Phenolic compounds from winemaking waste and its antioxidant activity towards oxidation of rapeseed oil

The effects of extraction parameters on bioactive compound contents of winemaking waste extracts (WWE) and its effect on rapeseed oil oxidative stability were evaluated. Research showed that the total phenols and anthocyanin contents and antioxidant activity (AA) of WWE significantly depended on the extraction parameters. Increasing the temperature (60 °C) and time (5 h) of extraction and an addition of water to ethanol statistically improved the rate of active component extraction. HPLC analysis showed that procyanidin B_2, catechin, gallic acid, γ‐resorcylic acid and p‐coumaric acid were the major phenolic compounds of WWE. Important correlations between total phenolic compounds quantified by HPLC and both DPPH and (ferric reducing antioxidant power) (FRAP) values were found. WWE added to the oil at three different levels clearly slowed down the process of fatty acid oxidation, inhibiting hydroperoxide formation by about 86%, comparable with BHT, while it was more effective than that of α‐tocopherol. When using volatile compound formation as a marker of lipid oxidation, WWE at the level of 2000 ppm were the most effective inhibitors of the decomposition of hydroperoxides. The research showed that the WWE are a rich source of phenolic compounds with powerful antioxidant activities and are suitable for preventing rapeseed oil oxidation.     

Application of products of reaction between melamine and glycidol as substrates for oligoetherols and polyurethane foams containing 1,3,5‐triazine rings

Hydroxyalkyl derivatives of melamine were obtained by addition of melamine to glycidol. These derivatives were then used to obtain multifunctional oligoetherols by reaction with oxiranes and alkylene carbonates. The structure and properties of the oligoetherols were studied in detail. The oligoetherols were then used to obtain polyurethane foams of enhanced thermal stability. The foams showed marked thermal resistance at 200 °C. The beneficial feature of the obtained foams was their increased compression strength after thermal exposure. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry     

Knowledge-driven delivery of home care services

Home Care (HC) assistance is emerging as an effective and efficient alternative to institutionalized care, especially for the case of senior patients that present multiple co-morbidities and require life long treatments under continuous supervision. The care of such patients requires the definition of specially tailored treatments and their delivery involves the coordination of a team of professionals from different institutions, requiring the management of many kinds of knowledge (medical, organizational, social and procedural). The K4Care project aims to assist the HC of elderly patients by proposing a standard HC model and implementing it in a knowledge-driven e-health platform aimed to support the provision of HC services. This paper focuses on two knowledge-based personalization aspects incorporated in the platform that aim to overcome the difficulties of HC delivery. The first one is the assistance to medical practitioners in the process of defining a customized treatment adjusted to the medical and social conditions of a particular patient in order to consider multiple co-morbidities. The second one is the possibility of tailoring the profiles of the care professionals according to the medical and organizational daily requirements in order to allow a flexible care delivery. Those two aspects, guided by the knowledge explicitly represented in the platform, play a crucial role in the medical and social acceptance of this kind of e-health systems. The paper also includes a real case study designed and tested by healthcare professionals and includes encouraging results from the test of the platform in a real health care environment in the city of Pollenza (Italy).     

Influence of additives on interfacial phenomena during film formation of powder coatings

Film formation of powder coatings is illuminated from a physico-chemical point of view. Significant parameters influencing the film formation of powder coatings are surface (wetting) tension and viscosity of the polymer melt formed during the film formation process. A newly developed measuring device for the investigation of wetting at elevated temperatures is presented. This device allows systematic investigations of the temperature dependence of the wetting tension of powder coating binder systems. By combining analytical and surface tension measurements, it is possible to gain new information about the mechanism of action of additives in these melts. Hohe Stra?e 6, D-01069 Dresden, Germany.     

Micronotches for studying growth of small cracks

Well‐defined starter cracks at preselected sites in the microstructures are needed for systematic investigation of the characteristic features of microstructure controlled growth of small cracks. A kinked ellipsoidal micronotch with very high notch factor at the trailing kink is proposed, which triggers controlled crack initiation along the notch contour. These micronotches can be machined by femtosecond laser ablation with virtually no heat‐affected zone at the edges. Crack growth results obtained for an intermetallic γ‐TiAl alloy are presented as an illustrative example.     

Application of the combination index (CI)-isobologram equation to study the toxicological interactions of lipid regulators in two aquatic bioluminescent organisms

Pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment do not appear singly and usually occur as complex mixtures, whose combined effect may exhibit toxicity to the aquatic biota. We report an environmental application of the combination index (CI)-isobologram equation, a method widely used in pharmacology to study drug interactions, to determine the nature of toxicological interactions of three fibrates toward two aquatic bioluminescent organisms, Vibrio fischeri and the self-luminescent cyanobacterial recombinant strain Anabaena CPB4337. The combination index-isobologram equation method allows computerized quantitation of synergism, additive effect and antagonism. In the Vibrio test, the fibrate combinations showed antagonism at low effect levels that turned into an additive effect or synergism at higher effect levels; by contrast, in the Anabaena test, the fibrate combinations showed a strong synergism at the lowest effect levels and a very strong antagonism at high effect levels. We also evaluated the nature of the interactions of the three fibrates with a real wastewater sample in the cyanobacterial test. We propose that the combination index-isobologram equation method can serve as a useful tool in ecotoxicological assessment.     

Physical and Antimicrobial Properties of Tapioca Starch-HPMC Edible Films Incorporated with Nisin and/or Potassium Sorbate

The antimicrobial effectiveness of nisin and potassium sorbate, incorporated individual and combined, in films made with tapioca starch and its mixtures with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose were studied. The combination of antimicrobials was more effective against Listeria innocua and Zygosaccharomyces bailii than their individual incorporation, with the added advantage of providing greater inhibitory spectrum. The effect of the formulation on some physical properties was also evaluated. The blended biopolymers-based films showed an increase of stress (σ _r) and elastic modulus (E) but a decrease of the strain at break (ε _r). In turn, the water vapour permeability and solubility in water were enhanced. In addition, these films were clearer than those made only with starch. It must be remark that, despite the antimicrobial agents modified films physical properties, producing a lower σ _r and E, a higher ε _r, solubility and darker films, they maintained a suitable behaviour as a packaging material.     

First interlude: on the nuances of historical emancipation

Modernism has rendered ambiguous the role of the wall as a device of definition, confinement and separation and as carrier of symbolic dressing, for it can at one moment outdo itself with mass and at another deny its essence as diaphanous membrane such that it disappears as a physical phenomenon. The wall has been dissolved through technical means. This paper explores via Art, the aesthetics of the wall citing Schmarsow's two 'orders of the wall', an exaggerated function as a limit, or dissolution into a barrier that is permeable to space, these concepts of limiting and de-limiting generating an architecture conceived as space rather than surface. Historically, the wall lost its weight when painted with illusions of symbolic perspective thereby relieved of its passive role separating one area from another. Boulle's idea of creating a 'picture of infinity' inside buildings has evolved into James Turrell's 'Perceptual Cells'. The paper ends with discussion of the urban facade as multi-layered and transparent, responding to different spatial layers in order to achieve penetration without visible destruction. (See also 'The Problem of our Walls', The Journal of Architecture Vol.4 No.1 Spring 1999).     

Accessibility of pores in coal to methane and carbon dioxide

Fluid–solid interactions in natural and engineered porous solids underlie a variety of technological processes, including geological storage of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, enhanced coal bed methane recovery, membrane separation, and heterogeneous catalysis. The size, distribution and interconnectivity of pores, the chemical and physical properties of the solid and fluid phases collectively dictate how fluid molecules migrate into and through the micro- and meso-porous media, adsorb and ultimately react with the solid surfaces. Due to the high penetration power and relatively short wavelength of neutrons, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) as well as ultra small-angle scattering (USANS) techniques are ideally suited for assessing the phase behavior of confined fluids under pressure as well as for evaluating the total porosity in engineered and natural porous systems including coal. Here we demonstrate that SANS and USANS can be also used for determining the fraction of the pore volume that is actually accessible to fluids as a function of pore sizes and study the fraction of inaccessible pores as a function of pore size in three coals from the Illinois Basin (USA) and Bowen Basin (Australia). Experiments were performed at CO₂ and methane pressures up to 780 bar, including pressures corresponding to zero average contrast condition (ZAC), which is the pressure where no scattering from the accessible pores occurs. Scattering curves at the ZAC were compared with the scattering from same coals under vacuum and analysed using a newly developed approach that shows that the volume fraction of accessible pores in these coals varies between ～90% in the macropore region to ～30% in the mesopore region and the variation is distinctive for each of the examined coals. The developed methodology may be also applied for assessing the volume of accessible pores in other natural underground formations of interest for CO₂ sequestration, such as saline aquifers as well as for estimating closed porosity in engineered porous solids of technological importance.