Effect of flour type on Maillard reaction and acrylamide formation during toasting of bread crisp model systems and mitigation strategies

Maillard reaction along with caramelisation are the main chemical reactions occurring in bakery products. They are referred to as non enzymatic browning. In this work, the effect of flour type (wheat, rye and whole-wheat flours) and process conditions were investigated by using a bread crisp model system made up of flour, water and yeast. The bread was toasted at different temperature for different times. In a second set of experiments several additives (glycine, 0.1% on flour; asparaginase, 2000 U kg⁻¹ of flour and an antioxidant extract from green tea) were added to the basic formulations in order to test their ability in reducing the formation of potentially harmful Maillard reaction compounds such as HMF and acrylamide. Browning development and water content along with antioxidant activity were also monitored.Rye model systems produced more HMF and acrylamide at all temperature tested, while wholewheat systems produced less HMF, but more acrylamide than wheat one. The addition of glycine was effective in reducing acrylamide formation, and it increased browning development, antioxidant activity and HMF formation. Asparaginase reduced acrylamide formation up to 88% and had no effect on browning development and antioxidant activity. The addition of exogenous antioxidant compounds from green tea did not produce clear effect on acrylamide formation, thus it was not useful as mitigation strategy in bakery products, likely because of the low fat content.     

Influences of evaluation methods and testing load on microhardness and Young's modulus of ZTA and ATZ ceramics

In this work, microindentation tests under different conditions were performed to determine the influence of indentation load on Young's modulus and microhardness of ZrO₂ reinforced with Al₂O₃ particles (ATZ) and Al₂O₃ reinforced with ZrO₂ particles (ZTA).     

Applying Topological and Economical Principles in Catalyst Design: New Alumina–Cobalt Core–Shell Catalysts

Designing new and effective catalysts may be an art, but its consequences are very real and pragmatic. That said, chemists often build designs on ideal systems, whereas the manufacturing of chemicals requires catalysts that withstand varied feeds, harsh conditions and long exposure times. Moreover, economical considerations are often underestimated at the catalyst design stage. Here we discuss the inclusion of economical and topological considerations early on in the catalyst design process, giving as an example the synthesis and testing of a new type of alumina/cobalt Fischer–Tropsch catalysts.

     

Gas sorption and transport in syndiotactic polystyrene with nanoporous crystalline phase

In this contribution we analyse sorption and transport of several gases in semicrystalline syndiotactic polystyrene with nanoporous crystalline δ form. Investigation was performed on amorphous samples and on samples characterized by different degrees of crystallinity. Sorption isotherms of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen in the crystalline phase have been determined starting from experimental results obtained for semicrystalline and amorphous samples. Corresponding isosteric heats of sorption were evaluated for the crystalline and amorphous phase. Permeation tests were also performed to gather information on mass transport properties of semicrystalline samples, evaluating average diffusivities of carbon dioxide and oxygen, in the limit of small concentrations as function of degree of crystallinity.     

Toward architecture-based context-aware deployment and adaptation

Software systems are increasingly expected to dynamically self-adapt to the changing environments. One of the main adaptation mechanisms is dynamic recomposition of application components. This paper addresses the key issues that arise when context knowledge is used to steer the run-time (re)composition process so as to match the new environmental conditions. In order to integrate such knowledge into this process, A Continuous Context-Aware Deployment and Adaptation (ACCADA) framework is proposed. To support run-time component composition, the essential runtime abstractions of the underlying component model are studied. By using a layered modeling approach, our framework gradually incorporates design-time as well as run-time knowledge into the component composition process. Service orientation is employed to facilitate the changes of adaptation policy. Results show that our framework has significant advantages over traditional approaches in light of flexibility, resource usage and lines of code. Although our experience was based on the OSGi middleware, we believe our findings to be general to architecture-based management systems using reflective component models.     

Experimental Investigation on Magnetic Field Effects of IPT for Electric Bikes

The wireless power transmission (WPT) is increasingly representing a promising technology and an innovative solution, especially for the electric vehicles (EVs) battery charging. The inductive power transfer (IPT) is the standard technology of wireless charging: the energy transfer occurs between two magnetically coupled coils. The IPT-based battery charging is especially convenient for E-bikes and the physiological effects related to the generated magnetic fields should be estimated. In this context, this work presents a 200 W prototype of wireless battery charger for E-bikes. In addition, the measurements regarding the surrounding magnetic field are given in detail in order to evaluate the actual physiological compatibility of the system.     

A Petri net based protection monitoring system for distribution networks with distributed generation

Connection of distributed generation (DG) essentially changes distribution network operation and creates a range of well-documented effects varying voltage levels and short circuit currents. Among others, DG can alter protection system operations in distribution networks, leading to failure of reclosing, disconnection of healthy feeder or prevention of protection operation. This paper proposes a procedure, based on Petri nets and supported by a centralized monitoring architecture for monitoring failures of the protection systems in radial distribution networks. Some case studies applied to a real Italian distribution network proved the effectiveness of the proposed procedure that can therefore represent an effective solution to improve distribution systems reliability in presence of DG.