Nonthermal Food Processing Alternatives and Their Effects on Taste and Flavor Compounds of Beverages

Food drinks are normally processed to increase their shelf-life and facilitate distribution before consumption. Thermal pasteurization is quite efficient in preventing microbial spoilage of many types of beverages, but the applied heat may also cause undesirable biochemical and nutritious changes that may affect sensory attributes of the final product. Alternative methods of pasteurization that do not include direct heat have been investigated in order to obtain products safe for consumption, but with sensory attributes maintained as unchanged as possible. Food scientists interested in nonthermal food preservation technologies have claimed that such methods of preserving foods are equally efficient in microbial inactivation as compared with conventional thermal means of food processing. Researchers in the nonthermal food preservation area also affirm that alternative preservation technologies will not affect, as much as thermal processes, nutritional and sensory attributes of processed foods. This article reviews research in nonthermal food preservation, focusing on effects of processing of food drinks such as fruit juices and dairy products. Analytical techniques used to identify volatile flavor-aroma compounds will be reviewed and comparative effects for both thermal and nonthermal preservation technologies will be discussed.     

Early and late epileptic crisis following cerebral hemisphere ischemia

INTRODUCTION: There is no agreement as to the frequency and characteristics of epileptic seizures (ES) associated with cerebrovascular disease (CVD). OBJECTIVE: To analyze the presence of early (Se) and late (SI) ES, factors related to these, prognosis and conversion to epilepsy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We made a retrospective study of 386 patients with cerebral hemisphere ischemia (100 TIA and 286 infarcts). Follow-up was 29.69 +/- 13.92 months. Two groups were defined: a) Patients without ES, and b) patients with ES. Those occurring within 15 days of the episode of ischemia were considered to be Se and the others Sl. We studied the prognosis (modified Rankin scale on discharge from hospital) and mortality. RESULTS: Twenty three patients (6%) had crises (18 Se and 5 Sl). The commonest type was simple partial motor crises (13 or 56.5%) followed by generalized tonic-clonic crises (9 or 39.1%) which predominated in the Se group. There were 6 solitary crises (Se) and 17 (73.9%) recurrences (66.6% of the Se and 100% of the Sl) (p = 0.049). There was an association between the presence of a family history of epilepsy (p < 0.001) and increased risk factors for epilepsy and CVD, particularly previous ictus and cardiopathy respectively (p = 0.034). No patient with TIA or lacunar infarct had ES. Extensive infarcts showed and increased tendency to the associated with hemorrhagic transformation, involvement of the cortex (p < 0.001) and cardioembolic incidents (p = 0.025). They had a worse prognosis, led to more disability (p < 0.001) and earlier mortality (38.4%) (during the first three months) (p = 0.015). These factors were associated (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Postischemic cerebral seizures are frequent and have a high recurrence rate, especially in patients with extensive infarcts involving the cortex and these of embolic origin. The prognosis is worse when crises occur early.     

A highly modular and extensible architecture for an integrated IMS‐based authoring system: the <e‐Aula> experience

The <e‐Aula> platform is a new experimental e‐learning environment that adheres closely to IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc. e‐learning standards in order to facilitate their applicability in different learning scenarios. <e‐Aula> is equipped with an integrated modular and extensible architecture for the authoring of IMS‐compliant learning materials focused on the IMS manifest. This manifest‐driven architecture facilitates maintenance and promotes the evolution of the authoring system in <e‐Aula>, both of which are mandatory requirements in the successful production and maintenance of content for many different specialized learning domains. In this paper, we describe this authoring system, its manifest‐driven architecture and its implementation using well‐known and robust Java‐based Web technologies. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New telechelic polymers and sequential copolymers by polyfunctional initiator-transfer agents (inifers) V. synthesis of α-tert-butyl-ω-isopropenylpolyisobutylene and α, ω-di(isopropenyl)polyisobutylene

Summary Polyisobutylenes carrying one or two terminal isopropenyl unsaturations have been obtained by complete dehydrochlorination of α-tert. -butyl-ω-tert. chloropolyisobutylene and α, ω-di(tert.-chloro) polyisobutylene, respectively. By the use of t-BuOK in refluxing THF only 1-olefin formed leading to a new macromer and a symmetrical telechelic diolefin. According to H¹ NMR spectroscopy the structure of this new telechelic polymer is:      

Life cycle assessment of wood wastes: A case study of ephemeral architecture

One of the most commonly used elements in ephemeral architecture is a particleboard panel. These types of wood products are produced from wood wastes and they are used in temporary constructions such as trade fairs. Once the event is over, they are usually disposed into landfills. This paper intends to assess the environmental effects related to the use of these wood wastes in the end-of-life stage. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of two scenarios was performed, considering the recycling of wood waste for particleboard manufacture and energy generation from non-renewable resources (Scenario 1) versus the production of energy from the combustion of wood waste and particleboard manufacture with conventional wooden resources (Scenario 2). A sensitive analysis was carried out taking into account the influence of the percentage of recycled material and the emissions data from wood combustion. According to Ecoindicator 99 methodology, Damage to Human Health and Ecosystem Quality are more significant in Scenario 2 whereas Scenario 1 presents the largest contribution to Damage to Resources. Between the two proposed alternatives, the recycling of wood waste for particleboard manufacture seems to be more favorable under an environmental perspective.     

Atomic mechanisms of local structural rearrangements in strained crystalline titanium grain

The nucleation and development of plastic deformation in a crystalline grain of titanium (Ti) during uniaxial tension has been studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with the interatomic interaction described using the embedded atom method. Specific features of the generation of local structural rearrangements in the grain at various straining rates are revealed. It is established that there is a threshold deformation level at which local structural rearrangements begin to nucleate in the crystal, which is accompanied by a jumplike decrease in the potential energy. Because of the inertial character of the accommodation processes, this threshold value increases with the loading velocity.     

Experimental Results in Multi-UAV Coordination for Disaster Management and Civil Security Applications

This paper describes a multi-UAV distributed decisional architecture developed in the framework of the AWARE Project together with a set of tests with real Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to validate this approach in disaster management and civil security applications. The paper presents the different components of the AWARE platform and the scenario in which the multi-UAV missions were carried out. The missions described in this paper include surveillance with multiple UAVs, sensor deployment and fire threat confirmation. In order to avoid redundancies, instead of describing the operation of the full architecture for every mission, only non-overlapping aspects are highlighted in each one. Key issues in multi-UAV systems such as distributed task allocation, conflict resolution and plan refining are solved in the execution of the missions.     

Biodegradation kinetics of a mixture of phenols in a sequencing batch moving bed biofilm reactor under starvation and shock loads

BACKGROUND: The objective of this research was to study the biodegradation kinetics of a mixture of phenol, 4‐chorophenol 2,4‐dichlorophenol and 2,4,6‐trichlorophenol in a moving bed sequencing batch reactor (SBR) subjected to starvation and shock loads. The effect was evaluated on the degradation time and on the specific degradation rate. RESULTS: The bacteria present in the system degraded effectively the mixture of phenols. Degradation efficiencies were higher than 98% as total phenols and greater than 95% as organic carbon. It was observed that starvation and shock loads had only a transient effect on microorganisms degradation rate. The substrate removal rate decreased when the perturbations were applied, but for subsequent SBR cycles the previous activity was recovered. Results also demonstrated that suspended biomass was more sensitive to changes than the attached biomass present in the moving bed. CONCLUSIONS: The moving bed SBR presented robust performance under variable influent concentrations of a mixture of inhibitory compounds. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry