Margarine quality monitoring based on reflectance spectroscopy

Margarine is a term that can indicate any of a wide range of butter substitutes. Due the raw material great diversity, margarine end-product quality characteristics are expected to be highly diversified. This article proposes the use of reflectance UV-VIS-SWNIR spectroscopy to monitor the margarine end-product quality properties. The main effort in this work was the development of a fast monitoring procedure to assess the quality of the manufactured margarines. The study was performed on two margarine products: regular margarine (<80% fat) and reduced-fat margarine (<60% fat). The nine product samples were collected during the production line normal operating conditions on different days. The samples had the surface cleaned in order to remove any sign of oxidized material. Then, spectra were collected by a reflectance probe normal to the sample surface. The samples temperature was recorded (10.0± 2.0ºC) and the probe-sample distance was kept constant for all the samples. The integration time was set to 40s for the collection of the five UV/VIS spectra per samples; the three VIS/NIR spectra per sample were collected using a 10s integration time. The data analysis was performed on each product and for each spectral range independently. The spectra were normalized by its maximum intensity and the corrected for using a robust multiplicative scatter correction algorithm. A principal component analysis was performed to the pre-process spectra and the multivariate statistical process control limits were determined with bootstrap for each product/spectral range. Results show that UV-VIS-SWNIR reflectance spectroscopy provides a quick and fast assessment of these products characteristics and thus it can be used as an indication of the overall product variability with can be plotted into a multivariate control chart

Sistemas computacionais para a previsão da qualidade e segurança alimentar : evolução e sistemas complexos

Os sistemas computacionais para a previsão da qualidade e segurança alimentar assumem hoje maior relevância na prototipagem e simulação da cadeia de distribuição (e.g. gestão do armazenamento, transporte e exposição). Este artigo descreve a evolução dos sistemas de previsão até aos actuais sistemas baseados em sistemas complexos (SC), para avaliar o impacto na qualidade e segurança dos alimento

Sistemas computacionais para a previsão da qualidade e segurança alimentar : uma perspectiva de sistemas complexos

Os sistemas computacionais para a previsão da qualidade e segurança alimentar assumem hoje maior relevância na prototipagem e simulação da cadeia de distribuição (e.g. gestão do armazenamento, transporte e exposição). Este manuscrito descreve a evolução dos sistemas de previsão até aos actuais sistemas baseados em sistemas complexos (SC), para avaliar o impacto na qualidade e segurança dos alimentos.Univ. do Minho e IST-ISR; FEDER

Monitoring goat milk quality during pasteurisation and ohmic treatment using UV-VIS-SWNIR spectroscopy

This study evaluates the effectiveness of UV-VIS-SWNIR spectroscopy of goat milk quality degradation during pasteurisation and ohmic heating, being performed on: i) raw goat milk; ii) non-processed milk but passing though pumps, pasteurizer and ohmic heater; and iii) processed milk by pasteurisation and ohmic heating. Spectra were collected by a transmittance probe for UV-VIS and UV-NIR wavelengths. The samples temperature was recorded (18.0 ± 2.0oC) and the probe was always checked for bubble formation or fat residues on lens/mirror system. The integration time was set to 25s and 4s for the collection of UV-VIS and VIS-NIR spectra respectively. Data analysis was performed on each product and for each spectral range independently. The spectra were normalized by its maximum intensity and the corrected for using a robust multiplicative scatter correction algorithm. A principal component analysis was performed to the pre-processed spectra. Results show that UV-VIS-SWNIR reflectance spectroscopy provides a quick and fast assessment of goat milk characteristics and thus it can be used as an indication of the overall product variability, allowing to develop monitoring and control models for both pasteurisation and ohmic heating of goat milk.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)EDERPRIME progra

Monitorização da qualidade do leite de cabra durante a pasteurização e processamento óhmico usando sensores de fibra óptica

Este estudo avalia a viabilidade da espectroscopia UVVIS- SWNIR na degradação da qualidade do leite de cabra durante a pasteurização e aquecimento Ohmico. Foram utilizados: i) leite de cabra cru; ii) leite não processado, mas passado pelas bombas do pasteurizador e aquecimento Ohmico; e iii) leite processado por pasteurização e aquecimento Ohmico. Os espectros são recolhidos por sensor de fibra óptica em comprimentos de onda UVVIS e UV-SWNIR. As amostras foram realizadas a uma temperatura de (18±2.0ºC), e os dados foram registados em cada produto e para cada gama espectral. Os espectros das amostras foram então normalizados e corrigidos usando o algoritmo de correcção da robusta da dispersão de radiação, sendo depois decomposto utilizando o algoritmo de decomposição de valores singulares relevantes. Os resultados demonstram que a espectroscopia de refletância dá-nos uma avaliação rápida das características do leite de cabra em vários cenários de produção, sendo um execelente sensor para a monitorização e automatização do processamento de lacticínios, em especial para o desenvolvimento da monitorização e controlo com a utilização de software de Tecnometria

A Hippocampus-Accumbens Tripartite Neuronal Motif Guides Appetitive Memory in Space

Retrieving and acting on memories of food-predicting environments are fundamental processes for animal survival. Hippocampal pyramidal cells (PYRs) of the mammalian brain provide mnemonic representations of space. Yet the substrates by which these hippocampal representations support memory-guided behavior remain unknown. Here, we uncover a direct connection from dorsal CA1 (dCA1) hippocampus to nucleus accumbens (NAc) that enables the behavioral manifestation of place-reward memories. By monitoring neuronal ensembles in mouse dCA1→NAc pathway, combined with cell-type selective optogenetic manipulations of input-defined postsynaptic neurons, we show that dCA1 PYRs drive NAc medium spiny neurons and orchestrate their spiking activity using feedforward inhibition mediated by dCA1-connected parvalbumin-expressing fast-spiking interneurons. This tripartite cross-circuit motif supports spatial appetitive memory and associated NAc assemblies, being independent of dorsal subiculum and dispensable for both spatial novelty detection and reward seeking. Our findings demonstrate that the dCA1→NAc pathway instantiates a limbic-motor interface for neuronal representations of space to promote effective appetitive behavior

Building a Portuguese Coalition for Biodiversity Genomics

The diverse physiography of the Portuguese land and marine territory, spanning from continental Europe to the Atlantic archipelagos, has made it an important repository of biodiversity throughout the Pleistocene glacial cycles, leading to a remarkable diversity of species and ecosystems. This rich biodiversity is under threat from anthropogenic drivers, such as climate change, invasive species, land use changes, overexploitation or pathogen (re)emergence. The inventory, characterization and study of biodiversity at inter- and intra-specific levels using genomics is crucial to promote its preservation and recovery by informing biodiversity conservation policies, management measures and research. The participation of researchers from Portuguese institutions in the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) initiative, and its pilot effort to generate reference genomes for European biodiversity, has reinforced the establishment of Biogenome Portugal. This nascent institutional network will connect the national community of researchers in genomics. Here, we describe the Portuguese contribution to ERGA’s pilot effort, which will generate high-quality reference genomes of six species from Portugal that are endemic, iconic and/or endangered, and include plants, insects and vertebrates (fish, birds and mammals) from mainland Portugal or the Azores islands. In addition, we outline the objectives of Biogenome Portugal, which aims to (i) promote scientific collaboration, (ii) contribute to advanced training, (iii) stimulate the participation of institutions and researchers based in Portugal in international biodiversity genomics initiatives, and (iv) contribute to the transfer of knowledge to stakeholders and engaging the public to preserve biodiversity. This initiative will strengthen biodiversity genomics research in Portugal and fuel the genomic inventory of Portuguese eukaryotic species. Such efforts will be critical to the conservation of the country’s rich biodiversity and will contribute to ERGA’s goal of generating reference genomes for European species.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Neuronal Assembly Detection and Cell Membership Specification by Principal Component Analysis

In 1949, Donald Hebb postulated that assemblies of synchronously activated neurons are the elementary units of information processing in the brain. Despite being one of the most influential theories in neuroscience, Hebb's cell assembly hypothesis only started to become testable in the past two decades due to technological advances. However, while the technology for the simultaneous recording of large neuronal populations undergoes fast development, there is still a paucity of analytical methods that can properly detect and track the activity of cell assemblies. Here we describe a principal component-based method that is able to (1) identify all cell assemblies present in the neuronal population investigated, (2) determine the number of neurons involved in ensemble activity, (3) specify the precise identity of the neurons pertaining to each cell assembly, and (4) unravel the time course of the individual activity of multiple assemblies. Application of the method to multielectrode recordings of awake and behaving rats revealed that assemblies detected in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus typically contain overlapping neurons. The results indicate that the PCA method presented here is able to properly detect, track and specify neuronal assemblies, irrespective of overlapping membership

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016