High pressure and thermal pasteurization effects on sweet cherry juice microbiological stability and physicochemical properties

This study evaluated high pressure processing (P1 – 400?MPa/5?min; P2 – 550?MPa/2?min) and thermal pasteurization (TP – 70°C/30?s) effects on sweet cherry juice's microbiological and physicochemical parameters, during four weeks of refrigerated storage. All treatments reduced the microbiological load to undetectable levels not affecting total soluble solids and titratable acidity. The pH increased with all treatments, however, it decreased during storage. Phenols were differently affected: TP increased them by 6%, P1 had no effect while P2 decreased them by 11%. During storage, phenols in control and TP samples decreased by 26% and 20%, P1 samples decreased them by 11% whereas P2 showed no variation. TP had no effect on anthocyanins, while pressure treatments increased them by 8%. Anthocyanins decreased during storage, particularly in the control and P1 (decreasing 41%). All treatments had no effect on antioxidant activity until the 14th day, thereafter high pressure processing samples showed the highest antioxidant activity.     

Synthesis and Luminescence of Eu3+-Doped Narsarsukite Prepared by the Sol-Gel Process

The sol-gel synthesis and structural characterisation of narsarsukite powders are reported. Samples doped with different Eu³⁺ amounts (Ti/Eu = 20 and 200), calcined at 800°C, have been characterised by powder XRD, ²³Na, ²⁹Si MAS NMR, Raman and luminescence spectroscopies. Eu³⁺-doped narsarsukite displays a high and stable room-temperature luminescence. The presence in narsarsukite of two different Eu³⁺ local environments is inferred based both on the distinct ⁵D₀ ⁷F₀ lines observed and on the local field splitting of the ⁷F_1,2 levels. For low lanthanide contents, the Eu³⁺ ions are essentially localised in a centrosymmetric environment characterized by a low-energy ⁵D₀ ⁷F₀ line and a relatively long ⁵D₀ lifetime (3.56–3.96 ms). In contrast, at high lanthanide contents the Eu³⁺ ions are also present in a second local site with a less covalent first coordination shell. This corresponds to a high-energy ⁵D₀ ⁷F₀ line and a short ⁵D₀ lifetime (0.84–0.99 ms). Therefore, it is likely that Eu³⁺ ions substitute for both Ti⁴⁺ and Na⁺, although the former ions are preferentially replaced at low Eu³⁺ content.     

Study of structural and electronic transport properties of Ce-doped LaMnO3

The structural and electronic transport properties of La_1−x Ce _x MnO₃ (x=0.0–1.0) have been studied. All the samples exhibit orthorhombic crystal symmetry and the unit cell volume decreases with Ce doping. They also make a metal-insulator transition (MIT) and transition temperature increases with increase in Ce concentration up to 50% doping. The system La_0.5Ce_0.5MnO₃ also exhibits MIT instead of charge-ordered state as observed in the hole doped systems of the same composition.     

Two connected inverse spectral transforms

We establish a transformation which connects the potentials of the one-dimensional Dirac and Klein-Gordon operators. This transformation links the solutions of the nonlinear evolution equations solvable by means of the two inverse spectral transforms which use the Dirac and Klein-Gordon direct and inverse spectral problems.