Potential sources of microbial contamination of satsuma mandarin fruit in Japan, from production through packing shed

Potential sources of microbial contamination of satsuma mandarin fruit were investigated from production through the packing shed in the 2005 season. Microbial counts in the peel and flesh during the fruit development stage were below 2.4 log CFU/g for bacteria and 3 log CFU/g for fungi, except for the peel in August and September. In the field environment, the highest microbial counts were found in fallen leaves on the ground, followed by soil, organic fertilizer, and agricultural water. Only the pesticide solution collected in July was positive for Salmonella, while no verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli was detected from any of the samples. The bacterial and mold flora in the peel comprised phytopathogenic organisms such as bacteria genus Pantoea and mold genus Mycosphaerella and soilborne organisms such as bacteria genus Bacillus and mold genus Cladosporium, which were found in soil, fallen leaves, agricultural water, and cloth mulch throughout the production season. After fruit harvest and sorting, microbial counts of the peel increased, while those of the flesh remained below the lower limit of detection. Although some of the preharvest sources could also be postharvest sources, some packing shed equipment was assumed to be postharvest sources, because Bacillus cereus was not identified from the fruit in the production field but was detected on the peel after sorting and on equipment such as gloves, plastic harvest basket, and size sorter. These results suggest that using sanitizers for agricultural water and packing sheds to prevent cross-contamination would be useful in a good agricultural practices program of the satsuma mandarin in Japan.     

In-source and postsource decay in negative-ion matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry of neutral oligosaccharides

Cross-ring cleavage ions produced by in-source decay (ISD), as well as deprotonated molecular ions [M - H]-, are invariably observed in negative-ion linear-mode matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry spectra of neutral oligosaccharides with 9H-pyrido[3,4-b]indole (norharman) as a matrix. The patterns of ISD ions depend on the oligosaccharide linkage type; thus, these ions are potentially useful in linkage analysis. In postsource decay (PSD) spectra from chlorinated molecular ions [M + Cl]-, all PSD ions are observed in the deprotonated form, although no deprotonated molecular ions are detected. In oligosaccharides having an alditol at the reducing end, deprotonated molecular ions [M - H]- are clearly seen in linear-mode mass spectra and survive in the PSD measurements. These results indicate that the deprotonation process drives ISD and PSD of oligosaccharides and that keto-enol tautomerization at the reducing terminal promotes ISD and PSD processes.     

Charge transport in vacuum-sublimed films of metal-free tetraphenylporphyrin and its relation to capacitance and photocurrent measurements

Drift mobilities (μ) of holes and electrons in vacuum-sublimed films of metal-free tetraphenylporphyrin (H₂TPP) were measured by using a time-of-flight technique with a log-log analysis of photocurrent transients with an electric field (E) and temperature as parameters. Extrapolation of a plot of log μ vs. E^1/2 to E = 0 yielded a very small μ value of the order 10^-16 cm² V^-1 s^-1 for hole and electron transport in the H₂TPP film at 20°C. Field and temperature dependencies of the hole mobilities, analyzed on the basis of the disorder formalism of Bässler and his coworkers, revealed that the extremely slow hole transport in the H₂TPP films was characterized by the largest energetic disorder parameter of 0.22 eV among those reported for other media so far. In addition, measurements of capacitances and photocurrents due to an Al/H₂TPP Schottky junction were carried out with photovoltaic cells of Al/H₂TPP/Au. The lack of dependencies of the capacitances on the frequency and bias voltage was interpreted in terms of the low mobilities of holes in the H₂TPP films. A marked increase of photocurrents with time paralleled a mobility increase, suggesting an important role of carrier mobilities in the mechanism of photocurrent generation in molecular semiconductors.     

Synthesis of Fullerenes by Ablation Using Pulsed and cw-Nd:YAG Lasers

Macroscopic quantities of fullerenes were synthesized by ablation of a graphite rod heated with a cw-Nd:YAG laser in Ar gas flow. The ablation was carried out by irradiation of fundamental, second, and third harmonic light emitted from a pulsed-Nd:YAG laser. It was necessary to heat the graphite rod up to a higher temperature than 700 °C for producing macroscopic quantities of fullerenes. The amount of ablation, the fullerene yield and the relative fullerene yield increased with increasing temperature of graphite. The fullerpne yields depended on the pressure of Ar buffer gas as well, in which the j ablation plume was formed, and an optimum pressure range was found to be 53-80 kPa. Relatively high yield of C₇₀ was obtained by ablation method under these conditions.     

A flyability and durability dilemma in hard disk drives

A magnetic hard disk drive lubrication dilemma was demonstrated through the touch down, wearability and burnish rate tests. It was found that attempts to improve durability and flyability through changes in lubricant film thicknesses, the addition of additives, changes in lubricant molecular weight and irradiating lubricant with deep UV rays (185 nm) have been futile with loss in either flyability or durability of magnetic hard disk. Three key types of head disk interface testing methods were introduced and the results from each parameter change were shown. The touch down test was used to check the fly height of the magnetic heads. The wearability test was used to check the wear resistance of the magnetic hard disks when in contact with the magnetic heads and the burnish rate test was employed to determine the amount of wear of the magnetic heads when in contact with magnetic hard disks. These three techniques may be used for the feasibility study for any newly designed lubricant or technique to reduce the spacing between the magnetic head and magnetic disk. We demonstrate the capability of the three techniques to discriminate different process treatments. The experiments were conducted in a class 100 cleanroom.     

Microscopic vision system with all-in-focus and depth images

In this paper, a high-speed digital processed microscopic observational system for telemicrooperation is proposed with a dynamic focusing system and a high-speed digital-processing system using the depth from focus criterion. In our previous work [10], we proposed a system that could simultaneously obtain an all-in-focus image as well as the depth of an object. In reality, in a microoperation, it is not easy to obtain good visibility of objects with a microscope focused at a shallow depth, especially in microsurgery and DNA studies, among other procedures. In this sense, the all-in-focus image, which keeps an in-focus texture over the entire object, is useful for observing microenvironments with the microscope. However, one drawback of the all-in-focus image is that there is no information about the objects depth. It is also important to obtain a depth map and show the 3D microenvironments at any view angle in real time to actuate the microobjects. Our earlier system with a dynamic focusing lens and a smart sensor could obtain the all-in-focus image and the depth in 2 s. To realize real-time microoperation, a system that could process at least 30 frames per second (60 times faster than the previous system) would be required. This paper briefly reviews the depth from focus criterion to Simultaneously achieve the all-in-focus image and the reconstruction of 3D microenvironments. After discussing the problem inherent in our earlier system, a frame-rate system constructed with a high-speed video camera and FPGA (field programmable gate array) hardware is discussed. To adapt this system for use with the microscope, new criteria to solve the ghost problem in reconstructing the all-in-focus image are proposed. Finally, microobservation shows the validity of this system.Received: 12 August 2001, Accepted: 17 July 2002, Published online: 12 November 2003 Correspondence to: Kohtaro Ohba     

Average-Case Competitive Analyses for Ski-Rental Problems

Let s be the ratio of the cost for purchasing skis over the cost for renting them. Then the famous result for the ski-rental problem shows that skiers should buy their skis after renting them (s - 1) times, which gives us an optimal competitive ratio of 2 - 1/s. In practice, however, it appears that many skiers buy their skis before this optimal point of time and also many skiers keep renting them forever. In this paper we show that this behavior of skiers is quite reasonable by using an average-case competitive ratio. For an exponential input distribution f(t) = e^-t, optimal strategies are (i) if 1/ \leq s, then skiers should rent their skis forever and (ii) otherwise they should purchase them after renting approximately s² (相似文献   

Improvement of thermal stability of Ni silicide on N-Si by direct deposition of group III element (Al, B) thin film at Ni/Si interface

The direct deposition of a thin Al or B layer at Ni/Si interface was proposed as a new method to solve a problem of degraded thermal stability of Ni silicide on heavily doped N⁺-Si substrates. Significant improvement of thermal stability evaluated by the sheet resistance vs. silicidation temperature properties was observed. The improvement is attributed to suppression of agglomeration of the silicide layers. The Al layer was effective only when it was located at the Ni/Si interface before the silicidation process. The deposited Al and B layers under Ni layer segregated at the surface after the silicidation process. The use of B layer was preferable to control the phase transition from NiSi to NiSi₂.     

A performance analysis of a four‐leg inverter in two AC motor drives with independent vector control

This paper presents a performance analysis of a four‐leg inverter (FLI) in driving two motors with vector control. We show that an expanded two‐arm modulation (ETAM) known as a modulation method of a five‐leg inverter is applicable for the four‐leg inverter and we theoretically analyze a performance analysis of the four‐leg inverter in driving two motors with vector control. © 2006 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A General Analytical Method for a Three‐Phase Line‐Start Permanent‐Magnet Synchronous Motor

A line‐start permanent‐magnet synchronous motor (LSPMM) consists of a stator with symmetrical three‐phase armature windings and a salient pole rotor with a permanent magnet for excitation and a starting winding similar to the squirrel‐cage winding of an induction motor. In this paper, a general analytical method based on tensor analysis is proposed for practical performance calculation of a three‐phase LSPMM. The general equation for the currents of the three‐phase LSPMM is derived from the transient impedance tensor expressed in polyphase symmetry axes, and the general equation for vibratory and nonvibratory torques is derived from the current equation. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 185(4): 60–68, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21284