A new eco-friendly defatting process of peanuts by mechanical expression preserving structure integrity (MEPSI)
This article represents a scientific approach to the environment-friendly and energy saving processes which incited us to develop a new efficient, healthy, economical and less polluting defatting process. In this paper, mechanical oil extraction was conducted on peanuts by preserving their structure integrity and the process was followed by a quantitative and qualitative study on the physicochemical properties of the defatted grains in order to investigate the best extraction parameters. The described extraction process coupled to a reconstitution process by Intensification of Vaporization by Decompression to the Vacuum (IVDV) showed that the optimal conditions are 5% d.b. initial water content, 2 days at 4°C of homogenization period, pressing at around 10 MPa (at room temperature) for 3 to 4 min most preferably at a compression speed of 8mm/sec, using the appropriate process modification to avoid structure damages and loss of deteriorated seeds, then reconstituting by IVDV with a pressure of 0.9MPa applied for 10 sec on hydrated peanuts to 10% d.b.
Optimisation of liquor yield during the hydraulic pressing of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) discards
Fresh sardine (employed as discard model species) was pressed with a hydraulic press in order to obtain a partially dewatered cake (whose volume represents between 55% and 60% of the initial volume of raw material) and a 3-phase press liquor comprising an aqueous fraction, an oil fraction and a variable amount of suspended solids. Pressing conditions, such as final pressure to which the sardine was subjected, compression speed, number of pressing stages and time of relaxation between two consecutive pressing stages, were optimised by means of a statistically designed experiment. The goal of the optimisation problem was to achieve maximal yield of press liquor with a minimum load of suspended solids. The suspended solid content in the press liquor must be kept to a minimum in order to facilitate any further treatment by operations such as membrane filtration. The conflict between these two objectives suggested employing a multiobjective optimisation technique. A Pareto Front was generated in order to find a set of solutions which satisfied both objectives to an adequate degree.
Use of a specific antiserum for renin detection in human kidney.
The use of anti-human renin antibodies made possible the intrarenal localization of renin in human kidney by immunofluorescence. In normal kidney, only some juxtaglomerular apparatus (JGA) were fluorescent. In these JGA, granular or diffuse fluorescence was only seen in afferent arterioles and was not present in all cells. In the ischemic areas of partially infarcted kidney, fluorescence was seen in all JGA and in interlobular arteries. In these arteries the most eccentric cells were often the most positive. In the nonischemic areas of the same kidneys, fluorescence was not seen in JGA, but was observed in proximal tubular cells, suggesting the reabsorption of filtered renin at this site.