The duration of the outdoor rearing period of pigs influences Iberian ham characteristics

peer-reviewedThe effect of outdoor rearing duration (75 v 50 days) and rearing system (outdoor v indoor based systems) of Iberian pigs on the chemical composition (fatty acid composition of fat and intramuscular fat, moisture, salt, pigment concentrations and water activity of lean meat), the instrumental colour (CIEL*a*b* system) and the sensory characteristics (descriptive analysis) of dry-cured hams were investigated. The fatty acid composition of subcutaneous fat was weakly affected by outdoor rearing duration, but greatly affected by rearing system with the indoor hams showing larger proportion of saturated fatty acids than outdoor rearing. Rearing system also affected L* of subcut aneous fat (the indoor hams were lighter than the outdoor ones). The instrumental colour of lean was only affected by outdoor rearing duration (scores for a* and its derived variables were larger in the long-outdoor group than in the short-outdoor one). The effect of outdoor rearing duration on the sensory characteristics of Iberian hams was marked, 13 sensory characteristics being affected. Among them, odour intensity, flavour intensity, and flavour persistence were greater in the long-outdoor hams than in the short-outdoor ones, whereas these characteristics were not affected by rearing system. However, rearing system also had a large effect influencing 12 sensory characteristics

Improvement of dry-cured Iberian ham sensory characteristics through the use of a concentrate high in oleic acid for pig feeding

peer-reviewedThe aim of this study was to investigate the sensory characteristics of dry-cured hams from confined Iberian pigs fed on a high oleic (HO) concentrate (HO-Pienso hams), and to study how different the characteristics of these hams are from those of Iberian hams from the best grade (Montanera hams, from extensively reared pigs). Nearly half of the fatty acids studied were similar in HO-Pienso and Montanera hams. No differences were found for 18:1, but some major fatty acids of subcutaneous fat of Iberian hams were different between the HO-Pienso and the Montanera hams (C16:0, C18:0, C18:2). The descriptive test revealed that 15 of the 23 sensory characteristics were not significantly different between both groups of hams. No sensory differences appeared for fat appearance or lean texture characteristics, but lean appearance, oiliness, saltiness and the most intensively perceived characteristics of odour and flavour were significantly different. These differences in the sensory traits between Montanera and Pienso hams were not as marked as found in previous studies. Therefore, the use of a concentrate high in oleic acid enables simulation, at least in part, of the sensory characteristics, especially texture.Ángela Jurado thanks the Junta de Extremadura for its support

The effect of the helicotrema on low-frequency loudness perception

Below approximately 40 Hz, the cochlear travelling wave reaches the apex, and differential pressure is shunted through the helicotrema, reducing hearing sensitivity. Just above this corner frequency, a resonance feature is often observed in objectively measured middle-ear-transfer functions (METFs). This study inquires whether overall and fine structure characteristics of the METF are also perceptually evident. Equal-loudness-level contours (ELCs) were measured between 20 and 160 Hz for 14 subjects in a purpose-built test chamber. In addition, the inverse shapes of their METFs were obtained by adjusting the intensity of a low-frequency suppressor tone to maintain an equal suppression depth of otoacoustic emissions for various suppressor tone frequencies (20–250 Hz). For 11 subjects, the METFs showed a resonance. Six of them had coinciding features in both ears, and also in their ELC. For two subjects only the right-ear METF was obtainable, and in one case it was consistent with the ELC. One other subject showed a consistent lack of the feature in their ELC and in both METFs. Although three subjects displayed clear inconsistencies between both measures, the similarity between inverse METF and ELC for most subjects shows that the helicotrema has a marked impact on low-frequency sound perception

Marker based Thermal-Inertial Localization for Aerial Robots in Obscurant Filled Environments

For robotic inspection tasks in known environments fiducial markers provide a reliable and low-cost solution for robot localization. However, detection of such markers relies on the quality of RGB camera data, which degrades significantly in the presence of visual obscurants such as fog and smoke. The ability to navigate known environments in the presence of obscurants can be critical for inspection tasks especially, in the aftermath of a disaster. Addressing such a scenario, this work proposes a method for the design of fiducial markers to be used with thermal cameras for the pose estimation of aerial robots. Our low cost markers are designed to work in the long wave infrared spectrum, which is not affected by the presence of obscurants, and can be affixed to any object that has measurable temperature difference with respect to its surroundings. Furthermore, the estimated pose from the fiducial markers is fused with inertial measurements in an extended Kalman filter to remove high frequency noise and error present in the fiducial pose estimates. The proposed markers and the pose estimation method are experimentally evaluated in an obscurant filled environment using an aerial robot carrying a thermal camera.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, Published in International Symposium on Visual Computing 201

Estimation of Genetic Parameters for Peak Yield, Yield and Persistency Traits in Murciano-Granadina Goats Using Multi-Traits Models

This paper studies parameters of a lactation curve such as peak yield (PY) and persistency (P), which do not conform to the usual selection criteria in the Murciano-Granadina (MG) breed, but are considered to be an alternative to benefit animal welfare without reducing production. Using 315,663 production records (of 122,883 animals) over a period of 24 years (1990–2014), genetic parameters were estimated with uni-, bi- and multivariate analysis using multiple trait derivative free restricted maximum likelihood (MTDFREML). The heritability (h2)/repeatability (re) of PY, yield (Y) and P was estimated as 0.13/0.19, 0.16/0.25 and 0.08/0.09 with the uni-trait and h2 of bi- and multi-traits analysis ranging from 0.16 to 0.17 of Y, while that of PY and Y remained constant. Genetic correlations were high between PY–Y (0.94 ± 0.011) but low between PY–P (–0.16 ± 0.054 to –0.17 ± 0.054) and between Y–P (–0.06 ± 0.058 to –0.05 ± 0.058). Estimates of h2/re were low to intermediate. The selection for Y–PY or both can be implemented given the genetic correlation between these traits. PY–P and Y–P showed low to negligible correlation values indicating that if these traits are implemented in the early stages of evaluation, they would not be to the detriment of PY–Y. The combination of estimated breeding values (EBVs) for all traits would be a good criterion for selection

Fragmentation of spherical radioactive heavy nuclei as a novel probe of transient effects in fission

Peripheral collisions with radioactive heavy-ion beams at relativistic energies are discussed as an innovative approach for probing the transient regime experienced by fissile systems evolving towards quasi-equilibrium. A dedicated experiment using the advanced technical installations of GSI, Darmstadt, permitted to realize ideal conditions for the investigation of relaxation effects in the meta-stable well. Combined with a highly sensitive experimental signature, it provides a measure of the transient effects with respect to the flux over the fission barrier. Within a two-step reaction process, 45 proton-rich unstable spherical isotopes produced by projectile-fragmentation of a stable 238U beam have been used as secondary projectiles. The fragmentation of the radioactive projectiles on lead results in nearly spherical compound nuclei which span a wide range in excitation energy and fissility. The decay of these excited systems by fission is studied with a dedicated set-up which permits the detection of both fission products in coincidence and the determination of their atomic numbers with high resolution. The width of the fission-fragment nuclear charge distribution is shown to be specifically sensitive to pre-saddle transient effects and is used to establish a clock for the passage of the saddle point. The comparison of the experimental results with model calculations points to a fission delay of (3.3+/-0.7).10-21s for initially spherical compound nuclei, independent of excitation energy and fissility. This value suggests a nuclear dissipation strength at small deformation of (4.5+/-0.5).1021s-1. The very specific combination of the physics and technical equipment exploited in this work sheds light on previous controversial conclusions.Comment: 38 pages, 15 figure

The lower limit of pitch perception for pure tones and low-frequency complex sounds

The lower limit of pitch (LLP) perception was explored for pure tones, sinusoidally amplitude-modulated (SAM) tones with a carrier frequency of 125 Hz, and trains of 125-Hz tone pips, using an adaptive procedure to estimate the lowest repetition rate for which a tonal/humming quality was heard. The LLP was similar for the three stimulus types, averaging 19 Hz. There were marked individual differences, which were correlated to some extent across stimulus types. The pure-tone stimuli contained a single resolved harmonic, whereas the SAM tones and tone-pip trains contained only unresolved components, whose frequencies did not necessarily form a harmonic series. The similarity of the LLP across stimulus types suggests that the LLP is determined by the repetition period of the sound for pure tones, and the envelope repetition period for complex stimuli. The results are consistent with the idea that the LLP is determined by a periodicity analysis in the auditory system, and that the longest time interval between waveform or envelope peaks for which this analysis can be performed is approximately 53 ms

Effects of water activity on the performance of potassium sorbate and natamycin as preservatives against cheese spoilage moulds

peer-reviewedThis work investigated the effects of the food preservatives potassium sorbate and natamycin, combined with different levels of ionic (sodium chloride) and non-ioinic (glycerol) water activity (aw), on growth of fungi involved in cheese spoilage. In general, the combined effect of water stress and presence of preservatives enhanced fungal inhibition. However, some doses of potassium sorbate (0.02%) and natamycin (1, 5 and 10 ppm) were able to stimulate growth of Aspergillus varians, Mucor racemosus, Penicillium chrysogenum and P. roqueforti at aw values in the range of 0.93–0.97. P. solitum was the only species whose growth was consistently reduced by any doses of preservative. The results also showed that sodium chloride and glycerol differentially affected the efficacy of preservatives. This study indicates that aw of cheese is a critical parameter to be considered in the formulation of preservative coatings used against fungal spoilage

Cytotoxicity and Membrane Interaction of Tamoxifen as Affected by Ca2+ and Mg2+: Use of a Bacterial Model System

A strain of Bacillus stearothermophilus was used as a model to study the interaction of tamoxifen (TAM) with the membrane and the cytostatic antiproliferative effects not related to estrogen binding. TAM inhibits the growth of B. stearothermophilus as a function of concentration. The supplementation of the growth medium with Ca2+ or Mg2+ partially relieves the growth inhibition by TAM, allowing growth at TAM concentrations that fully impair growth in the basal medium. Fluorescence polarization of 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) and of its propionic acid derivative (DPH-PA) reveals opposite effects induced by TAM and Ca2+. The addition of Ca2+ to liposomes of bacterial lipids promoted physical ordering as opposed to disordering induced by TAM. Thus, it is predictable that growth impairment induced by TAM is mediated through perturbations at the membrane level.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TCP-3X3K8KK-Y/1/c91ad40c71c69da7245d8f09c634d28