Effect of Agronomical Factors and Storage Conditions on the Tocopherol Content of Oblica and Leccino Virgin Olive Oils

The influence of agronomical factors (two growing areas and four harvest periods) and storage conditions of virgin olive oils (room temperature, +4 and ?20 °C) on tocopherols was investigated on two cultivars having significantly different tocopherol content (Oblica 269–443 mg/kg, Leccino 403–784 mg/kg). α‐Tocopherol accounted for 97 % of total tocopherols and its content decreased during ripening of both cultivars. In a warmer growing area both cultivars gained a higher γ‐tocopherol content while only Leccino showed a higher content of α‐tocopherol. After 12 months of storage α‐tocopherol content decreased by up to 27 %. Lower storage temperatures did not always contribute to the higher stability of α‐tocopherol compared to room temperature.     

GRACE-1: cross-layer adaptation for multimedia quality and battery energy

Mobile devices primarily processing multimedia data need to support multimedia quality with limited battery energy. To address this challenging problem, researchers have introduced adaptation into multiple system layers, ranging from hardware to applications. Given these adaptive layers, a new challenge is how to coordinate them to fully exploit the adaptation benefits. This paper presents a novel cross-layer adaptation framework, called GRACE-1, that coordinates the adaptation of the CPU hardware, OS scheduling, and multimedia quality based on users' preferences. To balance the benefits and overhead of cross-layer adaptation, GRACE-1 takes a hierarchical approach: It globally adapts all three layers to large system changes, such as application entry or exit, and internally adapts individual layers to small changes in the processed multimedia data. We have implemented GRACE-1 on an HIP laptop with the adaptive Athlon CPU, Linux-based OS, and video codecs. Our experimental results show that, compared to schemes that adapt only some layers or adapt only to large changes, GRACE-1 reduces the laptop's energy consumption up to 31.4 percent while providing better or the same video quality.     

Non-chemical approach toward 2D self-assemblies of Ag nanoparticles via cold plasma treatment of substrates

The nano-modification of selected substrates by means of atmospheric cold plasma treatment was exploited for the two-dimensional (2D) self-assembling of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). Such a useful combination of the cold plasma treatment of substrate surface and an immediate easy deposition of Ag NPs creating the 2D self-assemblies on the substrates is published for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Except for the cold plasma treatment, mainly the following parameters influenced the resulting NP assemblies: the choice of solvent mixture, concentration of Ag NP dispersions, and the deposition technique. The 2D self-assemblies of Ag NPs, providing the same work function as a Ag electrode, were formed on the cold plasma-treated substrates when a drop-casting technique was employed. The possibility of an easy preparation of the Ag NP 2D self-assemblies on substrates without using any chemical agents and/or evaporating chamber could be exploited, e.g.?in photovoltaic and light-emitting diode devices.     

Quality of Rapeseed Oil Produced by Conditioning Seeds at Modest Temperatures

Conditioning rapeseed can significantly increase the amount of bioactive compounds in the crude oil, but if the conditioning temperatures are too high, they can cause unwanted side effects such as darker color and sensory defects. Modest conditioning temperatures may be more suitable, but little is known about the effects on the quality and bioactive composition of the resulting oil. Oil was recovered from five rapeseed cultivars by cold pressing (CP) or by pressing seeds conditioned at 80 °C for 30 min (HP). Conditioning rapeseed increased oil yield without changing fatty acid composition and increased the amount of total sterols by 16 %, total tocopherols by 20 %, and the levels of polyphenols. Levels of the polyphenol canolol were up to 55-fold higher in HP oil than in CP oil. These higher levels of bioactive compounds gave HP oil higher radical scavenging activity. Although HP oil also had higher free fatty acid contents, peroxide levels, and specific UV extinctions (K values). The quality parameters of HP and CP oils were within codex limits indicating high quality. Modest conditioning temperatures can be used to produce rapeseed oil with high quality and radical scavenging activity.     

Preparation of homogeneous titania coating on the surface of MWNT

Preparation of homogeneous and stable inorganic coatings on the surface of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was studied. Precursor compounds such as titanium (IV) bromide and titanium (IV) chloride were used to cover the surface of CNTs under either solvent-free or solution conditions. As-prepared titania layers were characterized by transmission, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques. Results revealed that homogenous coverage can be achieved in a controllable way.     

Modeling of creep for multiwall carbon nanotube/epoxy nanocomposite

The effect of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on creep of epoxy matrix was evaluated on the basis of short‐term creep‐recovery tests performed at different stresses and temperatures. Six different compositions of MWCNT and bisphenol A epoxy resin (0–3.8 wt % of MWCNTs) were investigated. Slight reduction of creep compliance, strain rate, and residual strain were revealed experimentally for nanocomposite comparing to the neat resin. The development of viscoelastic strain for creep stage was described by the use of time–temperature–strain superposition principle with the parameters obtained from the approximation of recovery stage using modified Schapery model. The model accounted for the effect of strain on the viscoelastic strain rate for recovery stage. Its application gave better results for approximation of a series of recovery curves at different temperatures and stresses than of time–stress superposition model. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Canolol Dimer,a Biologically Active Phenolic Compound of Edible Rapeseed Oil

Rapeseed and its oil are the source of many biologically active substances. From crude rapeseed oil, canolol is isolated and from edible oil its dimer. Herein, we tested the biological activity of those two compounds isolated from the oils by determining their antioxidant capacity and in vitro cytotoxicity on human tumor cell lines. Canolol and its dimer showed antiproliferative activity on both cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 46.45 μM in HeLa, and 51.19 μM in MCF7 cells, respectively. Evaluation of cell death was also done, while the oxygen radical absorbance capacity method confirmed that the canolol dimer has higher antioxidant potential than canolol. Stability of canolol and its dimer under different storage conditions showed that for a longer period of time both compounds should be stored in a freezer, but also that the dimer is more stable against degradation than canolol. Presented results indicate possible applications of canolol and its dimer in the food and pharmaceutical industry as a natural antioxidant and an anticancer agent, respectively.     

Specification,Mapping and Control for QoS Adaptation

In this paper we describe a fuzzy-control approach for quality of service (QoS) adaptation, needed in distributed multimedia applications. QoS adaptation is necessary (a) due to sudden variations in network resource availability, especially in the case of Internet, and (b) due to multiple applications requiring shared resource such as bandwidth. To solve the problem of QoS adaptation, several sub-problems need to be considered: (1) mapping of user perception and different combinations of application QoS values onto a uniform quality metric, (2) estimation, control and adjustment of application QoS parameters in case of network and other resource congestion, and (3) enforcement algorithm which reacts according to adapted QoS parameters. Our approach is to solve the QoS adaptation using the integration of (a) quality degree function, which maps the application QoS parameters into a metric, called quality degree, (b) fuzzy controller, which controls, estimates and adjusts the application QoS parameters according to resource availability, and (c) filter algorithms, which are the services to enforce the adapted QoS parameters. The quality degree function associates quality degree as the quality measure with different combinations of application QoS values. This function is influenced by the users perception of quality. The fuzzy control takes the results of the quality degree function, estimates the new quality degree and its corresponding quality level, predicts the new application QoS parameters, and adjusts them. The results of the adapted QoS parameters are then used by the filter algorithms to enforce the changes, proposed by the fuzzy controller, by allocating bandwidth to the application according to its QoS parameter values. We have implemented and applied the quality degree function, the fuzzy controller, and the filter algorithms to the video distribution system (VDS). The results of VDS over the local area network show that (1) the target system improves user perceived QoS at the receivers, and (2) the bandwidth utilization increases significantly when using our fuzzy-control approach for QoS adaptation.