A novel approach for color degradation kinetics of paprika as a function of water activity

The influence of temperature and water activity on color degradation in paprika powders was investigated. The Hunter color parameters (L, a, b), hue angle (h), and total color difference (TCD) were used to estimate the color changes of paprika during thermal treatment at different temperatures (60, 80 and 99 °C) and water activities (0.459, 0.582 and 0.703). The changes in L, a, b and TCD values were significantly influenced by the processing time, temperature and water activity. The color changes during processing and storage were described by a first order kinetic model. The temperature dependence of the degradation followed the Arrhenius relation. Samples with a high water activity exhibited a high rate constant of the color degradation. The effect of water activity on activation energy was not significant. A linear relationship between the water activity and rate constant of the color parameters was found. By incorporating the linear relationship k_refa_w into the Arrhenius equation, a modified Arrhenius equation was proposed which was used to predict paprika color changes as influenced by temperature and water activity.     

On the Effect of Carbon Nano-Tubes Addition on Structure and Superconducting Properties of Bi(Pb)-2223 Phase

In this work, a series of ceramic samples of Bi_1.6Pb_0.4Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃O _y (Bi(Pb)-2223) added with different amounts (0, 0.2 and 0.4 wt%) of carbon nano-tubes (CNT) are prepared from commercial powders and characterized. The study shows that the volume fraction of the Bi(Pb)-2223 phase decreases with CNT content while the grain size of the samples increases. The obtained cell parameters as well as the onset critical transition temperature are independent of this kind of addition. Also, it has been concluded that CNT addition makes the grains of the samples more connected. The measured magnetization in FC and ZFC modes indicates that CNT addition makes the grains of the samples more connected even if the irreversibility line is decreased. The variation of the residual resistivity and metalicity with CNT content suggests that the addition introduces disorder and defects into the samples. Also, the added samples present broad transitions to the superconducting state when compared to the pure one; this result may be associated to the increase of the volume fraction of the secondary phases. The activation energies, upper critical fields H _c2(0) and coherence lengths ξ(0) are extracted from the magneto-resistivity curves and their evolutions with CNT content are discussed.     

Structural and Magneto-Transport Properties of Copper Doped Double Layered Manganites La1.4Ca1.6Mn2O7

Samples of La_1.4Ca_1.6Mn_2?x Cu _x O₇ with 0≤x≤0.075 were prepared by a solid state reaction and characterized. The cell parameters and volume increase with increasing doped content in all the samples. The metal–insulator (MI) transition was observed in all the samples except for x=0.075. The doping increases the MI transition temperature and resistivity. The application of a magnetic field increases the transition temperature. It can be referred to the suppression of the ferromagnetic–insulator state around it. The magnetoresistance (MR) of the undoped and 0.025 Cu-doped samples is observed on a wide range of temperatures (3.5–283 K). The undoped one exhibits a maximum value of 39.7 % at 5.07 K under 5 T. The 0.025 Cu-doped one exhibits a maximum value of 40.65 % at 44 K in the same magnetic field. No MR effect is shown for the 0.05 doped sample. The 0.075 doped sample exhibits a small negative MR behavior and a second peak of resistivity at a very low temperature.     

The effect of aggregation on the nonlinear optical absorption performance of indium and gallium phthalocyanines in a solution and co-polymer host

The nonlinear optical properties (NLO) of Pcs can be modified by substituting different metal atoms into the ring or altering peripheral and axial functionalities. In this study, nonlinear optical absorption properties of tetra-substituted gallium and indium phthalocyanine complexes both in solution and polymeric film have been investigated by open aperture Z-scan measurements with nanosecond pulses at 532 nm. All investigated compounds exhibited reverse saturable absorption for both solution and film experiments. The investigated compounds in the solution showed better nonlinear optical absorption properties than polymeric films. The observed nonlinear optical absorption differences depending on the aggregation are discussed using the ultrafast dynamics and decay processes of excited states found from femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy with white light continuum experiments.     

Adsorption of lead and cadmium ions in aqueous solutions onto modified lignin from alkali glycerol delignication

Adsorptions of toxic metal ions (Pb(II) and Cd(II)) onto modified lignin from beech and poplar woods by alkali glycerol delignification are presented in this paper. The material exhibits good adsorption capacity and the adsorption data follow the Langmuir model. The maximum adsorption capacities are 8.2-9.0 and 6.7-7.5 mg/g of the modified lignin for Pb(II) and Cd(II), respectively. The maximum adsorption percentage is 95.8 for Pb(II) for 4 h at 330 K and is 95.0 for Cd(II) for 10 h at 290 K. The adsorption of both the metal ions increased with increasing temperature indicating endothermic nature of the adsorption process. The maximum adsorption percentages of Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions decrease with time till 48 and 42 h and then again increase slightly with time. The adsorption of both heavy metal ions increases with pH. The adsorption of Pb(II) ions reached a maximum at a 5.0 value of pH.     

Equivalent circuit for capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers to predict anti-resonances

Equivalent circuit models have been long used to evaluate the dynamics of the capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT). An important parameter in the characterization of a CMUT is the anti-resonance frequency, which limits the immersion bandwidth. However, there is no equivalent circuit model that can accurately determine the anti-resonance frequency of a membrane. In this work, we present an improved lumped element parametric model for immersed CMUT. We demonstrate that the proposed equivalent circuit model accurately predicts anti-resonance and higher order mode frequencies, in addition to that of the fundamental mode. The proposed circuit model is in good agreement with device characteristics calculated using the finite element method and experimentally measured data.