Species origin of milk in Italian mozzarella and Greek feta cheese

Several animal species such as cattle, goats, sheep, and water buffalo provide milk for dairy products. We describe a simple procedure for detecting the species origin of milk used for cheese production. DNA was isolated from Italian mozzarella or Greek feta by sequential organic extractions and resin purification. This DNA was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism as described previously for meat samples. This procedure differentiated mozzarella made from water buffalo milk and from less expensive bovine milk and also feta cheeses made from bovine, ovine, and caprine milk.     

2D or Not 2D: Strain Tuning in Weakly Coupled Heterostructures

A route to realize strain engineering in weakly bonded heterostructures is presented. Such heterostructures, consisting of layered materials with a pronounced bond hierarchy of strong and weak bonds within and across their building blocks respectively, are anticipated to grow decoupled from each other. Hence, they are expected to be unsuitable for strain engineering as utilized for conventional materials which are strongly bonded isotropically. Here, it is shown for the first time that superlattices of layered chalcogenides (Sb₂Te₃/GeTe) behave neither as fully decoupled two‐dimensional (2D) materials nor as covalently bonded three‐dimensional (3D) materials. Instead, they form a novel class of 3D solids with an unparalleled atomic arrangement, featuring a distribution of lattice constants, which is tunable. A map to identify further material combinations with similar characteristic is given. It opens the way for the design of a novel class of artificial solids with unexplored properties.     

Selection and use of autochthonous mixed starter for lactic acid fermentation of carrots, French beans or marrows

Strains of Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lactobacillus plantarum, Weissella soli/Weissella koreensis, Enterococcus faecalis, Pediococcus pentosaceus and Lactobacillus fermentum were identified from raw carrots, French beans and marrows by partial 16S rRNA gene sequence. L. plantarum M1, Leuc. mesenteroides C1 and P. pentosaceus F4 were selected based on the rates of growth and acidification in vegetable juice media, and used as the autochthonous mixed starter for the fermentation of carrots, French beans or marrows. An allochthonous starter, consisting of the same species, was also used for fermentation. A two-step fermentation process (1 day at 25 degrees C and 7 days at 15 degrees C) in brine (1% w/v) followed by storage at room temperature in olive oil until 40 days was set up. Unstarted vegetables subjected to the same treatments were used as the controls. Cell numbers of lactic acid bacteria in the started vegetables were ca. 10,000 (autochthonous starter) and 1000 (allochthonous starter) times higher than unstarted samples throughout the process. When fermented with the autochthonous starter, carrots, French beans or marrows were characterized by the rapid decrease of pH (<4.5), marked consumption of fermentable carbohydrates, and inhibition of Enterobacteriaceae and yeasts. Fermentation with the allochthonous starter did not acidify and inhibit bacteria and yeasts so rapidly. After 40 days, carrots, French beans and marrows fermented with the autochthonous starter had significantly (P<0.05) higher total concentration of vitamin C (ascorbate+dehydroascorbate) with respect to those fermented with the allochthonous starter and, especially unstarted vegetables. The same was found for the indexes of color. Firmness of both started vegetables was higher than unstarted vegetables. Sensory analysis differentiated started vegetables. Carrots and French beans fermented with the autochthonous starter were, especially, appreciated for fragrance. Appearance was the sensory attribute that mainly distinguished marrows fermented with the autochthonous starter.     

Oxidative stability of virgin olive oil enriched with carnosic acid

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the addition of carnosic acid on the oxidative stability of virgin olive oil. Two different amounts of carnosic acid (0.01 and 0.1 g/100 g oil) and two different temperatures (accelerated aging temperature, 60 °C; deep frying temperature, 180 °C) were considered. The influence of carnosic acid and heating time on the stability of the oils was studied by experimental design. The results obtained at 60 °C showed a dose dependent inhibition in the formation of primary and secondary oxidation products and a dose dependent enhancement of radical scavenging activity, which was only less significantly influenced by heating time. On the contrary, at 180 °C no protective effect against lipid oxidation was observed and the radical scavenging activity was practically zeroed by heating, probably as a consequence of a fast decomposition of carnosic acid.     

Non-contact ultrasonic measurements in food materials

A novel air-coupled transducer and signal generator is used to measure the speed of sound and thickness (5–15 mm) of samples of various food products (cheese, reduced fat cheese, luncheon meat, reduced fat luncheon meat, and cranberry sauce). Measurements were made with two transducers (1 MHz) placed one either side of the sample at a distance of approximately 30 mm from the food surface. Thicknesses measured by this method were similar to measurements made using calipers for all samples. At a single point the ultrasonic measurements were very precise (s.d. 0.003 mm, n=12) but when several points on the same slice were averaged the precision reflected unevenness in the slicing operation. Ultrasonic velocity measurements were made using non-contact and conventional contact-mode ultrasound. The precision of both methods was similar but the apparent speed of sound measurements made in contact mode were significantly higher, suggesting the soft solids studied were compressed during analysis.     

Praseodymium based high-k dielectrics grown on Si and SiC substrates

High-k polycrystalline Pr₂O₃ thin films have been deposited by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique on Si(0 0 1) and 4H–SiC(0 0 0 1) substrates. MOCVD processes have been carried out from the Pr(tmhd)₃ (H-tmhd= 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptandione) precursor. Complete structural and morphological characterization of films has been carried out using several techniques (X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM)). Polycrystalline Pr₂O₃ films have been obtained and at the interface a praseodymium silicate amorphous layer has been observed on both substrates. The electrical properties of the dielectric praseodymium films have been evaluated.     

Contents of Volume 13

Continuing Education

Contents of Volume 13     

VII. Yeast sequencing reports. The sequence of an 11·1 kb fragment on the left arm of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome VII reveals six open reading frames including NSP49, KEM1 and four putative new genes

We report the sequence of an 11·1 kb fragment located on the left arm of chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. By sequence analysis we have detected six open reading frames (ORFs) longer than 300 bp, which cover 87% of the entire sequence. ORF G1645 is 100% identical to the KEM1 gene, also identified as DST2, XRN1, SEP1 and RAR5, while G1648 is 100% identical to the NSP49 or NUP49 gene. ORF G1642 shares some identity with a hypothetical protein of Caenorhabditis elegans, while the other four ORFs show no significant homology to known proteins. The sequence has been submitted to the EMBL data library under Accession Number X84705.     

The DNA sequence of a 7941 bp fragment of the left arm of chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains four open reading frames including the multicopy suppressor gene of the pop2 mutation and a putative serine/threonine protein kinase gene

We report the sequence of a 7941 bp DNA fragment from the left arm of chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae which contains four open reading frames (ORFs) of greater than 100 amino acid residues. ORF biC834 shows 100% bp identity with the recently identified multicopy suppressor gene of the pop2 mutation (MPT5); its deduced protein product carries an eight-repeat domain region, homologous to that found in the hypothetical regulatory YGL023 protein of S. cerevisiae and the Pumilio protein of Drosophila. ORF biE560 protein exhibits patterns typical of serine/threonine protein kinases, with which it shares high degrees of homology. The complete nucleotide sequence was submitted to the EMBL Data Library under Accession Number X83690.