Effect of Sulphur Fertilization on Yield and Quality of Wheat Grain

The influence of sulphur fertilization on plant dry weight, grain yield and quality of wheat grain (var. Mulan) was investigated. Wheat was grown in the small plot field experiments conducted in 2011–2012. At the beginning of tillering, the regenerative sulphur fertilization increased dry plant weight and sulphur concentration in dry matter by 28.1–43.2%. Sulphur application reduced the number of unproductive tillers and increased the number of ears per unit area by 10–70%. The highest grain yield was achieved after the application of solid fertilizers YaraBela SULFAN and fertilizer YaraVita Thiotrac applied in the late growing stages. Sulphur fertilization slightly improved the values of grain specific weight, protein content and Zeleny sedimentation volume, but the effect was not significant. The effect of fertilizer application significantly differed between the studied years

Realtionship between protein content, bread-making quality and wheat endosperm microstructure

Microstructure is an organization of structural elements and enables to understand the connections between microstructure – physical properties – food quality. The main composite of the wheat endosperm is starch and the dried endosperm consists of cells filled by the protein and starch grains. The aim of work was to define the relationship between wheat endosperm microstructure, protein content and bread-making quality. Winter wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum L.) of different bread-making quality were divided into 6 groups in agreement with the visual evaluation of the microstructure. Criteria were coherence, thickness of the protein matrix and immersion of the starch grains into protein matrix. Significantly lower protein content and inferior bread-making was found for endosperm in which the starch grains were not visually recognized, protein matrix was discontinuous, thick and 2D. Conversely the higher protein content and better bread-making quality could be associated with thin protein matrix

One health behaviour or many health-related behaviors?

Jana Marie Havigerová, Jaroslava Dosedlová, Iva Burešová Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk Univeristy, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic Objective: Of the many existing health models, models of health behavior are considered optimal for research and application as they focus on concrete forms of behavior that support, maintain, or undermine one’s health, and they accentuate the individual as the initiator of this behavior. Research in this area follows a broad range of concrete partial manifestations of health behavior. Is it necessary to differentiate between various types of health behavior or could these partial manifestations be combined under one common scale? Methods: Data acquisition tool: Health-Related Behavior Scale (HRBS, 42 items). Data processing methods: principal component analysis (the internal structure of HRBS), confirmatory factor analysis (the latent factor structure of four tested models). Sample: N=1,664 adult respondents. Results: The HRBS described ten areas of health-related behavior (ten extracted factors). All tested models of latent structure showed almost identical mathematical and statistical values of the model. Conclusion: Health-related behavior includes a set of partial behaviors (behavior related to nutrition, addictive substances, movement, and physical exercises). An unambiguous latent factor structure has not been revealed. An open question remains whether there is one latent factor behind all health-related behaviors or whether there are multiple latent factors. The use of one or the other model should be deduced from the underlying theory and research objectives. To find a reliable model of health behavior, it is necessary to include moderators and mediators such as personality, attitude, or economic status. Keywords: health-related behavior, model, latent variable analysi

Practical application of size-exclusion high performance liquid chromatography in wheat analysis

The work was conducted to determine the practical applicability of size-exclusion high performance liquid chromatography in testing wheat bread-making quality and specify which of the peak characteristics, is the best indicator of wheat quality. The research was realized on 29 cultivars of different quality. The wheat quality was evaluated by protein content, content of wet gluten, gluten index, and farinograph rheological characteristics. All of the determined peak characteristics can be used as the indicators of wheat quality but the closest correlations with the quality parameters were found for the absolute peak areas and/or relative peak areas. The area of peak 1 was positively correlated with the dough stability (r = 0.50) and negatively correlated with the degree of dough softening (r = −0.49). The relative and absolute areas of the peak 2 were in positive correlation with sedimentation volume (r = 0.68; 0.68), farinograph water absorption (r = 0.50; 0.57) and protein content (r = 0.56; 0.57). The characteristics of peaks 3 and 4 were in the closest correlation with the investigated parameters of bread-making quality, the correlation coefficients related to the peaks 3 and 4 were nearly equal and reached values 0.58–0.77. The peak height can be used as a supplemental wheat quality indicator especially for determination of certain glutenin subunits. The area/height ratio or the contents of protein fractions are of the minor importance. Then the model predicting bread-making quality from peak characteristics was built. The values of coefficients of determination R2 were the highest for Zeleny sedimentation volume (0.83–0.97). The agreement between predicted and observed values increased when not single characteristics, but their combinations were considered

Prediction of protein fractions distribution in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) mill products

The research was conducted to describe distribution of protein fractions in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) mill products (semolina, flour and bran) and evaluate the possibility of prediction of protein fractions distribution from values of bread-making quality (protein and gluten content, Zeleny sedimentation volume) evaluated on wholemeal and specific flour. The content of protein fractions was determined by size-exclusion high performance liquid chromatography. Significantly highest glutenin content was found in flour (5.01%). The investigated mill products did not differ in gliadin content, the content of albumin/globulin fraction reached the highest values in bran (3.60%). The model of prediction of glutenin and gliadin content in mill products explained 31–62% and 83–92% of the original variability. The protein fractions distribution in wheat mill products could be satisfactorily predicted from known values of protein and gluten content evaluated on wholemeal and Zeleny sedimentation volume evaluated on specific flour

Present status of sensitive detector of reactor’s antineutrinos using scintillating detectors

In 2011, the reanalysis of the reactor antineutrinos spectra led to the formulation of the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly (RAA) [1], which indicates the discrepancy between measured and expected antineutrino fluxes on short baselines. This discrepancy appears to favor the existence of the fourth “sterile” neutrino with |Δm2|>1 eV2. To confirm or reject this hypothesis a high sensitive antineutrino detector located close to the reactor is required. In addition to that such a detector could be used to online monitor the isotopic composition of the reactor core and to prevent illegal production and removal of239Pu, which is the essential part of nuclear weapons.Detector DANSSino [2] already proved that even a compact antineutrino detector (∼ 1 m3) based on polystyrene is capable of antineutrino detection in the close vicinity of a reactor core (∼ 10 m) with signal to background ratio about one. As a common activity between JINR Dubna and IEAP CTU a new prototype of detector (called S3) has been proposed and is under construction. The construction design, selected results of Monte Carlo simulations and results of benchmark tests are presented