Characterisation of Flavour Attributes in Egg White Protein Using HS-GC-IMS Combined with E-Nose and E-Tongue: Effect of High-Voltage Cold Plasma Treatment Time

Egg white protein (EWP) is susceptible to denaturation and coagulation when exposed to high temperatures, adversely affecting its flavour, thereby influencing consumers’ decisions. Here, we employ high-voltage cold plasma (HVCP) as a novel nonthermal technique to investigate its influence on the EWP’s flavour attributes using E-nose, E-tongue, and headspace gas-chromatography-ion-mobilisation spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) due to their rapidness and high sensitivity in identifying flavour fingerprints in foods. The EWP was investigated at 0, 60, 120, 180, 240, and 300 s of HVCP treatment time. The results revealed that HVCP significantly influences the odour and taste attributes of the EWP across all treatments, with a more significant influence at 60 and 120 s of HVCP treatment. Principal component analyses of the E-nose and E-tongue clearly distinguish the odour and taste sensors’ responses. The HS-GC-IMS analysis identified 65 volatile compounds across the treatments. The volatile compounds’ concentrations increased as the HVCP treatment time was increased from 0 to 300 s. The significant compounds contributing to EWP characterisation include heptanal, ethylbenzene, ethanol, acetic acid, nonanal, heptacosane, 5-octadecanal, decanal, p-xylene, and octanal. Thus, this study shows that HVCP could be utilised to modify and improve the EWP flavour attributes.     

Deodorisation effect of diamond-like carbon/titanium dioxide multilayer thin films deposited onto polypropylene

Many types of plastic containers have been used for the storage of food. In the present study, diamond-like carbon (DLC)/titanium oxide (TiO₂) multilayer thin films were deposited on polypropylene (PP) to prevent flavour retention and to remove flavour in plastic containers.For the flavour removal test, two types of multilayer films were prepared, DLC/TiO₂ films and DLC/TiO₂/DLC films. The residual gas concentration of acetaldehyde, ethylene, and turmeric compounds in bottle including the DLC/TiO₂-coated and the DLC/TiO₂/DLC-coated PP plates were measured after UV radiation, and the amount of adsorbed compounds to the plates was determined. The percentages of residual gas for acetaldehyde, ethylene, and turmeric with the DLC/TiO₂ coated plates were 0.8%, 65.2% and 75.0% after 40 h of UV radiation, respectively. For the DLC/TiO₂/DLC film, the percentages of residual gas for acetaldehyde, ethylene and turmeric decreased to 34.9%, 76.0% and 85.3% after 40 h of UV radiation, respectively. The DLC/TiO₂/DLC film had a photocatalytic effect even though the TiO₂ film was covered with the DLC film.     

Solid-phase extraction and determination of trace aroma and flavour components in cider by GC-MS

Summary Minor volatile compounds are responsible for the aromas of cider. A simple technique for the analysis of these components is described based on solid-liquid phase extraction followed by quantitation by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The method is quantitative for analysis of alcohols, esters, lactones, phenols, and medium and long chain-length fatty acid.     

Flavour democracy calls for the fourth generation

It is argued with the help of an illustrative model, that the inter species hierarchy among the fermion masses and the quark mixing angles can be accommodated naturally in the standard model with (approximate) flavor democracy provided there are three exactly massless neutrinos and four families of sequential quark-leptons with all members of the fourth family having roughly equal masses. The special problem of light neutrino masses (if any) and possible solutions are also discussed.     

200GeV/u的~(238)U+~(238)U核碰撞产生的双轻子谱(M≤4GeV/c~2)的计算

在夸克味动力学的计算中,除包含ｕ、ｄ、ｓ夸克及其反夸克外,还涉及粲夸克及其反夸克（ｃｃ）,采用包含夸克味动力学效应的相对论性流体力学模型,计算了碰撞能量为２００ＧｅＶ／ｕ的２３８Ｕ＋２３８Ｕ核碰撞时形成的膨胀ＱＧＰ及其在相变过程中发射的双轻子谱,轻子对的质量范围Ｍ≤４ＧｅＶ／ｃ２．计算结果与ＣＥＲＮＳＰＳ的实验测量数据进行了定性的比较和分析,得到初步的结论：由于夸克碎块和味动力学效应,Ｊ／ψ→μ＋＋μ－峰值被降低,导致低质量区（阈至１．３５ＧｅＶ／ｃ２）谱的提高．     

Precision flavour physics and supersymmetry

We review the salient features of a comparative study of the profile of the CKM unitarity triangle, and the resulting CP-violating phases , β and γ in B decays, in the standard model and in several variants of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), reported recently by us. These theories are characterized by a single phase in the quark flavour mixing matrix and give rise to well-defined contributions in the flavour-changing-neutral-current transitions in K and B decays. We analyse the supersymmetric contributions to the mass differences in the B_d⁰– and B_s⁰– systems, ΔM_d and ΔM_s, respectively, and to the CP-violating quantity || in K decays. Our analysis shows that the predicted ranges of β in the standard model and in MSSM models are very similar. However, precise measurements at B-factories and hadron machines may be able to distinguish these theories in terms of the other two CP-violating phases and γ.     

The neutrino mass matrix and (selected) variants of <Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis><Subscript>4</Subscript>

Recent neutrino oscillation experiments have measured leptonic mixing angles with considerable precision. Many theoretical attempts to understand the peculiar mixing structure, observed in these measurements, are based on non-Abelian flavour symmetries. This talk concentrates exclusively on models based on the non-Abelian symmetry A ₄. A ₄ is particularly well suited to describe three family mixing, and allows to explain the near tri-bimaximal mixing observed. Special emphasis is put here on the discussion of the neutrinoless double beta decay observable 〈:m _ν 〉. Different models based on A ₄ with very similar predictions for neutrino angles can yield vastly different expectations for 〈m _ν 〉. Neutrinoless double beta decay can thus serve, in principle, as a discriminator between different neutrino mass models.      

The see-saw mechanism: Neutrino mixing,leptogenesis and lepton flavour violation

The see-saw mechanism to generate small neutrino masses is reviewed. After summarizing our current knowledge about the low energy neutrino mass matrix, we consider reconstructing the see-saw mechanism. Indirect tests of see-saw are leptogenesis and lepton flavour violation in supersymmetric scenarios, which together with neutrino mass and mixing define the framework of see-saw phenomenology. Several examples are given, both phenomenological and GUT-related.      

Mass extrapolation of quarks and leptons to higher generations

An empirical mass formula is tested for the basic fermion sequences of charged quarks and leptons. This relation is a generalization of Barut’s mass formula for the lepton sequence (e, μ, τ......). It is found that successful mass extrapolation to the third and possibly to other higher generations (N>2) can be obtained with the first and second generation masses as inputs, which predicts the top quark massm _t to be around 20 GeV. This also leads to the mass ratios between members of two different sequences (i) and (i′) corresponding to the same higher generations (N>2).     

强相互作用味道无关性的检验

通过比较不同味道初始夸克碎裂的带电粒子多重数可以对强相互作用味道无关性进行检验.计算了e+e–湮没成轻味夸克u,d,s碎裂的粒子多重数,发现不同味道夸克事例中,平均粒子产率,同位旋对称性,由奇异与非奇异粒子多重数比值确定的奇异抑制因子等都与初始夸克味道有关,而且这种依赖性在低能时更加明显.但3种轻味夸克事例的平均带电粒子多重数近似相等,这与QCD强相互作用与味道无关的预言一致.