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To evaluate the feasibility of the application of pyrolysis mass spectrometry (PyMS)with computerized pattern recognition (PattRec) for the rapid identification of asample:
<ol>
<li> which is a complex chemical mixture,</li>
<li> which is member of a set ofsuch mixtures, and for</li>
<li> which there is a regulatory need to distinguish the individual members of the set.</li></ol>
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Typical examples of applications: <ol>
<li> the rapid identification of culturable pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria in food, </li>
<li> the distinction of adulterated from unadulterated foods or cosmetics, or generic frombrand-name pharmaceutical products, or </li>
<li> demonstrating the virginity of plasticmaterials used in food containers.</li></ol></p>
<p>
FY 2000 Accomplishments:<br>
<li> Two invited reviews of previous work in press and invited symposium talk inpress.</li>
<li> Employee Invention Disclosure filed for a practical method for processing ofmass spectra to determine bacterial taxonomy; a technique to track intensityvariations and drift of spectra.</li>
<li> Work within the SDAR project (E0706801) also was initially completed underthis project; including the final patent application.FY 2001 </li></ol>
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Plans:<br>
The patent application has been generalized to handle all types of similar data.</p>