In situ monitoring of the biocatalysed partial hydrolysis of cocoa butter and palm oil fraction

Partial glycerides are widely used ingredients in confectionery products that can be produced from natural fats. In a biocatalytic partial hydrolysis of cocoa butter and palm oil fractions, a product mixture containing 1.5% monoglycerides and 5.5% diglycerides intended for the use in confectionery products was created. This study is a proof of principle that shows the feasibility of monitoring the biocatalytic partial hydrolysis of these two natural fats in situ with ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. An economic approach was utilised for calibration since partial glyceride calibration standards are costly and poorly available. The released compounds were quantified by means of chemometric modelling, and the model was validated with gas chromatography. Resulting root mean square errors were in the low per cent range. Additionally, the results indicate that distinction of the released free fatty acids is possible with ATR-FTIR spectroscopy.     

Er3+-doped CaF2 polycrystalline ceramic with perfect transparency for mid-infrared laser

Er³⁺-doped CaF₂ transparent ceramics are promising mid-infrared gain materials because of their utra-low phonon energy as well as excellent physical, chemical, and optical properties. However, existing hot-pressed and hot-formed CaF₂ ceramics are very difficult to be used in practical applications due to residual pores and weak polycrystallization, respectively. Here, we developed the high quality Er³⁺-doped CaF₂ transparent polycrystalline ceramic by single crystal ceramization. The sample exhibits obvious polycrystalline structure, good mechanical properties, perfectly transmittance, and excellent mid-infrared performance, which provides significant and wide-ranging opportunities for advanced mid-infrared gain materials.     

中红外大气甲烷乙烷双组分气体的同步移动监测

为了实现大范围、长距离的大气烷烃气体检测,将研制的中红外双组分甲烷、乙烷传感器以车载方式,对某一地区的大气甲、乙烷含量进行了移动探测。该传感器系统采用中红外室温连续的带间级联激光器(ICL)作为光源,采用高速数据采集卡采集信号,利用上位机LabVIEW平台编写程序产生激光器扫描及调制信号、获取探测器信号并提取二次谐波,通过计算,确定大气烷烃气体浓度。根据气体采样时间、实时风速及车速,计算得到系统的响应时间为82.5s,实验测量为85~95s,与理论一致。对系统噪声水平进行测试,实验室中甲烷浓度波动为±40nL/L,乙烷波动为±2nL/L,车载过程甲烷浓度波动为+40至-80nL/L,乙烷波动为±4nL/L。为验证传感器性能,与美国Aeries公司的商用传感器结果做了对比,二者呈现较好的一致性。最后,给出了车载传感器系统在某条线路上的甲烷、乙烷浓度移动探测结果,以及某小区甲烷、乙烷浓度的二维分布测绘结果,分析了二种烷烃气体的变化关系。本文所开展的工作为探测烷烃气体泄漏并监测大气质量提供了技术保障。     

3.705 μm紧凑型光参量振荡器

报道了一种基于工程应用的3.705 μm紧凑型高稳定性光参量振荡器。采用半导体制冷、强制气体对流冷却和热管导热技术相结合的方式,对主振荡功率放大结构的掺Yb光纤泵浦模块泵浦过程中产生的废热进行有效管理,再将经过耦合后的泵浦光注入到使用温控炉精确控温的PPMgLN晶体,在重复频率为55.56 kHz时,获得了功率不稳定度优于1.5%的1.78 W,脉冲宽度120 ns,峰值波长3.705 μm的线偏中红外激光输出,光光转换效率为12.6%。     

Development of low-loss lead-germanate glass for mid-infrared fiber optics: II. preform extrusion and fiber fabrication

For lead-germanate glass fibers, reducing the content of hydroxyl (OH) groups and the formation of metallic Pb species is essential to pave the way for their applications as low-loss mid-IR fiber optics since OH and metallic Pb species cause intense absorption and scattering loss, respectively, in the mid-IR spectral range. The first part of this study reported the optimization of the glass melting procedure to obtain low amount of OH while preventing formation of metallic Pb species in lead-germanate glass. Here, the second part of this study reports the investigation of the process conditions to fabricate low-loss lead-germanate glass fiber through further understanding of the co-effects of glass melting and heat treatment atmospheres on the formation of nano- and micron-scale metallic Pb species in both the as-produced and heat treated lead-germanate glasses. Finally, using this advance in knowledge, we successfully fabricated low-loss lead-germanate glass fibers with no presence of reduced metallic Pb particles by optimizing dehydration agent, glass melting, preform extrusion and fiber drawing conditions. The optimized fabrication conditions reduced the unstructured fiber loss by almost one order to <0.3 dB/m at 1.55 μm.     

Invited review: Mid-infrared spectroscopy as phenotyping tool for milk traits

Interest in methods that routinely and accurately measure and predict animal characteristics is growing in importance, both for quality characterization of livestock products and for genetic purposes. Mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIRS) is a rapid and cost-effective tool for recording phenotypes at the population level. Mid-infrared spectroscopy is based on crossing matter by electromagnetic radiation and on the subsequent measure of energy absorption, and it is commonly used to determine traditional milk quality traits in official milk laboratories. The aim of this review was to focus on the use of MIRS to predict new milk phenotypes of economic relevance such as fatty acid and protein composition, coagulation properties, acidity, mineral composition, ketone bodies, body energy status, and methane emissions. Analysis of the literature demonstrated the feasibility of MIRS to predict these traits, with different accuracies and with margins of improvement of prediction equations. In general, the reviewed papers underlined the influence of data variability, reference method, and unit of measurement on the development of robust models. A crucial point in favor of the application of MIRS is to stimulate the exchange of data among countries to develop equations that take into account the biological variability of the studied traits under different conditions. Due to the large variability of reference methods used for MIRS calibration, it is essential to standardize the methods used within and across countries.     

Invited review: Genetics and modeling of milk coagulation properties

Milk coagulation properties (MCP) are conventionally measured using computerized renneting meters, mechanical or optical devices that record curd firmness over time (CF_t). The traditional MCP are rennet coagulation time (RCT, min), curd firmness (a₃₀, mm), and curd-firming time (k₂₀, min). The milk of different ruminant species varies in terms of CF_t pattern. Milk from Holstein-Friesian and some Scandinavian cattle breeds yields higher proportions of noncoagulating samples, samples with longer RCT and lower a₃₀, and samples for which k₂₀ is not estimable, than does milk from Brown Swiss, Simmental, and other local Alpine breeds. The amount, proportion, and genetic variants (especially κ-casein) of milk protein fractions strongly influence MCP and explain variable proportions of the observed differences among breeds and among individuals of the same breed. In addition, other major genes have been shown to affect MCP. Individual repeatability of MCP is high, whereas any herd effect is low; thus, the improvement of MCP should be based principally on selection. Exploitable additive genetic variation in MCP exists and has been assessed using different breeds in various countries. Several models have been formulated that either handle noncoagulating samples or not. The heritability of MCP is similar to that of other milk quality traits and is higher than the heritability of milk yield. Rennet coagulation time and a₃₀ are highly correlated, both phenotypically and genetically. This means that the use of a₃₀ data does not add valuable information to that obtainable from RCT; both traits are genetically correlated mainly with milk acidity. Moreover, a₃₀ is correlated with casein content. The major limitations of traditional MCP can be overcome by prolonging the observation period and by using a novel CF_t modeling, which uses all available information provided by computerized renneting meters and allows the estimation of RCT, the potential asymptotic curd firmness, the curd-firming rate, and the syneresis rate. Direct measurements of RCT obtained from both mechanical and optical devices show similar heritabilities and exhibit high phenotypic and genetic correlations. Moreover, mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopy can predict MCP. The heritabilities of predicted MCP are higher than those of measured MCP, and the 2 sets of values are strongly correlated. Therefore, mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopy is a reliable and cheap method whereby MCP can be improved at the population level; this is because such spectra are already routinely acquired from the milk of cows enrolled in milk recording schemes.     

Genomic selection of milk fatty acid composition in Sarda dairy sheep: Effect of different phenotypes and relationship matrices on heritability and breeding value accuracy

Fatty acid (FA) composition is one of the most important aspects of milk nutritional quality. However, the inclusion of this trait as a breeding goal for dairy species is hampered by the logistics and high costs of phenotype recording. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is a valid and cheap alternative to laboratory gas chromatography (GC) for predicting milk FA composition. Moreover, as for other novel phenotypes, the efficiency of selection for these traits can be enhanced by using genomic data. The objective of this research was to compare traditional versus genomic selection approaches for estimating genetic parameters and breeding values of milk fatty acid composition in dairy sheep using either GC-measured or FTIR-predicted FA as phenotypes. Milk FA profiles were available for a total of 923 Sarda breed ewes. The youngest 100 had their own phenotype masked to mimic selection candidates. Pedigree relationship information and genotypes were available for 923 and 769 ewes, respectively. Three statistical approaches were used: the classical-pedigree-based BLUP, the genomic BLUP that considers the genomic relationship matrix G, and the single-step genomic BLUP (ssGBLUP) where pedigree and genomic relationship matrices are blended into a single H matrix. Heritability estimates using pedigree were lower than ssGBLUP, and very similar between GC and FTIR regarding the statistical approach used. For some FA, mostly associated with animal diet (i.e., C18:2n-6, C18:3n-3), random effect of combination of flock and test date explained a relevant quota of total variance, reducing the heritability estimates accordingly. Genomic approaches (genomic BLUP and ssGBLUP) outperformed the traditional pedigree method both for GC and FTIR FA. Prediction accuracies in the older cohort were larger than the young cohort. Genomic prediction accuracies (obtained using either G or H relationship matrix) in the young cohort of animals, where their own phenotypes were masked, were similar for GC and FTIR. Multiple-trait analysis slightly affected genomic breeding value accuracies. These results suggest that FTIR-predicted milk FA composition could represent a valid option for inclusion in breeding programs.     

酿造酱油与配制酱油远红外光谱鉴别研究

采用傅里叶变换远红外光谱结合最小偏二乘法(PLS),对酿造酱油、酸水解植物蛋白液(HVP)以及添加不同比例(10%-50%)HVP而得的配制酱油进行类别分析。结果发现,酿造酱油、酸水解植物蛋白液及配制酱油在以PLS主成分为坐标的二维线性投影图中分布差异明显;通过模型相关系数(R2)和交互验证标准差(RMSECV)比较,筛选出建模光谱波段为4000-500cm-1;通过残余方差(RVV)分析,确定了最适主成分数为10。利用模型成功对21份盲样进行鉴定,证明利用PLS建立的模型能有效地检测配制酱油中HVP的添加量,且最大偏差小于3.5%。     

Effects of heating on the secondary structure of proteins in milk powders using mid-infrared spectroscopy

Milk powder is an important source of protein for adults and children. Protein is very sensitive to heat, which may influence people’s usage of nutrients in milk powder. In this study, we describe the temperature-induced secondary structure of protein in milk powders. In this study, whole milk powder containing 24% protein and infant formula containing 11% protein were heated from 25 to 100°C. Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) spectra in the mid-infrared range 400–4,000 cm^?1 were used to evaluate the heat effect on the secondary structure of protein in these 2 milk powders. The spectral changes as a function of temperature were maintained by difference spectra, second-derivative spectra and Gauss curve-fitted spectra. The secondary structures of protein in the whole milk powder began to change at 70°C and in the infant formula at 50°C. The β-sheet and β-turn structures in the whole milk powder both decreased in the range of 70 to 85°C, whereas α-helix structures increased. The loss of β-sheet and β-turn may contribute to the formation of α-helix in the whole milk powder. In infant formula powder, the β-sheet structure showed a decrease and then increase, whereas the β-turn structure showed an increase and then decrease in the range of 50 to 75°C, and no change was found for α-helix structures. This implies that heating may induce the transformation from β-sheet to β-turn. Overall, whole milk powder had better temperature stability than infant formula powder, probably because of the lower content of lipid in the former than in the latter. These results help us understand the thermal stability of protein in milk powder.