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Rewinding machines are used in the paper converting industrial sector to unroll paper veils from large source reels and wind them around smaller rolls, for the production of paper logs to be used in household activities. Many different types of rewinding machine exist, and they are mostly based on stapling devices which automatically unroll a large coil of paper, roll it up around a new log, stop the veil allowing it to be torn off, unload the completed paper log, and reload a new paper core to be rolled up. Winding units generally include a primary and a secondary roller, supplying the desired rotational speed for winding, and a pressure unit consisting of a pressure roller in contact with the paper log being rolled up, which assures adequate containment and avoids the paper log to escape. All known systems have some mechanical limitations, mainly due to the contact of the pressure roller with the paper log, causing instabilities and vibrations, particularly when working with soft paper veils. This limits the maximum possible winding speed. The aim of this paper is it to present a detailed kinematic analysis of a novel pressure unit which overcomes the aforementioned limitation.

We present a metapopulation dynamic model for the diffusively-coupled rock-paper-scissors (RPS) game with mutation in scale-free hierarchical networks. We investigate how the RPS game changes by mutation in scale-free networks. Only the mutation from rock to scissors (R-to-S) occurs with rate μ. In the network, a node represents a patch where the RPS game is performed. RPS individuals migrate among nodes by diffusion. The dynamics are represented by the reaction-diffusion equations with the recursion formula. We study where and how species coexist or go extinct in the scale-free network. We numerically obtained the solutions for the metapopulation dynamics and derived the transition points. The results show that, with increasing mutation rate μ, the extinction of P species occurs and then the extinction of R species occurs, and finally only S species survives. Thus, the first and second dynamical phase transitions occur in the scale-free hierarchical network. We also show that the scaling law holds for the population dynamics which suggests that the transition points approach zero in the limit of infinite size.

Rice is one of the most abundant food crops in the world and its straw stands as an important source of fibres both from an economic and an environmental point of view. Pulp characterization is of special relevance in works involving alternative raw materials, since pulp properties are closely linked to the quality of the final product. One of the analytical techniques that can be used in pulp characterization is near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). The use of NIRS has economic and technical advantages over conventional techniques. This paper aims to discuss the convenience of using NIRS to predict Kappa number in rice straw pulps produced under different conditions. We found that the resulting Kappa number can be acceptably estimated by NIRS, as the errors obtained with that method are similar to those found for other techniques.

Great loss due to vegetable decay during transportation and preservation is a main problem all over the world. To solve this problem, a kind of easy-to-preserve and fast vegetable product, vegetable paper, was prepared in this research. The optimal technology for preparation of vegetable paper was as follows: The fresh vegetables were scalded in an aqueous solution containing 0.3% of sodium bicarbonate (%w/w) for 2 min at 85C and dehydrated by centrifugation and then homogenized along with some food hydrocolloids. The vegetable slurry was spread over a cloth with a thickness of 1–2 cm and dried by a microwave oven. Sensory evaluations among the university students and teachers showed that the most acceptable formula (%w/w) based on raw vegetable for producing vegetable paper was as follows: water, 10%; sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, 0.2%; sodium alginate, 0.15%; soy protein isolate, 0.125%; dextrin (cold-water-soluble starch), 0.375%. Preservation study using VCand chlorophylls as index indicated that package material and method as well as light contribute to quality of vegetable paper during storage. Moreover, using the vegetable juice to produce fermented product was also discussed. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This research presents a technology to produce tasty vegetable paper using fresh vegetables as raw materials. The moisture content of this new kind of fast vegetable product was below 5%, while 90% or above of raw materials were maintained solids, which solved the problem for the transportation and preservation of fresh vegetables. The technology could be applied for all kind of fruits and vegetables, and the products are welcomed by all populations, especially by children who do not like eating fresh vegetables.

We give a counter example to the comparison principle for the multipoint BVPs (by Xuxin Yang, Zhimin He, and Jianhua Shen, in Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Volume 2009, Article ID 258090, doi:10.1155/2009/258090). Then we suggest and prove a corrected version of the comparison principle.

We show that the sufficient condition of the above mentioned paper is also necessary for the boundedness of Bergman type projections on a class of regulated domains.

We improve a result in Silverman's paper (1999) and answer a question he posed. We also consider a similar problem and obtain sufficient conditions for starlikeness.

In line with the growing environmental awareness developed along the last decades, modern societies are urged to evolve into sustainable economics where the reuse of organic wastes represents the key feedstock for a green transaction. The oil phase obtained from different biomasses has the potential to be a source of food supplements, medicines, cosmetics, or feedstock for biofuel production. In the present work, the composition of 104 different biomasses including seeds, peels, flowers, plants, and leaves has been reviewed for the lipid content. Based on the most frequent fatty acids screened, experimental data for normal boiling point temperature, normal melting point, critical properties, and acentric factor were collected and compared with the most common estimation methods, which are functions of the molecular structure and interaction between different functional groups. New predictive equations have been proposed to reduce the estimation deviation and to provide simple correlations to be used in simulation software when dealing with biomass processes. For all the properties, the estimations proposed have an absolute average deviation equal to or lower than 4.6%.

The potential of predicting maturity using total soluble solids (TSS) and identifying organic from inorganic pineapple fruits based on near-infrared (NIR) spectra fingerprints would be beneficial to farmers and consumers alike. In this study, a portable NIR spectrometer and chemometric techniques were combined to simultaneously identify organically produced pineapple fruits from conventionally produced ones (thus organic and inorganic) and also predict total soluble solids. A total of 90 intact pineapple fruits were scanned with the NIR spectrometer while a digital refractometer was used to measure TSS from extracted pineapple juice. After attempting several preprocessing techniques, multivariate calibration models were built using principal component analysis (PCA), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to identify the classes (organic and conventional pineapple fruits) while partial least squares regression (PLSR) method was used to determine TSS of the fruits. Among the identification techniques, the MSC-PCA-LDA model accurately identified organic from conventionally produced fruits at 100% identification rate. For quantification of TSS, the MSC-PLSR model gave Rp = 0.851 and RMSEC = 0.950 °Brix, and Rc = 0.854 and RMSEP = 0.842 °Brix at 5 principal components in the calibration set and prediction set, respectively. The results generally indicated that portable NIR spectrometer coupled with the appropriate chemometric tools could be employed for rapid nondestructive examination of pineapple quality and also to detect pineapple fraud due to mislabeling of conventionally produced fruits as organic ones. This would be helpful to farmers, consumers, and quality control officers.