Food Protein Functionality in a Liquid System: A Comparison of Deamidated Wheat Protein with Dairy and Soy Proteins

ABSTRACT: Solubility, surface properties, overrun, foam stability, apparent viscosity, and emulsification properties were evaluated for 3% protein dispersions of deamidated wheat protein (DWP), sodium caseinate (SC), soy protein isolate (SPI), and whey protein isolate (WPI). DWP dispersion had the highest apparent viscosity, 25% higher emulsion activity index (EAI), and 82% higher emulsion stability index (ESI) when compared to SPI dispersions. Dispersions of DWP had similar foaming properties and surface properties when compared to SC, but had 50% higher EAI and 1000% greater ESI when compared to the 2 dairy proteins. The utilization of DWP could be expanded into liquid food systems currently using dairy proteins.     

Real-world operation conditions and on-road emissions of Beijing diesel buses measured by using portable emission measurement system and electric low-pressure impactor

On-road measurement is an effective method to investigate real-world emissions generated from vehicles and estimate the difference between engine certification cycles and real-world operating conditions. This study presents the results of on-road measurements collected from urban buses which propelled by diesel engine in Beijing city. Two widely used Euro III emission level buses and two Euro IV emission level buses were chosen to perform on-road emission measurements using portable emission measurement system (PEMS) for gaseous pollutant and Electric Low Pressure Impactor (ELPI) for particulate matter (PM) number emissions. The results indicate that considerable discrepancies of engine operating conditions between real-world driving cycles and engine certification cycles have been observed. Under real-world operating conditions, carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions can easily meet their respective regulations limits, while brake specification nitrogen oxide (bsNO_x) emissions present a significant deviation from its corresponding limit. Compared with standard limits, the real-world bsNO_x emission of the two Euro III emission level buses approximately increased by 60% and 120% respectively, and bsNO_x of two Euro IV buses nearly twice standard limits because Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system not active under low exhaust temperature. Particle mass were estimated via particle size distribution with the assumption that particle density and diameter is liner. The results demonstrate that nanometer size particulate matter make significant contribution to total particle number but play a minor role to total particle mass. It is suggested that specific certified cycle should be developed to regulate bus engines emissions on the test bench or use PEMS to control the bus emissions under real-world operating conditions.     

Video streaming over P2P networks: Challenges and opportunities

A robust real-time video communication service over the Internet in a distributed manner is an important challenge, as it influences not only the current Internet structure but also the future Internet evolution. In this context, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks are playing an imperative position for providing efficient video transmission over the Internet. Recently, several P2P video transmission systems have been proposed for live video streaming services or video-on-demand services over the Internet. In this paper, we describe and discuss existing video streaming systems over P2P. Efficient (delay tolerant and intolerant) data sharing mechanisms in P2P and current video coding trends are elaborated in detail. Moreover, video streaming solutions (live and on-demand) over P2P from the perspective of tree-based and mesh-based systems are explained. Finally, the conclusion is drawn with key challenges and open issues related to video streaming over P2P.     

Carbonyl compound emissions from passenger cars fueled with methanol/gasoline blends

Carbonyl compound emissions from two passenger cars fueled with different methanol/gasoline blends (M15 and M100) and operated with three-way catalytic converters (TWC) were investigated. The tests were performed on a chassis dynamometer with constant volume sampling over the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). Carbonyls were trapped on dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) cartridges. The hydrazones formed on the cartridge were analyzed by means of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and detected with a variable wavelength detector. The results show that when cars were fueled with methanol/gasoline blends, carbon monoxide (CO) and total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions decreased by 9-21% and 1-55% respectively, while nitrogen oxide (NO_x) emissions increased by 175-233%. Compared with gasoline vehicles, formaldehyde emissions with M15 and M100 were two and four times higher respectively, and total carbonyls with M15 and M100 increased by 3% and 104% respectively. With the use of the new TWC, both regulated gas pollutants and formaldehyde decreased. The new TWC caused a decrease of 5% and 31% in formaldehyde concentration for M15 and M100, respectively. Specific reactivity (SR) with the new TWC was reduced from 5.92 to 5.72 for M15 and from 7.00 to 6.93 for M100, indicating that M15 and M100 with the new TWC were friendlier to the environment.     

Identification and Characterization of Malate Dehydrogenases in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Malate dehydrogenase, which facilitates the reversible conversion of malate to oxaloacetate, is essential for energy balance, plant growth, and cold and salt tolerance. However, the genome-wide study of the MDH family has not yet been carried out in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). In this study, 12 MDH genes were identified from the S. lycopersicum genome and renamed according to their chromosomal location. The tomato MDH genes were split into five groups based on phylogenetic analysis and the genes that clustered together showed similar lengths, and structures, and conserved motifs in the encoded proteins. From the 12 tomato MDH genes on the chromosomes, three pairs of segmental duplication events involving four genes were found. Each pair of genes had a Ka/Ks ratio < 1, indicating that the MDH gene family of tomato was purified during evolution. Gene expression analysis exhibited that tomato MDHs were differentially expressed in different tissues, at various stages of fruit development, and differentially regulated in response to abiotic stresses. Molecular docking of four highly expressed MDHs revealed their substrate and co-factor specificity in the reversible conversion process of malate to oxaloacetate. Further, co-localization of tomato MDH genes with quantitative trait loci (QTL) of salt stress-related phenotypes revealed their broader functions in salt stress tolerance. This study lays the foundation for functional analysis of MDH genes and genetic improvement in tomato.     

Decentralised Formation Control and Stability Analysis for Multi-vehicle Cooperative Manoeuvre

Multi-vehicle cooperative formation control problem is an important and typical topic of research on multi-agent system. This paper presents a formation stability conjecture to conceive a new methodology for solving the decentralised multivehicle formation control problem. It employs the "extensiondecomposition-aggregation" scheme to transform the complex multi-agent control problem into a group of sub-problems which is able to be solved conveniently. Based on this methodology, it is proved that if all the individual augmented subsystems can be stabilised by using any approach, the overall formation system is not only asymptotically but also exponentially stable in the sense of Lyapunov within a neighbourhood of the desired formation. Simulation study on 6-DOF aerial vehicles (Aerosonde UAVs) has been performed to verify the achieved formation stability result. The proposed multi-vehicle formation control strategy can be conveniently extended to other cooperative control problems of multi-agent systems.      

Energy-efficient selection of relay for UWSNs in the Internet of underwater things

Internet of underwater things (IoUT) for underwater monitoring is known worldwide for smart interlinked underwater things that exhibit the capacity to monitor the vast unexplored waters of the oceans. Concept of IoUT has been derived from Internet of Things (IoT) in order to acquire the exquisite benefits of networking in underwater environment. IOT standards and technologies do not work well in underwater environment, such as infrared, Wi-Fi, and radio frequency (RF) due to high channel errors and limited range up to few meters. Acoustic waves, however, can be used to communicate both in shallow and deep oceans due to their low frequency (kHZ) signal. In context of IoUT, communication based on acoustic links enables different applications such as underwater exploration, environmental monitoring, and disaster prevention even without availability of GPS facility like free space environment. In unpredictable and changing underwater environment, energy efficiency becomes a major challenge during data routing along multiple devices. Batteries of the sensor nodes, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) cannot be removed with easiness and difficult to recharge, and the only way out is efficient sensor node selection for relaying to save massive amount of energy. Energy aware channel routing protocol (ECARP) does not consider the depth of the node while selecting the relay nodes to forward the data. Relay node selection in underwater Internet of things (IOUT) is a primary problem addressed in this research based on channel state information (CSI) for establishing best path to relay information among IOUT devices. Our major focus was to develop better technique for the relay node selection using a CSI and select relay node by looking at its depth from ocean surface and residual energy in the proposed ED-CARP. Simulation results validate that proposed ED-CARP can decrease the communication cost and increase the network lifetime.     

Activation of Cadmium–Imidazole Buffering Coordination Polymer by Sulfur-Doping for the Enhancement of Photocatalytic Degradation of Cationic and Anionic Dyes Under Visible Light

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - The buffering Cadmium–Imidazole Coordination Polymer (Cd–Im-CP) was synthesized hydrothermally from cadmium chloride and...