Metals in organic and conventional wheat flours determined by an optimised and validated ICP‐MS method

This study was undertaken (i) to optimise and validate a suitable method for multi‐element determination in cereal products and (ii) to evaluate multi‐element content differences in commercially available conventional vs. organic wheat flours. Presented ICP‐MS method is simple and accurate for the determination of eighteen elements in cereal food. Obtained results show differences in metal content between conventional and organic wheat flours and confirm that both types of production are well within the toxicological safety limits regarding the metal contents. The significant differences among conventional vs. organic wheat flours were obtained for As, Cd, Cr, Fe, Mg, Mo, Ni and V. Toxic metals (Al, As, Cd and Pb) input was higher in conventional compared with organic wheat flours. However, further and long‐term research is needed to clearly underline the effects of organic agricultural practice on the quality of food products.     

Particle Swarm Optimization and Pure Adaptive Search in Finish Goods’ Inventory Management

Abstract

Inventory management deals with a tradeoff between the benefits of keeping stocks of goods that allows fulfillment of the customer’s demand, and the cost of carrying inventory. Inventory control techniques are very important components and the most organizations can substantially reduce their costs associated with the flow of materials. This paper presents new inventory management model based on particle swarm optimization and pure adaptive search global optimization algorithm in production-inventory system. The proposed model is focusing on planned level of demand for finished goods, production and raw materials cost, production capacity as the norm, change of the production cost and inventory capital cost, all of which are typical factors in automobile manufacture industry. The model determines different factors such as the minimizing inventory quantity, minimizing inventory value, and minimizing production cost based on demand for production items. The model is tested with original real-world dataset obtained from the automotive company Lear from US and its factory in Novi Sad, Serbia.     

Capillary electrophoretic profiling of tryptic digests of water soluble proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis-transgenic and non-transgenic maize species

Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) has been applied to separation and characterisation of enzymatic (tryptic) hydrolysates of water-soluble proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)-transgenic (Aristis-Bt) and two native non-transgenic (Aristis and Coventry) maize varieties. Water-soluble proteins were extracted from the flour of these maize species and digested by bovine pancreatic trypsin immobilised on agarose gel in 100 mM ammonium hydrocarbonate buffer, pH 7.9. The yielded tryptic digests of proteins were analysed by CZE in four acidic background electrolytes (BGEs) (100 mM H₃PO₄, 50 mM Tris, pH 2.25; 500 mM acetic acid, pH 2.54; 200 mM formic acid, 200 mM acetic acid, pH 2.05; and 200 mM iminodiacetic acid, pH 2.26) using a lab-made CZE apparatus equipped with bare fused silica capillary and UV-absorption detector operating at 206 nm. Among the tested BGEs, the best resolution of the tryptic peptides of extracted proteins of the above three maize species was obtained in isoelectric BGE, 200 mM iminodiacetic acid, pH 2.26. Selected resolved tryptic peptides of proteins were characterised by effective electrophoretic mobilities and corrected (migration times normalised) peak areas. Some significant relative qualitative and quantitative differences in CZE-UV profiling of tryptic protein digests were found, which can be potentially used to differentiate transgenic Aristis Bt and non-transgenic Aristis varieties or two native non-transgenic varieties, Aristis and Coventry.     

Fuzzy gain-scheduling control of a gas-liquid separation plant implemented on a PLC

In the paper an approach to the non-linear control of a gas-liquid separation plant is presented. To solve the problem the fuzzy gain-scheduling method was used and implemented on a programmable logic controller (PLC). Velocity-based linearization approach was used for control system design and implementation for the first time in process control application. Emphasis was placed on the appropriate adaptation of the method and some important implementation issues. The algorithm was carefully designed and tested by using ordinary simulation, hardware-in-the-loop simulation, and experiments on the real plant. The results show that the proposed approach substantially improves the closed-loop performance of the plant.     

Thermally Induced Microstructural Transformations of Fe72Si15B8V4Cu1 Alloy

Thermal stability, mechanism, and kinetics of thermally induced microstructural transformations and their effects on magnetic permeability of Fe₇₂Si₁₅B₈V₄Cu₁ alloy with combined amorphous/nanocrystalline structure were studied. DTA curves revealed two separated thermally activated exothermic events in the temperature ranges from 740 K to 820 K (467 °C to 547 °C) and 870 K to 930 K (597 °C to 657 °C). Crystalline phases present in the as-prepared and thermally treated alloy samples were identified, and their microstructural parameters were determined using XRD, while, to gain further insight into the mechanism of microstructural transformations, AFM and SEM–EDS analyses were performed. Deconvolution of the complex DTA peak into individual steps was conducted, and, in correlation with the results of microstructural analysis, kinetic triplets corresponding to individual transformation steps were determined, allowing for the estimation of the lifetimes of the alloy at different temperatures. Magnetic permeability measurements showed that, in spite of the influence of microstructural transformations on magnetic properties of the alloy, the favorable magnetic properties are retained over relatively a wide temperature range.

     

The reliability of CPTu and DMT for the mechanical characterisation of soft tailings

Nowadays, the stability and the safe cover and closure of soft tailings has become one of the most challenging topics in geotechnical and environmental engineering. For appropriate analysis and modelling, geotechnical properties of tailings should be well defined. Due to low strength, viscous nature and poor trafficability, as well as due to the specific geometrical properties of fine particles and pore water chemistry in tailings, different test methods and their modification and improvements must be used for valid and reliable characterisation of tailings. This paper analyses and compares the results of different field test methods, piezocone penetration test (CPTu), flat dilatometer test (DMT) and field vane test (FVT), performed on the red gypsum sludge and complementary laboratory tests. CPTu and DMT measurements were evaluated using procedures developed for soils and the obtained mechanical properties were compared with those measured in the laboratory. The significant distinctions between different test methods and different empirical correlations were analysed taking into account differences in index properties of soils and the red gypsum sludge. Based on analysis, some modifications of conventional empirical correlations were proposed for field tests results interpretation and sludge characterisation. The obtained data also show the advantages and limitations of some conventional methods and prove the need for further development in that field of geotechnical investigation.

     

Life-cycle assessment of hydrogen technologies with the focus on EU critical raw materials and end-of-life strategies

We present the results of a life-cycle assessment (LCA) for the manufacturing and end-of-life (EoL) phases of the following fuel-cell and hydrogen (FCH) technologies: alkaline water electrolyser (AWE), polymer-electrolyte-membrane water electrolyser (PEMWE), high-temperature (HT) and low-temperature (LT) polymer-electrolyte-membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), together with the balance-of-plant components. New life-cycle inventories (LCIs), i.e., material inputs for the AWE, PEMWE and HT PEMFC are developed, whereas the existing LCI for the LT PEMFC is adopted from a previous EU-funded project. The LCA models for all four FCH technologies are created by modelling the manufacturing phase, followed by defining the EoL strategies and processes used and finally by assessing the effects of the EoL approach using environmental indicators. The effects are analysed with a stepwise approach, where the CML2001 assessment method is used to evaluate the environmental impacts. The results show that the environmental impacts of the manufacturing phase can be substantially reduced by using the proposed EoL strategies (i.e., recycled materials being used in the manufacturing phase and replacing some of the virgin materials). To point out the importance of critical materials (in this case, the platinum-group metals or PGMs) and their recycling strategies, further analyses were made. By comparing the EoL phase with and without the recycling of PGMs, an increase in the environmental impacts is observed, which is much greater in the case of both fuel-cell systems, because they contain a larger quantity of PGMs.     

Effect of ternary solute interaction on interfacial segregation and grain boundary embrittlement

Effect of ternary solute interaction on interfacial segregation and grain boundary embrittlement in an M–I–J system is modeled on the basis of combined Guttmann and Rice–Wang approaches. It is clearly shown that repulsive I–J interaction strengthens interfacial segregation of the impurity I, suppresses segregation of the solute J, and substantially enhances intergranular embrittlement. Attractive interaction exhibits an opposite effect. Generally, the effect of the ternary interaction is weaker than that of the binary one. Although there are only rare experimental data in this respect, their comparison to model calculations shows a very good agreement.