Description:
Drying kinetics of low molecular weight sugars such as fructose, glucose, sucrose and organic acid such as citric acid and high molecular weight carbohydrate such as maltodextrin (DE 6) were determined experimentally using single drop drying experiments as well as predicted numerically by solving the mass and heat transfer equations. The predicted moisture and temperature histories agreed with the experimental ones within 6% average relative (absolute) error and average difference of +/- 1degreesC, respectively. The stickiness histories of these drops were determined experimentally and predicted numerically based on the glass transition temperature (T-g) of surface layer. The model predicted the experimental observations with good accuracy. A nonsticky regime for these materials during spray drying is proposed by simulating a drop, initially 120 mum in diameter, in a spray drying environment.
Description:
The change in textural attributes (hardness, chewiness and rate of softening) of three potato cultivars (Russet Burbank, Desiree and Sebago) was investigated. Uniform cylindrical samples (35-mm diameter and 3-mm thick) were prepared and exposed to different thermal processing regimes including; heating at 85°C, 95°C in water and steaming (100.2°C). The effect of salt on these textural attributes was also investigated using different salt concentrations (1.5%, 3% and 6% (w/w) NaCl). After thermal treatments the samples were subjected to texture profile analysis. The instrumental textural attributes were greatly affected by the cultivars and the thermal processing regimes. The change in textural attributes upon steaming was only marginally different compared to that at 95°C in water. Low concentrations of salt (1-3%) were found to accelerate the softening of the texture in these cultivars especially at lower temperatures. The textural attributes were modelled using a two-parameter reaction kinetics model. There was reasonable agreement by the model findings on the textural attributes prepared from all the thermal processing regimes and in presence and absence of (within average absolute error of 1.9-7%). Further, the model indicated that the order of reaction varied from 1.15-2.18 indicating that the changes in textural attributes in these thermal processing regimes followed higher reaction orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Description:
The idea of publishing a special issue on proteins and enzymes was conceived during the 18th International Drying Symposium (IDS2012) held in the historical city of Xiamen, China (November 11-15, 2012). It appeared to us that a number of scientists and engineers were enthusiastically undertaking research in various aspects of drying of proteins and enzymes. Professors Arun Mujumdar and Sakamon Devhastin encouraged me to explore the possibility of bringing at least one special issue that would depict contemporary research undertakings in the broader theme involving proteins and enzymes. We were somewhat unsure in the beginning whether or not the required number of high quality mansucripts could be garnered for one issue in the time constraint we had in mind. Editorial
Description:
This paper provides a comprehensive measurement study on three video streaming websites with social media features - ‘TED Talks’, ‘xHamster’ and ‘XVideos’. We have analysed 2685 TED videos from 2006 to 2018 to characterise the service. For xHamster and XVideos, active measurements were used to collect unique metadata on almost 3405 and 6721 channels from 2012 to 2019 respectively, which were then analysed. Through these characterisations we gained insight into the main players of the websites – viewers, uploaders and website owners. Our analysis involved the studying of video streaming characteristics such as views, number of uploads, ratings, tags etc. By this we aim to give an overview of the services' current state and compare them with other traditional video streaming services. Our results showed some similar trends to be observed in all three websites such as TED videos and adult channels getting a high number of views despite low injection rate, maintaining a power-law behaviour due to front page recommendations and ratings being underutilised as a feature.Other observations include adult streaming services having a higher number of subscribers per channel. The characterisation results obtained are of value to network operators, content providers, and protocol designers. These results can also be used by content providers to measure what type of content is being watched on their websites. Our study provides a glimpse at how video streaming services function today and the trends they seem to follow. •Measurements and detailed characterisation study based on TED Talks, xHamster, and XVideos.•Comprehensive understanding of the online video streaming domain.•Insights on video streaming services and how they utilise their online social network of users.
Description:
A subset B of R-+(n) is B-convex if for all x, y is an element of B and all t is an element of [0, 1] one has max (tx, y) is an element of B. These sets were first investigated in [1, 2]. In this paper, we examine radiant B-convex sets and also introduce and study B-convex functions.
Description:
Objective: The objective of this review is to identify and synthesize the best available qualitative evidence to understand healthcare providers' views on disrespect and abuse of women during facility-based childbirth in Africa. Introduction: Everyday, approximately 800 women die from preventable pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes worldwide; poorer women living in developing countries comprise 99% of these deaths. Maternal mortality has no single cause or solution, but the most effective preventive strategy is ensuring that every woman gives birth in an equipped health facility with the help of skilled providers. Yet, many women decline to attend facility-based delivery, often due to disrespect and abuse received during childbirth. Inclusion criteria: This systematic review will consider studies that include views of care providers regarding disrespect and abuse of women in birthing facilities, including verbal, physical and sexual abuse; stigma; discrimination; substandard care; neglect; and trust and communication problems. Qualitative studies that relate to Africa published in English from 1990 will be included. Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, Scopus, African Index Medicus and Web of Science, and selected gray literature sources, will be searched for eligible papers. Titles and abstracts of obtained documents will be assessed by the lead reviewer against the inclusion criteria. Identified documents will then be appraised for relevance and rigor by two independent reviewers. Data will be extracted by two independent reviewers and graded according to the ConQual approach.
Description:
Hollows are an important, but rare, resource for several native vertebrate species in the box-ironbark forests of central Victoria. A study assessed the external features of trees from burnt and unburnt areas of forest to determine the influence of fire on hollow formation in these forests. Significantly greater proportions of trees in burnt areas has scars than trees in unburnt areas. Fire had less influence on the number of small, medium, large and very large dead branches/branch stubs than tree diameter. Similarly, tree size rather than fire was a major determinant in the occurrence of hollows. The greater number of scars in burnt trees might eventually lead to a difference in hollow numbers between burnt and unburnt trees (A).
Description:
Hollows are an important, but rare, resource for several native vertebrate species in the box-ironbark forests of central Victoria. A study assessed the external features of trees from burnt and unburnt areas of forest to determine the influence of fire on hollow formation in these forests. Significantly greater proportions of trees in burnt areas has scars than trees in unburnt areas. Fire had less influence on the number of small, medium, large and very large dead branches/branch stubs than tree diameter. Similarly, tree size rather than fire was a major determinant in the occurrence of hollows. The greater number of scars in burnt trees might eventually lead to a difference in hollow numbers between burnt and unburnt trees (A).
Description:
The importance of hollows to many species of arboreal mammals and birds in Australia has been clearly established, as has the significance of large, old trees in providing hollows. Since European settlement, considerable areas of eucalypt forests and woodlands have been cleared, resulting in significant loss of habitat, including hollow-bearing trees. Recruiting and retaining large, old trees is important to the ongoing survival of hollow-dependent fauna. However, in wood production areas maintaining sufficient numbers of hollows is problematic, since the age at which trees become economically mature is considerably less than that at which they become hollow-bearing. Management strategies aimed at retaining some hollow-bearing trees can assist, but many forests and woodlands are immature and contain too few of these trees. The ability to accelerate hollow formation where hollow-bearing trees are lacking is crucial, but cost-effective methods suitable for use on a large scale are seemingly few. The use of fire to accelerate hollow formation in Eucalyptus trees is one option.
Description:
Previous investigations with 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on avocado (Persea americana Mill.) fruit have focussed mainly on improving storage life by reducing the severity of disorders causing discolouration of the flesh. Development of 1-MCP and ethylene treatments, which also help control the time to reach the eating ripe stage, may confer additional practical benefits. In this context, the current study investigated the potential of 1-MCP to accurately manipulate ripening of non-stored 'Hass' avocado fruit by treatment before or after ethylene and at different times during ripening. To investigate this, 500 nL L-1 1-MCP was applied within 1 day after harvest, followed by ethylene 0-14 days after 1-MCP. In addition, fruit were treated with ethylene, then 1-MCP 0-8 days after ethylene. Treatment of fruit with 500 nL L-1 1-MCP for 18 h at 20°C provided the maximum effect by increasing the days from harvest to ripe (DTR) from 8 (with no 1-MCP) to 20. Fruit treated with 500 nL L-1 1-MCP for 18 h at 20°C remained insensitive to 100
Description:
The main objective of this paper is to provide new explicit criteria to characterize weak lower semicontinuous Lyapunov pairs or functions associated to first-order differential inclusions in Hilbert spaces. These inclusions are governed by a Lipschitzian perturbation of a maximally monotone operator. The dual criteria we give are expressed by means of the proximal and basic subdifferentials of the nominal functions while primal conditions are described in terms of the contingent directional derivative. We also propose a unifying review of many other criteria given in the literature. Our approach is based on advanced tools of variational analysis and generalized differentiation.