Role of surface-inoculated Debaryomyces hansenii and Yarrowia lipolytica strains in dried fermented sausage manufacture. Part 2: Evaluation of their effects on sensory quality and biogenic amine content

The aim was to study the effects of Debaryomyces hansenii and Yarrowia lipolytica strains, used with lactic acid starter cultures (Lactobacillus plantarum), in the manufacture of dried fermented sausages in order to understand their effects on volatile profile, biogenic amine content and sensory properties. The experimental data showed that every yeast strain produced a specific profile of volatile metabolic products. The yeasts also gave sausages with distinctive sensory properties. The degree of mincing also influenced these properties, but none of these factors had significant influence upon the accumulation of biogenic amines.     

Proving finiteness of CCS processes by non-standard semantics

We present a semantic method to check the finiteness of CCS terms. The method is interpretative, i.e. it is based on a non-standard CCS operational semantics. According to this semantics it is always possible, given a processp, to build a finite state transition system which, if a condition holds, is a finite representation ofp; otherwise it is a suitable approximation of its semantic behaviour. The method is able to decide the finiteness of a CCS term in a larger number of cases than those captured by known syntactic criteria.This work has been partially funded by Progetto Finalizzato Sistemi Informatici e Calcolo Parallelo.     

Probabilistic analysis of weather data for a hybrid solar/wind energy system

In this paper, a procedure for the probabilistic treatment of solar irradiance and wind speed data is reported as a method of evaluating, at a given site, the electric energy generated by both a photovoltaic system and a wind system. The aim of the proposed approach is twofold: first, to check if the real probability distribution functions (PDFs) of both clearness index and wind speed overlap with Hollands and Huget and Weibull PDFs, respectively; and then to find the parameters of these two distributions that best fit the real data. Further, using goodness‐of‐fit tests, these PDFs are compared with another set of very common PDFs, namely the Gordon and Reddy and Lognormal functions, respectively. The results inform the design of a pre‐processing stage for the input of an algorithm that probabilistically optimizes the design of hybrid solar wind power systems. In this paper, the validity of the proposed procedure was tested using long‐term meteorological data from Acireale (Italy). Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Isothermal solidification of Cu/Sn diffusion couples to form thin-solder joints

Isothermal solidification of conventional Cu/Sn diffusional couples was performed to form thin (30 μm) joints consisting of Cu-Sn intermetallics. During initial stages of isothermal solidification, both Cu₆Sn₅ and Cu₃Sn phases grow, even though the former is the dominant. After consumption of all available Sn, the Cu₃Sn phase grows reactively at the expense of Cu and Cu₆Sn₅. Finally, we obtain solder joints that consist of only Cu₃Sn. Indentation fracture-toughness measurements show that Cu₃Sn is superior to Cu₆Sn₅. Furthermore, indentations of Cu₃Sn exhibit the presence of shear bands, which are not observed in Cu₆Sn₅, implying that the former is more ductile than the latter. Ductile intermetallic-based joints formed by isothermal solidification are promising candidates to form thin (as thin as 5–10 μm or less) solder joints, as they are thermally and thermodynamically stable compared to conventional solder joints. Excess copper in the interconnect provides ductility to the interconnect.     

Representing target motion: The role of the right hemisphere in the forward displacement bias.

Patients with left spatial neglect, patients with right hemisphere damage but no neglect, and a control group were asked to judge the final position of a series of moving targets. Both patient groups showed attentional deficits. All 3 groups demonstrated a forward displacement bias, overestimating the final target position along the object trajectory. However, in both patient groups the size of this forward displacement bias decreased as the distance the target traveled before vanishing increased. For horizontally moving targets, at the maximum distance only the control group showed significant forward displacement. For all 3 groups, the direction in which the target traveled had no influence, but the size of the forward displacement increased as target speed increased. Several attentional explanations of these results are considered, including the differential allocation of spatial attention between central and peripheral locations, differences between exogenous and endogenous attention, and deficits in sustained attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)