The viscous properties of oat beta-glucan in the gut are influenced not only by beta-glucan content, but also solubility and molecular weight. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of oat processing, genotype and growing location on the physicochemical properties of beta-glucan. Five oat genotypes (HiFi, Leggett, CDC Dancer, Marion and CDC Morrison) grown in two locations (Saskatoon and Kernen) were dehulled (untreated) and processed in a pilot facility through kilning (kilned/not flaked) and subsequent steaming and flaking (kilned/flaked). Three oat genotypes (HiFi, Leggett and Furlong) went through a commercial processing including dehulling, kilning and steaming and flaking. Both pilot and commercial scale processing, genotype and growing environment had significant effects on viscosity, molecular weight and solubility of beta-glucan. Results indicate that there is potential for processors to improve the physicochemical/nutritional properties of oat end products through processing of specific oat genotypes from selected growing locations.

Health claims for barley β-glucan (BG) have prompted the development of more food products using barley. Some new products do not use any form of heat treatment which could become an issue as barley has been found to have high microbial contamination. The aim of this research was to evaluate current commercial barley products for microbial and BG quality and determine the effects of different heat treatments on the safety and physicochemical properties of BG of whole grain barley. Three heat treatments (micronization, roasting and conditioning) were performed on 3 cultivars of barley (CDC Rattan, CDC McGwire and CDC Fibar). The microbial quality was measured with standard plate count (SPC), yeast and mould (MYC), and coliforms/E. coli. Only 4 of the 17 commercial barley products tested met acceptable microbial limits used in this study. All 3 heat treatments reduced SPC, MYC and coliforms to acceptable levels. BG was extracted using an in vitro digestion method to determine its viscosity, molecular weight (MW) and solubility. Heat-treated barley increased the BG viscosity and MW compared to the untreated barley. The effect of heat treatment on starch pasting, particle size and colour were also evaluated. Overall, heat treatments improved the safety and potential health benefits of whole grain barley. / February 2016

This project focuses on experimentally characterizing one of the tools used at Ericsson AB to test product performance, the climatic chamber. By conducting experiments inside the climate chamber and post processing the data obtained, the airflow inside it can be understood and compared to outdoor experimental data. One of the main sections of this work is to prove the hypothesis: The energy potential of the wind outdoors is greater than indoors, which is shown to be true when comparing values for the integral length scales of the flow, at the same mean wind speed. The second main part of this project is to obtain valuable experimental input that will serve to construct a virtual model of the climate chamber. With the conclusions drawn from the experiments, which involve heat transfer, boundary conditions for the numerical model can be established. / Det här projektet fokuserar på att experimentellt karakterisera ett av verktygen som används i Ericsson AB för att testa produktprestanda - klimatkammaren. Genom att utföra experiment inuti klimatkammaren och efterbehandla de erhållna data, kan man få en förståelse för luftflödet inuti kammaren och jämföra resultat med experimentella data från utomhus. Ett av delmomenten i detta arbete bevisar hypotesen: 'Vindens energipotential är större än inomhus', vilket visar sig vara sant när man jämför värden för flödets integrala längdskalor, med samma medelvärde i vindhastighet. Den andra etappen av detta projekt är att erhålla en värdefull experimentell vägledning som kommer att tjäna till att konstruera en virtuell modell av klimatkammaren. Med slutsatserna från experimenten, som innefattar värmeöverföring, kan gränsvillkor för den numeriska modellen fastställas.