Obtaining of a Milk Drink with Mushrooms and Bioactive Compounds

Fermented dairy products are a rich source of nutrients. Buttermilk is part of fermented dairy products and is highly valued by consumers due to its sensory and nutritional qualities. The study aims to capitalize on buttermilk by adding mushroom powder and volatile oil of dill and caraway encapsulated in sodium alginate. The research was performed over for 20 days using sensory and physicochemical analysis methods. The samples analyzed were plain buttermilk, buttermilk with encapsulated dill volatile oil, buttermilk with encapsulated caraway volatile oil, buttermilk with added mushroom powder, buttermilk with added mushroom powder and encapsulated dill volatile oil and buttermilk with the addition of mushroom powder and encapsulated caraway volatile oil. The results of the physicochemical analyzes were statistically processed using the Minitab program. The addition of mushroom powder in buttermilk has positively influenced its sensory characteristics, and the results obtained from physicochemical analyzes were superior to plain buttermilk. The addition of volatile oil of dill and caraway has positively influenced both the sensory and physical-chemical characteristics of buttermilk.

Study of the Yeast Strain Influence and the Alcoholic Fermentation Conditions on the Higher Alcohols and Aldehydes Content in Gamza Wines

The influence of temperature and inoculum amount of yeast culture on the ability of the strains Saccharomyces cerevisiae Badachoni and Saccharomyces cerevisiae 24-6 to synthesize higher alcohols and aldehydes was studied. Yeast showed the highest fermentation activity at a temperature of 28oC. Neural networks had been applied and mathematical models were derived, describing with high accuracy the experimental data on the change of the total amount of higher alcohols and aldehydes in the fermentation process depending on the conditions. The higher alcohols ratio had increased during the process. The Badachoni strain revealed better ability to synthesize the studied metabolite as compared to the 24-6 strain. The Badachoni had produced the greatest amount of higher alcohols when the process occurred at 28°C, whereas the 24-6 at 24oC. The aldehydes synthesis had reached its peak during the rapid fermentation, thereafter it began to go down. The studied yeast synthesized more aldehydes when the process took place at a lower temperature. For both strains the maximum was observed under the conditions 20oС/4%. The analysis of the obtained wines had confirmed that quantitatively Badachoni produced more total higher alcohols and the 24-6 more total aldehydes. In both strains within one temperature range, in all variants, with increasing the inoculum amount of yeast culture the studied metabolites ratio went up too.

Cytotoxic Potential of Industrial Hemp Extracts

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a source of fibers, oil and valuable secondary metabolites. Regarding phenolic compounds, it has to be noted that the plant biosynthesizes molecules with various pharmacological benefits. The aim of this study was to prove the cytotoxic potential of hemp polar and non-polar fractions against two cancer cell lines (BT-20 and U87). The study revealed the potential antitumor activity of industrial hemp selective fractions but a correlation between polyphenols content and the cytotoxic effect could not be established.

Characterizing the Work Environment of Skidder Operators: Evaluation of Temperature and Relative Humidity Conditions

Skidding is one of the commonly used technical options to extract wood from felling to landing. As such, several studies have been carried out to evaluate its effectiveness in terms of economics, environmental impact, and ergonomics. Most ergonomic studies have addressed the exposure to noise and vibration, and less effort has been devoted towards the evaluation of the skidder operators’ working environment. To our knowledge, the exposure to variability in temperature and humidity has not yet been studied for skidding operations. This study aimed at evaluating the variability of such microclimate parameters and at comparing them to their counterparts recorded in the forest environment. Based on comparative datasets collected in November 2020, our results indicate that skidder operators might endure a significant variation in temperature and relative humidity during operations, which in turn may affect their health. Compared to the forest environment, the differences in temperature and relative humidity were evident, contrasting and occurred in short periods of time, as an effect of the skidding operations and mobility on increased distances and of a considerable altitudinal range. It is likely for such variability to also come from the work behavior of different operators. Given the results and the season in which the data was collected, as well as other constraints of the study, further studies should be carried out to separate the operation time from the rest and meal breaks, to evaluate the variability in microclimate throughout all seasons, to control the state of the cabin doors, and to solve the problem of control data mobility so as to accurately reflect the outdoor conditions for each location a skidder may work on during skidding operations.

The Comparison of the Effectiveness of Cocoa Butter (CB) and Cocoa Butter Alternatives (CBA) in Chocolate Manufacture

This study aimed at (a) comparing the effectiveness of the use of Cocoa Butter (CB) and Cocoa Butter Alternatives (CBA) on food products and (b) measuring the effectiveness of the sub-groups of the Cocoa Butter Alternatives. In this study, the researchers used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with the Partial Least Square (PLS) approach. The analysis showed that (a) CB was more effective in the utilization than CBA and (b) after comparing sub-groups of the CBA examined in this study, Cocoa Butter Substitute (CBS) was more effective than Cocoa Butter Replacer (CBR) and Cocoa Butter Equivalent (CBE). This study is a practical recommendation for the use of CBA so that it can be widely applied in the chocolate industry.

Application of FMEA and Pareto Analysis Methods in the Process of Industrial Bread Making in Romania

Zero defects or nearly zero faulty products production process represents a new and important concern towards quality control of production systems. The requirement of a pertinent statistical control is important for identifying and monitoring defects, the main source of defects that occur in industrial bread making process. The current study was focused on applying two analysis methods Failure Mode and Effects Analyses, abbreviated FMEA and Pareto. Analysis concerning two technological stages that were considered as having a major impact on the quality of the final products. It was observed that the percent of nonconformities decreased in a significant manner – from 30% in 2018 to 5% in 2019 by applying the FMEA analysis. Also, the Pareto diagram showed that the application of several corrective measurements conducted to important decreases of Risk Priority Number from 288 to 128 and the severity decreased from 8 to 5 in the mixing process and from 128 to 81 for the baking process.

The Influence of Freezing and Thawing Process on the Bending Moment Capacity of L-Shaped Heat-Treated Wood Dowel Joints

In this work, the influence of the freezing and thawing process on the bending moment capacity of L-shaped heat-treated wood dowel joints is analysed. The parts of the joints were made of heat-treated ash (Fraxinus excelsior) wood. Half of the analysed joints were randomly divided in two groups. One group was frozen and thawed in a climatic chamber and the other group was kept in laboratory environmental conditions. The bending moment capacity was calculated by means of ultimate failure load, which was experimentally obtained. One-way analysis of variance (One-way ANOVA) was applied to figure out if there is a significant difference between the analysed groups. Based on the obtained results, it was concluded that the freezing and thawing process did not significantly affect the strength of the L-shaped heat-treated wood dowel joints.

Substantiation of the Energy Efficient Schedules of Drying Grain Seeds

It is important to study the patterns of drying grain seeds in order to improve the energy efficiency of the process. Energy efficiency is one of the main parameters that define the choice of a drying schedule. Traditional drying technologies are based on low temperature schedules, which do not allow significantly intensifying the process by increasing the temperature of the heat agent because of substantial reductions in the quality of the material. To adequately assess the drying schedules, we conducted the study of drying grain seeds at low temperatures aimed to preserve the seed properties of the material. To increase the energy efficiency of the drying process, a step-by-step descending low-temperature drying schedule was suggested, which provides for the required quality of seed material. All the proposed technical solutions for the energy-efficient schedules of drying grain seeds were summarized in the recommendations for industrial drying in column type direct-flow grain dryers.

The Protection of Beech Wood (”Fagus Sylvatic”a) against the brown Rot ”Postia Placenta” using Clove (”Eugenia Caryophyllata”) Essential Oil in a Linseed Oil Medium

The present research investigates the antifungal efficiency of clove (Eugenia caryophyllata) essential oil (C-EO) combined with linseed oil (LO) at different concentrations (1%, 5%, 10%) using two types of mycological tests: a qualitative screening test by agar diffusion method and a quantitative mini-block test on treated beech (Fagus sylvatica) wood.The agar diffusion test indicated improved protection of wood should be possible with a mixture of C-EO and LO from a concentration of 5%. In contrast, the mini-block test indicated that wood is partially protect by LO alone and that adding increasing quantities of C-EO gradually reduces this protection.One possible explanation of this unexpected result could be the antioxidant effect of C-EO which could negatively interfere in the oxidative curing process of LO. ESEM investigation revealed the penetration of LO and C-EO/LO mixtures into the wood structure and non-uniform fungal colonization of all the samples exposed to Postia placenta, as well as some characteristic features of consequent wood structure degradation, which was found more advanced for the untreated beech wood samples.

Investigation of GPS Positioning Accuracy Near a Deciduous Forest Area

This article evaluates the accuracy and performance of GPS positioning near a forest area. In such cases, positions are calculated from weak signals that tend to be less accurate. Moreover, the results show that there were significant differences depending on season (May vs. October) regarding the accuracy and precision of the measured coordinates; also, accuracies were different depending on the seasonal forest characteristics. Therefore, practical recommendations for each case were established in order to help foresters select the most suitable situation. The results indicated that the season was a significant factor for the GPS surveys.