Enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of soy flour to produce ethanol and soy protein concentrate with increased polyphenols

There is a need to effectively concentrate soy protein from defatted soy flour (DSF) while simultaneously valorizing the carbohydrate-rich byproduct, which would otherwise be a waste. This study aims to evaluate a process developed to produce soy protein concentrates (SPC) by substantially hydrolyzing carbohydrates from DSF with the help of enzymes into water-soluble saccharides and monomeric sugars, which were simultaneously utilized by Saccharomyces cerevisiae for fermentation into ethanol. The enzyme mixture consisted of cellulase, pectinase, and $\mathrm{\alpha }$-galactosidase blend. The effect of process time on SPC, overall protein recovery, carbohydrate hydrolysis, yeast growth, ethanol concentration, and total polyphenol concentration (TPC) of SPC and hydrolysate was evaluated. Control and enzymes-only (EO) systems were maintained in conjunction with the enzymes + yeast (EY) system to individually assess the impact of isoelectric precipitation of soy proteins and enzymatic hydrolysis of carbohydrates without yeasts. After 12.25 h of EY process, 100 g of dry DSF produced 68.45 g dry SPC containing $72.23\pm 0.25$% protein and 384 ml hydrolysate containing $9.76\pm 0.05$ mg/ml ethanol. Flatulence-causing raffinose-series-oligosaccharides (RSOs) were completely hydrolyzed. Soluble carbohydrates in the EY treatment were consistently lower than in the control and EO treatment. TPC of SPC prepared by EY treatment increased by 2.5 times compared to the control. Thus, this novel process successfully produced a high-protein SPC with hydrolyzed RSOs, lower insoluble carbohydrates, high TPC, and a coproduct ethanol.     

A framework for social media data analytics using Elasticsearch and Kibana

Wireless Networks - Real-time online data processing is quickly becoming an essential tool in the analysis of social media for political trends, advertising, public health awareness programs and...     

Mechanical,wear, and dielectric behavior of TiO2 reinforced high-density polyethylene composites

Almost fully dense high-density polyethylene (HDPE) reinforced with submicron-sized titanium dioxide (TiO₂) ceramic filler (up to 40 vol %) was fabricated using compression molding. More than 98.5% ρ_th (theoretical density) could be obtained for all the HDPE compositions and its measured density varied between 0.94 and 2.25 g cc⁻¹. The hardness of HDPE increased considerably from 32.6 to 69 MPa (i.e., by two times) with the addition of 40 vol % TiO₂. The compression strength (19.03–34.16 MPa) and modulus of elasticity (0.49–1.05 GPa) of HDPE were also found to increase with the addition of TiO₂ filler. However, the HDPE exhibited good ductility (59% strain) up to 20 vol % TiO₂ and it was reduced with the further addition of TiO₂. The strain decreased drastically to 7.6% for HDPE-40 vol % TiO₂. Addition of TiO₂ filler leads to a considerable decrease in wear rate and coefficient of friction (COF). The wear studies revealed that the HDPE-40% TiO₂ composite exhibited a low wear rate of 1.82 × 10⁻⁵ mm³ N m⁻¹ and COF of 0.13. The dielectric constant of HDPE (at 10 kHz) was also considerably increased from 5.31 to 20.02 with the addition of TiO₂ up to 40 vol %. Achievement of such high dielectric constant for HDPE materials is the highest ever reported for HDPE. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47610.     

High resolution fuel indicating and tracking system

The objective of this work is to provide a low cost high resolution fuel indicating of the vehicle. Another object of the present invention is to provide a system that tracks the fuel filled at filling station. The challenges addressed in the propose work are calibration of non linear fuel tank to fetch the present fuel information, design of the signal processing circuit to convert fuel level information from the non linear tank to fuel in litres and device a smart computing system for the calibration of filled fuel.

     

Relative occurrences and difference of extrema for detection of transitions between broad phonetic classes

Detection of transitions between broad phonetic classes in a speech signal has applications such as landmark detection and segmentation. The proposed hierarchical method detects silence to non-silence transitions, sonorant to non-sonorant transitions and vice-versa. The subset of the extrema (minimum or maximum amplitude samples) above a threshold, occurring between every pair of successive zero-crossings, is selected from each frame of the bandpass-filtered speech signal. Locations of the first and the last extrema lie on either side far away from the mid-point (reference) of a frame, if the speech signal belongs to a non-transition segment; else, one of these locations lies within a few samples from the reference, indicating a transition frame. The transitions are detected from the entire TIMIT database for clean speech and 93.6% of them are within a tolerance of 20 ms from the phone boundaries. Sonorant, unvoiced non-sonorant and silence classes and their respective onsets are detected with an accuracy of about 83.5% for the same tolerance with respect to the labelled TIMIT database as reference. The results are as good as, and in some aspects better than, the state-of-the-art methods for similar tasks. The proposed method is also tested on the test set of the TIMIT database for robustness with respect to white, babble and Schroeder noise, and about 90% of the transitions are detected within a tolerance of 20 ms at the signal to noise ratio of 5 dB. On NTIMIT database, 62.7% of the transitions are detected, and 63.5% of the sonorant onsets, within 20 ms tolerance.     

CNN-based gender classification in near-infrared periocular images

Pattern Analysis and Applications - Periocular region has emerged as a key biometric trait with potential applications in the forensics domain. In this paper, we explore two convolutional neural...     

Acquisition of operations capability: A model and test across US and European firms

In this paper, a three-factor model of operations capability is presented which, unlike previous studies that view capability as an outcome, examines the drivers of capability acquisition. The model proposes that capability acquisition is a function of an organization's commitment to the principles of quality management, just-in-time practices, and effective new product development processes. Furthermore, the paper proposes that these underlying facets of capability acquisition are common across geographic boundaries. The model is tested using data drawn from US and European companies. Results not only provide support for the three-factor model, but also for the invariance of the model and its underlying components between US and European firms.     

Strengthening Mechanisms in Mechanically Milled Oxide-Dispersed Iron Powders

Nanocrystalline iron and oxide dispersion-strengthened (ODS) iron powders (Fe, Fe-Y₂O₃, and Fe-Y₂O₃-Ti) were prepared by mechanical milling for periods ranging from 1 to 40 hours. The as-milled powders were examined for changes in their particle sizes, crystallite sizes, hardness values, and phases present as a function of milling time. Both the particle and the crystallite sizes of all the three compositions decreased with milling time, while the hardness values of all the three powders increased with milling time because of the crystallite size refinement. At the same crystallite size, the hardness values of Fe-Y₂O₃ and Fe-Y₂O₃-Ti powders were higher than that of the Fe powders. Though, the presence of 40 nm Y₂O₃ could be established for 2-hour milling, such particles were not resolvable in 40-hour-milled powders. However, SAD patterns confirmed the presence of complex oxide dispersoids in the Fe-Y₂O₃ and Fe-Y₂O₃-Ti powders. The variation of hardness value with the crystallite size and as a function of the milling time can be rationalized on the basis of Hall–Petch crystallite size strengthening in combination with dispersion strengthening (in Fe-Y₂O₃- and Fe-Y₂O₃-Ti-milled powders) due to dispersoids. The observed double-positive slopes in the Hall–Petch relationship can be explained in terms of an increase in misorientation angle between the crystallites with increasing milling time due to the crystallite rotation driven by disclination dipoles.     

Chitosan-Based Thermosensitive Hydrogel Containing Liposomes for Sustained Delivery of Cytarabine

Sustained release thermosensitive solution containing cytarabine-loaded liposome delivery system offers the possibility of reduced dosing frequency and sustained drug action. Biodegradable and biocompatible chitosan-beta-glycerophosphate (C-GP) thermosensitive solution having the property to gel at body temperature and to maintain its physical integrity for longer period of time was used. The C-GP solution containing cytarabine-loaded liposomes (CGPCLL) was studied, and the results showed that the cytarabine liposomes were capable of high encapsulation efficiency (85.2?±?2.58%) with the mean diameter of 220?±?6.9 nm of extruded cytarabine-loaded liposome. Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy showed spherical-shaped liposomes after extrusion with smooth surface. In vitro studies of CGPCLL in PBS buffer showed that this system can sustain release of encapsulated drug for more than 60 h compared with drug-loaded liposomal suspension (upto 48 h). Pharmacokinetic studies of CGPCLL resulted in higher t_1/2 (28.86 h) and AUC 2526.88 μg/mL h compared with cytarabine-loaded liposomal suspension (CLLS) and C-GP containing free cytarabine (CGPFC) in rats. CGPCLL was capable of sustaining the cytarabine release for more than 60 h in vivo compared with CLLS and CGPFC which showed maximum amount of drug release within 42 and 10 h, respectively. Thus, these results showed that the CGPCLL gels at body temperature and can sustain the delivery of cytarabine effectively.