Storage stability of encapsulated barberry's anthocyanin and its application in jelly formulation

The barberry (Berberis vulgaris) extract which is a rich source of anthocyanin was used for encapsulation with three different wall materials i.e., combination of gum Arabic and maltodextrin (GA+MD), combination of maltodextrin and gelatin (MD+GE) and maltodextrin (MD) by spray drying process. In this context, the storage stability of encapsulated pigments was investigated under four storage temperatures (4, 25, 35 and 42 °C), four relative humidities (20, 30, 40 and 50%) and light illumination until 90 days. All wall materials largely increased the half-life of the encapsulated pigments during storage compared with non-encapsulated anthocyanins. MD+GA showed the highest encapsulation efficiency, lower degradation rate in all temperatures and was found as the most effective wall material in stabilizing the pigments. The encapsulated pigments were utilized in coloring jelly powder as an alternative of synthetic color. Sensory evaluation were run to identify best encapsulated natural color concentration in jelly powder formulation according to acceptability by consumers. A jelly with added 7% encapsulated color had higher scores than the commercial jelly containing synthetic color for all the sensory attributes evaluated. Physicochemical properties of produced jelly including moisture content, hygroscopicity, acidity, ash content and texture were not significantly different with control sample while, syneresis and solubility of the samples prepared with encapsulated color was significantly reduced. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd

Microencapsulation optimization of natural anthocyanins with maltodextrin, gum Arabic and gelatin

The barberry (Berberis vulgaris) extract which is a rich source of anthocyanins was used for spray drying encapsulation with three different wall materials, i.e., combination of maltodextrin and gum Arabic (MD + GA), maltodextrin and gelatin (MD + GE), and maltodextrin (MD). Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied for optimization of microencapsulation efficiency and physical properties of encapsulated powders considering wall material type as well as different ratios of core to wall materials as independent variables. Physical characteristics of spray-dried powders were investigated by further analyses of moisture content, hygroscopicity, degree of caking, solubility, bulk and absolute density, porosity, flowability and microstructural evaluation of encapsulated powders. Our results indicated that samples produced with MD + GA as wall materials represented the highest process efficiency and best powder quality; the optimum conditions of microencapsulation process for barberry anthocyanins were found to be the wall material content and anthocyanin load of 24.54 and 13.82, respectively. Under such conditions, the microencapsulation efficiency (ME) of anthocyanins could be as high as 92.83. © 2016 Elsevier B.V

The Development of explosives competencies, training and education in the UK

Competent explosives workers in the Armed Forces and in the civil sector are critical to the safe production, testing and use of explosives. Moreover we need competent explosives specialists to combat the challenge from terrorism and clean up the planet from the explosive hazards that are the legacy of past conflicts. Unfortunately many countries are witnessing a significant loss of capability in this area and are looking at ways of replenishing vital expertise. This paper describes the work done in recent years by the authors and others in the UK to establish numbers of people working in the sector and to consider the skills and knowledge required to carry out their work. It outlines the concept of national occupational standards and the framework of professional and vocational qualifications that are available or are being developed for explosives specialists. It also describes some of the educational and e-learning programmes designed to support this initiative. Ultimately the aim is to address the professionalism of all personnel who deal with explosives in order to reduce the incidence and consequence of accidents and maintain national capability

Breaking a Chaotic Cryptographic Scheme Based on Composition Maps

Recently, a chaotic cryptographic scheme based on composition maps was proposed. This paper studies the security of the scheme and reports the following findings: 1) the scheme can be broken by a differential attack with $6+\lceil\log_L(MN)\rceil$ chosen-plaintext, where $MN$ is the size of plaintext and $L$ is the number of different elements in plain-text; 2) the scheme is not sensitive to the changes of plaintext; 3) the two composition maps do not work well as a secure and efficient random number source.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Plasmonic light-sensitive skins of nanocrystal monolayers

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We report plasmonically coupled light-sensitive skins of nanocrystal monolayers that exhibit sensitivity enhancement and spectral range extension with plasmonic nanostructures embedded in their photosensitive nanocrystal platforms. The deposited plasmonic silver nanoparticles of the device increase the optical absorption of a CdTe nanocrystal monolayer incorporated in the device. Controlled separation of these metallic nanoparticles in the vicinity of semiconductor nanocrystals enables optimization of the photovoltage buildup in the proposed nanostructure platform. The enhancement factor was found to depend on the excitation wavelength. We observed broadband sensitivity improvement (across 400-650 nm), with a 2.6-fold enhancement factor around the localized plasmon resonance peak. The simulation results were found to agree well with the experimental data. Such plasmonically enhanced nanocrystal skins hold great promise for large-area UV/visible sensing applications

Diagnostic values of serum levels of pepsinogens and gastrin-17 for screening gastritis and gastric cancer in a high risk area in Northern Iran

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is the second cause of cancer related death in the world. It may develop by progression from its precancerous condition, called gastric atrophy (GA) due to gastritis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of serum levels of pepsinogens (Pg) and gastrin-17 (G17) as non-invasive methods to discriminate GA or GC (GA/GC) patients. Materials and Methods: Subjects referred to gastrointestinal clinics of Golestan province of Iran during 2010 and 2011 were invited to participate. Serum levels of PgI, PgII and G17 were measured using a GastroPanel kit. Based on the pathological examination of endoscopic biopsy samples, subjects were classified into four groups: normal, non-atrophic gastritis, GA, and GC. Receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis was used to determine cut-off values. Indices of validity were calculated for serum markers. Results: Study groups were normal individuals (n=74), non-atrophic gastritis (n=90), GA (n=31) and GC patients (n=30). The best cut-off points for PgI, PgI/II ratio, G17 and HP were 80 μg/L, 10, 6 pmol/L, and 20 EIU, respectively. PgI could differentiate GA/GC with high accuracy (AUC=0.83; 95%CI: 0.76-0.89). The accuracy of a combination of PgI and PgI/II ratio for detecting GA/GC was also relatively high (AUC=0.78; 95%CI: 0.70-0.86). Conclusions: Our findings suggested PgI alone as well as a combination of PgI and PgI/II ratio are valid markers to differentiate GA/GC. Therefore, Pgs may be considered in conducting GC screening programs in high-risk areas

Engineered Peptides for Nanohybrid Assemblies

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Inspired by biological material synthesis, synthetic biomineralization peptides have been screened through a laboratory evolution using biocombinatorial techniques. In this study, using the fine examples in nature, silica binding peptides and gold binding peptides were fused together to form a hybrid peptide. We designed fusion peptides with different gold binding and silica binding parts. First, we have tested the binding capability of the fusion peptides using quartz crystal microbalance on gold surface and silica surface. Second, S1G1 hybrid peptide enabled assembly of gold nanoparticles on a silica surface was achieved. Finally, nanomaterial synthesis ability of the S1G1 peptide was presented by the formation of a silica film on a gold surface. In this study, we are presenting a hybrid peptide tool for nanohybrid assembly as a promising route for nanotechnology applications

Large-area semi-transparent light-sensitive nanocrystal skins

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We report a large-area, semi-transparent, light-sensitive nanocrystal skin (LS-NS) platform consisting of single monolayer colloidal nanocrystals. LS-NS devices, which were fabricated over areas up to 48 cm(2) using spray-coating and several cm-squares using dip-coating, are operated on the principle of photogenerated potential buildup, unlike the conventional charge collection. Implementing proof-of-concept devices using CdTe nanocrystals with ligand removal, we observed a substantial sensitivity enhancement factor of similar to 73%, accompanied with a 3-fold faster response time (<100 ms). With fully sealed nanocrystal monolayers, LS-NS is found to be highly stable under ambient conditions, promising for low-cost large-area UV/visible sensing in windows and facades of smart buildings. (C) 2012 Optical Society of Americ

Excitonic enhancement of nonradiative energy transfer to bulk silicon with the hybridization of cascaded quantum dots

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We report enhanced sensitization of silicon through nonradiative energy transfer (NRET) of the excitons in an energy-gradient structure composed of a cascaded bilayer of green-and red-emitting CdTe quantum dots (QDs) on bulk silicon. Here NRET dynamics were systematically investigated comparatively for the cascaded energy-gradient and mono-dispersed QD structures at room temperature. We show experimentally that NRET from the QD layer into silicon is enhanced by 40% in the case of an energy-gradient cascaded structure as compared to the mono-dispersed structures, which is in agreement with the theoretical analysis based on the excited state population-depopulation dynamics of the QDs. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC

Applications of tripled chaotic maps in cryptography

Security of information has become a major issue during the last decades. New algorithms based on chaotic maps were suggested for protection of different types of multimedia data, especially digital images and videos in this period. However, many of them fundamentally were flawed by a lack of robustness and security. For getting higher security and higher complexity, in the current paper, we introduce a new kind of symmetric key block cipher algorithm that is based on \emph{tripled chaotic maps}. In this algorithm, the utilization of two coupling parameters, as well as the increased complexity of the cryptosystem, make a contribution to the development of cryptosystem with higher security. In order to increase the security of the proposed algorithm, the size of key space and the computational complexity of the coupling parameters should be increased as well. Both the theoretical and experimental results state that the proposed algorithm has many capabilities such as acceptable speed and complexity in the algorithm due to the existence of two coupling parameter and high security. Note that the ciphertext has a flat distribution and has the same size as the plaintext. Therefore, it is suitable for practical use in secure communications.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figure