The impact of delactosed whey permeate treatment on shelf‐life and antioxidant contents of strawberries

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of delactosed whey permeate (DWP) treatment on antioxidant and physicochemical properties of strawberries. Fresh strawberries treated with 3% DWP were analysed for different quality, nutritional and microbiological markers during 10 days of storage at 5 °C. The results showed that DWP treatment significantly reduced incidences of decay (70%) and numbers of total aerobic counts (～1.4 Log₁₀ CFU g^?1) and yeast and moulds (～1.8 Log₁₀ CFU g^?1). DWP treatment also inhibited the loss of firmness (15%) and maintained significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher levels of vitamin C, total phenols and antioxidant activity of strawberries. Sensory scores confirmed that the DWP‐treated strawberries retained a good appearance and overall quality. The aroma and colour attributes were not reduced during storage. These results suggest that DWP treatment has potential to extend the shelf‐life and maintain the quality of strawberries during storage.     

Atmospheric dispersion modeling of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emissions from a cement plant’s sources

The study aims to estimate a cement plant’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations from individual sources as well as combined emissions from all the sources. Four main CO₂ emission sources were considered: process from the calcination of limestone, the combustion of fossil fuel in the kilns, the power plant, and the dump trucks used for raw material transportation. An integrated modeling system comprised of the California PUFF and Weather Research and Forecasting was applied. The power plant and the stacks of three kilns were modeled as point sources, whereas the vehicular emissions were treated as a line source. In the first part of the study, modeling of the cement plant’s individual sources was carried out to predict CO₂ at each receptor of the domain. In the second part, the CO₂ concentrations of combined emissions from all of the plant’s sources were predicted. Individual modeling of each of the plant’s CO₂ emission sources showed that the highest CO₂ at each receptor of the domain resulted from the calcination process. In the case of combined modeling of all the cement plant’s sources, the predicted peak concentrations of CO₂ were 357.19 and 36.11 mg/m³ for one-hour and 24-hour averaging periods, respectively.     

Instant Controlled Pressure Drop (DIC) Texturing of Heat-Sensitive Spray-Dried Powders: Phenomenological Modeling and Optimization

Powders of expanded granules generally get high functional characteristics due to porous structure of such granules. The present study aimed at comparing the two ways of high-pressure air or steam alternatively used in détente instantanée contrôlée (DIC; French for instant controlled pressure drop) to achieve the modified three-stage spray-drying operation. Both operations were studied in terms of the process performance and functional/structural powder quality in the case of skim milk. The initial water content, the temperature levels, and the initial and final pressures contribute together to define the amount of expanding air or vapor thus generated. This is an important texturing parameter strictly combined with rheological and glass transition to define the texturing phenomenon. Response surface methodology—design of experiments (RSM-DoE) was achieved with DIC pressure, treatment time, and water content as independent variables for both operation ways. The analyses of the technological, physical, and structural properties of untreated and DIC textured powders were carried out and considered as response dependent variables. The results illustrated that whatever the type of DIC, the optimized DIC treatment implied a controlled increase in porosity, interstitial air volume, and compressibility, as well as specific surface area and reconstitution aptitude.     

Water issues in Kuwait: a future sustainable vision

Kuwait, an arid country, has an acute lack of natural groundwater resources, an increasing demand for water supply, but no clear plan for water management. On this basis, a future water crisis will be inevitable. This paper offers proposals that could lead to the sustainable management of water resources in Kuwait. The objective should be less the increase of supply than the improvement of its reliability and quality. The establishment of a unified water authority is desirable.     

Web‐based integrated project control system

This paper presents a system that supports project time and cost control in an integrated manner. The system utilizes object‐oriented modelling to represent the process of project delivery. A set of control objects is designed to map the process of project control. Eighteen key indicators are considered to represent the resources utilized in each control object and serve as sensors to highlight problematic areas associated with unfavourable performance. A Three‐Tier Client/Sever computer system is designed to implement the developed system. Daily, weekly, monthly and/or yearly, period‐by‐period, and cumulative to‐date project performance reports are generated to provide the status at project, control object and resource levels. An example drawn from the literature is analysed to allow for comparison with the results obtained using the proposed methodology. The example also serves the purpose of demonstrating the use of the proposed system and illustrating its essential features.     

Design of Polarization- and Incident Angle-Independent Perfect Metamaterial Absorber with Interference Theory

A perfect metamaterial absorber is realized and its properties are theoretically, numerically and experimentally investigated at microwave frequencies. In addition, polarization and incident angle independencies are also tested for the structure. Theoretical, numerical and experimental results show that the proposed model has many advantages compared to those in the literature, such as perfect absorption, polarization and incident angle independencies, very simple design, and operation over a sufficiently wide band. A simple configuration is chosen for the proposed model so that it can be easily tuned for other frequency regimes to realize new absorbers for applications such as sensors and stealth technology.     

Assessment of wind energy to power solar brackish water greenhouse desalination units: A case study from Algeria

The Algerian desert dominates large parts of the country's vast territory, and Algeria is among the countries filling most of the world's largest desert. In fact the country is over 80% desert. Even though more than 80% of the population is located in the northern Mediterranean coastal zone, most of oil and gas fields are located in the country's vast southern desert called Sahara. Furthermore, the desert region is developed into a major tourist destination. This arid zone region is characterized by a lack of potable water. However, in addition to the abundant solar energy, the region is also endowed with important wind and brackish groundwater resources with different qualities. Therefore, a brackish water greenhouse desalination unit that is powered by wind energy is a good solution for desalting groundwater for irrigation purposes in this region. Brackish water can be used to cool the greenhouse, creating the proper climate to grow valuable crops. Moreover, at the same time the fresh water that is produced in this system may be sufficient for the irrigation of crops grown inside the unit. In this study, five typical regions in the Sahara were selected and investigated. These regions were selected since they were areas of traditional agriculture. The frequency distributions of wind speed data were collected from Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy (SSE) statistics developed by NASA and evaluated for a 10-year period. The distributions were used to determine the average wind speed and the available wind power for the five locations. The results indicated that the available wind energy is a suitable resource for power production and can be used to provide the required electricity for the brackish groundwater greenhouse desalination units.     

Texturing of Chicken Breast Meat as an Innovative Way to Intensify Drying: Use of a Coupled Washing/Diffusion CWD Phenomenological Model to Enhance Kinetics and Functional Properties

In the present study, instant controlled pressure drop (DIC) was used as a novel texturing pretreatment of fresh chicken breast meat, before hot airflow drying, in order to modify the texture of the meat and obtain a controlled expansion. Three different drying techniques were compared: conventional hot airflow drying, freeze drying, and swell drying (a combination of DIC and hot airflow drying). DIC was carried out under various conditions in order to achieve multi-criteria optimization. A two-parameter, five-level response surface methodology was used to optimize the operating parameters of saturated steam pressure and thermal holding time, starting with the meat's initial water content. Saturated steam pressure had a significant impact on the expansion ratio. The higher the expansion ratio, the better the different functional qualities. Microstructural changes reduced drying time, and increased rehydration kinetics and water holding capacity (WHC). The starting accessibility δW_s and the internal effective water diffusivity D_eff were studied for both drying and rehydration processes in accordance with the coupled washing/diffusion (CWD) phenomenological model.