A note on the effect of calcium alginate coating on quality of refrigerated strawberries.

peer-reviewedAn alginate-based edible coating was investigated for the preservation of the quality of strawberries during cold storage (5 °C). Strawberries were immersed, successively, in sodium alginate and calcium chloride solutions to generate a surface coating of calcium alginate. The quality of coated and non-coated strawberries was evaluated by weight loss, visible decay, titratable acidity, total soluble solids and reducing sugar concentration over a 14-day storage period. Results showed that coating with calcium alginate had no significant effects on weight loss or physicochemical parameters when compared to control fruit, but it did result in the postponement of visible decay during refrigerated storage

Application of bag sampling technique for particle size distribution measurements

Bag sampling techniques can be used to temporarily store an aerosol and therefore provide sufficient time to utilize sensitive but slow instrumental techniques for recording detailed particle size distributions. Laboratory based assessment of the method were conducted to examine size dependant deposition loss coefficients for aerosols held in VelostatTM bags conforming to a horizontal cylindrical geometry. Deposition losses of NaCl particles in the range of 10 nm to 160 nm were analysed in relation to the bag size, storage time, and sampling flow rate. Results of this study suggest that the bag sampling method is most useful for moderately short sampling periods of about 5 minutes

Two-sided asymmetric subduction; implications for tectonomagmatic and metallogenic evolution of the Lut Block, Eastern Iran

West directed subduction zones show common characteristics, such as low structural elevation, deep trench, steep slab and a conjugate back-arc basin that are opposite to those of the east directed subduction zones. The tectonomagmatic and metallogenic setting of the Lut Block is still a matter of debate and several hypotheses have been put forward. Despite some authors denying the influence of the operation of Benioff planes, the majority propose that it occurred beneath the Afghan Block, while others consider that oceanic lithosphere was dragged under the Lut Block. Cu-Au porphyry deposits seem to occur in an island arc geotectonic setting during the middle Eocene while Mo-bearing deposits are coincident with the crustal thickening during Oligocene. We introduce new trace element and isotope geochemical data for granitoids and structural evidences testifying the two-sided asymmetric subduction beneath both Afghan and Lut Blocks, with different rates of consumption of oceanic lithosphere

Attentional costs of walking are not affected by variations in lateral balance demands in young and older adults

Increased attentional costs of walking in older adults have been attributed to age-related changes in visuomotor and/or balance control of walking. The present experiment was conducted to examine the hypothesis that attentional costs of walking vary with lateral balance demands during walking in young and older adults. Twenty young and twenty older adults walked on a treadmill at their preferred walking speed under five conditions: unconstrained normal walking, walking on projected visual lines corresponding to either the participant’s preferred step width or 50% thereof (i.e. increased balance demand), and walking within low- and high-stiffness lateral stabilization frames (i.e. lower balance demands). Attentional costs were assessed using a probe reaction-time task during these five walking conditions, normalized to baseline performance as obtained during sitting. Both imposed step-width conditions were more attentionally demanding than the three other conditions, in the absence of any other significant differences between conditions. These effects were similar in the two groups. The results indicate that the attentional costs of walking were, in contrast to what has been postulated previously, not influenced by lateral balance demands. The observed difference in attentional costs between normal walking and both visual lines conditions suggests that visuomotor control processes, rather than balance control, strongly affect the attentional costs of walking. A tentative explanation of these results may be that visuomotor control processes are mainly governed by attention-demandingcortical processes, whereas balance is regulated predominantly subcortically

Epidemiological survey of patients with a carpal tunnel syndrome referred to Sina Hospital in Hamedan during 2014-2016

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common mono-neuropathy with various causes. This study aimed at evaluating the epidemiology of patients with the carpal tunnel syndrome referred to Sina Hospital in Hamedan City, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-cross sectional study, 300 patients (600 hands) suffering from paresthesia, pain and weakness of the first to third finger were studied. Diagnosis and severity of the disease was evaluated according to history, examination and electro-diagnostic studies. Afterall the data were collected. Results: This study was conducted on 230 (76.7) females and 70 (23.3) males with the mean ages of 47.3±17.4 and 49.1±20.2 years, respectively (P=0.224). Sixteen of them were left-handed and the rest were right-handed. Also, 113 of the patients had risk factors such as diabetes with the prevalence of 18.1 and hypothyroidism with 6.4 as the most common ones. The most common occupations were carpet weaving and milking with prevalence rates of 19.4 and 13.3, respectively. In electro-diagnostic findings, 57 of the patients had moderate involvement and 16.6 had severe involvement. The Phalen and Tinel test was positive in 32.2 of the patients and negative in 32.2 of the cases. There was a relationship between the severity of involvement and probability of a positive Phalen and Tinel test. Conclusion: Considering that 76 of the cases were women and among jobs, after housekeeping, carpet weaving and milking are the most common ones, paying more attention to these people and designing the proper work tools (especially carpet weaving and milking tools) as well as training of the housewives are recommended to prevent this syndrome

An innovative framework for real-time monitoring of pollutant point sources in river networks

Simultaneous identification of the location and release history of pollutant sources in river networks is an ill-posed and complicated problem, particularly in the case of multiple sources with time-varying release patterns. This study presents an innovative method for solving this problem using minimum observational data. To do so, a procedure is proposed in which, the number and the suspected reaches to the existence of pollutant sources are determined. This is done by defining two different types of monitoring stations with an adaptive arrangement in addition to real-time data collection and reliable flow and transport mathematical models. In the next step, the sources’ location and their release history are identified by solving the inverse source problem employing a geostatistical approach. Different scenarios are discussed for different conditions of number, release history and location of pollutant sources in the river network. Results indicated the capability of the proposed method in identifying the characteristics of the sources in complicated cases. Hence, it can be effectively used for the comprehensive monitoring of river networks for different purposes

A comparison of He and Ne FIB imaging of cracks in microindented silicon nitride

Helium ion microscopy (HIM) offers potential as a high spatial resolution technique for imaging insulating samples that are susceptible to charging artifacts. In this study helium and neon ion microscopy are used to image cracking in microindented samples of the non-conductive ceramic silicon nitride. The crack morphology of radial cracks emanating from the microindentations has been characterized for two different compositions of silicon nitride, with and without conductive coatings. Gold coating enhances crack edge contrast, but masks grain contrast for both He and Ne ion-induced secondary electron (ISE) imaging. Carbon coating enables the crystalline and glassy phases to be distinguished, more clearly with Ne-ISE, and the cracking pathway is found to be primarily intergranular. Zones of < 100 nm diameter depleted ion-induced secondary electron emission along the crack paths are identified, consistent with charging ‘hotspots’