Comprehensive characterization of the functional activities of pressurized liquid and ultrasound-assisted extracts from Chlorella vulgaris

Chlorella vulgaris has been referred as a potential source of bioactive compounds (carotenoids and fatty acids). In this work, the ability of an environmentally friendly extraction technique such as Pressurized Liquid Extraction (PLE) and a traditional extraction technique such as Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction (UAE) to obtain functional compounds from C. vulgaris, at analytical scale, has been demonstrated. Seeked bioactivities were antioxidant and antimicrobial, for their interest in the food industry. Therefore, a methodology including analytical extraction, in-vitro assays and chemical characterization via HPLC-DAD and GC–MS has been used to determine the interest of Chlorella as a source of functional food ingredients. Results demonstrated that PLE provide higher yields than UAE while similar bioactivities were obtained. Important concentration of carotenoids (lutein, neoxanthin, β-carotene, etc.), chlorophylls, sterols, phytols, and fatty acids (among others) have been found in Chlorella extracts that could be correlated to the observed biological activity.     

Evaluating content quality and helpfulness of online product reviews: The interplay of review helpfulness vs. review content

Online reviews have received much attention recently in the literature, as their visibility has been proven to play an important role during the purchase process. Furthermore, recent theoretical insight argue that the votes casted on how helpful an online review is (review helpfulness) are of particular importance, since they constitute a focal point for examining consumer decision making during the purchase process. In this paper, we explore the interplay between online review helpfulness, rating score and the qualitative characteristics of the review text as measured by readability tests. We construct a theoretical model based on three elements: conformity, understandability and expressiveness and we investigate the directional relationship between the qualitative characteristics of the review text, review helpfulness and the impact of review helpfulness on the review score. Furthermore, we examine whether this relation holds for extreme and moderate review scores. To validate this model we applied four basic readability measures to a dataset containing 37,221 reviews collected from Amazon UK, in order to determine the relationship between the percentage of helpful votes awarded to a review and the review text’s stylistic elements. We also investigated the interrelationships between extremely helpful and unhelpful reviews, as well as absolutely positive and negative reviews using intergroup comparisons. We found that review readability had a greater effect on the helpfulness ratio of a review than its length; in addition, extremely helpful reviews received a higher score than those considered less helpful. The present study contributes to the ever growing literature on on-line reviews by showing that readability tests demonstrate a directional relationship with average length reviews and their helpfulness and that this relationship holds both for moderate and extreme review scores.     

The applied pretreatment (blanching,ascorbic acid) at the manufacture process affects the quality of nectarine purée processed by hydrostatic high pressure

A nectarine purée was manufactured with different pretreatments (thermal blanching or ascorbic acid – AA – addition), and then, the purée was processed by high‐pressure treatment to evaluate the effect of the initial manufacture conditions in the stability of the processed purées. A thermal treatment was also carried out to compare the effect with the high‐pressure processing (HPP). All applied processes were effective to ensure the microbiological safety of the purées. However, the pretreatment (thermal blanching or AA addition) applied during the manufacture affected the final quality of the processed purées. Initially, the AA addition had a protective effect on colour degradation during the manufacture of the purées; however, when these purées were treated by HPP showed less colour stability during storage, lower bioactive compounds content, and antioxidant activity. In contrast, purées with an initial thermal blanching maintained better the quality after HPP and during storage.     

WCDMA Uplink Capacity of Highways Cigar-Shaped Microcells with Incorporated HSUPA Service

The multi-service (voice, data and HSUPA) uplink capacity and the interference statistics of the sectors of the cigar-shaped WCDMA microcell are studied using a model of 5 highway microcells. The two-slope propagation loss model with lognormal shadowing is used in the analysis. It is concluded that the voice and data service are significantly affected by HSUPA users and sector capacity decreases dramatically when one of these users gets connected to a given sector or to one next to it. Also it has been concluded that the capacity decrement is highly sensitive to the location of the HSUPA users. Thus, no more than one HSUPA with a process gain of 16 can be connected to a given base station. In this case, the HSUPA user should interrupt its transmission when it is near to the sector border. No more than one HSUPA user with a process gain of 8 is permitted in a given sector and the sector next to it. When the HSUPA user is at the sector border, its transmission should be disabled.     

Structural design of carbon/epoxy bio‐inspired wind turbine blade using fluid/structure simulation

The purpose of this paper is to present the structural design procedure of a low‐speed, horizontal axis, bio‐inspired wind turbine blade made of carbon/epoxy. The methodology initiates with the mechanical characterization of the carbon fiber composite material. An aerodynamic simulation using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method is performed in order to obtain the pressure distribution profile of the blade. This result is coupled with a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to carry out an iterative design process through a Fluid‐Structure Interaction (FSI) simulation. Different stacking sequences of laminates are evaluated to find a configuration which allows balance between aerodynamic and dynamic inertial loads, ensuring an almost undeformed geometry during wind turbine's operation. The final structural design of the blade consists in six regions with different laminates. These are balanced and symmetric with distinct thickness characteristics and stacking sequences, which vary in three different orientations: 0^°, ± 45^° and 90^°, achieving a minimum deflection at the tip close to 3.11 cm, and a total weight of 3.6 kg of a 1.8 m radius blade, even with the restrictions imposed by the non‐conventional geometry. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public Service Broadcasting's Participation in the Reconfiguration of Online News Content1

This article analyses public service broadcasting in Europe, looking at public broadcasters' role as promoters of participative processes. Computer‐mediated communication and studies rooted in mediated human interactivity are used to explore participative elements provided by digital technology, and how these can be incorporated into the news websites, through an empirical study of 5 case studies in the European market. The analysis is based on the methodology of content analysis with the goal of outlining the particularities of the participative elements implemented by each broadcaster and revealing the most common participative strategies. The findings suggest that although public service broadcasters offer a wide variety of possibilities, encouraging audiences to take on more active roles, their role is still peripheral and complementary.     

A smartphone-based system for detecting hand tremors in unconstrained environments

The detection of tremors can be crucial for the early diagnosis and proper treatment of some disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. A smartphone-based application has been developed for detecting hand tremors. This application runs in background and distinguishes hand tremors from common daily activities. This application can facilitate the continuous monitoring of patients or the early detection of this symptom. The evaluation analyzes 1770 accelerometer samples with cross-validation for assessing the ability of the system for processing unknown data, obtaining a sensitivity of 95.8 % and a specificity of 99.5 %. It also analyzes continuous data for some volunteers for several days, which corroborated its high performance.     

Effects of salt mixtures on Spanish green table olive fermentation performance

This work investigates the effect of sodium, potassium, and calcium chloride salts on the performance of Spanish green table olive fermentation using a simple centroid mixture design. The presence of calcium chloride hindered the diffusion of all sugars and delayed the period required to reach their respective maximum concentrations in brines. Such effects can prevent tumultuous processes and gas pocket spoilage. Acetic acid was present at low concentrations in all treatments but was not generated during fermentation. The production rate of lactic acid was either decreased or delayed by the presence of calcium chloride but adequate final conditions were always reached. The chemometric analysis classified treatments into groups according to the presence of calcium chloride and disclosed a stimulating effect of potassium on lactic acid production. Therefore, these techniques can be a useful tool to investigate olive fermentation performance. According to the results, acceptable Spanish green table olives can be produced using salt mixtures, with the subsequent reduced sodium content in the final products. The results obtained in this study could also be of interest for other fermented vegetables.