Modeling the Growth of Epiphytic Bacteria on Kale Treated by Thermosonication Combined with Slightly Acidic Electrolyzed Water and Stored under Dynamic Temperature Conditions

The growth of epiphytic bacteria (aerobic mesophilic bacteria or Pseudomonas spp.) on kale was modeled isothermally and validated under dynamic storage temperatures. Each bacterial count on kale stored at isothermal conditions (4 to 25 °C) was recorded. The results show that maximum growth rate (μ_max) of both epiphytic bacteria increased and lag time (λ) decreased with increasing temperature (P < 0.05). The maximum population density (N_max) of Pseudomonas spp. was significantly greater than that of aerobic mesophilic bacteria, particularly in treated samples and/or at 4 and 10 °C (P < 0.05). The relationship between μ_max of both epiphytic bacteria and temperature was linear (R² > 0.97), whereas lower R² > 0.86 and R² > 0.87 was observed for the λ and N_max, respectively. The overall predictions of both epiphytic bacterial growths under nonisothermal conditions with temperature abuse of 15 °C agreed with the observed data, whereas those with temperature abuse of 25 °C were greatly overestimated. The appropriate parameter q₀ (physiological state of cells), therefore, was adjusted by a trial and error to fit the model. This study demonstrates that the developed model was able to predict accurately epiphytic bacterial growth on kale stored under nonisothermal conditions particularly those with low temperature abuse of 15 °C.     

Affective evaluation of user impressions using virtual product prototyping

This study aims to develop an effective and efficient method of analyzing user impressions of a product using virtual prototyping. A method to analyze the relationship between user impressions and design elements of a product using virtual prototyping was proposed, and then the method was applied to the case study of automobile interior design. Thirty‐two participants in the experiment evaluated 32 different virtual prototypes of automobile interiors generated from the combination of 17 design elements. The results of the case study showed that user impressions can be well explained by design elements. Physically large design elements, such as the shapes of frontal area, center fascia, door trim, and steering wheel, were critical areas of automobile interior design. The proposed method is expected to be an effective and efficient alternative for industrial practitioners to analyze user impressions of design alternatives at the early stage of the design process. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Mn-Doped Zn<Subscript>2</Subscript>SiO<Subscript>4</Subscript> Phosphors Synthesis Using Flame Spray Pyrolysis

Zn₂SiO₄:Mn²⁺ particles are used as green phosphors in plasma display panels and cathode ray tubes. In this study, we report the synthesis of zinc silicate phosphors by flame spray pyrolysis using different Zn-sources and under different process conditions. The XRD and luminescence measurement showed the phosphors prepared from Zn-nitrate source to have better crystallinity and emission characteristics. The luminescence properties of the phosphor particles were found to improve both at higher methane flow rates during pyrolysis and at higher annealing temperatures.     

Interactive Human Intention Reading by Learning Hierarchical Behavior Knowledge Networks for Human‐Robot Interaction

For efficient interaction between humans and robots, robots should be able to understand the meaning and intention of human behaviors as well as recognize them. This paper proposes an interactive human intention reading method in which a robot develops its own knowledge about the human intention for an object. A robot needs to understand different human behavior structures for different objects. To this end, this paper proposes a hierarchical behavior knowledge network that consists of behavior nodes and directional edges between them. In addition, a human intention reading algorithm that incorporates reinforcement learning is proposed to interactively learn the hierarchical behavior knowledge networks based on context information and human feedback through human behaviors. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through play‐based experiments between a human and a virtual teddy bear robot with two virtual objects. Experiments with multiple participants are also conducted.     

A 1.7 Gbps DLL‐Based Clock Data Recovery for a Serial Display Interface in 0.35‐μm CMOS

This paper presents a delay‐locked‐loop–based clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit design with a nB(n+2)B data formatting scheme for a high‐speed serial display interface. The nB(n+2)B data is formatted by inserting a ‘01’ clock information pattern in every piece of N‐bit data. The proposed CDR recovers clock and data in 1:10 demultiplexed form without an external reference clock. To validate the feasibility of the scheme, a 1.7‐Gbps CDR based on the proposed scheme is designed, simulated, and fabricated. Input data patterns were formatted as 10B12B for a high‐performance display interface. The proposed CDR consumes approximately 8 mA under a 3.3‐V power supply using a 0.35‐μm CMOS process and the measured peak‐to‐peak jitter of the recovered clock is 44 ps.     

Construction of Membrane Sieves Using Stoichiometric and Stress‐Reduced Si3N4/SiO2/Si3N4 Multilayer Films and Their Applications in Blood Plasma Separation

The novelty of this study resides in the fabrication of stoichiometric and stress‐reduced Si₃N₄/SiO₂/Si₃N₄ triple‐layer membrane sieves. The membrane sieves were designed to be very flat and thin, mechanically stress‐reduced, and stable in their electrical and chemical properties. All insulating materials are deposited stoichiometrically by a low‐pressure chemical vapor deposition system. The membranes with a thickness of 0.4 µm have pores with a diameter of about 1 µm. The device is fabricated on a 6” silicon wafer with the semiconductor processes. We utilized the membrane sieves for plasma separations from human whole blood. To enhance the separation ability of blood plasma, an agarose gel matrix was attached to the membrane sieves. We could separate about 1 µL of blood plasma from 5 µL of human whole blood. Our device can be used in the cell‐based biosensors or analysis systems in analytical chemistry.     

Preparation and characterization of BaTiO3–natural muscovite composites

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Natural muscovite (nM) exhibiting magnetic vortex states are ball milled into fine powder and mixed in different relative ratios (weight %)...