In vitro bioaccessibility of added folic acid in commercially available baby foods formulated with milk and milk products

Food Science and Biotechnology - Milk contains a certain amount of folate binding proteins. The binding capacity varies in acidic conditions and affects the bioavailability of folic acid. Folic...     

Knowledge-acquisitions and post-acquisition innovation performance: a comparative hazards model

Do acquisitions lead to instrumental innovations related to the acquired knowledge? Past arguments on vertical integration espouse how a quest for knowledge drives acquisitions culminating in innovation performance. Using Google and Yahoo as cases-in-point, we examine how facets of acquired innovation knowledge impact post-innovation performance. In particular, the apparently opposing fortunes of Google and Yahoo allow us to investigate the pace of their innovation performance as a hazards model. Results from our investigation highlight Google’s ambidexterity over Yahoo with a swifter, systematic pace of innovation performance – from hastening time to patenting new ideas to the time to releasing new applications from acquisitions.     

High selectivity Boolean olfaction using hollow-core wavelength-scalable Bragg fibers

A new odorant detection scheme, based on infrared absorption of volatile organics inside an optofluidic channel array, is discussed in terms of its selectivity. The sensor unit of the array is a hollow core Bragg fiber that selectively (spectrally) guides an incident continuum radiation. The presence of infrared absorbing molecules in the channel results in the quenching of the otherwise transmitted signal. Each fiber unit in the array is designed and fabricated so that it is sensitive to specific chemical bonds and the bond environment, but at the same time, each fiber is also broadly sensitive to a large number of chemicals due to their infrared absorbance spectra. The cumulative array response data, using an appropriate threshold, enable selective binary sampling of the infrared fingerprint of hundreds of molecules. The selectivity of the system is quantitatively investigated with computer simulations and found to be exponentially increasing with the number of fibers in the array. Relatively simple data analysis using binary logic combined with the high selectivity of the novel scheme paves the way for ubiquitous application of electronic noses in toxic gas detection, food quality control, environmental monitoring, and breath analysis for disease diagnostics.     

SEQUENTIAL STABILIZATION OF DECENTRALIZED CONTROL SYSTEMS

New stability constraints are developed for sequential stabilization of decentralized control systems. Contrary to previous results, the current methods are derived directly from the stability condition of the whole decentralized control system. These results are based on the Structured Singular Value and lend themselves naturally to a sequential stabilization procedure as well as the criteria to select a priori the order of the controller design sequence.     

CFRP Effect on the Buckling Behavior of Dented Cylindrical Shells

Considering that the use of thin-walled shells is expanding every day, it is important to examine the problem of instability in this form of structure. Many steel structures such as high-water tanks, water and oil reservoirs, marine structures, and pressure vessels, including shell elements, are under stress tension. In addition, shell elements are subject to instability owing to the loads applied. Ten thin-walled cylindrical shell specimens in two groups with different dent depths of t_c and 2t_c, and the different dent number subject to uniform external pressure were tested in the present research (t_c is the thickness of cylindrical shell). The samples were modified to include either one or two dent line with amplitudes of h/3 in height (h the height of cylinder shell). Moreover, CFRP Strips on the dent depth was used in one of the groups. The results of testing under different theories and codes are compared.

     

Degradation of CI Reactive Red 141 by heterogeneous Fenton‐like process over iron‐containing ZSM‐5 zeolites

The Fenton‐like oxidation of CI Reactive Red 141 was investigated over iron‐containing ZSM‐5 zeolites. Iron was loaded by ion exchange or through hydrothermal synthesis. The oxidation process was carried out in an aqueous solution using hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. The catalyst prepared by ion exchange with a silicon/aluminium ratio of 42 zeolite showed the highest activity (97% decolorisation and 52% chemical oxygen demand reduction at an initial pH of 3.5) after an oxidation duration of 2 h. The chemical oxygen demand reduction increased with the increasing amount of iron loaded to the zeolite. The FeZSM‐5 catalyst, prepared by hydrothermal synthesis in the presence of oxalic acid, showed very good activity in terms of mineralisation (99% of chemical oxygen demand reduction). The iron leaching was noticeably low (below the European Union directives of 2 mg dm^?3) for the above‐mentioned catalysts.     

The effect of canal cleansing protocols on cementation of a fiber post to saliva-contaminated root canals

Objective: This study investigated the effect of saliva contamination and cleansing effect of a self-etching primer (SEP), phosphoric acid (PA), chlorhexidine (CHX), and ethanol (EtOH) on the microtensile bond strength (μTBS) of a fiber post cemented with a self-adhesive resin cement (SAC) to root canal dentin.

Material and methods: Sixty human lower premolar roots were randomly divided into 10 groups: (1) no saliva contamination, no cleansing (Control); (2) no saliva contamination, cleansing with SEP (NC-SEP); (3) no saliva contamination, cleansing with PA (NC-PA); (4) no saliva contamination, cleansing with CHX (NC-CHX); (5) no saliva contamination, cleansing with EtOH (NC-EtOH); (6) with saliva contamination, no cleansing (SC-NC); (7) with saliva contamination, cleansing with SEP (SC-SEP); (8) with saliva contamination, cleansing with PA (SC-PA); (9) with saliva contamination, cleansing with CHX (SC-CHX); (10) with saliva contamination, cleansing with EtOH (SC-EtOH). After cementation of posts, the roots were transversally sectioned to obtain six slices (n = 36) followed by μTBS test. Data were analyzed with ANOVA and Tukey HSD tests (p = 0.05).

Results: Saliva contamination and cleansing methods had a significant effect on μTBS values (p < 0.0001). All cleansing agents improved bond strengths when compared with Control and SC-NC. Cleansing with CHX and ethanol showed lower μTBS values than phosphoric acid and SEP, regardless of saliva contamination (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Saliva contamination negatively affected bonding performance of SAC to root dentin. However; SEP, PA, CHX and EtOH can be used on contaminated dentin surfaces to optimize bonding performance of self-adhesive cements.     

A postprocessor for table-tilting type five-axis machine tool based on generalized kinematics with variable feedrate implementation

Improvements in the machine tool and the machining process technologies increased the need for generic postprocessors in order to exploit the capabilities of the machine tools. Contrary to conventional machining approach, next-generation machining technologies such as force-based feedrate scheduling and toolpath optimization requires the implementation of the variable feedrate during toolpath which constitutes the aim of this article. Therefore, this paper introduces a postprocessor for table-tilting type five-axis machine tool based on generalized kinematics with variable feedrate implementation. Furthermore, a practical yet effective method for avoiding kinematic singularities by spherical interpolation and NC data correction is presented as well. Proposed approach is validated for various five-axis machine tools with different kinematic configurations via virtual machine simulation module. Results of the verification tests show that presented postprocessing approach can accurately convert the cutter location information into NC codes and it is demonstrated that integrated virtual simulation module can simulate toolpaths with large number of blocks.