Proteolytic regulation of the extent of dietary proteins with skin grape proanthocyanidin and anthocyanidin's interactions

During technological processing, proanthocyanidins and anthocyanidins could be partly lost due to the complexation phenomena, affecting food and beverage nutritional properties, organoleptic properties and health-promoting potentials. A common issue is encountered when processing food and beverage which is binding of phenolics to dietary proteins. The present investigation aims at evaluating the proteolysis contribution, using pure protease (Pepsin, 3000 units g⁻¹), to protein–anthocyanidin and protein–proanthocyanidin interactions. Bovine serum albumin (BSA), ovalbumin (OVA) and casein (CAS) dietary protein models were used. High-performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) and size exclusion chromatography analyses proved that pepsin treatment significantly (P > 0.05) decreased the ratio of flavonoids’ interaction with tested proteins . The proteolysis reduced anthocyanidin interactions with CAS, OVA and BSA by 64.88%, 57.37% and 42.87% respectively. Similarly, proanthocyanidins interaction with CAS, OVA and BSA were reduced by 34.23%, 13.74% and 2.39% respectively. This study provides the basis to develop innovative technologies to limit protein–flavonoid complexation during food and beverage processing.     

Viscosity of Fe90B x Si(10 − x) melts

High Temperature - The temperature dependences of the viscosity of liquid Fe90B x Si(10 − x) alloys are studied in the mode of heating and subsequent cooling. The temperature dependences of...     

Use of locality sensitive hashing (LSH) algorithm to match Web of Science and Scopus

Scientometrics - A novel hashing algorithm is applied to match two prominent and important bibliographic databases at the paper level. In the literature, such tasks have been studied and conducted...     

The Requirements for the Calibration Conditions in Large-Aperture Fizeau Interferometers

The problems that arise during the calibration of the reference plates of large-aperture interferometers are discussed and the methods for solving them are presented. It is shown that the repeatability of shapes of the reference plates after their rearrangements can be provided by selecting the mechanism of their fixing in place. It is demonstrated that the temperature deformations of the reference-plate surfaces can be determined from a numerical model. These measures have made it possible to calibrate the reference plates of the 630-mm interferometer with an accuracy of λ/1000 RMS (λ = 632.8 nm).     

Energy release behind the Jouguet point during detonation of plasticized PETN from the results of experiments by the T-20 method

The trajectory of motion of a copper shell, the velocity of its flight, and the pressure of the explosion products on the inside of the copper shell were simulated. It was found that there is a significant difference in pressure behavior between experiments and calculations performed using the standard equations of state of explosives and explosion products. Most likely, there is a significant contribution of kinetic processes to the energy release behind the Jouguet point. In this case, the conversion of explosives to explosion products apparently include not only exothermic reactions but also endothermic processes.     

Finite Element Analysis of a Copper Single Crystal Shape Memory Alloy-Based Endodontic Instruments

The aim of the present paper is the development of endodontic Cu-based single crystal Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) instruments in order to eliminate the antimicrobial and mechanical deficiencies observed with the conventional Nickel-Titane (NiTi) SMA files. A thermomechanical constitutive law, already developed and implemented in a finite element code by our research group, is adopted for the simulation of the single crystal SMA behavior. The corresponding material parameters were identified starting from experimental results for a tensile test at room temperature. A computer-aided design geometry has been achieved and considered for a finite element structural analysis of the endodontic Cu-based single crystal SMA files. They are meshed with tetrahedral continuum elements to improve the computation time and the accuracy of results. The geometric parameters tested in this study are the length of the active blade, the rod length, the pitch, the taper, the tip diameter, and the rod diameter. For each set of adopted parameters, a finite element model is built and tested in a combined bending-torsion loading in accordance with ISO 3630-1 norm. The numerical analysis based on finite element procedure allowed purposing an optimal geometry suitable for Cu-based single crystal SMA endodontic files. The same analysis was carried out for the classical NiTi SMA files and a comparison was made between the two kinds of files. It showed that Cu-based single crystal SMA files are less stiff than the NiTi files. The Cu-based endodontic files could be used to improve the root canal treatments. However, the finite element analysis brought out the need for further investigation based on experiments.     

Stabilization and Encapsulation of Gold Nanostars Mediated by Dithiols

Surface chemistry plays a pivotal role in regulating the morphology of nanoparticles, maintaining colloidal stability, and mediating the interaction with target analytes toward practical applications such as surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)‐based sensing and imaging. The use of a binary ligand mixture composed of 1,4‐benzenedithiol (BDT) and hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) to provide gold nanostars with long‐term stability is reported. This is despite BDT being a bifunctional ligand, which usually leads to bridging and loss of colloidal stability. It is found however that neither BDT nor CTAC alone are able to provide sufficient colloidal and chemical stability. BDT‐coated Au nanostars are additionally used as seeds to direct the encapsulation with a gold outer shell, leading to the formation of unusual nanostructures including semishell‐coated gold nanostars, which are characterized by high‐resolution electron microscopy and electron tomography. Finally, BDT is exploited as a probe to reveal the enhanced local electric fields in the different nanostructures, showing that the semishell configuration provides significantly high SERS signals as compared to other core–shell configurations obtained during seeded growth, including full shells.     

Organizational Characteristics Influencing SME Information Security Maturity

In the current business environment, many organizations use popular standards such as the ISO 27000x series, COBIT, and related frameworks to protect themselves against security incidents. However, these standards and frameworks are overly complicated for small to medium-sized enterprises, leaving these organizations with no easy to understand toolkit to address their security needs. This research builds upon the recent Information Security Focus Area Maturity (ISFAM) model for SME information security as a cornerstone in the development of an assessment tool for tailor-made, fast, and easy-to-use information security advice for SMEs. By performing an extensive literature review and evaluating the results with security experts, we propose the Characterizing Organizations’ Information Security for SMEs (CHOISS) model to relate measurable organizational characteristics in four categories through 47 parameters to help SMEs distinguish and prioritize which risks to mitigate.