Formulation of a cured meat product by the dewatering-impregnation soaking (DIS) process: Mass transfer study and assessment of product quality

Venison muscle meats were simultaneously salted and dried by soaking in a mixed concentrated solution (salt/corn starch syrup) at a low temperature, a process known as dewatering and impregnation soaking (DIS). Cured products of suitable market quality (in terms of their salt and water content) were obtained with this process. The impregnation of standard curing additives (nitrites and polyphosphates) into the meat product was controlled by mixing these compounds in the concentrated solution. Also, beneficial effects of additives on the physicochemical, microbiological and organoleptic characteristics of the product are confirmed. The present study highlights the choice of DIS process and proposed optimal DIS conditions for formulating cured products.     

Scientific sketching for collaborative VR visualization design

We present four studies investigating tools and methodologies for artist-scientist-technologist collaboration in designing multivariate, virtual reality (VR) visualizations. Design study 1 identifies the promise of 3D drawing-style interfaces for VR design and also establishes limitations of these tools with respect to precision and support for animation. Design study 2 explores animating artist-created visualization designs with scientific 3D fluid flow data. While results captured an accurate sense of flow that was advantageous as compared to the results of study 1, the potential for visual exploration using the design tools tested was limited. Design study 3 reveals the importance of a new 3D interface that overcomes the precision limitation found in study 1 while remaining accessible to artist collaborators. Drawing upon previous results, design study 4 engages collaborative teams in a design process that begins with traditional paper sketching and moves to animated, interactive, VR prototypes "sketched" by designers in VR using interactive 3D tools. Conclusions from these four studies identify important characteristics of effective artist-accessible VR visualization design tools and lead to a proposed formalized methodology for successful collaborative design that we expect to be useful in guiding future collaborations. We call this proposed methodology Scientific Sketching.     

科技奥运与电子商务的安全保障

2007年10月30日上午9点,北京奥运会门票第二阶段销售启动后不久,系统访问流量猛增,官方票务网站流量瞬时达到每小时800万次,超过了系统设计每小时100万次的承受量。从而出现网络拥堵,售票速度慢或暂时不能登录系统的     

Force-clamp spectroscopy with a small dithering of AFM tip, and its application to explore the energy landscape of single avidin-biotin complex

We have recently developed a new method for directly measuring the spring constant of single molecules and molecular complexes on a real-time basis [L.A. Chtcheglova, G.T. Shubeita, S.K. Sekatskii, G. Dietler, Biophys. J. 86 (2004) 1177]. The technique combines standard force spectroscopy with a small dithering of tip. Changes in the amplitude of the oscillations are measured as a function of the pulling-off force to yield the spring constant of the complex. In this report, we present the first results of combination of this approach with the force-clamp spectroscopy. The standard atomic-force microscope has been supplemented with an electronic unit, which is capable of realizing an arbitrary force function, and permits the force-loading regime to be interrupted at any time. Using this method, the time needed to rupture a single bond can be measured as a function of the force that is required to maintain the complex in a stretched condition. The energy landscape of the avidin-biotin complex is explored and discussed.     

Three-dimensional reconstruction on PC-Windows platform for evaluation of living donor nephrectomy

Evaluation of renal vasculature was necessary for preoperative donor assessment in living donor kidney transplantation, and the ability to view the vascular imaging in three-dimensional (3D) space should be helpful undoubtedly. Considering the widespread use of personal computer (PC) systems, we aimed to find a handy way to display the anatomy of the renal arterial and venous systems of potential donors on PC-Windows platform. Ten living-related donors were included in this study. Serial computed tomography (CT) images were loaded into Amira 3.1 running on a PC with Windows XP. Following image crop, segmentation and 3D reconstruction, we got the 3D images and the video clips. According to the displays which were confirmed by latter intraoperative findings, eight donors had single renal vessels, one had a left accessory renal artery and one had a right accessory renal artery. This project offered a new approach to evaluate the renal vessel anatomy in living donor kidney transplantation, and it was favorable for accuracy and popularizing.     

Learning with "relevance": using a third factor to stabilize Hebbian learning

It is a well-known fact that Hebbian learning is inherently unstable because of its self-amplifying terms: the more a synapse grows, the stronger the postsynaptic activity, and therefore the faster the synaptic growth. This unwanted weight growth is driven by the autocorrelation term of Hebbian learning where the same synapse drives its own growth. On the other hand, the cross-correlation term performs actual learning where different inputs are correlated with each other. Consequently, we would like to minimize the autocorrelation and maximize the cross-correlation. Here we show that we can achieve this with a third factor that switches on learning when the autocorrelation is minimal or zero and the cross-correlation is maximal. The biological counterpart of such a third factor is a neuromodulator that switches on learning at a certain moment in time. We show in a behavioral experiment that our three-factor learning clearly outperforms classical Hebbian learning.     

A new approach of data clustering using a flock of agents

This paper presents a new bio-inspired algorithm (FClust) that dynamically creates and visualizes groups of data. This algorithm uses the concepts of a flock of agents that move together in a complex manner with simple local rules. Each agent represents one data. The agents move together in a 2D environment with the aim of creating homogeneous groups of data. These groups are visualized in real time, and help the domain expert to understand the underlying structure of the data set, like for example a realistic number of classes, clusters of similar data, isolated data. We also present several extensions of this algorithm, which reduce its computational cost, and make use of a 3D display. This algorithm is then tested on artificial and real-world data, and a heuristic algorithm is used to evaluate the relevance of the obtained partitioning.