1,455 research outputs found
The build, operate, and transfer ("BOT") approach to infrastructure projects in developing countries
No full textBuild, operate and transfer (BOT) projects are exceedingly complex from both a financial and a legal point of view. They require an extended period of time to develop and negotiate. If a country is not able to finance all of its needed infrastructure on the basis of budgetary resources or sovereign borrowings, the BOT approach is an option to be considered. A BOT project appears to provide some"additionality"in tapping sources of private sector financing which otherwise might not be available. The sponsors'commitment of substantial equity to a project assures that they will also remain committed to the project's successful operation over the concession period. Their investment provides a strong incentive to have the project perform above its minimum expectations. Likewise, having the design, implementation and operation of a BOT project largely in the hands of the private sector may provide economies and efficiencies that will balance out or even outweight the higher financing costs of non sovereign borrowing and equity investment. The BOT approach appears to be a useful possible alternative to the conventional financing and operation of infrastructure projects in developing countries.Municipal Financial Management,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Housing Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform
Unconventional technologies to steer food quality and functionality
No full textNowadays food processing is aimed to develop foods that are not only safe and nutritious, but also characterized by specific technological properties (structural, stabilizing, sensory) and health promoting functions. These important food functions, however, are strongly dependent on the way the foods are processed.
Unconventional technologies, such as ultrasounds, high pressure, pulsed electric fields, dense phase carbon dioxide and UV light, have been investigated in order to satisfy the demand for foods able to accomplish desired technological and functional properties.
This Ph.D. thesis aimed to investigate the effects of unconventional technologies on food quality and functionality of fruit and vegetable derivatives. To this purpose, selected unconventional technologies such as ultrasounds (US), high pressure homogenization (HPH) and pulsed electric fields (PEF) were applied and their effects on physical, chemical and physical chemical properties of fruit and vegetable derivatives and on in vitro functionality of bioactive compounds were investigated.
The results acquired highlighted that US and HPH if properly applied, represent an efficient strategies to develop fruit and vegetable derivatives with desired quality properties. In particular, combined HPH and US treatments with in situ heat generated caused the inactivation of PPO in apple juice. Moreover, HPH and US treatments individually applied induced an increase in consistency of tomato juice with different concentration levels. However, HPH resulted more effective than US in changing tomato juice consistency. Finally, low frequency US treatments combined with in situ heat generated allowed to decontaminate wastewater from fresh-cut lettuce washing.
Unconventional technologies can also steer functional properties of fruit and vegetable derivatives. In particular, HPH resulted an efficient technology to produce physical stable nanoemulsion enriched with a mixture of bioactive compounds extracted from thistle (namely silymarin). Finally, US and PEF can be applied to tomato derivatives without impairing carotenoids functionality
Formulation and Physical Stability of High Total Solids Lentil Protein-Stabilised Emulsions for Use in Plant Protein-Based Young Child Formulae
No full textThe demand for high-quality plant protein products is increasing and the aim of this work was to evaluate the impact of increasing the total solids content on the formation and stability of lentil protein stabilised oil-in-water emulsions. A series of emulsions were formulated using different proportions of total solids: 23, 26, 29, 32, and 35% (w/v). The emulsions were formulated using three ingredients—lentil protein, sunflower oil, and maltodextrin—which made up 15.85, 27.43, and 56.72% (w/w) of the total solids, respectively. The changes in apparent viscosity, particle size distribution, and colour during thermal processing were evaluated, with the physical stability investigated using an analytical centrifuge. The apparent viscosity of the solutions increased with total solids content (25.6 to 130 mPa.s−1), as did redness colour intensity (a* value increased from 5.82 ± 0.12 to 7.70 ± 0.09). Thermal processing resulted in greater destabilisation for higher total solids samples, as evidenced by greater changes in particle size, along with decreased redness colour. These results bring a better understanding of high total solids plant protein emulsions and factors affecting their stability, which could be used for the development of cost-effective and sustainable processing solutions in the production of plant protein young child formulae
Heat-Induced Gelation of Chickpea and Faba Bean Flour Ingredients
No full textThis study aimed to investigate the gelling behavior of faba bean (FB) and chickpea (CP) flour between 10 and 20% (w/w) concentration at pH 3.0, 5.0, and 7.0. Both sources formed at pH 3.0 and 5.0 self-standing gels with 12% (w/w) of flour, while 16% (w/w) of flour was required to obtain a gel at pH 7.0. During gelling between 40 and 70 °C, a sharp increase of the elastic modulus G’ was observed in both flours, mainly due to water absorption and swelling of the starch, one of the major constituents in the ingredients. Increasing the temperature at 95 °C, G’ increased due to the denaturation of globulins and therefore the exposure of their internal part, which allowed more hydrophobic interactions and the formation of the gel. After cooling, both FB and CP gels displayed a solid-like behavior (tan δ ranging between 0.11 and 0.18) with G’ values at pH 3.0 and 5.0 significantly (p < 0.05) higher than those at pH 7.0, due to the lower electrostatic repulsions at pHs far from the isoelectric point. The rheological properties were supported by the water binding capacity values, confirming the better gels’ strength described by rheological analysis. These results will enhance our understanding of the role of legume flours in formulating innovative and sustainable food products as alternatives to animal ones
Furan and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural removal from high- and low-moisture foods
No full textFoods with different moisture and fat contents (i.e. meat sauce and biscuits) were subjected to treatments at 4, 12 and 19 kPa for increasing lengths of time to remove furan and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). The vacuum treatments were ineffective in removing HMF from both food types, as well as furan from the biscuits, unless this food was preliminary hydrated at high water activity. However, the vacuum treatments allowed furan to be removed from the high moisture food. In particular, 67% furan removal from the meat sauce was achieved by applying 12 kPa for 10 min. Sensory analysis results showed that meat sauce subjected to such a treatment presented the same odor intensity of the untreated sample. The post-process vacuum treatment could represent a reliable strategy to mitigate the furan levels in high moisture foods
Policy analysis for improving performance of PPP projects in Vietnam: A Case Study from BOT Phu My Bridge Project
No full textThe important of PPP model to the development of infrastructure as well as the Vietnamese economy, and exiting obstacles in BOT practices in Vietnam inspire me to do this thesis. Among many critical success factors influencing to performance of BOT practice in Vietnam, the author recognizes that Vietnamese government should try all its efforts to improve the financial market, ability to mange risks, legislation and regulation to leverage private involvement in BOT scheme. The other factors can be achieved by the learning curve process on the course of local and international PPP practice. Thus, the thesis focuses on PPP model specializing in the following main aspects: (1) financing of PPP projects, (2) management of risks in PPP projects, (3) the institutional and legal framework of PPP projects.Construction Management and EngineeringBouwCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Bot talk e apprendimento linguistico. L’uso dei chatbot per lo sviluppo della competenza comunicativa nella lingua straniera
No full textOggetto dello studio è il potenziale glottodidattico dei chatbot in un contesto di apprendimento accademico. I chatbot sono programmi capaci di sostenere una conversazione via chat con interlocutori umani e non umani in una lingua naturale. Sebbene oggigiorno tale tecnologia trovi applicazione soprattutto in ambito commerciale, la sua rilevanza nelle Digital Humanities cresce costantemente.
Dopo una breve introduzione alla tecnologia dei chatbot, la trattazione si sposta sulle caratteristiche principali dell’interazione uomo-macchina. Particolare attenzione viene rivolta ai concetti di quasi-coerenza, bot (o computer) talk e alla loro fenomenologia in chat, esemplificata attraverso i chatbot Elbot e Cleverbot, nonché alle dinamiche di (quasi-)alignment.
Sulla base di queste caratteristiche si riflette inoltre sul potenziale glottodidattico dei chatbot rispondendo alla seguente domanda: come cambia la (glotto)didattica con l’impiego dei chatbot? Si parte da una riconfigurazione del rapporto discente-lingua-docente, che, con l’intervento della tecnologia come interlocutrice diretta, non si presenta più come triangolo didattico, bensì come tetraedro. A differenza del triangolo, il modello tetraedrale è tridimensionale, flessibile e pluridirezionale. Il lavoro si conclude con la presentazione di una proposta didattica concreta mirata allo sviluppo della competenza comunicativa in ambito accademico, considerando anche i discenti diversamente abili (specialmente ipovedenti).The purpose of this study is to identify the potential of chatbots in the academic foreign language learning. A chatbot is a software which is capable of chatting with other human and non-human users in a natural language. Even though this technology is mostly used in the business world, its relevance in the field of Digital Humanities has constantly grown recently.
After a brief introduction to the chatbot technology, the study focuses on the main characteristics of human-computer interaction (HCI). Phenomena such as quasi-coherence, computer (or bot) talk, and quasi-alignment play a very important role in HCI, which is shown by several examples of interactions with two chatbots: Elbot and Cleverbot.
Starting from these characteristics, the study considers the potential of chatbots in the language learning process by answering the following question: in what way does language education change if chatbots intervene in the learning/teaching process? The study describes the reconfiguration of the relationship student-language-teacher through the intervention of technology as interlocutor. The traditional configuration of the didactic triangle turns into a didactic tetrahedron. In comparison to the triangle, the tetrahedron has three dimensions and is more flexible and multidirectional. At the end, a didactic proposal for enhancing communicative competence by interacting with a chatbot in an academic context is described, also with reference to disabled (especially visually impaired) students
Effect of high pressure homogenization and high power ultrasound on the physical properties of tomato juices at different concentrations
No full textEnvironmental sustainability of mono- and multi-material packaging for cured meat products
No full textThis study aims to investigate the environmental performance of two food packaging systems − a mono-material and a conventional multi-material, both with a modified atmosphere − for packing sliced cooked ham through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The functional unit was one unit of packaging that contained 100 g of sliced cooked ham. The assessment also accounted for the environmental impacts of potential food waste (PFW) linked to the shelf life of the packaging system. A sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate an alternative end-of-life scenario incorporating recycling, in line with the European Plastics Strategy for a circular economy.
Regarding the whole food packaging unit, the impact results show that the mono-material packaging system presented the highest environmental impact for five (global warming, ozone formation, terrestrial acidification, mineral resource scarcity and fossil resource scarcity) of the seven impact categories studied. This outcome is primarily attributed to the shorter shelf-life of the mono-material packaging system (21 days) compared to the multi-material system (35 days), which led to increased potential food waste (PFW) and a higher associated environmental footprint. Furthermore, the greater weight of the mono-material packaging (17.6 g) compared to the multi-material packaging (16.4 g) compounded its environmental impact during the packaging life cycle. This study highlights the environmental trade-offs between mono-material and multi-material food packaging systems for cured ham and provide invaluable insights for assessing potential innovative food packaging solutions for market introduction
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