Evaluation of injury to Saccharomyces rouxii YSa40 cells in low water activity/pH glycerol/CPB stress system

Mid-exponential phase Saccharomyces rouxii YSa40 cells subsequently stressed at low a w/pH in the 0.64 a w/pH 3.5 glycerol/CPB system became injured. Such injury was detected by the loss of ability of the stressed population to form colonies on secondary-stress plating medium (glycerol/BM agar at 0.94 a w/pH 3.5 (lactic acid)) while colony forming ability on secondary non-stress plating medium (sugars/BM agar at 0.94 a w/pH 3.5 (lactic) was unaffected. The injury was shown to be due to sensitivity to glycerol/lactic acid. Results of the present study will be useful for achieving complete decontamination of 'Intermediate Moisture Foods' against xerotolerant molds and yeast

A simple polynomial-time randomized distributed algorithm for connected row convex constraints

In this paper, we describe a simple randomized algorithm that runs in polynomial time and solves connected row convex (CRC) constraints in distributed settings. CRC constraints generalize many known tractable classes of constraints like 2-SAT and implicational constraints. They can model problems in many domains including temporal reasoning and geometric reasoning; and generally speaking, play the role of “Gaussians” in the logical world. Our simple randomized algorithm for solving them in distributed settings, therefore, has a number of important applications. We support our claims through empirical results. We also generalize our algorithm to tractable classes of tree convex constraints

Revealing the molecular signatures of host-pathogen interactions.

Advances in sequencing technology and genome-wide association studies are now revealing the complex interactions between hosts and pathogen through genomic variation signatures, which arise from evolutionary co-existence

The mediating role of individual-level social capital among worries, mental health and subjective well-being among adults in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially induced worries and affected individual mental health and subjective well-being. Nonetheless, a high level of social capital could potentially protect individuals who suffer from mental health problems and thus promote their subjective well-being, especially under the social distancing policies during the pandemic. To this end, based on a random sample of 1053 Hong Kong adults, structural equation modeling was applied to study the path relationships between the worries of COVID-19, social capital, mental health problems, and subjective well-being. The study found that worries during the pandemic were associated with mental health and subjective well-being, through social capital as a mediator. Moreover, social capital exhibited a stronger influence on mental health and subjective well-being in the economically inactive group than in the economically active group. This study highlights the important role of social capital during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Hong Kong’s COVID-19 response has primarily focused on disease prevention, it must be noted that social services and mutual-help activities are also crucial for people to withstand the crisis

Extreme sensitivity of the spin-splitting and 0.7 anomaly to confining potential in one-dimensional nanoelectronic devices

Quantum point contacts (QPCs) have shown promise as nanoscale spin-selective components for spintronic applications and are of fundamental interest in the study of electron many-body effects such as the 0.7 x 2e^2/h anomaly. We report on the dependence of the 1D Lande g-factor g* and 0.7 anomaly on electron density and confinement in QPCs with two different top-gate architectures. We obtain g* values up to 2.8 for the lowest 1D subband, significantly exceeding previous in-plane g-factor values in AlGaAs/GaAs QPCs, and approaching that in InGaAs/InP QPCs. We show that g* is highly sensitive to confinement potential, particularly for the lowest 1D subband. This suggests careful management of the QPC's confinement potential may enable the high g* desirable for spintronic applications without resorting to narrow-gap materials such as InAs or InSb. The 0.7 anomaly and zero-bias peak are also highly sensitive to confining potential, explaining the conflicting density dependencies of the 0.7 anomaly in the literature.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figure

Towards the thermodynamic equilibrium of titanium aluminides after consolidation by back pressure equal channel angular pressing.

Australian Research Counci

A framework for the successful implementation of food traceability systems in China

Implementation of food traceability systems in China faces many challenges due to the scale, diversity and complexity of China’s food supply chains. This study aims to identify critical success factors specific to the implementation of traceability systems in China. Twenty-seven critical success factors were identified in the literature. Interviews with managers at four food enterprises in a pre-study helped identify success criteria and five additional critical success factors. These critical success factors were tested through a survey of managers in eighty-three food companies. This study identifies six dimensions for critical success factors: laws, regulations and standards; government support; consumer knowledge and support; effective management and communication; top management and vendor support; and information and system quality