Using hydrocolloids to decrease oil absorption in banana chips

The aim of this research was to investigate the influence of hydrocolloids (alginate, CMC and pectin) on the oil absorption in fried banana chips. The control banana chips (no hydrocolloid treatment) had oil content as high as 40 g/100 g sample, whereas the sample blanched in 0.5 g CaCl₂/100 ml water and following with immersion in 1 g alginate/100 ml water exhibited a small decrease of oil uptake (p ≤ 0.05) to 38 g/100 g sample. The others which treated with 0.5 g CaCl₂/100 ml and 1 g pectin/100 ml water, and with 0.25 g CaCl₂/100 ml water and 1 g CMC/100 ml water absorbed much less oil (p ≤ 0.05), approximately 23 g/100 g sample. Besides, pectin-treated chips had higher sensory scores in all attributed than CMC-treated sample. These resulted showed that pectin was the most effective hydrocolloid for low fat fried banana chip production. Scanning electron microscope photographs indicted that coating banana chips with pectin was effective in protecting the cellular structure of the banana tissue from damage during deep-fat frying.     

Magnetic composite sponges based on chitosan and whey protein modified magnetite nanoparticles for dye removal from water

Journal of Porous Materials - In this work, a novel application of whey protein isolate (WPI) for surface coating of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) is demonstrated. WPI-modified MNPs (WPI-MNPs) were...     

Stress distributions in multi-fastened composite plates

This paper presents an analytical study of the stress distributions in pinjointed multi-fastened composite laminates. The finite element models which treat the pin and hole contact problem using a complete contact stress analysis are described. The condition of a perfect fit between the pin and hole, without lateral constraints, was applied. Membrane analysis has been utilised in conjunction with gap elements and friction for accurate modelling of the contact stresses and the stress distribution in the vicinity of the hole boundary. The accuracy of the analytical procedure, for two deformable bodies in contact, is confirmed by comparison with previous published work. The results show that the number of pins, pitch distance, number of rows, row spacing and hole pattern have a significant influence on joint performance.     

Initial Droplet Size Impacts pH‐Induced Structural Changes in Phase‐Separated Polymer Dispersions

The effect of pH change on the morphology of whey protein isolate (WPI)–pectin dispersions obtained from phase‐separated systems after mild shear was studied. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of mixing speed on the initial particle size of biopolymer complexes and their structure morphology after sequentially changing the pH. Therefore, solutions of WPI and pectin were combined at pH 6.1, allowed to phase separate and were then mildly homogenized at 50, 100, and 150 rpm, respectively, to form a dispersion containing differently sized WPI droplets in a surrounding pectin‐rich phase. Each dispersion was then subjected to a pH change, such as 6.1 to 5.2 and 3.2, by slowly adding hydrochloric acid. The systems morphology, size, appearance, rheology, and storage stability was then characterized by optical microscopy, static light scattering, visual inspections, and steady shear rheometry to gain insights into the structural rearrangements. Results indicated substantial changes in the structure of the dispersion when the pH was changed. Formation of core‐shell structures from the WPI droplets was observed at an intermediate pH. There, initial droplet size was found to affect structures formed, that is, core‐shell type particles would only form if droplets were large (>1.5 μm) prior to pH change. Insights gained may be of importance to food manufacturers intending to create new structures from mixtures of proteins and carbohydrates.     

Ordered mesoporous silica (SBA-16) supporting titania (TiO2) nanoparticles for photodegradation of paraquat (PQ) herbicide

Journal of Porous Materials - SBA-16, a kind of highly ordered mesoporous silica, was synthesized via a sol–gel method used as the supporter of TiO2 nanoparticles. With variation of Si/Ti...     

Thermal and acid treatment on natural raw diatomite influencing in synthesis of sodium zeolites

A natural raw diatomite and four modified diatomites by calcination and acidification were used as starting materials for the sodium zeolitization process. Iron impurity content present in the natural raw diatomite which was expressed as Fe₂O₃ is about 5.8% and Q⁴ ([Si(OSi)₄]) unit 64%, whereas the modified diatomite which was treated with hot 6 M H₂SO₄ (refluxed at 100 °C) for 24 h and followed with calcination at 1100 °C for 5 h, contains about 0.5% of Fe₂O₃ and 97% of Q⁴. The results showed that under the studied conditions (NaOH 10–30%w/v, 100–180 °C, solid:liquid 1:10 and 1:30, reaction time 24–180 h) only Na-P1, analcime, cancrinite and hydroxysodalite were obtained and the highest yield of each sodium zeolite product was obtained from the modified diatomite treated with hot H₂SO₄ and followed with calcinations at 1100 °C. This results from the reduction of iron content by acid leaching and the elimination of silanol groups after calcination to form more siloxane groups in the structure of starting materials. In addition, a role of iron content was found to be significant in zeolite formation compared to a role of Q⁴ sites. It was found that a percentage of crystallinity is very high in the case of all starting materials, which first underwent iron impurity elimination before further thermal treatments.     

Positron Emission Tomography Applied to Fluidization Engineering

The movement of particles in a laboratory fluidized bed has been studied using Positron Emission Tomography (PET). With this non‐invasive technique both pulses of various shapes and single tracer particles were followed in 3‐D. The equipment and materials used made it possible to label actual bed particles as tracer. This paper briefly describes the data analysis, some of the results and compares them with a stochastic model. The results confirm the basic assumptions of the model qualitatively but not quantitatively. Further analysis of the results indicates that the system exhibits gulf‐streaming, a feature which is not yet accounted for in the model, but is common in fluidized beds in practice.     

Influence of polyacrylic acid (PAA)/Na2HPO4 mixture on biphasic calcium phosphate cement: Enhancing strength and cell viability

This study has investigated the effect of combination of new liquid phase mixture of disodium hydrogen phosphate (Na₂HPO₄) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) on the compressive strength, setting time, bioactivity, and cytotoxicity of biphasic calcium phosphate cement. The PAA was known as one of water-soluble and biocompatible polymers to improve the mechanical performances of the bone cement, but it usually inhibits the phase conversion to hydroxyapatite after the cement has already set. The aim of this work was to evaluate the incorporation of the mixture of PAA and Na₂HPO₄ into biphasic cement. We have found the crucial concentration for adding PAA/Na₂HPO₄ at 30:70 v/v% to enhance the mechanical strength, cell viability, and maintain bioactivity. The phase composition and crosslinking reaction between PAA and alpha-tricalcium phosphate (α-TCP) powder were detected by XRD and FTIR techniques. The beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) was added in the formula to achieve the biphasic cement, which composed of β-TCP and apatite/calcium deficient-hydroxyapatite (CD-HA) in the final product. The biphasic granule commercial product was used as comparison in the cell viability test. This work had been confirmed that the cement was a nontoxic material. Therefore, our results suggest that the PAA/Na₂HPO₄ could be beneficial for further clinical applications.     

DRYTNG OF PEPPER SEEDS USING A COMBINED MICROWAVE/FLUIDIZED BED DRYER

Abstract

The drying rates curves in terms of moisture content versus elapsed drying time for white pepper seeds were obtained experimentally using a fluidized bed and a combined microwave/fluidized bed. The combined microwave/fluidized bed employs a microwave field to assist convective drying. For both procedures, the drying rates were found to be dependent on the inlet air temperature and velocity. Significantly improved drying rates were achieved utilized a combined microwave/fluidized bed drying compared with a conventional fluidized bed.     

A multi-objective car sequencing problem on two-sided assembly lines

The car sequencing problem consists of sequencing a given set of cars to be produced in each day. This paper presents an application of the extended coincident algorithm (COIN-E), which is an instance of the estimation of distribution algorithms, to a multi-objective car sequencing problem on a more realistic platform, i.e. two-sided assembly lines. Three conflicting objectives are optimised simultaneously in a Pareto sense including minimise the number of paint colour changes, minimise the total number of ratio constraint violations and minimise the utility work. The performances of COIN-E are compared with COIN (its original version), NSGA II, DPSO and BBO. The results reveal that COIN-E is superior to the other contestant algorithms in both solution quality and diversity.