The effects of hot air temperature (40, 50 and 60 oC) and Radiation Intensity (RI) (0.21, 0.31 and 0.41 w/cm2) on the response variables (drying time, Head Parboiled Rice Yield (HPRY), color value and hardness)) of parboiled rice were investigated. The drying was performed using hybrid hot air–infrared drying. The optimization of drying variables and the relationship b...

Water is an important component of collagen in tendons, but its role for the function of this load-carrying protein structure is poorly understood. Here we use a combination of multi-scale experimentation and computation to show that water is an integral part of the collagen molecule, which changes conformation upon water removal. The consequence is a shortening of the molecule that translates ...

The objectives of this work were to develop a new technique for lycopene microencapsulation by spray drying using dehumidified air as drying medium and to determine optimum operating conditions. A two-step optimization procedure was used. The encapsulation variables were selected in accordance with the PlackettBurman experimental design and were further optimized via response surface methodolog...

Strength is an important property of leather. However the structural basis of strength in leather is not well understood. We have used synchrotron based small angle X-ray scattering to investigate the structure and strength of collagen materials under a variety of conditions. This enables changes in the extent of orientation of the collagen fibrils to be quantified and the internal stress on th...

The effect of the geometric representation of bananas on the numerical simulation of its isothermal drying kinetics is studied. To study that effect, it is supposed that the diffusion model describes satisfactorily the drying process with boundary condition of the first type and diffusivity varying as a function of the local moisture content. The geometries used to represent the banana are: inf...

decorate cloth. Although evidence of this art has been documented in many parts of the world, probably its origin is in the Island of Java, Indonesia. The word batik is derived from the Indonesian word ambatik, which means a cloth with little dots. Batik involves brushing or drawing molten wax onto designated areas of a cloth so that those areas can then resist coloration. Next, the cloth is dy...

The development of antimicrobial coatings for footwear components is of great interest both from industry and consumer's point of view. In this work, antimicrobial leather materials were developed taking advantage of chitosan intrinsic antimicrobial activity and film forming capacity. Considering the specificities of the leather tanning industry, different coating technologies, namely drum, cal...

Looseness is defect that affects the quality of a significant proportion of leather, particularly bovine leather. This defect causes a wrinkled appearance on the leather surface and results in a significant reduction in the leathers value. The structural mechanism and causes of looseness in leather are not well understood; therefore this study aims to gain a better understanding of this. We hav...