1,721,041 research outputs found
Monitoring the effect of cutting blade sharpness on quality of fresh-cut product
No full textMechanical damage during processing operations such as peeling and cutting is one of the major factors affecting the quality and shelf life of the fresh cut produce. The intensity of mechanical damage is highly associated to the morphology of the cut tissue and to the sharpness of the cutting tool used. The degree of sharpness (DoS, defined as the required force exerted by the instrument to cut a reference body) is an important factor for an efficient cutting operation and a methodology has been developed in order to formulate an objective assessment method to be applied to evaluate cutting damage on fresh-cut products. To this aim, 3 kitchen knives (A, B and C) were used with 8 DoS values (from 1, sharpest to 8, bluntest) to cut silicon plugs as reference bodies with cross-section diameters of 6 and 8-mm. For the 6-mm plugs and knife A the force varied from 16.2±0.5 N (DoS=1) to 93.6±7.0 N (DoS=8), for knife B from 17.9±0.4 (DoS=1) to 80.1±6.1 N (DoS=8), and for knife C from 17.4±0.9 (DoS=1) to 155.3±2.0 N (DoS=8). As for the 8-mm plugs forces ranged for knife A, B and C from 26.0±1.1 N (DoS=1) to 105.6±7.6 N (DoS=8), from 29.0±1.3 (DoS=1) to 104.6±6.5 N (DoS=8) and from 26.1±0.7 (DoS=1) to 195.9±11.7 N (DoS=8) respectively. Cutting force mean values for all knives and DoS resulted statistically significant in relation to standard deviation values. Following, kitchen knives at 3 different DoS corresponding to 30, 90, and 140 N of cutting forces, labeled as DoS1, DoS2 and DoS3 respectively, were used to cut fresh apples and quality of the product was evaluated during storage in terms of changes in the visual appearance (sensorial), CIELAB values and chemical response. It was confirmed that color changes in terms of browning were higher as the DoS decreased with data significantly fitting an exponential relation. These and the other results indicate a potential for further research aimed to define the threshold in terms of sharpness of cutting tools after which the effects on quality of the product would be not compatible with its commercial value
Particulate PAHs in two urban areas of Southern Italy: impact of the sources, meteorological and background conditions on air quality
No full textThe present work studied how much the meteorological parameters and the emission sources can influence the particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Invalid Journal Information PAHs) concentrations in two areas located in Southern Italy (Bari and Taranto). It was found that when the vehicular traffic is the main source of PAHs, there is a negative correlation between ambient temperature, wind speed and PAHs concentration (Bari). This is because these parameters are generally correlated with the dispersion capacity of the atmosphere. In the presence of a large industrial area, the wind direction becomes an important parameter able to determinate large changes in PAHs concentrations. This happened in Taranto where PAHs concentrations are exceptionally high. During the study the seasonal trend of particulate PAHs and PM10 was compared. PM10 did not show a significant seasonal cycle during the year because it is conditioned from a high regional aerosol background, especially during the summertime. On the contrary, particulate PAHs exerted distinct seasonal variation with higher concentrations in the winter and lower concentration during other months of the year. This evidence suggested that PAHs concentrations can be considered a more reliable index for air-quality assessment. In order to identify an index that considers the contributions of other particulate PAHs, it is necessary to calculate the carcinogenic potency of total PAHs (i.e., total BaPeq) obtained by the sum of the benzo[a]pyrene equivalent concentration (BaPeq) for each PAH
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Modeling Shelf-Life of Packaged Ready to eat Fruits and Vegetables with Reference to the Fate of Nutritional Compounds
No full textDispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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