Effect of continuous cooking on cooking water properties and pasta quality

BACKGROUND Professional pasta cookers are filled with fresh water. The solids leached from the cooked pasta make pasta less firm and stickier while leading to changes in water properties and overflow. Added fresh water then has to be reheated. The effect of continuous cooking on cooked pasta quality and water properties was investigated for the first time by simulating professional pasta cooking on a laboratory scale. RESULTS Continuous cooking procedure of 12 batches led to a solid content of cooking water of 37gkg(-1), resulting in an increase in shear-thinning behaviour and consistency index. Pasta cooking loss decreased from 52.7 to 35.7gkg(-1) due to the lower water concentration gradient through the pasta. This was confirmed by a decrease in swelling index from 2.0x10(-3) to 1.6x10(-3)gkg(-1) during the optimal cooking time (13min 45s). Surprisingly, continuous cooking made the pasta firmer while stickiness did not differ significantly (P>0.05). CONCLUSION Taking batch number 7 as the acceptability threshold, further studies are required to find an optimal solution for retaining cooking water properties highly affecting daily cooking procedures in food service kitchens. (c) 2018 Society of Chemical Industr

A low-cost endless knob controller with programmable resistive force feedback for multimedia production

Multimedia production involves the editing of several tracks (e.g., audio, MIDI, video) and related parameter control envelopes. This activity unfolds through several iterations, each consisting of repetitive tasks. In such scenario, the use of an input controller providing multimodal feedback can reduce the cognitive load associated to task execution. In particular, tactile feedback can reinforce visual information to facilitate the detection of specific features in a waveform. We present an endless knob controller prototype with programmable resistive force feedback to rotation. Its use in supporting basic audio editing operations is then informally tested in a pilot software environment developed in Processing

Harmonization in preclinical epilepsy research: A joint AES/ILAE translational initiative

Among the priority next steps outlined during the first translational epilepsy research workshop in London, United Kingdom (2012), jointly organized by the American Epilepsy Society (AES) and the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), are the harmonization of research practices used in preclinical studies and the development of infrastructure that facilitates multicenter preclinical studies. The AES/ILAE Translational Task Force of the ILAE has been pursuing initiatives that advance these goals. In this supplement, we present the first reports of the working groups of the Task Force that aim to improve practices of performing rodent videoâ\u80\u93electroencephalography (vEEG) studies in experimental controls, generate systematic reviews of preclinical research data, and develop preclinical common data elements (CDEs) for epilepsy research in animals

Materials selection tools in professional appliances: hypothesis to estimate materials’ performance and impact on industrial processes

Concept The use of materials’ selection in professional appliances increased in recent times, thanks to its potential pre-evaluation of materials’ performance and impact on industrial production processes. Through a collaboration among Politecnico di Milano (Department of Design and Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”) and Electrolux Professional S.p.A. (Global Research & Development, Innovation & Technologies Area), an evaluation of materials’ tangible and intangible properties has been developed using non-traditional methods. Among all the currently professional appliances, the oven environment has been chosen as the most emblematic study case. In the first part, this work evidences the major limits and critical points of the materials’ selection tools currently and most commonly proposed in industrial applications. Within these, the main key points highlighted are the translation and connection of quantitative and qualitative properties and the risk associated to the materials selection process reliability. In a second step, some ameliorative hypotheses are built to overcome these limits, using a repeatable and suitable method for different materials selection cases. Motivations and Objectives The research aim is to develop an innovative and versatile method for the materials selection in professional appliances field, used by engineers and designers. From the Ashby [1] and the Karana [2] selection strategies, the non-traditional materials selection methodology would offer a complete evaluation of materials’ tangible and intangible properties. Different variables, indeed, have been taken into consideration: material’s technical properties (e.g. mechanical, thermal and processability parameters), durability (e.g. food chemicals and detergents), food-material compliance and customer perception of properties. The need of a unique materials selection method, able to convert quantitative to qualitative evaluation of properties and to estimate the risk associated to the materials selection reliability, driven the research. A procedure, which evaluates components’ life and possible failure modes (based on DOE and FMEA) [3] [4] [5], is under development in order to integrate these information into the future products development. Results and Discussion The research presents the development of the materials selection methodology under consideration supported by some case studies that focus on durability properties of materials

Auditory and tactile recognition of resonant material vibrations in a passive task of bouncing perception

Besides vision and audition, everyday materials can be passively explored also using touch if they provide tactile feedback to users, for instance in consequence of an external force exciting their natural resonances. If such resonances are known to provide informative auditory cues of material, on the other hand their role when a recognition is made through touch is debatable. Even more questionable is a material recognition from their reproductions: if happening, then they could be used to enrich existing touch-screen interactions with ecological auditory and haptic feedback furthermore requiring inexpensive actuation. With this goal in mind, two experiments are proposed evaluating user\u2019s ability to classify wooden, plastic, and metallic surfaces respectively using auditory and haptic cues. Al- though the literature reports successful auditory classification of everyday material simulations, especially the passive recognition of such material reproductions by holding a finger on a vibrating glass surface has never been tested. By separately reproducing the sound and vibration of a ping-pong ball bouncing on wood, plastic and metal surfaces, our tests report not only auditory, but also tac- tile recognition of the same materials significantly above chance. Discrepancies existing between our and previously reported results are discussed

Is autopsy tissue a valid control for epilepsy surgery tissue in microRNA studies?

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are differentially expressed in the brain under pathologic conditions and may therefore represent both therapeutic targets and diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers for neurologic diseases, including epilepsy. In fact, miRNA expression profiles have been investigated in the hippocampi of patients with epilepsy in comparison with control, nonepileptic cases. Unfortunately, the interpretation of these data is difficult because surgically resected epileptic tissue is generally compared with control tissue obtained from autopsies. To challenge the validity of this approach, we performed an miRNA microarray on the laser microdissected granule cell layer of the human hippocampus obtained from surgical samples of patients with epilepsy, autoptic nonepileptic controls, and patients with autoptic epilepsy, using the latter as internal control. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to collect autopsy material from documented epilepsy individuals who died of non–epilepsy-related causes—we found only two such cases. However, hierarchical clustering of all samples showed that those obtained from autopsies of patients with epilepsy segregated with the other autoptic samples (controls) and not with the bioptic tissues from the surgery patients, suggesting that the origin of the tissue (surgery or autopsy) may be prevalent over the underlying pathology (epilepsy or not epilepsy). Even taking into account the limitations due to the small number of cases, this observation arises concerns on the use of autopsy tissue as control for this kind of studies

322. Benign Herpes Simplex Virus Vector Design for Efficient Delivery of Large or Multiple Transgenes To a Diversity of Cells

Viral vectors derived from herpes simplex virus (HSV) have the potential to revolutionize gene therapy due to their ability to accommodate large and multiple therapeutic transgenes. However, current HSV gene therapy vectors express toxic levels of an immediate-early (IE) protein, ICP0, whose function is required for robust and sustained transgene expression. Here we report the development of a new generation of HSV vectors that are IE-gene independent and non-toxic, yet capable of persistent transgene expression in a variety of human primary non-neuronal cell types. We identified a CTCF motif cluster upstream of the latency promoter and a known long-term regulatory region as key elements for the protection of transgene expression cassettes from global silencing of the viral genome in the absence of all viral IE gene products. Using this new HSV vector system, we have observed vigorous expression of full-length dystrophin cDNA (14 kb) for several weeks in a dystrophin-deficient muscle cell line. We further tested our vectors for transgene expression in rodent brain. While we detected variable persistence of gene expression from the latency locus, we were surprised to observe vigorous long-term reporter gene expression from one other locus despite the absence of gene expression from this locus in non-neuronal cells. These findings demonstrate that transgene expression in neurons is operatively different from that in non-neuronal cells and suggest that multiple loci can be used for expression of foreign genes in the nervous system. In addition, our data raise the prospect that our highly defective HSV vector system will be applicable as a safe delivery tool for large and multiple therapeutic genes to a wide range of non-neuronal tissues