Effect of Methionine Supplementation on Nitrogen Balance in Infants Fed a Low-Cost Soy-Oats Formula

A nitrogen balance study, comparing a low-cost soy-oats infant formula with and without supplemental methionine, was carried out with infants of ages 3 - 26 months at a single equivalent level of nitrogen intake (approximately 850 mg/kg/day). Nitrogen retention was found to be unaffected by methionine supplementation. Com- parison of data obtained in this study with previous research re- vealed that a critical value for intake of total L-sulfur amino acids apparently exists in infants 3 - 26 months of age, below which methionine supplementation will increase nitrogen retention, but above which it will not. This value appears to coincide with that of 49 mg/kg/day recommended for infants by the FNB.     

Turbidity of Beverages with Citrus Oil Clouding Agent

Basic principles of light scattering were used to predict turbidity in cloudy beverages for monodisperse and polydisperse systems of suspended citrus oil globules. Predicted values for specific turbidity agreed well with experimental values for diluted citrus oil-in-water beverage cloud emulsions. Citrus oil-in-water cloud emulsions were prepared with a pressure homogenizer at different pressures (4.1–27.56 kPa). Size distributions obtained for the emulsions fit the long-normal distribution and the distribution curves became more narrow as pressure of homogenization increased.     

THE COMPROMISE DECISION SUPPORT PROBLEM: MODELING THE DEVIATION FUNCTION AS IN PHYSICAL PROGRAMMING

The Archimedean and preemptive formulations that are currently used in the goal formulation of the Compromise Decision Support Problem (DSP) suffer two major drawbacks related to the arbitrary definition of priority levels and targets for multiple objectives. The Archimedean formulation is very difficult to implement because there is no consistent way to determine a prioria correct set of weights. Thus, choosing weights is either done arbitrarily or by cumbersome iterations. In the preemptive approach one objective is assumed to be infinitely more important than the others. Also, in the Compromise DSP it is necessary to define targets for each goal, and usually those targets are selected based on “educated guesses” or through an inefficient process of iteration. These shortcomings undermine the effectiveness of the Compromise DSP as a design tool. These problems can be amended by modifying the Compromise DSP according to the Linear Physical Programming (LPP) formulation. In this paper the modification of the Compromise DSP and its advantages are described, and the method is illustrated with a case example of the preliminary design of an absorption chiller.     

Lethality Distribution within Particles in the Holding Section of an Aseptic Processing System

Residence time distribution (RTD) affected lethal effects of heat on 1.27 cm diameter particles in the holding section of an aseptic processing system. The variations in particle center and particle surface F₀ were determined as a function of particle density, flow rate, and particle to fluid heat transfer coefficient, h_fp. Particles with density ratios of 1.00-1.04 relative to the carrier fluid showed diverse RTD characteristics in the hold tube. Particles with density ratio of 1.01 had the least residence time. The distribution of the particle center F₀ value increased with increase in the h_fp.     

Model for Evaluating Turbidity in Cloudy Beverages

A model was developed to simulate diluted emulsions of clouding agents in beverages using uniform latex particles (ULP) at different concentrations and particle sizes ranging from 0.10 to 5.85 μm. The model allows determination of optimum concentration and diameter of suspended particles in diluted suspensions. Turbidity measurements showed that, for a given particle concentration, the haze of a diluted suspension reached a maximum when the diameter of the ULP was decreased to 0.2-0.3 μm. A comparison of typical citrus oil in water beverage emulsions with diluted ULP suspensions showed that, when size of suspended oil globules was varied, a similar optimum particle size was found.     

Reverse Monte Carlo reconstruction algorithm for discrete electron tomography based on HAADF‐STEM atom counting

In this paper, we propose an algorithm to obtain a three‐dimensional reconstruction of a single nanoparticle based on the method of atom counting. The location of atoms in three dimensions has been successfully performed using simulations of high‐angle‐annular‐dark‐field images from only three zone‐axis projections, [110], [310] and [211], for a face‐centred cubic particle. These three orientations are typically accessible by low‐tilt holders often used in high‐performance scanning transmission electron microscopes.     

PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CASHEW APPLE (ANACARDIUM OCCIDENTALE L.) AND GUAVA (PSIDIUM GUAJAVA L.) FRUIT POWDERS

Cashew apple and guava residues from fruit juice processing industry were prepared as dehydrated fruit powders. Differences in compositional and physicochemical characteristics between both fruit powders were significant at the 5% probability level, with exception to ash content. It is important to point out that despite the dehydration process, both samples can still be considered good sources of vitamin C. In addition, the results show that the guava and cashew apple powders may be useful in the food industry as high dietary "fiber ingredients." Higher lipid (14.05%) content was observed in guava powder. The guava powder could be an alternative source of lipid. The data also indicated that these materials are good sources of ash. The results suggest further utilization of these residues as valuable food ingredients or as a resource for nutraceuticals.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Large quantity of agro-industrial residues formed by fruit juice extraction represents a major disposal problem. An alternative to recycling the fruit-industrial residue is to submit it to drying processes and transform into value-added products as dehydrated fruit powder. In this way, this process contributes to diminish the problem and to recover valuable biomass and nutrients. The purpose of this study was to develop a technology to obtain guava and cashew apple powders with the objective of finding alternatives to the exploitation of these residues as valuable sources of vitamin C, as ashes and lipid that should also be regarded as potential nutraceutical resources in future or functional ingredients.     

APPLICATION OF MULTIVARIATE STATISTICS FOR THE QUALITY CLASSIFICATION OF SINGLE-STRENGTH GRAPEFRUIT JUICE

Grapefruit juice volatiles were collected and analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography for 24 samples of commercial single-strength grapefruit juice from different production days and storage conditions. With the help of multivariate statistics, attempts have been made to classify them according to the chromatographic data and sensory evaluation of the juice. The data was analyzed by canonical and cluster analysis. As a typical result, it was found that using three constituents, the samples could be classified into four different quality classes. From the point of view of sensory interpretation, the canonical analysis also proved to be an interesting approach. Of the three more significant constituents, nootkatone and an unknown constituent have positive contribution, while another unknown constituent give a reverse contribution.     

Detection of chicken meat in raw meat mixtures by a sandwich enzyme immunoassay

A double-antibody sandwich ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) has been successfully developed for the detection of low levels of chicken meat (1–30%) in unheated meat mixtures. The assay uses chicken-specific antibodies, obtained by immunoadsorption of the crude chicken antisera onto immobilized sarcoplasmic extracts from beef, pig and horse, to remove cross-reacting antibodies. The purified antibodies, bound to the wells of a microtitre plate, sequester chicken muscle soluble proteins from saline extracts of meat mixtures. Immuno-recognition is made with similar purified antibodies conjugated to the enzyme horseradish peroxidase. Subsequent enzymic conversion of substrate gives clear optical density differences, when assaying minced beef and pig containing variable amounts of chicken meat.