Influence of the concentration of polyols on the rheological and spectral characteristics of guar gum

Polyols are widely used as sugar substitutes and provide texture to foods. Guar gum has many applications in food industry such as increasing product viscosity and improving texture. Knowledge of rheological properties of gum/polyol systems is important to permit replacing sugar while maintaining product texture. In this work, rheological properties of 0.1, 0.5 and 1 g/100 g guar solutions containing 10 and 40 g/100 g of maltitol, sorbitol, or xylitol were studied. The behavior of these mixtures was evaluated by steady and oscillatory shear measurements, and after a freezing/thawing cycle. Apparent viscosity of guar solutions increased with addition of polyols and with the increase in their concentrations, except for 40 g/100 g sorbitol addition to 1 g/100 g guar gum, in which the apparent viscosity decreased. Addition of polyols also increased the dynamic moduli of the systems. In mixtures of guar with 40 g/100 g polyol, the phase angle (δ) was below unity, but was dependent on frequency, which is characteristic of concentrated solutions with a certain degree of structuring. FTIR spectroscopy was studied to provide information on possible interactions between guar gum and polyols. Analyses carried out after freezing/thawing showed no changes in the viscoelastic behavior of the solutions. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Integração de imagem aérea de alta resolução e dados de varredura a laser na classificação de cenas urbanas para detectar regiões de via

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Contrastes e contrastes encobertos na produção da fala de crianças

TEMA: análise acústica da fala. OBJETIVO: analisar acusticamente as substituições envolvendo o contraste entre /t/ e /k/ na fala de crianças em aquisição típica e desviante do contraste acima referido, a fim de identificar e quantificar a existência de contrastes encobertos. MÉTODO: foi elaborado um experimento de produção de fala que envolveu a repetição de palavras, que combinavam /t/ e /k/ com /a/ e /u/ na posição acentuada, por 9 crianças divididas em três grupos: crianças em processo de aquisição do contraste investigado (G1); crianças com transtorno fonológico (G2) e crianças com produções típicas (G3). Com o uso do software Praat, as produções foram editadas e analisadas de acordo com os seguintes parâmetros acústicos: características espectrais do burst; transição CV e características temporais. Os testes estatísticos utilizados foram ANOVA de Friedman e Manova. A significância estatística adotada foi menor que 0,05. RESULTADOS: tanto nas produções das crianças do G2 quanto nas produções das crianças do G1, detectamos, em grande medida (80% e 57,4%, respectivamente), a presença de contrastes encobertos nos erros de substituição das oclusivas investigadas. Adicionalmente, a análise acústica revelou diferenças em como as crianças utilizam as pistas fonético-acústicas para marcarem a distinção entre /t/ e /k/. CONCLUSÃO: muitas das substituições presentes da produção de fala de crianças em processo de aquisição típico e desviante tratam-se na verdade de contrastes fônicos encobertos. Além disso, o uso da análise acústica permitiu a detecção de diferenças sutis da produção da fala das crianças.

Hierarchical status and colour preference in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

We studied the colour preference of isolated Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and whether previous residence or body size can affect environmental colour choice. In the first phase, a cylindrical tank was divided into five differently coloured compartments (yellow, blue, green, white and red), a single fish was introduced into the tank and the frequency at which this fish visited each compartment was recorded over a 2-day study period. An increasingly larger fish (approx +2 cm in length each time) was then added into the tank on each of days 3, 5 and 7 (=four fish in the tank by day 7), and the frequency at which each fish visited the different compartments of the tank was observed twice a day to obtain visit frequency data on the differently sized fishes. This experiment was replicated six times. In the first phase, the solitary fish established residence inside the yellow compartment on the first and second days. Following the introduction of a larger fish, the smaller fish was displaced from the occupied compartment. Nile tilapia possibly shows this preference for yellow as a function of its visual spectral sensitivity and/or the spectral characteristics of its natural environment. Moreover, body size is an important factor in determining hierarchical dominance and territorial defence, and dominant fish chose the preferred environmental colour compartment as their territory.

Sol-gel Eu3+/Tm3+ doped transparent glass-ceramic waveguides

Eu3+ and Tm3+ doped lanthanum fluoride and lanthanum oxyfluoride are obtained from Eu3+, Tm3+ containing lanthanum fluoracetate solutions. The nature of the crystal phase obtained could be controlled by the temperature of heat treatment. Spectral characteristics of Eu3+ doped crystal phases were sufficiently different to allow utilization of Eu3+ as structural probes. Tm3+ emission at the technologically important spectral region of 1450nm could be observed for the fluoride and oxyfluoride crystal phases. The large bandwidth obtained (around 120nm) suggests potential applications in optical amplification. SiO2-LaF3-LaOF composite materials were also prepared. It is observed that for heat treatments above 800degreesC, fluorine loss, probably in the form of SiF4 hinder the observation of Tm3+ emission. Eu3+ spectroscopic characteristics clearly show the evolution of a fluoride like environment to an amorphous oxide one as the temperature of heat treatment increased. Thin films obtained by dip-coating on V-SiO2 substrates and treated at 300degreesC, 500degreesC and 800degreesC display guided modes in the visible and infrared regions. Optical characteristics (refractive index and films thickness) were obtained at 543.5, 632.8 and 1550nm. Attenuation as low as 1.8dB/cm was measured at 632.8nm. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.

New glasses in the system InF3-BaF2-ErPO4

New glasses have been obtained in the system InF3-BaF2-ErPO4. Glass compositions with up to 30% mol Er3+ were shown to exist and characterized by thermal analysis, x-ray: diffraction, IR absorption and electronic spectroscopy. The systems with high Er3+ content were studied recording IR and visible emission spectral characteristics. A specially elaborated technique allowed the preparation of a high purity phosphate precursor ErPO4. X-ray identification of the crystalline phases appearing during thermal treatment have been carried out and parameters of a mixed fluoride Ba4In3-nErnF17 calculated.

Detecção de regiões de via integrando dados de varredura a LASER aerotransportado e imagens de alta resolução

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Nitrogen content identification in crop plants using spectral reflectance and artificial neural networks

The accurate identification of the nitrogen content in crop plants is extremely important since it involves economic aspects and environmental impacts. Several experimental tests have been carried out to obtain characteristics and parameters associated with the health of plants and its growing. The nitrogen content identification involves a lot of nonlinear parametes and complexes mathematical models. This paper describes a novel approach for identification of nitrogen content thought spectral reflectance of plant leaves using artificial neural networks. The network acts as identifier of relationships among pH of soil, fertilizer treatment, spectral reflectance and nitrogen content in the plants. So, nitrogen content can be estimated and generalized from an input parameter set. This approach can be form the basis for development of an accurate real time nitrogen applicator.

A Bayesian Analysis of Spectral ARMA Model

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Spectroscopic characteristics of Er3+ in the two crystallographic sites of Gd2SiO5

Gd2SiO5 is among the interesting and suitable hosts for Er3+ which find extensive applications in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet spectral regions. In order to investigate its potentialities, a prior study of the spectroscopic behaviour of Er3+ substituting for Gd3+ ions in the two crystallographic sites of the host was performed. Absorption, excitation, site-selective emission and time-resolved spectroscopies were employed in the visible spectral region to study transitions between excited 4S3/2 and ground 4I15/2 states. These levels multiplets were attributed to each site separately, and their corresponding 4S3/2 lifetimes (1.8 ± 0.1 μs for site 1 and 3.2 ± 0.1 μs for site 2) were determined.

Coherence characteristics of random lasing in a dye doped hybrid powder

The photon statistics of the random laser emission of a Rhodamine B doped di-ureasil hybrid powder is investigated to evaluate its degree of coherence above threshold. Although the random laser emission is a weighted average of spatially uncorrelated radiation emitted at different positions in the sample, a spatial coherence control was achieved due to an improved detection configuration based on spatial filtering. By using this experimental approach, which also allows for fine mode discrimination and timeresolved analysis of uncoupled modes from mode competition, an area not larger than the expected coherence size of the random laser is probed. Once the spectral and temporal behavior of nonoverlapping modes is characterized, an assessment of the photon-number probability distribution and the resulting second-order correlation coefficient as a function of time delay and wavelength was performed. The outcome of our single photon counting measurements revealed a high degree of temporal coherence at the time of maximum pump intensity and at wavelengths around the Rhodamine B gain maximum.