177,115 research outputs found
Near infrared spectroscopy is suitable for the classification of hazelnuts according to Protected Designation of Origin
No full textBACKGROUND: This study investigates the possibility of using near infrared spectroscopy for the authentication of the ‘Nocciola
Romana’ hazelnut (Corylus avellana L. cvs Tonda Gentile Romana and Nocchione) as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) hazelnut from central Italy. Algorithms for the selection of the optimal pretreatments were tested in combination with the following discriminant routines: k-nearest neighbour, soft independent modelling of class analogy, partial least squares discriminant analysis and support vector machine discriminant analysis.
RESULTS: The best results were obtained using a support vector machine discriminant analysis routine. Thus, classification performance rates with specificities, sensitivities and accuracies as high as 96.0%, 95.0% and 95.5%, respectively,were achieved. Various pretreatments, such as standardnormal variate,meancentringanda Savitzky–Golayfilter with sevensmoothingpoints, were used. The optimal wavelengths for classification were mainly correlated with lipids, although some contribution from minor constituents, such as proteins and carbohydrates, was also observed.
CONCLUSION: Near infrared spectroscopy could classify hazelnut according to the PDO ‘Nocciola Romana’ designation. Thus, the experimentation lays the foundations for a rapid, online, authentication system for hazelnut. However, model robustness should be improved taking into account agro-pedo-climatic growing conditions
Management of winter cover crop residues under different tillage conditions affects nitrogen utilization efficiency and yield of eggplant (Solanum melanogena L.) in Mediterranean environment
No full textEfficient nitrogen (N) management is required for sustaining crop yield and minimizing environmental impacts. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of winter cover crops and their residue management on N-uptake, N use efficiency (NUE) and yield of the following eggplant (Solanum melanogena L.) crop. Two 2-year field experiments (2009/2010 and 2010/2011 growing seasons) were carried out in a Mediterranean environment of Central Italy in a Typic Xerofluvent soil. The treatments
consisted in: (a) three winter cover crops [hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth.), oat (Avena sativa L.), and oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.)] and one bare soil; (b) three cover crop residue managements [residues left in strips on soil surface (RS); residues incorporated into the soil at a depth of 10 cm in minimum tillage (MT) and residues incorporated into the soil at a depth of 30 cm in conventional tillage (CT)]. The cover crop
biomass characteristics, soil mineral N, SPAD readings, crop yield and N-uptake of eggplant were determined. At cover crop termination, hairy vetch showed the highest aboveground biomass and nitrogen content (6.18 Mg ha1 of DM and 3.1%, respectively) and the lowest value of C/N ratio (12.7). The mineralization rate of cover crop aboveground biomass was higher in hairy vetch (72%), intermediate in oilseed rape (63%) and lower in oat residues (49%), while it was slower in RS compared to MT and CT
among the residue managements. Yield, fruit and straw N-uptake of eggplant were high following hairy vetch (35.2 Mg ha1 of FM, 93.9 kg N ha1 and 78.3 kg N ha1, respectively) and low following oat (13.2 Mg ha1 of FM, 29.1 kg N ha1 and 33.6 kg N ha1, respectively). Similarly NUE was high in hairy vetch, followed by oilseed rape and oat (48.6, 19.4, 30.8%, respectively), even if RS residue management in hairy vetch and oat and MT residue management in oilseed rape proved to be more effective for
improving the eggplant yield and nitrogen utilization efficiency. The amount of residual N left in the soil, following eggplant cultivation, was higher in the hairy vetch than in oat and oilseed rape treatments. Cover crop species and their residue management strongly influenced NUE and yield of eggplant. Notillage strategy is preferable with legume cover crop residues in order to reduce the risks of N loss
The xylanase inhibitor TAXI-III limits cell death induced by a xylanase secreted by Fusarium graminearum during wheat infection.
No full textCereals contain xylanase inhibitor proteins (XIs) which inhibit microbial xylanases from glycoside hydrolase families 10 and 11. In wheat, three types of XIs have been identified: Triticum aestivum XI (TAXI), xylanase inhibitor protein (XIP) and thaumatin-like XI (TLXI). These inhibitors are considered part of the defence mechanisms that plants use to counteract microbial pathogens and recently we provided in planta evidences for the protective role of TAXI-III, a member of the TAXI type XIs. To elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying the capacity of the transgenic plants expressing Taxi-III to limit Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) disease symptoms caused by F. graminearum, we performed infiltration experiments on wheat tissues with a xylanase strongly expressed by F. graminearum during wheat spike infection which we have previously demonstrated to induce cell death and hydrogen peroxide accumulation. Experiments performed on glumes of flowering wheat spikes showed that the presence of TAXI-III significantly decreased cell death and hydrogen peroxide accumulation. Most interestingly, similar results were also obtained by infiltrating the same xylanase on glumes of transgenic wheat plants expressing TAXI-III. These results suggest that the reduced FHB symptoms on transgenic TAXI-III plants can be due to the direct inhibition of xylanase activity secreted by the pathogen but also to the capacity of TAXI-III to prevent the recognition of xylanase by a plant receptor possibly involved in cell death elicitation
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
Yield and quality of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) as affected by cover crop species and residue management
No full textThe aim of this study was to assess the effect of winter cover crops (hairy vetch, oat and oilseed rape) andtheir residue management (conventionally tilled and no-tilled soil) on eggplant yield and fruit quality.Hairy vetch residues showed high nitrogen accumulation, low C:N ratio and they improved the mar-ketable yield, size, firmness, dry matter and soluble solids content of eggplant fruit (var. Mirabella) aswell as potentially affecting pericarp color and lead to early fruit maturation. However, oat and oilseedrape residues showed poor nitrogen accumulation which affected both low eggplant yield and fruit qual-ity due to high phenol content causing significant changes in color after slicing. Titratable acidity did notdiffer among treatments, while pH was slightly higher in fruit from tilled than no-tilled soils. The resultssuggest that hairy vetch residues placed on the soil surface as organic mulch could effectively improveeggplant yield and fruit quality
"Closing the R&D Gap, Evaluating the Sources of R&D Spending"
Get PDFBoth spending and tax policies have been implemented in the United States with the goal of stimulating private sector research and development (R&D). Karier questions whether current R&D policy, especially the research and experimentation tax credit, can contribute to closing the gap between nondefense expenditures on R&D in the United States and such expenditures in other countries, such as Japan and Germany. He also explores possible changes to our current R&D policy to make it more effective.
Combined Use of Blanching and Vacuum Impregnation with Trehalose and Green Tea Extract as Pre-treatment to Improve the Quality and Stability of Frozen Carrots
No full textThe use of green tea extract (GTE) and trehalose for the production of frozen carrots fortified with bioactive compounds was investigated. Carrot enrichment was performed by blanching and vacuum impregnation (VI). Functional properties and quality attributes of carrots were evaluated after pre-treatments, freezing and frozen storage (FS). Blanching effectively inactivated peroxidase and pectinmethylesterase enzymes. Blanching in trehalose and VI in trehalose and/or GTE solutions limited the soluble solid and firmness losses through pre-treatments, while effect on colour was similar to other pre-treatments (Δh° ≈ +6; ΔL* ≈ −6). Pre-treatments did not affect the carotenoid content while increased the total polyphenol content (TPC) and antioxidant activity (AOA), which in samples enriched with GTE resulted respectively three and two times higher than the fresh vegetable. After FS, carrots showed a drastic firmness loss, and colour change. Trehalose showed a cryoprotective effect on carrots’ firmness and colour only when its penetration in plant cells was promoted by blanching. All samples highlighted a significant carotenoid loss (−40%), whilst a TPC decrease was observed only on GTE polyphenol fortified carrots. Despite this loss, AOA of carrots enriched with GTE after 60 days of frozen storage was two times higher than AOA of fresh carrots
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
Intra-arterial liver chemotherapy and hormone therapy in malignant insulinoma: Case report and review of the literature
No full textBackground: Malignant insulinoma is a rare tumor, Metastatic disease confined to the liver can be treated with various coregional treatments. Case report: We report a case of a young woman who developed liver metastases twelve years following resection of a pancreatic insulinoma positive to anti-insulin antibodies. With five cycles of intra-arterial locoregional chemotherapy (fluorouracil and epirubicin) to the liver and monthly hormone therapy (octreotide) the patient obtained a clinical complete response. After twelve months she is still disease free. Conclusion: Locoregional therapy for insulinoma metastatic to the liver might represent the treatment of choice; hepatic intra-arterial chemotherapy is an interesting therapeutic approach which deserves attention, The role of somatostatin analogs is limited to symptom control
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