Drying is an important preservation method of casein. Traditional natural draining and drying processes have low efficiency, long processing time, and poor product quality, which urgently need to be improved. This study investigated the effects of pre-dehydration intensities (30 N 30 min (PreD1) and 50 N 30 min (PreD2)) and drying methods (including pulsed vacuum drying (PVD), infrared drying (IRD), and hot air drying (HAD)) on the drying kinetics, drying modeling, and quality of yak milk casein. These findings reveal that PreD2 and PVD both had a positive impact on shortening the drying time. Compared to other combined treatments, PreD2-PVD had the shortest drying time of 6 h. The Midilli-Kucuk mathematical model effectively predicted the drying of casein. The yak milk casein powder treated with PreD2-PVD possessed a higher content of gross compositions, superior color, lower levels of fat oxidation and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), and higher emulsifying activity index (EAI) and emulsion stability index (ESI) values. Overall, combining pre-dehydration with PVD proved effective in improving the drying rate and maintaining a good quality of yak milk casein, showing promising potential for industrial applications.

The pre-dehydration of a woody biomass waste (Douglas fir, DF) with 4.6-32 wt% of diluted sulfuric acid solutions was carried out mainly at room temperature aimed to improve the carbon yield from the thermal carbonization of pre-dehydrated biomass at 500 °C. By comparison (based on the raw DF), the pre-dehydration at room temperature increased the biochar yield and carbon retention up to about 32 wt% and 54%, respectively from that of about 22 wt% and 39% without pre-dehydration. When the pre-dehydration temperature increased to 90 °C, the biochar yield and carbon retention were sharply promoted to about 44 wt% and 76%, which was about two times higher than that of the biochar obtained without pre-treatment. This work for the first time proved the effectiveness of improving the carbon yield from lignocellulosic biomass via diluted sulfuric acid-assisted pre-dehydration at low or even room temperature.

The effect of thermal treatment using infrared and microwave fields on freezing of pork loin was investigated. Several infrared and microwave treatment protocols were designed and tested to determine the thawing losses is each case to identify the most suitable one which yielded the best quality. In addition, the state of moisture in the meat, cooking loss, texture, color, pH, Thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS), and other indicators were also evaluated. The results show that both microwave and infrared pre-dehydration can reduce the thawing loss of pork loin; the minimum loss is only about 1.7% using microwave 50 W intensity of 1.92 W/g of wet pork. Pre-dehydration also reduced the hardness of all samples and increased springiness, cohesiveness, and resilience. It is noteworthy that pretreatment did not damage the color. Based on the results of this study it is concluded that thermal pretreatment using microwave or infrared fields of appropriate strength prior to freezing can yield good quality frozen pork meat.

The present study aimed to verify the efficiency of microwave hydrodiffusion and gravity (MHG) by partially removing water from grapes while simultaneously obtaining a phenolic-rich extract. In addition, the effect of heating on phenolic compound degradation of pre-dehydrated grapes, the extract, and economic viability to produce both products were evaluated. Thus, a 50% reduction of moisture in the grapes was observed after 10 min while simultaneously obtaining a grape extract. Both products obtained by MHG presented high phenolic compound content and antioxidant capacity. In addition, the use of MHG on an industrial scale was found to be economically viable based on the analysis time, labor cost, and financial return of the products obtained. Thus, the method is efficient, fast, economically viable, and sustainable while simultaneously producing pre-dehydrated grapes and a phenolic-rich extract.

In the present study, we defined the state of pre-dehydration (PD) as the suspected loss of body fluids, not accompanied by subjective symptoms (serum osmotic pressure: 292-300 mOsm/kg・H2O). The goal of this study was to develop a non-invasive PD check sheet for independent home care for the elderly.
We evaluated the serum osmotic pressure of 222 independent community dwelling elderly individuals who were >65 years of age. We then determined the association between the serum osmotic pressure and various dehydration-related diagnostic factors that we identified in a previous study. We performed a logistic regression analysis to determine the risk factors for dehydration and allotted scores based on the odds ratio. We developed a non-invasive PD check sheet consisting of items with high scores and categorized the risks based on the positive predictive value of the total score of the applied items.
PD was confirmed in 46 subjects (20.7%) based on their serum osmotic pressure. We developed a PD assessment sheet which consisted of 6 items, (1) Dislike rehydrating before sleeping, as it induces the need to use the toilet (3 points), (2) Using diuretics (8 points), (3) Casual blood sugar ≥126 mg/dl (9 points), (4) Age ≥85 years (3 points), (5) Male sex (4 points), (6) Body weight ≥60 kg (3 points). Patients with a score of >13 points on this sheet were considered to have a high risk of PD (maximum score: 30 points) (positive predictive value, 72%; negative predictive value, 85.6%; P<0.0001).
In the present study, we found that 20.7% of elderly subjects had PD. Based on these data, we developed an effective noninvasive tool for detecting PD among independent community dwelling elderly.