Volatile flavour profile of goat meat extracted by three widely used techniques

Three procedures for the isolation of volatiles from grilled goat meat were compared: dynamic headspace entrainment on Tenax TA, simultaneous steam distillation-extraction, and solid-phase microextraction. Headspace entrainment on Tenax TA extracted the highest number of Maillard-derived volatile compounds. Two hundred and three volatile components were identified: 159 are reported for the first time in goat meat. Most of the volatiles detected (155) were lipid oxidation products, such as hydrocarbons, aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, carboxylic acids and esters. Forty-eight Maillard-derived compounds were identified. comprising pyrazines, pyrroles, thiophenes, furanthiol derivatives, alkyl and alicyclic sulphides, pyridines, and thiazoles. Some reported character impact compounds of cooked meat, e.g., 12-methyltridecanal, (EE)-2,4-decadienal, methional, and dimethyl trisulphide were identified in the volatile profile of goat meat, together with a series of C-2 to C-5 alkylformylcyclopentenes, which have been reported in cooked chicken, pork, beef and lamb, as being important for the characteristic flavour impression of different animal species. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Techniques for quantifying effects of dietary antioxidants on transcription factor translocation and nitric oxide production in cultured cells

Dietary antioxidants can affect cellular processes relevant to chronic inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis. We have used non- standard techniques to quantify effects of the antioxidant soy isoflavones genistein and daidzein on translocation of Nuclear Factor-KB (NF-KB) and nitric oxide (NO) production, which are important in these diseases. Translocation was quantified using confocal immunofluoresecence microscopy and ratiometric image analysis. NO was quantified by an electrochemical method after reduction of its oxidation products in cell culture supernatants. Activation of the RAW 264.7 murine monocyte/macrophage cell line increased the ratio of nuclear to cytoplasmic immunostaining for NF-kB. The increase was exacerbated by pre-treatment with genistein or daidzein. To show that decreases could also be detected, pre-treatment with the pine bark extract Pycnogenol (R) r was examined, and found to reduce translocation. NO production was also increased by activation, but was reduced by pre-treatment with genistein or daidzein. In the EA. hy926 human endothelial cell line, constitutive production was detectable and was increased by thrombin. The confocal and electrochemical methods gave data that agreed with results obtained using the established electromobility shift and Griess assays, but were more sensitive, more convenient, gave more detailed information and avoided the use of radioisotopes.

Application of semiquantitative proteomics techniques to the Maillard reaction

Proteomic tools-in particular, mass spectrometry (MS)-have advanced significantly in recent years, and the identification of proteins within complex mixtures is now a routine procedure. Quantitative methods of analysis are less well advanced and continue to develop. These include the use of stable isotope ratio approaches, isotopically labeled peptide standards, and nonlabeling methods. This paper summarizes the use of MS as a proteomics tool to identify and semiquantify proteins and their modified forms by using examples of relevance to the Maillard reaction. Finally, some challenges for the future are presented.

Investigating novel point-select techniques for older people

As the number and proportion of older people worldwide continues to grow, robotic devices can play a role in helping older people continue to live independent and active lives. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and interactions that involve pointing to items and selecting them are becoming more common in assistive robots. The authors are currently working on a project investigating techniques to improve point-select interactions for older people. In particular, the project studies how older people respond to expanding and moving targets. The research is ongoing, and this paper describes the methods that will be used in upcoming experiments.

Apodisation, denoising and system identification techniques for THz transients in the wavelet domain

This work describes the use of a quadratic programming optimization procedure for designing asymmetric apodization windows to de-noise THz transient interferograms and compares these results to those obtained when wavelet signal processing algorithms are adopted. A systems identification technique in the wavelet domain is also proposed for the estimation of the complex insertion loss function. The proposed techniques can enhance the frequency dependent dynamic range of an experiment and should be of particular interest to the THz imaging and tomography community. Future advances in THz sources and detectors are likely to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the recorded THz transients and high quality apodization techniques will become more important, and may set the limit on the achievable accuracy of the deduced spectrum.