The Effect of Soaking with Wooden Ash and Malting upon Some Nutritional Properties of Sorghum Flour Used for Impeke,a Traditional Burundian Malt-Based Sorghum Beverage

The objective of the present work was to determine the effect of wooden ash extract on anti-nutritional factors and to assess the effect of soaking with malting on nutritional properties of sorghum flour used for impeke. The addition of wooden ash extract during 24 h of soaking resulted in significant decrease in tannin by 50.2% and the decrease was observed to be progressive as malting time increases. 5 d of malting resulted in significant decrease in tannin by 69.3% and in phytic acid by 66.4% with slight decrease in ash, lipid, fiber, and starch. Malting showed an increased percentage of protein, essential amino acids, and then in vitro protein digestibility were markedly improved with increasing malting time. Sugars analysis proved a significant increase in maltose, glucose, fructose, and structural analysis of sorghum starch displayed porosity on granule＇s surface susceptible to the amylolysis.

Band-gap engineering of La1-xNdxAlO3(x = 0,0.25,0.50,0.75,1)perovskite using density functional theory：A modified Becke Johnson potential study

The structural,electronic,and magnetic properties of the Nd-doped Rare earth aluminate,La1-xNdxAlO3（x = 0%to 100%） alloys are studied using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave（FP-LAPW） method within the density functional theory.The effects of the Nd substitution in La AlO3 are studied using the supercell calculations.The computed electronic structure with the modified Becke–Johnson（m BJ） potential based approximation indicates that the La1-xNdxAlO3 alloys may possess half-metallic（HM） behaviors when doped with Nd of a finite density of states at the Fermi level（EF）.The direct and indirect band gaps are studied each as a function of x which is the concentration of Nddoped La AlO3.The calculated magnetic moments in the La1-xNdxAlO3 alloys are found to arise mainly from the Nd-4f state.A probable half-metallic nature is suggested for each of these systems with supportive integral magnetic moments and highly spin-polarized electronic structures in these doped systems at EF.The observed decrease of the band gap with the increase in the concentration of Nd doping in La AlO3 is a suitable technique for harnessing useful spintronic and magnetic devices.

Ab initio study of structural,electronic,thermo-elastic and optical properties of Pt3Zr intermetallic compound

Structural,elastic,electronic and optical properties of the Pt3Zr intermetallic compound are investigated using first principles calculations based on the density functional theory(DFT)within the generalized gradient approximation(GGA)and the local density approximation(LDA).The Pt3Zr compound is predicted to be of cubic L12 and hexagonal D024 structures.The calculated equilibrium ground-state properties(lattice parameters a and c,bulk modulus B and its pressure derivative B',formation enthalpy ΔH)of the Pt3Zr compound,for both cubic and hexagonal phases,show good agreement with the experimental results and other theoretical data.Elastic constants(C11,C12,C13,C33,C44,and C55)are calculated.The predicted elastic properties such as Young's modulus E and shear modulus GH,Poisson ratioν,anisotropic ratio A,Kleinman parameter ξ,Cauchy pressure(C12-C44),ratios B/C44 and B/G,and Vickers hardness Hv indicate the stiffness,hardness and ductility of the compound.Thermal characteristic parameters such as Debye temperature θD and melting temperature Tm are computed.Electronic properties such as density of states(DOS)and electronic specific heat γ are also reported.The calculated results reveal that the Fermi level is on the psedogap for the D024 structure and on the antibonding side for the L12 structure.The optical property functions(real partε1(ω)and imaginary part ε2(ω)of dielectric function),optical conductivity σ(ω),refraction index n(ω),reflectivity R(ω),absorption α(ω)and extinction coefficients k(ω)and loss function L(ω)are also investigated for the first time for Pt3Zr in a large gamme of energy from 0 to 70 eV.

First-principles study of structural,electronic,and optical properties of cubic InAs_xN_yP_(1-x-y) triangular quaternary alloys

In this paper, we investigated the structural, electronic and optical properties of InAs, InN and InP binary compounds and their related ternary and quaternary alloys by using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave（FP-LAPW）method based on density functional theory（DFT）. The total energies, the lattice parameters, and the bulk modulus and its first pressure derivative were calculated using different exchange correlation approximations. The local density approach（LDA） and Tran–Blaha modified Becke–Johnson（TB-m BJ） approximations were used to calculate the band structure.Nonlinear variations of the lattice parameters, the bulk modulus and the band gap with compositions x and y are found.Furthermore, the optical properties and the dielectric function, refractive index and loss energy were computed. Our results are in good agreement with the validated experimental and theoretical data found in the literature.