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Impact sensors are widely used to detect grain losses in harvesters. Using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) films as sensing elements is a promising way to improve sensor performance due to their high sensitivity, stability, and flexibility. However, the overlap of collision signals significantly reduces the accuracy of a sensor. To solve this problem, a novel impact sensor with two crossed PVDF films was designed and investigated. This sensor has two orthogonal layers of sensing elements that both respond to impacts, which creates positioning information for the impacts. Because of the sensor’s structure, a signal processing method was designed based on multisensor fusion theory. Tests were performed to verify the performance of the proposed impact sensor. The average signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for impacted PVDF films were 34.79 and 20.23 dB, respectively, for the upper and lower layers, while the average signal-to-clutter ratios (SCRs) for nonimpacted films were 21.90 and 10.05 dB, respectively. The sensor also has an extremely high detection efficiency of at least 1528 collisions per second and can identify particles that impact at the same time. Keywords: Grain loss detection, Impact sensors, Multisensor fusion, Particle impact tests, PVDF films.

As a non-thermal technology, pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment can be utilized in food processing and bioengineering for the inactivation of microorganisms and quality-degrading enzymes, as well as the retention of health-related compounds and the extension of shelf-life. Development of kinetic models that fit the degree of microbial inactivation and the loss of food quality is important to improve the efficiency of PEF treatment. The current review aims to provide an overview of the kinetic models used by PEF for microbial inactivation in liquid foods. Kinetics modeling for the destruction of microorganisms, inactivation of enzymes, retention of health-related compounds, and extension of shelf-life are discussed. Additionally, the fitting accuracy of several models, as well as issues that need further investigation, are discussed to promote further understanding and the deployment of PEF technology.

In this study, frozen restructured whole apple and strawberry bars were manufactured by partial dehydration, using infrared (IR) heating, followed by restructuring and freezing. The objective of this investigation was to determine the effect of IR partial dehydration on the quality of restructured frozen apple and strawberry bars. Apples and strawberries were cut into 6-mm-thick slices before being dried at 50C to various moisture levels: from 89.0 to 75.3% for apples and from 92.7 to 75.3% (wet basis) for strawberries. IR drying reduced the moisture in the fruits quickly and caused partial degradation of total phenolic and vitamin C. However, the concentration of total phenolic and vitamin C significantly increased in the finished fruit bars due to the moisture removal. Both frozen apple and strawberry bars had desirable appearance and hardness when their water activities were below 0.97. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This research demonstrated a new processing method for manufacturing healthful frozen fruit bars by using infrared partial dehydration of sliced fruit slices, followed by restructuring and freezing.

DsbA, a thioredoxin superfamily member, introduces disulfide bonds into newly translocated proteins. This process is thought to occur via formation of mixed disulfide complexes between DsbA and its substrates. However, these complexes are difficult to detect, probably because of their short-lived nature. Here we show that it is possible to detect such covalent intermediates in vivo by a mutation in DsbA that alters cis proline-151. Further, this mutant allowed us to identify substrates of DsbA. Alteration of the cis proline, highly conserved among thioredoxin superfamily members, may be useful for the detection of substrates and intermediate complexes in other systems.

Based on diverse situations of the flowline of subsea Christmas tree installation and its working conditions, a theoretical model for calculation of the flowline is proposed by taking comprehensive considerations of different influencing factors, such as water depth, temperature of petroleum and gasoline, and angles of the flowline. By using the ABAQUS software, a finite element model for the flowline operating in an oil field in South China Sea is developed for verification of the proposed theory. The analysis and calculation present the variation of the thermal stress with different water depth, different oil & gas temperature and different bending angle of the flowline, and provid a theoretical support for the appropriate bending angle design of the flowline in the specific fields.