Vinegar and its Uses

Vinegar is a liquid consisting mainly of acetic acid (CH₃COOH) and water. The acetic acid is produced by the fermentation of ethanol byacetic acid bacteria.^[1] Vinegar is now mainly used as a cooking ingredient. Historically, as the most easily available mild acid, it had a great variety of industrial, medical, and domestic uses, some of which (such as its use as a general household cleanser) are still promoted today.

Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. In general, slow methods are used with traditional vinegars, and fermentation proceeds slowly over the course of months or a year. The longer fermentation period allows for the accumulation of a nontoxic slime composed of acetic acid bacteria. Fast methods add mother of vinegar (bacterial culture) to the source liquid before adding air to oxygenate and promote the fastest fermentation. In fast production processes, vinegar may be produced in 20 hours to three days. With those fast processes, commercial vinegar contains residual alcohol.

Uses:

Vinegar is commonly used in food preparation, in particular in picklingprocesses, vinaigrettes, and other salad dressings. It is an ingredient in sauces such as mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise. Vinegar is sometimes used while makingchutneys. It is often used as a condiment.Marinades often contain vinegar. In terms of its shelf life, vinegar's acidic nature allows it to last indefinitely without the use of refrigeration.^[23]

Condiment for beetroot – cold, cooked beetroot is commonly eaten with vinegar and other ingredientsCondiment for fish and chips (UK: chips; US: French fries) – in Britain, Ireland, Canada and Australia, salt and malt vinegar is sprinkled on chips. In Canada, white vinegar is also often used.Flavoring for potato chips (UK: potato crisps; US: potato chips) – many American, Canadian, British and Australian manufacturers of packaged potato chips include a variety flavored with vinegar and salt.Vinegar pie – a North American variant on the dessert called chess pie. It is flavored with a small amount of cider vinegar and some versions also contain raisins, spices and sour cream.^[24]Pickling – any vinegar can be used to pickle foods.Cider vinegar and sauces – cider vinegar usually is not suitable for use in delicate sauces.Apple cider vinegar – Usually placed on the table in small bowls or cups so that people can dip their crab meat into it. Also mixed with water and used to steam crabs.^[25]Substitute for fresh lemon juice – cider vinegar can usually be substituted for fresh lemon juice in recipes and obtain a pleasing effect although it lacks the vitamin C.Saucing roast lamb – pouring cider vinegar over the meat when roasting lamb, especially when combined with honey or when sliced onions have been added to the roasting pan, produces a sauce.Sweetened vinegar is used in the dish ofpork knuckles and ginger stew, which is made among Chinese people of Cantonese backgrounds to celebrate the arrival of a new child.^[26]Sushi rice – Japanese use rice vinegar as an essential ingredient for sushi rice.Red vinegar – Sometimes used in Chinese soups.Flavoring – used in the Southern U.S. to flavor collard greens, green beans, black-eyed peas, or cabbage to taste.Commonly put into mint sauce, for general palate preference.Vinegar – especially the coconut, cane, or palm variety – is one of the principal ingredients of Philippine cuisine.White vinegar can be used as flavoring in ham and beans.

Beverage

Several beverages are made using vinegar, for instance Posca. Other preparations range from simply mixing sugar water or honey water with small amounts of fruity vinegar to making syrup by laying fruit or mint in vinegar essence for several days, then sieving off solid parts, and adding considerable amounts of sugar. Some prefer to also boil the result as a final step. These recipes have lost much of their popularity with the rise of carbonated beverages, such as soft drinks.

Medical

Many remedies and treatments have been ascribed to vinegar over millennia and in many different cultures; however, few have been verifiable using controlled medical trials and many that are effective to some degree have significant side-effects and carry the possibility of serious health risks.^[27]

Possible cholesterol and triacylglycerol effects

A 2006 study concluded that a test group of rats fed with acetic acid (the main component of vinegar) had "significantly lower values for serum total cholesterol and triacylglycerol" and other health benefits.^[28] Rats fed vinegar or acetic acid have lower blood pressure than controls, although the effect has not been tested in humans.^[27] Reduced risk of fatalischemic heart disease was observed among human participants in a trial who ate vinegar and oil salad dressings frequently.^[27]

Blood glucose control and diabetic management

Prior to hypoglycemic agents, diabetics used vinegar teas to control their symptoms.^[27]Small amounts of vinegar (approximately 25g of domestic vinegar) added to food, or taken along with a meal, have been shown by a number of medical trials to reduce theglycemic index of carbohydrate food for people with and without diabetes.^[29][30][31]This also has been expressed as lower glycemic index ratings in the region of 30%.^[32][33]

Diet control

Multiple trials indicate that taking vinegar with food increases satiety (the feeling of fullness) and, so, reduces the amount of food consumed.^[34][35] Daily intake of 15 mL of vinegar (750 mg acetic acid) might be useful in the prevention of metabolic syndrome by reducing obesity.^[36]

Antimicrobial and medicinal

Vinegar was thought to be useful for treating infections in ancient times. Hippocrates(460–377 BC) prescribed it for curingpleurisy, fever, ulcers, and constipation; it was used by the ancient Egyptians to kill bacteria. When combined with honey to create oxymel, it was a common cough medicine in the ancient world. Vinegar also had multiple uses in ancient Babylon, where it was made from wine beginning around 5000 BC. The Babylonians used vinegar to preserve food and as a component of medicines.^[37]

Researchers at the Food Biotechnology Department, Instituto de la Grasa (CSIC) in Seville, Spain conducted research on the antimicrobial activity of several food products, including vinegar. The following microorganisms were used in the study: S. aureus, L. monocytogenes, S. Enteritidis, E.coli0157:H7, S. sonnei, and Yersinia sp. Vinegar (5% acetic acid) showed bactericidal activity against all strains tested,^[38] which was attributed to its acidity.

The phenolic composition analysis of vinegar shows the presence of gallic acid, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, catechin, vanillic acid,caffeic acid, syringic acid, vanillin,syringaldehyde, p-coumaric acid, m-coumaric acid, anisaldehyde, epicatechin, sinapic acid,salicylaldehyde, scopoletin, veratraldehydeand o-coumaric acid.^[39][40]

The active ingredient in vinegar, acetic acid, can effectively kill mycobacteria, even highly drug-resistant strains. Acetic acid could therefore be used as an inexpensive and non-toxic disinfectant against drug-resistanttuberculosis (TB) bacteria as well as other stubborn, disinfectant-resistant mycobacteria.^[41][42]

See cleaning uses for further references regarding antimicrobial use.

Other medicinal

Applying vinegar to common jellyfish stings deactivates the nematocysts; however, placing the affected areas in hot water is a more effective treatment because the venom is deactivated by heat. The latter requires immersion in 45 °C (113 °F) water for at least four minutes for the pain to be reduced to less than what would be accomplished using vinegar.^[43] This does not apply to thePortuguese man o' war, which, although generally considered to be a jellyfish, is not; vinegar applied to Portuguese man o' war stings can cause their nematocysts to discharge venom, making the pain worse.^[44]

Vinegar has been shown ineffective for use against lice.^[45] Combined with 60% Salicylic acid it is significantly more effective than placebo for the treatment of warts.^[46]

Contrary to popular belief, vinegar cannot be used as a detoxification agent to circumventurinalysis testing for cannabis.^[47][48]

Potential hazards

Like other acids, the acetic acid in vinegar attacks the enamel of the teeth and will cause decay and sensitivity in the teeth. Like with other acids the recommendations are to minimize consumption, minimize time in the mouth, not swirl it in the mouth, and counteract the effects by using fluoride mouthwash or toothpaste^[49]

Esophageal injury by apple cider vinegar tablets has been reported, and, because vinegar products sold for medicinal purposes are neither regulated nor standardized, they vary widely in content, pH, and other respects.^[50] Long-term heavy vinegar ingestion has one recorded case of possibly causing hypokalemia, hyperreninemia, andosteoporosis.^[51]

Cervical cancer screening tool

Diluted vinegar 3% to 5%, has also been tested as an effective screening tool forcervical cancer. Vinegar changes the color of affected tissue to white, making diagnosis by inspection possible, reducing by 35% the mortality for early detection against control group.^[52]

In traditional Islamic medicine

Ibn Sina, in his famous eleventh-century bookThe Canon of Medicine, mentioned several beneficial medicinal uses for vinegar, claiming that it was a powerful clotting agent, healed burns and skin inflammations, and it relieved headaches caused by heat. He also considered vinegar a good digestive supplement.^[53] Fourteenth-century Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya also mentions the merits of vinegar in his book, Al Tibb al Nabawi (The Prophetic Medicine). In this book, he claimed that wine vinegar helps against gastric inflammation and bile, and prevents the effects of toxic medications and poisonous mushrooms.

Scientific

The electrical conductivity of many materials increases as an applied external electric field increases in strength. This is known as the "second Wien effect" and Lars Onsagerinvestigated this effect using acetic acid solutions in 1934.^[54]

Cleaning

See also: Drain cleaner § Home remedy drain cleaners

White vinegar is often used as a household cleaning agent. Because it is acidic, it can dissolve mineral deposits from glass, coffee makers, and other smooth surfaces.^[55] For most uses, dilution with water is recommended for safety and to avoid damaging the surfaces being cleaned.

Vinegar is an excellent solvent for cleaningepoxy resin and hardener, even after the epoxy has begun to harden. Malt vinegar sprinkled onto crumpled newspaper is a traditional, and still-popular, method of cleaning grease-smeared windows and mirrors in the United Kingdom.^[56] Vinegar can be used for polishing brass or bronze. Vinegar is widely known as an effective cleaner of stainless steel and glass.

Vinegar has been reputed to have strong antibacterial properties. One test by Good Housekeeping's microbiologist found that 5% vinegar is 90% effective against mold and 99.9% effective against bacteria,^[57] though another study showed that vinegar is less effective than Clorox and Lysol against poliovirus.^[58] In modern times experts have advised against using vinegar as a household disinfectant against human pathogens, as it is less effective than chemical disinfectants.^[27]

Vinegar is ideal for washing produce because it breaks down the wax coating and kills bacteria and mold. The editors of Cook's Illustrated found vinegar to be the most effective and safest way to wash fruits and vegetables, beating antibacterial soap, water and just a scrub brush in removing bacteria.^[59]

Vinegar has been marketed as an environmentally-friendly solution for many household cleaning problems. For example, vinegar has been cited recently as an eco-friendly urine cleaner for pets.^{[60][unreliable source?]}

Vinegar is effective in removing clogs from drains, polishing silver, copper and brass as well as ungluing sticker-type price tags.^[61]Vinegar is one of the best ways to restore color to upholstery like curtains and carpet.^[59]

Vinegar also can help remove wallpaper. If the paper is coated with a mixture of vinegar and boiling water, it breaks down the glue for easy removal.^[59]

Agricultural and horticultural

Vinegar can be used as an herbicide.^[62]Acetic acid is not absorbed into root systems; the vinegar will kill top growth, but perennial plants may reshoot.^[63]

AI will not kill us, says Microsoft

Microsoft Research's chief has said he thinks artificial intelligence systems could achieve consciousness, but has played down the threat to human life.

Eric Horvitz's position contrasts with that of several other leading thinkers.

Last December, Prof Stephen Hawking told the BBC that such machines could "spell the end of the human race".

Mr Horvitz also revealed that "over a quarter of all attention and resources" at his research unit were now focused on AI-related activities.

"There have been concerns about the long-term prospect that we lose control of certain kinds of intelligences," he said.

"I fundamentally don't think that's going to happen.

"I think that we will be very proactive in terms of how we field AI systems, and that in the end we'll be able to get incredible benefits from machine intelligence in all realms of life, from science to education to economics to daily life."

Mr Horvitz heads up a team of more than 1,000 scientists and engineers at Microsoft's research wing.

The division's work on AI has already helped give rise to Cortana - a voice-controlled virtual assistant that runs on the Windows Phone platform and will shortly come to desktop PCs when Windows 10 is released.

Mr Horvitz said that he believed Cortana and its rivals would spur on development of the field.

"The next if not last enduring competitive battlefield among major IT companies will be artificial intelligence," he said.

"The notion that systems that can think, listen, hear, collect data from thousands of user experiences - and we synthesise it back to enhance its services over time - has come to the forefront now.

"We have Cortana and Siri and Google Now setting up a competitive tournament for where's the best intelligent assistant going to come from... and that kind of competition is going to heat up the research and investment, and bring it more into the spotlight."

'Existential threat'

Mr Horvitz's comments were posted online in a video marking his receipt of the AAAI Feigenbaum Prize - an award for "outstanding advances" in AI research.

But while the Microsoft executive describes himself as being "optimistic" about how humans might live alongside artificial intelligences, others are more cautious.

The physicist Prof Hawking has warned that conscious machines would develop at an ever-increasing rate once they began to redesign themselves.

"Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded," he said.

Elon Musk - chief executive of car firm Tesla and rocket-maker SpaceX - has also suggested AI poses the greatest "existential threat" humankind faces.

"With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon," he told an audience of students in October.

"In all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it's like yeah he's sure he can control the demon. Didn't work out."

The Spectrum computer's inventor Sir Clive Sinclair has gone even further, saying he believes it is unavoidable that artificial intelligences will wipe out mankind.

"Once you start to make machines that are rivalling and surpassing humans with intelligence, it's going to be very difficult for us to survive," he told the BBC. "It's just an inevitability."

Several recent and forthcoming films have also focused on how people might handle the potential threat AI poses, including Ex Machina, Transcendence, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Chappie and Terminator Genisys.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mr Horvitz voiced a preference for 2014's Her, charting the relationship of a flirtatious Cortana-like app and its owner.

Privacy fears

He did, however, acknowledge one concern: AI systems risk invading people's privacy, since they will become capable of making ever-deeper inferences about users by "weaving together" the mass of data generated by human activities.

But, he added, AI itself might offer a solution to this problem.

"We've been working with systems that can figure out exactly what information they would best need to provide the best service for a population of users, and at the same time then limit the [privacy] incursion on any particular user," he said.

"You might be told, for example, in using this service you have a one in 10,000 chance of having a query ever looked at... each person only has to worry about as much as they worry about being hit by a bolt of lightning, it's so rare.

"So, I believe that machine learning, reasoning and AI more generally will be central in providing great tools for ensuring the privacy of folks at the same time as allowing services to acquire data anonymously or with only low probabilities of risk to any particular person

Chewing gum helps fight oral bacteria

LONDON: Just 10 minutes of chewing gum can remove 100 million bacteria from your mouth, according to a new study which suggests chewing gum may be as good as flossing. Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found that chewing gum can trap and remove bacteria from the oral cavity. 

In the study, five biomedical engineering students were recruited to chew two different standard types of spearmint gum for various lengths of time ranging from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. Afterward, the gum was spit into a cup filled with sterile water to be analysed, 'Medical Daily' reported. There were were about 100 million bacteria detected on each piece of chewed up gum, with the number increasing as chewing time increased. However, after 30 seconds of chewing, the gum starts to lose its adhesiveness, meaning it traps fewer bacteria overall. "Trapped bacteria were clearly visualised in chewed gum using scanning-electron-microscopy," researchers said in the paper published in the journal PLOS ONE. 

Previous research has shown that using a new, clean toothbrush without any toothpaste can remove around 100 million colony-forming units per brush, which would put chewing of gum on a par with mechanical action of a toothbrush.

Facebook suffers widespread fault

Social network Facebook became inaccessible across much of the globe for a time on Tuesday, before returning to normal service.

Millions of users were unable to access their accounts.

Users in some countries also had difficulties accessing photo-sharing app Instagram.

Facebook said it believed its own engineers had caused the problem, downplaying claims that a hacking group had been responsible.

"Earlier this evening many people had trouble accessing Facebook and Instagram," a spokeswoman told the BBC.

"This was not the result of a third-party attack but instead occurred after we introduced a change that affected our configuration systems.

"We moved quickly to fix the problem, and both services are back to 100% for everyone."

The sites appeared to have been unavailable for about 40 minutes before coming back online.

Dating app Tinder, which relies on Facebook to provide its service, was also affected by the problem.

A hacker group called Lizard Squad had tweeted about the services going offline, leading to reports that it might have been responsible. The group has been blamed for attacks at the end of last year that forced Sony's PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming services offline.

Some users took to Twitter to comment on the outage on Tuesday.

"I hope you all took advantage of the 35 second Facebook outage to Like a person in real life. #Faceboogeddon," wrote media analyst Arthur Goldstuck.

"While Facebook was down, I nailed a picture of my breakfast to a tree outside our house. Seven people have knocked to say they liked it," wrote Alistair Coleman.

Dubai claims Heathrow's traffic crown

Dubai International has taken over from Heathrow as the world's busiest international airport in terms of yearly passenger numbers.

The United Arab Emirates airport said it had just under 70.5 million passengers through in 2014, compared with around 68.1 million for Heathrow.

Dubai Airports said it had reached a "historic milestone".

Heathrow has been trying to increase capacity for a number of years, a spokeswoman said.

The airport operates at around 98% capacity,

"Britain has benefited from being home to the world's largest port or airport for the last 350 years. But lack of capacity at Heathrow means we have inevitably lost our crown to Dubai," the Heathrow spokeswoman said.

Dubai passenger numbers rose 6.1% in the year, Dubai Airports said.

"The shared goal is to make Dubai a global centre of aviation," said Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai Airports.

Samsung to be main chip supplier for next iPhone

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT !!!

SEOUL: South Korea's Samsung Electronics will be the main supplier of processors powering Apple's next iPhone, Maeil Business Newspaper has reported, citing unidentified sources in the semiconductor industry.

Samsung will be responsible for around 75% of the chip production for the next iPhone, the South Korean newspaper said.

The newspaper did not say how much the contract is worth and what other company will be supplying Apple. Samsung will make the chips from its factory in Austin, Texas, according to the report.

A Samsung spokeswoman said the company does not comment on market speculation. Apple could not be immediately reached for comment.

Four kids among 6 found with throats slit in Meerut

MEERUT: The bodies of four children, aged between 6 and 17, were found on Monday in a house on the outskirts of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. 

The locals of Samar Garden colony informed the police. The IG, DIG and SSP reached the spot and got the area cordoned off. All children had their throats slit. The police were still gathering clues when they got the news that two bodies, a woman and a man, were found about 3km from the house where the children were found dead. 

A woman, believed to be 40, and a man (around 25) were lying in a pool of blood. They too had been hacked to death by a sharp-edged weapon. The police say the two may have been in a relationship. The bodies were found in a room of an under-constructed house belonging to one Fakruddin, sources said. 

The police held a press conference in the evening. SSP Onkar Singh said, "Five of the six bodies have been identified. The woman has been identified as Rukhsana, a resident of Khatauli in Muzaffarnagar. The woman was the mother of the four children murdered." Singh further revealed that Rukhsana's husband Naved was in Muzaffarnagar jail since the last one-and-a-half years. There was a property dispute between him and his brothers. One of his brothers had lodged a case of attempt to murder against Naved and ever since he was in jail. 

The police are yet to identify the body of the man found near the woman. "Though, the investigations are on, one cannot rule out the possibility of property dispute as the motive for murders," Singh said.

Malaysian Airlines website hacked.

Hackers claiming to be from the "Lizard Squad - Official Cyber Caliphate" group have attacked the official website of Malaysia Airlines.

The national carrier's homepage currently shows a photograph of a lizard in a top hat and tuxedo.

Malaysia Airlines confirmed its site was compromised but said customers' bookings and data were not affected.

The airline is still recovering from two disasters; the disappearance of MH370 and shooting down of MH17.

On Monday morning, the main page of its website was replaced by the words "404 - Plane Not Found" and "Hacked by Lizard Squad".

Initially the words "ISIS will prevail" appeared in the browser tab for the page, but that has since disappeared.

It is not clear why Malaysia Airlines has become the target of a cyber attack nor what connection the hack has to Islamic State, the militant group sometimes referred to as ISIS which has declared an Islamic caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq.

Lizard Squad claimed on Twitter that it would release data from Malaysia Airlines, but did not specify what information it might have.

'Not been hacked'

Malaysia Airlines confirmed in a statement that its "Domain Name System (DNS) has been compromised where users are re-directed to a hacker website".

But it said its own web servers were intact and the website itself had not been hacked into.

It said "this temporary glitch does not affect [customer] bookings" and user data "remains secured". It added that it would take 22 hours to restore the website.

In March last year, flight MH370 disappeared from radar and is believed to have crashed 1,800km (1,100 miles) off Australia's west coast. A few months later MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing everyone on board.

The hacker group Lizard Squad previously claimed to have disrupted Sony and Microsoft operations, with gamers unable to log on to XBox Live and PlayStation platforms over Christmas.

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