Integration of cooking and vacuum cooling of carrots in a same vessel

Cooked vegetables are commonly used in the preparation of ready-to-eat foods. The integration of cooking and cooling of carrots and vacuum cooling in a single vessel is described in this paper. The combination of different methods of cooking and vacuum cooling was investigated. Integrated processes of cooking and vacuum cooling in a same vessel enabled obtaining cooked and cooled carrots at the final temperature of 10 ºC, which is adequate for preparing ready-to-eat foods safely. When cooking and cooling steps were performed with the samples immersed in boiling water, the effective weight loss was approximately 3.6%. When the cooking step was performed with the samples in boiling water or steamed, and the vacuum cooling was applied after draining the boiling water, water loss ranged between 15 and 20%, which caused changes in the product texture. This problem can be solved with rehydration using a small amount of sterile cold water. The instrumental textural properties of carrots samples rehydrated at both vacuum and atmospheric conditions were very similar. Therefore, the integrated process of cooking and vacuum cooling of carrots in a single vessel is a feasible alternative for processing such kind of foods.

Thermoaktive Bauteilsysteme - Ein neuer simulationstechnischer Berechnungsansatz

Thermoaktive Bauteilsysteme sind Bauteile, die als Teil der Raumumschließungsflächen über ein integriertes Rohrsystem mit einem Heiz- oder Kühlmedium beaufschlagt werden können und so die Beheizung oder Kühlung des Raumes ermöglichen. Die Konstruktionenvielfalt reicht nach diesem Verständnis von Heiz, bzw. Kühldecken über Geschoßtrenndecken mit kern-integrierten Rohren bis hin zu den Fußbodenheizungen. Die darin enthaltenen extrem trägen Systeme werden bewußt eingesetzt, um Energieangebot und Raumenergiebedarf unter dem Aspekt der rationellen Energieanwendung zeitlich zu entkoppeln, z. B. aktive Bauteilkühlung in der Nacht, passive Raumkühlung über das kühle Bauteil am Tage. Gebäude- und Anlagenkonzepte, die träge reagierende thermoaktive Bauteilsysteme vorsehen, setzen im kompetenten und verantwortungsvollen Planungsprozeß den Einsatz moderner Gebäudesimulationswerkzeuge voraus, um fundierte Aussagen über Behaglichkeit und Energiebedarf treffen zu können. Die thermoaktiven Bauteilsysteme werden innerhalb dieser Werkzeuge durch Berechnungskomponenten repräsentiert, die auf mathematisch-physikalischen Modellen basieren und zur Lösung des bauteilimmanenten mehrdimensionalen instationären Wärmeleitungsproblems dienen. Bisher standen hierfür zwei unterschiedliche prinzipielle Vorgehensweisen zur Lösung zur Verfügung, die der physikalischen Modellbildung entstammen und Grenzen bzgl. abbildbarer Geometrie oder Rechengeschwindigkeit setzen. Die vorliegende Arbeit dokumentiert eine neue Herangehensweise, die als experimentelle Modellbildung bezeichnet wird. Über den Weg der Systemidentifikation können aus experimentell ermittelten Datenreihen die Parameter für ein kompaktes Black-Box-Modell bestimmt werden, das das Eingangs-Ausgangsverhalten des zugehörigen beliebig aufgebauten thermoaktiven Bauteils mit hinreichender Genauigkeit widergibt. Die Meßdatenreihen lassen sich über hochgenaue Berechnungen generieren, die auf Grund ihrer Detailtreue für den unmittelbaren Einsatz in der Gebäudesimulation ungeeignet wären. Die Anwendung der Systemidentifikation auf das zweidimensionale Wärmeleitungsproblem und der Nachweis ihrer Eignung wird an Hand von sechs sehr unterschiedlichen Aufbauten thermoaktiver Bauteilsysteme durchgeführt und bestätigt sehr geringe Temperatur- und Energiebilanzfehler. Vergleiche zwischen via Systemidentifikation ermittelten Black-Box-Modellen und physikalischen Modellen für zwei Fußbodenkonstruktionen zeigen, daß erstgenannte auch als Referenz für Genauigkeitsabschätzungen herangezogen werden können. Die Praktikabilität des neuen Modellierungsansatzes wird an Fallstudien demonstriert, die Ganzjahressimulationen unter Bauteil- und Betriebsvariationen an einem exemplarischen Büroraum betreffen. Dazu erfolgt die Integration des Black-Box-Modells in das kommerzielle Gebäude- und Anlagensimulationsprogramm CARNOT. Die akzeptablen Rechenzeiten für ein Einzonen-Gebäudemodell in Verbindung mit den hohen Genauigkeiten bescheinigen die Eignung der neuen Modellierungsweise.

Effect of mountain breeze in ventilating the city under calm and neutral atmospheric environment: Interaction of airflow structures and ventilation efficiency

Many modern cities locate in the mountainous areas, like Hong Kong, Phoenix City and Los Angles. It is confirmed in the literature that the mountain wind system developed by differential heating or cooling can be very beneficial in ventilating the city nearby and alleviating the UHI effect. However, the direct interaction of mountain wind with the natural-convection circulation due to heated urban surfaces has not been studied, to our best knowledge. This kind of unique interaction of two kinds of airflow structures under calm and neutral atmospheric environment is investigated in this paper by CFD approach. A physical model comprising a simple mountain and three long building blocks (forming two street canyons) is firstly developed. Different airflow structures are identified within the conditions of different mountain-building height ratios (R=Hm/Hb) by varying building height but fixing mountain height. It is found that the higher ventilation rate in the street canyons is expected in the cases of smaller mountain-building ratios, indicating the stronger natural convection due to increasing heated building surfaces. However, there is the highest air change rate (ACH) in the lowest-building-height case and most of the air is advective into the street canyon through the top open area, highlighting the important role played by the mountain wind. In terms of the ventilation efficiency, it is shown that the smallest R case enjoys the best air change efficiency followed by the highest R case, while the worst ventilative street canyons occur at the middle R case. In the end, a gap across the streets is introduced in the modeling. The existence of the gap can greatly channel the mountain wind and distribute the air into streets nearby. Thus the ACH can be doubled and air quality can be significantly improved.

Cortical activation during executed, imagined, observed, and passive wrist movements in healthy volunteers and stroke patients

Motor imagery, passive movement, and movement observation have been suggested to activate the sensorimotor system without overt movement. The present study investigated these three covert movement modes together with overt movement in a within-subject design to allow for a fine-grained comparison of their abilities in activating the sensorimotor system, i.e. premotor, primary motor, and somatosensory cortices. For this, 21 healthy volunteers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In addition we explored the abilities of the different covert movement modes in activating the sensorimotor system in a pilot study of 5 stroke patients suffering from chronic severe hemiparesis. Results demonstrated that while all covert movement modes activated sensorimotor areas, there were profound differences between modes and between healthy volunteers and patients. In healthy volunteers, the pattern of neural activation in overt execution was best resembled by passive movement, followed by motor imagery, and lastly by movement observation. In patients, attempted overt execution was best resembled by motor imagery, followed by passive movement, and lastly by movement observation. Our results indicate that for severely hemiparetic stroke patients motor imagery may be the preferred way to activate the sensorimotor system without overt behavior. In addition, the clear differences between the covert movement modes point to the need for within-subject comparisons.

Passive and active hybrid approach to buildings design in Saudi Arabia

The building sector is one of the highest consumers of energy in the world. This has led to high dependency on using fossil fuel to supply energy without due consideration to its environmental impact. Saudi Arabia has been through rapid development accompanied by population growth, which in turn has increased the demand for construction. However, this fast development has been met without considering sustainable building design. General design practices rely on using international design approaches and features without considering the local climate and aspects of traditional passive design. This is by constructing buildings with a large amount of glass fully exposed to solar radiation. The aim of this paper is to investigate the development of sustainability in passive design and vernacular architecture. Furthermore, it compares them with current building in Saudi Arabia in terms of making the most of the climate. Moreover, it will explore the most sustainable renewable energy that can be used to reduce the environmental impact on modern building in Saudi Arabia. This will be carried out using case studies demonstrating the performance of vernacular design in Saudi Arabia and thus its benefits in terms of environmental, economic and social sustainability. It argues that the adoption of a hybrid approach can improve the energy efficiency as well as reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. This is by combining passive design, learning from the vernacular architecture and implementing innovative sustainable technologies.

Extended Canadian middle atmosphere model: zonal-mean climatology and physical parameterizations

This paper describes the energetics and zonal-mean state of the upward extension of the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model, which extends from the ground to ~210 km. The model includes realistic parameterizations of the major physical processes from the ground up to the lower thermosphere and exhibits a broad spectrum of geophysical variability. The rationale for the extended model is to examine the nature of the physical and dynamical processes in the mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) region without the artificial effects of an imposed sponge layer which can modify the circulation in an unrealistic manner. The zonal-mean distributions of temperature and zonal wind are found to be in reasonable agreement with observations in most parts of the model domain below ~150 km. Analysis of the global-average energy and momentum budgets reveals a balance between solar extreme ultraviolet heating and molecular diffusion and a thermally direct viscous meridional circulation above 130 km, with the viscosity coming from molecular diffusion and ion drag. Below 70 km, radiative equilibrium prevails in the global mean. In the MLT region between ~70 and 120 km, many processes contribute to the global energy budget. At solstice, there is a thermally indirect meridional circulation driven mainly by parameterized nonorographic gravity-wave drag. This circulation provides a net global cooling of up to 25 K d^-1.

Prosodic Morphology : Gender in Arabic Perfect Active and Passive 3rd Person Singular Verbs

Prosodic /template Morphology, that "draws heavily on the theoretical apparatus and formalisms of the generative phonology model known as autosegmental phonology" (Katamba, F. 1993: 154), is the best analysis that can handle Arabic morphology. Verbs in Arabic are represented on three independent tiers: root tier, the skeletal tier and the vocalic melody tier (Katamba, F. 1993). Vowel morphemes, which are represented by diacritics, are inserted within the consonant morphemes, which are represented by primary symbols, to form words. The morpheme tier hypothesis paves the way to understand the nonconcatenative Arabic morphology. This paper analyzes gender in perfect active and passive 3rd person singular verbs on the basis of PM. The focus of the analysis shall be drawn heavily on the most common Arabic verbs; triconsonantal verbs, with brief introduction of the less common verbs; quadriconsonantal perfect active and passive masculine and feminine 3rd person singular verbs. I shall, too, cast the light on some vowel changes that some verbs undergo when voice changes.

Simultaneous solidification of two catalyst wastes and their effect on the early stages of cement hydration

Two catalyst wastes (RNi and RAI) from polyol production were considered as hazardous, due to their respective high concentration of nickel and aluminum contents. This article presents the study, done to avoid environmental impacts, of the simultaneous solidification/stabilization of both catalyst wastes with type II Portland cement (CP) by non-conventional differential thermal analysis (NCDTA). This technique allows one to monitor the initial stages of cement hydration to evaluate the accelerating and/or retarding effects on the process due to the presence of the wastes and to identify the steps where the changes occur. Pastes with water/cement ratio equal to 0.5 were prepared, into which different amounts of each waste were added. NCDTA has the same basic principle of Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA), but differs in the fact that there is no external heating or cooling system as in the case of DTA. The thermal effects of the cement paste hydration with and without waste presence were evaluated from the energy released during the process in real time by acquiring the temperature data of the sample and reference using thermistors with 0.03 A degrees C resolution, coupled to an analog-digital interface. In the early stages of cement hydration retarding and accelerating effects occur, respectively due to RNi and RAl presence, with significant thermal effects. During the simultaneous use of the two waste catalysts for their stabilization process by solidification in cement, there is a synergic resulting effect, which allows better hydration operating conditions than when each waste is solidified separately. Thermogravimetric (TG) and derivative thermogravimetric analysis (DTG) of 4 and 24 h pastes allow a quantitative information about the main cement hydrated phases and confirm the same accelerating or retarding effects due to the presence of wastes indicated from respective NCDTA curves.

U-Pb geochronology of the southern Brasília belt (SE-Brazil): Sedimentary provenance, Neoproterozoic orogeny and assembly of West Gondwana

The Brasília belt borders the western margin of the São Francisco Craton and records the history of ocean opening and closing related to the formation of West Gondwana. This study reports new U-Pb data from the southern sector of the belt in order to provide temporal limits for the deposition and ages of provenance of sediments accumulated in passive margin successions around the south and southwestern margins of the São Francisco Craton, and date the orogenic events leading to the amalgamation of West Gondwana. Ages of detrital zircons (by ID-TIMS and LA-MC-ICPMS) were obtained from metasedimentary units of the passive margin of the São Francisco Craton from the main tectonic domains of the belt: the internal allochthons (Araxá Group in the Áraxá and Passos Nappes), the external allochthons (Canastra Group, Serra da Boa Esperança Metasedimentary Sequence and Andrelândia Group) and the autochthonous or Cratonic Domain (Andrelândia Group). The patterns of provenance ages for these units are uniform and are characterised as follows: Archean- Paleoproterozoic ages (3.4-3.3, 3.1-2.7, and 2.5-2.4Ga); Paleoproterozoic ages attributed to the Transamazonian event (2.3-1.9Ga, with a peak at ca. 2.15Ga) and to the ca. 1.75Ga Espinhaço rifting of the São Francisco Craton; ages between 1.6 and 1.2Ga, with a peak at 1.3Ga, revealing an unexpected variety of Mesoproterozoic sources, still undetected in the São Francisco Craton; and ages between 0.9 and 1.0Ga related to the rifting event that led to the individualisation of the São Francisco paleo-continent and formation of its passive margins. An amphibolite intercalation in the Araxá Group yields a rutile age of ca. 0.9Ga and documents the occurrence of mafic magmatism coeval with sedimentation in the marginal basin. Detrital zircons from the autochthonous and parautochthonous Andrelândia Group, deposited on the southern margin of the São Francisco Craton, yielded a provenance pattern similar to that of the allochthonous units. This result implies that 1.6-1.2Ga source rocks must be present in the São Francisco Craton. They could be located either in the cratonic area, which is mostly covered by the Neoproterozoic epicontinental deposits of the Bambuí Group, or in the outer paleo-continental margin, buried under the allochthonous units of the Brasília belt. Crustal melting and generation of syntectonic crustal granites and migmatisation at ca. 630Ma mark the orogenic event that started with westward subduction of the São Francisco plate and ended with continental collision against the Paraná block (and Goiás terrane). Continuing collision led to the exhumation and cooling of the Araxá and Passos metamorphic nappes, as indicated by monazite ages of ca. 605Ma and mark the final stages of tectonometamorphic activity in the southern Brasília belt. Whilst continent-continent collision was proceeding on the western margin of the São Francisco Craton along the southern Brasília belt, eastward subduction in the East was generating the 634-599Ma Rio Negro magmatic arc which collided with the eastern São Francisco margin at 595-560Ma, much later than in the Brasília belt. Thus, the tectonic effects of the Ribeira belt reached the southernmost sector of the Brasília belt creating a zone of superposition. The thermal front of this event affected the proximal Andrelândia Group at ca. 588Ma, as indicated by monazite age. The participation of the Amazonian craton in the assembly of western Gondwana occurred at 545-500Ma in the Paraguay belt and ca. 500Ma in the Araguaia belt. This, together with the results presented in this work lead to the conclusion that the collision between the Paraná block and Goiás terrane with the São Francisco Craton along the Brasília belt preceded the accretion of the Amazonian craton by 50-100 million years. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Geochronological constraints on the age of a Permo-Triassic impact event: U-Pb and Ar-40/Ar-39 results for the 40 km Araguainha structure of central Brazil

Impact cratering has been a fundamental geological process in Earth history with major ramifications for the biosphere. The complexity of shocked and melted rocks within impact structures presents difficulties for accurate and precise radiogenic isotope age determination, hampering the assessment of the effects of an individual event in the geological record. We demonstrate the utility of a multi-chronometer approach in our study of samples from the 40 km diameter Araguainha impact structure of central Brazil. Samples of uplifted basement granite display abundant evidence of shock deformation, but U/Pb ages of shocked zircons and the Ar-40/Ar-39 ages of feldspar from the granite largely preserve the igneous crystallization and cooling history. Mixed results are obtained from in situ Ar-40/Ar-39 spot analyses of shocked igneous biotites in the granite, with deformation along kink-bands resulting in highly localized, partial resetting in these grains. Likewise, spot analyses of perlitic glass from pseudotachylitic breccia samples reflect a combination of argon inheritance from wall rock material, the age of the glass itself, and post-impact devitrification. The timing of crater formation is better assessed using samples of impact-generated melt rock where isotopic resetting is associated with textural evidence of melting and in situ crystallization. Granular aggregates of neocrystallized zircon form a cluster of ten U-Pb ages that yield a "Concordia" age of 247.8 +/- 3.8 Ma. The possibility of Pb loss from this population suggests that this is a minimum age for the impact event. The best evidence for the age of the impact comes from the U-Th-Pb dating of neocrystallized monazite and Ar-40/Ar-39 step heating of three separate populations of post-impact, inclusion-rich quartz grains that are derived from the infill of miarolitic cavities. The Pb-206/U-238 age of 254.5 +/- 3.2 Ma (2 sigma error) and Pb-208/Th-232 age of 255.2 +/- 4.8 Ma (2 sigma error) of monazite, together with the inverse, 18 point isochron age of 254 +/- 10 Ma (MSWD = 0.52) for the inclusion-rich quartz grains yield a weighted mean age of 254.7 +/- 2.5 Ma (0.99%, 2 sigma error) for the impact event. The age of the Araguainha crater overlaps with the timing of the Permo-Triassic boundary, within error, but the calculated energy released by the Araguainha impact is insufficient to be a direct cause of the global mass extinction. However, the regional effects of the Araguainha impact event in the Parana-Karoo Basin may have been substantial. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparison of active and passive forces of the pelvic floor muscles in women with and without stress urinary incontinence

Background: The reduction of the pelvic floor muscles (PFM) strength is a major cause of stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Objective: To compare active and passive forces, and vaginal cavity aperture in continent and stress urinary incontinent women. Method: The study included a total of thirty-two women, sixteen continent women (group 1 - G1) and sixteen women with SUI (group 2 - G2). To evaluate PFM passive and active forces in anteroposterior (sagittal plane) and left-right directions (frontal plane) a stainless steel specular dynamometer was used. Results: The anteroposterior active strength for the continent women (mean +/- standard deviation) (0.3 +/- 0.2 N) was greater compared to the values found in the evaluation of incontinent women (0.1 +/- 0.1 N). The left-right active strength (G1=0.43 +/- 0.1 N; G2=0.40 +/- 0.1 N), the passive force (G1=1.1 +/- 0.2 N; G2=1.1 +/- 0.3 N) and the vaginal cavity aperture (G1=21 +/- 3 mm; G2=24 +/- 4 mm) did not differ between groups 1 and 2. Conclusion: The function evaluation of PFM showed that women with SUI had a lower anteroposterior active strength compared to continent women.

Cortical activation during executed, imagined, observed, and passive wrist movements in healthy volunteers and stroke patients

Motor imagery, passive movement, and movement observation have been suggested to activate the sensorimotor system without overt movement. The present study investigated these three covert movement modes together with overt movement in a within-subject design to allow for a fine-grained comparison of their abilities in activating the sensorimotor system, i.e. premotor, primary motor, and somatosensory cortices. For this, 21 healthy volunteers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In addition we explored the abilities of the different covert movement modes in activating the sensorimotor system in a pilot study of 5 stroke patients suffering from chronic severe hemiparesis. Results demonstrated that while all covert movement modes activated sensorimotor areas, there were profound differences between modes and between healthy volunteers and patients. In healthy volunteers, the pattern of neural activation in overt execution was best resembled by passive movement, followed by motor imagery, and lastly by movement observation. In patients, attempted overt execution was best resembled by motor imagery, followed by passive movement and lastly by movement observation. Our results indicate that for severely hemiparetic stroke patients motor imagery may be the preferred way to activate the sensorimotor system without overt behavior. In addition, the clear differences between the covert movement modes point to the need for within-subject comparisons. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

“Sweating meteorites”-Water-soluble salts and temperature variation in ordinary chondrites and soil from the hot desert of Oman

The common appearance of hygroscopic brine (“sweating”) on ordinary chondrites (OCs) from Oman during storage under room conditions initiated a study on the role of water-soluble salts on the weathering of OCs. Analyses of leachates from OCs and soils, combined with petrography of alteration features and a 11-month record of in situ meteorite and soil temperatures, are used to evaluate the role of salts in OC weathering. Main soluble ions in soils are Ca2+, SO42−, HCO3−, Na+, and Cl−, while OC leachates are dominated by Mg2+ (from meteoritic olivine), Ca2+ (from soil), Cl− (from soil), SO42− (from meteoritic troilite and soil), and iron (meteoritic). “Sweating meteorites” mainly contain Mg2+ and Cl−. The median Na/Cl mass ratio of leachates changes from 0.65 in soils to 0.07 in meteorites, indicating the precipitation of a Na-rich phase or loss of an efflorescent Na-salt. The total concentrations of water-soluble ions in bulk OCs ranges from 600 to 9000 μg g−1 (median 2500 μg g−1) as compared to 187–14140 μg g−1 in soils (median 1148 μg g−1). Soil salts dissolved by rain water are soaked up by meteorites by capillary forces. Daily heating (up to 66.3 °C) and cooling of the meteorites cause a pumping effect, resulting in a strong concentration of soluble ions in meteorites over time. The concentrations of water-soluble ions in meteorites, which are complex mixtures of ions from the soil and from oxidation and hydrolysis of meteoritic material, depend on the degree of weathering and are highest at W3. Input of soil contaminants generally dominates over the ions mobilized from meteorites. Silicate hydrolysis preferentially affects olivine and is enhanced by sulfide oxidation, producing local acidic conditions as evidenced by jarosite. Plagioclase weathering is negligible. After completion of troilite oxidation, the rate of chemical weathering slows down with continuing Ca-sulfate contamination.

The independent role of prenatal and postnatal exposure to active and passive smoking on the development of early wheeze in children.

Maternal smoking during pregnancy increases childhood asthma risk, but health effects in children of nonsmoking mothers passively exposed to tobacco smoke during pregnancy are unclear. We examined the association of maternal passive smoking during pregnancy and wheeze in children aged ≤2 years.Individual data of 27 993 mother-child pairs from 15 European birth cohorts were combined in pooled analyses taking into consideration potential confounders.Children with maternal exposure to passive smoking during pregnancy and no other smoking exposure were more likely to develop wheeze up to the age of 2 years (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.03-1.20) compared with unexposed children. Risk of wheeze was further increased by children's postnatal passive smoke exposure in addition to their mothers' passive exposure during pregnancy (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.19-1.40) and highest in children with both sources of passive exposure and mothers who smoked actively during pregnancy (OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.59-1.88). Risk of wheeze associated with tobacco smoke exposure was higher in children with an allergic versus nonallergic family history.Maternal passive smoking exposure during pregnancy is an independent risk factor for wheeze in children up to the age of 2 years. Pregnant females should avoid active and passive exposure to tobacco smoke for the benefit of their children's health.