First proficiency testing to evaluate the ability of European Union National Reference Laboratories to detect staphylococcal enterotoxins in milk products

The European Commission has designed a network of European Union-National Reference Laboratories (EU-NRLs), coordinated by a Community Reference Laboratory (CRL), for control of hygiene of milk and milk products (Council Directive 92/46/ECC). As a common contaminant of milk and milk products such as cheese, staphylococcal enterotoxins are often involved in human outbreaks and should be monitored regularly. The main tasks of the EU-CRLs were to select and transfer to the EU-NRLs a reference method for detection of enterotoxins, and to set up proficiency testing to evaluate the competency of the European laboratory network. The first interlaboratory exercise was performed on samples of freeze-dried cheese inoculated with 2 levels of staphylococcal enterotoxins (0.1 and 0.25 ng/g) and on an uninoculated control. These levels were chosen considering the EU regulation for staphylococcal enterotoxins in milk and milk products and the limit of detection of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test recommended in the reference method. The trial was conducted according to the recommendations of ISO Guide 43. Results produced by laboratories were compiled and compared through statistical analysis. Except for data from 2 laboratories for the uninoculated control and cheese inoculated at 0.1 ng/g, all laboratories produced satisfactory results, showing the ability of the EU-NRL network to monitor the enterotoxin contaminant.     

A terminal borylene ruthenium complex: from B-H activation to reversible hydrogen release

Starting from RuHCl(H2)(PCy3)2, a terminal ruthenium mesitylborylene complex was obtained via double B-H bond activation of mesitylborane and concomitant release of dihydrogen, such a process being remarkably reversible.     

Lipid bilayer elasticity measurements in giant liposomes in contact with a solubilizing surfactant

A new method to probe the modification of the elasticity of phospholipid bilayers is presented. The purpose here concerns the action of a solubilizing surfactant on a vesicle bilayer. This method is based on the measure of the under-field elongation of giant magnetic-fluid-loaded liposomes. The addition of the nonionic surfactant octyl-beta-d-glucopyranoside (OG) to vesicles at sublytic levels increases the elasticity of the membrane, as shown by the value of the bending modulus K(b), which decreases. K(b) measured around 20 kT for a pure 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) bilayer indeed reaches a few kT in the case of the mixed OG-DOPC bilayer. The purpose and interest of this study are to allow the determination of the membrane bending modulus before and after the addition of OG on the same magnetic liposome. Moreover, the experimental conditions used in this work allow the control of lipid and surfactant molar fractions in the mixed aggregates. Then, optical microscopy observation can be performed on samples in well-defined regions of the OG-phospholipid state diagram.     

Water behaviour in processed cheese spreads

The behaviour of water in two processed cheese spreads, either standard or cream-enriched, was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in the −50 to 45 °C temperature range as a function of controlled dehydration. The results were analyzed and related to cheese microstructures observed by environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). Water freezing and subsequent ice melting were found to be dependent on the cheese composition in hydrophilic components and on water confinement within the micro-domains delimited by the fat droplets. Both cheeses exhibited partial water freezing from supercooling state while ice nucleation process was shown to be tightly affected by water connectivity within the cheese matrices.