Wet separation of wheat flours into starch and gluten fractions: the combined effects of water to flour ratio–dough maturation time and the effects of flour aging and ascorbic acid addition

The process of making a dough, allowing time for maturation, dispersing the dough in water and wet sieving/washing to obtain a protein fraction and starch milk was studied using response surface methodology by changing the water to flour ratio in dough making (400–710 g kg^?1), maturation time (45–660 s) and the type of flour. Two grades of bread wheat flour and durum clear flour were studied. The effects of aging at ambient temperature for up to 29 days and the addition of ascorbic acid at 100 or 500 mg kg^?1 flour on separation behaviour were also studied for freshly milled high‐grade (65% extraction) bread wheat flours at constant maturation time, 600 s, and at optimum farinograph water absorption value. The quantities and dry matter contents of the protein fraction and starch milk were measured; a sample of starch milk was centrifuged to obtain decantate, tailings and prime starch fractions, and the dry matter contents of each were determined. All the dried samples were also analysed for protein content. The fractional recoveries of dry matter and protein in the protein fraction, prime starch, tailings and decantate were calculated for each experiment. The acid values of flour oils were also determined on some aged flour samples. The results indicated superior separation characteristics in high‐grade wheat flour compared with lower‐grade flours. The water to flour ratio was more influential than maturation time within the range studied. Contrary to the initial expectation, no statistically significant effect of flour aging was observed in the studies with no additive, and ascorbic acid addition was not found to improve the wet separation behaviour, the separation behaviour becoming even worse at the 100 mg kg^?1 level. Acid value showed a slight increase with time. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

Child-Centered Group Play Therapy with Children with Speech Difficulties.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of child-centered group play therapy as an intervention for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children with speech difficulties. A pre-test, post-test comparison group design was utilized. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a large practical significance in helping children improve both their expressive and receptive language skills. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a mixed effect upon children's anxiety. Qualitative data was examined to determine clinical significance of the intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of the business cycle on bankruptcy probability

Two fields of research on default prediction are combined on a unique dataset covering all limited liability firms in Norway. This is done by empirically testing a bankruptcy prediction function where unlisted firms are evaluated on the basis of both their financial statement analysis and movements in the business cycle. This combination is found to improve the default prediction compared with financial statements alone. The GDP gap, a production index and the money supply M1 in combination with some financial health indicators for individual firms are found to be significant predictors on default for Norwegian firms during both recovery and expansion in the 1990s.     

Maximizing the lifetime of energy‐constrained cooperative spectrum sensing sensor network

Adding the cognitive capability to wireless sensor networks allows the sensors to monitor the spectrum and identify the spectrum holes to operate in different frequencies according to the radio environment which result in better spectrum utilization. Spectrum sensing is a main component in any cognitive radio network. In this paper, we propose a new cooperative sensing scheme based on energy detection for cognitive sensor networks which is constrained by the energy limitation of the wireless sensor elements. The proposed scheme minimizes the sensing energy for individual sensor and carefully selects the suitable participant sensors in each cooperative sensing process. This results in maximizing the lifetime of energy‐constrained wireless sensor networks. The proposed scheme also takes into consideration the constraints on the detection accuracy. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme prolonged the lifetime of the cognitive network, makes efficient usage of available spectrum by secondary users, and satisfy the target detection performance.     

Modified moment-based image watermarking method robust to cropping attack

Developing a watermarking method that is robust to cropping attack is a challenging task in image watermarking. The moment-based watermarking schemes show good robustness to common signal processing attacks and some geometric attacks but are sensitive to cropping attack. In this paper, we modify the moment-based approach to deal with cropping attack. Firstly, we find the probability density function (PDF) of the pixel value distribution from the original image. Secondly, we reshape and normalize the pdf of the pixel value distribution (PPVD) to form a two dimensional image. Then, the moment invariants are calculated from the PPVD image. Since PPVD is insensitive to cropping, the proposed method is robust to cropping attack. Besides, it also has high robustness against other common attacks. Theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Recent Trends in Newly Developed Plasma-Sprayed and Sintered Coatings for Implant Applications

The current paper aims to review recent trends (2011 to 2015) in newly developed plasma-sprayed and sintered coatings for implant applications. Recent developments in plasma-sprayed and sintered coatings have focused on improving biological performance, bacterial growth resistance, and mechanical properties, predominantly of HA and glass ceramics. The majority of these improvements are attributed to the addition of dopants. To improve biological performance, trace elements, such as Zn and Mg, both of which are found in bone, were added to replicate the functions they provide for the skeletal system. Though bacterial growth resistance is traditionally improved by Ag dopant, the addition of new dopants such as CeO₂ and Zn were explored as well. Great effort has also been made to improve coating adherence and reduce stresses by minimizing coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch between the coating and substrate through the addition of elements such as Zn and Mg or the inclusion of a buffer layer. For sintering process in particular, there was an emphasis on reducing sintering temperature through modification of 45S5 Bioglass. New plasma spray and sintering technologies aimed at reducing high-temperature exposure are briefly introduced as well. These include microplasma spray and spark plasma sintering.