Tests of potential functional barriers for laminated multilayer food packages. Part I: Low molecular weight permeants

The advent of the functional barrier concept in food packaging has brought with it a requirement for fast tests of permeation through potential barrier materials. In such tests it would be convenient for both foodstuffs and materials below the functional barrier (sub-barrier materials) to be represented by standard simulants. By means of inverse gas chromatography, liquid paraffin spiked with appropriate permeants was considered as a potential simulant of sub-barrier materials based on polypropylene (PP) or similar polyolefins. Experiments were performed to characterize the kinetics of the permeation of low molecular weight model permeants (octene, toluene and isopropanol) from liquid paraffin, through a surrogate potential functional barrier (25 μm-thick oriented PP) into the food simulants olive oil and 3% (w/v) acetic acid. These permeation results were interpreted in terms of three permeation kinetic models regarding the solubility of a particular model permeant in the post-barrier medium (i.e. the food simulant). The results obtained justify the development and evaluation of liquid sub-barrier simulants that would allow flexible yet rigorous testing of new laminated multilayer packaging materials.     

Frequency overlay of GSM and cellular B-CDMA

The maximum capacity gain of a cellular broad-band direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) overlay on top of a cellular global system for mobile communications (GSM) system is estimated. Using geometrical arguments and a standard propagation model, all relevant contributions to the carrier-to-interference ratios (CIRs) of the GSM and CDMA systems are numerically evaluated. It is assumed that the base stations (BSs) of both systems are unilocated and that the power control in both systems is perfect. Furthermore, in the CDMA transmitters and receivers, ideal notch filtering is assumed around the occupied GSM frequencies of the same cell. Adapting standard limits for the CIRs of 5-7 dB for CDMA and 9-12 dB for GSM, the total system capacity can be increased considerably over the GSM-only case: the capacity is increased by a factor of 1.8-2.9 if no macrodiversity is employed and by a factor of 1.9-3.3 if macrodiversity in the CDMA downlink is applied     

Mammalian acetoacetate decarboxylase activity. Its distribution in subfractions of human albumin and occurrence in various tissues of the rat

In this article further information is presented about the characteristics of the mammalian enzyme acetoacetate decarboxylase (acetoacetate carboxylase, EC 4.1.1.4). The Michaelis-Menten plot shows a sigmoidal relationship between the enzyme activity (v) and the substrate concentration (s) indicating an allosteric hindrance. Because of this, the KM value can only be predicted to be equal to or less than 1 X 10(-1) M. Cysteine and glutathione, although activating the spontaneous decarboxylation, have no effect upon the enzyme activity. From experiments with human albumin by means of gel filtration with Sephadex G-200, it can be concluded that the acetoacetate decarboxylase activity does not depend upon the degree of polymerisation of albumin. From experiments performed by means of ion exchange chromatography the enzyme activity may be localized in the non-mercaptalbumin fraction. Investigation of enzyme activity in homogenates of various rat tissues, as well as in their respective subfractions, reveals that: (1) the specific activity of brain tissue exceeds those of liver and kidney and (2) most of the activity in liver tissue is localized in the 20 000 X g supernatant, containing the endoplasmatic reticulum, the ribosomes and the soluble part of the cytoplasm, while in brain tissue a high activity is found in the nuclei fraction.