Effect of repeated freezing-thawing on structural,physicochemical and digestible properties of normal and waxy starch gels

The normal and waxy corn starch gels were subjected to repeated freeze–thaw treatment at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4,5 and 6 cycles with an interval of 24 h, and the effects on structural, physicochemical and digestible properties were investigated. The normal starch gels formed a honeycomb structure while waxy starch gels exhibited a lamellar structure, and the number of holes and lamellas increased with increasing cycles. The X-ray analysis showed that the A-type pattern of starches was converted into the B-type after treatment, and their relative crystallinity increased with the number of increased freeze–thaw cycles. The hardness increased in both normal and waxy starch. The solubility and pasting breakdown viscosity decreased in normal starch while they increased in waxy starch. The pasting peak time, peak viscosity, and setback viscosity increased in normal starch but decreased in waxy starch. The rapidly digested starch (RDS) and slowly digested starch (SDS) content in normal starch increased and non-digestible starch (RS) content decreased whereas the RDS, SDS and RS content in waxy starch was almost unchanged as the freeze–thaw cycles increased. In the meantime, the molecular weight of both normal and waxy starch decreased with freeze–thaw treatment. Therefore, the repeated freeze–thaw treatment can change the physicochemical and digestible properties which could be a basis for starch-based food processing.     

A critical review of soil moisture measurement

Soil moisture content has paramount importance in dictating engineering, agronomic, geological, ecological, biological and hydrological characteristics of the soil mass. Though earlier researchers have employed various techniques of moisture content determination of soils, both in laboratory and in situ conditions, ascertaining the applicability of these techniques to soils of entirely different characteristics and the ‘types of moisture content’, which they can measure, is still a point of debate. As such, a critical review of all the established and emerging soil moisture measurement techniques with respect to their merits and demerits becomes necessary. With this in view, efforts have been made in this paper to critically evaluate all the soil moisture measurement techniques, limitations associated with them and the influence of various soil-specific parameters (viz., mineralogy, salinity, porosity, ambient temperature, presence of the organic matter and matrix structure of the soil) on the measured soil moisture content. This paper also highlights the importance of various innovations based on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and nano-sensors that are emerging in this context.     

Studying the adsorption of DNA nanostructures on graphene in the aqueous phase using molecular dynamic simulations

DNA nanostructures can undergo large structural fluctuations and deviate from their intended configurations. In this work, two model DNA nanostructures (i.e., Nan and Kai) were designed based on the shape of the two Chinese characters of the name of Nankai University, and additional single-stranded DNA fragments were added to interact with graphene. During four 50-ns molecular dynamic simulations in aqueous solution, the DNA nanostructures adsorbed onto graphene demonstrated more stable conformations with lower root mean square deviations and smaller coordinate changes in the z-axis direction than the DNA nanostructures that were not adsorbed onto graphene. The interaction analyses and energetic calculations show that π-π interactions between single-stranded DNA and graphene are necessary for adsorption of the DNA nanostructures. Overall, this work examined the interactions between DNA and graphene at a large spatial scale with the hope that it provides a new strategy to stabilize DNA nanostructures.     

Optimal Control of a Stochastic Delay Partial Differential Equation with Boundary-Noise and Boundary-Control

We consider a controlled stochastic delay partial differential equation withNeumann boundary conditions in which the derivative of the unknown is equal to the sum of the control and of a white noise in time. We study the optimal control problem by means of the associated backward stochastic differential equations.     

A splitting method for total least squares color image restoration problem

Color image restoration is an important problem in image processing. Using the structured total least squares (STLS) for fidelity term of the restoration process gives better results in comparison with the least squares (LS) approach. The main drawback of the STLS approach is its complexity. To overcome this issue, in this paper by an appropriate transformation the color image restoration is substituted with two smaller subproblems corresponding to smooth and oscillatory parts of the image. The first and second subproblems are modeled via STLS and LS approaches, respectively. We show that the proposed method is faster than STLS and gives competitive solutions with it. Also, we demonstrate that Haar wavelet perseveres the structure of the blurring operator, which causes a considerable reduction in computational and storage complexity of the proposed method.     

Biomass based microturbine system for electricity generation for isolated communities in amazon region

This paper presents the development stages of a micro-scale system for electricity generation from biomass with 500 W of power. The proposed system is based on an open steam power cycle, whose conception was aimed at seeking solutions to meet the needs for energy supply in isolated communities in the Amazon region. In addition the great biomass potential in the region is an opportunity for the application of biomass energy to increase the economic activity and develop new technologies. The tests performed demonstrate that the steam turbine is the critical component to the commercial-scale feasibility of the presented technology, particularly when it's proposed manufacturing of the system by small regional industries.     

Long-term water balance and sustainable production of Miscanthus energy crops in the Loess Plateau of China

Sustainable production of second-generation energy crops on marginal land holds a great potential for renewable energy development. Because a vast area of marginal land is located in the arid and semiarid regions of the world, water shortage is the most serious environmental limitation. In this study, we developed a water balance model to address the question of whether Miscanthus energy crops can be sustainably produced in the Loess Plateau of China, a region of more than 60 million hectares particularly abundant in semiarid marginal land. The simulation of 20-year soil water content in bare soil, the winter wheat field, and the Miscanthus field across the Loess Plateau suggested that the long-term production of Miscanthus would not cause water depletion in deep soil. This finding addressed a serious concern that growing high-biomass plants in the Loess Plateau might lead to deep-soil water depletion, which was suggested to be the cause of previous failure of afforestation. Planting Miscanthus was effective in reducing surface runoff and consequently preventing water and soil loss in this heavily eroded region. The model and analyses illustrated where in the Loess Plateau this perennial energy crop could be produced with stable and sufficient yield.     

Judgement of rapid drawdown conditions in slope stability analysis

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - The rapid drawdown of reservoir may have a significant impact on the stability of adjacent slopes. In order to avoid potential risks, it is...     

Heating uniformity in radio frequency treated walnut kernels with different size and density

Radio frequency (RF) treatment is one of the most potential methods for disinfestations and pasteurizations of postharvest agriculture products. Non-uniform heating is the main issue for RF treatment to be used in a large-scale industrial application. A 6 kW, 27 MHz polit-scale RF system was used to reveal the heating uniformity of walnut kernels associated with different size and density. The results showed that the thicker sample in the container indicated the higher heating rate, but the worse heating uniformity when the sample was heated by RF energy with the same weight but larger size. The heating rate of samples decreased with increasing electrode gap, which was beneficial for improving the RF heating uniformity. Meanwhile, the RF heating uniformity index of samples increased with increasing kernel size and decreased with increasing density when the samples were treated with the same volume and heating rate. The heating uniformity indexes were 0.124 for whole kernels, 0.115 for half kernels, 0.104 for quarter kernels, and 0.082 for cracking kernels after RF thermal treatment with the same volume and electrode gap of 98 mm. Furthermore, the heating uniformity of mixing kernels was improved by increasing percentages of cracking kernels to whole or half kernels. The results of this research may provide valuable information to improve the RF heating uniformity in walnut kernels for large-scale industrial applications.     

Methylglyoxal: A newly detected and potentially harmful metabolite in the blood of ketotic dairy cows

Ketosis causes serious economic losses for the modern dairy industry because it is a highly prevalent metabolic disease among cows in high-producing herds during the transition period. Due to some striking similarities between diabetes in humans and ketosis in dairy cows, there is potential for the use of methylglyoxal (MGO)—commonly used in human diabetics—as a biomarker in dairy cattle. However, currently no data are available about the presence of MGO in the serum of dairy cattle or about the characteristics of its production or its potential contribution in the pathogenesis of ketosis. To determine the potential origin and pathway of formation of MGO, cows in different metabolic conditions [i.e., non-subclinically ketotic dairy cows in early lactation (n = 7), subclinically ketotic dairy cows in early lactation (n = 8), overconditioned dry cows (BCS >4.25, n = 6), and nonlactating heifers (n = 6)] were selected. Serum MGO concentrations were determined and correlated with indicators of the glucose and lipid metabolism and with haptoglobin (Hp) as an inflammatory marker. The serum MGO concentrations in subclinically ketotic cows (712.60 ± 278.77 nmol/L) were significantly greater than in nonlactating heifers (113.35 ± 38.90 nmol/L), overconditioned dry cows (259.71 ± 117.97 nmol/L), and non-subclinically ketotic cows (347.83 ± 63.56 nmol/L). In serum of lactating cows, concentrations of glucose and fructosamine were lower than in heifers and were negatively correlated with MGO concentrations. Even so, concentrations of metabolic and inflammatory markers such as dihydroxyacetone phosphate, nonesterified fatty acids, β-hydroxybutyrate, acetone, and Hp were remarkably higher in subclinically ketotic cows compared with nonlactating heifers; these metabolites were also positively correlated with MGO. In human diabetics elevated MGO concentrations are stated to originate from both hyperglycemia and the enhanced lipid metabolism, whereas higher MGO concentrations in subclinically ketotic cows were not associated with hyperglycemia. Therefore, our data suggest MGO in dairy cows to be a metabolite produced from the metabolization of acetone within the lipid metabolization pathway and from the metabolization of dihydroxyacetone phosphate. Furthermore, the highly positive correlation between MGO and Hp suggests that this reactive compound might be involved in the proinflammatory state of subclinical ketosis in dairy cows. However, more research is needed to determine the potential use of MGO as a biomarker for metabolic failure in dairy cows.