Thai Tea Seed Oil and Virgin Olive Oil Similarly Reduce Plasma Lipids: A Pilot Study within a Healthy Adult Male Population

The potential cardiovascular benefit of virgin olive oil (VOO) is widely recognized. However, the use of VOO at very high cooking temperatures makes these oils poorly suited for many Asian dishes. The use of tea seed oil (TSO) is increasing in Thailand, with TSO having a higher smoke point than VOO. The current study examines the effects of daily TSO intake in healthy adults. In a randomized, single-blind crossover design, 12 men consumed for 3 weeks 40 g day⁻¹ of food prepared with either TSO or VOO as a cooking oil. Plasma lipids, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and oxidant defense enzyme activities are measured before and after each 3-week intervention period. Gas chromatography analysis of TSO and VOO demonstrates that both oils are equally high in monounsaturated fatty acid. The dietary incorporation of TSO and VOO for three weeks reduces low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) concentrations by 15% and 13%, respectively; with total cholesterol (TC) levels lowered by 10% in both groups. No significant changes in TBARS or antioxidant enzyme activity is observed. These results support the concept that Thai TSO can be utilized as a suitable and healthy alternative oil for high-temperature cooking in many Thai and Asian diets. Practical Applications: Tea seed oil from Camellia oleifera grown in Thailand has been recently reported to favorably lower lipid profiles in hamsters fed a high-fat diet in a manner similar to feeding refined olive oil or grapeseed oil. A pilot crossover trial is conducted to compare the effects of three weeks of daily intake of either TSO or VOO in healthy human adults. Consumption of both oils produced significant reductions in TC and LDL-C. Thai TSO leads to favorable lipid profiles and is a reasonable choice for many Thai and Asian food recipes.     

Effect of grinding on chemical and physical properties of rice husk ash

The effect of grinding on the chemical and physical properties of rice husk ash was studied. Four rice husk ashes with different finenesses,i.e. coarse original rice husk ash (RHA0),RHA1,RHA2,and RHA3 were used for the study. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) was partially replaced with rice husk ash at 20% by weight of binder. The water to binder ratio (W/B) of the mortar was maintained at 110%±5% with flow table test. Specific gravity,fineness,chemical properties,compressive strength,and porosity test of mor...     

An extension of an over-dispersion test for count data

While over-dispersion in capture-recapture studies is well known to lead to poor estimation of population size, current diagnostic tools to detect the presence of heterogeneity have not been specifically developed for capture-recapture studies. To address this, a simple and efficient method of testing for over-dispersion in zero-truncated count data is developed and evaluated. The proposed method generalizes an over-dispersion test previously suggested for un-truncated count data and may also be used for testing residual over-dispersion in zero-inflation data. Simulations suggest that the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic is standard normal and that this approximation is also reasonable for small sample sizes. The method is also shown to be more efficient than an existing test for over-dispersion adapted for the capture-recapture setting. Studies with zero-truncated and zero-inflated count data are used to illustrate the test procedures.     

Alkali-promoted hydrothermal gasification of biomass food processing waste: A parametric study

A parametric study of alkali-promoted hydrogen gas production from by-products from food-based biomass, such as glucose, molasses and rice bran, under hydrothermal conditions has been carried out. Partial oxidation of the biomass samples was aided by the addition of hydrogen peroxide and experiments were carried out in the presence of sodium hydroxide. The effects of reaction temperature, reaction time and feed concentration on the conversion of glucose, molasses and rice bran to gaseous products under hydrothermal conditions were investigated. The reaction time and reaction temperature were investigated in the range of 0–120 min and 330–390 °C, respectively. The results confirmed the positive influence of NaOH in the production of hydrogen gas via the water–gas shift reaction. In the presence of the alkali, no tar/oil and char were observed. The hydrogen gas yield increased when the reaction temperature and reaction time increased. It was observed that higher reaction temperature led to an increase in the amount of methane gas produced. With increasing feed concentration, the yields of other gases such as CO, CO₂, CH₄ and C₂–C₄ increased, while hydrogen gas production decreased for all the biomass samples. The generation of gaseous products from the molasses and rice bran showed a similar trend to that of glucose, under identical test conditions.     

Effect of Treating of Squid with Sodium Chloride in Combination with Oxidising Agent on Bleaching,Physical and Chemical Changes During Frozen Storage

Pink discolouration is a problem faced in the squid processing industry, and some treatments have been implemented to tackle such a problem. The study aimed to elucidate the impact of NaCl in combination with oxidising agents on the quality changes of squid during frozen storage. The effects of treatment of pink squid using 3% (w/v) NaCl solution containing oxidising agents (0.05–0.5% (w/v) H₂O₂ or 0–10 ppm NaOCl) on colour and chemical and physical changes of squid during frozen storage were investigated. The lowest decreases in a*, b* values, ∆E* and ∆C* of squid were obtained with the treatment using 3% NaCl solution containing 0.5% H₂O₂. Nevertheless, NaOCl (0–10 ppm) had no impact on a* and b* values. During frozen storage at −18 °C for 10 weeks, fresh squid, pink squid samples without and with treatments with 3% NaCl solution containing 0.5% H₂O₂ had no changes in a* and b* values during frozen storage. Nevertheless, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances value, disulphide bond content, thaw drip and shear force were more pronounced in treated pink squid, compared with pink squid without treatment (control) and fresh squid, respectively, during the extended storage (p < 0.05). Higher denaturation and aggregation of muscle proteins during frozen storage were observed in treated pink squid than that without treatment and fresh squid, respectively. Therefore, pink squid treated with oxidising agent was prone to protein aggregation and denaturation during the extended frozen storage, though it could lower the pink colour. Therefore, fresh squid without treatment using oxidising agent is recommended for production of frozen squid with negligible loss in quality during extended storage.     

Pineapple leaf fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites: Effects of fiber length and fiber content on their characteristics

Pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) was used as a reinforcement in polyolefins. Polypropylene (PP) and low‐density polyethylene (LDPE) composites with different fiber lengths (long and short fibers) and fiber contents (0–25%) were prepared and characterized. The results showed that the tensile strength of the composites increased when the PALF contents were increased. It was observed that the composites containing long fiber PALF were stronger than the short fiber composites as determined by greater tensile strength. An SEM study on the tensile fractured surface confirmed the homogeneous dispersion of the long fibers in the polymer matrixes better than dispersion of the short fibers. The unidirectional arrangement of the long fibers provided good interfacial bonding between the PALF and polymer which was a crucial factor in achieving high strength composites. Reduction in crystallinity of the composites, as evident from XRD and DSC studies suggested that the reinforcing effect of PALF played an important role in enhancing their mechanical strength. From the rule of mixtures, the stress efficiency factors of the composite strength could be calculated. The stress efficiency factors of LDPE were greater than those of PP. This would possibly explain why the high modulus fiber (PALF) had better load transfers to the ductile matrix of LDPE than the brittle matrix of PP. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Improvement of optical properties of nanocrystalline Fe-doped ZnO powders through precipitation method from citrate-modified zinc nitrate solution

Nanocrystalline Zn_1−xFe_xO (where x = 0, 0.01 and 0.02) powders were successfully synthesized by a precipitation method from citrate-modified zinc nitrate solution. X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy were used to study the structural properties. The optical properties were determined by UV–vis spectrophotometer and luminescent spectrometer. In this study, the optical band gap of nanocrystalline ZnO powder increased from 3.170 eV to 3.214 eV when the Fe concentration in the solution was increased up to 2 mol. %.