Standardization of in vitro digestibility and DIAAS method based on the static INFOGEST protocol

Background: The FAO recommends the digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS) as the measure for protein quality, for which the true ileal digestibility needs to be assessed in humans or pigs. However, due to high costs and ethical concerns, the FAO strongly encourages as well the development of validated in vitro methods, which complement the in vivo experiments. Method: Recently, an in vitro workflow, based on the validated static INFOGEST protocol, was developed and compared towards in vivo data. In parallel to the validation with in vivo data, the repeatability and reproducibility of the in vitro protocol were tested in an international ring trial (RT) with the aim to establish an international ISO standard method within the International Dairy Federation (IDF). Five different dairy products (skim milk powder, whole milk powder, whey protein isolate, yoghurt, and cheese) were analyzed in 32 different laboratories from 18 different countries, across 4 continents. Results: in vitro protein digestibilities based on Nitrogen, free R-NH2, and total amino acids as well as DIAAS values were calculated and compared to in vivo data, where available. Conclusion: The in vitro method is suited for quantification of digestibility and will be further implemented to other food matricesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quantifying the Trade and Welfare Effects of EU Aflatoxin Regulations on the Dried Fruit Industry

Increased concerns on food contaminants draw special attention to food safety regulations. These regulations may have direct impact on food trade. The aim of the paper is to assess the impact of regulations concerning aflatoxin maximum residue limits (MRL) on dried fruits trade. The empirical method we adopt combines both gravity and welfare methodologies in a partial equilibrium context. Findings reveal that the EU regulations act as barriers to trade. Results indicate that the tighter the aflatoxin MRL regulations adopted by the export destinations (importing country), the poorer becomes the export performance of the exporting country. In addition, the results of welfare analysis show that tighter standards impose a burden on foreign producers. While producers of EU enjoy larger producer profits, both domestic and international welfare increase as a result of tighter MRL standards. The findings provide further evidence on the fact that the welfare effect of MRLs is positive and significant, although the effect on trade may be negative. In addition, wider regulatory heterogeneity is found to decrease the value of trade among trading nations

Dual Efficiency and Productivity Analysis of Renewable Energy Alternatives of OECD Countries

This paper examines the dual efficiency of bioenergy, renewable hydro energy, solar energy, wind energy, and geothermal energy for selected OECD countries through an integrated model with energy, economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Two questions are explored: Which renewable energy alternative is more dual efficient and productive? Which renewable energy alternative is best for a particular country? Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used for the efficiency evaluation, and the global Malmquist productivity index is applied for productivity analysis. Results indicate bioenergy as the most efficient renewable energy alternative with a 20% increase in average efficiency in 2016 compared to 2012. Renewable hydro energy, wind energy, and solar energy show a 17.5%, 16%, and 11% increase, respectively. The average efficiency growth across all renewable energy alternatives signifies major advancement. Country performance in renewable energy is non-monolithic; therefore, they should customize their renewable energy portfolio accordingly to their strengths to enhance renewable energy efficiency. Renewable hydro appears to have the most positive productivity change in 2016 compared to 2012, while solar energy regressed in productivity due to its scale inefficiency. All renewable energy alternatives have relatively equal average pure efficiency change. The positive trend in efficiency and productivity provides an incentive for policy makers to pursue further development of renewable energy technologies with a focus on improving scale efficiency

A robotic indenter for minimally invasive characterization of soft tissues

We have developed a robotic indenter for minimally invasive measurement of tissue properties during a laparoscopic surgery. Using the indenter, we conducted animal experiments in situ and successfully measured the force versus displacement response of pig liver under static and dynamic loading conditions. Using the small deformation assumption, we estimated the effective Young's modulus of pig liver around 15 kPa from the force-displacement data of static indentations. We also obtained the relaxation function, describing the variation of force response with respect to time, from the data of stress relaxation experiments. We observed that pig liver shows linear viscoelastic behavior. (c) 2005 CARS & Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Content aware delivery of visual attention based scalable multi-view video over P2P

3D media applications have become widespread thanks to the intense research being conducted on 3D enabling technologies, commercial products being released and service providers. There is also a huge potential for IP network to become a major means for delivering 3D video services, being highly flexible and allowing much custom and scalable applications to take up. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) video streaming, which offers high scalability in the presence of many media consuming peers, is suitable for multi-view video applications with significantly higher bandwidth requirements. To exploit flexible streaming and also serve a range of displays, P2P networking should be combined with scalable coded multi-view video that offers a useful bit-rate and maximum viewpoint adaptation range. However, since maintaining users' Quality of Experience (QoE) is a primary target, scalable coded video should ensure that perceptually sensible visual data is delivered with high accuracy at all times to users, even under severe network conditions. Hence, content-based visual attention models provide a suitable means for letting salient video data be delivered at all times to users. With the utilization of appropriate adaptation decision making process in users' equipment, the P2P protocol can adaptively stream the scalable 3D media. Work presented in this paper explains such a delivery framework over P2P networks. © 2012 IEEE