The impact of roasting on the ochratoxin A content of coffee

Roasting coffee led to a drop in the ochratoxin A (OTA) concentration, as measured by the reference method, especially for dark type roasts. The way the beverage was prepared also affected the OTA content, which could paradoxically be higher than that of the initial roasted coffee. Assays on the thermal stability of pure OTA showed that it ought to be found in larger quantities in roasted coffee. This suggested that OTA was masked by reactions with the substrate during roasting. The absence of OTA in green coffee is therefore the best guarantee of safety.     

The role of isotopic techniques on the evaluation of the agronomic effectiveness of P fertilizers

Many isotopic techniques can be applied to determine the relative immediate and residual effectiveness of P fertilizers. Using isotopes as tracers, the percentage of utilization by plants of the P derived from a fertilizer can be determined. However this is only possible during the three or four months after the application. Therefore, the P fertilizers may be classified only according to their relative immediate effectiveness. To also evaluate residual effect, which can be observed when more P is applied than is removed with harvest, isotopes of phosphorus can be used. This residual effect is determined by comparing pool sizes of bioavailable soil P in soils with and without P fertilizer aged in soil. The bioavailable soil P pool may be analyzed according to three isotopic experimental procedures which give access to either the A value, or the E value or the L value. The aims, the similarities and the differences between these three procedures, are examined. Some of the theoretical and practical constraints of each method are described in this paper; they must be followed in order to obtain reliable information for agronomic purposes. A method involves measuring the rate of isotopic exchange of phosphate ions in soil-solution systems maintained in steady-state. It is now possible to predict the effectiveness of P fertilizers, whatever their chemical form when this method is applied on soil samples where P fertilizers were applied.This paper was originally submitted as part of the special issue on Evaluation of the Agronomic Effectiveness of Phosphate Fertilizers through the use of Nuclear Related Techniques edited by F. Zapata     

Effects of intravenous medium-chain triglycerides on pulmonary gas exchanges in mechanically ventilated patients

OBJECTIVE: In mechanically ventilated patients, pulmonary gas exchange was investigated during the administration of total parenteral nutrition containing medium-chain triglycerides or long-chain triglycerides as fat emulsions. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, crossover trial (two lipid infusion periods of 8 hrs). SETTING: Intensive care unit in a university hospital. PATIENTS: Six mechanically ventilated patients, using the pressure-support mode. INTERVENTIONS: Total caloric intake was adapted according to measured energy expenditure. Fat emulsion provided 50% of the energy expenditure. Patients were infused with 50% medium-chain/50% long-chain triglycerides or 100% long-chain triglycerides in a random sequence. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Oxygen consumption, CO2 production, and minute ventilation were measured by indirect calorimetry. PaO2 and PaCO2 were determined in blood samples. Medium-chain triglycerides increased oxygen consumption by 27.8% and minute ventilation by 14.3% at the end of the protocol. CO2 production, PaO2, and PaCO2 were not different between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Medium-chain triglycerides cause an increase in metabolic demand in mechanically ventilated patients when they are infused over a short period. Postoperative or intensive care unit patients with a low pulmonary reserve should receive infusions of medium-chain triglycerides over a more prolonged period than long-chain triglycerides.     

Application du concept d'echelles multiples a l'ecoulement dans une turbomachine axiale

An asymptotic theory to the flow in an axial compressor is presented with the aim of devising a coupling process between the so-called meridian through flow and the flow around cascades. The small parameter ? is the inverse of the (supposed ? 1) number of blades per row and/or number of stages. As a matter of fact, the cascade flow is treated as a small perturbation of the through flow and has to be computed, locally, as the two dimensional unsteady flow around an array of couples of cascades alternately fixed and in motion. The array is constructed by developing on a plane the section of the compressor by a circular cylinder, and continuing by periodicity, the couple of cascades, so obtained, at each location. The coupling between through flow and cascade flow is part of the analysis. It occurs by the way that the equations of through flow are obtained through an averaging process, completed on a domain of periodicity of the array of cascades, while the through flow appears, locally, as an unperturbed flow for the linearized problem defining the cascade flow. The tridimensional nature of the complete flow is built in by the coupling itself, as is visualized by the occurence of source terms in each of the two sets of equations describing through flow and cascade flow. This paper is aimed at giving a preliminary answer to the question of how to devise an, as rational as possible, way of inscribing the familiar scheme of cascade flow within the computation of a mean through flow. The main output is that the concept of cascade flow should be revisited and reassessed as one of unsteady flow around an array of cascades.     

Microbial hazards related to rice sprouting

The microbiology of rice seeds selected for commercial production of sprouts was studied. Bacteria were numerous but generally nonpathogenic: almost all were gram-negative rods, predominantly pseudomonads. There were also several enterobacteria, in particular Enterobacter and Klebsiella species. Escherichia coli was present in very few samples and its serotype was not enteropathogenic. Moulds were infrequent. Storage of seeds under laboratory conditions did not greatly modify the composition of the microflora but counts decreased with time. When grains were stored in a cold room, the microflora remained almost unchanged quantitatively and qualitatively. After 2 days of germination, mesophilic aerobic plate counts increased by about 2 log cycles; thermotolerant coliforms and faecal enterococci increased by up to 6 log cycles. No foodborne pathogens were detected on sprouts. Moreover, both dry seeds and sprouts were negative for aflatoxins. Experiments with artificially inoculated seeds showed that Bacillus cereus and Listeria sp. could develop without any antagonistic effect from the background flora of germinating rice.     

Une approche rigoureuse pour l’étude de sources primaires. Applications aux antennes de satellites

A rigorous approach for radiating structures of revolution is presented, with applications to paraboloidal reflector antennas. Considering Maxwell’s equations in the sense of distributions, an equivalent problem appears for the exterior domain in a natural and exact way, leading to the formulation of the integral equations. The current density on the conducting surfaces and the reflection coefficient are determined. The computed radiating field shows an excellent agreement with experiment. The radiation characteristics of an offset paraboloidal antenna are then obtained from the physical optics integral and the extension to multibeam antennas with some examples of earth coverage is presented.     

Les distributions statistiques fortement variables. Applications aux télécommunications

Part two is devoted to the tests of hypothesis as well as to the most current statistical processes in the field of telecommunications: normal, negative exponential, lognormal, the latter having the likelihood function with the highest value at the maximum of likelihood. Analysing samples with a size under 1.000 requires a powerful test (Geary test) and a high grade sampling (e.g. stratification into classes of equal value). Most of the statistical populations are of mixed structure with a dispersion of same order of magnitude as the parent population. For the sake of efficiency, it is necessary to consider sub-populations with very high variability well modelled through lognormal laws. The standard deviations of the logarithm of the random variable have constant magnitudes for user’s behaviour or traffic growth. The higher values are preponderant as far as management dynamics is concerned.     

How Mixing and Light Heterogeneity Impact the Overall Growth Rate in Photobioreactors

The microalgae growth rate in photobioreactors responds with inertia to light stimuli. Here, light variations experienced by the algae are accessed through a coupling of an irradiance field calculation and a Lagrangian particle tracking. The response of algae to fluctuating light is then described by a relaxation model involving a single time constant, the value of which is identified from published data. The overall growth rate is calculated as the sum of individual growth rates of all particles. Instantaneous adaptation and full integration asymptotic behaviors are recovered whilst a finite time constant reveals that the overall growth rate is dependent both on mixing and light distribution. This methodology thus quantitatively relates the design parameters to the photobioreactor performance.