The influence of the water supply on the bioactive compounds of different tomato varieties

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of irrigation on the composition and content of phenolic compounds and carotenoids in different tomato cultivars using HPLC/DAD-UV technique and reverse-phase (RP) chromatographic columns for analysis. Among phenols, the quercetin derivatives and hydroxycinnamic acids and their derivatives were the major compounds, while lycopene was the dominant carotenoid in the extract of tomato. It was found that the response of tomatos to shortage of water is affected by genetic factors and seasonal environmental variations. In general, 100% irrigation yielded tomatoes with the lowest level of carotenoids and polyphenols. In 2012, when the temperature and number of sunny hours were at record levels, the non-irrigated plants of cultivar Strombolino yielded tomatoes with significantly higher levels of carotenoids and phenols than that of the other cultivars

Being resilient for society: evidence from companies that leveraged their resources and capabilities to fight the COVID-19 crisis

This study adopts a resilience perspective to explain how companies managed to contribute innovative solutions to fight the COVID-19 crisis. We studied how five companies operating in different industries (three in automotive, one in printing, and one in rubber and plastic products manufacturing) managed to reorganize activities and employ their R&D and innovation capabilities to enhance their resilience. Simultaneously, they increased the health system’s capacity to cope with the outbreak. Through a qualitative inductive study, based on interviews with company managers, we found that the firms mobilized their resources and capabilities to expand their ability to adapt and cope with adversity at the organizational level. In addition, moved by the sensitivity to the extreme context and a perceived sense of urgency, the firms deployed the same endowments to strengthen the community’s response to a crisis. Our study shows that an organization can directly and positively foster the broader social system’s resilience. This study contributes to the innovation literature by identifying innovation capabilities as fundamental antecedents of resilience building for organizational response, paving the way for strengthening the link between resilience and innovation

STUDYING THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT GELLING AGENT ON THE PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF METRONIDAZOLE AS TOPICAL EMULGEL

Objective: Emulgels as topical dosage form recently gains an interest represent a combination of gels and emulsions in united form. Metronidazole is an antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory drug, as the first topical therapy approved for rosacea; metronidazole has remained a cornerstone of rosacea management. Methods: Emulgel formulations of metronidazole benzoate were prepared using two types of gelling agents, Carbopol 940 and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, the influence of type and concentration of them on the release of metronidazole benzoate was investigated. The prepared formulations were evaluated on the basis of pH, spreadability, viscosity, drug content, in vitro release, and compatibility studies. Results: All the prepared emulgels showed acceptable physical properties concerning color, homogeneity, consistency, spreadability, and pH value. Conclusion: The best formulation (F4) prepared using Carbopol 940 as gelling agent showed the highest drug release through 5 h

Experimental investigation of NO reburning during oxy-coal burner staging

This study presents an investigation into the impact of varied burner staging environments on an oxy-fuel flame and the rate of the NO formation and destruction processes. The experimental data was extracted from the use of a 250 kWth down-fired combustion test facility with a scaled-down model of an industrial low-NOx burner (LNB). Two oxy-coal combustion regimes were investigated by varying a fixed flow of oxidant between the secondary and tertiary registers, so as to impact the stoichiometry in the fuel-rich region and flame structure, and using various NO recycling regimes, to test the impact of these different burner configurations on NO reburning. The data was collected by monitoring key emissions in the flue gas and in the flame, as well as temperatures throughout the furnace and the unburned carbon content of the ash. A detailed investigation encompassing the impact of secondary oxidant proportion for different oxidants on NO emissions, together with the quantification of recycled NO destruction, is discussed. This investigation finds that 85 % to 95 % of the recycled NO is destroyed at a range of burner configurations using OF 27 and OF 30 at 170 kWth. In addition to this, NO formation and carbon burnout are found to be significantly affected with changing burner configurations. Further to this, OF 30 flames appear to be more sensitive to burner configuration than OF 27 flames with regards to both NO formation and destruction, possibly due to the decreased density of the OF 30 oxidant. Radial profiles of two burner configurations at OF 27 and OF 30, as well as an axial profile of two burner configurations at OF 30, are analysed. The profiles appear to show that burner staging aids in controlling the products of NO reburning, hence maximising the destruction of recycled NO

Biofilms in Endodontics—Current Status and Future Directions

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Bio-CCS: co-firing of established greenfield and novel, brownfield biomass resources under air, oxygen-enriched air and oxy-fuel conditions

As demand for electricity and atmospheric CO concentrations rise technologies that reduce the environmental impact of generating electricity are sought. Within the many options a combination of co-firing of biomass and carbon capture and storage (Bio-CCS) could present a negative-emission process. This work investigates co-firing of a novel brownfield and two conventional greenfield biomass reserves with coal in oxygen-enriched conditions which may enhance the efficiency of post-combustion capture units. A 20kW furnace is used to assess combustion characteristics in a range of scenarios. Results suggest oxidant staging during oxygen-enriched co-firing can exhibit lower NO emissions while achieving high combustion efficiencies

Reactivity during bench-scale combustion of biomass fuels for carbon capture and storage applications

Reactivities of four biomass samples were investigated in four combustion atmospheres using non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) under two heating rates. The chosen combustion atmospheres reflect carbon capture and storage (CCS) applications and include O2O2 and CO2CO2-enrichment. Application of the Coats–Redfern method assessed changes in reactivity. Reactivity varied due to heating rate: the reactivity of char oxidation was lower at higher heating rates while devolatilisation reactions were less affected. In general, and particularly at the higher heating rate, increasing [O2O2] increased combustion reactivity. A lesser effect was observed when substituting N2N2 for CO2CO2 as the comburent; in unenriched conditions this tended to reduce char oxidation reactivity while in O2O2-enriched conditions the reactivity marginally increased. Combustion in a typical, dry oxyfuel environment (30% O2O2, 70% CO2CO2) was more reactive than in air in TGA experiments. These biomass results should interest researchers seeking to understand phenomena occurring in larger scale CCS-relevant experiments

Changes of potentially anti-nutritive components in Hungarian potatoes from organic and conventional farming

Anti-nutritive components in multi resistant potato cultivars were investigated in relation to conventional and organic farming for three years. Glycoalkaloids, nitrate, nitrite, asparagine, and glutamine contents of tubers were examined. Farming technology was found not to have an effect on the level of glycoalkaloids, which was influenced mostly by the genotype and season. Nitrogen fertilisation caused significant increase in nitrate, asparagine, and glutamine contents as compared to organic farming. Nitrite content was found to be more independent of farming technologies than nitrate. Tubers of cultivar Rioja had the lowest nitrate content irrespective of season or technology. In conclusion, the absolute amount and changes of different anti-nutritive components of potato tubers were influenced differently by the technology, genotype, and season in a complex manner. Organic farming had no effect on the glycoalkaloid content, but the nitrate levels had a tendency to be lower compared to conventional farming. This can be seen as a positive effect of organic farming

Multi-mode Combustion Process Monitoring through Flame Imaging and Soft-computing

Reliable monitoring and diagnosis of combustion stability in combustion systems such as fossil-fuel fired boilers, gas turbines and combustion engines are crucial to maintain the system safety, combustion efficiency and low emissions, particularly under variable operation conditions. Considerable efforts have thus been made in developing techniques for online monitoring and diagnosis of the stability of a combustion process. Among those, flame imaging conjoined with image processing and soft computing techniques has been paid much attention for both laboratorial and industrial applications. Some imaging and soft computing techniques have been proposed for combustion state monitoring, but most of them can only detect a single-mode condition. However, modern combustion systems often operate under variable conditions (i.e., multi-mode process). Due to the dynamic nature of the combustion process, single-mode monitoring methods often mistakenly determine some normal combustion behaviours as abnormal ones. The recent trend of using a variety of fuels, including low quality coals, coal blends, and co-firing biomass and coal, has further deteriorated this issue. In this study, a method based on flame imaging and soft-computing techniques for multi-mode combustion process monitoring is proposed. Flame images are acquired using a flame imaging system. Mean intensity values of RGB image components and texture descriptors are extracted and computed from the grey-level co-occurrence matrix. Such features are then used as inputs to a combined PCA-KSVM (principle component analysis-kernel support vector machine) model for multi-mode process monitoring. In this method, the PCA serves for eliminating the impact of noise and instabilities on the mode recognition. The KSVM identifies the combustion mode by using the scores of the features in the principle component subspace. Finally, two multivariate statistic indices, T2 and SPE, are computed and used to assess the stabilities of the combustion process. The proposed approach has been examined by using flame images obtained on the UKCCSRC PACT 250kW PF (pulverised fuel) test rig under different operation conditions (e.g., variations in the primary air and secondary-territory air split). Test results have shown that the computed image features represent well the dynamic behaviours of the flame, and that the PCA-KSVM model has outperformed conventional methods in monitoring the multi-mode combustion process

Effect of Different Ecological Conditions on Content of Phytonutrients in Industrial Tomatoes

Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicon L.) are one of the most important and most widely consumed vegetables in the world. The fruit contains considerable amount of different phytonutrients such as carotenoids, tocopherols, and vitamin C. In the present work, effects of some abiotic factors on the concentration of phytonutrients were investigated in tomato cultivated in two different types of soil. It was found that the type of soil had slight effect on the most important vital nutrients, while the ecological factors, particularly precipitation and average temperature 3 weeks before harvest, were of significant influence on such nutrients. It was found that low temperature and high precipitation before harvest caused the levels of carotenoids, tocopherol, and vitamin C to significantly increase by 65%, 46%, and 28%, respectively