1,721,044 research outputs found
Brief characteristics of other important food allergens
No full text[Extract] Development of biotechnology is often suggested as a remedy for the problem of meeting food requirements of humanity caused by distorted balance between the Siegel populations of humans and animals on the one hand and plant, i.e., food and fodder, production on the other (Bannon et al. 2008). In food production, especially in the case of the so-called functional food designed for human nutrition in specific disease conditions, there are often applied biotechnological processes. These processes, such as fermentation or processes involving activating native enzymes, e.g., seed germination, make it possible to enrich food with, among others proteins, lipids or vitamins, to modify raw material components, to increase product shelf life with simultaneous change of its sensory properties-all this through the use of microorganisms natural properties and enzymes. An example here are biotechnological processes used in the production of beverages from fermented milk (yoghurt, kefir, buttermilk, and cream), some fruit juices, wine, vegetable juices (red beetroot), brewing beer from malt, making cheese from mammal milk or soymilk, or pickling cabbage, cucumbers, or mushrooms. In the Far East there are numerous popular dishes prepared from fermented soybeans, e.g., Indonesian dish tempeh made with the use of Rhizopus oligosporus, Chinese douchi, or Japanese hamanatto made with Aspergillus oryzae as well as fermented soy paste: Chinesejiang or chiang, Japanese miso, or Indonesian taucho (Huang and Huang 1999)
Seafood allergen overview: focus on Crustacea
No full text[Extract] Seafood plays an important role in human nutrition and health. The growing international trade in seafood species and products has added to the popularity and frequency of consumption of a variety of seafood products across many countries.
The highest consumption of seafood in Europe appears to be found in Iceland, where the gross per capita consumption of crustacean and fish was about 91 kg live weight, followed by Portugal (59 kg), Norway (47 kg), Spain (43 kg), France (27 kg), United Kingdom (19 kg), Germany (13 kg) as compared to the United States (8 kg) (Administration NOaA 2007), and Australia (11 kg) (Canberra 2006). Importantly the imports of seafood from other countries often surpass their own productions. In the United States remains the third largest global consumer of fish and shellfish, behind Japan and China (Administration NOaA 2007)
Enhancing vaccination efficacy by application of in vitro preselected dietary fibers and lactic acid bacteria
Get PDFMuch attention has been given by the scientific community to dietary fibers and lactic acid bacteria to modulate immunity and enhance well-being of consumers. Up to now, the positive effects were mainly attributed to the effects of bacteria in the gut that promote health. These effects are considered to be indirect as they rely on the molecules produced by the bacteria that live in the gut, the microbiota. However, direct effects of food components on immune cells and well-being were also recently reported. This thesis aimed at further understanding the mechanisms behind the direct immune activities of dietary fibers and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) which are all commonly consumed. Using a screening platform with cells that mimick the gut allowed to measure effects on different health parameter. The gut’s barrier integrity was strongly enhanced by a specific LAB. The combination of a LAB with a dietary fiber had synergistic effects on immune cell receptors. Furthermore, this combination was proved to enhance oral vaccination efficacy in neonatal piglets despite the immaturity of their immune system. The enhancement of vaccination could not be solely explained by microbiota changes, suggesting that direct immune effects are at play. Our studies will contribute to the selection of effective food components that can stimulate the immunity of the consumers
The Effect of Tomatine on Gene Expression and Cell Monolayer Integrity in Caco-2
Get PDFMore understanding of the risk-benefit effect of the glycoalkaloid tomatine is required to be able to estimate the role it might play in our diet. In this work, we focused on effects towards intestinal epithelial cells based on a Caco-2 model in order to analyze the influence on the cell monolayer integrity and on the expression levels of genes involved in cholesterol/sterol biosynthesis (LDLR), lipid metabolism (NR2F2), glucose and amino acid uptake (SGLT1, PAT1), cell cycle (PCNA, CDKN1A), apoptosis (CASP-3, BMF, KLF6), tight junctions (CLDN4, OCLN2) and cytokine-mediated signaling (IL-8, IL1β, TSLP, TNF-α). Furthermore, since the bioactivity of the compound might vary in the presence of a food matrix and following digestion, the influence of both pure tomatine and in vitro digested tomatine with and without tomato fruit matrix was studied. The obtained results suggested that concentrations <20 µg/mL of tomatine, either undigested or in vitro digested, do not compromise the viability of Caco-2 cells and stimulate cytokine expression. This effect of tomatine, in vitro digested tomatine or in vitro digested tomatine with tomato matrix differs slightly, probably due to variations of bioactivity or bioavailability of the tomatine. The results lead to the hypothesis that tomatine acts as hormetic compound that can induce beneficial or risk toxic effects whether used in low or high dose
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
Structure and activity studies of tyrosinases and related proteins
Get PDFThe copper-containing enzyme tyrosinase catalyzes the conversion of tyrosine into DOPAquinone, which is the precursor of melanin in almost all organisms. In humans, melanin is an essential pigment that protects the skin and eyes against the UV radiation from the sun. Mutations in the genes of the melanin biosynthetic pathway cause oculocutaneous albinism, a group of autosomal recessive disorders characterized by reduced or absent production of melanin in the skin, hair and eyes. In this thesis, we investigated the structure and activity of tyrosinases and related proteins, including human tyrosinase (TYR), human tyrosinase related protein 1 (TYRP1), and mushroom tyrosinase-associated lectin-like protein (MtaL). TYR and TYRP1 are membrane-bound glycoproteins that occur in melanosomes. Using a baculovirus expression system in insect cells we succeeded in producing large amounts of the intramelanosomal domains of TYR and TYRP1, allowing their crystallization. Elucidation of the crystal structure of TYRP1 showed that TYRP1 contains zinc ions in its active site, in contrast to TYR which contains copper ions. This explains why TYRP1 does not have tyrosinase activity. The structure of TYRP1 is the first structure of a mammalian tyrosinase-like protein. Therefore, the TYRP1 structure makes it now possible to give detailed explanations of various albinism-causing mutations. In addition, the TYRP1 structure provides a solid base for the design of highly-desired compounds for pigmentation disorder treatments that reduce melanin production. Analysis of the MtaL structure suggests that the protein may have a carbohydrate-binding site allowing the protein to bind to a glycoreceptor
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
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