Determination of nutrients and volatile constituents of Agaricus bisporus (brown) at different stages

BACKGROUND: The physical properties, proximate composition, mineral and vitamin contents, and estimated volatile components of Portobello mushroom, Agaricus bisporus (brown), were analyzed in three flushes and at two different harvest times. The results showed different trends in the flushes and harvest terms studied. RESULTS: The mean values of texture, diameter, and protein of the harvested produce were 1.78–1.97 kg mm^?2, 4.67–5.02 cm, and 4.18–3.31% wet weight basis (wb), respectively. The mean Zn, Fe, P, Mg, K, Na, and Ca contents of both harvests (mg kg^?1 wb) were 8.15–7.07, 7.40–7.96, 1180.93–1038.69, 88.05–76.29, 213.29–238.82, 2652.0–2500.89, and 534.2–554.80, respectively. In terms of vitamin C, folic acid, thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin, the mean contents (mg kg^?1 wb) were 6.75–3.97, 0.09–0.08, 0.085–0.09, 0.27–0.29, and 3.62–2.94, respectively. The estimated volatile components comprised 18‐ or 16‐carbon compounds such as octadecanoic acid, hexadecanoic acid derivatives, and other important volatiles like dl‐limonene, n‐nonane, benzendicarboxylic acid, and cis‐linoleic acid esters. CONCLUSION: Nutritive contents and estimated volatiles of Portobello mushroom were evaluated in detail at different stages. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

High output impedance current-mode lowpass,bandpass and highpass filters using current controlled conveyors

Three new current-mode second-order filter configurations which employ one or two current controlled conveyors (CCCIIs) and three passive elements are presented. Each proposed filter can realize one of the bandpass, lowpass or highpass responses all at high impedance outputs. The proposed filters offer current-control of pole angular frequency ω_o without disturbing the parameter ω_o /Q. No component matching is required and all the passive and active sensitivities are low. PSPICE simulation results are given to confirm the theoretical analysis.     

Diffusion bonding of electroless Ni plated WC composite to Cu and AISI 316 stainless steel

In this study, a composite containing WC (Tungsten Carbide) and Ni was produced by two different processing routes. Electroless Ni coated WC powders were consolidated and sintered at 1200 °C. Diffusion bonding couples of WC(Ni)-electrolytic Cu, WC(Ni)-AISI 316 stainless steel and WC(Ni)-WC(Ni) were manufactured by using a preloaded compression system under Ar atmosphere. Diffusion bonding was carried out at varying bonding temperatures; 750 °C for (WC)Ni-Cu diffusion couple and 1200 °C for (WC)Ni-(WC)Ni and (WC)Ni-AISI 316 stainless steel diffusion couples. Standard metallographic techniques, Scanning Electron Microscopy and a shear test were employed to characterize the microstructure of bondline and mechanical properties of each diffusion couple, respectively.     

Forecasting of entropy production due to buoyant convection using support vector machines (SVM) in a partially cooled square cross-sectional room

Forecasting of entropy generation of laminar natural convection in a partially cooled square cross-sectional room has been performed using support vector machines (SVM). The two-dimensional room was modeled as floor heating story with a window. Values of temperature and velocities were obtained by solving governing equations of natural convection with finite difference technique and using these values entropy generation was calculated with its definition. Forecasting of entropy generation due to fluid friction irreversibility (FFI) and heat transfer irreversibility (HTI) were made with known values for unknown parameters using SVM. Thus, calculation time was extremely reduced and values were obtained even for non-convergence cases. It was observed that the SVM was a strong method to predict the entropy generation without computational fluid dynamic analysis for all cases.     

Resilience and survivability in communication networks: Strategies,principles, and survey of disciplines

The Internet has become essential to all aspects of modern life, and thus the consequences of network disruption have become increasingly severe. It is widely recognised that the Internet is not sufficiently resilient, survivable, and dependable, and that significant research, development, and engineering is necessary to improve the situation. This paper provides an architectural framework for resilience and survivability in communication networks and provides a survey of the disciplines that resilience encompasses, along with significant past failures of the network infrastructure. A resilience strategy is presented to defend against, detect, and remediate challenges, a set of principles for designing resilient networks is presented, and techniques are described to analyse network resilience.     

Myoglobin adsorption onto poly(glycidyl methacrylate) microbeads with surface functionalized iminodiacetic acid

In this study, poly(glycidyl methacrylate) [PGMA] microbeads with surface modified iminodiacetic acid (IDA) were used for myoglobin (Mb) adsorption from buffer solutions at different pHs and ionic strengths in a packed-bed column. Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transformed Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements before and after the adsorption process confirmed the structural stability of adsorbed Mb. The effects of initial concentration, flow-rate, pH and ionic strength on the adsorption were investigated. The results showed that the maximum amount of protein was adsorbed at a pH 7.0, which is the protein isoelectric point. The adsorption is rationalized in terms of local electrostatic forces acting between the protein and the IDA modified PGMA surface as well as hydrophobic interactions close to the protein isoelectric point, whereas at low pH the global changes give rise to protein–protein repulsion and at high pH protein-support material repulsion.     

Effects of environmental factors on the adhesion and durability characteristics of epoxy-bonded concrete prisms

This work is concerned with the effects of environmental factors on the adhesion and durability characteristics of epoxy-bonded concrete prisms. The results indicate that the presence of liquid water at the interfacial zone during the epoxy injection process disrupts the initial bond configurations. The freezing and thawing up to about 40 cycles do not have a significant effect on the bond stability. An adequate degree of chemical stability is maintained in the bond line by the epoxy adhesives after 120 days of exposure to corrosive environments such as MgSO₄ and MgCl₂. However, there is a pronounced effect of these chemical substances on the concrete strength. The load-bearing capacity of epoxy-bonded concrete prisms decreases with increasing temperature. Despite this fact, the EP3-bonded concrete prisms give relatively high joint strengths at temperatures up to 100 °C.     

Magnetic Properties of Zn1?x Ni x O (0.25≤x≤ 0.50) Prepared by Solid-State Reactions

In this study the origin of ferromagnetism in ZnO-based bulk systems has been investigated using Ni-doped ZnO samples, Zn_1−x Ni _x O with 0.25≤x≤0.50, prepared by solid-state reactions. The structural characterizations indicated that the Ni²⁺ ions almost uniformly distributed in all the samples, and the samples have hexagonal wurtzite structure; however, when x is increased toward 0.50, a new NiO phase is formed. A ferromagnetism (FM) has been observed for all the samples at and below the room temperature. In other words, the room temperature results of (M–H) curves show that the FM observed is intrinsic for all the Ni-doped ZnO samples. However, the saturated magnetizations decrease gradually with increasing Ni concentration. This indicates that, in addition to FM, the excessive doping of Ni in ZnO also causes an antiferromagnetic (AFM) contribution which increases with increasing Ni amount. This result is also supported by the magnetization against temperature measurements. Furthermore, the trend of the ac-susceptibility (χ) versus temperature curves, measured under an ac-magnetic field of 100 Oe, also support our conclusion about the antiferromagnetic contribution to ferromagnetism in our samples.     

Synthesis of bio‐based polymeric nanocomposites from acrylated epoxidized soybean oil and montmorillonite clay in the presence of a bio‐based intercalant

Polymeric nanocomposites were synthesized from functionalized soybean‐oil‐based polymer matrix and montmorillonite (MMT) clay using an in situ free radical polymerization reaction. Acrylated epoxidized soybean oil combined with styrene was used as the monomer. Organophilic MMT (OrgMMT) was obtained using a quaternized derivative of methyl oleate, which was synthesized from olive oil triglyceride, as a renewable intercalant. The resultant nanocomposites were characterized using X‐ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. The effect of increased nanofiller loading on the thermal and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites was investigated using thermogravimetric analysis and dynamic mechanical analysis. It was found that the desired exfoliated nanocomposite structure was achieved when the OrgMMT loading was 1 and 2 wt%, whereas a partially exfoliated or intercalated nanocomposite was obtained for 3 wt% loading. All the nanocomposites were found to have improved thermal and mechanical properties as compared with virgin acrylated epoxidized soybean‐oil‐based polymer matrix. The nanocomposite containing 2 wt% OrgMMT clay was found to have the highest thermal stability and best dynamic mechanical performance. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry