An electronic nose as a non-destructive analytical tool to identify the geographical origin of Portuguese olive oils from two adjacent regions

The geographical traceability of extra virgin olive oils (EVOO) is of paramount importance for oil chain actors and consumers. Oils produced in two adjacent Portuguese regions, Côa (36 oils) and Douro (31 oils), were evaluated and fulfilled the European legal thresholds for EVOO categorization. Compared to the Douro region, oils from Côa had higher total phenol contents (505 versus 279 mg GAE/kg) and greater oxidative stabilities (17.5 versus 10.6 h). The majority of Côa oils were fruity-green, bitter, and pungent oils. Conversely, Douro oils exhibited a more intense fruity-ripe and sweet sensation. Accordingly, different volatiles were detected, belonging to eight chemical families, from which aldehydes were the most abundant. Additionally, all oils were evaluated using a lab-made electronic nose, with metal oxide semiconductor sensors. The electrical fingerprints, together with principal component analysis, enabled the unsupervised recognition of the oils’ geographical origin, and their successful supervised linear discrimination (sensitivity of 98.5% and specificity of 98.4%; internal validation). The E-nose also quantified the contents of the two main volatile chemical classes (alcohols and aldehydes) and of the total volatiles content, for the studied olive oils split by geographical origin, using multivariate linear regression models (0.981 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.998 and 0.40 ≤ RMSE ≤ 2.79 mg/kg oil; internal validation). The E-nose-MOS was shown to be a fast, green, non-invasive and cost-effective tool for authenticating the geographical origin of the studied olive oils and to estimate the contents of the most abundant chemical classes of volatiles.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020), to CEB (UIDB/04469/2020) and to the Associate Laboratory SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020). The authors are also grateful to the “Project OLIVECOA—Centenarian olive trees of Côa Valley region: rediscovering the past to valorize the future” (ref. COA/BRB/0035/2019), financed by FCT (Portugal). Nuno Rodrigues thanks the National funding by FCT- Foundation for Science and Technology, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Supporting internet protocols in master-slave fieldbus networks

In this paper we describe how to integrate Internet Protocols (IP) into a typical hierarchical master-slave fieldbus network, supporting a logical ring token passing mechanism between master stations. The integration of the TCP/IP protocols in the fieldbus protocol rises a number of issues that must be addressed properly. In this paper we particularly address the issues related to the conveyance of IP fragments in fieldbus frames (fragmentation/de-fragmentation) and on how to support the symmetry inherent to the TCP/IP protocols in fieldbus slaves, which lack communication initiative

Electrochemical Reduction of CO2: Influence of Pre-treating the Carbon Support

The production of useful chemicals by electroreducing CO2 it is a promising approach to reduce the levels of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. This is not a straightforward process due to the high stability of the CO2 molecule and low selectivity however, these barriers can be overcome by using an appropriate catalyst. This research focus on the effect of pre-treating the carbon supports before incorporating the catalyst on the electroreduction of CO2. We found that the electrochemical behaviour of the carbon supports is modified by the nature of the pre-treatment used. From the structure perspective, the results showed partial destruction of the carbon structure mainly after the oxidative treatments nevertheless, the introduction of defect sites in the carbon structure contributed to catalyst performance. This improvement was proved by the LSV data that showed the reduction of the current associated with the hydrogen reduction reaction

Moderate Electric Fields application as a biotechnological tool in food processing

BioTech 2017 and 7th Czech-Swiss Symposium with Exhibition[Excerpt] Moderate Electric Fields (MEF) provide a uniform, rapid and energetically very efficient means of processing foods (mostly by heat). This has been known for over a century and has finally found its place among food processors, as MEF industrial equipments are being installed worldwide in growing numbers and in a variety of applications. This happened after technological issues such as electrode corrosion and adequate temperature and power control systems were solved. [...]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Photoswitchable Chalcone-Carbohydrate Conjugate Obtained by CuAAC Click Reaction

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.Flavylium/Chalcone-based molecular switches comprise features such as pH-gated photochromism and fluorescence properties that make them attractive for many applications, ranging from stimuli-responsive materials to photopharmacology. However, in contrast to other common photoswitches, the application of flavylium compounds in these areas remains largely unexplored. Among other possible reasons, this may be due to the lack of general strategies to attach these molecules to substrates such as polymers, nanoparticles, biomolecules, or surfaces. In this work, we have shown that a copper (I) catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) can be employed to obtain a chalcone conjugate. We used an isosorbide carbohydrate to demonstrate this strategy and investigated the photochemical properties of the chalcone-isosorbide conjugate. The obtained results show that the photochemical properties of this new compound are similar to other equivalent flavylium/chalcone photoswitches, confirming the feasibility of the conjugation strategy.publishersversionpublishe

Extraction of pigments from microalgae and cyanobacteria - A review on current methodologies

Pigments from microalgae and cyanobacteria have attracted great interest for industrial applications due to their bioactive potential and their natural product attributes. These pigments are usually sold as extracts, to overcome purification costs. The extraction of these compounds is based on cell disruption methodologies and chemical solubility of compounds. Different cell disruption methodologies have been used for pigment extraction, such as sonication, homogenization, high-pressure, CO2 supercritical fluid extraction, enzymatic extraction, and some other promising extraction methodologies such as ohmic heating and electric pulse technologies. The biggest constrain on pigment bioprocessing comes from the installation and operation costs; thus, fundamental and applied research are still needed to overcome such constrains and give the microalgae and cyanobacteria industry an opportunity in the world market. In this review, the main extraction methodologies will be discussed, taking into account the advantages and disadvantages for each kind of pigment, type of organism, cost, and final market.Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) under the auspices of Operational Program Human Capital (POCH), supported by the European Social Fund and Portuguese funds (MECTES); as well as by the national funds through FCT within the scope of UIDB/04423/2020, UIDP/04423/2020 and UIDB/04469/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Structural characterization of heat-induced β-lactoglobulin nanohydrogels under the effects of selected physical conditions

The 19th Gums & Stabilisers for the Food Industry Conference: Hydrocolloid multifunctionalityβ-Lactoglobulin (β-Lg) is the major protein fraction in bovine whey serum (ca. 50% of its protein content). It is a bio-based and a Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) material, with a high nutritional value, that can be used to encapsulate nutraceuticals essentially due to its gelation capacity, which allows the formation of nanohydrogels. Furthermore, β-Lg displays a high binding capacity, under specific environmental conditions and it is resistant to proteolytic degradation in the stomach. These features make of β-Lg an excellent bio-based material to be used as carrier of nutraceuticals. The objective of this work was to understand the impact of different conditions (β-Lg concentration and heating times) in the physical properties of β-Lg nanohydrogels. In this study, β-Lg at various concentration (5, 10 and 15 mg·mL-1 ), were solubilized in 25 mM of sodium phosphate buffer (at pH 6) and heated at 80 °C for several holding time periods (5, 15 and 25 min). The protein structures formed were then characterized in terms of their stability, morphology, polydispersity index, size and surface charge. Stable nanohydrogels were obtained at pH 6, when treated at 80 ºC for heating periods longer than 15 min, characterized by a low polydispersity (< 0.2). At these conditions, nanohydrogels showed increasing particle size values, ranging from 50 nm to 110 nm, and surface charge from -15 mV to -20 mV, as β-Lg concentration increased. Nanohydrogels prepared at the same conditions, but treated for shorter periods of time, showed to be unstable, characterized by higher polydispersity (≥ 0.5) and surface charges of - 7 mV, independently of the β-Lg concentration used. The results obtained in this study represent a significant contribute to enrich the knowledge about the impact of several environmental conditions on β-Lg nanohydrogel characteristics and thus in the desired properties intended for their final application.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI - 01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte 2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norteinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Electronic nose: a tool to verify the PDO declaration of Portuguese olive oils

The volatile and olfactory profiles of three Portuguese olive oils with protected designations of origin (PDO) were studied: "Azeite do Alentejo Interior", "Azeites da Beira Interior", and "Azeite de Tras-os-Montes". Seven classes of volatiles were identified, with aldehydes, followed by hydrocarbons and alcohols, the most prevalent (5.63, 2.92, and 2.79 mg/kg olive oil, respectively). The "Azeites da Beira Interior" oils exhibited the highest amount of volatiles (18.2 +/- 4.6 mg/kg olive oil) compared to the oils from the other two PDOs. Ten positive olfactory sensations were detected, and a significant effect of the PDO on the intensities of fruity, apple, cabbage, tomato, dry and fresh herbs was observed. Specifically, "Azeite do Alentejo Interior" PDO oils were characterized as fruity-ripe, while "Azeite de Tras-os-Montes" PDO oils were labelled as fruity-green. Conversely, "Azeites da Beira Interior" PDO oils encompassed both fruity-ripe and fruity-green oils. Unique volatile and olfactory fingerprints were established for each PDO, allowing the linear discrimination of the oils according to the PDO, with a predictive sensitivity of 98.0 +/- 4.2% (repeated K-fold-CV). Furthermore, a lab-made electronic nose successfully discriminated the studied oils based on the PDO, with a predictive accuracy of 99.7 +/- 2.0% (repeated K-fold-CV). This device also allowed predicting the concentrations of the three main volatile classes found in the oils through multiple linear regression models (R2 >= 0.923 +/- 0.101 and RMSE <= 1.32 +/- 0.72 mg/kg oil; repeated K-fold-CV). These findings underscore the potential of the electronic nose as a reliable traceability tool to authenticate the PDO declaration of Portuguese olive oils, and broaden its use beyond non-PDO oils from a specific geographical area to encompass a national scale.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020, https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/00690/2020; and UIDP/00690/2020, https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDP/00690/2020) and CEB (UIDB/04469/2020) units as well as to the Associate Laboratory SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020, https://doi.org/10.54499/LA/P/0007/2020). The authors are also grateful to the "Project OLIVE4ALL-Olive Heritage for Sustainable Development: Raising Community Awareness of Living Heritage" (ref. JPICH/0001/2020, https://doi.org/10.54499/JPICH/0001/2020), financed by FCT (Portugal). Nuno Rodrigues thanks the FCT- Foundation for Science and Technology, P.I., for the National funding through the institutional program contract for scientific employment. Nuno Ferreiro also acknowledges the Ph.D. research grant (2022.10072.BD) provided by FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Empowerment of the Community of Cisantana as a buffer village of Gunung Ciremai National Park through Ecotourism Program

Kesejahteraan masyarakat desa penyangga merupakan faktor yang mempengaruhi kelestarian Taman Nasional Gunung Ciremai (TNGC). Salah satu upaya yang dapat dilakukan adalah pemberdayaan masyarakat dengan mengembangkan dan mengelola wisata alam melalui pola kemitraan. Oleh karena itu perlu dilakukan penelitian di desa penyangga yaitu Desa Cisantana dengan tujuan; mengkaji potensi pengembangan Objek dan Daya Tarik Wisata Alam (ODTWA), mengidentifikasi tingkat pengaruh dan kepentingan pemangku kepentingan, menganalisis manfaat dan tren pengembangan wisata alam, serta strategi pengembangan dan pengelolaan ODTWA. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan wawancara, observasi, dan penelusuran kepustakaan. Analisis yang digunakan; ADO ODTWA (Analisi Daerah Operasional-Objek Daya Tarik Wisata Alam), Analisis Tingkat Pengaruh dan Kepentingan Stakeholder, dan Analisis Deskriptif Kualitatif. ODTWA bumi perkemahan Palutungan layak untuk dikembangkan. Balai TNGC dan Koperasi Alam Citra Mandiri adalah pemain kunci. Program kemitraan memberikan manfaat sosial ekonomi bagi masyarakat Desa Cisantana. Strategi pengembangan dan pengelolaan ODTWA dapat mengadopsi Model Pentahelix, yang mendorong penguatan kolaborasi pariwisata melalui optimalisasi peran BGCAM. Keterlibatan pihak swasta dalam pengembangan produk wisata di ODTWA diperlukan tetapi harus didominasi oleh masyarakat lokal.The welfare of the buffer village community is a factor that affects the sustainability of Gunung Ciremai National Park (GCNP). One of the efforts that can be made is empowering the community by developing and managing nature tourism through a partnership pattern. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct research in buffer villages, namely Cisantana Village, with the objectives are; assessing the potential for developing Objects and Natural Tourism Attraction (ONTA), identifying the level of influence and importance of stakeholders, analyzing the benefits and trends of natural tourism development, and strategies for developing and managing ONTA. Data collection was done by interview, observation, and library search. The analysis used; ADO ODTWA (Analysis of Operational Areas-ONTA), Analysis of the Level of Influence and Importance of Stakeholders, and Qualitative Descriptive Analysis. ONTA of Palutungan campground is worth developing. GNCP Office Center and Koperasi Alam Citra Mandiri are key players. The partnership program provides socio-economic benefits for the people of Cisantana Village. The ONTA development and management strategy can adopt the Pentahelix Model, which encourages the strengthening of tourism collaboration through optimizing the roles of BGCAM. The involvement of the private sector in product development in ONTA is required but must be dominated by the local community

Microalgae biomass as an alternative source of biocompounds: New insights and future perspectives of extraction methodologies

Microalgae have characteristics that make them unique and full of potential. Their capacity to generate interesting bioactive molecules can add value to various industrial applications. However, most of these valuable compounds are intracellular, which makes their extraction a major bottleneck. Conventional extraction methodologies have some drawbacks, such as low eco-friendly character, high costs and energy demand, long treatment times, low selectivity and reduced extraction yields, as well as degradation of extracted compounds. The gaps found for these methods demonstrate that emergent approaches, such as ohmic heating, pulsed electric fields, ionic liquids, deep eutectic solvents, or high-pressure processing, show potential to overcome the current drawbacks in the release and extraction of added-value compounds from microalgae. These new processing techniques can potentially extract a variety of compounds, making the process more profitable and applicable to large scales. This review provides an overview of the most important and promising factors to consider in the extraction methodologies applied to microalgae. Additionally, it delivers broad knowledge of the present impact of these methods on biomass and its compounds, raising the possibility of applying them in an integrated manner within a biorefinery concept.Vitor Sousa acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for their fellowship UI/BD/151238/2021. This study was supported by the FCT under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 and UIDP/04469/2020 unit, by LABBELS – Associate Laboratory in Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Microelectromechanical Systems (LA/P/0029/2020). This research work was supported by ALGAVALOR - Lisboa-01-0247-FEDER-035234, supported by Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE2020), Lisbon Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa 2020) and Algarve Regional Operational Programme (Algarve 2020) under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This work was funded by NORTE2020 Funds through the SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH - “STRUCTURED R & D & I PROJECTS” - HORIZON EUROPE under the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000070. Ricardo Pereira and Oscar Dias acknowledge FCT for the Assistant Research contract obtained under CEEC Individual 2017 and 2018, respectively.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio