A method of determining a constituent related sample property of a multi-constituent sample comprising: subjecting the sample to a perturbation selected to induce a time dependent change in measurement data associated with a constituent related to the sample property to be determined; recording a time-series of measurement data following subjecting the sample to the perturbation; and determining the sample property from the application to the recorded time-series of measurement data of a calibration correlating the sample property with time-series of measurement data, said calibration being empirically derived from chemometric time-series modelling of time-series measurement data recorded for each of a plurality of reference samples following subjecting each reference sample to the perturbation, each reference sample having a different known values of the sample property.

A system for managing and monitoring a small or large collection of sealed containers, such as wine bottles, barrels, medicine containers, or bags, as well as individual grapes, batches of must, and other liquids, whose contents may be volatile and difficult to access without destroying the seal and the contents or risking contamination of the liquid. The system performs automated monitoring tasks by communicating with specially manufactured bottles or traditional bottles that have had a sensor installed. Sensor installation can be accomplished with unmodified commercialy available equipment.

In a method for monitoring the correspondence of a beer sample with a reference beer, at least 15 reference beer samples of the reference beer are brewed with the same ingredients and the same process parameters. Measurement signals for the absorption spectrum of the reference beer samples are captured and a principal component analysis is carried out for the measurement signals, in which at least 15 principal components are ascertained. A factor loading P.sub.R(i,j) is respectively determined for each principal component for the individual reference beer samples and a reference value (I) is ascertained, where i denotes the reference beer sample and j denotes the principal component, .sub.R(j) refers to the mean value of all factor loadings of the j-th principal component and .sub.P(j) refers to the standard deviation of these factor loadings. A reference interval (II) is formed, where n denotes the number of reference beer samples, m denotes the number of principal components, .sub.R(j) denotes the standard deviation of all reference values of the j-th principal component and k denotes a constant not equal to zero. A measurement signal is captured for the absorption spectrum of the beer sample and the factor loadings P.sub.B(i) of this measurement signal are determined for the principal components ascertained for the reference beer samples and a characteristic (III) is formed and compared to the reference interval. Should the characteristic B lie outside of the reference interval, a fault during the production of the beer sample is indicated.

A system for managing and monitoring a small or large collection of sealed containers, such as wine bottles, barrels, medicine containers, or bags, as well as individual grapes, batches of must, and other liquids, whose contents may be volatile and difficult to access without destroying the seal and the contents or risking contamination of the liquid. The system performs automated monitoring tasks by communicating with specially manufactured bottles or traditional bottles that have had a sensor installed. Sensor installation can be accomplished with unmodified commercial available equipment.

The present application provides a method for tracing wine origin based on multielements and stable isotopes, comprising the steps of:

1) collecting wine samples from a plurality of origins;

2) filtering each of the wine samples collected in step 1) using a pore size of 0.22 m aqueous filter membrane, and pouring 1.5 ml of a filtrate into an autosampler vial for carbon stable isotope ratio analysis of ethanol and glycerol; pouring 0.3 ml of the wine sample into a 12 ml glass tube with stopper for analyzing oxygen stable isotopes in the water; and pouring 0.5 ml of the wine sample into a 15 ml centrifuge tube, and adding 0.5 ml of concentrated HNO.sub.3, performing digestion overnight, and diluting to a constant volume of 10 ml to be tested;

3) performing carbon stable isotope analysis, oxygen stable isotope ratio analysis and elemental analysis, respectively;

4) utilizing information of the origins of the wine samples and analytical data of step 3) to perform statistical modeling to obtain a wine origin discrimination model coefficient matrix and a corresponding predicted accuracy rate of the origin discrimination;

5) performing origin discrimination by using an unknown sample in the model, and ultimately determining attributes of the wine origin.

A system for monitoring at least one parameter of a fluid contained in a container includes a measuring device based on near-infrared spectroscopy designed to be submerged in the cited fluid to be monitored and to take measurements of the fluid. The measuring device includes a measuring area. The monitoring system includes a flotation system joined to the measuring device. The flotation system is arranged, during the use of the monitoring system, floating on the fluid to be monitored such that the measuring area of the measuring device is submerged in the fluid at a constant depth with respect to the level of fluid in the container, such that all the measurements taken by the measuring device are taken at the same depth with respect to the level of the fluid.

The present invention pertains to the measurement of the refractive index of a medium, such as a fluid, through the wall of its container. The essential characteristic of the invention is that, by using at least two separate light paths that are of unequal length and that reflect from the wall/medium interface, it is possible to perform the measurement of the refractive index of the medium so that the result is insensitive to the color and thickness of the wall.

The present invention relates to methods and processes for detecting a substance. In preferred embodiments the method comprises: displaying a three-dimensional graph on a screen where each axis of the three-dimensional graph represents a parameter for detecting a substance; defining a rectangular volume in the three-dimensional graph wherein limits of the rectangular volume define when a substance has been detected; displaying the rectangular volume in the three-dimensional graph; analyzing a substance and displaying a point on the three-dimensional graph that represents the detected substance in terms of the parameters represented by the axes of the three-dimensional graph; and determining whether the point is within the rectangular volume.

A method for investigating the shelf life of food in packaging. The method includes the following to be carried out: a) creating at least one reference measurement with: a direct and indirect sample measurement at the time, repetition of the direct and indirect sample measurement at predefined intervals of time, storage of the reference measurement results of the sample measurements; creating a comparison measurement with: at least one indirect sample measurement at the time, comparison of the indirect measurement result with the corresponding reference measurement result from the comparison time, performance of at least one direct sample measurement at the time if a deviation of the comparison result from step is exceeded, repetition of the indirect sample measurement at predefined intervals of time, storage of the measurement results of the sample measurements.

A citrus juice apparatus may include at least one citrus juice processing device. The at least one juice processing device may include at least one juice output having a flow of juice therethrough. The at least one juice processing device upon a malfunction may cause an undesired material release along with the flow of juice into the at least one juice output. An undesired material release detector may be coupled to the at least one juice output for detecting the undesired material release. The detector may operate based upon magnetic proximity sensing of a moving filter plate within a housing of the detector. Alternatively, the detector may operate using a filter plate, and based upon pressure.