Black Bean Pasta Meals Significantly Reduce Glycemic Response More Than Control in Young Adults

Objectives Determine the effect of three 100% black bean pastas made with standard (Knife Mill) and novel flour milling techniques (sonic wave) on postprandial glycemic response in healthy normoglycemic adults in comparison to whole black beans and a white bread control. Methods Heat treated black beans (Zenith) were milled into flour using a commercial knife mill or a sonic wave mill. The latter generated bean flours with low (cyclone), and medium (combined) protein concentrations from which pastas of 100% black beans were made commercially. Fifteen adults (6 men, 9 women, mean age 23.4 ±2.7 y; nonsmokers; BMI <30) were recruited for a randomized 5 × 5 cross-over trial. The test meals were white bread control (no sauce), whole black beans and 3 black bean pastas served with a standard amount of spaghetti sauce to net 50 grams of available carbohydrate (CHO). The test meals were similar in macronutrient content except for protein and fiber (knife mill protein 19.5, fat 6.3, fiber 22; combined 20.5, 7.5, 22.4; cyclone 13.7, 6.1, 19.5; whole beans 20.9; 5.4, 28.2). Fasted participants consumed a test meal within 7–10 minutes. Venous blood draws were taken at 30, 60, 90, 150, and 180 minutes post meal start. Glucose was analyzed by a professional laboratory (Quest Diagnostics, Chicago, IL). Results Net glucose response based on the incremental area under the curve (iAUC) for 0–180 minutes was significantly different by treatment for all four test meals in comparison to the white bread control (P = 0.002). For the 0–60 iAUC increment, participants showed a lower response to whole black beans than white bread (P = .000), knife mill (P = .024), combination (P = .024), or cyclone (P = .014) pastas. The 0–120 iAUC period showed significantly higher net glucose for the white bread than the 4 bean treatments. Black beans were significantly different from the knife mill (P = .033) and cyclone pasta formulations (P = .049). Conclusions Black bean pastas improve glycemic response regardless of milling type in relation to a control food providing evidence that has promising implications for dietary guidance to reduce postprandial glucose and related health risks through processed food consumption. Funding Sources Research was supported by the USDA Pulse Crop Health Initiative.

Pomeranian Bolide

<p>October 31st of 2015 the bolide lightened up the sky above Northern Poland. The main purpose of the project  was to define the place and time of its explosion in Earth’s atmosphere. To calculate these values and define the velocity of acoustic wave in the air, MATLAB model has been created. The model was based on seismic records of the event from GKP permanent seismological station and few stations of temporary array 13 BB star, arrival time of the wave to each station was read from seismograms. Using this data it was possible to indicate the narrowed area on plane where the explosion could take place. Next step was to model elevated point of explosion, time of the explosion, and the velocity of sonic wave in Earth’s atmosphere for spherical Earth 3D model, needed for the wave to travel from the point of explosion to seismological station.</p>

Near-borehole characteristics of hydraulic fractures and fracturing-induced sonic-wave attenuation

The downhole hydraulic fracturing process, besides fracturing formation rocks, generates small, secondary fractures around the borehole, allowing evaluation of the result of fracturing using borehole sonic measurements. We analyzed the near-borehole fracture network from an existing laboratory hydraulic fracturing experiment to study the fracture distribution around the borehole. The result indicates that the fracture distribution exhibits fractal characteristics. The fractal dimension is high in the near-borehole region and decreases away from borehole. Because the fractal dimension increases with fracture density, this indicates that fracturing produces a high fracture-density zone in the near-borehole region. The high concentration of the hydraulic fractures in turn can causes significant attenuation in the sonic-logging waveforms acquired after fracturing. The fracturing-induced sonic attenuation, averaged over the sonic frequency band, can be estimated using a median frequency shift method. Comparison of the attenuation of the fracturing interval with that of an unfractured interval, or with that of the same interval before fracturing allows for evaluating the result of fracturing and the fracture extension along the borehole. The application of the method is demonstrated with field-data examples and validated by comparing results from existing borehole techniques, thus offering a useful technique for evaluating the result of hydraulic fracturing using the borehole sonic-wave attenuation.

Blast Induced Crack Propagation and Damage Accumulation in Rock Mass Containing Initial Damage

Blast induced rock mass damage and crack propagation play important roles in structure safety and stability in mining, quarrying, and civil constructions. This paper focuses on the effect of small blasthole diameter blast on crack propagation and damage accumulation in water-bearing rock mass containing initial damage composed of inherent geological discontinuities and previous multiblast induced damage. To elucidate this effect, theoretical analysis of calculation method for several important blast influencing factors is firstly presented. Secondly, definition of a practical damage variable using ratio of longitudinal wave velocity in rock mass before blast occurrence to that after blast occurrence and derivation of a damage accumulation calculation equation accounting for initial damage and blasting effect are described. Lastly, a detailed description of the conducted in situ blast tests and plan layout of the sonic wave monitoring holes is reported. The results indicate that blast activates and then extends the initial cracks in rock mass, leading to accumulation of rock mass damage. The rock mass damage accumulation can be conveniently quantified using the proposed damage variable. When the damage variable reaches its threshold of 0.19, occurrence of damage in the surrounding rock mass is indicated. It is also found that the blast induced rock mass damage extent and the blast induced vibration velocities decrease nonlinearly with increasing the distance between blast source and monitoring position.