Histamine and other biogenic amines and histamine-forming bacteria in miso products

Twenty-seven miso products sold in supermarkets and 13 products sold in retail markets were purchased from southern Taiwan, and tested to determine the occurrence of histamine and histamine-forming bacteria. The levels of pH, salt content, and aerobic plate count (APC) in all samples ranged from 5.1 to 5.8, 6.1% to 13.8%, and 2.1 to 9.1 log CFU/g, respectively. Only one of the supermarket miso products contained 100 MPN/g total coliform. None of these samples contained Escherichia coli. Although the average content for each of the nine biogenic amines in all samples was less than 5 mg/100 g, two supermarket samples (22.1 and 11.9 mg/100 g) and one retail market sample had histamine content (10.2 mg/100 g) greater than the 5.0 mg/100 g allowable limit suggested by the US Food and Drug Administration. Eight histamine-producing bacterial strains, capable of producing 10.4–39.4 ppm of histamine in trypticase soy broth (TSB) supplemented with 1.0% l-histidine (TSBH), were identified as Staphylococcus pasteuri (one strain), Bacillus sp. (one strain), B. amyloliquefaciens (two strains), B. subtilis (two strains) and B. megaterium (two strains), by 16S rDNA sequencing with PCR amplification.     

NONLINEAR STABILITY ANALYSIS OF FILM FLOW WITH SMALL WEBER NUMBER

Nonlinear-kinematic equation for the film thickness with small surface tension at the interface is used to investigate the nonlinear stability of film flow down an inclined plane. The analysis shows that both supercritical stability and subcritical instability are possible for film flow system. It is also found that if the magnitude of Reynolds number is larger than a critical value, the nonlinear effects make the film flow system unstable in the region near the upper neutral stability curve.     

Improvement of emission efficiency and color rendering of high-power LED by controlling size of phosphor particles and utilization of different phosphors

White light can be produced by a combination of red, green and blue emitting diode chips or by the combination of a single diode chip with phosphors. Presently, more single chip white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) than multi-chip one are used because of their low cost, easily controlled circuitry, ease of maintenance and favorable luminescence efficiency. Since phosphors must be used as light converting materials in a single diode chip to obtain the desired emission, this study considers the problems encountered in using phosphors in LEDs. The proper application of phosphors in the package of LED can improve its efficiency, color rendering and thermal stability of luminescence. For example, a uniform size distribution of phosphors with red, green and blue emission helps to improve luminescence efficiency by preventing cascade excitation; the change in color with temperature can be overcome by counter-balancing red-shifting and blue-shifting phosphors; larger particles help to ensure the high efficiency of high-power LEDs, and costs can be reduced by using small particles size in low-power LED packaging because allows less phosphor to be used to obtain a particular efficiency.     

A family of low-complexity blind equalizers

Two important topics in equalizer design are its complexity and its training. We present a family of blind equalizers which, by incorporating a decomposition finite-impulse response filtering technique, can reduce the complexity of the convolution operation therein by about one half. The prototype algorithm in this equalizer family employs the prevalent Godard cost function. Several simplified algorithms are proposed, including a sign algorithm which eliminates multiplications in coefficient adaptation and a few delayed versions. We also study the convergence properties of the algorithms. For the prototype algorithm, we show that, in the limit of an infinitely long equalizer and under mild conditions on signal constellations and channel characteristics, there are only two sets of local minima on the performance surface. One of the sets is undesirable and is characterized by a equalized channel response. The other corresponds to perfect equalization, which can be reached with proper equalizer initialization. For the simplified algorithms, corresponding cost functions may not exist. Some understanding of their convergence behaviors are obtained via examination of their adaptation equations. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the algorithms.     

Time of flight diffraction imaging for double-probe technique

Due to rapid progress in microelectronics and computer technologies, the system evolving from analog to digital, and a programmable and flexible synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) for the single-probe pulse-echo imaging technique of ultrasonic nondestructive testing (NDT) becomes feasible. The double-probe reflection technique usually is used to detect the nonhorizontal flaws in the ultrasonic NDT. Because there is an offset between the transmitter and receiver, the position and size of the flaw cannot be directly read from the image. Therefore, a digital signal processing (DSP) imaging method is proposed to process the ultrasonic image obtained by double-probe reflection technique. In the imaging, the signal is redistributed on an ellipsoid with the transmitter and receiver positions as focuses, and the traveltime sum for the echo from the ellipsoid to the focuses as the traveltime of signal. After redistributing all the signals, the useful signals can be constructively added in some point in which the reflected point is; otherwise, the signals will be destructively added. Therefore, the image resolution of the flaw can be improved and the position and size of the flaw can be estimated directly from the processed image. Based on the experimental results, the steep flaw (45°) cannot be detected by the pulse echo technique but can be detected by the double-probe method, and the double-probe B-scan image of 30° tilted crack is clearer than the pulse echo B-scan image     

An investigation into the melting of silicon nanoclusters using molecular dynamics simulations

Using the Stillinger-Weber?(SW) potential model, we have performed molecular dynamics?(MD) simulations to investigate the melting of silicon nanoclusters comprising a maximum of 9041 atoms. This study investigates the size, surface energy and root mean square displacement?(RMSD) characteristics of the silicon nanoclusters as they undergo a heating process. The numerical results reveal that an intermediate nanocrystal regime exists for clusters with more than 357?atoms. Within this regime, a linear relationship exists between the cluster size and its melting temperature. It is found that melting of the silicon nanoclusters commences at the surface and that T(m,N) = T(m,Bulk)-αN(-1/3). Therefore, the extrapolated melting temperature of the bulk with a surface decreases from T(m,Bulk) = 1821?K to a value of T(m,357) = 1380?K at the lower limit of the intermediate nanocrystal regime.     

Molecular characterization of multidrug-resistant Proteus mirabilis isolates from retail meat products

Sixty-four multidrug-resistant isolates of Proteus mirabilis were collected from retail meat products in Oklahoma. The isolates showed four different patterns of antibiotic resistance based on their resistant phenotype and genotypes. Most of these isolates were resistant to ampicillin, tetracycline, gentamycin, and kanamycin. Class 1 integrons were detected as a common carrier of the antibiotic-resistant genes, such as aadA1, aadB, and aadA2. A few isolates (9%) contained class 2 integrons with three gene cassettes included: dhfr1, sat1, and aadA1. These isolates were even resistant to nalidixic acid due to mutations in gyrA and parC. All ampicillin-resistant isolates contained blaTEM-1. Plasmids that contained class 1 or 2 integrons and blaTEM-1 were able to be transferred from P. mirabilis isolates into Escherichia coli by conjugation, indicating that conjugal transfer could contribute to the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes between the Enterobacteriaceae species.