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B. Subbulakshmi ¹, S. Amutha ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Foods and Nutrition,home Science College and Research Institute, Madurai T.N., IN
2 Department of Human Development, Home Science College and Research Institute, Madurai, T.N., IN

Abstract

Food insecurity and hunger affect over 900 million people globally each year with the most at-risk populations living in poor, underdeveloped and developing nations. More than 200 million of the world's children are hungry and at least 5 million die each year from nutrient-deficiency diseases. Maize (Zea mays) is a major cereal crop for human nutrition worldwide with its high content of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, some of the important vitamins and minerals. Maize acquired a well deserved reputation as a poor man's nutria- cereal. However, in spite of several important uses, maize has an inbuilt drawback of being deficient in two essential amino acids, viz., lysine and tryptophan and the same has been overcome by developing quality protein maize (QPM) which contains twice the quantity of lysine and tryptophan, thus, making it rich in quality of protein in maize. With this background an attempt has been made to process the maize into local south Indian foods in which nutrients are more readily available and optimally utilized. Quality protein maize (QPM) was substituted with different proportions in traditional foods (Idli, Dosa, Pittu and Adai), convenience foods (Papad and Noodles), bakery foods (Cookies and Bread) and snack foods (Vada and pakoda) which were organoleptically evaluated using 9 point hedonic scale. The entire products were scored maximum acceptability. This contributes food and nutritional security by meeting energy and protein needs of consumer. Value added products prepared from maize can help in increasing food availability, adding variety to it and make the diet rich in micronutrients with affordable price and helps to eradicate hunger and poverty.

Keywords

Maize,quality Protein Maize, Lime Treatment, Sensory Evaluation

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B. Karpagavalli ¹, S. Amutha ², T. Padmini ³, R. Palanisamy ⁴, K. Chandrakumar ⁵

Affiliations
1 Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Home Science College and Research Institute, Madurai – 625 104, Tamil Nadu, IN
2 Department of Human Development, Home Science College and Research Institute, Madurai – 625 104, Tamil Nadu, IN
3 Department of Apparel Designing & Fashion Technology, Home Science College and Research Institute, Madurai – 625 104, Tamil Nadu, IN
4 Department of Family Resource Management, Home Science College and Research Institute, Madurai – 625 104, Tamil Nadu, IN
5 Department of Soil and Environment, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai – 625 104, Tamil Nadu, IN

Abstract

Amla (Emblica officinalis) is an important crop indigenous to Indian subcontinent which is used in alternative medicine, health foods and herbal products. It is also found to be a rich source of ascorbic acid and other bioactive substances as compared to any other fruits. The current research work was taken to study the effect of processing on retention of antioxidant components in value added amla products. Amla juice, amla ready to serve (RTS) beverage, amla squash and amla candy were prepared by following standard procedures as by the FPO specifications of Indian standards. Ascorbic acid content, total poly phenols, total flavonoids, tannins and total antioxidant activity were analysed in the prepared products immediately after the preparation and the results were taken for comparison with fresh amla towards finding out the retention of the antioxidant components during processing. Sensory qualities of the prepared products were evaluated. Among the processed amla products the antioxidant components were found maximum in juice followed by candy, squash and RTS. Amla squash scored highest for overall acceptability followed by RTS, candy and juice. Amla being rich in antioxidants should be minimally processed to retain its bioactive components.

Keywords

Amla, Ascorbic acid, Poly phenols, Flavonoids, Antioxidant Activity

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S. K. Mathanghi ¹, G. Hemalatha ², S. Amutha ², S. Arulmozhiselvan ²

Affiliations
1 Dept. of Food Engg., College of Food & Dairy Technology, TANUVAS, Chennai - 600 052, IN
2 Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai - 625 104, IN

Abstract

The study examines the impact of fruit and vegetable intake of the subjects against various risk factors concerned for Cardio Vascular Diseases and it was conducted at Chennai, being a very good representative metropolitan with normo glucose tolerance subjects belonging to various income strata. A semi-validated food frequency questionnaire was used to measure the fruit and vegetable intake and macro and micronutrients consumption was calibrated using nutrition software. Surplus intake of energy (10.31% in males 27.59% in females), protein intake (33.11% in males and 46.76% in females) and deficit intake of β-carotene, ascorbic acid and folic acid were observed. Lesser intake of fruits and vegetables were associated with greater BMI (>25 kg/m²). The mean body weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), hip and waist circumferences, systolic and diastolic blood pressures were negatively associated with increase in fruit and vegetable quartiles. Biochemical measurements such as serum cholesterol, serum triglyceride, HDL, LDL, VLDL, total cholesterol to HDL ratio and post-prandial blood sugar were significantly associated with fruit and vegetable intake.

Keywords

Fruits and Vegetables, Cardiovascular Diseases, Protective Effects.

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V. Srimathi ¹, K. Sheela ², S. Amutha ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Home Science College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai - 625 104, IN
2 College of Home Science, Central Agricultural University, TURA : Meghalaya, IN

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus, long considered a disease of minor significance to world health, is now emerging as one of the main threats to human health in the 21^st century. In the Indian scenario, the World Health Organisation has estimated a sharp upswing in the number of diabetics from 19.4 million in 1995 to an expected 57.2 million by 2025.

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S. Amutha ¹, V. Ponraj ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of CSE, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, IN

Abstract

Compound document images contain graphic or textual content along with pictures. They are found in magazines, brochures, web-sites, etc in a document format. The goal is to compress an image containing the mixed raster content (MRC) using multi-layer approach. The proposed methodology segments the image into regions such as text, pictures and background. The key to MRC compression is the separation of the document into foreground and background layers, represented as a binary mask. The compression quality depends on the segmentation algorithm used to compute the binary mask.
The proposed multi-scale segmentation algorithm models the complex aspects of both local and global contextual behavior. The proposed algorithm finds the block-wise segmentation of the raster image in a global cost optimization framework. Then the initial segmentation is refined by classifying feature vectors of connected components using a Markov random field (MRF) model. Then hybrid procedures of the previous steps are then incorporated into a multi-scale framework in order to improve the segmentation accuracy of text with varying size. It is shown that the proposed methodology achieves greater accuracy of text detection but with a lower false detection rate of non-text features. This segmentation algorithm can improve the quality of decoded documents while simultaneously lowering the bit rate. It is also shown that execution time can be greatly reduced by the use of features that are not computationally intensive.

Keywords

Muliscale Image Analysis, Mixed Raster Content, Document Image Segmentation, MRC Compression, Markov Random Fields, Document Coding.

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G. Hemalatha ¹, S. Amutha ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Home Science College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai-625 104, IN

Abstract

Important traditional fish based snack foods are the crackers, known by different names in many countries of Asia. In India they are called wafers, flakes or crackers and in Malaysia they are called keropak. They are prepared from fish meat, starch, spices and salt. During frying they swell to 2-3 times their initial volume and become crisp and delicious. Minced fish meat, from either single or mixed species of fish is the raw material for the preparation of fish crackers.

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G. Hemalatha ¹, S. Amutha ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Home Science College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai - 625 104, IN

Abstract

Among the ischolar_mains and other vegetables, carrot is the best source of carotene which is the precursor of vitamin A, an essential nutrient for maintaining health. Due to the seasonal and perishable nature of carrots, various methods of processing of carrots are practised. Osmotic dehydration and candying are effective techniques where concentrated sucrose solution is used for preservation of carrots, apple, pineapple, amla etc. Chocolate coating of candied or osmo dried carrots would upgrade the product both nutritionally and taste wise. The goal of chocolate coating is to give a particular character to the various centres and enhance its acceptability. The pressed centres generally conform of nuts, puffed cereals, caramel centers, chewing gum etc. No reports have been cited on candied fruits/vegetables serving as pressed centres. Hence the present study was aimed to study the acceptability and storage behaviour of chocolate coated candied and osmo dried carrot pieces, which in addition to serving as sources of energy, would also contribute ascorbic acid and β-carotene in appreciable amounts.

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S. Amutha , S. John Kennedy

Abstract

Digital literacy is important for every digital native throughout the world since technology is changing day by day. Digital literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share and create content using information technologies and internet. Activities like creating multimedia presentations, posting information about the individual and others online are the activities in day today life for teacher education students. These require varying degrees of digital literacy. Social networking sites (SNSs) have been defined as web based services that enable individuals to construct a semi-profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share connections and views (Boyd D and Ellison N, 2007). 300 teacher trainees of both genders were taken as a sample for this survey. Questionnaire was used as a tool for collecting data which consist of 5 dimensions (i.e) General information, Communication, Education, Personality development and Difficulties in using social networking. Results revealed that teacher trainees of both genders with science background out performed the arts background teacher trainees in the awareness and utilization of social network in all the above said dimensions.

Keywords

Digital literacy, multimedia, teacher trainees, Social networking

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S. Amutha ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Loyola Institute of Technology and Science, Nagercoil, Tamilnadu, IN

Abstract

Video compression is the process of encoding a video file in such a way that it consumes less space than the original file and is easier to transmit over the network/internet. It is a type of compression technique that reduces the size of video file formats by eliminating redundant and non-functional data from the original video file. A video clip contains a series of still images (frames). Hence, to compress a video clips we can directly apply still image compression on each of these frames. In fact, this is the technique used by the “motion JPEG” standard.

Keywords

Encoding, Redundant, Still-Image.

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