Proximal composition and in vitro starch digestibility in flaxseed‐added corn tortilla

BACKGROUND: The effect of addition of flaxseed flour (10:90, 15:85 and 20:80, w/w) on the chemical composition and starch digestibility of corn tortilla was investigated. Tortillas were baked and frozen in liquid nitrogen, freeze‐dried, ground and analyzed for fat, protein, ash, total starch (TS), available starch (AS) and resistant starch (RS) contents as well as for starch hydrolysis rate and predicted glycemic index (pGI). Tortillas made from commercial nixtamalized corn flour were used as control sample. RESULTS: Flaxseed flour addition increased the fat and protein content of tortilla, whereas TS and AS decreased. TS was 15.25% lower in the 20% flaxseed‐containing tortilla as compared to the control sample. The AS content was 12.65% lower in the composite tortilla. RS content in the samples ranged between 1.92% for the control sample and 5.08% for the tortilla containing 20% flaxseed. The reduced enzymatic starch hydrolysis rate and pGI recorded for the flaxseed‐added tortilla, indicated slow digestion features. CONCLUSIONS: Flaxseed‐added tortilla might be used to increase the consumption of α‐linolenic acid in the daily diet and modulate starch digestibility of corn tortilla. This kind of product may be used by people with special diet reqirements. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Short communication: Characterization of Salmonella phages from dairy calves on farms with history of diarrhea

Salmonella enterica can cause disease and mortality in calves. This pathogen is also a zoonosis that can be transmitted by animal contact or by food. The prevalence of Salmonella in dairy farms has been reported to range from 0 to 64%, and, due to the diversity of Salmonella serovars that can be circulating, Salmonella is an important concern for dairy production. Bacteriophages that infect Salmonella have been documented to be abundant and widely distributed in the dairy environment. The current study investigated the diversity of Salmonella serovars and Salmonella phages in 8 dairy farms with a history of diarrhea in southern Chile. A total of 160 samples from sick calves, healthy calves, and the environment were analyzed for Salmonella and phage. Isolated phages were characterized and classified by their host range using a panel of 26 Salmonella isolates representing 23 serovars. Host ranges were classified according to lysis profiles (LP) and their spatial distribution was mapped. Salmonella-infecting phages were identified, but none of the 160 samples were positive for Salmonella. A total of 45 phage isolates were obtained from sick calves (11), healthy calves (16), or the environment (18). According to their host range, 19 LP were identified, with LP1 being the most common on all 8 farms; LP1 represents phages that only lyse serogroup D Salmonella. The identification of Salmonella phages but not Salmonella in the same samples could suggest that these phages are controlling Salmonella in these farms.     

From wave to jet and from jet to hydrogen: A promising hybrid system

One of the main challenges that our society must overcome in this century is that of finding alternative energy sources to fossil fuels. These, ideally, must be inexpensive, less polluting than current fuels and available for a substantial time. One promising alternative is hydrogen, which has the great advantage that it can be produced by coupling renewable energy devices with water electrolysis. Several projects devoted to connecting photovoltaic and wind systems with electrolysis devices have been successful; however, little research has been done into the coupling of ocean wave energy converters with water electrolysis. The work here proposes a basic system that stores the energy from waves in the form of hydrogen. The WEC considered is a novel design known as a Blow-Jet, which captures waves and converts them into a water jet. The performance of the Blow-Jet is found to depend more on wavelength than on wave height. The electrolyser results show, at 0.200 A and 1.88 V, that the electrolysis of water produces 0.082 Nl h⁻¹ of hydrogen and a current efficiency (η_I) of 90.58%.     

Chemical Scarification and Ozone in Seed Dormancy Alleviation of Wild and Domesticated Opuntia,Cactaceae

Protocols for seed germination in the Opuntia genus are different and unsuitable for all their species. Dormancy of Opuntia seeds can be modified by the combination of scarification and an oxidizing agent such as O₃, which could induce antioxidant and DNA-repair mechanisms or dormancy-breaking effects in hydrated seeds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects that the combination of mechanical and chemical scarification with exposition to sub-lethal O₃ doses have on seed germination and seedling growth of O. streptacantha Lem., O. megacantha Salm-Dyck, and O. ficus-indica (L.) Mill. Our hypothesis was that O₃ favors germination on scarified seeds and that the magnitude of the effect is species-dependent. Water uptake and germination were quantified in seeds every 48 h, until their roots reached a 5-mm length. The results were analyzed with an analysis of variance and multiple means comparisons with the Tukey test. Accelerated water uptake was observed during the first 48 h; the maximum average was 33.5% in all species. The combination of acid scarification and imbibition in the presence of O₃ increased (P ≤ 0. 05) germination (between 17.8 and 44.4%), mainly in O. streptacantha. O₃ increased germination, regardless of the species. O₃ can be used in sublethal doses to increase seed germination and seedling development in Opuntia genus.     

Unsupervised detection of density changes through principal component analysis for lung lesion classification

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Lung cancer remains one of the most common cancers worldwide. Temporal evaluation is a useful tool for analyzing the malignant behavior of a lesion during...     

Cohesive Hamaker Constants and Dispersive Surface Energies of RDX,PETN, TNT,and Ammonium Nitrate‐Based Explosives

Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) was used to characterize dispersive surface energies γ_S^D and cohesive Hamaker constants A_ii for RDX, PETN, TNT, ammonium nitrate (AN), and AN‐based explosives at 303 K. The γ_S^D for RDX at 303 K is compared to previous studies and generally found to be in good agreement, substantiating the use of NESTT training materials to characterize explosives via IGC. Additionally, the effect of the amount of fuel in the AN mixtures on γ_S^D is examined using simple linear regression. Finally, the IGC‐predicted A_ii values are compared to Lifshitz estimations for A_ii of RDX, PETN, TNT, and AN.     

Ranking open source application integration frameworks based on maintainability metrics: A review of five-year evolution

Integration frameworks are specialized software tools built and adapted to facilitate the design and implementation of integration solutions. An integration solution allows for the reuse of applications from the software ecosystem of companies to support their business processes. There are several open-source integration frameworks available on the market designed to operate in a business context to manipulate structured data; however, increasingly, they are required to deal with unstructured and large volumes of data, thus requiring effort to adapt these frameworks to work with unstructured and large volume of data. Choosing the framework, which is the easiest to be adapted, is not a trivial task. In this article, we review the newest stable versions of four open-source integration frameworks by analyzing how they have evolved regarding their adaptive maintainability over five years. We rank them according to their maintainability degree and compare past and current versions of each framework. To encourage and enable researchers and developers to replicate our experiments, with the aim of verifying our findings, and to experiment with new versions of the integration frameworks analyzed, we detail the experimental protocol used while also having made all the required software involved available on the Web.