Characteristics of ground alfalfa in relation to steam conditioning

Conditioning is an intermediate process in alfalfa pelleting designed to make alfalfa grind easier to bind. It is an important step because the quality of final pellets depends to a great extent on the quality of the conditioned mash. The mash pliability is in turn dictated by the fundamental characteristics of alfalfa grind such as its morphological attributes, thermal properties, rate of moisture diffusion, and equilibrium moisture relationship. There has so far been a lack of research pertinent to these characteristics imperative to the improvement of mash quality. This study was conceived for such a need, in which physical, morphological, thermal, moisture diffusion, and moisture equilibrium characteristics of alfalfa grind were scrutinized. The physical properties studied were the density of alfalfa grind as affected by particle size and moisture content, particle size distribution, and particle characterization. Models were developed to correlate the bulk and the solid densities to moisture content and particle size. The surface area of alfalfa grind particles based on sieving tests was much lower than that measured by nitrogen sorption. The difference was attributed to the pores, cracks and fissures in the particles that could trap nitrogen. The thermal properties in this study included specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and thermal diffusivity. The specific heat capacity of the alfalfa grind was determined by differential scanning calorimetry. A multiple regression model was developed to correlate the specific heat, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of alfalfa grind to moisture content and temperature. Moisture diffusion characteristics of alfalfa grind were studied in terms of moisture diffusivity. Based on the thin-layer kinetics, moisture diffusivity of whole dehy alfalfa grind was 3.0310\sp{-8} m2/s. There was a significant difference in moisture diffusivity between the dehy and the sun-cured alfalfa grinds $(\alpha=0.05).$ From the "ring stack" diffusion tests, a mean diffusivity of 8.5510\sp{-8} m2/s resulted for the whole dehy grind. It was found that the relationship between the moisture diffusivity of alfalfa grind and particle undersize could be best described by the Gaussian function. Moisture equilibrium characteristics of alfalfa grind included moisture sorption isotherms and hysteresis behavior. A hypothesis was proposed to account for the origin of sorption hysteresis. Based on the hypothesis, a mathematical model was developed to quantify the magnitude of the hysteresis loops. The applicability of the developed model has been verified by the hysteresis data of alfalfa grind. Pilot-scale steam conditioning tests of alfalfa grind have been conducted in this study. Semi-empirical models have beendeveloped for describing the meal tempersture and moisture content trends in a steam conditioner. The goodness-of-fit of the models was verified with the pilot-scale steam conditioning test results

Physical appearance perfectionism explains variance in eating disorder symptoms above general perfectionism

Physical appearance perfectionism is a domain-specific form of perfectionism comprising two components: hope for perfection and worry about imperfection (Yang & Stoeber, 2012). Previous studies found that physical appearance perfectionism is related to eating disorder symptoms, particularly the worry about imperfection component, but did not address the question of whether physical appearance perfectionism explains variance in eating disorder symptoms above general perfectionism. The present study investigated the question examining 559 female university students. Physical appearance perfectionism explained an additional 9-17% of variance in eating disorder symptoms above the 11-20% variance explained by general perfectionism. The findings suggest that physical appearance perfectionism plays an important role in disordered eating beyond general perfectionis

EFFECTS OF MINIMALIST FOOTWEAR ON THE LOWER LIMB LINEAR ACCELERATION AND ANGULAR VELOCITY DURING RUNNING

The purpose of this study was to explore if the tri-axial linear acceleration and angular velocity of knee and ankle joints differ between barefoot and minimal footwear running through investigating the extreme value difference. Eight participants were recruited for this experiment, acceleration parameters were measured utilizing IMU sensors. For the angular velocity, the minimum value in the frontal plane (p = 0.028) showed a decrease in the ankle joint. The minimal value in the sagittal plane and maximal value in the transverse plane (p = 0.001, p = 0) increased significantly. For the knee joint, the extreme values in the frontal plane increased (p = 0, p = 0), the maximal value increased and minimal value decreased with p = 0 and p = 0 in the sagittal plane. A significant decrease in the maximal value (p = 0) was exhibited in the transverse plane. The increased angular velocity may contribute to a result, with an insufficient arch support condition (minimalist shoes running) causing the foot’s intrinsic and extrinsic muscles and lower limb joints injury. These injuries should be a consideration for the novice minimalist runners

Graduate Student Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behavior Related to HPV and HPV Vaccination: A Scoping Review of the Literature

This review seeks to delineate what is known about the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors related to HPV and the HPV vaccine in graduate and post-baccalaureate professional students in the United States

Apparatus and method for removal of seed pericarp

Presents an apparatus and method for removing pericarp from a seed, such as a corn kernel. The method includes sonicating the kernel to loosen the pericarp and then separation of the pericarp. One example of separation is by frictional milling. An additional optional aspect of the invention is isolation of the pericarp from the remainder of the seed and/or further cleaning or purification of the pericarp

B cell receptor ligation induces IgE plasma cell elimination

The proper regulation of IgE production safeguards against allergic disease, highlighting the importance of mechanisms that restrict IgE plasma cell (PC) survival. IgE PCs have unusually high surface B cell receptor (BCR) expression, yet the functional consequences of ligating this receptor are unknown. Here, we found that BCR ligation induced BCR signaling in IgE PCs followed by their elimination. In cell culture, exposure of IgE PCs to cognate antigen or anti-BCR antibodies induced apoptosis. IgE PC depletion correlated with the affinity, avidity, amount, and duration of antigen exposure and required the BCR signalosome components Syk, BLNK, and PLCγ2. In mice with a PC-specific impairment of BCR signaling, the abundance of IgE PCs was selectively increased. Conversely, BCR ligation by injection of cognate antigen or anti-IgE depleted IgE PCs. These findings establish a mechanism for the elimination of IgE PCs through BCR ligation. This has important implications for allergen tolerance and immunotherapy as well as anti-IgE monoclonal antibody treatments

A double instrumental variable method for geophysical product error estimation

The global validation of remotely sensed and/or modeled geophysical products is often complicated by a lack of suitable ground observations for comparison. By cross-comparing three independent collocated observations, triple collocation (TC) can solve for geophysical product errors in error-prone systems. However, acquiring three independent products for a geophysical variable of interest can be challenging. Here, a double instrumental variable based algorithm (IVd) is proposed as an extension of the existing single instrumental variable (IVs) approach to estimate product error standard deviation (σ) and product-truth correlation (R) using only two independent products - an easier requirement to meet in practice. An analytical examination of the IVd method suggests that it is less prone to bias and has reduced sampling errors relative to IVs. Results from an example application of the IVd method to precipitation product error estimation show that IVd-based σ and R are good approximations of reference values obtained from TC at the global extent. In addition to their spatial consistency, IVd estimated error metrics also have only marginal (less than 5%) relative biases versus a TC baseline. Consistent with our earlier analytical analysis, these empirical results are shown to be superior to those obtained by IVs. However, several caveats for the IVd approach should be acknowledged. As with TC and IVs, IVd estimates are less robust when the signal-to-noise ratio of geophysical products is very low. Additionally, IVd may be significantly biased when geophysical products have strongly contrasting error auto-correlations