Investigation on the microstructural and textural properties of Lighvan cheese produced from bovine milk fortified with protein and gum tragacanth during ripening

The effect of 0.02% gum tragacanth, sodium caseinate or milk protein concentrate (MPC70) on the physiochemical, microstructural and textural properties of Lighvan cheese produced from bovine milk was investigated. The microstructure of cheese samples was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the SEM micrographs were analysed using 3D images, surface plots and binarised SEM images. The texture parameters of bovine Lighvan cheese containing sodium caseinate were similar to those of ovine Lighvan cheese, and the microstructure of the MPC‐containing bovine Lighvan cheese was closest to that of ovine Lighvan cheese.     

Process–Structure–Function Relations of Pectin in Food

Pectin, a complex polysaccharide rich in galacturonic acid, has been identified as a critical structural component of plant cell walls. The functionality of this intricate macromolecule in fruit- and vegetable-based–derived products and ingredients is strongly determined by the nanostructure of its most abundant polymer, homogalacturonan. During food processing, pectic homogalacturonan is susceptible to various enzymatic as well as nonenzymatic conversion reactions modifying its structural and, hence, its functional properties. Consequently, a profound understanding of the various process–structure–function relations of pectin aids food scientists to tailor the functional properties of plant-based derived products and ingredients. This review describes the current knowledge on process–structure–function relations of pectin in foods with special focus on pectin's functionality with regard to textural attributes of solid plant-based foods and rheological properties of particulated fruit- and vegetable-derived products. In this context, both pectin research performed via traditional, ex situ physicochemical analyses of fractionated walls and isolated polymers and pectin investigation through in situ pectin localization are considered.     

Microstructure Tailored Functionally Graded Alumina/Lanthanum Hexaaluminate Ceramics for Application as Thermal Barrier Coatings

The thermal and mechanical properties of a functionally graded lanthanum hexaaluminate‐alumina ceramic are described. The gradation of functionality is based on different volume fraction of lanthanum hexaaluminate, varying from 0 to 80 vol% and corresponding porosity from 2 to 32 vol%. The highest volume fraction of lanthanum hexaaluminate enables a five time reduced thermal diffusivity as compared to alumina. The fracture toughness and elastic modulus is highest for a 20 vol% lanthanum hexaaluminate‐alumina composite.     

Cationic metalloporphyrins for synthesis of conducting,water-soluble polyaniline

Catalytic oxidative polymerization of aniline was performed using the tetrapyridylporphyrin (TPyP) complexes of iron (III), manganese (III) and cobalt (III). It was found that the cationic metalloporphyrin catalyzed the polymerization of aniline more efficiently than the anionic metalloporphyrins, when using aqueous H₂O₂. The reaction was carried out in the presence of sulfonated polystyrene (SPS) as a template at different pHs, ranging from 1 to 5, and the best results were obtained at pH 2. Formation of water-soluble polyaniline (PANI) was characterized by UV–vis, FT-IR spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry (CV). FT-IR and UV–vis spectra confirm the formation of the conducting form of PANI. Cyclic voltammetry measurements demonstrate that the polymer has convenient electroactivity.     

Prediction of Chronic Inflammation for Inhaled Particles: the Impact of Material Cycling and Quarantining in the Lung Epithelium

On a daily basis, people are exposed to a multitude of health-hazardous airborne particulate matter with notable deposition in the fragile alveolar region of the lungs. Hence, there is a great need for identification and prediction of material-associated diseases, currently hindered due to the lack of in-depth understanding of causal relationships, in particular between acute exposures and chronic symptoms. By applying advanced microscopies and omics to in vitro and in vivo systems, together with in silico molecular modeling, it is determined herein that the long-lasting response to a single exposure can originate from the interplay between the newly discovered nanomaterial quarantining and nanomaterial cycling between different lung cell types. This new insight finally allows prediction of the spectrum of lung inflammation associated with materials of interest using only in vitro measurements and in silico modeling, potentially relating outcomes to material properties for a large number of materials, and thus boosting safe-by-design-based material development. Because of its profound implications for animal-free predictive toxicology, this work paves the way to a more efficient and hazard-free introduction of numerous new advanced materials into our lives.     

Overload control in the network domain of LTE/LTE-A based machine type communications

It is expected that the LTE network, which includes the Radio Access Network (RAN) and the Core Network (CN) in 3GPP LTE systems, will be overloaded due to the huge number of Machine-Type Communication (MTC) devices in the near future. Overload in the RAN and CN of the LTE may result in congestion occurrence, resource waste, Quality of Service (QoS) degradation and in the worst-case, it will cause service unavailability. In this paper, we have proposed an adaptive mechanism to manage a large number of MTC devices in both RAN and CN of the LTE network. We use Access Class Barring (ACB) scheme to regulate the MTC traffic according to the congestions level in the RAN and CN. We consider a scenario in which two-priority-based classes of MTC devices are contending for the RAN resources. At first, the overload problem in the RAN is formulated to find the number of allowable contending MTC devices of each class taking into account their required QoS. Then, an active load management policy based on additive increase multiplicative decrease rule is proposed to control the incoming load from multiple cells to the CN. To effectively limit the number of MTC devices in both RAN and CN, in the proposed approach, each Evolved Node B updates the ACB factor upon overload detection in the RAN or CN in an adaptive manner. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism is able to manage overload in the CN and RAN simultaneously.     

Solid phase extraction of trace amounts of Ag, Cd, Cu, and Zn in environmental samples using magnetic nanoparticles coated by 3-(trimethoxysilyl)-1-propantiol and modified with 2-amino-5-mercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole and their determination by ICP-OES

A fast, sensitive, and simple method using magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) coated by 3-(trimethoxysilyl)-1-propantiol and modified with 2-amino-5-mercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole, as an adsorbent has been successfully developed for extraction, preconcentration, and determination of trace amounts of Ag, Cd, Cu, and Zn from environmental samples. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These magnetic nanoparticles can be easily dispersed in aqueous samples and retrieved by the application of external magnetic field via a piece of permanent magnet. The main factors affecting the extraction efficiency such as pH value, sample volume, eluent concentration and volume, ultrasonication time, and coexisting ions have been investigated and established. Under the optimal conditions, high concentration factors (194, 190, 170, and 182) were achieved for Ag, Cd, Cu, and Zn with relative standard deviations of 5.31%, 4.03%, 3.62%, and 4.20%, respectively. The limits of detection for Ag, Cd, Cu, and Zn were as low as 0.12, 0.12, 0.13 and 0.11 ng mL(-1). The prepared sorbent was applied for preconcentration of trace amounts of Ag, Cd, Cu, and Zn in the various water samples with satisfactory results.