Rapid measurement of phytosterols in fortified food using gas chromatography with flame ionization detection.

A novel method for the measurement of total phytosterols in fortified food was developed and tested using gas chromatography with flame ionization detection. Unlike existing methods, this technique is capable of simultaneously extracting sterols during saponification thus significantly reducing extraction time and cost. The rapid method is suitable for sterol determination in a range of complex fortified foods including milk, cheese, fat spreads, oils and meat.

Tabletop imaging of structural evolutions in chemical reactions demonstrated for the acetylene cation.

The introduction of femto-chemistry has made it a primary goal to follow the nuclear and electronic evolution of a molecule in time and space as it undergoes a chemical reaction. Using Coulomb Explosion Imaging, we have shot the first high-resolution molecular movie of a to and fro isomerization process in the acetylene cation. So far, this kind of phenomenon could only be observed using vacuum ultraviolet light from a free-electron laser.

N2O ionization and dissociation dynamics in intense femtosecond laser radiation, probed by systematic pulse length variation from 7 to 500 fs.

We have made a series of measurements, as a function of pulse duration, of ionization and fragmentation of the asymmetric molecule N2O in intense femtosecond laser radiation. The pulse length was varied from 7 fs to 500 fs with intensity ranging from 4 × 10(15) to 2.5 × 10(14) W∕cm(2).

Ultrastructural study of chloride cells in the trunk epithelium of larval herring, Clupea harengus.

Mitochondria-rich cells of the mid-trunk region of herring larvae, as revealed by DASPMI staining under fluorescent microscopy, were identified as chloride cells. The chloride cells were generally solitary, and seldom made direct contact with each other. The shape of the cells varied with position on the body wall, those in dorsal locations being more compressed in the apical/basal direction.