Soya protein products in cereal grain foods

The largest food usage of soya flour is in bakery products. The soya industry now supplies a wide range of products for the baking inudstry, and these products in turn offer a wide variety of functional uses in different bakery foods. Although the technology for soya use in bakery foods is well established and reasonably simple, the functional properties and flavor are continually being improved through major research efforts. The current status of the use of soya products in bakery foods is presented in this paper, and a look to some of the future uses including a major worldwide potential for fortification of cereal grain products is offered. Paper presented by Hoover.     

Capture by Highly-Charged Low-Energy Ions Studied with a Secondary Ion Recoil Source

When a highly-charged fast projectile collides with a neutral atom in a gaseous target it may, in a single collision, remove many electrons from the target while transferring no more than a few eV to the target's center of mass. These low-energy highly-charged (LEHQ) recoils may be extracted for use as a secondary ion beam to study subsequent capture reactions in a second gas target. We have developed a LEHQ ion source based on this principle, pumped by 1-2 MeV/amu beams of F, S and Cl. In this paper we discuss 1) the properties of the ion source, and 2) cross sections measured with the source for single and multiple electron capture by Ar+q from Ne for 2 < q < 10 and Ar energies between 200 and 1000 eV per q.     

The development of indications for the preoperative use of recombinant erythropoietin

OBJECTIVE: To develop indications for the preoperative use of recombinant erythropoietin (rHuEPO) alone and in conjunction with preoperative autologous donation (PAD). DESIGN: A 2-round modified Delphi-consensus process. PARTICIPANTS: Nine physicians representing multiple clinical specialties, practice environments and geographic locations. METHOD: From evidence tables and a literature summary (MEDLINE database from January 1985 to August 1996) provided and using the RAND-UCLA appropriateness method, the physicians developed 264 indications for the preoperative use of rHuEPO by permuting 7 clinical factors (age, history of transfusion or antibody incompatibility, hemoglobin level, anemia of chronic disease, expected blood loss, presence of cardiovascular or cardiopulmonary disease and patient anxiety). These indications were rated on a 9-point appropriateness scale. Median scores and measures of agreement were determined. OUTCOME MEASURES: The significance of cost constraints or cost and blood supply constraints and the impact of each clinical factor on the ratings as judged by statistical analysis. RESULTS: Of the 264 indications, 54% were rated appropriate, 18% uncertain and 28% inappropriate. Expected blood loss had the greatest impact on the ratings (high expected blood loss had a 5.9 point more appropriate rating on the 9-point scale than low expected blood loss [p < 0.0001]). Preoperative hemoglobin level also significantly influenced the ratings (p < 0.0001). Compared with the clinical context, the ratings under the cost constraint were 1.0 less appropriate (p < 0.0001) for rHuEPO alone and 1.2 less appropriate for rHuEPO and PAD (p < 0.0001). The ratings for patients with moderate expected blood loss were significantly influenced by the cost constraint (less appropriate). CONCLUSIONS: Expected blood loss and preoperative hemoglobin level were the best indicators of rHuEPO appropriateness. Different contexts modify the appropriateness ratings of an expensive drug like rHuEPO.     

The effects of method of castration,rearing condition and diet on sensory quality of pork assessed by a trained panel

Beside surgical castration possible alternatives helping to reduce the incidence of boar taint in cooked pork are rearing conditions, immunocastration and feeding strategies for entire males known to lower the skatole levels. The goal of this study was to assess the effects of these alternatives on the sensory acceptability of pork. In experiment 1, carcasses from barrows, entire males (EM) and entire males fed raw potato starch (EM+) 7 d before slaughter were selected based on the androstenone (≤ 2 µg/g) and skatole (≤ 0.32 µg/g) levels. In experiment 2, carcasses from barrows, immunocastrates (IC), entire males either group-penned (EMG) or individually penned (EMP) were selected based on the aforementioned criteria. Boar odour and boar flavour intensities of longissimus dorsi (LD) and neck chops were evaluated by trained panellists. Boar odour and flavour scores were higher (P < 0.01) in neck than LD chops. Although skatole tissue levels in barrows and EM+ were similar (P > 0.05), boar odour and flavour scores were greater (P < 0.05) in EM+ than barrows. In experiment 2, scores for boar odour and flavour were lower (P < 0.05) in pork from barrows and IC than EMP, with intermediate values for EMG. In conclusion, we observed a discrepancy between the known boar taint compounds androstenone and skatole and sensory acceptability, which indicates that other factors influenced the perception of boar taint. Thus, surgical castration with or without anesthesia or immunocastration are still the safest methods to avoid boar taint.     

Nutrient use efficiency and arbuscular mycorrhizal root colonisation of winter wheat cultivars in different farming systems of the DOK long‐term trial

BACKGROUND: For organic farming, cultivars are required with high nutrient use efficiency under nutrient limited conditions. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are known to contribute to nutrient uptake under low input conditions. We compared nutrient use efficiency (NUE) of old and modern organically and conventionally bred cultivars in organic and conventional systems and assessed AMF‐root colonisation (AMF‐RC) in relation to nutrient concentrations. RESULTS: Cultivars and systems had a statistically significant effect on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations and NUE parameters, whereas no genotype × environment interactions appeared. In contrast to N and P uptake, the NUE parameters were higher under organic than under conventional conditions. NUE for N increased with the year of release of cultivars. In the organic systems, the organically bred cultivars could not outperform the conventionally bred cultivars in grain yield and NUE parameters. AMF‐RC was higher in the organic than in the conventional system, but did not differ among cultivars. CONCLUSION: Cultivars achieving high NUE in the organic systems were found among modern cultivars, irrespective of the breeding programme. Nutrient conditions during the breeding programme did not affect AMF‐RC. No clear evidence was found that AMF symbiosis contributed more to nutrient concentrations under low input than under high input conditions. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry     

Metal Ion Implantation for the Fabrication of Stretchable Electrodes on Elastomers

Here, the use of low‐energy metal ion implantation by filtered cathodic vacuum arc to create highly deformable electrodes on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes is reported. Implantation leads to the creation of nanometer‐size clusters in the first 50 nm below the surface. When the elastomer is stretched, these small clusters can move relative to one another, maintaining electrical conduction at strains of up to 175%. Sheet resistance versus ion dose, resistance versus strain, time stability of the resistance, and the impact of implantation on the elastomer's Young's modulus are investigated for gold, palladium, and titanium implantations. Of the three tested metals, gold has the best performance, combining low and stable surface resistance, very high strain capabilities before loss of electrical conduction, and low impact on the Young's modulus of the PDMS membrane. These electrodes are cyclically strained to 30% for more than 10⁵ cycles and remain conductive. In contrast, sputtered or evaporate metals films cease to conduct at strains of order 3%. Additionally, metal ion implantation allows for creating semi‐transparent electrodes. The optical transmission through 25‐µm‐thick PDMS membranes decreases from 90% to 60% for Pd implantations at doses used to make stretchable electrodes. The implantation technique presented here allows the rapid production of reliable stretchable electrodes for a number of applications, including dielectric elastomer actuators and foldable or rollable electronics.     

Optimized diffusion gradient orientation schemes for corrupted clinical DTI data sets

Object:A method is proposed for generating schemes of diffusion gradient orientations which allow the diffusion tensor to be reconstructed from partial data sets in clinical DT-MRI, should the acquisition be corrupted or terminated before completion because of patient motion. Materials and methods: A general energy-minimization electrostatic model was developed in which the interactions between orientations are weighted according to their temporal order during acquisition. In this report, two corruption scenarios were specifically considered for generating relatively uniform schemes of 18 and 60 orientations, with useful subsets of 6 and 15 orientations. The sets and subsets were compared to conventional sets through their energy, condition number and rotational invariance. Schemes of 18 orientations were tested on a volunteer. Results: The optimized sets were similar to uniform sets in terms of energy, condition number and rotational invariance, whether the complete set or only a subset was considered. Diffusion maps obtained in vivo were close to those for uniform sets whatever the acquisition time was. This was not the case with conventional schemes, whose subset uniformity was insufficient. Conclusion: With the proposed approach, sets of orientations responding to several corruption scenarios can be generated, which is potentially useful for imaging uncooperative patients or infants.     

Transport properties of organic vapours in silicone/clay nanocomposites

Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)/clay nanocomposites have been synthesized using a novel ω-ammonium functionalized oligo-PDMS surfactant (PDMS-N⁺(CH₃)₃) and processed in membrane form. In order to relate the clay morphological structure to the degree of dispersion and physical properties of the membrane, the clay ion-exchanged by PDMS-N⁺(CH₃)₃ has been compared to a non-exchanged sodium MMT and to two organoclays organo-modified by using either non-functional alkyl ammonium cations (C₃₈H₈₀N⁺) or hydroxyalkyl ammonium (C₂₂H₄₈ON⁺) cations. Morphological analysis and transport properties (sorption, diffusion and permeability) have been investigated using two penetrants: acetone and n-hexane. The mechanical and rheological properties of the PDMS nanocomposite membranes have also been studied. It has been found a significant effect of the clay organo-modifier on the morphology, physical and barrier properties of the systems.     

Encapsulation of nanoparticles by polymerization compounding in a gas/solid fluidized bed reactor

For the first time, a fluidized bed reactor was used for encapsulating nanoparticles by the polymerization compounding approach using Ziegler–Natta catalysts. The polymerization reaction was carried out using a solvent-free process in a gas-phase reactor. This direct gas–solid reaction greatly simplified collecting the particles of interest after polymerization because none of the extra steps often found in encapsulation processes, such as filtering and drying, were performed in this work. The grafting of the catalyst to the original surface of particles was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Micrographs obtained by transmission electron microscopy confirmed the presence of a thin layer of polymer, in the order of a few nanometers, around the particles. The thickness of this coating was affected by the operating conditions of the process. The characterization of the modified particles with electron microscopy also revealed that zirconia nanoparticles tend to be coated in an agglomerated state, whereas aluminum particles were mostly individually encapsulated by the polymer. In addition, the effects of temperature and pressure were studied on the encapsulation process and a kinetic analysis was presented based on the available models in the literature. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2009