Role of Visual Assessment of High-Quality Cakes in Emotional Response of Consumers

[EN] Thinking of the present gastronomic trends is inevitable when talking about innovation in haute pastry. Launching a successful product that meets consumers' high expectations despite the rising demand for new creations is increasingly complex. For this reason, sensory analysis studies are more and more interested in studying the emotional response evoked by these products to better understand and improve user experiences. The main goal of this work was to conduct a study to analyze the emotional arousal of consumers after the visualization of five haute patisserie cakes. An online questionnaire with the EsSense Profile (R) scale and CATA methodology were used for data collection. The EsSense Profile (R) is a predefined and validated scale that measures food-related emotions, which includes 39 terms. When analyzing the emotions expressed by all the participants, 22 were statistically significant, of which 14 were classified as positive, 6 as neutral, and only 2 were negative. By analyzing the responses by gender, we observed differences in the number of elicited emotional terms: females showed significant differences between cakes for 18 emotion terms compared to 8 terms for males. The results obtained support the importance of the emotional profile to understand consumers' expectations and behavior.Author Cunha acknowledges financial support from National Funds from FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia within the scope of UIDB/05748/2020 and UIDP/05748/2020.Alba-Martínez, J.; Bononad-Olmo, A.; Igual Ramo, M.; Cunha, LM.; Martínez-Monzó, J.; García-Segovia, P. (2022). Role of Visual Assessment of High-Quality Cakes in Emotional Response of Consumers. Foods. 11(10):1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11101412115111

Morteros aligerados con cascarilla de arroz: diseño de mezclas y evaluación de propiedades

En el presente trabajo se analiza la posibilidad de utilizar la cascarilla de arroz con y sin pretratamientos, como una adición en la fabricación de morteros ligeros. Se estudiaron diversos pretratamientos de la cascarilla, tales como el lavado con agua destilada, baño en disolución ácida durante 24 horas, baño en disolución básica durante 24 horas, así como combinaciones y variaciones de los anteriores pretratamientos. Se determinaron propiedades como la densidad, la resistencia a flexión y la resistencia a compresión de los morteros realizados. Finalmente se sometieron a análisis de microscopia electrónica tres de las muestras más representativas. Los resultados muestran que se obtuvieron morteros de muy baja densidad y elevada porosidad que los convierten en candidatos para elaborar materiales de construcción para aislamiento térmico y acústico, pero no para fabricar elementos portantes debido a su baja resistencia mecánica. Se concluye que el tratamiento químico de la cascarilla con reactivos alcalinos y la adición de cloruro cálcico como acelerante del fraguado, son dos propuestas efectivas para la reutilización de estos residuos en morteros aligerados

Effect of silicoaluminous pozzolans on the hydration process of the Portland cement cured at low temperatures

The aim of this paper is to study hydration processes in cement pastes and mortars, blended with either metakaolin (MK) or a catalyst used in catalytic cracking (FCC), and cured at low temperature. The amounts of hydrates and portlandite in pastes have been determined for 3¿28 days curing at 5¿20 C. Microstructural study, using thermogravimetric analysis of the pastes, has shown that FCC acts mainly as a pozzolan at low temperatures (5¿10 C), whereas MK also accelerates Portland cement hydration. Mechanical strengths of a control mortar, and mortars made with 15% replacement of cement by these two pozzolans, have been measured. Both mortars containing pozzolans exhibited a relative increase in compressive strength when cured at 5 C. A limestone filler (LF) has been used to compare the effects of adding inert or pozzolanic materials. Finally, mortars were prepared by partially replacing aggregates with either MK, FCC or LF. The MK and FCC are effective materials even for low curing temperatures, especially when they are used to replace a fraction of the aggregates in mortarsAuthors thanks to Ministerio de Ciencia and Tecnologia of Spain the financial support of project MAT2001-2694 and FEDER funding.Soriano Martinez, L.; Monzó Balbuena, JM.; Bonilla Salvador, MM.; Tashima, MM.; Paya Bernabeu, JJ.; Borrachero Rosado, MV. (2013). Effect of silicoaluminous pozzolans on the hydration process of the Portland cement cured at low temperatures. Cement and Concrete Composites. 42:41-48. doi:10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2013.05.007S41484

Pozzolanic reactivity studies on a miomass-derived waste from sugar cane production: sugar cane straw ash (SCSA)

"This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021%2Facssuschemeng.6b00770.”Biomass has gained in importance as an energy source in recent years. One of the crops that presents interesting opportunities with regard to biomass is sugar cane. In Brazil, sugar cane production is increasing for alcohol and sugar manufacture. Some by-products, such as sugar cane straw, also are obtained during harvesting. Due the calorific value of the sugar cane straw, its use as biomass is increasing. After the straw is burned to produce energy, an ash is obtained: sugar cane straw ash (SCSA). This waste needs an appropriate destination and, since the recent publication of successful studies using biomass derived-ashes as pozzolanic material, the present study aimed to assess the pozzolanic reactivity of sugar cane straw ash. The pozzolanic activity was assessed using a new and simple recently proposed method: evaluation of the electrical conductivity of calcium hydroxide (CH) and pozzolan suspensions, in which solid CH is initially present. These results were compared to those of two other well-established techniques: Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The evaluation by all three techniques is similar and shows that sugar cane straw ash is a good pozzolanic material: high lime fixation values for CH:SCSA mixes were determined by thermogravimetric analysis and unsaturation respect to CH in 3.5:6.5 CH:SCSA suspension was achieved at 60ºC. According to this behaviour, a bright future for SCSA as a replacement for Portland cement is expected.We thank CNPq (processo no. 401724/2013-1) and the "Ministerio de Education, Cultura y Deporte" of Spain ("Cooperacion Interuniversitaria" program with Brazil PHB-2011-0016-PC). Thanks are also due to the Electron Microscopy Service of the Universitat Politecnica de ValenciaMoraes, J.; Melges, JLP.; Akasaki, JL.; Tashima, MM.; Soriano Martínez, L.; Monzó Balbuena, JM.; Borrachero Rosado, MV.... (2016). Pozzolanic reactivity studies on a miomass-derived waste from sugar cane production: sugar cane straw ash (SCSA). ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. 4(8):4273-4279. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6b00770S427342794

Sentinel-2 analysis of flooded areas: applied case study "La Safor wetland, Spain"

[EN] La Safor wetland is a representative coastal wetland in the Valencia Region (eastern Spain, Mediterranean Sea). This wetland is recognized at an international level as a Special Protection Area (SPAs) for birds and a Site of Community Importance (SCIs) (Habitats Directive, European Council Directive). The wetland is located on a detrital plain aquifer which in turn is fed by a karstic aquifer in the near limestone reliefs. The flooded surface is variable and depends on pluviometry among other factors. The objective of this study is to analyse the effects of the flooded surface on land uses by remote sensing and Airborne LiDAR data. Sentinel-2A images processed at level 1C were obtained from Copernicus. LiDAR data was used to detect the most vulnerable areas affected by floods. In the results, we analysed the impact of the maximum flooded surface on land uses. We propose several corrective actions on the drainage net based on our analysis. This methodology can be applied to other wetland areas of similar characteristics. The advantage is the high spatial resolution which makes the methodology suitable for small sized wetlands.Pena-Regueiro, J.; Sebastiá-Frasquet, M.; Aguilar-Maldonado, JA.; Estornell Cremades, J.; Sanchís Blay, JA.; Morell-Monzó, S.; Altur Grau, VJ. (2020). Sentinel-2 analysis of flooded areas: applied case study "La Safor wetland, Spain". WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment (Online). 242:63-70. https://doi.org/10.2495/WP200061S637024

Ultrastructural characteristics of human oocytes vitrified before and after in vitro maturation

The development of an effective program that combines in vitro maturation (IVM) and cryopreservation for immature oocytes would represent a novel advance for in vitro fertilization (IVF), especially as a means to preserve the fertility of women in unique situations. The aim of this study was to analyze the ultrastructural characteristics of human oocytes, obtained after controlled ovarian stimulation, to determine whether IVM is best performed before or after vitrification. To this end, we analyzed the following features in a total of 22 MII oocytes: size, zona pellucida and perivitelline space, mitochondria number, M-SER (mitochondria-smooth endoplasmic reticulum) aggregates and M-V (mitochondria-vesicle) complexes, the number of cortical granules and microvilli, and the presence of vacuolization using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Each oocyte presented a rounded shape, with an intact oolemma, and was surrounded by a continuous zona pellucida and perivitelline space. Statistical analysis comparing oocytes vitrified before or after IVM indicated that there were no significant differences between examined characteristics.This research was supported by the University of Alicante VIGROB-186 and UAUSTI14-04, and by the Chair of Human Fertility of the University of Alicante

Impacto de la intervención con una adaptación grupal del método de musicoterapia BMGIM en pacientes con Enfermedad Inflamatoria Intestinal (Enfermedad de Crohn y COLITIS Ulcerosa)

Las terapias complementarias no farmacológicas han demostrado las mejoras que producen en pacientes crónicos, en especial las terapias psicológicas (Gracie et al., 2017), dentro de las cuales se encuentra la Musicoterapia (MT). Uno de los métodos de Musicoterapia reconocidos a nivel mundial es el método Bonny de Imaginación Guiada con Música (BMGIM), cuya aplicación ha mostrado la mejora al tratar pacientes con ciertas enfermedades crónicas, como artritis reumatoide (Jacobi & Eisenberg, 2001) y fibromialgia (Torres, 2015a, 2015b). Aun así, no hay estudios específicos que evalúen el impacto de un tratamiento basado en una adaptación grupal del BMGIM en pacientes con enfermedad inflamatoria intestinal (EII), concretamente Colitis Ulcerosa (CU y Enfermedad de Crohn (EC), y ese ha sido el objeto de este estudio de tesis doctoral. El objetivo consiste en determinar la eficacia de la intervención con una adaptación grupal del método de MT BMGIM, en la mejora del estado de salud de pacientes con EII (CU y EC).Medicin

Ceramic tiles waste as replacement material in portland cement

Permission is granted by ICE Publishing to print one copy for personal use. Any other use of these PDF files is subject to reprint fees.The pozzolanic reactivity of real ceramic waste from different tile manufacturing companies was evaluated and its suitability as a partial Portland cement replacement was analysed. The raw material was finely ground and physicochemically characterised using X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and laser analysis particle size distribution (ADL). Percentages of ceramic waste (from 15 wt% to 50 wt%) to substitute Portland cement were used to assess this material s pozzolanic behaviour, and samples were cured at 20°C for different curing times. pH tests and conductivity measurements were used to evaluate its pozzolanic character, while mortars were utilised to evaluate compressive strength behaviour. The microstructural evolution of the developed binders was assessed in pastes by XRD, thermal analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and SEM analyses. A strength gain due to pozzolanic activity was observed after 28 d and 90 d curing. The results prove that mortars with up to 35 wt% of tile ceramic waste comply with the requirements established for fly ash pozzolanic materials.The authors are grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for supporting this study through project GEOCEDEM BIA 2011-26947, and also to FEDER funding.Mas, MA.; Monzó Balbuena, JM.; Paya Bernabeu, JJ.; Reig Cerdá, L.; Borrachero Rosado, MV. (2016). Ceramic tiles waste as replacement material in portland cement. Advances in Cement Research. 28:221-232. https://doi.org/10.1680/jadcr.15.00021S2212322