Developing New Software for Functional Food Production

Introduction. Statistical methods of data processing and IT technologies make it possible to introduce new modern methods of hazard and risk analysis in food industry. The research objective was to develop new software that would link together various risk-related production data. Study objects and methods. The research featured food production company LLC Yug (Biysk, Russia) that specializes in functional products and various ready-made software automation solutions. The study also involved statistical methods, methods of observation, collection of primary information, sequential top-down development of algorithms, and the Java programming language. Results and discussion. Food producers have a registration procedure for inconsistencies and violations of permissible limits at critical control points. The authors developed a new software program that allows production line operators to enter data on downtime and other violations of the production process. The program makes it possible for managers to receive up-to-date reports on various criteria, identify violations, and select appropriate corrective actions. This ready-made solution automates the process of accounting and hazard analysis. The program was tested at LLC Yug with the focus on the time that operators and managers needed to register the problem, analyze the data, develop corrective or preventive measures, and apply them. Conclusion. The new software proved to be less time-consuming than standard procedures applied in food industry and made it possible to save the time that operators and managers spent on decision making and reporting.

The relationship between social deprivation and a frailty index of cumulative deficits in French middle-aged caregivers

Background The Institut Pasteur de Lille, in the north of France, has implemented a large, multidisciplinary health check, which aims to identify frailty in middle-aged caregivers. We aimed to construct an adapted frailty index of cumulative deficit (FI-CD) and study the associated factors, in particular socioeconomic factors. Methods The cross-sectional study included caregivers aged 45 to 65. A 34-item FI-CD including deficits adapted to a middle-aged population (related to cognition and autonomy, dietetics, physical activity, comorbidities, functional signs, lab values and paraclinical examinations) was constructed in accordance with standard procedures. It was calculated as a ratio of deficits present out of the total number of possible deficits, giving a continuous score between 0 and 1. Scores > 0.25 and > 0.4 were classified as frailty and severe frailty, respectively. Univariate and multivariate associations were studied using linear regressions. Results One hundred and seventeen caregivers were included; among them, 111 were analyzed due to missing values. The mean FI-CD was 0.22 ± 0.08. Forty (36%) individuals were classified as frailty and three (2.7%) as severe frailty. In multivariate analysis, FI-CD was significantly associated with age (beta [95% confidence interval] = 0.005 [0.002; 0.009] per 1-year increase, p = 0.005) and social deprivation (beta = 0.054 [0.007; 0.102], p = 0.025). A significant interaction was observed between and age and social deprivation (p = 0.036). The adjusted relationship between FI-CD and age was beta = 0.010 [0.002; 0.019], p = 0.017 in precarious caregivers, and beta = 0.003 [− 0.001; 0.007], p = 0.19 in non-precarious caregivers. Conclusions The study suggested that the 34-item FI-CD could have clinical utility in the management of middle-aged caregivers. Social deprivation appeared as an important factor associated with frailty, highlighting the importance of early care and social support for precarious caregivers.

The Strategic Imperative of Quality Assurance

This chapter focuses on the fundamental question: What is the strategic importance of quality assurance (QA) for higher education institutions (HEIs)? Divided into four main segments, the chapter begins by defining QA within the context of a continuum, ranging from entirely voluntarily QA—as a part of the HEI internal standard procedures—to more ‘prescriptive' models, as mandated by ranking and accreditation bodies. Secondly, the chapter engages in identifying specific strategic functions of QA in light of two inherent objectives of HEIs: competitiveness and sustainable impact. Next, the chapter showcases the role of QA played in advancing the American University in Cairo (AUC) School of Business to the renowned triple-crown accreditation status (AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA), while highlighting both challenges encountered and implementable solutions. Last of all, the chapter discusses potential future changes to QA, given the ‘new normal' of the higher education landscape.

Validation of a measurement procedure for the assessment of the safety of buildings in urgent technical rescue operations

This work would like to provide a preliminary contribution to the draft of standard procedures for the adoption of Total Stations by rescuers in emergency situations, so as to offer a reliable and effective support to their assessment activities. In particular, some considerations will be made regarding the effect of the number and positioning of monitoring points on the tilt determination of a building façade, in order to set up simplified procedures, which are quick and easy to implement in emergency situations, at the same time guaranteeing the reliability of the results. Two types of building will be taken into account as test cases, which have different characteristics in terms of height, distance and angle with respect to the Total Station. Some considerations will be made about the aspects to be explored in future work, for the calibration of the method as a whole and the definition of all the steps of a procedure for the evaluation of the safety of a building.

Effects of animal manures on enzymes activities and physico-chemical properties of a degraded humid ultisol

Application of animal manures for soil amendment plays a major role in the improvement of soil properties and enzymatic activities of a degraded Ultisol. This study assessed the effects of poultry manure (PM) and swine manure (SM) on the activities of catalase and urease enzymes and some soil properties. The PM and SM were applied at the rate of 30 t ha–1 each on experimental plots arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Soil samples were collected at day 0, 14, 28, 42, 56, 70 and 84 from 0-15 and 15-30 cm depths and analyzed for catalase and urease enzymes and some soil properties using standard procedures. The results showed increase in soil pH (in H2O) from 4.0 to 5.4 following manure application. At 0-15 cm soil depth, PM and SM recorded 28.1 and 28.8% increases in soil pH (in H2O), respectively. Soil organic carbon was highest (2.6 g kg–1) at 0-15 cm depth for soil amended with SM while the lowest value of 1.1 g kg–1was obtained at 15-30 cm depth for soil unamended with SM. In PM-amended soil, catalase activities ranged from 1.32 to 6.77 mg g–1 while its activities in SM-treated soil significantly (p < 0.05) varied between 1.55 and 8.11 mg g–1. Urease showed ranges of 0.72-3.90 mg g–1 and 0.96-4.71 mg g–1 in PM-amended and SM-treated soils, respectively. The results uphold that animal manures improve soil properties and are enzymatically controlled.

Effect of captive rearing on meat and haemolymph nutritional characteristics of snail (Archachatina marginata swainson)

An experiment was conducted to investigate and compare the impact of treatment, which is the source of snail (wild and captive reared) on the proximate and mineral composition (Na, K, Ca, Mg, P, Fe and Mn) of the meat and haemolymph of African land snails (Archachatina marginata). Ninety (90) adult snails (250.00 + 0.5g) were randomly distributed into two (2) treatments, each of three replicates, (15 snails per replicate), in a Complete Randomized Design. Samples of meat and haemolymph collected using standard procedures were subsequently analyzed for their nutritional qualities, using standard chemical analytical procedures. All data collected were statistically analyzed using ANOVA, while significant variation were separated with Duncan Multiple Range Test of the same package. The proximate composition of the meat revealed higher (P>0.05) DM (26.00%), Ether extract (2.17%) and NFE (3.57%) in SC, while there was a non-significant variation (P<0.05) in most proximate factors for haemolymph, except NFE (4.27%), which was higher (P>0.05) in SW. The mineral profiling of the meat revealed elevated (PP>0.05) levels of Fee (22.30mg/kg) and Mn (4.79mg/kg) of SC, the haemolymph recorded improved levels (P>0.05) for all mineral elements in SC. In conclusion, the captive rearing of snail had improved impact on thenutritional qualities of SC.

Revisiting rustrela virus - new cases of encephalitis and a solution to the capsid enigma

Rustrela virus (RusV, species Rubivirus strelense) is a recently discovered relative of rubella virus (RuV) that has been detected in cases of encephalitis across a wide spectrum of mammals, including placental and marsupial animals. Here we diagnosed two additional cases of fatal RusV-associated meningoencephalitis in a South American coati (Nasua nasua) and a Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) that were detected in a zoological garden with history of prior RusV infections. Both animals showed abnormal movement or unusual behaviour and their brains tested positive for RusV using specific RT-qPCR and RNA in situ hybridization. As previous sequencing of RusV proved to be very challenging, we employed a sophisticated target-specific capture enrichment with specifically designed RNA baits to generate complete RusV genome sequences from both detected encephalitic animals and apparently healthy wild yellow-necked field mice (Apodemus flavicollis). Furthermore, the technique was used to revise three previously published RusV genomes from two encephalitic animals and a wild yellow-necked field mouse. Virus-to-host sequence ratio and thereby sequence coverage improved markedly using the enrichment method as compared to standard procedures. When comparing the newly generated RusV sequences to the previously published RusV genomes, we identified a previously undetected stretch of 309 nucleotides predicted to represent the intergenic region and the sequence encoding the N-terminus of the capsid protein. This indicated that the original RusV sequence was likely incomplete due to misassembly of the genome at a region with an exceptionally high G+C content of >80 mol%, which could not be resolved even by enormous sequencing efforts with standard methods. The updated capsid protein amino acid sequence now resembles those of RuV and ruhugu virus in size and harbours a predicted RNA binding domain that was not encoded in the original RusV genome version. The new sequence data indicate that RusV has the largest overall genome (9,631 nucleotides), intergenic region (290 nucleotides) and capsid protein-encoding sequence (331 codons) within the genus Rubivirus.

Asymptomatic Stroke in the Setting of Percutaneous Non-Coronary Intervention Procedures

Advancements in clinical management, pharmacological therapy and interventional procedures have strongly improved the survival rate for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Nevertheless, the patients affected by CVDs are more often elderly and present several comorbidities such as atrial fibrillation, valvular heart disease, heart failure, and chronic coronary syndrome. Standard treatments are frequently not available for “frail patients”, in particular due to high surgical risk or drug interaction. In the past decades, novel less-invasive procedures such as transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), MitraClip or left atrial appendage occlusion have been proposed to treat CVD patients who are not candidates for standard procedures. These procedures have been confirmed to be effective and safe compared to conventional surgery, and symptomatic thromboembolic stroke represents a rare complication. However, while the peri-procedural risk of symptomatic stroke is low, several studies highlight the presence of a high number of silent ischemic brain lesions occurring mainly in areas with a low clinical impact. The silent brain damage could cause neuropsychological deficits or worse, a preexisting dementia, suggesting the need to systematically evaluate the impact of these procedures on neurological function.

Zooplankton Diversity Indices for the Assessment of Perennial Freshwater Body in Bishnupur, Bankura, West Bengal

The status of health of any aquatic ecosystem is largely dependent on the diversity and density of zooplankton inhabiting the water body. Zooplankton are considered to be the most vital primary consumer in any aquatic ecosystem. At the same time, they also influence to a greater extent in determining the total productivity of an aquatic body. The present study is an attempt to estimate the diversity of zooplankton and to find out the richness, evenness, of the freshwater perennial aquatic body, Lalbundh of Bishnupur, Bankura.The study was carried out during December 2018 to November 2019. The whole period of study was divided into four major seasons viz winter (December2018 to February2018), Summer (March2019to May 2019), Monsoon (June 2019 to August 2019) and post monsoon (September 2019 to November 2019). Collection of the zooplankton samples and their quantitative analysis was done following the standard procedures. During the whole period of study 18 different species of zooplankton have been identified from the study area. Out of them 7 species belong to the Rotifera group, 6 species belong to Cladocera group, 3 species of Copepoda group and 2 species of Ostracoda group. Rotifera group comprise the dominant of all the groups constituting 39% of the total zooplankton species, followed by Cladocera (33%), Copepoda(18%) and Ostracoda (11%). The range of Shannon diversity index value of zooplankton varies from 2.76 to 2.88. The species richness value varies from 2.45 (winter) to 2.56 (monsoon). Evenness value varies from 0.95 in summer to0.98in monsoon. Zooplankton diversity indices values of Lalbundh give a clear indication of light condition of pollution level of the water body. The main reason behind the pollution of this perennial water body may be the floating dead and decomposed macrophytes in it. They should be removed as far as possible at regular intervals so that the pollution level can be reduced and the water body can be more efficiently used for pisciculture practices.

Formulation and Quality Evaluation of Foxtail Millet and Semolina Incorporated Ready-To-Cook Upma Mix

Traditional cuisine has risen to the top of the consumer’s list of preferences. Many traditional cereal-based dishes have been processed, and instant mixes such as instant upma, idli, and dosa have been made. Comfort foods are foods that require little or no processing or cooking before consumption, making them more convenient for the user. Ready to Cook (RTC) and instant foods have grown highly popular as a result of increased urbanization and industrialization, owing to today’s lifestyle and the need for quick-to-serve cuisine.The study’s goal is to develop an RTC upma mix and evaluate its physicochemical, texture, sensory, and in vitro glycemic index. The millet was collected and pre-processing was done to develop the ready-to-cook mixes. The levels of millet incorporation ratio were 60% (V1), 70% (V2), and 80% (V3) levels. Standard procedures were used to determine the physicochemical, textural, sensory, and in vitro glycemic index. The nutritional composition of V3 was found to be high, with moisture, carbohydrate, protein, fat, fibre, soluble fibre, and insoluble fibre content of 6.4 percent, 73.6g, 8.5g, 6.2g, 6.6g, 2.4g, and 0.56g, respectively.The textural profile showed a significant difference (p<0.05) between variations in comparison with the standard. Results on sensory evaluation showed that 70% foxtail millet upma mix shows high acceptable than other. The mean in vitro glycemic index of the control upma mix was 68.7 ± 0.12, while the mean estimated glycemic index value of V1, V2, and V3 was50.5 ± 0.5, 49.8 ± 0.4, and 49.2± 0.6 respectively. Thus, the result evident that all the developed RTC upma mixes exhibited a low glycemic index and were useful for Diabetic subjects and easy to carry as a journey food.