The effect of killing conditions on the structural changes in vanilla (Vanilla planifolia, Andrews) pods during the curing process

The effect of seven methods of killing vanilla ( Vanilla planifolia , Andrews) pods on disassembly of the cell wall was studied. The following methods of plant killing were considered in this study: pod immersions in hot water under three conditions (65 °C for 3 min, 70 °C for 2 min, 80 °C for 10 s each of three times in 30 s intervals), pod immersions in 1% NaOH at 22 °C or 65 °C for 3 min, pod immersions in 95% ethanol at 22 °C for 60 min, and freezing at −10 °C for 24 h. Two procedures of vanilla pod killing, pod freezing at −10 °C for 24 h or pod immersions in hot water at 80 °C for 10 s each of three times in 30 s intervals, provoked the deepest and fastest disassembly of the cell wall structure and the successive cell content blending of the vanilla pod during the 8 days after curing.     

The New Ecological Policy In Poland - Towards Human Beings And Sustainability - A Viewpoint

The communist authorities left Poland in the 1980s in a very bad economic and environmental condition. The evidence was very strong: forest death, heavy air pollution within the majority of cities, as well as chemical and biological contamination of water in rivers and lakes. This meant very poor ecological life conditions. Opposition forces and recent democratic governments have made great efforts to change the situation. New laws have been passed, greater investments have been made and many factories have closed. The economic crisis is another reason for reduced emissions. Cited data and parameters show significant progress and improved the Polish environment at the turn of the 20th century.     

Simplified model of transient radiative cooling of spherical body

The cooling of a spherical body in case when radiation is the only heat transfer mechanism between the body surface and the environment has been considered. A mathematical process model employing an own approximate kinetic equation of heat conduction has been worked out. Thus, the process has been described by an ordinary differential equation combined with an algebraic one. The proposed simplified model has been compared with the exact solution and with approximate relations presented by Su [4]. It has been found that the proposed model is accurate and employable for both long and short times as well as for any relations between outer and inner heat transfer resistances.     

Estimation of earthworks execution time cost by means of artificial neural networks

The paper presents a methodology for determining earthworks execution time and cost. The accurate determination of the productivity of machines working in sets is a major problem in earthworks execution planning. Earthworks are conducted in random condition and so the parameter values achieved during their realization have a random character. Using an existing database based on measurements carried out on a construction site, an artificial neural network was built. The latter was used to predict productivity for selected sets of machines and to calculate the task execution time and cost. The obtained set of results allows one to select the machinery set optimum with regard to earthworks execution cost or time.     

EXTENSION OF THE NEURAL NETWORKS OPERATING RANGE BY THE APPLICATION OF DIMENSIONLESS NUMBERS IN PREDICTION OF HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENTS

The paper presents a study aimed at extending the neural network mapping ability. In traditional modelling, operational process parameters (gas/material temperature, air velocity, etc.) are the inputs and outputs to and from the network. In this approach dimensionless numbers (Re, Ar, H/d) were used as inputs to predict the heat transfer coefficient in a fluidised bed drying process. To produce the data set necessary to train the networks, drying trials of different materials in a fluidised bed were carried out.

A series of simulations were performed and several neural networks structures were tested to find an optimal topology of the network. Training data set contained information only about two materials. The networks were tested using data obtained for the third product.

Performance of the network was satisfactory, however further improvement of mapping ability may be expected after filtration of the testing data.     

Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Cell Wall Components in the Placentas,Ovules and Female Gametophytes of Utricularia during Pollination

In most angiosperms, the female gametophyte is hidden in the mother tissues and the pollen tube enters the ovule via a micropylar canal. The mother tissues play an essential role in the pollen tube guidance. However, in Utricularia, the female gametophyte surpasses the entire micropylar canal and extends beyond the limit of the integument. The female gametophyte then invades the placenta and a part of the central cell has direct contact with the ovary chamber. To date, information about the role of the placenta and integument in pollen tube guidance in Utricularia, which have extra-ovular female gametophytes, has been lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of the placenta, central cell and integument in pollen tube pollen tube guidance in Utricularia nelumbifolia Gardner and Utricularia humboldtii R.H. Schomb. by studying the production of arabinogalactan proteins. It was also determined whether the production of the arabinogalactan proteins is dependent on pollination in Utricularia. In both of the examined species, arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) were observed in the placenta (epidermis and nutritive tissue), ovule (integument, chalaza), and female gametophyte of both pollinated and unpollinated flowers, which means that the production of AGPs is independent of pollination; however, the production of some AGPs was lower after fertilization. There were some differences in the production of AGPs between the examined species. The occurrence of AGPs in the placental epidermis and nutritive tissue suggests that they function as an obturator. The production of some AGPs in the ovular tissues (nucellus, integument) was independent of the presence of a mature embryo sac.     

Multibody modeling of human body for the inverse dynamics analysis of sagittal plane movements

A multibody methodology for systematic construction of a two-dimensional biomechanical model of a human body is presented, aimed at effective determination of the muscle forces and joint reaction forces in the lower extremities during sagittal plane movements such as vertical jump, standing long jump or jumping down from a height. While the hip, knee and ankle joints are modeled as enforced directly by the muscle forces applied to the foot, shank, thigh and pelvis at the muscle attachment points, the actuation of the other joints is simplified to the torques representing the respective muscle action. The developed formulation is applicable to both the flying and support phases, enhanced by an effective scheme for the determination of reaction forces exclusively in the lower extremity joints. The determination of reactions from the ground is also provided. The problem of muscle force redundancy in the lower extremities is solved by applying the pseudoinverse method, with post-processing procedures used to assure the muscle being tensile. Results of the inverse dynamics analysis of vertical jump are reported.