1,721,022 research outputs found
Exploring New Frontiers in Total Food Quality Definition and Assessment: From Chemical to Neurochemical Properties
No full textIn order to understand the concept of “total food quality” and how it has evolved, a brief historic survey from Pasteur’s advent untill the recent rise of the globalized market is given. Nowadays, “total food quality” is clearly a concept partially objective, in the sense that it can be defined according to scientific and technological criteria, and partly subjective since consumer’s judgement, mainly based on his appraisal, may equally concurr to its definition. Food properties all contributing to “total food quality” definition and assessment, include: 1) organoleptic and sensory attributes, 2) safety, 3) nourishment, 4) functionality, 5) service and stability, 6) healthiness and 7) psychological factors. Many technological and gastronomic treatments may alter food components, e.g. fats, proteins and vitamines (the most sensitive to physico-chemical changes of the environmental condition), thus negatively affecting either one of the quality aspects of the above list. To this regard, specific analytical strategies and sensitive appliances can be utilized either to assess and defend food quality and to correctly conduct and monitor food production. Among the so-called “psychological factors”, however, there are some molecular aspects that are still elusive, although of enormously great interest
The amelioration of olfactory acuity upon sexual maturation might affect food preferences
No full textAbstract: Upon sexual maturation, olfactory acuity in women ameliorates and starts
oscillating across the cycle. During ovulation, mean olfactory threshold is 30 times lower
than during bleeding. Interestingly, menstruated women undergo maleodorant
trimethylaminuria. We argued that olfactory amelioration during ovulation might concur to
a mating strategy, whereas olfactory impairment during bleeding might protect women
against self-refusal. Testosterone and its 17β-estradiol derivative might be responsible for
the synchronization of these menstrual events. Furthermore, we posed the question
whether olfactory detection amelioration upon sexual maturation might provoke a change
in food preferences, for instance a reduction in fish consumption. A preliminary survey in
Italy provided encouraging results: 15-44 year-old women have lower fish consumption
than 3-14 year-old girls. Surprisingly, men exhibited the same behaviour, so new olfactory
tests as well as testosterone measurements are under way
Activation of porcine heart mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase by zero valence sulfur and rhodanese.
No full textGoing 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
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