Characteristic tryptic peptides and gelling properties of porcine skin gelatin affected by thermal action

Thermal action in extraction process had effects on characteristic tryptic peptides identification and gelling properties of porcine gelatin. SDS-PAGE, HPLC-LTQ/Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry, texture analyser and rheometer were used to evaluate collagen depolymerisation degree, characteristic tryptic peptides and gelling properties of gelatins prepared in various thermal actions. Results showed that with increasing temperature and time, depolymerisation degree enlarged, while gel strength, gelling and melting temperature decreased. Mass spectra showed that 47 and 49 common characteristic tryptic peptides were identified in gelatins extracted at 50 °C and 100 °C with various times, respectively. Moreover, 34 common characteristic tryptic peptides were identified in all gelatin samples. Further comparison between this work and our previous investigations yielded 20 common characteristic tryptic peptides, which stably exist in various thermal actions. These common characteristic tryptic peptides may be very helpful for the accurate authentication of porcine gelatin.     

Effects of high hydrostatic pressure on the structure and retrogradation inhibition of oat starch

As a non-thermal processing technology, high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) can be used for starch modification without affecting the quality and flavour constituents. The effect of HHP on starch is closely related to the treatment pressure of HHP. In this paper, we investigated the impacts of HHP treatment pressure (0, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 MPa) on the microstructure and retrogradation characteristics of oat starch, established the retrogradation kinetic model and elaborated the mechanism of HHP treatment inhibiting the retrogradation of oat starch. Results show that HHP treatment caused the microstructure of oat starch experienced crystallisation perfection (100–300 MPa), crystallisation destruction (400 MPa), crystallisation disintegration and gelatinisation (500–600 MPa). Results of oat starch retrogradation showed that, after treated at 500 MPa for 15 min, the recrystallisation rate of oat starch was reduced, the formation of nuclei at the early stage of oat starch retrogradation suppressed and its nucleation mode was changed from instantaneous to spontaneous, otherwise, the mobility of water in oat starch gel system reduced. Therefore, 500 MPa treated for 15 min can inhibits the retrogradation of oat starch. This study provides theoretical guidance for the application of HHP technology in starch modification and food processing.     

Ultralight and robustly compressible silica aerogel enhanced by AC/C sponge with high oil/water separation

Journal of Porous Materials - In recent years, oil spills and industrial organic pollutants have caused irreparable damage to the environment and biological ecosystems. Therefore, the treatment of...     

A Hybrid Model Integrating Elman Neural Network with Variational Mode Decomposition and Box–Cox Transformation for Monthly Runoff Time Series Prediction

Water Resources Management - Precise and reliable monthly runoff prediction plays a vital role in the optimal management of water resources, but the nonstationarity and skewness of monthly runoff...     

Physiochemical structure of semicoke derived from co-carbonization of coal and sawdust blends

The substitution of coal blending with sawdust had been widely investigated for metallurgical coke production. In this paper, the physiochemical structures of the semicoke derived from sawdust/coals blends co-coking were characterized by several analytical techniques including FTIR-ATR, XPS, NMR, OM, and SEM. Meanwhile, the influence of the sawdust on the physicochemical properties of the sawdust/coals blends were also investigated. Results indicated that partial substitution of coal blending with sawdust benefited from the formation of colloid and optical anisotropy due to the positive synergetic effect, whereas high proportion of sawdust (>10 wt%) inhibited the agglomeration of semi-coke. On the other hand, the semicoke consisted primarily of aromatic carbons replaced by the oxygen linked to carbons and aliphatic carbons when the coal blending was replaced by high proportion of sawdust, causing a less polyaromatic graphite-like structure formation in the semicoke.     

Phenolic profiling reveals the metabolite basis of flesh colour and fresh-cut browning in apple fruit

Flesh colour, which is affected by cultivars and browning, can largely impact consumer acceptance in fresh-cut apples. The study profiled phenolic metabolites from apple flesh of twenty-three cultivars by widely targeted metabolomics. Comparison among white- and yellow-fleshed cultivars showed fifteen phenolics, mainly quercetin 3-O-glucoside, hyperoside, hesperetin 5-O-glucoside and cymaroside, in white-fleshed apples were significantly higher than those in yellow-fleshed apples. It may indicate a metabolite basis of yellow and white flesh colour, and better potential nutrition in white-fleshed apples. In addition, ten phenolic metabolites including five cyanidin glycosides showed significant differences between the highest and the lowest browning groups, indicating them may be crucial in browning of fresh-cut apple. This work elucidates the differences of phenolic profiles among apple cultivars with different flesh colour and provides useful data to evaluate the suitability of apple for fresh-cut processing.     

Stabilization for Schrödinger Equation with Internal Damping and Boundary Disturbance

In this paper, the stabilization for Schrödinger equation subject to internal damping and boundary disturbance at the control end is investigated. Due to its immeasurability, the nonlinear observer system is designed to obtain the state information, and the existence of weak solution and its convergence for the nonlinear observer system are proved. The feedback control is realized by the backstepping transformation. In addition, the adaptive disturbance rejection control is applied to estimate the disturbance. According to the observer and disturbance estimation, the feedback control is finally designed to stabilize the system asymptotically.