Environmental conditions affect semolina quality in durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum L.) cultivars with different gluten strength and gluten protein composition

BACKGROUND: Sowing time may impact semolina and pasta cooking quality by changing the environmental conditions during grain filling. The effect of an optimum and a delayed sowing time on semolina quality was studied by comparing six cultivars under irrigation, in order to isolate temperature from drought effects. RESULTS: Protein content was higher in the old cultivars and in the late sowings, according to the number of days with temperature between 30 and 40 °C during ripening. Gluten index increased as temperature rose to a threshold of about 30 °C, then decreased under higher temperatures. Mixograph parameters were less sensitive to high temperatures. Gliadin:glutenin correlated with gluten strength. Spaghetti firmness and protein content were positively correlated independently of sowing date. Cultivars Trinakria and Cappelli had the highest spaghetti firmness (900 and 828 g). CONCLUSIONS: Late sowings may represent a way of increasing pasta cooking quality whenever they place grain filling under thermal conditions able to increase protein percentage, although the accompanying decrease in yield may represent a drawback in environments prone to drought stress during ripening. The lower protein percentages of modern durum wheat cultivars under conventional sowing times results in a lower pasta cooking quality despite higher gluten strength. Published 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Electro‐Drawn Drug‐Loaded Biodegradable Polymer Microneedles as a Viable Route to Hypodermic Injection

Hypodermic needle injection is still the most common method of drug delivery despite its numerous limitations and drawbacks, such as pain, one‐shot administration, and risk of infection. Seeking a viable, safe, and pain‐free alternative to the over 16 billion injections per year has therefore become a top priority for our modern technological society. Here, a system that uses a pyroelectric cartridge in lieu of the syringe piston as a potential solution is discussed. Upon stimulation, the cartridge electro‐draws, at room temperature, an array of drug‐encapsulated, biodegradable polymer microneedles, able to deliver into hypodermic tissue both hydrophobic and hydrophilic bioactive agents, according to a predefined chrono‐programme. This mould‐free and contact‐free method permits the fabrication of biodegradable polymer microneedles into a ready‐to‐use configuration. In fact, they are formed on a flexible substrate/holder by drawing them directly from drop reservoirs, using a controlled electro‐hydrodynamic force. Tests of insertion are performed and discussed in order to demonstrate the possibility to prepare microneedles with suitable geometric and mechanical properties using this method.     

Anisotropy and symmetry in porous media convection

The linear and nonlinear stability analysis of the motionless state (conduction solution) and of a vertical throughflow in an anisotropic porous medium is performed. In particular, the effect of a nonhomogeneous porosity and a constant anisotropic thermal diffusivity have been taken into account.     

Planning UMTS base station location: optimization models with power control and algorithms

Classical coverage models, adopted for second-generation cellular systems, are not suited for planning Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) base station (BS) location because they are only based on signal predictions and do not consider the traffic distribution, the signal quality requirements, and the power control (PC) mechanism. We propose discrete optimization models and algorithms aimed at supporting the decisions in the process of planning where to locate new BSs. These models consider the signal-to-interference ratio as quality measure and capture at different levels of detail the signal quality requirements and the specific PC mechanism of the wideband CDMA air interface. Given that these UMTS BS location models are nonpolynomial (NP)-hard, we propose two randomized greedy procedures and a tabu search algorithm for the uplink (mobile to BS) direction which is the most stringent one from the traffic point of view in the presence of balanced connections such as voice calls. The different models, which take into account installation costs, signal quality and traffic coverage, and the corresponding algorithms, are compared on families of small to large-size instances generated by using classical propagation models.     

ADHOC MAC: New MAC Architecture for Ad Hoc Networks Providing Efficient and Reliable Point-to-Point and Broadcast Services

Ad-hoc networking, though an attractive solution for many applications, still has many unsolved issues, such as the hidden-terminal problem, flexible and prompt access, QoS provisioning, and efficient broadcast service. In this paper we present a MAC architecture able to solve the above issues in environments with no power consumption limitations, such as networks for inter-vehicle communications. This new architecture is based on a completely distributed access technique, RR-ALOHA, capable of dynamically establishing, for each active terminal in the network, a reliable single-hop broadcast channel on a slotted/framed structure. Though the proposed architecture uses a slotted channel it can be adapted to operate on the physical layer of different standards, including the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access TDD, and IEEE 802.11. The paper presents the mechanisms that compose the new MAC: the basic RR-ALOHA protocol, an efficient broadcast service and the reservation of point-to-point channels that exploit parallel transmissions. Some basic performance figures are discussed to prove the effectiveness of the protocol.     

Long-term results from metacarpophalangeal arthroplasty

The authors have been using Swanson's prostheses for MP joint replacement in rheumatoid arthritis since 1968. After thirteen years of experience, they present an analysis of these prostheses from a clinical and radiological point of view. 88 joints replacements in 20 patients are reviewed. These operations were performed between 1968 and 1976. The average follow-up is nine years. The authors compare their results with those obtained in a previous study made in 1975. They show that a replacement arthroplasty with a Swanson type prosthesis, imparts considerable benefits to the patient in the form of complete disappearance of pain, improvement in function, and a more normal looking hand, in spite of radiologic deterioration.     

Hall effect measurements in gas sensors based on nanosized Os-doped sol-gel derived SnO/sub 2/ thin films

The influence of dopants on the electrical properties of gas sensitive layers used in semiconductor gas sensors has to be carefully understood for getting a deeper insight in the relationship between the sensor performance and its chemical composition. In this work, undoped and Os-doped SnO/sub 2/ thin films have been prepared by the sol-gel process with an Os-Sn atomic ratio of 5%. The films have been characterized by resistivity and Hall effect measurements in a temperature range from 100 K to 500 K, both in air and in vacuum. The results have been investigated according to grain boundary scattering mechanism. We found that in air, the ambient oxygen species adsorbed on the film increase the height of the grain boundary barriers and the activation energy for the electrical conductivity increases in the doped film. In vacuum, the results showed that the height of the intergranular barrier is lower than the corresponding value in air. Both in air and in vacuum, the conductivity of the Os-doped sample is higher than the value in the undoped SnO/sub 2/ sample. The same occurs for the Hall mobility and the carrier concentration. The experimental results have been used to explain the better methane sensitivity, at low temperature, of the Os-doped films as compared with the undoped ones.