Quantitative aspects of two methods to dissolve collagen-free muscle proteins from acetone dry powders of Guelders ring sausage

Summary The purpose of this study was to find experimental conditions for the complete solubility of collagen-free muscle proteins (CFMP) using acetone powder of Guelders ring sausage. Preliminary experiments were carried out to choose the best procedure for preparing the acetone dry powder. Two different methods of acetone extraction of minced sausage were compared. The acetone dry mass (ADM) method using continuous extraction in a Soxhlet [2] apparatus gave better results than the acetone powder (ACP) method, which used a blender [1]. The ADM method was used for further investigations. ADM was extracted with two types of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), containing solvents A and B. Solvent A contains a Tris-boric acid buffer (pH 8.2) with 1.5% (m/v) SDS and 0.05% (m/v) dithioerythreitol [3]. Solvent B is a borate-chloric acid buffer (pH 9.0) with 2.0% (m/v) SDS and 1.0% (m/v) mercapto-ethanol [2]. Both solvents showed a linear relationship between the quantities of CFMP in ADM and the dissolved CFMP. The linear relationships were found between quantities of 10.0 and 30.0 mg (solution A) and of 5.0 and 30.0 mg ADM (solution B) per ml solvent. The solubility of CFMP was better in solvent B than in solution A. Completely dissolved CFMP from ADM was only obtained in the case of 5.0 mg ADM in 1.0 ml solution B. These conditions will be used in liquid chromatography experiments, the results of which will be reported later.

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Quantitative Aspekte zweier Verfahren für das Auflösen kollagenfreier Muskelproteine aus acetontrockenen Pulvern der Gelderschen Rauchwurst

Zusammenfassung Der Zweck dieser Untersuchungen ist, die experimentellen Bedingungen für die vollstän-dige Löslichkeit des kollagenfreien Muskelproteins (CFMP) aus dem Acetonpulver der Gelderschen Rauchwurst zu finden. Durch Vorversuche wurde die beste Arbeitsweise für das Zubereiten des Acetonpulvers gewählt. Zwei verschiedene Extraktionsverfahren mit zerkleinertem Wurstmaterial wurden miteinander verglichen. Die Methode mit der Acetontrockenmasse (ADM) mittels kontinuierlicher Extraktion [2] führte zu besseren Ergebnissen als die Methode mit Acetonpulver (ACP), wozu ein Mischgerät [1] verwendet wurde. Die ADM-Methode wurde für weitere Untersuchungen angewendet. ADM wurde mit zwei verschiedenen Extraktionslösungen von Natrium-Dodecylsulfat (SDS) (A und B) extrahiert. Lösung A enthalt einen Tris-Borsäure Puffer (pH 8,2) mit SDS (1,5%) und Dithioerithritol (0,05%) [3]. Die Lösung B enthält einen Borat-Salzsäure Puffer (pH 9,0) mit SDS (2,0%) und Mercapto-Ethanol (1,0%) [2]. Beide Extraktionslösungen zeigen ein lineares Verhalten zwischen den Mengen vom CFMP in ADM und in aufgelöstem CFMP. Diese Linearität wurde von 10,030,0 mg ADM (Lösungsmittel A) und von 5,030,0 mg ADM (Lösungsmittel B) gefunden. Die Lös-lichkeit in Lösung B ist gegeniiber Lösung A besser. Ein vollständig gelöstes CFMP aus ADM wurde nur bei der Extraktion von 5,0 mg ADM in 1,0 ml der Losung B erhalten. Diese Bedingung soll in unseren künftigen flüssigchromatographischen Experimenten verwendet werden.

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Supported by a grant from the Hoofdinspectie Levensmiddelen of the Ministry of Welzijn, Volksgezondheid en Cultuur     

Expert judgement on the long term possibilities of conventional emission abatement technologies for passenger cars

Topics in Catalysis - This paper presents the results of a quantitatively substantiated “expert judgement” concerning the potential for further reduction of the exhaust emissions of...     

Network trust management in emergency situations

We study the unique trust management, and more precisely reputation management and revocation of malicious nodes in the context of ad hoc networks used for emergency communications.Unlike in centralized systems, reputation management and revocation in ad hoc networks is non-trivial. This difficulty is due to the fact that the nodes have to collaboratively calculate the reputation value of a particular node and then revoke the node if the reputation value goes below a threshold. A major challenge in this scheme is to prevent a malicious node from discrediting other genuine nodes. The decision to revoke a node has to be communicated to all the nodes of the network. In traditional ad hoc networks the overhead of broadcasting the message throughout the network may be very high. We solve the problem of reputation management and node revocation in ad hoc networks of cell phones by using a threshold cryptography based scheme. Each node of the network would have a set of anonymous referees, which would store the reputation information of the node and issue reputation certificates to the node with timestamps. The misbehavior of a particular cell phone is reported to its anonymous referees, who issue certificates which reflect the positive and negative recommendations.     

A Reusable Multi-Agent Architecture for Active Intelligent Websites

In this paper a reusable multi-agent architecture for intelligent Websites is presented and illustrated for an electronic department store. The architecture has been designed and implemented using the compositional design method for multi-agent systems DESIRE. The agents within this architecture are based on a generic information broker agent model. It is shown how the architecture can be exploited to design an intelligent Website for insurance, developed in co-operation with the software company Ordina Utopics and an insurance company.     

A web-based e-learning system for increasing study efficiency by stimulating learner’s motivation

Due to the opportunities provided by the Internet, more and more people are taking advantage of distance learning courses and during the last few years enormous research efforts have been dedicated to the development of distance learning systems. So far, many e-learning systems are proposed and used practically. However, in these systems the e-learning completion rate is about 30%. One of the reasons is the low study desire when the learner studies the learning materials. In this research, we propose an interactive Web-based e-learning system. The purpose of our system is to increase the e-learning completion rate by stimulating learner’s motivation. The proposed system has three subsystems: the learning subsystem, learner support subsystem, and teacher support subsystem. The learning subsystem improves the learner’s study desire. The learner support subsystem supports the learner during the study, and the teacher support subsystem supports the teacher to get the learner’s study state. To evaluate the proposed system, we developed several experiments and surveys. By using new features such as: display of learner’s study history, change of interface color, encourage function, ranking function, self-determination of the study materials, and grouping of learners, the proposed system can increase the learning efficiency.

Localization-limited exciton oscillator strength in colloidal CdSe nanoplatelets revealed by the optically induced stark effect

2D materials are considered for applications that require strong light-matter interaction because of the apparently giant oscillator strength of the exciton tra...     

Information Processing With Pure Spin Currents in Silicon: Spin Injection, Extraction, Manipulation, and Detection

We demonstrate that information can be transmitted and processed with pure spin currents in silicon. Fe/Al₂O₃ tunnel barrier contacts are used to produce significant electron spin polarization in the silicon, generating a spin current which flows outside of the charge current path. The spin orientation of this pure spin current is controlled in one of three ways: 1) by switching the magnetization of the Fe contact; 2) by changing the polarity of the bias on the Fe/Al₂O₃ "injector" contact, which enables the generation of either majority or minority spin populations in the Si, providing a way to electrically manipulate the injected spin orientation without changing the magnetization of the contact itself; and 3) by inducing spin precession through the application of a small perpendicular magnetic field. Spin polarization by electrical extraction is as effective as that achieved by the more common electrical spin injection. The output characteristics of a planar silicon three-terminal device are very similar to those of nonvolatile giant magnetoresistance metal spin-valve structures.