Endogenous Proteases in Pacific Whiting (Merluccius productus) Muscle as A Processing Aid in Functional Fish Protein Hydrolysate Production

A fish protein hydrolysate (FPH) from Pacific whiting (Merluccius productus) muscle was produced by autolysis of a minced homogenate (8% protein) at pH 7.0 and 60°C, where maximum endogenous proteolytic activity was detected. FPH production was controlled by the pH stat method, yielding a 4.43% degree of hydrolysis after 1 h of autolysis. Upon autolytic processing, 28.9 ± 0.7% of the total protein was found in the soluble fraction. FPH was 100% soluble at pH 7.0 and 10.0 and was less soluble at pH 4 (82.5%, P ≤ 0.05). FPH showed better emulsifying properties than sodium caseinate (SCA) at pH 4.0 (P ≤ 0.05), but had a lower foaming capacity (P ≤ 0.05) than bovine albumin (BSA) at all evaluated pHs. FPH foaming capacity was not affected by pH, however, foam stability was equal or better than that of BSA, especially at pH 4.0 (P ≤ 0.05). These results suggest the possibility of producing FPH with similar or better functional properties than those of functional ingredients, such as SCA and BSA. Furthermore, the data presented support our hypothesis that the high proteolytic activity in Pacific whiting could be used as an advantage in fish protein hydrolysate production or as a processing aid where protein hydrolysis is required.     

An overview on the cellulose based conducting composites

Biopolymer based composites have been employed in numerous applications with increasing interest not only due to renewable, eco-friendly nature, but also because of the flexibility in processing conditions and competitive cost of their end products. The conductive materials from biopolymers have been found applicable in robots, medical imaging, sensitive membranes, actuators, visual displays, electronic wiring and shielding, and components in batteries. Cellulose is one of the most abundant biopolymers in the nature, which has received special attention for development of conducting materials due to biocompatibility for protein and drug immobilization and ability to form the composites with synthetic polymers. The present review is aimed to provide concisely the current status in this field of conducting composites from cellulose, with brief discussions of associated problems and future applications.     

MQDM: An Iterative Fuzzy Method for Group Decision Making in Structured Social Networks

Modern human societies have evolved into an almost entirely connected world, giving place to a remarkable increase in social interactions. In this new context and because of the globalization of all human activities, the collective participation in decision‐making processes takes an increasingly prominent role. In this paper, a method for group decision making from a set of imprecise opinions called “moviQuest Decision Making” (MQDM), is presented. This method allows to integrate the opinions of heterogeneous groups of agents in a structured social network along a sequence of voting rounds for collective decision making.     

Evaluation of the light line displacement location for object shape detection

Abstract

The ability for detecting the location of the displacement of a projected light line with subpixel resolution is examined. This evaluation is carried out for measuring a three-dimensional object shape. The technique for measuring the object shape is based on the light line projection. To determine the height data, displacement of the light line is measured on a reference point and on the object surface. This line displacement is measured by approximating the line intensity to a continuous function by the least-squares method, the Gaussian approximation and the Bezier curves method. The light line position is defined by calculating a maximum from this continuous function. To evaluate these three methods it is necessary to know the best accuracy of the experimental results. To achieve this, the results extracted by these methods are compared with a contact method. This contact method is made with a coordinate-measuring machine. The rms error is calculated using data from these three methods and the data from the contact method to carry out this evaluation. Height data are obtained with great accuracy from the method, which has a better rms value. The time necessary for processing a light line using each of these three methods is also presented. In addition to this information, a correlation coefficient is presented giving the deviation of each function generated by these methods. This line projection technique has a great potential because a very simple experimental set-up is used which is inexpensive. This evaluation is tested with complicated objects and its experimental results are presented.     

GVLiDAR: an interactive web-based visualization framework to support geospatial measures on lidar data

In recent years lidar technology has experienced a noticeable increase in its relevance and usage in a number of scientific fields. Therefore, software capable of handling lidar data becomes a key point in those fields. In this article, we present GPU-based viewer lidar (GVLiDAR), a novel web framework for visualization and geospatial measurement of lidar data point sets. The design of the framework is focused on achieving three key objectives: performance in terms of real-time interaction, functionality, and online availability for the lidar datasets. All lidar files are pre-processed and stored in a lossless data structure, which minimizes transfer requirements and offers an on-demand lidar data web framework.     

Friction Buttering: A New Technique for Dissimilar Welding

This work offers a fresh perspective on buttering, a technique often considered for fusion welding of dissimilar metals. For the first time, buttering was attempted in solid state using friction deposition. Using this new “friction buttering” technique, fusion welding of two different dissimilar metal pairs (austenitic stainless steel/borated stainless steel and Al-Cu-Mg/Al-Zn-Mg-Cu) was successfully demonstrated. The results show that friction buttering can simplify a tough dissimilar welding problem into a routine fusion welding task.     

WO3 nano-ribbons: their phase transformation from tungstite (WO3·H2O) to tungsten oxide (WO3)

Tungsten oxide (WO₃) nano-ribbons (NRs) were obtained by annealing tungstite (WO₃·H₂O) NRs. The latter was synthesized below room temperature using a simple, environmentally benign, and low cost aging treatment of precursors made by adding hydrochloric acid to diluted sodium tungstate solutions (Na₂WO₄·2H₂O). WO₃ generates significant interests and is being used in a growing variety of applications. It is therefore important to identify suitable methods of production and better understand its properties. The phase transformation was observed to be initiated between 200 and 300 ^°C, and the crystallographic structure of the NRs changed from orthorhombic WO₃·H₂O to monoclinic WO₃. It was rigorously studied by annealing a series of samples ex situ in ambient air up to 800 ^°C and characterizing them afterward. A temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy study was performed on tungstite NRs between minus 180 and 700 ^°C. Also, in situ heating experiments in the transmission electron microscope allowed for the direct observation of the phase transformation. Powder X-ray diffraction, electron diffraction, electron energy-loss spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to characterize precisely this transformation.     

Usability perception of different video game devices in elderly users

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability perception of seniors on video game use with different control devices. Twenty-four seniors participated in the study (12 women, 12 men, 69 years old in average) and eight children (8 years old in average). The setting included the use of two Kinect motion sensors, three computers, three projectors, three video cameras, two audio devices, the Angry Birds and Happy Sky videogames, one Xbox 360 console, a Nintendo Wii device and a Touchscreen configured so that participants could play the games in senior–child pairs. Data were collected according to user friendliness, experience and social interaction. This study suggests that video game control devices for seniors should be adapted to compensate for their function, sensor and cognitive limitations.     

Characterisation of a uranium ore using multiple X-ray diffraction based methods

Uranium bearing ores are often a complex mixture of minerals and compounds, a number of which are not of economic importance and are commonly referred to as gangue materials. In order to improve the efficiency of the dissolution stage of the overall uranium extraction process, a greater understanding of the minerals and compounds present in the ore is required. A greater knowledge of the gangue materials present is important as they can influence various aspects of the dissolution process such as providing potential adsorption sites for aqueous uranium species and through influencing the equilibrium of reactions involving aqueous uranium species. In this study the mineralogy of a uranium ore was investigated using a range of X-ray diffraction (XRD) based methods including in situ high temperature XRD and XRD using a synchrotron beam line. The results obtained from standard XRD (Cu Kα), high temperature XRD and synchrotron XRD (16.534 keV) were compared and a number of minerals were identified. The improved spatial resolution and intensity of the synchrotron data allowed for superior phase identification of a variety of minerals where standard X-ray techniques gave inconclusive results.     

Infostations for highway cigar-shaped cells

An infostation is an isolated pocket area, with small coverage of high bandwidth connectivity, which collects information requests of mobile users and delivers data while users are going through the coverage area. In this paper, the performance of infostations networks with single, double and triple frequencies is studied. The two-slope propagation loss model is used to calculate the signal-to-interference plus noise ratio. The effect of the propagation parameters on the infostation performance is studied.