Hot deboning beef with and without electrical stimulation

Two hot deboning procedures for producing vacuum packed primal beef joints were compared with conventional side chilling followed by cold deboning. Cold shortening toughness was avoided in the hot procedures either by a delay before chilling or by electrical stimulation of the carcass. Overall evaporative losses were 0·6% with hot deboning and 1·9% with cold deboning. Hot deboning reduced drip loss but the effect was smaller after electrical stimulation. The colour of large muscles which cool unevenly on the side was more uniform after hot deboning, but again the improvement was smaller after electrical stimulation. There was no difference in bacterial contamination or growth on hot and cold deboned meat, and instrumental and sensory assessments confirmed that eating quality was similar for all three treatments.     

EFFECTS OF LINOLEIC ACID SUPPLEMENTS ON THE SYNTHESIS BY YEAST OF LIPIDS AND ACETATE ESTERS

The concentrations of acetate esters in beer were reduced by up to 85% by addition of linoleic acid to the fermentation or by pitching with yeast previously enriched with this unsaturated fatty acid. Linoleic acid was rapidly incorporated into yeast lipids and was effective in reducing the rate of ethyl acetate formation within 2 h. Addition of linoleic acid altered the pattern of synthesis of fatty acids by yeast, causing a shift from medium toward long chain acids. Secondly, the amount of squalene in yeast was reduced by up to 70% whereas that of lanosterol was increased threefold. Since total yeast lipid synthesis was reduced by up to 40%, we conclude that less acetylCoA is synthesized in the presence of linoleic acid. Further, high concentrations of linoleic acid decreased the proportion of acetylCoA consumed by the synthesis of acetate esters. Therefore linoleic acid may directly decrease acetate ester synthesis in addition to its effect via reduction of acetylCoA availability.     

Compression of Q-switched and mode-locked CW Nd:YAG laser pulses

Using the optical compression technique with a single-mode optical fiber and a grating pair, the 85 ps pulses from aQ-switched, mode-locked CW Nd:YAG laser have been compressed by a factor of 30. On average, an overall enhancement of 7 × in the peak power was achieved.     

Evaluating model fit for growth curve models: Integration of fit indices from SEM and MLM frameworks.

Evaluating overall model fit for growth curve models involves 3 challenging issues. (a) Three types of longitudinal data with different implications for model fit may be distinguished: balanced on time with complete data, balanced on time with data missing at random, and unbalanced on time. (b) Traditional work on fit from the structural equation modeling (SEM) perspective has focused only on the covariance structure, but growth curve models have four potential sources of misspecification: within-individual covariance matrix, between-individuals covariance matrix, marginal mean structure, and conditional mean structure. (c) Growth curve models can be estimated in both the SEM and multilevel modeling (MLM) frameworks; these have different emphases for the evaluation of model fit. In this article, the authors discuss the challenges presented by these 3 issues in the calculation and interpretation of SEM- and MLM-based fit indices for growth curve models and conclude by identifying some lines for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phosphatase active cross-flow microfiltration poly(vinylidene difluoride) bioreactor

Alkaline phosphatase from human placenta has been chemically immobilized on a hydrophilic cross-flow microfiltration membrane made from poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF) derivatized with 1,1′-carbonyldiimidazole. The physicochemical characterization of the immobilized biocatalyst paid special attention to the irreversibility of the bonding of the enzyme to the support, the effects of pH, temperature and ionic strength on this activity, the existence of limitations of internal and external diffusion for H⁺, substrate and/or products, and the kinetic behavior (intrinsic and/or effective) of the immobilized enzyme. With respect to enzyme stability, patterns of hysteresis or memory are proposed, to account for a catalytic activity affected by previous experimental events and situations. The intrinsic kinetic behaviour, rate versus substrate concentration in the absence of diffusional restrictions, was analysed graphically and numerically (by non-linear regression and by utilizing the F statistical test for model discrimination), postulating a minimum rational rate equation of 2:2 degree in substrate concentration. In concordance, a mechanistic kinetic scheme for the catalytic enzyme action has been postulated.     

Apple quality,storage, and washing treatments affect patulin levels in apple cider

Patulin is a mycotoxin produced primarily by Penicillium expansum, a mold responsible for rot in apples and other fruits. The growth of this fungus and the production of patulin are common in fruit that has been damaged. However, patulin can be detected in visibly sound fruit. The purpose of this project was to determine how apple quality, storage, and washing treatments affect patulin levels in apple cider. Patulin was not detected in cider pressed from fresh tree-picked apples (seven cultivars) but was found at levels of 40.2 to 374 microg/liter in cider pressed from four cultivars of fresh ground-harvested (dropped) apples. Patulin was not detected in cider pressed from culled tree-picked apples stored for 4 to 6 weeks at 0 to 2 degrees C but was found at levels of 0.97 to 64.0 microg/liter in cider pressed from unculled fruit stored under the same conditions. Cider from controlled-atmosphere-stored apples that were culled before pressing contained 0 to 15.1 microg of patulin per liter, while cider made from unculled fruit contained 59.9 to 120.5 microg of patulin per liter. The washing of ground-harvested apples before pressing reduced patulin levels in cider by 10 to 100%, depending on the initial patulin levels and the type of wash solution used. These results indicate that patulin is a good indicator of the quality of the apples used to manufacture cider. The avoidance of ground-harvested apples and the careful culling of apples before pressing are good methods for reducing patulin levels in cider.     

Determinants of transmission success of individual clones from mixed-clone infections of the rodent malaria parasite, Plasmodium chabaudi

PURPOSE: To compare the permeation characteristics of amide bond-containing HIV-1 protease inhibitors and their pyrrolinone-containing counterparts across Caco-2 cell monolayers, a model of the intestinal mucosa. METHODS: Transepithelial transport and cellular uptake of three pairs of amide bond-containing and pyrrolinone-based peptidomimetics were assessed in the presence and absence of cyclosporin A using the Caco-2 cell culture model. The potential of the peptidomimetics to interact with biological membranes was estimated by IAM chromatography. RESULTS: In the absence of cyclosporin A, apical (AP) to basolateral (BL) flux of all compounds studied was less than the flux determined in the opposite direction (i.e., BL-to-AP). The ratio of the apparent permeability coefficients (Papp) calculated for the BL-to-AP and AP-to-BL transport (P(BL-->AP)/P(AP-->BL)) varied between 1.7 and 36.2. When individual pairs were ompared, P(BL-->AP)/P(AP-BL) ratios of the pyrrolinone-containing compounds were 1.5 to 11.5 times greater than those determined for the amide bond-containing analogs. Addition of 25 microM cyclosporin A to the transport buffer reduced the P(BL-->AP)/P(AP-->BL) ratios for all protease inhibitors to a value close to unity. Under these conditions, the amide bond-containing peptidomimetics were at least 1.6 to 2.8 times more able to permeate Caco-2 cell monolayers than were the pyrrolinone-containing compounds. The intrinsic uptake characteristics into Caco-2 cells determined in the presence of 25 microM cyclosporin A were slightly greater for the amide bond-containing protease inhibitors than for the pyrrolinone-containing analogs. These uptake results are consistent with the transepithelial transport results determined across this in vitro model of the intestinal mucosa. CONCLUSIONS: The amide bond-containing and pyrrolinone-based peptidomimetics are substrates for apically polarized efflux systems present in Caco-2 cell monolayers. The intrinsic permeabilities of the amide bond-containing protease inhibitors are slightly greater than the intrinsic permeabilities of the pyrrolinone-based analogs through Caco-2 cell monolayers.