Formation of Carcinogens in Processed Meat and Its Measurement with the Usage of Artificial Digestion—A Review

Meat is a rich source of various nutrients. However, it needs processing before consumption, what in turn generates formation of carcinogenic compounds, i.a., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), nitrosamines (NOCs), and the most mutagenic heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs). It was widely found that many factors affect the content of carcinogens in processed meat. However, it has recently been discovered that after digestion free HAAs are released, which are not detectable before enzymatic treatment. It was established that the highest percentage of carcinogens is released in the small intestine and that its amount can be increased up to 6.6-fold. The change in free HAAs content in analyzed samples was dependent on many factors such as meat type, doneness, particle size of meat, and the enzyme concentration used for digestion. In turn, introduction of bacteria naturally occurring in the human digestive tract into the model significantly decreases total amount of HAAs. Contrary, the addition of food ingredients rich in polyphenols, fiber, and water (pepper powder, onions, apples) increases free HAAs’ release up to 56.06%. Results suggests that in vitro digestion should be an integral step of sample preparation. Artificial digestion introduced before chromatographic analysis will allow to estimate accurately the content of carcinogens in processed meat.     

Torsions of Connections on Higher Order Cotangent Bundles

By a torsion of a general connection Γ on a fibered manifold Y → M we understand the Frölicher-Nijenhuis bracket of Γ and some canonical tangent valued one-form (affinor) on Y. Using all natural affinors on higher order cotangent bundles, we determine all torsions of general connections on such bundles. We present the geometrical interpretation and study some properties of the torsions.     

Infima of quasi-uniform anti-atoms

Let (q(X),⊆) denote the lattice consisting of the set q(X) of all quasi-uniformities on a set X, ordered by set-theoretic inclusion ⊆. We observe that a quasi-uniformity on X is the supremum of atoms of (q(X),⊆) if and only if it is totally bounded and transitive. Each quasi-uniformity on X that is totally bounded or has a linearly ordered base is shown to be the infimum of anti-atoms of (q(X),⊆). Furthermore, each quasi-uniformity U on X such that the topology of the associated supremum uniformity Us is resolvable has the latter property.     

Thermal stability and impedance spectroscopy studies of (Cu, Ni) substituted Bi4V2O11 ceramics

Polycrystalline samples of the oxygen ion conductor Bi₂V_0.9Cu_0.1−xNi_xO_5.35 with various contents of nickel (0 ≤ × ≤ 0.1) were investigated. The X-ray powder diffraction revealed the tetragonal structure of all compositions. DTA curves exhibit effects due to phase transition, one endothermic effect during heating and one exothermic one during cooling. The impedance of the ceramics with Pt electrodes was measured in the frequency range 10⁻¹–10⁷ Hz at constant temperatures between 350 and 920 K. The conductivity was determined by nonlinear least-squares analysis of the impedance spectra. Separation of the total resistance into grain interior and grain boundary components was feasible at temperatures below 580 K. The transition temperatures observed in DTA coincide with those observed in conductivity measurements. A phase transition, involving a reordering process of the oxygen ions is considered to be responsible for this phenomenon. The frequency dependent part of the intragrain conductivity was modeled by a constant phase admittance. The effective hopping rate was estimated by comparing the frequency dependent part and the dc limit of the intragrain conductivity. Paper presented at the 4th Euroconference on Solid State Ionics, Renvyle, Galway, Ireland, Sept. 13–19, 1997.     

ESI MS, spectroscopic and PM5 semiempirical studies of Colchicine complexes with lithium, sodium and potassium salts

The colchicine complexes with Li⁺, Na⁺ and K⁺ cations have been synthesized and studied by ESI MS, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, FT-IR and PM5 semiempirical methods. It has been shown that colchicine forms stable complexes of 1:1 stoichiometry with monovalent metal cations. For Li⁺ cations also formation of the 2:1 stoichiometry complexes has been detected. The most stable structures of the complexes are those in which the acetamide groups are involved in the coordination process. The structures of the colchicine complexes with Li⁺, Na⁺ and K⁺ cations are visualized and discussed in details.     

Ionic-strength gradient during chromatofocusing in carboxylic columns

The presence of a strong electrolyte in mobile phases essentially influences the pH gradient profile generated by chromatofocusing. The variation in the strong electrolyte concentration in the chromatofocusing system is studied. The ionic strength gradient ends far more early than the pH gradient; anomalous segments of the pH gradient profile match the general trend of the ionic strength in the system. The pH gradients obtained under identical conditions on carboxylic sorbents MacroPrep 50 CM and MN are compared. The influence of the KNO3 concentration in the mobile phases on the gradient profiles is studied. Optimum systems are chosen for generating the smoothestlinear pH gradients.