J.P. Hindmarsh

Experimental and numerical analysis of the temperature transition of a suspended freezing water droplet

Abstract The objective of this study was to develop a simple experimental and numerical method to study the temperature transition of freezing droplets. One experimental approach and several numerical methods were explored. For the experimental method, a droplet was suspended in a cold air stream from the junction of a thermocouple. The droplet’s temperature transition was able to be accurately measured and the freezing of the droplet observed. The numerical models developed were able to predict the temperature transition and the freezing time of the droplet. Of the numerical methods, a simple heat balance model was determined to be an accurate means of predicting the freezing time of the droplet.

Producing biochars with enhanced surface activity through alkaline pretreatment of feedstocks

Surface-activated biochars not only represent a useful carbon sink, but can also act as useful filtering materials to extract plant nutrients (e.g. NH4 + ) from wastes (e.g. animal or municipal waste streams) and added thereafter to soils. Biochars produced by low-temperature pyrolysis of fibrous debarking waste from pine (PI) and eucalyptus (EU) were pre- treated with either diluted (L) or undiluted (S) alkaline tannery waste (L-PI, S-PI, L-EU, S-EU). Biochars produced from untreated feedstock were used as controls. Samples were characterised by FT-IR, solid-state CP MAS 13 C NMR, XPS, SEM microphotographs, and BET specific surface area. Elemental composition, carbon recovery, yield, surface charge, and NH4 + sorption/desorption properties were also studied. Carbon recovery was lower in biochars prepared from L-EU and S-EU (43 and 42%, respectively) than in control EU (45%) but these biochars showed greater changes in their chemical characteristics than those made from L-PI and S-PI, which showed minimal decrease in recovered carbon. The specific surface area of the biochars decreased with treatments, although acidic surface groups increased. In subsequent sorption experiments, treated biochars retained more NH4 + from a 40mg N/L waste stream (e.g. 61% retention in control EU and 83% in S-EU). Desorption was low, especially in treated biochars relative to untreated biochars (0.1-2% v. 14-27%). The results suggest that surface activated biochars can be obtained with negligible impairment to the carbon recovered.

Dietary Actinidin from Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa cv. Hayward) Increases Gastric Digestion and the Gastric Emptying Rate of Several Dietary Proteins in Growing Rats

Dietary actinidin influences the extent to which some dietary proteins are digested in the stomach, and it is hypothesized that the latter modulation will in turn affect their gastric emptying rate (GE). In this study, the effect of dietary actinidin on GE and gastric digestion of 6 dietary protein sources was determined in growing rats. Each dietary protein source [beef muscle, gelatin, gluten, soy protein isolate (SPI), whey protein isolate, and zein] was included in 2 semisynthetic diets as the sole nitrogen source. For each protein source, 1 of the 2 diets contained actinidin [76.5 U/g dry matter (DM)] in the form of ground freeze-dried green kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa cv. Hayward), whereas the other diet contained freeze-dried gold kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis cv. Hort16A), which is devoid of actinidin (3.4 U/g DM). For both diets, dietary kiwifruit represented 20% of the diet on a DM basis. The real-time GE was determined in rats gavaged with a single dose of the diets using magnetic resonance spectroscopy over 150 min (n = 8 per diet). Gastric protein digestion was determined based on the free amino groups in the stomach chyme collected from rats fed the diets (n = 8 per diet) that were later killed. GE differed across the protein sources [e.g., the half gastric emptying time (T(½)) ranged from 157 min for gluten to 266 min for zein] (P < 0.05). Dietary actinidin increased the gastric digestion of beef muscle (0.6-fold), gluten (3.2-fold), and SPI (0.6-fold) and increased the GE of the diets containing beef muscle (43% T(½)) and zein (23% T(½); P < 0.05). There was an inverse correlation between gastric protein digestion and DM retained in the stomach (r = -0.67; P < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary actinidin increased gastric protein digestion and accelerated the GE for several dietary protein sources. GE may be influenced by gastric protein digestion, and dietary actinidin can be used to modulate GE and protein digestion in the stomach of some dietary protein sources but not others.

NMR-based metabonomics detection of differences in the metabolism of hydrolysed versus intact protein of similar amino acid profile

BACKGROUND Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomics has only recently been applied to nutritional research. The limitation of any analytical technique is its sensitivity in detecting the smallest variation. Alterations in nutrition often produce only subtle metabolic modulations. The objective of this study was to determine if NMR-based metabonomics could detect variations in the metabolic profile of urine from pigs digesting either native casein (NC) or the same casein that had been enzymatically hydrolysed (EHC). NMR permits simultaneous detection of a large number of metabolites, thus allowing detection of unanticipated metabolic fluctuations that may otherwise have gone undetected with the use of only targeted analysis. RESULTS Partial least squares discriminant analysis identified significantly (P < 0.05) higher urinary excretions of leucine, valine, taurine and glycine by pigs on the EHC-based diet. CONCLUSION NMR-based metabonomics is a sensitive method that can uncover unanticipated metabolic changes brought about by physicochemical changes to the feedstock (i.e. hydrolysis). The data show a lower efficiency of retention by the kidney of some amino acids following ingestion of a hydrolysed protein.

A Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Technique to Determine the Stomach Emptying Rate of Mixed Diets in Growing Rats

A rapid technique allowing the accurate determination of stomach emptying rate (SER) would be useful for understanding the process of digestion. The development of a rapid magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) technique based on the marker AlCl(3)-6H(2)O (Al-MRS) to determine the real-time SER of foods in a rat model is described. Experiments were conducted to establish several variables for the Al-MRS technique and validate the technique against the traditional serial slaughter method. Overnight feed-deprived rats (n = 8/treatment) were gavaged with a single dose of a semisynthetic meat or soy bean protein isolate-based diet containing the marker AlCl(3)-6H(2)O in acidified water (pH 2). Rats were either placed individually in the magnetic resonance spectrometer to estimate the SER from the real-time decrease in the aluminum (Al) signal or killed and their stomach chyme collected at prescribed times postprandially to determine the SER. The concentration of diet in the gavage mixture did not influence the SER. In contrast, rat body weight (BW), gavage volume, and dietary marker concentration affected SER (P < 0.05). The optimal BW range, gavage volume, and marker concentration that gave repeatable SER values were 280-320 g, 2-4 mL, and 55 g/L, respectively. Correlations were found for SER between Al-MRS and serial slaughter methods (r = 0.81-0.95; P < 0.001). Al-MRS is a robust, rapid, and straightforward technique for predicting the SER of food.

Experimental evidence for previously unclassified calcium phosphate structures in the casein micelle

1H-31P Cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CP-MAS) measurements of 40-d-old Mozzarella cheese and 20 mM EDTA-treated casein micelles revealed that each sample had immobile phosphorus with the same spectral pattern, which did not match that of native casein micelles. To identify the immobile phosphorus bodies, 1H-31P CP-MAS spectra and cross-polarization kinetics measurements were undertaken on native casein micelles, EDTA-chelated casein micelles, and reference samples of β-casein and hydroxyapatite. The results showed that the immobile phosphorus bodies in the mature Mozzarella cheese had the following characteristics: they are immobile phosphoserine residues (not colloidal calcium phosphate); they are not the product of phosphoserine to colloidal calcium phosphate bridging; the phosphate is complexed to calcium; their rigidity is localized to a phosphorus site; their rigidity and bond coupling is unaffected by protein hydration; and the immobile bodies share a narrow range of bond orientations. Combining these observations, the best explanation of the immobile phosphorus bodies is that bonding structures of phosphorus-containing groups and calcium exist within the casein micelle that are not yet clearly classified in the literature. The best candidate is a calcium-bridged phosphoserine-to-phosphoserine linkage, either intra- or inter-protein.