ESTIMATION OF FURAN LEVELS IN SOME CANNED FOODS IN EGYPT AND HOW TO REDUCE IT

Furan is naturally occurring compound found at low levels in many foods. Furan has been formed in a wide range of thermally treated foods especially heated foods sealed in cans and jars. The primary source of furan in food is thermal degradation and rearrangement of organic compounds. Furan is a five-membered ring which can induce tumors and liver toxicity in experimental animals and is classified as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’ by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. In this study furan levels in several kinds of canned and jarred foods from Egyptian markets have been estimated. Also, several heat treatments have been applied for some food samples aiming to reduce furan content in these samples. Noticed levels of furan have been shown in tested samples. Coffee samples had higher content of furan in comparison to other products. After thermal treatments the obtained results show that, furan content reduced to about 38-50% of the original content for 50o C at 5 min and the loss percent raised to about 55-71% at 20 min. At 60o C, furan content reduced to about 47-56% of the original content at 5 min and the loss percent raised to about 62-78% at 20 min. And at 70o C, furan content reduced to about 53-59% at 5 min and the loss percent raised to about 70-89% at 20 min

Do financial distress and liquidity crises affect value and size premiums?

This study investigates the impact of liquidity crises on the relationship between stock (value and size) premiums and default risk in the US market. It first examines whether financial distress can explain value and size premiums, and then, subsequently, aims to determine whether liquidity crises increase the risk of value and size premium investment strategies. The study employs a time-varying approach and a sample of US stock returns for the period between January 1982 and March 2011, a period which includes the current liquidity crisis, so as to examine the relationship between default risk, liquidity crises and value and size premiums. The findings indicate that the default premium has explanatory power for value and size and premiums, which affect firms with different characteristics. We also find that liquidity crises may actually increase the risks related to size and value premium strategies

Search for the production of dark fermion candidates in association with heavy neutral gauge boson decaying to dimuon in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s} = 8 TeV using the CMS open data

This analysis shows a search for dark fermion particles produced in association with a heavy neutral gauge boson (Z$^{\prime}$). The studied events topology are dimuon and a large missing transverse momentum. %We considered the muonic decay of Z$^{\prime}$. The analyzed data were the Open Data collected by the CMS detector in proton-proton collisions at the LHC in 2012 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 11.6 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s} =$ 8 TeV. One benchmark scenario the light vector was used for interpreting the data, based on a simplified model so called the mono-Z$^{\prime}$ model. No evidence of dark fermion candidates was found, 95$\%$ confidence level limits have been set on both Z$^{\prime}$ and dark fermion masses.Comment: 10 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2103.04326, arXiv:2109.1127

Verifying transactional requirements of web service compositions using temporal logic templates

Lecture notes in computer science, 2013, vol. 8180 LNCS (Part 1)Ensuring reliability in Web service compositions is of crucial interest as services are composed and executed in long-running, distributed mediums that cannot guarantee reliable communications. Towards this, transactional behavior has been proposed to handle and undo the effects of faults of individual components. Despite significant research interest, challenges remain in providing an easy-to-use, formal approach to verify transactional behavior of Web service compositions before costly development. In this paper, we propose the use of temporal logic templates to specify component-level and composition-level transactional requirements over a Web service composition. These templates are specified using a simple format, configured according to scope and cardinality, and automatically translated into temporal logic. To verify design conformance to a set of implemented templates, we employ model checking. We propose an algorithm to address state space explosion by reducing the models into semantically equivalent Kripke structures. Our approach facilitates the implementation of expressive transactional behavior onto existing complex services, as demonstrated in our experimental study.Scott Bourne, Claudia Szabo, and Quan Z. Shen

Credit risk in Islamic microfinance institutions: The role of women, groups, and rural borrowers

Using international data, we find that Islamic MFIs experience reduced credit risk by offering more groups loans, serving more women, and serving more borrowers in rural locations. Conventional MFIs benefit from fewer group loans, less loans to rural borrowers, and a greater focus on female borrowers. Our results contribute to microfinance and financial inclusion literature by highlighting the potential of tapping into the social dynamics within Muslim communities. We present encouraging insights for Islamic MFIs donors and managers on the possibility of promoting the financial inclusion of women and rural borrowers without compromising the quality of the credit portfolio

Homocysteine, folic acid and vitamin B12 levels in serum of epileptic children

AbstractThe relationship between increased homocysteine (Hcy) level and epileptic seizure remains controversial in human, despite a growing evidence of the pro-convulsive effect of the hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) observed in the animal studies. The mechanism of this association with epileptogenesis has not been clearly understood, although there is emerging evidence to support the unfavorable effects of some anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) on the plasma homocysteine (Hcy) concentrations. The aim of this study was to uncover the relationship between the levels of homocysteine (Hcy), the cofactors involved in its metabolism as folic acid and vitamin B12 and anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) in epileptic patients. Serum level of homocysteine (Hcy), folic acid and vitamin B12 was measured in 60 patients with idiopathic epilepsy; and its level was compared to 30 healthy children serving as control group. No significant difference was found regarding the plasma homocysteine (Hcy) levels between patients (both receiving anti-epileptics and non anti-epileptic drug users) and controls. Epileptic patients on polytherapy showed higher mean serum levels of homocysteine (Hcy) and lower mean serum levels of folic acid compared to those on monotherapy. However, the mean serum levels of homocysteine (Hcy), vitamin B12 and folic acid showed non significant differences between patients using valproic acid (VPA) or carbamazepine (CBZ). Duration of AED therapy showed a significant positive correlation with mean serum levels of homocysteine (Hcy) and a significant negative correlation with mean serum levels of folic acid. To conclude; AEDs upset the homeostatic balance of homocysteine (Hcy) and its cofactors and cause abnormalities in their serum levels

The Need for Compliance Verification in Collaborative Business Processes

Compliance constrains processes to adhere to rules, standards, laws and regulations. Non-compliance subjects enterprises to litigation and financial fines. Collaborative business processes cross organizational and regional borders implying that internal and cross regional regulations must be complied with. To protect customs’ data, European enterprises must comply with the EU data privacy regulation (general data protection regulation - GDPR) and each member state’s data protection laws. An example of non-compliance with GDPR is Facebook, it is accused for breaching subscriber trust. Compliance verification is thus essential to deploy and implement collaborative business process systems. It ensures that processes are checked for conformance to compliance requirements throughout their life cycle. In this paper we take a proactive approach aiming to discuss the need for design time preventative compliance verification as opposed to after effect runtime detective approach. We use a real-world case to show how compliance needs to be analyzed and show the benefits of applying compliance check at the process design stag

The Need for Compliance Verification in Collaborative Business Processes

Compliance constrains processes to adhere to rules, standards, laws and regulations. Non-compliance subjects enterprises to litigation and financial fines. Collaborative business processes cross organizational and regional borders implying that internal and cross regional regulations must be complied with. To protect customs’ data, European enterprises must comply with the EU data privacy regulation (general data protection regulation - GDPR) and each member state’s data protection laws. An example of non-compliance with GDPR is Facebook, it is accused for breaching subscriber trust. Compliance verification is thus essential to deploy and implement collaborative business process systems. It ensures that processes are checked for conformance to compliance requirements throughout their life cycle. In this paper we take a proactive approach aiming to discuss the need for design time preventative compliance verification as opposed to after effect runtime detective approach. We use a real-world case to show how compliance needs to be analyzed and show the benefits of applying compliance check at the process design stag

Greenhushing: the deliberate under communicating of sustainability practices by tourism businesses

Greenhushing selectively communicates fewer pro-sustainability actions by businesses than are practiced; based on a perception of customers’ rights to consumerism. We first studied the gap between the communication of sustainability practices in the audits and websites of 31 small rural tourism businesses in the Peak District National Park (UK). The analysis showed that businesses only communicate 30% of all the sustainability actions practiced. Their websites emphasised customer benefits, using explicit, affective, experiential and active language that legitimises the customers’ hedonistic use of the landscape, while downplaying complex issues and normalising sustainability to reduce customer guilt. Just one website mentioned climate change. We found that greenhushing results from a low moral intensity, masking potentially negative consequences of perceived lower competence, whilst protecting business from more cynical consumers who may interpret their statements as hypocritical. Subsequent textual analysis and interviews were used to understand how communication constitutes these organisations. We propose that greenhushing reshapes and constitutes tourism businesses through their communications. Moreover, greenhushing is a form of public moralisation that adopts communication practices similar to greenwashing, reflecting the social norms expected from a business; however, in this case, located in a moral muteness, rather than moral hypocrisy, that businesses accept but resent