Effect of static magnetic field extended supercooling preservation on beef quality.

Supercooling can preserve beef without freezing damage, whereas maintaining the supercooled state is difficult. An innovative method of static magnetic field extended supercooling (SM-ES) was proposed to maintain the non-frozen state of beef. Effect of SM-ES (-4 °C + SMF) compared with refrigerated (4 °C), slow-frozen (-4 °C) and frozen (-18 °C) treatment on beef quality was investigated. Results demonstrated that SM-ES successfully preserved beef at -4 °C without ice nucleation for 14 days. The SEM images revealed that the microstructure of slow-frozen/frozen samples was damaged due to crystallizing, while the ice nucleation was not observed in SM-ES treated beef. Compared with refrigerated, slow-frozen and frozen treatment, the drip loss of SM-ES decreased by 21.9%, 47.8% and 30.9%, respectively. The lipid oxidation degree of beef decreased following SM-ES treatment. SM-ES treatment extended the shelf-life of beef for more than 6 days compared with refrigeration while prevented its crystallizing.

Off-Lattice Monte-Carlo Approach for Studying Nucleation and Evaporation Phenomena at the Molecular Scale.

Droplet nucleation and evaporation are ubiquitous in nature and many technological applications, such as phase-change cooling and boiling heat transfer. So far, the description of these phenomena at the molecular scale has posed challenges for modelling with most of the models being implemented on a lattice. Here, we propose an off-lattice Monte-Carlo approach combined with a grid that can be used for the investigation of droplet formation and evaporation. We provide the details of the model, its implementation as Python code, and results illustrating its dependence on various parameters. The method can be easily extended for any force-field (e.g., coarse-grained, all-atom models, and external fields, such as gravity and electric field). Thus, we anticipate that the proposed model will offer opportunities for a wide range of studies in various research areas involving droplet formation and evaporation and will also form the basis for further method developments for the molecular modelling of such phenomena.