Influence of high molecular weight polypeptides on the mouthfeel of commercial beer

Low malt beers have high sales volumes in Japan, but improving their mouthfeel, including softness, smoothness and decreasing astringency, is challenging because the compounds responsible remain unclear. In this study, beer was fractionated by preparative size‐exclusion chromatography, with the polypeptide and maltodextrin fractions purified using solid‐phase extraction and ion‐exchange resin. Sensory data from a spike test showed that the mouthfeel (softness, smoothness, and reduced astringency) of low malt beer was improved both by the degree of polymerisation (DP) of maltodextrins (DP of 2‐10; at increased concentration of 40 to 60%; P < 0.01) and by 10 ‐ 20 kilodalton (kDa) high molecular weight (HMW) polypeptide and 2‐3 kDa low molecular weight polypeptide fractions (at a 50% increase in concentration; P < 0.01). Furthermore, highly purified 10 to 20 kDa HMW polypeptides improved the softness and smoothness and decreased the astringency (at a 25% increase in concentration). This report is the first to provide experimental sensory data indicating that HMW polypeptides improve the mouthfeel of beer. Based on these findings, a new low malt beer was developed that showed significantly higher levels of the 10‐20 kDa HMW polypeptides with an overall improved mouthfeel. Mass spectrometric analysis of the 10 to 20 kDa proteins identified several unique foam positive proteins, including barley dimeric alpha‐amylase inhibitor‐1 and non‐specific lipid‐transfer protein 1. These 10‐20 kDa HMW proteins are likely to be responsible for the improved mouthfeel of beer. © 2020 Kirin Holdings Kabushik Kaisha Co. Ltd. Journal of the Institute of Brewing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institute of Brewing & Distilling     

Permeability testing of drilling core sample from pavement

The permeability coefficient of pavement material is a very important parameter in designing the drainage of pavement structures and is also used to evaluate the quality of road construction. New equipment is used to measure the permeability coefficient of the pavement drilling core sample and relevant testing methods are introduced. Testing drilling core samples from a certain highway of Yunnan province has been proven to be feasible. The test results are also analyzed. __________ Translated from Journal of Kunming University of Science and Technology (Science and Technology), 2007, 32(1): 72–76 [译自:昆明理工大学学报(理工版)]     

Focusing multiple high-order harmonics in the extreme-ultraviolet and soft-x-ray regions by a platinum-coated ellipsoidal mirror

The focusability of multiple high-order harmonics in the extreme-ultraviolet and soft-x-ray regions is described, together with the design and performance of the ellipsoidal mirror used for this purpose. The mirror focuses intense coherent light in the spectral-region from 25 to 40 nm into a 2.4 microm spot size with a focused peak intensity of 6 x 10(13) W/cm2. The focal images indicate that a good beam profile is obtained with a near-Gaussian distribution and a beam quality factor (M2 value) as low as 2.4.     

Bemessung eines Stützbauwerks nach Eurocode — Teil 2: Erdbebenbemessung

Dieser Beitrag behandelt den Erdbebennachweis für die Bemessung von Gewichtsmauern aus Beton und Stahlbeton nach Eurocode 2 (EN 1992‐x), Eurocode 7 (EN 1997‐1) und Eurocode 8 (EN 1998‐x) anhand eines durchgerechneten Beispiels. Design of concrete retaining structures according to Eurocode standards — Part 2: Earth quake design. This contribution treats the design of concrete retaining structures under earth quake impact based on Eurocode 2 (EN 1992‐x), Eurocode 7 (EN 1997‐1) and Eurocode 8 (EN 1998‐x) by means of an application example.