Effects of high-pressure-modified soy 11S globulin on the gel properties and water-holding capacity of pork batter

The effects of high-pressure-modified soy 11S globulin (0.1, 200, and 400 MPa) on the gel properties, water-holding capacity, and water mobility of pork batter were investigated. The high-pressure-modified soy 11S globulin significantly increased (P < 0.05) the emulsion stability, cooking yield, hardness, springiness, chewiness, resilience, cohesiveness, the a^* and b^* values, and the G′ and G′′ values of pork batter at 80 °C, compared with those of 0.1 MPa-modified globulin. In contrast, the centrifugal loss and initial relaxation time of T_2b, T₂₁, and T₂₂ significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the microstructure was denser, and the voids were smaller and more uniform compared with those of 0.1 MPa-modified globulin. In addition, the sample with 11S globulin modified at 400 MPa had the best water-holding capacity, gel structure, and gel properties among the samples. Overall, the use of high-pressure-modified soy 11S globulin improved the gel properties and water-holding capacity of pork batter, especially under 400 MPa.     

Effect of cooking temperature on texture and flavour binding of braised sauce porcine skin

To investigate the effect of cooking temperature (55, 65, 75, 85 and 95 °C) on texture and flavour binding of braised sauce porcine skin (BSPS), sensory acceptance, microstructure and flavour-binding capacity were investigated during the processing of BSPS. Samples cooked at 85 and 95 °C showed better texture and aroma scores. Hardness and chewiness of BSPS were obviously improved at 85 and 95 °C than control group. Collagen structure was significantly destroyed over 85 °C. The porcine skin collagen heated at 85 and 95 °C showed relatively higher flavour-binding capacity than other samples. The improvement of texture of BSPS was mainly attributed to the degradation of collagen. Higher aroma scores of BSPS were related to intense binding abilities with aroma compounds at 85 and 95 °C. Cooking at 85 or 95 °C could be an optimal cooking temperature for BSPS.     

Physicochemical and technological properties of beef burger as influenced by the addition of pea fibre

This study aimed to evaluate the physicochemical characteristics and sensory attributes of beef burgers with the addition of pea fibre as a partial substitute of meat or fat. Three formulations were prepared: control (CON) – similar to the commercial formulation; fibre/less meat (FLM)—5% meat reduction and addition of 1% pea fibre; fibre/less fat (FLF)—7% fat reduction and addition of 1% pea fibre. Non-significant differences were obtained for pH, colour parameters (L* and b*), texture profile, cooking loss and size reduction among formulations. Moreover, sensory analysis with consumers of beef burgers did not indicate differences among the formulations for all the analysed attributes. Therefore, pea fibre is a promising partial replacer for meat and fat in beef burgers due to the preservation of technological parameters and sensory acceptance.     

Developing novel liquid crystal technologies for display and photonic applications

Modern liquid crystal displays (LCDs) require novel technologies, such as new alignment methods to eliminate alignment layers, fast response and long operation time. To this end, we report an overview of recent efforts in LCD technologies devoted to realize more display modes having no alignment layer, faster switching time and low battery consumption. In particular, we overview recent advances on the liquid crystals (LCs) alignment for display applications, which includes superfine nanostructures, polymeric microchannels and polymer stabilized LCs. Furthermore, we analyze the main optical and electro-optical properties of new generation LCDs displays addressing a particular attention to LCs blue phase hosting gold nanoparticles. Moreover, we focus on the progress of electrofluidic displays, which demonstrates characteristics that are similar to LCDs, with attention on various pixel designs, operation principles and possible future trends of the technology.     

Effect of chitosan on Bacillus cereus inhibition and quality of cooked rice during storage

Improper cooling of cooked rice at an inappropriate temperature or leaving cooked rice at room temperature can cause food poisoning attributed to Bacillus cereus. Natural food preservative of either squid or crab polymer chitosan solution was added to examine their antibacterial properties against Bacillus cereus in cooked rice during storage at 37 and 4 °C. Both types of chitosan could retard the growth of B. cereus and total aerobic counts in cooked rice stored at 37 °C up to 1 day. In addition, the effect of chitosans on the physical and textural properties of cooked rice during storage was studied. Both chitosans slightly increased the moisture content of cooked rice. However, chitosans had no effect on the whiteness and hardness of cooked rice during storage (P > 0.05). Therefore, both chitosans have a potential to be used as food preservative for cooked rice with no negative effects on rice quality.     

Use of heat-moisture treated maize starch to modify the properties of wheat flour and the quality of noodles

Waxy, normal and high-amylose maize starches were subjected to heat-moisture treatment (HMT) and then added to wheat flour (WF) in different ratios (1%, 5% and 10%). The properties of blends and their cooked noodles were studied to investigate the effects of HMT starches. The incorporation of HMT starch in WF led to an increase in swelling power, peak viscosity and breakdown and to a decrease in setback, thus inhibiting retrogradation, hence enhancing resultant noodle softness. Compared to the same addition ratio of native starch to WF, HMT starch led to higher tensile strength and extensibility in resultant noodles. WF with added HMT starch had higher resistant starch than with native starch. This study showed that addition of HMT maize starch has potential to bring nutritional benefits. However, it is necessary to select the proper blending ratio and amylose content of starch to add, in consideration of its effect on noodle quality.     

基于小波变换的分数阶微分算法在肝脏肿瘤CT图像纹理增强中的应用

图像纹理增强过程中容易丢失平滑区域纹理细节，而分数阶微分增强虽然能够非线性保留平滑区域纹理细节，但对频率分辨率敏感。针对这个问题，提出一种基于小波变换的分数阶微分纹理增强算法，应用于平扫计算机断层扫描（CT）图像的肝脏肿瘤区域的纹理增强。首先，通过小波变换将图像感兴趣区分解成多个子带分量；其次，基于分数阶微分定义构造一个带补偿参数的分数阶微分掩膜；最后，使用该掩膜与每个高频子带分量进行卷积并利用小波逆变换重组图像感兴趣区。实验结果表明，该方法在使用较大分数阶次显著增强肿瘤区域的高频轮廓信息的同时，有效地保留了低频平滑的纹理细节：增强后的肝细胞癌区域与原区域相比，信息熵平均增加36.56%，平均梯度平均增加321.56%，平均绝对差值平均为9.287；增强后的肝血管瘤区域与原区域相比，信息熵平均增加48.77%，平均梯度平均增加511.26%，平均绝对差值平均为14.097。     

Facial expression recognition of intercepted video sequences based on feature point movement trend and feature block texture variation

Facial Expression Recognition (FER) is an important subject of human–computer interaction and has long been a research area of great interest. Accurate Facial Expression Sequence Interception (FESI) and discriminative expression feature extraction are two enormous challenges for the video-based FER. This paper proposes a framework of FER for the intercepted video sequences by using feature point movement trend and feature block texture variation. Firstly, the feature points are marked by Active Appearance Model (AAM) and the most representative 24 of them are selected. Secondly, facial expression sequence is intercepted from the face video by determining two key frames whose emotional intensities are minimum and maximum, respectively. Thirdly, the trend curve which represents the Euclidean distance variations between any two selected feature points is fitted, and the slopes of specific points on the trend curve are calculated. Finally, combining Slope Set which is composed by the calculated slopes with the proposed Feature Block Texture Difference (FBTD) which refers to the texture variation of facial patch, the final expressional feature are formed and inputted to One-dimensional Convolution Neural Network (1DCNN) for FER. Five experiments are conducted in this research, and three average FER rates 95.2%, 96.5%, and 97% for Beihang University (BHU) facial expression database, MMI facial expression database, and the combination of two databases, respectively, have shown the significant advantages of the proposed method over the existing ones.     

Correlation between instrumental texture and colour quality attributes with sensory analysis of selected cheeses as affected by fat contents

This study evaluated several physical and sensory parameters of different types of cheese available in the Polish market. The measurements of textural properties were conducted in an Instron universal testing machine, while the colour properties of cheeses were measured using a Minolta chromameter. The chemical composition was determined by means of the near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRs). Moreover, a trained sensory panel was invited to assess the cheese texture‐related properties. Generally, cheeses with reduced fat content were characterised by higher hardness, adhesiveness, cohesiveness and elasticity. Texture‐related parameters of cheese with canola oil were comparable to that of most of full‐fat cheeses. The correlation analysis between physical and sensory attributes related to cheese textural properties indicated the potential applications of TPA, shear and penetration tests (r = 0.766, r = 0.75 and r = 0.765, respectively) for the evaluation of sensory properties related to the hardness. Meanwhile, the elasticity of cheese obtained from sensory evaluation was strongly correlated with the elasticity determined from the shear test (r = 0.722) and moderately correlated with the elasticity from penetration test (r = 0.588), indicating a need to refine the method of penetration test. In addition, cheeses exhibited higher meltability during convection heating at 230 °C than microwave heating. The values of meltability for cheese with reduced fat content were lower than those of full‐fat cheese.     

Design and Characterization of a New pVII Combinatorial Phage Display Peptide Library for Protease Substrate Mining Using Factor VII Activating Protease (FSAP) as Model

We describe a novel, easy and efficient combinatorial phage display peptide substrate-mining method to map the substrate specificity of proteases. The peptide library is displayed on the pVII capsid of the M13 bacteriophage, which renders pIII necessary for infectivity and efficient retrieval, in an unmodified state. As capture module, the 3XFLAG was chosen due to its very high binding efficiency to anti-FLAG mAbs and its independency of any post-translational modification. This library was tested with Factor-VII activating protease (WT-FSAP) and its single-nucleotide polymorphism variant Marburg-I (MI)-FSAP. The WT-FSAP results confirmed the previously reported Arg/Lys centered FSAP cleavage site consensus as dominant, as well as reinforcing MI-FSAP as a loss-of-function mutant. Surprisingly, rare substrate clones devoid of basic amino acids were also identified. Indeed one of these peptides was cleaved as free peptide, thus suggesting a broader range of WT-FSAP substrates than previously anticipated.