Dry Fractionation Approach in Concentrating Tocopherols and Tocotrienols from Palm Fatty Acid Distillate: A Green Pretreatment Process for Vitamin E Extraction

Palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) is a rich source of vitamin E. As compared to other vegetable oil, PFAD has higher tocotrienol (70–80%) over tocopherol content, which makes it a valuable source for vitamin E extraction. Current vitamin E extraction methods are not sustainable due to the intensive usage of chemical and high operational cost. Hence, the present study investigated for the first time using dry fractionation process as a green and economical pretreatment method for separating solid fraction (stearin) and liquid fraction (olein) in order to concentrate vitamin E from PFAD in olein fraction. We examined the dry fractionation conditions: crystallization ending temperature (36–44 °C), cooling rate (0.3 and 1.5°C min⁻¹), stirring speed (20–125 rpm), and holding time (0–60 min) on the composition of unsaturated and saturated fatty acids as well as vitamin E content in liquid fraction (olein) and solid fraction (stearin) using gas chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography, respectively. In most of these conditions, vitamin E was ultimately higher in olein fraction as compared to stearin fraction, which is correlated with the high degree of unsaturation. Under a cooling rate of 0.3°C min⁻¹, 90 rpm stirring speed, and ending crystallization of 38 °C, the highest vitamin E rich olein fraction was attained with 1479 ± 10.51 ppm in 50 g olein fraction as compared to 1366 ± 7.94 ppm in 500 g of unfractionated PFAD.     

Algorithmic Fairness in Mortgage Lending: from Absolute Conditions to Relational Trade-offs

Minds and Machines - To address the rising concern that algorithmic decision-making may reinforce discriminatory biases, researchers have proposed many notions of fairness and corresponding...     

Isolated hepatic tuberculosis mimicking liver tumors in a dialysis patient

Cases of isolated hepatic tuberculosis (TB) are rare. The diagnosis is often delayed or missed because of nonspecific symptoms and laboratory findings. Besides, the disease is extremely rare even in a country where TB is an alarming public health problem. This report demonstrates the difficulty in correctly diagnosing local hepatic TB. We report the case of a 62‐year‐old male patient with end‐stage renal disease treated with hemodialysis, who developed 2 months of abdominal distension and general anorexia, with hyperechoic hepatic lesions on ultrasound. Computed tomography suspected multiple liver tumors. The liver biopsy finally led to the diagnosis of TB of the liver without other involvements. We conclude that isolated hepatic TB is one of the rare forms of extrapulmonary TB in dialysis patients. A greater awareness of this rare clinical entity may prevent needless surgical interventions.     

Biochemical effects of administering shock loads of sucrose to a laboratory-scale anaerobic (UASB) effluent treatment plant

An experimental study was undertaken to determine the effects of administering shock loads of sucrose to a laboratory-scale anaerobic effluent treatment plant (UASB reactor) treating diluted landfill leachate. Administration of shock loads of 10 g l⁻ sucrose caused accumulations of up to 7 g l⁻¹ of l-lactate and the resultant acidity caused the pH value of the reactor effluent to drop from 7.2 to 4.7 which inhibited methanogenesis.Major disturbances in the composition of the biogas also occurred and, under the severest conditions, the biogas contained up to 30% (v/v) hydrogen.     

Multi-scale discriminant saliency with wavelet-based Hidden Markov Tree modelling

Supposed saliency is a binary classification between centre and surround classes, saliency value is measured as their discriminant power. As the features are defined by sizes of chosen windows, a saliency value at each location is varied accordingly. This paper proposes computing saliency as discriminant power in multiple dyadic scales of Wavelet Hidden Markov Tree (HMT), in which two consecutive dyadic scales provide surrounding and central features, organized in a quad-tree structure. Their discriminant power is estimated as maximum a posterior probability (MAP) by Expectation-Maximization (EM) iterations. Then, a final saliency value is the maximum discriminant power generated among these scales. Standard quantitative tools and qualitative assessments are used for evaluating the proposed multi-scale discriminant saliency (MDIS) against the well-know information based approach AIM on its image collection with eye-tracking data. Simulation results are presented and analysed to verify the validity of MDIS as well as point out its limitation for further research direction.     

Combined Effects of Different Overload Ratios and Nitriding Process on Fatigue Crack Growth of AISI 4140 Steel

The combined effects of different overload ratios(OLRs)and nitriding process on fatigue crack growth(FCG)were analyzed.Steel compact tension specimens made of AISI 4140 steel were subjected to the plasma nitrification process using agas mixture of 50% N2 and 50% H2 at 500℃for 2h.Structural properties of the samples were studied by scanning electron microscopy,optical microscopy,microhardness testing and digital imaging.Plasma nitriding slowed down FCG,but the crack growth retardation caused by the overload was reduced when the OLR was 2.0and 2.5.Nitriding did not take effect when the OLR was 1.5and 3.0.