Physicochemical Characterization and Fatty Acid Profiling of Different Philippine Pili Nut (Canarium ovatum,Engl.) Varieties

Canarium ovatum, commonly known as Pili nut, is an endemic crop in the Philippines. This study focused on the assessment of the physical, nutritional, and fatty acid profile of the pulp and kernel of Pili nut varieties. The study included 7 varieties that are cultivated in a single soil condition at the Albay Research and Development Center, Buang, Tabaco City, Philippines. Standard method Association of Official Analytical Chemist for nutritional analysis and DNA barcoding were used in the study. Molecular authentication through DNA barcoding shows that studied Pili nut varieties belong to genus C. ovatum. Split component of the fruit reveals that pulp is the major component (12.6–25.3%) of the fruit, followed by shell (5.97–12.3%), kernel (1.75–3.49%), and testa (0.17–0.34%). Lyophilized Pili nut kernel contains 67.2–74.1% fat, 11.5–13.2% protein, 3.43–9.97% dietary fiber, and 2.93–3.37% ash, and provides 704–749 cal 100 g^?1 energy. Pili nut pulp contains 43.4–53.1% dietary fiber, 20.2–31.7% fat, 8.32–10.9% ash, and 4.53–6.32% protein, and provides 361–432 cal 100 g^?1 energy. Pili nut pulp is an excellent source of dietary fiber. Prominent fatty acid is oleic acid (C18:1) for all varieties, which is higher in the pulp than in the kernel. Other major fatty acids include palmitic (C16:0), linoleic (C18:2), stearic (C18:0), and linolenic (C18:3) acids. Most of the physical and chemical characteristics measured depend significantly on the variety.     

Thermophysical Properties of Pulp and Rind of Papaya Cv. Maradol

Thermophysical properties of pulp and rind of papaya (Carica papaya L., cv. Maradol) were measured at 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60°C and modeled as a function of temperature. Thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, and apparent density were measured using the line heat-source probe, differential scanning calorimetry, and the liquid displacement method. For pulp, the values of thermal conductivity, specific heat and apparent density ranged from 0.668 to 0.755 W/m K, from 3019 to 3732 J/kg K, and from 991 to 1036 kg/m³, respectively. The corresponding values for rind of papaya ranged from 0.651 to 0.714 W/m K from 2756 to 3282 J/kg K and from 1019 to 1043 kg/m³. Although thermal conductivity and apparent density of pulp and rind of papaya were significantly (p < 0.05) dependent on temperature, specific heat capacity and thermal diffusivity of pulp and rind of papaya were not affected by temperature in the measurement range.     

Phospholipid oxidation and nonenzymatic browning development in phosphatidylethanolamine/ribose/lysine model systems

Fatty acid losses, lipid oxidation, pyrrole formation, and browning and fluorescence development were determined in four mixtures of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), ribose (RI), and/or lysine (lys) incubated at 37 °C to study the influence of lipid oxidation on the Maillard reaction and vice versa. Under the conditions assayed, the amino group of PE was preferentially damaged compared with the amino group of lys. In addition, oxidized lipid/amino acid reactions produced more pyrrolization, browning and fluorescence than carbohydrate/amino acid reactions, but both oxidized lipid/amino acid and sugar/amino acid reactions were produced in the PE/RI/lys system and both of them were inhibited by the presence of the other. Thus, fewer RI/lys reaction products were produced in the PE/RI/lys system than in an analogous system with no PE added. All these results confirm that there is an interaction between lipid oxidation and the Maillard reaction, and both of them should be considered simultaneously to understand their consequences on foods when lipids, carbohydrates, and amino acids or proteins are present.     

A multilayer perceptron neural network-based approach for the identification of responsiveness to interferon therapy in multiple sclerosis patients

Multiple sclerosis is an idiopathic inflammatory disease characterized by multiple focal lesions in the white matter of the central nervous system. Multiple sclerosis patients are usually treated with interferon-β, but disease activity decrease in only 30-40% of patients. In the attempt to differentiate between responders and non-responders, we screened the main genes involved in the interferon signaling pathway for 38 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a multiple sclerosis Caucasian population from South Italy. We then analyzed the data using a multilayer perceptron neural network-based approach, in which we evaluated the global weight of a set of SNPs localized in different genes and their association with response to interferon therapy through a feature selection procedure (a combination of automatic relevance determination and backward elimination). The neural approach appears to be a useful tool in identifying gene polymorphisms involved in the response of patients to interferon therapy: 2 out of 5 genes were identified as containing 4 out of 38 significant single nucleotide polymorphisms, with a global accuracy of 70% in predicting responder and non-responder patients.     

让汽车直流电机驱动变得更安全

越来越多的大功率直流电机被用于各种汽车设备中，汽车厂商降低汽车自重的要求也影响到电机的尺寸。在此过程中，如何使汽车直流电机驱动变得更加简单和安全成为工程师面临的挑战。本文以座椅安全带预：紧器和靠背调座椅电机为例，基于L99H01设计出了解决挑战的方法。