Applications of ultrasound in food technology: Processing, preservation and extraction

Ultrasound is well known to have a significant effect on the rate of various processes in the food industry. Using ultrasound, full reproducible food processes can now be completed in seconds or minutes with high reproducibility, reducing the processing cost, simplifying manipulation and work-up, giving higher purity of the final product, eliminating post-treatment of waste water and consuming only a fraction of the time and energy normally needed for conventional processes. Several processes such as freezing, cutting, drying, tempering, bleaching, sterilization, and extraction have been applied efficiently in the food industry. The advantages of using ultrasound for food processing, includes: more effective mixing and micro-mixing, faster energy and mass transfer, reduced thermal and concentration gradients, reduced temperature, selective extraction, reduced equipment size, faster response to process extraction control, faster start-up, increased production, and elimination of process steps. Food processes performed under the action of ultrasound are believed to be affected in part by cavitation phenomena and mass transfer enhancement. This review presents a complete picture of current knowledge on application of ultrasound in food technology including processing, preservation and extraction. It provides the necessary theoretical background and some details about ultrasound the technology, the technique, and safety precautions. We will also discuss some of the factors which make the combination of food processing and ultrasound one of the most promising research areas in the field of modern food engineering.     

Isolable tris(alkyne) and bis(alkyne) complexes of gold(I)

Golden trefoils: Tris(alkyne)gold complex [(coct)(3)Au][SbF(6)] (see picture; 1-SbF(6)) can be synthesized from cyclooctyne (coct) and AuSbF(6) generated in situ. Treatment of AuCl with cyclooctyne led to the bis(alkyne)gold complex [Au(coct)(2)Cl] (2). DFT analysis indicates that the cyclooctyne ligands are net electron donors in 1 but overall electron acceptors in 2. AuSbF(6) is shown to mediate [2+2+2] cycloaddition reactions of alkynes.     

Ammosamide D, an oxidatively ring opened ammosamide analog from a marine-derived Streptomyces variabilis

Ammosamide D (1), an oxidized analog of the ammosamide family, was isolated from a marine-derived Streptomyces variabilis. Pyrroloquinoline containing alkaloids are a growing class of natural products, with 1 being the first example of an oxidized analog resulting in a 5,6-dioxo-5,6-dihydroquinoline ring system. Attempts at chemical conversion of ammosamide B to ammosamide D revealed that a strong chemical oxidant is required. Ammosamide D has modest cytotoxicity to the MIA PaCa-2 pancreatic cancer cell line.     

Fabrication and Characterization of Monolithically Fused Wavelength-Independent 1 × 4 Couplers

Abstract

A new method for the fabrication of a monolithic 1 × 4 single-mode fused coupler is described together with details of its performance in terms of coupling ratio, spectral response and polarization sensitivity. The fabricated device exhibits ultra-broadband performance with low polarization dependent loss. The coupling pattern exhibits identical coupling to all interacting fibers, enabling an easy control on fabrication parameters of the device.     

An efficient method for analyzing the solutions of the Korteweg-de Vries equation

A new iterative method is applied to study the solutions of the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation. The method is a modified form of the well known Adomian decomposition method (ADM), where it avoids the difficulty of computing the Adomian polynomials. We prove the existence of a unique solution of the KdV equation. And then, we show that the new method generates an infinite series which converges uniformly to the exact solution of the problem. Soliton solutions of the KdV equation are obtained by the new method. Numerical calculations indicate the effectiveness of the new method where the obtained results are very accurate and better than the ones obtained by the ADM.     

Selective reagents for solvent extraction of metals—I. Quinaldic acids

Alkyl- and alkoxy-substituted quinoline-2-carboxylic acids were synthesized and tested for metal extraction. Zn²⁺ and Cu²⁺ were extracted from aqueous sulphate solutions by reagents containing 8-alkoxy substituents at lower pH values than were Fe²⁺ or Fe³⁺. Reagents without this substituent were unselective in this respect. A possible explanation for the selectivity may be that the 8-substituent influences the coordination geometry of the metal chelates in favour of tetrahedral complexes.     

一类捕食系统正解的存在性和唯一性

本文讨论以下的一类捕食系统,即一类弱耦合椭圆型偏微分方程组的零边值问题 -d_1Δu=au-a_1u~2-a_2f_1(u)v -d_2Δv=bv-b_1v~2+b_2f_2(u)v x∈Ω u=v=0 x∈(?)Ω其中d_1,d_2,a_1,a_2,b_1,b_2都是正常数,a和b是可变实参数,Ω为R~n中的边界光滑的有界区域,f_i(i=1,2)满足一定的增性条件,我们利用上、下解、分歧和解耦的方法证明方程组(0.1)正解的存在性和唯一性。     

Covering relations between ball-quotient orbifolds

Some ball-quotient orbifolds are related by covering maps. We exploit these coverings to find infinitely many orbifolds on ² uniformized by the complex 2-ball B₂ and some orbifolds over K3 surfaces uniformized by B₂. We also give, along with infinitely many reducible examples, an infinite series of irreducible curves along which ² is uniformized by the product of 1-balls B₁×B₁.     

Superparamagnetism of magnetite nanoparticles: dependence on surface modification

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) with an average particle diameter of 6 nm are prepared by controlled chemical coprecipitations. Colloidal suspensions of noninteracting SPION, where the surface has been modified with three different types of biocompatible substances, namely, starch, gold (Au), and methoxypoly(ethylene glycol) (MPEG) have been fabricated via three different techniques. Starch-coated SPION are prepared by coprecipitation in a polymeric matrix, Au-coated SPION are fabricated by the microemulsion method, and MPEG-coated SPION are prepared using the self-assembly approach. The magnetic nanoparticles form a core-shell structure, and the magnetic dipole-dipole interactions are screened by a layer of coating agents. The amounts of coating agents and SPION are indirectly calculated from the thermogravimetric analysis and superconducting quantum interference device measurements by assuming passive oxidation on the surface of the SPION, and the other conditions do not influence the measurements. The dependency of the spectral characteristics of M?ssbauer spectroscopy as a function of an external magnetic field Hext is measured to investigate the effect of dipole-dipole screening of the different coating layers on the SPION. Uncoated SPION show a stable magnetic moment under Hext, and the superparamagnetic (SPM) fraction transforms to a ferrimagnetic state. Starch and Au-coated SPION retain the SPM fraction according to M?ssbauer spectroscopy and magnetization measurements. MPEG-coated SPION show hyperfine magnetic structure without the quadrupole effect with increasing the value of the blocking temperature.