Grape cultivar and drying method affect sensory characteristics and consumer preference of raisins

The sensory attributes and consumer preference of raisins made from two grapevine cultivars, ‘Fiesta’ and ‘Selma Pete’, and two drying methods, dry‐on‐vine (DOV) or tray‐dry, were evaluated. Grapevine cultivar and drying method interacted to affect most of the measured flavor, texture, and appearance attributes of raisins. In general, ‘Fiesta’ DOV raisins were less spicy, less sour, more moist, less sticky and chewy, and less brown‐colored than other raisins. ‘Fiesta’ tray dried raisins were less sweet, more sticky and chewy, and less homogenous in color and in size. ‘Selma Pete’ raisins were more sour tasting and dark colored than ‘Fiesta’ raisins, especially the ‘Selma Pete’ DOV raisins. The average consumer hedonic test scores were not affected by cultivar or drying method, but further analyses identified clusters of people that clearly preferred raisins of different cultivars and drying methods. These findings suggest that raisins could be marketed on the basis of cultivar and drying method. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

Masked prioritized synchronization for interaction and control of discrete event systems

Extends the formalism of prioritized synchronous composition (PSC), proposed by Heymann for modeling interaction (and control) of discrete event systems, to permit system interaction with their environment via interface masks. This leads to the notion of masked prioritized synchronous composition (MPSC), which we formally define, MPSC can be used to model interaction of systems at single as well as multiple interfaces. We show that MPSC can alternatively be computed by "unmasking" the PSC of "masked" systems, thereby establishing a link between MPSC and PSC. We next prove that MPSC is associative and thus suitable for modeling and analysis of supervisory control of discrete event systems. Finally, we use MPSC of a discrete event plant and a supervisor for controlling the plant behavior and show (constructively) that under the absence of "driven" events, controllability together with normality of the given specification serve as conditions for the existence of a supervisor. This extends the results on supervisory control, which permits control and observation masks to be associated with the plant only.     

Field Effect and Photoconduction in Au25 Nanoclusters Films

Quantum‐confined Au nanoclusters exhibit molecule‐like properties, including atomic precision and discrete energy levels. The electrical conductivity of Au nanocluster films can vary by several orders of magnitude and is determined by the strength of the electronic coupling between the individual nanoclusters in the film. Similar to quantum‐confined, semiconducting quantum dots, the electrical coupling in films is dependent on the size and structure of the Au core and the length and conjugation of the organic ligands surrounding it. Unlike quantum dots, however, semiconducting transport has not been reported in Au nanocluster films. Here, it is demonstrated that through a simple yet careful choice of cluster size and organic ligands, stable Au nanocluster films can electronically couple and become semiconducting, exhibiting electric field effect and photoconductivity. The molecule‐like nature of the Au nanoclusters is evidenced by a hopping transport mechanism reminiscent of doped, disordered organic semiconductor films. These results demonstrate the potential of metal nanoclusters as a solution‐processed material for semiconducting devices.     

Internal intestinal splinting with a soluble tube for the prevention of recurrent adhesion ileus

An absorbable, non-toxic, easy gliding, cross-linked gelatine tube has been developed to prevent and to treat chronical adhesion ileus. The tube is patterned upon the interior intestinal splinting with long tubes. By doing a small enterotomy it was possible to splint the whole intestine in pigs or endangered parts within a few minutes. The flexible gelatine tube does not kink and is melting off from the surface. It prevents the intestine from kinking and does not cause any lesions even on previously damaged intestinal walls. Possible complications seen by insertion and extraction of conventional tubes were not observed.     

Improving survival of culture bacteria in frozen desserts by microentrapment

Lactobacillus bulgaricus cells were entrapped in beads of calcium alginate and evaluated for their ability to survive freezing processes. Cells survived freezing (without agitation) in ice milk mix much better than in distilled water, and more entrapped cells survived than did cells that were not entrapped. Glycerol and mannitol were cryoprotective, but glucose was not, when each was added (6%) separately to the beads. Entrapment protected the lactobacilli in batch frozen and continuously frozen ice milk mixes. The percentage of survival for entrapped and unentrapped cells in continuously frozen ice milk approximated 90 and 40%, respectively. Lactobacilli survived better in beads with mean diameters > 30 microns than in those averaging 15 microns. Addition of entrapped lactobacilli had no measurable effect on the sensory characteristics of the ice milk.     

A new technique for perfusion fixation and contrast enhancement of foetal lamb myocardium for electron microscopy

A technique of perfusion fixation following elective diastolic cardiac arrest was developed to obtain excellent preservation of foetal lamb hearts for morphological studies with electron microscopy. A technique was developed to markedly enhance the contrast of embedded material by treating thin sections with tannic acid prior to lead staining. This technique has been particularly useful for quantitative morphometric analysis.     

Improved noise model for MESFETs and HEMTs in lower gigahertz frequency range

A noise model based on an equivalent circuit is applied to an HEMT. Besides the frequency dependence of the most important noise parameters (F/sub min/, R/sub opt/, X/sub opt/, R/sub N/) two apparent experimental facts are explained: the limited R/sub opt/, X/sub opt/ and the increase of R/sub N/ with decreasing frequency.<>