COMBINED EFFECTS OF ENZYME DOSAGE AND REACTION TIME ON PAPAYA JUICE EXTRACTION WITH THE AID OF PECTIC ENZYMES – A PRELIMINARY REPORT

Pectic enzymes are widely used in the food industry for fruit juice extraction as well as in the clarification of cloudy juices. Our laboratory has been using pectic enzymes produced from a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ATCC 52712) in different applications including fruit juice extraction. The enzyme was produced in the laboratory by culturing the yeast in papaya juice supplemented with 1% pectin for 6 days. Known amounts of enzyme preparation (0–40 mg protein) were added to a measured weight of papaya mash for varying reaction periods (30–90 min) and the amount of free‐run juice obtained in each treatment compared with a control sample. Treatment of 200 g of papaya mash with different dosages of the pectic enzyme extract resulted in rapid increases in flow rate of free‐run juice. Mash treated with 32 mg of total protein extract with a 30‐min reaction time was the optimum for a maximum rate of juice flow (25 mL/min) when initial rates were measured. There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between the red‐ and yellow‐fleshed varieties of the papaya used. When juice flow was monitored over 6 min, the treated samples gave a flow rate that was more than twice those of the untreated samples. This biotechnological approach could be adopted to enhance papaya‐juice production by local fruit juice processors when parameters for scale‐up processes are established.     

On the effects of the packet size distribution on the packet loss process

Real-time multimedia applications have to use forward error correction (FEC) anderror concealment techniques to cope with losses in today’s best-effort Internet. The efficiency of these solutions is known however to depend on the correlation between losses in the media stream. In this paper we investigate how the packet size distribution affects the packet loss process, that is, the distribution of the number of lost packets in a block, the related FEC performance and the average loss run length. We present mathematical models for the loss process of the MMPP+M/D/1/K and the MMPP+M/M/1/K queues; we validate the models via simulations, and compare the results to simulation results with an MPEG-4 coded video trace. We conclude that the deterministic packet size distribution (PSD) not only results in lower stationary loss probability than the exponential one, but also gives a less correlated loss process, both at a particular average link load and at a particular stationary loss probability as seen by the media stream.Our results show that for applications that can only measure the packet loss probability, the effects of the PSD on FEC performance are higher in access networks, where a single multimedia stream might affect the multiplexing behavior. Our results show that the effects of the PSD on FEC performance are higher in access networks, where a single multimedia stream might affect the multiplexing behavior and thus can improve the queuing performance by decreasing the variance of its PSD.     

Mean vs. variance trade-off analysis in multi-antenna multi-user channels

In multi-user communications, the access point (AP) has several alternatives for distributing the scarce resources among users. Since there exists a trade-off between the global performance and the individual needs, an analytical framework to study fairness is derived, which completes the scope given by the existing fairness indexes in the literature. The framework proposed in this paper is a way to interpret fairness that has been inspired by portfolio selection; basically, it analyzes the mean vs. standard deviation trade-off. In this work, the target application is a multi-antenna AP transmitting simultaneously to several single-antenna terminals, although this framework is valid to analyze other procedures in multi-user communications.     

Laterally coupled buried heterostructure high-Q ring resonators

All-buried InP-InGaAsP ring resonators laterally coupled to bus waveguides are demonstrated. The buried configurations offer a lower built-in refractive index step along the resonator periphery, which affords enhanced optical coupling coefficients between the waveguides and reduced scattering losses caused by the resonator sidewall imperfections. Very low optical intensity attenuations of 0.4 cm/sup -1/ and coupling-limited quality factors of greater than 10/sup 5/ are observed from 200-/spl mu/m-radii ring resonators. The measured spectral linewidth is as narrow as 0.0145 nm.     

Fatigue crack propagation of multiple coplanar cracks with the coupled extended finite element/fast marching method

A numerical technique for modeling fatigue crack propagation of multiple coplanar cracks is presented. The proposed method couples the extended finite element method (X-FEM) [Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 48 (11) (2000) 1549] to the fast marching method (FMM) [Level Set Methods & Fast Marching Methods: Evolving Interfaces in Computational Geometry, Fluid Mechanics, Computer Vision, and Materials Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1999]. The entire crack geometry, including one or more cracks, is represented by a single signed distance (level set) function. Merging of distinct cracks is handled naturally by the FMM with no collision detection or mesh reconstruction required. The FMM in conjunction with the Paris crack growth law is used to advance the crack front. In the X-FEM, a discontinuous function and the two-dimensional asymptotic crack-tip displacement fields are added to the finite element approximation to account for the crack using the notion of partition of unity [Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engng. 139 (1996) 289]. This enables the domain to be modeled by a single fixed finite element mesh with no explicit meshing of the crack surfaces. In an earlier study [Engng. Fract. Mech. 70 (1) (2003) 29], the methodology, algorithm, and implementation for three-dimensional crack propagation of single cracks was introduced. In this paper, simulations for multiple planar cracks are presented, with crack merging and fatigue growth carried out without any user-intervention or remeshing.     

Linear transformation shift registers

In order to exploit word-oriented operations for linear-feedback shift registers (LFSRs), Tsaban and Vishne [2002] introduced the notion of linear transformation shift registers (TSRs). An implementation of their primitive TSR generating algorithm shows that the LFSR are paired for all transformations. We prove that the characteristic polynomials of a pair of LFSRs are either both irreducible or both reducible for all transformations. This allows some time improvement when finding primitive TSRs. The authors give a full enumeration of all primitive TSRs with transformations of order 8 and LFSRs of order 3, 4, 5, and 6.     

Formation and inhibition of free radicals in electrically stressed and aged insulating polymers

Previous work has shown that prebreakdown, electrical aging, and breakdown phenomena are directly associated with charge carriers injected from electrical contacts and their subsequent dissociative trapping and recombination. In addition, the energy released from each trapping or recombination event is dissipated in the breaking of the bonds of macromolecules, thus forming free radicals and new traps in the electrically stressed insulating polymers, as predicted by Kao's model. It is this gradual degradation process that leads to electrical aging and destructive breakdown. New experimental results are presented to confirm previous findings and a new approach to inhibit the degradation process by the incorporation of suitable dopants into the polymer. The concentration of free radicals in the polymer increases with an increasing electric field at a fixed stress time of 250 h and with increasing stress time at a fixed electric field of 833 kV cm^?1. The concentration of free radicals is directly related to the concentration of new traps created by stress. However, when suitable dopants are incorporated, the initiation voltage for the occurrence of electrical treeing and the breakdown strength are both increased. The dopants tend to create shallow traps and have little effect on the deep trap concentration. This implies that the dopants act as free‐radical scavengers that tend to satisfy the unpaired electrons of the broken bonds, which create new acceptor‐like electron traps and new shallow traps. By doing so, the shallow traps screen the deep traps, thereby reducing the energy released during trapping and recombination and the probability of breaking the macromolecular bonds and causing structural degradation. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 3416–3425, 2003