Vacuum frying is a promising method for preserving the desired color, texture, and flavor of products with high sugar content. Since most vegetables and fruits degrade when processed with traditional frying, vacuum frying is an excellent alternative to high temperature processing. However, in vacuum frying the product should be pre-treated before frying to obtain a better texture. The kinetics of oil absorption and oil distribution in sweet potato chips (total, internal, and surface oil content) was studied so that effectiveness of the de-oiling system could be established. An analysis of product quality attributes (PQA) such as moisture content, oil content, microstructure, diameter shrinkage, and thickness expansion, as well as, color, texture, bulk density, true density, and porosity of chips fried at different temperatures (120, 130, and 140°C) was performed to evaluate the effect of process temperature on the product. The final oil content of the sweet potato chips was 0.178±0.007, 0.178±0.011, and 0.172±0.002 g/g solid for frying temperatures of 120, 130, and 140ºC, respectively. These values were lower (~60% less) than those found in traditionally fried sweet potato chip, which indicates that the de-oiling mechanism is crucial in vacuum frying processing. It was found that the rate of change in PQAs is greatly affected by temperature; however, the final values of bulk density, true density, porosity, diameter shrinkage, and thickness expansion were not affected by temperature. The texture of the samples was affected by temperature, with the chips fried at 140 degrees C being crispier. In terms of color, the L* and color b* values decreased as temperature increased. While color a* was not affected by temperature. In this study, a two-stage frying process was also evaluated to improve the flavor and texture of sweet potato chips. First, a basket filled with the sweet potato slices was submerged into the oil under atmospheric conditions. As soon as the potato slices were partially cooked (1 min), the pressure was lowered to 1.33 kPa (vacuum frying stage) and the product fried for 2 more min. The products were fried at 130 degrees C for different interval of times. Starch gelatinization, texture, moisture content, and oil content were evaluated at each time interval. Sensory analysis was accomplished by using a consumer panel with 50 members. The samples were compared with the on-stage frying and atmospheric frying processes. The two-stage fried chips had better appearance and texture compared to the ones that were only fried under vacuum or atmospheric conditions. The samples were lighter and more yellow than the chips fried under the single-stage process. In vacuum frying, the temperature of the chips does not reach the gelatinization temperature until most of the water is evaporated. Therefore, there is not sufficient moisture content in the product for gelatinization to occur completely. As a result, the product has a glassy texture. In the two stage frying, the atmospheric frying prior to vacuum frying helps the starch to gelatinize thus producing a better product in terms of texture, oil content, and flavor. The atmospheric fried samples were darker in color and had a scorch taste. The degree of starch gelatinization was 21% higher for the two-stage fried samples than the single-stage fried ones. The application of the dual stage enhances the quality of sweet potato chips, improves consumer satisfaction, and reduces the need for space, cost, and any other needs of blanching pre-treatment to the sweet potato manufacturers.

The effects of the fortification of tortilla chips with mechanically expelled soy flour as well as baking and frying processes on the properties of tortilla chips were evaluated. Sensory characteristics, texture, thickness, color, protein and oil content were evaluated. Texture was measured by objective and subjective tests. Sensory properties were evaluated using a nine point hedonic scale. Soybeans (food grade Hartz) were mechanically expelled to obtain partially defatted soy flour of 6.7% final oil content. Dry masa flour (DMF) was replaced with 0, 10, 20 and 30% mechanically-expelled soy flour (MESF). The equilibrated tortilla was either fried in oil or baked in an air-impingement oven followed by convection oven drying. Overall, fried tortilla chips were harder and thicker than baked tortilla chips. Fried tortilla chips with 20 and 30% soy flour substitution required less force to break. In fried tortilla chips, as MESF increased, force and work levels decreased, where 20% MESF had the lowest force values. Thickness measurements of tortilla chips showed that as the thickness increased, the force and work also increased. Protein increased linearly in baked and fried tortilla chips where 30% resulted in the highest protein level. In fried tortilla chips, MESF fortification increased oil levels linearly as well. Baked tortilla chips were lighter than fried tortilla chips. In a consumer sensory evaluation, fried tortilla chips were preferred more than the baked ones. In fried tortilla chips, 20% had the highest sensory scores overall. Ten and 20% MESF fortification in fried tortilla chips were the most acceptable of all. In all treatments, regardless of type of processing, panelists could not detect any “beany” flavors in any of the samples. Therefore, dry extrusion followed by mechanical expelling proved successful in creating a suitable soy flour for tortilla chip production. MESF can be added at 10-30% levels in tortilla chips. Up to 20% would be recommended. Frying results in higher acceptability consumer scores over baking.

Ammonia, a colorless gas with a characteristic pungent odor, is produced by various industrial and agricultural activities. Emissions of ammonia into the atmosphere not only cause a nuisance in the vicinity of the sources, but also have various environmental effects, such as eutrophication and acidification of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and visibility problems resulting from the formation of aerosols. The traditional treatment of ammonia emissions is based on physical and/or chemical processes, both of which are expensive and produce secondary pollutants. Biological methods are effective and economical for biodegradable odorants and VOC contaminants. This study used fixed-film bioreactors, a biofilter and a biotrickling filter, to remove and oxidize gas-born ammonia. Firstly, a pilot-scale biofilter consisted of two columns (40 cmW ¡Ñ 40 cmL ¡Ñ 70 cmH acrylic column) arranged in series. A medium consisting solely of fern chips, on which biofilms were cultivated, was used as a packing material. The biofilter was tested continuously for 110 days, measuring the removal efficiency, empty bed residence time (EBRT), removal capacity, pressure drop, moisture content and pH. Most of ammonia was eliminated in the first biofiltration column and the removal efficiency increased with the increase in EBRT. Complete removal of the influent ammonia (20-120 ppm) was obtained with an ammonia loading as high as 5.4 g N kg-1 dry media d-1 during the experiment. The Michaelis-Menten equation was tested to be adequate for modeling the ammonia elimination kinetics in the biofilter and the maximum removal rate (Vm) and the half-saturation constant (Ks) were estimated to be 28.2 g N kg-1 dry media d-1 and 129 ppm, respectively. Secondly, a pilot-scale reactor, consisting of a set of two-stage-in-series biotrickling filters, an influent gas supply system and a liquid recirculation system, was utilized to treat ammonia in an air stream. Each stage of the biotrickling filter was constructed from a 20 cm ¡Ñ 200 cm (inner diameter ¡Ñ height) acrylic column packed with cokes (average diameter = 3.0 cm, specific area = 150 m2/m3) of 125 cm height. Experimental results indicate that a time of 30 days is required for development of biofilms for nitrification of the absorbed ammonia from the gas. Long-term (187 days) experimental results show that, in the conditions of EBRT (empty bed gas retention time) = 7.25 s, ¡§circulation liquid/gas¡¨ flow rate ratio = 7.7 L m-3, and liquid pH = 6.65, the level of ammonia in the influent gas was reduced from 230 to 4.0 ppm. With the volumetric ammonia loading of less than 7.37 g NH3-N m-3 hr-1, the system could achieve ammonia removal and nitrification efficiencies of 98 and 94%, respectively, without supplementary glucose as a carbon source. However, with a loading of 13.1 g NH3-N m3 h-1, both decreased gradually due to a lake of carbon source and an accumulation of ammonium and nitrite ions in the recirculation liquid.

<p>In order to derive reliable protein networks it has recently been suggested that the combination of information from both gene and protein level is required. In this thesis a combination of gene expression and protein chip analysis was performed when constructing protein networks. Proteins with high affinity to the same substrates and encoded by genes with high correlation is here thought to constitute reliable protein networks. The protein networks derived are unfortunately not as reliable as were hoped for. According to the tests performed, the method derived in this thesis does not perform more than slightly better than chance. However, the poor results can depend on the data used, since mismatching and shortage of data has been evident.</p>

No description available.

The kiln drying of wood produces huge amounts of vapour. The vapour is released to the environment when the process purges some of the saturated hot air. The main environmental issue regarding the use of kiln drying process are the release of the water vapour which contains organic contaminants. Some of them are hazardous to human health. In addition, there are some wood particles which may released with the water vapour purging process. In this research, the vapour is condensed and analysed for its organic contaminants and their biodegradability. The result showed that the dominant contaminants present in the condensate were ethanol and methanol with the concentration of approximately 65 mg/L and 25 mg/L respectively. The average COD concentration of the condensate was 159 ± 40 mg/L. The analysis also showed that the contaminants were biodegradable. In order to treat the wastewater, a trickling filter process using bark chips as a support medium was used to treat an artificial wastewater. The artificial wastewater contained the dominant contaminant present in the wood drying condensate. In the experiment, different sizes of bark chips were used. In addition, the loading rate of the treatment system was varied by changing the flow rate and contaminant concentration. The 30 cm long trickling filter using bark chips varying between of 2.8 – 4 mm diameter as the support medium gave a maximum removal of 36.4 % with removal capacity of 8.34 kg COD/m³bed•day at a flow rate of 2.8 cm/min and average inlet COD load of 20.4 kg COD/m3bed•day. The trickling filter with bark chips varying between 5.6 – 8 mm diameter as the support medium was operated using variations in contaminant concentration and flow rate. The operation using different inlet concentration gave the highest removal rate of 13.5 kg COD/m3bed•day at average initial load of 84.9 kg COD/m³bed•day, flow rate of 2.8 cm/min and theoretical initial concentration of 680 mg/L. The trickling filter operated with flow rate variation showed the highest removal rate of 10 kg COD/m³bed•day at an average inlet load of 53.3 kg COD/m³bed•day and flow rate of 7.1 cm/min. The removal rate of the contaminants in treatment was limited. There is a number of possible explanations. First is the active surface area, which indicating the area where the contact between the biofilm surface and feed happened. The active surface area increased as the flow rate increased. Second is the residence time of the feed in the bed. The residence time of the feed varied with the flow rate. It decreased as the flow rate increased. Third is the influence of the contaminants in the feed. The presence of methanol and methanol in the feed inhibited each other’s degradation. The dimention of a full-scale biotrickling filter to be used in actual kiln was also estimated. The estimation was made based on the maximum removal rate and optimum flow rate obtained in the experiments. The result of the estimation showed to obtain significant removal, the required bed would have to be 2.35 m in diameter and 160 in height.

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-81).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 405-414). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 405-414). Also available on the Internet.

La complexité et le nombre toujours plus grandissant des applications, notamment les standards vidéo, nécessite d’étudier des méthodes et outils pour leur déploiement sur des architectures elles aussi toujours plus complexes. En effet, afin d’atteindre les performances requises en matière de temps d’exécution ou consommation énergétique, les architectures modernes proposent des éléments de calculs hétérogènes, où chacun est spécialisé pour une fonction précise. Cette thèse s’appuie sur le modèle flot de données pour la spécification de l’application. Ce modèle permet d’exposer explicitement le parallélisme spatial et temporel de l’application à travers un réseau d’acteurs interconnectés par des canaux de type FIFO. Les acteurs, en charge du calcul, peuvent exhiber un comportement statique ou dynamique. Les derniers standards vidéo contraignent à s’appuyer sur les modèles dynamiques pour obtenir une spécification fonctionnelle. Les besoins de calcul sont alors dépendants des données à traiter. Le déploiement d’une application dynamique ne peut donc se faire à l’aide des approches statiques existantes dans la littérature. L’objectif de cette thèse est de proposer des algorithmes efficaces permettant de déployer à la volée une application flot de données dynamique sur une architecture multiprocesseurs hétérogène. La première contribution est un algorithme qui permet de trouver rapidement une solution de déploiement de l’application. La deuxième contribution est un algorithme basé sur les mouvements pour adapter en cours d’exécution le déploiement en réponse aux aspects dynamiques de l’application. / Modern multimedia applications are subject to an increasing complexity with widespread standards. This has led to the interest in dataflow approach that offers a powerful perspective on parallel com- putations at high level. In the meantime, the emergence of massively parallel architectures has revealed the trend towards heterogeneous Multi-Processor System-on-Chips (MPSoCs) to offer a better perfor- mance and energy tradeoff than their homogeneous counterparts. However, this also imposes challenges to the mapping of multimedia applications on such complex architectures. This thesis presents an adaptive methodology for mapping dataflow applications on heterogeneous MPSoCs. This thesis focuses on video decoders specified in RVC-CAL language, a dedicated dataflow language for video applications. Existing static approaches cannot capture all behaviors in dynamic dataflow applications. Thus, this requires to adapt the mapping according to the input data. The algorithm offers some adaptive parameters combined with our analyt- ical communication model to improve a performance while consider- ing load balancing. We evaluate our algorithms on a set of randomly generated benchmarks and real video decoders like MPEG4-SP and HEVC. Experimental results reveal that our mapping methodology is fast enough (in milliseconds) and the runtime remapping signifi- cantly improves the initial mapping. In the remapping process, we take the migration cost into account because the reconfiguration time also contributes to the overall performance.