Bovidae-based gelatin: Extractions method,physicochemical and functional properties,applications, and future trends

Gelatin is one of the most important multifunctional biopolymers and is widely used as an essential ingredient in food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics. Porcine gelatin is regarded as the leading source of gelatin globally then followed by bovine gelatin. Porcine sources are favored over other sources since they are less expensive. However, porcine gelatin is religiously prohibited to be consumed by Muslims and the Jewish community. It is predicted that the global demand for gelatin will increase significantly in the future. Therefore, a sustainable source of gelatin with efficient production and free of disease transmission must be developed. The highest quality of Bovidae-based gelatin (BG) was acquired through alkaline pretreatment, which displayed excellent physicochemical and rheological properties. The utilization of mammalian- and plant-based enzyme significantly increased the gelatin yield. The emulsifying and foaming properties of BG also showed good stability when incorporated into food and pharmaceutical products. Manipulation of extraction conditions has enabled the development of custom-made gelatin with desired properties. This review highlighted the various modifications of extraction and processing methods to improve the physicochemical and functional properties of Bovidae-based gelatin. An in-depth analysis of the crucial stage of collagen breakdown is also discussed, which involved acid, alkaline, and enzyme pretreatment, respectively. In addition, the unique characteristics and primary qualities of BG including protein content, amphoteric property, gel strength, emulsifying and viscosity properties, and foaming ability were presented. Finally, the applications and prospects of BG as the preferred gelatin source globally were outlined.     

Multimodal magnetic resonance imaging for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis using hybrid features extraction and ensemble support vector machines

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly used in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in order to identify abnormalities in the brain. Indeed, cortical atrophy, a powerful biomarker for AD, can be detected using structural MRI (sMRI), but it cannot detect impairment in the integrity of the white matter (WM) preceding cortical atrophy. The early detection of these changes is made possible by the novel MRI modality known as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In this study, we integrate DTI and sMRI as complementary imaging modalities for the early detection of AD in order to create an effective computer-assisted diagnosis tool. The fused Bag-of-Features (BoF) with Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) and modified AlexNet convolutional neural network (CNN) are utilized to extract local and deep features. This is applied to DTI scalar metrics (fractional anisotropy and diffusivity metric) and segmented gray matter images from T1-weighted MRI images. Then, the classification of local unimodal and deep multimodal features is first performed using support vector machine (SVM) classifiers. Then, the majority voting technique is adopted to predict the final decision from the ensemble SVMs. The study is directed toward the classification of AD versus mild cognitive impairment (MCI) versus cognitively normal (CN) subjects. Our proposed method achieved an accuracy of 98.42% and demonstrated the robustness of multimodality imaging fusion.     

An overview of smart packaging technologies for monitoring safety and quality of meat and meat products

The food packaging sector has experienced much development since its inception. In the past few decades, innovations in packaging sector have led to the development of smart packaging (SP) systems that carve a niche in a highly competitive food industry. SP systems have great potential for improving the shelf‐life, and safety of food products apart from their basic roles of protecting the products against unwanted biological, chemical, and physical damage and keeping them clean. Indicators and sensors, SP components, are used for real‐time monitoring of meat quality and subsequently inform the retailers and consumers about the freshness, microbiological, temperature, and shelf life status of the products. Barcodes and radio‐frequency identification tags are employed in meat packaging for real‐time information about the authenticity, and traceability of the products in the supply chain. Recently, innovations in SP technologies resulted in fast, sensitive, and effective detection, sensing, and record keeping of freshness, microbiological, and shelf life status of meat and meat products. The SP system shows promise for extensive utilization in the meat industry in response to the consumer appreciation for safe, and quality meat products, as well as their waste reduction notions. This paper gives an updated overview of ongoing scientific research, and recent technological advances that offer the perspectives of developing smart meat packaging systems that are capable of monitoring the physical, microbial, and chemical changes of the package contents from producer to the point of sale and even beyond, and remediating potential adverse reactions.     

Joint optimization of preventive maintenance and inventory control in a production line using simulation

This paper proposes an integrated method for preventive maintenance and inventory control of a production line, composed of n machines (n?≥?1) without intermediate buffers. The machines are subject to failures and an age-dependent preventive maintenance policy is used. Approximate analytical results are proposed for the one machine case. Simulation software is used to model and simulate the behaviour of the production line of n machines under various maintenance and inventory control strategies. A methodology combining the simulation and genetic algorithms is proposed jointly to optimize maintenance and inventory control policies. Results are compared with the analytical solutions.     

Hypocholesterolaemic effect of yoghurt containing Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum G4 or Bifidobacterium longum BB536

The effect of a yoghurt supplement containing Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum G4 or Bifidobacterium longum BB536 on plasma lipids, lipid peroxidation and the faecal excretion of bile acids was examined in rats fed a cholesterol-enriched diet. After 8 weeks, the rats in the positive control (PC) group who were fed the cholesterol-enriched diet showed significant increases in plasma total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and malondialdehyde (MDA). However, groups fed a cholesterol-enriched diet supplemented with yoghurt containing B. pseudocatenulatum G4 or B. longum BB536 had significantly lower plasma TC, LDL-C, very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol, and MDA than had the PC group after 8 weeks of treatment. In addition, faecal excretion of bile acids was markedly increased in the rats fed the yoghurt containing B. pseudocatenulatum G4 or B. longum BB536 as compared to the PC and NC groups.     

Catalytic effects of metals of the iron subgroup on the chlorination of titanium carbide to form nanostructural carbon

The effect of the reaction temperature and the metals of an iron subgroup on the thermo-chemical treatment of titanium carbide with a chlorine gas and their influence on the carbon structure obtained thereby was studied. Different analytical methods such as porosity measurements, X-ray diffraction spectrometry and a high-resolution electron microscopy revealed the catalytic behaviour of the above-mentioned metals, which appeared to support the formation of graphitised carbon at much lower temperatures compared to those needed for the ordinary thermo-chemical chlorination of titanium carbide.     

Artificial Antigen-Presenting Interfaces in the Service of Immunology

While the beneficial impact of modifying and/or targeting T lymphocytes is becoming increasingly accepted in the treatment of different diseases, the road towards cell-based immunotherapy is still long and winding. Major challenges that remain include, amongst others, the guidance and exquisite regulation of immune processes ex vivo. In part, this is due to the difficulties of simulating ex vivo the intimate cellular interactions that occur between T cells and antigen-presenting cells (APCs). The fate of T cells is not solely regulated by the presence of certain molecules on the surface of APCs but also by their density and spatial distribution on the micro- and nanometric scale. Moreover, mechanical properties of APCs and force-dependent conformational changes during the formation of an immunological synapse (IS; a highly organized supramolecular complex at the T cell APC interface), play a crucial role in T cell fate regulation. Various different technical means have been developed to create APC substitutes that are able to simulate ex vivo signals originating from naturally occurring APCs. Here, we review the performance of APC surrogates and discuss their contribution to understanding mechanisms underlying the ability of T cells to perform the “intelligent” mission of acquiring, processing and responding to environmental information.     

Apparatus for high temperature friction measurement

The static and dynamic coefficient of friction between two flat surfaces at elevated temperature is under investigation. The equipment used in this study was originally designed for the precision glass molding (PGM) process and was then modified for friction measurement. The ultimate aim of this research is to study and characterize the frictional behavior between glass and a mold surface at elevated temperatures typical of the PGM process and under conditions similar to those for this process. This paper describes the design of the apparatus, and validation experiments using a steel-steel material pair at room temperature for comparison with values reported in the literature. The average friction coefficient between the steel-steel pair was found to be 0.17. Subsequent experiments using steel against steel and BK-7 glass against steel, found the stick-slip phenomena is happening at 577 °C.