Effect of cooking method on the fatty acid profile of New Zealand King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)

Farmed New Zealand King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) was prepared according to common consumer techniques; raw, poached, steamed, microwaved, pan fried (no added oil), oven baked (no added oil) and deep fried (in sunflower oil). The fatty acid profile was investigated to determine the optimal preparation techniques to achieve both optimal sensory and nutritional qualities, in particular the levels of long chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids. The modified Bligh and Dyer method was used for lipid extraction and the Hartman and Lago method for FAMES preparation. Fatty acid composition was determined by gas chromatography. There were moisture and lipid losses during cooking amongst the different methods. The fatty acid profile showed only minor differences between the methods apart from an increase in PUFA in the deep fried salmon due to linoleic acid uptake from the frying oil. In all the cooking methods the omega-3 fatty acids were well preserved. However, deep fried showed the lowest amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. As the results showed good preservation of omega-3 fatty acids regardless of cooking method, there may be possible “internal protection” of omega-3 fatty acids in King Salmon that warrants future research.     

Evaluating instrumental colour and texture of thermally treated New Zealand King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and their relation to sensory properties

Farmed New Zealand King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) was prepared according to common consumer techniques, namely poached, steamed, microwaved, pan fried (no oil), oven baked (no oil) and deep fried (in sunflower oil). Colour and texture were measured instrumentally and a sensory evaluation comprising of a generic QDA was conducted for the intensity and overall liking of the properties of colour, texture, flavour and aroma.During the thermal treatment (cooking), the outer colour of the King Salmon fillets became lighter, more red and yellow. Thermal treatment increased the texture firmness, chewiness and springiness of King Salmon as measured by texture analyser. Overall, the sensory panel preferred the oven baked King Salmon but least liked the poached and microwaved King Salmon. The instrumental texture measurements of the cooked King Salmon were closely linked with the texture ratings from the sensory panel. These experiments provide useful data for determining the optimal preparation techniques that in turn can facilitate the farming of NZ King Salmon to directly benefit the consumer.     

Formation of stable Langmuir-Blodgett multilayers from oxiran carboxylic acids

Long-chain carboxylic acids, having oxiran groups at various positions along the chain, were synthesized and tested for their capacity to form ordered monolayers and multilayers. The oxiran groups were included because of their potential for polymerization during electron beam lithography. The hydrophilic nature of both the carboxylic acid and the oxiran groups in the same molecule afforded some difficulties in film formation, but one of these compounds provided stable monolayers and multilayers. Initial investigations have revealed that these multilayers are sensitive to electron beam polymerization.     

Oil from deep water fish species as a substitute for sperm whale and jojoba oils

The lipid fraction of the deep water fish species orange roughy (Hoplostetbus atlanticus), black oreo (Allocyttus sp.) and small spined oreo (Pseudocyttus maculatus) had wax esters with even carbon numbers over the range C₃₀ to C₄₆ as the major components. The component acids and alcohols of the wax ester fraction were analyzed by gas liquid chromatography and compared with those of jojoba and sperm whale oils. Orange roughy oil was refined and deodorized and its chemical, physical and mechanical properties were determined. Hydrogenation of orange roughy oil produced a range of white crystalline waxes with melting points between 34 and 66 C. The characteristics of these waxes were very similar to those of hydrogenated jojoba oil and spermaceti. Lubricant tests performed on sulfurized orange roughy oil indicated it is comparable to sulfurized jojoba and sperm whale oils as an extreme-pressure additive in lubricants. The results show a sound technical basis on which to consider an industry based on orange roughy oil and the oreo oils as replacements for sperm whale oil and as substitutes for jojoba oil. Applications for the oil could be in the cosmetic and high-grade lubricant fields, the waxes in the polish, textile, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries and the sulfurized derivative of orange roughy oil in the lubricant industry.     

Method for small-molecule discovery based on microscale-preparative multidimensional gas chromatography isolation with nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Absolute chemical identification requires obtaining a pure compound followed by structure elucidation using spectroscopic techniques, principally NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Classical isolation techniques suffer from insufficient resolution for complex samples, requiring time-consuming fractionation in multiple steps. Here, a novel preparative technique based upon capillary column multidimensional gas chromatography (MDGC) with 2D NMR to resolve, isolate, and identify pure volatile components from a complex sample is described. As a model application, geraniol was isolated from an essential oil matrix using MDGC and quantitatively resolved from 15 partially coeluting compounds from the first column. Geraniol was recovered from 10 (8.6 microg) and 100 injections (77.6 microg; purity >99%) for subsequent NMR analysis at 500 and 800 MHz (with cryoprobe). Proton and gCOSY NMR experiments were successfully performed at 12.3 microg/mL (10 injections), while gHSQC and gHMBC NMR experiments were obtained at 110.8 microg/mL (100 injections). This approach is applicable to the biodiscovery of volatile molecular species or, indeed, any volatile compound in a complex matrix that requires confirmation of component identity.     

High-performance BiCMOS 100 K-gate array

A BiCMOS gate array in 0.8-μm technology with CMOS intrinsic gate delays of 100 ps plus 60 ps/fan-out and BiCMOS intrinsic delays of 200 ps with a 17-ps/fan-out drive factor is discussed. A compact base cell (750 μm²/gate) has been designed with full bipolar drive capability for the efficient layout of both primitive gates and large-arrayed macros, such as register files and multipliers. A 106 K-gate array has been built on a 1.14-cm² chip with ECL I/O capability. The place and route in three levels of metal provide array utilization greater than 90%. The gate array was used to implement a 74 K-gate filter design with testability features such as JTAG and two-phase scan     

Testing real-time systems using genetic algorithms

The development of real-time systems is an essential industrial activity whose importance is increasing. The most important analytical method to assure the quality of real-time systems is dynamic testing. Testing is the only method which examines the actual run-time behaviour of real-time software, based on an execution in the real application environment. Dynamic aspects like the duration of computations, the memory actually needed, or the synchronization of parallel processes are of major importance for the correct function of real-time systems and have to be tested. A comprehensive investigation of existing software test methods shows that they mostly concentrate on testing for functional correctness. They are not suited for an examination of temporal correctness which is essential to real-time systems. Very small systems show a wide range of different execution times. Therefore, existing test procedures must be supplemented by new methods, which concentrate on determining whether the system violates its specified timing constraints. In general, this means that outputs are produced too early or their computation takes too long. The task of the tester is to find the inputs with the longest or shortest execution times to check whether they produce a temporal error. If the search for such inputs is interpreted as a problem of optimization, genetic algorithms can be used to find the inputs with the longest or shortest execution times automatically. The fitness function is the execution time measured in processor cycles. Experiments using genetic algorithms on a number of programs with up to 1511 LOC and 843 integer input parameters have successfully identified new longer and shorter paths than had been found using random testing or systematic testing. Genetic algorithms are able therefore to check large programs and they show considerable promise in establishing the validity of the temporal behaviour of real-time software.