High-oleic palm oil (HOPO) with an oleic acid content of 59.0% and an iodine value (IV) of 78.2 was crystallized in a 200-kg De Smet crystallizer with a predetermined cooling program and appropriate agitation. The slurry was then fractionated by means of dry fractionation at 4, 8, 10, 12, and 15 degrees C. The oil and the fractionated products were subjected to physical and chemical analyses, including fatty acid composition, triacylglycerol and diacylglycerol composition, solid fat content, cloud point, slip melting point, and cold stability test. Fractionation at 15 degrees C resulted in the highest olein yield but with minimal oleic acid content. Due to the enhanced unsaturation of the oil, fractionation at relatively lower crystallization temperature showed a considerable effect on fatty acid composition as well as triacylglycerol and diacylglycerol composition of liquid fractions compared to higher crystallization temperature. The olein and stearin fractionated at 4 degrees C had the best cold stability at 0 degrees C and sharper melting profile, respectively.
Microwave has received a widespread application in pharmaceuticals and food processing, microbial sterilization, biomedical therapy, scientific and biomedical analysis, as well as, drug synthesis. This paper reviews the basis of application of microwave to prepare pharmaceutical dosage forms such as agglomerates, gel beads, microspheres, nanomatrix, solid dispersion, tablets and film coat. The microwave could induce drying, polymeric crosslinkages as well as drug-polymer interaction, and modify the structure of drug crystallites via its effects of heating and/or electromagnetic field on the dosage forms. The use of microwave opens a new approach to control the physicochemical properties and drug delivery profiles of pharmaceutical dosage forms without the need for excessive heat, lengthy process or toxic reactants. Alternatively, the microwave can be utilized to process excipients prior to their use in the formulation of drug delivery systems. The intended release characteristics of drugs in dosage forms can be met through modifying the physicochemical properties of excipients using the microwave.
A configuration for linear cavity Brillouin fiber laser (BFL) generation is demonstrated using a standard single-mode fiber, two optical circulators, a 3 dB coupler, and a 95/5 coupler to allow high efficiency. With a Brillouin pump (BP) power of 13 dBm, the laser peak power is 12.3 dB higher than a conventional linear cavity BFL at an upshifted wavelength of 0.086 nm from the BP wavelength. In addition, it is revealed that the BFL peak power can be higher than the transmitted BP peak power when the BP power exceeds the second Brillouin Stokes threshold power.
The effects of microwave irradiation on the drug release property of pectinate beads loaded internally with chitosan (chitosan-pectinate beads) were investigated against the pectinate beads and beads coacervated with chitosan externally (pectinate-chitosonium beads). These beads were prepared by an extrusion method using sodium diclofenac as the model water-soluble drug. The beads were subjected to microwave irradiation at 80 W for 5, 10, 21 and 40 min. The profiles of drug dissolution, drug content, drug-polymer interaction and polymer-polymer interaction were determined by drug dissolution testing, drug content assay, drug adsorption study, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. Treatment of pectinate beads by microwave did not lead to a decrease, but an increase in the extent of drug released at 4h of dissolution owing to reduced pectin-pectin interaction via the CO moiety of polymer. In addition, the extent of drug released from the pectinate beads could not be reduced merely through the coacervation of pectinate matrix with chitosan. The reduction in the extent of drug released from the pectinate-chitosonium beads required the treatment of these beads by microwave, following an increase in drug-polymer and polymer-polymer interaction in the matrix. The extent of drug released from the pectinate beads was reduced through incorporating chitosan directly into the interior of pectinate matrix, owing to drug-chitosan adsorption. Nonetheless, the treatment of chitosan-pectinate matrix by microwave brought about an increase in the extent of drug released unlike those of pectinate-chitosonium beads. Apparently, the loading of chitosan into the interior of pectinate matrix could effectively retard the drug release without subjecting the beads to the treatment of microwave. The microwave was merely essential to reduce the release of drug from pectinate beads when the chitosan was introduced to the pectinate matrix by means of coacervation. Under the influences of microwave, the drug release property of beads made of pectin and chitosan was mainly modulated via the CH, OH and NH moieties of polymers and drug, with CH functional group purported to retard while OH and NH moieties purported to enhance the drug released from the matrix.
We demonstrate an enhanced multiwavelength L-band Brillouin-erbium fiber laser (BEFL), in which the Brillouin pump is pre-amplified before entering the single-mode fiber. The Brillouin pump pre-amplification provided by the Erbium-doped fiber has created higher intensity of Brillouin Stokes line generated in the single-mode fiber that leads to the homogenous gain saturation. Thus the built-up of self-lasing cavity modes is suppressed in a wider wavelength range. In contrary to the conventional linear-cavity BEFL, the number of output channels is enhanced within the same tuning range.
The realization of Health Information Systems (HIS) requires rigorous evaluation that addresses technology, human and organization issues. Our review indicates that current evaluation methods evaluate different aspects of HIS and they can be improved upon. A new evaluation framework, human, organization and technology-fit (HOT-fit) was developed after having conducted a critical appraisal of the findings of existing HIS evaluation studies. HOT-fit builds on previous models of IS evaluation--in particular, the IS Success Model and the IT-Organization Fit Model. This paper introduces the new framework for HIS evaluation that incorporates comprehensive dimensions and measures of HIS and provides a technological, human and organizational fit.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Evaluation of health information systems (HIS) enables the assessment of the extent to which HIS are fulfilling their objectives in supporting the services of healthcare delivery. This paper presents an overview of evaluation in health informatics and information systems.
METHODS: Literature review on discourses, dimensions and methods of HIS and IS evaluation. A critical appraisal of selected HIS and IS evaluation frameworks is undertaken in order to identify HIS evaluation dimensions and measures. The frameworks are compared based on their inclusion of human, organizational and technological factors.
RESULTS: We found that an increasing number of evaluation studies deal with two distinct trends of HIS: one considers human and organizational issues and the other is concerned with the employment of a subjectivist approach. Our review indicates that current evaluation methods complement each other in that they evaluate different aspects of HIS and they can be improved upon.
CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation is complex; it is easy to measure many things but not necessarily the right ones. Nevertheless, it is possible to consider, a HIS evaluation framework with more comprehensive and specific measures that would incorporate technological, human and organizational issues to facilitate HIS evaluation.
Cocoa-specific aroma precursors and methylpyrazines in underfermented cocoa beans obtained from fermentation induced by indigenous carboxypeptidase have been investigated. Fermentation conditions and cocoa bean components were analyzed during 0 to 3 d of fermentation. Underfermented cocoa beans were characterized as having hydrophilic peptides and free hydrophobic amino acids much higher than unfermented ones. These 2 key components of cocoa aroma precursors may be produced from the breakdown of proteins and polypeptides by endogenous carboxypeptidase during the fermentation process. The enzyme was activated during fermentation. Polypeptides of 47, 31, and 19 kDa were observed in the samples throughout the 3-d fermentation period; however, only the first 2 polypeptides were remarkably reduced during fermentation. Since the 1st day of fermentation, underfermented cocoa beans contained methylpyrazines, a dominant group of cocoa-specific aroma. This might be due to microbial activities during fermentation, observed through a decrease of pH value and an increase of temperature of cocoa beans. The concentration of tetramethylpyrazines was significantly increased during the 3 d of fermentation. This may increase the cocoa-specific flavor to the beans.
Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, podcasts/vodcasting, blogs and semantic portals could be quite effective tools in e-learning for health professionals. If effectively deployed, such tools can offer a way to enhance students', clinicians' and patients' learning experiences, and deepens levels of learners' engagement and collaboration within medical learning environments. However, Web 2.0 requires simplicity of use as well as integration with modern web technologies. This article presents a Web 2.0 telemedical portal, which provides a social community-learning paradigm from the desk of the physician, the student, the hospital administrator, or the insurer. The presented portal utilises RESTful web services and techniques like content syndication, mushups and Asynchronous JavaScript API and XML (AJAX). The designed portal is based on the Apache Cocoon RESTful framework for sharing Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) medical case studies. Central to this article is the integration between Cocoon and AJAX. The proposed AJAX-Cocoon portal utilises a JSP portlet architecture, which manages the interaction dynamics and overcomes the shortcomings of the JSR 168 and WSRP 1.0 standards.
Extending the frying-life of oils is of commercial and economic importance. Due to this fact, assessment on the thermal stability of frying oils could provide considerable savings to the food processors. In this study, the physico-chemical properties of five palm products mainly palm oil, single-fractionated palm olein, double-fractionated palm olein, red palm olein and palm-based shortening during 80 hours of heating at 180 degrees C were investigated. Heating properties of these products were then compared with that of high oleic sunflower oil, which was used as reference oil. The indices applied in evaluating the quality changes of oils were free fatty acid, smoke point, p-anisidine value, tocols, polar and polymer compounds. Three palm products i.e. palm oil, single-fractionated palm olein and double-fractionated palm olein were identified to be the most stable in terms of lower formation of free fatty acid, polar and polymer compounds as well as preserving higher smoke point and tocols content compared to the other three oils. The low intensity of hydrolytic and oxidative changes due to prolonged heating, suggests that these palm products are inherently suitable for frying purposes.
A multi-wavelength laser comb is demonstrated using a nonlinear effect in a backward pumped Bismuth-based Erbium-doped fiber (Bi-EDF) for the first time. It uses a ring cavity resonator scheme containing a 215 cm long highly nonlinear Bi-EDF, optical isolators, polarisation controller and 10 dB output coupler. The laser generates more than 10 lines of optical comb with a line spacing of approximately 0.41 nm at 1615.5 nm region using 146 mW of 1480 nm pump power.
The method of lines (MoL) has been developed to study coupling efficiency on hemispherical lens. In this paper, the physical shape of the lens is approximated by cascading a number of straight waveguide segments. The perfectly matched layer (PML) is applied as an absorber for the MoL to reduce numerical reflection in the simulation region. Analysis is done by calculating coupling efficiency at the plane of integration where the coupling efficiency is an overlap integral between laser diode field and fiber field. The result of coupling efficiency in this analysis is compared to the experiment and ABCD matrix. It is found that MoL gives good result accuracy.
We experimentally demonstrate a simple widely tunable multiwavelength Brillouin/Erbium fiber laser that can be tuned over the entire C-band, thereby greatly improving the tuning range limitation faced by the previous Brillouin-erbium fiber laser architectures. Tuning range of 39 nm from 1527 nm to 1566 nm, which is only limited by the amplification bandwidth of the erbium gain was successfully achieved. At Brillouin pump wavelength of 1550 nm and 1480 nm laser pump and Brillouin pump powers of 130 mW and 2 mW respectively, all the generated output channels have peak power above 0 dBm, with the first output channel having a peak power of 8.52 dBm. The experimental set up that consists of only 4 optical components, is simple, devoid of the complex structure employed previously to enhance the tunability and feedback mechanism normally associated with multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser sources. The generated output channels are stable, rigidly separated by 10 GHz (0.08 nm).
Although health technology assessment (HTA) has been well established in all developed countries, it has not found a firm footing in many developing countries. This is especially true of the Asia Pacific region, which has much of the world population.
Produced water is the largest waste stream generated in oil and gas industries. It is a mixture of different organic and inorganic compounds. Due to the increasing volume of waste all over the world in the current decade, the outcome and effect of discharging produced water on the environment has lately become a significant issue of environmental concern. Produced water is conventionally treated through different physical, chemical, and biological methods. In offshore platforms because of space constraints, compact physical and chemical systems are used. However, current technologies cannot remove small-suspended oil particles and dissolved elements. Besides, many chemical treatments, whose initial and/or running cost are high and produce hazardous sludge. In onshore facilities, biological pretreatment of oily wastewater can be a cost-effective and environmental friendly method. As high salt concentration and variations of influent characteristics have direct influence on the turbidity of the effluent, it is appropriate to incorporate a physical treatment, e.g., membrane to refine the final effluent. For these reasons, major research efforts in the future could focus on the optimization of current technologies and use of combined physico-chemical and/or biological treatment of produced water in order to comply with reuse and discharge limits.
The purpose of this study was to design a 24-hour controlled porosity osmotic pump system that utilizes polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as an osmotic-suspending/release retarding agent of drugs.
Over the past decade, L-homophenylalanine is extensively used in the pharmaceutical industry as a precursor for production of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, which possesses significant clinical application in the management of hypertension and congestive heart failure (CHF). A number of chemical methods have been reported thus far for the synthesis of L-homophenylalanine. However, chemical methods generally suffer from process complexity, high cost, and environmental pollution. On the other hand, enantiomerically pure L-homophenylalanine can be obtained elegantly and efficiently by employing biocatalytic methods, where it appears to be the most attractive process in terms of potential industrial applications, green chemistry and sustainability. Herein we review the biocatalytic synthesis of vital L-homophenylalanine as potentially useful intermediate in the production of pharmaceutical drugs in environmentally friendly conditions, using membrane bioreactor for sustainable biotransformation process. One envisages the future prospects of developing an integrated membrane bioreactor system with improved performance for L-homophenylalanine production.
Matched MeSH terms: Green Chemistry Technology/methods*
Radiation processing has been employed successfully for value addition of food and agricultural products. Preliminary studies were undertaken to evaluate the changes induced by ionizing radiation (up to 30 kGy), in the form of gamma irradiation and electron beam irradiation, on some quality attributes and nutritive values of nutraceutically valued lotus seeds. Significant loss in seed firmness was recorded between control and irradiated seeds, irrespective of radiation source. Similarly, the specific viscosity of irradiated lotus seeds decreased significantly up to a dose of 7.5 kGy. Starch increased after exposure to gamma or electron beam irradiation, whereas the total phenolic contents were decreased. Gamma irradiation revealed an enhancement in protein, while the electron beam showed a decrease. Partial oxidation of the seeds during radiation treatments might have occurred as evidenced from the decomposition profiles (thermogravimetry) during heating. It is evident that ionizing radiation brought about significant and variable changes in the quality and nutritive values of lotus seed. Further exploration of this technology for safety and quality is warranted.