Impact of the extraction procedure on the kinetics of anthocyanin and colour degradation of roselle extracts during storage

BACKGROUND: The stability of anthocyanins and colour of aqueous extracts from roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) was investigated during storage at 4–45 °C. The effect of the extraction procedure (cold or hot extraction with or without pasteurisation) on the kinetic behaviour was determined. RESULTS: Data analysis showed first‐order kinetics for the evolution of anthocyanin content, colour density, colour strength and browning index. Three models (Arrhenius, Eyring and Ball) were used to represent the temperature dependence of the reaction rates. The three models allowed the prediction of colour modifications according to the storage temperature over 6 months. Activation energies ranged from 22 to 26 kJ mol^?1 for anthocyanin degradation and from 18 to 34 kJ mol^?1 for colour parameter modification. The degradation rate during storage depended on the extraction procedure. When heated, the extracts were clearly less stable. Their colour changed faster during storage especially when hot water and pasteurisation were used. CONCLUSION: Although the anthocyanin content and initial colour were not modified, the extraction conditions, especially temperature, greatly affected the stability of the extracts during storage. Further studies are needed to understand the mechanisms involved. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Properties of liquefied wood modified melamine-formaldehyde (MF) resin adhesive and its application for bonding particleboards

In this study, we modified melamine-formaldehyde (MF) resin adhesive with liquefied wood (LW) and determined the properties of MF–LW adhesive mixtures. Furthermore, we produced particleboards using prepared MF–LW mixtures and evaluated their mechanical and physical properties. Results showed that with increasing content of LW in the adhesive mixture gel time and peak temperature increased while reaction enthalpy decreased. With increasing substitution of MF resin adhesive with LW the thermal stability of adhesive mixture reduced, namely thermal degradation started at lower temperature and weight loss increased. Properties of particleboards improved with increasing amount of LW in the adhesive mixture up to 20% and then deteriorated. Nevertheless, the properties of particleboard with 30% LW in the adhesive mixture were comparable to the properties of particleboard without LW while they worsen at greater portion of LW. Consequently, MF resin adhesive with 30% LW substitution could be used to produce particleboards with suitable mechanical properties and reduced formaldehyde release content.     

Reversed anisotropy of grain boundary properties and its effect on grain boundary engineering

Data on anisotropy of grain boundary properties are frequently published. In some cases, when they show the reverse course of structural dependence than is expected, they can seem confusing. Examples of this “reversed anisotropy” found for grain boundary segregation, diffusion and migration are presented. We demonstrate that the reversed anisotropy of grain boundary properties is caused by the compensation effect. This can have serious consequences for grain boundary engineering. It is also suggested that grain boundaries can be classified specifically and generally solely on the basis of well-defined thermodynamic parameters.     

Statistical optimisation of the exopolysaccharide production by Lactobacillus fermentum Lf2 and analysis of its chemical composition

Lactobacillus fermentum Lf2 produces high amounts of exopolysaccharides (EPS) (~1 g/L) with demonstrated functional and technological roles when applied as a food ingredient in dairy matrices, properties that made these EPS interesting in comparison with other similar molecules from lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Those characteristics encouraged us to optimise the production. The EPS extract is composed of a high molecular mass β‐glucan and a medium molecular mass heteroglycan. In the present work, the optimal conditions that doubled the EPS yield using a semidefined medium (SDM, 0.63% yeast nitrogen base, 0.53% bacto casitone, 0.53% ammonium citrate, 6.25% sucrose, pH 6.5) were found by means of response surface methodology (RSM). The chemical characterisation indicated that under optimised conditions the synthesis of the heteroglycan was favoured compared with that of the β‐glucan.     

Initial error growth and predictability of chaotic low-dimensional atmospheric model

The growth of small errors in weather prediction is exponential on average. As an error becomes larger, its growth slows down and then stops with the magnitude of the error saturating at about the average distance between two states chosen randomly.This paper studies the error growth in a low-dimensional atmospheric model before, during and after the initial exponential divergence occurs. We test cubic, quartic and logarithmic hypotheses by ensemble prediction method. Furthermore, the quadratic hypothesis suggested by Lorenz in 1969 is compared with the ensemble prediction method. The study shows that a small error growth is best modeled by the quadratic hypothesis. After the error exceeds about a half of the average value of variables, logarithmic approximation becomes superior. It is also shown that the time length of the exponential growth in the model data is a function of the size of small initial error and the largest Lyapunov exponent. We conclude that the size of the error at the least upper bound(supremum) of time length is equal to 1 and it is invariant to these variables. Predictability, as a time interval, where the model error is growing, is for small initial error, the sum of the least upper bound of time interval of exponential growth and predictability for the size of initial error equal to 1.     

The limits of flammability of mixtures of ammonia,hydrogen and methane in mixtures of nitrogen and oxygen at elevated temperatures and pressures

As part of a program investigating the flammability characteristics of ammonia in mixtures with air, nitrogen and ammonia side-products, the flammabili The flammable regions are not as large as those found in a previous study for mixtures of ammonia and hydrogen, but are still remarkably wider than the     

Prevention of combined iron-polyvitamin deficiency in female workers in the machine-building industry]

The results have been presented of the study of ferrokinetic values and providing with ascorbic and folic acids, vitamins B2 and B12 in women with latent iron deficiency, before and after preventive measures with the use of the lactic acid product "Biolact" combined with the polyvitamin "Gendevitum". The data obtained have shown that latent iron deficiency is attended by vitamin deficiency. "Biolact" enriched with iron and ascorbic acid, combined with "Gendevitum" normalizes iron metabolism and vitamin providing.     

Self-tuning geometric semantic Genetic Programming

The process of tuning the parameters that characterize evolutionary algorithms is difficult and can be time consuming. This paper presents a self-tuning algorithm for dynamically updating the crossover and mutation probabilities during a run of genetic programming. The genetic operators that are considered in this work are the geometric semantic genetic operators introduced by Moraglio et al. Differently from other existing self-tuning algorithms, the proposed one works by assigning a (different) crossover and mutation probability to each individual of the population. The experimental results we present show the appropriateness of the proposed self-tuning algorithm: on seven different test problems, the proposed algorithm finds solutions of a quality that is better than, or comparable to, the one achieved using the best known values for the geometric semantic crossover and mutation rates for the same problems. Also, we study how the mutation and crossover probabilities change during the execution of the proposed self-tuning algorithm, pointing out an interesting insight: mutation is basically the only operator used in the exploration phase, while crossover is used for exploitation, further improving good quality solutions.