Selective removal of fat from acid whey during whey protein concentrate manufacture : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Technology in Food Technology

The purpose of this study was to develop a low cost technology for selective removal of lipids from acid whey during whey protein concentrate manufacture Attention was focused on gaining a better understanding of the structure and composition of the lipids in whey and ultrafiltration retentate The effects of varying dilutions, pH, salt concentration, temperature and holding time on the flocculation of lipids in the whey and retentate were investigated The composition and structure of lipids in acid whey and retentate were determined by ultracentrifugation, compositional analysis, integrated light scattering and confocal scanning laser microscopy (CLSM) techniques. Acid whey contained ~ 0.034% lipids The size of the milk fat globules (MFG) in whey varied from 0.1 and 10 μm. with the majority of the globules < 1 μm in diameter The retentate contained ~ 0.36% lipids The size of the MFG in the retentate ranged between 0.1 and 20 μm. generally larger than the MFG in the acid whey Investigation into the removal of lipids from acid whey revealed that flocculation of MFG in the acid whey occurred at temperatures between 40 and 50°C and at pH values from 5.8 to 7.0. It was observed that under these conditions, high-density lipid containing flocculent/precipitates was formed, which subsequently sedimented upon centrifugation (at 1126/g for 10 min) The MFG removed in the flocculent/precipitate appears to be either part of a calcium-MFG complex or MFG entrapped by precipitation of calcium precipitate Examination of the effects of physiochemical factors on the flocculation of MFG in between the retentate revealed that flocculation occurred upon dilution and at pH values between 4.5 and 4.7. It was found that at increasing dilutions, there was an increase in the removal of MFG and in the retention of protein in the supernatant. At retentate dilution of 1:6, the majority of the MFG was removed and a majority of protein was retained in the supernatant Flocculation of MFG in the diluted retentate was influenced by ionic strength (at Low pH values) of the system. This flocculation is thought to result from the hydrophobic association of proteins of MFGM, aggregates of serum proteins, lipoprotein complexes or individual denatured serum proteins Low fat whey protein concentrate powder (WPC) was produced on a pilot-scale plant using the process conditions determined at the laboratory scale to remove MFG from acid whey retentate. The resulting product contained ~ 1% fat. considerably less than the normal commercial WPC On a dry basis the protein content was ~ 96% as compared to ~ 85% in the commercial WPC Examination of the functionality of the low fat WPC revealed the heat-induced gels formed from 15% WPC were more elastic, had better water holding capacity, and were more "gelatinous" in nature Their gelation properties were markedly superior to the commercial WPCs currently manufactured Based on the results of this study, recommendations are made on possible areas of process improvement and development opportunities

Child and teenager oral health and dental visiting: results from the National Dental Telephone Interview Survey 2010

This publication reports on oral health, dental visiting and dental treatment needs of Australian children as reported in the National Dental Telephone Interview Survey (NDTIS) 2010. Time series data across all NDTISs conducted since 1994 are presented to provide a picture of how key measures have changed over time. Finally, comparisons with international data are presented to provide a picture of how Australian children fare among their international counterparts.Oral healthThe majority of Australian children report good oral health. However, 7% reported that they had experienced toothache and 10% reported that they had avoided certain foods during the previous 12 months. Children from low income households were more likely to report having fair or poor oral health and to have experienced toothache than children from high income households. There was no significant change over time in these measures.Dental visitingAlmost 70% of children made a dental visit in the previous 12 months and the majority (84%) visited for a check-up. Less than a third of pre-school-aged children had ever made a dental visit. Children from the lowest income households were less likely than those from higher income households to have both made a dental visit and to have visited for a check-up. Both of these measures of dental visiting have remained fairly stable over time.Barriers to dental care useAround 13% of children avoided or delayed making a dental visit due to cost. Around 6% did not have a recommended treatment due to cost. Overall, almost 30% of children avoided or delayed seeking care, did not have recommended treatment or their household experienced a large financial burden due to the cost of dental care. Children from low income households were 7 times as likely than those from high income households to avoid or delay due to cost and 6 times as likely to have not had recommended treatment due to cost.International comparisonsComparable data are available for children in Canada and New Zealand. Overall, Australian children were less likely to report that they had fair or poor oral health, and less likely to have made a dental visit in the previous 12 months than their counterparts in New Zealand. Australian teenagers were less likely than their Canadian counterparts to report fair or poor oral health and were more likely to have avoided or delayed making a dental visit due to cost

Adult oral health and dental visiting in Australia: results from the National Dental Telephone Interview Survey 2010

This publication reports on the oral health, dental visiting and dental treatment needs of Australian adults as self-reported in the National Dental Telephone Interview Survey (NDTIS) 2010. Time series data across all NDTISs conducted since 1994 are also presented to provide a picture of how key measures have changed over this period. International comparisons are also included.Oral health In 2010, the majority of Australian adults reported good oral health. However, 37% reported that they had experienced an oral health issue in the previous 12 months, including 15% who experienced toothache, 25% who felt uncomfortable with their dental appearance and 17% who had avoided certain foods. Adults who were from low-income households or held an Australian Government concession card were more likely to report having \u27fair\u27 or \u27poor\u27 oral health and to have experienced toothache than adults from high-income households or non-cardholders. There was no significant change over time in these measures.Dental visiting Around 60% of adults made a dental visit in the previous 12 months and the majority of these visited for a check-up (60%). Adults in the lowest income group (51%) and cardholders (those who hold an Australian Government concession card) (53%) were less likely than those in the highest household income group (65%) and non-cardholders (64%) to have made a dental visit in the previous 12 months. Adults from Major cities were more likely than those from all other areas to have made a dental visit and to have visited for a check-up.Barriers to dental care use Around 38% of adults experienced a financial barrier or hardship associated with dental visits. Overall, 31% avoided or delayed making a dental visit due to cost. Of those who did visit, around 11% of adults reported that dental visits in the previous 12 months were a large financial burden. Adults from the lowest income households were seven times as likely to report difficulty paying a $150 dental bill than those from high-income households.International comparisons Australian adults reported oral health similar to their Canadian counterparts but generally better than that of New Zealanders. Fewer Australians than New Zealanders had no natural teeth. However, Australians were more likely than their New Zealand counterparts to have made a dental visit in the previous 12 months but less likely than those in Canada to do so. Australian adults were more likely at all ages than Canadian adults to report that they had avoided or delayed visiting due to cost. However, they were less likely to have avoided or delayed due to cost than New Zealanders in all age groups up to 45-54 years and less likely to report that they currently needed dental care

Diffraction analysis of vertebrate muscle crossbridge arrangements

Imperial Users onl

Conflicts of Interests Among Shareholders: The Case of Corporate Acquisitions

We identify important conflicts of interests among shareholders and examine their effects on corporate decisions. When a firm is considering an action that affects other firms in its shareholders' portfolios, shareholders with heterogeneous portfolios may disagree about whether to proceed. This effect is measurable and potentially large in the case of corporate acquisitions, where bidder shareholders with holdings in the target want management to maximize a weighted average of both firms' equity values. Empirically, we show that such cross-holdings are large for a significant group of institutional shareholders in the average acquisition and for a majority of institutional shareholders in a significant number of deals. We find evidence that managers consider cross-holdings when identifying potential targets and that they trade off cross-holdings with synergies when selecting them. Overall, we conclude that conflicts of interests among shareholders are sizeable and, at least in the case of acquisitions, affect managerial decisions.

Missed Treatments of Hemodialysis Patients after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico

The consequences of a natural event such as a hurricane can especially have a negative impact on vulnerable patients such as hemodialysis patients. In former incidences such as Hurricane Katrina, factors such as living relocations disrupted hemodialysis patients’ ability to adhere to their thrice-weekly treatments (Anderson et al, 2009). In this study, 44% of the 386 hemodialysis patients who experienced Hurricane Katrina reported missing one or more dialysis sessions. Thus, the hurricane had significant negative influence on patients’ attendance at the dialysis clinic. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico suffered extensive road blockages, electricity shortages, and lacking natural resources. Recovery procedures such as clearing of roads were not completed until several months afterward. By October, there was still a significant portion of people without sufficient resources. The primary objectives of this study are to assess the percentage of hemodialysis patients who missed dialysis sessions in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and the social factors influencing their missed sessions. From a total of 16 facilities, three dialysis clinics in cities most highly impacted by the hurricane will be selected to participate. Data will be collected through patient interviews, surveys, and charts, to examine potential demographic characteristics and social factors that may have affected the patients’ attendance to these dialysis facilities. If there is a significant correlation between the social factors and missed treatments, then management strategies can be suggested to help hemodialysis patients adjust to post-disaster conditions and help develop planning strategies in case of future natural disasters

Content-based retrieval of melodies using artificial neural networks

Human listeners are capable of spontaneously organizing and remembering a continuous stream of musical notes. A listener automatically segments a melody into phrases, from which an entire melody may be learnt and later recognized. This ability makes human listeners ideal for the task of retrieving melodies by content. This research introduces two neural networks, known as SONNETMAP and _ReTREEve, which attempt to model this behaviour. SONNET-MAP functions as a melody segmenter, whereas ReTREEve is specialized towards content-based retrieval (CBR). Typically, CBR systems represent melodies as strings of symbols drawn from a finite alphabet, thereby reducing the retrieval process to the task of approximate string matching. SONNET-MAP and ReTREEwe, which are derived from Nigrin’s SONNET architecture, offer a novel approach to these traditional systems, and indeed CBR in general. Based on melodic grouping cues, SONNETMAP segments a melody into phrases. Parallel SONNET modules form independent, sub-symbolic representations of the pitch and rhythm dimensions of each phrase. These representations are then bound using associative maps, forming a two-dimensional representation of each phrase. This organizational scheme enables SONNET-MAP to segment melodies into phrases using both the pitch and rhythm features of each melody. The boundary points formed by these melodic phrase segments are then utilized to populate the iieTREEve network. ReTREEw is organized in the same parallel fashion as SONNET-MAP. However, in addition, melodic phrases are aggregated by an additional layer; thus forming a two-dimensional, hierarchical memory structure of each entire melody. Melody retrieval is accomplished by matching input queries, whether perfect (for example, a fragment from the original melody) or imperfect (for example, a fragment derived from humming), against learned phrases and phrase sequence templates. Using a sample of fifty melodies composed by The Beatles , results show th a t the use of both pitch and rhythm during the retrieval process significantly improves retrieval results over networks that only use either pitch o r rhythm. Additionally, queries that are aligned along phrase boundaries are retrieved using significantly fewer notes than those that are not, thus indicating the importance of a human-based approach to melody segmentation. Moreover, depending on query degradation, different melodic features prove more adept at retrieval than others. The experiments presented in this thesis represent the largest empirical test of SONNET-based networks ever performed. As far as we are aware, the combined SONNET-MAP and -ReTREEue networks constitute the first self-organizing CBR system capable of automatic segmentation and retrieval of melodies using various features of pitch and rhythm

Fabricating Religion: The Theological Significance of Sartorial Imagery in Juana de la Cruz's (1481-1534) El Conhorte

Mother Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534) is a fascinating female mystic whose preaching marks an important step in the development of Marian devotion under Queen Isabel I. With the support of important religious figures such as Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, a Franciscan like Juana, her visionary experience gained widespread fame both inside and outside the convent of Santa María de la Cruz in Cubas. Fabricating Religion examines Juana’s use of sartorial imagery within El Conhorte—a collection of seventy-two of Juana’s “sermones” dictated by one of the members of the nunnery, Sor María Evangelista. It analyzes two key elements in the sermons—the theology and the materiality of dress images, and their connections to the cultural and religious praxis of the period. Juana employs sartorial imagery repeatedly when treating such theologically complex topics as Jesus’ Incarnation, Mary’s Immaculate Conception, and Mary’s role in Redemption, Salvation and Intercession. The sumptuous aesthetic detail with which she describes their state of dress or undress advances the ever-evolving role of Mary by crafting an image of a divinized Mother Mary and an altogether humanized Christ.Doctor of Philosoph