BACKGROUND Previous studies have not found a consistent association between exposure to domestic cooking using gas appliances and exacerbation of asthma. We investigated the immediate airflow response to acute exposure from single episodes of gas cooking, and peak airflow variability from continued exposure to repeated episodes of gas cooking in a group of non-smoking asthmatic women. METHODS...

This paper proposes cooking support using ubiquitous sensors. We developed a machine learning algorithm that recognizes cooking procedures by taking into account widely varying sensor information and user behavior. To provide appropriate instructions to users, we developed a Markov-model-based behavior prediction algorithm. Using these algorithms, we developed cooking support automatically disp...

The effect of residual lignin content on the mechanical strength and water absorption of kraft pulp/ polypropylene composites was studied. To meet this objective, hornbeam wood chips were converted to kraft pulp at three different alkalinities (15, 20, and 25%) and three different cooking times (60, 90, and 120 min). The residual lignin contents of these pulps were determined according to the T...

The ability of domestic cooking gas to induce hepatotoxicity and clastogenicity in mice was studied. The mice were exposed to domestic gas for twenty-one days at doses of 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg respectively. The positive control group of mice were given sodium arsenite intraperitoneously at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg body weight. While the negative control group had only distilled water, s...

A community-based study was conducted to determine personal risk factors and environmental sources of lead exposure for elevated blood lead levels (≥ 10 µg/dl, EBLLs) among rural children living at the Thailand-Myanmar border in Tak Province, northwestern Thailand. Six hundred ninety-five children aged 1-14 years old were screened for BLLs. Environmental specimens for lead measurements included...

A large body of evidence has confirmed that the indoor air pollution (IAP) from biomass fuel use is a major cause of premature deaths, and acute and chronic diseases. Over 78% of Sri Lankans use biomass fuel for cooking, the major source of IAP in developing countries. We conducted a review of the available literature and data sources to profile biomass fuel use in Sri Lanka. We also produced t...

The study was conducted to investigate the optimum conditions for biodiesel formation from pure (virgin) soybean cooking oil (PSCO) and waste soybean cooking oil (WSCO) coming after alkaline transesterification process in combination with methanol, ethanol and 1-butanol. Some important variables such as volumetric ratio, types of reactants and catalytic activities were selected to obtain a high...

Six groups of grass carp (average weight 266.9 ± 0.6 g) were fed diets containing 197, 385, 770, 1082, 1436 and 1795 mg choline/kg, for 8 weeks. Fish growth, and muscle nutrient (protein, fat and amino acid) content of young grass carp were significantly improved by appropriate dietary choline. Furthermore, muscle hydroxyproline concentration, lactate content and shear force were improved by op...

This study was performed to determine the influence of pig breed and gender on the ultimate pH and physicochemical properties of pork. The correlations between pH and pork quality traits directly related to carcass grade, and consumer's preference were also evaluated. The pH and meat grading scores for cold carcasses of 215 purebred pigs (Duroc, Landrace, and Yorkshire) from four different farm...

The objective of this experiment was to compare the effects of belt grill and Open Hearth electric broiler cookery on palatability and cooking traits of longissimus steaks. The longissimus thoracis from carcasses of grain-fed steers or heifers was used. Duplicate measurements were made for Warner-Bratzler shear force at 3 and at 14 d after slaughter (n = 180) and trained sensory evaluation at 1...