Effects of heat–moisture treatment on organic cassava starch

Organic foods and crops are produced throughout the world under strict controls on growing conditions, so that synthetic chemicals, irradiation or genetic modifications are avoided. Organic starch is extracted following the same rules. Heat–moisture treatment (HMT) on starch is a physical method considered to be natural: it consists of heating starch at a temperature above its gelatinisation point with insufficient moisture (<35 %) to cause gelatinisation. Samples of organic cassava starch (with 12.8 % moisture) were dried in an oven with forced air circulation at 50 °C for 48 h and, immediately, distilled water was added to each sample until it reached the ratios of 10, 20, and 30 %, respectively. The samples were transferred into 100 mL pressure flasks, sealed tightly with a cap, and maintained in an autoclave for 60 min at 120 °C. The flasks were opened and the samples were kept in a desiccator containing anhydrous calcium chloride up to constant mass. The effects of HMT were studied using the following techniques: thermogravimetry and derivative thermogravimetry (TG/DTG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), rapid viscoamylographic analysis (RVA), reflectance photocolorimetry, atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). Rheological properties such as the pasting temperature (RVA) and the peak temperature (DSC) increased, while gelatinisation enthalpy ?H (DSC) decreased. The average diameters of the granules showed no significant changes, while the degree of relative crystallinity decreased.     

Boundary-layer receptivity to external disturbances using multiple scales

Non-homogeneous multiple scales are introduced to solve the resonant problem of non-parallel boundary-layer receptivity originating from the quadratic mixing of environmental disturbances. The resulting algorithm is computationally inexpensive and can be efficiently included in industrial codes for transition prediction. The mutual interactions between acoustic wave, vorticity wave, wall vibration and wall roughness are discussed in detail and the receptivity coefficient, which relates the amplitude of the excited wave to the amplitude of the exciting sources, is computed. The largest effect is found for the interaction between acoustic waves and wall roughness perturbations. Other coupling mechanisms are less effective. By comparing parallel and non-parallel results, it is found that flow non-parallelism can play a non-negligible role even in Blasius’ boundary layer, although the largest effects are evident for the three-dimensional boundary layer over an infinite swept wing. For the particular case of wall roughness—wall vibration mixing, the velocity disturbance is shown to be exactly equal to the velocity perturbation induced by wall roughness alone on a wall vibrating in the normal direction.     

Development of a 3D numerical methodology for fast prediction of gun blast induced loading

In this paper, the development of a methodology based on semi-empirical models from the literature to carry out 3D prediction of pressure loading on surfaces adjacent to a weapon system during firing is presented. This loading is consequent to the impact of the blast wave generated by the projectile exiting the muzzle bore. When exceeding a pressure threshold level, loading is potentially capable to induce unwanted damage to nearby hard structures as well as frangible panels or electronic equipment. The implemented model shows the ability to quickly predict the distribution of the blast wave parameters over three-dimensional complex geometry surfaces when the weapon design and emplacement data as well as propellant and projectile characteristics are available. Considering these capabilities, the use of the proposed methodology is envisaged as desirable in the preliminary design phase of the combat system to predict adverse effects and then enable to identify the most appropriate countermeasures. By providing a preliminary but sensitive estimate of the operative environmental loading, this numerical means represents a good alternative to more powerful, but time consuming advanced computational fluid dynamics tools, which use can, thus, be limited to the final phase of the design.     

A new friedelane triterpenoid and saponin with moderate antimicrobial activity from the stems of Drypetes laciniata

A new friedelane-type triterpene named 3β-hydroxyfriedelane-7,12,22-trione,as well as nine known compounds were isolated from the whole stems of Drypetes laciniata Hutch.(Euphorbiaceae).Their structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic methods.The new triterpene derivative and a known saponin were tested for antimicrobial and antifungal activities and they appeared to be moderate active.     

On the concepts of complex networks to quantify the difficulty in finding the way out of labyrinths

Labyrinths have been a tradition and part of the imagination of the human kind for centuries, and were probably built either as a challenge to make it difficult for someone to find the way out, or for aesthetic purposes. They are conventionally classified according to the country they were built, to the style (Roman, classic and contemporary) or to the construction site. In this study, we show that labyrinths can be modeled as complex networks, whose metrics can be used to classify them in terms of their difficulty to find the way out. This is performed by calculating the absorption time, defined as the time it takes for a particle on an internal node to reach an output node through a random walk. The absorption time correlates well with the shortest paths and length of the networks, as expected, and has a very high correlation (Pearson coefficient of 0.97) with the betweenness, therefore allowing one to quantify the level of complexity of any labyrinth. It is shown that the conventional classification is inappropriate to distinguish between labyrinths, because some with very similar properties exist in different countries or were built in distinct time periods. A refined analysis in 77 famous labyrinths indicated that the majority were built for aesthetic purposes, with relatively small absorption times. Furthermore, with the expectation maximization algorithm, we could combine the complex network metrics to identify four clusters of labyrinths that differ in terms of density and shape.     

CBB staining protocol with higher sensitivity and mass spectrometric compatibility

Various CBB‐based methods for staining proteins separated by 2‐D gel electrophoresis were compared with regard to sensitivity and resolution. A modified Kang's CBB staining protocol, which we have modified, includes phosphoric acid in a concentration of 8% instead of the original 2%. This proved to be the best approach. Protein amounts as low as 2 ng and ∼2300 spots in the gel can be detected by employing this protocol. The modified procedure takes less time to carry out. Moreover, this practice is more sensitive and resolves more protein spots than most protocols reported to date and is compatible with subsequent mass spectrometric analysis.