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)
Research Topics: NIR spectroscopy and the related instrumentation, data evaluation techniques, software and programming
There is a little group in the middle of Europe consisting of three young research fellows having devotion towards NIR spectroscopy and the related instrumentation, data evaluation techniques, software and programming.
One of the fellows, Dr. Bernhard Pollner <bernhard.pollner@mac.com> from Austria, graduated to MD at Innsbruck Medical School in 2004. He has been working as an independent researcher consultant in the field of water science since his graduation. During his scientific activities Bernhard acquired a good knowledge of many different methods in this field. One of his special interests lies in complex algorithms and high-throughput computations using R, a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. Since his three months stay in Professor Roumiana Tsenkova’s laboratory, at Kobe University, Japan, together with the other two fellows Zoltan and George, he worked on various projects in the field of NIRS and Aquaphotomics. He is currently a PhD student at University of Innsbruck, Austria.
George Bazar, PhD <bazar@correltech.hu>, one of the Hungarian fellows, started learning about NIRS as a PhD student in Professor Robert Romvari’s laboratory at Kaposvar University in 2005. Later he was mentored by Professor Karoly Kaffka who motivated him to attend the next IDRC in Chambersburg. At this meeting in 2008 George met many pioneers of NIRS, among them the famous Karl Norris considered to be the father of NIR spectroscopy, and Roumiana Tsenkova who introduced him Aquaphotomics. Thanks to this acquaintance, after defending his PhD in 2011, he successfully applied for a JSPS postdoc position at Professor Tsenkova’s laboratory, where he spent two years. Half a year after his arrival Zoltan joined the same team, and they started working together on different research topics in the field of Aquaphotomics. George returned to Hungary in 2014 and since then he has been working at Kaposvar University as Research Fellow. His valuable work has been awarded by the Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant in the frame of the New National Excellence Program of the Hungarian Government.
The second Hungarian fellow, Zoltan Kovacs, PhD <kovacs@correltech.hu>, started his scientific activity in the field of instrumental taste sensing and defended his PhD diploma in 2012 in the topic of the problems with electronic tongue measurements. He gained knowledge about experimentation, uni- and multivariate data analysis related to the above mentioned topics, which gave him the opportunity to apply to Professor Tsenkova’s laboratory where he learned the basics of NIRS and Aquaphotomics techniques working together with George and later with Bernhard. Zoltan returned to Hungary in 2016 and works at his home university, Szent István University, Budapest, as assistant professor and beside his original field he makes great efforts to do research in the field of NIRS and Aquaphotomics. His work has been awarded by the Janos Bolyai Postdoctoral Research Grant given by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
George and Zoltan realized the high importance of the stability of the spectrometers when the Aquaphotomics approach was applied and started to pay attention to the stabilization of the experimental arrangements, widening the knowledge of Aquaphotomics with their observations. While Bernhard and Zoltan have been working to develop dedicated software for Aquaphotomics calculations since they met in Japan.
Bernhard, George and Zoltan continuously look for the opportunities to extend the research of NIRS and Aquaphotomics and they keep working on research projects with Professor Tsenkova at Kobe University, but they are willing to build collaborations with other groups, too.
Beside the academic presence they have founded a consulting company in Hungary, Correltech Bt., to provide a more flexible way of collaboration of researchers related to NIR spectroscopy and other correlative analytical technologies worldwide. They all were invited to the scientific team of Tellspec Inc., an innovative data company offering real-time food analysis with a small handheld NIR spectrometer connected with a cloud-based analysis engine.
These research fellows aim to build a wide international scientific cooperation in NIR spectroscopy, multivariate data analysis, and in the field of possible applications. Therefore, they are ready to support cooperation with their knowledge in instrumentation, experimentation, data evaluation, software and programming.
Research Topics : Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Water Science, Biomeasurement, Aquaphotomics.
NIRS Laboratory is the cradle of Aquaphotomics, a new scientific discipline, proposed by Professor Roumiana Tsenkova in 2005. The Laboratory is working on various applications and new developments in the area of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as non-destructive technology for monitoring and diagnosis of biological and aqueous systems. Qualitative and quantitative analysis applied in biological- and food-related research and technology, as well as understanding new phenomena related to water in biology are the main area of interest. We proposed a new scientific area called Aquaphotomics as a new member in the “omics” area devoted to examine “all about the interaction between water and light” and present spectroscopy as an important tool to study the functionality of water in Life science.
