Network of words

Chinese characters form a web of semantic and phonetic links between characters. The links can be observed as structural components in an ideographic structure of characters. We examined the structural principles underlying the semantic and phonetic network by studying the statistical properties of the network structure. We report our preliminary results about the distribution of the number of links from components and between characters, and other quantities. This work was presented in part at the 7th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 16–18, 2002     

Aflatoxins and ochratoxin A in different cocoa clones (Theobroma cacao L.) developed in the southern region of Bahia,Brazil

Brazil is the sixth largest producer of cocoa beans in the world, after Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria and Cameroon. The southern region of Bahia stands out as the country’s largest producer, accounting for approximately 60% of production. Due to damage caused by infestation of the cocoa crop with the fungus Moniliophthora perniciosa, which causes ‘witch’s broom disease’, research in cocoa beans has led to the cloning of species that are resistant to the disease; however, there is little information about the development of other fungal genera in these clones, such as Aspergillus, which do not represent a phytopathogenicity problem but can grow during the pre-processing of cocoa beans and produce mycotoxins. Thus, the aim of this work was to determine the presence of aflatoxin (AF) and ochratoxin A (OTA) in cocoa clones developed in Brazil. Aflatoxin and ochratoxin A contamination were determined in 130 samples from 13 cocoa clones grown in the south of Bahia by ultra-performance liquid chromatography with a fluorescence detector. The method was evaluated for limit of detection (LOD) (0.05–0.90 μg kg^?1), limit of quantification (0.10–2.50 μg kg^?1) and recovery (RSD) (89.40–95.80%) for AFB₁, AFB₂, AFG₁, AFG₂ and OTA. Aflatoxin contamination was detected in 38% of the samples in the range of ?1, with AFB₁ in 25% of the total samples, whereas ochratoxin A was positive in 18% of the samples in the range of ?1.     

Sound speeds in and mechanical properties of (U,Pu)O2−x

The sound speeds of longitudinal and transverse waves in the uranium–plutonium mixed oxide pellets were measured as functions of porosity, oxygen-to-metal ratio, and plutonium content. The effect of each parameter was well fitted by a linear function and the equations were obtained to calculate the sound speeds. Mechanical properties were evaluated with the sound speeds and the result of Young's modulus showed that porosity was the most important factor to decrease Young's modulus. Temperature dependence on Young's modulus was also evaluated with previously reported thermal expansion. Decrease of Young's modulus with increasing temperature was in good agreement with available literature.