Impact of granule-associated lipid removal on the property changes of octenylsuccinylated small-granule starches.

Starch granule associated lipids (GALs) are known to alter the properties and functions of small granule starches. To test the hypothesis that the removal GALs from small granule starches could increase the overall reactive surface and improve octenyl-succinylation (OSA) modification efficiency, four small granules starches from rice, oat, quinoa, amaranth and a waxy maize starch were subjected to defat, OSA esterification and combined defatted and OSA treatment. The combined treatment showed a significant improvement in the degree of substitution for all starches from both tritration and H NMR methodologies.

Goodwill impairment, M&A, and industry development-Empirical evidence from listed companies in China.

Goodwill has been a controversial issue in China since 2007 when the new accounting standards changed the subsequent measurement of goodwill from periodic amortization to impairment testing. Using the change in subsequent measurement of goodwill, this paper examines the impact of goodwill accounting on corporate M&A and industry development. The paper finds that adopting the goodwill impairment test significantly increases firms' M&A incentives, as evidenced by a significant increase in the frequency and probability of M&A and a significant reduction in the time interval between successive M&A at the industry level.

Investigation of food microstructure and texture using atomic force microscopy: A review.

We review recent applications of atomic force microscopy (AFM) to characterize microstructural and textural properties of food materials. Based on interaction between probe and sample, AFM can image in three dimensions with nanoscale resolution especially in the vertical orientation. When the scanning probe is used as an indenter, mechanical features such as stiffness and elasticity can be analyzed.

Octenylsuccinylation differentially modifies the physicochemical properties and digestibility of small granule starches.

The impact of starch granule size on 2-octenyl-1-succinic anhydride (OSA) modification remains unclear. To investigate changes of structural, physicochemical, digestibility and emulsifying properties due to OSA modification, five small granule starches (from wheat, rice, oat, quinoa and amaranth) were selected and compared with a standard large granule starch (waxy maize). OSA starches were prepared in 3% (volume by weight) OSA reagent with continuous stirring for 6 h under constant pH of 8.