Sangdae Lee

Detection of starch adulteration in onion powder by FT-NIR and FT-IR spectroscopy.

Adulteration of onion powder with cornstarch was identified by Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The reflectance spectra of 180 pure and adulterated samples (1-35 wt % starch) were collected and preprocessed to generate calibration and prediction sets. A multivariate calibration model of partial least-squares regression (PLSR) was executed on the pretreated spectra to predict the presence of starch. The PLSR model predicted adulteration with an R(p)2 of 0.98 and a standard error of prediction (SEP) of 1.18% for the FT-NIR data and an R(p)2 of 0.90 and SEP of 3.12% for the FT-IR data. Thus, the FT-NIR data were of greater predictive value than the FT-IR data. Principal component analysis on the preprocessed data identified the onion powder in terms of added starch. The first three principal component loadings and β coefficients of the PLSR model revealed starch-related absorption. These methods can be applied to rapidly detect adulteration in other spices.

Indirect Detection of Internal Defects in Wooden Rafter with Ultrasound

The purpose of this research was development of quantitative ultrasonic test methodology for detecting internal defects in members of ancient wooden building. Connection part between wooden members and/or contacted or hidden part by wall of ceiling or other construction materials make it hard to apply direct way of ultrasonic test. So indirect way of ultrasonic test needed to be applied. Test methodology with newly developed prototype of ultrasonic system was proposed. Homogeneous material with polypropylene was also tested for establishing the criterion. Results showed that TOF(time of flight)-energy and pulse length were found out to be proper ultrasonic parameters for predicting depth of defect in wood different from polypropylene. It was not possible to directly apply prediction equation derived from polypropylene. Newly established prediction equation shows coefficient of determination of 0.73 for wood. Finally, defect of replaced rafter members was predicted with the coefficient of determination of 0.32. Various aspects of ultrasound propagation in wood including anisotropy need to be carefully considered to raise up the prediction accuracy.

Development of Nondestructive Detection Method for Adulterated Powder Products Using Raman Spectroscopy and Partial Least Squares Regression

This study was conducted to develop a non-destructive detection method for adulterated powder products using Raman spectroscopy and partial least squares regression(PLSR). Garlic and ginger powder, which are used as natural seasoning and in health supplement foods, were selected for this experiment. Samples were adulterated with corn starch in concentrations of 5-35%. PLSR models for adulterated garlic and ginger powders were developed and their performances evaluated using cross validation. The and SEC of an optimal PLSR model were 0.99 and 2.16 for the garlic powder samples, and 0.99 and 0.84 for the ginger samples, respectively. The variable importance in projection (VIP) score is a useful and simple tool for the evaluation of the importance of each variable in a PLSR model. After the VIP scores were taken pre-selection, the Raman spectrum data was reduced by one third. New PLSR models, based on a reduced number of wavelengths selected by the VIP scores technique, gave good predictions for the adulterated garlic and ginger powder samples.

Study on Non-contact Ultrasonic Transducer for Measurement of Fruit Firmness

This study was conducted to develop an non-contact ultrasonic transducer for measurement of fruit firmness. The center frequency of non-contact ultrasonic transducer was 500 kHz. As an active element of non-contact ultrasonic transducer, the 1-3 piezoelectric composite material was selected. That material has high piezoelectric properties such as electro-mechanical coupling factor, and piezoelectric voltage constant, and also that material has low acoustical impedance which enables to matching the acoustical impedances between piezoelectric material and air. As a front matching material between 1-3 piezoelectric composite material and air, various kinds of paper with different thickness were tested. To control the dead-zone of the fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer, the backing material composed of epoxy resin and tungsten powder were made and evaluated. The fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer for fruit showed that the cneter frequency, bandwidth and beamwidth were approximately 480 kHz, 30 % and 12 mm, respectively. It was concluded that non-contact measurement of apple firmness would be possible by using the fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer.

Development of Nondestructive Sorting Method for Brown Bloody Eggs Using VIS/NIR Spectroscopy

The aim of this study was the non-destructive evaluation of bloody eggs using VIS/NIR spectroscopy. The bloody egg samples used to develop the sorting mode were produced by injecting chicken blood into the edges of egg yolks. Blood amounts of 0.1, 0.7, 0.04, and 0.01 mL were used for the bloody egg samples. The wavelength range for the VIS/NIR spectroscopy was 471 to 1154 nm, and the spectral resolution was 1.5nm. For the measurement system, the position of the light source was set to , and the distance between the light source and samples was set to 100 mm. The minimum exposure time of the light source was set to 30 ms to ensure the fast sorting of bloody eggs and prevent heating damage of the egg samples. Partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used for the spectral data obtained from VIS/NIR spectroscopy. The classification accuracies of the sorting models developed with blood samples of 0.1, 0.07, 0.04, and 0.01 mL were 97.9%, 98.9%, 94.8%, and 86.45%, respectively. In this study, a novel nondestructive sorting technique was developed to detect bloody brown eggs using spectral data obtained from VIS/NIR spectroscopy.

Evaluation of the firmness measurement of fruit by using a non-contact ultrasonic technique

In this study, we investigated the feasibility of using a novel non-contact ultrasonic technique to measure fruit firmness. The intensity of the reflected ultrasonic signal that bounces back from the fruit surface is dependent on the firmness of the fruit surface. However, differences in fruit size cause the reflected intensity to change with the distance separating the non-contact ultrasonic transducer and fruit surface. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate the effect of fruit size on signal intensity to accurately predict fruit firmness when using a reflected ultrasonic signal. In this study, we developed and evaluated distance correction factors, which may reduce the size effects of fruit on the reflected ultrasonic signal. The distance correction factors were proposed using a combination of ultrasonic parameters obtained from the first and second reflected ultrasonic signals in the time and frequency domain. Fruit firmness parameters, such as bioyield strength and apparent elastic modulus, were measured and correlated with the distance corrected non-contact ultrasonic parameters. Multiple linear regression models to predict fruit firmness using ultrasonic parameters were assessed. The results demonstrated the potential utility of the distance corrected non-contact ultrasonic technique for the non-destructive measurement of fruit firmness.

Analysis of Ultrasonic Transmitted Signal of Stored Apple Using Wavelet Transform

This study was conducted to analyze the ultrasonic transmitted signal for apple using wavelet transform. Fruit consists of nonlinear visco-elastic properties such as flesh, an ovary and rind and hence most ultrasonic wave is attenuated and its frequency is shifted during passing the fruit. Thus it was not easy to evaluate the internal quality of the fruit using typical ultrasonic parameters such as wave velocity, attenuation, and frequency spectrum. The discrete wavelet transform were applied to the ultrasonic transmitted signal for apple. The magnitude of the first peak frequency of the wavelet basis from the ultrasonic transmitted signal showed a close correlation to the storage time of apple.