Ready to Eat Nectarines - Assuring Quality in the Chain

Time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy, coupled to the modelling of firmness decrease, was used to predict at harvest softening behaviour of nectarines. Selected fruit were used in an export trial from Italy to The Netherlands. Quality assessed after shelf life was in agreement with the predicted firmness for fruit of different stages of maturity, showing that it is possible to select fruit at harvest for different market destinations and prevent transportation of fruit unsuitable for consumption

Incremental Distance Transforms (IDT)

A new generic scheme for incremental implementations of distance transforms (DT) is presented: Incremental Distance Transforms (IDT). This scheme is applied on the cityblock, Chamfer, and three recent exact Euclidean DT (E2DT). A benchmark shows that for all five DT, the incremental implementation results in a significant speedup: 3.4×−10×. However, significant differences (i.e., up to 12.5×) among the DT remain present. The FEED transform, one of the recent E2DT, even showed to be faster than both city-block and Chamfer DT. So, through a very efficient incremental processing scheme for DT, a relief is found for E2DT’s computational burden

Mathematical structure of unit systems

We investigate the mathematical structure of unit systems and the relations between them. Looking over the entire set of unit systems, we can find a mathematical structure that is called preorder (or quasi-order). For some pair of unit systems, there exists a relation of preorder such that one unit system is transferable to the other unit system. The transfer (or conversion) is possible only when all of the quantities distinguishable in the latter system are always distinguishable in the former system. By utilizing this structure, we can systematically compare the representations in different unit systems. Especially, the equivalence class of unit systems (EUS) plays an important role because the representations of physical quantities and equations are of the same form in unit systems belonging to an EUS. The dimension of quantities is uniquely defined in each EUS. The EUS's form a partially ordered set. Using these mathematical structures, unit systems and EUS's are systematically classified and organized as a hierarchical tree.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figure

Self-dual Vortices in the Abelian Chern-Simons Model with Two Complex Scalar Fields

Making use of $\phi$-mapping topological current method, we discuss the self-dual vortices in the Abelian Chern-Simons model with two complex scalar fields. For each scalar field, an exact nontrivial equation with a topological term which is missing in many references is derived analytically. The general angular momentum is obtained. The magnetic flux which relates the two scalar fields is calculated. Furthermore, we investigate the vortex evolution processes, and find that because of the present of the vortex molecule, these evolution processes is more complicated than the vortex evolution processes in the corresponding single scalar field model.Comment: 9 pages, no figure

Water loss in horticultural products. Modelling, data analysis and theoretical considerations

The water loss of individual fruit (melon, plum and mandarin) was analysed using the traditional diffusion based approach and a kinetic approach. Applying simple non linear regression, both approaches are the same, resulting in a quite acceptable analysis. However, by applying mixed effects non linear regression analysis, explicitly including the variation over the individuals, the kinetic approach was found to reflect the processes occurring during mass loss better than the diffusion approach. All the variation between the individuals in a batch could be attributed to the initial mass or size of the individuals. The fraction of the fruit mass that is available for transpiration is the key item in the water loss process, rather than the skin resistance and fruit area. Obtained explained parts are well over 99%

Optical Vortices during a Super-Resolution Process in a Metamaterial

We show that a super-resolution process with 100% visibility is characterized by the formation of a point of phase singularity in free space outside the lens in the form of a saddle with topological charge equal to -1. The saddle point is connected to two vortices at the end boundary of the lens, and the two vortices are in turn connected to another saddle point inside the lens. The structure saddle-vortices-saddle is topologically stable. The formation of the saddle point in free space explains also the negative flux of energy present in a certain region of space outside the lens. The circulation strength of the power flow can be controlled by varying the position of the object plane with respect to the lens

Self-Dual Vortices in the Fractional Quantum Hall System

Based on the $\phi$-mapping theory, we obtain an exact Bogomol'nyi self-dual equation with a topological term, which is ignored in traditional self-dual equation, in the fractional quantum Hall system. It is revealed that there exist self-dual vortices in the system. We investigate the inner topological structure of the self-dual vortices and show that the topological charges of the vortices are quantized by Hopf indices and Brouwer degrees. Furthermore, we study the branch processes in detail. The vortices are found generating or annihilating at the limit points and encountering, splitting or merging at the bifurcation points of the vector field $\vec\phi$.Comment: 13 pages 10 figures. accepted by IJMP

Topology of Knotted Optical Vortices

Optical vortices as topological objects exist ubiquitously in nature. In this paper, by making use of the $\phi$-mapping topological current theory, we investigate the topology in the closed and knotted optical vortices. The topological inner structure of the optical vortices are obtained, and the linking of the knotted optical vortices is also given.Comment: 11 pages, no figures, accepted by Commun. Theor. Phys. (Beijing, P. R. China

On the Axiomatics of the 5-dimensional Projective Unified Field Theory of Schmutzer

For more than 40 years E.Schmutzer has developed a new approach to the (5-dimensional) projective relativistic theory which he later called Projective Unified Field Theory (PUFT). In the present paper we introduce a new axiomatics for Schmutzer's theory. By means of this axiomatics we can give a new geometrical interpretation of the physical concept of the PUFT.Comment: 32 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX 2e, will be submitted to Genaral Relativity and Gravitatio