1,720,958 research outputs found
Are Insect-Based Foods Healthy? An Evaluation of the Products Sold in European E-Commerce
No full textOver the past few years, edible insects have been recognised as potential "new" food sources in Western countries due to their sustainability and adaptability in the food production sector. To determine the distribution in Europe of insect-based food producers within each country, as well as the number and types of products, data from e-commerce were collected and analysed. The FoodEx2 classification was used to categorise the products. Data about the nutritional composition were recorded and the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) was calculated. As a result, 523 products offered by fifty-three companies located in 17 countries of Europe were found. The predominant market was based in Western Europe (55.8%), and 24 insect species were sold. Notably, four species were the most representative: Tenebrio molitor (182 products), followed by Acheta domesticus (140), Alphitobius diaperinus (54), and Locusta migratoria (34). Other species were present in lower quantities. The main commercial categories of insect-based food present in the European e-commerce were snacks, chocolate, and similar products. The results emphasise the potential benefits of incorporating insect-based food into the daily diet in terms of protein, energy, and fat intake. The RDA of the different products highlighted the importance of insects as a nutritional ingredient
Saturated fatty acid-enriched diets in Tenebrio molitor larvae: effects on growth performances and nutritional composition
No full textBACKGROUNDThe nutritional composition of insects is presumed to be closely related to their diet, triggering a growing interest in investigating this aspect due to their versatility and ability to use a wide range of byproducts. The nutritional profile of Tenebrio molitor larvae (mealworm) is characterized by a high amount of fats, composed mainly of mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs and PUFAs). This study aimed to investigate the effect of dietary saturated fatty acids (SFAs) on the fatty acid profile of mealworms. Six substrates were formulated by mixing different ratios of wheat bran (used as control, CTRL) and fully hydrogenated rapeseed oil (FHRO), rich in stearic acid (C18:0, 91%) in different ratios. Larvae near the last instar were fed for 2 weeks with the substrates. Mealworms were sampled at 0, 7, 11 and 14 days into the experiment. Rearing performances of mealworms along with proximate analysis and fatty acid profile were assessed.Results and ConclusionsThe average weight and growth rate of CTRL larvae were lower than those of larvae fed diets with intermediate FHRO inclusion. Substrates with the highest lipid content were converted less efficiently, as highlighted by the feed conversion ratio. Augmenting the FHRO resulted in a significant increase in the total lipids and a decrease in the crude protein content. Levels of PUFAs decreased, whereas C18:0 and SFAs increased significantly. Due to the plasticity of mealworms, our results confirm that substrate is one of the main factors for obtaining feed and food products which can meet different requirements. (c) 2025 Society of Chemical Industry
Evaluation of the Synergistic Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oils and Cecropin A Natural Peptide on Gram-Negative Bacteria
Get PDFIn an era dominated by the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance, it is increasingly important to look for alternatives to synthetic antibiotics. In light of these considerations, the synergistic use of essential oils and Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) seems a viable strategy. In this study, we assessed the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and Fractional Inhibitory Concentration (FIC) of three Essential Oils (EOs): winter savory (Satureja montana), bergamot (Citrus bergamia) and cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) and of the insect antimicrobial peptide Cecropin A (CecA), alone and in combination with EOs, against two Gram-negative ATCC bacterial strains: Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. The MIC results showed that winter savory EO (SmEO) and cinnamon EO (CzEO) exhibited the strongest antibacterial activity against both bacterial strains, whereas bergamot EO (CbEO) and CecA demonstrated comparatively lower antibacterial efficacy. These results were also confirmed by the MBC values. The FIC Indices (FICI) revealed that the most effective synergies were observed with the combinations SmEO/CzEO and SmEO/CbEO against E. coli, while against S. enterica Typhimurium the best combinations were CbEO/CzEO and SmEO/CzEO. Regarding CecA, although it was not the most efficient agent either individually or in combination, it is noteworthy that, when combined, it exhibited antibacterial activity even at a 1:64 dilution
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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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