Research Progress on Inhibition of Recrystallization of Ice Cream Crystals

Ice cream has the characteristic of thermodynamic instability. During processing, storage, transportation, and sales, temperature fluctuations cause recrystallization of ice crystals and then increase the average size of ice crystals, which leads to rough texture and poor taste of ice cream. Therefore, inhibiting the recrystallization of ice crystals in ice cream is the key to ensure the quality of ice cream. This paper reviews the formation mechanism and research progress of supercooling, nucleation, growth and recrystallization of ice crystals during freezing. The inhibitory effects of emulsifiers, stabilizers, sweeteners, and proteins in ice cream raw materials on ice crystal recrystallization are introduced in detail. Meanwhile, it also list the contents of freezing technologies such as ultrasonic assisted freezing, magnetic field assisted freezing, high-pressure assisted freezing, and electric field assisted freezing to inhibit ice cream recrystallization. The development direction of that is prospected, which provides a theoretical reference for adapting to the trend of online sales, developing new ice cream products and solving the problem of its crystal recrystallization

Wavelet-Based Dynamic Evaluation of Human Equilibrium Function under Passive Motion

The efficient evaluation of human equilibrium function is important for people with organs degradation and dysfunction. The traditional evaluation of static and dynamic equilibrium function seems efficient, but the prepared participants restricted the experimental results to be objective and genuine. For evaluating the equilibrium function efficiently, we propose a wavelet-based dynamic model of the human body using external excitation. Firstly, we introduce a local linearization method based on the second-order Taylor expansion for simplifying typical linear system model. Secondly, the continuous wavelet transform analysis is applied to process gravity-center data and estimate parameters of the dynamic model. Finally, the settled time of the systemic responding rapidity is evaluated. Furthermore, the index of the equilibrium ability is obtained. Experiment results show the validity and practicability of the proposed method

Electric-Field-Assisted Assembly of Polymer-Tethered Gold Nanorods in Cylindrical Nanopores

In this report, we demonstrate the confined assembly of polymer-tethered gold nanorods in anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) channels with the assistance of electric field (EF). Various interesting hybrid assemblies, such as single-, double-, triple-, or quadruple-helix, linear, and hexagonally packed structures are obtained by adjusting pore size in AAO channels, ligand length, and EF orientation. Correspondingly, surface plasmonic property of the assemblies can thus be tuned. This strategy, by coupling of external-field and cylindrically confined assembly, is believed to be a promising approach for generating ordered hybrid assemblies with hierarchical structures, which may find potential applications in photoelectric devices, biosensors, and data storage devices