Effect of drying process on antioxidant properties of date palm fruits

Aim. In order to identify antioxidant activities and phenolic compound, two varieties of date palm (Mazfati and Kalute varieties) (Phoenix dactylifera) fruits (DPF) from Iran systematically evaluated. Methods. Antioxidant activity determined using typical methods such as DPPH, reducing power and total antioxidant method. The total phenolic content of the dates was measured using Folin-Ciocalteau method. The included samples were gathered at three stages of khalaal, rutab, tamr and dried date from Sam and Jiroft date. The total phenolic content ranged from 1074, 856.4 and 723.8 in Mozafati variety and 921.5, 723.5 and 785.3 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE/100-g-dw sample) in Kalute variety for khalal, rutab and tamr stage, respectively. Results. In both varieties antioxidant activities and total phenolic content decreased by ripening stages. Result of drying process showed that total phenolic content and antioxidant activities varied from temperature and decreased by increase of drying temperature. Conclusion. This research demonstrates Iranian dates could be potential rich resources of natural antioxidants, and could be developed into functional foods or drug for the prevention and treatment of diseases caused by oxidative stress

The impact of the global financial crisis on industry growth

© 2014 The Authors. The Manchester School published by The University of Manchester and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.This article investigates the real effects of the recent global financial crisis by using industry panel data across 82 countries. We find that industry growth indicators experienced a sharp drop following the crisis. However, a closer inspection indicates that an adverse effect is pronounced in industries that are more dependent on external finance, and also in those industries that rely on trade credit due to under-developed financial intermediation. It is also found that low- and lower-middle income countries tend to experience a lesser impact on growth. These findings provide new evidence of the negative externalities associated with credit-market friction

Does market structure matter on banks' profitability and stability? Emerging versus advanced economies

We investigate the effects of market power, banking and bank-environment activities on profitability and stability (risk and returns) for a total of 1929 banks in 40 emerging and advanced economies over the sample period of 1999-2008. The model developed in this paper incorporates the traditional structure-conduct-performance (SCP) and the relative-market-power (RMP) hypotheses with the view to assessing the extent to which the bank performance can be attributed to non-competitive market conditions and pricing behaviour. The key findings are as follows; i) a greater market power leads to higher bank performance being biased toward the RMP hypothesis in advanced economies; ii) more concentrated banking systems in advanced economies may be more vulnerable to financial instability; iii) Neither of the hypotheses seems to be supported for the returns in the emerging banking sector; and iv) higher interest rate spreads increase profitability and stability for both types of economies, however, for emerging banks this seems to be one of the key elements to increase their profitability raising concerns on economies. Other interesting findings include that off-balance-sheet activities appear to present banks with a trade-off between risk and returns in advanced economies, and the effects of bank age, bank ownership status and regulation on risk and returns, depend on market power

Flow coupling during three-phase gravity drainage

We measure the three-phase oil relative permeability k(ro) by conducting unsteady-state drainage experiments in a 0.8 m water-wet sand pack. We find that when starting from capillary-trapped oil, k(ro) shows a strong dependence on both the flow of water and the water saturation and a weak dependence on oil saturation, contrary to most models. The observed flow coupling between water and oil is stronger in three-phase flow than two-phase flow, and cannot be observed in steady-state measurements. The results suggest that the oil is transported through moving gas-oil-water interfaces (form drag) or momentum transport across stationary interfaces (friction drag). We present a simple model of friction drag which compares favorably to the experimental data.University of Texas at AustinCenter for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy SecurityUS Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences DE-SC0001114Petroleum and Geosystems Engineerin

Navigation and interaction in a real-scale digital mock-up using natural language and user gesture

This paper tries to demonstrate a very new real-scale 3D system and sum up some firsthand and cutting edge results concerning multi-modal navigation and interaction interfaces. This work is part of the CALLISTO-SARI collaborative project. It aims at constructing an immersive room, developing a set of software tools and some navigation/interaction interfaces. Two sets of interfaces will be introduced here: 1) interaction devices, 2) natural language (speech processing) and user gesture. The survey on this system using subjective observation (Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, SSQ) and objective measurements (Center of Gravity, COG) shows that using natural languages and gesture-based interfaces induced less cyber-sickness comparing to device-based interfaces. Therefore, gesture-based is more efficient than device-based interfaces.FUI CALLISTO-SAR

Fatigue life assessment of notched laminated composites: Experiments and modelling by Finite Fracture Mechanics

In this paper, the coupled Finite Fracture Mechanics criterion is extended to assess the finite fatigue life of orthotropic notched laminated composites. The approach is validated through a comprehensive experimental program conducted on laminated composites under tension-tension cyclic loading conditions with two distinct lay-ups. For a given loading ratio, fatigue tests on plain and cracked specimens are first performed to provide the model inputs, the critical cyclic stress and stress intensity factor amplitudes. Fatigue tests on samples weakened by circular holes of two different radii are then used for blind predictions. Accurate predictions of the number of cycles to failure are achieved without the need for inverse calibration of material properties or deviation from standard testing procedures. Finally, a parametric study is performed to investigate the hole radius effect. It is worth mentioning that the proposed approach is general and can be applied to any notched geometry

Nutritional intervention and impact of polyphenol on glycohaemoglobin (HbA1c) in non-diabetic and type 2 diabetic subjects: systematic review and meta-analysis

Polyphenols have been extensively studied for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Recently, their antiglycative actions by oxidative stress modulation have been linked to prevention of diabetes and associated complications. This paper assesses the evidence for polyphenol interventions on glycohaemoglobin (HbA1c) in non-diabetic, pre-diabetic and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) subjects. A systematic review of polyphenols clinical trials on HbA1c in humans was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Thirty-six controlled randomized trials with HbA1c values were included. Polyphenols (extracts, supplements, foods), were supplemented (28 mg to 1.5g) for 0.7 to 12 months. Combining all subjects (n=1954, mean baseline HbA1c=7.03%, 53 mmol/mol), polyphenol supplementation significantly (p<0.001) lowered HbA1c% by -0.53±0.12 units (-5.79±0.13 mmol/mol). This reduction was significant (p<0.001) in T2DM subjects, specifically (n=1426, mean baseline HbA1c=7.44%, 58 mmol/mol), with HbA1c% lowered by -0.21±0.04 units (-2.29±0.4 mmol/mol). Polyphenol supplementation had no significant effect (p>0.21) in the non-diabetic (n=258, mean baseline HbA1c=5.47%, 36 mmol/mol) and the pre-diabetic subjects (n=270, mean baseline HbA1c=6.06%, 43 mmol/mol) strata: -0.39±0.27 HbA1c% units (-4.3±0.3 mmol/mol), and -0.38±0.31 units (-4.2±0.31 mmol/mol), respectively. In conclusion, polyphenols can successfully reduce HbA1c in T2DM, without any intervention at glycaemia, and could contribute to the prevention of diabetes complications

Influence of the underneath cavity on buoyant-forced cooling of the integrated photovoltaic panels in building roof: a thermography study

Airflow around building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) has a significant impact on their hygrothermal behavior and degradation. The potential of reducing the temperature of BIPV using an underneath cavity is experimentally and numerically investigated in literature. Most of the models are oversimplified in terms of modeling the impact of 3D flow over/underneath of PV modules, which can result in a non-uniform surface temperature and consequently a non-homogenous thermal degradation. Moreover, the simultaneous presence of radiation and convection related to upstream wind, in addition to the combined impact of back-ventilation and surface convection, is barely addressed in literature. However, these simplifications can result in the unrealistic loading climate conditions. This paper aims to present a unique experimental setup to provide more realistic climate conditions for investigating the ventilation potential of the underneath. The setup consists of a solar simulator and a building prototype with installed PV, placed inside an atmospheric wind tunnel to control upstream wind velocity. Thermography is performed using an infrared camera to monitor the surface temperature of the BIPV. The potential of an underneath cavity with various cavity heights and PV arrangement is further investigated in this paper. The outcome would be eventually useful in the development of practical guidelines for BIPV installation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd