the new sexes/genders/pleasures of digital social networks and towards the normative traps that pose themselves at the interactions of these spaces