Search results for " RELIABILITY"
showing 10 items of 557 documents
The effectiveness of Opuntia ficus-indica mucilage edible coating on postharvest maintenance of ‘Dottato’ fig (Ficus carica L.) fruit
2017
Abstract Breba figs are highly perishable and their shelf-life is very short. In this study, breba figs (cv. ‘Dottato’) were treated with a mucilage solution of Opuntia ficus-indica cladodes, sealed in plastic bags, and stored at 4 °C for 14 days. The effect of the edible coating on the shelf-life and qualitative attributes of the fruit were evaluated by colors, content of total soluble solids, titratable acidity, total phenol, total carotenoids. Results showed that coating improves the quality of breba fig during storage. The edible coating was effective in maintaining fruit fresh weight, visual score values, fruit firmness and total carotenoid content. Coated fruit showed a significantly …
Effect of refrigerated storage on microbiological, chemical and sensory characteristics of a ewes’ raw milk stretched cheese
2017
This study aimed to describe the effects of refrigerated storage up to 180 days on microbiological, chemical, physical, and sensory characteristics of a PDO ewes’ raw milk stretched cheese. To this aim, a total of 224 cheeses were manufactured in four consecutive production weeks, and series of 32 of them were examined before packaging and after 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 180 d of storage at 4 ± 2 °C in the dark, respectively. Lactic acid bacteria cocci displayed the highest levels (7.8 Log CFU*g−1) during early storage and decreased progressively over time (7.4 Log CFU*g−1), while the opposite trend was observed for lactic acid bacteria rods (from 6.5 to 7.3 Log CFU*g−1). TMC and enterocci s…
Surface, mechanical and barrier properties of bio-based composite films based on chitosan and whey protein
2014
Mono-component and composite bilayer and blend films composed of chitosan and whey protein were made. Colour, microstructure, water contact angles, swelling, water vapour sorption, barrier properties (oxygen, water vapour), water vapour diffusion coefficients and mechanical properties were determined. The influence of water vapour on barrier properties was studied in relation to the surface and structural properties. Mono-component and bilayer films were transparent with a homogeneous surface. Contrarily, blend films were translucent. Bilayer films had significantly lower water vapour permeability in comparison to mono-component and blend films. In all bilayer films, the air side (chitosan)…
Mechanical and barrier properties of extruded film made from sodium and calcium caseinates
2014
Abstract Over the past few years, much interest has been placed into the investigation of increased barrier and mechanical properties of protein films via a multitude of approaches. Generally, these techniques involve modifications of interactions among protein molecules, such as ionic crosslinking using divalent ions. To evaluate the crosslinking effect of Ca 2+ cations, films were made from calcium caseinate (CaCAS) and/or sodium caseinate (NaCAS). The production of caseinate thin films was carried out in two steps: first thermoplastic pellets were made using a co-rotating twin-screw extruder, then they were transformed into thin films (60 μm) using a classical film blowing machine. Tensi…
Middleware for transparent TCP connection migration : masking faulty TCP-based services
2004
Masteroppgave i informasjons- og kommunikasjonsteknologi 2004 - Høgskolen i Agder, Grimstad Mission critical TCP-based services create a demand for robust and fault tolerant TCP communication. Sense Intellifield monitors drill operations on rig sites offshore. Critical TCP-based services need to be available 24 hours, 7 days a week, and the service providers need to tolerate server failure. How to make TCP robust and fault tolerant without modifying existing infrastructure like existing client/server applications, services, TCP stacks, kernels, or operating systems is the motivation of this thesis. We present a new middleware approach, first of its kind, to allow TCP-based services to survi…
Assessing first-year engineering students' pre-university mathematics knowledge: preliminary validity results based on an item response theory model
2020
The importance of students’ prior knowledge to their current learning outcomes cannot be overemphasised. Students with adequate prior knowledge are better prepared for the current learning materials than those without the knowledge. However, assessment of engineering students' prior mathematics knowledge has been beset with a lack of uniformity in measuring instruments and inadequate validity studies. This study attempts to provide evidence of validity and reliability of a Norwegian national test of prior mathematics knowledge using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach. This approach involves use of an item response theory model followed by cognitive interviews of some students …
Attendibilità dei modelli per la valutazione dei moduli elastici delle murature suggeriti dalle norme tecniche
2012
In this paper the results of an experimental investigation aimed to the assessment of Young moduli, rigidity moduli and other mechanical properties for different types of masonry are shown. The mechanical characteristics predicted by models proposed by some technical codes were compared against experimental data. This study was motivated by the suggestion of the Masonry Standards Joint Committee's (MSJC) code that, while proposing the use of such models, acknowledges the lack of testing in support of their validation. The experimental investigation has included compressive tests on components (blocks and mortar), diagonal compressive tests and ordinary compressive tests (orthogonally to bed…
Measurement uncertainty impact on simplified load flow analysis in MV smart grids
2018
This work is focused on the measurement uncertainty impact on load flow analysis in medium voltage (MV) distribution networks. In more detail, the paper presents the uncertainty evaluation of a simplified load flow algorithm, which is based on the load power measurements at each secondary substation and one voltage measurement at the slack bus (i.e. the voltage at the MV bus bars of the primary substation). To reduce the costs of the monitoring system, the load flow algorithm makes use of LV load power measurements for all the substations except those of MV users, where MV transducers are usually already installed. The uncertainties on the algorithm input quantities (load powers and slack b…
Ideal and physical barrier problems for non-linear systems driven by normal and Poissonian white noise via path integral method
2016
Abstract In this paper, the probability density evolution of Markov processes is analyzed for a class of barrier problems specified in terms of certain boundary conditions. The standard case of computing the probability density of the response is associated with natural boundary conditions, and the first passage problem is associated with absorbing boundaries. In contrast, herein we consider the more general case of partially reflecting boundaries and the effect of these boundaries on the probability density of the response. In fact, both standard cases can be considered special cases of the general problem. We provide solutions by means of the path integral method for half- and single-degr…
On the use of adaptive spatial weight matrices from disease mapping multivariate analyses
2020
Conditional autoregressive distributions are commonly used to model spatial dependence between nearby geographic units in disease mapping studies. These distributions induce spatial dependence by means of a spatial weights matrix that quantifies the strength of dependence between any two neighboring spatial units. The most common procedure for defining that spatial weights matrix is using an adjacency criterion. In that case, all pairs of spatial units with adjacent borders are given the same weight (typically 1) and the remaining non-adjacent units are assigned a weight of 0. However, assuming all spatial neighbors in a model to be equally influential could be possibly a too rigid or inapp…