The effect of par‐baking and frozen storage time on the quality of cup cake

The effects of frozen storage and initial baking time of par‐baked cake on baking loss, volume, moisture, colour and textural properties of cake obtained after thawing and rebaking were investigated. Cakes, par‐baked at 175 °C for 15, 20 and 25 min, were stored at ?18 °C for 3, 6 and 9 months. After storage, par‐baked cakes were thawed and rebaked at 175 °C for 10, 15 and 20 min. Baking loss, moisture content, L and +b colour values, firmness, gumminess and chewiness of the resulting full‐baked cakes were significantly affected by both par‐baking and frozen storage time, while specific volume, cohesiveness, springiness and resilience values were significantly affected by frozen storage time. The increase in the time of frozen storage of the par‐baked cake leads to a decrease in the quality of the rebaked cake, namely an increase of baking loss and cake crumb firmness, and a loss in the moisture content and specific volume. Moisture of cake crumb, L and +b colour values, firmness, gumminess and chewiness significantly increased as the par‐baking time increased. However, regarding baking loss, specific volume, moisture content and textural properties, 3‐month intermediate storage at ?18 °C and 20‐min initial baking time gave the best result among the cakes produced by using the two‐step baking procedure.     

Oligonucleotide Insecticides for Green Agriculture: Regulatory Role of Contact DNA in Plant–Insect Interactions

Insects vastly outnumber us in terms of species and total biomass, and are among the most efficient and voracious consumers of plants on the planet. As a result, to preserve crops, one of the primary tasks in agriculture has always been the need to control and reduce the number of insect pests. The current use of chemical insecticides leads to the accumulation of xenobiotics in ecosystems and a decreased number of species in those ecosystems, including insects. Sustainable development of human society is impossible without useful insects, so the control of insect pests must be effective and selective at the same time. In this article, we show for the first time a natural way to regulate the number of insect pests based on the use of extracellular double-stranded DNA secreted by the plant Pittosporum tobira. Using a principle similar to one found in nature, we show that the topical application of artificially synthesized short antisense oligonucleotide insecticides (olinscides, DNA insecticides) is an effective and selective way to control the insect Coccus hesperidum. Using contact oligonucleotide insecticide Coccus-11 at a concentration of 100 ng/μL on C. hesperidum larvae resulted in a mortality of 95.59 ± 1.63% within 12 days. Green oligonucleotide insecticides, created by nature and later discovered by humans, demonstrate a new method to control insect pests that is beneficial and safe for macromolecular insect pest management.     

Carbon Bonding State Has a Small Effect on Melting of Direct-Reduced Iron

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - The concentration and chemical bonding state of carbon in direct-reduced iron (DRI) might affect DRI melting temperature and rate. The effects of carbon...     

Optimal regulation of homogeneous systems

We present an offline numerical algorithm to generate a discontinuous feedback law to robustly regulate the origin of a continuous-time homogeneous system through sample and hold. The proposed feedback comes out of the solution of an infinite horizon optimization problem in discrete time and is in the form of a look-up table. We show that when applied to either chained systems or systems in power form the algorithm results in a closed loop whose origin is globally exponentially stable.     

Stochastic Priority Model for Aggregate Blending

Aggregate blending models that incorporate the optimization of two objectives with their priority levels are presented. The two objectives include the minimization of the mean deviation (or mean absolute deviation) from the midpoint of specification limits and the minimization of the unit cost of the blend. The models are applicable to any number of aggregates and can be used to provide the optimum proportions corresponding to a given priority level or to establish trade‐off curves between mean deviation and cost. The stochastic elements of aggregate gradations are formulated and incorporated into the models. Both the deterministic and stochastic models are applied to a numerical aggregate blending problem, and extensions of the models to accommodate some practical cases are presented.     

The wetting characteristics and surface tension of some ni-based alloys on yttria,hafnia, alumina,and zirconia substrates

Sessile drop experiments were carried out in order to measure surface tensions and to investigate wetting characteristics of some Ni-based alloys on various ceramic substrates. The liquid-vapor surface tension (γ_LV) was found to be 1.764 N/m for pure Ni, 1.45 ± 0.11 N/m for Ni-20 pct Cr, 1.29 ± 0.06 N/m for Ni-20 pct Cr-1 pct Al, and 1.31 ± 0.09 N/m for Ni-20 pct Cr-4 pct Al. The commercial alloys UD520, UD718, UD720, and WASPALOY* showed non-wetting behavior on zirconia but wetting tendency on alumina substrates. Ni-20 pct Cr-1 pct Al showed non-wetting behavior on alumina, hafnia, and yttria substrates whereas Ni-20 pct Cr and Ni-20 pct Cr-4 pct Al were observed to be non-wetting on hafnia but wetting on yttria and alumina substrates. All the systems that exhibited wetting behavior were found to be non-wetting in the beginning; however, wet-ting improved with time. The wetting characteristics were apparently related to impurification of droplets during measurements, which is reflected in the solidification structure, rather than to the presence of oxides on the surface.     

Pb(II) biosorption using anaerobically digested sludge

Removal of Pb(II) by using resting cells of anaerobically digested sludge (ADS) obtained from a nearby wastewater treatment plant was examined. Firstly, sorption kinetic and equilibrium experiments were conducted using agitated, thermostated (25 degrees C) batch reactors. The maximum Pb(II) sorption capacity was found to be very high (1,750 mg/g dry ADS or 8.45 mmol/g dry ADS). At all initial Pb(II) concentrations tested, sorption resulted in neutralization with an increase in the solution pH from an initial value of 4.0-5.5 to an equilibrium value of 7.0-8.0, at which Pb(II) can precipitate as hydroxide. The removal of Pb(II) by ADS was found to involve bioprecipitation as well as biosorption. FTIR spectrometry highlighted carboxyl groups present on the surface of ADS as the major functional groups responsible for biosorption. Secondly, a three-stage semi-continuous pseudo-counter current reactor system was tested to reduce ADS requirement in comparison to a conventional single-stage batch reactor. At an initial Pb(II) concentration of about 200 mg/L, an effluent Pb(II) concentration of 1.3 mg/L was achieved in the three stage reactor, corresponding to a metal removal capacity of 682.7 mg/g dry ADS (3.30 mmol/g), in comparison to 1.9 mg/L and 644.0 mg/g dry ADS (3.10 mmol/g) for the single-stage batch reactor.     

Microbiological,chemical and sensory assessment of mussels (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Mytilus galloprovincialis</Emphasis>) stored under modified atmosphere packaging

Wild mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis), were packaged aerobically under vaccum packaging(VP) and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP (50%/50% CO₂/N₂: M1, 80%/20% CO₂/N₂: M2, 65%/35% CO₂/N₂: M3), and stored at 2 ± 1 °C. Quality evaluation was carried out using microbiological, chemical and sensory analyses. Microbiological results revealed that M2 and M3 delayed microbial growth compared to M1. Of the chemical indices determined, the TVB-N and TMA-N values of M2 remained lower than the proposed acceptability limits of 35 mg N/100 g and 8 mg N/100 g, respectively, up to 8 days of storage. All of the MAP and VP mussel samples exceeded these limits after 12 days of storage. All samples retained desirable sensory characteristics during the first 8 days of storage. Based on microbiological and chemical analyses along with sensory evaluation, M2 and M3 gave a longer shelf-life compared with VP and M1. M2 gas mixture was the most effective for mussel preservation.     

Antioxidative activities of grape (Vitis vinifera) seed extracts obtained from different varieties grown in Turkey

In this study, total phenolic contents and antioxidant activities of grape seed extracts obtained from twelve different grape seeds from common varieties grown in Turkey were determined. Grape seeds were extracted with 70% acetone and extraction yield of grape seed were calculated. The total phenolic content of grape seed extracts were determined by the Folin‐Ciocalteu procedure and ranged from 33 945 to 58 730 mg per 100 g extract as gallic acid equivalent. Antioxidant activities of grape seed extracts with two different free radical scavenging methods, ABTS [2,2/‐azinobis (3‐ethylbenzothiazoneline‐6‐sulfonic acid)] and DPPH (2,2‐diphenyl‐picrylhydrazyl) assays, using Trolox equivalent as standards, were investigated. Grape seed extracts exhibited antioxidant activities 2.46–4.14 and 3.55–5.76 [Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacities (TEAC) mg^?1 extracts] in ABTS and DPPH assays, respectively. Compared with varieties, Muskule extracts exhibited the lowest total phenolic content, TEAC_ABTS and TEAC_DPPH value while Narince extracts had the highest total phenolic content and TEAC_DPPH value, and Alphonse Lavalleé had the highest TEAC_ABTS value. Total phenolic content showed that there is a significant correlation with TEAC_DPPH (r = 0.7974, P ≤ 0.001) and TEAC_ABTS values (r = 0.4860, P ≤ 0.05).