Solid Fat Replacement with Canola Oil-Carnauba Wax Oleogels for Dairy-Free Imitation Cheese Low in Saturated Fat.

Canola oil was structured into oleogels with different amounts of carnauba wax, and their processing performances were assessed as an alternative to solid fat for imitation cheese low in saturated fat. The contents of solid fat in the oleogels were less vulnerable to the change in temperature than the palm oil. The replacement of palm oil with oleogels produced cheese samples with harder and more cohesive/chewy textures. Dynamic and transient viscoelastic measurements demonstrated that the use of oleogels was effective in increasing the elastic nature of the cheeses. Two distinct components with different proton mobilities were observed in the imitation cheeses, and longer T2 relaxation times were detected in the oleogel samples. The meltability of the cheese with palm oil was not significantly different from those with 3% and 6% oleogels. The saturated fat level of the oleogel cheese was significantly reduced from 45.70 to 5.20%. The application of canola oil-carnauba wax oleogels could successfully produce imitation cheese high in unsaturated fat and low in saturated fat. This study thus demonstrated that the health-functional properties of imitation cheese could be enhanced by using oleogels.

Development of the SAIT single-port surgical access robot--slave arm based on RCM mechanism.

An innovative single-port surgical robot has recently been developed by the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT). The robot can reach various surgical sites inside the abdominal cavity from a single incision on the body. It has two 7-DOF surgical tools, a 3-DOF endoscope, a flexible hyper-redundant 6-DOF guide tube, and a 6-DOF manipulator. This paper primarily focuses on the manipulator, called a slave arm, which is capable of setting the location of a Remote Center Motion (RCM) point. Because the surgical tools can explore the abdominal area through a small incision point when the RCM point is aligned with the incision area, the RCM mechanism is an integral part of the manipulator for single-port surgery. The mechanical feature, operational principle, control method, and the system architecture of the slave arm are introduced in this paper. In addition, manipulation experiments conducted validate its efficacy.

Formation of CuInSe2 absorber layers formed using co-electrodeposition combined with selenization.

Stoichiometric CuInSe2 absorber layers were formed using co-electrodeposition coupled with selenization. We investigated the influence of the metal ion ratio, supporting electrolyte, and deposition voltages on the structural and chemical properties of Cu-In alloys. The increases in deposition voltage and metal ion concentration helped to form In-rich Cu-In alloy with dendrite structure composed of a long central trunk with secondary branches. In addition, on increasing the concentration of the supporting electrolyte, the ratio of In to Cu in the Cu-In alloy increased, and surface morphology improved. Finally, based on an optimized co-electrodeposition process, the selenization of Cu-In alloys using the evaporation of the Se element was employed to form high quality CuInSe2 absorber layers.