Water activity terms Links

The storability of the dried product depends to a large extend on the selected type, e. g. strawberries, carrots and green beans [4.7]. For meat, the fat content can be important. Karel [4.8] studied the influence of the water content in stored dried food, and found that not only was the amount of water of influence, but also the kind of bond to the solids. This link can be described by adsorption isotherms, as shown in Fig. 4.1. In food technology, the bond of water is often given by the term water activity, aw ... 

This subject can be considered in terms of five different types of molecules or materials (a) biologically inert, water-insoluble polymers (b) water-insoluble polymers that bear biologically active surface groups (c) water-swellable polymeric gels, or amphiphilic polymers that function as membranes (d) water-insoluble but bioerodable polymers that erode in aqueous media with concurrent release of a linked or entrapped bioactive molecule and (e) water-soluble polymers that bear bioactive agents as side groups. 

Variations in the biochemistry and physiology of fish from one year to another must be accepted as real. Such a cycle would be linked to long-term changes in the climate resulting from solar activity (Chizhevsky, 1976). The trouble is that observations are insufficiently representative to yield clear patterns. As with diurnal variation, much of the published work relates to terrestrial organisms rather than fish, and much of the study has centred on fluctuations in the abundance of species which tend to develop outbreaks - sudden marked increases in numbers. However, fish such as salmon, cod, herring, sardines and other species have also been shown to exhibit long-term fluctuations in their numbers. Klyashtorin (1996) has found a close correlation between the velocity of rotation of the earth, which affects the intensity of circulation of the water in the oceans, and the abundance of stocks of many species of fish. 

Fig. 3.3. Tentative mechanism of reduction of dioxygen. The scheme shows some of the more significant reaction steps at the haem iron-Cug centre of cytochrome oxidase. The reaction may be initiated by delivery of dioxygen to the reduced enzyme (in anaerobiosis top of figure). An initially formed oxy intermediate is normally extremely short-lived, but can be stabilised and identified in artificial conditions (see Refs. 92, 99,129, 134). Concerted transfer of two electrons from Fe and Cu to bound dioxygen yields a peroxy intermediate. This, or its electronic analogue, is stabilised in the absence of electron donors (ferrocytochrome a and/or reduced Cu ), and has been termed Compound C [129,130,132). It may also be observed at room temperature, and is then probably generated from the oxidised state by partial oxidation of water in the active site, in an energy-linked reversed electron transfer reaction [29] (see also Refs. 92, 99). Also the ferryl intermediate [92,99,100] has been tentatively observed in such conditions [29]. In aerobic steady states the reaction is thought to involve the cycle of intermediates in the centre of the figure (dark frames). The irreversible step is probably the conversion of g = 6 (see Refs. 98, 133) to peroxy .

Cross-linked crystals of lipase from Candida rugosa (CRL) were applied in the resolution of racemic ketoprofen chloroethyl ester. In batch-wise operation, the half-life of the catalyst was reached after about 18 cycles or, in terms of enzyme consumption, about 5.6 g of enzyme protein were consumed to prepare 1 kg of (S)-ketoprofen. CRL suffers from a low specific activity towards this poorly water-soluble substrate which may explain the high enzyme input [117]. 

It has been concluded from a study of the optical and e.p.r. spectra of Co —Cu bovine superoxide dismutase, in which zinc has been replaced by cobalt, that the cobalt site reactivity should be described in terms of reaction of the Co-imidazolate-Cu system as a whole the crystal structure reported last year indicated that the metals were linked by a common histidine residue. There is an exchange interaction between the cobalt and copper however, this is abolished when the linking imidazole is protonated. Further evidence for the close proximity and interactive dependence of the zinc and copper binding sites was obtained from a study of the 4 Cu protein a two-fold enhancement of the activity of 2 Cu dismutase was observed upon occupation of the zinc sites by the Cu ". On the basis of C1 n.m.r. studies, Fee and Ward have suggested that one co-ordination position of Cu in superoxide dismutase is normally occupied by water they further suggest that superoxide can displace the solvent to form a cupric peroxide complex. 

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