Characterization of Galician (N.W. Spain) quality brand potatoes: a comparison study of several pattern recognition techniques

Authenticity is an important food quality criterion and rapid methods to guarantee it are widely demanded by food producers, processors, consumers and regulatory bodies. The objective of this work was to develop a classification system in order to confirm the authenticity of Galician potatoes with a Certified Brand of Origin and Quality (CBOQ) 'Denominación Específica: Patata de Galicia' and to differentiate them from other potatoes that did not have this CBOQ. Ten selected metals were determined by atomic spectroscopy in 102 potato samples which were divided into two categories: CBOQ and non-CBOQ potatoes. Multivariate chemometric techniques, such as cluster analysis and principal component analysis, were applied to perform a preliminary study of the data structure. Four supervised pattern recognition procedures [including linear discriminant analysis (LDA), K-nearest neighbours (KNN), soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA) and multilayer feed-forward neural networks (MLF-ANN)] were used to classify samples into the two categories considered on the basis of the chemical data. Results for LDA, KNN and MLF-ANN are acceptable for the non-CBOQ class, whereas SIMCA showed better recognition and prediction abilities for the CBOQ class. A more sophisticated neural network approach performed by the combination of the self-organizing with adaptive neighbourhood network (SOAN) and MLF network was employed to optimize the classification. Using this combined method, excellent performance in terms of classification and prediction abilities was obtained for the two categories with a success rate ranging from 98 to 100%. The metal profiles provided sufficient information to enable classification rules to be developed for identifying potatoes according to their origin brand based on SOAN-MLF neural networks.     

Optimization of two flow-injection spectrophotometric methods for the determination of indapamide in pharmaceutical dosage forms

Multivariate experimental design has been used to optimize 2 flow-injection spectrophotometric methods for the determination of indapamide in pharmaceutical dosage forms, both pure and commercial tablets. The methods are based on the oxidation of this drug with iron (III) in acidic medium and the subsequent formation of an intensive orange-red complex between the liberated iron (II) and 2,2'-bipyridyl or 1,10-phenanthroline reagents. Plackett-Burman designs were applied as a screening method to evaluate the most significant factors with few experiments. Central composite 2(3)+ star designs were performed to evaluate the response surfaces. The methods have been fully validated and were applied successfully to the determination of indapamide in pure and pharmaceutical forms with good accuracy and precision. Therefore, the 2 proposed procedures are simple, inexpensive, and rapid flow methods for the routine determination of indapamide in pharmaceutical preparations.     

Capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry of Spirulina platensis proteins obtained by pressurized liquid extraction

In this work, the usefulness of CE-MS to monitor and optimize the pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) of proteins from Spirulina platensis microalga is demonstrated. Crude and purified PLE extracts from microalga were analyzed by CE-MS. It was observed that the use of purification protocols of phycobiliproteins (namely, ultrafiltration or precipitation-dialysis-freeze drying) resulted in better CE resolution and MS signals, demonstrating that sample matrix plays an important role in CE-MS of proteins in real samples. Ultrafiltration was found less laborious and much faster than precipitation-dialysis-freeze drying (1 vs. 48 h). Direct analysis of crude extracts was demonstrated to be also possible by CE-MS, providing less-quality information but enough to characterize PLE extracts in a much faster way. Therefore, the latter protocol was selected to monitor and optimize the extraction process of phycobiliproteins from S. platensis. To do that, different extraction conditions were tested, including time, temperature and pressure of extraction, nature of pressurized liquid, distribution of microalga inside the extraction cell, type of packing, etc. It is demonstrated that the combined use of PLE and CE-MS allows the attainment of extracts rich in phycobiliproteins in short extraction times (namely, yields of 20% can be obtained in less than 2 h under the optimum PLE process in an automatic way). To our knowledge, this work shows for the first time the usefulness of CE-MS for monitoring and optimizing a PLE process.     

Multivariate analytical sensitivity in the determination of selenium, copper, lead and cadmium by stripping voltammetry when using soft calibration

A new approach to the multivariate sensitivity concept based on the determination of the capability of discrimination of a method of analysis is shown. Thus the analytical sensitivity is defined in this work by the analyte concentration that a analytical method is able to discriminate, which implies the estimation of the ‘false noncompliance’ and ‘false compliance’. In this approach the estimation of the multivariate analytical sensitivity is independent of scale factors and calibration models, and allows one to study the behavior of a analytical method for several concentrations and matrix. The estimation of this parameter in the simultaneous determination of selenium, copper, lead and cadmium by stripping voltammetry when using soft calibration is carried out, showing that different multivariate analytical sensitivities are obtained for each metal.     

Bulk CO oxidation on platinum electrodes vicinal to the Pt(111) surface

Bulk CO oxidation has been studied on platinum stepped surfaces belonging to the series Pt(S)[n(111) × (111)], using a hanging meniscus rotating disk electrode (HMRDE) configuration. The general shape of the voltammograms is not significantly affected by the presence of the steps. However, the curves shift towards negative values as the step density increases. Thus, in the positive-going scan, a linear relationship is observed for the dependence of the potential for the ignition peak vs the step density for surfaces with terraces wider than five atoms, shorter terraces deviate from this behavior. In the negative-going scan, a similar situation is observed for the potential where the current drops to zero. In this case, Pt(111) electrode also deviates from the expected behavior because of the formation of the ordered bisulfate adlayer on the electrode. The anion readsorption process is also observed by recording the HRMDE voltammograms at a high scan rate. All these results have been analyzed in light of a common mechanism, discussing the possible role of the steps in the stability and reactivity of the CO adlayer. In memoriam of Francisco C. Nart, an excellent scientist, colleague, and friend.     

The SM as the quantum low-energy effective theory of the MSSM

In the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model we compute the one-loop effective action for the electroweak bosons obtained after integrating out the different sleptons, squarks, neutralinos and charginos, and present the result in terms of the physical sparticle masses. In addition we study the asymptotic behavior of the two-, three- and four-point Green's functions with external electroweak bosons in the limit where the physical sparticle masses are very large in comparison with the electroweak scale. We find that in this limit all the effects produced by the supersymmetric particles can either be absorbed in the standard model parameters and gauge bosons wave functions, or else they are suppressed by inverse powers of the supersymmetric particle masses. This work, therefore, completes the proof of decoupling of the heavy supersymmetric particles from the standard ones in the electroweak bosons effective action and in the sense of the Appelquist–Carazzone theorem; we started this proof in a previous work. From the point of view of effective field theories this work can be seen as a (partial) proof that the SM can indeed be obtained from the MSSM as the quantum low-energy effective theory of the latter when the SUSY spectra are much heavier than the electroweak scale. Received: 27 March 1999 / Revised version: 7 September 1999 / Published online: 27 January 2000     

Continuous minimax optimization using modal intervals

Many real life problems can be stated as a continuous minimax optimization problem. Well-known applications to engineering, finance, optics and other fields demonstrate the importance of having reliable methods to tackle continuous minimax problems. In this paper a new approach to the solution of continuous minimax problems over reals is introduced, using tools based on modal intervals. Continuous minimax problems, and global optimization as a particular case, are stated as the computation of semantic extensions of continuous functions, one of the key concepts of modal intervals. Modal intervals techniques allow to compute, in a guaranteed way, such semantic extensions by means of an efficient algorithm. Several examples illustrate the behavior of the algorithms in unconstrained and constrained minimax problems.     

Determination of arsenic by hollow-cathode emission spectrometry

The applicability of the hollow-cathode discharge source in the emission spectrometric determination of arsenic is described. Neutral and 10% nitric acid solutions, as well as solutions obtained by mineralization of biological materials, all containing 2.5 to 125 μg As cm^?3, were introduced into stainless steel cathodes, dried under i.r. radiation, and calcined in a muffle furnace; the loaded cathodes were then subjected to discharge. Acidic solutions were found to leach nickel from the steel of the cathode: this converted the analyte into thermally-stable nickel arsenide, thus minimizing losses. Matrix effects were small, and the r.s.d. was satisfactory (5–8%). The detection limit was 3 μg cm^?3.