Processing Characteristics, Composition, Shelf-life, and Sensory Attributes of Beef Bacon Manufactured From Seven Value-Added Cuts of Beef

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of different beef cuts on their potential for adding value by assessing processing characteristics, composition, shelf-life, and sensory attributes of these cuts as beef bacon. Six briskets (Institutional Meat Purchase Specification [IMPS]#120), 6 clod hearts (IMPS#114E; divided horizontally into 2 halves: silver-skin side and non–silver-skin side), 6 flanks (IMPS#193), 6 outside flats (IMPS#171B), and 7 short plates (IMPS#121A; cut into a deboned short-rib half and navel half) were sourced commercially from separate Canadian quality grade AA beef carcasses. Data for processing yields, composition, and image analysis were analyzed as a generalized linear mixed model with fixed effect of cut and random effect of replication nested within block (processing group). Sensory data collected using a trained sensory panel were analyzed in the same manner, with an additional fixed effect of storage day and additional random effects of session and panelist. Rested pump uptake, which was targeted at 20%, was not different (P = 0.21) among cuts; however, smokehouse cook yield differed (P < 0.01) among cuts, with heavier cuts (brisket, plate cuts, and outside flat) generally having greater yields compared with lighter cuts (clod cuts and flank). As expected, composition of bacon slices was affected (P < 0.01) by cut, with leaner cuts (clod cuts, flank, and outside flat) having greater moisture, lower lipid levels, and greater protein compared with fatter cuts (brisket and plate cuts). Sensory analysis revealed significant differences in muscle fiber toughness and connective tissue among cuts. The differences that were quantified in this study should allow manufacturers to tailor their cut selection to the processing specifications that may be most profitable and well-suited for the meat industry and its customer base. Overall, this research should help define beef bacon and further indicate that a variety of beef cuts can be used to manufacture beef bacon

Red Beetroot. A Potential Source of Natural Additives for the Meat Industry

Currently, the food industry is looking for alternatives to synthetic additives in processed food products, so research investigating new sources of compounds with high biological activity is worthwhile and becoming more common. There are many dierent types of vegetables that contain bioactive compounds, and additional features of some vegetables include uses as natural colorants and antioxidants. In this sense, and due to the special composition of beetroot, the use of this vegetable allows for the extraction of a large number of compounds with special interest to the meat industry. This includes colorants (betalains), antioxidants (betalains and phenolic compounds), and preservatives (nitrates), which can be applied for the reformulation of meat products, thus limiting the number and quantity of synthetic additives added to these foods and, at the same time, increase their shelf-life. Despite all these benefits, the application of beetroot or its products (extracts, juice, powder, etc.) in the meat industry is very limited, and the body of available research on beetroot as an ingredient is scarce. Therefore, in this review, the main biologically active compounds present in beetroot, the implications and benefits that their consumption has for human health, as well as studies investigating the use beetroot in the reformulation of meat and meat products are presented in a comprehensible manner

Enzymatically Treated Spent Cellulose Sausage Casings as an Ingredient in Beef Emulsion Systems

The objective of this research was to incorporate an ingredient obtained from spent cellulose casings in beef emulsion modeling systems. The test ingredient (residual sausage casing [RSC]) was procured from cellulose sausage casings following thermal processing of the sausages. The casings were cleaned of contaminants before a combination of enzymatic hydrolysis and high-speed homogenization was conducted in an effort to improve the functional attributes of the cellulose casing residue (i.e., recycling/upcycling of the spent casings). The beef emulsion modeling systems used in this study consisted of 57.30% beef, 20% water, 15% olive oil, 6% of the combination of RSC and an all-purpose binder, 1.45% NaCl, 0.40% sodium tri-polyphosphate, 0.15% sodium nitrite cure, and 0.0035% sodium erythorbate. The overlying goal was to test the ability of the RSC ingredient as a partial or full replacement of binder ingredients in a beef emulsion system. Therefore, the beef emulsion model systems were prepared with 5 different levels of the RSC ingredient (0% RSC, 25% RSC, 50% RSC, 75% RSC, and 100% RSC). This study was independently replicated in its entirety 3 times (n = 3) in a completely randomized design, and data were analyzed using a generalized linear mixed statistical model. Emulsion samples were tested for proximate composition, cooking loss, emulsion stability, texture profile analysis, and instrumental color. Overall, technological properties and emulsion stability were lost as the level of the RSC ingredient increased, but low levels of the RSC ingredient (25% RSC) may help maintain acceptable levels of yield and emulsion stability while improving the sustainability of the sausage production system

Cooking loss, texture properties, and color of comminuted beef prepared with breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) flour

Cooking loss, texture properties, and color of comminuted beef when prepared with breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) flour or other flour sources was evaluated using 2 separate studies. Flour sources tested in these studies (against a negative control with no added flour) were breadfruit flour, soy flour, corn flour, wheat flour, and tapioca flour. Study 1: Finely minced, comminuted beef batters (extra lean beef targeted to 97% lean and 3% fat, salt, and ice/water) prepared with inclusion levels of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5% flour were evaluated for cooking loss and texture. Cooking loss was reduced (P < 0.05) in comminuted beef prepared with breadfruit flour compared with those not prepared with flour and cooking loss decreased as breadfruit flour inclusion level increased (Linear P < 0.01). Hardness was not different (P = 0.49) in comminuted beef prepared with breadfruit flour compared with soy flour, and was much less (P < 0.01) compared with the 3 other flour sources at each inclusion level. Study 2: Comminuted beef (lean beef targeted to 90% lean and 10% fat, salt, and ice/water) with inclusion levels of 0, 2.5, and 5% flour were formed into patties and were evaluated for color over a simulated retail display period. Redness values (a*) of comminuted beef prepared with breadfruit flour were the greatest (P < 0.05) during the 7-d simulated retail display compared with all other treatments, including control samples with no flour. Overall, the results indicated that breadfruit flour could be effectively used as an ingredient in comminuted beef to produce similar texture as observed with soy flour, while actually improving redness values beyond that of other flour sources

Enzymatically Treated Spent Cellulose Sausage Casings as an Ingredient in Beef Emulsion Systems

The objective of this research was to incorporate an ingredient obtained from spent cellulose casings in beef emulsion modeling systems. The test ingredient (residual sausage casing, RSC) was procured from cellulose sausage casings following thermal processing of the sausages. The casings were cleaned of contaminants before a combination of enzymatic hydrolysis and high-speed homogenization was conducted in an effort to improve the functional attributes of the cellulose casing residue (i.e. recycling/upcycling of the spent casings). The beef emulsion modeling systems used in this study consisted of 57.30% beef, 20% water, 15% olive oil, 6% of the combination of RSC and an all-purpose binder, 1.45% NaCl, 0.40% sodium tri-polyphosphate, 0.15% sodium nitrite cure, and 0.0035% sodium erythorbate. The overlying goal here was to test the ability of the RSC ingredient for partial or full replacement of binder ingredients in a beef emulsion system. Therefore, the beef emulsion model systems were prepared with five different levels of the RSC ingredient as a substitution to an all-purpose binder ingredient (0% RSC, 25% RSC, 50% RSC, 75% RSC, and 100% RSC). This study was independently replicated in its entirety three times in a completely randomized design and data were analyzed using a generalized linear mixed statistical model. Emulsion samples were tested for proximate composition, cooking loss, emulsion stability, texture profile analysis, and instrumental color. Overall, technological properties and emulsion stability were lost as the level of the RSC ingredient increased, but low inclusion levels of the RSC ingredient (25% RSC) may help maintain acceptable levels of yield and emulsion stability, while improving the sustainability of the sausage production system

Terrestrial biosphere models need better representation of vegetation phenology: results from the North American Carbon Program Site Synthesis

Phenology, by controlling the seasonal activity of vegetation on the land surface, plays a fundamental role in regulating photosynthesis and other ecosystem processes, as well as competitive interactions and feedbacks to the climate system. We conducted an analysis to evaluate the representation of phenology, and the associated seasonality of ecosystem-scale CO2 exchange, in 14 models participating in the North American Carbon Program Site Synthesis. Model predictions were evaluated using long-term measurements (emphasizing the period 2000-2006) from 10 forested sites within the AmeriFlux and Fluxnet-Canada networks. In deciduous forests, almost all models consistently predicted that the growing season started earlier, and ended later, than was actually observed; biases of 2 weeks or more were typical. For these sites, most models were also unable to explain more than a small fraction of the observed interannual variability in phenological transition dates. Finally, for deciduous forests, misrepresentation of the seasonal cycle resulted in over-prediction of gross ecosystem photosynthesis by +160 ± 145 g C m-2 y-1 during the spring transition period, and +75 ± 130 g C m-2 y-1 during the autumn transition period (13% and 8% annual productivity, respectively) compensating for the tendency of most models to under-predict the magnitude of peak summertime photosynthetic rates. Models did a better job of predicting the seasonality of CO2 exchange for evergreen forests. These results highlight the need for improved understanding of the environmental controls on vegetation phenology, and incorporation of this knowledge into better phenological models. Existing models are unlikely to predict future responses of phenology to climate change accurately, and therefore will misrepresent the seasonality and interannual variability of key biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks and interactions in coupled global climate models.Engineering and Applied SciencesOrganismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Locating Photography

The specter of global dissemination haunted photography from its very beginning. This chapter explains two aspects of photography's “globalization”: its use as a “western” technique to document an increasingly colonized world and its dissemination around the world and its adoption by local practitioners. In rural and small‐town central India, the studio retains a central place in most people's encounters with photography. Martín Chambi would retain a lifelong adherence to the purity of the photographic image but other indigenista photographers, such as Juan Manuel Figueroa Aznar, would increasingly use paint alongside photography. A World System Photography, seen in networks that fold locally articulated practices into trajectories that fuse technics, history, and culture, can help people think in new ways about the “location” of photography. Locations have to be re‐imagined as “Terra Infirma”, unstable and complex positions which may have more of the quality of linking sections of a network than of territories

Ecological Niche Modeling of Three Species of Stenella Dolphins in the Caribbean Basin, With Application to the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve

Dolphins of the genus Stenella occur in pelagic waters of both tropical and warm-temperate oceans. Three species, the Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis), the pantropical spotted dolphin (S. attenuata), and the spinner dolphin (S. longirostris) are abundant worldwide, but in the Caribbean Basin they have been poorly studied and information on their distribution patterns is scarce. Specifically, in Colombia’s remote Seaflower Biosphere Reserve (SFBR) S. attenuata has been reported occasionally, but S. frontalis and S. longirostris have never been recorded before. To address this information gap, an ecological niche modeling approach was used to determine the potential distribution patterns of these three dolphin species in the region. Records of these species for the Caribbean Basin were compiled, including both published and unpublished data. Environmental information, including bathymetry, bathymetric slope, distance to shore, sea surface temperature, sea surface salinity, and chlorophyll-a concentration was gathered from public databases (MARSPEC and Bio-ORACLE) in raster format. The maximum entropy algorithm (Maxent) for modeling species’ geographic distributions with presence-only data was used. After filtering the data, 210 records of S. attenuata, 204 of S. frontalis, and 80 of S. longirostris were used to run models. The best configuration for each model was chosen based on the ΔAICc criterion. For all three species, the final ecological niche models returned AUC test values higher than 0.8, indicating satisfactory model performance. The resulting potential distribution maps suggested that areas closest to continental shorelines of the Caribbean Basin and surrounding islands had the highest environmental suitability for all species (&gt;70%). All models reported high environmental suitability for S. attenuata and S. longirostris in the SFBR, mainly in the southernmost part surrounding San Andrés and Providence Archipelago. Assessment of niche overlap from the predictions of species distributions using the similarity statistic and pairwise map overlap indicated that S. frontalis and S. longirostris had niches slightly more similar in comparison to S. attenuata. As this was a first effort to fill a gap in our understanding of the distribution of species in the genus Stenella in the Caribbean Basin, further studies are necessary using both niche modeling and biological/ecological approaches

The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data

The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.Peer reviewe