• Food Science and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.895-898
• /
• 2008

The mobility of water in set yogurt during fermentation was studied using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry. The spin-spin relaxation was analyzed using a 2-fraction model, resulting in 2 spin-spin relaxation time constants $T_{21}$ and $T_{22}$. Both $T_{21}$ and $T_{22}$ exhibited rapid changes between 2 and 4 hr of fermentation, coinciding with the drop in pH and the rise in lactic acid bacteria count. The spin-lattice relaxation time $T_1$ increased over the fermentation period. Both $T_1$ and $T_2$ showed an increase in the mobility of water upon gel formation during fermentation. Water redistribution within the gel matrix due to casein aggregation and structure forming may be responsible for the changes in mobility.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.345-351
• /
• 2014

Purpose: Rapid detection of bacteria is very important in agricultural and food industries to prevent many foodborne illnesses. The objective of this study was to develop a portable nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based system to detect foodborne pathogens (E. coli). This study was focused on developing a method to detect low concentrations of magnetic nanoparticles using NMR techniques. Methods: NMR relaxometry was performed to examine the NMR properties of iron nanoparticle mixtures with different concentrations by using a 1 T permanent magnet magnetic resonance imaging system. Exponential curve fitting (ECF) and inverse Laplace transform (ILT) methods were used to estimate the NMR relaxation time constants, $T_1$ and $T_2$, of guar gum solutions with different iron nanoparticle concentrations (0, $10^{-3}$, $10^{-4}$, $10^{-5}$, $10^{-6}$, and $10^{-7}M$). Results: The ECF and ILT methods did not show much difference in these values. Analysis of the NMR relaxation data showed that the ILT method is comparable to the classical ECF method and is more sensitive to the presence of iron nanoparticles. This study also showed that the spin-spin relaxation time constants acquired by a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) pulse sequence are more useful for determining the concentration of iron nanoparticle solutions comparwith the spin-lattice relaxation time constants acquired by an inversion recovery pulse sequence. Conclusions: We conclude that NMR relaxometry that utilizes CPMG pulse sequence and ILT analysis is more suitable for detecting foodborne pathogens bound to magnetic nanoparticles in agricultural and food products than using inversion recovery pulse sequence and ECF analysis.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.120-128
• /
• 2002

Purpose : To demonstrate that the relaxographic method provides additional information such as the distribution of relaxation times and water content which are poentially applicable to clinical medicine. Materials and Methods : First, the computer simulation was performed with the generated relaxation data to verify the accuracy and reliabilility of the relaxographic method (CONTINI). Secondly, in or der to see how well the CONTIN quantifies and resolves the two different ${T_1}$ environments, we calculated the oil to water peak area ratios and identified peak positions of ${T_1}-distribution$ curve of the phantom solutions, which consist of four centrifugal tubes (10 ml) filled with the compounds of 0, 10, 20, 30% of corn oil and distilled water, using CONTIN. Finally, inversion recovery MR images for a volunteer are acquired for each TI ranged from 40 to 1160 msec with TR/TE=2200/20 msec. From the 3 different ROIs (GM, WM, CSF), CONTIN analysis was performed to obtain the ${T_1}$-distribution curves, which gave peak positions and peak area of each ROI location. Results : The simulation result shows that the errors of peak positions were less in the higher peak (centered ${T_1}=600$ msec) than in the lower peak (centered ${T_1}=150$ msec) for all SNR but the errors of peak areas were larger in the higher peak than in the lower peak. The CONTIN analysis of the measured relaxation data of phantoms revealed two peaks between 20 and 60 msec and between 500 and 700 msec. The analysis gives the peak area ratio as oil 10%: oil 20%: oil 30% = 1:1.3:1.9, which is different from the exact ratio, 1:2:3. For human brain, in ROI 3 (CSF), only one component of -distributions was observed whereas in ROI 1(GM) and in ROI 2 (WM) we observed two components of ${T_1}-distribution$. For the WM and CSF there was great agreement between the observed ${T_1}-relaxation$ times and the reported values. Conclusion : we demonstrated that the relaxographic method provided additional information such as the distribution of relaxation times and water content, which were not available in the routine relaxometry and ${T_1}/{T_2}$ mapping techniques. In addition, these additional information provided by relaxographic analysis may have clinical importance.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.67-72
• /
• 1998

The mapping of the spin-spin relaxation time T2 in pixel-by-pixel was suggested as a quantitative diagnostic tool in medicine. although the CPMG pulse sequence has been known to be the best pulse sequence for T2 measurement in physics NMR, the supplied pulse sequence by the manufacture of MRI system was able to obtain the maximum of 4 CPMG images. Eight or more images with different echo time TEs are required to construct a reliable T2 map, so that two or more acquisitions were required, which easily took more than 10 minutes. 4-echo CPMG imaging pulse sequence was modified to generate the maximum of 8 MR images with evenly spaced echo time TEs. In human MR imaging, since patients tend to move at least several pixels between the different acquisitions, 8-echo CPMG imaging sequence reduces the acquisition time and may remove any mis-regitration of each pixels signal for the fitting of T2. The resultant T2 maps using the theoretically simulated images and using the MR images of the human brain suggested that 8 echo CPMG sequence with short echo spacing such as 17-20 msec can give the reliable T2 map.