Discrimination of Four Cinnamomum Species with Physico-Functional Properties and Chemometric Techniques: Application of PCA and MDA Models

Discrimination of highly valued and non-hepatotoxic Cinnamomum species (C. verum) from hepatotoxic (C. burmannii, C. loureiroi, and C. cassia) is essential for preventing food adulteration and safety problems. In this study, we developed a new method for the discrimination of four Cinnamomum species using physico-functional properties and chemometric techniques. The data were analyzed through principal component analysis (PCA) and multiclass discriminant analysis (MDA). The results showed that the cumulative variability of the first three principal components was 81.70%. The PCA score plot indicated a clear separation of the different Cinnamomum species. The training set was used to build the discriminant MDA model. The testing set was verified by this model. The prediction rate of 100% proved that the model was valid and reliable. Therefore, physico-functional properties coupled with chemometric techniques constitute a practical approach for discrimination of Cinnamomum species to prevent food fraud.

Pengaruh Sosiologis Komunitas Lesbian Gay Biseksual Dan Transgender Ditinjau Dalam Etika Kristen

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) in the past was something deviant, but nowadays it has become a trend that is even considered natural by many people. This of course has a sociological impact. There is a view that says that the behavior of LGBT people is a biological natural behavior, so it needs to be accepted as something that cannot be changed. Some theories agree that LGBT behavior is influenced by environmental, parenting, and economic factors so that there are pros and cons for LGBT people. This study aims to see the sociological influence of the LGBT community by using a literature review. The results of the study show that LGBT is contrary to the truth of God's creation, namely the clear separation of sex, namely male and female. Also, this is contrary to the design of marriage that God built, namely heterosexuality and monogamy.

How the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the perception of climate change in the UK

Forthcoming in American Behavioral Scientist (ABS) The COVID-19 pandemic erupted during the climate change (CC) crisis, forcing individuals to adapt abruptly to a new scenario, and triggering changes in everyone’s lifestyles. Based on a representative sample of the UK population (N= 1013) this paper investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic invited/forced individuals to reflect upon a new sustainable way of life and to (re)consider the anthropogenic impact on the environment. The results show that age and education are negatively associated with skepticism relating to the human impact on CC, while other control variables such as income, gender and employment status, have a limited impact on this attitude toward CC. Secondly, findings indicate a clear separation between those with a minimal standard of education, who support the natural origin of CC, while individuals with a higher level of education believe that CC is caused by human actions. Finally, on average, younger and more educated individuals tend to associate the COVID-19 pandemic with an opportunity to promote an eco-friendly world and to adopt an eco-sustainable approach.

Binarization of Ancient Malayalam Documents - A Novel Weight-based Denoising Approach

Even though several studies exist on denoising degraded documents, now a days it is a tedious task in the field of document image processing because ancient document may contain several degradations which will be a barrier for reader. Here we use old Malayalam Grantha scripts that contain useful information like the poem titled ‘Njana Stuthi’ and ancient literature. These historical documents are losing content due to heavy degradations such as, ink bleed, fungi-found to be brittleness & show through. In order to remove these kind of degradations, the study is proposing a novel binarization algorithm which remove noises from Grantha scripts as well as notebook images and make the document readable. Here we use 500 datasets of Grantha scripts for experimentation. In our proposed method, binarization is done through a channel based method in which we are converting image in to RGB, further adding weights to make the image darker or brighter followed by morphological operation open and finally passing it RGB and HSV channel for more clarity and clear separation of black text and white background, remaining noise will be removed using adaptive thresholding technique. The proposed method is outperformed with good accuracy.

Radiative Corrections to Semileptonic Beta Decays: Progress and Challenges

We review some recent progress in the theory of electroweak radiative corrections in semileptonic decay processes. The resurrection of the so-called Sirlin’s representation based on current algebra relations permits a clear separation between the perturbatively-calculable and incalculable pieces in the O(GFα) radiative corrections. The latter are expressed as compact hadronic matrix elements that allow systematic non-perturbative analysis such as dispersion relation and lattice QCD. This brings substantial improvements to the precision of the electroweak radiative corrections in semileptonic decays of pion, kaon, free neutron and JP=0+ nuclei that are important theory inputs in precision tests of the Standard Model. Unresolved issues and future prospects are discussed.

Chemical Differentiation of Plant Latexes and Their Anti-herbivory Activity against Thrips Frankliniella occidentalis

Despite the extensive studies on latex, some fundamental questions on their chemical specialization and the factors influencing this specialization have yet to be investigated. To address this issue, latexes and their bearing tissues from diverse species were profiled by 1HNMR and GC-MS. Additionally, the antiherbivory activity of these materials was tested against thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande, 1895). The multivariate data analysis showed a clear separation between latexes and leaves from the same species. Conversely, the chemical profiles of latexes from different species were highly similar, that is, they displayed much less metabolic species-specificity. These shared chemical profiles of latexes were reflected in their overall higher mortality index (80.4% ± 7.5) against thrips compared with their bearing tissues (55.5% ± 14.9). The metabolites correlated to the antiherbivory activity of latexes were triterpenoids and steroids. However, the activity could not be attributed to any single terpenoid. This discrepancy and the reduction of the latex activity after fractionation suggested a complementary effect of the compounds when in a mixture as represented by the latex. Additionally, aqueous fractions of several latexes were found to possess simple spectra, even with only 1 metabolite. These metabolites were determined to be organic acids that might be involved in the modulation of the rate of latex coagulation, potentially increasing the sealing and trapping effects of the latex.

When advertisements are disguised as news: the ethics problem in Indonesian mass media

The practice of obscuring news and advertising is still a problem in the Indonesian mass media. This research aimed to unravel journalistic ethics problems, especially those related to advertorials (advertisements delivered in an editorial style). The clear separation between news and advertisements is one of the two pillars of journalistic ethics, apart from separating facts and opinions to maintain journalistic independence. The research approach used was qualitative-descriptive, with data collection techniques through interviews (to journalists), observation and document searches. The results showed that most of the printed mass media studied tended to blur the boundaries between news and advertisements through various means, such as removing or shortening advertorial information.

Comparative Genomics of 42 Arcanobacterium phocae Strains

For the last 13 years, the fur industry in Europe has suffered from epidemic spouts of a severe necrotizing pyoderma. It affects all species currently farmed for fur and causes animal welfare problems and significant losses to the farmers. The causative agent of this disease was identified as Arcanobacterium phocae. Previously, this bacterium has been isolated from seals and other marine mammals, apparently causing wound and lung infections. Attempts at antibiotic treatment have been unsuccessful and the current advice on preventing the disease is to cull all animals with clinical signs. This poses an urgent question regarding possible vaccine development, as well as the need for further understanding of the pathogenicity of this organism. This study compared the whole genomes of 42 A. phocae strains isolated from seals, blue foxes, finnraccoons, mink and otter. The sequences were created using the Illumina technology and annotations were done using the RAST pipeline. A phylogenetic analysis identified a clear separation between the seal strains and the fur-animal-derived isolates, but also indicated that the bacterium readily adapts to new environments and host species with reasonable diversity. A pan- and core-genome was created and analyzed for proteins. A further analysis identified several virulence factors as well as multiple putative and secreted proteins of special interest for vaccine development.

Reposisi BULOG dalam Rencana Pembentukan Badan Pangan Nasional (Repositioning of BULOG in The Formation Plan of National Food Agency )

ABSTRAK Selama ini peran regulator pangan di Indonesia dijalankan oleh beberapa Kementerian yang berbeda-beda, akibatnya kebijakan pangan menjadi terpilah-pilah di beberapa Kementerian/Lembaga (K/L), dan sering tumpang tindih, sehingga Perum BULOG selaku operator pangan harus berkoordinasi dan bertanggung jawab kepada banyak K/L. Kondisi tersebut menyebabkan berbagai kendala dalam pelaksanaan penugasan, baik dari sisi operasional maupun sisi finansial. Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk : (i) memberikan gambaran terkait penugasan, peran dan kendala yang dihadapi BULOG sebagai lembaga pangan yang diamanatkan Pemerintah dalam menjaga ketahanan pangan khususnya pada komoditas beras; (ii) mereviu model kelembagaan pangan di negara lain ; dan (iii) Menganalisis berbagai skenario atas reposisi peran dan fungsi Perum BULOG dalam rencana pembentukan Badan Pangan Nasional di masa mendatang. Pemerintah menugaskan Perum BULOG dalam menjaga ketersediaan pangan dan stabilisasi harga pangan di tingkat konsumen dan produsen pada beberapa pangan pokok. Kendala yang dihadapi BULOG dalam pelaksanaan penugasan, baik dari segi operasional maupun finansial, yaitu: Pertama, BULOG harus mengeluarkan banyak energi, waktu dan koordinasi yang intensif dan melakukan pengendalian sepanjang rantai nilai. Kedua, BULOG kesulitan dalam perencanaan dan pelaksanaan karena efektivitas stabilisasi pangan mensyaratkan pemanfaatan alur distribusi yang mapan. Ketiga, penugasan penyerapan dan penyediaan stok kebutuhan pangan tidak didukung pendanaan dari pemerintah. Hal tersebut akan mempersulit BULOG, karena BULOG harus menanggung beban atas beras PSO yang dikelolanya. Dalam rencana pembentukan BPN, pembelajaran kunci terhadap lembaga pangan di negara lain seperti Cina, India, Filipina, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Norwegia, dan Denmark yaitu terdapat pemisahan yang jelas antara regulator dan operator dalam pelaksana bidang pangan. Regulator pangan bertanggung jawab langsung ke Presiden dan operator pangan bertanggung jawab langsung pada satu lembaga independen atau kementerian yang berada di bawah presiden dan memberikan masukan secara aktif kepada regulator. Dalam kaitan dengan itu, ada tiga opsi model pembentukan Badan Pangan Nasional (BPN): Pertama, BULOG ditransformasikan menjadi BPN. Pada opsi pertama tidak terdapat pemisahan antara regulator dan operator, dan lembaga operator hanya dapat melakukan penugasan PSO, tidak termasuk bisnis komersial. Sebagai konsekuensinya pemerintah harus menyediakan anggaran yang relatif lebih besar untuk keperluan biaya penugasan dan operasional lembaga. Kedua, transformasi BPN dari organ kementerian sedangkan BULOG tetap sebagai BUMN. Kelembagaan BULOG sebagai BUMN operator pangan tidak berubah. Ketiga, BULOG sebagai operator di bawah BPN, dengan pemisahan yang jelas antara fungsi regulator dan operator. Fungsi kelembagaan BULOG sebagai BUMN di bawah kendali BPN akan lebih diperkuat sehingga lebih mendukung upaya pencapaian target penugasan yang diberikan oleh BPN. kata kunci : BULOG, Operator, Regulator, ketahanan pangan, Badan Pangan Nasional ABSTRACT The food regulator's role in Indonesia has been carried out by several different Ministries so far. As a result, food policies have has become fragmented in several Ministries/ Agencies. It often overlaps, so that Perum BULOG, as the food operator, must coordinate and be responsible to many Ministers/agencies. This condition causes all problems and various obstacles in implementing assignments both on operational and financial sides. This paper aims to: (i) Provide an overview of the assignments, roles, and constraints faced by BULOG as a food institution mandated by the Government in maintaining food security, especially in rice commodities; (ii) Review different models of food institutions in other countries; (iii) Analyze various scenarios for repositioning the roles and functions of Perum BULOG in the formation plan of the National Food Agency in the future. The Government has assigned Perum BULOG to maintain food availability and stabilize several staple food prices both at the consumer and producer levels. Several obstacles faced by BULOG in implementing assignments both on operational and financial sides, including first, BULOG must spend a lot of time, energy, and intensive coordination and control along the value chain. Second, BULOG has difficulties in planning and implementation due to the effectiveness of food stabilization requires the use of an established distribution channels. Third, the assignment of the required food procurement and distribution is not supported by government funding. These problems have created difficulties for BULOG since BULOG has to bear the financial consequences of public service obligation costs it manages. In the formation plan of BPN, a key lesson for food institutions in other countries such as China, India, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Norway, and Denmark is that there is a clear separation between regulators and operators in implementing the food sector. Food regulators are directly responsible to the President and food operators are directly responsible to an independent agency or ministry under the President and provide active inputs to regulators. In this regard, there are three model options for the formation of the National Food Agency (BPN). First, BULOG is transformed into BPN. In this option, there is no separation between the regulator and the operator, and the operator agency can only carry out PSO assignments, but not including commercial business. Consequently, the Government must provide a relatively larger budget for the institution's assignment and operational costs. Second, the transformation of the BPN from the ministry's organs while BULOG remains as a State Owned Enterprise. BULOG's institution as a state-owned food operator has not changed. Third, BULOG as an operator under BPN, with a clear separation between regulator and operator functions. The institutional role of BULOG as a State Owned Enterpirse under the control of BPN will be further strengthened to support further efforts to achieve the assignment targets given by BPN. keywords: BULOG, Operators, Regulators, food security, National Food Agency

Query Rewriting for Incremental Continuous Query Evaluation in HIFUN

HIFUN is a high-level query language for expressing analytic queries of big datasets, offering a clear separation between the conceptual layer, where analytic queries are defined independently of the nature and location of data, and the physical layer, where queries are evaluated. In this paper, we present a methodology based on the HIFUN language, and the corresponding algorithms for the incremental evaluation of continuous queries. In essence, our approach is able to process the most recent data batch by exploiting already computed information, without requiring the evaluation of the query over the complete dataset. We present the generic algorithm which we translated to both SQL and MapReduce using SPARK; it implements various query rewriting methods. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in temrs of query answering efficiency. Finally, we show that by exploiting the formal query rewriting methods of HIFUN, we can further reduce the computational cost, adding another layer of query optimization to our implementation.