The Effect of Low Temperature Blanching on the Texture of Whole Processed New Potatoes

This study was undertaken to investigate 1) the effect of low temperature blanching on the firmness of processed whole new potatoes and 2) to determine the extent to which the activity of pectin methyl esterase (PME), a naturally occurring enzyme in fruits and vegetable (proposed to play a role in firming using low blanching temperatures), contributes to improved firmness in processed pre-blanched potatoes. Whole new potatoes (var. Maris peer from Portugal and Nicola from England) were blanched at temperatures of 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 90 and 100°C for times of 5 up to 60 minutes to investigate texture changes with time and temperature. Texture was measured by puncture testing using a probe attached to an Instron Universal Testing Machine. Results showed that blanching temperatures could be grouped according to the rate of texture changes at 80, 90 and 100°C were found to be temperature dependant on the application of the Arrhenius equation, which is used to show the temperature dependence of a reaction. PME activity was studied by blanching whole new potatoes at temperatures of 65, 75, 80 and 90°C for times of 5 up to 30 minutes. Optimum activity was recorded after blanching at 65°C for 15 minutes. The enzyme was rapidly inactivated after 15 minutes at 75°C and after 5 minutes at both 80 and 90°C. The effect on potato texture of using a low temperature pre-treatment before processing was investigated at processing temperature of 95 and 100° for 5 up to 25 minutes with pre-processing temperatures of 65 and 750° for 5 to 30 minutes. Texture was measured by shearing the whole potato with a single blade. It was found that using a low temperature pre-treatment at 65°C before processing improved the firmness of the processed potatoes at both 95 and 100°C. However, although the firmest overall product was achieved with a pre-treatment at 65°C followed by processing at 95° (highest shear force values) the best result in terms of texture retention when using a low temperature pre-treatment before processing compared to when no pre-treatment was used, was for potatoes pre-processed at 65°C then processed at 100°C. This improved firmness may be related to PME activity at 65°C since blanching at 75°C did not significantly improve the firmness of the processed potatoes (P\u3e0.05). Calculated instrumental parameters of work to fracture (J) and maximum slope before fracture (N/mm) showed that using a low temperature pre-treatment in combination with a high processing temperature increases the energy required to fracture the product and makes it more elastic thereby strengthening the potato and making it less breakable and more suitable for further processing. Sensory analysis of a selection of blanching and processing treatments was carried out to see if there was a noticeable difference after processing between the texture of potatoes that had received a pre-processing treatment and those that had not. Panelists tested for hardness, denseness, chewiness, moistness, fibres and palatability and were asked to comment on each sample and give their preference. Overall, potatoes that were processed without a pre-treatment were preferred. However, although potatoes that had received a pre-treatment prior to processing were considered to be inedible and undercooked they would be ideal for further processing. Instrumental parameters were found to be good indicators of the hardness and denseness of potatoes

A win-win for legume mixtures

The inter-relationship between food production and biodiversity is now well established. The ecosystem services provided by the organisms within the environment include, for example, nutrient cycling, pest regulation and pollination, to name but a few. However, perhaps the greatest challenge now facing agricultural production is to find ways of enhancing these ecosystem services, while at the same time increasing food production – particularly in light of food security issues. A range of farm and landscape management options include ‘setting aside’ land for wildlife. However, some proponents argue that such land should be used for food production. While the debate continues, there is no doubt that a large body of scientific evidence from the last three decades highlights the wildlife benefits of organic farming. This article will describe how the Legume LINK project has identified a win-win system for biodiversity conservation and increased productivity through legume-base fertility building. Although this project has focused on organic farming systems, it is of direct relevance to non-organic production, particularly with the increasing interest in legumes across the industry

developing fragility and consequence models for buildings in the groningen field

AbstractThis paper describes the ongoing experimental and analytical activities that are being carried out to develop fatality and consequence models for the estimation of 'Inside Local Personal Risk' (ILPR) of buildings within the Groningen field. ILPR is defined as the annual probability of fatality for a hypothetical person who is continuously present without protection inside a building. In order to be able to estimate this risk metric, a robust estimate of the probability of collapse of structural and non-structural elements within a building is needed, as these have been found to be the greatest drivers of fatality risk.To estimate the collapse potential of buildings in Groningen, structural numerical models of a number of representative case studies have been developed and calibrated throughin situand laboratory testing on materials, connections, structural components and even full-scale buildings. These numerical models are then subjected to increased levels of ground shaking to estimate the probability of collapse, and the associated consequences are estimated from the observed collapse mechanisms

Development of inventory datasets through remote sensing and direct observation data for earthquake loss estimation

This report summarizes the lessons learnt in extracting exposure information for the three study sites, Thessaloniki, Vienna and Messina that were addressed in SYNER-G. Fine scale information on exposed elements that for SYNER-G include buildings, civil engineering works and population, is one of the variables used to quantify risk. Collecting data and creating exposure inventories is a very time-demanding job and all possible data-gathering techniques should be used to address the data shortcoming problem. This report focuses on combining direct observation and remote sensing data for the development of exposure models for seismic risk assessment. In this report a summary of the methods for collecting, processing and archiving inventory datasets is provided in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 deals with the integration of different data sources for optimum inventory datasets, whilst Chapters 4, 5 and 6 provide some case studies where combinations between direct observation and remote sensing have been used. The cities of Vienna (Austria), Thessaloniki (Greece) and Messina (Italy) have been chosen to test the proposed approaches.JRC.G.5-European laboratory for structural assessmen

Correlation of Magnetic Resonance images of the human temporomandibular joint with gross and microscopic anatomy

1. MR imaging of the TMJ has a high diagnostic accuracy and should be considered as the prime imaging modality for soft and hard tissue changes of the TMJ. Howevel MR imaging is dependent on technical factors such as magnetic field strength, gradient coil strength, software and surface coils to achieve a high quality image. The small number of false diagnoses in this study were consistently related to underestimation of the pathologic conditions. All of the false diagnoses were false negative's and included an underestimation of disc displacements, disc deformations or osseous changes. The underestimations were usually due to the inability of MR imaging to depict the most lateral or most medial part of the joint. The most lateral and most medial parts of the joint were not depicted with the same high quality images as the central zone. Although the diagnostic accuracy in this study was high, it may be possible to further improve the MR images. One possibility would be to use MR imaging sections that are thinner than 3mm. In this way volume averaging of oblique structures would be reduced, and the image quality of the most lateral and most medial parts of the joint would be improved. Another way to improve MR imaging would be to use a smaller field of view, resulting in higher spatial resolution. 2. The most accurate imaging modality for normal and pathologic joints was the sagittal and coronal T2 weighted sequences which were highly sensitive to at'ticular surface changes, disc displacements and perforations. When the images were compared to the histologic sections of the same joint this accuracy was highlighted. The results also showed that the use of sagittal MR images alone does not provide sufficient accuracy in the evaluation of disc position and articular surface changes. Consequently a full MR examination of the TMJ for positional disc abnormalities ancl osseous changes should include imaging in both coronal and sagittal planesThesis (M.D.S.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Dentistry, 199

ShakeDaDO: A data collection combining earthquake building damage and ShakeMap parameters for Italy

In this article, we present a new data collection that combines information about earthquake damage with seismic shaking. Starting from the Da.D.O. database, which provides information on the damage of individual buildings subjected to sequences of past earthquakes in Italy, we have generated ShakeMaps for all the events with magnitude greater than 5.0 that have contributed to these sequences. The sequences under examination are those of Irpinia 1980, Umbria Marche 1997, Pollino 1998, Molise 2002, L'Aquila 2009 and Emilia 2012. In this way, we were able to combine, for a total of the 117,695 buildings, the engineering parameters included in Da.D.O., but revised and reprocessed in this application, and the ground shaking data for six different variables (namely, intensity in MCS scale, PGA, PGV, SA at 0.3s, 1.0s and 3.0s). The potential applications of this data collection are innumerable: from recalibrating fragility curves to training machine learning models to quantifying earthquake damage. This data collection will be made available within Da.D.O., a platform of the Italian Department of Civil Protection, developed by EUCENTRE

Evaluation of Analytical Methodologies to Derive Vulnerability Functions

The recognition of fragility functions as a fundamental tool in seismic risk assessment has led to the development of more and more complex and elaborate procedures for their computation. Although vulnerability functions have been traditionally produced using observed damage and loss data, more recent studies propose the employment of analytical methodologies as a way to overcome the frequent lack of post-earthquake data. The variation of the structural modelling approaches on the estimation of building capacity has been the target of many studies in the past, however, its influence in the resulting vulnerability model, impact in loss estimations or propagation of the uncertainty to the seismic risk calculations has so far been the object of restricted scrutiny. Hence, in this paper, an extensive study of static and dynamic procedures for estimating the nonlinear response of buildings has been carried out in order to evaluate the impact of the chosen methodology on the resulting vulnerability and risk outputs. Moreover, the computational effort and numerical stability provided by each approach were evaluated and conclusions were obtained regarding which one offers the optimal balance between accuracy and complexity.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Losing the race? Philosophy of race in U.K. philosophy departments

Should philosophy of race be taught as part of a philosophy degree? This paper argues that it should. After surveying 1,166 modules on offer in 2019–2020, across forty-seven philosophy departments in the United Kingdom, however, the authors identified only one module devoted to philosophy of race. The paper presents this as a challenge to philosophy departments. It investigates one possible reason for this that concerns staff research interests; indeed, reading 728 staff research webpages the authors identified only twenty-three that listed philosophy of race as a research interest. Even though this might go some way to explaining the lack of modules, however, it can’t be the whole picture. The paper suggests some areas relating to the philosophy curriculum in the United Kingdom that need some consideration