Evaluation of morphologic method for the detection of nervous tissue in minced meat

Producing meat products with ingredients which are not consistent with the label is considered fraud. Due to the high economic value of meat, the use of unauthorized tissue in meat products is possible. Aside from the adulteration aspect, it is important to note that some animal tissues like the brain and the spinal cord can bear infective agents which are transmissible to humans. Based on these observations, the aim of the present study was to apply morphological method for detection of nervous tissues in minced meat. Laboratory adulterated minced beef meat; each containing 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% of beef brain was prepared. Then each sample was divided into three parts and four paraffin embedded blocks were prepared from each part. The sections were stained using sudan black and cresyl violet and also the immunohistochemical staining with fluorescent method were applied using anti-neurofilament 200 antibody for the determination of nervous tissue. Although the neuronal cell bodies and neuronal fibers were clearly detectable in Cresyl violet staining and sudan black staining, respectively, however, staining intensity did not show any difference according to different percentages of added brain. In contrary, immunohistochemical study revealed that neurofilament 200- immunolabeling was present in all percentages of added brain samples and the intensity of the labeling varying from weak to strong consisted by the increasing the amount of brain in samples. In conclusion, the immunohistochemical technique with fluorescent method is an effective method for evaluations of additive brain tissue in minced meat with high sensitivity

Prediction of the Density of Energetic Co-crystals: a Way to Design High Performance Energetic Materials

For designing a new energetic material with good performance, a knowledge of its density is required. In this study, the relationship between the densities of energetic co-crystals and their molecular structures was examined through a quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) method. The methodology of this research provides a new model which can relate the density of an energetic co-crystal to several molecular structural descriptors, which are calculated by Dragon software. It is indicated that the density of a co-crystal is a function of sp, OB, DU, nAT, as well as several non-additive structural parameters. The new recommended correlation was derived on the basis of the experimental densities of 50 co-crystals with various structures as a training set. The R2 or determination coefficient of the derived correlation was 0.937. This correlation provided a suitable estimate for a further 12 energetic co-crystals as a test set. Meanwhile, the predictive ability of the correlation was investigated through a cross validation method. Moreover, the new model has more reliability and performance for predicting the densities of energetic co-crystals compared to a previous one which was based on an artificial neural network approach. As a matter of fact, designing novel energetic co-crystals is possible by utilising the proposed method

Estimation of the Detonation Pressure of Co-crystal Explosives through a Novel, Simple and Reliable Model

The detonation properties of energetic co-crystals have a substantial role in the design of new co-crystals and it is necessary to know about them. In this study, a linear relationship is proposed between the detonation pressure of energetic co-crystals and their molecular structures via a quantitative structure property relationship (QSPR) method. This model assumes that the detonation pressure of an energetic co-crystal is a function of nN, Mw, nC/nH and nO/nH. The new model was obtained based on the calculated detonation pressures of 39 co-crystals as a training set. The R2 or determination coefficient of the acquired model was 0.9409. This novel correlation provided a proper assessment for a further 12 energetic co-crystals as a test set. Additionally, the root mean square and average absolute deviation of this newly presented correlation were found to be 2.249 and 1.716 GPa, respectively. As a consequence, the proposed correlation can also be utilized to design new energetic co-crystals