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

Video Fill In the Blank using LR/RL LSTMs with Spatial-Temporal Attentions

Given a video and a description sentence with one missing word (we call it the "source sentence"), Video-Fill-In-the-Blank (VFIB) problem is to find the missing word automatically. The contextual information of the sentence, as well as visual cues from the video, are important to infer the missing word accurately. Since the source sentence is broken into two fragments: the sentence's left fragment (before the blank) and the sentence's right fragment (after the blank), traditional Recurrent Neural Networks cannot encode this structure accurately because of many possible variations of the missing word in terms of the location and type of the word in the source sentence. For example, a missing word can be the first word or be in the middle of the sentence and it can be a verb or an adjective. In this paper, we propose a framework to tackle the textual encoding: Two separate LSTMs (the LR and RL LSTMs) are employed to encode the left and right sentence fragments and a novel structure is introduced to combine each fragment with an "external memory" corresponding the opposite fragments. For the visual encoding, end-to-end spatial and temporal attention models are employed to select discriminative visual representations to find the missing word. In the experiments, we demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method on challenging VFIB problem. Furthermore, we introduce an extended and more generalized version of VFIB, which is not limited to a single blank. Our experiments indicate the generalization capability of our method in dealing with such more realistic scenarios

Temperature fields in a channel partially filled with a porous material under local thermal non-equilibrium condition: an exact solution

This work examines analytically the forced convection in a channel partially filled with a porous material and subjected to constant wall heat flux. The Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model is used to represent the fluid transport through the porous material. The local thermal non-equilibrium, two-equation model is further employed as the solid and fluid heat transport equations. Two fundamental models (models A and B) represent the thermal boundary conditions at the interface between the porous medium and the clear region. The governing equations of the problem are manipulated, and for each interface model, exact solutions, for the solid and fluid temperature fields, are developed. These solutions incorporate the porous material thickness, Biot number, fluid to solid thermal conductivity ratio and Darcy number as parameters. The results can be readily used to validate numerical simulations. They are, further, applicable to the analysis of enhanced heat transfer, using porous materials, in heat exchangers

Bounds for low-energy spectral properties of center-of-mass conserving positive two-body interactions

We study the low-energy spectral properties of positive center-of-mass conserving two-body Hamiltonians as they arise in models of fractional quantum Hall states. Starting from the observation that positive many-body Hamiltonians must have ground-state energies that increase monotonously in particle number, we explore what general additional constraints can be obtained for two-body interactions with "center-of-mass conservation" symmetry, both in the presence and absence of particle-hole symmetry. We find general bounds that constrain the evolution of the ground-state energy with particle number, and in particular, constrain the chemical potential at $T=0$. Special attention is given to Hamiltonians with zero modes, in which case similar bounds on the first excited state are also obtained, using a duality property. In this case, in particular, an upper bound on the charge gap is also obtained. We further comment on center of mass and relative decomposition in disk geometry within the framework of second quantization.Comment: 8 pages, published versio

Analytical investigation of heat transfer enhancement in a channel partially filled with a porous material under local thermal non-equilibrium condition: Effects of different thermal boundary conditions at the porous-fluid interface

Enhancement of forced convective heat transfer is analytically investigated in a channel partially filled with a porous medium under local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) condition. Thermally and hydrodynamically fully developed conditions are considered. The flow inside the porous material is modelled by the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer equation. The thermal boundary conditions at the interface between the porous medium and the clear region are described by two different models. For each interface model exact solutions are developed for the solid and fluid temperature fields. The Nusselt number (Nu) associated with each interface model is derived in terms of the porous insert normalised thickness (S) and other pertinent parameters such as thermal conductivity ratio (k), Biot number (Bi), and Darcy number (Da). The differences between the two interface models in predicting the temperature fields of the solid and fluid phases and validity of the Local Thermal Equilibrium (LTE) assumption are examined. Subsequently, for each model the values of S, Bi, k and Da at which LTE holds are determined. Further, the maximum values of S up to that the two models predict LTE condition are found as a function of Bi, k and Da. For each model and for different pertinent parameters the optimum value of S, which maximises the Nu number, is then found. The results show that, in general, the obtained Nu numbers can be strongly dependent upon the applied interface model. For large values of k and Bi, there are significant disparities between the Nu numbers predicted by the two models. Nonetheless, for most values of k and Bi, and under different values of Da numbers both models predict similar trends of variation of Nu number versus S. The Nu number and pressure drop ratio are then used to determine the Heat Transfer Performance (HTP). It is found that for S < 0.9, HTP is independent of Da number and the model used at the porous-fluid interface. For S > 0.9, reduction of Da results in smaller values of HTP and signifies the difference between the values of HTP predicted by the two interface models

Luz y color en el misticismo y la arquitectura islámica

This paper aims to study the cognitive background of light and color in the culture and art of Islamic mysticism and architecture analytically. Islamic mysticism and architecture are two separate disciplines that pursue a common goal in light and color about the creation of the universe and its emergence in different realms. Architecture tries to express the delicate mystical aspects of this matter in the material world. The mysticism supposes the universe or the light of all lights begins from God, and this light, which is an aspect of existence, will be darker passing to the lower worlds. As the world of reason, the first universe, is white, and the world of the body, which is the last known universe, is black. The findings show that light and color are two fundamental elements of creation and existence, which, by mixing in Islamic mysticism and architecture, have found a new identity and have created a vast global vision toward Allah. This essay is based on an interpretive analytical method, based on Clifford Geertz's interpretations theories and functionalism of Branislaw Malinowski, based on a library and documentary methodology and a qualitative content analysis method that transforms from descriptive to interpretive.El objetivo de este artículo es estudiar analíticamente los antecedentes cognitivos de la luz y el color en la cultura y el arte del misticismo y la arquitectura islámicos. El misticismo y la arquitectura islámicos son dos disciplinas separadas que persiguen un objetivo común en luz y color sobre la creación del universo y su aparición en diferentes ámbitos. La arquitectura trata de expresar los delicados aspectos místicos de esta materia en el mundo material. El misticismo supone que el universo o la luz de todas las luces comienza desde Dios, y esta luz, que es un aspecto de la existencia, será más oscura y pasará a los mundos inferiores. Como el mundo de la razón, el primer universo, es blanco, y el mundo del cuerpo, que es el último universo conocido, es negro. Los resultados muestran que la luz y el color son dos elementos fundamentales de la creación y la existencia que, al mezclarse con el misticismo y la arquitectura islámicos, han encontrado una nueva identidad y han creado una vasta visión global hacia Allah. Para este propósito se utilizó el método analítico interpretativo, basado en las teorías de interpretación de Clifford Geertz y funcionalismo de Branislaw Malinowski, con una metodología de biblioteca, documental y un método de análisis de contenido cualitativo que se transforma de descriptivo a interpretativo

Temperature fields in a channel partially filled with a porous material under local thermal non-equilibrium condition: an exact solution

This work examines analytically the forced convection in a channel partially filled with a porous material and subjected to constant wall heat flux. The Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model is used to represent the fluid transport through the porous material. The local thermal non-equilibrium, two-equation model is further employed as the solid and fluid heat transport equations. Two fundamental models (models A and B) represent the thermal boundary conditions at the interface between the porous medium and the clear region. The governing equations of the problem are manipulated, and for each interface model, exact solutions, for the solid and fluid temperature fields, are developed. These solutions incorporate the porous material thickness, Biot number, fluid to solid thermal conductivity ratio and Darcy number as parameters. The results can be readily used to validate numerical simulations. They are, further, applicable to the analysis of enhanced heat transfer, using porous materials, in heat exchangers

Spatial variation of particle number concentration in school microscale environment

There is significant toxicological evidence of the effects of ultrafine particles (<100nm) on human health (WHO 2005). Studies show that the number concentration of particles has been associated with adverse human health effects (Englert 2004). This work is part of a major study called ‘Ultrafine Particles form Traffic Emissions and Children’s Health’ (UPTECH), which seeks to determine the effect of the exposure to traffic related ultrafine particles on children’s health in schools (http://www.ilaqh.qut.edu.au/Misc/UPT ECH%20Home.htm). Quantification of spatial variation of particle number concentration (PNC) in a microscale environment and identification of the main affecting parameters and their contribution levels are the main aims of this analysis

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