Stabilization of foams and emulsions by mixtures of surface active food-grade particles and proteins

Surface active biopolymers such as proteins can form films with particularly high interfacial elasticities and viscosities and these molecules are widely exploited as foaming and emulsifying agents in foods. Solid particles of the correct size and wetting characteristics can also be extremely effective stabilizers of foams and emulsions, although the underlying mechanism of stabilization is somewhat different. Relatively little is known about what happens when both surface active polymers and surface active particles are present together. This work presents recent findings on the effects of mixtures of proteins plus novel food-compatible surface active particles. The proteins include caseins and whey proteins. The surface active particles prepared include cellulose + ethyl cellulose complexes, hydrophobically-modified starch granule particles and stable (non-spreading) protein-stabilized oil droplets. Interfacial shear rheology of adsorbed films was measured via a biconical bob apparatus and interfacial dilatational rheology was measured via a Langmuir trough type apparatus. The corresponding stability of bubbles to coalescence and disproportionation was assessed in separate experiments. Stability of oil-in-water emulsions was assessed via measurement of particle size distributions as function of time and visual assessment of the tendency to creaming and oiling off. In general, it is shown that the surface active particles on their own exhibit much lower measures of interfacial elasticity and viscosity than the proteins, but in combination with the proteins they appear to enhance the interfacial viscoelasticity considerably, with concomitant increases in bubble and emulsion droplet stability. There is little evidence of attractive interactions between the particles and the proteins, so a possible explanation of the increased stability is that the proteins increase the accumulation of particles at the interface, giving rise to increased jamming of particles at the interface.     

Effect of Particle and Carbide Grain Sizes on a HVOAF WC-Co-Cr Coating for the Future Application on Internal Surfaces: Microstructure and Wear

The use of nanoscale WC grain or finer feedstock particles is a possible method of improving the performance of WC-Co-Cr coatings. Finer powders are being pursued for the development of coating internal surfaces, as less thermal energy is required to melt the finer powder compared to coarse powders, permitting spraying at smaller standoff distances. Three WC-10Co-4Cr coatings, with two different powder particle sizes and two different carbide grain sizes, were sprayed using a high velocity oxy-air fuel (HVOAF) thermal spray system developed by Castolin Eutectic-Monitor Coatings Ltd., UK. Powder and coating microstructures were characterized using XRD and SEM. Fracture toughness and dry sliding wear performance at three loads were investigated using a ball-on-disk tribometer with a WC-Co counterbody. It was found that the finer powder produced the coating with the highest microhardness, but its fracture toughness was reduced due to increased decarburization compared to the other powders. The sprayed nanostructured powder had the lowest microhardness and fracture toughness of all materials tested. Unlubricated sliding wear testing at the lowest load showed the nanostructured coating performed best; however, at the highest load this coating showed the highest specific wear rates with the other two powders performing to a similar, better standard.     

Sex pheromone of cranberry fruitworm,Acrobasis vaccinii riley (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

The following compounds and (approximate ratios) were identified in sex pheromone gland extracts of femaleAcrobasis vaccinii Riley by comparison of gas chromatography-mass spectrometric traces with those of synthetic standards: (E,Z)-, (Z,E)-, (Z,Z), and (E,E)-8, 10-pentadecadien-l-ol acetates (100:1:2:12), a dodecen-l-ol acetate (8), (Z)-8-, (Z)-9-, and (E)-9-pentadecen-l-ol acetates (3:23:4), two heptadecen-l-ol acetates (4:4), tetradecyl, pentadecyl, hexadecyl, and heptadecyl acetates (3:15:10:8), dodecan-l-ol (6), tetradecan-l-ol (5), and hexadecan-l-ol (23). The amount of (E,Z)-8, 10-pentadecadien-l-ol acetate (E8,Z10–15:Ac) in the extract was about 0.5 ng/female. Electroantennographic analysis of gas chromatographic fractions of female sex pheromone gland extract showed that the fraction containingE8,Z10–15:Ac elicited the greatest response. Alone,E8,Z10–15:Ac failed to elicit upwind flight of males in flight-tunnel tests, and traps baited with it did not catch males in field experiments. WhenE8,Z10–15:Ac was combined with (E)-9-pentadecen-l-ol acetate (100:4), male upwind flight response in flight-tunnel tests was equivalent to those obtained with extract of female sex pheromone glands (synthetic, 62%; natural, 51%), but the percent of males flying upwind that contacted the source was lower (synthetic, 47%; natural, 88%). The lower percent of source contact elicited by the synthetic pheromone could be a result of the difference in isomer ratios of 8,10–15:Ac in the natural and synthetic pheromone or could indicate that the synthetic pheromone is incomplete. Traps baited with the 100:4 combination caught large numbers of males in field experiments.     

运用复合刚度方法对Z型构件支撑屋面系统的侧向约束力分析

复合刚度方法是一种可以预测Z型截面构件支撑的屋面系统侧向受力的方法。该方法将一系列Z型截面作为单自由度系统分析,并采用刚度公式计算系统中不同的构件对于抵抗侧向位移的贡献。从力学理论中推导出屋面系统所需的抗力。     

The impact of human intuition in psychology.

An empirically valid outcome in psychology may differ in the degree to which the outcome does or does not conform to human intuition. The author provides a brief history of three psychological outcomes violating human intuition, notes the resemblance to the common sense revolution, and then discusses how human intuition may be detrimental to behaviorism and evolutionary perspectives of human nature. The role of human intuition in supernatural beliefs is considered and, finally, possible methods to improve the plausibility of counterintuitive outcomes are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Between-cue associations influence searching for a hidden goal in an environment with a distinctive shape.

In Experiment 1 rats had to escape from a kite-shaped pool by swimming to a submerged escape platform in a right-angled corner. The two walls creating this corner were white and the two walls creating the opposite, incorrect, right-angled corner were black. The rats were then trained in a square pool with two white walls forming one corner and two black walls forming the opposite corner. The platform was in the white corner for a consistent group and the black corner for an inconsistent group. A test in an entirely white kite revealed a stronger preference for the correct than the incorrect corner in the consistent but not the inconsistent group. This outcome is attributed to the formation of associations between geometric cues, provided by the shape of the pool, and the color of the walls. The results were replicated in a second experiment in which the walls of the test pool were the same color as the incorrect corner during initial training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

DNA binding of an ethidium intercalator attached to a monolayer-protected gold cluster

Ethidium intercalation has been investigated as a means of inducing binding of Au nanoparticles to DNA. The ethidium sites are attached to the nanoparticles as thiolate ligands, using 3,8-diamino-5-mercaptododecyl-6-phenylphenanthridinium (ethidium thiolate). Each nanoparticle bears only one or two ethidium thiolate ligands. The rest of the thiolate monolayer ligands on the monolayer-protected Au clusters (MPCs) were either N-(2-mercaptopropionyl)glycine (tiopronin/ethidium MPC) or trimethyl(mercaptoundecyl)ammonium (TMA/ethidium MPC). In solution mixtures of DNA and MPCs, the energy-transfer quenching of the ethidium ligands by the metal-like MPC core is partially released by ethidium binding to DNA, as observed by an increase in the intensity of ethidium fluorescence. Binding of the cationic TMA/ethidium MPC to DNA was efficient and rapid. The negatively charged tiopronin/ethidium MPC, in contrast, exhibits slow intercalation kinetics, relative to ethidium cation not attached to an MPC. The slow kinetics were analyzed as two competing binding interactions. The tiopronin/ethidium MPC binding to DNA was imaged by AFM.     

Retrospective dose assessment: the measurement of the dose in quartz in dating and accident dosimetry

In retrospective dosimetry using luminescence it is never possible to obtain a sample of the unaltered phosphor as it was at somc time in the past and before radiation exposure. This prevents direct calibration using conventional personnel dosimetry techniques, and so measurement protocols must be devised which allow accurate estimation of the dose using only the exposed phosphor. This has led to the use of complex protocols, requiring many tens of notionally identical subsamples, to obtain one estimate of the unknown dose. More recently, considerable effort has gone into devising protocols which provide an estimate of the unknown dose from only one subsample. These avoid the need to assume homogeneity in the sample. These protocols also allow faster measurement, which for the first time makes it practical to obtain multiple estimates of the unknown dose and thus externally calculated random errors. This paper discusses the development of single-aliquot protocols, with particular reference to those devised for use with quartz, and finally reviews some of their applications in the retrospective assessment of dose.     

Optically stimulated luminescence in retrospective dosimetry

Since the beginning of the 1990s the exploration of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) in retrospective accident dosimetry has driven an intensive investigation and development programme at Ris? into measurement facilities and techniques. This paper reviews some of the outcomes of this programme, including the evaluation of the single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) measurement protocol with brick quartz and the determination of dose-depth profiles in building materials as a guide to determining the mean energy of the incident radiation. Investigations into heated materials are most advanced, and a lower detection limit for quartz extracted from Chernobyl bricks was determined to be <10 mGy. The first results from the measurement of doses in unheated building materials such as mortar and concrete are also discussed. Both small-aliquot and single-grain techniques have been used to assess accident doses in these cement based building materials more commonly found in workplaces. Finally some results of a preliminary investigation of the OSL properties of household chemicals are discussed with reference to their potential as accident dosemeters.