Inhibition of Protease Activity in Muscle Extracts and Surimi from Pacific Whiting, Merluccius productus, and Arrowtooth Flounder, Atheresthes stomias

Muscle extracts of Pacific whiting, Merluccius productus, and arrowtooth flounder, Atheresthes stomias, were assayed for proteolytic activity using azocasein as a substrate. Pacific whiting extracts showed maximum activity at pH 5.0-5.2 and a temperature of 50°C, while arrowtooth flounder extracts had maximum activity at pH 5.5 and 55°C. Three sources of inhibitors (potatoes, egg white, beef plasma protein) were evaluated in vitro for inhibition of protease activity. All three were found to be effective inhibitors in crude muscle extracts. Further studies utilizing these inhibitors in surimi showed that potato was equivalent to both egg white and beef plasma protein in preserving the gel forming characteristics ofheated kamaboko in both species

Simulation of double barrier resonant tunneling diodes

The double barrier resonant tunneling diode (DBRTD) is one of several devices currently being considered by the semiconductor industry as a replacement for conventional very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuit technology when the latter reaches its currently perceived scaling limits. The DBRTD was one of the first and remains one of the most promising devices to exhibit a room temperature negative differential resistance (NDR); this non-linear device characteristic has innovative circuit applications that will enable further downsizing. Due to the expense of fabricating such devices, however, it is necessary to extensively model them prior to fabrication and testing. Two techniques for modeling these devices are discussed, the Thomas-Fermi and Poisson-Schroedinger theories. The two techniques are then compared using a model currently under development by Texas Instruments, Incorporatedhttp://archive.org/details/simulationofdoub00portLieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Environmental proactivity and firms' performance: Mediation effect of competitive advantages in Spanish wineries

The main aim of this paper is to show the extent to which environmental proactivity is able to generate competitive advantages in a firm in order to improve their economic-financial performance by introducing the role of managerial perception into the analysis. This study focuses on Spanish wineries and their environmental practices and covers a total of 4598 wineries with a sample of 142 valid responses during the month of November 2015. The results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, there is positive environmental proactivity in terms of obtaining both cost-based and differentiation-based competitive advantages. Likewise, this proactivity has a positive impact on the manager’s perception of performance. Secondly, obtaining differentiation-based competitive advantages has a positive impact on the manager’s perception of performance although a negative impact on performance itself. There is, however, no significant evidence of the impact of cost-based competitive advantages on financial performance nor on the perception of performance itself, nor the impact of environmental proactivity on financial performance