Kabuli and Apulian black Chickpea Milling By-Products as Innovative Ingredients to Provide High Levels of Dietary Fibre and Bioactive Compounds in Gluten-Free Fresh Pasta

Gluten-free (GF) products, including pasta, are often characterised by nutritional deficiencies, such as scarce dietary fibre and excess of calories. Chickpea flour is increasingly being used by the food industries. Hulls, rich in dietary fibre and bioactive compounds, are discarded after milling. The aim of this work was to evaluate the quality features of short-cut GF fresh pasta added of hull (8% w/w) derived from kabuli (KH) or Apulian black (ABH) chickpeas, in comparison with control GF pasta prepared without hull. The enriched pasta, which could be labelled as “high fibre”, was characterised by a higher level of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity than the control. ABH-enriched pasta showed the highest anthocyanins (33.37 ± 1.20 and 20.59 ± 0.11 mg/kg of cyanidin-3-O-glucoside on dry matter in raw and cooked pasta, respectively). Hull addition increased colour intensity and structural quality of GF pasta: ABH-enriched pasta had the lowest cooking loss and the highest water absorption capacity; KH-enriched pasta showed the highest firmness. No significant differences in sensory liking were found among the samples, except for “aftertaste”. Chickpea hull can be used as an innovative ingredient to produce potentially functional GF pasta, meeting the dietary needs of consumers without affecting quality.     

Seawater ageing of flax/poly(lactic acid) biocomposites

Natural fibre reinforced biopolymer composites, or biocomposites, are an alternative to the glass fibre reinforced thermoset composites widely used today in marine applications. Biocomposites offer good mechanical properties and total biodegradability, but if they are to be adopted for marine structures their durability in a seawater environment must be demonstrated. In the present study unreinforced PLLA (Poly(l-Lactic acid)), injected and film stacked flax composites with the same PLLA matrix have been examined. All the samples were aged in natural seawater at different temperatures in order to accelerate hygrothermal ageing. Changes to physico-chemical and mechanical behaviour have been followed by weight measurements, thermal and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analyses, and tensile testing, completed by acoustic emission recording and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examination. The matrix tensile stiffness is hardly affected by seawater at temperatures to 40 °C but the composite loses stiffness and strength. Fibre/matrix interface weakening is the main damage mechanism induced by wet ageing, but both matrix and fibre cracks also appear at longer periods.     

Fast analysis of complex metallic alloys by double-pulse time-integrated Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Results are reported on the application of double-pulse Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for fast analysis of complex metallic alloys. The approach followed for the determination of the composition of the alloys is based on the time-integrated acquisition of LIBS spectra emitted by plasmas induced by collinear double-pulse laser excitation. The spectra are analysed using the Partial Least Squares method, which allows the determination of sample composition even in the presence of strong spectral interferences. The results shown indicate the possibility of measuring the composition of complex metallic alloys in very short times and using relatively cheap LIBS instrumentation.     

含季铵基离子交换纤维的制备研究

以辐射接枝丙烯酸(AA)后的聚丙烯(PP)无纺布(PP-g-AA)为基材,采用紫外引发的方法接枝甲基丙烯酰氧乙基三甲基氯化铵(DMC),建立了一种制备阴离子交换纤维的新方法,得到了PP-g-AA-DMC纤维.研究了丙烯酸接枝率、DMC浓度、溶剂种类、光照时间,浸泡时间等因素对DMC接枝率的影响,结果表明,DMC的接枝率随着丙烯酸接枝率、DMC浓度、光照时间和纤维浸泡时间的增加而增大.接枝前后纤维的红外光谱分析表明,DMC被成功接枝在PP-g-AA基材上.吸附性能测定结果表明,纤维对水中以阴阳离子存在的金属铬均具有较好的吸附性能.     

Polyphosphate-doped polypyrrole coated on steel fiber for the solid-phase microextraction of organochlorine pesticides in water

A solid-phase microextraction technique using steel fiber coated with 20 μm polypyrrole (Ppy) doped with polyphosphate was developed for the GC determination of a group of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in water. The coating was prepared using a three-electrode electrochemical system from a 10% aqueous sodium polyphosphate solution containing 0.05 M pyrrole by applying a constant potential of 1.2 V for 30 min. In order to obtain an adherent, smooth and stable film of polypyrrole, experimental parameters related to the coating process consisting of the type of dopant or counter-ion, deposition potential, concentration of the monomer, concentration of the counter-ion, and deposition time were optimized. The effects of various parameters on the efficiency of SPME process such as extraction time, extraction temperature, ionic strength, desorption time, and desorption temperature were also studied. The coating was highly stable and extremely adherent to the surface of the steel fiber. The method was linear for at least three orders of magnitude with correlation coefficients varying from 0.9818 to 0.9977. The accuracies found through spiking blank samples showed high recoveries between 82 and 110%. Intra- and inter-day precisions of the method were determined from mixed aqueous solutions containing 1.0 ng ml⁻¹ of each OCP. The intra-day precisions varied from 4.7% for heptachlor to 11.4% for methoxychlor, while the inter-day precisions varied from 6.8% for endosulfan I to 13.0% for p,p′-DDD and o,p-DDD. Limits of detection based on S/N = 3 were in the range 0.015-0.66 pg ml⁻¹. The proposed method was applied to monitor organochlorine pesticides in some well water samples.     

Quasi-distributed displacement sensor for structural monitoring using a commercial OTDR

A quasi-distributed displacement sensor for structural monitoring using an optical time domain reflectometer is demonstrated. Four displacement sensing heads are placed along a standard single mode optical fibre in several locations with different intervals. Their configurations introduce power loss through the decrease of their fibre loop radius when displacement is applied. The decrease of the light intensity with displacement variation is reported. Losses of 9 dB for a 120 mm displacement with a sensitivity of 0.027 dB/mm are reported. The quasi-distributed configuration is able to address sensors with 1 m distance resolution between them.     

基于LIBS技术的钢铁合金中元素多变量定量分析方法研究

针对钢铁合金样品元素组成相对复杂,基体效应较严重的问题,利用激光诱导击穿(LIBS)光谱技术对钢铁合金中的元素进行了定量分析。以Nd∶YAG脉冲激光器基频1 064 nm波长激光作为激发光源,采用中阶梯光栅光谱仪和ICCD分光探测钢铁合金样品的LIBS光谱。通过优化实验确定最佳探测延时为1.5 μs,最佳探测门宽为2 μs,激光聚焦点位置在实验样品靶面以下1.5 mm。采用单变量定量分析、多变量线性回归和偏最小二乘(PLS)三种方法分析钢铁合金中Cr元素和Ni元素的含量。结果表明,采用单变量定标方法定标曲线相关系数不高,对待测样的预测误差相对较大,难以有效地定量分析基体元素复杂的钢铁合金中金属元素的含量;采用多变量线性回归分析方法能有效提高定量分析的精度;采用PLS方法得到的Cr和Ni元素的拟合曲线相关系数r分别为0.981和0.995,对两个待测样品中Cr元素和Ni元素的预测相对误差在6.4%和7.1%以内,分析结果优于多变量线性回归方法。可见,采用多变量校正的PLS方法能更有效地校正基体效应对定量分析的影响,提高定量分析的精度。     

不锈钢表面Schiff碱自组装分子膜的制备及性能

以乙二胺和乙酰丙酮为原料,在盐酸催化下合成了新的Schiff 碱化合物,其收率为73.2%。 采用红外光谱和核磁共振谱对化合物的结构进行了表征。 并将其自组装在不锈钢基体表面,利用极化曲线、电化学阻抗谱和自腐蚀电位 时间曲线进行电化学分析。 结果表明,在1 mol/L HCl中,不锈钢表面自组装分子膜能快速有效的抑制异相电子的转移,促进不锈钢表面发生钝化,减少了不锈钢基体的腐蚀。 总结了Schiff碱自组装分子膜对金属防护的效用和价值。