In vitro β‐Carotene Bioaccessibility and Lipid Digestion in Emulsions: Influence of Pectin Type and Degree of Methyl‐Esterification

Citrus pectin (CP) and sugar beet pectin (SBP) were demethoxylated and fully characterized in terms of pectin properties in order to investigate the influence of the pectin degree of methyl‐esterification (DM) and the pectin type on the in vitro β‐carotene bioaccessibility and lipid digestion in emulsions. For the CP based emulsions containing β‐carotene enriched oil, water and pectin, the β‐carotene bioaccessibility, and lipid digestion were higher in the emulsions with pectin with a higher DM (57%; “CP57 emulsion”) compared to the emulsions with pectin with a lower DM (30%; “CP30 emulsion”) showing that the DM plays an important role. In contrast, in SBP‐based emulsions, nor β‐carotene bioaccessibility nor lipid digestion were dependent on pectin DM. Probably here, other pectin properties are more important factors. It was observed that β‐carotene bioaccessibility and lipid digestion were lower in the CP30 emulsion in comparison with the CP57, SBP32, and SBP58 emulsions. However, the β‐carotene bioaccessibility of CP57 emulsion was similar to that of the SBP emulsions, whereas the lipid digestion was not. It seems that pectin type and pectin DM (in case of CP) are determining which components can be incorporated into micelles. Because carotenoids and lipids have different structures and polarities, their incorporation may be different. This knowledge can be used to engineer targeted (digestive) functionalities in food products. If both high β‐carotene bioaccessibility and high lipid digestion are targeted, SBP emulsions are the best options. The CP57 emulsion can be chosen if high β‐carotene bioaccessibility but lower lipid digestion is desired.     

Effect of steam cooking on distribution of paralytic shellfish toxins in different tissue compartments of scallops Patinopecten yessoensis

This study investigated the effect of steam cooking on distribution of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins (PSP-toxins) in scallops Patinopecten yessoensis. Toxins analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography showed that most of the PSP-toxins (>70%) were accumulated in viscera and adductor muscle of the raw scallops. Steam cooking induced significant loss (p < 0.05) of PSP-toxins from viscera (16%), adductor muscle (24%), gill and mantle (11%) while 32% of the toxins were retained inside viscera and adductor muscle. Overall, 51% of PSP-toxins leaked out from scallop tissues during steam cooking. However, there was no significant loss (p > 0.05) of PSP-toxins from gonad. Consumption of viscera was the most significant risk factor for causing PSP, while gonad and scallop soup were the second most significant. A rapid PSP test further verified detectable levels of PSP-toxins in all samples. However, possible interfering substance(s) in adductor muscles and gonads might potentially affect the results from this test.     

Photo-electrocatalytic methanol oxidation on Pd decorated BiOI nanoparticles in alkali

Journal of Materials Science - Palladium–bismuth oxoiodide nanocomposites of various molar ratios of Pd and BiOI have been synthesized by the facile solvothermal method following the chemical...     

Investigation of the polarization-dependent diffraction of deep dielectric rectangular transmission gratings illuminated in Littrow mounting

Dielectric transmission gratings with a similar period as the wavelength of the incident light can exhibit strong polarization dependence. By optimizing the groove width of a negative first-order Littrow transmission grating it can be achieved that light is transmitted to the zeroth order for one polarization, regardless of the groove depth, while it is efficiently diffracted for the other polarization. An investigation of this remarkable effect, based on a modal field representation inside the grating, as well as experimental results are presented.     

Xylanases in Wheat Separation

Hemicellulases used in the wheat separation process have resulted in better separation, purer fractions, increased plant capacity, reduced processing time etc. In order to further improve enzyme-treatment in the wheat separation process, monocomponent xylanases were evaluated. A laboratory viscosity model has been set up to evaluate the xylanases. The model showed good correlation (for a commercial hemicellulase preparation used for wheat separation) between viscosity of the wheat flour slurry and the sludge/supernatant ratio after centrifugation of the slurry. A xylanase (Novozyme 867) with excellent performance in the wheat separation process has been found. The xylanase has high activity towards soluble arabinoxylan and gives a rapid viscosity reduction of wheat flour slurries. The enzyme also has a moderate activity towards insoluble arabinoxylan, but due to the low molecular weight of the solubilized material this was not was found to contribute negatively to the enzymes' performance. The pH and temperature conditions in the wheat separation process were well within the active range of the enzyme. A pilot plant experiment showed improved yield of gluten and A-starch, with no apparent negative effect on the gluten quality.     

Two heads better than one: pattern discovery in time-evolving multi-aspect data

Data stream values are often associated with multiple aspects. For example each value observed at a given time-stamp from environmental sensors may have an associated type (e.g., temperature, humidity, etc.) as well as location. Time-stamp, type and location are the three aspects, which can be modeled using a tensor (high-order array). However, the time aspect is special, with a natural ordering, and with successive time-ticks having usually correlated values. Standard multiway analysis ignores this structure. To capture it, we propose 2 Heads Tensor Analysis (2-heads), which provides a qualitatively different treatment on time. Unlike most existing approaches that use a PCA-like summarization scheme for all aspects, 2-heads treats the time aspect carefully. 2-heads combines the power of classic multilinear analysis with wavelets, leading to a powerful mining tool. Furthermore, 2-heads has several other advantages as well: (a) it can be computed incrementally in a streaming fashion, (b) it has a provable error guarantee and, (c) it achieves significant compression ratio against competitors. Finally, we show experiments on real datasets, and we illustrate how 2-heads reveals interesting trends in the data. This is an extended abstract of an article published in the Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery journal.     

Challenges when implementing BIM for industry change

Public clients have been identified as drivers of architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry change through their implementation of building information modelling (BIM). Yet, little is known of this implementation process and the associated challenges. This study aims to increase the understanding of what intra- and inter-organizational challenges that arise when a large Swedish public infrastructure client implements BIM to change the work practices of the actors in the Swedish AEC industry. The IT business value model allows for understanding the public client’s implementation of BIM as an IT-supported change process and for understanding the associated intra- and inter-organizational challenges. The findings show nine categories of intra- and inter-organizational challenges related to, for example, demanding BIM in procurement and creating incentives for BIM implementation. The findings show that intra-organizational challenges related to a top-down implementation of BIM, while inter-organizational challenges related to a bottom-up implementation. The impact of these challenges on the public client’s ability to drive AEC industry change by implementing BIM is discussed. The findings contribute with the client perspective to studies on BIM implementation and with an increased understanding of the challenges associated with implementing IT-supported change processes.     

On the Monitoring of Simple Linear Berkson Profiles

We consider the quality of a process, which can be characterized by a simple linear Berkson profile. One existing approach for monitoring the simple linear profile and two new proposed schemes are studied for charting the simple linear Berkson profile. Simulation studies demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of one of the proposed monitoring schemes. In addition, a systematic diagnostic approach is provided to spot the change point location of the process and to identify the parameter of change in the profile. Finally, an example from semiconductor manufacturing is used to illustrate the implementation of the proposed monitoring scheme and diagnostic approach. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.