National University of La Plata

About: National University of La Plata is a education organization based out in La Plata, Argentina. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 12993 authors who have published 30013 publications receiving 495118 citations. The organization is also known as: UNLP & Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

Starch-based coatings: effect on refrigerated strawberry (Fragaria ananassa) quality.

Abstract: Edible coatings can provide an alternative for extending post-harvest life of refrigerated fruit and vegetables. The influence of different starch-based coating formulations on quality attributes of strawberries stored at 0°C and a relative humidity of 84·8% was studied. Starch sources were classified according to the amylose content in starch, with medium amylose content (potato and corn) and high amylose content (amylomaize and amylose-rich product). Quality of fruits was evaluated by weight loss, firmness retention, microbial decay, surface colour development, titratable acidity and sugar content. The effects of starch amylose content and glycerol (plasticiser) concentration on coating properties were also analysed. The coatings reduced the number of infected fruits and extended storage life of strawberries by retarding senescence. The addition of glycerol improved coating performance, with 20 g litre−1 the most effective concentration. The starch source had a significant effect on surface colour development, weight loss and firmness retention. Coated strawberries produced the lowest ratios of chromaticity parameters (a/b, red/yellow) with regard to the control fruits, thus retarding senescence. High amylose content starches reduced weight loss, maintained firmness and reduced decay better than medium amylose content starches. © 1998 SCI.

Fast radio bursts and their gamma-ray or radio afterglows as Kerr-Newman black hole binaries

Abstract: Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are radio transients lasting only about a few milliseconds. They seem to occur at cosmological distances. We propose that these events can be originated in the collapse of the magnetosphere of Kerr-Newman black holes (KNBHs). We show that the closed orbits of charged particles in the magnetosphere of these objects are unstable. After examining the dependencies on the specific charge of the particle and the spin and charge of the KNBH, we conclude that the resulting timescale and radiation mechanism fit well with the extant observations of FRBs. Furthermore, we argue that the merger of a KNBH binary is one of the plausible central engines for potential gamma-ray or radio afterglow following a certain FRBs, and can also account for gravitational wave (GW) events like GW 150914. Our model leads to predictions that can be tested by combined multi-wavelength electromagnetic and GW observations.

The ages and colours of cool helium‐core white dwarf stars

Abstract: 0.406, 0.360, 0.327, 0.292, 0.242, 0.196 and 0.169 M( and follow their evolution from the end of mass-loss episodes, during their pre-white dwarf evolution, down to very low surface luminosities. We find that when the effective temperature decreases below 4000 K, the emergent spectrum of these stars becomes bluer within time-scales of astrophysical interest. In particular, we analyse the evolution of our models in the colour ‐ colour and in the colour ‐ magnitude diagrams and find that helium-core white dwarfs with masses ranging from ,0.18 to 0.3 M( can reach the turn-off in their colours and become blue again within cooling times much less than 15 Gyr and then remain brighter than MV < 16:5. In view of these results, many low-mass helium white dwarfs could have had enough time to evolve to the domain of collision-induced absorption from molecular hydrogen, showing blue colours.