Finishing diet,temperament and lairage time effects on carcass and meat quality traits in steers

Sixty Hereford (H) and Braford (B: 3/8 Zebu and 5/8 H) steers were finished on: D1) rangeland plus corn grain (1% of live weight) (H n = 15, B n = 15); and D2) high quality pasture (H n = 15, B n = 15) to study the effect of diet, temperament and lairage time on carcass and meat quality. Steers were slaughtered the same day in two groups, spending 15 and 3 h in pens, respectively (50% from D1, 50% from D2 in each group). Animals from D1 had better carcass performance without effect of the diet on meat quality. Regardless of breed, calmer steers showed higher average daily gain and lower shear force values. Carcasses from animals in the long lairage group had a better rate of pH decline and more tender meat, suggesting that more than 3 h preslaughter time should be necessary to rest and recover, mainly depending on lairage conditions.     

Fruit pectins – A suitable tool for screening gelling properties using infrared spectroscopy

Found in higher plants, pectins are natural hydrocolloids whose extraction is controversial as it is condition-dependent. To optimize the methodology for extracting and isolating pectins and verifying the effect on their structural characterization, a factorial 2³ assay was planned, using the following independent variables: pH, duration of heating and nature of alcohol in fruits with different kinds of morphologies. The fruits were grouped into those that produce good jams and jellies (group I), those that have a variable chemical composition and contain fiber (group II), and those that contain starch (group III). The results were compared using variance analysis and Duncan test. The degree of methoxylation (DM) of the pectin isolated from the mesocarp of citrus and guava fruits (whole) was associated linearly with all independent variables. However, the pectin yield was influenced only by pH and duration of heating. The interaction between the nature of alcohol and the duration of heating were shown to be significant, a longer heating time and ethanol being better for the two kinds of fruit. In group I, the pectins isolated showed best DM associated with high yield, whilst group II yield was below the limit for producing jams and jellies, despite high DM. Group I fruits displayed characteristics that favor gel formation, whilst group II and group III proved to be deficient in at least one of the dependent variables. This study has validated as analytical tool for isolating and characterizing the structure of pectins, mainly those naturally occurring in tropical fruits.     

Permutation-based finite implicative fuzzy associative memories

Implicative fuzzy associative memories (IFAMs) are single layer feedforward fuzzy neural networks whose synaptic weights and threshold values are given by implicative fuzzy learning. Despite an excellent tolerance with respect to either pasitive or negative noise, IFAMs are not suited for patterns corrupted by mixed noise. This paper presents a solution to this problem. Precisely, we first introduce the class of finite IFAMs by replacing the unit interval by a finite chain L. Then, we generalize both finite IFAMs and their dual versions by means of a permutation on L. The resulting models are referred to as permutation-based finite IFAMs (π-IFAMs). We show that a π-IFAM can be viewed as a finite IFAM, but defined on an alternative lattice structure (L,?). Thus, π-IFAMs also exhibit optimal absolute storage capacity and one step convergence in the autoassociative case. Furthermore, computational experiments revealed that a certain π-IFAM, called Lukasiewicz π_μ-IFAM, outperformed several other associative memory models for the reconstruction of gray-scale patterns corrupted by salt and pepper noise.     

An investigation of hydrogen storage in a magnesium-based alloy processed by equal-channel angular pressing

Equal-Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) can be successfully used to process Mg and Mg-based hydrides to produce bulk samples with enhanced hydrogen sorption properties. The primary advantages associated with ECAP processing are the shorter processing time, lower cost and the production of safer and more air-resistant bulk material by comparison with powders produced by high-energy ball milling. ECAP can produce special features for hydrogen absorption such as preferential textures, an increased density of defects and submicrometer grain sizes. In this research, ECAP was used to process a commercial AZ31 extruded alloy in order to evaluate its use as a hydrogen storage material. The ECAP was conducted under conditions of temperature and number of passes in order to avoid grain growth. Additional experiments were conducted on commercial coarse-grained magnesium to evaluate the effect of sample thickness on the sorption properties. The ECAP sample was evaluated in two different orientations and it is shown that better hydrogen properties are related to a refined microstructure allied to the (0001) texture.     

CFD modeling of heat transfer and flow field in a bakery pilot oven

A bakery pilot oven is modeled using computational fluid dynamics software. This approach relies on integration of an instrument into modeled geometry. The instrument is a heat flux measuring device that can be used in the industrial baking process. All three heat transfer mechanisms are considered and coupled with turbulent flow. Turbulence is taken into account via the k–ε realizable model whereas the surface-to-surface model simulates the radiation. Additionally, buoyancy forces are introduced by means of a weakly compressible formulation. The model predictions show a good qualitative agreement with the experimental measurements. A quantitative agreement was obtained to some extent. Limitations came from the difficulty to measure the temperature of the radiant surfaces of the oven. Operating conditions used are typical of bakery products and, as expected, radiation was the dominant mode of heat transfer. The integration of the instrument was useful for assessing the model. Since it is designed for industrial use, it may be a valuable tool for future challenges in the field, such as simulation of an industrial scale oven.     

Ultrastructural and immunohistochemical study of early repair of alveolar sockets after the extraction of molars from alendronate‐treated rats

The aim of the present research was to analyze ultrastructural and immunohistochemical aspects of the alveolar repair after the extraction of molars of alendronate (ALN)‐treated rats. Wistar rats received 2.5mg/kg body wt/day of ALN during 14 days previously and 7, 14 and 21 days after the extraction of the second mandibular molar. Specimens were fixed in 2% glutaraldehyde + 2.5% formaldehyde under microwave irradiation, decalcified in 4.13% EDTA and paraffin embedded for TRAP histochemistry and immunohistochemistry for OPN, BSP and endoglin, or embedded in Spurr epoxy resin for TEM analysis. Additional specimens had their soft tissues removed and were processed for scanning electron microscopy. The ALN group presented latent TRAP‐positive osteoclasts and nonresorbed alveolar crests with bacterial infection. Mild bone necrosis signs were observed at all time points studied. Ultrastructurally, empty osteocyte lacunae were observed and bone trabeculae surface presented hyalinized aspect. A significant delay in alveolar repair occurred, as well as decreased angiogenesis. ALN treatment provoked mild signs of bone necrosis, despite the high dose employed. The present findings add new information about the ultrastructural aspect of the early repair of rats under ALN treatment and highlight for giving attention when oral surgeries are performed in patients using this drug. Microsc. Res. Tech. 76:633–640, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Physical-Chemical Characterization and Polymorphism Determination of Two Nimodipine Samples Deriving from Distinct Laboratories

Knowing the characteristics of raw materials in pharmaceutical practice is both important and useful. Firstly, evaluating the physical-chemical properties of the substances that will be used must be the primary step for quality control in the pharmacy industry. This work aims at analyzing the physical-chemical characteristics of two nimodipine samples I and II derived from distinct laboratories through thermal analysis (DSC and TG/DTG), HPLC, crystallography, and microscopy. Thermal analysis showed that sample II was more unstable than I. Morphological differences concerning shape, size, and crystallinity of particles were visualized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray powder diffraction. To sum up, the techniques used in this study can be said to have been efficient in the characterization and evaluation of quality control of the raw material.     

Image encryption based on the finite field cosine transform

In this paper, a novel image encryption scheme is proposed. The technique involves two steps, where the finite field cosine transform is recursively applied to blocks of a given image. In the first step, the image blocks to be transformed result from the regular partition of subimages of the original image. The transformed subimages are regrouped and an intermediate image is constructed. In the second step, a secret-key determines the positions of the intermediate image blocks to be transformed. Besides complying with the main properties required by image encryption methods, the proposed scheme provides benefits related to computational complexity and encoding of the ciphered-images.     

Optimal 3D layout of industrial facilities

Facilities layout is concerned with the spatial arrangement of a set of departments or equipment items. This is an important stage at the design level, which often results in a complex problem due to the high number of decisions involved. A Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation, for the optimal layout of facilities within a two-dimensional (2D) continuous space has been developed (Barbosa-Póvoa et al . 2001). In this paper, the proposed model is extended to account for the location of equipment units within a 3D multi-floor continuous space. Different topological characteristics are considered such as equipment items orientation, distance restrictions, equipment connectivity inputs and outputs, rectangular and irregular equipment shapes, space availability and multifloor locations. In operational terms, production or operational sections are modelled as well as safety and operability restrictions. The final model is again described as a MILP where binary variables characterize topological choices and continuous variables describe the distances and locations involved. Finally, the applicability of the proposed formulation is shown through the resolution of a set of representative examples exploring the different model characteristics.