Air Filtration and Radon Decay Product Mitigation

Air cleaning as a means of mitigating the risks arising from exposure to indoor radon progeny has been evaluated in a single-family house in the north eastem US. using an automated, semi-continuous activity-weighted size distribution measurement system. The measurements included radon concentration, condensation nuclei count, and activity-weighted size distribution of radon decay products. Measurements were made in the house with and without an operating air filtration system and with various particle sources common to normal indoor activities operating. Aerosols were generated by running water in a shower, candle burning, cigarette smoking, vacuuming, opening doors, and cooking. Using a room model, the changes in attachment rates, average attachment diameters, and deposition rates of the unattached fraction with and without the air cleaning system were calculated. In the presence of active aerosol sources, the air filtration unit typically reduced the concentration of particles within the hour following the end of particle generation. After candle burning, cigarette smoking, and vacuuming in the bedroom, the reductions of PAEC by air filtration are about 60% with the air filtration system operating in the bedroom. During cooking in the kitchen, the reductions of PAEC in the bedroom with the air filtration system were about 40%. However, for all cases the dose reductions were smaller than the particle and PAEC reductions. For those particles that were generated within the bedroom, there was a 20% to 50% reduction in dose. In the case of cooking where the door was open and particles infiltrated from the rest of the house, the dose reduction was only 5% on average and appears to be insignificant. Thus, the dose reductions were h e r than the reductions in activity concentration, but there were no cases where the estimated dose actually increased.     

Causes of Decay of Fresh-cut Celery

A decay of fresh-cut celery (Apium graveolens) segments stored at < 5°C in sealed film bags began with a water soaking of the cut surfaces. Slimy moisture accumulated inside the bags. The segments water soaked completely, softened, discolored and sometimes disintegrated. Total aerobic bacterial populations isolated from decayed segments ranged from log₁₀ 7.0–7.7 CFU/g tissue weight. The predominant bacteria, identified by fatty acid analysis as Pseudomonas fluorescens and P. marginalis, caused water soaking, soft rot, and discoloration in freshly inoculated celery tissues stored at 5 or 25°C. Leuconostoc mesenteroides was also isolated and may have been responsible for slime production.     

Commentary on Krishnaswamy et al. - Quantifying and mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services: Utility of a multi-season NDVI based Mahalanobis distance surrogate

Remote sensing is a powerful tool for characterizing, estimating or modelling species diversity. Differences in environmental properties of different habitats should lead to differences of spectral responses, which can be detected by satellite imagery. Hence, spectral distance may be related to species diversity. Based on previous studies, Krishnaswamy et al. [Krishnaswamy, J., Bawa, K. S., Ganeshaiah, K. N., & Kiran, M. C. (2009). Quantifying and mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services: Utility of a multi-season NDVI based Mahalanobis distance surrogate. Remote Sensing of Environment.] used spectral distance to estimate species diversity. Since a noisy scatterplot of species versus spectral diversity is expected, the commonly used Ordinary Least Square regression may fail to detect trends which occur across other quantiles than the mean.Krishnaswamy et al. [Krishnaswamy, J., Bawa, K. S., Ganeshaiah, K. N., & Kiran, M. C. (2009). Quantifying and mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services: Utility of a multi-season NDVI based Mahalanobis distance surrogate. Remote Sensing of Environment.] proposed a quantile-quantile plot method as an alternative to conventional regression based approaches which are inappropriate for dependent pair-wise dissimilarity or similarity data. By this commentary I demonstrate the utility of a quantile regression technique to complement the Krishnaswamy et al. [Krishnaswamy, J., Bawa, K. S., Ganeshaiah, K. N., & Kiran, M. C. (2009). Quantifying and mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services: Utility of a multi-season NDVI based Mahalanobis distance surrogate. Remote Sensing of Environment.] graphical approach in terms of a predictive model.     

Stochastic stabilization of differential systems with general decay rate

Some sufficient conditions concerning stability of solutions of stochastic differential evolution equations with general decay rate are first proved. Then, these results are interpreted as suitable stabilization ones for deterministic and stochastic systems. Also, they permit us to construct appropriate linear stabilizers in some particular situations.     

Optical properties of CdSe quantum dots grown on ZnSe and ZnBeSe by molecular beam epitaxy

We report detailed studies of the optical properties of CdSe quantum dots (QDs) grown on ZnSe and ZnBeSe by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). We performed steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements and observe that nonradiative processes dominate at room temperature (RT) in the CdSe/ZnBeSe QDs structures, though these nonradiative processes do not dominate in the CdSe/ZnSe QDs structures up to RT. We performed secondary ion-mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurement and propose that the oxygen incorporation in the ZnBeSe layers (possibly caused by the reactivity of Be) may contribute to the dominant nonradiative processes at high temperatures in the QDs grown on ZnBeSe.     

单色光光电导衰减法测试硅单晶少子寿命的表面复合修正公式

本文在数值分析和实验数据的基础上，提出了用单色光高频光电导衰减法测量硅单晶少子寿命的表面复合修正公式。     

Biocontrol of postharvest gray and blue mold decay of apples with Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and possible mechanisms of action

The efficacy of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa against postharvest gray mold, blue mold and natural decay development of apples and the possible mechanisms involved were investigated. The decay incidence and lesion diameter of gray mold and blue mold of apples treated by R. mucilaginosa were significantly reduced compared with the control fruits, and the higher concentration of R. mucilaginosa, the better the efficacy of the biocontrol. R. mucilaginosa also significantly reduced the natural decay development of apples following storage at 20 °C for 35 days or at 4 °C for 45 days followed by 20 °C for 15 days. Germination and survival of spores of Penicillium expansum and Botrytis cinerea were markedly inhibited by R. mucilaginosa in an in vitro test. Rapid colonization of the yeast in apple wounds was observed whether stored at 20 °C or 4 °C. In apples, the activities of peroxidase (POD) and polyphenoloxidase (PPO) were significantly induced and lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde (MDA) content) was highly inhibited by R. mucilaginosa treatment compared with those of the control fruits. All these results indicated that R. mucilaginosa has great potential for development of commercial formulations to control postharvest pathogens on fruits. Its modes of action were based on competition for space and nutrients with pathogens, inducement of activities of defense-related enzymes such as POD, PPO and inhibition of lipid peroxidation (MDA content) of apples, so as to enhance the resistance and delay the ripening and senescence of apples.     

马尾松回用纤维品质衰变规律及其机理研究

通过对马尾松亚硫酸盐浆、TMP浆和GWP浆的回用实验,本文得出了回用纤维品质衰变的基本规律。根据著名的Page方程,从回用纤维中聚戊糖含量的变化和回用纤维长度分布的变化以及回用纤维纸页光散射系数变化等数据中推断出了影响回用纤维品质衰变的主要因素,并进一步探讨了这些因素影响回用纤维品质的机理。     

阳离子聚电解质在纸浆纤维上吸附时的动态变化

综述了阳离子聚电解质在纸浆纤维上吸附时随时间所发生的动态变化,及由此所引起的电荷衰减.     

Fungal pretreatment of wheat straw: Effects on the biodegradability of cell walls,structural polysaccharides,lignin and phenolic acids by rumen microorganisms

Disappearance of cell wall components of untreated straw and straw treated with the ligninolytic white-rot fungi Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Dichomitus squalens and Cyathus stercoreus were determined during the course of rumen digestion of samples in nylon bags. The first fungus degraded hemicelluloses and cellulose non-selectively, adversely affecting the digestion rate of crude cell walls. Dichomitus squalens and C. stercoreus preferentially degraded hemicelluloses and lignin, affording cell wall degradation rates 1.5 times higher than in native straw. Furthermore, the extent of cell wall digestion was also significantly enhanced. Both strains improved the extent of cellulose digestion, whereas the potentially degradable xylan fraction remained unchanged. Polysaccharide digestion rates were influenced in different ways depending on the strain tested: straw degraded by C. stercoreus showed an increase in cellulose digestion rate by 50%, whereas residual arabinose units were slowly degraded. Xylan was degraded 1.8 times faster in straw decayed' by D. squalens, while cellulose digestion remained unchanged. Phanerochaete chrysosporium depressed both xylan and cellulose digestion rates. Fungal-treated lignins were solubilised in the rumen faster than in untreated straw, whereas only treatment by C. stercoreus resulted in higher lignin losses. Esterified phenolic acids were extensively degraded by all three fungi. Residual ferulic and p-coumaric acids accumulated during rumen digestion, although only the former decreased in the original straw.