Use of MALDI-TOF MS technology to evaluate adulteration of small ruminant milk with raw bovine milk.

Detection of adulteration of small ruminant milk is very important for health and commercial reasons. New analytical and cost-effective methods need to be developed to detect new adulteration practices. In this work, we aimed to explore the ability of the MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to detect bovine milk in caprine and ovine milk using samples from 18 dairy farms. Different levels of adulteration (0.5, 1, 5, 10, 20, 40, 60, and 80%) were analyzed during the lactation period of goat and sheep (in May, from 60 to 90 d in milk, and in August, from 150 to 180 d in milk). Two different ranges of peptide-protein spectra (500-4,000 Da; 4-20 kDa) were used to establish a calibration model for predicting the concentration of adulterant using partial least squares and generalized linear model with lasso regularization. The low molecular weight part of the spectra together with the generalized linear model with lasso regularization regression model appeared to have greater potential for our aim of detection of adulteration of small ruminants' milk. The subsequent prediction model was able to predict the concentration of bovine milk in caprine milk with a root mean square error of 11.4 and 17.0% in ovine milk. The results offer compelling evidence that MALDI-TOF can detect the adulteration of small ruminants' milk. However, the method is severely limited by (1) the complexity of the milk proteome resulting from the adulteration technique, (2) the potential degradation of thermolabile proteins, and (3) the genetic variability of tested samples. Additionally, the root mean square error of prediction based only on one individual sample adulteration series can drop down to 6.34% for quantification of adulterated caprine milk and 6.28% for adulterated ovine milk for the full set of concentrations or down to 2.33 and 4.00%, respectively, if we restrict only to low concentrations of adulteration (0, 0.5, 1, 5, 10%).

Excited-state phase transition and onset of chaos in quantum optical models.

We study the critical behavior of excited states and its relation to order and chaos in the Jaynes-Cummings and Dicke models of quantum optics. We show that both models exhibit a chain of excited-state quantum phase transitions demarcating the upper edge of the superradiant phase. For the Dicke model, the signatures of criticality in excited states are blurred by the onset of quantum chaos. We show that the emergence of quantum chaos is caused by the precursors of the excited-state quantum phase transition.

Experimental confirmation of the Alhassid-Whelan arc of regularity.

Evidence is presented to show that a group of nuclei, spanning a range of structures, corresponds to a previously proposed isolated region of regular behavior between vibrational and rotational structures that was never before observed empirically. Nuclei predicted to show such regular spectra correspond to Hamiltonian parameters that lie amidst those giving more chaotic spectra. We identify a key observable that has a one-to-one correspondence to this arc of regularity and which therefore provides both an empirical signature for it and a clue to its underlying nature.

Triple point of nuclear deformations.

We show that the second-order phase transition between spherical and deformed shapes of atomic nuclei is an isolated point following from the Landau theory of phase transitions. This point can occur only at the junction of two or more first-order phase transitions which explains why it is associated with one special type of structure and requires the recently proposed first-order phase transition between prolate and oblate nuclear shapes. Finally, we suggest the first empirical example of a nucleus located at the isolated triple-point.

Decoherence and thermalization in a simple bosonic system.

Properties of a parameter-dependent quantum system with the Hamiltonian H(lambda) randomized by fluctuations of the parameter lambda in a narrow range are investigated. The model employed (the interacting boson model-1) exhibits a crossover behavior at a critical parameter value. Due to the fluctuations, individual eigenstates /psi(alpha)(lambda)> of the Hamiltonian become statistical ensembles of states [density matrices rho(alpha)(lambda)], which allows us to study effects related to the decoherence and thermalization. In the decoherence part, we evaluate von Neumann and information entropies of the density matrices rho(alpha)(lambda) and the overlaps of the eigenstates of the density matrix with various physically relevant bases. An increased decoherence at the " phase transitional" point and an exceptional role of the dynamic-symmetry U(5) basis are discovered. In the part devoted to the thermalization, we develop a method of how a given density matrix rho(alpha)(lambda) can be represented by an equivalent canonical (thermal) ensemble. Thermodynamic consequences of the quantum "phase transition" (related, in particular, to the specific heat of the thermal equivalent) are discussed.

Quantum phase transitions studied within the interacting boson model

We study quasicritical phenomena in transitions between two "quantum phases" of a finite boson system, described by the interacting boson model 1 used in nuclear physics. The model is formulated in the algebraic framework and has a simple geometrical interpretation; the "phases" represented by dynamical symmetries U(5) and SU(3) correspond to spherical and deformed nuclear shapes. The quasicriticality of the U(5)-SU(3) transition is shown to be connected with the following phenomena simultaneously occurring in a narrow parameter region between the symmetries: (a) abrupt structural changes of eigenstates, (b) multiple avoided crossing of levels, (c) peaked density of exceptional points, (d) qualitative changes of the corresponding classical potential. We show that these spectroscopic features influence the dynamics of intersymmetry transitions in the model parameter space if the parameters themselves become dynamical variables.