Effectiveness of Rinse Water during In‐Place Cleaning of Stainless Steel Pipe Lines

The 1st step of any Clean‐In‐Place (CIP) operation is a prerinse with water. The purpose of this step is to remove the bulk of food material remaining in the processing lines after production period has ended. It is known that this prerinse step can be a very water intensive process. The objective of this investigation was to measure the influence of CIP parameters (flow characteristics, water temperature, and contact time) on the effectiveness of prerinse water in removing dairy‐based deposits from stainless steel pipe surfaces and to compare the rinse effectiveness of unused to reused rinse water. A pilot‐scale CIP system was operated to rinse 304 stainless steel pipe sections of 3 different pipe diameters. The velocity of the rinse water was varied from 0.72 to 2.26 m/s. The rinse water temperatures were 22 °C, 45 °C, and 67 °C. The contact times between rinse water and deposited film were 20 and 60 s. Rinse effectiveness was expressed as the ratio of the amount of protein residue removed from the pipe surface during rinsing, as compared to the magnitude of the initial protein deposit. The rinse effectiveness varied from 73.1% to 94.9% for the range of the CIP parameters investigated. High velocities of rinse water provided a higher level of rinse effectiveness. Increasing the rinse water temperature from 23 °C to 45 °C improved rinse effectiveness significantly (P < 0.05). This impact was not significant when the water temperature was increased from 45 °C to 67 °C and at higher rinse water velocities. Similarly, longer contact time provided less improvement in rinse effectiveness at higher temperatures and velocities as compared to lower temperatures and velocities. There were no significant differences in rinse effectiveness when comparing reused and unused water (normal tap water) within the range of velocities evaluated.     

Fixed-structure discrete-time H 2 / H ∞ controller synthesis using the delta operator

This paper considers the fixed-structure, discrete-time mixed H 2 / H X controller synthesis problem in the delta operator (difference operator) framework. The differential operator and shift operator versions of the problem are reviewed for comparison, and necessary conditions are derived for all three formulations. A quasi-Newton/continuation algorithm is then used to obtain approximate solutions to these equations. Controllers are synthesized for two numerical examples, and the performance of the algorithm on the differential, difference and shift operator versions of the problems is compared.     

Mapping and mining interictal pathological gamma (30-100 Hz) oscillations with clinical intracranial EEG in patients with epilepsy

Localizing an epileptic network is essential for guiding neurosurgery and antiepileptic medical devices as well as elucidating mechanisms that may explain seizure-generation and epilepsy. There is increasing evidence that pathological oscillations may be specific to diseased networks in patients with epilepsy and that these oscillations may be a key biomarker for generating and indentifying epileptic networks. We present a semi-automated method that detects, maps, and mines pathological gamma (30-100 Hz) oscillations (PGOs) in human epileptic brain to possibly localize epileptic networks. We apply the method to standard clinical iEEG (<100 Hz) with interictal PGOs and seizures from six patients with medically refractory epilepsy. We demonstrate that electrodes with consistent PGO discharges do not always coincide with clinically determined seizure onset zone (SOZ) electrodes but at times PGO-dense electrodes include secondary seizure-areas (SS) or even areas without seizures (NS). In 4/5 patients with epilepsy surgery, we observe poor (Engel Class 4) postsurgical outcomes and identify more PGO-activity in SS or NS than in SOZ. Additional studies are needed to further clarify the role of PGOs in epileptic brain.     

Rapid Aging as a Key to Understand Deactivation of Ni/Al2O3 Catalysts Applied for the CO2 Methanation

Catalysis Letters - We developed a rapid aging method for Ni/Al2O3 methanation catalysts mimicking the real aging in the actual application. The method is based on hydrothermal deactivation of the...     

Enhancing the quality of financial advice with web 2.0: an approach considering social capital in private asset allocation

Although theoretically necessary, social capital is usually not considered within the process of asset allocation for private investors. Both the lack of appropriate practical valuation concepts and the effort of providing and processing the required information as input for a valuation have been obstacles to properly include social capital in this process. However, first theoretical financial models for the evaluation of social capital have recently become available. Moreover, the fast growth of business community websites and the technological progress in Web 2.0 tools that allow and acquire the active involvement of users, facilitate the provision and processing of valuation-relevant information. In this paper we focus on this second aspect and propose a social software-based concept that allows for an integration of social capital in the asset allocation process.     

Taste perception and purchase intent of oil‐in‐water spreads: effects of oil types and salt (NaCl or KCl) concentrations

Associations of sodium intake with heart‐related problems are creating awareness towards reducing sodium. Potassium chloride (KCl), a substitute for sodium chloride (NaCl), has the disadvantage of imparting bitterness at high concentrations. We evaluated physical characteristics, taste perception and purchase intent of KCl and NaCl in oil‐in‐water spreads/emulsions composed by olive, rice bran and soya bean oils. Consumers (N = 300) evaluated saltiness/bitterness of emulsions prepared with 65% oil, and NaCl (0.5% and 1.0%) or KCl (0.75% and 1.5%). Olive oil spreads (104.07–107.43 Pa s) had higher viscosity compared to other spreads (59.16–74.96 Pa s). Type of oil had significant effects on bitterness, overall taste liking and viscosity. Taste liking decreased due to bitterness of olive oil spreads (mean drop=1.72–2.43). Purchase intent was positively associated with saltiness and pH and increased with oil claims (increase = 1.3%–22.1%) compared to sodium claims (increase = 0.0%–12.9%). These findings are useful for understanding taste perception of emulsions.