1,393 research outputs found
Development of Intermediate-Moisture Slices of Papaya (Carica papaya L.) by Hurdle Technology
Papaya fruits are highly perishable, with over 25% post-harvest losses which further rise during storage. To prevent these losses, we attempted to convert papaya slices into intermediate moisture (IM) slices using a novel combination-technology which included a combination of osmotic removal of water by sugar syrup (60°B) containing various preservatives/additives, and, added use of chemicals such as CaCl2, citric acid, sodium metabisulphite or potassium metabisulphite (KMS), to reduce water activity. The osmosed slices were surfacedried and analyzed for physico-chemical characters and sensory attributes. Further, the product was stored upto six months at LT (Low Temperature) (4±1°C) and assessed for composition, stability and sensory attributes. Steam blanching of papaya slices, followed by osmosis in sugar solution of 60°B syrup containing a combination of preservatives, viz., citric acid 0.5%, CaCl2 0.5%, sodium metabisulphite 75ppm and KMS 350ppm, was superior as a treatment in terms of quality and stability of the product. These findings can help reduce postharvest losses in papaya by providing a technology for preparing a ready-to-eat (RTE), nutrient rich intermediate-moisture product with good taste and flavour
A Reflective Analysis of Image Processing Operations on Kato-Katz Images for the Pathological Diagnosis of Neglected Tropical Diseases
This paper gives an insight into the interdisciplinary work that has been carried out to diagnose some of the neglected tropical diseases, in particular micro-parasitic diseases, using image processing operations. The infections from micro-parasites are collectively called Helminthiasis. The Kato-Katz method is a slide scanning technique commonly used for the qualitative and semi-quantitative diagnosis of helminthiasis. This paper explains the image analysis and processing of Kato-katz images to extract meaningful information and convert the qualitative features of the images to quantitative data and thereby effectively diagnose the disease. This is the preliminary stage of a pioneering work done in the field of neglected tropical disease diagnosis and would be beneficial for thousands of people including children in the endemic region
A Hierarchical Recurrent Encoder-Decoder For Generative Context-Aware Query Suggestion
Users may strive to formulate an adequate textual query for their information
need. Search engines assist the users by presenting query suggestions. To
preserve the original search intent, suggestions should be context-aware and
account for the previous queries issued by the user. Achieving context
awareness is challenging due to data sparsity. We present a probabilistic
suggestion model that is able to account for sequences of previous queries of
arbitrary lengths. Our novel hierarchical recurrent encoder-decoder
architecture allows the model to be sensitive to the order of queries in the
context while avoiding data sparsity. Additionally, our model can suggest for
rare, or long-tail, queries. The produced suggestions are synthetic and are
sampled one word at a time, using computationally cheap decoding techniques.
This is in contrast to current synthetic suggestion models relying upon machine
learning pipelines and hand-engineered feature sets. Results show that it
outperforms existing context-aware approaches in a next query prediction
setting. In addition to query suggestion, our model is general enough to be
used in a variety of other applications.Comment: To appear in Conference of Information Knowledge and Management
(CIKM) 201
Simple Analytical Particle and Kinetic Energy Densities for a Dilute Fermionic Gas in a d-Dimensional Harmonic Trap
We derive simple analytical expressions for the particle density
and the kinetic energy density for a system of noninteracting
fermions in a dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator potential. We test
the Thomas-Fermi (TF, or local-density) approximation for the functional
relation using the exact and show that it locally
reproduces the exact kinetic energy density , {\it including the shell
oscillations,} surprisingly well everywhere except near the classical turning
point. For the special case of two dimensions (2D), we obtain the unexpected
analytical result that the integral of yields the {\it
exact} total kinetic energy.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; corrected versio
Geomagnetic storm dependence on the solar flare class
Content. Solar flares are often used as precursors of geomagnetic storms. In
particular, Howard and Tappin (2005) recently published in A&A a dependence
between X-ray class of solar flares and Ap and Dst indexes of geomagnetic
storms which contradicts to early published results.
Aims. We compare published results on flare-storm dependences and discuss
possible sources of the discrepancy.
Methods. We analyze following sources of difference: (1) different intervals
of observations, (2) different statistics and (3) different methods of event
identification and comparison.
Results. Our analysis shows that magnitude of geomagnetic storms is likely to
be independent on X-ray class of solar flares.Comment: 3 pages, 1 tabl
Inhibition of Thrombin Receptor Signaling on alpha-Smooth Muscle Actin(+) CD34(+) Progenitors Leads to Repair After Murine Immune Vascular Injury
OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to use mice expressing human tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) on α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA)(+) cells as recipients of allogeneic aortas to gain insights into the cellular mechanisms of intimal hyperplasia (IH). METHODS AND RESULTS: BALB/c aortas (H-2(d)) transplanted into α-TFPI-transgenic (Tg) mice (H-2(b)) regenerated a quiescent endothelium in contrast to progressive IH seen in C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) mice even though both developed aggressive anti-H-2(d) alloresponses, indicating similar vascular injuries. Adoptively transferred Tg CD34(+) (but not CD34(-)) cells inhibited IH in WT recipients, indicating the phenotype of α-TFPI-Tg mice was due to these cells. Compared with syngeneic controls, endogenous CD34(+) cells were mobilized in significant numbers after allogeneic transplantation, the majority showing sustained expression of tissue factor and protease-activated receptor-1 (PAR-1). In WT, most were CD45(+) myeloid progenitors coexpressing CD31, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 and E-selectin; 10% of these cells coexpressed α-SMA and were recruited to the neointima. In contrast, the α-SMA(+) human TFPI(+) CD34(+) cells recruited in Tg recipients were from a CD45(-) lineage. WT CD34(+) cells incubated with a PAR-1 antagonist or taken from PAR-1-deficient mice inhibited IH as Tg cells did. CONCLUSIONS: Specific inhibition of thrombin generation or PAR-1 signaling on α-SMA(+) CD34(+) cells inhibits IH and promotes regenerative repair despite ongoing immune-mediated damage
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