Utilization of Mixolab<Superscript>®</Superscript> to predict the suitability of flours in terms of cake quality

The objective of this study was to determine the possibility of using Mixolab^® to predict the cake baking quality of different wheat flours. Mixolab^® data were also compared with various flour quality characteristics. The correlations between Alveoconsistograph data and the cake quality characteristics were not significant. Therefore, Alveoconsistograph test does not seem to be useful to predict the cake quality of the flour samples. Mixolab^® characteristics C2, C3, C4 and C5 were found to be significantly correlated with volume index while C5 was correlated with hardness of cakes. The parameters C2 to C5 represent the end point of the corresponding mixing stages. The flour samples which gave higher cake hardness values had higher C5 values and the samples with lower cake volumes had higher C2, C3, C4 and C5 values. It seems to be possible to estimate the texture and volume of cakes by these values. Therefore, Mixolab^® seems to be a useful tool to predict the cake making quality of flour samples.     

Sliding mode PI control with backstepping approach for MIMO nonlinear cross‐coupled tank systems

The control of tank systems in industrial applications is an important issue for monitoring the chemical processes involved in the manufacture and delivery of product. The most important reason to control the tank systems is to keep the liquid level in the tanks constant and at the desired level for a specified period of time. In this study, the sliding mode control (SMC) with a repetitive approach called backstepping that is insensitive to uncertainties in system parameters and input disturbances is proposed and experimentally applied to a quadruple, cross‐coupled, uncertain, nonlinear, and multiple‐input/multiple‐output tank system. A proportional‐integral (PI) control is used to reduce the steady‐state error caused by the parameter variations and external noises. The traditional way of introducing PI usually leads to sliding surfaces. In this paper, the PI action is introduced to the control signal. The proposed backstepping sliding mode PI control (BSMPIC) is applied to such a complex tank system for the first time. The experimental results are compared with those of the SMC, sliding mode PI control, and backstepping sliding mode control to see the effect of the proposed BSMPIC on the system. As a result of the comparison, it is observed that less overshoot and tracking error, better tracking performance, and faster rise time in the transient regime is obtained by the BSMPIC.     

Voltage‐Gated Closed‐Loop Control of Small‐Molecule Release from Alumina‐Coated Nanoporous Gold Thin Film Electrodes

Precise timing and dosing of potent small‐molecule drugs carries significant potential for effective pharmaceutical management of disorders that exhibit time‐varying therapeutic windows such as epilepsy. This study demonstrates the use of alumina‐coated nanoporous gold (np‐Au) thin film electrodes for iontophoretic release of fluorescein as a small‐molecule drug surrogate with picogram dosing and a few seconds temporal resolution. A custom microfluidic platform is engineered to trigger molecular release from an integrated np‐Au chip and monitor the resulting time‐varying fluorescein concentration. Following a systematic study of the influence of applied voltage on loading capacity and release kinetics, a LabVIEW‐based closed‐loop control interface is employed to demonstrate voltage‐gated fluorescein release with preprogrammed arbitrary concentrations waveforms.     

Stochastic Modeling of Annual Maximum and Minimum Streamflow of Kelkit Stream

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine whether the daily extreme streamflows could be generated by stochastic models. For the study, a linear stochastic model known as either Box-Jenkins or ARIMA was used. A Mann-Kendal nonparametric test was applied to the daily extreme data sequences to examine the existence of trends. This test showed that there was no trend in the daily data sequences. The ARIMA model is referred as ARMA since there was no trend in the data sequences and thus, the non-seasonal differencing operator is equal to zero. By using the graphs of ACF and PACF, alternative ARMA models were determined. The plots of the ACF show that there was no linear dependence between the daily maximum streamflows, whereas a linear dependence was observed between the daily minimum streamflows. Therefore, modeling of daily maximum data sequences was discarded. There are four ARMA models that fulfilled all the diagnostic checks among selected models from the graphs of ACF and PACF for the daily minimum data sequences. But ARMA (1, 0) with a constant was chosen as the best model by considering Schwarz Bayesian Criterion (SBC). In addition, error estimates were also shown that ARMA (1, 0) with a constant was the best model.     

Thermal and electrical effects of basbars on Li-Ion batteries

Keeping temperature under control is critical for batteries to work effectively. When the safe operating range is exceeded, both the lifetime of batteries decreases and undesirable situations may occur such as fire. In this study, the effects of basbars on battery modules are examined. It is shown that the most intense current transitions pass through the shortest path connecting the batteries. When the distance between the batteries is increased, cooling is effective and the temperature of the batteries is expected to decrease. However, this is not the case in our study. It is observed that the temperature of the battery modules increases due to the increased length of the basbar. For this reason, it is emphasized that basbars are a parameter that cannot be ignored with respect to the temperature of battery modules. In this study, six different materials (ie, silver, copper, gold, nickel, steel and titanium) are used as basbars when trying to achieve the best results. For each basbar material, the maximum temperature values and discharge curves reached by the battery module are found. The results suggest that silver is the best basbar material. For the silver material, the temperature distributions of the battery modules, the maximum temperature value received by the module and the discharge curves are found for different C ratios.     

Illumination and voltage effects on the forward and reverse bias current–voltage (I-V) characteristics in In/In2S3/p-Si photodiodes

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - The illumination and voltage effects on the I-V measurements of the fabricated In/In2S3/p-Si photodiode were investigated in dark and under...     

A Study on Degree of Starch Gelatinization in Cakes Baked in Three Different Ovens

The main objective of the study was to determine the effects of different baking ovens and different cake formulations on the degree of starch gelatinization during cake baking. Baking was performed in microwave, infrared–microwave combination, and conventional ovens. Starch gelatinization levels of fat free, 25% fat, and 25% Simplesse™-containing cake samples were examined using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and rapid visco analyzer (RVA). Both DSC and RVA results showed that increasing baking time increased gelatinization level for all baking types significantly. It was also found that the effect of fat content on starch gelatinization was different depending on the type of baking. Addition of fat reduced the degree of starch gelatinization in conventional baking. However, fat enhanced the gelatinization in microwave and infrared–microwave combination ovens. Usage of Simplesse™ as a fat replacer decreased the starch gelatinization in all types of baking significantly. There was insufficient starch gelatinization in microwave-baked cakes in which the degree of gelatinization ranged from 55% to 78% depending on formulation. On the other hand, it ranged from 85% to 93% in conventionally baked cakes. Combining infrared with microwaves increased degree of starch gelatinization (70–90%).