Noodles are staple cereal food in many countries; however addition of encapsulated probiotics into noodle formulation, its effect on noodle quality and cell viability has not yet been reported. The aim of this study was to prepare microencapsulated Lactobacillus plantarum (MTCC 5422) by freeze drying with wall material combinations such as fructooligosaccharide (FOS), FOS +whey protein isolate (WPI), and FOS+denatured whey protein isolate (DWPI) to evaluate best wall system. Results showed that FOS+DWPI wall system provided better protection to cells after drying, during storage (60 days, 4°C) and in simulated acidic and bile conditions. Further, FOS+DWPI encapsulates were incorporated into noodle formulation and evaluated the noodle quality and probiotic cell viability of cooked noodle obtained from two different production methods: (i) fresh and (ii) dried (room temperature dried -RTD, 28°C and high temperature dried -HTD, 55°C). The quality characteristics (cooking time, solid loss, texture, colour and sensory profiles) of FOS+DWPI encapsulates incorporated cooked noodles (both fresh and dried) were found to be acceptable. On evaluation of encapsulated probiotic bacteria L. plantarum cell viability, 93.63 % and 62.42 % cell survival was obtained in fresh noodles before and after cooking respectively. However, 80.29 % (RTD) and 64.74 % (HTD) of encapsulated cells were viable in dried noodles, after cooking there was complete survival loss. This study suggested that fresh noodle was found to be a suitable carrier system to deliver viable cells. This is first report on influence of probiotic microcapsules in noodle processing.

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The present study deals with the antibacterial performance of poled ferroelectric materials. For this purpose, Ba0.85Ca0.15Ti0.9Zr0.1O3 (BCZTO) piezoelectric ceramic has been synthesized and poled at different electric fields. The antibacterial performance of BCZTO poled and unpoled samples were examined. Approximately 88% of Escherichia coli degradation was recorded at the end of 1 h without any external intervention. Surface selective bacterial degradation was observed in poled materials. It was found that reactive oxygen species produced through electrocatalysis of water molecules play a crucial role in bacterial disinfection. The rate of bacterial degradation was further increased using ultrasonication with poled piezoelectric ceramics. Complete abolition of bacterial growth was achieved within 30 min of treatment with poled piezoelectric ceramic in an ultrasonicator. Results indicate that ferroelectric materials have substantial untapped potential in the field of antimicrobial methods.

A novel quad‐band circularly polarized capacitive coupled stacked patch antenna with wideband characteristics is presented for C‐band applications (4–8GHz). In the proposed design, only two truncated patches with horizontal slits and inclined slot are stacked together to generate quad‐band circular polarization operation and broadband behavior. The proposed antenna has achieved a bandwidth of 55.46% in the frequency band of 4.97–8.49 GHz and the 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidths of 0.98%, 4.275%, 0.8869%, and 1.35% in four distinct bands of 5.1223–5.1729 GHz, 5.4710–5.7100 GHz, 6.2747–6.3306 GHz, and 7.6775–7.7822 GHz, respectively. The measured results show the good agreement with simulated results of the presented antenna and confirm the validity of design. The proposed antenna is useful for various C‐band applications. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:2622–2628, 2015

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