LGR's Liquid Water Isotope Analyzer Extends Analytical Capability to Wines

Allows for Accurate Authentication and Identification of Counterfeit or Diluted Products

2012-08-07

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, August 07, 2012 (Press-News.org) Los Gatos Research (LGR), the world leader in high precision analyzers for trace gas and isotope-ratio measurements, today announced that it has formally validated the capability of the company's Liquid Water Isotope Analyzers to simultaneously measure multiple isotopic ratios in wine without pretreatment or purification. This analytical capability will allow authentication and identification of counterfeit or diluted wines and may be extended to other beverages and products.

"According to Wine Spectator, experts suspect that as much as 5% of the wine sold in secondary markets could be counterfeit. Whether it's through dilution, mislabeling, blending inferior varieties or even adding dangerous chemicals, wine fraud is a multi-billion dollar international issue," said LGR President Dr. Douglas Baer. "LGR's patented laser-based analyzers offer a simple solution for authenticating wines and other high-value products."

LGR's proprietary Spectral Contamination Identifier (SCI) software, proven to accurately determine isotope ratios (2H/1H, 18O/16O) from contaminated water samples, was used with LGR's Liquid Water Isotope Analyzer to accurately analyze both red and white wines. Measurement accuracy was confirmed by comparing the results with analyses obtained using a conventional isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS).

"Unlike older, complicated methods, LGR analyzers are inexpensive, simple to use and allow direct measurements quickly without complex sample pretreatment or distillation. While developed and proven for isotopic measurements of wine, our technology also offers new opportunities for verifying the source and purity of other food and beverages as well as petroleum products and pharmaceuticals," said Baer.

The effectiveness of LGR's patented LWIA and proprietary SCI software results from LGR's novel method of recording detailed high-resolution laser absorption spectra. The SCI software performs a detailed analysis on these complex spectra to yield accurate isotopic ratios even in mixtures containing alcohols. "We were able to quantify the isotopic ratios in several red and white Italian wines with extremely high precision comparable to IRMS. However unlike IRMS, the LWIA reports the ratios 2H/1H and 18O/16O simultaneously, directly and with high throughput. LGR's SCI software was able to accurately determine isotopic ratios even in wines containing 12% alcohol," said LGR Chief Technology Officer Dr. Manish Gupta. "We are presently extending the method to other complex alcoholic beverages, juices and liquids," he added.

LGR (www.LGRinc.com) makes the world's most precise, rugged and reliable instruments for measurements of trace gases and isotopes. LGR instruments have been deployed by scientists for acquiring the most accurate measurements possible on all seven continents, in unmanned aerial vehicles, in mobile laboratories, on research and commercial aircraft, and in undersea vehicles.

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Heterogeneous ER+ breast cancer models allow more accurate drug testing

2012-08-06

Cell cultures are homogeneous. Human tumors are not. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment reports the development of human-derived estrogen-positive (ER+) breast cancer models that retain their heterogeneity, allowing researchers to more accurately test drugs for this disease. "Breast cancer is never black or white. These models will allow us to tease apart the shades of grey," says Peter Kabos, MD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center, assistant professor at the CU School of Medicine, and ...

Disney researchers add sense of touch to augmented reality applications

2012-08-06

PITTSBURGH – Technology developed by Disney Research, Pittsburgh, makes it possible to change the feel of real-world surfaces and objects, including touch-screens, walls, furniture, wooden or plastic objects, without requiring users to wear special gloves or use force-feedback devices. Surfaces are not altered with actuators and require little if any instrumentation. Instead, Disney researchers employ a newly discovered physical phenomenon called reverse electrovibration to create the illusion of changing textures as the user's fingers sweep across a surface. A weak electrical ...

Touch your philodendron and control your computer

2012-08-06

PITTSBURGH – A yucca plant might make your office desk look nice, but with a new technology developed at Disney Research, Pittsburgh, that little shrub could possibly control your computer. And the jade plant nearby? Put your hand close to it and your iPod could start playing your favorite tunes. Any houseplant — real or artificial — could control a computer or any digital device with this technology, called Botanicus Interactus. Once a single wire is placed anywhere in the plant's soil, the technology can detect if and where a plant is touched, or even if someone gets ...

Carnegie Mellon and Disney Research develop new model for animated faces and bodies

2012-08-06

PITTSBURGH—Computer graphic artists who produce computer-animated movies and games spend much time creating subtle movements such as expressions on faces, gesticulations on bodies and the draping of clothes. A new way of modeling these dynamic objects, developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Disney Research, Pittsburgh, and the LUMS School of Science and Engineering in Pakistan, could greatly simplify this editing process. Graphics software usually represents dynamic objects, such as an expressive face, as a sequence of shapes, with each shape composed ...

Disney Research demonstrates markerless motion capture

2012-08-06

PITTSBURGH -- Conventional motion capture for film and game production involves multiple cameras and actors festooned with markers. A new technique developed by Disney Research, Pittsburgh, has demonstrated how three-dimensional motion capture can be accomplished with a single camera and without aid of markers. The technique, developed in collaboration with Brown University, not only captures the 3D poses of actors, as is done with traditional motion capture systems, but derives "biped controllers" — programs that incorporate the underlying physics of the motion. Bipedal ...

Lying less linked to better health, new research finds

2012-08-06

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Telling the truth when tempted to lie can significantly improve a person's mental and physical health, according to a "Science of Honesty" study presented at the American Psychological Association's 120th Annual Convention. "Recent evidence indicates that Americans average about 11 lies per week. We wanted to find out if living more honestly can actually cause better health," said lead author Anita E. Kelly, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame. "We found that the participants could purposefully and dramatically reduce their everyday ...

Cyberbullying less frequent than traditional bullying, according to international studies

2012-08-06

ORLANDO, Fla. – Traditional in-person bullying is far more common than cyberbullying among today's youth and should be the primary focus of prevention programs, according to research findings presented at the American Psychological Association's 120th Annual Convention. "Claims by the media and researchers that cyberbullying has increased dramatically and is now the big school bullying problem are largely exaggerated," said psychologist Dan Olweus, PhD, of the University of Bergen, Norway. "There is very little scientific support to show that cyberbullying has increased ...

Race may play significant role in presidential election, survey finds

2012-08-06

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Voters' racial attitudes, both conscious and unconscious, may be a significant factor in this year's U.S. presidential election, particularly since whites tend to prefer people of their own race, according to research presented at the 120th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. "People may not even be aware that they have certain racial attitudes and that could be why, even with an African-American president in the White House for nearly four years, race continues to play a role in electoral politics," Anthony G. Greenwald, PhD, ...

Understanding the biological and ecological implications of safe nanotechnology

2012-08-06

Nanoscale science and technology has seen exciting advances recently in drug delivery, electronics, energy and environmental applications. According to international scientific conventions, nanomaterials are those whose at least one dimension is less than or equal to 10-9 m. At the same time, there is a great possibility for nanomaterials to enter ecosystems at the points of use or disposal, which could lead to negative environmental implications. Our recent paper, "Dendrimer-fullerenol soft-condensed nanoassembly" published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, showed ...

Growing up grateful gives teens multiple mental health benefits, new research shows

2012-08-06

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Grateful teens are more likely than their less grateful peers to be happy, less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol and less likely to have behavior problems at school, according to research presented at the American Psychological Association's 120th Annual Convention. "Gratitude played an important role in many areas of positive mental health of the teens in our study," said lead author Giacomo Bono, PhD, psychology professor at California State University. "Increases in gratitude over a four-year period were significantly related to improvements in life ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

NCCN Cancer Center study demonstrates usability of Health Equity Report Card (HERC) tool for driving fair access to care

SwRI adds new chamber for spacecraft-related EMC, EMI testing

Molecular profiling using next-generation sequencing of sufficient endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration and liquid biopsy samples in patients with advanced lung cancer