Effect of dietary mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris L.) and pine needle powder (Pinus densiflora) on growth performance, serum cholesterol levels, and meat quality in broilers

The effects of dietary mugwort and pine needle powder supplementation on growth performance, serum cholesterol, and meat quality of broilers were evaluated in a 35 days feed trial. 200 one day old broilers were randomly allocated to five dietary treatments (0, 1 and 2% mugwort or 1 and 2% pine needle powder) with four replicate pens of 10 birds per treatment. During the experimental period, growth performance did not differ among treatments (P > 0.05). The additives with mugwort and pine needle showed lower crude fat content of thigh muscle compared with the control (P < 0.05); however, no significant differences were detected for moisture, crude protein and crude ash content of thigh muscle. Compared with the control, total phenol content and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity were significantly increased (P < 0.05) with the inclusion of mugwort and pine needle powder level in the broilers’ diets, whereas pH values decreased (P < 0.05). Serum cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations were significantly decreased (P < 0.05) by the increased mugwort and pine needle powder level in the diet, except for high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentrations. For thigh meat color, inclusion of mugwort and pine needle powder decreased L* and b* values and increased a* values in thigh muscle of broilers compared with the controls (P < 0.05). Overall, the present study indicates the beneficial effect of using 1 or 2% mugwort and pine needle powder in reducing serum cholesterol and improving meat quality.Key words: Mugwort, pine needle powder, serum cholesterol, meat quality

Wave hindcast from integrally coupled wave-tide-surge model of the East China sea

With the recent introduction of the coupled system (ADCIRC hydrodynamic and SWAN wave model) which can run on the same unstructured mesh, allowing the physics of wave-circulation interactions to be correctly resolved in both models and all energy from deep to shallow waters to be seamlessly followed, the resulting modeling system can be used extensively for the prediction of typhoon surges and usual barotropic forecast. The result confirms the necessity to incorporate the wave-current interaction effect into coastal area in the wave-tide-surge coupled model. At the same time, effects of depth-induced wave breaking, wind field, currents and sea surface elevation in prediction of\ud waves are included. Especially, we found that the wind wave significantly enhances the current and surge elevation. The resulting modeling system can be used for hindcasting (prediction) and forecasting the wave-tide-surge distribution in the environments with complex coastline, shallow water and fine sediment area like around Korean Peninsula

Swell prediction for the East Korean coast

Long-period abnormally high swell waves have been generated in the East Sea near Hokkaido, Japan, in winter during the atmospheric depression. These waves, named Yorimawari in Japanese, occasionally attack the coasts of both Korea and Japan. Waves significantly higher than normal years were recorded along the east Korean coast in 2006. In 2008, the swell caused considerable damages in Toyama and the Niigata coastal area of Japan and in Anmok east coast of Korea. This paper attempts to hindcast these events using unstructured grid wave model UnSwan with input of high resolution reanalysis wind data from ECMWF. Wave heights and periods are found to be fairly well reproduced comparing with the observed values in the south of the East/Japan Sea, although the long period wave with small amplitude is hardly reproduced

Neutron beam test of CsI crystal for dark matter search

We have studied the response of Tl-doped and Na-doped CsI crystals to nuclear recoils and $\gamma$'s below 10 keV. The response of CsI crystals to nuclear recoil was studied with mono-energetic neutrons produced by the $^3$H(p,n)$^3$He reaction. This was compared to the response to Compton electrons scattered by 662 keV $\gamma$-ray. Pulse shape discrimination between the response to these $\gamma$'s and nuclear recoils was studied, and quality factors were estimated. The quenching factors for nuclear recoils were derived for both CsI(Na) and CsI(Tl) crystals.Comment: 21pages, 14figures, submitted to NIM

Fatal Void Size Comparisons in Via-Below and Via-Above Cu Dual-Damascene Interconnects

The median-times-to-failure (t₅₀’s) for straight dual-damascene via-terminated copper interconnect structures, tested under the same conditions, depend on whether the vias connect down to underlaying leads (metal 2, M2, or via-below structures) or connect up to overlaying leads (metal 1, M1, or via-above structures). Experimental results for a variety of line lengths, widths, and numbers of vias show higher t₅₀’s for M2 structures than for analogous M1 structures. It has been shown that despite this asymmetry in lifetimes, the electromigration drift velocity is the same for these two types of structures, suggesting that fatal void volumes are different in these two cases. A numerical simulation tool based on the Korhonen model has been developed and used to simulate the conditions for void growth and correlate fatal void sizes with lifetimes. These simulations suggest that the average fatal void size for M2 structures is more than twice the size of that of M1 structures. This result supports an earlier suggestion that preferential nucleation at the Cu/Si₃N₄ interface in both M1 and M2 structures leads to different fatal void sizes, because larger voids are required to span the line thickness in M2 structures while smaller voids at the base of vias can cause failures in M1 structures. However, it is also found that the fatal void sizes corresponding to the shortest-times-to-failure (STTF’s) are similar for M1 and M2, suggesting that the voids that lead to the shortest lifetimes occur at or in the vias in both cases, where a void need only span the via to cause failure. Correlation of lifetimes and critical void volumes provides a useful tool for distinguishing failure mechanisms.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

CONTROL OF COLUMNAR-TO-EQUIAXED TRANSITION IN CONTINUOUS CASTING OF 16% Cr STAINLESS STEEL

In continuous casting of 16%Cr ferritic stainless steel, columnar grains undesirably forming among equiaxedgrains make non-uniform microstructure and degrade ridging property. Since this phenomenon results fromthe change of solidification condition during continuous casting, we focused on Cellular-to-Equiaxed Transition(CET) in continuous casting of 16%Cr ferritic stainless steel to control the microstructure of as-cast slab.In order to find the CET condition, we carried out the one dimensional heat transfer analysis of the melt, andpredicted the CET condition by Hunt’s model. It was revealed that the secondary columnar grains usually formedat 0.5~0.8 solid fractions, and the formation of them resulted from a steep increase of G/V1/2 value as themelt was getting out of EMS field; however the increase of G/V1/2 was readily controlled by changing EMSpattern and the secondary cooling intensity. In result, secondary columnar grains were eliminated by optimizingthe upper and lower EMS intensity, and increasing secondary cooling intensity. We also investigatedthe effect of solidification parameters including superheat and casting speed as CET condition in continuouscasting process, and the results were also discussed by the terms of thermal condition of melt