Search Results (3,386)

Oilseed meal, the primary by-product of oil extraction, is rich in protein, dietary fiber, and minerals, offering significant development potential. However, its application in high-value feed and food is severely restricted due to anti-nutritional factors, leading to resource waste and environmental issues. Solid-state fermentation (SSF) provides a green and efficient approach for the high-value utilization of oilseed meal. This review comprehensively discusses the entire process of strain selection, fermentation strategies, and application of active products in the SSF of oilseed meal. Regarding strain selection, Bacillus spp. degrade macromolecular proteins and inhibit microbial contamination through protease and antimicrobial peptide production. Lactobacillus spp. enhance flavor and safety by producing acids and flavor compounds. Aspergillus spp. decompose cell walls and degrade phytate using their cellulase and phytase systems. For fermentation strategies, mixed fermentation achieves functional complementarity, enzyme–fungus synergy enhances substrate conversion, segmented fermentation optimizes the microbial environment, and physical field assistance boosts enzyme activity, collectively improving fermentation efficiency and nutritional quality. In product applications, fermented oilseed meal serves as both high-quality protein feed and a source of functional peptides and active polysaccharides with antioxidant and immunomodulatory activities, showing potential for functional foods and biomedicine. In conclusion, SSF technology effectively degrades anti-nutritional factors, improving the nutritional value and adding value to oilseed meal, thus representing a key strategy for resource conversion. Future efforts should prioritize high-performance strain selection, intelligent process monitoring, and green preparation of active products to promote industrial application and sustainable development. Full article

This critical assessment develops a mechanistic framework for plasma-engineered oxynitride thin films in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, moving beyond description to predictive understanding. Analyzing 30 peer-reviewed studies (2010–2025) via PRISMA 2020 and a structured reliability framework, we evaluate relationships between plasma conditions, film characteristics, and solar hydrogen generation. Results reveal that plasma power, gas composition, and substrate temperature collectively control nitrogen incorporation, crystallinity, and defect formation. Optimized plasma processing conditions were generally associated with improved photocurrent generation, hydrogen evolution performance, and operational stability relative to thermal synthesis routes across most of the reviewed studies, although the 30-study evidence base is still limited and the proposed power-domain classification should be treated as a preliminary framework requiring validation against additional studies. Mechanistic analysis indicates that moderate plasma energies provide sufficient activation for nitrogen incorporation while minimizing lattice damage and excessive defect formation. A unified conceptual framework is proposed relating plasma parameters, film properties, and PEC performance, providing mechanistic guidance for photoelectrode optimization and future process development. Quality assessment identifies that only 13.3% of studies provide high-confidence evidence (46.7% moderate, 40% low), with most lacking complete plasma diagnostics or long-term stability data, highlighting critical research gaps. The framework establishes that plasma engineering’s transformative potential lies in precise control over the composition–structure–property cascade, offering a reproducible route to high-performance oxynitride photoelectrodes for sustainable hydrogen production. Full article

Vermicomposting is widely used to convert organic wastes into soil amendments, yet most studies evaluate nutrient quality without integrating safety and economic viability. This study was conducted to assess different mixing ratios of guinea grass and chicken manure in terms of nutrient content, levels of heavy metals and microbial contaminants, yield, and profitability. The experiment was conducted at a vermicomposting facility in Tanay, Rizal, Philippines, following a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Five substrate combinations were evaluated, with three independent vermi-beds per treatment, resulting in 15 experimental units. The results revealed that treatments with higher proportions of chicken manure obtained higher phosphorus levels (3.02–3.87%) and benefit–cost ratios (BCRs) (1.21–1.31), but also lower final total N concentrations and organic matter (OM) levels. In contrast, guinea grass-rich treatments recorded higher concentrations of total N (1.41–1.88%) and OM (43–50%), but also BCR values < 1 due to high production costs. Levels of heavy metals, total coliforms, E. coli and Salmonella spp. were within allowable thresholds regardless of treatment. Based on the results, the 1:1 ratio was identified as the most balanced treatment because it maintained relatively high total N and OM while achieving a profitable BCR despite not providing the highest economic return. The findings provide practical information that may support sustainable agricultural waste management and circular bioeconomy initiatives, particularly under Philippine settings. Full article

Microbial lipids produced by oleaginous yeasts are a sustainable alternative to conventional lipid sources because of their ability to generate nutritionally valuable fatty acids. This study evaluated the effects of carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio, modified through molasses concentration, and cultivation temperature (15 and 25 °C) on biomass production, lipid accumulation, fatty acid composition, and nutritional quality of lipids produced by the native yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa 6S. Biomass, lipids, sugar consumption, and growth kinetics were determined, while fatty acid composition was analyzed by gas chromatography and nutritional quality was assessed through lipid nutritional indices. Biomass production was mainly influenced by the C/N ratio, whereas temperature had the greatest effect on lipid accumulation and fatty acid composition. Cultivation at 25 °C enhanced lipid yield and productivity, while 15 °C promoted faster growth and higher accumulation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), resulting in lipids with superior nutritional quality. The combination of 15 °C and a C/N ratio of 12 produced the most favorable lipid profile, with higher unsaturation, improved PUFA/SFA and MUFA/SFA ratios, balanced ω-6/ω-3 and LA/ALA ratios, low atherogenicity and thrombogenicity indices, and a high hypocholesterolemic/hypercholesterolemic ratio. These findings demonstrate the potential of molasses as a sustainable substrate for producing high-quality microbial lipids. Full article

This work presents a compact square complementary split-ring resonator (CSRR) microwave sensor, combined with a machine-learning-based calibration strategy, to achieve superior texture-aware soil moisture quantification. Implemented on a Rogers RO3010 substrate with a 20 × 30 mm² footprint and operating near 1.3 GHz, the sensor exploits shifts in resonance/notch frequency and insertion loss (S21) to probe both the real and imaginary components of the soil’s complex permittivity. Full-wave 3D electromagnetic simulations guided optimisation of the CSRR topology and T-shaped microstrip feedline, yielding strong field confinement, high quality factor, and high Frequency Detection Resolution (FDR). Experiments on sand and loam across 0–30% and 0–40% moisture content ranges, respectively, demonstrate FDR values of 6.09 MHz (sand) and 6.86 MHz (loam), enabling discrimination of subtle permittivity changes. Several calibration strategies are developed and compared for complex permittivity extraction from measured S-parameters: linear and polynomial regression, a multivariable least-squares sensitivity-matrix model, and a delta-referenced multilayer perceptron (MLP) with z-score standardization. While polynomial and least-squares models significantly outperform linear regression (R² > 0.997), the MLP combined with the optimized CSRR architecture delivers the best performance, achieving near-ideal accuracy (R² ≈ 1, MAE < 0.001, RMSE < 0.001) for both soil types. These results demonstrate that the synergy between the novel CSRR sensor design and data-driven MLP calibration enables high-resolution, robust, and field-deployable soil moisture sensing, offering a compelling solution for next-generation agricultural and geotechnical monitoring systems. Full article

Laser cladding is promising for use in repairing carburized gear steels, but parameter selection is challenging when clad geometry, substrate thermal disturbance, and morphological quality must be considered. Fifteen tracks of NHT.22.A01 iron-based powder were deposited on carburized-quenched 18CrNiMo7-6 steel with varying laser powers, scanning speeds, and powder feed rates. A physics-informed cascaded-learning framework predicted track width, height, Ac₁-boundary depth, and quality. Leave-one-out out-of-fold width predictions were transferred to height and depth models to prevent target leakage. An auxiliary continuous quality index enabled the bi-objective optimization of quality and high-hardness layer depth, while multi-indicator process maps with local sensitivity analysis supported rapid parameter adjustment. Leave-one-out (R²) values for three geometric responses ranged from 0.934 to 0.968, and the maximum relative error at an unseen boundary condition was 4.3%. The fitted HAZ-depth/track width scaling coefficient (0.211) lay within the Rosenthal theoretical range (0.15–0.25), confirming the physical consistency of the cascade relationship. The optimization revealed a trade-off between quality and high-hardness layer depth ; maximizing predicted high-hardness layer depth under selected a condition already represented in the training set. Repeatability was supported by an independent batch replicate. By integrating leakage-controlled cascading, physically interpretable validation, constrained optimization, and sensitivity-resolved process mapping, the framework provides a transparent and practically applicable approach to small-sample laser cladding process design. Full article

This study evaluated the storage stability of tomato juice, paste, and purée packaged in conventional aluminium containers (ACs) and aluminium containers coated with a food-grade stainless steel layer (ASSCs). The objective was to determine whether the stainless steel coating could reduce aluminium ion migration, preserve the physicochemical and nutritional quality of tomato products during storage, and decrease the need for antioxidant, antifungal, and acidifying additives. The stainless steel coating improved the barrier performance of the Al substrate by reducing its porosity from 6.0% to 3.8%. During storage, tomato products in ACs exhibited a marked decrease in acidity (7.65–4.07 g/100 g), whereas samples stored in ASSCs showed a smaller reduction (7.65–5.98 g/100 g), indicating enhanced chemical stability. Increasing NaCl concentrations promoted Al migration, reaching 26.4 mg/kg in AC but only 9.2 mg/kg in ASSC. The vitamin C content remained nearly unchanged (2.09–2.04 mg/100 g), while total polyphenols decreased slightly (110.13–98.81 mg/100 g). Mineral analysis (Al, Cr, Mn, Ni, Zn, Fe, and Ca) confirmed higher metal concentrations in AC-stored samples, whereas aluminium migration was effectively minimised in ASSCs. These findings demonstrate that stainless steel-coated aluminium provides superior corrosion resistance, limits metal transfer, preserves the physicochemical and antioxidant quality of the tomato products, and represents a promising packaging material for extending shelf life while reducing the need for food additives. Full article

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with Trametes versicolor-Pseudostellaria heterophylla fermented substrate (TV-PHFS) on the growth performance, serum biochemical indices, rumen function, and meat quality of Kazakh ram lambs. Twenty-four Kazakh ram lambs (32.54 ± 5.23 kg) were randomly allocated into four groups, with six replicates per group and one lamb per replicate. The control group was fed a basal diet, while the experimental groups received the basal diet supplemented with 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 kg/d of TV-PHFS, respectively, for a total duration of 140 days. The findings indicated that basal diet supplementation with TV-PHFS did not exert a statistically significant effect on the growth performance, serum antioxidant indices, and immune indices of Kazakh ram lambs (p > 0.05). However, compared with the control group, supplementation with 0.2 kg/d of TV-PHFS significantly elevated the 45 min postmortem yellowness (b*) value of the longissimus dorsi muscle and the relative abundance of Prevotellaceae_UCG_003 in the rumen (p < 0.05). Similarly, supplementation with 0.3 kg/d of TV-PHFS significantly increased the 24 h postmortem lightness (L*) value and crude fat content of the longissimus dorsi muscle, as well as the relative abundances of Treponema and Veillonellaceae_UCG_001 in the rumen (p < 0.05). In conclusion, basal diet supplementation with 0.3 kg/d of TV-PHFS modulated the rumen microbial community structure, promoted intramuscular fat deposition, improved muscle coloration, and augmented meat quality in Kazakh ram lambs. Full article

Medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHAs) are biodegradable microbial polyesters with attractive elastomeric properties and considerable potential as sustainable alternatives to fossil-derived polymers. Their industrial production requires not only efficient biomass and biopolymer productivity but also consistent material quality. In this study, Pseudomonas putida KT2442 was cultivated under different nutrient conditions to evaluate the effects of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and magnesium supplementation on biomass growth, poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate) (PHO) accumulation and its properties. Flask-scale experiments identified octanoic acid as an effective precursor for PHO biosynthesis, whereas excessive substrate loadings negatively affected culture performance. Continuous feeding of carbon and nitrogen sources in a fed-batch bioreactor increased biomass concentration to approximately 20 g/L while maintaining a PHO content of about 50% w/w of dry cell weight. Phosphorus limitation did not improve PHO accumulation and instead reduced biomass formation. Continuous magnesium feeding increased biomass concentration to approximately 26 g/L while maintaining intracellular PHO content. The produced PHO exhibited condition-dependent differences in selected molecular weight characteristics, while its thermal transition temperatures showed only small absolute variations. Overall, the proposed nutrient feeding strategies can provide a robust basis for improving process productivity while maintaining consistent biopolymer quality. Full article

The present work is a first attempt to develop, on a lab scale, herbal-infused Debina white wines containing typical or lower sulphur dioxide and to evaluate their antioxidant potential and volatile profile. Two different herbal-infused wines were prepared by adding (a) saffron plus mastic, and (b) mountain tea. During storage, all herbal-infused wines exhibited higher antioxidant capacity than the respective control ones, indicating their higher storage capability. In particular, they exhibited higher levels of free SO₂ and aminothiols, substrates of white wine oxidation. Moreover, they exhibited higher antioxidant activity as determined by the Folin, FRAP, and the scavenging of hydroxyl radicals methods. Volatile profile of herbal-infused and control wines was determined semi-quantitatively using HS-SPME coupled with GC×GC-TOF-MS methodology. Herbal-infused wines exhibited enriched volatile profiles containing volatiles originating from the herbals used. These include safranal from saffron, monoterpenes from mastic, and β-thujene, camphene, and β-ocimene from mountain tea. All herbal-infused wines exhibited satisfactory organoleptic quality, with sensory properties differentiated from the respective control ones. Full article

Protected horticultural crops are commonly produced at high planting densities and have short production cycles; imbalances in water and fertilizer supply can rapidly affect plant vigor, yield, and quality. Non-destructive diagnostic methods are therefore needed to characterize plant nutritional status under greenhouse conditions. Spectral imaging can simultaneously capture spatial and spectral information associated with pigments, water status, tissue structure, and canopy phenotype. It does not directly detect nutrient ions; rather, it captures physiological and structural responses that may be associated with nutrient status and may also be influenced by water deficit, disease, temperature, salinity, phenology, and genotype. This review focuses on crops grown in soil, substrate, and hydroponic systems under greenhouse conditions. Studies conducted in vertical farms, growth chambers, and open fields are included only as supplementary references for sensor selection, model calibration, and inspection methods. This article synthesizes diagnostic indicators for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, together with their associated physiological responses and spectral characteristics; compares the performance of hyperspectral, multispectral, and machine learning methods at the leaf, plant, and canopy scales; and examines fixed measurement, stop-and-go mobile inspection, continuous motion imaging, and autonomous plant revisitation. Existing studies have established a solid foundation for nutrient content retrieval, deficiency identification, and mobile monitoring. However, several challenges remain inadequately addressed under continuous inspection conditions, including radiometric–geometric joint calibration, plant identity preservation, acquisition of multi-element chemical truth values, model generalization across growth stages and greenhouse types, and long-term performance evaluation. Future work should refine standardized protocols for dynamic data collection and water–fertilizer environmental control, integrate mechanistic constraints with data driven approaches, and incorporate plant re-identification, spatiotemporal registration, uncertainty quantification, and online calibration. These efforts will contribute to constructing a long-term stable and comparable nutritional diagnostic system, thereby advancing the transition of facility vegetable nutritional monitoring from single-time static measurements toward continuous, traceable, and autonomously patrolled systems that may ultimately support precision irrigation and fertilization management after appropriate independent validation. Full article

Recently, consumers have shown increasing interest not only in healthier food but also in products labelled as “free-from”. Among these, foods free of substances that can trigger allergic reactions in hypersensitive individuals, such as nickel, are of relevance. In this context, a two-year study was conducted in a soilless strawberry production system managed to minimise nickel inputs, to assess the feasibility of producing fruits complying with the “nickel-free” limit of 0.01 mg kg⁻¹. The experiment involved two strawberry cultivars (‘Asia’ and ‘Arianna’) and two plant types for each cultivar (tray plants and cold-stored A+ plants), grown in a 100% perlite substrate. Productive parameters, organoleptic quality, nutritional traits, and nickel content in fruits were evaluated. The aim was to determine differences among cultivars and plant types in yield, fruit quality, and nutritional value, and to verify whether the plant type affects nickel transfer to the fruit. Yield was highest in ‘Asia’ cold-stored plants, while ‘Arianna’ tray plants showed the best qualitative profile. Fruit nickel exceeded the limit in all combinations in the first autumn, but thereafter remained below it only in tray plants, showing that plant material choice, rather than the inert substrate alone, determines the production of nickel-free fruits. Full article

Mangrove replantation is widely implemented as a rehabilitation-oriented response to coastal degradation, yet many replanted stands remain poorly assessed after plantation. This study provides a preliminary dry-season post-plantation habitat characterization of an eight-year-old replanted Rhizophora mucronata stand at Sungai Ujung River, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Its novelty lies in integrating vegetation structure, surface-active brachyuran taxonomic units, selected surface-water variables, and sediment texture within a single replanted stand where no baseline or long-term monitoring data were available. The final descriptive dataset included seven plots across three transects. Surface-active brachyurans and water-quality variables were recorded across five valid sampling occasions: three spring-tide and two neap-tide occasions. Because tidal period was a sampling-occasion-level condition and temporal replication was limited, spring–neap patterns were interpreted descriptively. Eight surface-active brachyuran taxonomic units comprising 676 individuals were recorded, dominated by Metopograpsus latifrons. Crab abundance, Shannon diversity, and water-quality profiles varied among occasions and plots. All 113 living mangrove individuals were R. mucronata, with established trees, visible seedlings, and scarce poles. Sediment texture ranged from sand-dominated to clay-rich substrates. These findings provide a structured reference point for future monitoring, but do not demonstrate replantation success, recovery trajectory, or functional recovery. Full article

Cities worldwide are converting decommissioned railway corridors into linear parks, yet designers lack guidance on which heritage elements to retain and how to combine them with new interventions. Using the tangible–intangible distinction from heritage discourse, this study classifies visible corridor elements as tangible objects, intangible scenario elements, and intangible environmental context. Six scenes along the Taichung Green Corridor 1908, a 1.6 km elevated linear park in central Taiwan, were rated by 267 prior visitors on seven perception factors and overall preference, which yielded 1602 observations. Because each element configuration is represented by a single scene, the six scenes, rather than the 267 participants, constitute the effective units of inference for element category; element-level results are therefore reported as associations observed within this corridor. Mixed-effects models indicated that the presence of scenario elements was associated with higher uniqueness (b = +0.37), complexity (b = +0.45), legibility (b = +0.34) and preference (b = +0.20), whereas tangible remnants showed no association with perceptual quality that survived the exclusion of a single scene. Perception accounted for 91% of the total association between scenario elements and preference, principally through uniqueness and comfort. Ratings did not differ by gender, age or professional training but were higher among participants with less formal education and the lowest among residents of other districts of the same city. In this corridor, interpretive design rather than material retention was associated with heritage becoming perceptually available, at a measurable cost to naturalness: the material substrate of a heritage greenway behaves as a stock that does not by itself generate a flow. Because the findings rest on six scenes within a single corridor, they are offered as exploratory evidence from the Taichung case rather than as general design principles. Full article

Surface roughness at the nanometer scale limits the optical performance of reflective components for X-ray and extreme ultraviolet beam shaping. While sub-nanometer roughness can be achieved by polishing planar substrates, it remains challenging for continuous three-dimensional topographies fabricated by grayscale direct-write lithography in polymer resists. In this work, mm-long linear grayscale slopes are introduced as a calibration platform to distinguish between form, waviness, and roughness contributions. Process optimization reduces artifacts such as gray-value discretization and stitching, while replication into PMMA combined with the TASTE process enables a reduction of intrinsic roughness below 2 nm. Laser scanning confocal and atomic force microscopy are used as complementary techniques to assess surface quality across spatial scales. The results provide insight into the origin of roughness in novolak-based resists and its evolution through the fabrication chain, highlighting material limitations and paths toward smooth polymer optics with sub-nanometer roughness. Full article