Gluten-free cakes with walnut flour: a technological,sensory, and microstructural approach

Walnut flour (WF), a by-product of walnut oil production, is characterised by high polyunsaturated fatty acids, proteins, and fibre contents and presents suitability for bakery products. However, when using non-traditional ingredients, it is essential to evaluate the effect on the quality properties of the final product. So, this work aimed to assess the impact of WF on the technological, physicochemical, and sensory properties of gluten-free (GF) cakes. WF was added at a flour blend (cassava (CS) and maize (MS) starches and rice flour) at 0, 10%, 15%, and 20%. The results showed that WF modified starch gelatinisation, increased amylose–lipid complex (ALC) content, and made crumbs easier to chew. Besides, the total dietary fibre (TDF) and protein content significantly increased. Cakes with 15% WF presented the highest specific volume (SV) and no differences in overall acceptability with respect to control. Hence, WF is a suitable ingredient for gluten-free bakery products.     

Green Measurements for Software Product Based on Sustainability Dimensions

Software is a central component in the modern world and vastly affects the environment’s sustainability. The demand for energy and resource requirements is rising when producing hardware and software units. Literature study reveals that many studies focused on green hardware; however, limited efforts were made in the greenness of software products. Green software products are necessary to solve the issues and problems related to the long-term use of software, especially from a sustainability perspective. Without a proper mechanism for measuring the greenness of a particular software product executed in a specific environment, the mentioned benefits will not be attained. Currently, there are not enough works to address this problem, and the green status of software products is uncertain and unsure. This paper aims to identify the green measurements based on sustainable dimensions in a software product. The second objective is to reveal the relationships between the elements and measurements through empirical study. The study is conducted in two phases. The first phase is the theoretical phase, where the main components, measurements and practices that influence the sustainability of a software product are identified. The second phase is the empirical study that involved 103 respondents in Malaysia investigating current practices of green software in the industrial environment and further identifying the main sustainability dimensions and measurements and their impact on achieving green software products. This study has revealed seven green measurements of software product: Productivity, Usability, Cost Reduction, Employee Support, Energy Efficiency, Resource Efficiency and Tool Support. The relationships are statistically significant, with a significance level of less than 0.01 (p = 0.000). Thus, the hypothesised relationships were all accepted. The contributions of this study revolve around the research perspectives of the measurements to attain a green software product.     

基于LP与小波包的复杂机电系统监测序列混沌降噪方法

针对流程工业生产系统监测数据存在强噪声和混沌性的特点,提出了一种局部投影方法(Local Projection Method)与小波包方法相结合的信号降噪方法。该方法先利用局部投影方法从动力学系统嵌入流形的角度进行多次迭代降噪,并根据关联维数来判定迭代终止;再利用小波包方法从频率的角度进行降噪,抑制高频噪声的干扰,取得了较好的降噪效果。用Lorenz时间序列进行仿真验证,对仿真时间序列加入不同程度的噪声,对比分析小波包、局部投影与该方法降噪后的相空间、SNR值和最大Lyapunov指数,证明了该方法对于中高强度噪声具有更好的降噪效果。并将该方法用于某压缩机组的实际监测数据降噪,评估三种方法的降噪效果,进一步验证了该方法的优越性。     

Replenishment policy for a purchase-to-order seller: a tradeoff between ordering cost and delay cost

We consider replenishment decisions on when and how many goods to purchase for a seller under a purchase-to-order mode where there is no inventory and the seller purchases goods to fulfil orders already placed. For each purchase, there is a constant ordering cost. For each order, delay cost will be incurred if it is not fulfilled timely. Generally, the more frequent the replenishment, the higher the ordering cost but the lower the delay cost. Consequently, there is a tradeoff between the ordering cost and the delay cost for the seller to make replenishment decisions minimising the total cost. In this paper, we study three cases of the problem and investigate both offline versions and online versions according to the seller's knowledge about information of future orders. For offline versions with perfect information, we either develop an optimal policy, or prove it is NP-hard and develop an approximation policy. For online versions without any information about future orders, from the perspective of competitive analysis we prove the lower bound of competitive ratio for any possible online policy and present a 10-competitive online policy for the general case and a 2-competitive online policy for each of two special cases.     

温拌LDPE改性沥青混合料性能研究

选择Sasobit和Evotherm 3G两种温拌剂对温拌LDPE沥青混合料制备工艺和性能进行研究。首先,比较变温等体积法和等黏温度法两种方法,并确定两种温拌混合料的拌和及击实温度。在此基础上,分别采用车辙试验、低温弯曲试验、中点加载弯曲试验以及冻融劈裂试验评价70#、LDPE、Sasobit-LDPE以及3G-LDPE四种沥青混合料的高温性能、低温性能、疲劳性能和水稳定性。结果表明,两种温拌技术均是可行的,Sasobit和3G温拌技术可使施工温度降低20℃和15℃。与热拌LDPE沥青混合料相比,Sasobit温拌沥青混合料具有更好的高温性能和水稳定性,在高应力比条件下抗疲劳性能更好,低温性能虽变差,但是优于70#沥青混合料;3G温拌沥青混合料的高温性能,低温性能以及水稳定性则与热拌LDPE沥青混合料各项性能较为接近,抗疲劳性能变差,但是优于70#沥青混合料。     

镁质熔剂性球团矿相的多重分形谱

 球团矿相微观结构决定其冶金物理化学性能，为透视球团矿微观结构与其宏观冶金物理化学性能之间的依赖关系，需要解决的首要关键问题是矿相微观视觉特征的提取与定量表征。以镁质熔剂性球团微观矿相为研究对象，在直观分析矿相视觉特征的基础上，采用多重分形谱分析方法，提取矿相的微观多重分形谱定量表征值f（α），并分别深度挖掘由f（α）衍生出的对称度特征值Δf、谱宽特征值Δα、容量维特征值D（0）随碱度变化的迁移规律和随矿相检测位置变化的迁移规律。研究结果表明，矿相微观视觉特征在HSV颜色空间上呈现的颜色特征未在碱度变化和位置变化上存在显著差异性；矿相微观多重分形谱分析中，Δf、Δα、D（0） 3个特征值在碱度变化和位置变化上有显著的差异性，可以很好地表征碱度迁移规律和位置迁移规律。     

Ergonomic mismatch between students anthropometry and university classroom furniture

University students spend most of their time in classrooms, mostly in a sitting position. Prolonged sitting on ill-fitted furniture and the resulting bad posture is making students suffer from different musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). This study evaluates the potential mismatch between furniture dimensions and anthropometric measurements. To determine potential mismatch, 13 anthropometric measurements of 550 students and 11 dimensions of two types of classroom furniture (mounted-desktop and chair-with-table) were measured and then compared. Additionally, chi-square test was performed to compare the relation between anthropometry and relevant furniture dimensions. Results showed that a significant number of mismatches emerged between anthropometric measurements and furniture dimensions. For both types of furniture, seat height was too high and seat depth was too deep. Moreover, for mounted desktop, desk height is almost appropriate for all students whereas for chair and table, it was too high for the males. These circumstances may lead to increase discomfort and increase MSDs problems among all students. It can be concluded that the dimensions of both types of classroom furniture were not appropriate for users according to anthropometric measurements. This analysis recommends the measurements of furniture dimensions based on participants’ anthropometric measurements to avoid or minimise discomfort and MSDs problems.     

Enhancement of resistance to galvanic corrosion of ZE41 Mg alloy by equal channel angular pressing

The galvanic corrosion behavior of as-received and ECAPed ZE41 Mg alloy coupled with Al7075 alloy is investigated using zero resistance ammeter in three different corrosive environments, 0, 0.1, and 1 M NaCl, to mimic the conditions experienced in engineering applications. The mechanism of galvanic corrosion for the ZE41 Mg–Al7075 aluminum alloy is explained. It is observed that a robust surface film containing a composite layer of oxide/hydroxide of magnesium and aluminum is established in deionized water (0 M). However, only a single layer of magnesium oxide/hydroxide is detected in chloride-containing environments. Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) improved the resistance to galvanic corrosion by 58% and 54% when compared with the as-cast counterparts in 0 and 1 M NaCl solution, respectively. In contrast, galvanic corrosion resistance decreased by 26% in 0.1 M NaCl after ECAP while the as-received samples evinced pits unfavorable to be used in engineering applications. ECAP is a promising method to combat galvanic corrosion encountered by ZE41 magnesium alloy used in automobiles and components of military vehicles.     

单自由度八杆仿生机构构型与尺度同步设计方法

单自由度八杆仿生机构杆长参数较多，是仿生机器人领域研究的难点之一。为提高设计效率，提出一种构型与尺度同步设计方法。在选定的运动链和机架的基础上，以不等式形式分步给出运动可行性及外形约束条件，使得上一步的杆长可作为下一步求解的已知值。通过该过程，在得到八杆仿生机构构型的同时，快速得到所有杆长的初步可行域。循环上述过程，逐步缩小约束条件的范围，可使得八杆机构的杆长快速接近目标值。在此基础上，分类讨论了连杆搭接顺序、约束条件及基本运动链的差异对求解难度及构型结果的影响。利用所提出的单自由度八杆仿生机构的设计方法，在对初始条件进行合理选取的前提下，可在初步得到构型的同时将杆长限定在较小范围内，实现了构型与尺度的同步设计。该方法还可应用于其他单自由度机构的设计当中，具有较好的借鉴意义。