1. Process for preparing a volatile component or mixture of components, said process comprising heating a mixture containing reactants as herein defined, said heating being performed under N different processing parameters wherein one or more of the N processing parameters andor one or more of the reactants to choose for obtaining the desired volatile component are derivable from a relationship between:
sensorical data obtainable from analysing reaction products of actual experiments,
volatile reaction products and their composition,
processing parameters,
reactants,
said composition being obtainable:
(a) from an actual mass distribution obtainable from performing at least 100 (preferably at least 1000) reactions involving heating reactants under predetermined and known processing parameters, analysing the volatile fraction of the reaction product obtained from each of the reactions above to provide composition analyses thereof, encoding it as a mass distribution, andor
(b) simulation of complex chemical reaction pathways involving the simulation of reacting reactants under predetermined and specified processing parameters.
2. Process according to claim 1, wherein said N different processing variables may comprise at least one of concentration of reactants, heating temperature, heating time, pH of the reaction mixture, water activity.
3. Process according to claim 1, wherein the reactants comprise minimally a sugar or carbohydrate source together with a nucleophilic species, such as amino acid(s), or sources of amino acids such as peptides or proteins and optionally further containing salts, cosolvents, buffers, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, amines, acids, esters, lactones, cyclic heterocycles, thiols, ethers, thioethers or mixtures thereof.
4. Process according to claim 1, wherein the actual mass distribution of step (a) are obtainable by conventional chemical analysis of the reaction products or the volatile fraction thereof.
5. Process according to claim 4, wherein the conventional chemical analysis of step (a) involves Gas Chromatography andor Mass Spectroscopy techniques.
6. Process according to claim 4, wherein the chemical analysis of step (a) is combined by computerised processing of the analytical data.
7. Process according to claim 1, wherein the reactions performed in step (a) to obtain the actual mass distribution are carried out in a robotised way.
8. Process according to claim 1, wherein the simulation of complex chemical reaction pathways in step (b) is obtainable by iteratively applying a set of operations or computer intructions using a computer programme to:
A Soup of molecules representing the current state of the system
A Reaction Set describing transformations and corresponding probabilities that may take place in the Maillard process
to produce volatile and non-volatile molecules, for simulating complex chemical reactions when such product is run on a computer, and wherein the iteration is effected by a computer programme directly loadable in the internal memory of a computer, and wherein the computer programme contains two main elements:
computer instructions for running the reactions using the Reaction Set,
computer instructions for the iterative procedure of selecting molecules, running the reactions and producing output.
9. Process according to claim 8, wherein during the iterative procedure the newly formed compounds are added back to the Soup, and the volatile components which are present during the simulation form (part of) the virtual mass distribution.
10. Process according to claim 8, wherein the Soup at the start of the reaction is equal to the starting mixture of molecules.
11. Process according to claim 1, wherein iterative operation in step (b) is a computer-readable format encoded by:
3
Loop
Loop through reaction blocks
Select Random reaction
if (transformation probability > random number)
Select random reactant(s)
If reactant(s) are correct for reaction
Remove bonds
Change atom type & hybridisation
Add bonds
If (mass of product < mass limit)
Remove reactants from Soup
Add product(s) to Soup
Endif
Endif
Endif
Endloop
Endloop
or any functional equivalent thereof, wherein the Italics indicate optional computer instructions.
12. Process according to claim 1, wherein both the actual and the virtual mass distributions are obtained, and wherein the actual mass distribution is compared with the virtual mass distribution, and wherein the generated actual mass distribution is used to update the IRG andor Reaction Set.
13. Process according to claim 1, wherein the relationship between one or more of:
sensorical data,
volatile reaction products and their composition,
processing parameters,
reactants
are obtainable using statistical methods.
14. Process according to claim 13, wherein the statistical method is one of linear- or non-linear regression, PLS, neural networks, gaussian procedures.
15. A computer program product directly loadable into the internal memory of a digital computer, comprising software code portions for the simulation of complex chemical reaction pathways by iteratively applying a set of operations or computer intructions to:
a Soup of molecules representing the current state of the system,
a Reaction Set describing transformations that may take place in the Maillard process,
to produce volatile and non-volatile molecules, wherein the iteration is coded as a computer programme, for simulating complex chemical reactions when such product is run on a computer.
16. Computerized system comprising means for entering sensorical data, fingerprint data and process variables to be set at the start of a chain of reactions, and a computer programme for predicting process variables to obtain new desired fingerprint data andor sensorical data using an iterative procedure, based upon already entered sensorical data, fingerprint data and process variables, and means for providing output.
17. A computer programme product directly loadable into the internal memory of a digital computer, comprising software code portions coding for:
Initialise Soup, and Reaction Set (containing reaction database and reaction kinetic database)
4
Loop
Loop through reaction blocks
Select Random reaction
If (transformation probability > random number)
Select random reactant(s)
If reactant(s) are correct for reaction
Remove bonds
Change atom type & hybridisation
Add bonds
If (mass of product < mass limit)
Remove reactants from Soup
Add product(s) to Soup
Endif
Endif
Endif
Endloop
Endloop
when such product is run on a computer, wherein the Italics indicate optional computer instructions.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of protecting use of an entity’s identity, the method being executed on electronic computer hardware in combination with software, the method comprising:
setting a status of the identity to a first state, the first state defining a scope of permitted use of the identity;
changing, in advance of an intended use of the identity, the status to a second state defining a scope of permitted use of the identity that is different from the first state;
receiving a request for use of the identity after the changing; and
returning, after the receiving, the state back to the first state;
wherein the first state is a default state, and the returning occurs in response to completion of a use of the identity;
wherein the information received in the receiving a request for use of the identity is insufficient to authorize the use of the identity;
wherein the setting, changing, receiving and returning are executed on electronic computer hardware in combination with software.