Survey on Methods for Investigating Protein Functionality and Related Molecular Characteristics

Proteins from various sources are widely used in the food industry due to their unique functional performances in food products. The functional properties of proteins are somehow dictated by their molecular characteristics, but the exact relationship is not fully understood. This review gives a tangible overview of the methods currently available for determining protein functionality and related molecular characteristics in order to support further research on protein ingredients. The measurements of protein functionality include solubility, water holding capacity, oil holding capacity, emulsion property, foam property, and gelation. This review also provides a description of different methods of molecular characteristics including electrophoresis, surface hydrophobicity and charge, molecular interaction, and thermal property measurement. Additionally, we have put significant emphasis on spectroscopic methods (ultraviolet-visible, Fourier transform infrared, Raman, circular dichroism, fluorescence and nuclear magnetic resonance). In conclusion, first and foremost, there is a need to agree on a standardization of the analytical methods for assessing functional properties. Moreover, it is mandatory to couple different analyses of molecular characteristics to measure and monitor the structural changes obtained by different processing methods in order to gain knowledge about the relationship with functionality. Ideally, a toolbox of protein analytical methods to measure molecular characteristics and functionality should be established to be used in a strategic design of protein ingredients.

Simulation and optimization of steady-state heat transfer property measurement platform

This paper studies the measurement technology of heat transfer coefficient of building envelope, explores the main factors affecting the measurement of heat transfer coefficient, uses ANSYS Icepak software to simulate the steady-state heat transfer property measurement platform model, and establishes the virtual prototype of the product. The product design based on Icepak replaces the test on the physical prototype with the simulation on the virtual prototype, We should reduce or even cancel the manufacturing of physical prototype, shorten the R & D process, and cut R & D costs with the improvement of design quality. Through the comparison and analysis with the experimental data of the offline detection platform, the feasibility of using Icepak to simulate the equipment is proved. The software is used to simulate the ther-mal environment in the hot box. Through comparison and analysis, the most uniform upper wi-nd steady-state thermal environment scheme is found.

Functional and Material Properties in Nanocatalyst Design: A Data Handling and Sharing Problem

(1) Background: Properties and descriptors are two forms of molecular in silico representations. Properties can be further divided into functional, e.g., catalyst or drug activity, and material, e.g., X-ray crystal data. Millions of real measured functional property records are available for drugs or drug candidates in online databases. In contrast, there is not a single database that registers a real conversion, TON or TOF data for catalysts. All of the data are molecular descriptors or material properties, which are mainly of a calculation origin. (2) Results: Here, we explain the reason for this. We reviewed the data handling and sharing problems in the design and discovery of catalyst candidates particularly, material informatics and catalyst design, structural coding, data collection and validation, infrastructure for catalyst design and the online databases for catalyst design. (3) Conclusions: Material design requires a property prediction step. This can only be achieved based on the registered real property measurement. In reality, in catalyst design and discovery, we can observe either a severe functional property deficit or even property famine.

Patient-centered outcomes used in pediatric focused manual therapies research studies: a secondary data analysis of a systematic review

Background Patient-reported outcome measurements (PROM) are instruments that seek a patient’s health or functional status. Inclusion of standardized PROMs in research studies and clinical practice provides a more comprehensive understanding of an intervention from the patient’s viewpoint. This secondary analysis identified PROM usage and appropriateness of references for property measurements from clinical trials included in a recent systematic review of pediatric manual therapy. Methods All included manuscripts within a recent systematic review had two authors extract PROM and associated property measurement data, including the property measurements supporting citations. Inclusion criteria for the articles were published clinical trials (observational or experimental) of pediatric children receiving manual therapy (any profession) for any condition between 2001-March 2018. For each PROM’s associated property measurement, two authors used the COSMIN study design checklist to appraise the quality of the cited study to evaluate the property measurement. Results Of the 50 manuscripts included in the systematic review, 20 manuscripts reported the use of 52 PROMs. Of the 52 PROMs assessed, 31 did not make a statement about the instrument’s property measurement, 7 PROMs had property measurements stated but not referenced, 4 PROMs stated that the property measurement information was unknown, and 10 had property measurement data with reference(s). These 10 PROMs with referenced property measurements were from 7 unique PROMs: constipation assessment scale, satisfaction visual analog scale (VAS), crying time diary, sleep diary, fear avoidance belief questionnaire (FABQ), pain VAS, and autism treatment evaluation checklist. The assessment of the referenced property measurements found that several property measurement’s dimensions had not been assessed and those that had were evaluated were done so with poor or fair standards. Conclusions This secondary analysis finds that clinical studies of pediatric manual therapy lack consistent use of PROMs with high quality property measurements. Further research to establish and implement PROMs to be used in future research studies and in clinical settings should become a priority for professions using manual therapy in children.

Development of a Cryogen-Free Compact 3 T Superconducting Magnet for an Electromagnetic Property Measurement System

A cryogen-free portable 3 T high-temperature superconducting magnet for an electromagnetic property measurement system has been developed to serve as a user facility at the Korea Basic Science Institute. The metallic insulation method was adopted to reduce the charging delay without sacrificing the self-protecting feature. A genetic-algorithm-aided optimized design was carried out to minimize the superconducting tape consumption while satisfying several design constraints. After the design, the compact high-temperature superconducting magnet composed of eight double-pancake coil modules was wound with high-temperature superconducting tape and stainless steel tape, and integrated with a two-stage cryo-cooler. The 3 T magnet was successfully cooled to approximately 20 K with a cryo-cooler and reached the target field of 3 T without any problems. Long-term measurements and a range of other tests were also implemented to verity the performance of the magnet. Test results demonstrated the feasibility of a cryogen-free portable high-temperature superconducting magnet system for electromagnetic property measurement experiments.