Enrichment of Functional Properties of Ice Cream with Pomegranate By‐products

Pomegranate peel rich in phenolics, and pomegranate seed which contain a conjugated fatty acid namely punicic acid in lipid fraction remain as by‐products after processing the fruit into juice. Ice cream is poor in polyunsaturated fatty acids and phenolics, therefore, this study was conducted to improve the functional properties of ice cream by incorporating pomegranate peel phenolics and pomegranate seed oil. Incorporation of the peel phenolics into ice cream at the levels of 0.1% and 0.4% (w/w) resulted in significant changes in the pH, total acidity, and color of the samples. The most prominent outcomes of phenolic incorporation were sharp improvements in antioxidant and antidiabetic activities as well as the phenolic content of ice creams. Replacement of pomegranate seed oil by milk fat at the levels of 2.0% and 4.0% (w/w) increased the conjugated fatty acid content. However, perception of oxidized flavor increased with the additional seed oil. When one considers the functional and nutritional improvements in the enrichment of the ice cream together with overall acceptability results of the sensory analysis, then it follows from this study that ice creams enriched with pomegranate peel phenolics up to 0.4% (w/w) and pomegranate seed oil up to 2.0% (w/w) could be introduced to markets as functional ice cream. Enrichment of ice creams with pomegranate by‐products might provide consumers health benefits with striking functional properties of punicalagins in pomegranate peel, and punicic acid in pomegranate seed oil.     

A new approach to the manufacturing of elemental boron from boron oxide by carbon monoxide

Elemental boron is one of the most valuable high-tech boron products and it has highest energy density 14 kcal/g in the world for this type of product. With the rapid advancements in technology in recent years, a demand has grown for a light materials with functionality and excellent properties such as high hardness, high melting point, high strength, high chemical resistance and nuclear characteristics that can be used in the fields of aerospace, aviation, automotive and solar cells. In this study boron oxide was reduced using carbon monoxide via a batch system to produce elemental boron. To determine the most suitable conditions for the reduction reaction different temperatures and different CO/B₂O₃ mol ratio parameters were studied. As a result of thermodynamic calculations for the most efficient parameters for reaction temperature was 140–210 °C and the CO/B₂O₃ mol ratio being studied was 3/1 and 2/1 for the batch system. Boron oxide reduction was performed by carbon monoxide gas with the pressure set at 10 bar. Characterization of the product was carried out by using X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) at optimum temperature and mol ratio (140 °C and 3/1). Boron phase was seen in both XRD and FT-IR analysis. Also, SEM analysis was performed in order to observe morphological structure of elemental boron.     

Metal‐ion‐containing ionic liquid hydrogels and their application to hydrogen production

A cationic hydrogel synthesized from (3‐acrylamidopropyl) trimethyl ammonium chloride as poly[(3‐acrylamidopropyl) trimethyl ammonium chloride] [p(APTMACl)] was put into contact with the chloride salts of metals such as CoCl₂, NiCl₂, and CuCl₂ in ethanol. The metal‐loaded p(APTMACl) hydrogels were used as catalyst systems in hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride (NaBH₄) and ammonia borane. The activation energy values for the hydrolysis reaction were calculated for all of the catalyst systems and were found to be 53.43 and 26.74 kJ/mol for p(APTMACl)–[CoCl₄]^2? and p(APTMACl)–[NiCl₄]^2?, respectively. These activation parameters were better than values reported in the literature for the ionic liquid metal complexes of smaller molecules used for the same purpose. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40183.     

Solving a robust airline crew pairing problem with column generation

In this study, we solve a robust version of the airline crew pairing problem. Our concept of robustness was partially shaped during our discussions with small local airlines in Turkey which may have to add a set of extra flights into their schedule at short notice during operation. Thus, robustness in this case is related to the ability of accommodating these extra flights at the time of operation by disrupting the original plans as minimally as possible. We focus on the crew pairing aspect of robustness and prescribe that the planned crew pairings incorporate a number of predefined recovery solutions for each potential extra flight. These solutions are implemented only if necessary for recovery purposes and involve either inserting an extra flight into an existing pairing or partially swapping the flights in two existing pairings in order to cover an extra flight. The resulting mathematical programming model follows the conventional set covering formulation of the airline crew pairing problem typically solved by column generation with an additional complication. The model includes constraints that depend on the columns due to the robustness consideration and grows not only column-wise but also row-wise as new columns are generated. To solve this difficult model, we propose a row and column generation approach. This approach requires a set of modifications to the multi-label shortest path problem for pricing out new columns (pairings) and various mechanisms to handle the simultaneous increase in the number of rows and columns in the restricted master problem during column generation. We conduct computational experiments on a set of real instances compiled from local airlines in Turkey.     

Vehicle routing problem with stochastic travel times including soft time windows and service costs

This paper studies a vehicle routing problem with soft time windows and stochastic travel times. A model is developed that considers both transportation costs (total distance traveled, number of vehicles used and drivers' total expected overtime) and service costs (early and late arrivals). We propose a Tabu Search method to solve this model. An initialization algorithm is developed to construct feasible routes by taking into account the travel time stochasticity. Solutions provided by the Tabu Search algorithm are further improved by a post-optimization method. We conduct our computational experiments for well-known problem instances. Results show that our Tabu Search method performs well by obtaining very good final solutions in a reasonable amount of time.     

Computing weighted solutions in ASP: representation-based method vs. search-based method

For some problems with too many solutions, one way to obtain the more desirable solutions is to assign each solution a weight that characterizes its importance quantitatively, and then compute the solutions whose weights are over (resp. below) a given threshold. This paper studies computing weighted solutions for a given computational problem, in the context of Answer Set Programming (ASP). In particular, we investigate two sorts of methods for computing weighted solutions: one method suggests modifying the ASP representation of the problem to compute weighted solutions using an existing ASP solver and the other suggests modifying the search algorithm of the answer set solver to compute weighted solutions incrementally. The applicability of these methods are shown on two sorts of problems: reconstructing weighted phylogenies (for Indo-European languages and for Quercus species) and finding weighted plans (for Blocks World planning problems). In the experiments with the representation-based method, the answer set solver clasp is used and weight functions are represented in ASP. For the search-based method, the algorithm of clasp is modified (the modified solver is called clasp-w) and weight functions are implemented in C+?+. For phylogenies, two weight functions are introduced by incorporating domain-specific information about groupings of species; one of them cannot be represented in ASP due to some mathematical functions not supported by the ASP solvers. For plans, we define a weight function that characterizes the total cost of executing actions in a plan. In these experiments the following are observed. With weight measures that can be represented in ASP, the search-based method outperforms the representation-based method in terms of computational efficiency (both time and space). With weight functions that cannot be represented in ASP, the search-based method provides a tool for computing weighted solutions in ASP. The search-based method can be applied to different domains, without modifying the algorithm of clasp-w; in that sense, the search-based method is modular and can be useful to other ASP applications. With either method, plausible phylogenies among many can be found without computing all phylogenies and requiring historical linguists to go over them manually, and less costly plans can be found without computing all plans; in that sense, our methods contribute to phylogenetics and AI planning studies as well.     

Synthesis of bulk nanocrystalline HfB<Subscript>2</Subscript> from HfCl<Subscript>4</Subscript>–NaBH<Subscript>4</Subscript>–Mg ternary system

This study reports on the synthesis and consolidation of pure HfB₂ powders starting from HfCl₄–NaBH₄–Mg blends via autoclave processing, annealing and purification followed by pressureless sintering (PS, with 2 wt% Co aid) or spark plasma sintering (SPS). During autoclave reactions conducted at 500 °C for 12 h under autogenic pressure, excess amounts of NaBH₄ were utilized to investigate its effects on the reaction products and mechanism. A subsequent washing (with distilled water), annealing (at 750, 1000 and 1700 °C) and acid leaching (HCl) were applied on the as-synthesized products. Pure HfB₂ powders with an average particle size of 145 nm were obtained after autoclave synthesis in the presence of 200 wt% excess NaBH₄, washing, annealing at 1000 °C for 3 h and 6 M HCl leaching. SPS sample has higher relative density and microhardness values (94.18% and 20.99 GPa, respectively) than those of PS sample (90.14% and 14.85 GPa). Relative wear resistance was improved considerably (8.2 times) by employing SPS technique.     

Life‐threatening spontaneous kidney rupture in a rare case with systemic lupus erythematosus: Prompt diagnosis with computed tomography

Nontraumatic, spontaneous parenchymal kidney rupture is a rare clinical entity that may cause extensive hemorrhage, hypovolemic shock, and death. Spontaneous nontraumatic kidney rupture is extremely rare in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Because of the high morbidity and mortality rates, an immediate establishment of the diagnosis and treatment are necessary. We present the case of a 30‐year‐old female with spontaneous parenchymal rupture of the right kidney who had renal failure due to SLE and presented with atraumatic sudden right flank pain during hemodialysis treatment. To our knowledge, this case is the second report of SLE manifesting as spontaneous kidney rupture in the literature.     

A survey on semanticized and personalized health recommender systems

Health 3.0 is a health-related extension of the Web 3.0 concept. It is based on the semantic Web which provides for semantically organizing electronic health records of individuals. Health 3.0 is rapidly gaining ground as a new research topic in many academic and industrial disciplines. Due to the recent rapid spread of wearable sensors and smart devices with access to social media, migrating health services from the traditional centre-based health system to personal health care is inevitable. In this current era of greater personalization, treating patients' health problems according to their profile and medical data gathered is possible using the latest information technologies. Consequently, personalized health recommender systems have gained importance. Empowering the utility of advanced Web technology in personalized health systems is still challenging due to pressing issues, such as lack of low cost and accurate smart medical sensors and wearable devices, existing investment in legacy Web system architecture in health sector, heterogeneity of medical data gathered by myriad health care institutions and isolated health services, and interoperability issues as well as multi-dimensionality of medical data. By tracing recent developments, this paper offers a systematic review through recent research on semantic Web-enabled personalized health systems, namely, semanticized personalized health recommender systems with the key enabling technologies, major applications, and successful case studies. Critical questions derived from the research studies were discussed, and main directions of open issues were identified leading to recommendations for future study in the field of personalized health recommender systems.