Coffee brewing sonoreactor for reducing the time of cold brew from several hours to minutes while maintaining sensory attributes.

This research designed and developed an ultrasonic reactor for a fast and on demand production of cold brew coffee, remarkably reducing the brewing time from 24 h to less than 3 min. The technology was engineered by utilizing resonance to induce ultrasonic waves around the walls of the brewing basket of an espresso machine. The sound transmission system comprised a transducer, a horn and a brewing basket. This arrangement transformed the coffee basket into an effective sonoreactor that injected sound waves at multiple points through its walls, thereby generating multiple regions for acoustic cavitation within the reactor. Furthermore, acoustic streaming induced greater mixing and enhanced mass transfer during brewing. The design was accomplished by modeling the transmission of sound, and acoustic cavitation. Brew characterization and chemical composition analysis was performed, considering factors such as pH, acidity, color, and the composition of caffeine, fatty acids, and volatiles. The efficiency of the extraction increased by decreasing the basket loading percentage (BLP). For instance, sonicating at 100 W doubled the extraction yield and caffeine concentration, from 15.05 % to 33.44 % at BLP = 33 %, and from 0.91 mg/mL to 1.84 mg/mL at BLP = 67 %, respectively. The total fatty acids increased from 1.16 mg/mL to 9.20 mg/mL, representing an eightfold increase, at BLP = 33 %. Finally, a sensory analysis was conducted to evaluate appearance, aroma, texture, flavor, and aftertaste, which demonstrated that coffee brewed for 1 and 3 min in the sonoreactor exhibited almost undistinguishable properties compared to a standard 24 h brewing without ultrasound.

A review on plasma-activated water and its application in the meat industry.

Meat is a nutritious food with a short shelf life, making it challenging to ensure safety, quality, and nutritional value. Foodborne pathogens and oxidation are the main concerns that lead to health risks and economic losses. Conventional approaches like hot water, steam pasteurization, and chemical washes for meat decontamination improve safety but cause nutritional and quality issues. Plasma-activated water (PAW) is a potential alternative to thermal treatment that can reduce oxidation and microbial growth, an essential factor in ensuring safety, quality, and nutritional value. This review explores the different types of PAW and their physiochemical properties. It also outlines the reaction pathways involved in the generation of short-lived and long-lived reactive nitrogen and oxygen species (RONS) in PAW, which contribute to its antimicrobial abilities. The review also highlights current studies on PAW inactivation against various planktonic bacteria, as well as critical processing parameters that can improve PAW inactivation efficacy. Promising applications of PAW for meat curing, thawing, and decontamination are discussed, with emphasis on the need to understand how RONS in PAW affect meat quality. Recent reports on combining PAW with ultrasound, mild heating, and non-thermal plasma to improve inactivation efficacy are also presented. Finally, the need to develop energy-efficient systems for the production and scalability of PAW is discussed for its use as a potential meat disinfectant without compromising meat quality.

The antimicrobial effects of mist spraying and immersion on beef samples with plasma-activated water.

The use of plasma-activated water (PAW) as an antimicrobial agent to inactivate Salmonella Typhimurium on chilled beef during meat washing was evaluated. Two meat washing methods, spraying and immersion, were evaluated at contact times of 15, 30 and 60 s and meat storage times of 0, 1 and 7 days. The temperature of PAW was elevated to 55 °C for washing as it increased the microbial inactivation compared to ambient temperature. At the contact time of 60 s and meat storage time of 7 days, PAW spraying and immersion achieved 0.737-log10 and 0.710-log10 reductions against Salmonella Typhimurium, respectively; there were no significant differences between both washing methods, with spraying being preferred for commercial implementation. Compared to untreated and water-treated samples, meat washing with PAW alone improved the S. Typhimurium inactivation and did not cause negative impacts on the lightness and hue angle values, TBARS value, water holding capacity and pH. However, PAW reduced the redness, yellowness and chroma values with the decreased oxymyoglobin values of 44.1% at the storage time of 1 day. PAW spraying at 55 °C followed by additional water washing at 25 °C for 60 s achieved 0.696-log10 reduction and mitigated a reduction in (i) the redness value, from 11.3 to 18.2, (ii) the yellowness value, from 9.19 to 11.1, and (iii) the chroma value, from 14.5 to 21.3, without displaying colour differences (∆E), as detected by human eyes, compared to water-treated samples. Moreover, the content of myoglobin forms was maintained by additional water washing.

Rationalized design of hyperbranched trans-scale graphene arrays for enduring high-energy lithium metal batteries.

Lithium (Li) metal anode have shown exceptional potential for high-energy batteries. However, practical cell-level energy density of Li metal batteries is usually limited by the low areal capacity (<3 mAh cm-2) because of the accelerated degradation of high-areal capacity Li metal anodes upon cycling. Here, we report the design of hyperbranched vertical arrays of defective graphene for enduring deep Li cycling at practical levels of areal capacity (>6 mAh cm-2). Such atomic-to-macroscopic trans-scale design is rationalized by quantifying the degradation dynamics of Li metal anodes. High-energy Li metal cells are prototyped under realistic conditions with high cathode capacity (>4 mAh cm-2), low negative-to-positive electrode capacity ratio (1:1), and low electrolyte-to-capacity ratio (5 g Ah-1), which shed light on a promising move toward practical Li metal batteries.

Special Issue of the Manufacturing Engineering Society 2021 (SIMES-2021).

After the complete success of the first [...].

Culturable Yeast Diversity of Grape Berries from Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris (Gmelin) Hegi.

Vitis vinifera L. ssp. sylvestris (Gmelin) Hegi is recognized as the dioecious parental generation of today's cultivars. Climatic change and the arrival of pathogens and pests in Europe led it to be included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in 1997. The present work focused on the study of culturable yeast occurrence and diversity of grape berries collected from wild vines. Sampling was performed in 29 locations of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Italy, Romania, and Spain. In total, 3431 yeast colonies were isolated and identified as belonging to 49 species, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, by 26S rDNA D1/D2 domains and ITS region sequencing. Isolates of S. cerevisiae were also analyzed by SSR-PCR obtaining 185 different genotypes. Classical ecology indices were used to obtain the richness (S), the biodiversity (H'), and the dominance (D) of the species studied. This study highlights the biodiversity potential of natural environments that still represent a fascinating source of solutions to common problems in winemaking.

Thermographic Behavior of the Cornea During Treatment With Two Excimer Laser Platforms.

Purpose: To investigate the temperature of the cornea during treatment with the excimer laser using two platforms, Nidek EC-5000 and Schwind Amaris 750S. Methods: A prospective case series study was conducted in a reference center in Mexico City including patients aged 18 years or older who had any type of ametropia and underwent excimer laser refractive surgery. The patients had measurements of corneal temperature with an infrared camera before, during, and after ablation treatment. Results of prior corneal surface temperature, temperatures during excimer laser surgery, and delta temperature for each platform were analyzed and compared. Results: A total of 107 eyes were analyzed. Mean baseline temperature was 32.7 ± 1.03°C for the Nidek group and 31.5 ± 1.4°C for the Amaris group. Mean maximum temperature was 39.94 ± 1.3°C for the Nidek group and 35.6 ± 1.5 °C for the Amaris group. Delta temperature was higher in the Nidek group than in the Amaris group. There were statistically significant associations between treated micrometers, treated diopters, and time in the Nidek group and no such associations in the Amaris group. Conclusions: The different excimer laser devices used and the variety in the optical design, together with different software ablation algorithms, resulted in different levels of thermal loading; peak temperature rose in all measurements. Eyes treated with Nidek reached temperatures that doubled those found with Amaris. Translational Relevance: The correlation between Delta of temperature with defocus, depth, and treatment time is different regarding excimer laser generation.

A Response Surface Methodology (RSM) Approach for Optimizing the Attenuation of Human IgE-Reactivity to ß-Lactoglobulin (ß-Lg) by Hydrostatic High Pressure Processing.

The response surface methodology (RSM) and central composite design (CCD) technique were used to optimize the three key process parameters (i.e., pressure, temperature and holding time) of the high-hydrostatic-pressure (HHP) processing either standalone or combined with moderate thermal processing to modulate molecular structures of ß-lactoglobulin (ß-Lg) and α-lactalbumin (α-La) with reduced human IgE-reactivity. The RSM model derived for HHP-induced molecular changes of ß-Lg determined immunochemically showed that temperature (temp), pressure (p2) and the interaction between temperature and time (t) had statistically significant effects (p < 0.05). The optimal condition defined as minimum (ß-Lg specific) IgG-binding derived from the model was 505 MPa at 56 °C with a holding time of 102 min (R2 of 0.81 and p-value of 0.01). The validation carried at the optimal condition and its surrounding region showed that the model to be underestimating the ß-Lg structure modification. The molecular change of ß-Lg was directly correlated with HHP-induced dimerization in this study, which followed a quadratic equation. The ß-Lg dimers also resulted in the undetectable human IgE-binding.

Influence of Molecular Weight Distribution on the Thermoresponsive Transition of Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide).

A series of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) homopolymers with narrow molecular weight distributions (MWDs) is prepared via photoinduced electron/energy transfer-reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization. The thermal transition temperature of these polymer samples is analyzed via turbidity measurements in water/N,N'-dimethylformamide mixtures, which show that the cloud point temperatures are inversely proportional to the weight average molecular weight (Mw ). Binary mixtures of the narrowly distributed PNIPAm samples are also prepared and the statistical parameters for the MWDs of these blends are determined. Very interestingly, for binary blends of the PNIPAm samples, the thermoresponsive transition is not only dependent on the Mw , which has been shown previously, but also on higher order statistical parameters of the MWDs. Specifically, at very high values of skewness and kurtosis, the polymer blends deviate from a single sharp thermoresponsive transition toward a broader thermal response, and eventually to a regime of two more distinct transitions. This work highlights the importance of in-depth characterization of polymer MWDs for thermoresponsive polymers.

Microwave pre-treatment of canola seeds and flaked seeds for increased hot expeller oil yield.

Microwave (MW) pre-treatment of canola seeds or flaked seeds was found to be a superior alternative to the conventional thermal pre-treatment (steam). Flaked seeds were "cooked" (heat-treated) with steam or using microwave treatments in the temperature range of 62-130 °C prior to expeller pressing. Microwave cooking at 100 °C resulted in the highest increase in the pressed oil yield, which is an increase of 3.7% (w/w) on a pressed oil basis or 9.0% (oil in seed basis) compared with steam cooking. Whole canola seeds conditioning was conducted with microwaves or steam, in the temperature range of 40-75 °C, followed by microwave or steam cooking at 100 °C to evaluate the effect of MW treatment during conditioning on the expeller oil yield. The use of a continuous microwave process for combined conditioning of whole seeds at 55 °C and subsequent cooking of flaked seeds at 100 °C resulted in a 4.0% increase in expeller oil yield, compared with steam conditioning and cooking. The influence of dry basis (db %) moisture contents of 5%, 11.5%, and 16.5% on oil yield after steam or MW treatments of seeds and flaked seeds was also studied. The moisture content of 11.5% (db %) yielded the highest net oil yield for both MW and steam at best conditioning and cooking temperatures of 55 °C and 100 °C, respectively. No significant impact of MW cooking was seen on oil quality compared with conventional steam cooking.

Nitrogen and metal pollution in the southern Caspian Sea: a multiple approach to bioassessment.

The Caspian Sea hosts areas of high ecological value as well as industrial, leisure, and agricultural activities that dump into the water body different kinds of pollutants. In this complex context, a proper description of the origin and potential sources of pollution is necessary to address management and mitigation actions aimed at preserving the quality of the water resource and the integrity of the ecosystems. Here, we aimed at detecting sources of both nitrogen inputs, by N stable isotope analysis of macroalgae, and metals in macroalgae and sediments in two highly anthropized coastal stretches at the Iranian side of the Caspian Sea. Sampling was done near the mouth of rivers and canals draining agricultural and urbanized areas. In the westernmost waters, facing a port city, low macroalgal δ15N signatures indicated industrial fertilizers as the principal source of pollution. By contrast, in the central coastal waters, facing touristic areas, the high macroalgal δ15N indicated N inputs from wastewaters. Here the lowest dissolved oxygen concentrations in waters were associated with excess dissolved inorganic nitrogen. Metal concentrations varied largely in the study areas and were lower in macroalgae than in sediments. Localized peaks of Pb and Zn in sediments were observed in the central coastal sites as probable byproducts of mining activity transported downstream. By contrast, Cr and Ni concentrations were high in all sampling sites, thus potentially representing hazardous elements for marine biota. Overall, macroalgal δ15N coupled with metal analysis in macroalgae and sediments was useful for identifying the main sources of pollution in these highly anthropized coastal areas. This double approach in comprehensive monitoring programs could thus effectively inform stakeholders on major environmental threats, allowing targeted management measures.

Rethinking about flor yeast diversity and its dynamic in the "criaderas and soleras" biological aging system.

Fino wine is one of the most important Sherry wines and it is obtained through a complex and dynamic biological aging system. In this study, wine and veil of flor samples from fifty-two barrels with different aging levels and distributed in three different wineries from the Jerez-Xèrés-Sherry winemaking area have been analyzed during two years. Some of the wine compounds most deeply involved in flor yeast metabolism were analyzed to take into account the blending effect of this system. On the other hand, veil of flor was analyzed by molecular methods, finding five different species: S. cerevisiae, W. anomalus, P. membranaefaciens, P. kudriavzevii and P. manshurica, being the first time that the three last species have been reported in this biological aging system. Since S. cerevisiae was the vast majority of the isolates, its intraspecies variability was also analyzed by the simultaneous amplification of three microsatellite loci, obtaining nine different S. cerevisiae genotypes, also differentiated according to their physiological properties. Biodiversity analysis showed there were significant differences between the three wineries in the three aging scales, although the overall diversity was relatively low. Moreover, variations in the relative frequency of the different S. cerevisiae genotypes were found to be seasonal-dependent.

A strict formulation of a nonlinear Helmholtz equation for the propagation of sound in bubbly liquids. Part II: Application to ultrasonic cavitation.

This paper addresses one of the greatest challenges in sonochemistry that has impaired scaling up ultrasonic processes, which is the lack of models capable of predicting the pressure distribution in sonoreactors. This work studies the effect of acoustic pressure on the transmission of sound thought cavitating bubbly liquids by utilizing the nonlinear Helmholtz equation that was demonstrated on the paper part I. The model showed that the wave number and the attenuation can be estimated from the bubble dynamics of inertial bubbles and the local bubble density. The linear model of Commander and Prosperetti is encompassed by the nonlinear model. The model was employed to predict the pressure distribution below an ultrasonic horn tip achieving a relatively close prediction of the experimental data and certainly an accurate qualitative description of the distribution of the pressure field in spite of the simplifications of the model and the assumptions of unknown variables such as the bubble density, bubble distribution and the vessel boundary conditions.

Brewing coffee? - Ultra-sonication has clear beneficial effects on the extraction of key volatile aroma components and triglycerides.

Ultrasound has been investigated as a new technique for brewing coffee. A two-level factorial experimental design was conducted to identify the effects of ultra-sonication on the extraction of coffee components during ultrasonically-assisted coffee brewing. Different brews were produced by aqueous extraction from roasted ground coffee beans with sonication, and without it as a control, by varying coffee concentration (5% and 10% w/w), temperature (25 and 50 °C) and sonication time (1 and 5 min). These brews were tested for antioxidant capacity (using the ABTS assay), caffeine and triglycerides (using quantitative NMR spectroscopy) and specific aroma/flavour volatiles (using headspace SPME-GC-MS). Additional observations of colour, foaming, body and flavour were also reported. Ultrasound was found to significantly increase the extraction of caffeine, triglycerides and several of the key volatile compounds from coffee, although it did appear to decrease the concentration of antioxidants over the controls, especially with longer time and higher temperature. Furthermore, all the sonicated samples exhibited a lighter caramel colour and lower foam formation which were attributed to their higher triglyceride content. The increased concentration of triglycerides and volatiles were by far the most outstanding responses.

Numerical and experimental investigation of pulse bubble aeration with high packing density hollow-fibre MBRs.

A three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was developed to study shear stress induced by spherical cap bubbles in hollow fibre (HF) membrane modules configured with a packing density of 38 m2/m3, to predict the shear profile in a commercial hollow fibre membrane module of 265 m2/m3. The CFD model's computational effort was minimised by simulating the formation of bubble structures and their rising velocities in modules with packing densities of 1.8 and 38 m2/m3 and validated with experimental calibration of shear profiles via electro-diffusion methods (EDM). Pulse bubbles (300 mL) generated from a single sparger at 0.5 Hz produced more satellite bubbles in the wake zone of the leading bubble in high packing density (38 m2/m3) than in low packing density modules (1.8 m2/m3). The bubble rise velocity was approximately 8% lower in the 38 m2/m3 than in the 1.8 m2/m3 module. Increasing packing density reduced the shear profile from a single sparger and the dispersion of the satellite bubbles in the horizontal plane, especially in the upper part of the membrane module. For systems with multiple spargers, the interaction between pulses generated more shear than the pulses from a single sparger, and produced a more uniform shear profile in the module through asynchronous bubble release from adjacent spargers than synchronous release. A 33% increase in the "Zone of Influence", the flow region where the upward velocity >0.2 m/s, was achieved by moving from a synchronous to an asynchronous form of aeration.

A strict formulation of a nonlinear Helmholtz equation for the propagation of sound in bubbly liquids. Part I: Theory and validation at low acoustic pressure amplitudes.

This paper strictly demonstrated a nonlinear Helmholtz equation, with its corresponding new expressions for the wave number of the mixture, for the propagation of sound trough a bubbly liquid. The demonstration was conducted under the assumption of periodicity of volume fluctuations, the acoustic approximation and considering only mono-harmonic pressure oscillations. The model revealed a beautiful symmetry between the average acoustic energy density and the average energy dissipation, as well as between the time average of the first and second derivatives of such fluctuations. The nonlinear model was validated with available experimental data at very low pressure amplitudes yielding the same results as the linear model. However, unlike the linear model, the advantage of the nonlinear model is that the wave number of the mixture is function of the pressure amplitude, which has great implications to model the sound propagation on cavitating bubbly liquids where the linear theory greatly under-predicts.

Role of copy number variants in sudden cardiac death and related diseases: genetic analysis and translation into clinical practice.

Several studies have identified copy number variants (CNVs) as responsible for cardiac diseases associated with sudden cardiac death (SCD), but very few exhaustive analyses in large cohorts of patients have been performed, and they have been generally focused on a specific SCD-related disease. The aim of the present study was to screen for CNVs the most prevalent genes associated with SCD in a large cohort of patients who suffered sudden unexplained death or had an inherited cardiac disease (cardiomyopathy or channelopathy). A total of 1765 European patients were analyzed with a homemade algorithm for the assessment of CNVs using high-throughput sequencing data. Thirty-six CNVs were identified (2%), and most of them appeared to have a pathogenic role. The frequency of CNVs among cases of sudden unexplained death, patients with a cardiomyopathy or a channelopathy was 1.4% (8/587), 2.3% (20/874), and 2.6% (8/304), respectively. Detection rates were particularly high for arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (5.1%), long QT syndrome (4.7%), and dilated cardiomyopathy (4.4%). As such large genomic rearrangements underlie a non-neglectable portion of cases, we consider that their analysis should be performed as part of the routine genetic testing of sudden unexpected death cases and patients with SCD-related diseases.

Inactivation kinetics of Escherichia coli in cranberry juice during multistage treatment by electric fields.

The inactivation of Escherichia coli inoculated in cranberry juice by processing with radio frequency electric fields was studied. E. coli ATCC 35218 was chosen among three non-pathogenic strains based on its ability to survive in low pH cranberry juice. Studies were conducted by measuring the survival population when changing the electric field strength between 2.2 and 13.2 kV cm-1, number of treatment stages from 1 to 6 and flow rates between 13 and 25 L h-1 at moderate temperatures of 20, 30 and 40 °C. A minimum inactivation of 5-log reduction, as requested by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), can be achieved by increasing the number of treatment stages, temperature or both. At 40 °C and 6 treatment stages, 6.57 ±â€¯0.02 log CFU ml-1 reduction in the initial population of E. coli (ATCC 35218) was obtained. At a constant electric field, increasing the temperature produced higher microbial inactivation, consuming lower radio frequency energy input, than increasing the number of treatment stages. Furthermore, a primary model that accounts for the combined effect of time and electric field is proposed. The model represented the sigmoidal curve composed of shoulder, log-linear and tailing sections as observed when changing electric fields. A secondary model that accounts for the effect of temperature and flow rate on the primary model constants is also proposed. The combined primary and secondary models were found to fit the data well with a high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.965). The proposed model can be extended to kinetic models for pulsed electric fields.

Experimental Parametric Model for Indirect Adhesion Wear Measurement in the Dry Turning of UNS A97075 (Al-Zn) Alloy.

In this work, the study of the influence of cutting parameters (cutting speed, feed, and depth of cut) on the tool wear used in in the dry turning of cylindrical bars of the UNS A97075 (Al-Zn) alloy, has been analyzed. In addition, a study of the physicochemical mechanisms of the secondary adhesion wear has been carried out. The behavior of this alloy, from the point of view of tool wear, has been compared to similar aeronautical aluminum alloys, such as the UNS A92024 (Al-Cu) alloy and UNS A97050 (Al-Zn) alloy. Furthermore, a first approach to the measurement of the 2D surface of the adhered material on the rake face of the tool has been conducted. Finally, a parametric model has been developed from the experimental results. This model allows predicting the intensity of the secondary adhesion wear as a function of the cutting parameters applied.

Hardening Effect Analysis by Modular Upper Bound and Finite Element Methods in Indentation of Aluminum, Steel, Titanium and Superalloys.

The application of incremental processes in the manufacturing industry is having a great development in recent years. The first stage of an Incremental Forming Process can be defined as an indentation. Because of this, the indentation process is starting to be widely studied, not only as a hardening test but also as a forming process. Thus, in this work, an analysis of the indentation process under the new Modular Upper Bound perspective has been performed. The modular implementation has several advantages, including the possibility of the introduction of different parameters to extend the study, such as the friction effect, the temperature or the hardening effect studied in this paper. The main objective of the present work is to analyze the three hardening models developed depending on the material characteristics. In order to support the validation of the hardening models, finite element analyses of diverse materials under an indentation are carried out. Results obtained from the Modular Upper Bound are in concordance with the results obtained from the numerical analyses. In addition, the numerical and analytical methods are in concordance with the results previously obtained in the experimental indentation of annealed aluminum A92030. Due to the introduction of the hardening factor, the new modular distribution is a suitable option for the analysis of indentation process.