The effect of alfalfa seed flour supplementation on the quality characteristics of refined wheat flour-based biscuits was studied. The proximate composition of refined wheat flour and alfalfa seed flour was determined. Refined wheat flour contained 12.43% moisture, 11.52% crude protein, 1.61% crude fat, 0.71% crude fiber, 1.43% ash and 70.83% nitrogen free extract, while alfalfa seed flour contained 5.79%, 29.49%, 12.71%, 5.53%, 4.80% and 41.73% moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, ash and nitrogen free extract correspondingly. Alfalfa seed flour at 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% supplementation levels was incorporated in refined wheat flour to produce composite flour. The biscuits prepared were subjected to quality evaluation. Physical analysis of biscuits disclosed that supplementation of alfalfa seed flour decreased the width from 47.25 to 42 mm and the spread factor from 62.7 to 53.12, while it increased the thickness from 7.53 to 8.10 mm. Supplementation of refined wheat flour–based biscuits with alfalfa seed flour at different inclusion levels significantly (p < 0.05) increased the crude protein content from 10.19% to 15.30%, the crude fiber content from 0.73% to 1.62%, the crude fat content from 17.46% to 21.59% and the ash content from 1.37% to 1.92%, whereas it decreased the moisture content from 3.57% to 3.26% and the nitrogen free extract from 66.90% to 59.32%. The effect of supplementation on the mineral contents of biscuits was also significant (p < 0.05). Potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron and zinc contents increased from 105.30, 14.65, 43.91, 3.74 and 0.94 to 145.00, 26.64, 79.60, 7.93 and 1.60 mg/100 g, respectively. Sensory evaluation revealed that the quality score of biscuits in terms of color, taste, texture and overall acceptability decreased with increased supplementation. The present research work confirmed that a maximum of 10% alfalfa seed flour supplementation in refined wheat flour could produce acceptable biscuits with an appropriate nutritional profile.

Biodiesel production is a field of outstanding prospects due to the renewable nature of its feedstock and little to no overall CO 2 emissions to the environment. Data-based soft sensors are used in realizing stable and efficient operation of biodiesel production. However, the conventional data-based soft sensors cannot grasp the effect of process uncertainty on the process outcomes. In this study, a framework of data-based soft sensors was developed using ensemble learning method, i.e., boosting, for prediction of composition, quantity, and quality of product, i.e., fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), in biodiesel production process from vegetable oil. The ensemble learning method was integrated with the polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) method to quantify the effect of uncertainties in process variables on the target outcomes. The proposed modeling framework is highly accurate in prediction of the target outcomes and quantification of the effect of process uncertainty.

Mungbean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek) is a popular pulse crop, producing protein-rich food and nitrogen-rich residues. Mungbean sprouts were grown at different temperature levels of 10, 20 and 30°C in various water purities of 30 (distilled water), 100, 400, 700 and 1000 TDS (ppm). After keeping them in the germination chamber for 72 h, the percentage of germination, stem length and yield along with proximate composition were determined. The temperature was kept as main factor and water purity as the second. The experiment was replicated four times and the data obtained were analyzed using two factorial completely randomized design. The results showed that both the factors had significant (p<0.05) effect on the germination, stem length, yield as well as proximate composition. A temperature of 30°C and water with high purity of 30 TDS resulted in high emergence (69%), stem length (3.14 cm) and yield (70.1 g) as compared to the other treatments. Minimum germination (2.1%), stem length (0.11 cm) and yield (12.11 g) were recorded in samples kept at low temperature of 10°C and water purity with 1000 TDS. The mungbean seeds showed a very low plasticity to water purity, and that they were very susceptible to water impurities. It is concluded that, to prepare sprouts from mungbeans, it is necessary to germinate mungbean seeds them in water having high purity and temperature of 30 o C for maximum germination, stem length and yield.

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The above article, published online on 21 February 2018 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor in Chief, Y. Martin Lo, and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The retraction has been agreed at the authors’ request due to unattributed overlap between this article and the following article published in the Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences, “Analysis of ginger drying inside a natural convection indirect solar dryer: An experimental study” by S. K. Sansaniwal and M. Kumar, Volume 9, pp. 1671–1685.