Influence of manufacturing conditions on the conjugated linoleic acid content and the isomer composition in ripened French Emmental cheese

In a study of the evolution of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) during cheese production, the influence of Emmental cheese processing on the CLA content and the CLA isomer composition was evaluated. The use of raw and thermised milk, changes of processing temperature and the effect of propionic acid bacteria (PAB) were investigated. The content of CLA in raw milk was 8.6 +/- 1.9 mg/g fat and in the ripened cheese at 70 d was 8.6 +/- 1.6 mg/g fat, under normal processing conditions. No changes in the CLA content and CLA isomer composition were observed during Emmental cheese manufacturing process. Changes in cooking and moulding temperatures did not influence the CLA content. CLA content of cheese made from microfiltered milk with two different Propionibacterium freudenreichii strains was very close to cheeses made without PAB. CLA levels seem to be stable in this type of dairy product under the conditions examined.     

Roles of structural phenylpropanoids in forage cell wall digestion

Phenolic constituents (lignins and phenolic acids) and carbohydrates are assembled in a tight architecture which differs according to the plant species. During cell wall digestion, the hydrolysis kinetics differ between carbohydrates and seem to depend chiefly on the content and organisation of tissue phenolics. Among the phenylpropanoids, ferulic acid is released more quickly than p-coumaric acid. Lignins remain largely in the cell walls. They also undergo transformations, chiefly solubilisation as lignin-carbohydrate complexes. The limiting effect of lignins on cell wall degradation increases with increasing content. However, their effect on degradation might also depend on qualitative factors such as lignin structure and polymer organisation in walls and tissues. When various grasses (normal and selected genotypes), or grasses and legumes are compared, correlations between certain factors such as lignin uncondensed fraction, syringyl units or phenolic acids contents and cell wall degradation emerge but not clear causal relationship has been shown. Nonetheless, other structural characteristics, related to the alkali reactivity of lignins, seem to have a stronger influence on cell wall degradation. Phenylpropanoids seem to act mainly as a physical and (bio)chemical barrier to the action of the microbial enzymes. In addition, their reactivity as phenolic compounds and their hydrophobicity seem to play a role. Digestion is not limited only by phenolics. The factors that limit glycanolysis—the accessibility, crystallinity and capillary structure of cellulose and the branching of hemicelluloses—seem to have little or no effect on cell wall degradation in vivo. In contrast, other antiquality substances (tannins, cutin and silica), plant antomy, environmental factors, factors modulating microbial growth and animal physiology influence cell wall utilisation. Future research in this field should focus on the effects of phenolic structure and of cell wall and tissue organisation on carbohydrate degradation.     

Design and Validation of a 2 kW‐Fuel Cell Test Bench for Subfreezing Studies

This paper presents the design and validation of a 2 kW fuel cell test bench for subfreezing studies. The test bench is designed to study the influence of different operational parameters on the cold start of fuel cell. Thus, the effects of ambient temperature, gas and coolant flow rates, current density and fuel cell impedance can be investigated. For cold start experiments, the apparatus is designed to reproduce the environment of a fuel cell in a vehicle parked in a subzero environment. Therefore, the test bench is divided into two parts: the fuel cell, its coolant circuit and main sensors are located in a climatic chamber while the main part of the test bench is at room temperature. The different parts of the test bench are described and validation results are presented. The heat exchange between the fuel cell coolant circuit and the environment is computed using parameters estimation techniques. The power requested to heat the coolant circuit to a given temperature is computed.     

Contribution of Lattice Distortion to Solid Solution Strengthening in a Series of Refractory High Entropy Alloys

We present an experimental approach for revealing the impact of lattice distortion on solid solution strengthening in a series of body-centered-cubic (bcc) Al-containing, refractory high entropy alloys (HEAs) from the Nb-Mo-Cr-Ti-Al system. By systematically varying the Nb and Cr content, a wide range of atomic size difference as a common measure for the lattice distortion was obtained. Single-phase, bcc solid solutions were achieved by arc melting and homogenization as well as verified by means of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The atomic radii of the alloying elements for determination of atomic size difference were recalculated on the basis of the mean atomic radii in and the chemical compositions of the solid solutions. Microhardness (μH) at room temperature correlates well with the deduced atomic size difference. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of microscopic slip lead to pronounced temperature dependence of mechanical strength. In order to account for this particular feature, we present a combined approach, using μH, nanoindentation, and compression tests. The athermal proportion to the yield stress of the investigated equimolar alloys is revealed. These parameters support the universality of this aforementioned correlation. Hence, the pertinence of lattice distortion for solid solution strengthening in bcc HEAs is proven.     

A case of behavioral heterosis in mice: Quantitative and qualitative aspects of performance in a water-escape task.

1,404 mice from 2 inbred strains (BALB/c and C57BL/6), F?, F?, and backcrosses were subjected to 4 trials in a water-escape task and a swimming test. Detailed analysis of Ss' behavior in these situations showed that the "F? hybrid vigor" affected behavioral characters not directly related to physical vigor but of potential adaptive value. Their superiority was mainly due to more frequent adoption of an efficient behavioral tactic (direct or edge escape paths toward the exit) and more rapid progress with experience in this respect than other generations exhibited. Results show that heterosis is not limited to physical vigor but may extend to behavioral and even psychological characters. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

5G meets satellite: Non-terrestrial network architecture and 3GPP

With 3GPP Release-17, global 5G standards now support non-terrestrial mobile networks comprising radio access network, terminals, and core network. This enables multi-vendor interoperability as well as interoperability with 3GPP-compliant 5G systems. This paper describes the key features enabling the NG-RAN architecture defined for 5G to support non-terrestrial networks. Starting from a general overview of NG-RAN and of the new paradigms of NTN, we introduce the NTN functionality in NG-RAN specifications with respect to feeder link switchover, cell handling, terminal registration, and OAM aspects. We also discuss different scenarios combining satellite access with 3GPP-defined core networks. We also describe some further enhancements expected to be seen in the next 3GPP release (Rel-18). We believe current and upcoming 3GPP work for NTN represents a solid basis on which 5G satellite networks can be built in the upcoming future.     

Preserving the autocovariance of texture tilings using importance sampling

By-example aperiodic tilings are popular texture synthesis techniques that allow a fast, on-the-fly generation of unbounded and non-periodic textures with an appearance matching an arbitrary input sample called the “exemplar”. But by relying on uniform random sampling, these algorithms fail to preserve the autocovariance function, resulting in correlations that do not match the ones in the exemplar. The output can then be perceived as excessively random. In this work, we present a new method which can well preserve the autocovariance function of the exemplar. It consists in fetching contents with an importance sampler taking the explicit autocovariance function as the probability density function (pdf) of the sampler. Our method can be controlled for increasing or decreasing the randomness aspect of the texture. Besides significantly improving synthesis quality for classes of textures characterized by pronounced autocovariance functions, we moreover propose a real-time tiling and blending scheme that permits the generation of high-quality textures faster than former algorithms with minimal downsides by reducing the number of texture fetches.     

Nanoscale Oxide Formation at α-Al2O3–Nb Interfaces

Parts for metallurgical applications made from refractory metal–ceramic composites offer improved thermal shock resistance due to their capability for resistive heating compared to ones made solely from ceramics such as Al₂O₃. The combination of Al₂O₃ and Nb is intriguing as both show similar thermal expansion behavior over a wide temperature range. The high affinity of Nb for O to form nonprotective oxides, however, hampers its use in oxidative environments. Formation of such phases at the ceramic–metal interface can have detrimental effects on the cohesion of the composites. For this work, nanocrystalline Nb films are deposited on sapphire substrates by magnetron sputtering to study diffusion of O and high-temperature phase formation at a refractory metal–ceramic interface during heat treatment under Ar at 1600 °C. A combined approach of atom probe tomography and transmission electron microscopy for compositional and crystallographic analyses reveals that at triple junctions of the sapphire–Nb interface with Nb grain boundaries, heterogeneous nucleation of nanoscale NbO₂ occurs, which further reacts with Al₂O₃ to form AlNbO₄, while the Nb film itself remains metallic. Fast O transport through grain boundaries leads to internal oxidation at the interface, whereas regions further away from Nb grain boundaries remain unchanged.