Effect of high hydrostatic pressure pretreatment on flavour and physicochemical properties of freeze-dried carambola slices

Ripe carambolas are hard to store and transport, while freeze-dried ones are easy to store. However, its long production time leads to higher costs. This study shows that high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) treatment could shorten the freeze-drying time of carambola slices. After HHP treatment (25–250 MPa), the drying time of the fresh sample can be shortened by 33.3–44.4% and the distribution of water and pigment in tissues is much uniform. With the increment of the pressure, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and hydroxyl radical scavenging rate are increased. At 250 MPa, the total phenolic content (TPC) increased from 11.34 to 13.36 mg GAE g⁻¹, and the total flavonoid content (TFC) of the control sample was increased from 10.77 to 12.73 mg RE g⁻¹. Compared with the untreated sample, HHP treatment can enhance the flavour and shorten the freeze-drying time. This work guides the application of HHP technology for drying food processing.     

Theoretical investigation of intrinsic point defects and the oxygen migration behavior in rare earth hafnates

In this work, the composition-dependent point defect types and formation energies of RE₂Hf₂O₇ (RE = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu and Gd) as well as the oxygen diffusion behavior are systematically investigated by first-principles calculations. The possible defect reactions and dominant defect complexes under stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric conditions are revealed. It is found that O Frenkel pairs are the predominant defect in stoichiometric pyrochlore hafnates. Hf-RE cation anti-site defects, accompanied by RE vacancies and/or oxygen interstitials, are stable in the non-stoichiometric case of HfO₂ excess. On the other hand, RE-Hf anti-site defects together with oxygen vacancies and/or RE interstitials are preferable in the case of RE₂O₃ excess. The energy barriers for the migration along the V_O48f - V_O48f pathway of pyrochlore hafnates were calculated to be between 0.81 eV and 0.89 eV. Based on these results, a defect engineering strategy is proposed and the pyrochlore hafnates investigated here are predicted to exhibit potential oxygen ionic conductivity.     

Facial-sketch Synthesis: A New Challenge

Machine Intelligence Research - This paper aims to conduct a comprehensive study on facial-sketch synthesis (FSS). However, due to the high cost of obtaining hand-drawn sketch datasets, there is a...     

Fabrication of crescent-shaped ceramic microparticles based on single emulsion microfluidics

Ceramic microparticles have great potentials in various fields such as materials engineering, biotechnology, microelectromechanical systems, etc. Morphology of the microparticle performs an important role on their application. To date, it remains difficult to find an effective and controllable way for fabricating nonspherical ceramic microparticles with 3D features. This work demonstrates a method that combines UV light lithography and single emulsion opaque-droplet-templated microfluidic molding to prepare the crescent-shaped ceramic microparticles. By tailoring the intensity of UV light and flow rate of fluid, the shapes of microparticles are accordingly tuned. Therefore, varieties of crescent-shaped microparticles and their variations have been fabricated. After sintering, the crescent-shaped alumina ceramic microparticles were obtained. Benefitting from the light absorption and scattering behavior of most ceramic nanoparticles, this system can serve as a general platform to produce crescent-shaped microparticles made from different materials, and hold great potentials for applications in microrobotics, structural materials in MEMS, and biotechnology.     

Comparison of yield and metabolites according to the types of hilling materials utilized during Glehnia littoralis sprout vegetable cultivation

Food Science and Biotechnology - Various hilling materials (rice hulls, pine sawdust, and perlite) were compared to produce sprout vegetables using beach silvertop (Glehnia littoralis Fr. Schm. ex...     

Evaluating differentially private decision tree model over model inversion attack

International Journal of Information Security - Machine learning techniques have been widely used and shown remarkable performance in various fields. Along with the widespread utilization of...     

盾构隧道施工物料无人运输发展现状及关键技术

盾构隧道施工物料无人运输有助于提升运输效率、降低运输成本、减少运输安全事故率。与公路汽车无人驾驶、港口车辆无人驾驶、轨道交通无人驾驶等逐步成熟的无人驾驶技术不同，在隧道场景下实施施工物料无人运输存在运输物料种类繁多、运输调度困难、地下定位信号拒止、狭窄车道频繁会车、行车路面工况复杂、地上地下联动响应慢等诸多挑战。从实现盾构隧道施工物料无人运输的关键问题分析入手，综述当前盾构隧道施工物料运输方式、运输需求、无人运输发展现状及存在的挑战，提出盾构隧道施工物料无人运输的五大关键技术：多种类物料智能货控能效管理技术，无人化垂直装卸门机控制技术，多传感器融合同步定位与地图构建技术，隧道复杂环境路径规划与自主避障技术，隧-地一体化联动响应的高可靠性无线通信技术。     

Facile preparation and strong adhesive strength of honeycomb polyurethane films with small pore diameter

With the continuous development of bionics, such as, geckos and virginia creeper with both superhydrophobic and super-adhesive, the surface wetting and super-adhesive properties of various porous materials have attracted extensive attention of the scientific and medical communities. Here, the honeycomb polyurethane (PU) porous films with strong adhesion were successfully prepared by microphase separation method and the effects of growth parameters on their microstructure and adhesive strength to ice were investigated. It was found that a high relative humidity (e.g., 100%) and a low solution concentration (e.g., 2%) facilitated the formation of ordered honeycomb PU porous films, and as-prepared PU pores with average pore diameter as small as 5 μm are better ordered and more uniform than these in related documents. Although the contact angle of water droplets on the surface of PU porous films increased from the premodification value of 85–130° to more than 160° after surface modification with polydopamine (PDA), the corresponding rolling angle remained approximately constant (180°), indicating that the surface of PU porous films has strong adhesion similar to geckos and virginia creeper. Furthermore, at lower temperature, the PU porous films exhibited the high adhesive strength of 142.13 kPa on ice, which was strongly dependent on the porous microstructures and surface compositions. The improved adhesive behavior to ice of honeycomb PU porous films modified with PDA provides new strategies for surface modification of materials and potential applications in medical domain.