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Monday 7 March 2016

How to Preserve Pineapple Juice

Just 4 oz. of pineapple juice provides 50 percent of the RDA amount for vitamin C and can account for 25 percent of the MyPyramid Fruit Group daily allowance. Pineapple juice has a tropical and tart flavor, making it a common choice for mixed drinks or as a cold beverage served on its own. Pineapple juice tends to spoil easily, so it is best to take the extra effort to preserve its flavor and shelf life.

How to Preserve Pineapple Juice
The tropical flavor of pineapple juice makes it a common choice for mixed drinks. Photo Credit utah778/iStock/Getty Images.

Step 1

Store freshly juiced pineapple juice in a glass bottle with a secure lid. Place the bottle in a cool, dry area of the refrigerator.

Step 2

Keep unopened store-bought bottled or canned pineapple juice in a cupboard for up to 18 months. After opening, immediately store it in the refrigerator and consume within eight to 10 days.

Step 3

Freeze pineapple juice in a glass or plastic container. Leave at least 1/2 inch off the top of the container to allow room for expansion as it freezes. If you keep it frozen at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, you can store it indefinitely.

Things You'll Need

  • Airtight glass or plastic container

www.livestrong.com

Are Green Bean Chips Healthy?

Potato chips are crispy, salty and just the snack many people crave when hunger strikes. The chips, however, are high in fat and aren't that nutritious. That's where green bean chips can come in. Crispy like potato chips, green bean chips don't contain any saturated fat and they also supply key nutrients that potato chips don't offer.
Are Green Bean Chips Healthy?
Green bean chips in a large pile of vegetable chips. Photo Credit Psonia/iStock/Getty Images

Calories, Fat and Protein

A 1-ounce serving of green bean chips contains 140 calories and 6 grams of fat, which is about 10 percent of the daily value for fat. Green bean chips, however, don't contain saturated fat. The American Heart Association recommends limiting your intake of saturated fat to less than 7 percent of your total caloric intake because it can reduce your risk of high cholesterol and heart disease. For comparison, 1 ounce of potato chips contains 10 grams of fat, of which 1.1 grams are saturated. Green bean chips supply 1 gram of protein per 1-ounce serving.

Salt Content Is a Drawback

The salt that's shaken over green bean chips helps enhance the flavor, and a 1-ounce portion contains 85 milligrams of sodium. That's about 6 percent of the 1,500 milligrams of sodium you should make as your daily upper limit, recommends the American Heart Association. Too much sodium on a regular basis can raise your blood pressure, which leaves you more susceptible to a heart attack or stroke. A serving of green bean chips, for comparison, still contains less than the 128 milligrams of sodium in a serving of potato chips.

Essential Nutrients in Green Bean Chips

A 1-ounce serving of green bean chips supplies 8 percent of the daily value for vitamin A, a nutrient that helps keeps your eyes healthy. That same serving also provides 4 percent of the daily value for iron and 2 percent of the daily value for bone-building calcium. An ounce of green bean chips delivers 3 grams of fiber, which is 12 percent of the 25 grams women need each day and 8 percent of the 38 grams men require daily. Plenty of fiber in your daily diet keeps your digestive system working normally and can reduce the risk of health problems such as heart disease.

Green Bean Chips in Your Diet

While you shouldn't go crazy with green bean chips since they do contain calories, fat and sodium, they can have a place in a healthy diet. However, fresh vegetables are always a healthier choice. Eating 2 1/2 cups of vegetables each day is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke and cancer, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Have a handful of green bean chips for a quick snack or add them to a tossed green salad for a bit of crunch. Scatter green bean chips over a bowl of vegetable soup or layer them into a lean turkey sandwich as additional ways to include them in your diet.
www.livestrong.com

How to Make Nachos With Ground Beef With Taco Sauce



In 1943, while wandering through the town of Coahuila, Mexico in search of hors d'oeuvres, a group of army wives approach head chef Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya of the Victory Club. The restaurant was closed, but Ignacio sprinkled corn tortillas with cheese and jalapeno peppers, toasted them briefly and a staple of ball parks and Mexican restaurants was born. Nachos have taken a leap over the years from simple cheese and pepper recipes to recipes that include such ingredients as crab meat, shrimp, ground beef, chicken, refried beans, chile and pork. If it can go on a tortilla and you can cover it with cheese, chances are you can make nachos out of it.
How to Make Nachos With Ground Beef With Taco Sauce
You can make nachos with practically any meat. Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images

Step 1

Brown 1 pound ground beef in a skillet over medium heat. Drain the grease from the beef and add 8 ounces taco sauce. Stir the ground beef to thoroughly coat with the sauce.

Step 2

Put the contents of one can of refried beans into a microwave-safe bowl. Set the microwave to medium and heat the beans for 2 minutes, or until they are soft and creamy.

Step 3

Spread tortilla chips over a cookie sheet or baking platter to create a single layer of chips. Place 1 teaspoon beans and 1 teaspoon meat onto each chip.

Step 4

Sprinkle a generous amount of a combination of shredded jack and cheddar cheese over the layer of chips. Place the nachos in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese melts.

Step 5

Remove the nachos from the oven. Garnish with chopped green onion and sliced jalapenos. Serve with a side of guacamole and sour cream.

Step 5

Remove the nachos from the oven. Garnish with chopped green onion and sliced jalapenos. Serve with a side of guacamole and sour cream.

PAPER

Paper is a thin material produced by pressing together moist fibres of cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses and drying them into flexible sheets. It is a versatile material with many uses, including writing, printing, packaging, cleaning and a number of industrial and construction processes.


Different types of paper: carton, tissue paper

The pulp papermaking process is said to have been developed in China' during the early 2nd century AD, possibly as early as the year 105 A.D., by the Han court eunuch Cai Lun, although the earliest archaeological fragments of paper derive from the 2nd century BC in China. The modern pulp and paper industry is global, with China leading its production and the United States right behind it.

History

The oldest known archaeological fragments of the immediate precursor to modern paper, date to the 2nd century BC in China. The pulp papermaking process is ascribed to Cai Lun, a 2nd-century AD Han court eunuch.  With paper as an effective substitute for silk in many applications, China could export silk in greater quantity, contributing to a Golden Age.


Hemp, wrapping paper, China, circa 100 BC.

Its knowledge and uses spread from China through the Middle East to medieval Europe in the 13th century, where the first water powered paper mills were built. Because of paper's introduction to the West through the city of Baghdad, it was first called bagdatikos. In the 19th century, industrial manufacture greatly lowered its cost, enabling mass exchange of information and contributing to significant cultural shifts. In 1844, the Canadian inventor Charles Fenerty and the German F. G. Keller independently developed processes for pulping wood fibres.

Etymology

The word "paper" is etymologically derived from Latin papyrus, which comes from the Gree πάπυρος (papuros), the word for the Cyperus papyrus plant. Papyrus is a thick, paper-like material produced from the pith of the Cyperus papyrus plant, which was used in ancient Egypt and other Mediterranean cultures for writing before the introduction of paper into the Middle East and Europe Although the word paper is etymologically derived from papyrus, the two are produced very differently and the development of the first is distinct from the development of the second. Papyrus is a lamination of natural plant fibres, while paper is manufactured from fibres whose properties have been changed by maceratio.
Paper Making
Chemical Pulping

To make pulp from wood, a chemical pulping proces separates lignin from cellulose fibres. This is accomplished by dissolving ligninin a cooking liquor, so that it may be washed from the cellulose; this preserves the length of the cellulose fibres. Paper made from chemical pulps are also known as wood-free papers-not to be confused with tree-free paper: this is because they do not contain lignin, which deteriorates over time. The pulp can also be bleached to produce white paper, but this consumes 5% of the fibres; chemical pulping processes are not used to make paper made from cotton, which is already 90% cellulose.


The microscopic structure of paper: Micrograph of paper autofluorescing under ultraviolet illumination. The individual fibres in this sample are around 10 µm, in diameter.

There are three main chemical pulping processes: the sulfite process dates back to the 1840s and it was the dominant method extent before the second world war. The kraft process, invented in the 1870s and first used in the 1890s, is now the most commonly practiced strategy, one of its advantages is the chemical reaction with lignin, that produces heat, which can be used to run a generator. Most pulping operations using the kraft process are net contributors to the electricity grid or use the electricity to run an adjacent paper mill. Another advantage is that this process recovers and reuses all inorganic chemical reagents. Soda pulping is another specialty process used to pulp straw bagasse and hardwoods with high silicate content.

Mechanical Pulping

There are two major mechanical pulps, the thermomechanical one (TMP) and groundwood pulp (GW). In the TMP process, wood is chipped and then fed into large steam heated refiners, where the chips are squeezed and converted to fibres between two steel discs. In the groundwood process, debarked logs are fed into grinders where they are pressed against rotating stones to be made into fibres. Mechanical pulping does not remove the lignin so the yield is very high, >95%, however it causes the paper thus produced to turn yellow and become brittle over time. Mechanical pulps have rather short fibres, thus producing weak paper. Although large amounts of electrical energy are required to produce mechanical pulp, it costs less than the chemical kind.

De-inked Pulp

Paper recycling processes can use either chemically or mechanically produced pulp; by mixing it with water and applying mechanical action the hydrogen bonds in the paper can be broken and fibres separated again. Most recycled paper contains a proportion of virgin fibre for the sake of quality; generally speaking, de-inked pulp is of the same quality or lower than the collected paper it was made from.
There are three main classifications of recycled fibre:.
  • Mill broke or internal mill waste – This incorporates any substandard or grade-change paper made within the paper mill itself, which then goes back into the manufacturing system to be re-pulped back into paper. Such out-of-specification paper is not sold and is therefore often not classified as genuine reclaimed recycled fibre, however most paper mills have been reusing their own waste fibre for many years, long before recycling become popular.
  • Preconsumer waste – This is offcut and processing waste, such as guillotine trims and envelope blank waste; it is generated outside the paper mill and could potentially go to landfill, and is a genuine recycled fibre source; it includes de-inked preconsumer (recycled material that has been printed but did not reach its intended end use, such as waste from printers and unsold publications).
  • Postconsumer waste – This is fibre from paper that has been used for its intended end use and includes office waste, magazine papers and newsprint. As the vast majority of this material has been printed – either digitally or by more conventional means such as lithography or rotogravure – it will either be recycled as printed paper or go through a de-inking process first.
Recycled papers can be made from 100% recycled materials or blended with virgin pulp, although they are (generally) not as strong nor as bright as papers made from the latter.
Addictives

Besides the fibres, pulps may contain fillers such as chalk or china clay, which improve its characteristics for printing or writing. Additives for sizing purposes may be mixed with it and/or applied to the paper web later in the manufacturing process; the purpose of such sizing is to establish the correct level of surface absorbency to suit ink or paint.

Producing Paper
The pulp is fed to a paper machine where it is formed as a paper web and the water is removed from it by pressing and drying.
Pressing the sheet removes the water by force; once the water is forced from the sheet, a special kind of felt, which is not to be confused with the traditional one, is used to collect the water; whereas when making paper by hand, a blotter sheet is used instead.
Drying involves using air and/or heat to remove water from the paper sheets; in the earliest days of paper making this was done by hanging the sheets like laundry; in more modern times various forms of heated drying mechanisms are used. On the paper machine the most common is the steam heated can dryer. These can reach temperatures above 200 °F (93 °C) and are used in long sequences of more than 40 cans; where the heat produced by these can easily dry the paper to less than 6% moisture.
Finishing
The paper may then undergo sizing to alter its physical properties for use in various applications.
Paper at this point is uncoated. Coated paper has a thin layer of material such as calcium carbonate or china clay applied to one or both sides in order to create a surface more suitable for high-resolution halftone, screens. (Uncoated papers are rarely suitable for screens above 150 lpi.) Coated or uncoated papers may have their surfaces polished by calendering. Coated papers are divided into matte, semi-matte or silk, and gloss. Gloss papers give the highest optical density in the printed image.
The paper is then fed onto reels if it is to be used on web printing presses, or cut into sheets for other printing processes or other purposes. The fibres in the paper basically run in the machine direction. Sheets are usually cut "long-grain", i.e. with the grain parallel to the longer dimension of the sheet.
All paper produced by paper machines as the Fourdrinier Machine are wove paper, i.e. the wire mesh that transports the web leaves a pattern that has the same density along the paper grain and across the grain. Textured finishes, watermarks and wire patterns imitating hand-made laid paper can be created by the use of appropriate rollers in the later stages of the machine.
Wove paper does not exhibit "laidlines", which are small regular lines left behind on paper when it was handmade in a mould made from rows of metal wires or bamboo. Laidlines are very close together. They run perpendicular to the "chainlines", which are further apart. Handmade paper similarly exhibits "deckle edges", or rough and feathery borders.
Applications
Paper can be produced with a wide variety of properties, depending on its intended use.
  • For representing value: paper money, bank note  cheque, security (see security paper), voucher and ticket.
  • For storing information: book, notebook, magazine, newspaper art, zine, letter.
  • For personal use: diary, note to remind oneself, etc.; for temporary personal use: scratch paper
  • For communication: between individuals and/or groups of people.
  • For packaging: corrugated box, paper bag, envelope, Packing & Wrapping Paper, Paper string, Charta emporetica and wallpaper.
  • For cleaning: toilet paper, handkerchiefs, paper towels facial tissue and cat litter.
  • For construction: papier-mâché, origami, paper planes,  quilling, paper honeycomb, used as a core material in composite materials,  paper engineering, construction paper and paper clothing.
  • For other uses: emery paper sandpaper, blotting paper, litmus paper universal indicator paper, paper chromatography, electrical insulation paper (see also dielectric and permittivity) and filter paper

Types, Thickness and Weight
The thickness of paper is often measured by caliper, which is typically given in thousandths of an inch in the United States and in thousandths of a mm in the rest of the world. Paper may be between 0.07 and 0.18 millimetres (0.0028 and 0.0071 in) thick. 
Paper is often characterized by weight. In the United States, the weight assigned to a paper is the weight of a ream, 500 sheets, of varying "basic sizes", before the paper is cut into the size it is sold to end customers. For example, a ream of 20 lb, 8.5 in × 11 in (216 mm × 279 mm) paper weighs 5 pounds, because it has been cut from a larger sheet into four pieces. In the United States, printing paper is generally 20 lb, 24 lb, or 32 lb at most. Cover stock is generally 68 lb, and 110 lb or more is considered card stock.
Card and paper stock for crafts use comes in a wide variety of textures and colors
In Europe, and other regions using the ISO 216 paper sizing system, the weight is expressed in grammes per square metre (g/m2 or usually just g) of the paper. Printing paper is generally between 60 g and 120 g. Anything heavier than 160 g is considered card. The weight of a ream therefore depends on the dimensions of the paper and its thickness.
Most commercial paper sold in North America is cut to standard paper sizes based on customary units and is defined by the length and width of a sheet of paper.
The ISO 216 system used in most other countries is based on the surface area of a sheet of paper, not on a sheet's width and length. It was first adopted in Germany in 1922 and generally spread as nations adopted the metric system. The largest standard size paper is A0 (A zero), measuring one square meter (approx. 1189 × 841 mm). Two sheets of A1, placed upright side by side fit exactly into one sheet of A0 laid on its side. Similarly, two sheets of A2 fit into one sheet of A1 and so forth. Common sizes used in the office and the home are A4 and A3 (A3 is the size of two A4 sheets).
The density of paper ranges from 250 kg/m3 (16 lb/cu ft) for tissue paper to 1,500 kg/m3(94 lb/cu ft) for some speciality paper. Printing paper is about 800 kg/m3 (50 lb/cu ft).
Paper may be classified into seven categories:
  • Printing papers of wide variety.
  • Wrapping papers for the protection of goods and merchandise. This includes wax and kraft papers.
  • Writing paper suitable for stationery requirements. This includes ledger, bank, and bond paper.
  • Blotting papers containing little or no size.
  • Drawing papers usually with rough surfaces used by artists and designers, including cartridge paper.
  • Handmade papers including most decorative papers, Ingres papers, Japanese paper and tissues, all characterized by lack of grain direction.
  • Specialty papers including cigarette paper, toilet tissue, and other industrial papers.

Paper Stability

Much of the early paper made from wood pulp contained significant amounts of alum, a variety of aluminium sulfate salts that is significantly acidic. Alum was added to paper to assist in sizing, making it somewhat water resistant so that inks did not "run" or spread uncontrollably. Early papermakers did not realize that the alum they added liberally to cure almost every problem encountered in making their product would eventually be detrimental. The cellulose fibres that make up paper are hydrolyzed by acid, and the presence of alum would eventually degrade the fibres until the paper disintegrated in a process that has come to be known as "slow fire". Documents written on rag paper were significantly more stable. The use of non-acidic additives to make paper is becoming more prevalent, and the stability of these papers is less of an issue.
Paper made from mechanical pulp contains significant amounts of lignin, a major component in wood. In the presence of light and oxygen, lignin reacts to give yellow materials, which is why newsprint and other mechanical paper yellows with age. Paper made from bleached kraft or sulfite pulps does not contain significant amounts of lignin and is therefore better suited for books, documents and other applications where whiteness of the paper is essential.
Paper made from wood pulp is not necessarily less durable than a rag paper. The ageing behavior of a paper is determined by its manufacture, not the original source of the fibres. Furthermore, tests sponsored by the Library of Congress prove that all paper is at risk of acid decay, because cellulose itself produces formic, acetic, lactic and oxalic acids.
Mechanical pulping yields almost a tonne of pulp per tonne of dry wood used, which is why mechanical pulps are sometimes referred to as "high yield" pulps. With almost twice the yield as chemical pulping, mechanical pulps is often cheaper. Mass-market paperback books and newspapers tend to use mechanical papers. Book publishers tend to use acid-free paper, made from fully bleached chemical pulps for hardback and trade paperback books.
Environmental Impacts of Paper
The production and use of paper has a number of adverse effects on the environment.
Worldwide consumption of paper has risen by 400% in the past 40 years leading to increase in deforestation, with 35% of harvested trees being used for paper manufacture. Most paper companies also plant trees to help regrow forests. Logging of old growth forests accounts for less than 10% of wood pulp, but is one of the most controversial issues.
Paper waste accounts for up to 40% of total waste produced in the United States each year, which adds up to 71.6 million tons of paper waste per year in the United States alone. The average office worker in the US prints 31 pages every day. Americans also use on the order of 16 billion paper cups per year.
Conventional bleaching of wood pulp using elemental chlorine produces and releases into the environment large amounts of chlorinated organic compounds including chlorinated dioxins. Dioxins are recognized as a persistent environmental pollutant, regulated internationally by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Dioxins are highly toxic, and health effects on humans include reproductive, developmental, immune and hormonal problems. They are known to be carcinogenic. Over 90% of human exposure is through food, primarily meat, dairy, fish and shellfish, as dioxins accumulate in the food chain in the fatty tissue of animals.
Future of Paper
Some manufacturers have started using a new, significantly more environmentally friendly alternative to expanded plastic packaging. Made out of paper, and known commercially as paperfoam, the new packaging has very similar mechanical properties to some expanded plastic packaging, but is biodegradable and can also be recycled with ordinary paper.
With increasing environmental concerns about synthetic coatings (such as PFOA) and the higher prices of hydrocarbon based petrochemicals, there is a focus on zein (corn protein) as a coating for paper in high grease applications such as popcorn bags
Also, synthetics such as Tyvek and Teslin have been introduced as printing media as a more durable material than paper.
References and Notes

  1.  Hogben, Lancelot. "Printing, Paper and Playing Cards". Bennett, Paul A. (ed.) Books and Printing: A Treasury for Typophiles. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1951. pp. 15–31. p. 17. & Mann, George. Print: A Manual for Librarians and Students Describing in Detail the History, Methods, and Applications of Printing and Paper Making. London: Grafton & Co., 1952. p. 77
  2. a b c Tsien 1985, p. 38
  3. ^ Burns 1996, pp. 417f.
  4. ^ Murray, Stuart A. P. The Library: An illustrated History. Skyhorse Publishing, 2009, p. 57.
  5. ^ Burger, Peter, Charles Fenerty and his Paper Invention. Toronto: Peter Burger, 2007. ISBN978-0-9783318-1-8,  pp. 25–30
  6. ^ πάπυρος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  7. ^ papyrus, on Oxford Dictionaries
  8. ^ "Papyrus definition. Dictionary.com. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  9. ^ Natural Resource Defense Council
  10. ^ "Document Doubles" in [1], a virtual museum exhibition at Library and Archives Canada

Further Reading

  • Alexander Monro, The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of the World's Greatest Invention, Allen Lane, 2014.

External Links

  • Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry, (TAPPI) official website
  • Paper, at Encyclopædia Britannica
  • How is paper made at The Straight Dope, 22 November 2005
  • Thirteen-minute video on modern paper production system, from Sappi.

- Wikipedia 

FIBER CROP

Fiber crops are field crops grown for their fibres which are traditionally used to make paper, cloth,  or rope. The fibers may be chemically modified, like in viscose used to make rayon and cellophane). In recent years materials scientists have begun exploring further use of these fibers in composite materials. Inter-locking fibre also relate to fibre crops.
Fiber crops are generally harvestable after a single growing season, as distinct from trees which are typically grown for many years before being harvested for such materials as wood pulp fiber or lacebark. In specific circumstances, fiber crops can be superior to wood pulp fiber in terms of technical performance, environmental impact or cost.
There are a number of issues regarding the use of fiber crops to make pulp. One of these is seasonal availability. While trees can be harvested continuously, many field crops are harvested once during the year and must be stored such that the crop doesn't rot over a period of many months. Considering that many pulp mills require several thousand tonnes of fiber source per day, storage of the fiber source can be a major issue.
Botanically, the fibers harvested from many of these plants are bast fibers; the fibers come from the phloem tissue of the plant. The other fiber crop fibers are seed padding, leaf fiber, or other parts of the plant.
Fibers Crop

  • Bast fibers (Stem-skin fibers)
    • Esparto, a fiber from a grass
    • Jute, widely used, it is the cheapest fiber after cotton
    • Flax, produces linen
    • Indian hemp,  the Dogbane used by native Americans
    • Hemp, a soft, strong fiber, edible seeds
    • Hoopvine, also used for barrel hoops and baskets, edible leaves, medicine
    • Kenaf, the interior of the plant stem is used for its fiber. Edible leaves.
    • Linden Bast
    • Nettles
    • Ramie a nettle, stronger than cotton or flax, makes "China grass cloth"
    • Papyrus, a pith fiber, akin to a bast fiber
  • Leaf fibers
    • Abacá, a banana, producing "manila" rope from leaves
    • Sisal, often termed agave
    • Bowstring Hemp, an old use of a common decorative agave, also Sansevieria roxburghiana, Sansevieria hyacinthoides
    • Henequen an agave. A useful fiber, but not as high quality as sisal
    • Phormium,  “New Zealand Flax”
    • Yucca an agave
  • Seed fibers and fruit fibers
    • Coir The fiber from the coconut husk
    • Cotton
    • Kapok
    • Milkweed, grown for the filament-like pappus in its seed pods
    • Luffa a gourd which when mature produces a sponge-like mass of xylem, used to make loofa sponge.
  • Other fibers (Leaf, fruit, and other fibers)
    • Bamboo fiber, a viscose fiber like rayon,  technically a semi-synthetic fiber

Fibres Dimensions
Source of pulpFiber length, mmFiber diameter, µm
Softwood3.130
Hardwood1.016
Wheat straw1.513
Rice straw1.59
Esparto grass1.110
Reed1.513
Bagasse1.720
Bamboo2.714
Cotton25.020
References

  1. ^ Goyal, Hari. "Multiple references to non-wood fibers for paper". PaperOnWeb, PULP & PAPER RESOURCES & INFORMATION SITE. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
  2. ^ "Agripulp: pulping agricultural crops".  Retrieved 2007-10-03.
  3. ^ "Nonwood Alternatives to Wood Fiber in Paper". Archived from the original, on 2007-07-08. Retrieved 2007-10-03.

External Links

  • Waynesword Plant Fibers. Accessed 2010-11-23

- Wikipedia 

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