New food safety challenges of viral contamination from a global perspective: Conventional,emerging, and novel methods of viral control

Food- and waterborne viruses, such as human norovirus, hepatitis A virus, hepatitis E virus, rotaviruses, astroviruses, adenoviruses, and enteroviruses, are major contributors to all foodborne illnesses. Their small size, structure, and ability to clump and attach to inanimate surfaces make viruses challenging to reduce or eliminate, especially in the presence of inorganic or organic soils. Besides traditional wet and dry methods of disinfection using chemicals and heat, emerging physical nonthermal decontamination techniques (irradiation, ultraviolet, pulsed light, high hydrostatic pressure, cold atmospheric plasma, and pulsed electric field), novel virucidal surfaces, and bioactive compounds are examined for their potential to inactivate viruses on the surfaces of foods or food contact surfaces (tools, equipment, hands, etc.). Every disinfection technique is discussed based on its efficiency against viruses, specific advantages and disadvantages, and limitations. Structure, genomic organization, and molecular biology of different virus strains are reviewed, as they are key in determining these techniques effectiveness in controlling all or specific foodborne viruses. Selecting suitable viral decontamination techniques requires that their antiviral mechanism of action and ability to reduce virus infectivity must be taken into consideration. Furthermore, details about critical treatments parameters essential to control foodborne viruses in a food production environment are discussed, as they are also determinative in defining best disinfection and hygiene practices preventing viral infection after consuming a food product.     

Meaningful Learning for Deep Facial Emotional Features

Neural Processing Letters - Facial expression is an important aspect to recognize emotions between humans. However, this task remains difficult for machines. Several approaches have been developed...     

Crystallization of P Type Amorphous Silicon (a-Si: H) by AIC Method: Effect of Aluminum Thickness

In this work, we will study the crystallization of P type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) by Aluminum Induced Crystallization technique (CIA) by varying the thickness of the aluminum films. We have deposited a 100 nm thickness of p-type a-Si:H layer on Corning glass substrates using PECVD technique. An aluminum layer with thickness ranging from 10 to 400 nm was thermally evaporated on the a-Si:H surface. The thermal annealing was performed in a conventional furnace at temperature of 550 °C for 4 h in flowing N2 ambient. The study of the crystallization of the Al/a-Si:H/Glass structure according the aluminum thickness was carried out by using Raman spectroscopy, X-rays diffraction and Hall Effect measurements. Raman results reveal the presence of the peaks between 510 and 520 cm−1, which are close to the peak of crystallized Si (about 521 cm−1) proving the crystallization of all samples. The XRD measurements show the presence of the characteristic peaks of the crystalline silicon, thus the a-Si: H (p) layer was effectively crystallized by the AIC method in a short time. Through Hall measurements we found an improvement in electrical properties and an increase in dopant concentration (+ 5.3 1014 to + 2.9 1017 cm2).     

Study of Corrosion Behavior and In Vitro Bioactivity of Single NbSi2 and Duplex NbSi2/Nb5Si3 Coatings on Nb Substrates for Biomedical Applications

Protection of Metals and Physical Chemistry of Surfaces - Single NbSi2 and duplex NbSi2/Nb5Si3 coatings were successfully applied on Nb substrates using halide activated pack cementation (HAPC)...     

Influence of Electron Beam Irradiation on High‐Temperature Mechanical Properties of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate/Carbon Fibers Composites

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of carbon fiber (CF) and electron‐beam (EB) radiation on high‐temperature mechanical properties of ethylene‐vinyl acetate (EVA). Polymer composites were prepared by mixing on a two‐roll mill. After compression molding, the samples were irradiated between 60 and 180 kGy, and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) was used to characterize physical properties. The effects of filler content and radiation level on the mechanical properties of EVA/CF were evaluated. The shear stress and modulus were observed to increase with increasing of the filler level. However, there was a dramatic decrease in creep compliance. It was also shown that introduction of irradiation on EVA composite increases the shear stress and the real part of the dynamic shear modulus G' due to the increase in molecular weight and cross‐linking of the polymer after irradiation. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 26:325–335, 2020. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Specific smartphone uses and how they relate to anxiety and depression in university students: a cross-cultural perspective

ABSTRACT

People around the world spend hours of their daily lives using smartphones; therefore, it is important to conduct cross-cultural research on the effects of smartphone use on health and well-being as culture influences values, motivations and communication patterns. The purpose of this study was to explore 5 popular uses of the smartphone – messaging, browsing the Internet, posting social content, reading social content, and playing games – how they relate to anxiety and depression scores, and how they vary depending on the country of the participants: Spain, the United States, and Colombia. In all three countries the ranking of most popular uses was the same: (1) Messaging, (2) Reading social content, and (3) Browsing the Internet. In the USA, game playing contributed to anxiety scores whereas reading social content was a protective factor; regarding depression scores, text messaging was a contributing factor. In Spain, browsing the Internet contributed to anxiety scores; regarding depression scores, messaging was a contributing factor and posting social content was a protective factor. In Colombia, no specific use influenced anxiety scores; regarding depression scores, only game playing was a protective factor. Our results showed that in all the countries, problematic smartphone use contributed to anxiety scores.     

The structural variability of quarters and residential areas in the historical texture of the city of Yazd based on Islamic rules and jurisprudence: a case study of Golchinan quarter

According to many researchers and scholars, religious beliefs can be considered as the most influential factor in forming Muslim urban spaces and their architectural elements. In fact, historical cities reflect the culture and beliefs of their residences. Among all historical places in Iranian cities, the historical texture of the city of Yazd, especially the quarters since the age of Qajar dynasty, are well preserved. The present study aims at identifying the Islamic principles and values influencing the formation of architectural spaces and the extent of their applications in one of the historical quarters known as Golchinan. The results of the conformation of the theoretical findings with the data acquired from field studies revealed that almost 90% of the urban and architectural spaces (e.g. residential areas, mosques, bazaars, and pathways) in Yazd are directly influenced by Islamic principles. In other words, there is a strong conformity between the accepted Islamic values of the society and what actually was applied to urban constructions during Qajar dynasty.     

A Full Connectable and High Scalable Key Pre-distribution Scheme Based on Combinatorial Designs for Resource-Constrained Devices in IoT Network

Considering the internet of things (IoT), end nodes such as wireless sensor network, RFID and embedded systems are used in many applications. These end nodes are known as resource-constrained devices in the IoT network. These devices have limitations such as computing and communication power, memory capacity and power. Key pre-distribution schemes (KPSs) have been introduced as a lightweight solution to key distribution in these devices. Key pre-distribution is a special type of key agreement that aims to select keys called session keys in order to establish secure communication between devices. One of these design types is the using of combinatorial designs in key pre-distribution, which is a deterministic scheme in key pre-distribution and has been considered in recent years. In this paper, by introducing a key pre-distribution scheme of this type, we stated that the model introduced in the two benchmarks of KPSs comparability had full connectivity and scalability among the designs introduced in recent years. Also, in recent years, among the combinatorial design-based key pre-distribution schemes, in order to increase resiliency as another criterion for comparing KPSs, attempts were made to include changes in combinatorial designs or they combine them with random key pre-distribution schemes and hybrid schemes were introduced that would significantly reduce the design connectivity. In this paper, using theoretical analysis and maintaining full connectivity, we showed that the strength of the proposed design was better than the similar designs while maintaining higher scalability.

     

A comparative study of landslide susceptibility maps produced using support vector machine with different kernel functions and entropy data mining models in China

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - The main objective of the current study is to apply a random forest (RF) data-driven model and prioritization of landslide conditioning factors...