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In this work, the paste of microalga, Tetraselmis suecica, was produced and the effects of vitamin C and E on its food value and shelf life improvement during eight weeks of storage in refrigerator (4°C) was investigated. The microalga was initially mass grown up to logarithmic phase in standard convey medium, then concentrated by cream skimmer centrifugation method. The obtained algal paste was treated by adding vitamins C, E and their mixture (all 0.1% weight/weight), and refrigerated for 8 weeks. The density of algal cells was1.38109 cells/ml and the production yield was about 1.7 gr/l. The cell viability in vitE-treated pastes (39/99±2/1%) was higher than the control group (p>0.05), indicating the positive effect of the preservatives. The proximate analysis showed that the control group had the lowest moisture (86.8 %), the vit C-treated group had the highest protein (36.6%) and lowest ash (29.9%), and the mixture of vits-treated group had the highest fat content (13.4%) at the end of the storage period. pH in the control and vit- C treated groups was lower than the other two treatments (p>0.05). In conclusion, using of vitamins E and C as well as refrigerator storage are suggested for qualitative preservation of T. suecica algal paste.

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  This study was performed to determine proximate composition and fatty acids in muscle of common carp and grass carp that are commonly consumed in Iran. There is no significant difference in the content of protein, lipid and ash samples of in these two fish species (p>0.05). Grass carp had significantly higher moisture contents than common carp. The fatty acid composition of common carp and grass carp were found to be 32.86 and 34.06% saturated (SFA), 39.43 and 25.02% monounsaturated (MUFAs) and 24.13 and 37.54% polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), respectively.  In both fish, palmitic acid C16:0 and oleic C18:1 n-9 acid were the principal saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, respectively. The dominant poly unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) was Docosahexaenoic acid (C22: 6n-3) in grass carp and Linoleic acid (C18: 2n-6) in common carp. The content of n3 PUFAs was 8.6% for common carp and 25/3% for grass carp. Arachidonic acid (20:4n6) content was 2.55% in grass carp and 1.33% in common carp. Muscle fatty acid composition of common and grass carp showed that there are significant difference in among all the fatty acids except for 22:0 and SFA(p<0.05).

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The effect of infestation and damage by Larger grain borer (LGB), Prostephanus truncatus (Horns) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) on nutrient content of some dried processed root and tuber crops (cassava, yam, sweet potato and cocoyam) were investigated in the laboratory at 25-30 ºC and 70-90% R.H. Thirty five grams each of the chips from two varieties of sweet potato, cassava, cocoyam and a variety of yam were separately placed in a 950 ml sized glass jar. The Test Host Crops (THC) were artificially infested with one, two and three pairs of adult LGB. The experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design with each treatment replicated three times and kept for 90 days. Data were taken on final population of adult LGB, weight of powder and percentage weight loss. Data on proximate analysis of LGB-infested THC after 90 days was also collected. The response of roots and tubers to infestation by LGB on the THC was significantly different. Percentage loss in quantity of root and tuber crops after 90 days of infestation showed that THC infested with two pairs of the insect had higher weight loss of the crops. The THC infested with two pairs of LGB had higher moisture content and least crude protein was recorded on the THC infested with one pair of LGB while the ones infested with three pairs of LGB had higher crude fat content. Uninfested THC had higher carbohydrate content. The findings of this study show that LGB is a serious threat to stored roots and tubers and to food security. The nutritional value of root and tuber crops was adversely affected by infestation of LGB in storage.

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Performance-based earthquake engineering requires accurate estimation of the seismic demand and capacity of structures. In recent years, various kinds of nonlinear static and dynamic analyses have been developed for the seismic evaluation of structures. Nonlinear dynamic time history analysis method is not only very time consuming, but also needs a proper skill and proficiency in order to interpret its results. For the performance evaluation of the structures, the speed and also the precision of conducting different analyses are very significant criteria. This issue has led to the creation of various new methods based on the principles of nonlinear and incremental static and dynamic analysis. One of the methods that has been proposed to tackle this task is incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). This procedure requires non-linear time history analyses (NL-THA) of the structure for an ensemble of ground motions, each scaled to many intensity levels, selected to cover a wide range of structural response; all the way from elastic behaviour to global instability. From the results of such computation, it is possible to determine structural capacities (or ground motion intensities) corresponding to various limit states; immediate occupancy (IO), life safety (LS), or collapse prevention (CP). Another approach to reduce the computational effort required for IDA is to estimate seismic demands for the practical structures by modal pushover analysis (MPA), an approximate procedure, instead of non-linear RHA. Thus, each of the many non-linear RHA required in IDA is replaced by a MPA. In addition, a more recent proposed method logically combines two different techniques, IDA and MPA is employed, presented by modal incremental dynamic analysis (MIDA). Using MIDA procedure, simple approximate curves that present a realistic linear and non-linear seismic behavior of the structure headed for the calculation of the damage measure (DM) due to the applied scaled level of earthquakes can easily be extracted. In this study, the capability, limitation and precision of MPA in comparison with NL-THA and also MIDA in comparison with IDA method are evaluated. For this purpose, two steel building models of 5 and 15-story with special moment resisting frame (MRF) in X direction and simple frame with X-bracing in Y direction has been designed. Furthermore, seven far field earthquake records are used for nonlinear analyses. In the current article, acceleration spectral intensity of the first mode of vibration with 5% damping, i.e. Sa(T1, %5) factor, are used as of intensity measure (IM). The story deflection and story drift are chosen as of the most important DM parameters to estimate the seismic vulnerability of structures in design practice. Comparison of the numerical results reveals that the MPA method has good accuracy in building seismic demands evaluation for 5-story frames (MRFs and braced frames) and 15-story MRF. However, no exact response is obtained for 15-story braced frame, considering the first three vibration modes of the structure. It is also shown that the results from MIDA simple method compares favorably to the IDA method. Thus, MIDA can be served by design engineers for seismic analysis in order to evaluate structural performance due to its relative simplicity and minimal computational effort.