Formulation optimisation of vegetable flour–loaded functional bread. Part II: effect of the flour hydration on the bread quality

In this work, the hydration process of durum wheat–based functional bread loaded with yellow pepper flour was optimised. In particular, the investigated vegetable flour and durum wheat semolina were mixed after they were separately hydrated. Three different amounts of water added to the yellow pepper flour were studied for assessing the effect of vegetable flour hydration level on the dough development and overall quality of bread. The bread formulation investigated in a previous work, based on 25% of yellow pepper and 2% of guar seed as structuring agent where the vegetable flour was directly added to the hydrated durum wheat semolina dough, was chosen as control sample. Results highlighted that dough samples with yellow pepper flour hydrated at highest water content showed a rheological behaviour similar to the durum wheat dough. Moreover, creep analysis showed that the sample added with no‐hydrated yellow pepper flour recorded the greatest resistance to deformation. Same results were obtained for the dough tensile and bread compression tests. The use of the hydrated yellow pepper flour also improved all sensorial attributes.     

Synthesis, Molecular Characterization and Preliminary Antioxidant Activity Evaluation of Quercetin Fatty Esters

Quercetin shows interesting pharmacological effects, but its use in topical applications is limited by its low skin permeability and solubility. In this work, the synthesis of highly lipophilic quercetin esters with oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid useful as topical quercetin prodrugs is reported. Partial OH esterification is advisable to maintain the antioxidant activity of these compounds; tetraesters and triesters can be achieved by modulating the reaction conditions utilized for the total esterification of quercetin. The chemical structures of the esters were proven by spectroscopic techniques; quantum chemical NMR calculation were mandatory to unequivocally assign the free position in triesters. Finally, the antioxidant activity of all the synthesized compounds was determined by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl method and by 2,2-azinobis(3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) assay.     

Application of layout and topology optimization using pattern gradation for the conceptual design of buildings

This paper explores the use of manufacturing-type constraints, in particular pattern gradation and repetition, in the context of building layout optimization. By placing constraints on the design domain in terms of number and variable size of repeating patterns along any direction, the conceptual design for buildings is facilitated. To substantiate the potential future applications of this work, examples within the context of high-rise building design are presented. Successful development of such ideas can contribute to practical engineering solutions, especially during the building design process. Examples are given to illustrate the ideas developed both in two-dimensional and three-dimensional building configurations.     

Multi-agent quality of experience control

International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems - In the framework of the Future Internet, the aim of the Quality of Experience (QoE) Control functionalities is to track the personalized...     

Convex piecewise-linear fitting

We consider the problem of fitting a convex piecewise-linear function, with some specified form, to given multi-dimensional data. Except for a few special cases, this problem is hard to solve exactly, so we focus on heuristic methods that find locally optimal fits. The method we describe, which is a variation on the K-means algorithm for clustering, seems to work well in practice, at least on data that can be fit well by a convex function. We focus on the simplest function form, a maximum of a fixed number of affine functions, and then show how the methods extend to a more general form.     

Rawseeds ground truth collection systems for indoor self-localization and mapping

A trustable and accurate ground truth is a key requirement for benchmarking self-localization and mapping algorithms; on the other hand, collection of ground truth is a complex and daunting task, and its validation is a challenging issue. In this paper we propose two techniques for indoor ground truth collection, developed in the framework of the European project Rawseeds, which are mutually independent and also independent on the sensors onboard the robot. These techniques are based, respectively, on a network of fixed cameras, and on a network of fixed laser scanners. We show how these systems are implemented and deployed, and, most importantly, we evaluate their performance; moreover, we investigate the possible fusion of their outputs.     

Experimental design of the kinetic resolution of a key precursor of high‐value bioactive myo‐inositols by an immobilized lipase

BACKGROUND: The response surface methodology was successfully applied to the optimization of the reaction variables for the kinetic resolution of a precursor of high‐value myo‐inositols, ( ± )‐1,2‐O‐isopropylidene‐3,6‐di‐O‐benzyl‐myo‐inositol (( ± )‐1), by Novozym 435. The resolutions were run separately, with two acylating agents, ethyl acetate and vinyl acetate, in a solvent‐free system. The variables analyzed were reaction temperature, substrate concentration, water concentration and enzyme activity. A statistical model was employed for the evaluation of the influence of the variables on conversion and enantiomeric excess (ee). RESULTS: The optimal conditions for this resolution using vinyl acetate as acylating agent were 45 °C, 5 mg mL^?1 of substrate, 71 U of enzyme activity and 0%w/w of water concentration. The high conversion (49.2 %) and ee (>99%) reached in the chemoenzymatic synthesis of acylated product, L‐(?)‐5‐O‐Acetyl‐3,6‐di‐O‐benzyl‐1,2‐O‐isopropylidene‐myo‐inositol, secure the efficient synthesis of the D enantiomorph present in the original racemic mixture (( ± )‐1) as well. CONCLUSIONS: The use of the experimental design strategy was productive, leading to a 14‐fold increase in the productivity of the reaction compared with the non‐optimized conditions. Both derivative L‐(?)‐2 and remaining substrate D‐(+)‐1 were obtained at high ee. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Laguerre-Gauss and Bessel-Gauss beams in uniaxial crystals

A simple correspondence between the paraxial propagation formulas along the optical axis of a uniaxial crystal and inside an isotropic medium is found in the case of beams with linearly polarized circularly symmetric boundary distributions. The electric fields of the ordinary and the extraordinary beams are related to the corresponding expressions in a medium with refractive index n(o) and n(e)2/n(o), where n(o) and n(e) are the ordinary and the extraordinary refractive indexes, respectively. Closed-form expressions for Laguerre-Gauss and Bessel-Gauss beams propagating through an anisotropic crystal are given.     

Co-volume method for Riemannian mean curvature flow in subjective surfaces multiscale segmentation

We introduce semi-implicit complementary volume numerical scheme for solving the level setformulation of Riemannian mean curvature flow problem arising in image segmentation, edge detection, missing boundary completion and subjective contour extraction. The scheme is robust and efficient since it is linear, and it is stable in L_∞ and weighted W ^1,1 sense without any restriction on a time step. The computational results related to medical image segmentation with partly missing boundaries and subjective contours extraction are presented.