Upcycling of plastic waste to carbon nanomaterials: a bibliometric analysis (2000–2019)

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Due to the rapidly escalating generation of plastic wastes, the development of an effective management strategy is vital to reduce their adverse...     

Starch fraction profiles of milled,nonparboiled rice varieties from Nigeria

This study determined the levels of nutritionally important starch fractions in selected milled, nonparboiled rice cultivated in Nigeria. Five improved varieties (FARO 52, FARO 57, FARO 44, FARO 60 and FARO 61) and four local varieties (Kwandala, Yardass, Jeep and Jamila) were evaluated. There were significant differences in starch fractions among varieties. Resistant starch (RS) ranged between 1.43% and 3.13%. Rapidly digestible starch (RDS) was lowest in Jamila (27.70%) and highest in FARO 61 (39.26%). Generally, the local varieties had significant higher RS (2.71%) with a lower RDS (32.82%) compared with improved varieties (RS; 1.88% and RDS; 36.07%). RS was inversely related to RDS and starch digestion index (SDI). The SDI had a highly significant positive correlation with RDS (r = 0.879, P < 0.01). These results highlight the need for further work in the identification of milled, nonparboiled rice varieties with less rapid digestion for its associated health benefits to consumers.     

Nanostructural characterization and sorption isotherm analysis of spray-dried date powder

Dates are naturally rich in antioxidants and other bioactive molecules. To enhance the shelf life and market value of these bioactive molecules, free flow spray-dried date powder was produced in a pilot scale spray drier. To better understand the rheological properties of the spray-dried date powder produced by different carrier materials (maltodextrin (MD) and gum Arabic (GA)), different drying temperatures (150 and 170°C) and different flow rates of the atomizer (25 and 40?mL/min), a microstructural characterization of the scanning electron microscopy images of the date powder was performed using the graphical user interface design environment and image analysis toolbox in MATLAB. Also, the fundamental rheological characteristics of deformation and flow of particulate solids (i.e., packing, permeability, and strength) were obtained using an advanced rheometer and helium pycnometer. The microstructural and rheological properties of the date powders were significantly affected by the processing conditions used in this study. The date powder produced with MD had smooth, regular-shaped spherical particles along with good agglomeration and packing characteristics. Date powder with GA had irregular-shaped relatively smaller particles with dented surfaces with poor agglomeration and packing properties. Moreover, the rheological quality of the date powders was inversely proportional to the temperature and flow rate. The Guggenheim–Anderson–de Boer model for sorption isotherms was a suitable fit for the date powder. The monolayer moisture content for gum Arabic was twice that of the maltodextrin carrier material, whereas the monolayer heat of sorption was higher for maltodextrins. Using maltodextrin as the carrier material and drying at 150°C with a flow rate of 25?mL/min produced a free flowing less caking product as depicted by the sorption isotherms.     

Interference Nomenclature in Wireless Mesh Networks

The Quality of Service of Multi-Channel Multi-Radio Wireless Mesh Networks is adversely affected by the complex behavior of interference patterns present between the sender and receiver of a link. This behavior is usually captured using wireless channel interference models. The accuracy of the interference model is highly dependent on the interaction of the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance Medium Access Control (CSMA/CA MAC) protocol based on the geometric location of the sender and receiver of the link. Therefore, this paper presents a nomenclature of interference modeling schemes available in Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) literature with respect to the geometric location of the sender and receiver of a link. The behavior and limitations of each model are analyzed with the help of empirical examples. The results indicate that Garetto’s model of interfering links is the best choice to model wireless channel interference in WMNs. In addition, this study provides an interference analysis of Garetto’s model for the two link case by computing the conditional packet loss probability of each class of interfering link. The probability analysis concluded that the links with disconnected senders are highly interfering compared to sender connected links. Further, the analysis will assist researchers and engineers in relay node placement, capacity analysis, channel assignment, and topology control schemes in the WMN.     

Predicting intramuscular fat content and marbling score of pork along the longissimus muscle based on the last rib

The possibility of using IMF content/MS at the last rib to predict the corresponding fat attribute of loin chops at the 2nd last to the 7th last thoracic ribs and the mean of IMF content/MS of the whole loin joint was investigated. Linear and quadratic regression, cross‐validation analysis and analysis of variance were employed for the study. For either IMF or MS, linear and quadratic regression models had similar performance. The best mean correlation coefficients of calibration (R_c) of 0.91 and cross‐validation (R_v) of 0.88 were obtained for linear regression model of IMF content of the whole loin, while R_c of 0.90 and R_v of 0.88 were obtained for quadratic regression model of MS of the whole loin. The results indicated that IMF content and MS at the last rib had great potential for the prediction of IMF content and MS at the other ribs.     

Towards providing a new lightweight authentication and encryption scheme for MANET

Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a wireless technology for mobile nodes. This network is setup on fly without any infrastructure. The mobility nature of this network and the lack of infrastructure make it very challenging to be secured. In this paper, we introduce a formal model for Identity-based RSA (Id-RSA) scheme proven secure in the random oracle model. The proposed scheme relies on establishing fast cryptography operations to enhance the network performance. We compare our scheme with RSA-based Threshold Cryptography scheme (RSA-TC) and ECC-based Threshold Cryptography scheme (ECC-TC) in terms of speed and overheads caused by the security messages. We show that the threshold cryptography operations involved in RSA-TC and ECC-TC schemes cause a lot of overheads and delay. We implement these three schemes using the JAVA-based simulation framework (JIST/SWANS). The results show that our Id-RSA scheme is more suitable for MANET mobility environment that require lightweight and secure solutions.     

Mathematical modeling of airflow and heat transfer during forced convection cooling of produce considering various package vent areas

The influence of different package vent configurations, including ventilated packages with 1, 3 and 5 vents, on produce temperature distribution during forced convection cooling of produce was investigated by mathematical modeling of simultaneous airflow and heat transfer. Generally, produce cooling uniformity was increased by increasing the number of vents from 1 to 5. Produce cooling heterogeneity increased until about 90 min cooling and subsequently decreased with further cooling in all 3 ventilated packages. The methodology developed in this study can be used as a design tool to provide homogeneous temperature distribution in ventilated packages during forced convection cooling of produce.     

Vicinal support vector classifier: A novel approach for robust classification based on SKDA

In this paper, we present a detailed study and comparison of different classification algorithms. Our main purpose is the study of the Vicinal Support Vector Classifier (VSVC) and its relations to the other state-of-the-art classifiers. To this end, we start by the historical development of each classifier, derivation of the mathematics behind it and describing the relations that exist between some of them, in particular the relation between the VSVC and the other classifiers. Thereafter, we apply them to two famous learning datasets very used by the research community, namely the MIT-CBCL face and the Wisconsin Diagnostic Breast Cancer (WDBC) datasets. We show that despite its simplicity compared to the other state-of-the-art classifiers, the VSVC leads to very robust classification results and provide some practical advantages compared to the other classifiers.     

Inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enteritidis in Liquid Egg White Using Pulsed Electric Field

ABSTRACT: The effects of temperature and pulsed electric field (PEF) intensity on inactivation of pathogens such as Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enteritidis in egg white was investigated. Liquid egg white inoculated with 10⁸ colony-forming units (CFU)/mL of each pathogen was treated with up to 60 pulses (each of 2 JAS width) at electric field intensities of 20 and 30 kV/cm. The processing temperatures were 10°C, 20°C, and 30°C. After treatment, uninjured and total viable cells were enumerated in selective and nonselective agars, respectively. Maximum inactivations of 3.7 and 2.9 log units were obtained for S. enteritidis and E. coli O157:H7, respectively, while injured cells accounted for 0.5 and 0.9 logs for E. coli O157:H7 and S. enteritidis , respectively. For both bacteria, increasing treatment temperature tended to increase the inactivation rate. There was synergy between electric field intensity and processing temperature. The inactivation rate constant k _T values for E. coli O157:H7 on both selective and nonselective agars were 8.2 × 10^-3 and 6.6 × 10^-3/μS, whereas the values for S. enteritidis were 16.2 × 10^-3 and 12.6 × 10^-3/μS, respectively. The results suggest that E. coli O157:H7 was more resistant to heat-PEF treatment compared with S. enteritidis.