Physicochemical and volatile profile alterations in pasteurized and frozen strawberry pulp during storage

This study evaluated the physicochemical characteristics and volatile profile of strawberry pulp subjected to factors, pasteurization (unpasteurized and pasteurized), freezing method (static air and forced air), and their interactions, during 12 months. Strawberry fruit were washed, sanitized, and pulped. The pulp was packaged, pasteurized, and frozen (0, 2, 4, 6, and 12 months). We concluded that pasteurization alters the strawberry pulp color. The impact of pasteurization and freezing method on the strawberry pulp pH, titratable acidity, and soluble solids variables is negligible. We tentatively identified 13 volatile compounds in fresh fruit and pulp, ethyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate, and linalool being the volatiles with the highest area percentage in the two products. The esters were predominant in both the fruit and strawberry pulp. Time is the most determining factor in modifying the strawberry pulp volatile profile, having an isolated effect on the increase of ethanol, ethyl butanoate, and linalool.

Practical applications

The strawberry is very used worldwide as raw material to different products, due to its color, flavor, and aroma. Thus, obtaining further information about the changes caused by processing and storage is of great importance for the food industry. This study shows the effect of simultaneous application of different processing techniques (pasteurization and freezing methods) on physicochemical variables and volatile profile of strawberry pulp over prolonged storage. Significant and unpublished results involving color, pH, acidity, soluble solids, and volatile compounds of strawberry frozen pulp over storage period are presented and may be applied for food industry to keep the pulp quality.     

Reference Material for the Determination of Polychlorodibenzo-<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-dioxins,Polychlorodibenzo-furans,and Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Fish: Production Process,Homogeneity, and Stability

The presence of dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, and polychlorinated biphenyls in food is an important consideration for food safety, especially in fish matrices that are susceptible to bioaccumulation of those compounds from marine environments. In this context, the production of a reference material (RM) for this analytical scope is of great importance for ensuring the reliability of the results generated by monitoring programs. A lyophilized material was produced by spiking tilapia fillets with 29 compounds, and the material was evaluated based on the potential for using it as a certified reference material (CRM) or in proficiency testing (PT) schemes. A pilot experiment was performed to evaluate the incorporation of the analytes in tilapia fillets using standards prepared in nonane and in fish oil. The process yield was approximately 16% for both conditions, but higher mean recoveries were achieved with fish oil. The tilapia fillets were processed, and a portion of this bulk was spiked and then homogenized. The spiked and unspiked portions were frozen prior to lyophilization. Each freeze-dried portion was homogenized and sieved, and then, the portions were mixed, packed, and stored under refrigeration. The material was considered homogeneous for all analytes based on the criteria established for PT. Of the tested analytes, 27 were found to be stable in the short-term design (p > 0.05) when the material was kept at 45 ± 2 °C for 9 days. Long-term stability was evaluated at 2, 4, 6, and 8 months, and 22 of the analytes were found to be stable through up to 4 months of storage based on the criteria defined in references related to both the production of CRM and PT. The contributions of the homogeneity and stability in the short- and long-term uncertainties were estimated and indicated the adequacy of the material for use as a reference for trueness experiments.     

Analytical pyrolysis and FTIR spectroscopy of fossil Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) wood and MWLs isolated hereof

Recent and fossil woods from the genus of Sequoiadendron, as well as their milled wood lignins were investigated by means of FTIR spectroscopy and pyrolysis GC/MS technique. Though almost same in appearance the differences in band intensities of FTIR-spectra reveals the distinctly increased aromatic character and the oxidation in fossil specimens. More detailed information about the changes in old wood were obtained by analytical pyrolysis, which delivers degradation products with shortened side chains and more saturated units relating to fossil lignin.     

Relation between fabric porosity and vacuum extraction efficiency: Energy issues

Vacuum extraction is a technique that removes the unbound water from the fabrics by the help of air flow through the fabrics at high velocities. Air flow through textile fabrics is mainly affected by the fabric structure such as tightness, porosity and air permeability. This paper outlines the effects of the fabric structure on the vacuum drying efficiency. Thirty woven fabrics with different porosities were dried by vacuum extraction method, and it was found that the lower the porosity or the lower the air permeability, the higher the water removal effects and energy requirement.     

Electromagnetic shielding efficiency of nonwoven insulation panels designed with recycled textiles and copper wires

Insulation applications of nonwovens has become increasingly important in the construction and automotive industries since the late 1990s. Besides, recycling and reusing fibrous waste becomes one of the most important raw materials of nonwovens to promote effective use of resources recently. On the other hand, metals are now being increasingly replaced by thermoplastics for housing commercial equipment, due to flexibility, light weight, and low cost for electromagnetic shielding purposes. In this study, we design nonwoven insulation panels containing copper wires with different intensity and length to provide electromagnetic wave protection by using recycled textiles. The method is simple, the material is cheaper, and more importantly, the whole material can be produced by using only waste materials. The electromagnetic shielding characteristics of the panels were measured and discussed. The experimental results indicated that the variation in wire length and amount affects the electromagnetic (EM) shielding property. With this method, the products with electromagnetic shielding effect in certain areas can be developed. In particular, there is a big potential for electromagnetic shielding applications in wide bandwidth, such as 1125–2925 MHz.     

The use of a curtain design to increase the performance level of a Savonius wind rotors

In this study, a curtain design has been arranged so as to improve the low performance levels of the Savonius wind rotors. Designed to prevent the negative torque on the convex blade of the rotor, this curtain has been placed in front of the rotor, and performance experiments have been carried out when the rotor is with and without curtain. It has been determined from here that a significant increase can be achieved in the rotor performance by means of the curtain design. Experiments of the curtain design have been conducted in three different dimensions when the Savonius wind rotor is static, and the highest values have been obtained with the curtain 1. Therefore, the curtain designs and curtain angles in which the highest values obtained have been analyzed numerically with Fluent 6.0 program and the results obtained experimentally have been supported with numerical analysis. Moreover, performance experiments have been made for the curtain 1 with which the best performance values have been obtained when the rotor is in its dynamic position, and the results obtained have been given in figures.     

Nonlinear control of the doubly-fed induction generator in wind power systems

This paper describes the models of a wind power system, such as the turbine, generator, power electronics converters and controllers, with the aim to control the generation of wind power in order to maximize the generated power with the lowest possible impact in the grid voltage and frequency during normal operation and under the occurrence of faults. The presented work considers a wind power system equipped with the doubly-fed induction generator and a vector-controlled converter connected between the rotor and the grid. The paper presents comparative results between proportional-integral controllers and neural networks based controllers, showing that better dynamic characteristics can be obtained using neural networks based controllers.     

Smoking too few cigarettes to be at risk? Smokers' perceptions of risk and risk denial,a French survey

Background

Past studies on smokers'' risk perception have produced mixed results. We endorsed a new approach to assess smokers'' perceptions of risk by asking them to estimate threshold values for the cancer risk associated with daily consumption of tobacco and number of smoking years. We expected that many smokers would endorse a “risk denial” attitude, with threshold estimates higher than their own smoking consumption and duration.

Methodology

A French national telephone survey (n = 3820; 979 current smokers) included several questions about smoking behaviours and related beliefs.

Results

Among current smokers, 44% considered that smoking can cause cancer only for a daily consumption higher than their own consumption, and an additional 20% considered that the cancer risk becomes high only for a smoking duration higher than their own. Most smokers also agreed with other “risk denial” statements (“smoking is not more dangerous than air pollution,” “some people smoke their whole life but never get sick”). Those who considered they smoked too few cigarettes to be at risk were less likely to report personal fear of smoking related cancer.

Conclusion

Risk denial is quite widespread among smokers and does not simply reflect a lack of information about health risks related to tobacco. Fully informing smokers about their risks may necessitate changing the way they process information to produce beliefs and limiting their capacity to generate self exempting beliefs.     

Study of the impact of reactants utilization on the performance of PEMFC commercial stacks by impedance spectroscopy

Reactants utilization is a key stake for a PEMFC system: a too low utilization leads to a waste of reactant but a too high utilization may result in a detrimental starvation. To study these impacts, two commercial stacks were characterised by impedance spectroscopy under different hydrogen and oxygen utilizations (from nominal conditions to quasi-starvation). One was fresh while the other was operated on-field during 10,000 h. This study shows that the two capacitive loops in the lowest frequency range (1 Hz and below) correspond respectively to oxygen and hydrogen mass transfer limitations: the limiting reactant can be clearly identified from the impacted frequencies. The size of these loops was increased by up to 30% when the cell operated at high reactant utilizations. These results could therefore pave the way to the development of algorithms able to estimate the degree of starvation of some cells.