IDENTIFICATION OF THE RECEDING EVAPORATION FRONT IN CONVECTIVE FOOD DRYING

We investigate experimentally the behaviour of the receding evaporation front during the drying of food products by measuring the temperature distribution profile within the potato slab. The effect of key process parameters on the receding speed of this evaporation front is investigated. We show that the square root of the drying time varies linearly with the transient position of the front. Also, the receding velocity of the front is seen to be related to the drying rate of the product as the front decelerates inward to the center of the material.     

EFFECT OF OSMOTIC PRE-TREATMENT AND INFRARED RADIATION ON DRYING RATE AND COLOR CHANGES DURING DRYING OF POTATO AND PINEAPPLE

A combination of intermittent infrared and continuous convection heating was used to dry various osmotically pretreated sample of potato (in solutions of 10%, 20% and 30% NaCl) and pineapple (in solutions of 30%, 50%, 70% Brix). The effect of drying conditions on color changes of potato and pineapple was investigated. The Hunter color scale parameters (redness, yellowness and lightness) were measured to quantify the color changes. With appropriate choice of infrared intermittency as well as osmotic pretreatment, it is possible to reduce the overall color change while maintaining high drying rates. As expected, osmotic pretreatment resulted in a shift in the sorption isotherms for both products.     

Effect of hygroscopic materials on water vapor permeation and dehumidification performance of poly(vinyl alcohol) membranes

In this study, two hygroscopic materials, inorganic lithium chloride (LiCl) and organic triethylene glycol (TEG) were separately added to poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) to form blend membranes for air dehumidification. Water vapor permeation, dehumidification performance and long‐term durability of the membranes were studied systematically. Membrane hydrophilicity and water vapor sorbability increased significantly with higher the hygroscopic material contents. Water vapor permeance of the membranes increased with both added hygroscopic material and absorbed water. Water permeation energy varied from positive to negative with higher hygroscopic content. This observation is attributed to a lower diffusion energy and a relatively constant sorption energy when hygroscopic content increases. Comparatively, PVA/TEG has less corrosive problems and is more environmentally friendly than PVA/LiCl. A membrane with PVA/TEG is observed to be highly durable and is suitable for dehumidification applications. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 44765.     

Effect of ambient conditions on drying of herbs in solar greenhouse dryer with integrated heat pump

An even span solar greenhouse dryer was built and applied to dry Java tea (Orthosiphon aristatus) and Sabah snake grass (Clinacanthus nutans Lindau). Findings showed that the solar greenhouse dryer performs satisfactorily during clear weather except at nighttime and rainy day due to product rehydration which is heavily influenced by high relative humidity from ambient air. Integrating of heat pump into the solar greenhouse dryer has successfully reduced the room relative humidity by 10–15%. Also, heat pump has mitigated the product rehydration issue by maintaining room relative humidity at maximum of 65% throughout the drying period. The drying rate of Java tea was improved three to fourfold, i.e., from 0.004–0.008 to 0.018–0.025?g H₂O/g DM min, whereas 10% of drying time was saved for both Java tea leaf and Sabah snake grass leaf with the assistance of heat pump system. Meanwhile, the supply of dry air from the heat pump system with a magnitude of 0.25–0.50?m/s helps in enhancing the drying rate of the herbs as well as minimizing the nonuniformity of drying temperature and relative humidity inside the solar greenhouse dryer.     

CONVECTIVE DRYING OF BANANA,GUAVA AND POTATO PIECES : EFFECT OF CYCLICAL VARIATIONS OF AIR TEMPERATURE ON DRYING KINETICS AND COLOR CHANGE

ABSTRACT

Pieces of banana, guava and potato were dried in a two-stage heat pump dryer capable of precise control of air humidity with predetermined cyclic variations of air temperature entering the drying chamber. The air temperature variations tested were : a cosine, a reversed cosine and three different square wave profiles with peak-to-valley variations from 20^°C to 40^°C. The cycle time was about 60 minutes with drying time of approximately 300 minutes. The drying samples were placed on trays in a thin layer. With appropriate choice of temperature-time variation, it is possible to reduce the overall color change while maintaining high drying rates.     

Impact of conditioning regimens and time on adhesion of a fiber post to root dentin using two resin cements

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of irrigation protocols on the bond strength of a glass fiber post bonded to dentin using two resin cements. In 200 root-filled teeth, post space was prepared and divided into five groups (n?=?40) based on the irrigation protocol: group 1 (3% sodium hypochlorite), group 2 (3% sodium hypochlorite – 17% Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid), group 3 (a mixture of sodium hypochlorite and etidronic acid), group 4 (sodium hypochlorite – QMix), and group 5 (distilled water). Samples were subdivided into two subgroups (n?= 10) and fiber posts were cemented using subgroup A (Self-adhesive dual-cure resin cement; SEA) or B (dual-cure resin cement following an etch-and-rinse protocol, ER). Push-out bond strength was performed after 24 h and four months (n?= 10) and failure modes were categorized. Statistical analysis of data was carried out by appropriate analyses (p < 0.05). The irrigation protocol and the resin cement had a significant impact on push-out bond strength. Subgroup A group showed lower bond strength than B at both time periods when 3% NaOCl–17% EDTA and 1:1 mixture of 6% NaOCl + 18%EA protocols were used. Three percent NaOCl used in combination with 17% EDTA or QMix significantly decreased the push-out bond strength of ER at the end of four months (p < 0.05). In conclusion, dual-cure resin cements bonded with etch-and-rinse protocol showed highest bond strength when a mixture of NaOCl and etidronic acid was used as root canal irrigant. These values were differentially influenced by time.     

Deposition of carbon nitride films by filtered cathodic vacuum arc combined with radio frequency ion beam source

Atomically smooth carbon nitride films were deposited by an off-plane double bend filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique. A radio frequency nitrogen ion source was used to supply active nitrogen species during the deposition of carbon nitride films. The films were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), XPS and Raman spectroscopy. The internal stress was measured by the substrate bending method. The influence of nitrogen ion energy (0–1000 eV) on the composition, structure and properties of the carbon nitride films was studied. The nitrogen ion source greatly improves the incorporation of nitrogen in the films. The ratio of N/C atoms in the films increases to 0.40 with an increase in the ion beam energy to 100 eV. Further increase in the ion beam energy leads to a slight decrease in the N/C ratio. XPS results show that nitrogen atoms in the films are chemically bonded to carbon atoms as C---N, C=N, and CN bonds, but most of nitrogen atoms are bonded to sp² carbon. The increase in nitrogen ion energy leads to a decrease in the content of nitrogen atoms bonded to sp² carbon, and an increase in the content of nitrogen atoms bonded to sp³ and sp¹ carbon. Raman spectra indicate an increase in the sp² carbon phase in carbon nitride films with an increase in nitrogen ion energy. The increase in sp² carbon fraction is attributed to the decrease in internal stress with increasing nitrogen ion energy.     

Cellular neural networks with non-linear and delay-type template elements and non-uniform grids

The cellular neural network (CNN) paradigm is a powerful framework for analogue non-linear processing arrays placed on a regular grid. In this paper we extend the current repertoire of CNN cloning template elements (atoms) by introducing additional non-linear and delay-type characteristics. In addition, architectures with non-uniform processors and neighbourhoods (grid sizes) are introduced. With this generalization, several well-known and powerful analogue array-computing structures can be interpreted as special cases of the CNN. Moreover, we show that the CNN with these generalized cloning templates has a general programmable circuit structure (a prototype machine) with analogue macros and algorithms. the relations with the cellular automaton (CA) and the systolic array (SA) are analysed. Finally, some robust stability results and the state space structure of the dynamics are presented.     

Neural basis for recognition confidence in younger and older adults.

Although several studies have examined the neural basis for age-related changes in objective memory performance, less is known about how the process of memory monitoring changes with aging. The authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine retrospective confidence in memory performance in aging. During low confidence, both younger and older adults showed behavioral evidence that they were guessing during recognition and that they were aware they were guessing when making confidence judgments. Similarly, both younger and older adults showed increased neural activity during low- compared to high-confidence responses in the lateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and left intraparietal sulcus. In contrast, older adults showed more high-confidence errors than younger adults. Younger adults showed greater activity for high compared to low confidence in medial temporal lobe structures, but older adults did not show this pattern. Taken together, these findings may suggest that impairments in the confidence–accuracy relationship for memory in older adults, which are often driven by high-confidence errors, may be primarily related to altered neural signals associated with greater activity for high-confidence responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Circuit Elements With Memory: Memristors, Memcapacitors, and Meminductors

We extend the notion of memristive systems to capacitive and inductive elements, namely, capacitors and inductors whose properties depend on the state and history of the system. All these elements typically show pinched hysteretic loops in the two constitutive variables that define them: current-voltage for the memristor, charge-voltage for the memcapacitor, and current-flux for the meminductor. We argue that these devices are common at the nanoscale, where the dynamical properties of electrons and ions are likely to depend on the history of the system, at least within certain time scales. These elements and their combination in circuits open up new functionalities in electronics and are likely to find applications in neuromorphic devices to simulate learning, adaptive, and spontaneous behavior.