Color influences sensory perception and liking of orange juice

Background: This study assesses the effect of slight hue variations in orange juice (reddish to greenish) on perceived flavour intensity, sweetness, and sourness, and on expected and actual liking. A commercial orange juice (COJ) was selected as a control, and colour-modified orange juices were prepared by adding red or green food dyes (ROJ and GOJ) that did not alter the flavour of the juice. A series of paired comparison tests were performed by 30 naive panellists to determine the influence of orange juice colour on flavour intensity, sweetness, and sourness. Then, 100 orange juice consumers were asked to rate expected liking of orange juice samples initially by visual evaluation and subsequently for actual liking upon consumption, using a labelled affective magnitude scale. Results: Results of pair comparison tests indicated that colour changes did not affect flavour intensity and sweetness, but the greenish hue (GOJ) significantly increased the perceived sourness. Results of the consumers’ study indicated significant differences in expected liking between the orange juice samples, with ROJ having the highest expected liking. However, scores of actual liking after consumption were not significantly different. COJ and GOJ showed a significant increase in actual liking compared to expected liking. Conclusions: This study shed light on how slight variations in orange juice hue (reddish to greenish hues) affect the perceived flavour intensity, sweetness, and sourness, and the expected and actual liking of orange juice

Resolution of practical cases in small groups in the teaching of “general and analytical chemistry” subject of degree in pharmacy

El Proyecto realizado por el equipo docente del Departamento de Química Analítica de la Facultad de Farmacia de Sevilla, ha utilizado la técnica de enseñanza en pequeños grupos (EPG) que constituye una faceta esencial en la renovación de las metodologías docentes para la incorporación y adaptación de las enseñanzas universitarias al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. La actividad propuesta se ha llevado a cabo en la asignatura “Química General y Analítica” del Grado en Farmacia. Con el objetivo de mejorar el aprendizaje del alumno y fomentar el trabajo en equipo del mismo, se ha subdividido en tres cada uno de los seis grupos asignados a “Clases Prácticas en el aula”, logrando un número de alumnos presentes en la misma (20 alumnos) que permite la impartición de la docencia con una dinámica distinta a la lección magistral. La actividad desarrollada ha tenido una gran acogida por parte de los alumnos donde un alto porcentaje de los mismos consigue superar sin grandes dificultades el apartado del examen destinado a casos prácticos.The Project developed by the Educational Team of the Department of Analytical Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy, Seville), has used the technique of Small Groups Learning (SGL) that constitutes an essential facet in the renovation of the educational methodologies for the incorporation and adaptation of the university lessons to the European Space for Higher Education. The proposed activity has been carried out in the “General and Analytical Chemistry” subject of the Degree in Pharmacy. With the aim of improving the learning of the student and fomenting the work in equipment of the same, it has been subdivided in three each one of the six assigned groups to “Practical exercises in the classroom”, obtaining a number of present students in the same (20 students) that allows the imparting of teaching with a dynamic different from the magisterial lesson. The developed activity has presented a great reception by the students and a high percentage of the same is able to surpass without great difficulties the section of the examination destined to practical cases

Overview of recent TJ-II stellarator results

The main results obtained in the TJ-II stellarator in the last two years are reported. The most important topics investigated have been modelling and validation of impurity transport, validation of gyrokinetic simulations, turbulence characterisation, effect of magnetic configuration on transport, fuelling with pellet injection, fast particles and liquid metal plasma facing components. As regards impurity transport research, a number of working lines exploring several recently discovered effects have been developed: the effect of tangential drifts on stellarator neoclassical transport, the impurity flux driven by electric fields tangent to magnetic surfaces and attempts of experimental validation with Doppler reflectometry of the variation of the radial electric field on the flux surface. Concerning gyrokinetic simulations, two validation activities have been performed, the comparison with measurements of zonal flow relaxation in pellet-induced fast transients and the comparison with experimental poloidal variation of fluctuations amplitude. The impact of radial electric fields on turbulence spreading in the edge and scrape-off layer has been also experimentally characterized using a 2D Langmuir probe array. Another remarkable piece of work has been the investigation of the radial propagation of small temperature perturbations using transfer entropy. Research on the physics and modelling of plasma core fuelling with pellet and tracer-encapsulated solid-pellet injection has produced also relevant results. Neutral beam injection driven Alfvénic activity and its possible control by electron cyclotron current drive has been examined as well in TJ-II. Finally, recent results on alternative plasma facing components based on liquid metals are also presentedThis work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014–2018 under Grant Agreement No. 633053. It has been partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Inovación y Universidades of Spain under projects ENE2013-48109-P, ENE2015-70142-P and FIS2017-88892-P. It has also received funds from the Spanish Government via mobility grant PRX17/00425. The authors thankfully acknowledge the computer resources at MareNostrum and the technical support provided by the Barcelona S.C. It has been supported as well by The Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), Project P-507F

Geographical differentiation of saffron by GC-MS/FID and chemometrics

The volatile compounds of saffron of different origins were investigated to check their suitability as markers of geographic differentiation. A total of 247 saffron samples from Greece (40 samples), Iran (84 samples), Italy (60 samples) and Spain (63 samples) which were harvested in 2006 were analysed using ultrasound-assisted extraction, gas chromatography followed by mass spectrometry and flame ionisation. All regions were easily differentiated by canonical discriminant analysis. The percentages of correct classification and validation were 96.4 and 94.3%, respectively. These investigations showed the potential of saffron volatiles to discriminate saffron samples with different geographical origins

Chemokine receptor oligomerization to tweak chemotactic responses

Chemokine receptors guide cell migration by responding to local chemokine gradients during immune surveillance and inflammation. Similar to other G protein-coupled receptors, chemokine receptors can form oligomeric complexes that might have distinct pharmacological and biochemical properties as compared to their individual constituents. The majority of evidence for chemokine receptor oligomers came from transfected cells using tagged receptors to monitor their close proximity or physical association. However, translation of these observations to (patho)-physiological consequences is puzzling for the majority of chemokine receptor oligomers due to experimental limitations and challenges to distinguish oligomer- from downstream signaling-mediated crosstalk. Recent methodological advances allow in situ validation of chemokine receptor oligomers in native cells, disruption of oligomers, and detection of oligomer-mediated signaling. Chemokine receptor oligomerization modulates cell migration in (patho)-physiology and consequently offers novel therapeutic targets