Effect of biscuit baking conditions on the stability of microencapsulated 5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid and their physical properties

Among the folate compounds, 5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid (5-CH3THF) is regarded as one of the most bioactive forms of folate. It is regarded as the better source of folate to humans as compared to folic acid, a synthetic form of folate, which is used for fortifying foods to prevent the incidence of neural tube defects in the new born babies. The use of 5-CH3THF as an alternative fortificant, in place of folic acid, has been explored by various researchers. However, fortification of 5-CH3THF is problematic due to its lower stability. This study investigated the stability of microencapsulated 5-CH3THF in biscuits baked at various temperatures and times as well as changes in their physical properties. Microcapsule with pectin and alginate ratio of 80:20, prepared by spray drying, gave the highest retention (68.6%) of the 5-CH3THF, therefore, chosen for fortification. The encapsulated and unencapsulated 5-CH3THF were mixed separately with flour and biscuit ingredients and baked at 180°C, 200°C and 220°C, each for 5, 9 and 12 min. The inclusion of encapsulated and unencapsulated 5-CH3THF in the biscuit formulation and subsequent baking at various temperatures and times resulted in retention of 5-CH3THF from 19.1% to 1.7%. Microencapsulation of 5-CH3THF slightly improved the retention of 5-CH3THF over unencapsuated biscuits at 180°C for 5 min, but almost no such effect was achieved under baking temperatures of 200°C and 220°C. Physical analysis showed darker colour, harder texture and lower moisture content for biscuits baked at higher test temperatures. It seems intense heating condition that caused “over baking” of the biscuit likely to be responsible for the loss of the vitamin as well as less desirable physical properties of the biscuits

Recent developments in intellectual property law in Australia with some reference to the global economy

This paper by Susan Crennan, Justice of the High Court of Australia, addresses developments in Australia in intellectual property law, with some reference to the global economy, and deals with two patent cases, two copyright cases and a designs case. The paper was original presented as a lecture at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and is published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

A Simplex-based search for critical non-circular slip surfaces

Slope stability problems with non-circular slip surfaces have been characterized as a problem in optimization in which the safety factor expression is the function to be minimized. The Simplex Method of Nelder and Mead (1965), one of the most powerful direct search methods, has been implemented into program STABL5 (Carpenter et al, 1985) to examine the feasibility of using advanced optimization principles in conjunction with the relatively high problem dimension associated with non-circular slip surfaces. Parametric studies were performed on LSLIP1 in order to determine recommended values for the various input parameters. STABL5 and the revised code LSLIP1 were utilized to solve five slope problems representing a wide range of conditions. The revised code with its built-in Simplex search strategy proved to be more accurate, efficient and reliable than the original code with the random grid search

Tertiary Foes. "Radical Students: The Old Left at Sydney University" by Alan Barcan and "The Diary of a Vice-Chancellor: University of Melbourne 1935–1938" by Raymond Priestley (ed. Ronald Ridley). [review]

Many thousands of undergraduates have walked under the stilts of the Raymond Priestley Building, which forms part of Melbourne University's great wind tunnel, with no thought of the person commemorated by its name. He was, in fact, a remarkable man. His four years as Vice-Chancellor (1935–38) emerge in extraordinary detail and intimacy, thanks to this edition of his journals. If the Priestley diaries give the view of a university from the top, Alan Barcan's study of the old left at Sydney University gives it from the bottom, or at least the middle. His study spans more than four decades, commencing in the 1920s and moving on to the new left period. His work is amiable, ironic and inclusive.Australia Council, La Trobe University, National Library of Australia, Holding Redlich, Arts Victori

English Tacitus

© 2011 Dr. Michael Joseph CrennanThis Dissertation is a study of the reception of the writings of the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus into English historical, literary and political culture. It covers the period from approximately 1600 to approximately 1960. In the last few years of the sixteenth century translations of the work of Tacitus into English began to appear. In Continental Europe there had already been a large scale reaction to the works of Tacitus, so widespread as to be identified as Tacitism by the Italian historian Tofannin, early in the twentieth century. This phenomenon took many forms, and has been studied in detail. For those writing history, Tacitus provided an example of stylistic techniques which were well suited to an incisive account of the inner workings of governments, particularly those of a secretive, autocratic nature — a description which fitted both the later Tudor and the Stuart regimes as well as the early Roman principate. This had a practical effect on the writing of history in English, but also upon the way in which thinkers such as Bacon conceptualized the nature of the historian’s task. In the case of other types of writing, Tacitus provided material for drama, and for biography. This response to Tacitus developed over the course of the seventeenth century, as the conditions of the political and social world altered, and Tacitus was put to uses which differed, as the issues important to writers changed in nature and content. I begin by identifying in the narratives of Tacitus the location and content of a number of the characteristic themes and concerns which attracted and enlivened the early modern writers of early modern England. They include Ben Jonson, who wrote a play about Sejanus, and a number of historians, including one philosopher of history, Francis Bacon. The other historians are John Hayward and Walter Ralegh. The next area is that of radical Whig polemic in the early eighteenth in which Tacitus played a significant role, in the articulation of the concept of liberty, amongst other concerns. These writings were frequently reprinted in the eighteenth century. After a brief account of the development of the writing of Roman history in the eighteenth century, I turn to the later nineteenth century. At that time, there was a radical revision in the views taken by English writers of the Roman emperors including Tiberius. Amongst the causes of these changes were some forms of democratic theory, which were hostile to the Roman republic, and Caesarism from various sources This revisionism had a long tail in the twentieth century, which is traced through a number of historians