Using spray-dried sugar beet molasses in ice cream as a novel bulking agent

In this study, it is aimed to investigate and evaluate the use of molasses which is a by-product of sugar production as a novel bulking agent in ice cream as a sugar replacer. Sugar beet molasses (75%) and 12 DE maltodextrin (25%) were converted into powder form by spray drying. Spray-dried sugar beet molasses (SDSM) was then used as a substitute of sugar in different ratios (0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25 and 100:0) in the ice cream products. The increased amount of SDSM decreased the overrun, L*, whiteness index (WI) and melting behaviours and increased a*, b*, total phenolic content, consistency and viscosity. Meanwhile, thermal properties have not been affected by the use of SDSM (P < 0.05). The sensory findings have been particularly interesting especially when replacing above 50% sugar with SDSM, aroma, flavour and general acceptability decrease. According to the results of this study, substituting 25% of total sugar with SDSM as a bulking agent can decrease cost of the product and improve total phenolic content and some quality parameters without compromising sensorial properties.     

Changes in the texture,physicochemical properties and volatile compound profiles of fresh Kashar cheese (<90 days) during ripening

In this study, four different fresh Kashar cheese samples were ripened for 90 days. The physicochemical properties, texture attributes, fatty acid composition and volatile compound profiles of the samples were measured every 30 days of ripening. The texture properties of the cheese samples were significantly affected by the duration of the ripening period. The results of this study highlighted that texture parameters as a function of ripening period should be considered for both fresh and aged Kashar cheeses to determine the ripening period as they are very important for consumer acceptability and consumption of the end product.     

Defective Thyroglobulin: Cell Biology of Disease

The primary functional units of the thyroid gland are follicles of various sizes comprised of a monolayer of epithelial cells (thyrocytes) surrounding an apical extracellular cavity known as the follicle lumen. In the normal thyroid gland, the follicle lumen is filled with secreted protein (referred to as colloid), comprised nearly exclusively of thyroglobulin with a half-life ranging from days to weeks. At the cellular boundary of the follicle lumen, secreted thyroglobulin becomes iodinated, resulting from the coordinated activities of enzymes localized to the thyrocyte apical plasma membrane. Thyroglobulin appearance in evolution is essentially synchronous with the appearance of the follicular architecture of the vertebrate thyroid gland. Thyroglobulin is the most highly expressed thyroid gene and represents the most abundantly expressed thyroid protein. Wildtype thyroglobulin protein is a large and complex glycoprotein that folds in the endoplasmic reticulum, leading to homodimerization and export via the classical secretory pathway to the follicle lumen. However, of the hundreds of human thyroglobulin genetic variants, most exhibit increased susceptibility to misfolding with defective export from the endoplasmic reticulum, triggering hypothyroidism as well as thyroidal endoplasmic reticulum stress. The human disease of hypothyroidism with defective thyroglobulin (either homozygous, or compound heterozygous) can be experimentally modeled in thyrocyte cell culture, or in whole animals, such as mice that are readily amenable to genetic manipulation. From a combination of approaches, it can be demonstrated that in the setting of thyroglobulin misfolding, thyrocytes under chronic continuous ER stress exhibit increased susceptibility to cell death, with interesting cell biological and pathophysiological consequences.     

Spark Plasma Sintering of Superhard B4C–ZrB2 Ceramics by Carbide Boronizing

A carbide boronizing method was first developed to produce dense boron carbide‐ zirconium diboride (“B₄C”–ZrB₂) composites from zirconium carbide (ZrC) and amorphous boron powders (B) by Spark Plasma Sintering at 1800°C–2000°C. The stoichiometry of “B₄C” could be tailored by changing initial boron content, which also has an influence on the processing. The self‐propagating high‐temperature synthesis could be ignited by 1 mol ZrC and 6 mol B at around 1240°C, whereas it was suppressed at a level of 10 mol B. B₈C–ZrB₂ ceramics sintered at 1800°C with 1 mole ZrC and 10 mole B exhibited super high hardness (40.36 GPa at 2.94 N and 33.4 GPa at 9.8 N). The primary reason for the unusual high hardness of B₈C–ZrB₂ ceramics was considered to be the formation of nano‐sized ZrB₂ grains.     

Excitation energy-dependent nature of Raman scattering spectrum in GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well structures

The excitation energy-dependent nature of Raman scattering spectrum, vibration, electronic or both, has been studied using different excitation sources on as-grown and annealed n- and p-type modulation-doped Ga_1 − xIn_xN_yAs_1 − y/GaAs quantum well structures. The samples were grown by molecular beam technique with different N concentrations (y = 0%, 0.9%, 1.2%, 1.7%) at the same In concentration of 32%. Micro-Raman measurements have been carried out using 532 and 758 nm lines of diode lasers, and the 1064 nm line of the Nd-YAG laser has been used for Fourier transform-Raman scattering measurements. Raman scattering measurements with different excitation sources have revealed that the excitation energy is the decisive mechanism on the nature of the Raman scattering spectrum. When the excitation energy is close to the electronic band gap energy of any constituent semiconductor materials in the sample, electronic transition dominates the spectrum, leading to a very broad peak. In the condition that the excitation energy is much higher than the band gap energy, only vibrational modes contribute to the Raman scattering spectrum of the samples. Line shapes of the Raman scattering spectrum with the 785 and 1064 nm lines of lasers have been observed to be very broad peaks, whose absolute peak energy values are in good agreement with the ones obtained from photoluminescence measurements. On the other hand, Raman scattering spectrum with the 532 nm line has exhibited only vibrational modes. As a complementary tool of Raman scattering measurements with the excitation source of 532 nm, which shows weak vibrational transitions, attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy has been also carried out. The results exhibited that the nature of the Raman scattering spectrum is strongly excitation energy-dependent, and with suitable excitation energy, electronic and/or vibrational transitions can be investigated.     

Measuring the Resilience of the Trans-Oceanic Telecommunication Cable System

Resilience is the ability of the system to both absorb shock as well as to recover rapidly from a disruption so that it can return back to its original service delivery levels or close to it. The trans-oceanic telecommunication fiber-optics cable network that serves as the backbone of the internet is a particularly critical infrastructure system that is vulnerable to both natural and man-made disasters. In this paper, we propose a model to measure the base resiliency of this network, and explore the node to node and the overall resiliency of the network using existing data for demand, capacity and flow information. The submarine cable system is represented by a network model to which hypothetical disruptions can be introduced. The base resiliency of the system can be measured as the ratio of the value delivery of the system after a disruption to the value deliver of the system before a disruption. We further demonstrate how the resiliency of the trans-oceanic telecommunication cable infrastructure is enhanced through vulnerability reduction.     

Network-aware heuristics for inter-domain meta-scheduling in Grids

Grid computing generally involves the aggregation of geographically distributed resources in the context of a particular application. As such resources can exist within different administrative domains, requirements on the communication network must also be taken into account when performing meta-scheduling, migration or monitoring of jobs. Similarly, coordinating efficient interaction between different domains should also be considered when performing such meta-scheduling of jobs. A strategy to perform peer-to-peer-inspired meta-scheduling in Grids is presented. This strategy has three main goals: (1) it takes the network characteristics into account when performing meta-scheduling; (2) communication and query referral between domains is considered, so that efficient meta-scheduling can be performed; and (3) the strategy demonstrates scalability, making it suitable for many scientific applications that require resources on a large scale. Simulation results are presented that demonstrate the usefulness of this approach, and it is compared with other proposals from literature.     

Size and expansion ratio analysis of micro nozzle gas flow

Size and expansion ratio effects on the flowfield are investigated for micro converging-diverging nozzles. Numerical computations are conducted by using two dimensional augmented Burnett equations and Navier-Stokes equations that were derived from the Boltzmann equation. The Maxwell-Smoluchowski slip boundary condition is used for adiabatic walls, and Steger-Warming flux vector splitting scheme is applied to the convective inviscid flux terms. The results from the augmented Burnett equation are compared with Navier-Stokes and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) results. Then, nozzle-size analysis is conducted for between 2 µm and 100 µm throat width. Influence of the Knudsen number is investigated, and temperature and Mach number variations are presented. In addition, the influence of the expansion ratio is studied with three (1.7:1, 3.4:1, and 6.8:1) different configurations. The results are compared with each other and an experimental data in the literature.     

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers: next-generation arrays for acoustic imaging?

Piezoelectric materials have dominated the ultrasonic transducer technology. Recently, capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) have emerged as an alternative technology offering advantages such as wide bandwidth, ease of fabricating large arrays, and potential for integration with electronics. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the viability of CMUTs for ultrasound imaging. We present the first pulse-echo phased array B-scan sector images using a 128-element, one-dimensional (1-D) linear CMUT array. We fabricated 64- and 128-element 1-D CMUT arrays with 100% yield and uniform element response across the arrays. These arrays have been operated in immersion with no failure or degradation in performance over the time. For imaging experiments, we built a resolution test phantom roughly mimicking the attenuation properties of soft tissue. We used a PC-based experimental system, including custom-designed electronic circuits to acquire the complete set of 128 x 128 RF A-scans from all transmit-receive element combinations. We obtained the pulse-echo frequency response by analyzing the echo signals from wire targets. These echo signals presented an 80% fractional bandwidth around 3 MHz, including the effect of attenuation in the propagating medium. We reconstructed the B-scan images with a sector angle of 90 degrees and an image depth of 210 mm through offline processing by using RF beamforming and synthetic phased array approaches. The measured 6-dB lateral and axial resolutions at 135 mm depth were 0.0144 radians and 0.3 mm, respectively. The electronic noise floor of the image was more than 50 dB below the maximum mainlobe magnitude. We also performed preliminary investigations on the effects of crosstalk among array elements on the image quality. In the near field, some artifacts were observable extending out from the array to a depth of 2 cm. A tail also was observed in the point spread function (PSF) in the axial direction, indicating the existence of crosstalk. The relative amplitude of this tail with respect to the mainlobe was less than -20 dB.