Some electrical effects in an aluminum/propane/oxygen flame jet at atmospheric pressure

Three electrical effects in an approximately stoichiometric propane-oxygen flame seeded with aluminum powder were studied: a) increase in flame current caused by the addition of aluminum, b) effect of transverse electrical field on the rate of aluminum oxide deposition onto a solid surface, c) effect of the field on the rate of heat transfer to a flat plate immersed in the flame. The maximum field was limited by breakdown to about 450 v/cm. It appears that the oxide deposition rate and the heat transfer rate can be influenced by relatively small electric fields.     

Effect of Enzyme Pre-treatments on Bioactive Compounds in Extracted Tiger Nut Oil and Sugars in Residual Meals

Tiger nut oil is a novel oil that requires more research data on its characteristics. In this study, the oil was extracted using both enzyme‐aided pressing (EAP) and aqueous enzymatic extraction (AEE) methods. Using enzymes as a pre‐treatment prior to mechanical pressing increased the concentration of some phenolic acids and tocopherols present in extracted oils compared to controls. High pressure processing as a pre‐treatment before aqueous enzymatic extraction also enhanced tocopherols and total polyphenolic content in oils. The percentage free fatty acid and peroxide values indicated that under the initial extraction parameters, the oils were stable and they all met the standards for virgin olive oil set by the International Olive Oil Council. Residual meals from both extraction processes contained low protein contents ranging from 2.4 to 4.6 %. Additionally, EAP and AEE meals contained low DP (degree of polymerisation) sugars that appeared as 1‐kestose (DP3) and nystose (DP4). EAP had the highest total DP3 and DP4 sugar content of 82.5 mg/g. These sugars would need further assessment to verify their identity and determine their suitability as a potential food.     

Thermoelastic plane waves in a transversely isotropic body

Summary Plane waves in a linear, homogeneous and transversely isotropic thermoelastic body are discussed on the basis of a unified system of governing equations. It is found that the motion influenced by the thermal field takes place in three coupled modes. Explicit expressions for the phase velocities and attenuation coefficients of these modes in the cases of high and low frequencies are obtained. Results valid in the conventional and generalized thermoelasticity theories are recovered as particular cases. Comparison with the corresponding results obtained in earlier works is made.     

Robust structure and motion recovery for monocular vision systems with noisy measurements

This study proposes a novel complete-order nonlinear structure and motion observer for monocular vision systems subjected to significant measurement noise. In contrast with previous studies that assume noise-free measurements, and require prior knowledge of either the relative motion of the camera or scene geometry, the proposed scheme assumes a single component of linear velocity as known. Under a persistency of excitation condition, the observer then relies on filtered estimates of optical flow to yield exponentially convergent estimates of the unknown motion parameters and feature depth that converge to a uniform, ultimate bound in the presence of measurement noise. The unknown linear and angular velocities are assumed to be generated using an imperfectly known model that incorporates a bounded uncertainty, and optical flow estimation is accomplished using a robust differentiator that is based on the sliding-mode technique. Numerical results are used to validate and demonstrate superior observer performance compared to an alternative leading design in the presence of model uncertainty and measurement noise.     

Lipoxygenase and Tocopherol Profiling of Soybean Genotypes Exposed to Electron Beam Irradiation

Electron beam (EB)-irradiation is increasingly being preferred to radioactive-based gamma irradiation in overcoming the constraints that affect the quality of food material. Soybean seeds of 3 soybean genotypes were exposed to 4 doses viz. 4.8, 9.2, 15.3 and 21.2 kGy of EB-irradiation and assessed for the changes in the contents of lipoxygenase isozymes and tocopherol isomers. Densitometry of protein profile revealed decreasing intensity of lipoxygenase with increasing EB dose. All the 3 lipoxygenase isozymes viz. lipoxygenase-1, -2 and -3 registered significant (P < 0.05) increasing reduction with increasing dose; though genotypic variation was noted for the magnitude of reduction at the same dose. Concomitantly, all the 3 genotypes exhibited significant (P < 0.05) decline in α-, γ- and δ-isomers of tocopherol. δ-Tocopherol was the most sensitive to EB-irradiation. EB dose, which caused minimum and maximum decline in total tocopherol content, was genotype-dependent. Decline in vitamin E activity corresponding to the dose, which induced maximum reduction for total lipoxygenase also varied in 3 genotypes. The study showed the usefulness of EB for significant inactivation of off-flavor generating lipoxygenases in soybean, with a non-significant effect on oil content and varied retention of tocopherol isomers and vitamin E activity depending upon genotype.     

Kinetics of sensory quality changes in soymilk during thermal processing,by parametric and non‐parametric data analyses

Soymilk was subjected to various heat treatments at 90, 120 and 140 °C for various lengths of time. The colour and flavour of the soymilk samples were evaluated by a sensory panel consisting of eight semi‐trained assessors on (1) a 9‐unit hedonic scale, with analysis based on the assumption that the units are equidistant, and (2) a 15‐point hedonic ‘Smiley’ pictorial scale, the results being analysed non‐parametrically. The proportion (%) of ratings higher than or equal to/higher than the overall median of the samples was used as a rigorous estimate of product quality. These values were used to determine the colour and flavour changes in heated soymilk and their temperature dependence. The Z‐values derived from the parametric and non‐parametric analyses were in close agreement, ranging from 31 to 33 °C and from 30 to 32 °C for colour and flavour respectively. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry     

Effect of Germination on the Functional and Moisture Sorption Properties of High–Pressure-Processed Foxtail Millet Grain Flour

Foxtail millet is one of the commonly cultivated, nutritionally competitive source of protein, fibre, phytochemicals and other micronutrients, as compared to major cereals like wheat and rice. Considering the potential of these grains, the high pressure processed flours of germinated (GFMF) and non-germinated foxtail millet (NGFMF) grains were studied for its functional, moisture sorption and thermodynamic properties. Germination and high-pressure processing of foxtail millet grains significantly improved the functional properties of the flour. Apart from this, the moisture sorption isotherms of both the flours were determined at 10, 25 and 40 °C and the sorption data was fitted to Guggenheim-Anderson-De Boer (GAB) sorption model. The monolayer moisture content for NGFMF and GFMF ranged between 3.235–2.364 and 2.987–2.063 g g^?1, respectively. The isosteric heat of sorption ranged between ? 76.35 to ? 38.23 kJ mol^?1 for NGFMF and 172.55 to ? 34.02 kJ mol^?1 for GFMF at a moisture range of 0 to 36%, whereas, the integral entropy of sorption for NGFMF ranged between ? 0.404 and ? 0.120 kJ mol^?1 K^?1 and for GFMF between ? 0.667 and ? 0.383 kJ mol^?1 K^?1. Along with the validation of the compensation theory, the values of spreading pressures lied in the range of 0–0.078 J m^?2 for NGFMF and 0– 0.124 J m^?2 for GFMF, while, the glass transition temperatures ranged between 82.25 and 28.67 °C for NGFMF and from 51.11 to 11.83 °C for GFMF at all three temperatures.