Effects of Various Energy Suppliers in Green Processes for Obtaining Silver Nanoparticles

The productions of stable suspensions of silver nanoparticles using a microwave reactor, an ultraviolet (UV) reactor, a low‐frequency low‐temperature plasma reactor, a high‐pressure reactor, and an open reactor are compared. All reactors served as sources of energy for stimulating the nanoparticle growth process. The silver nanoparticles were obtained based on the chemical reduction method. The processes were conducted using gallic acid as the reducing‐stabilizing substance. The influence of the variable parameters time (for all types of reactors), temperature (for the open and high‐pressure reactors), power (for the microwave reactor), energy density (for the UV reactor), and voltage (for the low‐frequency low‐temperature plasma reactor) was investigated. Temperature was found to be the most important factor influencing all processes.     

Ultrastructural and developmental toxicity of potato and tomato leaf extracts to beet armyworm,Spodoptera exigua (lepidoptera: noctuidae)

Beet Armyworm, Spodoptera exigua is a herbivorous moth and a serious pest of many economically important plants, which are used as food sources. Because of rigorous standards of food quality, usage of synthetic insecticides in crop protection, against pests, is limited. Solanaceae plant extracts may be a relatively cheap source of efficient natural insecticides that can limit usage of synthetic substances. Their biological activity is not fully known. In particular, ultrastructural studies, using transmission electron microscopy, are not usual. In the present article we describe the effects of sublethal concentrations of tomato and potato leaf extracts against S. exigua. Acute lethal effects were not observed. Both extracts exerted similar effects within midgut and fat body cells. Midgut cells were not significantly altered while fat body cells showed prominent swelling of nuclear envelope and endoplasmic reticulum, vacuolization of mitochondria and fusion of fat droplets. These changes were much more intensive within groups exposed to potato than tomato extracts at highest concentration at least. Light microscopy was used to observe and document developmental alterations of S. exigua exposed to potato and tomato leaf extracts. Potato leaf extracts significantly decreased hatching success and caused morphological malformations of imagoes. Among them, malformations of wings were the most prominent. Interestingly, these effects were not observed within populations exposed to tomato extracts at highest concentration at least.     

Physics inspired algorithms for (co)homology computations of three-dimensional combinatorial manifolds with boundary

The issue of computing (co)homology generators of a cell complex is gaining a pivotal role in various branches of science. While this issue may be rigorously solved in polynomial time, it is still overly demanding for large scale problems. Drawing inspiration from low-frequency electrodynamics, this paper presents a physics inspired algorithm for first cohomology group computations on three-dimensional complexes. The algorithm is general and exhibits orders of magnitude speed up with respect to competing ones, allowing to handle problems not addressable before. In particular, when generators are employed in the physical modeling of magneto-quasistatic problems, this algorithm solves one of the most long-lasting problems in low-frequency computational electromagnetics. In this case, the effectiveness of the algorithm and its ease of implementation may be even improved by introducing the novel concept of lazy cohomology generators.     

Finite satisfiability for guarded fixpoint logic

The finite satisfiability problem for guarded fixpoint logic is decidable and complete for 2ExpTime (resp. ExpTime for formulas of bounded width).     

Effects of the spray drying conditions of chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa L.) juice concentrate on the physicochemical properties of powders

A semi‐industrial spray drying process of chokeberry juice concentrate using maltodextrin was analysed. The influence of the content and dextrose equivalent (DE) of maltodextrin, inlet air temperature and rotary disc atomiser speed was studied on the physicochemical properties of the obtained powders. The size and structure of the powder particles, bulk density, moisture content, flowability, yield and total polyphenol content were analysed. An increase in carrier content from 50% to 70% caused a 4.9% increase in total polyphenol retention, better flowability (Hausner ratio decrease of 0.17) and greater yield of the powder (60%). An increase in the drying temperature (150–170 °C) caused larger particle size and improved powder flowability but also resulted in greater loss of total polyphenols. A decrease in rotary atomiser speed (11 000–15 000 rpm) had a moderate influence on particle size and improvement in flowability but had no effect on polyphenol retention. Changes in the DE (8–22) of maltodextrin as a carrier indicated a moderate growing dependence on particle size and worse flowability.     

Sugar replacement in sweetened bakery goods

This review presents the state‐of‐the‐art concerning the application of natural and artificial high‐intensity sweeteners, fructans and bulking agents such as polyols as sugar replacers in sweet‐baked goods and their effects on product characteristics. The recent much publicised attention given to weight gain of the population and its consequences on the occurrence of diet‐related diseases in developed countries has influenced the food manufacturers attempts to provide the consumer with reduced energy products. The replacement of sucrose in sweet bakery products by alternative natural or artificial sweeteners can be a challenging issue. Sucrose as a main ingredient in sweet bakery products contributes, aside from providing sweetness, to numerous processing and product characteristics. Intense sweeteners have a high sweetness compared with sucrose but lack in their contribution to the body of the product, whereas the replacement of sucrose with bulking sweeteners may result in products with a similar body but a lack in taste and flavour.     

The influence of oxidizing agents on water extracts of rye flour

The main constituents of rye flour extracts are proteins and pentosans. After cross-linking under the action of oxidizing agents those components are able to bind much more water than in their native (prior to modifications) state. As a consequence rheological properties of extract are changed.It was observed that kinematic viscosity of water extract of rye flour decreases rapidly with time. The reason for this behavior could be high enzymatic activity of flour extract.It was also found that the addition of hydrogen peroxide in the absence of additional peroxidase (which is naturally present in 1:9 or 1:1 water extracts of flour) causes the greatest increase in viscosity, due to the cross-linking of soluble polymers. Moreover after the addition of H₂O₂ to water extracts strong gels were obtained, which were characterized by tan δ = 0.5 (tan δ < 1). Moreover G′ was independent of frequency, which also suggests cross-linking of the pentosans.The addition of ascorbic acid, which is known to act preferably on gluten proteins, to 1:9 or 1:1 flour extracts had only a little effect on viscosity. In this case the values of tan δ = 0.9 were close to 1, which is typical for a weak gel.The application of inactivated rye flour extract, containing mainly proteins and pentosans, proved stronger effect of H₂O₂ in comparison to ascorbic acid on polymer cross-linking, but only after the addition of peroxidase. The gel obtained with H₂O₂ and peroxidase was also characterized by low tan δ = 0.4.The results indicate, that pentosans are the main subject of cross-linking reactions in rye flour water extracts.