Effect of processing on the microbiological quality and safety of chicken carcasses at slaughterhouse

Microbiological contamination of chicken meat depends on the conditions under which the animals are reared, slaughtered and processed. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of farm origin and processing stages at slaughterhouse on the microbial safety and quality of chicken. Samples of chicken carcasses from three different farms were taken from a slaughterhouse. Mesophiles, Escherichia coli, coagulase positive Staphylococcci counts, presence of Listeria monocytogenes,Campylobacter and Salmonella were determined at five sampling points: after defeathering, after evisceration, after washing, after chilling and after cutting. Chilling reduced log numbers of mesophiles, coagulase positive Staphylococci and E. coli by 0.85, 1.52 and 2.2 log units, respectively. Salmonella was not detected after chilling. High prevalence of Campylobacter spp was observed at all the stages ranging between 84% and 100%. L. monocytogenes was not detected in chicken carcasses after defeathering. However, it was detected after evisceration and after washing and chilling. The most critical stage for L. monocytogenes contamination was the portioning operation, the prevalence in breast and legs being 88% and 84%, respectively.     

Physicochemical and thermophysical properties of CaO–TiO2–SiO2–Na3AlF6 system based electrode coating for AUSC power plant

The aim of this study is to investigate the physicochemical and thermophysical properties of CaO–TiO₂–SiO₂–Na₃AlF₆ based electrode coating developed for the welding of advanced ultra-supercritical (AUSC) thermal power plant components. The extreme vertices approach has been used to create twenty-six electrode coating compositions. Various physicochemical and thermophysical properties were characterized using experiments. The coating properties are essential in ensuring sound weld with desirable in-service performance. The developed coating's structural behavior was analyzed using Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). In addition, regression analysis was carried out to evaluate the influence of coating constituents. Individual constituents and their interaction were found to have a prominent role in influencing the physicochemical and thermophysical properties.     

煤矿冲击地压与冒顶复合灾害研究

随着煤矿向深部发展,矿井动力灾害既表现出冲击地压的部分特征,又表现出冒顶的部分特征。2种典型的灾害打破以往冒顶与冲击地压的发生具有一种互为逆向性的认知规律,在深部高应力煤巷,特别是留顶煤巷道中出现了相互诱导、复合发生的新灾害类型。在总结山东、山西和新疆矿区典型巷道冲击致顶板(顶煤)动力灾害特征的基础上,提出了深部巷道冲击地压与冒顶复合灾害的概念、机理与分类,指出复合灾害机理关键点在于揭示巷道整体系统和破碎区子系统的稳定原理及其2者间的相互影响。建立了巷道发生复合灾害的力学模型,根据扰动响应失稳判据,提出并得到了巷道发生复合灾害的临界应力Pcr、临界软化区半径ρ_cr和最大容许采扰应力增量σ_max,厘清了灾害发生的主控因素,分析了煤岩冲击倾向指数K、支护强度ps、巷道半径ρ₀、煤岩强度σ_c等对灾害发生的影响规律,同时阐明了围岩塑性软化、破碎深度随地应力增加的发育规律。研究结果表明,破碎发育巷道的动力失稳主体为弹性区、软化区与破碎区构成的不稳定系统,垮落主体为破碎区;稳定的破碎区提升了巷道冲击启动临界值,使其启动难度增大,但破碎区的发育又易引起顶煤垮落;巷道稳定支护是解决复合灾害的关键,科学合理支护既能有效调控围岩破碎防冒,又能提升冲击启动临界值。通过理论研究,揭示了巷道冲击地压与冒顶复合灾害的发生机理,阐明了巷道软化与破碎区及其稳控支护对深部破碎发育巷道动力灾害防治的重要性。     

Rogowski coil current transducer compensation method for harmonic active power error

In the harmonic active power measurement, the highest uncertainties are generally introduced by the current and voltage transducers. In a previous paper, the authors showed that the current transformer (CT) can introduce significant errors in such measurement, especially if the phase shift between voltage and current is close to ±90°. In such condition the errors on harmonic power measurement are mainly due to the CT phase displacement. This paper shows that better results can be achieved with more linear transducers, such as the Rogowski coil current transducers (RCCTs), whose metrological performance in distorted condition can be improved, by means of a proper compensation method. The proposed method for RCCTs compensation is based on the frequency response and it allows to reduce the errors on harmonic power measurement, also for phase shift close to ±90°. The study is supported by several experimental tests.     

Improved synergetic excitation control for transient stability enhancement and voltage regulation of power systems

This paper proposes decentralized improved synergetic excitation controllers (ISEC) for synchronous generators to enhance transient stability and obtain satisfactory voltage regulation performance of power systems. Each generator is considered as a subsystem, for which an ISEC is designed. According to the control objectives, a manifold, which is a linear combination of the deviation of generator terminal voltage, rotor speed and active power, is chosen for the design of ISEC. Compared with the conventional synergetic excitation controller (CSEC), a parameter adaptation scheme is proposed for updating the controller parameter online in order to improve the transient stability and voltage regulation performance simultaneously under various operating conditions. Case studies are undertaken on a single-machine infinite-bus power system and a two-area four-machine power system, respectively. Simulation results show the ISEC can provide better damping and voltage regulation performance, compared with the CSEC without parameter adaptation scheme and the conventional power system stabilizer.     

High-voltage and low specific on-resistance power UMOSFET using P and N type columns

For the first time, we present the unique features exhibited by power 4H–SiC UMOSFET in which N and P type columns (NPC) in the drift region are incorporated to improve the breakdown voltage, the specific on-resistance, and the total lateral cell pitch. The P-type column creates a potential barrier in the drift region of the proposed structure for increasing the breakdown voltage and the N-type column reduces the specific on-resistance. Also, the JFET effects reduce and so the total lateral cell pitch will decrease. In the NPC-UMOSFET, the electric field crowding reduces due to the created potential barrier by the NPC regions and causes more uniform electric field distribution in the structure. Using two dimensional simulations, the breakdown voltage and the specific on-resistance of the proposed structure are investigated for the columns parameters in comparison with a conventional UMOSFET (C-UMOSFET) and an accumulation layer UMOSFET (AL-UMOSFET) structures. For the NPC-UMOSFET with 10 µm drift region length the maximum breakdown voltage of 1274 V is obtained, while at the same drift region length, the maximum breakdown voltages of the C-UMOSFET and the AL-UMOSFET structures are 534 and 703 V, respectively. Moreover, the proposed structure exhibits a superior specific on-resistance (R_on,sp) of 2 mΩ cm², which shows that the on-resistance of the optimized NPC-UMOSFET are decreased by 56% and 58% in comparison with the C-UMOSFET and the AL-UMOSFET, respectively.     

Design of disturbance observer based on adaptive-neural control for large-scale time-delay systems in the presence of actuator fault and unknown dead zone

This article presents an adaptive neural compensation scheme for a class of large-scale time delay nonlinear systems in the presence of unknown dead zone, external disturbances, and actuator faults. In this article, the quadratic Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals are introduced to tackle the system delays. The unknown functions of the system are estimated by using radial basis function neural networks. Furthermore, a disturbance observer is developed to approximate the external disturbances. The proposed adaptive neural compensation control method is constructed by utilizing a backstepping technique. The boundedness of all the closed-loop signals is guaranteed via Lyapunov analysis and the tracking errors are proved to converge to a small neighborhood of the origin. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.     

Intelligent Information‐Centric Networking routing scheme under imprecise information

Information‐Centric Networking (ICN) has been accepted to overcome some weaknesses of the current Internet architecture, showing that “what is being exchanged” is more important than “who are exchanging information.” Given the inadequate considerations on Quality of Service (QoS) and energy saving in ICN routing, we propose in this paper a routing algorithm to enhance the two aspects. At first, on one hand, Cauchy distribution is used as a fuzzy model to evaluate users' QoS requirements, such as bandwidth, delay, and error rate; on the other hand, we formulate energy saving problem to evaluate the green quality of routing algorithm. Then, we design a link selection approach by considering QoS and energy saving, which belongs to a multi‐objective decision problem resolved by intelligent drops algorithm. Finally, we implement the proposed algorithm and compare it with the famous adaptive forwarding mechanism in terms of some significant metrics, and the experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm is more efficient.     

A probabilistic load shedding concept considering highly volatile local generation

Automatic load shedding is the ultimate countermeasure against imbalance in a power system and can effectively help preventing large blackouts. Taking into account a high penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) in the distribution grid, a clear distinction between load and generation at the PCC becomes increasingly more difficult. For that reason an adaptation of frequency relay parameters and their locations of installation are necessary. In Europe this is rest on a multi-step plan based on values such as the yearly peak load. In this paper a novel probabilistic method for automatic load shedding is presented that uses the average values instead of peak values for load shedding. Its applicability is verified by a dynamic power system model that was developed to compare the classical and novel probabilistic load shedding principle. The method is verified using data from a German TSO.     

Indoor heterogeneous photochemistry of furfural drives emissions of nitrous acid

People spend approximately 80% of their time indoor, making the understanding of the indoor chemistry an important task for safety. The high surface-area-to-volume ratio characteristic of indoor environments leads the semi-volatile organic compounds (sVOCs) to deposit on the surfaces. Using a long path absorption photometer (LOPAP), this work investigates the formation of nitrous acid (HONO) through the photochemistry of adsorbed nitrate anions and its enhancement by the presence of furfural. Using a high-resolution proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS), this work also investigates the surface emissions of VOCs from irradiated films of furfural and a mix of furfural and nitrate anions. Among the emitted VOCs, 2(5H)-furanone/2-Butenedial was observed at high concentrations, leading to maleic anhydride formation after UV irradiation. Moreover, the addition of potassium nitrate to the film formed NO_x and HONO concentrations up to 10 ppb, which scales to ca. 4 ppb for realistic indoor conditions. This work helps to understand the high levels of HONO and NO_x measured indoors.