Changes in the microbiological and shelf-life characteristics of beef tongues and livers following transcontinental and transoceanic shipment

The effects of transcontinental (interstate) transport and transoceanic shipment were determined on microbiological and shelf-life characteristics of beef tongues and livers. These variety meats were evaluated for both microbiological and shelf-life characteristics following slaughter in Guymon, Oklahoma, USA. The samples were then frozen and sent by refrigerated truck (4·5°C) to storage facilities in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. Further microbiological and shelf-life evaluations took place prior to overseas shipment at the University of Florida and following overseas shipment at The Institute CIVO-Technology, TNO, Zeist, The Netherlands. Aerobic plate counts (APCs) at 35°C for beef tongues showed a significant (P < 0·0.5) decrease following overseas shipment. Similar results were noted for beef livers. For both organs, the surface thawing in Florida, required for sampling, did not appear to affect the final bacterial counts. The 20°C APCs for beef tongues revealed a significant (P < 0·0.5) decrease following interstate transport but not transoceanic shipment. The 20°C APCs for beef livers did not differ significantly during the entire transportation period. The colour differences noted during transport of the product were probably the result of freezing and not of the actual shipping and storage conditions.     

Superconductivity,structural disorder,and phase transitions in ion-irradiated Nb3Al films

Thin films of single-phase A15 Nb₃Al were irradiated with protons and nitrogen ions. X-ray intensity analysis revealed a decrease of the Bragg-Williams long-range order parameterS and an increase of the average displacement amplitude of the atomsU in the fluence region where a decrease of the superconducting transition temperatureT _c was observed. The functional dependence ofT _c onS andU was found to depend on the ion species used for irradiation. After irradiation with 10¹⁶ N²⁺ / cm² the A15 phase transformed into an A2 phase. Furnace annealing caused a retransformation into the A15 phase with improved superconducting properties.     

On the prediction of band-limited signals from past samples

A new method is used to construct coefficients a_kn such that any band-limited signal function with highest frequency ΠW can be reconstituted from its samples from the past via

$\text{?(t)=}\text{lim}\text{n→∞}\text{σ}\text{k=1}\text{n}\text{a}{}_{\mathrm{kn}}\text{?}\text{t?}\text{kT}\text{W}$

Although the existence of such predictor coefficients can be proved for each positive T < 1, so far they have been exhibited only for $\text{T ? (0,}\text{built1}\text{2}\text{)}$ by J. L. Brown, Jr. [1]. Using the mathematical tool of power series expansions in the complex domain, T can be extended to at least $\text{T <}\text{1}\text{2}$, that is, the sampling rate has to exceed three-halves the Nyquist rate. Again the predictor coefficients a_kn do not depend on the structure of ? or on the bandwidth parameter W.