Use of carbohydrases to promote protein extraction from rice bran and soybean meal: A comparative study

An in-depth study of commercial carbohydrases was performed to select those that are most performing to increase the protein content of two valuable agri-food waste, rice bran (RB) and soybean meal (SM). In particular, defatted RB (DRB) and SM were subjected to hydrolysis mediated by both one and the combination of two commercially available enzyme formulations, i.e. Ceremix® Plus MG, Celluclast® 1.5L, Ultraflo® L and Visco- zyme® L. Sugar extraction yields, a useful parameter to evaluate the carbohydrase efficiency, were calculated as weight of the dried supernatants obtained after each enzymatic treatment, with respect to the starting weight. Instead, the percentage of proteins of the solid residues (DRBP and SMP) was evaluated according to the AOAC Dumas method, using elemental analysis. In case of RB, starting from a 19% protein content, a protein enrichment of 105 ± 4% was achieved using Ceremix® Plus MG and Celluclast® 1.5L. Regarding SM, an enrichment of 33 ± 4% was reached with Viscozyme® L. In both cases, the highest sugar extraction yields, specifically 64 ± 1% and 49 ± 2%, were obtained for DRB and SM, respectively. Results showed that the selection of specific carbohydrases tuned according to the polysaccharides composition is essential to increase the availability of proteins present in agri-food waste

Design, Analysis and Selection of Haptic Inceptor Configurations for Tilt-Rotor Application

This paper describes the process of design, analysis, and scoring with both subjective and objective criteria, of a set of possible haptic inceptors configurations to be used as primary flight control devices for a class of future tilt rotor vehicles. Several scoring criteria were adopted like ergonomics, cognitive compatibility, easiness of recovery in fault situations, and expected workload among several others. Each criterion was weighted to obtain a scoring matrix for a total of 18 different configurations, some "classic", some novel, leading to an overall ranking. The matrix was used to select the best candidate configurations to be tested using a human-in-the-loop simulator in the context of the EU Funded CleanSky2 SMARTeR Project. After a final review phase, the best solution will be adopted to actually fly the Leonardo NextGen Civil Tilt Rotor Technological Demonstrator in the context of the EU Funded CleanSky2 SAIS Project

Chemical constitution of polyfurfuryl alcohol investigated by FTIR and Resonant Raman spectroscopy

The actual chemical structure of polyfurfuryl alcohol (PFA) is still uncertain in spite of several studies on the topic, variations during the polymerization processes being one reason that must be addressed. The use of a limited set of analytical techniques is often insufficient to provide an exhaustive chemical characterization. Moreover, it is still not possible to exactly determine presence and amount of each specific functional group in the polymeric structure. We employed both Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Resonant Raman spectroscopy (RR), corroborated by quantum mechanically aided analysis of the experimental spectra, to infer about the chemical structure of two samples of PFAs, synthetized in different ways and appearing macroscopically different, the first one being a liquid and viscous commercial sample, the second one being a self-prepared solid and rigid sample produced following a thermosetting procedure. The vibrational spectroscopic analysis confirms the presence of differences in their chemical structures. The viscous form of PFA is mainly composed by short polymeric chains, and is characterized by the presence of isolated furfuryl alcohol and furfural residues similar to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural; the thermosetted PFA is formed by more cross-linked structures, characterized by several ketones and alkene double bonds, as well as a significant presence of Diels-Alder structures. In summary, the present study evidences how the use of both FTIR and RR spectroscopy, the latter carried out at several laser excitation wavelengths, indicates an accurate way to spectroscopically investigate complex polymers enabling to satisfactorily infer about their peculiar chemical structur