Flour of hard bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in the preparation of bread]

In order to utilize hardened beans, we proposed to find the method most indicated for the preparation of bean flour to determine their nutritional value, and to make bread of high industrial, nutritional quality, and good sensory characteristics, using blends of bean and wheat flours. Two types of flour were prepared, testing four soaking temperatures (22, 30, 40 and 50 degrees C) and two methods to remove the testa (under moist and dry conditions). At laboratory level, the dry testa removal method gave the best flour yields (mean = 85.8%) and the highest protein content (mean = 23.7%). Comparison between soaking temperature at 30 and 50 degrees C was not significant (alpha = 0.05). At pilot plant level, with soaking at 50 degrees C the flour yields were 58.0% for moist testa removal (H1) and 74.0% for dry removal (H2), with a protein content of 22.6% for H1 and 23.0% for H2. The H1 and H2 flours were added to wheat flour at 5, 10 and 15% for bread making. The addition of 5.0% gave breads with similar protein content and sensory characteristics to those of the control, wheat. A diet based on bean-flour bread resulted in greater weight gains than that with casein for gold hamsters. The study also demonstrated the importance of heat-treating of the bean flours, because when flour without previous heat treatment was administered, the animals lost weight and died. This effect was overcome by the process of baking the flours at 140 degrees C for four hours.     

Mechanochemical tuning of molecular weight distribution of styrene homopolymers as postpolymerization modification in solvent-free solid-state

Mechanochemical degradation by planetary ball milling (PM) is used for postpolymerization modification of styrene homopolymers (PS). A complete factorial design was chosen to study the effect of radical scavengers, milling time, initial molecular weight, and revolution radius (R_p), on the shape of molecular weight distributions (MWDs) of PS. Size-exclusion chromatography analysis shows the feasibility of fine-tuning MWD of PS at up to 40% conversion. Distributions ranged from unimodal to bimodal in a PM with R_p = 150 mm at different stage of milling, whereas in a PM with R_p of 60.8 mm the adjustment of unimodal distributions is achieved. Initial polydispersity is more important to develop bimodal distributions when compared with initial molecular weight. Fourier transform infrared and X-ray electron spectrometry analysis show some suppression of PS degradation and complete oxidation inhibition of macromolecular radicals with the incorporation of radical scavengers, which we considered as additional aids when adjusting the MWDs.     

Accurate Deterministic Numerical Simulation of p-n Junctions

In this work some variants of a deterministic simulation of p-n junctions are considered. From a mathematical point of view, this will be done by means of the numerical resolution of the corresponding Boltzmann transport’s equations (BTE’s): one for the electrons and another one for the holes, coupled by the Poisson equation for the potential, from which the electric field is calculated. In order to improve the efficiency of the Finite-Difference Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (FD-WENO) code, we will consider the two transport equations in the depletion zone and only the corresponding BTE equation for the majority carrier in each one of the neutral zones, instead of solving the two BTE’s in the entire length of the device.     

Thermal properties of duck fatty liver (foie gras) products

Thermal properties of duck fatty liver (foie gras), foie gras emulsion and fatty liver fat, as well as regular duck fat, were determined as a function of temperature. Density of foie gras and foie gras fat and emulsion at 20°C was measured as 947, 836, and 928 kg/m³, respectively. Differential scanning calorimetry thermograms for foie gras fat resulted in melting points ranging from –20 to 40°C. Values for the specific heat at 65°C for the fatty liver, its emulsion and fat, and duck fat were 1.79, 2.38, 1.71, and 2.48 J/g°C, respectively. Thermal conductivity of foie gras (organ) and its emulsion at 40°C was determined as 0.330 and 0.428 W/m°C, respectively. Mathematical models based on composition and temperature were developed for all the thermal properties obtained in this work.     

A context-centered methodology for IoT forensic investigations

International Journal of Information Security - The weakness of the security measures implemented on Internet of Things (IoT) devices, added to the sensitivity of the data that they handle, has...     

A Knowledge Transfer Framework: the PFI context

The UK's Private Finance Initiative market is predicted to rise to over £8 billion a year and there are indications of growing opportunities. PFI creates a long‐term income stream and provides valuable opportunities for portfolio diversification. PFI has evolved at a fast pace and the momentum is set to continue. However, there are major challenges facing construction organisations. These include the lack of PFI experts, longer negotiation periods and tight time schedules to deliver large‐scale schemes, high levels of investment and risks involved and limited knowledge transfer between PFI projects. Concerns over the level of knowledge sharing have prompted the development and evaluation of a Knowledge Transfer Framework that encourages construction organisations to transfer PFI knowledge between projects. It achieves this by building on a questionnaire survey of PFI clients and construction companies, case studies of companies involved in PFI, and research workshops to validate the framework developed.     

Synthesis and Theoretical Study of New Guanylated Cyclophosphazenes and Their Use in the CO2 Fixation into Styrene Carbonate

Three new guanylated cyclophosphazenes G1–G3 have been synthesized through the catalytic guanylation of three different bi, tetra and hexa (p-aminophenoxy)-cyclophosphazenes by using N,N’-diisopropylcarbodiimide as guanylating agent, ZnEt₂ as catalyst and dry tetrahydrofuran as solvent. The resulting products have been characterized by ¹H, ¹³C{¹H} and ³¹P{¹H} NMR spectroscopy. The hexaguanylated cyclophosphazenes exhibit a deep purple colour, unusual for this type of compounds. The electronic structure of these compounds was investigated by carrying out density functional calculations at PBE-D3(BJ)/TZP level of theory. The molecular structural analysis reveals that aromatic rings are stacked and time dependent density functional calculations show that a charge transfer electronic transition occurs between the aromatic rings which absorb light around 500–700 nm. Finally, the catalytic usefulness of guanylated cyclophosphazene compounds G1–G3 has been proven by the preparation of styrene carbonate from the reaction between styrene oxide and carbon dioxide.