Consumer and sensory investigations in relation to physical/chemical aspects of cooked pork in Scandinavia

The present study addresses sensory quality and liking for pork (eight samples) varying in quality due to adrenaline injection resulting in elevated ultimate pH post-slaughter (24h), meat ageing, cooking temperature and warmed-over flavour (WOF) among consumers (n=288) in Scandinavia. The consumers preferred meat with higher pH (pH(24h)=6.0), cooked to the lowest temperature (65?°C versus 80?°C). Consumers least preferred samples with WOF described as metallic, acidic and off-flavour by a trained panel. "Elevated pH(24h) meat" cooked to 65?°C resulted in a more sweet and tender meat. Juiciness, tenderness and the absence of off-flavour were the most important characteristics for consumers' liking of pork. Consumption frequency and liking of pork were positively related. The consumers that were most satisfied with pork quality reported highest consumption frequency. Elderly people and males expressed the highest liking score and consumption frequency, respectively.     

Electroporation of single cells and tissues with an electrolyte-filled capillary

We show how an electrolyte-filled capillary (EFC) coupled to a high-voltage power supply can be used as a versatile electroporation tool for the delivery of dyes, drugs, and biomolecules to the cytoplasm of single cells and cells in tissues. A large-voltage pulse applied across the EFC (fused silica, 30 cm long, 375-microm o.d., 30-microm i.d.) gives rise to a small electric field outside the terminus of the EFC, which causes pore formation in cell membranes and induces an electroosmotic flow of electrolyte. When the EFC contains cell-loading agents, then the electroosmotic flow delivers the agents at the site of pore formation. The combination of pore formation and delivery enables loading of materials into the cytoplasm. By patch-clamp and fluorescence microscopy, formation of pores was observed at estimated transmembrane voltages of <85 mV with half-maximum values around 206 mV. The electroporation protocol was demonstrated by introduction of fluorogenic dyes into single NG108-15 cells, cellular processes, and small populations of cells in organotypic hippocampal cultures. Preliminary results are shown in which this protocol was employed for in vivo electroporation of ventral mesencephalon in rat brains. The technique was also used to access organelle-based detection systems inside cells. As a demonstration, 1,4,5-inositoltriphosphate was added to the electrolyte and detected by intracellular organelles in electroporated cells.     

Knowledge in Regional Economic Growth—The Role of Knowledge Accessibility

This paper analyzes the role of knowledge in regional economic growth by focusing on knowledge accessibility. The research question is the following: can the variation in knowledge accessibility between regions in a given period explain the variation in growth performance of regions in subsequent periods? A main assumption in the paper is that knowledge accessibility transforms into potential knowledge flows. Our results show that differences in growth of value-added per employee across regions can be explained by differences in knowledge accessibility. Intra-municipal and intra-regional knowledge accessibilities are significant and capable of explaining a significant share of the variation in growth of value-added per employee between Swedish municipalities. However, inter-regional knowledge accessibility turned out to be insignificant. This is interpreted as a clear indication of spatial dependence in the sense that the knowledge resources in a given municipality tend to have a positive effect on the growth of other municipalities, conditional on that the municipalities belong to the same functional region. Thus, the results of the analysis indicate that knowledge flows transcend municipal borders, but that they tend to be bound within functional regions.     

Full-Duplex DOCSIS/WirelessDOCSIS Fiber–Radio Network Employing Packaged AFPMs as Optical/Electrical Transducers

A hybrid fiber-radio access network architecture for simultaneous wireline and wireless transmissions of data-over-cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) signals is presented. An all-optical harmonic up-conversion technique using a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator provides the downstream optical signal modulated not only at the intermediate frequency in the 600- to 900-MHz band for wireline transmission but also at the up-converted frequency in the 5.45- to 5.75-GHz band for wireless transmission. An InGaAsP/InGaAsP multiple-quantum-well asymmetric Fabry-Perot modulator/detector has been designed, fabricated, and packaged and has been employed in the base station (BS) as an optical/electrical transducer, simultaneously providing the functions of optical intensity modulation and photodetection. At the BS, the DOCSIS signals are recovered at the wireline and wireless frequencies for the respective feeding of a cable access network or a fixed wireless access network in a highly flexible approach. Full-duplex operation has been demonstrated for both access types in an indoor laboratory environment. In a subsequent small-scale field trial, real-life Internet traffic provided by a local community antenna television system operator has been transported over the present hybrid fiber-radio access network architecture, and simultaneous transmission of both DOCSIS and digital television signals has also been performed.     

Illuminance Flow Estimation by Regression

We investigate the estimation of illuminance flow using Histograms of Oriented Gradient features (HOGs). In a regression setting, we found for both ridge regression and support vector machines, that the optimal solution shows close resemblance to the gradient based structure tensor (also known as the second moment matrix).     

Modeling an industrial energy system: Perspectives on regional heat cooperation

Through energy efficiency measures, it is possible to reduce heat surplus in the pulp and paper industry. Yet pulp and paper mills situated in countries with a heat demand for residential and commercial buildings for the major part of the year are potential heat suppliers. However, striving to utilize the heat within the mills for efficient energy use could conflict with the delivery of excess heat to a district heating system. As part of a project to optimize a regional energy system, a sulfate pulp mill situated in central Sweden is analyzed, focusing on providing heat and electricity to the mill and its surrounding energy systems. An energy system optimization method based on mixed integer linear programming is used for studying energy system measures on an aggregated level. An extended system, where the mill is integrated in a regional heat market (HM), is evaluated in parallel with the present system. The use of either hot sewage or a heat pump for heat deliveries is analyzed along with process integration measures. The benefits of adding a condensing unit to the back-pressure steam turbine are also investigated. The results show that the use of hot sewage or a heat pump for heat deliveries is beneficial only in combination with extended heat deliveries to an HM. Process integration measures are beneficial and even increase the benefit of selling more heat for district heating. Adding a condensing turbine unit is most beneficial in combination with extended heat deliveries and process integration. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Probability density functions of the differential group delay inoptical fiber communication systems

Fiber communication systems limited by polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) are usually analyzed using statistics. The probability density function (pdf) of the differential group delay (DGD) is then crucial to know. There are cases for which the commonly used Maxwellian pdf is only approximate, e.g., PMD emulators, or systems with components having single components with large deterministic PMD. Those cases are discussed in this paper, and their pdfs are derived. To do this, we present a very general theory that allows for the derivation of the pdf for almost any birefringent transmission line. As a side result, we are able to prove that the square-sum concatenation formula is valid in almost every case of interest, even if the pdf is far from Maxwellian