Heat resistance of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in cook‐in‐bag ground beef as affected by pH and acidulant†

Summary The heat resistance of a four‐strain mixture of Escherichia coli O157:H7 was tested. The temperature range was 55–62.5 °C and the substrate was beef at pH 4.5 or 5.5, adjusted with either acetic or lactic acid. Inoculated meat, packaged in bags, was completely immersed in a circulating water bath and cooked to an internal temperature of 55, 58, 60, or 62.5 °C in 1 h, and then held for pre‐determined lengths of time. The surviving cell population was enumerated by spiral plating meat samples on tryptic soy agar overlaid with Sorbitol MacConkey agar. Regardless of the acidulant used to modify the pH, the D ‐values at all temperatures were significantly lower (P < 0.05) in ground beef at pH 4.5 as compared with the beef at pH 5.5. At the same pH levels, acetic acid rendered E. coli O157:H7 more sensitive to the lethal effect of heat. The analysis of covariance showed evidence of a significant acidulant and pH interaction on the slopes of the survivor curves at 55 °C. Based on the thermal‐death–time values, contaminated ground beef (pH 5.5/lactic acid) should be heated to an internal temperature of 55 °C for at least 116.3 min and beef (pH 4.5/acetic acid) for 64.8 min to achieve a 4‐log reduction of the pathogen. The heating time at 62.5 °C, to achieve the same level of reduction, was 4.4 and 2.6 min, respectively. Thermal‐death–time values from this study will assist the retail food processors in designing acceptance limits on critical control points that ensure safety of beef originally contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.     

Low temperature synthesis of aluminium titanate by an aqueous sol-gel route

Formation of aluminium titanate (AT) has been achieved at low temperature through sol-gel process using boehmite and titanium hydroxide as precursors by controlling the particle size at nanoscale followed by in-situ peptisation. The formations of AT phase, particle size distributions, sintering and thermal expansion characteristics, and microstructural features have been reported. DTA and XRD analysis have been performed to confirm the formation of AT. A 94% relative density was obtained for aluminium titanate sintered at 1550 °C with controlled grain size in the range of 2-3 μm.     

The Effect of Structural Defects on the Thermal Conductivity of ZnS, ZnSe, and CdTe Polycrystals

ZnS, ZnSe, and CdTe polycrystals are experimentally investigated. Mechanisms are treated which restrict the thermal conductivity in samples prepared by recrystallization pressing and by deposition from the vapor phase and subjected to additional strain. Anomalies are observed on the temperature dependences of the thermal resistance of investigated samples, which are due to the special features of their phonon spectra and to the variation of the contribution made by longitudinal and transverse phonon branches to the heat transfer in the Debye temperature region and higher.     

Local Strain Measurement within Tendon

Abstract:  Tendon is a dense connective tissue, responsible for transmitting the forces generated by muscles to the skeleton. It is composed of a hierarchical arrangement of crimped collagen fibres, interspersed with proteoglycan matrix and cells, known as tenocytes. During physiological loading, tendons are subjected to strains in the region of 5–6%, which result in the straightening and realignment of the collagen fibres, generating variable local strain fields within the tendon. This study demonstrates a technique for analysing local strains within viable tendon explants, during both loading and unloading of the tissue. Samples were strained in a custom-designed rig, allowing real-time visualisation of cell nuclei, used as local discrete markers, on a confocal microscope. Results indicated that local strains within the fascicle are smaller than the applied strains, never exceeding 1.2%, even at 8% gross applied strain. By contrast, the sliding of adjacent collagen units was recorded at each strain increment in this study, reaching a mean maximum of 3.9% of the applied displacement. Loading–unloading studies indicated that sliding behaviour is reversible up to strains of 5%, and provides the major extension mechanism within the rat-tail tendon. This technique can be extended to further analyse shearing behaviour within the matrix.     

Al-Zn-Ce非晶合金的相选择与组织结构演化

本文研究了具有典型分解特征的Al-Zn-Ce非晶合金的形成和晶化过程，探讨了各种相的生成顺序。XRD和DSC测试结果表明强烈的化合物短程序有利于Al-Zn-Ce非晶合金的形成。在Al-Zn-Ce非晶合金的晶化过程中存在复杂的相选择行为，多种相的竞争形核和有限生长使其具有复杂的结构特点。同时，结果也表明冷速对该体系非晶的形成有很大影响。     

Cu—Zn—Al系合金热弹性马氏体相变的热滞

本文通过热处理工艺及添加第四组元研究了Cu－Zn－Al系记忆合金的相变热滞。结果表明，淬火冷却速度影响合金的相变热滞大小，随着母相时效时间的延长，马氏体相变热滞变大．Mn元素的加入可以减小CU－Zn－Al合金相变热滞．     

新型超微晶软磁合金FePCCuMoSi微观结构缺陷的正电子湮没研究

用正电子湮没方法研究了新型超微晶软磁合金的微观结构缺陷，样品选用的是在不同温度下退火的Ｆｅ８１Ｐ１２Ｃ３Ｃｕ１Ｍｏ０．５Ｓｉ２．５合金，结果表明，合金的微观结构构陷大小，密度随退火温度有规律地变化，这种现象可能与非晶的晶化过程有关。     

TiAl基合金表面改性对高温抗氧化性的影响

研究了渗碳处理ＴｉＡｌ基合金试样的高温氧化行为，发现渗碳处理可以在ＴｉＡｌ基合金试样表层形成致密的多层结构的渗碳层，并发生表层Ａｌ、Ｔｉ重新分配。致密的渗碳层具有良好的高温抗氧化性和高温热稳定性，同时，Ｔｉ、Ａｌ重新分配形成的富Ａｌ最外层也能进一步提高合金的抗氧化性。