Influence of pressure and dwell time on pressure-assisted sintering of calcium cobaltite

Calcium cobaltite Ca₃Co₄O₉, abbreviated Co349, is a promising thermoelectric material for high-temperature applications in air. Its anisotropic properties can be assigned to polycrystalline parts by texturing. Tape casting and pressure-assisted sintering (PAS) are a possible future way for a cost-effective mass-production of thermoelectric generators. This study examines the influence of pressure and dwell time during PAS at 900°C of tape-cast Co349 on texture and thermoelectric properties. Tape casting aligns lentoid Co349. PAS results in a textured Co349 microstructure with the thermoelectrically favorable ab-direction perpendicular to the pressing direction. By pressure variation during sintering, the microstructure of Co349 can be tailored either toward a maximum figure of merit as required for energy harvesting or toward a maximum power factor as required for energy harvesting. Moderate pressure of 2.5 MPa results in 25% porosity and a textured microstructure with a figure of merit of 0.13 at 700°C, two times higher than the dry-pressed, pressureless-sintered reference. A pressure of 7.5 MPa leads to 94% density and a high power factor of 326 µW/mK² at 800°C, which is 11 times higher than the dry-pressed reference (30 MPa) from the same powder.     

辊速差对连铸连轧7075铝板显微组织、织构及力学性能的影响

研究辊速差对连铸连轧7075铝板显微组织、织构及力学性能的影响。采用3种不同上辊/下辊转速比(ω/ω0,ω为上辊转速,ω0为下辊转速)1:1、1:1.2及1:1.4进行多次试验。结果显示,在最大辊速差条件下(ω/ω0=1:1.4),7075铝板在轧制方向的屈服强度和极限抗拉强度分别提高41.5%和21.9%。此外,当辊速比ω/ω0为1:1.4时,成品轧制板的平均晶粒尺寸减小36%,横剖面平均硬度增加约9.2%。织构研究结果显示,辊速差越大,成品各向同性及硬度越大。然而,采用不同辊速度的连铸连轧会导致变形板伸长率降低约6%。     

Investigation of using possibility of grape pomace in wafer sheet for wheat flour substitution

In this study, grape pomace (GP), a by-product consisting of grape skins and seeds rich in dietary fibres and polyphenols, was used in wafer sheets at different concentrations [5.00 (GP5), 10.0 (GP10), and 15.0 g 100 g⁻¹ (GP15)] for the partial replacement of wheat flour (WF) and improve the functionality of wafer sheets. The GP inclusion at concentrations higher than 5.00 g 100 g⁻¹ significantly affected the texture of sheets as well as the flow behaviour of batters, resulting in softer sheets and more viscous batters (P < 0.05). Moisture contents did not significantly change after GP addition (P > 0.05). After the addition of GP, the L* values decreased and the a* values increased, making the wafers darker (P < 0.05). Moreover, under simulated in vitro digestion conditions, the bioaccessibility of total phenolic compounds in saliva, gastric juice, and intestinal juice was significantly higher than control even at the lowest GP concentration (P < 0.05). Regarding sensory properties, only smoothness and crispness were significantly affected by GP addition, and samples were found to be crisper with higher concentrations of GP. In conclusion, it is possible to partially replace the WF in wafers with GP at a concentration of 5.00 g 100 g⁻¹ to develop a product with higher functionality and nutrient content.     

Utilising grape juice processing by-products as bulking and colouring agent in white chocolate

In this study, grape pomace (mixture of grape seeds and skins) powder (GPP), obtained from grape processing, was used at different concentrations [10.0 (GPP10), 20.0 (GPP10) and 30.0 (GPP10) g/100 g] in white chocolate formulation for the partial replacement of sucrose. The results indicated that GPP addition at a higher concentration (>10.0 g/100 g) significantly affected the particle size, moisture content, texture and flow behaviour of white chocolate samples (P < 0.05). However, using GPP at a concentration of 10.0 g/100 g had advantages for physicochemical and flow properties. As expected, under simulated in vitro digestion conditions, the bioaccessibility of total phenolic compounds in saliva, gastric juice and intestinal juice for GPP10 samples was significantly higher than the control (P < 0.05). In conclusion, results of the study showed that it was possible to partially replace the sucrose with GPP at a concentration of 10.0 g/100 g in white chocolate formulations.     

Effects of high-pressure-modified soy 11S globulin on the gel properties and water-holding capacity of pork batter

The effects of high-pressure-modified soy 11S globulin (0.1, 200, and 400 MPa) on the gel properties, water-holding capacity, and water mobility of pork batter were investigated. The high-pressure-modified soy 11S globulin significantly increased (P < 0.05) the emulsion stability, cooking yield, hardness, springiness, chewiness, resilience, cohesiveness, the a^* and b^* values, and the G′ and G′′ values of pork batter at 80 °C, compared with those of 0.1 MPa-modified globulin. In contrast, the centrifugal loss and initial relaxation time of T_2b, T₂₁, and T₂₂ significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the microstructure was denser, and the voids were smaller and more uniform compared with those of 0.1 MPa-modified globulin. In addition, the sample with 11S globulin modified at 400 MPa had the best water-holding capacity, gel structure, and gel properties among the samples. Overall, the use of high-pressure-modified soy 11S globulin improved the gel properties and water-holding capacity of pork batter, especially under 400 MPa.     

Mutual information maximizing GAN inversion for real face with identity preservation

Recent generative adversarial networks (GANs) have yielded remarkable performance in face image synthesis. GAN inversion embeds an image into the latent space of a pretrained generator, enabling it to be used for real face manipulation. However, current inversion approaches for real faces suffer the dilemma of initialization collapse and identity loss. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical GAN inversion for real faces with identity preservation based on mutual information maximization. We first use a facial domain guaranteed initialization to avoid the initialization collapse. Furthermore, we prove that maximizing the mutual information between inverted faces and their identities is equivalent to minimizing the distance between identity features from inverted and original faces. Optimization for real face inversion with identity preservation is implemented on this mutual information-maximizing constraint. Extensive experimental results show that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art solutions for inverting and editing real faces, particularly in terms of face identity preservation.     

Data fusion and transfer learning empowered granular trust evaluation for Internet of Things

In the Internet of Things (IoT), a huge amount of valuable data is generated by various IoT applications. As the IoT technologies become more complex, the attack methods are more diversified and can cause serious damages. Thus, establishing a secure IoT network based on user trust evaluation to defend against security threats and ensure the reliability of data source of collected data have become urgent issues, in this paper, a Data Fusion and transfer learning empowered granular Trust Evaluation mechanism (DFTE) is proposed to address the above challenges. Specifically, to meet the granularity demands of trust evaluation, time–space empowered fine/coarse grained trust evaluation models are built utilizing deep transfer learning algorithms based on data fusion. Moreover, to prevent privacy leakage and task sabotage, a dynamic reward and punishment mechanism is developed to encourage honest users by dynamically adjusting the scale of reward or punishment and accurately evaluating users’ trusts. The extensive experiments show that: (i) the proposed DFTE achieves high accuracy of trust evaluation under different granular demands through efficient data fusion; (ii) DFTE performs excellently in participation rate and data reliability.     

Effect of cooking temperature on texture and flavour binding of braised sauce porcine skin

To investigate the effect of cooking temperature (55, 65, 75, 85 and 95 °C) on texture and flavour binding of braised sauce porcine skin (BSPS), sensory acceptance, microstructure and flavour-binding capacity were investigated during the processing of BSPS. Samples cooked at 85 and 95 °C showed better texture and aroma scores. Hardness and chewiness of BSPS were obviously improved at 85 and 95 °C than control group. Collagen structure was significantly destroyed over 85 °C. The porcine skin collagen heated at 85 and 95 °C showed relatively higher flavour-binding capacity than other samples. The improvement of texture of BSPS was mainly attributed to the degradation of collagen. Higher aroma scores of BSPS were related to intense binding abilities with aroma compounds at 85 and 95 °C. Cooking at 85 or 95 °C could be an optimal cooking temperature for BSPS.