On the use of acrylated epoxidized soybean oil as a reactive compatibilizer in injection‐molded compostable pieces consisting of polylactide filled with orange peel flour

Novel green composites made of polylactide (PLA) and orange peel flour (OPF) were melt‐compounded using twin‐screw extrusion and shaped into pieces by injection molding. Orange peel, a major by‐product of the juice industry, was first ground to flour and then incorporated as a lignocellulosic filler into the biopolymer at 10, 20 and 30 wt%. Since both components of the green composite presented low compatibility, the resultant injection‐molded pieces showed poor ductility and impaired thermomechanical performance. As a new bio‐based reactive compatibilizer, acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (AESO) was added at five parts per hundred resin to the PLA/OPF formulations during the extrusion process. The addition of AESO increased the filler–biopolymer adhesion and led to compostable green composite pieces with improved physical properties. The enhancement achieved was related to a dual effect of plasticization and melt grafting of the OPF particles onto the PLA chains provided by the multiple acrylate and epoxy groups present in AESO. The use of multi‐functionalized vegetable oils to improve the performance of green composites certainly opens up new opportunities for the expansion of fully bio‐based and biodegradable materials that are partially obtained from agro‐food waste. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry     

Description of costs and effectiveness of a hypertension control program in primary care]

Our purposes were to determine whether sonography can distinguish between obstructed and nonobstructed rats and to compare the diagnostic accuracy of sonography and radiography in the diagnosis of small bowel obstruction. Nonstrangulating small bowel obstruction was created in 19 rats; sham laparotomies were performed in 18 controls. Serial radiographs and sonograms, including duplex Doppler sonography, were obtained. Bowel diameter and bowel wall thickness were evaluated retrospectively. Bowel diameter, bowel wall thickness, and resistive indices increased in the animals with obstruction; controls remained unchanged (P = 0.002). Sonography demonstrated a significantly higher diagnostic accuracy than radiography at 24 hours and beyond (P = 0.023). Ultrasonography is sensitive and more accurate than radiography in diagnosing small bowel obstruction using objective criteria in the animal model.     

Surface Tension of Mixtures of Tetrahydrofuran or Tetrahydropyran with Isomeric Chlorobutanes

Experimental surface tensions for mixtures containing tetrahydrofuran or tetrahydropyran and 1-chlorobutane, 2-chlorobutane, 1-chloro-2-methylpropane, or 2-chloro-2-methylpropane, measured with a drop volume tensiometer, are reported at temperatures of 298.15 and 313.15 K. Taking into account the Li-model for the surface tension, the variation of the interaction energy parameters with surface area is estimated.     

WATER - CORN EQUILIBRIUM: TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCY OF THE G.A.B. MODEL PARAMETERS AND CALCULATION OF THE HEAT OF SORPTION

ABSTRACT

By using sorption data for com in the range of 4.4-60°C, the temperature (T) variations of the GAB. model parameters (M_m, C_B and k) were studied. As only the monolayer moisture (M_m) varied (decreased) with temperature, a generalized GAB equation of four total parameters was obtained. This, together with the Clapeyron equation allowed a method to calculate the heat of sorption (L_b) as a function of T and moisture content (M). For each temperature, Lb presented a maxinuin some 30% above the heat of vaporization of water (L_f), which occurred around the M_m, in congruence with the sorption theory. A similar behavior of L_b was found using the Othmer method. In contrast, the Gallaher equation predicted an ever increasing L_b up to 3 L_f at very low moistures. The GAB-Clapeyron method is then proposed to calculate L_b as a function of M and T.     

Volume and density of whole soybean products during hot-air thermal treatment in fluidised bed

Soybeans contribute to healthy nutrition because of the high proportion and quality of proteins. Its oil content is considerably lower than in peanuts, restricting energy intake. To produce a whole soybean snack, four type of samples were processed by first increasing the water content and then reducing it by hot-air fluidisation: moistened-dried at 60 °C (MD), soaked-dried at 60 °C (SD), soaked and dried-toasted at 140 °C (SDT) and soaked-cooked and dried-toasted at 140 °C (SCDT). A semi-theoretical model was proposed to describe volume and density as a function of moisture during fluidisation. An equilibrium shrinkage coefficient a was determined. Volume expansion achieved by increasing the moisture content was not totally lost during fluidisation, allowing for lighter products, whose density decreased with the reduction in moisture. As the overall treatment was more severe (SCDT > SDT > SD > MD), shrinkage coefficients increased, up to 0.75. The SCDT sample became crispy and glassy after cooling.     

Modelling the effect of temperature and water activity on the growth of Aspergillus parasiticus on irradiated Argentinian flint maize

A full factorially designed experiment including storage temperature (10, 20, 30 and 37 °C) and water activity (0.88, 0.92 and 0.96) was undertaken to study the growth of Aspergillus parasiticus in maize samples. Kinetic parameters such as specific growth rate (μ), lag phase duration and maximum logarithmic increase were determined by fitting the Modified Gompertz equation to the viable mould count data (N in CFU/g) as a function of time collected in twelve experiments. The average coefficient of determination (R²) was 0.987, being the mean standard deviation of the estimate of 0.216 in units of log₁₀N. In the practical range of 10-30 °C, the relationship of the three kinetic parameters with temperature was described by second order polynomial expressions, whose parameters, in turn, depended on water activity. The combined or full model i.e., the Modified Gompertz model with its parameters expressed as a function of temperature and water activity, was able to predict log₁₀N with an average percentage error of 4.3, so agreement with the experimental data was highly satisfactory.In a simulation exercise, the full model was able to predict the viable mould count, given an initial value and grain temperature and water activity histories, with promising results for maize storage.     

RESYGEN: A Recommendation System Generator using domain-based heuristics

Recommender systems provide personalized recommendations on products or services to user. The amount information handled by this type of systems is steadily growing. Furthermore, the development of recommendation systems is a difficult task due to the implementation of complex algorithms and metrics. For this reason, the success of recommendation systems depends on preliminary design decisions such as the most adequate similarity metric, the right process to infer proactive recommendations, for mentioning a few. This decision determines the process for generating recommendations and also impacts quality and user’s satisfaction. In this paper, we propose RESYGEN, a Recommendation System Generator. RESYGEN allows the user to generate such kind of systems in an easy and friendly way. Furthermore, RESYGEN allows the generation of multi-domain systems such as music, video, books, travel, hardware, software, and food to mention a few. RESYGEN is based in the selection of the best distance metrics for nominal, ordinal, numeric and binary attributes, with the aim to reduce complexity for non-expert users and also to facilitate the selection of the metric which best fits to the data type. A system generated through RESYGEN has several interesting elements such as ratings, recommendations, cloud tag, among others. We performed a qualitative evaluation with the aim of comparing other recommender systems against systems generated by RESYGEN. The results shows that generated systems by RESYGEN, comprise the basic elements of a recommendation system.     

Thermophysical Properties of Mixtures of Tetrahydropyran with Chlorobutanes

Densities and absolute viscosities for the binary mixtures containing tetrahydropyran and isomeric chlorobutanes have been determined at 298.15 and 313.15 K at atmospheric pressure. From the densities, excess molar volumes were calculated. On the other hand, excess volumes and absolute viscosities have been correlated using the Peng–Robinson–Stryjek–Vera (PRSV) equation of state and the Lee model, respectively.     

Controlled Delivery of Gentamicin Antibiotic from Bioactive Electrospun Polylactide‐Based Ultrathin Fibers

The purpose of this study was to generate ultrathin fibers based on polylactide (PLA) biopolyester with antimicrobial controlled release capacity to treat bacterial infections. To achieve this objective, gentamicin antibiotic was encapsulated into pure PLA fibers, a blend of PLA–collagen and coaxial fibers containing a skin of PLA and a core of collagen using the electrospinning technique. The morphology of the gentamicin‐loaded fibers and the antibiotic distribution within the fibers were examined by SEM and TEM. The drug delivery profile of the different electrospun fibers was analyzed using a spectrophotometric method. The performance for treating common possible post‐surgical infections was investigated against Staphylococcus epidermis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli. The morphology of the electrospun fibers as well as the hydrophilicity of the polymer blends ultimately determined the antibiotic release characteristics. The results indicated that such drug‐loaded fibers can serve as advanced delivery platforms with strong and timing controllable antibacterial properties.     

WATER - CORN EQUILIBRIUM: TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCY OF THE G.A.B. MODEL PARAMETERS AND CALCULATION OF THE HEAT OF SORPTION

By using sorption data for com in the range of 4.4-60°C, the temperature (T) variations of the GAB. model parameters (M_m, C_B and k) were studied. As only the monolayer moisture (M_m) varied (decreased) with temperature, a generalized GAB equation of four total parameters was obtained. This, together with the Clapeyron equation allowed a method to calculate the heat of sorption (L_b) as a function of T and moisture content (M). For each temperature, Lb presented a maxinuin some 30% above the heat of vaporization of water (L_f), which occurred around the M_m, in congruence with the sorption theory. A similar behavior of L_b was found using the Othmer method. In contrast, the Gallaher equation predicted an ever increasing L_b up to 3 L_f at very low moistures. The GAB-Clapeyron method is then proposed to calculate L_b as a function of M and T.