Surface influence on the behavior of stabilized zirconia nanoparticles under pressure

The surface state of partially stabilized zirconia with nanoparticles of sizes 10–30 nm after temperature and pressure treatments was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and small-angle X-ray scattering. It is shown that the synthesized nanoparticles are surface fractals and the fractal dimensions non-monotonically change with nanoparticles size change. The martensite tetragonal-to-monoclinic transition of the partially stabilized zirconia nanoparticles under hydrostatic pressure (100–1000 MPa) was investigated. It was shown that the character of the martensite transition in nanoparticles’ system depends on the pressure values. Three ranges of pressures were revealed. It was shown that the stability of martensite tetragonal–monoclinic transition decreases with the increase in size of the nanoparticles only for the pressures range of 300–500 MPa. Below 200 MPa, the character of the martensite transition is extreme and has a maximum for the particle size of 17 nm. In pressure range of 600–1000 MPa, the degree of martensite transition is dependent on the fractal dimension of the surface.     

Examining the possibilities of applying high pressure to preserve yoghurt supplemented with probiotic bacteria

Natural yoghurt was subject to pressures of 200 and 250 MPa/4 and 18°C/15 min, after which milk-activated inocula of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium sp. were added. The yoghurts were stored for 4 weeks at refrigeration temperature. After preparation and each week of storage, the count of bacteria, acidity, antibacterial property and an organoleptic assessment was determined. The highest survival rate was demonstrated by the bacteria of Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus and Bifidobacterium sp. in the yoghurt pressurised 200 MPa/15min at 4°C. Acidity increases in the control yoghurts were higher than in the pressurised ones. Pressurised yoghurts demonstrated weaker antibacterial effect in comparison to control yoghurts. Slight changes in the smell and taste were observed after pressurisation. Yoghurts pressurised at 18°C were characterised by more favourable organoleptic properties. Better conciseness of the curd and lower whey seep out were observed in pressurised yoghurt.     

Is high pressure treatment able to modify the allergenicity of the largemouth bass allergens?

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of high pressure treatment on the structural changes and allergenicity of largemouth bass. We treated the allergens at 100, 200, 300 and 400 MPa for 15 min and at 300 MPa for 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 min at 20 °C. The treated samples from largemouth bass were tested for their IgE-binding properties by combining Sodium dodecyl sulfate-Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) with western blotting (WB) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Circular dichroism analysis was performed to characterize the structural change. In summary, we can determine that the greatest structure changes were found for samples treated by 400 MPa for 15 min. High pressure treatment did change the structure, subunit composition and molecular weight of largemouth bass allergens, but it did not change the allergenicity of the allergens.     

Quasi-adiabatic compression heating of selected foods

The quasi-adiabatic temperature increase due to compression heating, during high-pressure (HP) processing (HPP), was studied using specially designed equipment. The temperature increase was evaluated as the difference in temperature, during compression, between atmospheric pressure and nominal pressure. The temperature was measured using a thermocouple in the center of a polyoxymethylene cup, which contained the sample. Fresh meat balls, pork meat pate, and tomato purée temperature increases were measured at three initial temperature levels between 40 and 80 °C. Nominal pressure was either 400 or 500 MPa. Results showed that the fat content had a positive effect on temperature increases. Empirical equations were developed to calculate the temperature increase during HPP at different initial temperatures for pressures of 400 and 500 MPa. This thermal effect data can be used for numerical modeling of temperature histories of foods during HP-assisted pasteurization or sterilization processes.     

Effect of high pressure on cod (Gadus morhua) desalting

The effect of high pressure on salt and water diffusion in the desalting process of cod was studied. Under pressure, up to 300 MPa, the osmotic equilibrium is reached much faster, compared to desalting at atmospheric pressure. Water (D _ew) and salt (D _es) effective diffusion coefficients reached a maximum at 200 MPa, increasing 500- and 160-fold, respectively, compared with desalting at atmospheric pressure. Increasing pressure up to 300 MPa causes a reduction in both effective diffusion coefficients, although they were still about 70-fold higher than at atmospheric pressure. Up to 200 MPa, a linear correlation was found between D _ew and D _es and pressure. However, the total diffused amounts of water and salt, when the osmotic equilibrium was reached, were lower under pressure. At atmospheric pressure cod water content increased 1.65-fold, but under pressure the increment was on average 1.25-fold, while salt content decreased to 0.51-fold the initial value at atmospheric pressure and to around 0.75-fold under pressure.     

High-pressure effects on cooking loss and histological structure of beef muscle

In this study, we investigate the effects of high pressures (up to 600 MPa) applied at room temperature for 10 min on beef cooking loss and structure. The data on cooking loss, pH and protein solubility, as well as the electron microscopy, illustrate the changes in cooking loss and structure with high pressure processing (HPP). There is a significant reduction in cooking loss of beef with HPP. When the beef sample is imposed upon by 300 or 400 MPa, the cooking loss reduction is about 12%. Further, the pH of beef is dramatically increased as the pressure increases, and the pH increases by about 5% when imposed upon by 500 MPa. When a high pressure was applied at room temperature, the structure of the beef tissue apparently changed. Muscle fiber fragments gradually became slender and sarcomeres became lengthened. Our data indicated that high-pressure treatment on beef leads to stretching of the muscle fiber and an increase in the water-holding capacity.     

Combined effects of high pressure and sodium hydrogen carbonate treatment on beef: improvement of texture and color

We investigated the effect of combined high pressure and sodium hydrogen carbonate (NaHCO₃) treatment on the physical properties and color of silverside Australian beef. Meat samples were pressurized at 100–500 MPa and the water content, weight reduction, rupture stress, and meat color were determined. The water content of meat treated with NaHCO₃ and high pressure (300 MPa) reached a maximum of 70.1%. Weight reduction tended to decrease with high pressure treatment at 300 MPa. Meats treated with NaHCO₃ and high pressure at 400 MPa showed a>50% decrease in hardness. Whitening of the meat was reduced by the combined high pressure and NaHCO₃ treatment. Therefore, the combined high pressure and NaHCO₃ treatment is effective for improvement of beef quality.     

A novel fluid densimeter for high pressures

Abstract

A new type of densimeter for the measurement of fluid densities at pressures up to 500 MPa is described. Thie densimeter makes use of the effect of buoyancy on a mass suspended from a wire to determine the resonant frequency of the wire for transverse vibrations. The difference in resonant frequency between oscillations in vacuo and in the fluid thereby permits measurement of the fluid density. Preliminary results demonstrate that the precision and reproducibility of the instrument is one of ± 0.1% at pressures up to 100 MPa.     

High pressure-assisted encapsulation of vitamin D2 in reassembled casein micelles

For the encapsulation of vitamin D₂, native casein micelles and vitamin D₂ with or without additional Ca²⁺–P_i were treated at 600 MPa and 37 °C for 60 min. The pressure release rate was set at 20 or 600 MPa/min. Vitamin D₂ was quantified by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, and physical properties of the micelles were analysed by photon correlation spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that simultaneous application of Ca²⁺–P_i and high pressure treatment with a fast release rate significantly increased loading of vitamin D₂ per casein by 6.9-fold. The addition of Ca²⁺–P_i enhanced micelle aggregation and the vitamin was entrapped within the formed aggregates. However, high pressure treatment without Ca²⁺–P_i with a slow pressure release rate revealed similar results, increasing vitamin D₂ per casein by 6.7-fold. The vitamin D₂ loading in reassembled casein micelles is supposed to be due to hydrophobic interactions between the hydrophobic domains of the micelles.     

Effect of High Pressure on Acid Phosphatase in Milk

Acid phosphatase activity was measured in whole milk, skim milk, acid and rennet wheys before and after subjecting samples to high hydrostatic pressures for 10 min. Whole and skim milks exhibited a significant drop in activity following treatment at pressures in excess of 200 MPa. While rennet whey exhibited similar characteristics, acid whey was more pressure resistant and required pressures in excess of 500 MPa before exhibiting a net loss in activity. Most of the activity was lost in the first 10 min of pressurisation.     

Effect of High-pressure Treatment on Polyphenoloxidase Activity of the Agaricus Bisporus Mushroom

High pressure treatments (100-500 Mpa/4 °C/10 min) were carried out on freshly sliced mushrooms ( Agaricus bisporus ) and on liquid extract. Pressure above 200 MPa led to respiratory activity loss, significant enzymatic browning and polyphenoloxidase (PPO) activation in treated mushrooms. Increasing pressure from 200 to 500 MPa enhanced the PPO activation (in whole tissue and in liquid extract). Stabilization of mushroom by high-pressure (HP) alone cannot be considered. A combination of HP with thermal or chemical treatments is found necessary.     

Bridging room-temperature and high-temperature plasticity in decagonal Al–Ni–Co quasicrystals by micro-thermomechanical testing

Ever since quasicrystals were first discovered, they have been found to possess many unusual and useful properties. A long-standing problem, however, significantly impedes their practical usage: steady-state plastic deformation has only been found at high temperatures or under confining hydrostatic pressures. At low and intermediate temperatures, they are very brittle, suffer from low ductility and formability and, consequently, their deformation mechanisms are still not clear. Here, we systematically study the deformation behaviour of decagonal Al–Ni–Co quasicrystals using a micro-thermomechanical technique over a range of temperatures (25–500 °C), strain rates and sample sizes accompanying microstructural analysis. We demonstrate three temperature regimes for the quasicrystal plasticity: at room temperature, cracking controls deformation; at 100–300 °C, dislocation activities control the plastic deformation exhibiting serrated flows and a constant flow stress; at 400–500 °C, diffusion enhances the plasticity showing homogenous deformation. The micrometer-sized quasicrystals exhibit both high strengths of ~2.5–3.5 GPa and enhanced ductility of over 15% strains between 100 and 500 °C. This study improves understanding of quasicrystal plasticity in their low- and intermediate-temperature regimes, which was poorly understood before, and sheds light on their applications as small-sized structural materials.     

Effect of pulse duration on plasmonic enhanced ultrafast laser-induced bubble generation in water

Bubbles generated in water by focusing femtosecond and picosecond laser pulses in the presence of 100 nm gold nanoparticles have been investigated in the fluence range usually used for efficient cell transfection (100–200 mJ/cm²). Since resulting bubbles are at the nanoscale, direct observation using optical microscopy is not possible. An optical in-situ method has been developed to monitor the time-resolved variation in the extinction cross-section of an irradiated nanoparticle solution sample. This method is used to measure the bubbles lifetime and deduce their average diameter. We show that bubbles generated with femtosecond pulses (40–500 fs) last two times longer and are larger in average than those generated with picosecond pulses (0.5–5 ps). Controlling those bubble properties is necessary for optimizing off-resonance plasmonic enhanced ultrafast laser cell transfection.     

Effects of annealing temperature on the structure, photoluminescence and ferromagnetism properties of Cr-implanted ZnO nanowires

Room temperature ferromagnetism was observed in Cr-implanted ZnO nanowires annealed at 500, 600, and 700 °C. The implantation dose for Cr ions was 1×10¹⁶ cm^?2, while the implantation energies were 100 keV. Except for ZnO (100), (002), and (200) orientations, no extra diffraction peaks from Cr-related secondary phase or impurities were observed. With the increasing of annealing temperatures, the intensity of the peaks increased while the FWHM values decreased. The Cr 2p_1/2 and 2p_3/2 peaks, with a binding energy difference of 10.6 eV, appear at 586.3 and 575.7 eV, can be attributed to Cr³⁺ in ZnO nanowires. For the Cr-implanted ZnO nanowires without annealing, the band energy emission disappears and the defect related emission with wavelength of 500–700 nm dominates, which can be attributed to defects introduced by implantation. Cr-implanted ZnO nanowires annealed at 500 °C show a saturation magnetization value of over 11.4×10^?5 emu and a positive coercive field of 67 Oe. The origin of ferromagnetism behavior can be explained on the basis of electrons and defects that form bound magnetic polarons, which overlap to create a spin-split impurity band.     

Effects of pressure and temperature on the survival rate of adherent A-172 cells

Preservation of cells under high pressure is an important alternative to cryopreservation. We studied the effect of temperature (4, 25, 37°C) and pressure (0.1–350 MPa) on the survival rate of A-172 glioblastoma cells. The survival rate was not changed by brief (10 min) pressurization of up to 150 MPa, but the survival rate began to decrease from 150 MPa, and most of the A-172 cells died when treated with over 200 MPa. Lengthy pressurization (4 days) at lower pressure (upto 20.1 MPa) without medium exchange showed complex results. The survival rate of cells preserved at 25°C showed two maxima at 1.6 and 20.1 MPa. After preservation, cells adhered and proliferated in the same way as normal cells when cultured at 37°C in a CO₂ incubator. The other two temperatures, 4° and 37°C, showed no maximum survival rate. Therefore, a high survival rate can be maintained with high pressure treatment.     

High pressure studies on hesperitin production with hesperidinase free and immobilized in calcium alginate beads

The use of high pressure for the enzymatic synthesis of pharmacologically interesting molecules is a very important tool. Hesperidin and hesperitin exhibit anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anticarcinogenic properties and prevent bone loss. However, hesperidin has a low bioavailability compared with hesperitin, due to the rutinoside moiety attached to the flavonoid. The aim of this work was the enzymatic production of hesperitin from hesperidin (soluble and insoluble) with hesperidinase free and immobilized in Ca-alginate beads, under high pressure conditions. The work was focused on the optimization of enzyme activity, studying the effects: pressure (50–150 MPa), temperature (35–75 °C), concentration of substrate (100–800 mg/L), and immobilization of hesperidinase. An 18-fold increase in hesperidinase residual activity was observed under high pressure conditions of 100 MPa compared to 0.1 MPa. A higher specificity of the hydrolytic reaction under high pressure (100 MPa) with a two-and three-fold increase in the ratio K _cat/K _M (specificity constant) at 55 °C and 75 °C was observed. A two-fold increase in the maximum activity at 100 MPa was observed with immobilized hesperinase compared to 0.1 MPa. In the second reutilization, almost a four-fold increase was obtained under high pressure conditions in comparison to atmospheric pressure.     

Synthesis of plate-like Li<Subscript>3</Subscript>PS<Subscript>4</Subscript> solid electrolyte via liquid-phase shaking for all-solid-state lithium batteries

The precursor of plate-like Li₃PS₄ solid electrolyte (75Li₂S?25P₂S₅, SE (LS)), about 3 μm in length, 500 nm in width, and 100–200 nm in thickness, was successfully prepared from Li₂S and P₂S₅ using ethyl propionate (EP) as a synthetic medium via liquid-phase shaking. Upon evacuating at 170 °C, the precursor decomposed to SE (LS), which exhibited ionic conductivity of about 2.0 × 10^?4 Scm^?1 at room temperature. SEM observation revealed that the SE (LS) thus obtained had plate-like morphology with dimension of 3 μm in length, 500 nm in width, and 100–200 nm in thickness. Owing to the nanosized SE (LS), an all-solid-state half-cell using composite anode consisting of 90 wt% LiNi_1/3Mn_1/3Co_1/3O₂ (NMC) and 10 wt% SE (LS) delivered a high capacity up to 130 mAhg^?1(NMC) at the first discharge.     

Effect of high hydrostatic pressure on seed germination,microbial quality,anatomy–morphology and physiological characteristics of garden cress (Lepidium sativum) seedlings

High hydrostatic pressure is a non-thermal food processing technology that is found to increase the percentage of germination, decrease the germination time and improve the microbial quality of seeds. In this study, pressures of 100–400 MPa for 10 min at 30°C are used to compare the percentage of germination, the microbial quality of seeds, chlorophyll a and b, and total phenolic compounds concentrations in seedlings, and the anatomy–morphology characteristics of garden cress. Enhanced reductions of total aerobic mesophilic bacteria, total and fecal coliforms, and yeast and mould populations in seeds were observed, especially at 300 MPa. In addition, the percentage of germination, chlorophyll content and phenolic compounds concentrations, fresh and dry weights, and hypocotyl lengths of the seedlings are higher than those of all samples, where the percentage of germination is equal to controls but higher than other samples, and radicula length is lower than controls but higher than others.     

Effect of high pressure on mesophilic starters for cheesemaking

In the experiment, the effect of pressurization on the survival as well as acidifying and proteolytic activity of mesophilic commercial starters used for cheesemaking was studied. The samples were exposed to a single and a double (after 24 h) pressurization in the range of 200-800 MPa, for 15 minutes, at 20 °C. Analyses were performed immediately after the processing as well as after 1, 2, and 3 weeks of storage at 4 °C. A double processing at 600 and 800 MPa caused an irreversible reduction in the number of microorganisms, inhibited the process of milk acidification but preserved approximately 20% of the initial proteolytic activity of the bacterial enzymes.     

High-pressure treatment with silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) protein and its allergic analysis

The allergenicity and structural changes of silver carp allergens influenced by high-pressure treatment were studied. We treated the allergens at 100, 200 and 300 MPa for 10, 30 and 60 min at 20° C, used SDS–PAGE to separate the proteins and recognized the allergens by western blotting. Circular dichroism analysis was performed to characterize the structural change. From our study, we can determine that high-pressure treatment did not change the subunit composition, molecular weight or the allergenicity of silver carp allergens, but it did change the structure of the allergens.