The effect of kefir addition on microstructure parameters and physical properties of porous white bread

The effect of kefir concentration on the quality of porous white bread has been investigated. Quality evaluation was done using flatbed scanning (FBS) for measuring crumb porosity, instrumental texture profile analysis (TPA), crust and crumb color (L ^* a ^* b ^*), moisture, specific volume, and density determination techniques. The correlations between porosity, brightness, and firmness were also investigated. Long fermentation time of the sourdough changed significantly (p<0.05) the cell mean area (mm²), cell mean perimeter (mm), firmness (N), chewiness (N), light reflectance, and specific volume (ml/g). A strong correlation was found between microstructure of porous white bread, brightness (L), and firmness from TPA test. Kefir prolonged the shelf life of bread.     

Plastics disassembly versus bulk recycling: engineering design for end-of-life electronics resource recovery

Annual plastic flows through the business and consumer electronics manufacturing supply chain include nearly 3 billion lb of high-value engineering plastics derived from petroleum. The recovery of resource value from this stream presents critical challenges in areas of materials identification and recycling process design that demand new green engineering technologies applied together with life cycle assessment and ecological supply chain analysis to create viable plastics-to-plastics supply cycles. The sustainable recovery of potentially high-value engineering plastics streams requires that recyclers either avoid mixing plastic parts or purify later by separating smaller plastic pieces created in volume reduction (shredding) steps. Identification and separation constitute significant barriers in the plastics-to-plastics recycling value proposition. In the present work, we develop a model that accepts randomly arriving electronic products to study scenarios by which a recycler might identify and separate high-value engineering plastics as well as metals. Using discrete eventsimulation,we compare current mixed plastics recovery with spectrochemical plastic resin identification and subsequent sorting. Our results show that limited disassembly with whole-part identification can produce substantial yields in separated streams of recovered engineering thermoplastics. We find that disassembly with identification does not constitute a bottleneck, but rather, with relatively few workers, can be configured to pull the process and thus decrease maximum staging space requirements.     

Use of 1-acetoxypinoresinol to authenticate Picual olive oils

Picual olive oils may represent 25% of the world olive oil production. This monovarietal oil is highly valued from a nutritional viewpoint because of its high content of monounsaturated acid and polyphenols. This study reports a method to authenticate virgin olive oils of the Picual variety. The method was based on the very low content of the lignan 1-acetoxypinoresinol in these oils. The compound, as well as the other phenolic substances, was extracted from oil by using N,N -dimethylformamide (DMF), the extract was washed with hexane and nitrogen was bubbled into the solution. The identification and quantification of the lignan used HPLC to separate, followed by UV, electrochemical, fluorescence and mass spectrometry detection or gas chromatography (GC) coupled to a mass spectrometry detector. UV detection offered low sensitivity and peaks coeluting with 1-acetoxypinoresinol were also observed. Mass spectrometry detection clearly discriminated between olive oils of Picual variety and other Spanish varieties. However, lignans show a very high response to fluorescence excitation, this detector is cheaper than mass spectrometry detectors and therefore it was considered as more appropriate for industrial uses. Thus, the latter method allowed discrimination between thirty-eight Picual olive oils and eight oils of the Hojiblanca, Cornicabra, Empeltre and Arbequina varieties. The paper also demonstrated the possibility of analysing all the phenolic compounds in virgin olive oil by fluorescence. Using this technique an easy methodology to authenticate Picual olive oils was developed.     

Measurements and predictions of solar radiation incident on horizontal surfaces at Santa Fe, Argentina (31° 39′S, 60° 43′W)

Measurements and predictions of solar radiation during a period of 10 years on horizontal surfaces at Santa Fe (31° 39′ S, 60° 43′ W), Argentina, reported as average daily global radiation for each month, are presented. Data are compared to those obtained with a previously published and verified model for computing solar radiation on horizontal planes at the earth's surface for cloudless sky days. Measurements show an important reduction of global radiation with respect to the cloudless sky model predictions for all months of the year. Conversely, averaged daily diffuse solar radiation calculated with Page's formula shows a small increment with respect to the predicted diffuse solar radiation for cloudless sky conditions. When direct solar radiation data, calculated from global and diffuse solar radiation values, are compared to theoretical prediction, a significant decrease is observed. This trend is similar to that obtained for global solar radiation.     

Poly(3-methylthiophene)/MnO2 composite electrodes as electrochemical capacitors

Composite electrodes prepared by electrodeposition of manganese oxide on titanium substrates modified with poly(3-methylthiophene) (PMeT) were investigated and compared with Ti/MnO₂ electrodes. The polymer films were prepared by galvanostatic deposition at 2 mA cm⁻² with different deposition charges (250 and 1500 mC cm⁻²). The electrodes were characterized by cyclic voltammetry in 1 mol L⁻¹ Na₂SO₄ and by scanning electron microscopy. The results show a very significant improvement in the specific capacitance of the oxide due the presence of the polymer coating. For Ti/MnO₂ the specific capacitance was of 122 F g⁻¹, while Ti/PMeT₂₅₀/MnO₂ and Ti/PMeT₁₅₀₀/MnO₂ displayed values of 218 and 66 F g⁻¹, respectively. If only oxide mass is considered, the capacitances of the composite electrode increases to 381 and 153 F g⁻¹, respectively. The micrographs of samples show that the polymer coating leads to very significant changes in the morphology of the oxide deposit, which in consequence, generate the improvement observed in the charge storage property.     

Revisiting Temperature and Magnetic Effects on the Fe-30 Wt Pct Ni Martensite Transformation Curve

This work revisits the relationship between the volume fraction of martensite and the transformed microstructure. This relationship is analyzed by considering that although thermodynamic principles determine the possibility of transformation, the size and arrangement of the martensite units over the austenite grains is determined by the local surroundings. The proposed equation for the transformation curve incorporates the probabilistic aspect of the initial transformation in a limited number of scattered austenite grains and autocatalysis. The validation of the model, already verified with data typical of FeC steels, FeNiC and FeNiMn alloys, is extended in this study to a transformation that exhibits microstructure diversity. Finally, we show that the model fits the transformation curves typical of “18Cr-8Ni” stainless steel; this finding demonstrates that the model is applicable to transformation curves characteristic of other systems due to a conceptualization based on the intrinsic aspects of martensite transformation in steels.     

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CRACK TIP DEFORMATION FOR SHORT AND LONG FATIGUE CRACKS

Abstract— The behaviour of physical short mode I cracks under constant amplitude cyclic loading was investigated both numerically and experimentally. A dynamic two-dimensional elastic-plastic finite element technique was utilised to simulate cyclic crack tip plastic deformation. Different idealisations were investigated. Both stationary and artificially advanced long and short cracks were analysed. A parameter which characterises the plastically deformed crack tip zone, the strain field generated within that zone and the opening and closure of the crack tip were considered. The growth of physically short mode I cracks under constant amplitude fully reversed fatigue loading was investigated experimentally using conventional cast steel EN-9 specimens. Based on a numerical analysis, a crack tip deformation parameter was devised to correlate fatigue crack propagation rates.