Search Results (10)

Postharvest lignification and microbial spoilage limit the shelf life of arrow bamboo shoots. This study evaluated the effects of electrolyzed functional water (EFW) combined with spontaneous modified-atmosphere (MA) packaging (EFW+MA) on postharvest quality and associated physiological, metabolic, and microbial changes. EFW+MA reduced weight loss, decay incidence, and browning while maintaining firmness and color. It also reduced lignin and cellulose accumulation, accompanied by lower activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), peroxidase (POD), and polyphenol oxidase (PPO). Untargeted liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) metabolomics showed that storage-associated metabolic changes were moderated by EFW+MA, including lower abundances of phenylalanine and tyrosine in the treated samples. In addition, EFW+MA enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities, reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation, and alleviated membrane lipid peroxidation. 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene sequencing showed that EFW+MA reduced operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness and altered bacterial community composition, including lower relative abundances of Campylobacterota and Enterobacteriaceae and a higher relative abundance of Lactobacillaceae. Overall, EFW+MA delayed postharvest quality deterioration of arrow bamboo shoots, accompanied by changes in lignification-related physiology, oxidative defense, metabolite profiles, and bacterial communities. Full article

This study investigated the individual and synergistic impacts of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation and foliar-applied silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) on the yield parameters, volatile profile, and phenolic composition of two Rosa damascena genotypes (D231 and C193). Experiments were conducted using a split–split–plot design, involving AMF inoculation (main plot), three SiNPs concentrations (subplot), and two rose genotypes (sub-subplot). The results demonstrated that AMF, SiNPs, and genotype all had significant and interactive effects on flower yield parameters. Foliar application of SiNPs, particularly when combined with AMF inoculation, consistently enhanced flowering parameters, including flower size, number, and weight across both genotypes. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) further confirmed that phenolic acids (vanillic acid and rutin) increased following foliar application of SiNPs and AMF root colonization, particularly in genotype C193. SPME-Arrow analysis revealed that alcohols, ketones, and terpenes were the predominant volatile constituents. Phenethyl alcohol was the most abundant compound, accounting for approximately 84.69% of the total aroma content and contributing significantly to the ‘rose’ aroma. Other major volatiles included 2-undecanone (4.42%), benzyl alcohol (2.97%), and citronellol (1.95%); however, their levels varied depending on treatment and genotype. These findings highlight that the combined application of AMF and SiNPs offers a sustainable approach to enhancing both the quantitative yield and qualitative phytochemical composition (essential oil components and phenolic compounds) of R. damascena, providing a scientific foundation for optimizing its production in organic farming systems. Full article

In this paper, a reliable model of the viscosity in liquids in the dual model of liquids (DML) framework is developed. The analytical expression arrived at exhibits the correct T–dependence Arrhenius-like exponential decreasing trend, which is typical of Newtonian simple fluids. The model is supported by the successful comparison with both the experimental values of the viscosity of water, and with those related to the mechano-thermal effect in liquids under low-frequency shear, discovered a few years ago, for which the first-ever theoretical interpretation is given by the DML. Moreover, the approach is even supported by the results of numerical models recently developed, that have shown that dual liquid models, such as the DML, provides very good agreement with experimental data. The expression of viscosity contains terms belonging to both the subsystems constituting the liquid, and shows an explicit dependence upon the sound velocity and the collective vibratory degrees of freedom (DoF) excited at a given temperature. At the same time, the terms involved depend upon the Boltzmann and Planck constants. Finally, the physical model is coherent with the Onsager postulate of microscopic time reversibility as well as with time’s arrow for macroscopic dissipative mechanisms. Full article

Nanothermodynamics provides the theoretical foundation for understanding stable distributions of statistically independent subsystems inside larger systems. In this review, it is emphasized that extending ideas from nanothermodynamics to simplistic models improves agreement with the measured properties of many materials. Examples include non-classical critical scaling near ferromagnetic transitions, thermal and dynamic behavior near liquid–glass transitions, and the 1/f-like noise in metal films and qubits. A key feature in several models is to allow separate time steps for distinct conservation laws: one type of step conserves energy and the other conserves momentum (e.g., dipole alignment). This “orthogonal dynamics” explains how the relaxation of a single parameter can exhibit multiple responses such as primary, secondary, and microscopic peaks in the dielectric loss of supercooled liquids, and the crossover in thermal fluctuations from Johnson–Nyquist (white) noise at high frequencies to 1/f-like noise at low frequencies. Nanothermodynamics also provides new insight into three basic questions. First, it gives a novel solution to Gibbs’ paradox for the entropy of the semi-classical ideal gas. Second, it yields the stable equilibrium of Ising’s original model for finite-sized chains of interacting binary degrees of freedom (“spins”). Third, it confronts Loschmidt’s paradox for the arrow of time, showing that an intrinsically irreversible step is required for maximum entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, not only in the thermodynamic limit but also in systems as small as $N=2$ particles. Full article

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from wood and wood composites are important contributors to odor profiles of indoor environments and can significantly influence human health and well-being. GC-MS/FID and gas chromatography (GC) with olfactometric detection (GC-O) are employed for the identification and characterization of odorants. Four different sample preparation methods are evaluated on wood strands and isocyanate adhesive–based oriented strand boards (OSBs) made from Pinus sylvestris L.: among these, dynamic headspace extraction thermal desorption ((dynamic) HS-TD), head space solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME), head space solid phase microextraction Arrow (HS-SPME Arrow), and liquid injection of a CH₂Cl₂ solvent extract. The olfactometric investigation revealed over 30 odor-active substances of cyclic and acyclic monoterpene, monoterpenoid ketone, monoterpenoid aldehyde, monoterpenoid alcohol, monoterpenoid ester, aliphatic aldehyde, alcohol, and acid and phenolic chemistry. Compared to liquid injection, (dynamic) HS-TD was found to result in a similar number of odorants (20 vs. 24), whereas HS SPME Arrow shows good performance with minimal instrumental effort, notably for monoterpene and aldehyde compounds. Native wood vs. OSB showed high concentrations of saturated and unsaturated aldehydes for the wood board sample. These findings demonstrate the capability of headspace methods for odorant detection and their suitability for standardization towards a database for wood and wood composites. Full article

A bubble expanding and collapsing near a solid boundary develops a liquid jet toward the boundary. The jet leaves a torus bubble and induces vortices in the liquid that persist long after the bubble oscillations have ceased. The vortices are studied numerically in axial symmetry and compared to experiments in the literature. The flow field is visualized with different methods: vorticity with superimposed flow-direction arrows for maps at a time instant and colored-liquid-layer flow-field maps (dye advection) for following the complete long-term fluid flow up to a chosen time since bubble generation. Bubbles with equal energy—maximum radius in a free liquid $R_{\max }^{\infty }$= 500 µm—are studied for different distances $D_{\mathrm{init}}$ from the solid boundary. The interval of normalized distances $D^{*}$ = $D_{\mathrm{init}}$/$R_{\max }^{\infty }$ from 0.4 to 1.8 is covered. Two types of vortices were reported in experiments, one moving toward the solid boundary and one moving away from it. This finding is reproduced numerically with higher resolution of the flow field and in more detail. The higher detail reveals that the two types of vortices have different rotation directions and coexist with individually varying vorticity amplitude throughout the interval studied. In a quite narrow part of the interval, the two types change their strength and extent with the result of a reversal of the dominating rotational direction of the fluid flow. Thereby, the experimentally found transition interval could be reproduced and refined. It is interesting to note that in the vortex transition interval, the erosion of a solid surface is strongly augmented. Full article

Fruit plants produce various volatile compounds that emit distinct aroma characteristics and contribute to their flavor qualities. However, some of these substances, especially hydroxyl-group molecules, are in non-volatile glycosylated forms. This study aimed to determine free and glycosidically bound volatile compounds in three Okinawan pineapple cultivars (‘N67-10′, ‘Yugafu’, and ‘Yonekura’). The free volatile components of squashed pineapple juice were analyzed using solid-phase microextraction (SPME)–arrow-gas chromatography–flame ionization detection/mass spectrometry (GC-FID/MS). The glycosides were collected through solid-phase extraction, hydrolyzed by β-glucosidase, and the released volatile compounds were measured. The sugar moieties of the glycosides were confirmed using GC-MS, and their glycoside constituents were analyzed using liquid chromatography (LC)-MS. Okinawan pineapple varied in its content and composition of free volatile components, which were predominantly comprised of esters, followed by alcohols, terpenes, and ketones. Eight hydroxyl-group compounds, including chavicol, eugenol, geraniol, phenylethyl alcohol, benzyl alcohol, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, 1-hexanol, and 3-methyl-2-butenol, were released from their glycosylated forms via enzymatic hydrolysis, wherein the amounts of most of them were greater in ‘Yonekura’ than in the other cultivars. Moreover, two glycosides, chavicol-O-β-D-glucopyranoside and eugenol-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, were identified in all the cultivars, wherein the aglycones of both glycosides could be potential odor sources of the medicinal-herbal aromas. These results provide important information regarding both volatile-aroma qualities and bounded-aroma resources in Okinawan pineapple for fresh consumption and agroindustrial processing. Full article

Unidirectional transport is attracting increasing attention in the field of microfluidics, because it does not require an external energy supply. However, most of the current self-driving structures are still plagued with persistent problems that restrict their practical applications. These include low transport velocity, short transport distance, and complex structure. This work reports the design of a new arrowhead microstructure array, on which liquid transport can reach speeds of 23 mm/s and the ratio of transport length to channel width (L/R) can reach up to approximately 40. This structure drives liquid through a unique arrow conformation, which can induce capillary force and arrest the reverse motion of the liquid simultaneously. By means of theory, simulation, and experiment, we have studied the mechanism of liquid transport on this structure. We provide a detailed discussion of the relationship between the velocity of liquid transport and the microstructural dimensions. The findings may inspire the design of novel, unidirectional, liquid-spreading surfaces. Full article

Multimeters are useful instruments for measuring electronic parameters. Even though the digital multimeter is commonly used in our daily life under the considerations of precision and cost, the analog multimeter is still preferable in many applications due to its easy use to monitor promptly varying values. However, the reading of analog multimeters (or A-meter) usually relies on human eyes with two obvious drawbacks of inefficiency and easy fatigue, while visual inspection onto an A-meter is needed for a long period of time. From the viewpoint of optical sensor application, computer vision, like human eyes, can also be used to sense stimuli from the real world. Therefore, in this paper, an approach of reading an A-meter based on a computer vision technique is proposed. Reading an A-meter relies on information from the arrow on the function selector and the pointer on the instrument meter; the presented method is thus mainly composed of horizontal alignment of the A-meter, detection of the instrument meter region, angle detection of the selector arrow, and angle detection of the pointer. In addition, the schemes of edge-based geometric matching (EGM) and pyramidal gradient matching (PGM) are adopted to detect the regions of interest. The mapping relationship between the function selector and the selector arrow as well as that between the instrument meter and the pointer are built and formulated to finally read the A-meter. The often used scenarios for reading AC voltage, DC voltage, and DC current as well as resistance are used for experiments and evaluations. The experimental results show that the accuracy of detecting the function selected is 100%, the mean accuracy of reading a value from the A-meter is 95% or above, except for some cases of reading resistance that are affected by the so-called little-change-large-multiplier effect. The proposed method can perform very well as long as the mean intensity is $\ge 7.5$ . Based on a suitable modification of the proposed method, an application of monitoring a storage level meter and pressure meter installed on a 15 m ${}^3$ liquid nitrogen (LN2) tank is demonstrated. Our experiments and demonstrations confirm the feasibility of the proposed approach. Full article

In this paper, we introduce a liquid core antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) as a novel optofluidic device that can be used to create innovative and highly functional microsensors. Liquid core ARROWs, with their dual ability to guide the light and the fluids in the same microchannel, have shown great potential as an optofluidic tool for quantitative spectroscopic analysis. ARROWs feature a planar architecture and, hence, are particularly attractive for chip scale integrated system. Step by step, several improvements have been made in recent years towards the implementation of these waveguides in a complete on-chip system for highly-sensitive detection down to the single molecule level. We review applications of liquid ARROWs for fluids sensing and discuss recent results and trends in the developments and applications of liquid ARROW in biomedical and biochemical research. The results outlined show that the strong light matter interaction occurring in the optofluidic channel of an ARROW and the versatility offered by the fabrication methods makes these waveguides a very promising building block for optofluidic sensor development. Full article