Oxidative enzymes and functional quality of minimally processed grape berries sanitised with ozonated water

Thompson Seedless (TS) and Black (BS) grapes sanitised with 2, 4, 6, 8 mg L^?1 O₃ or NaOCl (100 mg L^?1) were stored 21 days at 5 °C. Ozonated water stimulated the respiration rate, especially after 5 days of storage, and increased superoxide dismutase and catalase activity compared to NaOCl‐sanitised grapes. Total polyphenol content (TPC) was 23–50% higher in TS and 18.5–28% higher in BS samples sanitised with ozonated water. Twofold higher total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was registered in TS at all of the evaluated O₃ doses while the doses of 6 and 8 mg L^?1 increased TAC by 19–30% in BS. The use of ozonated water as a sanitising method, especially at 6 and 8 mg L^?1 doses, improved the functional quality and maintained low microbial counts on fresh‐cut grapes being a good alternative for the industry.     

A novel experimental set-up for turbidity sensing based on plastic optical fibre

A novel set-up for remote sensing the turbidity of a solution using plastic optical fibres together with a mirror is proposed. The authors have estimated turbidity of a liquid in terms of the nephelometric turbidity unit – NTU, a standard unit that relates the solution appearance with its turbidity for two proposed set-ups. Its performance was also investigated using clay sample measurements over a concentration range of 0–10 g/L. The proposed set-ups are useful for detection of suspended particles in a solution even in small quantities due to its high sensitivity, simplicity and robustness.     

Initial microstructure and retained austenite in 8 Mn steel controlled by cooling rate

The present work investigates the effect of the initial microstructure on phase transformation after intercritical annealing by measuring the amount of austenite, which was obtained by X-ray diffraction and saturation magnetisation. Pieces of 8?Mn steel were austenitised at 1100°C for 1?h followed by different cooling rates: water, air, and furnace. Samples of each piece were subsequently intercritically annealed from 600 to 800°C followed by air cooling. The microstructure was characterised using scanning electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction. Results show how changing the cooling rate affects the temperature of intercritical annealing at which the highest content of retained austenite was obtained.     

An Extensible Code for Correcting Multiple Cell Upset in Memory Arrays

As the microelectronics technology continuously advances to deep submicron scales, the occurrence of Multiple Cell Upset (MCU) induced by radiation in memory devices becomes more likely to happen. The implementation of a robust Error Correction Code (ECC) is a suitable solution. However, the more complex an ECC, the more delay, area usage and energy consumption. An ECC with an appropriate balance between error coverage and computational cost is essential for applications where fault tolerance is heavily needed, and the energy resources are scarce. This paper describes the conception, implementation, and evaluation of Column-Line-Code (CLC), a novel algorithm for the detection and correction of MCU in memory devices, which combines extended Hamming code and parity bits. Besides, this paper evaluates the variation of the 2D CLC schemes and proposes an additional operation to correct more MCU patterns called extended mode. We compared the implementation cost, reliability level, detection/correction rate and the mean time to failure among the CLC versions and other correction codes, proving the CLCs have high MCU correction efficacy with reduced area, power and delay costs.     

Lactose hydrolyzed milk powder: Thermodynamic characterization of the drying process

Industrial production of lactose hydrolyzed milk powder (LHMP) remains challenging. Due to the presence of the monosaccharides glucose and galactose, lactose-free powders tend to suffer stickiness, caking, and browning during drying and storage. We sought to find ideal conditions spray dryer inlet air temperature (θ_air,in) and concentrated milk flow rate (m_CM) for LHMP production. We tested θ_air,in settings of 115–160°C and m_CM of 0.3–1.5?kg?·?h^?1, and also applied mass and energetic balances. LHMP generally exhibited higher mass and energetic losses than the control (milk powder containing lactose), as a consequence of the relatively low dryability of LHMP. For a lab scale spray dryer, the ideal conditions settings for LHMP production were θ_air,in?=?145?±?2°C and m_CM?=?1.0?kg?·?h^?1, taking into account the mass yield and energetic cost (kJ?·?kg^?1 of powder) of the process. These ideal conditions are a potential tool for the industrial development of lactose-free dairy powders.     

Relaxing the maximum dc input amplitude vs. consumption trade‐off in differential‐input band‐pass biquad filters

This paper shows that an important part of the power consumption of a biquad band‐pass filter is associated with the feedback loop that fixes the high‐pass frequency and blocks the direct current (dc) input signals. The dc input amplitude that can be blocked is related to the maximum output current that one of the transconductors can provide, hence impacting on the required consumption through this effect. Then, a technique that efficiently blocks the dc input signal and fixes the high‐pass frequency is introduced and analyzed in depth. Moreover, an architecture for ultra‐low‐power differential‐input biquads is fully presented. The proposed architecture enables lowering the power consumption or blocking higher levels of dc input without jeopardizing the power consumption. Results show that the proposed architecture, compared with a traditional one, presents a 30% reduction in power consumption and more than doubles the dc input that can be blocked. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relaxing the alignment and fabrication tolerances of thin annular folded imaging systems using wavefront coding

Annular folded imagers can be up to 10x thinner than corresponding full-aperture imagers, but have tight fabrication tolerances and relatively shallow depth of focus. Wavefront coding, the use of specialized optics with postdetection signal processing, has been used to improve the depth of focus in full-aperture imaging systems. Here we explore the application of wavefront coding to annular folded optics. We compare the design and experimental results for an imaging system with a 38 mm focal length and just 5 mm total track.