USE OF OZONE TO INACTIVATE MICROORGANISMS ON LETTUCE

When ozone (1.3 mM) was bubbled for 3 min in a mixture of shredded lettuce and water, counts ofmesophilic andpsychrotrophic bacteria decreased 1.4 and 1.8 log₁₀ cfu/g, respectively. Counts of these microorganisms on lettuce, from a different batch, decreased 3.9 and 4.6 log, respectively, during 5 min of ozone treatment. Shredded lettuce was treated with gaseous ozone, or mixed with aqueous solution of ozone (1:20 w/w) with or without bubbles. For effective delivery of ozone, stirring (low and high speed), sonication or stomaching was applied during the ozonation. Washing the lettuce with water only decreased total count on shredded lettuce by 0.74–1.0 log cfu/g. When lettuce in a treatment chamber was flushed with gaseous ozone, the total count decreased 0.85 log cfu/g, but when vacuum was applied before the ozone flush, the total count decreased 0.96 log cfu/g. Bubbling ozone in water-lettuce mixture while sonicating, high-speed stirring, or before stomaching inactivated 1.4, 1.9 and 1.9 log cfu/g, respectively. In conclusion, bubbling gaseous ozone in water is the most effective ozonation method. Efficient ozone delivery to microorganisms on lettuce requires a combination of ozone bubbling and high-speed stir.     

IN SITU X-RAY PROBES FOR PIEZOELECTRICITY IN EPITAXIAL FERROELECTRIC CAPACITORS

ABSTRACT

Probing the piezoelectricity and ferroelectricity of thin film devices and nanostructures quantitatively has proven to be challenging because the appropriate experimental tools have had a limited range of usefulness. We show here that the piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of epitaxial thin films can be measured quantitatively using time-resolved synchrotron x-ray microdiffraction. Microdiffraction combines structural specificity with the appropriate spatial resolution and ability to probe structures with electrical contacts. Our measurements of piezoelectric coefficients and coercive electric fields for Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ capacitors using this approach are in excellent quantitative agreement with results obtained electrically and mechanically. The time and spatial resolution of microdiffraction probes are well-defined and decoupled from electrical and mechanical resonances of the ferroelectric capacitor.     

双幕墙建筑通风性能的数值模拟研究

为研究廊道式和箱体式两种双幕墙体系的通风性能,以及外层幕墙通风百叶倾角对通风效果的影响,利用计算流体力学中的数值风洞模拟双幕墙建筑的通风状况,并与风洞试验结果相比较;采用多种倾角工况和不同来流风向对通风口百叶进行建模计算.分析结果表明,采用大涡湍流模型中的动力亚格子尺度(SGS)模型能很好地模拟双幕墙体系的实际风场;在满足建筑通风要求的前提下使用箱体式来代替廊道式幕墙能获得更加良好的居住环境;通风百叶在一定程度上起到导风板的作用,在45°倾角附近具有最佳的通风效果.     

孤岛运行方式下微电网储能系统能量成型控制策略

在分析微电网储能系统(ESS)结构的基础上,建立了微电网ESS的端口受控哈密顿(PCH)模型,设计了PCH控制器,确定了期望平衡点,给出了微电网ESS的能量成型控制策略。建立含可再生能源发电单元和ESS的微电网仿真模型对所提策略进行仿真,仿真结果表明,与典型PI闭环线性控制策略相比,所提控制策略在孤岛运行期间能很好地满足对ESS的控制要求,且具有更好的快速性、鲁棒性。     

Variable step-size affine projection algorithm based on global speech absence probability for adaptive feedbackcancellation简

A novel approach is proposed for improving adaptive feedback cancellation using a variable step-size affine projection algorithm（VSS-APA） based on global speech absence probability（GSAP）.The variable step-size of the proposed VSS-APA is adjusted according to the GSAP of the current frame.The weight vector of the adaptive filter is updated by the probability of the speech absence.The performance measure of acoustic feedback cancellation is evaluated using normalized misalignment.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach has better performance than the normalized least mean square（NLMS） and the constant step-size affine projection algorithms.     

Simple reactor for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles with the assistance of ethanol by gas–liquid discharge plasma

Atmospheric pressure plasma technology is gaining increasing importance because it is a simple and tunable synthesis process for the production of metallic nanoparticles. In addition to the development of the power supply, improving the reactor is also one of the main strategies to enhance the utility. In this study, a simple reactor for the gas–liquid discharge plasma induced by argon gas was applied to synthesize silver nanoparticles from silver nitrate (AgNO₃) in solution. An AC power supply with a peak voltage of 3.5 kV was used. The frequency and on-time were set to 50 kHz and 2.5 μs, respectively. The oscilloscope showed that the rising time was approximately 2 μs. The ethanol was used as the source for the reactive reducing agent. No more additional components existed in the solution during the discharge and neither of the electrodes was in contact with the treated solution. The temperature increased by 10 °C within 1min without a cooling system. Carbon was the main impurity and was expected to be produced from the decomposition of the organics under the plasma. The elevated temperature decreased the organic by-products by evaporation and could also decrease the production of carbon. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the spherical silver nanoparticles with a size of approximately 10 nm were synthesized with a crystal structure and that a low concentration of ethanol prefers the production of the mono-dispersed colloid.     

Performance improvement using time delays in multivariable controller design

A new controller for linear multivariable ordinary systems is suggested in which distributed delays are included in the feedback loop. A general design approach to obtain this type of controller is suggested. It is shown that the resulting closed-loop system is asymptotically stable under some sufficient conditions. Sufficient conditions are derived under which the disturbance attenuation, the robustness against parameter variations, and the time-delay stability margins are improved by the proposed controller. The state feedback tracking controller and the dual-state observer are obtained by modification of the proposed controller.     

Modified analogue forecasting in the hidden Markov frameworkfor meteorological droughts

An analogue method(AM) is a nonparametric approach that has been applied to predict the future states of a dynamic system by following the evolution of the analogues in the historical archive. In this study, we proposed a hidden Markov model(HMM)framework for a modified analogue forecasting(MAF) approach for meteorological droughts in Korea. The unobservable(hidden) state process in the framework aims to model the underlying drought state, while the observation process was formed from the time series of the standardized precipitation index(SPI) as a drought index. Within the framework, the likelihood estimator was used as the measure of similarity between past SPI analogues and current data. The MAF approach was conducted on the selected analogues to make forecasts at lead times of one and three months. The proposed model was applied to five selected stations in Korea using the SPI data from 1973 to 2016. The forecasting performance of the proposed model was tested during the validation period(2003–2016) using several statistical criteria and it was compared to a persistence-based benchmark model. The results showed significant improvement in the forecasting capacity, and satisfactory performance for numerical SPI forecasting and categorical drought forecasting. The results also suggested that the proposed model was able to provide useful information for determining future drought categories for early drought warning with a lead time of up to three months.