粮食吸湿及湿空气在粮堆中的扩散特性研究

研究了粮食的吸湿特性和湿空气在粮堆中的扩散特性.结果表明:粮食在湿空气中吸湿速度较快,安全水分小麦直接暴露于RH80%条件下,4 d左右水分即可达到基本平衡.但如果没有外部力量推动,湿空气在粮堆中扩散速度很慢,维持小麦、玉米和稻谷的初始相对湿度与环境相对湿度差值超过10%的条件,30 d、0.5 m粮层的相对湿度升高值均小于4%.温差对湿空气在粮堆中的扩散有较强的推动作用,在温差20℃和RH85%的条件下,对局部粮食的增湿速度,湿空气影响粮堆的深度和粮食的增湿量均显著大于无温差条件的结果.     

Impact of cryoconcentration on casein micelle size distribution,micelles inter-distance,and flow behavior of skim milk during refrigerated storage

Cryoconcentration combined with a cascade effect was used to concentrate skim milk up to 25.12% total dry matter. Size, shape, and inter-micellar distance of casein micelles were characterized by ZetasizerNano-ZS, transmission electron microscopy, and ImageJ analyses. Flow properties of the cryoconcentrated skim milk were evaluated during 5 weeks of storage under refrigerated condition at 4 °C. Milk color was also evaluated according to the L*, a*, and b* system. The cryoconcentrated skim milk obtained after three cryoconcentration cycles was characterized by a monomodal distribution of its micelles with a tendency to smaller casein micelles. Approximately 60% of the total micellar volume was occupied by the casein micelles with a size of 100–200 nm, less than 18% of the volume with a size of 50–100 nm and only less than 1% was occupied by micelles with a size > 350 nm. This result shows that cryoconcentration changed the distribution of the mean size of the casein micelles to smaller units. No significant difference was observed on the inter-micellar distance. Cryoconcentration significantly improved the color of skim milk by increasing the L* value up to 67 which was similar to that of whole milk. Transition from a Newtonian to a non-Newtonian behavior was observed from the fourth week storage with a slight increase of casein micelle size.Industrial relevanceA concentration procedure of skim milk based on a complete block cryoconcentration technique was proposed. Application of this sub-zero technology permitted the concentration of skim milk total dry matter up to 25%. The casein micelle size was positively affected by moving the major part of the micelles toward the smaller size, whereas the inter-micellar distance was not affected. This new knowledge can be exploited in milk-based products to enhance the product stability. The cryoconcentrated skim milk color was positively affected since its L* value, which represents the milk whiteness, was significantly improved. The flow behavior of the cryoconcentrated milk was of Newtonian type up to 4 weeks of storage at 4 °C. The generated knowledge in this study can be easily used by the milk processing industry in order to make stable milk product with high dry matter content without adding milk powder, which negatively affects the product sensory properties (floury consistency).     

Analysis of chemical compounds and toxicological evaluation of Forsythia suspensa leaves tea

To determine the compositions of Forsythia suspensa leaves tea (FSLT) and its safety, the chemical compounds were analysed with some methods, and the toxicity was evaluated in Kunming mice and Wistar rats. The results showed that FSLT contained rich flavonoid, lignans, triperpene acids, amino acids, and mineral elements. In the acute toxicity study, none of the mice died, and no obvious poisoning symptoms were observed after 14 days in mice at the dose of 15 mg/g·body weight (bw) FSLT; in the sub-chronic toxicity, no abnormal or dead rat was found at the dose of 1, 3, and 10 mg/g·bw during 90 days feeding administration; there was no significant difference in bw and food consumption; no significant differences were found in each hematology and serum biochemistry parameter and organ/body weight ratio comparing with the control experimental group. The results revealed that the FSLT has low or no toxicity via oral administration. Therefore, FSLT is very suitable and safe to be used as a new resource food.     

Effects of different drying methods on the physical characteristics and flavor of dried hawthorns (Crataegus spp.)

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to compare the physical characteristics and flavor of dried hawthorns obtained by freeze-drying (FD), microwave freeze-drying (MFD), atmospheric freeze-drying (AFD), and heat pump drying (HPD). The parameters including moisture content, product temperature, rehydration ratio, chroma, hue angle, yellowness index, total color difference, and energy consumption were investigated. The use of fuzzy reasoning for the sensory evaluation of hawthorn quality was also performed. As expected, AFD, FD, and MFD produced better accepted dried hawthorn products than did HPD. Nevertheless, FD consumed the highest energy and had a long drying time, but its product was the best; AFD had a similar energy cost as HPD, but its drying time was the longest; and MFD had a higher energy cost and longer drying time than HPD, but its product quality was similar to that of FD products. As a result, MFD and AFD had potential to replace FD to yield dried hawthorns with high product quality and relatively low cost.     

A Gaussian-based kernel Fisher discriminant analysis for electronic nose data and applications in spirit and vinegar classification

Fisher discriminant analysis (FDA) is a very useful pattern recognition technique widely used in electronic nose system (e-nose). However, due to its linear characteristic, the classification problems of multi-class and high-dimensional e-nose data cannot be handled effectively. Therefore, a Gaussian-based kernel FDA (KFDA) method is proposed to solve multi-class and high-dimensional classification problems of complex samples such as food classification using e-nose. The key point of the method is how to determine the Gaussian kernel parameter. Firstly, according to distance discriminant analysis viewpoint, a desired kernel matrix adapted to Gaussian kernel function can be given successfully. Secondly, an evaluation function based on Euclidean distance is established for measuring the degree of approximation between actual kernel matrix containing an unknown Gaussian kernel parameter and the desired kernel matrix so as to get an optimal solution of the parameter, and then the actual kernel matrix can be definitely determined. Finally, the principal component analysis (PCA) for the actual kernel matrix is carried out. Meanwhile, FDA for the principal component matrix generated by PCA is also implemented in succession, and the KFDA is completed. Six kinds of Chinese spirit and six kinds of Chinese vinegar samples as two classification applications were respectively carried out accurately with the KFDA method; and the KFDA method is tested to be very simple and effective. The KFDA method may be promising for complex samples classification dataset of e-nose.     

Effects of light exposure on chlorophyll,sugars and vitamin C content of fresh‐cut celery (Apium graveolens var. dulce) petioles

Effects of light exposure (24 μmol m^?2 s^?1) on fresh‐cut celery nutritional quality were evaluated during 8‐day storage at 7 °C using darkness as control. Light exposure preserved 47% chlorophyll a and 48% chlorophyll b contents more than darkness at the end of storage. Sucrose, reducing sugar and glucose contents in light‐stored petioles were 17%, 25% and 67% higher than those in dark‐stored petioles after 8‐day storage, respectively, thus resulting in higher total soluble solids content in light condition. Moreover, l ‐ascorbic acid content increased at 2‐day storage in light condition and was 46% more than in darkness at the end of storage. The fresh weight loss significantly increased in all petioles, and this increase was markedly accelerated by light exposure with a maximum of 1.43% at the end of storage. Dry matter content was induced more by light exposure than by darkness at 2‐day storage.     

Reactivity investigation on biomass chemical looping conversion for syngas production

Chemical looping gasification (CLG) is regarded as an innovative and promising technology for producing syngas. In this work, CLG of straw was conducted in a fixed bed reactor with Fe₂O₃ as the oxygen carrier, whose results led to conclusions that Fe₂O₃, the oxygen carrier, proved advantageous to the secondary gasification reaction and the formation of CO and CO₂. It was also found that CO was further oxidized to CO₂ at high Fe₂O₃/C molar ratio, which resulted in a decreased gasification efficiency and low heat value of syngas. Therefore, a conclusion was drawn that the most optimized Fe₂O₃/C molar ratio was 0.2. In addition, the alkali metals in the biomass evaporated as chlorine salts into gas phase and retained as alkali metal oxide at high temperature, resulting in coking, slagging and heating surface corrosion. In the mean time, the oxygen carrier mainly converted to Fe and sintering phenomenon was serious at high temperature despite the fact that high temperature promoted gas yield, carbon conversion efficiency and gasification efficiency. Therefore, the most optimized temperature was set to 800 °C in order to maximize gas yield and gasification efficiency.     

Polyaniline-graphene composites with a three-dimensional array-based nanostructure for high-performance supercapacitors

The ordered three-dimensional arrays conjugative polyaniline–graphene composites were fabricated through in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline in the presence of amino-functionalized graphene sheets (AFG), in which polyaniline (PANI) polymerization is initiated by those amino groups on graphene. Therefore, the resulting PANI nanorod arrays are integrated into a large conjugative frame based on chemical covalent bond incorporation. The structure and properties of these resulting composites were characterized and evaluated by combining Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscope, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy analyses and electrochemical techniques. Morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the density and size of ordered PANI nanorod arrays can be manipulated by simply varying the amount of AFG. Such resultant composite exhibits high special capacitance, together with low electrical resistance and excellent cycling stability attributed to conjugative covalent bonds and ordered PANI nanorod arrays. Meanwhile, a new time-dependent heterogeneous nucleation mechanism was proposed and investigated in detail.