The effects of ozone,ultrasound and coating with shellac and lysozyme–chitosan on fresh egg during storage at ambient temperature – part 1: interior quality changes

The objective of this research was to investigate and compare the effect of different treatments including gaseous ozone (6-ppm/4-min), ultrasound (450 W/4 min) and coating of shellac, lysozyme–chitosan (L-C) on fresh eggs internal quality during storage for six weeks at ambient temperature. The internal quality attributes such as weight loss (WL), albumen viscosity, Haugh unit (HU), yolk index, total soluble solids, albumen and yolk's pH were monitored. Control groups had the worst HU (50.04), WL (8.35%), albumen pH (9.27) and viscosity (7.72 mPa·s) values after storage. The best interior qualities were obtained by shellac coating [HU (72.37), WL (1.37) and viscosity (30.10 mPa·s)] and sonication (albumen pH: 8.22). Thus, the shellac-coated eggs maintained all the internal quality parameters at the highest values, while the ozone and ultrasound only helped to keep the internal quality and enhance the shelf life of eggs.     

The use of basalt powder as a natural heterogeneous catalyst in the Fenton and Photo-Fenton oxidation of cationic dyes

The use of naturally present heterogeneous catalysts has recently been an essential issue in the Fenton and photo-Fenton processes. In this study, the uses of basalt as a catalyst for the Fenton and photo-Fenton reactions for methylene Blue (MB) and Basic Red 18 (BR18) degradations were investigated. Basalt was selected because of the presence of the iron (III) oxide in the structure. Basalt was characterized by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis to obtain the chemical composition and the crystalline phase. The surface charge and the surface area were obtained by zeta potential and Brunauer Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were utilized to explore the functional group and the surface morphology. Fenton and photo-Fenton processes were applied to explore the best degradation method. Adsorption was also tested and the adsorption process had minimum removal efficiency (12% for MB and 17% for BR18). The removal efficiencies for MB and BR18 by the Fenton process were 87% and 28%, respectively. The photo-Fenton process had maximum removal efficiency with 100% for MB and 70% for BR18. The optimum conditions were 70 mg/L dye concentration, 5 mM H₂O₂, 1.0 g/L basalt loading and pH 2. Basalt has shown reuse capability as a catalyst for three consecutive cycles.     

Reusable water oxidation catalyst with dual active center for enhanced water oxidation: Iridium oxide nanoparticles immobilized on monodisperse-porous Mn5O8 microspheres

A reusable catalyst with dual active center for chemical water oxidation is synthesized for the first time by immobilization of iridium oxide nanoparticles (IrO₂ NPs) on monodisperse-porous manganese oxide microspheres acting both catalytic active center and support. Individual catalytic activity of manganese oxide microspheres is explained by multiple oxidation states of manganese which are capable of forming oxidative oxygen species. Monodisperse-porous microspheres in the form of Mn₅O₈, MnO₂ and Mn₂O₃ are used for synthesis of different catalysts and the highest activity in water oxidation is observed with the catalyst synthesized using Mn₅O₈ microspheres. The catalytic activity is correlated with the total Mn(II) and Mn(III) percentage of manganese oxide type selected for composite catalyst. The oxygen evolution up to 244 μmol is achieved in 30 min with the catalyst synthesized using Mn₅O₈ microspheres. Maximum TON and TOF numbers are obtained as 298 and 557 h^?1 with excellent reusability.     

Assessing landscape perception of urban rocky habitats

The urban landscape structure and its changing characteristics have produced various effects on natural and human systems of its own and surroundings [Gilbert OL. The ecology of urban habitats. London: Chapman & Hall; 1991 [1]; Rebele F. Urban ecology and special features of urban ecosystems. Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters 1994;4:173–87 [2]; Rees WE. Urban ecosystems: the human dimension. Urban Ecosystems 1997;1:63–75 [3]; Pickett STA, Cadenasso ML, Grove JM, Nilon CH, Pouyat RV, Zipperer WC, et al. Urban ecological systems: linking terrestrial ecological, physical, and socioeconomic components of metropolitan areas. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 2001;32:127–57 [4]; Hope D, Gries C, Zhu WX, Fagan WF, Redman CL, Grimm NB, et al., Socioeconomics drive urban plant diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2003;100(15):8788–92 [5]; Pickett STA, Cadenasso ML, Grove JM. Resilient cities: meaning, models, and metaphor for integrating the ecological, socio-economic, and planning realms, Landscape and Urban Planning 2004;69(4):369–84 [6]; Luck M, Jianguo Wu J. A gradient analysis of urban landscape pattern: a case study from the Phoenix metropolitan region, Arizona, USA. Landscape Ecology 2002:17(4):327–39 [7]; Angold PG, Sadler JP, Hill MO, Pullin A, Rushton S, Austin K, et al., Biodiversity in urban habitat patches. Science of the Total Environment 2006;360(1–3):196–204 [8]]. By environmental literature conducted recently, it has been evidently comprehended that urban life quality for mankind and others can be improved by serving these systems with green and living elements. This study is to investigate urban rocky habitats that have special natural characteristics and that can be implicated for urban green areas. But these habitats have been considered as nature splits withstanding against the urban pressures by means of the unplanned build-up activities foremost, and road construction, poor quality or neglected remnants. Therefore, this study presents the environmental perception and preferences of urban rocky habitats which are threatening within excessive urbanization and human use of natural areas in the context of the city of Trabzon, Turkey. So, a total of 20 habitats selected from urban and surroundings were surveyed by using a questionnaire and landscape assessment approach. With surveying performed on 204 participants, visual preferences, landscape attributes and proposed management options for urban nature conservation were determined. The χ²${\chi }^2$-test results revealed clearly that the demographic and expertise status of the participants were correlated with the preferences for types of rocky habitat scene and management options. The scenes with natural elements and less human disturbance obtained higher scores on visual preferences than any of the urban rocky scenes lacking these characteristics. Also, in the quantitative phase, factor analysis based on principal component structure revealed the ‘visual and spatial effects’, the ‘usage and arrangement’, the ‘naturalness and ecological value’, and the ‘functionality’ components of the scenes. Consequently, some implications for the effective and efficient planning and development of urban nature conservation by assisting the better understanding of the various patterns of landscape preference, choice and satisfaction in habitats under the present study were suggested.     

Robust microencapsulated phase change materials in concrete mixes for sustainable buildings

For passive building applications, phase change materials (PCMs) are microencapsulated to avoid leakage of PCM from concrete structure. The primary challenge of using microencapsulated PCM (MPCM) is its weak shell structure. New MPCMs with different shell compositions to prevent breakage during mixing in fresh concrete are needed. In this study, free radical polymerization method to microencapsulate capric acid–myristic acid mixture as PCM with two different methyl methacrylate co‐polymers is proposed to produce robust MPCMs for building applications. Two new microcapsules (MPCM‐1 and MPCM‐2) having latent heats of 91.9 and 97.3 J/g were synthesized. SEM analyses showed the size of microcapsules being in the range of 400–850 nm for MPCM‐1 and 250–475 nm for MPCM‐2. Analyses also reveal that the shells of MPCMs were not harmed, as they were added into concrete mixes. The microsphere's geometry was preserved, and distribution was homogeneous. The MPCMs were also studied under thermal tests of 1000 heating/cooling cycles. No significant changes in thermal properties were observed after thermal cycling tests. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermoelastic transition kinetics of a gamma irradiated CuZnAl shape memory alloy

Many types of shape memory alloys have been used in nuclear reactors and aerospace applications where they are exposed to high levels of various kinds of radiation. The effect of gamma irradiation on the transformation kinetics of thermoelastic transformations in a shape memory CuZnAl alloy was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) with heating/cooling rates of 10, 20, 30 and 40 °C/min. Irradiation doses of 10, 20, 30 and 40 kGy were applied to the samples of the alloy. Changes in Gibbs free energies, entropies and elastic energies were calculated. Reverse transition temperatures A _s and A _f systematically decreased with increasing doses, although forward transition temperatures M _s and M _f underwent a minimum value at a dose of 20 kGy. Hysteresis in the transition temperatures changed as an inverse parabolic function of the irradiation dose. The activation energies of transformations were calculated by using Kissinger and Osawa methods.