Genotype and Successive Harvests Interaction Affects Phenolic Acids and Aroma Profile of Genovese Basil for Pesto Sauce Production

Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is an essential ingredient of the Mediterranean cuisine due to its distinctive aroma. Genovese basil leaves are used to prepare "pesto", a condiment that has always caught the interest of consumers and producers. Usually, basil for industrial processing is harvested more than once to extract a higher yield. However, successive cuts can affect quality traits that play a crucial role in defining the product's final sensory profile. This research was aimed to evaluate the impact of cut on the quantitative and qualitative properties of three Genovese basil cultivars (Aroma 2, Eleonora and Italiano Classico) grown in an open field. Nitrate content, phenolic acids and aromatic profile were determined by ion chromatography (IC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and gas chromatography coupled to a mass spectrometer (GC/MS) analysis, respectively. The second harvest increased fresh biomass and total phenolic acids content by 172% and 413%, respectively, with Italiano Classico recording the highest values. The combination of second-cut Aroma 2 yielded the lowest nitrate (473.8 mg kg-1 of fresh weight) and Eugenol (2.4%) levels. In the second harvest, Eleonora showed an increase in eugenol and trans-α-bergamotene of 75.3% and 48.2%, respectively; whereas, eucalyptol and β-cis-ocimene decreased by 34.4% and 51.6%, respectively. Although successive harvests may increase basil yield and quality overall, the cultivar-dependent response to successive cuts needs to be accounted for in order to accomplish standardization of industrial "pesto" sauce

Protein Hydrolysate Combined with Hydroponics Divergently Modifies Growth and Shuffles Pigments and Free Amino Acids of Carrot and Dill Microgreens

Microgreens are the new sophisticated commodity in horticulture that boost the human diet with bioactive metabolites and garnish it with colors and tastes. Microgreens thrive well when cultivated in soilless systems, of which closed-loop soilless systems combined with biostimulant application can provide a sustainable, innovative method of growing microgreens. Daucus carota L. and Anethum graveolens L. microgreens were grown in greenhouse conditions implementing a floating raft system combined with a protein hydrolysate of leguminous origin as root application (0.3 mL L−1 nutrient solution). Growth, colorimetric parameters, macronutrients, chlorophylls, carotenoids, carbohydrates, free amino acids, and soluble proteins were assessed. The use of a protein hydrolysate in the nutrient solution engendered an increase in anthocyanins (+461.7%) and total phenols (+12.4%) in carrot, while in dill, the fresh yield (+13.5%) and ascorbic acid (+17.2%) increased. In both species, soluble proteins and total free amino acids increased by 20.6% and 18.5%, respectively. The floating raft system proved to be promising for microgreens and can ease the application of biostimulants through root application. Future research should also investigate the yield and nutritional parameter responses of other species of microgreens with the aim of large-scale sustainable production

A Comparative Study of Urban House Price Prediction using Machine Learning Algorithms

Accurate housing price forecasts are essential for several reasons. First, it allows individuals to make informed decisions about buying or selling real estate and to determine appropriate prices. Secondly, it helps real estate agents and investors make better investment decisions and negotiate contracts more effectively. In addition, housing prices are often an indication of the general state of the economy. A price decrease may indicate an economic recession, while an increase in prices may signal economic growth. In this study, we proposed to address this subject by predicting house prices using machine learning by choosing three types of machine learning: Linear Regression (LN), Random Forest (RF) and GradientBoosting (GB). We tested our models on the Melbourne real estate dataset, which includes 34,857 property sales and 21 features

Suppression of Parasitic Nonlinear Processes in Spontaneous Four-Wave Mixing with Linearly Uncoupled Resonators

We report on a signal-to-noise ratio characterizing the generation of identical photon pairs of more than 4 orders of magnitude in a ring resonator system. Parasitic noise, associated with single-pump spontaneous four-wave mixing, is essentially eliminated by employing a novel system design involving two resonators that are linearly uncoupled but nonlinearly coupled. This opens the way to a new class of integrated devices exploiting the unique properties of identical photon pairs in the same optical mode

Internet-based search of randomised trials relevant to mental health originating in the Arab world

BACKGROUND: The internet is becoming a widely used source of accessing medical research through various on-line databases. This instant access to information is of benefit to busy clinicians and service users around the world. The population of the Arab World is comparable to that of the United States, yet it is widely believed to have a greatly contrasting output of randomised controlled trials related to mental health. This study was designed to investigate the existence of such research in the Arab World and also to investigate the availability of this research on-line. METHODS: Survey of findings from three internet-based potential sources of randomised trials originating from the Arab world and relevant to mental health care. RESULTS: A manual search of an Arabic online current contents service identified 3 studies, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO searches identified only 1 study, and a manual search of a specifically indexed, study-based mental health database, PsiTri, revealed 27 trials. CONCLUSION: There genuinely seem to be few trials from the Arab world and accessing these on-line was problematic. Replication of some studies that guide psychiatric/psychological practice in the Arab world would seem prudent

Plant-Derived Biostimulants Differentially Modulate Primary and Secondary Metabolites and Improve the Yield Potential of Red and Green Lettuce Cultivars

The use of biostimulants in modern agriculture has rapidly expanded in recent years, owing to their beneficial effects on crop yield and product quality, which have come under the scope of intensive research. Accordingly, in the present study we appraised the efficacy of two plantderived biostimulants, the legume-derived protein hydrolysates Trainer®® (PH), and the tropical plant extract Auxym®® (TPE) on two lettuce cultivars (green and red salanova®®) in terms of morpho-physiological and biochemical traits (primary and secondary metabolites). The two cultivars differed in their acquisition capacity for nitrate and other beneficial ions, their photosynthetic and transpiration rates, and their ability to synthetize and accumulate organic acids and protective metabolites. The biostimulant effect was significant for almost all the parameters examined but it was subjected to significant cultivar × biostimulant interactions, denoting a cultivardependent response to biostimulant type. Notwithstanding this interaction, biostimulant application could potentially improve the yield and quality of lettuce by stimulating plant physiological processes, as indicated by the SPAD index (leaf chlorophyll index), ACO2 (assimilation rate), E (transpiration), and WUEi (intrinsic water use efficiency), and by increasing concurrently the plant mineral content (total N, K, Ca, Mg) and the biosynthesis of organic acids (malate, citrate), phenols (caffeic acid, coumaroyl quinic acid isomer 1, dicaffeoylquinic acid isomer 1), and flavonoids (quercetin-3-O-glucuronide, quercetin-3-O-glucoside). Biostimulant action may facilitate the bio-enhancement of certain lettuce cultivars that are otherwise limited by their genetic potential, for the accumulation of specific compounds beneficial to human health

Morpho-Metric and Specialized Metabolites Modulation of Parsley Microgreens through Selective LED Wavebands

Plant factories and high-tech greenhouses offer the opportunity to modulate plant growth, morphology and qualitative content through the management of artificial light (intensity, photoperiod and spectrum). In this study, three Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting systems, with blue (B, 460 nm), red (R, 650 nm) and mixed red + green-yellow + blue (RGB) light were used to grow parsley microgreens to understand how light quality could change the phenotype and the profile of secondary metabolites. Plants showed altered morphological characteristics and higher amounts of secondary metabolites under RGB LEDs treatment. The results demonstrated that microgreens under red light showed the highest fresh yield, petiole length, coumaric acid content but also the highest nitrate content. Plants under RGB light showed the highest dry matter percentage and highest content of total and single polyphenols content, while blue light showed the highest ascorbic acid and ABTS antioxidant activity. Moreover, microgreens under red light showed more compact leaves with less intercellular spaces, while under blue and RGB light, the leaves displayed ticker spongy mesophyll with higher percentage of intercellular spaces. Therefore, the specific spectral band was able to modify not only the metabolic profile, but also it could modulate the differentiation of mesophyll cells. Light quality as a preharvest factor helps to shape the final parsley microgreens product as a whole, not only in terms of yield and quality, but also from a morpho-anatomical point of vie