Non-destructive postharvest quality monitoring of different pear and sweet pepper cultivars

Postharvest quality changes of two pear and five sweet pepper varieties during cold storage (2±1 °C and 10±1 °C, respectively) and shelf-life (22±2 °C and 20±1 °C, respectively) by non-destructive optical methods (laser backscattering imaging, chlorophyll fluorescence analysis, surface colour measurement) and texture analysis methods (acoustic impulse-response technique, impact method) were determined and monitored. The rate of the change of ‘Conference’ pears’ Fv/Fm chlorophyll fluorescence parameter was lower than for ‘Bosc kobak’, referring to the cultivar characteristic and photosynthetically active chlorophyll content related maturity and colour change. Acoustic and impact stiffness decreased during shelf-life, referring clearly to temperature related textural change. Taking into account the seven different measuring wavelengths (650–1064 nm), laser scattering parameters showed significant and cultivar dependent changes versus time during cold storage and shelf-life. The used non-destructive methods were found to be suitable for objective sweet pepper quality determination. Cold storage combined shelf-life resulted in a relatively longer shelf-life, with a lower intensity and rate of quality decrease in time, based upon mass loss, stiffness, surface colour, and chlorophyll fluorescence changes. ‘Gigant’, ‘Carma’, and ‘Kárpia’ cultivars were found to be favourable, but ‘Kais’ and ‘Kun’ hot pepper samples were really sensitive to quality degradation

Canonical Ensemble of Initial States Leading to Chiral Fluctuations

In energetic heavy ion collisions, if quark-gluon plasma is formed, its hadronization may lead to observable critical fluctuations, i.e., DCC formation. The strength and observability of these fluctuations depend on the initial state. Here we study the canonical ensemble of initial states of chiral fluctuations in heavy ion collisions and the probability to obtain observable domains of chiral condensates.Comment: 13 pages (figures included) Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Quality changes of pear during shelf-life

The aims of our research work were the investigation of postharvest changes of pear samples (Pyrus communis cv. Bosc kobak) during combined cold storage and shelf-life (storage at room temperature), the determination of quality changes by mainly non-destructive methods, the modeling of the changes of the non-destructive parameters (acoustic, impact stiffness coefficient, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters [Fv/Fm, Fm/F0]), and multivariate statistical analysis of the measured and predicted data based on the data of the non-destructive texture analysis (acoustic and impact methods), chlorophyll fluorescence analysis and laser scattering measurement. Storage Time Equivalent Value (STEV) was calculated and introduced based on mass-loss analysis. The changes of the non-destructive parameters were analyzed vs. this virtual storage time (STEV). The changes of acoustic, impact stiffness coefficient and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters can be predicted by exponential function. The predicted time constants of the parameters were 21.0, 45.8, 47.1, 83.4, acoustic, impact stiffness coefficient, Fm/F0, Fv/Fm, respectively. The lower the time constant, the quicker is the change of the given parameter during storage, the higher is its sensitivity. By this point of view, the percentage mass loss related sensitivity to the characterization of textural changes, the predicted acoustic stiffness coefficient was found to be more sensitive than the impact stiffness coefficient. The Fm/F0 value characterized more sensibly the changes of the chlorophyll fluorescence than in the literature commonly used Fv/Fm. The non-contact laser scattering method based significant PLS models were constructed to predict the quality related pear characteristics (mechanical properties, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters)

Cold gas outflows from the Small Magellanic Cloud traced with ASKAP

Feedback from massive stars plays a critical role in the evolution of the Universe by driving powerful outflows from galaxies that enrich the intergalactic medium and regulate star formation. An important source of outflows may be the most numerous galaxies in the Universe: dwarf galaxies. With small gravitational potential wells, these galaxies easily lose their star-forming material in the presence of intense stellar feedback. Here, we show that the nearby dwarf galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), has atomic hydrogen outflows extending at least 2 kiloparsecs (kpc) from the star-forming bar of the galaxy. The outflows are cold, $T<400~{\rm K}$, and may have formed during a period of active star formation $25 - 60$ million years (Myr) ago. The total mass of atomic gas in the outflow is $\sim 10^7$ solar masses, ${\rm M_{\odot}}$, or $\sim 3$% of the total atomic gas of the galaxy. The inferred mass flux in atomic gas alone, $\dot{M}_{HI}\sim 0.2 - 1.0~{\rm M_{\odot}~yr^{-1}}$, is up to an order of magnitude greater than the star formation rate. We suggest that most of the observed outflow will be stripped from the SMC through its interaction with its companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and the Milky Way, feeding the Magellanic Stream of hydrogen encircling the Milky Way.Comment: Published in Nature Astronomy, 29 October 2018, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0608-

Particle correlations at RHIC from parton coalescence dynamics -- first results

A new dynamical approach that combines covariant parton transport theory with hadronization channels via parton coalescence and fragmentation is applied to Au+Au at RHIC. Basic consequences of the simple coalescence formulas, such as elliptic flow scaling and enhanced proton/pion ratio, turn out to be rather sensitive to the spacetime aspects of coalescence dynamics.Comment: Contribution to Quark Matter 2004 (January 11-17, 2004, Oakland, CA). 4 pages, 2 EPS figs, IOP style fil

Meson and baryon elliptic flow at high pT from parton coalescence

The large and saturating differential elliptic flow v2(pT) observed in Au+Au reactions at RHIC so far could only be explained assuming an order of magnitude denser initial parton system than estimated from perturbative QCD. Hadronization via parton coalescence can resolve this ``opacity puzzle'' because it enhances hadron elliptic flow at large pT relative to that of partons at the same transverse momentum. An experimentally testable consequence of the coalescence scenario is that v2(pT) saturates at about 50% higher values for baryons than for mesons. In addition, if strange quarks have weaker flow than light quarks, hadron v2 at high pT decreases with relative strangeness content.Comment: Talk at SQM2003 [7th Int. Conf. on Strangeness in Quark Matter (Atlantic Beach, NC, USA, Mar 12-17, 2003)] - 6 pages, 5 eps figs, IOP style file

The Apertif Surveys:The First Six Months

Apertif is a new phased-array feed for the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), greatly increasing its field of view and turning it into a natural survey instrument. In July 2019, the Apertif legacy surveys commenced; these are a time-domain survey and a two-tiered imaging survey, with a shallow and medium-deep component. The time-domain survey searches for new (millisecond) pulsars and fast radio bursts (FRBs). The imaging surveys provide neutral hydrogen (HI), radio continuum and polarization data products. With a bandwidth of 300 MHz, Apertif can detect HI out to a redshift of 0.26. The key science goals to be accomplished by Apertif include localization of FRBs (including real-time public alerts), the role of environment and interaction on galaxy properties and gas removal, finding the smallest galaxies, connecting cold gas to AGN, understanding the faint radio population, and studying magnetic fields in galaxies. After a proprietary period, survey data products will be publicly available through the Apertif Long Term Archive (ALTA, https://alta.astron.nl). I will review the progress of the surveys and present the first results from the Apertif surveys, including highlighting the currently available public data