Effect of complexation of oxidised corn starch with mineral elements on physicochemical properties

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of complexation of oxidised starch with mineral elements on its physicochemical properties. Corn starch was oxidised with sodium hypochlorite and, afterwards, modified with ions of potassium, magnesium and iron. Thus, native and modified starches were analysed for: contents of mineral elements, colour parameters (L*a*b*), water binding capacity and solubility in water at temperature of 60 and 80 °C. Thermodynamic characteristics of gelatinisation by DSC, molecular weight distribution by GPC, intrinsic viscosity and pasting properties by RVA were studied. The efficiency of incorporation of metal ions into oxidised corn starch was about 30%, 20% and 20% for potassium, magnesium and iron ions, respectively. The complexation with potassium ions caused the greatest changes in the molecular weight distribution and the intrinsic viscosity of starches and viscosity of starch pastes. Only modification of starch with iron ions affected the colour parameters of the starch. Incorporation of metal ions into starch resulted also in changes in its water binding capacity and solubility in water.     

Algorithm for finding all k nearest neighbors

A very simple algorithm for computing all k nearest neighbors in 2-D is presented. The method does not rely on complicated forms of tessellation, it only requires simple data binning for fast range searching. Its applications range from scattered data interpolation to reverse engineering.     

Component-Based is Architecture

Advances in distributed architectures and the Internet have had a strong influence on the use of component technologies. The authors discuss the organizational and technical requirements for an effective and economically viable component-based approach.     

The seismic kernel system — a large-scale exercise in fortran 77 portability

The portability of software has become a major commercial issue in recent times. Such portability does not come easily, as few if any computer languages are really portable in practice. An additional complicating factor, especially in the commercial environment, is that the resulting software must be efficient. This paper describes the design and successful implementation of a 500,000+ line portable FORTRAN 77 package for the processing of seismic data. The package exhibits demonstrably high efficiency on a wide variety of machines from minicomputers to the largest supercomputers. Experiences gained during this exercise throw much light on the integration of the various thought processes which occur during the software engineering cycle, especially the notion of locality.     

How Accurately Do Engineers Predict Software Maintenance Tasks?

Research shows considerable overlap among perfective, corrective, and adaptive maintenance tasks in software development projects. A case study involving two recent products provides further empirical evidence of this distribution and sheds light on how well programmers estimate both the type of maintenance necessary and the duration with some significant surprises     

Analysis of the Insect OS-D-Like Gene Family

Insect OS-D-like proteins, also known as chemosensory (CSP) or sensory appendage proteins (SAP), are broadly expressed in various insect tissues, where they are thought to bind short to medium chain length fatty acids and their derivatives. Although their specific function remains uncertain, OS-D-like members have been isolated from sensory organs (including the sensillum lymph in some cases), and a role in olfaction similar to that of the insect odorant binding proteins (OBP) has been suggested for some. We have identified 15 new OS-D-like sequences: four from cDNA clones described herein and 11 from sequence databases. The os-d-like genes from the Anopheles gambiae, Apis mellifera, Drosophila melanogaster, and Drosophila pseudoobscura genomes typically have single, small introns with a conserved splice site. Together with all family members entered on GenBank, a total of 70 OS-D-like proteins, representing the insect orders Diptera, Dictyoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, and Phasmatodea, were analyzed. A neighbor joining distance phenogram identified several protein similarity classes that were characterized by highly conserved sequence motifs, including (A) N-terminal YTTKYDN(V/I)(N/D)(L/V)DEIL, (B) central DGKELKXX(I/L)PDAL, and (C) C-terminal KYDP. In contrast, three similarity classes were characterized by their diversion from these conserved motifs. The functional importance of conserved amino acid residues is discussed in relation to the crystal and NMR structures of MbraCSPA6.     

Wetting properties of homopolymers and copolymers of pentafluorostyrene and methylacrylate and homopolymer blends

Polypentafluorostyrene (PPFS), polymethylacrylate (PMA), and poly(pentafluorostyrene-co-methylacrylate), poly(PFS-co-MA) were prepared and the wetting characteristics of polymer blends of PPFS and PMA were compared with that of poly(PFS-co-MA) via contact angle measurements. The critical surface tension of polypentafluorostyrene was found to be 22.6 dyne/cm, which is comparable to the value reported for polytrifluoroethylene (22 dyne/cm). The critical surface tension of poly(PFS-co-MA) is not linearly related to its composition. The polymer blends of PPFS and PMA exhibit significant surface enrichment of the fluoropolymer. The harmonic-mean method¹ was employed to determine surface tensions of these polymers and many known polymers. It is found that the method produces useful surface tension data provided the contact angle values are derived from testing liquids of dissimilar polarity.     

CEO's Corner

ABSTRACT

This article discusses adopting quality function deployment to develop an effective and efficient process measurement program. The project was conducted at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) in Norfolk, Virginia, over a 5-month period. The objective was to develop a measurement program for a software maintenance by identifying the critical metrics for the entire process. As a result, 23 quality metrics were developed for NUWC's process measurement program. Also discussed are the benefits achieved during the quality function deployment process.     

Physicochemical properties and quality parameters of herbhoneys

Herbhoney is a honey-like substance produced by bees fed on a saccharose-based food supplemented with herbal extracts or fruit juices. Having specific sensory characteristics (colour, aroma and taste), different from those of natural honeys, herbhoneys greatly extend the range of bee products. With the aim of improving the knowledge of herbhoneys of various origins, their chosen physicochemical and quality parameters were evaluated. It was found that the herbhoneys studied satisfied most of the requirements relative to natural honeys (water, hydroxymethylfurfural and saccharose contents, free acidity, and diastase number). Some of the samples showed an increased specific conductivity, characteristic of honeydew honeys, although the ash contents of herbhoneys were at a level typical of nectar honeys. The saccharose content of some herbhoneys exceeded the value allowed for most natural honeys. Mineral composition varied between the samples, being in most cases within the limits reported in this literature for natural honeys.