Sodium Lactate/Sodium Chloride Effects on Sensory Characteristics and Shelf-Life of Fresh Ground Pork

Fresh ground pork was formulated with sodium lactate (SL) (0, 1.5 or 3%) and sodium chloride (0, 0.5, 1, l.5, 2, 2.5 or 3%) to evaluate effects on sensory characteristics. Aerobic plate count (APC) over retail storage (25 days) was evaluated on samples rated in the mid-range (±0.5 S.D. of mean) of salty flavor intensity (SI) by a trained sensory panel. SL increased (P<0.05) SI and juiciness, and enhanced ground pork flavor. Sodium added as SL was less perceptible as “salty” than that added as NaCl. SL significantly reduced (P<0.05) APC; based on spoilage level of 10⁶ CFU/g SL extended shelf-life (3% SL) by about 12 days compared to controls.     

Electric Field Assisted Microfluidic Platform for Generation of Tailorable Porous Microbeads as Cell Carriers for Tissue Engineering

Injection of cell‐laden scaffolds in the form of mesoscopic particles directly to the site of treatment is one of the most promising approaches to tissue regeneration. Here, a novel and highly efficient method is presented for preparation of porous microbeads of tailorable dimensions (in the range ≈300–1500 mm) and with a uniform and fully interconnected internal porous texture. The method starts with generation of a monodisperse oil‐in‐water emulsion inside a flow‐focusing microfluidic device. This emulsion is later broken‐up, with the use of electric field, into mesoscopic double droplets, that in turn serve as a template for the porous microbeads. By tuning the amplitude and frequency of the electric pulses, the template droplets and the resulting porous bead scaffolds are precisely produced. Furthermore, a model of pulsed electrodripping is proposed that predicts the size of the template droplets as a function of the applied voltage. To prove the potential of the porous microbeads as cell carries, they are tested with human mesenchymal stem cells and hepatic cells, with their viability and degree of microbead colonization being monitored. Finally, the presented porous microbeads are benchmarked against conventional microparticles with nonhomogenous internal texture, revealing their superior performance.     

A Heuristic Approach to the Inverse Differential Kinematics Problem

Inversion of the kinematics of manipulators is one of the central problems in the field of robot arm control. The iterative use of inverse differential kinematics is a popular method of solving this task. Normally the solution of the problem requires a complex mathematical apparatus. It involves methods for solving equation systems as well as algorithms for optimization. In this paper we introduce a naïve heuristic method which works without the need for complex mathematical algorithms. This method forms a simple basis for the more sophisticated control procedures of our robot manipulator (JANUS).     

New solution to the problem of bipolar injection in insulator and semiconductor devices

Content A problem of the space charge transport with two mobilities is presented. It is found that interactions between carriers can be described by then(p) relationships. Three stable states of the charged capacitor occur. The stability problem is studied by the first approximation method. The laws of Ohm, Fowler-Nordheim, Schottky and Child are obtained.

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Neue Lösung des Problems der bipolaren Injektion in Isolierstoffen und Halbleitern

Übersicht Im Beitrag wird das Problem der Raumladung mit zwei Bewegungsrichtungen dargestellt. Es wird festgestellt, daß die gegenseitige Wirkung von Ladungsträgern durch dien(p) Abhängigkeit beschrieben werden kann. Es treten dabei drei stationäre Zustände des geladenen Kondensators auf. Das Problem der Stabilität wird durch die Anwendung der Methode der ersten Approximation untersucht. Es werden die Gesetze von Ohm, Fowler-Nordheim, Scottky und Child hergeleitet.

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This work was sponsored by grant of K. B. N. of Polish goverment.     

Recognition of two-dimensional representation of urban environment for autonomous flying agents

In this paper the problem of a vision system implementation for autonomous flying agents is considered in the context of industrial inspection tasks performed by unmanned aerial vehicles. A syntactic algorithm of a two-dimensional object vectorization and recognition is proposed. An algorithm of two-dimensional map recognition has been introduced as well. The algorithms have been tested by using both artificial data and real data – the satellite image. They have turned out to be effective.     

Tribological phenomena in steel-composite brake material friction pairs

The mechanism of the formation of iron layers on brake friction materials sliding over a steel surface has been investigated. The nature of the metallization of friction material specimens and the changes in the surfaces as a result of sliding were studied by optical and scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, gas Chromatographic analysis and microhardness measurements. A mechanism for the metallization of friction linings (iron layer formation) is proposed. Models of a tribological system for a frictional brake and of the subsurface layers of composite brake materials are described.     

Reducing life‐cycle environmental impacts of coal‐power by using coal‐mine methane

The exploitation of coal‐mine methane is analysed to reduce the environmental impact from coal power systems. The analyses are based on a life cycle assessment, and the results were compared with carbon‐capture and storage technologies. The results suggest that by increasing the use of coalmine methane, the environmental impacts of coal power plants could be clearly reduced. Although the CO₂ reduction is much less than through sequestration of CO₂, increased use of coal‐mine methane in Poland could potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 9 million tonnes of CO₂ per year, which corresponds to about 2.5% of the emissions of Poland. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.