
 Possibilities for compositional tailoring of Norway spruce (Picea abies
 L. Karst.) wood using a hydrophobic oil impregnation process

ZusammenfassungImpregnation with hydrophobic oils offers non-toxic options for preserving Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst) wood that could potentially be used to tailor the properties
 of wood products, especially those used in exposed conditions. The objective of this study was to quantify
 the effects of the water-filled porosity and density of Norway spruce wood and treatments (applied to set
 the wood’s water contents at desired test levels) prior to impregnation with the linseed oil derivative
 Linogard by the Linotech process on its oil retention. Retention of oil differed significantly between
 tissue types. Dried specimens always retained less oil than corresponding undried or rewetted specimens.
 Furthermore, water-filled porosity and density had significant effects on oil retention levels within tissue
 types, allowing linear regression equations to be developed that gave good predictions of oil retention
 parameters for different tissues, with R2 values ranging from 0.66 for mature
 heartwood to 0.85 for mature sapwood. Thus there is scope to use hydrophobic oil impregnation processes
 for producing compositionally tailored wood materials with specified properties.

Assessing the need for transformation of response variables
File scanned at 300 ppi (256 Grayscale) using Capture Perfect 3.0 on a Canon DR-9050C in PDF format. CVista PdfCompressor 4.0 was used for pdf compression and textual OCR.
Characterization of Aqueous Dispersions and Gels Made of Sodium Caseinate and Basil Seed Gum: Phase Behavior, Rheology, and Microstructure
The interactions between sodium caseinate (NaCas) and basil seed gum (BSG) in the presence of calcium chloride (CaCl 2 ) were investigated. The phase behavior of the mixed aqueous dispersions and their gels revealed a homogeneous mixture, obtained at the higher concentrations of both CaCl 2 and BSG. The Herschel-Bulkley model sufficiently fitted the flow behavior of the mixture solution data. Apparent viscosity increased significantly ( p  < 0.05) by increasing the concentration of BSG, where the addition of CaCl 2 had no significant effect on the viscosity of the samples ( p  > 0.05). Furthermore, there was an increase in thixotropy due to the higher concentrations of BSG and CaCl 2 . Based on the frequency sweep test, at the low frequencies, a more gel-like behavior was observed in the case of the higher concentrations of either BSG or CaCl 2 . The rheological and SEM data suggested that the stronger structure of NaCas-BSG gel in the presence of the higher concentrations of CaCl 2 was related to the induction of complex formation between the two biopolymers.