The effect of rice bran on physicochemical,textural and glycaemic properties of ready-to-eat extruded corn snacks

In this work, corn extruded snack products were enriched with rice bran (RB) at 10% and 15%. A co-rotating twin-screw extruder was used with a feed moisture content of 16 g 100 g⁻¹, a screw speed of 240 r.p.m. and four heating sections of the barrel (100, 140, 150 and 150 °C). The impact of RB inclusion on nutritional profile, starch digestion, physicochemical and textural properties of snack products was evaluated. RB-enriched extrudates showed a lower specific volume and hardness and higher crispness than control. RB at 15% gave a water-holding capacity lower than control. Rheology of extrudate dispersions indicated an increase in elastic interactions and solid-like behaviour with RB supplementation. Differences in rheological properties resulted in attenuation of predictive glycaemic response for RB-enriched snacks.     

Solid state reactions between SiC and Ir

Reactivity between SiC and Ir as a function of SiC-crystallinity was investigated by diffusion bonding technique under a vacuum and over the temperature range of 1200–1450 °C. As reaction products, various Ir-silicides and free unreacted-C were detected. Reactivity is strongly affected by the temperature and SiC-crystallinity involving a series of interactions, from “no reaction” to “massive exothermic reactions”. In particular, interfacial phenomena are more pronounced by the presence of defects and grain boundaries.Solid state reactions result in formation of fine C-precipitates rearranged in a quasi-periodic microstructure. On the contrary, clustering of highly ordered C-precipitates (C-graphitized) occurs after “massive reactions” take place.A relationship between the degree of graphitization (from 1 to multi-layers of graphene), temperature and SiC crystallinity was found by Raman spectroscopy. 2D-layering phenomenon is enhanced in polycrystalline SiC at high temperature.     

A Sensitivity-Based Design Space Exploration Methodology for Embedded Systems

In this paper, we propose a system-level design methodology for the efficient exploration of the architectural parameters of the memory sub-systems, from the energy-delay joint perspective. The aim is to find the best configuration of the memory hierarchy without performing the exhaustive analysis of the parameters space. The target system architecture includes the processor, separated instruction and data caches, the main memory, and the system buses. To achieve a fast convergence toward the near-optimal configuration, the proposed methodology adopts an iterative local-search algorithm based on the sensitivity analysis of the cost function with respect to the tuning parameters of the memory sub-system architecture. The exploration strategy is based on the Energy-Delay Product (EDP) metric taking into consideration both performance and energy constraints. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology has been demonstrated through the design space exploration of a real-world case study: the optimization of the memory hierarchy of a MicroSPARC2-based system executing the set of Mediabench benchmarks for multimedia applications. Experimental results have shown an optimization speedup of 2 orders of magnitude with respect to the full search approach, while the near-optimal system-level configuration is characterized by a distance from the optimal full search configuration in the range of 2%.     

DILIGENT: integrating digital library and Grid technologies for a new Earth observation research infrastructure

This paper introduces DILIGENT, a digital library infrastructure built by integrating digital library and Grid technologies and resources. This infrastructure allows different communities to dynamically build specialised digital libraries capable to support the entire e-Science knowledge production and consumption life-cycle by using shared computing, storage, content, and application resources. The paper presents some of the main software services that implement the DILIGENT system. Moreover, it exemplifies the provided features by presenting how the DILIGENT infrastructure is being exploited in supporting the activity of user communities working in the Earth Science Environmental sector. This work is partially funded by the European Commission in the context of the DILIGENT project, under the 2nd call of FP6 IST priority.     

The AFLATOX® Project: Approaching the Development of New Generation,Natural-Based Compounds for the Containment of the Mycotoxigenic Phytopathogen Aspergillus flavus and Aflatoxin Contamination

The control of the fungal contamination on crops is considered a priority by the sanitary authorities of an increasing number of countries, and this is also due to the fact that the geographic areas interested in mycotoxin outbreaks are widening. Among the different pre- and post-harvest strategies that may be applied to prevent fungal and/or aflatoxin contamination, fungicides still play a prominent role; however, despite of countless efforts, to date the problem of food and feed contamination remains unsolved, since the essential factors that affect aflatoxins production are various and hardly to handle as a whole. In this scenario, the exploitation of bioactive natural sources to obtain new agents presenting novel mechanisms of action may represent a successful strategy to minimize, at the same time, aflatoxin contamination and the use of toxic pesticides. The Aflatox^® Project was aimed at the development of new-generation inhibitors of aflatoxigenic Aspergillus spp. proliferation and toxin production, through the modification of naturally occurring molecules: a panel of 177 compounds, belonging to the thiosemicarbazones class, have been synthesized and screened for their antifungal and anti-aflatoxigenic potential. The most effective compounds, selected as the best candidates as aflatoxin containment agents, were also evaluated in terms of cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and epi-genotoxicity to exclude potential harmful effect on the human health, the plants on which fungi grow and the whole ecosystem.     

THROO: a Tracked Hybrid Rover to Overpass Obstacles

In this paper, the design, simulation and experimental tests are presented for THROO: a Tracked Hybrid Rover, which has been developed to Overpass Obstacles. The proposed mobile robot has 3-DOFs and it is capable of straight motion, turning ability and two operations, namely rover-like motion with tracks on flat terrain and walking-like motion with track and legs to overpass obstacles to move on uneven terrain. The leg mechanism is composed of a four-bar linkage, which has been synthesized according to the desired features. In particular, the Burmester problem, which aims at finding the geometric parameters of a four-bar linkage required for a prescribed set of finitely separated poses are solved for the case understudy. Dynamic simulations have been carried out and a prototype has been built. The proposed results show the hybrid rover ability to overpass obstacles, for which size is comparable or greater than the track high.     

A vision towards Scientific Communication Infrastructures

The two pillars of the modern scientific communication are Data Centers and Research Digital Libraries (RDLs), whose technologies and admin staff support researchers at storing, curating, sharing, and discovering the data and the publications they produce. Being realized to maintain and give access to the results of complementary phases of the scientific research process, such systems are poorly integrated with one another and generally do not rely on the strengths of the other. Today, such a gap hampers achieving the objectives of the modern scientific communication, that is, publishing, interlinking, and discovery of all outcomes of the research process, from the experimental and observational datasets to the final paper. In this work, we envision that instrumental to bridge the gap is the construction of “Scientific Communication Infrastructures”. The main goal of these infrastructures is to facilitate interoperability between Data Centers and RDLs and to provide services that simplify the implementation of the large variety of modern scientific communication patterns.     

Spectral‐ALS data fusion for different roughness parameterizations of forested floodplains

Natural river floodplains and adjacent wetlands grow typically a diverse and heterogeneous combination of herbs, shrubs and trees, which play an essential role in determining the total flow resistance. Hydrodynamic effects of trees in forested floodplains can provide the majority of flow resistance during flood events. Nevertheless, ground‐based techniques to acquire vegetation parameters are expensive and difficult to apply over long reaches. This paper presents a novel method of automated roughness parameterization of riparian woody vegetation by fusion of Quickbird multi‐spectral image with airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. The data fusion approach includes: individual tree detection and estimation of vegetation metrics from light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data, assessment of predictive models for the vegetation parameters and spatial mapping of the vegetation parameters for the forest plants in the riparian corridor. The proposed method focuses on estimation of plant density (d), crown diameters (D_C), tree height (h), stem diameter (D_S), crown base height (cbh) and leaf area index (LAI). The procedure is tested along a 14‐km reach of the Sieve River (Tuscany, Italy) characterized by high woody plant density. Due to the complex study area, the data fusion approach explains with variable reliability the local vegetation properties (R²(D_C) = 0.14, R²(h) = 0.84, R²(D_S) = 0.25, R²(cbh) = 0.66). The generated structural parameter maps represent spatially explicit data layers that can be used as inputs to hydrodynamic models used to analyse flow resistance effects in different submergence conditions of vegetation. A simple flow resistance model was applied over a test area comparing the results of the proposed method and a traditional ground‐based approach. The modelling results showed that the new method is able to provide accurate output data to describe the interaction between water levels and bio‐mechanical characteristics of vegetation. The proposed methodology provides a fast, repeatable and accurate way of obtaining floodplain roughness, which enables regular updating of vegetation characteristics. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of participation, facilitator styles, and metacognitive reflection on knowledge building in online university courses

Understanding how to foster knowledge building in online and blended learning environments is a key for computer-supported collaborative learning research. Knowledge building is a deeply constructivist pedagogy and kind of inquiry learning focused on theory building. A strong indicator of engagement in knowledge building activity is the socio-cognitive dynamic of epistemic agency, in which students exercise a higher level of agency for setting forth their ideas and negotiating fit with those of others rather than relying on their teacher. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of (a) levels of participation, (b) facilitator styles and (c) metacognitive reflection on knowledge building in two blended, post-secondary education contexts. A study of a total of 67 undergraduate students suggest that high levels of participation, a supportive facilitator style, and ample opportunities for metacognitive reflection on the students’ own participation strategies are most conducive for fostering epistemic agency for knowledge building. Implications of these results for research and instructional design of online courses are discussed.