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Physical and Sensory Properties of Vegan Organic Microalgae Pasta with High Protein and/or Fiber Content
Get PDFMarket opportunities for microalgae pasta increase if an added health value can be declared. This work aimed to develop organic, vegan, protein- and/or fiber-rich microalgae pasta. Chlorella vulgaris (CV) at 3% and 5%, denatured wheat gluten (dG) and/or apple fibers (AF) were added to the dough and processing, cooking behavior, color, firmness, and sensory properties were investigated to test the influence of increasing protein and fiber contents and the impact of combined ingredients in comparison with the individual ingredients. For dG, the lowest impact on color and sensory changes (unaltered acceptance) was observed, but in combination with CV and AF, the overall effects were higher than with CV or AF alone. In addition, all dG-containing samples showed reduced water absorption and increased firmness, most likely due to a condensed protein network. CV and AF alone had no effect on firmness, but combinations did. AF slightly and 3% CV strongly affected odor, taste, and acceptance (27%) of the pasta. Combinations of CV with dG or AF increased the acceptability (45% and 36%, respectively), combinations of all ingredients worsened it (18%). We conclude that high protein and/or fiber Chlorella pasta is technically feasible, but that CV’s taste must be improved for greater acceptance.This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [grant agreement No 862980].info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Leite descartado e resíduos de antibióticos
No full textO leite de descarte é o leite obtido da ordenha de vacas leiteiras que estão sob tratamento com antibióticos, geralmente devido a infeções intramamárias (De Briyne et al., 2014). Existe pouca informação sobre a quantidade de leite de descarte produzido, que não é adequado para consumo ou para transformação em produtos lácteos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Effect of Semen Collection in the Metabolite and Hormonal Content of Rabbit Seminal Plasma
Get PDFBlood serum (BS) and seminal plasma (SP) share a plethora of compounds that might present an individual and/or temporal concentration variation. We aimed to determine whether BS and SP concentrations of albumin, calcium, citrate, creatinine, fructose, glucose, lactate, total protein, urea, zinc, cortisol, anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and testosterone are related to weekly collections in New Zealand White (NZW) adult rabbit bucks. During a 12-week study, blood samples were obtained at the beginning and the end of the study period, and semen samples were taken twice a week from four NZW adult rabbit bucks, starting at 6–7 months of age. After semen collection, the sperm motility was subjectively assessed, and SP was obtained by centrifugation. BS and SP were evaluated for the above-mentioned metabolites using a Biosystems BA400 automated analyser with commercial-specific kits or enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kits, assessing the effects of the male and time of collection. In addition, a correlation analysis aimed at disclosing associations between parameters in BS and SP was performed. Male effect was not significant for BS, but it was significant for SP albumin, citrate, fructose, glucose, lactate and total protein. In addition, all the correlations in BS were positive, whereas they were more balanced in SP, being close to half of the correlations. In conclusion, variations of some metabolites (albumin, citrate, fructose, glucose, lactate and total protein) appear to be potential biomarkers for rabbit SP, although further studies should test their usefulness for sperm fertility assessment.This study was supported by the Grant PID2019-108320RJ-I00, IJCI-2015-24380, RYC2020-028615-I, PID2022-136561OB-I00 and CNS2023-144564 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Spain) and FEDER funds (EU).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Comparative Analysis of Feeding Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) with Trash Fish and a Compound Diet: Effects on the Growth Performance, Muscle Quality and Health Condition
Get PDFTwo feeding strategies based on the use of trash fish (TF) and an artificial compound feed (ACF) were compared in terms of growth performance, feed efficiency, muscle quality and health status in Micropterus salmoides. For this purpose, fish (128 ± 14 g; n = 102) were divided into two groups and fed with the TF and ACF in triplicate for 90 days. Results showed that the growth performance and condition factor were not affected by the diet, whereas the viscerosomatic and hepatosomatic indexes in the ACF group were higher than in the TF group. The muscle from the TF group had higher levels of 20:5n-3, 22:6n-3, and total n-3 PUFA contents, which resulted in lower thrombogenicity index values. No differences in the amino acid profile were found. Regarding muscle texture properties, only the gumminess and chewiness were significantly lower in the ACF. The use of histological and gene expression biomarkers showed that fish fed TF had a healthier hepatic condition compared to the ACF. The only disadvantage of TF in the current study was the higher values of FCR in comparison to ACF.This study was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFD0900200), Special Research and Development Program Project of Chinese Academy of Se-enriched Industry (2019ZKG-1), Key Research and Development plan of Shaanxi Province (2018ZDXM-NY-045) and Shaanxi Special plan project of technological innovation guidance (2022QFY12-03).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Characterizing the odor of New Zealand native plants using sensory analysis and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry
Get PDFThere is growing interest by consumers worldwide for edible indigenous plants and wild foods. To highlight and enhance their unique sensory properties, comprehensive sensory characterization is essential to understand and refine their sensory attributes. The aim of this study was to characterize the odor of six edible native New Zealand plants that have significant potential in food applications, using sensory analysis and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), and uncover the link between annotated volatile compounds and the desirable odor attributes that drive consumer acceptance. A lexicon of 22 odor attributes was developed through six focus groups of six consumers each (n = 36). A Rate All That Apply (RATA) trial was undertaken with consumers (n = 121) to describe the intensity of the odor attributes and overall consumer liking of the odor of each plant. Results showed the characterization of the plant's odor differed significantly across species. Horopito was characterized as “herby,” “peppery,” “spicy,” “minty,” and “citrus”; kawakawa was “sour,” “sweet,” “floral,” and “fruity”; pikopiko and kiokio were “earthy/musty,” “dry grass/hay,” and “fishy”; red matipo was “sweet,” “fruity,” “sour,” “leafy,” and “green tea”; and lemonwood was “leafy” and “grassy.” Horopito was the most preferred odor by consumers, and pikopiko the least. GC–MS annotated 178 volatile compounds and their peak intensity across the six species. Stepwise regression shortlisted 42 volatile compounds (of which terpenes were the most common) that best explained each of the 22 odor attributes. These results can assist with the application of these native plants as food ingredients.Open access publishing facilitated by AgResearch Ltd, as part of the Wiley - AgResearch Ltd agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Biodegradation of pre-treated Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) by Yarrowia lipolytica determined by oxidation and molecular weight reduction
Get PDFMillions of metric tonnes of plastic waste are generated every year, with a minimal portion being recycled. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find effective and sustainable methods for plastic degradation, especially polyethylene, the most manufactured polymer globally. Here, we emulate the strategies documented for beetles, characterized by a combination of physical, chemical, and microbiological treatments, to biodegrade low-density polyethylene (LDPE). Importantly, we characterize LDPE degradation through multiple techniques, including weight loss analysis, FTIR, GPC, GC–MS, and SEM, which allowed us to identify the optimal combination of treatments to enhance LDPE biodegradation. Contrary to some expectations, we find that ultrasonication does not contribute to LDPE degradation but may instead protect against its fragmentation. However, we successfully introduce carbonyl groups into the polymer backbone, by simply exposing LDPE to environmentally friendly anionic surfactant. This pretreatment effectively cleaves LDPE by approximately 9%, breaking it into shorter carbon chains that are more accessible to microbes for subsequent biodegradation. The yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, isolated from fuel tanks and able to grow in n-paraffines, not only outperforms other microbes in assays of short carbon chain degradation, but also attaches to the LDPE surface, where it survives and grows using LDPE as sole carbon source. Our findings, therefore, pave the way for further developing a potential solution to plastic waste, calling for interdisciplinary research and innovative solutions in tackling global environmental challenges.This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 840038 (Buron-Moles, Gemma). It was also supported by the Beatriu de Pinós Program of the Government of Catalonia's Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR), grant number BP-2021–00069 (Buron-Moles, Gemma). GPC experiments were funded by the Academic and Research Institutions Program of Polymer Char, S.A.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Pig nasal and rectal microbiotas are involved in the antibody response to Glaesserella parasuis
Get PDFVaccination stands as one of the most sustainable and promising strategies to control infectious diseases in animal production. Nevertheless, the causes for antibody response variation among individuals are poorly understood. The animal microbiota has been shown to be involved in the correct development and function of the host immunity, including the antibody response. Here, we studied the nasal and rectal microbiota composition in association with the antibody response against the pathobiont Glaesserella parasuis. The nasal and rectal microbiotas of 24 piglets were sampled in two farms before vaccination and in one unvaccinated farm (naturally exposed to the pathobiont) at similar time. Microbiota composition was inferred by V3V4 16S rRNA gene sequencing and bioinformatics analysis, and the antibody response was quantified using the variation between the levels before and after vaccination (normalized per farm). Piglets with higher antibody responses showed more diverse nasal and rectal microbial communities compared to piglets with lower responses. Moreover, swine nasal core microbiota colonizers were associated with higher antibody levels, such as several members from Bacteroidales and Clostridiales orders and genera including Moraxella, Staphylococcus, Fusobacterium and Neisseria. Regarding taxa found in the rectal microbiota, associations with antibody responses were detected only at order level, pointing towards a positive role for Clostridiales while negative for Enterobacteriales. Altogether, these results suggest that the microbiota is associated with the antibody response to G. parasuis (and probably to other pathogens) and serves as starting point to understand the factors that contribute to immunization in pigs.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Research and Innovation (project PID2019-106233RB-I00/AEI/https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 and PID2022-138657OB-I00/AEI/https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033). POG is supported by a FPU (FPU19/02126/AEI/https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033) fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. IRTA-CReSA is also supported by the Centres de Recerca de Catalunya (CERCA) Program from the Generalitat de Catalunya.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Individual Segmentation of Intertwined Apple Trees in a Row via Prompt Engineering
No full textComputer vision is of wide interest to perform the phenotyping of horticultural crops such
as apple trees at high throughput. In orchards specially constructed for variety testing or
breeding programs, computer vision tools should be able to extract phenotypical informa tion form each tree separately. We focus on segmenting individual apple trees as the main
task in this context. Segmenting individual apple trees in dense orchard rows is challenging
because of the complexity of outdoor illumination and intertwined branches. Traditional
methods rely on supervised learning, which requires a large amount of annotated data. In
this study, we explore an alternative approach using prompt engineering with the Segment
Anything Model and its variants in a zero-shot setting. Specifically, we first detect the trunk
and then position a prompt (five points in a diamond shape) located above the detected
trunk to feed to the Segment Anything Model. We evaluate our method on the apple
REFPOP, a new large-scale European apple tree dataset and on another publicly available
dataset. On these datasets, our trunk detector, which utilizes a trained YOLOv11 model,
achieves a good detection rate of 97% based on the prompt located above the detected trunk,
achieving a Dice score of 70% without training on the REFPOP dataset and 84% without
training on the publicly available dataset.We demonstrate that our method equals or even
outperforms purely supervised segmentation approaches or non-prompted foundation
models. These results underscore the potential of foundational models guided by well designed prompts as scalable and annotation-efficient solutions for plant segmentation in
complex agricultural environments.This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under PHENET project, Grant Agreement No. 101094587.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Incorporating legume and nut flours into pasta, bakery products, and snacks: Opportunities and challenges
No full textLegumes and nuts have recently emerged in pasta, bakery, and snack manufacturing, offering a myriad of health
benefits and culinary versatility. Incorporating legume and nut flours in these products can lead to enhanced
nutritional profiles, while diversifying the future food offering, and mitigating environmental footprints. How ever, their integration needs careful consideration of various factors, including sensory properties, structural
features, and processing techniques. This review endeavors to provide a comprehensive overview of the current
state-of-the-art research about the use of legume and nut flours in pasta, bakery, and snack production, eluci dating the opportunities, challenges, and future directions.This work was supported by LOCALNUTLEG project, which is financed by PRIMA (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) funded by the European program H2020 (Grant Agreement no 2033). PRIMA is an Art. 185 initiative supported and funded under Horizon 2020, the European Union's Framework Program for Research, and Innovation. IRTA acknowledges the support received by CERCA Program and the grant 2021 SGR 01477. The Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, partially covered the open access APC.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Assessing the performance of multi-timescale drought indices for monitoring agricultural drought impacts on wheat yield
No full textCrop yields are increasingly threatened by intensifying droughts in southern Europe, yet the long-term, spatially explicit quantification of yield response to agricultural drought remains limited. Remote sensing can address this gap by providing continuous spatiotemporal estimates of crop water stress. This study quantified the response of wheat yield to agricultural drought from 2003 to 2021 across four autonomous communities in Spain—La Rioja, Castilla y Le´ on, Castilla-La Mancha, and Andalucía—using three drought indicators, including a meteorological drought index, the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), and two remote sensing-based indices, the Standardized Precipitation-Actual Evapotranspiration Index (SPET) and the Standardized Evapotranspiration Deficit Index (SEDI), derived from a physical model that estimates actual crop evapotranspiration (ET c act ). Drought indices were aggregated at timescales from 1 to 12 months to identify the accumulation of timescales most relevant to wheat yield variability in each region. Results indicated that correlations varied spatially, with the strongest wheat yield–drought correlation in La Rioja (r = 0.79 for SPEI, 0.62 for SPET, and 0.81 for SEDI) and the weakest in Andalucía (r ≈ 0.33–0.35). Mediterranean regions (Andalucía and Castilla-La Mancha) showed the strongest correlation at short timescales (1–3 month) during late spring, while temperate continental regions (Castilla y Le´ on and La Rioja) responded to longer timescales (3–6 month) in early summer. Among indices, SEDI exhibited the strongest and most consistent correlation with wheat yield variability. These results highlight the value of integrating remotely sensed ET c act with ERA5 reanalysis for region-specific drought monitoring, offering significant potential for advancing operational agricultural water management strategies under increasing drought frequency and climate change.This study was funded by the project ET4DROUGHT (No. PID2021–127345OR-C31) and DigiSPAC [TED2021–131237B-C21] both funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICIN-AEI).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio