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Carotenoids are potent antioxidants, but they are highly unstable and susceptible during processing and storage. Encapsulation technologies protect against degradation and are capable of releasing individual or combination of bioactive substances during processing as well as development of various functional food products. Moreover, encapsulating agents can be used to increase the stability of carotenoids and form a barrier between the core and wall materials. Suitable encapsulating agents, temperature, and drying methods are the most important factors for the encapsulation process. In this report, we reviewed the current status of encapsulation of carotenoids from different fruits, vegetables, spices, seaweeds, microorganisms, and synthetic sources using various types of encapsulating agents through spray drying and freeze drying. We also focused on the degradation kinetics and various factors that affect the stability and bioavailability of encapsulated carotenoids during their processing and storage.

This study was performed to compare the total protein and protease content among the whole fruit, flesh, and peel of nine different pear cultivars. Pear proteases were functionally characterized with respect to three enzyme assays. Proteases from pears were further identified by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, in gel activity staining, and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry analysis. Flesh from Whasan, Nikita, and Hanareum cultivars contained relatively more total protein and protease and showed high enzyme activities, while Chuwhang contained the lowest amount of protein and protease activity. Protease content and enzyme activities found in the pear flesh or whole fruits were two to six times higher than those in the pear peel. Pear cultivars contained one or two protease bands with molecular weights of 36 kDa and/or 38k Da. The larger band was further identified as a cysteine proteinase with 70% homology to the pear cysteine protease f...

A new technology for reducing photolithography process from a four step to a three step process in the fabrication of TFT LCD is introduced. The core technology for 3‐mask‐TFT processes is the lift‐off process [1], by which the PAS and PXL layers can be formed simultaneously. A different method of the lift‐off process was developed in order to enhance the performance of efficiency with conventional positive and not negative PR which is the generally used in other lift‐off process. In addition, the removal capacity of the ITO/PR in lift‐off process was evaluated. The evaluation results showed that the new process can be run in conventional TFT production condition. In order to apply this new process in existing TFT process, several tests were conducted to ensure stability of the TFT process. It was found that the outgases from PR on the substrate in ITO sputtering chamber do not raise any problem, and the deposited ITO film beside the PR has conventional ITO qualities. Furthemore, the particles th...

The molecular chaperones were affinity purified with immobilized alpha-casein (45mg protein/g beads) and beta-casein columns (30 mg protein/g beads) from two heat-induced E. coli strains, NM522 and BL21. After removing nonspecifically bound proteins with 1 M NaCl, the molecular chaperones were eluted with cold water, 1 mM Mg-ATP, or 6 M urea. The eluates from affinity columns were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and Western analysis. Western analysis identified five E. coli molecular chaperones including DnaK, DnaJ, GrpE, GroEL, and GroES in eluates. Among samples, ATP eluates showed the highest chaperone purity of 80-87% followed by cold water eluates with 62-68% purity. The beta-casein column showed a higher chaperone binding capacity than the alpha-casein column. A higher concentration of chaperones was purified from strain BL21 than strain NM522 which may have been due to the lack of lon protease in the BL21 strain.

Strontium titanate thin films have been prepared on p-type Si(100) substrate by radio frequency(RF) magnetron sputtering. The films were deposited at 400 °C and annealed at various temperatures. The SrTiO3 thin films were composed of three regions; an external surface layer, a main layer, and an interface layer. The silicon dioxide layers were present in the interface and were increased with increasing annealing temperature. The capacitance-voltage(C-V) characteristics showed a large negative shift and distorted shape for as-deposited film in argon discharge and were improved for SrTiO3 film deposited using 30% oxygen content as a discharge gas. The C-V characteristics showed almost ideal shapes in the films annealed above 600 °C. The effective dielectric constant was maximum value in the films annealed at 600 °C and was increased with increasing the ratio of strontium and titanium.