Improvement of melting and crystallisation properties of rambutan seed fat as cocoa butter improver by two-stage fractionation technique

The search for hard fats is increasing by the day due to their demand for industrial purposes. Rambutan seed fat (RSF) was fractionated prior to investigate the melting and crystallisation behaviours, triacylglycerols (TAGs), and morphology using different chromatographic and thermal techniques. The increasing trends were observed for high-melting symmetrical monounsaturated TAGs such as 1,3-distearoyl-2-oleoyl-glycerol and 1-palmitoyl-3-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-glycerol in both solid fractions upon fractionation. The solid fractions (F₁-S) and (F₂-S) exhibited small peaks towards low melting area and big peaks towards high melting area with the offset temperatures of 35.29–48.75 °C and 43.58–52.70 °C with significantly higher enthalpies (93.49 and 105.13 J g⁻¹) upon fractionation. F₂-S showed the densely packed microstructure compared to that of crude RSF and F₁-S. Based on the thermal behaviours as well as morphology of RSF fractions, cocoa butter improver could be prepared that has the potential to be utilised in chocolate manufacturing in tropical countries.     

Extraction of volatile organic compounds from leaves of Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. and Artemisia annua L. by headspace-solid phase micro extraction and simultaneous distillation extraction and analysis by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

This study was designed to analyze the volatile organic compounds in the leaves of Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. and Artemisia annua L. from Korea. For extraction of volatile compounds, headspace-solid phase micro extraction (HS-SPME) and simultaneous distillation extraction (SDE) were applied and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). From the results, SDE extraction was found to give the highest concentration of volatile compounds with an average concentration of 1,237.79 mg/kg for A. annua L. leaves compared to 1,122.73 mg/kg by HS-SPME technique. A total of 116 volatile organic compounds were identified, including 76 similar volatile organic compounds detected by both the methods of extraction in leaves of subject species at varying concentrations. Among these 33 volatile organic compounds were reported for the first time from the subject plant species. Thus the present research findings extend the characterization of volatile organic compounds from leaves of A. annua L. and A. artemisiifolia L. species and reported some distinguishing compounds which may be used for their discrimination.     

Biotechnological approaches for the production of designer cheese with improved functionality

Cheese is a product of ancient biotechnological practices, which has been revolutionized as a functional food product in many parts of the world. Bioactive compounds, such as peptides, polysaccharides, and fatty acids, have been identified in traditional cheese products, which demonstrate functional properties such as antihypertensive, antioxidant, immunomodulation, antidiabetic, and anticancer activities. Besides, cheese-making probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) exert a positive impact on gut health, aiding in digestion, and improved nutrient absorption. Advancement in biotechnological research revealed the potential of metabolite production with prebiotics and bioactive functions in several strains of LAB, yeast, and filamentous fungi. The application of specific biocatalyst producing microbial strains enhances nutraceutical value, resulting in designer cheese products with multifarious health beneficial effects. This review summarizes the biotechnological approaches applied in designing cheese products with improved functional properties.     

Luminance approximated vector quantization algorithm to retain better image quality of the decompressed image

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Some compressed images using Vector Quantization algorithm suffers from blocking artifacts which degrades the visual appeal of the image. Present study proposes...     

Succinic Semialdehyde Dehydrogenase Deficiency: In Vitro and In Silico Characterization of a Novel Pathogenic Missense Variant and Analysis of the Mutational Spectrum of ALDH5A1

Succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase deficiency (SSADHD) is a rare, monogenic disorder affecting the degradation of the main inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-amino butyric acid (GABA). Pathogenic variants in the ALDH5A1 gene that cause an enzymatic dysfunction of succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) lead to an accumulation of potentially toxic metabolites, including γ-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). Here, we present a patient with a severe phenotype of SSADHD caused by a novel genetic variant c.728T > C that leads to an exchange of leucine to proline at residue 243, located within the highly conserved nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD)⁺ binding domain of SSADH. Proline harbors a pyrrolidine within its side chain known for its conformational rigidity and disruption of protein secondary structures. We investigate the effect of this novel variant in vivo, in vitro, and in silico. We furthermore examine the mutational spectrum of all previously described disease-causing variants and computationally assess all biologically possible missense variants of ALDH5A1 to identify mutational hotspots.     

Augmented Hammerstein model for the calibration of six‐port based dual band wireless receivers

Two architectures of concurrent dual‐band six‐port‐based receiver (SPR), which are modeled and calibrated using the augmented Hammerstein model (AHM) are proposed for the first time in this article. The receivers are based on six‐port junctions with one or two local oscillators (LO). The proposed single step calibration algorithms achieve the recovery of the two in‐phase (I₁ and I₂) and quadrature (Q₁ and Q₂) components of an RF signal with two frequency components (RF₁ and RF₂). Experimental validations have been performed to verify the performance of the proposed concurrent dual‐band receivers and to test the efficiency of the AHM based calibration algorithms. As a performance metric, the Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) has been measured to compare the transmitted and recovered baseband signals and to evaluate the performance and efficiency of the proposed calibration algorithms for the two receiver topologies. The IQ data has been recovered with EVMs no higher than 2% for the two LOs based receiver excited with a QAM modulated dual‐band RF signal. The single LO based receiver has been tested with a dual‐band LTE signal and the recovered IQ data exhibited EVMs no higher than 4%.     

Rheological Properties and Emulsifying Activity of Gum Karaya (Sterculia Urens) in Aqueous System and Oil in Water Emulsion: Heat Treatment and Microwave Modification

Gum karaya is a polysaccharide gum from Sterculia urens tree. It is used as an emulsifier and thickening agent in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. However, it has very strong swelling properties, high viscosity, and low solubility, providing the restricted applications in the food industry. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of different heat treatment and microwave variables (i.e., time: 8, 10, and 12 min; power: 700 and 1000 W) on the functional properties of gum karaya in the aqueous system and oil-in-water emulsion. In this regard, the rheological properties, emulsifying activity, average droplet size, and surface morphology of the native- and microwave-treated gums were analyzed and compared. Dynamic oscillatory test indicated that the microwave-treated gum karaya had more gel-like behavior than viscous-like behavior (G′ > G″) at a relatively high concentration (20% or 20 g/100 g). When gum karaya was treated by microwave for 8–12 min, both elastic (G′) and viscous (G″) moduli were declined. The native- and microwave-treated gum karaya exhibited a shear-thinning (pseudoplastic) behavior in the aqueous system and oil-in-water emulsion. The results showed that the microwave-treated gum karaya had smaller particles than the native gum in the aqueous system. On the other hand, the emulsion containing the microwave-treated gum karaya had finer emulsion droplets than the control containing the native gum karaya. This confirmed that the application of microwave treatment led to significantly (p < 0.05) improve the emulsifying activity of gum karaya.