Palm date fibers: analysis and enzymatic hydrolysis

Waste palm dates were subjected to analysis for composition and enzymatic hydrolysis of their flesh fibers. The fruit contained 32% glucose and 30% fructose, while the water-insoluble fibers of its flesh consisted of 49.9% lignin and 20.9% polysaccharides. Water-insoluble fibers were settled to 55% of its initial volume in 12 h. The presence of skin and flesh colloidal fibers results in high viscosity and clogging problems during industrial processes. The settling velocity of the fibers was improved by enzymatic hydrolysis. Hydrolysis resulted in 84.3% conversion of the cellulosic part of the fibers as well as reducing the settling time to 10 minutes and the final settled volume to 4% of the initial volume. It implies easier separation of the fibers and facilitates fermentation processes in the corresponding industries. Two kinds of high- and low-lignin fibers were identified from the water-insoluble fibers. The high-lignin fibers (75% lignin) settled easily, while the low-lignin fibers (41.4% lignin) formed a slurry suspension which settled very slowly. The hydrophilicity of these low-lignin fibers is the major challenge of the industrial processes.     

The Effect of Germination on Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Activity of Pulses

In this study the changes of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of four different pulses namely white bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L), Common vetch (Vicia sativa), Lentil (Lens culinaris) and Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) seeds before and after germination were investigated. Seeds germinated in dark chambers maintained near 100 % relative humidity at 20 °C. Three different solvents namely acetone, hexane and methanol were employed to extract the phenolic compounds present in the seeds and sprouts. Total content of phenolic compounds was measured by the Folin–Ciocalteu method and antioxidant activity determined by the delay in fat oxidation. Different concentrations of extracts (0.02 and 0.1 % w/w) were added to tallow and the stabilities of the treatments were determined by the peroxide value and induction period measurements to evaluate the antioxidant activities. The results indicated that the increases in phenolic content from dormant seed to sprouted seed were significant (P ≤ 0.05) in all the samples. The significant differences between induction periods of tallow treated with sprouted seed extracts were observed (P < 0.05). The results indicated that the greatest increase in stability was obtained when tallow was treated with a 0.1 % concentration of acetone chickpea sprout extract. The pulses' sprout flour or extract might be recommended for use as a source of natural antioxidants in functional foods.     

Supporting QoS in IEEE 802.11e wireless LANs over fading channel

Transferring real-time traffic such as voice and video over wireless LAN networks (WLAN) requires stringent delay and jitter requirements. Recently IEEE 802.11e standard has been emerged to support QoS in WLAN. One of the methods to provide QoS in this standard is Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) which benefits form the concept of traffic categories. However, EDCA is a contention based method; therefore it can not guarantee strict QoS required by real-time services without proper network control mechanisms. In this paper, we analyze the effect of loss and delay caused by fading channel on EDCA performance. Then, we propose a modification to the media access scheme, called CAFD (Collision Avoidance with Fading Detection) to elevate the performance against channel failures. Moreover an adjustment for the maximum number of retransmissions is proposed to maintain the delay and jitter requirements of the real-time traffic. The performances of the proposed methods are evaluated by simulations.     

Characterization of the produced electrospun fish gelatin nanofiber containing fucoxanthin

Food Science and Biotechnology - This study aims to prepare fish gelatin nanofibers extracted from fish waste by using electrospinning method and its encapsulation with fucoxanthin extracted from...     

A Scenario-Based Management of Water Resources and Supply Systems Using a Combined System Dynamics and Compromise Programming Approach

Water Resources Management - Long-term sustainability in water supply systems is a major challenge due to water resources depletion, climate change and population growth. This paper presents a...