Physical and interfacial characterization of phytosterols in oil-in-water triacylglycerol-based emulsions

peer-reviewedPhytosterols possess the ability to significantly lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels in the blood, but their bioaccessibility is highly dependent upon the solubility of the phytosterol within the carrier matrix. Currently, there is a limited amount of knowledge on how phytosterols interact at oil-water interfaces, despite research indicating that these interfaces could promote the crystallization of phytosterols and thus decrease bioaccessibility. In order to fill this knowledge gap, this work expands upon a previously studied emulsion system for encapsulating phytosterols and addresses whether phytosterols can crystalize at an oil-in-water emulsion interface. Images from multiple microscopic techniques suggest interfacial phytosterol crystallization in 0.6% phytosterol-enriched emulsions, while interfacial tension results and calculated models showed that whey protein and phytosterols had a synergistic effect on interfacial tension. A deeper understanding of the interfacial behavior of phytosterols in emulsions can provide the functional food and pharmaceutical industry with the knowledge needed to design more bioaccessible phytosterol-enriched products

Phytosterol crystallisation within bulk and dispersed triacylglycerol matrices as influenced by oil droplet size and low molecular weight surfactant addition

peer-reviewedPhytosterols can lower LDL-cholesterol and are frequently used by the functional food industry. However, little is known regarding how phytosterol crystallisation can be controlled, despite solubilised phytosterols having improved bioaccessibility. This study investigates phytosterol crystallisation in bulk milk fat and in model dairy emulsion systems at two average droplet sizes, 1.0 and 0.2 µm. The effect of lecithin and monoacylglycerol addition on phytosterol crystallisation for both emulsion and bulk systems was also evaluated. Results demonstrated that lecithin and monoacylglycerols enrichment into the bulk system minimised phytosterol crystallisation. However, in emulsions, phytosterol crystallisation was mainly influenced by decreasing the droplet size. Smaller emulsion droplets containing lecithin showed the greatest potential for decreasing phytosterol crystallisation and had improved physicochemical stability. This information can be employed by the functional food industry to minimise phytosterol crystallisation and possibly improve bioaccessibility.The authors would like to thank the Teagasc Food Research Centre for assistance in funding this collaborative project (Teagasc Project 6412: “Structured Dairy Emulsions”), and the Australian Synchrotron for beamline access (proposal M10097). The authors would also like to acknowledge the Australian Research Council, Australia, as Dr. Charlotte Conn is the recipient of a DECRA Fellowship DE160101281

Software design for the control system for Small-Size Telescopes with single-mirror of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Small-Size Telescope with single-mirror (SST-1M) is a 4 m Davies-Cotton telescope and is among the proposed telescope designs for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). It is conceived to provide the high-energy ($>$ few TeV) coverage. The SST-1M contains proven technology for the telescope structure and innovative electronics and photosensors for the camera. Its design is meant to be simple, low-budget and easy-to-build industrially. Each device subsystem of an SST-1M telescope is made visible to CTA through a dedicated industrial standard server. The software is being developed in collaboration with the CTA Medium-Size Telescopes to ensure compatibility and uniformity of the array control. Early operations of the SST-1M prototype will be performed with a subset of the CTA central array control system based on the Alma Common Software (ACS). The triggered event data are time stamped, formatted and finally transmitted to the CTA data acquisition. The software system developed to control the devices of an SST-1M telescope is described, as well as the interface between the telescope abstraction to the CTA central control and the data acquisition system.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589

The SST-1M camera for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The prototype camera of the single-mirror Small Size Telescopes (SST-1M) proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project has been designed to be very compact and to deliver high performance over thirty years of operation. The camera is composed of an hexagonal photo-detection plane made of custom designed large area hexagonal silicon photomultipliers and a high throughput, highly configurable, fully digital readout and trigger system (DigiCam). The camera will be installed on the telescope structure at the H. Niewodnicza{\'n}ski institute of Nuclear Physics in Krakow in fall 2015. In this contribution, we review the steps that led to the development of the innovative photo-detection plane and readout electronics, and we describe the test and calibration strategy adopted.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.05894; Full consortium author list at http://cta-observatory.or