Analysis of thermal performance of building attached sunspace

The thermal performance of a sunspace attached to a living room located in Amman-Jordan has been investigated. Six configurations that differ by the ratio of glazed surface area to opaque surfaces area are studied. A novel configuration that utilizes an inclined front surface is thermally investigated. The effect of orientation of the sunspace, opaque wall and floor absorption coefficients and number of glass layers on the thermal performance is evaluated. Results show that the sunspace reduces the heating load during the winter, while it creates a serious overheating problem during summer. The contribution of reducing heating requirements increases with increasing the ratio of glazed surface to opaque surface area. Also, the optimal contribution was obtained when the sunspace was oriented to the south. Two passive cooling techniques are proposed and evaluated to overcome the summer overheating problem. Additionally, a passive heating technique is proposed to minimize the thermal losses during winter nights. Internal shading and night ventilation successfully minimize the overheating problem. Employing the three passive techniques with sunspace, results show that as high as 42% reductions in annual heating and cooling load can be achieved. Utilizing an inclined front surface with double layer of glass can further reduce heating and cooling load requirements.     

Invited review: Characterization of new probiotics from dairy and nondairy products—Insights into acid tolerance,bile metabolism and tolerance,and adhesion capability

The selection of potential probiotic strains that possess the physiological capacity of performing successfully in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is a critical challenge. Probiotic microorganisms must tolerate the deleterious effects of various stresses to survive passage and function in the human GIT. Adhesion to the intestinal mucosa is also an important aspect. Recently, numerous studies have been performed concerning the selection and evaluation of novel probiotic microorganisms, mainly probiotic bacteria isolated from dairy and nondairy products. Therefore, it would be crucial to critically review the assessment methods employed to select the potential probiotics. This article aims to review and discuss the recent approaches, methods used for the selection, and outcomes of the evaluation of novel probiotic strains with the main purpose of supporting future probiotic microbial assessment studies. The findings and approaches used for assessing acid tolerance, bile metabolism and tolerance, and adhesion capability are the focus of this review. In addition, probiotic bile deconjugation and bile salt hydrolysis are explored. The selection of a new probiotic strain has mainly been based on the in vitro tolerance of physiologically related stresses including low pH and bile, to ensure that the potential probiotic microorganism can survive the harsh conditions of the GIT. However, the varied experimental conditions used in these studies (different types of media, bile, pH, and incubation time) hamper the comparison of the results of these investigations. Therefore, standardization of experimental conditions for characterizing and selecting probiotics is warranted.     

Mechanical behaviour of hazelnuts used for table consumption under compression loading

Nuts of four hazelnut varieties and five new selections used for table consumption were compressed at the moisture content of 6% wet basis to measure shell resistance to breakage. Rupture force, rupture energy and nut specific deformation were measured under three compression loading positions. Physical parameters of nuts were also evaluated to relate them to the data obtained by compression test measurements. Rupture force and nut specific deformation are the most discriminant parameters that can be used to describe the behaviour under compression, while rupture energy values show fewer differences among the considered varieties. The values of force required to break nut shell ranged from 322.2 to 769.3 N. The lowest values of force were generally obtained along the y‐axis, the transverse axis containing the major dimension at right angles to the longitudinal axis. Nut specific deformation ranged from 3.35 to 11.76%. Correlations between physical and texture parameters showed that values of force, energy and deformation were dependent on different parameters that varied in the three considered axis. The most used varieties, Ennis and Barcelona, showed high mean values of force rupture to break shell and low deformability, while Tonda Giffoni and Tonda Bianca were easy to break. Among the new selections, L35 and B6, with mean values of force rupture less than 428 N and values of nut specific deformation higher than 8%, were suitable for table consumption. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Indigenous food ingredients for complementary food formulations to combat infant malnutrition in Benin: a review

This paper reviews indigenous Beninese food resources as potential ingredients for complementary infant foods with the aim to develop affordable formulations for low‐income households in each agro‐ecological zone of the country. Potential ingredients were selected on their documented nutritional value. The selected foods encompass 347 food resources, namely 297 plant products from home gardens or collected from natural vegetation and 50 animals, either domesticated or from the wild. The compiled data reveal that the distribution of the available food resources was unbalanced between agro‐ecological zones. Only a few animal ingredients are obtainable in northern Benin. Most resources are seasonal, but their availability may be extended. A high variation was observed in energy and nutrient contents. Antinutritional factors were identified in some resources, but processing techniques were reported to reduce their presence in meals. In general, ingredients from local tree foods (Adansonia digitata, Parkia biglobosa) were adequate as sources of nutrients for complementary infant foods. Based on this review, local foods for the development of complementary food formulas for Beninese infants and children may be selected for each agro‐ecological zone. The approach used is exemplary for other sub‐Saharan African countries in need of complementary infant foods. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry     

Interactions between Macrophages and Mast Cells in the Female Reproductive System

Mast cells (MCs) and macrophages (Mϕs) are innate immune cells that differentiate from early common myeloid precursors and reside in all body tissues. MCs have a unique capacity to neutralize/degrade toxic proteins, and they are hypothesized as being able to adopt two alternative polarization profiles, similar to Mϕs, with distinct or even opposite roles. Mϕs are very plastic phagocytic cells that are devoted to the elimination of senescent/anomalous endogenous entities (to maintain tissue homeostasis), and to the recognition and elimination of exogenous threats. They can adopt several functional phenotypes in response to microenvironmental cues, whose extreme profiles are the inflammatory/killing phenotype (M1) and the anti-inflammatory/healing phenotype (M2). The concomitant and abundant presence of these two cell types and the partial overlap of their defensive and homeostatic functions leads to the hypothesis that their crosstalk is necessary for the optimal coordination of their functions, both under physiological and pathological conditions. This review will examine the relationship between MCs and Mϕs in some situations of homeostatic regulation (menstrual cycle, embryo implantation), and in some inflammatory conditions in the same organs (endometriosis, preeclampsia), in order to appreciate the importance of their cross-regulation.     

The Biochemical Assessment of Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain Disorders

Mitochondrial respiratory chain (MRC) disorders are a complex group of diseases whose diagnosis requires a multidisciplinary approach in which the biochemical investigations play an important role. Initial investigations include metabolite analysis in both blood and urine and the measurement of lactate, pyruvate and amino acid levels, as well as urine organic acids. Recently, hormone-like cytokines, such as fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21), have also been used as a means of assessing evidence of MRC dysfunction, although work is still required to confirm their diagnostic utility and reliability. The assessment of evidence of oxidative stress may also be an important parameter to consider in the diagnosis of MRC function in view of its association with mitochondrial dysfunction. At present, due to the lack of reliable biomarkers available for assessing evidence of MRC dysfunction, the spectrophotometric determination of MRC enzyme activities in skeletal muscle or tissue from the disease-presenting organ is considered the ‘Gold Standard’ biochemical method to provide evidence of MRC dysfunction. The purpose of this review is to outline a number of biochemical methods that may provide diagnostic evidence of MRC dysfunction in patients.     

Salinity effect on the compaction behaviour,matric suction,stiffness and microstructure of a silty soil

To better understand the salinity effect on the compaction behaviour of soil,standard Proctor compaction test was conducted on soil samples with different salinities.Matric suction and small-strain shear modulus,G_(max),were determined and pore size distribution was also investigated on samples statically compacted at different water contents.Results showed that with the decrease of soil salinity from initial value of 2.1‰(g of salt/kg of dry soil) to zero,the maximum dry density increased and the optimum water content decreased,whereas there was no significant change with the increase of soil salinity from2.1 ‰ to 6.76‰.Interestingly,it was observed that G_(max) also decreased when the soil salinity decreased from initial value of 2.1‰ to zero and kept almost constant when the soil salinity increased from 2.1‰ to6.76‰, for dry samples with similar matric suction and also for samples compacted at optimum state and on wet side whose matric suctions were slightly different due to the difference in remoulded water content.Furthermore,the effect of salinity on compaction behaviour and G_(max) decreased for samples compacted from dry side to wet side.The pore size distribution exhibited bi-modal characteristics with two populations of micro-and macro-pores not only for samples compacted on dry side and at optimum state,but also for those compacted on wet side.Further examination showed that the modal size of micro-pores shifted to lower values and that of macro-pores shifted to higher values for saline soil compared to the soil without salt.     

SecSpaces: a Data-driven Coordination Model for Environments Open to Untrusted Agent

In this paper we initiate an investigation about security problems which occur when exploiting a Linda-like data driven coordination model in an open environment. In this scenario, there is no guarantee that all the agents accessing the shared tuple space are trusted. Starting from the analysis of the few proposals already available in the literature, we present a novel coordination model which provides mechanisms to manage tuple access control. The first mechanism supports logical partitions of the shared repository: in this way we can restrict the access to tuples inside a partition, simply by limiting the access to the partition itself. The second mechanism consists of adding to the tuples some extra information which exploit asymmetric cryptography in order, e.g., to authenticate the producer of a tuple or to identify its reader/consumer. Finally, we support the possibility to define access control policies based on the kind of operations an agent performs on a tuple, thus discriminating between (destructive) input and (non-destructive) read operations.