Low-Cost Oil-Processing Techniques

Advances in edible oil refining have been discussed in previous chapters of this book. These recent developments in physical-, chemical-, and adsorption-based refining techniques and related equipment designs will allow higher quantities of natural and bioactive compounds to be retained in the oil during refining compared with the use of conventional refining processes. This chapter summarizes recent research on mechanical extraction, minimum refining, and frying applications of soybean oil. The soybean is the dominant oilseed crop produced in the world due to its favorable agronomic characteristics, high-quality protein, and versatile edible oil. Soybeans constitute over one-half of all oilseeds produced worldwide (Fig. 13.1). Soybean oil accounted for 80–90% of total edible oil consumption in the United States in 1998 because of its availability and its desirable compositional and functional properties

Emergence of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) Technique as a Strategy towards Sustainable Development: A Sri Lankan Experience

In this millennium all the development activities are mostly focused on sustainable development, i.e. the development which fulfils the requirements of the present without disturbing the utilization of future generation. Basically, the sustainable development deals with environmental, social, and economical initiations. In relation to these three objectives, community participation plays a key role as an effective strategy for sustainable development. Among the numerous types of participation, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) technique is the most relevant effective method to receive the participation. Because, it has been strengthen by bottom up approach, well defined objectives, practicable solutions, and remedies. Hence, the out come of such an event is most productive rather than a top bottom approach techniques. In fact, a PRA was practiced to develop a strategic plan for tsunami affected village – Bambaranda east, in southern province of Sri Lanka. PRA sessions were carried out during February, 2007 by the Department of Agric. Economics of Ruhuna University, Sri Lanka in collaboration with Japanese Green Resource Agency, Japan.Participatory mapping, venn diagram, matrix ranking, preference ranking, and pair - wise ranking were demonstrated to gather information from the community. The tsunami affected area, including the paddy fields, four irrigation canals were shown by the group with the help of the participatory map. Preference ranking was resulted the reconstruction of irrigation canals as the most important rehabilitation activity to recover the livelihood of villagers. Intrusion of sea water into the paddy fields was the main limitation revealed by the pair - wise ranking. The second limitation marked as unavailability of enough fertilizer and the dilapidated irrigation canals was the third that has to be solved. Matrix ranking was employed to identify the most facilitated sectors by the government and other institutes in order to detect the areas which need to pay further attention. By that, the community realized that the rehabilitation of irrigation canal is the least benefited area where any development activity should be addressed in order to up grade their livelihood. Finally, a venn diagram was executed to identify the service providing entities in the community. It explored the Agrarian Service Center (ASC) as the most important service providing institute which keeps a close relationship with the community. The second and third places were acquired by Sanasa and Samurdhi office. Therefore, the most appropriate institute to launch any sort of development activity is ASC, Sanasa, or Samurdhi office.With the light of these exercises, now the funding agency is activating in Bambaranda village by constructing the irrigation canals and also the estuary. Moreover, the implementation was carried out under the supervision of ASC with efficient participation of villagers. In fact, the PRA has given the correct path that would direct towards sustainable development with community participation

Emergence of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) Technique as a Strategy towards Sustainable Development: A Sri Lankan Experience

In this millennium all the development activities are mostly focused on sustainable development, i.e. the development which fulfils the requirements of the present without disturbing the utilization of future generation. Basically, the sustainable development deals with environmental, social, and economical initiations. In relation to these three objectives, community participation plays a key role as an effective strategy for sustainable development. Among the numerous types of participation, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) technique is the most relevant effective method to receive the participation. Because, it has been strengthen by bottom up approach, well defined objectives, practicable solutions, and remedies. Hence, the out come of such an event is most productive rather than a top bottom approach techniques. In fact, a PRA was practiced to develop a strategic plan for tsunami affected village – Bambaranda east, in southern province of Sri Lanka. PRA sessions were carried out during February, 2007 by the Department of Agric. Economics of Ruhuna University, Sri Lanka in collaboration with Japanese Green Resource Agency, Japan. Participatory mapping, venn diagram, matrix ranking, preference ranking, and pair - wise ranking were demonstrated to gather information from the community. The tsunami affected area, including the paddy fields, four irrigation canals were shown by the group with the help of the participatory map. Preference ranking was resulted the reconstruction of irrigation canals as the most important rehabilitation activity to recover the livelihood of villagers. Intrusion of sea water into the paddy fields was the main limitation revealed by the pair - wise ranking. The second limitation marked as unavailability of enough fertilizer and the dilapidated irrigation canals was the third that has to be solved. Matrix ranking was employed to identify the most facilitated sectors by the government and other institutes in order to detect the areas which need to pay further attention. By that, the community realized that the rehabilitation of irrigation canal is the least benefited area where any development activity should be addressed in order to up grade their livelihood. Finally, a venn diagram was executed to identify the service providing entities in the community. It explored the Agrarian Service Center (ASC) as the most important service providing institute which keeps a close relationship with the community. The second and third places were acquired by Sanasa and Samurdhi office. Therefore, the most appropriate institute to launch any sort of development activity is ASC, Sanasa, or Samurdhi office. With the light of these exercises, now the funding agency is activating in Bambaranda village by constructing the irrigation canals and also the estuary. Moreover, the implementation was carried out under the supervision of ASC with efficient participation of villagers. In fact, the PRA has given the correct path that would direct towards sustainable development with community participation

Multiscale mechanobiology: mechanics at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels

Mechanical force is present in all aspects of living systems. It affects the conformation of molecules, the shape of cells, and the morphology of tissues. All of these are crucial in architecture-dependent biological functions. Nanoscience of advanced materials has provided knowledge and techniques that can be used to understand how mechanical force is involved in biological systems, as well as to open new avenues to tailor-made bio-mimetic materials with desirable properties. In this article, we describe models and show examples of how force is involved in molecular functioning, cell shape patterning, and tissue morphology

Humanitarian Logistics Training Needs: A Systematic Review in Relation to Sri Lankan Humanitarian Sector

AbstractIn the light of increasing attention and the precedence of humanitarian operations, logistics have taken an unprecedented turn in the humanitarian sector. Humanitarian Logistics (HL) has now become one of the significant factors in assisting any disaster. Statistics indicates that, increasing disasters have become a major concern for the international community. A large part of the success of humanitarian operations is directly attributable to the effectiveness and efficiency of logistics. Training of logisticians is necessary for effective management of supply chain in a disaster.The recent issues that are being faced in regard to humanitarian logistics at each disaster in Sri Lanka emphasize the need for research into the area of humanitarian logistics. A number of researches have been carried out to find training needs of humanitarian logisticians1 (‘humlogs’) in order to accomplish efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian supply chains at global level. However, to date there has been limited discussion on the training of ‘humlogs’ in Sri Lanka.A systematic literature survey was conducted in order to find the gaps indicated by scholars in the humanitarian logistics training at global level. Articles were selected from two major publication sites. They were further reviewed and analyzed to find gaps that are applicable to humanitarian logistics training. These gaps were further applied to the SL humanitarian sector.This paper offers a literature survey and an insight of ‘humlolg’ training in the Sri Lankan humanitarian landscape. Results show the gaps that exist in training of ‘humlogs’ and the significance of such training for future disasters in Sri Lanka. Additionally, this paper also indicates future research requirements to the field of humanitarian logistics.Keywords: Education, Humanitarian logistics, Skills, Sri Lanka, Trainin

Present status of the seine fishery in Negombo lagoon of Sri Lanka

Studies on the seine fishery of Negombo Lagoon in the west coast ofSri Lanka (7°10' Nand 79°50' E) were carried out for a period of one yearfrom May 1989 to April 1990. In the operation of this gear, 2 or 4 standardnets, each with a length of 32 m are used. Each net was made up of 4 or 5vertically joined pieces of nets, with a stretched mesh size of 1.25 em. 3 and 5men are involved in 2 net and 4 net operations respectively. Total productionfrom this gear was estimated to be around 36,000 kg/year. During the presentstudy, 82 species of fish ranging in size from 2.5 em to 130.0 em were encounteredtogether with 6 species of commercially important penaeid prawns. Thecatch and fishing effort were low from August to December. Catch per uniteffort was high from February to May. Salinity and fish catch showed asignificant positive correlation probably due to immigration of allochthonousmarine organisms into the lagoon with increasing salinity. Fishing effortalso showed a significant positive correlation with salinity. Significant differencebetween the catches of 4 net-piece and 5 net-piece nets was not observed(P>0.05). Although the catch and catch per fisherman were significantly higherin 4 net operations than in 2 net operations (P <0.05), significant differencein catch per net between the two operations was not observed (P > 0.05). 2 Netoperations were observed to provide more employment opportunities andbetter distribution of income than 4 net operations. Threat of overexploitationof the resource was observed to be high in 4 net operations

Single molecule force measurements of perlecan/HSPG2: A key component of the osteocyte pericellular matrix

Perlecan/HSPG2, a large, monomeric heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG), is a key component of the lacunar canalicular system (LCS) of cortical bone, where it is part of the mechanosensing pericellular matrix (PCM) surrounding the osteocytic processes and serves as a tethering element that connects the osteocyte cell body to the bone matrix. Within the pericellular space surrounding the osteocyte cell body, perlecan can experience physiological fluid flow drag force and in that capacity function as a sensor to relay external stimuli to the osteocyte cell membrane. We previously showed that a reduction in perlecan secretion alters the PCM fiber composition and interferes with bone's response to a mechanical loading in vivo. To test our hypothesis that perlecan core protein can sustain tensile forces without unfolding under physiological loading conditions, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to capture images of perlecan monomers at nanoscale resolution and to perform single molecule force measurement (SMFMs). We found that the core protein of purified full-length human perlecan is of suitable size to span the pericellular space of the LCS, with a measured end-to-end length of 170 ± 20 nm and a diameter of 2–4 nm. Force pulling revealed a strong protein core that can withstand over 100 pN of tension well over the drag forces that are estimated to be exerted on the individual osteocyte tethers. Data fitting with an extensible worm-like chain model showed that the perlecan protein core has a mean elastic constant of 890 pN and a corresponding Young's modulus of 71 MPa. We conclude that perlecan has physical properties that would allow it to act as a strong but elastic tether in the LCS

Impurity-assisted tunneling in graphene

The electric conductance of a strip of undoped graphene increases in the presence of a disorder potential, which is smooth on atomic scales. The phenomenon is attributed to impurity-assisted resonant tunneling of massless Dirac fermions. Employing the transfer matrix approach we demonstrate the resonant character of the conductivity enhancement in the presence of a single impurity. We also calculate the two-terminal conductivity for the model with one-dimensional fluctuations of disorder potential by a mapping onto a problem of Anderson localization.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, final version, typos corrected, references adde

Foods for a Mission to Mars: Equivalent System Mass and Development of a Multipurpose Small-Scale Seed Processor

The candidate crops for planetary food systems include: wheat, white and sweet potatoes, soybean, peanut, strawberry, dry bean including le ntil and pinto, radish, rice, lettuce, carrot, green onion, tomato, p eppers, spinach, and cabbage. Crops such as wheat, potatoes, soybean, peanut, dry bean, and rice can only be utilized after processing, while others are classified as ready-to-eat. To process foods in space, the food processing subsystem must be capable of producing a variety of nutritious, acceptable, and safe edible ingredients and food produ cts from pre-packaged and resupply foods as well as salad crops grown on the transit vehicle or other crops grown on planetary surfaces. D esigning, building, developing, and maintaining such a subsystem is b ound to many constraints and restrictions. The limited power supply, storage locations, variety of crops, crew time, need to minimize waste , and other equivalent system mass (ESM) parameters must be considere d in the selection of processing equipment and techniques

Temporal Progression Patterns of Brain Atrophy in Corticobasal Syndrome and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Revealed by Subtype and Stage Inference (SuStaIn)

Differentiating corticobasal degeneration presenting with corticobasal syndrome (CBD-CBS) from progressive supranuclear palsy with Richardson's syndrome (PSP-RS), particularly in early stages, is often challenging because the neurodegenerative conditions closely overlap in terms of clinical presentation and pathology. Although volumetry using brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been studied in patients with CBS and PSP-RS, studies assessing the progression of brain atrophy are limited. Therefore, we aimed to reveal the difference in the temporal progression patterns of brain atrophy between patients with CBS and those with PSP-RS purely based on cross-sectional data using Subtype and Stage Inference (SuStaIn)—a novel, unsupervised machine learning technique that integrates clustering and disease progression modeling. We applied SuStaIn to the cross-sectional regional brain volumes of 25 patients with CBS, 39 patients with typical PSP-RS, and 50 healthy controls to estimate the two disease subtypes and trajectories of CBS and PSP-RS, which have distinct atrophy patterns. The progression model and classification accuracy of CBS and PSP-RS were compared with those of previous studies to evaluate the performance of SuStaIn. SuStaIn identified distinct temporal progression patterns of brain atrophy for CBS and PSP-RS, which were largely consistent with previous evidence, with high reproducibility (99.7%) under cross-validation. We classified these diseases with high accuracy (0.875) and sensitivity (0.680 and 1.000, respectively) based on cross-sectional structural brain MRI data; the accuracy was higher than that reported in previous studies. Moreover, SuStaIn stage correctly reflected disease severity without the label of disease stage, such as disease duration. Furthermore, SuStaIn also showed the genialized performance of differentiation and reflection for CBS and PSP-RS. Thus, SuStaIn has potential for improving our understanding of disease mechanisms, accurately stratifying patients, and providing prognoses for patients with CBS and PSP-RS