Using pulses in baked products: Lights, shadows, and potential solutions

Nowadays, consumers are more conscious of the environmental and nutritional benefits of foods. Pulses\u2014thanks to both nutritional and health-promoting features, together with their low environmental impact\u2014satisfy the demand for high-protein/high-fiber products. However, their consumption is still somewhat limited in Western countries, due to the presence of antinutrient compounds including phytic acid, trypsin inhibitors, and some undigested oligosaccharides, which are responsible for digestive discomfort. Another limitation of eating pulses regularly is their relatively long preparation time. One way to increase the consumption of pulses is to use them as an ingredient in food formulations, such as bread and other baked products. However, some sensory and technological issues limit the use of pulses on an industrial scale; consequently, they require special attention when combined with cereal-based products. Developing formulations and/or processes to improve pulse quality is necessary to enhance their incorporation into baked products. In this context, this study provides an overview of strengths and weaknesses of pulse-enriched baked products focusing on the various strategies\u2014such as the choice of suitable ingredients or (bio)-technological approaches\u2014that counteract the negative effects of including pulses in baked goods

The genericity theorem for the essential dimension of tame stacks

Let X be a regular tame stack. If X is locally of finite type over a field, we prove that the essential dimension of X is equal to its generic essential dimension; this generalizes a previous result of P. Brosnan, Z. Reichstein and the second author. Now suppose that X is locally of finite type over a 1-dimensional noetherian local domain R with fraction field K and residue field k. We prove that edk Xk ≤ edK XK if X → Spec R is smooth and edk Xk ≤ edK XK + 1 in general

Sistema di filologia computazionale per testi demotici

A project for a Demotic Inscriptions on Ostraka Database is being carried out in collaboration between ILC/CNR (Pisa), the Department of Electronic Engineering (Calabria University) and the Department of the Ancient World History (Egyptological section, Pisa University). The aim of the project is to analyse the digital colour images of demotic texts on ostraka (Medinet Madi, in Fayyum region) with the aid of computational tools. The module described in the paper is a neural component able to learn the graphical features of each demotic symbol, which has been previously segmented in the images thanks to a semiautomatic procedure. A specific neural network tries to recognize the text written in the images linking the symbols segmented within the ostraka images database to the correspondent symbols available on a virtual keyboard. The graphical interface is particularly useful for teaching and research activities on this type of archaeological documentation

Functionality of low digestibility emulsions in cocoa creams : structural changes during in vitro digestion and sensory perception

The objective of this work was to evaluate the application of low digestibility oil/water emulsions as fat source in a cocoa cream. Emulsions were composed by water, sunflower oil and cellulose ethers or xanthan gum. Back extrusion assays were measured before and after in vitro digestion and free fatty acids release were measured to evaluate the fat digestibility. Finally consumer acceptability was carried out to determine the degree of liking of each system. The results revealed that all the emulsions confer a suitable consistency to the creams and the structure provided by the hydrocolloids was resistant to digestion, reducing the fat digestibility. However, after gastric digestion only cream with xanthan gum showed a significant increase in consistency what it could be related with an increase in satiety. Regarding the sensory characteristics, the cream elaborated with xanthan gum was rated close to the control cream that received the highest scores

Promotion of E-bikes for delivery of goods in European urban areas: an Italian case study

The paper presents the first results of some tasks of Pro-E-Bike, an Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) funded project, started on March 2013 ending in February 2016. Pro-E-Bike promotes clean and energy efficient vehicles, analyses the performance of electric bicycles and electric scooters (Light Electric Vehicle, LEV) for the delivering of goods in urban areas and tests the use of these vehicles in seven European countries with twenty five companies, both delivering ones and companies that deliver their own products. Pilots will enable the demonstration of measurable effects in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions and energy savings in urban transport: related data about environmental, economic and social effects resulted by the introduction of e-bikes and e-scooters in the pilot cities will be collected. The paper will give an overlooks of the Italian pilot, that will take place in Genova, describing the subjects involved and the expected results

Measurement of transfer of colostral passive immunity in dairy calves

The administration of high quality colostrum reduces preweaning morbidity, mortality and, therefore, economic losses related to replacement animals. It also stimulates and improves calf growth, increasing milk production and longevity of the future dairy cows. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of breed and parity of the dam on colostrum quality, and of breed and gender of the calf, and time from calf birth to the administration of the first colostrum meal on the transfer of passive immunity to the calf by the field test of the Failure of Passive Transfer (FPT) on calf serum. A further objective was to improve the diagnostic accuracy of the field FPT test through a second laboratory phase improving the turbidity evaluation. The amount of IgG fed to calves (IgG concentration multiplied by the volume of colostrum administered) was influenced by dam parity as significant differences (P < 0.05) were detected between first- and fourth-parity cows, and between second- and fourth-parity cows. The administration of good quality colostrum (IgG > 50 mg/ml) between 5 and 9 h of life was able to reduce the risk of FPT more effectively than the administration performed within the first 4 h of life. However, further studies on larger sample size is needed to confirm the present findings. The spectrophotometric measurements confirmed the results obtained by the field turbidity test at 14% sodium sulphite dilution. It would be interesting in future to expand the dataset and validate the spectrophometric method