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    Electrical conductivity (EC) is the ability to conduct electricity which is expressed as micro Siemens per centimeter (µs/cm). The conductance of the milk is attributed mainly to its salts content especially Na, K and Cl ions. Since measuring the milk’s EC is a rapid and inexpensive method for determining of the milk quality, therefore correlation between EC with pH, acidity, and total microbial count (TC) in raw milk was studied in order to assess the freshness of milk in this research. In a pilot study, using skim milk, pH, acidity, and TC were changed and EC measured at 25ºc. Then a total of 200 samples of whole milk were obtained from the receiving platform of a dairy plant in Tehran. In one trial 100 samples of whole milk were examined for pH, acidity and TC. Also EC was measured in different temperatures of milk samples at the time of the analysis. In the second 100 samples of whole milk, pH, acidity and TC determined and EC measured at 25ºC. According to the results obtained from the pilot study (with 10 repetition), increasing the pH caused a decrease in EC and vice versa (P0/05). No significant correlation was found between EC with pH, acidity and TC in other trials (P>0.05). It seems many factors may affect the EC in raw whole milk. Therefore measuring EC solely can not determine the milk quality.

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Background: Soil salinization is a world-wide land degradation process in arid and semi-arid regions that leads to sever economic and social consequences.
Materials and Methods: We analyzed soil salinity by two statistical linear (multiple linear regression) and non-linear (artificial neural network) models using Landsat OLI data in Agh-Ghala plain located in north east of Iran. In situ soil electrical conductivity (EC) of 156 topsoil samples (depth of 0-15cm) was also determined. A Pearson correlation between 26 spectral indices derived from Landsat OLI data and in situ measured ECs was used to apply efficient indices in assessing soil salinity. The best correlated indices such as blue, green and red bands, intensity indices (Int1, Int2), soil salinity indices (Si1, Si2, Si3, Si11, Aster-Si), vegetation Indices (NDVI, DVI, RVI, SAVI), greenness and wetness indices were used to develop two models.
Results: Comparison between two estimation models showed that the performance of ANN model (R²=0.964 and RMSE=2.237) was more reliable than that of MLR model (R²=0.506 and RMSE=9.674) in monitoring and predicting soil salinity. Out of the total area, 66% and 55.8% was identified as non-saline, slightly and very slightly saline for ANN and MLR models, respectively.
Conclusions: This shows that remote sensing data can be effectively used to model and map spatial variations of soil salinity. 

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Salinity is the primary water quality concern in irrigated agriculture. An Electrical Conductivity (EC) meter and a hydrometer are two possible methods for measurement of irrigation water salinity. The conductivity meter method is based on measuring the amount of electrical current that a fluid will support. Although it is the most widely used method, the instrumentation is rather expensive and in some instances may require sample dilution. The hydrometer method is based on measuring the density of the fluid. The main objectives of this study were to compare these two methods and, based on hydrometer method, develop empirical models for prediction of EC, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), and the principle ion concentrations in the irrigation waters of Yazd Province, Iran. The electrical conductivity, temperature, and density of 206 water samples from wells across Yazd Province were measured. Temperature correction factors for adjusting the hydrometer reading to 25 oC were determined. The correlation between EC and hydrometer readings was high (R2 = 0.97). Although the empirical model developed for prediction of EC slightly underpredicted the measured values, it is still accurate enough for practical purposes. Hydrometer readings were also highly correlated with the principle ions and SAR. The salt type also affected the hydrometer readings. Magnesium sulfate solution had the highest density among the major salt types present in irrigation waters. Finally, a chart was developed for rough estimations of EC, sodium and chlorine concentrations in irrigation waters of Yazd Province, Iran.

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  The present work was undertaken with an objective to study the design, development and construction and performance evaluation of a batch ohmic heating system. Direct ohmic heating (Joule’s heating) is a technology to warm up the food using an electric energy where electric current is passed through a material which gets heated by virtue of its electrical resistance. In this study, firstly new batch ohmic heating containing a static cell (200-mm-long Teflon cylinder with 94 mm diameter at a constant voltage gradient of 15 V/cm) was developed and constructed. To evaluate the performance of this heating unit various food systems was used, i.e. sodium chloride solutions (concentrations : 0.2 and 0.6% w/v), starch solutions (2 and 5% w/v) and 0.5% w/v NaCl,  a two-phase food systems (5% starch, 0.5% w/v NaCl and oil (1% and 10% w/v). Heating rates for previously named food systems were determined by tracking and recording the temperature profiles for a given time intervals. The data indicates the heating up rate increases with increasing concentrations of starch and salt but decreases with increasing oil in food.

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This Study presents a numerical investigation of the hydro-thermal behavior of a Non-Newtonian ferrofluid (non-Newtonian base fluid and 4% Vol. Fe3O4) in a rectangular vertical duct in the presence of different magnetic fields, using two-phase mixture model, power-law model, and control volume technique. Considering the electrical conductivity of the base fluid, in addition to the ferrohydrodynamics principles, the magnetohydrodynamics principles have also been taken into account. To study the effects of non-Newtonian base fluid using power-law model, assuming the same flow consistency index with viscosity of Newtonian fluid, two different power law indexes (i.e., n=0.8 and 0.6), have been investigated and the results have been compared with that of Newtonian ones (i.e., n=1). Three cases for magnetic field have been considered to study mixed convection of the ferrofluid: non-uniform axial field, uniform transverse field and another case when both fields are applied simultaneously. The results indicate that the overall influence of magnetic fields on Nusselt number and friction factor is similar to the Newtonian case, although, by decreasing the power law index, the effect of axial field on velocity profile, Nusselt number and friction factor become more significant. Moreover, the results indicate that electrical conductivity has a significant effect on the behavior of ferrofluid and cannot be neglected and also negative gradient axial field and uniform transverse field act similarly and enhance both the Nusselt number and the friction factor, while positive gradient axial field decreases them.

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The soaking stage is the most important steps of the parboiling process. Hot soaking requires precise control, because starch granules are gelatinized during soaking. Degree of starch gelatinization (DSG) of rice was measured using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). This method has high costs and can not be utilized to obtain online data. Thus, in this study a mathematical relationship correlating the DSG of rice to the paddy physical (paddy moisture) -electrical (electrical conductivity (EC) and capacitance sensor output voltage of paddy water) during the soaking portion of the parboiling process was formulated. For measuring of electrical properties of paddy water was designed and manufactured an experimental system of ohmic heater and capacitance sensor for measuring electrical conductivity and voltage, respectively. For doing experiment, paddy (Shiroudi variety) was parboiled by soaking at 60, 65 and 70 oC. At each temperature, samples of paddy and paddy water were selected at five different soaking times. The experimnet results showed that paddy moisture content (21.18-35.1%w.b.), electrical conductivity (0.63-1.6 mS.cm-1) and output voltage of capacitance sensor (216 – 595 mV) of paddy water and rice DSG (5.5 to 31.7%) increased significantly (p<0.05) and exponentially (R2>0.98), exponentially (R2>0.93), quadraticly (R2>0.95) and exponentially (R2>0.96) during soaking, respectively. Linear relationships were fitted between DSG of parboiled rice and physical-electrical properties of paddy water. The results revealed that EC of paddy water be able to predict the DSG of rice during soaking with the lowest regression error.

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In the present study, Azivash leaf gum (Corchorus olitorius L.) was used for the first time with the help of an electroporation technique in the presence of poly-vinyl alcohol as a natural nanofibre. At first, the effect of different concentrations of Azivash gum aqueous solution (2, 2.5 and 3 g / l) with polyvinyl alcohol (P70: G30, P60: G40, P50: G50 and P0: G100) on viscosity and electrical conductivity as the main soluble parameters was studied. The results showed a significant increase in viscosity concentration with gum concentration and volume ratio of polyvinyl alcohol (p <0.01). Regardless of the concentration of Azivash gum, by increasing the ratio of gum to polyvinyl alcohol, the electrical conductivity increased significantly (p <0.05). In the study of shear stress-shear rate of Azivash gum and polyvinyl alcohol solutions, pseudoplastic behavior was confirmed. Investigating the fitting of rheological data with Herschel-Balkly models, power law and casson showed that the Herschel-Balkly model with the highest R² / RMSE is desirable to describe the flow behavior. The values ​​of the flow index and consistency coefficient were determined by the model. After the electrospining of azivash leaf gum-polyvinyl alcohol in a constant condition (voltages of 18 kV, volumetric flow rate of 0.7 ml/hr and needle distance to a collector plate of 12 cm), by microstructure analysis and based on the morphology of bead-free fibres, the Azivash gum formulation at 2 g / L concentration and the mixing ratio of 70:30 with polyvinyl alcohol was selected as the most suitable formulation with a mean nanofiber diameter of 90 nm. Based on FTIR resulrs, addition of gum to polyvinyl alcohol caused an increase in peak intensity due to carbonyl and hydroxyl groups glycosidic vibrations. Also, the thermal stability of the gum nanofibers of Azivash improved in the presence of polyvinyl alcohol.

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In this study, the moisture content of kiwifruit in vacuum dryer was predicted using artificial neural networks (ANN) method. The protein (1, 2, 3 and 4%), lactose (4, 6, 8 and 10%), fat (3 and 6%) and temperature (50, 55, 60 and 65ºC) were considered as the independent input parameters and electrical conductivity of recombined milk as the dependent parameter. Experimental data obtained from electrical conductivity meter, were used for training and testing the network. In order to develop neural network firstly experimental data were randomly divided into three sets of training (70%), validating (15%) and testing model (15%).  In order to develop ANN models, we used multilayer perceptron with back propagation with momentum algorithm. MLP models trained as two, three and four layers. The total number of hidden layers and the number of neurons in each hidden layer were chosen by trial and error. The best training algorithm was LM with the least MSE value. The highest coefficient of determination (R²) and lowest mean squared error (MSE) were considered as the criterion for selecting the best network. The network having three layers with a topology of 4-4-1 had the best results in predicting the electrical conductivity of recombined milk. This network has two hidden layers with 8 neurons in the first hidden layer and 5 neurons in the second hidden layer.  For this network, R² and MSE were 0.992 and 0.011, respectively. These results can be used in milk processing factories. The correlation between the predicted and experimental values in the optimal topologies was higher than 99%.
 

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The cold roll bonding (CRB) is a type of bonding process between similar and/or dissimilar metals that is bonded through plastic deformation via rolling process at room temperature. In addition, the accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process is considered as one of the methods for applying severe plastic deformation (SPD) with the ability to achieve ultra-fine grains (UFG) structure and improved mechanical properties. In this research, a combined method was suggested consisting of ARB and CRB processes in order to fabricate UFG copper strip with simultaneous increase of strength and electrical conductivity. Microstructure, mechanical properties, and electrical conductivity of copper specimen fabricated via combined method and ARB processes were investigated. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) micrographs showed in the crystalline structure of the specimen fabricated via combined method, a large amount of the UFG with uniform distribution are observable. Also tensile strength and hardness of strips increased with increasing the number of rolling passes. Finally, investigation the electrical conductivity of the specimens by four-point probes test showed electrical conductivity decreases with increasing the number of ARB cycles, while the specimen fabricated via combined method increased simultaneously strength, hardness, and high electrical conductivity.

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In this study, using thyme medicinal plant without using heat by osmotic method, sugar solution with maximum active ingredients was produced. Effects of temperature (25, 35 and 45 degrees Celsius), sucrose osmotic solution concentration (40, 50 and 60%) and sampling time (15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, 240 and 360 minutes) on the amount The removal of active ingredients from the plant and the change in pH values and electrical conductivity (EC) were evaluated. Then the effect of blanching with hot water in (30, 60, 120 and 180 seconds) and ultrasound (0, 15 and 30 minutes) on the osmotic processing were investigated separately. The highest EC was in the solution with 40% sucrose concentration and 45°C and the lowest was in osmotic solution with 60% concentration and 45°C. Blanching before osmosis resulted in increased pH and EC. Blanching for 30 seconds caused the greatest increase in EC. Treatment with 30 minutes ultrasound increased the pH and EC in samples compared to 15 minutes of ultrasound. The chromatographic results of the control samples and the sample containing thyme extract in sucrose solution showed the release of polar and non-polar active compounds in the osmotic solution. The release of different compounds showed a difference in their release rate during the osmosis process. Finally the results showed that the extraction of active ingredients of medicinal plants was possible by osmosis process, so that the pH and EC changed over time. The product of this research can be used in the production of beverage syrups and food. In this method, the damages of other methods of extraction of effective substances such as solvent extraction, use of heat in extraction and drying of medicinal plants such as distillation and essential oil extraction methods are minimized.

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In this paper, a new model for estimation of the electrical conductivity of polymer carbon nanotube (CNT) nanocomposites based on the conventional power-law model and Halpin-Tsai formulation has been proposed. Halpin-Tsai model was originally presented to calculate the tensile modulus of composites, which can be modified for estimation of the electrical conductivity by replacing the electrical parameters. The nature of “b” exponent in power-law model is defined according to CNT dimensions, CNT electrical conductivity and the interphase thickness and also the impacts of these parameters on the “b” and the electrical conductivity of nanocomposite are taken into consideration. The developed model interprets that the electrical conductivity of polymer-CNT nanocomposite increases as the concentration, length and electrical conductivity of CNT and the interphase thickness increase. Furthermore, reduction in CNT diameter and waviness results in growth of nanocomposite electrical conductivity. In order to validate the developed model, nanocomposite samples with different volume fractions were produced by solid-state technique of the melt-blending method. The results of calculations and experimental procedure show good agreement.