Farm to Consumer: Factors Affecting the Organoleptic Characteristics of Coffee. II: Postharvest Processing Factors

The production and consumption of coffee are increasing despite the roadblocks to its agriculture and global trade. The unique, refreshing, and stimulating final cupping quality of coffee is the only reason for this rising production and consumption. Coffee quality is a multifaceted trait and is inevitably influenced by the way it is successively processed after harvesting. Reportedly, 60% of the quality attributes of coffee are governed by postharvest processing. The current review elaborates and establishes for the first time the relationship between different methods of postharvest processing of coffee and its varying organoleptic and sensory quality attributes. In view of the proven significance of each processing step, this review has been subdivided into three sections, secondary processing, primary processing, and postprocessing variables. Secondary processing addresses the immediate processing steps on the farm after harvest and storage before roasting. The primary processing section adheres specifically to roasting, grinding and brewing/extraction, topics which have been technically addressed more than any others in the literature and by industry. The postprocessing attribute section deals generally with interaction of the consumer with products of different visual appearance. Finally, there are still some bottlenecks which need to be addressed, not only to completely understand the relationship of varying postharvest processing methods with varying in‐cup quality attributes, but also to devise the next generation of coffee processing technologies.     

Radiative flow of micropolar nanofluid accounting thermophoresis and Brownian moment

This article describes the Brownian motion and thermophoresis aspects in nonlinear flow of micropolar nanoliquid. Stretching surface with linear velocity creates the flow. Energy expression is modeled subject to consideration of thermal radiation phenomenon. Effect of Newtonian heating is considered. The utilization of transformation procedure yields nonlinear differential systems which are computed through homotopic approach. The important features of several variables like material parameter, conjugate parameter, Prandtl number, Brownian motion parameter, radiation parameter, thermophoresis parameter and Lewis number on velocity, micro-rotation velocity, temperature, nanoparticles concentration, surface drag force and heat and mass transfer rates are discussed through graphs and tables. The presented analysis reveals that the heat and mass transfer rates are enhanced for higher values of radiation and Brownian motion parameters. Present computations are consistent with those of existing studies in limiting sense.     

CuCe-Ferrite/TiO2 Nanocomposite as an Efficient Magnetically Separable Photocatalyst for Dye Pollutants Decolorization

In this work, a magnetically separated photocatalyst with great efficiency CuCe-Ferrite/TiO₂ composite was prepared and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–Vis spectrophotometry, Fourier transformer infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Single-phase cubic spinel was formed by calcining the prepared sample at a temperature of 550 °C, according to the results. Different concentrations of reactive red 250 (RR250) dye photodegradation was evaluated using different doses of CuCe-ferrite/ TiO₂ and TiO₂ NPs. Higher efficiency of RR250 photodegradation up to 100% was obtained using CuCe-ferrite/ TiO₂. The photodegradation efficiency was confirmed using chemical oxygen demand (COD) test of both treated and untreated samples. The oxidation process was mostly mediated by photogenerated ^.O^2? according to scavenger test results. The catalyst possess higher photodegradation efficiency even after regeneration for ten times.

Graphical Abstract

     

Cytotoxicities of Tumor-Seeking Dyes: Impact on Future Clinical Trials

Heptamethine (Cy7) dyes with meso-Cl substituents injected intravenously (iv) into mice accumulate in tumors and persist there over several days. We believe this occurs via meso-Cl displacement by the only free cysteine residues of albumin; therefore, conjugating tumor-seeking dyes with fragments can increase selective therapeutic delivery to tumors and drug residence. This strategy has elevated significance recently because the first tumor-seeking dye-drug conjugate has moved into clinical trials. Options for further clinical research include modifying the dye, and use of preformed albumin adducts instead of dyes alone. Herein we show correlations of cytotoxicities, lipophilicities, organelle localization, apoptosis, cell-cycle arrest, wound healing/migration assays, and reactivities/affinities with human serum albumin are difficult to observe. However, our studies arrived at an important conclusion: preformed dye-drug-HSA adducts are less cytotoxic, and therefore preferable for subsequent clinical work, relative to direct injection of meso-Cl-containing forms.     

Genetics Based Compact Fuzzy System for Visual Sensor Network

As a component of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), Visual-WSN (VWSN) utilizes cameras to obtain relevant data including visual recordings and static images. Data from the camera is sent to energy efficient sink to extract key-information out of it. VWSN applications range from health care monitoring to military surveillance. In a network with VWSN, there are multiple challenges to move high volume data from a source location to a target and the key challenges include energy, memory and I/O resources. In this case, Mobile Sinks(MS) can be employed for data collection which not only collects information from particular chosen nodes called Cluster Head (CH), it also collects data from nearby nodes as well. The innovation of our work is to intelligently decide on a particular node as CH whose selection criteria would directly have an impact on QoS parameters of the system. However, making an appropriate choice during CH selection is a daunting task as the dynamic and mobile nature of MSs has to be taken into account. We propose Genetic Machine Learning based Fuzzy system for clustering which has the potential to simulate human cognitive behavior to observe, learn and understand things from manual perspective. Proposed architecture is designed based on Mamdani’s fuzzy model. Following parameters are derived based on the model residual energy, node centrality, distance between the sink and current position, node centrality, node density, node history, and mobility of sink as input variables for decision making in CH selection. The inputs received have a direct impact on the Fuzzy logic rules mechanism which in turn affects the accuracy of VWSN. The proposed work creates a mechanism to learn the fuzzy rules using Genetic Algorithm (GA) and to optimize the fuzzy rules base in order to eliminate irrelevant and repetitive rules. Genetic algorithm-based machine learning optimizes the interpretability aspect of fuzzy system. Simulation results are obtained using MATLAB. The result shows that the classification accuracy increase along with minimizing fuzzy rules count and thus it can be inferred that the suggested methodology has a better protracted lifetime in contrast with Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) and LEACH-Expected Residual Energy (LEACH-ERE).     

The effects of diffusion on the mechanism of peristaltic flow at slip boundaries when internal Joule heating is present

Physiological applications of the study of heat transfer and peristaltic pumping of magnetohydrodynamic thermal diffusion include heart–lung machines during surgery, dialysis, vitamin injections, and cancer treatment. In addition, it has numerous industrial applications, including pharmaceutical fluid production, filtration, and contamination-free cosmetic and glue emulsion dispensing. Studying the influence of diffusion-thermo and thermal diffusion on peristaltic flow with slip boundaries propelled by internal Joule energy is the key motivation for this study. By utilizing a long-wavelength approximation, ignoring the wave number, and performing under conditions of low Reynolds number, closed-form solutions for the velocity, temperature, and concentration fields are achieved. Fluid flow along the axial pressure gradient tends to decrease as slip parameters increase. It is shown that when the amount of the second-order slipping parameter increases, the pressure rate decreases in the back and peristaltic pumping zones but increases in the copump zone. The fluid's temperature and concentration tend to decrease as the slip parameters increase. Changes in thermal diffusion and thermo-diffusion factors cause changes in the fluid's temperature and concentration. The Nusselt number improves as a result of increasing the Prandtl number, thermo-diffusion constraint, Dufour number, and Schmidt number, whereas the Sherwood number exhibits the reverse trend.     

Geotechnical properties of problematic expansive subgrade stabilized with guar gum biopolymer

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - This article presents a comprehensive study on the geotechnical behavior of problematic expansive subgrade stabilized by guar gum (GG) biopolymer. In...     

Fracture Toughness Characteristics of Stacked Bilayer Graphene via Far-Field Displacement Measurements

Mechanical properties of graphene, e.g., strength, modulus, and fracture toughness are extremely sensitive to flaws. Here the fracture properties of stacked bilayer graphene sheets (SBLG) are reported, obtained via stacking two individually grown graphene sheets. The SBLG is presented here as a building block for flaw-resilient nanomaterials. The fracture properties of freestanding SBLG sheets, suspended on transmission electron microscope (TEM) grids, are characterized by stretching the TEM grid inside an scanning electron microscope (SEM) chamber and monitoring the local displacements in real-time. The fracture toughness is measured and expressed as a function of the critical displacement required to propagate existing cracks in the experiment via computational models. This approach decouples force and displacements measurements, and utilizes the known elastic modulus along with the known displacement boundary conditions at the onset of crack growth to estimate the far field force and stress. This strategy represents a breakthrough in nanoscale fracture mechanics for statistical analysis and high throughput experimens on multiple samples at a time. Results demonstrate that the SBLG is markedly tougher than as-grown single or multilayer graphene, with a mode I fracture toughness of ≈28.06 ± 7.5 MPa$\sqrt{m}$. The mechanisms leading to a higher toughness of SBLG are also analyzed and discussed.     

Ni3V2O8 Nanosheets Grafted on 3D Helical-shaped Carbon Nanocoils as A Binder-free Hierarchical Composite for Efficient Non-enzymatic Glucose Sensing

High fabrication cost, chemical instability, and complex immobilization of enzyme molecules are critical issues of enzyme-based glucose sensors. Designing state-of-the-art, binder-free, and non-enzymatic glucose sensing probes plays an imperative role to cope with the aforementioned issues. 3D carbonaceous nanomaterials coated with transition metal vanadates (TMVs) are a favorable biomimetic platform for glucose quantification. Peculiar hierarchical structure, enhanced conductivity, synergistic interaction, multiple oxidation states, and high catalytic activity would make such composite a potential contender for non-enzymatic glucose sensing. Herein, 3D helical-shaped carbon nanocoils (CNCs) are grown on nickel foam (NF) via chemical vapor deposition method to prepare a robust CNCs/NF scaffold. Then, a hydrothermal route is followed to grow interconnected free-standing Ni₃V₂O₈ nanosheets (NSs) on CNCs/NF scaffold. This novel and binder-free Ni₃V₂O₈ NSs/CNCs/NF hierarchical composite possesses superior electrochemical active area (ECSA) and exceptional electrochemical efficacy. Amperometric analysis exhibits extremely prompt detection time (0.1 s), elevated sensitivity (5214 µA mM⁻¹ cm⁻²), and low detection limit (0.04 µM). Developed sensor demonstrates appreciable recoveries (93.3 to 103.3%) regarding glucose concentration in human serum. The appealing analytical results show that deployment of a 3D helical-shaped hierarchical smart scaffold can be an effective strategy for developing efficient and advanced non-enzymatic glucose sensors.     

RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PLIOCENE RED SERIES,LAM FIELD AND SURROUNDING AREAS,OFFSHORE WESTERN TURKMENISTAN

The sedimentology, petrography and reservoir potential of Pliocene sandstones within the Upper Red Series in the offshore LAM field, Western Turkmenistan, have been examined. Depositional settings are interpreted within the framework of the Red Series palaeoenvironments across the entire Turkmen sector of the Apsheron-Prebalkhan uplift zone, including its onshore extension to the east. Examination of 81 m of core from three separate intervals suggests that the Red Series in the LAM field is the product of a fluvial-dominated delta system with associated floodplain deposits, periodically flooded by the saline waters of the South Caspian Lake. Relatively thick sandstones, up to around 5 m thick, are interpreted as channel and point-bar deposits of a meandering river system, with thinner and finer-grained sandstones and siltstones inferred to be crevasse-splay and interdistributary floodplain deposits. Floodplain mudstones display signs of desiccation, soil formation, plant rootlets and occasional thin layers of anhydrite. Intervals with marine trace-fossil assemblages record incursions of saline-lake waters. Conglomeratic layers at the base of thicker mudstone intervals may be associated with abrupt transgressions of the lake. The best reservoir qualities are associated with the fluvial channel and point-bar sandstones. Crevasse-splay and other overbank sandstones are of poorer quality, while intercalated floodplain to lacustrine claystone/siltstone units may constitute local seals. Eighteen sandstone plug samples from the cored intervals were examined in thin-section and by XRD and SEM to assess how mineralogy, grain size and diagenesis affect reservoir quality. The samples consist predominantly of lithic arkoses and feldspathic litharenites; higher porosities, and therefore better reservoir potential, are associated with the feldspathic litharenites. Primary controls on porosity include compaction, clay-matrix content and calcite cementation. XRD data reveal the presence of illite, illite-smectite and chlorite. The presence of swelling clays has been the main cause of formation damage in the field. The interpretation of meandering fluvial channels here is thought to represent the first published account of such channels within Pliocene reservoir rocks in the north of the South Caspian Basin. Previous accounts of the Red Series sandstones deposited onshore to the east have indicated deposition within braided channels of the palaeo-Amu Darya river delta plain, and alluvial-fan deposits sourced from uplands to the north. Deposition of the equivalent Productive Series by the palaeo-Volga in the Azerbaijan sector to the west has also been interpreted as having taken place within braided systems, although mixed or suspended-load fluvial channels ascribed to the contemporary Kura delta farther south may have been associated with a meandering system. Two palaeogeographic maps are presented to illustrate depositional environments for the Red Series during relative high- and low-stands of the South Caspian Lake. The maps cover the area where the Productive Series of Azerbaijan passes into the Red Series of Western Turkmenistan.