Effects of water-soluble soybean polysaccharide on rheological properties,stability and lipid digestibility of oil-in-water emulsion during in vitro gastrointestinal digestion

Water-soluble soybean polysaccharide (SSPS) is a naturally occurring emulsifier. SSPS was used as the sole emulsifier to stabilize an oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion. The effects were investigated of different SSPS concentrations (3–20% (w/w)) on the lipid digestibility, rheological properties and stability of O/W emulsions during in vitro digestion model. The droplet size of the emulsions tended to increase during the oral phase because the emulsions were unstable and droplets coalesced, except with a SSPS concentration of 20% (w/w). The presence of SSPS markedly reduced the free fatty acid (FFA) content after its stabilized O/W emulsion passed through in vitro gastrointestinal digestion. The amount of FFA significantly decreased as the concentration of SSPS increased due to SSPS stabilization film on oil droplet surface and high viscous system. SSPS may be an attractive alternative ingredient to control the lipid digestibility of emulsions for various food products.     

Imaging of ungrouted tendon ducts in prestressed concrete by improved SIBIE

The impact-echo method has been extensively applied to nondestructive evaluation of defects in concrete structures. The presence and the location of defects in concrete are estimated by identifying peak frequencies in the frequency spectra. To detect ungrouted tendon ducts, the method is known to be available. However, because post-tensioning prestressed concrete members usually have thin web portions, spectra obtained could include many peak frequencies. As a result, it is often problematic to select appropriate peak frequencies associated with the presence of ungrouted ducts. Stack imaging of spectral amplitudes based on impact-echo (SIBIE) is developed, in order to improve the impact-echo and to visually identify the locations of such reflectors as voids and defects. In the present paper, SIBIE is successfully applied to identify ungrouted metal and plastic sheaths at the hunch portion of a prestressed concrete beam. Two-dimensional dynamic BEM analysis is performed to investigate the relations between peak frequencies and locations of reflectors. At the peak frequencies in the spectra, locations of stress concentration are correlated with the response modes.     

FDCNet: filtering deep convolutional network for marine organism classification

Convolutional networks are currently the most popular computer vision methods for a wide variety of applications in multimedia research fields. Most recent methods have focused on solving problems with natural images and usually use a training database, such as Imagenet or Openimage, to detect the characteristics of the objects. However, in practical applications, training samples are difficult to acquire. In this study, we develop a powerful approach that can accurately learn marine organisms. The proposed filtering deep convolutional network (FDCNet) classifies deep-sea objects better than state-of-the-art classification methods, such as AlexNet, GoogLeNet, ResNet50, and ResNet101. The classification accuracy of the proposed FDCNet method is 1.8%, 2.9%, 2.0%, and 1.0% better than AlexNet, GooLeNet, ResNet50, and ResNet101, respectively. In addition, we have built the first marine organism database, Kyutech10K, with seven categories (i.e., shrimp, squid, crab, shark, sea urchin, manganese, and sand).     

Synthesis and Sintering of Cerium(II) Monosulfide

Cerium monosulfide (CeS) powder was synthesized by the reduction of Ce₂S₃ powder with metallic Ce, which was obtained from ceria (CeO₂) powder using carbon disulfide (CS₂) gas. To obtain the maximum amount of CeS from a mixture of Ce₂S₃ and Ce, an excess amount of metallic Ce, a stoichiometric composition, was necessary in the synthesis at 1273 K for 10.8 ks. The preliminary sintering experiments also were performed using a synthetic CeS powder containing a small amount of Ce, Ce₂O₂S, and β-Ce₂S₃ as impurities. It was found that the oxygen content in the sintered compact decreases gradually as the sintering temperature increases, because of the removal of the impurities due to the evaporation of the volatile CeO. Single-phase CeS was formed by sintering at 2173 K. To evaluate the activation energy for densification of single-phase CeS, a CeS powder was prepared by milling an initial sintered compact and was used as an ingredient for hot-press experiments. Densification data during hot-press sintering were analyzed using a kinetic equation, showing that boundary diffusion is a rate-limiting process. The results suggest that this boundary diffusion model can explain well the densification data, with an apparent activation energy of 479 kJ·mol^-1.     

Autonomous mobile robot based on behavior decision skill and control skill of the operator

This paper introduces a human skill base control algorithm using artificial neural networks and fuzzy reasoning for an autonomous mobile robot. Neural networks are used to select a suitable motion control pattern in actual environments. The back propagation algorithm adjusts the weights of the neural networks so that the selected motion control pattern corresponds to the action, which is obtained by the operator's behavior decision skill. To realize the selected motion control pattern, the orientation angle and the speed of the mobile robot are determined by fuzzy reasoning in which fuzzy rules are also automatically tuned so as to simulate the operator's control skill. We have implemented and tested the proposed control algorithm on an autonomous mobile robot and some experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm for the autonomous mobile robot. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 131(2): 30–39, 2000     

Preparation of resins having various phosphonium groups and their adsorption and elution behavior for anionic surfactants

Resins containing phosphonium groups were prepared by reaction of chlorohydroxylated glycidylmethacrylate–divinylbenzene macroreticular resins with three trialkylphosphines. Triethylphosphine, tributylphosphine, and trioctylphosphine were used as trialkylphosphines. Adsorption and elution behavior of sodium benzenesulfonate (SBS) and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) on the resins were studied. Adsorption of SBS and SDBS increased with increasing the alkyl chain length of phosphonium groups in the resins. The adsorption of SBS decreased with increasing ionic strength of the solution, while the adsorption of SDBS increased with increasing ionic strength of the solution. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 72: 371–378, 1999     

Computational Study of Nonadiabatic Wave Patterns in Smouldering Combustion under Microgravity

We numerically study a thermal-diffusive model for smouldering combustion under microgravity with convective heat losses. In accordance with previous experimental observations, it is well known that porous materials burning against a gaseous oxidiser under microgravity exhibit various finger-like char patterns due to the destabilising effect of oxidiser transport. There is a close resemblance between the pattern-forming dynamics observed in the experiments with the mechanism of thermal-diffusive instability, similar to that occurring in low Lewis number premixtures. At large values of the Lewis number, the finger-like pattern coalesces and propagates as a stable front reminiscent of the pattern behaviour at large Péclet numbers in diffusion-limited systems. The significance of the order of the chemical kinetics for the coexistence of both upstream and downstream smoulder waves is also considered.     

Combining UASB and the "fourth generation" down-flow hanging sponge reactor for municipal wastewater treatment.

A "fourth generation" down-flow hanging sponge (DHS) Reactor has been developed and proposed as an improved variant of post-treatment system for UASB treating domestic wastewater. This paper evaluates the potential of the proposed combination of UASB and DHS as a sewage treatment system, especially for developing countries. A pilot-scale UASB (1.15 m3) and DHS (0.38 m3; volume of sponge) was installed in a municipal sewage treatment site and constantly monitored for 2 years. UASB was operated at an HRT of 6 h corresponding to an organic load of 2.15 kg-COD/m3 per day. Subsequently, the organic load in DHS was 2.35 kg-COD/m3 per day, operated at an HRT of 2 h. Organic removal by the whole system was satisfactory, accomplishing 96% of unfiltered BOD removal and 91% of unfiltered COD removal. However, nitrification decreased from 56% during the startup period to 28% afterwards. Investigation on DHS sludge was made by quantifying it and evaluating oxygen uptake rates with various substrates. Average concentration of trapped biomass was 26 g-VSS/L of sponge volume, increasing the SRT of the system to 100-125 d. Removal of coliforms obtained was 3-4 log10 with the final count of 10(3) to 10(4) MPN/100 ml in DHS effluent.     

Nano-cube MgO formed on silicon substrate using pulsed laser deposition

Nano-cube MgO particles were formed on Si substrates by deposition of an MgO target using pulsed laser deposition method. An epitaxial film grows on Si(001) substrate with its contraction of lattice constants. In this study, expecting high quality MgO film, the MgO film prepared in the oxygen pressure ranging from 75-400 mTorr at the high temperature of -750 degrees C. The deposited MgO showed the growth of (001) preferred orientation on the Si(001) substrate. However, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) indicated the MgO film did not form a continuous film on the Si surface. Interestingly, the surface morphology observed by an Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) showed nano-cube MgO particles scattered on the smooth surface of Si substrate. After annealing the nano-cube MgO, the shape of MgO particles were changed from nano-cube to round shaped particles. The AFM image of the surface showed round shaped MgO nanoparticles scattered on rough surface. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) revealed the epitaxial growth of MgO(001) with cubic on cubic arrangement on the Si(001) substrate (MgO[100] parallel to Si[100]).