The influence of French fries processing on the glycoalkaloid content in coloured-fleshed potatoes

French fries made from coloured-fleshed potatoes may be interesting alternative to the traditional snacks for consumers. However, potatoes contain glycoalkaloids (TGA), so potato tubers and obtained fried snacks should be subjected to comprehensive examination. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different stages of French fries processing on the content of TGA (α-solanine and α-chaconine) in the red- and blue-fleshed potatoes, in semi-products and ready-to-eat products. It was stated that during the processing of French fries prepared from coloured-flesh potato varieties significantly decreased the content of TGA (α-solanine and α-chaconine) in the samples obtained at different stages of the process compared to the raw material. Potatoes with blue-fleshed of Vitelotte variety and red-fleshed of Highland Burgundy Red variety can be used to French fries processing due to their low content of TGA (in unpeeled and peeled potatoes). However, Blue Congo variety with blue-fleshed should not be applied to French fries processing, because of high TGA content in raw material and first of all in peeled potatoes flesh. The peeling process of coloured-fleshed potatoes decreased in TGA content on average by about 50 %, cutting process on average by about 53 %, whereas blanching on average by about 58 % compared with the raw material. The highest decrease in TGA content was caused by frying process. The mean values were about 97.5 % in ready-to-eat French fries. In French fries after I and II steps of frying, the ratio α-solanine to α-chaconine was lower (1.0:2.0) than in unpeeled potatoes (1.0:2.3).     

Furan-Based Bionanocomposites Reinforced with a Hybrid System of Carbon Nanofillers

Bionanocomposites based on poly(trimethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate)-block-poly(tetramethylene oxide) (PTF-b-F-PTMO) with various contents of carbon nanofibers, graphene nanoplatelets and a hybrid system of these nanoparticles are synthesized via in situ polymerization. The dispersion of nanoparticles in the nanocomposites is determined using a scanning electron microscope and optical microscopy images. The thermal properties are studied employing differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis. The melt viscosity of the synthesized materials is determined using rheological measurements. Mechanical properties, along with the thermal and electrical conductivity, are also analyzed. The synthesized polymer nanocomposites are processed using injection molding and they display mechanical properties of elastomers during mechanical testing, which indicates that the obtained materials are, in fact, thermoplastic elastomers (TPE). Compared to a neat matrix (PTF-b-F-PTMO 50/50), the incorporation of nanoparticles causes an increase in the value of the degree of crystallinity and the value of the tensile modulus values (E) of the nanocomposites. Such reinforced bionanocomposites are especially interesting from an applicative point of view. They can be used as components of fuel systems, bumpers, or cupholders.     

The Influence of Nanoparticle Shape on Protein Corona Formation

Nanoparticles have become an important utility in many areas of medical treatment such as targeted drug and treatment delivery as well as imaging and diagnostics. These advances require a complete understanding of nanoparticles' fate once placed in the body. Upon exposure to blood, proteins adsorb onto the nanoparticles surface and form a protein corona, which determines the particles' biological fate. This study reports on the protein corona formation from blood serum and plasma on spherical and rod‐shaped nanoparticles. These two types of mesoporous silica nanoparticles have identical chemistry, porosity, surface potential, and size in the y‐dimension, one being a sphere and the other a rod shape. The results show a significantly larger amount of protein attaching from both plasma and serum on the rod‐like particles compared to the spheres. Interrogation of the protein corona by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry reveals shape‐dependent differences in the adsorption of immunoglobulins and albumin proteins from both plasma and serum. This study points to the need for taking nanoparticle shape into consideration because it can have a significant impact on the fate and therapeutic potential of nanoparticles when placed in the body.     

LDPE/PET laminated films modified with FeO(OH) × H2O,Fe2O3, and ascorbic acid to develop oxygen scavenging system for food packaging

The iron compounds (iron(III) oxide‐hydroxide monohydrate FeO(OH) × H₂O, iron(III) oxide Fe₂O₃, and ascorbic acid) were used as oxygen scavengers modifiers in laminating of polymer films. This oxygen‐scavenging system was coated on preselected films (low density polyethylene [LDPE] and polyethylene terephthalate [PET]) from which the laminates were formed. It presents the new form of composite material packaging that has the function of oxygen scavenging, which could be suitable for food packaging. The scope of the research included studies of morphology of oxygen scavengers by scanning electron microscope and their average particle size distribution measure by particle size analyzer, the effect of type, and concentration of these substances on viscosity of adhesive and seal strength of laminates. The Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) of laminates was also performed to observe the potential interaction of functional groups of polyurethane adhesives with oxygen scavenger components. The most important ability of the developed system for oxygen scavenging was confirmed by measuring oxygen concentration (% vol) in a headspace with the prepared laminates. The concentrations of selected oxygen scavengers (4‐6 wt%) and their combinations were studied. The most effective oxygen scavenger system integrated within the PE/PET composite film consists of 6 wt% ascorbic acid and 1 wt% FeO(OH) × H₂O, where the oxygen concentration of 1.0 vol% (±0.20 vol%) was obtained after 15 days of storage. It was found that in this system the oxygen scavenging reaction occurs through ascorbate oxidation to dehydroascorbic acid, which is catalyzed by reduction of Fe³⁺ to Fe2⁺ ions.     

Non-normal distribution of the top-of-atmosphere satellite optical measurements over calibration sites

This paper studies the distribution associated with the measurement of the satellite-derived top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance on a pixel-to-pixel level, within a defined spatial region of interest (ROI) within a vicarious calibration target site. The study analyses the effects of the atmosphere and surface reflectance distribution spatial shape. The analysis shows that some of the contributing effects are inherently nonlinear, so produce non-normal distributions. For these non-normal distributions, the use of the mean and standard deviation alone does not allow sufficient parameterization of the distribution to capture all the information associated with the ROI reflectance measurement. Therefore, additional information concerning the distribution is required to provide a full site reflectance characterization. This additional information can be useful in establishing the sources of change in the distribution and ultimately improve the site radiometric characterization, particularly for long-term monitoring. In this study, Landsat-8 (L8) Operational Land Imager (OLI) measurements over the CEOS Libya-4 Pseudo Invariant Calibration Site (PICS) are used as a demonstration.     

‘Dealing with My Emails’: Latent user needs in email management.

Email is a communication channel that provides a number of benefits. It can be stored, retrieved and forwarded. It also allows a recipient to choose when to uptake communication and how to pace it. However, email also incurs one prevalent cost: the feeling of email overload. One of the reasons leading to that feeling lays in the fact that current email clients do not provide an inbox structure that facilitates email prioritization, information structuring and work-flow management. The goal of this study was to understand the latent user needs regarding handling emails. We identified six such needs: three pertaining to email organization (email annotation, reliable structure and no urgency to classify) and three related to email retrieval (informative overview, flexible sorting and efficient search). We further investigated the dominance, importance and dependencies between these needs. The results were then discussed and implications for future inbox design were proposed.     

Phase Transitions in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Quasi</Emphasis>-One-Dimensional System with Unconventional Superconductivity

The paper is devoted to a study of superconducting properties of population-imbalanced fermionic mixtures in quasi-one-dimensional optical lattices. The system can be effectively described by the attractive Hubbard model with the Zeeman magnetic field term. We investigated the ground-state phase diagram of the model as a function of the chemical potential and the magnetic field. The ground state of the system exhibits the conventional BCS-type superconductivity as well as the unconventional so-called Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state, in which the total momentum of Cooper pairs is non-zero. We determine the orders of transitions as well as the behavior of order parameters with a change of the model parameters.     

Solution algorithms for the makespan minimization problem with the general learning model

Most of the papers devoted to scheduling problems with the learning effect concern the Wright’s learning curve. On the other hand, the study about learning has pointed out that the learning curve in practice is very often an S-shaped function, which has not been considered in scheduling. Thus, in this paper, a single processor makespan minimization problem with an S-shaped learning model is investigated. We prove that this problem is strongly NP-hard even if the experience provided by each job is equal to its normal processing time. Therefore, to solve this problem, we prove some eliminating properties that are used to construct a branch and bound algorithm and some fast heuristic methods. Since the proposed algorithms are dedicated for the general case, i.e., where job processing times are arbitrary non-increasing experience dependent functions, their efficiency is verified numerically for the S-shaped model.     

Makespan minimization flowshop with position dependent job processing times—computational complexity and solution algorithms

This paper considers flowshop scheduling problems where job processing times are described by position dependent functions, i.e., dependent on the number of processed jobs, that model learning or aging effects. We prove that the two-machine flowshop problem to minimize the maximum completion time (makespan) is NP-hard if job processing times are described by non-decreasing position dependent functions (aging effect) on at least one machine and strongly NP-hard if job processing times are varying on both machines. Furthermore, we construct fast NEH, tabu search with a fast neighborhood search and simulated annealing algorithms that solve the problem with processing times described by arbitrary position dependent functions that model both learning and aging effects. The efficiency of the proposed methods is numerically analyzed.