Physiological, volatile, and SEM surface effects resulting from cutting and dipping treatments in cantaloupe

Previous research examined sanitation treatments on cut cantaloupe tissue to deliver germicidal and food safety effects. However, an apparent compromise between volatile loss and treatment/sampling efficacy appeared. Subsequently, a physiological and volatile reassessment of thinly sliced tissue against cubes was performed in cantaloupe tissue. Thin sliced cantaloupe L* decreased 27.5%, 40.5%, and 52.9% in 3, 2, and 1 mm thickness, respectively, compared with cut cubes after 3 d. Overall color (C) decreased in freshly prepared cubes (2.4%) and slices (14.4%) that were washed in cold water. Surface area per unit volume (SA: vol) in slices was 4.1 times greater than typical cubes, as reflected by substantial water loss (20.4%, 9.5%, and 6.7% in 1, 2 and 3-mm slices, respectively) after 1 d at 5 °C. Rinsing cubes and thin-slices with 5 °C deionized water resulted in roughly 15% soluble solids loss. SEM indicated 65.4% reduced cell size in 1-d old thin slices, evidenced by excessive cell damage and desiccation compared with stored fresh-cut cubes. In thin-sliced tissue exposed 15 min to an open atmosphere (mimic sanitation treatments), total esters decreased 92.8% and 95.8%, respectively, after 1 and 3 d storage at 5 °C. Washing tissue provided a boundary layer that reduced short-term ester losses in slices and cubes. Excessive cutting, sanitation treatment regimes, and storage can radically alter the desirable volatile profile of cut cantaloupe. Reduction of tissue size to maximize food-safety sanitation efficacy or delivering items to a niche market will need substantial work to engineer equipment and develop protocols to insure that product quality and volatiles are not compromised. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: We have demonstrated that cutting method and sampling protocol are critically important when using volatiles as a means by which to assess or interpret stress response and ascribe fresh-cut quality. Reduction of tissue size to maximize food-safety sanitation efficacy (for example, thin slices) will need substantial work to engineer equipment and design protocols to insure product quality and volatile profiles are not compromised.     

Biological scanning electrochemical microscopy and its application to live cell studies

Progress in instrumental design continues to pave the way for high-resolution, real-time electrochemical measurements with living cells.     

Timing During Interruptions in Timing.

Duration and location of breaks in time interval production were manipulated in various conditions of stimulus presentation (Experiments 1-4). Produced intervals shortened and then stabilized as break duration lengthened, suggesting that participants used the break as a preparatory period to restart timing as quickly as possible at the end of the break. This interpretation was supported in Experiment 5, in which similar results were obtained with a reaction time response executed at the end of the break. In all experiments, produced intervals lengthened as the break occurred later during the interval. The authors conclude that varying break location and duration reveal, respectively, the influence of attentional time-sharing before the interruption and of preparatory processes taking place during the break. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

beta-Actin is confined to structures having high capacity of remodelling in developing and adult rat cerebellum

Neurons undergo complex morphological changes during differentiation and in cases of plasticity. A major determinant of cell morphology is the actin cytoskeleton, which in neurons is comprised of two actin isoforms, non-muscle gamma- and beta-actin. To better understand their respective roles during differentiation and plasticity, their cellular and subcellular localization was examined in developing and adult cerebellar cortex. It was observed that gamma-actin is expressed at a constant level throughout development, while the level of beta-actin expression rapidly decreases with age. At the light microscopic level, gamma-actin staining is ubiquitous and the only developmental change observed is a relative reduction of its concentration in cell bodies and white matter. In contrast, beta-actin staining almost completely disappears from the cytoplasm of cell bodies, primary dendrites and axons. In young cerebellar cultures, gamma-actin is found in the cell body, neurites and growth cones, while beta-actin is mainly found in growth cones, as previously reported in other primary neuronal culture systems [Kaech et al. (1997), J. Neuroscience, 17, 9565-9572; Bassell et al., (1998), J. Neuroscience, 18, 251-265]. Electron microscopy of post-embedding immunogold-labelled tissue confirms the widespread distribution of gamma-actin, and also reveals an increased concentration of gamma-actin in dendritic spines in the adult. During development, beta-actin accumulation is observed in actively growing structures, e.g., growth cones, filopodia, cell bodies and axonal tracts. In the adult cerebellar cortex, beta-actin is preferentially found in dendritic spines, structures which are known to retain their capacity for morphological modifications in the adult brain. This differential subcellular localization and developmental regulation of the two actin isoforms point to their different roles in neurons.     

An enumeration algorithm for solving the fleet management problem in underground mines

This paper presents an enumeration algorithm based on dynamic programming for optimally solving the fleet management problem in underground mines. This problem consists of routing and scheduling bidirectional vehicles on a haulage network composed of one-lane bidirectional road segments. The method takes into account the displacement modes of the vehicles, either forward or in reverse, and makes sure that these vehicles move forward when they arrive at their service point. The method has been developed for the underground mine context, but it can be extended to the industrial environment.     

On diagonal algebraic space-time block codes

Theoretical and practical aspects of diagonal algebraic space-time block codes over n transmit and m receive antennae are examined. These codes are obtained by sending a rotated version of the information symbols over the principal diagonal of the n /spl times/ n space-time matrix over n transmit antennae and n symbol periods. The output signal-to-noise ratios of two predecoding filters and two decoding algorithms are derived. Analysis of the information loss incurred by using the codes considered is used to clarify their structures, and the expected performances. Different algebraic real and complex rotations presented in the literature are analyzed and compared as regards the achieved coding gains, the complexities, performances, and peak-to-mean envelope power ratios.     

SER of M-ary NCFSK with S + N Selection Combining in Nakagami Fading for Integer m

The performance of M-ary orthogonal noncoherent frequency-shift keying (NCFSK) with N branch signal-plus-noise (S + N) selection combining (SC) in Nakagami-m fading (m, integer) is studied. Both independent, identically distributed (i.i.d) and independent, nonidentically distributed (i.n.d) diversity branches are considered and two S + N SC receiver structures are examined. The performances of the S + N SC receivers are compared to those of classical SC and square-law combining (SLC) receivers. The effects of modulation order, fading parameter and the number of diversity branches on the performance of S + N SC are compared to the effects on the performances of classical SC and SLC. For example, it is shown that in an i.n.d fading channel, the value of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at which the error rate curves of classical SC and S + N SC cross, decreases as the modulation order, M, increases. Our results indicate that in i.n.d fading channels classical SC outperforms S + N SC for small ranges of SNR, while for moderate to large SNR values S + N SC has superior performance over classical SC. It is also shown that increasing the diversity order will increase the performance gap of S 4N SC over classical SC and over SLC in both i.i.d and i.n.d Nakagami-m fading channels     

Magnetic resonance imaging assessment of cerebral hemodynamics during spreading depression in rats

Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) are only now beginning to be used by business, government, and policymakers to evaluate various medical treatments. The evolution of why CEAs are being demanded is reviewed. To date, a formal CEA of obesity treatments has not been published. This article outlines how a CEA is performed, reviews data relevant to setting up a formal CEA of medical and surgical obesity treatments, and lists published reports that demonstrate the effectiveness of surgical obesity treatments. The general level of discrimination that society allows the obese to suffer also allows medical insurance companies, businesses, and government to not provide many obese Americans with obesity treatments that have established a level of effectiveness far surpassing many other forms of medical therapy. CEAs of obesity treatments, by themselves, cannot be expected to reverse this discrimination. This type of data, however, provides individual obese patients and their physicians with evidence to challenge policymakers' decisions, especially when cost-effective obesity treatments are excluded or placed at a lower priority than treatments with less proven effectiveness.     

Multicomponent water proton transverse relaxation and T2-discriminated water diffusion in myelinated and nonmyelinated nerve

The influence of compartmental boundaries on water proton transverse relaxation and diffusion measurements was investigated in three distinct excised nerves, namely, the non-myelinated olfactory nerve, the Schwann cell myelinated trigeminal nerve, and the oligodendrocyte myelinated optic nerve of the garfish. The transverse relaxation decay curves were multiexponential and their decomposition yielded three primary components with T2 values approximately 30-50, 150, and 500 ms, which were subsequently assigned to water protons in the myelin, axoplasm, and interaxonal compartments. The short T2 component was absent in the non-myelinated olfactory nerve, but present in both myelinated nerves and thus provides supporting evidence for the use of quantitative T2 measurements to measure the degree of myelination. The signal contribution of each T2 component to the apparent diffusion coefficient measurements was varied by incrementing the spin-echo time with a preparatory CPMG train of radiofrequency pulses. The apparent diffusion coefficient and its anisotropy were shown to be independent of the spin-echo time over the range of 70 to 450 ms.