Modeling of the Magnetization and Magnetocaloric Effect in Ni2MnGa Heusler Alloy with the Effective Field Theory

Journal of Low Temperature Physics - This study modeled and investigated the magnetocaloric effect in Ni2MnGa Heusler alloy characterized by its magnetic entropy change (ΔSm) and its...     

Archetypes of open-source business models

Electronic Markets - The open-source paradigm offers a plethora of opportunities for innovative business models (BMs) as the underlying codebase of the technology is accessible and extendable by...     

Contact Interaction of Turbine Blade Interlock Elements Under Creep

Strength of Materials - The effect of the creep of materials of a structure on the nature of the contact interaction between its elements during long-term operation is investigated. The problem of...     

Assessment of technological attributes of autochthonous starter cultures in Turkish dry fermented sausage (sucuk)

The study aims to evaluate the technological properties of autochthonous strains (Lactobacillus sakei S15, Lactobacillus plantarum S24, L. plantarum S91, Pediococcus pentosaceus S128b and Staphylococcus carnosus G109) in Turkish dry fermented sausage (sucuk). After 24 h of fermentaPtion, all lactic acid bacteria strains reduced the pH to below 5.0, while the pH in the control group was above 5.3. The number of lactic acid bacteria strains reached 10⁸–10⁹ cfu g⁻¹ during fermentation. Staphylococcus carnosus G109 remained at the inoculation level of 10⁶ cfu g⁻¹ during ripening. Lactobacillus sakei S15 as mono-culture showed higher TBARS values compared to other strains. The control group had the lowest L* value and autochthonous strains caused no significant difference for a* value. According to principal component analysis results, most volatile compounds were positively correlated with the group containing only L. sakei S15.     

Novel pearl millet couscous process for West African markets using a low-cost single-screw extruder

Traditional West African pearl millet couscous products are popular; however, their preparation is laborious, time-consuming and energy-demanding, involving agglomeration, steaming, drying and sieving steps. In this study, a process was developed to produce millet couscous using a high pressure, high temperature and low-cost single-screw extruder. The innovation was to directly process the cooked low-moisture extrudate to a couscous product by drying and milling to the appropriate particle size (ranging between 1 and 2 mm). Throughput for the traditional process as prepared for commercial sale is 50 kg per day, but with the same amount of labour, the extrusion process yields ~350 kg per day. A consumer sensory study held in Niamey (Niger) showed that the extruded millet couscous was comparable to traditional couscous, though this was dependent on selection of the proper millet variety. This novel extrusion process could stimulate small- to medium-scale manufacturing of couscous and couscous-type products in West Africa.     

Prediction of fish quality level with machine learning

In this study, sea bream, sea bass, anchovy and trout were captured and recorded using a digital camera during refrigerated storage for 7 days. In addition, their total viable counts (TVC) were determined on a daily basis. Based on the TVC, each fish was classified as ‘fresh’ when it was <5 log cfu per g, and as ‘not fresh’ when it was >7 log cfu per g. They were uploaded on a web-based machine learning software called Teachable Machine (TM), which was trained about the pupils and heads of the fish. In addition, images of each species from different angles were uploaded to the software in order to ensure the recognition of fish species by TM. The data of the study indicated that the TM was able to distinguish fish species with high accuracy rates and achieved over 86% success in estimating the freshness of the fish species tested.     

Applications of analytical electron microscopy to guide the design of boron carbide

Compositional analysis of boron carbide on nanometer length scales to examine or interpret atomic mechanisms, for example, solid-state amorphization or grain-boundary segregation, is challenging. This work reviews advancements in high-resolution microanalysis to characterize multiple generations of boron carbide. First, ζ-factor microanalysis will be introduced as a powerful (scanning) transmission electron microscopy ((S)TEM) analytical framework to accurately characterize boron carbide. Three case studies involving the application of ζ-factor microanalysis will then be presented: (1) accurate stoichiometry determination of B-doped boron carbide using ζ-factor microanalysis and electron energy loss spectroscopy, (2) normalized quantification of silicon grain-boundary segregation in Si-doped boron carbide, and (3) calibration of a scanning electron microscope X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS) system to measure compositional homogeneity differences of B/Si-doped arc-melted boron carbides in the as-melted and annealed conditions. Overall, the improvement and application of advanced analytical tools have helped better understand processing–microstructure–property relationships and successfully manufacture high-performance ceramics.     

Adaptive Group Teaching Based Clustering and Data Aggregation with Routing in Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless Personal Communications - Nowadays, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is enhancing for different applications. Simultaneously, energy consumption for processing the tasks in most of the...