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Examining the potential effect of probiotic bacteria in reducing acrylamide
No full textIntroduction
Acrylamide is one of the process-induced contaminant formed during Maillard browning reaction. The presence of this toxicant in food products arose the public health concern due to its carcinogenicity. Different studies have evaluate the potential strategies to reduce acrylamide in foods. In this study, the new approach to reduce acrylamide by addition of probiotic bacteria was investigated.
Methods
Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus bacterial strains were assessed in their ability to reduce acrylamide. The content of acrylamide in samples with or without probiotic was extracted and analyzed by Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry with solid phase extraction (SPE) clean-up.
Results
Different probiotic strains were selected for investigating acrylamide-reducing properties. The findings showed that the acrylamide content in food samples were reduced after incubation with different probiotic strains. The results demonstrated that the acrylamide-reducing capacity of selected probiotic strains was varied under different food matrix, probably caused by different food composition and processing treatment.
Novel Aspect
The use of LC-MS is an effective tool to determine acrylamide content and study acrylamide-reducing capacity of various probiotic bacteria in diet
Colour Reflectance Investigation of Decolourized Sulfur Dyed Cotton Knitted Fabric via Ozone Plasma Treatment
No full textOzone plasma treatment is accessible to be applied on shading adjustment and colour fading because of the capacity of ozone production. It is a green process that treats dyed cotton fabric under dry condition so as to avoid chemical pollutants. This study means to explore colour reflectance of decolourized sulfur dyed cotton texture using ozone plasma treatment. Sulfur dyed cotton textures with various colour depths (0.5%, 1.5%, 2.5%) were set up to be treated different plasma parameters, including ozone air concentrations (10%, 30%, 50%, 70%), water contents in terms of weight percentage (35%, 45%) of fabric and ozone air plasma treatment periods (10 mins, 20 mins, 30 mins). The colour fading result is assessed by the colour reflectance in percentage (R%) utilizing spectrophotometer under CIE standard illuminant D65. The valid colour fading based on high percentage of reflectance was demonstrated from plasma treatment under higher ozone air concentration (50% and 70% ozone in air) and longer time length of plasma treatment (20 mins and 30 mins). The level of water content contained in the cotton fabrics is appeared to have noteworthy relationship with the degree of decolourization
Economic sustainability of heritage conservation in Hong Kong: The impact of heritage buildings on adjacent property prices
Get PDF© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Informed by the theoretical framework of sustainable development and economic theories including the cluster theory and the corollary of the Coase Theorem, this paper empirically investigates the economic impact of architectural heritage in Hong Kong. Using the hedonic price model, the research examines the economic impact of 50 publicly owned versus 50 privately owned heritage buildings on adjacent residential property prices with a sample size of over 43,240 property transaction records spanning a time period of 10 years. The research supports that heritage conservation can promote economic sustainability aside from cultural sustainability and social engagement. This research benefits government policymakers, urban planners, architects, and heritage conservationists by contributing new knowledge to the studies on sustainable urban development, heritage conservation, and cultural economics
General perceptions of citizens on anti-coronavirus pandemic measures: the case of Hong Kong
Get PDFThe fears in related to the threats of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were spreading wide and far since its outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019. COVID-19 was declared to be a Public Health Emergency if International Concern by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) on 30th January 2020 and subsequently announced as a pandemic on 11th March. As of 16 April, there were more than 2.08 million confirmed cases and over 134 thousand deaths reported. The general public’s and governments’ reactions to the pandemic are diverse. Owing to the lack of knowledge about the disease and the rapid development of cases, anxiety and certain level of disorders / unrest were recorded. This paper intended to document some of the critical incidents in Hong Kong and report findings related to the publics’ perceptions, actions and reactions to the outbreak. Data was collected through direct observation and discussions with the key respondents. Result seems to indicate that general public is likely to develop a strong of fear and stress over a public health incident especially when the case is something that they are not familiar with. They were exposed to a large amount of information and tend to be easier to believe negative messages. Advices and opinions from technical authorities are more prone to be trustworthy whereas those from government bodies and even international NGOs have less credibility. Some of them demonstrate a strong propensity to transfer the blame to someone and develop a sense of revulsion or strong indignation. Owing to the closing of trust, the warning and suggestions given the government authority are often taken too lightly or even challenged. Some are quite stubborn and refuse to accept information that is not confirming their beliefs and /or experiences. “The more you know, the less you fear.” “Technology”, terms which appears all over the world within human daily lives. With the positive well-known reputation of problems solver and convenience enhancer, the uses of technology in businesses have been increasing. Meanwhile, the problems of housekeeping labor shortages and uncommon situations of technology uses shown in Hong Kong, which urged the considerations of using technology to solve the problems, encourages the hotel attractiveness and competitiveness. Consequently, the present research report had examined the critical determinants of technology practice that affecting the performance of hotel housekeeping department in Hong Kong, by completion of the literature reviews that covered several theories and technology acceptance, and the qualitative method of case study - participate observations. And the research findings shown that technology characteristics (Applicability to Job & Convenience to Employees) and employee prospective (Learning Abilities& Technology Knowledge, and Managerial Support &Follow-up) as the determinants in technology practice which affects the housekeeping performance of Hong Kong hotel. And some possible recommendations were also provided based on the research results. With the findings and applicable insights provided, this research report is aiming to help Hong Kong hotels in achieving business success
Debris flow enlargement from entrainment: A case study for comparison of three entrainment models
Get PDF© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Material entrainment can significantly magnify debris flow volume and increase its destructive power. Despite great research efforts, entrainment is still not well understood. To meet the needs for debris flow simulation and hazard analysis, it is of practical significance to understand and evaluate existing entrainment models. In this study, we evaluate three entrainment models on an integrated single-phase continuum debris flow simulation platform. The well-documented Tsing Shan debris flow in 1990 in Hong Kong, with an initial landslide volume of 2500 m3 and a final deposit volume of 20,400 m3, is used as a benchmark to compare the three models. The characteristics and performance of each model and its model parameters are discussed. Although numerical results achieve reasonable agreement with detailed field investigations, some parameters are still determined empirically and subjectively. Despite of the imperfection, these models can be used for debris flow hazard analysis in the Hong Kong region with similar conditions. More physically-based entrainment models considering two-phase flow need to be adopted and further developed in the future
Lab Made 實驗廚房
Get PDFFrom air-based protein to“molecular”whiskey, start-ups are creating ingredients that increasingly disconnect agriculture from production. The separation of farm and plate is a new frontier – one that may hold the answer to humanity\u27s growing food insecurity.
由空氣製造的蛋白質到「分子」威士忌，初創公司研發越來越多不靠農業生產的食材，這或許可以解決越來越緊張的糧食危機
Plat Du Jour 名菜解構
Get PDFLocal flavour
本土之味
Pastry chef Gregoire Michaud combines a lifetime of baking experience with local inspiration
餅廚Gregoire Michaud以豐富的經驗和從本土取得的靈感炮製其招牌糕
Recent advances on the catalytic conversion of waste cooking oil
Get PDFThe recovery of waste cooking oil has long been known for second life uses without chemical modification. However, the concepts of bioeconomy and circular economy are much more recent and include a ranges of tasks such as recovery, storage, use, chemical modification. International research into the use of modified and unmodified waste cooking oil and their potential uses has been the subject of incessant research in both academia and industry. The main purpose of this review is to present the recent breakthroughs obtained in the field of recovery of used cooking oils for the last decade. The review discusses advances obtained in major production pathways recently explored splitting in the following categories: (i) transesterification of waste cooking oil including biodiesel production with heterogeneous/homogeneous base and acid catalysis, magnetic heterogeneous catalysis, biocatalysis and alternative technologies such as electrolysis, continuous flow, microwave irradiation, ultrasound irradiation; (ii) transesterification of waste cooking oil including catalytic biolubricant production; (iii) interesterification; (iv) hydrolysis and (v) hydrodeoxygenation, hydrocracking and hydrogenation. This review also briefly overviews current understanding of waste cooking oil valorization and the underpinning mechanism
Validating the Chinese-translated version of the Spiritual Health and Life-orientation Measure (SHALOM) amongst the Chinese youth populations in 2010 and 2018
Get PDFThis cross-sectional study validated the Chinese-translated version of the Spiritual Health and Life-orientation Measure (SHALOM) in two samples of university students in Hong Kong. The first sample comprised 546 Chinese university students who were educated under the old educational system (i.e. 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 scheme) and are known as ‘Generation Y’. Data for this sample were collected in 2010 for Fisher and Wong. The second sample involved 474 Chinese university students educated after educational reform in 2009 (i.e. 3 + 3 + 4 scheme) collected in 2018. Results in both years revealed high internal consistency. Whereas the SHALOM model proposes four domains of spirituality (personal, communal, environmental and transcendental), exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a three-factor model provided the best fit to the data, with the personal and communal domains combined as one domain. This three-factor model was identified in both the 2010 and 2018 samples, and in both males and females. Findings indicated that compared to non-religious participants, religious participants had significantly higher scores in the transcendental domain of spiritual health on both the ideal values and lived experience subscales. The results are discussed in relation to Confucian philosophy. Future research on the spiritual health of youth in Hong Kong is suggested
Physical fitness improvements of 8-week light vs. heavy tyreflip training in young adults
Get PDFThis study compared the effects of eight-week tyre flipping training intervention using light and heavy tyres on physical fitness performance. Twenty-nine young physically active males were divided into light (n = 15) and heavy (n = 14) tyre flipping groups evenly according to body weight and height. Body-to-tyre weight ratios were 0.61 ± 0.06 for the light tyre (LTTG) and 1.51 ± 0.16 for the heavy tyre training (HTTG) groups. Fitness parameters were measured before and after the intervention. One-way ANCOVA analysis indicated no significant between-group differences when pre-test values were controlled. Both groups demonstrated within-group improvements in 6RM bench press (ES: 0.98 in LTTG and 1.10 in HTTG), intermittent endurance (ES: 0.45 in LTTG and 0.66 in HTTG), five horizontal jumps (ES: 0.35 in LTTG and 0.26 in HTTG), and agility (ES: 0.34 in LTTG and 0.41 in HTTG). Both groups improved tyre flipping efficiency, through decreasing average set duration and work-rest ratios in the first six training sessions, and reached a plateau starting from the 7th training session. This study provides the first empirical evidence for coaches to justify usage of tyre flip training and the timing to progressive overload for a population with limited weight training and no tyre flip training experience