1,721,182 research outputs found
Molecular nutraceutics as a mean to investigate the positive effects of legume seed proteins on human health
No full textLeguminous seeds are a valuable source of food proteins. A reappraisal of the beneficial effects of legume seed dietary intake, which are the basis for various health claims, is currently taking place. Proteins and peptides concur in the observed biological/functional activities of legume seeds. However, the molecular determinants of these beneficial activities in most cases are far from being understood. A multidisciplinary research work, including the characterisation at molecular level of these molecules and the evaluation of their biological activities, is crucial to unveil food protein nutri-functional properties and optimise their exploitation. These are the approaches of the molecular nutraceutics
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Applications of 2-D Electrophoresis and Western Blot to Analyse and Trace Proteins in Lupin based Pasta Products
No full textTwo-dimensional (2-D) IEF/SDS-PAGE is a powerful tool to get molecular “pictures” of food proteomes and monitor the processing effect(s) of a given food item on its protein profile. However, the
relatively scarce diffusion of proteomic techniques at industrial and analytical level has prevented their
application in this promising area so far. In this work, 2-D electrophoresis has been used to monitor the
main steps of lupin-based gluten-free pasta production. To the best of our knowledge, this work is one
of the rare examples of 2-D electrophoresis application to the analysis of legume seed protein components
in the whole production chain of a food product.
The optimised dietary exploitation of protein-rich plant sources, such as legume seeds, is the
target of several research and development programs. Among the legume seeds, lupin is an interesting
one for various reasons: a very high protein content (1), comparable to that of soybean, a low presence
of antinutritional compounds (2), the functional properties of its components in food matrices (3) and
the nutraceutical potentialities of some of its proteins (4).
In this work we have studied a lupin-based pasta product, taking advantage of the presence of a
single protein source in this product, being lupin used as the unique alternative to semolina, and of a
previously published lupin storage protein 2-D maps (5). To this aim, three different production lots of
lupin-based pasta were analysed. For each lot, samples at each critical production step, including
seeds, raw materials, namely the flour and the protein concentrate, half-processed products and dry
pasta, were used to generate the corresponding 2-D electrophoretic maps. The presence, integrity and
constancy of proteins throughout the industrial processing have been assessed. Indeed, some differences
in the protein profiles between the raw materials, i.e. lupin flour and lupin protein concentrate, were
attributed to the different varieties which they arose from. On the other hand, the electrophoretic analyses
showed only minor differences among the samples during the industrial processing. In particular no
alteration of the covalent continuity of the main polypeptide backbones. The disulphide pattern did not
change during the process, as well, and the constancy of the glycosylation pattern, as measured by the
lectin Concanavalin A on the blotted maps, indicated that this molecular feature was not affected by the
process too.
In conclusion, this work shows that taking 2-D electrophoretic “pictures” of the polypeptides at
each relevant step of a food production process can be very useful to both quality control strategies and
traceability of specific protein components in force of the high resolution of the technique also in
complex food matrices
PROTEOMIC APPLICATIONS TO PROTEIN TRACEABILITY AND SAFETY STUDIES OF LUPIN-BASED FOOD PRODUCTS
No full textLupin seed is one of the richest in proteins, among grain legumes, thus representing an excellent source for the new
needs of plant proteins in food products.
2D electrophoretic and mass spectrometry analyses can be of great impact to study lupin seed proteome, to evaluate
the effects of technological treatments during food production and to monitor desirable/undesirable protein components
such as biologically active proteins or allergens.
The lupin seed 2D map (1) and its following updating have been used to identify the main protein components. Lupin
maps show the complex pattern of heterogenous storage proteins. Of 357 spots detected, 70 of them were analyzed.
Moreover, a 2D comparative approach between the total protein extract map and the purified major protein seed fractions
maps, allowed to allocate 124 polypeptides within these fractions.
Taking advantage of the availability of lupin protein 2-D map we also studied the presence, integrity and constancy
of proteins throughout the industrial processing of a lupin-based pasta product. Samples, including seeds, raw materials,
i.e. flour and protein concentrate, half-processed products and dry pasta were used to generate the corresponding 2-D
electrophoretic maps. Some differences in the protein profiles between the raw materials were attributed to the different
varieties which they arose from; on the other hand, no alteration of the covalent continuity of the main polypeptide
backbones among the samples during the industrial processing were observed.
In parallel, it was possible to trace a lupin putative dominant allergen (2), i.e.
-conglutin, which is also considered
the candidate molecule to the hypoglycemic activity of lupin seed extracts (3).
This work shows that lupin proteome and related 2D electrophoretic maps can be very useful to both quality control
strategies and traceability of specific protein components in food matrices.
References
(1) Magni et al. (2007). Phytochemistry 68: 997-1007.
(2) Magni et al. (2005). J. Agric. Food Chem. 53: 4567-4571.
(3) Magni et al. (2004). J. Nutr. Biochem. 15: 646-650
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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