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A dysphagia diet is a special dietary programme. The development and design of foods for dysphagia should consider both swallowing safety and food nutritional quality. In this study, we investigated the rheological properties (viscosity, thixotropy, and viscoelasticity), textural properties, and swallowing behaviour of commercially available natural, pregelatinised, acetylated, and phosphorylated maize starch and tapioca starch. The results showed that all the samples belonged to food grade 3 in the framework of the International Dysphagia Dietary Standardization Initiative (IDDSI) and exhibited shear-thinning behaviour in favour of dysphagia patients, except for the sample containing pregelatinised starch, which was grade 2. Rheological tests showed that the samples had good structural recovery properties. At the same starch concentration, the elastic modulus of phosphorylated cassava starch FSMP was significantly greater than that of the starch solution, whereas that of acetylated starch was significantly less than that of the starch solution, and the combination of acetylated starch and protein led to a significant viscosity reduction phenomenon, resulting in FSMPs with good stability and fluidity; this may provide an opportunity for the incorporation of more high-energy substructures. The textural results showed that all the samples possessed textural properties of low hardness, low adhesion, and high cohesion, all of which could be used as food for dysphagia patients. This study may provide a theoretical basis for the creation and design of novel nutritional foods for dysphagia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of curdlan concentrations (0, 3, 5, and 7%) on the physical, textural, and sensorial properties of canned dodol (Candol) were investigated. The incorporation of curdlan in canned dodol significantly influenced several attributes of the product, including pH, total soluble solids (TSS), water activity (aw), moisture content, colour, texture, and microstructure. Curdlan decreased the pH level and increased the TSS level, while decreasing the moisture content and aw in certain samples. It also impacted the texture of dodol, with one sample (Candol-5) showing a texture similar to commercially available dodol. Additionally, microstructural differences were observed, with Candol-5 exhibiting the smallest pores and a more compact gel structure. Sensory panellists preferred the texture of Candol-5 over Candol-0, and its sensory rating was more similar to that of the commercial dodol, with no significant differences observed. In summary, curdlan could be a beneficial ingredient for improving the quality and acceptability of canned dodol, offering valuable insights for the development of innovative dodol products in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The fermented vegetable is a long‐history food, and the addition of probiotics in recent years has pushed it in a novel direction. This study explored the impact of a direct‐vat set (DVS) starter, comprising Lactiplantibacillus plantarum MC14 and Leuconostoc mesenteroides, on pickled radish (PR). The addition of DVS triggered a rapid reduction in pH and titratable acidity, leading to lowered nitrite levels and increased viable count. Textural analysis showed that DVS increased the springiness and chewiness of PR by about 55.07% and 25.73%, respectively. Organic acid analysis unveiled eight compounds. The addition of probiotics did not significantly affect the antioxidant properties but was able to significantly enhance the XO inhibitory activity of PR. DVS decreased undesirable flavour compounds such as isothiocyanates and sulphides, while elevating esters, aldehydes and acids. Our results suggested that DVS is a promising starter culture that can enhance the texture and flavour of fermented vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's high-value crop is tea, its aspect plays a powerful role in its marketability. Tea is the utmost extensively absorbed aromatic beverage with the legion of health benefit and respond as a remedy for various disease like neurological disorder and cardiovascular. The identification of tea fermentation is onerous due to the heavy production of products. The manual investigation is expensive, laborious, and inconsistent. Thus, an automated machine learning-based algorithm is proposed for the grading of tea fermentation (fermented, over-fermented, under-fermented). Firstly, images are pre-processed by Gaussian filtering to enhance the quality of the image and removing of noise. Then various features namely, statistical, textural, color, geometrical, laws texture energy, the histogram of gradients, and discrete wavelet transform are extracted (150) and selected from feature vector by PCA. Lastly, k-NN, SRC, and SVM are used to make decisions for the detection of tea fermentation levels. The performance of the system has been validated by the k (10) fold cross-validation technique. The proposed algorithm achieves 87.39% (k-NN), 89.72% (SRC), and 98.75% (SVM) for tea fermentation level detection. The proper feature selection shows the enhanced performance of the system. Among three different classifiers, SVM shows more efficient results that are promising and comparable with the literature. This paper also includes the analytical comparison of distinct approaches proposed by the different researchers for tea fermentation level detection. This potential fermentation level detection may guide the detection of tea products which further promotes the development of the food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High aluminum loading incorporation in the SBA-15 silica structure was investigated. Different Si/Al molar ratios (15, 10, and 2) were evaluated. The SBA-15 and the aluminum-containing materials (Al-SBA-15) were prepared by the "pH adjusting" method with modifications. The mesoporous structure of the materials was demonstrated by the type IV isotherms. The SBA-15 pore changed from a cylindrical to a slit-like structure in the presence of higher aluminum content. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) pointed out that the structural order is compromised in the presence of a higher aluminum load in the Al-SBA-15 materials, although the mesoporous structure was preserved. Higher Al loading increases the total quantity of Lewis acid sites as well as generates Brönsted acid sites. CO adsorption FTIR spectroscopy suggests aluminum incorporation into the SBA-15 and generation of acid sites. The Si–O–Al linkage in the aluminum-containing materials was corroborated by UV–Vis DRS due to the presence of a peak centered at 241 nm related to the Al-O bond, which is ascribed to four-coordinated framework aluminum in the SBA-15 structure. XPS spectra of Al 2p suggested that the Al species are less oxidized than the Al2O3 phase giving some indication of Al incorporation into the SBA-15 framework. 27Al MAS NMR results revealed that the aluminum species are in a tetrahedral oxygen coordination environment for Al-SBA-15 with Si/Al molar ratios of 15 and 10. Aluminum species in both tetrahedral and octahedral environments were evidenced for Al-SBA-15 with a Si/Al molar ratio of 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gluten free biscuits are at high demand at present which is suitable for celiac patient. Many changes takes place during the preparation of biscuit may be due to ingredients used or baking process. Therefore, this research was conducted to evaluate the physical and textural properties of gluten free biscuit containing rice flour, soya flour and buckwheat flour. Methods: The experiment was carried out during the period from January, 2018 to April, 2018. Gluten free biscuits were prepared from composite flours of two varieties of rice flours, soya flour and buckwheat flour. The physical and textural properties were investigated using standard procedures. Result: Due to addition of buckwheat flour and soya flour weight and hardness of the developed biscuit was increased and diameter, thickness was decreased. Colour tends to redness and yellowness. This is due to addition of soya flour and buckwheat flour in other treatments. Therefore, gluten free biscuit can be prepared by using rice flour, soya flour and buckwheat flour with good physical and textural properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the use of partial or total potassium bicarbonate (PBC) to replace sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) on reduced-phosphate silver carp batters, all the batters were composed of silver carp surimi, pork back fat, ice water, spices, sugar, and sodium chloride. Therein, the sample of T1 contained 4 g/kg STPP; T2 contained 1 g/kg PBC, 3 g/kg STPP; T3 contained 2 g/kg PBC, 2 g/kg STPP; T4 contained 3 g/kg PBC, 1 g/kg STPP; T5 contained 4 g/kg PBC, and they were all produced using a bowl chopper. The changes in pH, whiteness, water- and oil-holding capacity, gel and rheological properties, as well as protein conformation were investigated. The pH, cooking yield, water- and oil-holding capacity, texture properties, and the G′ values at 90 °C of the reduced-phosphate silver carp batters with PBC significantly increased (p < 0.05) compared to the sample without PBC. Due to the increasing pH and enhanced ion strength, more β-sheet and β-turns structures were formed. Furthermore, by increasing PBC, the pH significantly increased (p < 0.05) and the cooked silver carp batters became darkened. Meanwhile, more CO2 was generated, which destroyed the gel structure, leading the water- and oil-holding capacity, texture properties, and G′ values at 90 °C to be increased and then decreased. Overall, using PBC partial as a substitute of STPP enables reduced-phosphate silver carp batter to have better gel characteristics and water-holding capacity by increasing its pH and changing its rheology characteristic and protein conformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass detection in mammograms has a limited approach to the presence of a mass in overlapping denser fibroglandular breast regions. In addition, various breast density levels could decrease the learning system's ability to extract sufficient feature descriptors and may result in lower accuracy performance. Therefore, this study is proposing a textural-based image enhancement technique named Spatial-based Breast Density Enhancement for Mass Detection (SbBDEM) to boost textural features of the overlapped mass region based on the breast density level. This approach determines the optimal exposure threshold of the images' lower contrast limit and optimizes the parameters by selecting the best intensity factor guided by the best Blind/Reference-less Image Spatial Quality Evaluator (BRISQUE) scores separately for both dense and non-dense breast classes prior to training. Meanwhile, a modified You Only Look Once v3 (YOLOv3) architecture is employed for mass detection by specifically assigning an extra number of higher-valued anchor boxes to the shallower detection head using the enhanced image. The experimental results show that the use of SbBDEM prior to training mass detection promotes superior performance with an increase in mean Average Precision (mAP) of 17.24% improvement over the non-enhanced trained image for mass detection, mass segmentation of 94.41% accuracy, and 96% accuracy for benign and malignant mass classification. Enhancing the mammogram images based on breast density is proven to increase the overall system's performance and can aid in an improved clinical diagnosis process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyze the physicochemical, cooking, textural and milling properties of different basmati and non-basmati rice cultivars. Materials and methods. The de-husking and milling of the paddy were performed using a laboratory mill, and the head rice recovery was determined using Adair's methods. The milled rice was analyzed for moisture, ash, protein, and amylose content. The textural attributes of cooked grains were analyzed using Texture Profile Analysis. Results and discussion. The study presented the milling and chemical properties of different rice cultivars, which affect the quality and market value of rice. The recovery of milled rice was found to vary among cultivars, with Pusa Basmati (PB)-6 exhibiting the highest recovery and PB-1121 having the highest husk percentage. Head rice recovery was highest in P-44 and lowest in PB-6, while the moisture content of the milled rice grain ranged from 10.75 to 11.84%. PB-1121 had the highest ash content, while P-2819 had the lowest ash and protein content. Basmati varieties had significantly lower starch content and higher amylose content than the non-basmati cultivar. In terms of physical properties, the bulk density measurements showed that PB-6 had the lowest bulk density, while P-44 had the highest bulk density. When it came to true density, P-2819 stood out with the highest value. Additionally, the study found that basmati varieties tended to have longer grains compared to non-basmati varieties. Furthermore, when examining the length-to-breadth ratio, PB-1121 stood out with the highest ratio, suggesting a relatively slender and elongated grain shape. The cooking properties of the rice cultivars investigated in the study revealed interesting variations. P-2819 demonstrated the shortest cooking time, whereas PB-1121 showed the longest cooking time. The elongation ratio was found to be higher in basmati varieties compared to non-basmati varieties. When considering water uptake, PB-1121 exhibited the highest ratio, implying that it absorbed more water during cooking. Additionally, the solid loss was highest in P-2819 and lowest in PB-1121. In reference to textural properties, P-2819 exhibited the highest hardness, whereas PB-1121 had the lowest. The adhesiveness of the non-basmati variety was higher than that of the basmati variety, indicating a stickier texture. PB-1121 had the lowest gumminess, indicating a lesser tendency for the grains to become gummy. The correlation study revealed significant relationships between rice properties. Cooking time correlated positively with true density, length to breadth ratio, hardness, gumminess, and chewiness. Elongation ratio correlated positively with amylose content, porosity, length, length to breadth ratio, and 1000 kernel weight. Water uptake ratio showed multiple positive correlations. Conclusion. By leveraging these insights, stakeholders can enhance the quality, market value, and overall satisfaction of rice products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: According to the Chinese Health Commission guidelines, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity is classified as mild, moderate, severe, or critical. The mortality rate of COVID-19 is higher among patients with severe and critical diseases; therefore, early identification of COVID-19 prevents disease progression and improves patient survival. Computed tomography (CT) radiomics, as a machine learning method, provides an objective and mathematical evaluation of COVID-19 pneumonia. As CT-based radiomics research has recently focused on COVID-19 diagnosis and severity analysis, this meta-analysis aimed to investigate the predictive power of a CT-based radiomics model in determining COVID-19 severity. Materials and methods: This study followed the diagnostic version of PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Embase databases and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched to identify relevant articles in the meta-analysis from inception until July 16, 2021. The sensitivity and specificity were analyzed using forest plots. The overall predictive power was calculated using the summary receiver operating characteristic curve. The bias was evaluated using a funnel plot. The quality of the included literature was assessed using the radiomics quality score and quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies tool. Results: The radiomics quality scores ranged from 7 to 16 (achievable score: 2212 8 to 36). The pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.800 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.662–0.891) and 0.874 (95% CI 0.773–0.934), respectively. The pooled area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.908. The quality assessment tool showed favorable results. Conclusion: This meta-analysis demonstrated that CT-based radiomics models might be helpful for predicting the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The pandemic was announced by the world health organization coronavirus (COVID-19) universal health dilemma. Any scientific appliance which contributes expeditious detection of coronavirus with a huge recognition rate may be excessively fruitful to doctors. In this environment, innovative automation like deep learning, machine learning, image processing and medical image like chest radiography (CXR), computed tomography (CT) has been refined promising solution contrary to COVID-19. Currently, a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test has been used to detect the coronavirus. Due to the moratorium period is high on results tested and huge false negative estimates, substitute solutions are desired. Thus, an automated machine learning-based algorithm is proposed for the detection of COVID-19 and the grading of nine different datasets. This research impacts the grant of image processing and machine learning to expeditious and definite coronavirus detection using CXR and CT medical imaging. This results in early detection, diagnosis, and cure for the accomplishment of COVID-19 as early as possible. Firstly, images are preprocessed by normalization to enhance the quality of the image and removing of noise. Secondly, segmentation of images is done by fuzzy c-means clustering. Then various features namely, statistical, textural, histogram of gradients, and discrete wavelet transform are extracted (92) and selected from the feature vector by principle component analysis. Lastly, k-NN, SRC, ANN, and SVM are used to make decisions for normal, pneumonia, COVID-19 positive patients. The performance of the system has been validated by the k (5) fold cross-validation technique. The proposed algorithm achieves 91.70% (k-Nearest Neighbor), 94.40% (Sparse Representation Classifier), 96.16% (Artificial Neural Network), and 99.14% (Support Vector Machine) for COVID detection. The proposed results show feature combination and selection improves the performance in 14.34 s with machine learning and image processing techniques. Among k-NN, SRC, ANN, and SVM classifiers, SVM shows more efficient results that are promising and comparable with the literature. The proposed approach results in an improved recognition rate as compared to the literature review. Therefore, the algorithm proposed shows immense potential to benefit the radiologist for their findings. Also, fruitful in prior virus diagnosis and discriminate pneumonia between COVID-19 and other pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garlic (Allium sativum L.), cultivated since the Neolithic period, is a vegetable with therapeutic and culinary properties that presents great economic importance in the world. Characterization of a Spanish traditional garlic variety known as "Fino de Chinchón" was achieved by evaluating physicochemical, colour, and textural attributes. This traditional garlic has its own peculiarities regarding textural parameters related to cohesiveness, resilience and springiness, antioxidant behavior, and pyruvic content. Nevertheless, it presents common physicochemical features than those observed for other garlic varieties in our neighboring. The results of the present work are a good start point to initiate research into the composition and properties of "Fino de Chinchón" garlic. The findings are interesting since they would enable greater awareness of the importance of traditional varieties. However, future research will be necessary to perform a more complete characterization of this variety. Furthermore, this information could be of particular interest and benefit of farmers, regarding the protection of biodiversity and genetic conservation, furthermore contributing to environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Petrological features of carbonate rocks that exert control on their mechanical and physical properties are examined in the study presented here. Ninety-four representative rock block samples were collected at outcrops and were tested for uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), point load index (PLI), indirect tensile strength (ITS), sonic velocity (SV; Vp and Vs), Schmidt hardness value (SHV), slake durability index (SDI), porosity (n), water absorption (WA), unit weight (UW), and specific gravity (SG), according to the standards. The carbonate rock samples were classified into four groups, according to their compositional and textural characteristics, using XRD, XRF, polarized-light microscope, and SEM. Different types of regression analyses were performed to find the most applicable relationship between measured mechanical/physical properties and mineralogical/textural features of these carbonate rocks. The results suggest that rocks with pure calcite (no dolomite component) and abundant iron oxide cement are more sensitive to mechanical failure than the other carbonate rocks tested here. High silica content appears to reduce the UCS and Id2 values probably due to the presence of silica as separate chert nodules and detrital quartz grains. The results also suggest impact of the arid environmental conditions in the study area. The correlation data indicated wide range of variability and cover ranges reported in published literature on carbonate rocks from other regions. The derived correlation equations of the rock strength parameters may be specific within the arid environment of the investigated rocks, but the results may still provide comparative guidelines for rock testing in the region and regions of other carbonate rocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to evaluate the rheological, textural, and antioxidant activity of fermented milks with the addition of roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) extracts at concentrations of 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3% (CFM, RFM1, RFM2, and RFM3). The chemical composition of the fermented milks, including crude protein, fat, ash, total solids and non‐fat solids, were also determined. Gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC‐MS) detected 42, 46, 47, and 49 kinds of volatile flavour compounds in CFM, RFM1, RFM2, and RFM3, respectively. The antioxidant activity of fermented milks was measured using ferric reducing antioxidant power and scavenging capacities for 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'‐azino‐bis(3‐ethylbenzothiazoline‐6‐sulphonic acid) (ABTS) radicals during 28 days of refrigerated storage. The results of this study are of great significance to improve the understanding and application of roselle extracts in the food industry. Both roselle and fermented milk are beneficial to human health, with many biological activities, such as antioxidant, hypoglycaemic, liver‐protecting, and antihypertensive properties; however, no attention has been paid to the combined effects of roselle and fermented milks. The study created a novel fermented milk and the results indicate that 0.3% roselle extracts can play the most important role in affecting the rheological, textural properties, and antioxidant activity of fermented milks, so this modification of fermented milk shows promise for potential application in the food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, ZrO2-CeO2 hollow spheres have been synthesized using carbon spheres as a template. The physico-chemical, textural and morphological properties of the synthesized ZrO2-CeO2 hollow spheres were explored by powder X-ray diffraction, N2-physisorption, Fourier emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques. The catalytic activity of the synthesized ZrO2-CeO2 catalyst was evaluated in the degradation of acid yellow 17 dye using advanced oxidation technique. The results demonstrated that the ZrO2-CeO2 hollow spheres showed the highest percentage degradation of 88% in reaction time of 180 min for the selected dye. The improved degradation activity of the synthesized catalyst could be attributed to the fact that the oxidizing agent H2O2 react with ZrO2-CeO2 to produce highly reactive hydroxyl radical (·OH) which further attack on the selected dye molecule and degraded to less environmental toxic components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have fabricated undoped CuO, Co0.1Ni0.07Zn0.04Cu0.79O and Co0.08Ni0.07Zn0.04Mg0.03Cu0.78O nanoparticles through thermal decomposition of their respective inorganic copper creatinate hydrazinate and mixed metal doped copper creatinate hydrazinate precursors which were prepared by the co-precipitation method and characterized through EDS, ICP-AES, IR, and TG-DTA analysis. Techniques such as EDS, ICP-AES, FT-IR, XRD, XPS, TEM, SEM, BET, and VSM analysis were employed to characterize the composition, structural phase, chemical state, morphological, textural, and magnetic properties of the nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this study, effects of equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) on the mixed‐mode fracture toughness of Al‐6063 were investigated. The ECAP process continued up to 5 passes without failure. Grain refinement was obvious after 5 passes of the ECAP process. The average grain size reduced from 45μm to less than 1μm, and textural studies shows aligning the grains in known directions. After 4 passes, yield and ultimate strengths increase respectively from 100 and 209 MPa to 300 and 375 MPa and reduction in elongation was also observed. The microhardness improved after the process. The fracture toughness for different orientations was measured. For pure mode I (opening mode), its value decreased after the first pass from 18.4 to 15.71  MPa m; however, it increased to about 18.8  MPa m after the fifth pass. For mixed‐mode loading condition, different orientations were investigated. The results revealed different fracture toughness reductions after the first passes of the process for specimens with different orientations. The fracture surfaces were studied by using scanning electron microscope, and refined equiaxed dimples were observed after the ECAP process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of species within an ecosystem plays a key role in formulating an inventory for use in the development of conservation management plans. The classification of mangrove species typically involves intensive field surveys, whereas remote sensing techniques represent a cost-efficient means of mapping and monitoring mangrove forests at large scales. However, the coarse spectral resolution of remote sensing technology has up until recently restricted the ability to identify individual species. The more recent development of very high-resolution spatial optical remote sensing sensors and techniques has thus provided new opportunities for the accurate mapping of species within mangrove forests over large areas. When dealing with the complex problems associated with discriminating among species, classifier performance could be enhanced through the adoption of more intrinsic features; such as textural and differential spectral features. This study explored the effectiveness of textural and differential spectral features in mapping mangrove inter-species obtained from WorldView-3 high-spatial-resolution imagery for mangrove species in Hong Kong. Due to the different arrangement of leaves, the branch density, and the average height and size of plants, we found that the differential spectral features could aid in reducing inner-species variability and increasing intra-species separation. Using a combination of textural and differential spectral features thus represents a promising tool for discriminating among mangrove species. Experimental results suggest that combining these features can greatly improve mapping accuracy, thereby providing more reliable mapping results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image inpainting is a technique to restore the damage image and fill gape or texts are written in the image. Image inpainting have different application like removal of scratches, restoring damage/missing portions of Image. In recent year image inpainting is high popular in image processing. In this paper we propose the exemplar based inpainting algorithm with solution of proposed application of Sourceforge.net application that is built in Java and using exemplar based image inpainting algorithm we remove the unwanted object and scratches to be contain in image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice cream contains high sugar content and therefore it is in contradiction with the concept of healthy diet. The objective of this study is to determine the suitability of using stevia as an alternative natural sweetener in making ice cream. In- house ice cream formulation (as the control) and three different concentrations of stevia ice cream formulations of (A, B and C) were used. Physical properties of the ice cream such as the overrun, total soluble solid, meltdown rate, rheology, and textural properties were evaluated. All ice cream samples exhibited a non-Newtonian flow with pseudoplastic behavior. Stevia ice cream has a lower melting rate and has a higher sustainability. The power law also showed that apparent viscosities of stevia ice cream were higher. Therefore, stevia can be used as a natural sugar substitute in ice cream production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to investigate the sensitivity of contrast-based textural measurements and morphological characteristics that derive from high-resolution satellite imagery (three-band SPOT-5) when diverse image enhancements techniques are piloted. The general framework of the application is the built-up/nonbuilt-up detection. In the existence of a low-resolution reference layer, we apply supervised learning that indirectly reduces the uncertainty and improves the quality of the reference layer. Based on the new class label assignments, the image histogram is adjusted suitably for the computation of contrast-based textural/morphological features. A case study is presented where we test a mixture of image enhancement operations like linear and decorrelation stretching and assess the performance through ROC analysis against available building footprints. Experimental results demonstrate that spectral band combination is the key factor that conditions the contrast of grayscale images. Contrast adjustment (before or after the band combination and merging) supports considerably the extraction of informative features from a low-contrast image; in case of a well-contrasted image, the improvement is marginal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study aims to investigate the nutritional value of sufu and reduce environmental problems caused by okara, which results from the traditional processing method of sufu. The feasibility of the whole-soya bean cotyledon sufu ( WSCS) processing method, which does not produce okara, was investigated. WSCS was prepared by ripening okara-containing tofu through various hydrolytic enzymes secreted by Actinomucor elegans for 70 days. After fermentation, total nitrogen, amino nitrogen and lipid contents were found to be lower in WSCS than in traditional sufu ( TS), whereas contents of reducing sugar, dietary fibre, isoflavone aglycone and soya bean polysaccharide were higher in WSCS than in TS. The hardness, springiness and adhesiveness of WSCS were 249.703 ± 0.500 g, 0.606 ± 0.008 and 8.393 ± 0.032 J, respectively. The corresponding values for TS were 264.863 ± 0.572 g, 0.615 ± 0.007 and 7.516 ± 0.031 J, respectively. In addition, microstructural changes in WSCS and TS during fermentation were observed through scanning electron microscopy. The results from this study may provide a basis for industrial production of WSCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yogurts are important dairy products that have known a rapid market growth over the past few decades. Industrial yogurt manufacture involves different processing steps. Among them, protein fortification of the milk base is elemental. It greatly enhances yogurt nutritional and functional properties and prevents syneresis, an undesirable yogurt textural defect. Protein enrichment can be achieved by either concentration process (evaporation under vacuum and membrane processing: reverse osmosis and/or ultrafiltration) or by addition of dairy ingredients. Traditionally, skim milk powder (SMP) is used to enrich the milk base before fermentation. However, increased quality and availability of other dairy ingredients such as milk protein isolates (MPI), milk protein concentrates (MPC) whey protein isolates (WPI) and concentrates (WPC), micellar casein (MC) and caseinates have promoted their use as alternatives to SMP. Substituting different dry ingredients for skim milk powder in yogurt making affects the yogurt mix protein composition and subsequent textural and sensorial properties. This review focuses on various type of milk protein used for fortification purposes and their influence on these properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of salting method, dry salting (DS), brine salting (BS), brine salting with sucrose addition (BSS) or dry salting with sucrose addition (DSS) on the quality of Atlantic salmon treated with a liquid smoke flavouring was investigated over a 45-day storage period. Sugar-added samples were the ones with the significantly lowest values for TBARS (β0, DS = 0.09b; BS = 0.18a; DSS = 0.07c; BSS = 0.07c). BSS and DSS fillets showed faster production rates of trimethylamine (TMA), 0.57 and 1.46, than the DS and BS fillets, 0.81 and 1.19, respectively. The DS and DSS fillets showed long delay periods before the TMA concentration started to increase (16.18; 20.60), and 90% of the panellists preferred these to BS or BSS fillets. In fact, only the BSS fillets were rejected during the storage, after 34 days; and the fillets with the most overall desirable characteristics at the end of the storage period were those of the DSS group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the physicochemical properties of rice flours with five different particle sizes (≤63, 80, 100, 125, and 140 µm) prepared by dry milling and their effects on textural properties of laksa noodles. Rice flour with the smallest particle size had the highest water absorption index, peak viscosity, hot paste viscosity, breakdown, inal or cold paste viscosity and gel hardness, but the lowest gelatinization temperature. Reduction of rice flour particle size improved textural properties of laksa noodle. Laksa noodle produced from rice flour with the smallest particle size had the best textural properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optical and textural properties of chicken patty formulated with different level of grey oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sajor-caju) at 0, 25 or 50% to replace chicken meat were investigated. The addition of up to 50% oyster mushroom to chicken patty formulations did not change colour a* (redness), compared with the control patty. Chicken patties containing oyster mushroom had lower L* value ranging from 51.02 - 52.65 compared to that of the control patty (57.86). All oyster mushroom-based patties had lower colour b* (yellowness) value compared to chicken patty without mushroom. The hardness of chicken patty decreased proportionally with the level of oyster mushroom. On the other hand, oyster mushroom-based patties were springier than the control patty. Chicken which was replaced with 25% of fresh mushroom, recorded the highest moisture retention (77.19%) and cooking yield (80.71%), respectively. However, replacement of 25% of oyster mushroom with chicken breast in chicken patty formulation was not change the moisture retention, fat retention and cooking yield compared to control patty. Chicken patty added with 50% ground oyster mushroom the highest concentration of total dietary fibre (TDF) at 4.90 g/100 g compared to chicken patty containing 25% of mushroom (3.40 g/100 g) and control (1.90 g/100 g). In summary, the addition of oyster mushroom in chicken patties has decreased the lightness, yellowness, hardness and chewiness while no changes were noted in the redness of the patties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sedimentological and geochemical study of a core corresponding to sedimentation in the Santo Andrélowland since 14 000 BP allowed the reconstruction of environmental changes of this area and discussion of the relative importance of local versus global forcing factors responsible for its evolution. The pre-Holocene section of the core represents terrestrial sedimentation in a fluviatile environment, contemporaneous of a low sea level and a distal shoreline. Sediment inputs were terrestrial and resulting from intensive weathering and high erosion rate in the adjacent watershed. During the Early Holocene (c. 10 020 to 5380 BP) the sea invaded this lowland and defined an open marine shallow environment corresponding to a wide gulf which has been disturbed by multiple terrestrial inputs that might have been induced by massive episodes of fluvial discharge. The first symptoms of confinement were noticed close to 5400 BP, and c. 5380 BP a major environmental threshold occurred (possibly reflecting the marked deceleration of the sea-level rise rate) corresponding to the establishment of an efficient detrital barrier that completely isolated the bay and changed this lowland into a closed coastal lagoon. After 5380 BP, the lagoonal environment evolved as a function of local forcing factors, among which the frequency and efficiency of exchanges with the ocean predominate: until c. 3570 BP the lagoon was restricted, fed by fresh water and terrestrial sediment inputs; a second episode of lagoonal sedimentation lasts until c. 1620 BP, reflecting brackish conditions and increase in marine influence due to a reduced efficiency of the barrier. The upper section of the core represents the final stages of filling of the lagoonal margin by fluvial activity. Human settling and intervention in the barrier are possible causes of a short-lived return to brackish conditions recorded in the uppermost sediment unit of the core and of the dramatic increase of the sedimentation rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]