Correlating fissure occurrence to rice quality for various drying and tempering treatments

When a rice kernel fissures, it can break in subsequent food processing operations and lose its commercial value. Head rice yield (HRY) is a measure of the percent of kernels that remain whole (at least three-fourths of original length) after rice has been milled. Our experiment was designed to test the effect of a rapid state transition during drying and tempering processes using cultivars Bengal and Cypress. ‘Bengal’ is a medium-size kernel and ‘Cypress’ is a longsize, thinner grained cultivar. Immediately after drying, the rice samples were separated into four sub-samples and tempered for 0, 80, 160, or 240 minutes at the temperature of the drying air. Tempering is a process to allow kernel moisture content gradients to decrease, thereby reducing the stress within the kernel. From each sample, 400 kernels were randomly selected, visually observed, and the percentage of fissured kernels determined. Results showed that the percentage of fissured kernels generally decreased with tempering. However, some samples still showed many fissures even after extended tempering, yet had a high HRY. While HRY is currently the primary index of rice quality, it is known that fissured kernels can severely and detrimentally affect end-use processing operations such as cooking or puffing. Thus, the tempering duration required for preventing kernel fissuring might be longer than the tempering duration required for maintaining a high HRY

Adjustment to a low-control situation: Reexamining the role of coping responses

The aim of the study was to test a revised conceptualization of the role of coping in adjustment to a low-control stressor-women's adjustment to a failed in vitro fertilization (NF) attempt. Data were collected prior to the IVF treatment (Time I) and twice after the failed NF attempt (1 to 2 weeks after finding out the results, n = 171, and fi weeks later, n = 139). Initial adjustment was assessed at Time I, whereas measures of coping and both self-report and partner ratings of adjustment were obtained at Times ? and 3. As predicted, escapist strategies and problem-management strategies (mainly at Time ?) were associated with poor adjustment, whereas problem-appraisal coping was associated with better adjustment., There was also support for the proposed positive relationship between adjustment and emotional approach coping (on self-report adjustment)

High-frequency performance of Schottky source/drain silicon pMOS devices

A radio-frequency performance of 85-nm gate-length p-type Schottky barrier (SB) with PtSi source/drain materials is investigated. The impact of silicidation annealing temperature on the high-frequency behavior of SB MOSFETs is analyzed using an extrinsic small-signal equivalent circuit. It is demonstrated that the current drive and the gate transconductance strongly depend on the silicidation anneal temperature, whereas the unity-gain cutoff frequency of the measured devices remains nearly unchanged

Can a Lattice String Have a Vanishing Cosmological Constant?

We prove that a class of one-loop partition functions found by Dienes, giving rise to a vanishing cosmological constant to one-loop, cannot be realized by a consistent lattice string. The construction of non-supersymmetric string with a vanishing cosmological constant therefore remains as elusive as ever. We also discuss a new test that any one-loop partition function for a lattice string must satisfy.Comment: 14 page

A model for tetrapyrrole synthesis as the primary mechanism for plastid-to-nucleus signaling during chloroplast biogenesis.

Chloroplast biogenesis involves the co-ordinated expression of the chloroplast and nuclear genomes, requiring information to be sent from the developing chloroplasts to the nucleus. This is achieved through retrograde signaling pathways and can be demonstrated experimentally using the photobleaching herbicide, norflurazon, which in seedlings results in chloroplast damage and the reduced expression of many photosynthesis-related, nuclear genes. Genetic analysis of this pathway points to a major role for tetrapyrrole synthesis in retrograde signaling, as well as a strong interaction with light signaling pathways. Currently, the best model to explain the genetic data is that a specific heme pool generated by flux through ferrochelatase-1 functions as a positive signal to promote the expression of genes required for chloroplast development. We propose that this heme-related signal is the primary positive signal during chloroplast biogenesis, and that treatments and mutations affecting chloroplast transcription, RNA editing, translation, or protein import all impact on the synthesis and/or processing of this signal. A positive signal is consistent with the need to provide information on chloroplast status at all times. We further propose that GUN1 normally serves to restrict the production of the heme signal. In addition to a positive signal re-enforcing chloroplast development under normal conditions, aberrant chloroplast development may produce a negative signal due to accumulation of unbound chlorophyll biosynthesis intermediates, such as Mg-porphyrins. Under these conditions a rapid shut-down of tetrapyrrole synthesis is required. We propose that accumulation of these intermediates results in a rapid light-dependent inhibition of nuclear gene expression that is most likely mediated via singlet oxygen generated by photo-excitation of Mg-porphyrins. Thus, the tetrapyrrole pathway may provide both positive and inhibitory signals to control expression of nuclear genes

Relative sea-level highstands in Thailand since the Mid-Holocene based on \u3csup\u3e14\u3c/sup\u3eC rock oyster chronology

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. The relative sea-level highstands in Thailand from the Mid-Holocene to the present day have been studied in horizontal tidal erosion notches and inside a sea cave in limestone and marble coastal cliffs through 14C dating of rock oysters. Rock oyster ages progressively increase with elevation up from a ~1 m wide living oyster band at the present day sea level and up into the roof of the notch. The oldest age obtained is 6513–6390 cal yr B·P. (Mid-Holocene) for a shell at an elevation of 2.5 ± 0.1 m above present day MSL. However, comparison of the results from different sites shows that oysters of the same age occur at different elevations due to different environmental conditions: ~6000 cal yr B.P. old oysters can be found from between 3.8 ± 0.1 m to 2.5 ± 0.1 m above present day mean sea level. A conservative view of these results from Thailand is that relative sea levels were 2.5 ± 0.5 m above the present sea level during the temperature maximum of the Holocene Climactic Optimum between 7000 and 6000 cal yr B.P. Since then, relative sea levels fell until the onset of the Industrial Revolution

Paradoxical popups: Why are they hard to catch?

Even professional baseball players occasionally find it difficult to gracefully approach seemingly routine pop-ups. This paper describes a set of towering pop-ups with trajectories that exhibit cusps and loops near the apex. For a normal fly ball, the horizontal velocity is continuously decreasing due to drag caused by air resistance. But for pop-ups, the Magnus force (the force due to the ball spinning in a moving airflow) is larger than the drag force. In these cases the horizontal velocity decreases in the beginning, like a normal fly ball, but after the apex, the Magnus force accelerates the horizontal motion. We refer to this class of pop-ups as paradoxical because they appear to misinform the typically robust optical control strategies used by fielders and lead to systematic vacillation in running paths, especially when a trajectory terminates near the fielder. In short, some of the dancing around when infielders pursue pop-ups can be well explained as a combination of bizarre trajectories and misguidance by the normally reliable optical control strategy, rather than apparent fielder error. Former major league infielders confirm that our model agrees with their experiences.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, sumitted to American Journal of Physic

Alignments of the Dominant Galaxies in Poor Clusters

We have examined the orientations of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in poor MKW and AWM clusters and find that, like their counterparts in richer Abell clusters, poor cluster BCGs exhibit a strong propensity to be aligned with the principal axes of their host clusters as well as the surrounding distribution of nearby (< 20/h Mpc) Abell clusters. The processes responsible for dominant galaxy alignments are therefore independent of cluster richness. We argue that these alignments most likely arise from anisotropic infall of material into clusters along large-scale filaments.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure