Development of frozen grated cassava paste as a base for Malaysian traditional cakes (PDF boleh COPY)

The optimum formulation for production of baked cassava cake i.e. a type of Malaysian traditional cake was determined using response surface methodology (RSM). The effects of amount of ingredients such as sugar (10-30%) and coconut milk (15-35%) on the instrumental textural characteristics and sensory acceptance of cakes were investigated. Based on superimposed plots, the basic formulation for production of baked cassava cake with desired sensory quality was obtained by incorporating 25 % of white granulated sugar and 20 % of coconut milk to the basic formulation. Physicochemical analyses were carried out to evaluate the changes in the quality of frozen cassava paste whereas; instrumental measurements and sensory tests were performed to assess the quality of baked cassava cake at monthly interval for a period of six months during frozen storage. The drip loss was increased initially for the three months of storage and decreased slightly in the following month onwards. The prolonged frozen storage had led to a brighter frozen grated cassava paste. The ice crystals formation and enlargement had negative impact on textural properties i.e. firmness and rheological of the cassava paste during frozen storage. When viewed under an electron microscope, it was confirmed that the cell wall structures and membranes of cassava paste were damaged during the frozen storage. Furthermore, both the changes in the textural profile and sensory attributes of baked cassava cake had also showed similar trend of results with the instrumental data and this further supported t the changes in the quality of baked cassava cake was solely due to the freezing process, frozen storage and subsequent thawing. The degree of acceptability of all the attributes was also reduced after six months of frozen storage and the recommended storage period for frozen grated cassava paste was up to four months. The effects of different concentration of xanthan gum (0 %, 0.2 %, 0.4 %, 0.6 % and 0.8 %, w/w) on frozen grated cassava paste were also studied. Results showed that xanthan gum had effectively reduced the drip loss and at the same time improved the textural properties i.e. firmness and rheological parameter of the cassava paste during frozen storage. However, the degree of acceptability for the sensory attributes of baked cassava cake were reduced as the concentration of xanthan gum was increased. Hence, the most suitable concentration of xanthan gum to be added was 0.2% w/w. The effect of five successive freeze-thaw cycles on physicochemical, textural and rheological properties as well as sensory qualities of frozen grated cassava paste was studied. The drip loss was significantly higher in sample that was subjected to five freeze-thaw cycles when compared with the control (zero cycle). The firmness and rheological properties of the cassava paste as well as the degree of acceptability of the baked cassava cake was decreased gradually as the number of cycles was increased

Designing learning activities for experiential learning in a design thinking course

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A size-consistent Gr\"uneisen-quasiharmonic approach for lattice thermal conductivity

We propose a size-consistent Gr\"uneisen-quasiharmonic approach (GQA) to calculate the lattice thermal conductivity $\kappa_l$ where the Gr\"uneisen parameters that measure the degree of phonon anharmonicity are calculated directly using first-principles calculations. This is achieved by identifying and modifying two existing equations related to the Slack formulae for $\kappa_l$ that suffer from the size-inconsistency problem when dealing with non-monoatomic primitive cells (where the number of atoms in the primitive cell $n$ is greater than one). In conjunction with other thermal parameters such as the acoustic Debye temperature $\theta_a$ that can also be obtained within the GQA, we predict $\kappa_l$ for a range of materials taken from the diamond, zincblende, rocksalt, and wurtzite compounds. The results are compared with that from the experiment and the quasiharmonic Debye model (QDM). We find that in general the prediction of $\theta_a$ is rather consistent among the GQA, experiment, and QDM. However, while the QDM somewhat overestimates the Gr\"uneisen parameters and hence underestimates $\kappa_l$ for most materials, the GQA predicts the experimental trends of Gr\"uneisen parameters and $\kappa_l$ more closely. We expect the GQA with the modified Slack formulae could be used as an effective and practical predictor for $\kappa_l$, especially for crystals with large $n$.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

How to and how much? Teaching ethics in an interaction design course

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ARABIDOPSIS JUMONJI HISTONE DEMETHYLASES REGULATE FLORAL TRANSITION THROUGH THE FLORAL REPRESSOR FLC

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

ITSS: Interactive Web-Based Authoring and Playback Integrated Environment for Programming Tutorials

Video-based programming tutorials are a popular form of tutorial used by authors to guide learners to code. Still, the interactivity of these videos is limited primarily to control video flow. There are existing works with increased interactivity that are shown to improve the learning experience. Still, these solutions require setting up a custom recording environment and are not well-integrated with the playback environment. This paper describes our integrated ITSS environment and evaluates the ease of authoring and playback of our interactive programming tutorials. Our environment is designed to run within the browser sandbox and is less intrusive to record interactivity actions. We develop a recording approach that tracks the author's interactivity actions (e.g., typing code, highlighting words, scrolling panels) on the browser and stored in text and audio formats. We replay these actions using the recorded artefacts for learners to have a more interactive, integrated and realistic playback of the author's actions instead of watching video frames. Our design goals are 1) efficient recording and playback, 2) extensible interactivity features to help students learn better, and 3) a scalable web-based environment. Our first user study of 20 participants who carry out the author tasks agree that it is efficient and easy to author interactive videos in our environment with no additional software needed. Our second user study of 84 students using the environment agrees that the increased interactivity can help them learn better over a video-based tutorial. Our performance test shows that the environment can scale to support up to 500 concurrent users. We hope our open-source environment enable more educators to create interactive programming tutorials

Adaptive Branch and Bound for Efficient Solution of Mixed-Integer Programs Formulated with Big-M

This thesis describes three specialized branch-and-bound (B and B) algorithms for solving a mixed-integer program (MIP) that incorporates standard big-M constructs. The goal is to identify valid values for M that also lead to short solution times. One algorithm initializes large instances of M (giving a weak relaxation of the MIP), and decreases these as required to increase efficiency of the standard B and B. Two algorithms initialize small and possibly invalid instances of M, and subsequently increase those values in an attempt to ensure solution validity. Each algorithm requires a model-specific test condition to detect weak or invalid Ms. We test all algorithms on an uncapacitated k-median problem (a variant of the uncapacitated facility location problem), and one algorithm on a shortest-path interdiction problem (SPIP). We observe substantial reduction in run times in almost all cases tested. When solving for exact solutions, computational results show that the proposed algorithms may reduce solution times by up to 75 per cent for the uncapacitated k-median problem and 99 per cent for the SPIP. When the algorithms yield marginally suboptimal solutions, substantial solution-time improvements are also recorded. While testing is limited, this thesis serves as a proof-of-concept that the proposed adaptive algorithms can be effective in reducing solution times and producing optimal or nearly optimal solutions.http://archive.org/details/adaptivebranchnd1094517370Major, Singapore ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited