The influence of chop location on pork loin quality

Pork longissimus muscle quality characteristics were evaluated on 109 center cut boneless loins. After 21 d aging, loins were cut into 1-inch chops and allowed to bloom for 30 minutes before visual measurements (color, marbling and firmness) and instrumental color were recorded for each chop. Overall, visual color was the lightest on the anterior and posterior ends and was the darkest from approximately 50% to 80% of the length of the loin. Marbling was the highest at the posterior end, lowest in mid-loin, then higher toward the anterior end. Loins were the softest at the anterior end and became firmer toward the posterior end. From the anterior to approximately 40- 50% of the loin length, chops became darker (lower L*), redder (higher a*), and less yellow (lower b*). Near the center of the loin, color was constant, but became lighter (higher L*) and more yellow (higher b*) at the posterior end. Chops located at 25% (anterior), 50% (middle) and 75% (posterior) of the length of each loin were collected and further analyzed. Section chops within loins had similar pH values. The chop from the anterior section contained the highest percentage of crude fat, followed by the posterior section chop, and the middle section chop contained the lowest percentage. The middle section chop contained the highest percentage of moisture. The posterior section chop had more moisture display loss than the anterior and middle section chops. The anterior section chop had more cooking loss than the posterior section chop. Chops became progressively less tender the more posterior the section location

Early-stage dynamics of metallic droplets embedded in the nanotextured Mott insulating phase of V2 O3

Unveiling the physics that governs the intertwining between the nanoscale self-organization and the dynamics of insulator-to-metal transitions (IMTs) is key for controlling on demand the ultrafast switching in strongly correlated materials and nanodevices. A paradigmatic case is the IMT in V2O3, for which the mechanism that leads to the nucleation and growth of metallic nanodroplets out of the supposedly homogeneous Mott insulating phase is still a mystery. Here, we combine x-ray photoemission electron microscopy and ultrafast nonequilibrium optical spectroscopy to investigate the early-stage dynamics of isolated metallic nanodroplets across the IMT in V2O3 thin films. Our experiments show that the low-temperature monoclinic antiferromagnetic insulating phase is characterized by the spontaneous formation of striped polydomains, with different lattice distortions. The insulating domain boundaries accommodate the birth of metallic nanodroplets, whose nonequilibrium expansion can be triggered by the photoinduced change of the 3d-orbital occupation. We address the relation between the spontaneous nanotexture of the Mott insulating phase in V2O3 and the timescale of the metallic seeds growth. We speculate that the photoinduced metallic growth can proceed along a nonthermal pathway in which the monoclinic lattice symmetry of the insulating phase is partially retained

Nanoscale self-organization and metastable non-thermal metallicity in Mott insulators

Mott transitions in real materials are first order and almost always associated with lattice distortions, both features promoting the emergence of nanotextured phases. This nanoscale self-organization creates spatially inhomogeneous regions, which can host and protect transient non-thermal electronic and lattice states triggered by light excitation. Here, we combine time-resolved X-ray microscopy with a Landau-Ginzburg functional approach for calculating the strain and electronic real-space configurations. We investigate V2O3, the archetypal Mott insulator in which nanoscale self-organization already exists in the low-temperature monoclinic phase and strongly affects the transition towards the high-temperature corundum metallic phase. Our joint experimental-theoretical approach uncovers a remarkable out-of-equilibrium phenomenon: the photo-induced stabilisation of the long sought monoclinic metal phase, which is absent at equilibrium and in homogeneous materials, but emerges as a metastable state solely when light excitation is combined with the underlying nanotexture of the monoclinic lattice.status: publishe

Lifetime measurements of the low-lying excited states of ²⁰⁸Po

In this study we present the preliminary results about the lifetimes of the 2₂⁺, 4₁⁺ states of ²⁰⁸Po and the upper limit of the lifetime of the 2₁⁺ state. For measuring the lifetimes of the 2₁⁺ and 4₁⁺ states the Recoil Distance Doppler Shift (RDDS) method and for the lifetime of the 2₂⁺ state the Doppler Shift Attenuation method (DSAM) were used. The resulting absolute transition strength B(M1 ; 2₂⁺ → 2₁⁺) ≥ 0.122(20) μN² reveals the predominant isovector nature of the 2₂⁺ state of ²⁰⁸Po

Speculative Price Bubbles in Urban Housing Markets in Germany

The surge in the German house prices starting in 2010 raised fears about the emergence of a speculative bubble. Given a local nature of housing markets, it is not clear to what extent the bubble, if any, is spread across different cities. In this paper, we test for speculative house price bubbles in 127 large German cities over the last 20 years. Along with testing bubbles for each city separately, we apply two new testing approaches: a panel data and principal components version of explosive root tests. We define bubble as an explosive growth of prices that is not supported by the rent increase. Therefore, to check for the existence of bubbles, we examine prices, rents, and price-to-rent ratios. We find evidence for explosive price increases in many cities, especially for the case of newly built housing. However, only in few urban housing markets prices decouple from their fundamental values. On the national level, we do not see evidence for speculative price movements. Overall, we find that the danger of a build-up of a speculative price bubble in the German housing market is rather moderate

The Real-Time Predictive Content of Asset Price Bubbles for Macro Forecasts

This paper contributes to the debate of whether central banks can \lean against the wind" of emerging stock or house price bubbles. Against this background, the paper evaluates if new advances in real-time bubble detection, as brought forward by Phillips et al. (2011), can timely detect bubble emergences and collapses. Building on simulations, the paper shows that the detection capabilities of all indicators are sensitive to their exact specifications and to the characteristics of the bubbles in the sample. Therefore, the paper suggests a combination approach of different bubble indicators which helps to account for the uncertainty around start and end dates of asset price bubbles. Additionally, the paper then investigates if the individual and combination indicators carry predictive content for inflation and output growth when the real-time availability of all variables is taken into account. It finds that a combination indicator is best suited to uncover the most common stock and house price bubbles in the U.S. and shows that this indicator improves output forecasts

Evolution of deformation in neutron-rich Ba isotopes up to A=150

The occurrence of octupolar shapes in the Ba isotopic chain was recently established experimentally up to N = 90. To further extend the systematics, the evolution of shapes in the most neutron-rich members of the Z = 56 isotopic chain accessible at present, Ba-148,Ba-150, has been studied via beta decay at the ISOLDE Decay Station. This paper reports on the first measurement of the positive-and negative-parity low-spin excited states of 150Ba and presents an extension of the beta-decay scheme of Cs-148. Employing the fast timing technique, half-lives for the 2(1)(+) level in both nuclei have been determined, resulting in T-1/2 = 1.51(1) ns for Ba-148 and T-1/2 = 3.4(2) ns for Ba-150. The systematics of low-spin states, together with the experimental determination of the B(E2 : 2(+) -> 0(+)) transition probabilities, indicate an increasing collectivity in Ba148-150, towards prolate deformed shapes. The experimental data are compared to symmetry conserving configuration mixing (SCCM) calculations, confirming an evolution of increasingly quadrupole deformed shapes with a definite octupolar character.Peer reviewe

In-Sample and Out-of-Sample Prediction of Stock Market Bubbles: Cross-Sectional Evidence

We evaluate the informational content of ex post and ex ante predictors of periods of excess stock (market) valuation. For a cross section comprising 10 OECD economies and a time span of at most 40 years alternative binary chronologies of price bubble periods are determined. Using these chronologies as dependent processes and a set of macroeconomic and financial variables as explanatory variables, logit regressions are carried out. With model estimates at hand, both in-sample and out-of-sample forecasts are made. Overall, the degree of ex ante predictability is limited if an analyst targets the detection of particular turning points of market valuation. The set of 13 potential predictors is classified in measures of macroeconomic or monetary performance, stock market characteristics, and descriptors of capital valuation. The latter turn out to have strongest in-sample and out-of-sample explanatory content for the emergence of price bubbles. In particular, the price to book ratio is fruitful to improve the ex-ante signalling of stock price bubbles

Lifetime measurements of the low-lying excited states of ²⁰⁸Po

In this study we present the preliminary results about the lifetimes of the 2₂⁺, 4₁⁺ states of ²⁰⁸Po and the upper limit of the lifetime of the 2₁⁺ state. For measuring the lifetimes of the 2₁⁺ and 4₁⁺ states the Recoil Distance Doppler Shift (RDDS) method and for the lifetime of the 2₂⁺ state the Doppler Shift Attenuation method (DSAM) were used. The resulting absolute transition strength B(M1 ; 2₂⁺ → 2₁⁺) ≥ 0.122(20) μN² reveals the predominant isovector nature of the 2₂⁺ state of ²⁰⁸Po

Coulomb dissociation of O-16 into He-4 and C-12

We measured the Coulomb dissociation of O-16 into He-4 and C-12 within the FAIR Phase-0 program at GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung Darmstadt, Germany. From this we will extract the photon dissociation cross section O-16(alpha,gamma)C-12, which is the time reversed reaction to C-12(alpha,gamma)O-16. With this indirect method, we aim to improve on the accuracy of the experimental data at lower energies than measured so far. The expected low cross section for the Coulomb dissociation reaction and close magnetic rigidity of beam and fragments demand a high precision measurement. Hence, new detector systems were built and radical changes to the (RB)-B-3 setup were necessary to cope with the high-intensity O-16 beam. All tracking detectors were designed to let the unreacted O-16 ions pass, while detecting the C-12 and He-4