Nonlinear frequency response analysis: a recent review and perspectives

The nonlinear frequency response analysis (NFRA) can be seen as an extension of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. NFRA gives a full and detailed representation of the system response and can establish a connection between model parameters and the experimentally observed phenomena. In this article, different theoretical NFRA approaches and the most recent application examples are discussed. A simple electrochemical example is used to showcase the benefits and disadvantages of analyzing the system response by using different approaches. In addition, it was shown how to extract experimental harmonic values and analyze them.     

NMR-based differentiation of conventionally from organically produced chicken eggs in Germany

Both the German and European organic food markets are growing fast, and there is also a rising demand for organic chicken eggs. Consumers are willing to pay higher prices for organic eggs produced in an animal-appropriate environment considering animal welfare. Strict labelling requirements do not prevent chicken eggs from being a subject of food fraud. Conventionally produced (barn/free-range) eggs can easily be mislabeled as organic eggs. Especially because the demand for organically produced chicken eggs is likely to exceed supply in the future, mislabeling appears to be a realistic scenario. Therefore, there is a need for analytical methods that are suitable to classify eggs as being either conventionally or organically produced. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in combination with multivariate data analysis is a suitable tool to screen eggs according to the different systems of husbandry. Sample preparation is based on a fat extraction method, which was optimised for application to freeze-dried egg yolk. Samples were analysed using typical q-NMR parameters. A nontargeted approach was used for the analysis of the ¹H NMR data. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied followed by a linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) and Monte Carlo cross-validation. In total, 344 chicken eggs (214 barn/free-range eggs and 130 eggs from organic farms), most of them originating from Germany, were used to build and validate the prediction model. The results showed that the prediction model allowed for the correct classification of about 93% of the organic eggs.     

The Linear Optical Unambiguous Discrimination of Hyperentangled Bell States Assisted by Time Bin

A linear optical unambiguous discrimination of hyperentangled Bell states is proposed for two‐photon systems entangled in both the polarization and momentum degrees of freedom (DOFs) assisted by time bin. This unambiguous discrimination scheme can completely identify 16 orthogonal hyperentangled Bell states using only linear optical elements, where the function of the auxiliary entangled Bell state is replaced by time bin. Moreover, the possibility of extending this scheme for distinguishing hyperentangled Bell states in n DOFs is discussed, and it shows that $2^{n+k+1}$ hyperentangled Bell states in n ( $n\ge 2$) DOFs can be distinguished with k ( $k<n$) auxiliary entangled states of additional DOFs by introducing a time delay, which decreases the auxiliary entanglement resource required for unambiguous discrimination of hyperentangled Bell state. Therefore, this scheme provides a new way for distinguishing hyperentangled states with current technology, which will extend the application of discrimination of hyperentangled states via linear optics to other quantum information protocols besides hyperdense coding schemes in the future.     

The cultural Red King effect

Why do minority groups tend to be discriminated against when it comes to situations of bargaining and resource division? In this article, I explore an explanation for this disadvantage that appeals solely to the dynamics of social interaction between minority and majority groups—the cultural Red King effect (Bruner, 2017). As I show, in agent-based models of bargaining between groups, the minority group will tend to get less as a direct result of the fact that they frequently interact with majority group members, while majority group members meet them only rarely. This effect is strengthened by certain psychological phenomenon—risk aversion and in-group preference—is robust on network models, and is strengthened in cases where preexisting norms are discriminatory. I will also discuss how this effect unifies previous results on the impacts of institutional memory on bargaining between groups.     

An integrated strategy for the geographical origin traceability of Goji berries by antioxidants characteristic fingerprint based online ultra-performance liquid chromatography-2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl- photodiode array detector-mass spectrometry combined with multivariate statistics analysis

Goji berries are now becoming increasingly popular in the human diet due to their potential health benefits. Unscrupulous traders deliberately mislabel with certain origins to gain illegal profits, which seriously affected the consumers’ benefits. In this study, an online ultra-performance liquid chromatography-2,2-diphenyl-1 -picrylhydrazyl-photodiode array detector-electrospray ionization-quadrupole time of flight mass was developed for rapid screening and identification of the antioxidants from Goji berry; then, the antioxidants characteristic fingerprint was established and explored in the origins discrimination of Goji berries from China combined with multivariate statistics analysis. As a result, twenty-eight compounds were screened from Goji berry extract, 19 of which were identified by accurate molecular and ultraviolet information according to references. Principal components analysis and partial least squares discrimination analysis achieved the accurate classification from the four regions, eight compounds were selected as origin-related antioxidant markers with variable importance in projection >1 and one-way analysis of variance (P<0.05), including rutin, rutin di-hexose, P-coumaric acid tri-hexose, dicaffeoylquinic acid isomer, Quercetin-rhamno-di-hexoside, peak14, peak16, and peak27. This study provides a feasible strategy for the geographical origins discrimination of Goji berries based on antioxidant ingredients difference and will be helpful for improving the quality control level of Goji berries.     

Discrimination of Beers by Cyclic Voltammetry Using a Single Carbon Screen-printed Electrode

A fast, simple and costless methodology without sample pre-treatment is proposed for the discrimination of beers. It is based on cyclic voltammetry (CV) using commercial carbon screen-printed electrodes (SPCE) and includes a correction of the signals measured with different SPCE units. Data are submitted to partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS−DA) and support vector machine discriminant analysis (SVM−DA), which allow a reasonable classification of the beers. Also, CV data from beers can be used to predict their alcoholic degree by partial least squares (PLS) and artificial neural networks (ANN). In general, non-linear methods provide better results than linear ones.     

Arrival time distributions of product ions reveal isomeric ratio of deprotonated molecules in ion mobility–mass spectrometry of hyaluronan‐derived oligosaccharides

Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring linear polysaccharide with substantial medical potential. In this work, discrimination of tyramine‐based hyaluronan derivatives was accessed by ion mobility–mass spectrometry of deprotonated molecules and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. As the product ion mass spectra did not allow for direct isomer discrimination in mixture, the reductive labeling of oligosaccharides as well as stable isotope labeling was performed. The ion mobility separation of parent ions together with the characteristic fragmentation for reduced isomers providing unique product ions allowed us to identify isomers present in a mixture and determine their mutual isomeric ratio. The determination used simple recalculation of arrival time distribution areas of unique ions to areas of deprotonated molecules. Mass spectrometry data were confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Year Discrimination of Mild Aroma Chinese Liquors Using Three-Dimensional Fluorescence Spectroscopy Combined with Parallel Factor and Neural NetworkSCIEI北大核心CSCD

Three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy coupled with parallel factor analysis and neural network was applied to the year discrimination of mild aroma Chinese liquors. The excitation-emission fluorescence matrices (EEMs) of 120 samples with various years were measured by FLS920 fluorescence spectrometer. The trilinear decomposition of the data array was performed and the loading scores of and the excitation-emission profiles of four components were also obtained. The scores were employed as the inputs of the BP neural networks and the PARAFAC-BP identification model was constructed. 10 samples were collected from 10, 20 and 30 years of liquors respectively, and 30 samples were selected as the test sets. The remaining 90 samples were used as the training sets to build the training model. The year prediction of unknown samples was also carried out, and the prediction accuracy was 90%, 100% and 100%, respectively. Meanwhile, the discrimination analysis method and the multi way partial least squares discriminant analysis were compared, namely PARAFAC-BP and NPLS-DA. The results indicated that parallel factor combined with the neural network (PARAFAC-BP) has higher prediction accuracy. The proposed method can effectively extract the spectral characteristics, and also reduce the dimension of the input variables of neural network. A good year discrimination result was finally achieved.     

Cyclodextrin derivatives functionalized highly sensitive chiral sensor based on organic field-effect transistor

Novel highly sensitive chiral organic field-effect transistors(COFET)were developed by directly assembling imidazolium3,5-dimethylphenylcabamoylated-β-cyclodextrin(lm^+-Ph-β-CD)and 3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamoylated-β-CD(Ph-β-CD)respectively onto the semiconductor layer as sensing units.The Im+-Ph-β-CD/COFET afforded better enantioselectivity and a lowest detection concentration of10^-18 L/mol as well as the potentiality in quantitative analysis of commercial medicines.     

Review of recent UV–Vis and infrared spectroscopy researches on wine detection and discrimination

Wine has become a commodity of significant commercial value, and the demand for high quality wine by consumers has been increasing. Suitable analytical techniques are needed for its quality control. Ultraviolet, Visible, Near-infrared and infrared spectroscopy is by far one of the most important techniques for determining the wine quality, including its components and characterization. This review will overview the available most recent applications of spectroscopic techniques in the past decade for wine quality prediction and discrimination both quantitatively and qualitatively. The fundamental principles of these techniques will be introduced briefly, and some innovative setups/instrumentations will also be illustrated. At last the limitations and prospects of spectroscopic techniques for wine industry will be discussed.