Effect of Instant Controlled Pressure Drop Process Coupled to Drying and Freezing on Antioxidant Activity of Green “Poblano” Pepper (<i>Capsicum annuum</i>L.)

Different food operations have been intensified through assisting them by instant controlled pressure drop DIC treatment. Such processes should be defined in order to preserve the main nutritional and sensorial contents of the raw material. The present paper is dedicated to study the evolution of the main bioactive compounds (total phenolics and flavonoids) and functional properties such as the antioxidant activity of processed samples in the case of Green “Poblano” Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Results issued from DIC-assisted hot air drying, and DIC-assisted freezing, allowed to identifying the impact of DIC studied operating parameters, which were the saturated steam pressure and the processing time, and the best DIC treatment correlated with the considered operation.

Influence of Tidal Inlets on Tsunami Waves in the Atlantic （Charente Region, France）

The French Atlantic coast seismicity is minor to moderate. Nevertheless, in western （north and central） part of France, the active tectonics related to the south Armorican and the Bay of Biscay context results sometimes in shallow earthquakes with magnitude above five （e.g., the Oleron seismic crisis, magnitude （local） = 5.2, 1972）. The Charente region is featured by semi-diurnal tides that reach about six meters in height during the high tide period. Inlets are the main features of the Atlantic margin geomorphology nearby the Charente. Minor tsunamis have been observed and reported in the past. Here, we present a tsunami modelling computed with the TELEMAC package that solves the non linear shallow water equations. This work helps to identify the role of the inlets that characterize the Charente＇s geomorphology on water wave＇s propagation. A tidal model is considered while the tsunami simulation is performed. The modelling results show that the Antioche, the Maumusson and the Pertuis inlets protect the Charente coast from destructive waves.

Fast genre classification of web images using global and local features

To effectively mine the contents embedded in web images, it is useful to classify the images into different types so that they can be fed to different procedures for detailed analysis. The authors herein propose a hierarchical algorithm for efficiently classifying web images into four classes. Their algorithm consists of two stages： the first stage extracts global features reflecting the distributions of color, edge and gradient, and uses a support vector machine （SVM） classifier for preliminary classification. Images assigned low confidence by the first stage classifier are processed by the second stage, which further extracts local texture features represented in the bag-of-words framework and uses another SVM classifier for final classification. In addition, they design two fusion strategies to train the second-stage classifier and generate the final prediction depending on the usage of local features in the second stage. To validate the effectiveness of proposed method, they built a database containing more than 55,000 images from various sources. On their test image set, they obtained an overall classification accuracy of 98.4% and the processing speed is over 27 fps on an Intel（R） Xeon（R） central processing unit （2.90 GHz）.

Circadian rhythms in the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal diseases

The etiology of digestive pathologies such as irritable bowel syndrome(IBS), inflammatory bowel diseases(IBD) and cancer is not yet fully understood. In recent years, several studies have evidenced circadian variations in mechanisms involved in digestive health. In situations of disturbed circadian rhythms(chronodisruption) where the central clock and the peripheral clocks receive incoherent signals, the synchronicity is lost producing implications for health. This lack of coordination could alter the tissue function and cause long term damage to the organs. Life habits such as sleep, physical exercise, social interaction, and feeding times are determinants for stability and integrity of circadian rhythms. In recent years, experimental and clinical studies have consistently evidenced that the alteration of circadian rhythms is associated with the development of digestive pathologies mainly linked to dismotility or changes in microbiota composition. Likewise, it seems reasonable to deep into the importance of chronodisruption as a factor that may participate in the development of pathologies such as IBS, IBD and digestive cancers. Moreover, life habits respecting circadian rhythms should be promoted for the prevention of these diseases. Further studies will allow us a better understanding of the mechanisms acting at molecular level, and the development of new therapeutic targets.

Modeling Water Adsorption and Retention of Building Materials From Pore Size Distribution

Water adsorption and capillarity are key phenomena involved during heat and moisture transfer in porous building materials.They account for interaction between solid matrix,liquid water and moist air.They are considered through Water Vapor Adsorption Isotherm(WVAI)and Retention Curve(RC)functions which are constitutive laws characterizing water activity within a porous medium.The objective of this paper is to present a water vapor adsorption and retention models built from multimodal Pore Size Distribution Function(PSDF)and to see how its parameters modify moisture storage for hygroscopic and near saturation ranges.The microstructure of the porous medium is represented statistically by a bundle of tortuous parallel pores through its PSDF.Firstly,the influence of contact angle and temperature on storage properties were investigated.Secondly,a parametric study was performed to see the influence of the PSDF shape on storage properties.Three cases were studied considering the number of modalities,the weight of each modality and the dispersion around mean radius.Finally,as a validation,the proposed model for WVAI were compared to existing model from literature showing a good agreement.This study showed that the proposed models are capable to reproduce various shapes of storage functions.It also highlighted the link between microstructure and adsorption-retention phenomena.

Numerical Study of Heat Transfer and Contaminant Transport in an Unsaturated Porous Soil

Penetration of chemicals in the soil ground through irrigation water or rainfall induces important risks for the environment. These risks are badly known and may lead to direct contamination of the environment (atmosphere or ground water) or harmful effects on organisms living at ground level, indirectly affecting men. It is thus necessary to estimate these potential chemical risks on the environment. For that reason, the gradual change of these products (fertilizers, solutions, pollutants, ...) in the ground has been the subject of a lot of recent research works, based in particular on the study of non-saturated porous media in a theoretical, numerical or experimental way. Most of these works are incomplete and, in order to simplify the problem, they don’t take into accounts some process, which may be of prime importance under particular natural conditions. Complexity of such studies results from their multidisciplinary nature. In this communication, we study simultaneous transport of pollutant, the water that provides transport and the heat transfer in a 200 cm long cylindrical column full of sand taken as a non-saturated porous medium. We consider two kinds of conditions on the temperature at the column surface: the case of constant temperature and the case of sinusoidal temperature. We evaluate the influence of this temperature on the transfers. This study is purely numerical. We use the control volume method to determine hydrous, thermal and pollutant concentration profiles.

Prediction of Thermal Conductivity and Specific Heat of Native Maize Starch and Comparison with HMT Treated Starch

Specific heat(Cp)and effective thermal conductivity(λ)of native maize starch(NS)were measured by DSC and transient heat transfer method,respectively,at different moisture contents and temperatures.The dependency of temperature(T)and moisture content(W)on the two parameters were investigated.The thermophysical properties of treated starch(TS)by four hydrothermal processes(RP-HMT,IV-HMT,DV-HMT and FV-HMT)were measured and compared to native strach.Hydrothermal treatments were performed at 3 bars(133°C)for 10 min.For Cp andλmeasurements,moisture content varied for NS from 5 to 21.5%d.b.and from 8.8 to 25%d.b.,respectively,and was fixed at 6%d.b.for TS.Empirical models were developed to specific heat and effective thermal conductivity,using a multiple regression algorithm with subsequent statistical analysis.The proposed models for NS based on T and W predict Cp andλwith a mean absolute error of 3.5%and 1.3%,respectively.Large differences in specific heat were observed between TS and NS.In a temperature range of 40 to 160°C,Cp values varied from 1.964 to 2.699 for NS and 1.380 to 2.085(J.g-1.°C-1)for TS.In contrast,the conductivity of NS was almost identical to that of treated starch by FV-HMT,followed in an increasing order by those treated by DV-HMT,RP-HMT,and IV-HM processes.

Towards Include Preservation of Vitamins in Fenugreek and Carob Seeds by the Instant Controlled Pressure-Drop Process (DIC Process)

Fenugreek and carob seed were germinated in the dark for 4 days and 15 days respectively. The two species are rich in vitamins A, B1, B3, B8. Germination promotes the increase in their concentrations. To ensure preservation and increased bioavailability of the vitamins, it is necessary to apply a DIC of 30s to 400 kPa making it possible to support the cellular expansion and the decontamination of germinated seeds. Vitamin A content in germinated carob seed increased by 82.54%, which is not the case for fenugreek. A decrease in vitamin A concentration of 4 μg/100 g of dry matter. DIC increase vitamin B1, B3 and B8 in germinated fenugreek seeds. A slight decrease of B vitamins in germinated carob seed after treatment with DIC has been noticed. This loss can be explained by the low bioavailability caused mainly by the botanical structures of the seeds.

Economic Feasibility Evaluation of Building Passive Houses

The research presents an improved method of rational design of energy-efficient low-rise residential buildings according to their life cycle. The mathematical model for finding the optimal version of draft power-efficient residential building has been developed. For conditions of Ukraine the optimization problem has been set and solved （finding the optimal version of the draft energy-efficient buildings）. The calculations prove the fact that the construction of passive houses in Ukraine today is economically feasible. Scientific and practical regulations, outlined in the research, can be used by all participants of the investment programs, and energy-efficiency projects, renovation projects and developing normative-technical documents.

Vapor intrusion in buildings: Development of semi-empirical models including lateral separation between the building and the pollution source

Future constructions in the context of the industrial wastelands reuse may be exposed to Vapor Intrusion(VI).VI can be evaluated by combining in-situ measures and analytical models to evaluate exposure risk in future indoor environments.However,the assumptions in the existing models may reduce their accuracy when they do not meet the characteristics of real situations.Wrong estimations of indoor concentration levels may lead to inappropriate solutions against VI.In this context,new semi-empirical models(SEM)are proposed in order to better specify pollution scenarios and thus increase the accuracy of VI estimations.This development is based on a parametric study(numerical CFD)and a dimensionless analysis combined to existing VI models that consider a continuous source distribution in the soil.These expressions allow to better take into account the source position in the soil(i.e.depth and lateral source/building separation),soil properties(air permeability,diffusion coefficient of the pollutant,…)and building features(building foundation,indoor pressure,air exchange rate,…)in the estimation of indoor concentration levels.The obtained results with the proposed SEM were compared with a numerical CFD model and available experimental data,showing good accuracy in the estimation of VI.Given the advantages of these new models,they can provide better precision in the health risk assessments associated with VI.Furthermore,these expressions can be easily integrated into building ventilation codes allowing to consider air exchange rate and indoor pressure variations over time.

pH-distribution of cerium species in aqueous systems

Cerium-based oxide coatings can be obtained through either chemical or electrochemical processes on various conductor and semiconductor substrates. In both cases the films develop through a precipitation mechanism, which strongly depends on the solution chemistry. In the particular case of the electrolytic approach, the elaboration parameters play a key role on the interfacial pH modification thereby leading to an indirect precipitation mechanism. Indeed, the nucleation and growth mechanisms of crystallites and the composition of the resulting layers have been shown to be also strongly affected by the deposition conditions as well as by the substrate composition, which could in turn modify the protectiveness provided by such coatings. Therefore a better fundamental understanding of the system is required, in particular of the distribution of cerium-containing species in aqueous solution. To this end, the present work intended to develop a diagram showing the distribution as well as the relative amount of Ce（Ⅲ）/Ce（Ⅳ） species in aqueous media as a fimction of the pH range. The resulting pH-distribution diagram turned out to be a useful tool to predict the relevant precipitation mechanisms and species involved during the growth of ceriuna-containing films and to draw correlations with the characteristics of the as-deposited films.

Development of a procedure for estimating the parameters of mechanistic VOC emission source models from chamber testing data

In order to evaluate the impacts of volatile organic compounds(VOCs)emissions from building materials on the indoor air quality beyond the standard chamber test conditions and test period,mechanistic emission source models have been developed in the past.However,very limited data are available for the required model parameters including the initial concentration(C_(m0)),in-material diffusion coefficient(D_(m)),partition coefficient(Kma),and convective mass transfer coefficient(k_(m)).In this study,a procedure was developed for estimating the model parameters by using VOC emission data from standard small chamber tests.In the procedure,initial values of the model parameters were refined by multivariate regression analysis of the measured emission data.To verify the procedure and estimate its uncertainty,simulated chamber test data were generated by adding 10% experimental uncertainties on the theoretical curve from the analytical solution to a mechanistic emission model.Then the procedure was applied to the generated data to estimate the model parameters.Results indicated that estimates converged to the original parameter values used for the data generation and the error of estimated parameters D_(m1)C_(m0) and K_(ma) were within±10%,±23%,and±25%of the true values,respectively.The procedure was further demonstrated by applying it to estimate the model parameters from real chamber test data.Wide application of the procedure would result in a database of mechanistic source model parameters for assessing the impact of VOC emissions on indoor pollution load,which are essential input data for evaluating the effectiveness of various indoor air quality(IAQ)design and control strategies as well as the energy required for meeting given IAQ requirements.

A systematic study on the role of SentiWordNet in opinion mining

Sentiment lexicons(SL)(aka lexical resources)are the repositories of one or several dictionaries that consist of known and precompiled sentiment terms.These lexicons play an important role in performing several different opinion mining tasks.The efficacy of the lexicon-based approaches in performing opinion mining(OM)tasks solely depends on selecting an appropriate opinion lexicon to analyze the text.Therefore,one has to explore the available sentiment lexicons and then select the most suitable resource.Among available resources,SentiWordNet(SWN)is the most widely used lexicon to perform tasks related to opinion mining.In SWN,each synset of WordNet is being assigned the three sentiment numerical scores;positive,negative and objective that are calculated using by a set of classifiers.In this paper,a detailed and comprehensive review of the work related to opinion mining using Senti-WordNet is provided in a very distinctive way.This survey will be useful for the researchers contributing to the field of opinion mining.Following features make our contribution worthwhile and unique among the reviews of similar kind:(i)our review classifies the existing literature with respect to opinion mining tasks and subtasks(ii)it covers a very different outlook of the opinion mining field by providing in-depth discussions of the existing works at different granularity levels(word,sentences,document,aspect,clause,and concept levels)(iii)this state-ofart review covers each article in the following dimensions:the designated task performed,granularity level of the task completed,results obtained,and feature dimensions,and(iv)lastly it concludes the summary of the related articles according to the granularity levels,publishing years,related tasks(or subtasks),and types of classifiers used.In the end,major challenges and tasks related to lexicon-based approaches towards opinion mining are also discussed.

Complementary Methods to Acquire the Kinematics of Swimming Snakes:A Basis to Design Bio-inspired Robots

The vast diversity of morphologies,body size,and lifestyles of snakes represents an important source of information that can be used to derive bio-inspired robots through a biology-push and pull process.An understanding of the detailed kinematics of swimming snakes is a fundamental prerequisite to conceive and design bio-inspired aquatic snake robots.However,only limited information is available on the kinematics of swimming snake.Fast and accurate methods are needed to fill this knowledge gap.In the present paper,three existing methods were compared to test their capacity to characterize the kinematics of swimming snakes.(1)Marker tracking(Deftac),(2)Markerless pose estimation(DeepLabCut),and(3)Motion capture were considered.(4)We also designed and tested an automatic video processing method.All methods provided different albeit complementary data sets;they also involved different technical issues in terms of experimental conditions,snake manipulation,or processing resources.Marker tracking provided accurate data that can be used to calibrate other methods.Motion capture posed technical difficulties but can provide limited 3D data.Markerless pose estimation required deep learning(thus time)but was efficient to extract the data under various experimental conditions.Finally,automatic video processing was particularly efficient to extract a wide range of data useful for both biology and robotics but required a specific experimental setting.

农产品可控瞬时压差加工技术研究进展

可控瞬时压差加工技术(Instant controlled pressure drop processing,法语为Détente instantannée contr?lée,简称DIC),又称变温压差膨化技术,于1988年由法国学者发明。DIC加工技术的原理是基于将处理仓内高压(或大气压力)瞬时下降到真空状态,利用这一过程中产生的热力学效应使物料内部水分快速闪蒸,实现体积膨胀或质构改性等目的。经DIC技术处理后的农产品可获得多孔的组织结构和酥脆的口感。此外,DIC技术的优点还体现在色泽、风味,以及较低的生产成本等方面。本文综述了国内外可控瞬时压差加工技术的研究和应用现状,重点介绍了DIC在农产品质构改性、化学成分提取、杀菌消毒、食物脱敏、粮食干燥过程减损、生物能源制造、生物大分子改性和农产品干燥等方面的研究进展,分析了国内可控瞬时压差加工技术存在的主要问题,并对该技术未来的发展趋势进行了展望。