Effects of time of grape pomace fermentation and distillation cuts on the chemical composition of grape marcs

 The effects of fermentation time and distillation cuts on the composition of distillates in terms of ethanal, 1,1-diethoxyethane, methanol, 1-butanol, 2-butanol, 1-propanol, 2-methyl-1-propanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, ethyl acetate, ethyl 2-hydroxypropanoate, 3-methylbutyl acetate, hexyl acetate, 2-phenylethyl acetate, hexanol, trans-2-hexenol, trans-3-hexenol, cis-3-hexenol, 2-phenylethanol, ethyl butyrate, ethyl hexanoate, ethyl octanoate, ethyl decanoate, ethyl dodecanoate, 2-methylpropanoic acid, 3-methylbutanoic acid, hexanoic acid, octanoic acid, decanoic acid, and dodecanoic acid were assessed through data generated according to a factorial design using analysis of variance and principal component analysis. Four times of storage of pomace obtained following winemaking of two grape varieties of white Verde wine (Alvarinho and Loureiro) and three distillation cuts were considered; volatile compounds in the 24 samples generated were analyzed directly, and indirectly after extraction and concentration, by capillary gas chromatography. The results generated have suggested clear differences (P<0.05) between distillate cuts obtained throughout fermentation times for each grape variety. The major differences between the different distillate fractions analyzed were accounted for by the contents of diethyl butanoate, ethyl 2-hydroxypropanoate, and the sum of 3-methylbutanoic and 2-methylpropanoic acids for Loureiro, whereas the main differences were accounted for by the contents of diethyl butanoate and the sum of the carboxylic acids for Alvarinho.     

Analysis of microstrip antennas on circular-cylindrical substrateswith a dielectric overlay

The use of dyadic Green's functions and the moment method is explored for the solution of microstrip antenna problems on circular cylindrical substrates. The dyadic Green's functions of the electric type are obtained for a medium consisting of three cylindrical dielectric layers concentric with a perfectly conducting cylinder, and integral equations are developed for the evaluation of the electromagnetic fields. The effect of a dielectric overlay on the resonant frequency of a cylindrical-rectangular microstrip antenna is analyzed. The patch is directly fed by means of a microstripline printed along the cylinder axial direction. The results show that the effect of the dielectric overlay is substantial when its relative permittivity and thickness are increased, such that this effect has to be very carefully considered in the design of microstrip antennas     

Discriminators for Instantaneous Frequency Measurement Subsystem Based on Open-Loop Resonators

The authors have studied a new way to design an instantaneous frequency measurement subsystem (IFMS). The method is based on bandstop filters. The device uses rectangular open-loop resonators instead of delay lines. The resonance frequency is adjusted by a resonator perimeter that must be approximately a half-wavelength long, and also by coupling distance between the resonators and the main transmission line. Simulated and experimental results are presented for a 5-bit IFMS.     

Design and Characterization of Fabry–Pérot MEMS-Based Short-Wave Infrared Microspectrometers

Microspectrometers based on the monolithic integration of a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) Fabry–Pérot filter and a Hg _x Cd_1–x Te-based infrared detector are discussed and measured results presented. The microspectrometers are designed to operate in the 1.5 μm to 2.6 μm wavelength range. Design equations are presented which account for the mechanical and optical characteristics of the device. Measurements indicate linewidths as narrow as 55 nm, switching times of 40 μs, and a tuning range of 380 nm, which is limited by snap-down. Optical characterization of the distributed Bragg mirrors and the Fabry–Pérot filter are presented, and these are shown to be in good agreement with simple first-order analytical models. Bowing of the movable Fabry–Pérot mirror due to stress gradients is identified as the dominant source of linewidth broadening.     

Optimal Predictive Control of Three-Phase NPC Multilevel Converter for Power Quality Applications

This paper presents the optimal control of the ac currents, the dc voltage regulation, and the dc capacitor voltage balancing in a three-level three-phase neutral point clamped multilevel converter for use in power quality applications as an active power filter. The ac output currents and the dc capacitor voltages are sampled and predicted for the next sampling time using linearized models and considering all the 27 output voltage vectors. A suitable quadratic weighed cost function is used to choose the voltage vector that minimizes the ac current tracking errors, the dc voltage steady-state error, and the input dc capacitor voltage unbalancing. The obtained experimental results show that the output ac currents track their references showing small ripple, a total harmonic distortion (THD) of less than 1%, harmonic contents that are 46 dB below the fundamental, and almost no steady-state error (0.3%). The capacitor voltages are balanced within 0.05%, and the balancing is assured even when redundant vectors are not chosen. Near-perfect capacitor dc voltage balancing is obtained while reducing current harmonic distortion. Some experimental evidence of robustness concerning a parameter variation was also found, with the optimum controller withstanding parameter deviations from $+$100% to $-$50%. Compared to a robust sliding mode controller, the optimal controller can reduce the THD of the ac currents or reduce the switching frequency at the same THD, being a suitable controller for power quality in medium-voltage applications.      

A fast and efficient hybrid fractal-wavelet image coder.

The excellent visual quality and compression rate of fractal image coding have limited applications due to exhaustive inherent encoding time. This paper presents a new fast and efficient image coder that applies the speed of the wavelet transform to the image quality of the fractal compression. Fast fractal encoding using Fisher's domain classification is applied to the lowpass subband of wavelet transformed image and a modified set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) coding, on the remaining coefficients. Furthermore, image details and wavelet progressive transmission characteristics are maintained, no blocking effects from fractal techniques are introduced, and the encoding fidelity problem common in fractal-wavelet hybrid coders is solved. The proposed scheme promotes an average of 94% reduction in encoding-decoding time comparing to the pure accelerated Fractal coding results. The simulations also compare the results to the SPIHT wavelet coding. In both cases, the new scheme improves the subjective quality of pictures for high-medium-low bitrates.     

3D Printing and Nanotechnology: A Multiscale Alliance in Personalized Medicine

3D printing and nanotechnology have been two important tools in the development of therapeutic approaches for personalized medicine. More recently, their alliance has been improved in an effort to build innovative, versatile, multifunctional, and/or smart medical and pharmaceutical products. Therefore, an extensive review about scientific studies that ally 3D printing and nanomaterials in the development of new approaches for pharmaceutical and medical applications for the treatment and prevention of diseases is presented here. The articles are classified into five categories according to their main application: Cell growth and tissue engineering, antimicrobial, drug delivery, stimulus-response, and theranostics. Semisolid extrusion, inorganic nanoparticles, and cell growth and tissue engineering are the most reported 3D printing technique, type of nanomaterial, and application, respectively. The increase in papers dedicated to these areas is also notable, especially in the 2019 and 2020, when semisolid extrusion became the most used technique, overcoming fused deposition modelling. In fact, this review highlights that the possibility of an alliance between 3D printing and nanotechnology for the production of multiscale materials is undoubtedly a great opportunity for knowledge and innovation in the pharmaceutical and medical area.     

Deriving Efficient Porous Heteroatom‐Doped Carbon Electrocatalysts for Hydrazine Oxidation from Transition Metal Ions‐Coordinated Casein

In this work, the synthesis of high‐performance, metal ion‐imprinted, mesoporous carbon electrocatalysts for hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) using casein or a family of phosphoproteins derived from cow's milk as a precursor is shown. The synthesis is made possible by mixing trace amounts of non‐noble metal ions (Fe³⁺ or Co²⁺) with casein and then producing different metal ions‐functionalized casein intermediates, which upon carbonization, followed by acid treatment, lead to metal ion‐imprinted catalytically active sites on the materials. The materials effectively electrocatalyze HzOR with low overpotentials at neutral pH and exhibit among the highest electrocatalytic performances ever reported for carbon catalysts. Their catalytic activities are also better than the corresponding control material, synthesized by carbonization of pure casein and other materials previously reported for HzOR. This work demonstrates a novel synthetic route that transforms an inexpensive protein to highly active carbon‐based electrocatalysts by modifying its surfaces with trace amounts of non‐noble metals. The types of metal ions employed in the synthesis are found to dictate the electrocatalytic activities of the materials. Notably, Fe³⁺ is found to be more effective than Co²⁺ in helping the conversion of casein into more electrocatalytically active carbon materials for HzOR.     

Design and development of two-dimensional position sensitive photo-detector

Position sensitive photo-detectors (PSDs) utilize the lateral photovoltaic effect to produce an electrical output that varies linearly with the position of a light spot incident on a semiconductor junction. Design, fabrication and characterization of newly developed silicon PSD, which employ the planar technology and double ion implantation with different doses, are described. Shallow and low-doped p-n junction is formed by boron implantation in n-type silicon substrate. The position characteristics of PSD are symmetric to the zero and linear in the 80% of the active area. For a higher resistivity top layer (lower implanted dose), the sensitivity grows up and the linearity gets improved. The influence of the substrate is not substantial for the position characteristics. The response of the sensor, measured by pulsed 15 ns laser, was determined to be about 100 ns. Described PSD has been used in the construction of simple light spot rotational follower.     

Video coding using greedy decompositions on generalised bit-planes

A novel method for performing greedy decompositions using generalised bit-planes is proposed. It provides an elegant solution to the tradeoff between quantisation of coefficients and number of passes in the matching pursuits algorithm. In addition, when replacing the matching pursuits algorithm in video coding, it provides a significant performance improvement