We are sad to announce that Karl Norris, the founder of NIR spectroscopy, passed away on July 17, 2019. Rightly known as the “father of NIR”, he was also a great friend and support to many of us in the aquaphotomics community.
Adding spectra of water to the spectra of protein will never give us the spectra of the same protein in water
– Karl Norris
“His words inspired me very much in my work on aquaphotomics. He was the first to tell me ‘well done’, after presenting our work on the difference of the water spectral pattern of healthy and mastitis cows milk in Korea, in 2001,” said Prof. Tsenkova.
Our deepest sympathies to his family and all of you who are saddened by this loss.
Affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Germany
Research Topics: fruit quality; irrigation; oxygen shortage; spatially resolved spectroscopy, frequency based spectroscopy
Description
The group Prec_Hort works on research questions related to precise production measures in fruit growing. The group is active in the development of optical sensors and turning the signals into plant information. The plant information obtained is used in the agronomic processes. The Prec_Hort work group is located in the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Biotechnology (ATB), Potsdam, Germany. Here we have an optical laboratory and an experimental station providing some two thousand apple trees with two cultivars in random design and sweet cherry trees capturing >70 varieties to run experiments. We are a group of five researchers in various steps of our careers supported by excellent engineers.
Aquaphotomics work
Our research questions target the following three steps to integrate sensors in the precise fruit production:
Characterisation of physical properties of fresh fruit
The in-situ assessment of fruit by means of spectral-optical (multi- and hyper-spectral methods in the visible and near infrared wavelength range, time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy, spatially resolved spectroscopy [backscattering imaging]) and whole trees by means of light detection and ranging laser scanners.
Applications of Precision Horticulture such as zone-specific harvest management and more precise irrigation management considering soil zones, plant growth (leaf area) and fruit developmental stage
Any exchange within Aquaphotomics on the optical sensing and its application would be very interesting to us.
The First Chinese Conference on Aquaphotomics will
be held on 21 to 23 July, 2019 in Jinan, Shandong, China. The theme of this
conference is “Application of Spectroscopy in Aquaphotomics”. The conference is
organized by China Council of Near Infrared Spectroscopy, CCNIRS, School of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shandong University and Nankai University. And it is
sponsored by Bloomage Biotechnolgy Corporation Limited.
The Conference Organization:
The
Conference Chair:
Hengchang Zang, Shandong University
and Xueguang Shao, Nankai University
The Organizing Committee Chair:
Yiping Du, East
China University of Science and Technology and Xueping Guo, Bloomage Biotechnolgy
Corporation Limited
The keynote
speakers:
Prof. Roumiana Tsenkova
(Kobe University)
Prof. Hoeil
Chung (Hanyang University)
Prof. Jingyan
Han (Peking University)
Prof.
Xinghua Xia (Nanjing University)
Prof. Kexin Xu (Tianjin
University)
Prof.
Xiue Jiang (The Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry)
Prof. Xueguang
Shao (Nankai Univerisity)
Prof. Hengchang
Zang (Shandong University)
Dr.
Xueping Guo (Bloomage Biotechnolgy Corporation
Limited)
Program:
July 21,
Registration
July 22, 8:30 – 18:00
Open lectures & Forum for young researcher
July 23, A visit
to Bloomage Biotechnolgy Corporation Limited
Welcome all
researchers from the world to join the conference.
The 3rd Aquaphotomics
International Symposium was held from 2 to 6 December at the Westin Awaji
Island Resort situated at a beautiful location of Awaji Island in Hyogo
Prefecture, Japan. This year’s Symposium theme – “Water – Exploring Water
Molecular Systems in Nature” gathered researchers from all around world to
present their findings and learn more about water’s incredible properties, and
functions in various aqueous and biological systems.
More than 140 delegates from 20 countries
during the course of five days had an opportunity to attend the bilingual open
lecture, pre-conference workshop, listen to 36 keynote and invited lectures and
see 28 poster presentations.
The Symposium was opened by its
chair-person and founder of aquaphotomics prof. Dr Roumiana Tsenkova, who
during a lecture open to all the public presented the main concepts, principles
and contributions of aquaphotomics in not only the field of water science, but
life science and technological applications that can stem from the utilization
of the acquired knowledge. The lecture was followed by an aquaphotomics
workshop which intended to help attendants navigate the complex world of
chemometrics and data analysis used in aquaphotomics. Dr Dusan Kojic from Keyo
University in Tokyo shared his approach for enhancing subtle differences in
complex spectra of aqueous systems by the application of spectral component
analysis. Dr Ali Gahkani, from Aunir, United Kingdom, this year’s winner of the
Aquaphotomics shootout session at the at the International Diffuse Reflectance
Conference (IDRC), in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, through an interactive
presentation showed the way to drastically improve effectiveness of
quantification and classification of the NIR spectra by applying the covariance
weighting approach aimed at elimination of interferent signal. Dr.Med.Uni.
Bernhard Pollner from Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria and Dr. Zoltan
Kovacs, Associate Professor from Szent Istvan University, Hungary introduced
the “aquap2” software package for R-project programming environment which they
themselves developed specifically to be suited for the aquaphotomics data
analysis. Dr. Federiko Marini, Associate Professor at Sapienza University of
Rome and an expert in chemometrics shared his advices on which chemometric
tools he found to be most useful for the aquaphotomics data analysis. The
workshops were really well received, attracted numerous questions from the
audience and we could only hope that the shared experience of the workshop
instructors would contribute to better data analysis in aquaphotomics community
as well as result in new publications and perhaps novel applications.
Rich Symposium program included many keynote and invited lectures with topics spanning from fundamental water research up to the various points of practical applications of aquaphotomics. The fundamental research covered interaction of light of all frequencies with water and findings that resulted from it. The program was divided into sessions: X-ray spectroscopy of water, UV spectroscopy of water, THz spectroscopy of water, Chemometrics, The role of water in health, Biomedical applications, Polymer-water interaction and biocompatibility, and many others. Several keynotes speakers – Dr. Craig Shwartz (X-ray spectroscopy of water), Prof. Dr. Koichiro Tanaka (THz spectroscopy of water), Prof. Dr. Hiro-o Hamaguchi (Formation of “nano-ice” in cold water), Prof. Dr. Gerald Pollack (Exclusion zone water and its role in health), Prof. Dr. Masaru Tanaka (Role of water in biocompatibility), Prof. Dr. Yasui Masato (Aquaporins) and Dr. Michal Cifra (Bioelectrodynamics), Prof. Dr Xueguang Shao (Chemometrics) delivered really novel and exciting findings and provoked many questions from the audience. The full list of speakers, their biographies and presentations can be found at the official conference website (https://conference.aquaphotomics.com/ ).
This year’s Symposium also made a
significant step towards the future development of aquaphotomics not only as a
scientific field, but also as an international organization. The efforts of the
past few years finally came to fruition with the establishment of Aquaphotomics
International Society (IAQPS). The Society is established with the aim to
promote and facilitate integration of aquaphotomics knowledge into all areas of
life sciences, thereby contributing to better understanding of water-light
interaction and structure and functionalities of water species in aqueous and
biological systems. During the 1st General Assembly officially,
after the attendees were introduced to the organizational structure, vision and
mission, by majority of the votes Prof. Dr. Roumiana Tsenkova was elected as
its president, Univ.-Prof.Mag.Dr. Christian Huck and Prof. Dr. Masato Yasui
were elected as vice-presidents and Prof. Dr. Shigeaki Morita as a treasurer,
while Dr Everine van de Kraats will serve as a secretary of the Society. More
than 15 officers in the Society Board will be in charge of European and
Japanese liaison, as well as for development of various aspects of
aquaphotomics research, technological development, promotion, education and
others. Prof. Dr. Mutsuo Iwamoto, Prof. Dr. Yukihiro Ozaki, and Prof. Dr.
Hiro-o Hamaguchi, will serve as members
of the The Advisory Board of the Society. Currently, the membership is free for
all who are interested in aquaphotomics (http://qoy.vxf.mybluehost.me/).
It is expected that Society will play pivotal role in the future development of
aquaphotomics-based research and aquaphotomics-based technological application.
The best poster presenters were selected based on the largest number of votes from the delegates. The Poster Awarding Committee with three judges – Prof. Dr. Xuegang Shao from Nanking University, Univ.-Prof.Mag.Dr. Christian Huck from University of Innsbruck and Dr. Cristina Malegori from University of Genova had a difficult task of monitoring the voting. Among 28 posters displayed, three caught the most attention from the audience. The best posters from this year’s symposium were presented by Ms. Xiaoyu Cui from Nankai University in China (High dimensional chemometric algorithms for analyzing temperature dependent near infrared spectra), Prof. Dr. Angelina Kisselova, from Medical University in Sofia, Bulgaria (Pilot study of mouthwash Yume water) and Ms. Yuri Nakamura from Isol Technica, Japan (Use of the functional water for waterproofing on the highway concrete slab).
The Symposium also had a rich social program – the guests had an opportunity to visit the magnificent gardens of Westin Awaji Island Resort, during the Banquet they experienced the famous Tea ceremony and enjoyed marimba musical pieces and traditional Japanese music. During the final two days a tour of the Japanese sacred mountain Mt. Koya was organized, where guests visited several temple complexes and then afterwards, had a relaxing time at the Yunosato spa in Wakayama province.
The Symposium was deemed a great success
and a very inspirational time for all who attended.
今回のシンポジウムでは、「自然界における水分子システムの探求」（Exploring
Water Molecular Systems in Nature）というテーマのもと、水の様々な特異性とその機能性の理解および生体・水溶液・食品など、水を有するものに対して水が持つ役割の理解をしようと努める世界中の研究者を集めることを目的としました。
「A Poor Man’s Guide to AquaPhotomics: Analysis of Variance in
Near-Infrared Spectra of Water」Dusan Kojic氏（慶応義塾大学）、「Removing interference signal from NIR spectra」Ali Gahkani氏（Aunir）、「Aquaphotomics multivariate analysis
tools – aquap2」Zoltan Kovacs氏（Szent Istvan大学）とBernhard Pollner氏（インスブルック医科大学）、「Chemometric tools for aquaphotomics」Federico Marini氏（サピエンツァ大学）
「X-RAY AND UV-SPECTROSCOPY」Craig Schwartz氏（スタンフォード大学SLAC）、「CHEMOMETRICS」Xueguang Shao氏（南開大学）、「THZ
SPECTROSCOPY」田中耕一郎氏（京都大学）
・応用セッションの基調講演
「Nano-ice” forms in cold water and causes the density maximum anomaly」浜口博雄氏（国立交通大学）「The fourth phase of water: a central role in health」Gerald Pollack氏（ワシントン大学）、「Design of
soft-biomaterials based on the interfacial water structure for advanced medical
devices」田中勝氏（九州大学）、「Water biology and medicine:
roles of aquaporins (AQP)」安井正人氏（慶応義塾大学）、「Microwave
and optical bioelectrodynamics at the nanoscale and molecular level」Michal Cifra氏（Institute of Photonics and
Electronics）
本シンポジウムにおいては、2日目にアクアフォトミクス国際学会「Aquaphotomics International
Society（IAQPS）」が設立されました。まず、Everine van de Kraats氏から国際アクアフォトミクス国際学会設立に関する提案がなされ、多数の参加者の賛同を得ました。その後、第一回国際アクアフォトミクス総会では、改めて以下の設立趣旨および目的が説明されました。
The “3rd Aquaphotomics International Symposium – Exploring Water Molecular Systems in Nature” was successfully held in Dec 2 – 6, 2018 in Awaji Yumebutai, Hyogo, Japan.
Date: December 2 – 6, 2018
Venue: Awaji Yumebutai International Conference Center, Awaji, Hyogo, Japan
Organizers:
The 3rd Aquaphotomics International Symposium Organizing Committee
Biomeasurement Technology Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Kobe University
Partnership:
The Spectroscopy Society of Japan
The Japanese Society of Agriculture Machinery and Food Engineering
The Society of Agriculture Structures, Japan
Core Members:
Honorable Chair: Mutsuo IWAMOTO (Kagoshima-Osumi Food Technology Development Center)
