I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

We present a comprehensive review of methods to measure soil water content with ground penetrating radar (GPR) We distinguish four methodologies: soil water content determined from reflected wave velocity, soil water content determined from ground wave velocity, soil water content determined from transmitted wave velocity between boreholes, and soil water content determined from the surface reflection coefficient For each of these four methodologies, we discuss the basic principles, illustrate the quality of the data with field examples, discuss the possibilities and limitations, and identify areas where future research is required We hope that this review will further stimulate the community to consider ground penetrating radar as one of the possible tools to measure soil water content

Measuring Soil Water Content with Ground Penetrating Radar: A Review

Microwave food processing—A review

Size, Shape, Volume, and Related Physical Attributes.- Rheological Properties of Foods.- Thermal Properties of Foods.- Electromagnetic Properties.- Water Activity and Sorption Properties of Foods.- Surface Properties of Foods.

Physical properties of foods

An Overview of Microwave Processing and Dielectric Properties of Agri-food Materials

Fundamental principles of radio-frequency (RF) and microwave dielectric heating are presented, with a basic consideration of differential or selective absorption of energy from RF and microwave fields that might be applicable for stored-grain insect control. Experimental findings of the past 50 years are reviewed, with respect to entomological and physical factors affecting the response of insects exposed to RF and microwave electromagnetic fields in grain and grain products. Practical aspects of RF and microwave energy application for stored-grain insect control are considered, and it is concluded that such use is highly unlikely without some new discovery of a nonthermal lethal mechanism that might be exploited for this purpose.

Review and Assessment of Radio-frequency and Microwave Energy for Stored-grain Insect Control

The nature of the variation of dielectric properties with frequency, temperature, and product density is discussed. Techniques for measurement of dielectric properties are briefly reviewed, and graphical data on the dielectric properties of grain and soybeans as functions of moisture content, frequency, temperature, and bulk of density are presented. Applications in the electrical measurement of the moisture content and in the dielectric heating of these materials are discussed. >

Dielectric properties of agricultural products-measurements and applications

Electrical Properties of Agricultural Products-A Critical Review

Principles of dielectric property measurement by microwave free-space transmission measurements are presented, and the important sources of errors in such measurements are discussed. A system, including a vector network analyser, horn/lens antennas, holder for grain and oilseed samples and a radiation absorbing enclosure that was used for such measurements is described, and the techniques and procedures followed to obtain reliable permittivity data for wheat, shelled corn (maize) and soybeans are outlined. Data illustrating linear relationships between microwave attenuation and phase shift per unit sample thickness, each divided by the bulk density of the granular materials, and frequency and moisture content are presented graphically. The linear dependence of calculated permittivity components, dielectric constant and loss factor, on bulk density is also shown, and permittivity components for wheat, corn and soybeans are listed for reference at frequencies from 5 to 17 GHz at different densities and moisture levels at about 23 °C. Permittivity values are also listed for the same three commodities, adjusted to a medium density value through use of the Landau and Lifshitz, Looyenga dielectric mixture equation, for the total range of moisture contents at 10 GHz and at the same temperature.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0957-0233/14/5/308/pdf

Free-space measurement of dielectric properties of cereal grain and oilseed at microwave frequencies

Microwave techniques have been considered for a long time for moisture sensing in many food processing and agriculture-related industries. They are suitable for on-line real-time monitoring and control. However, with particulate materials, bulk density fluctuations cause significant errors in moisture content determination. To overcome this shortcoming, density-independent calibration functions are needed. In this paper, a new approach is presented in which both bulk density and moisture content are determined directly from measured microwave dielectric properties. A simple relationship between bulk density and the dielectric properties is identified, and a new density-independent function for moisture content prediction, exclusively dependent on the dielectric properties of the material under test (/spl epsiv/', /spl epsiv/"), is proposed. The validity and applicability of this function are demonstrated with an extensive data set obtained from measurements on a granular material (wheat), over wide ranges of frequency (11-18 GHz), temperature (-1/spl deg/C-42/spl deg/C), moisture content (10.6%-19.2%, wet basis), and bulk density (0.72-0.88 g/cm/sup 3/). Explicit calibration equations for moisture prediction at different frequencies and temperatures are provided. Although data obtained by a transmission microwave measurement technique were used, this new approach remains valid in general for other techniques, provided that /spl epsiv/' and /spl epsiv/" are determined accurately.

Stuart O. Nelson

Papers

Review and Assessment of Radio-frequency and Microwave Energy for Stored-grain Insect Control

Dielectric properties of agricultural products-measurements and applications

Electrical Properties of Agricultural Products-A Critical Review

Free-space measurement of dielectric properties of cereal grain and oilseed at microwave frequencies

New density-independent calibration function for microwave sensing of moisture content in particulate materials