Combining absolute and relative information in studies on food quality

A common problem in food science concerns the assessment of the quality of food samples. Typically, a group of panellists is trained exhaustively on how to identify different quality indicators in order to provide absolute information, in the form of scores, for each given food sample. Unfortunately, this training is expensive and time-consuming. For this very reason, it is quite common to search for additional information provided by untrained panellists. However, untrained panellists usually provide relative information, in the form of rankings, for the food samples. In this paper, we discuss how both scores and rankings can be combined in order to improve the quality of the assessment

The acclamation consensus state and an associated ranking rule

The study of conditions, under which the existence of an “absolute” best winner can be assured, is a hot topic in the field of social choice. Unanimity is an evident example of a condition under which the winner is obvious. However, many more properties weaker than unanimity have been analysed in literature: the presence of a Condorcet winner, strong stochastic transitivity, the presence of a candidate that Borda dominates all other candidates, etc. Unfortunately, one could easily find a prominent ranking rule, for which the outcome does not agree with these relaxed conditions. In this study, we aim to identify a condition weaker than unanimity, but under which the social outcome is still obvious. This condition, defined as the conjunction of three properties already studied by the present authors and hereinafter referred to as acclamation, will be proven to be a meeting point for the most prominent ranking rules in social choice theory, and will be used for introducing an intuitively appealing ranking rule

The constrained median : a way to incorporate side information in the assessment of food samples

A classical problem in the field of food science concerns the consensus evaluation of food samples. Typically, several panelists are asked to provide scores describing the perceived quality of the samples, and subsequently, the overall (consensus) scores are determined. Unfortunately, gathering a large number of panelists is a challenging and very expensive way of collecting information. Interestingly, side information about the samples is often available. This paper describes a method that exploits such information with the aim of improving the assessment of the quality of multiple samples. The proposed method is illustrated by discussing an experiment on raw Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), where the evolution of the overall score of each salmon sample is studied. The influence of incorporating knowledge of storage days, results of a clustering analysis, and information from additionally performed sensory evaluation tests is discussed. We provide guidelines for incorporating different types of information and discuss their benefits and potential risks

Adding feasibility constraints to a ranking rule under a monotonicity constraint

We propose a new point of view in the long-standing problem where several voters have expressed a linear order relation (or ranking) over a set of candidates. For a ranking a > b > c to represent a group's opinion, it would be logical that the strength with which a > c is supported should not be less than the strength with which either a > b or b > c is supported. This intuitive property can be considered a monotonicity constraint, and has been addressed before. We extend previous approaches in the following way: as the voters are expressing linear orders, we can take the number of candidates between two candidates to be a measure of the degree to which one candidate is preferred to the other. In this way, intensity of support is both counted as the number of voters who indicate a > c is true, as well as the distance between a and c in these voters' rankings. The resulting distributions serve as input for a natural ranking rule that is based on stochastic monotonicity and stochastic dominance. Adapting the previous methodology turns out to be non-trivial once we add some natural feasibility constraints

The acute effect of match-play on hip range of motion and isometric strength in elite tennis players

Background: Groin injuries are some of the most common injuries tennis players suffer. Several factors (e.g., post-match decrease in hip adductor (ADD) strength) have been proposed as possible mechanisms for increasing the incidence of this type of injury. However, the risk factors of developing groin injuries after a tennis match have not yet been delineated. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of tennis match-play on isometric ADD and abductor (ABD) strength and passive hip range of motion (ROM). Methods: Twenty-six male tennis players (20.30 +/- 4.98 years) took part in this study. Participants completed an evaluation of strength and flexibility hip measurements before and after a simulated tennis match. Dominant and non-dominant passive hip ROM, ADD and ABD isometric strength, and the ADD/ABD strength ratio were measured before and immediately post-match. A global positioning system (GPS) and a session rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were used to assess the locomotive demands and internal match load. Results: Isometric dominant ADD strength (17.8%, p <= 0.01) and ADD/ABD strength ratio (11.6%, p = 0.04) were lower post-match compared to the pre-match values. No between-limbs differences were observed for isometric ADD strength, ABD strength, and passive hip ROM tests. RPE showed an expected increase between pre- vs. post-match (pre- vs. post-warming-up, 3.42 +/- 2.08 vs. 5.62 +/- 2.29, p < 0.01). In addition, a significant relationship between ADD strength and the volume of tennis practice per week was found, stablishing that tennis players with lower volume of training per week suffered a reduction in ADD strength in their dominant limb after match-play (r = 0.420, p = 0.04). Conclusion: The assessment of ADD strength and the ADD/ABD strength ratio in the dominant limb may be considered a post-match tool that can be used to identify players who require rest and additional recovery strategies before competing again

¿Pueden los cultivos de cobertura incidir positivamente en los atributos fisicos del suelo?

PósterAl inicio de la experiencia (2010 ), el suelo suelo presentaba más de 40 %de encostramiento superficial y valores muy bajos de infiltración. Frente a esta problemática se plantearon dos secuencias de cultivos, soja contínua (SC) y soja en rotación con cultivos de cobertura (SR) .Asociado a la utilización de 8 años de cultivos de cobertura en SR se encontraron que los indicadores relacionados a la compactación experimentaron cambios positivos (Tabla). Se comprobó estrecha relación entre la conductividad hidráulica del estrato superficial e infiltración (R 2=0,93 )y entre densidad aparente e infiltración (R 2=-0,79 ), encostramiento e infiltración (R 2=-0,80 ).Estos cambios y relaciones entre propiedades edáficas permiten inferir sobre una mejora en los procesos de captación, almacenaje y uso del agua .Cambios positivos bajo SR pero que en cierta manera resultan insuficientes si tenemos en cuenta que aún se registran cierto porcentaje de encostramiento y de raíces limitadas en su crecimiento.EEA AnguilFil: Fernandez, Romina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Anguil; ArgentinaFil: Perez, María Micaela. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Anguil; ArgentinaFil: Quiroga, Alberto. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Anguil; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Agronomía; Argentin

Probabilistic topic modelling in food spoilage analysis : a case study with Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

Probabilistic topic modelling is frequently used in machine learning and statistical analysis for extracting latent information from complex datasets. Despite being closely associated with natural language processing and text mining, these methods possess several properties that make them particularly attractive in metabolomics applications where the applicability of traditional multivariate statistics tends to be limited. The aim of the study was thus to introduce probabilistic topic modelling more specifically, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) in a novel experimental context: volatilome-based (sea) food spoilage characterization. This was realized as a case study, focusing on modelling the spoilage of Atlantic salmon (Salmo solar) at 4 degrees C under different gaseous atmospheres (% CO2/O-2/N-2): 0/0/100 (A), air (B), 60/0/40 (C) or 60/40/0 (D). First, an exploratory analysis was performed to optimize the model tunings and to consequently model salmon spoilage under 100% N-2 (A). Based on the obtained results, a systematic spoilage characterization protocol was established and used for identifying potential volatile spoilage indicators under all tested storage conditions. In conclusion, LDA could be used for extracting sets of underlying VOC profiles and identifying those signifying salmon spoilage, giving rise to an extensive discussion regarding the key points associated with model tuning and/or spoilage analysis. The identified compounds were well in accordance with a previously established approach based on partial least squares regression analysis (PLS). Overall, the outcomes of the study not only reflect the promising potential of LDA in spoilage characterization, but also provide several new insights into the development of data-driven methods for food quality analysis

Phosphate, microbiota and ckd

Phosphate is a key uremic toxin associated with adverse outcomes. As chronic kidney disease (CKD) progresses, the kidney capacity to excrete excess dietary phosphate decreases, triggering compensatory endocrine responses that drive CKD-mineral and bone disorder (CKD-MBD). Eventu-ally, hyperphosphatemia develops, and low phosphate diet and phosphate binders are prescribed. Recent data have identified a potential role of the gut microbiota in mineral bone disorders. Thus, parathyroid hormone (PTH) only caused bone loss in mice whose microbiota was enriched in the Th17 cell-inducing taxa segmented filamentous bacteria. Furthermore, the microbiota was required for PTH to stimulate bone formation and increase bone mass, and this was dependent on bacterial production of the short-chain fatty acid butyrate. We review current knowledge on the relationship between phosphate, microbiota and CKD-MBD. Topics include microbial bioactive compounds of special interest in CKD, the impact of dietary phosphate and phosphate binders on the gut microbiota, the modulation of CKD-MBD by the microbiota and the potential therapeutic use of microbiota to treat CKD-MBD through the clinical translation of concepts from other fields of science such as the optimization of phosphorus utilization and the use of phosphate-accumulating organisms.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 860329, FIS/Fondos FEDER (PI18/01366, PI20/00744, PI19/00815, DTS18/00032, ERA-PerMed-JTC2018 (KIDNEY ATTACK AC18/00064 and PERSTIGAN AC18/00071, ISCIII-RETIC REDinREN RD016/0009), Sociedad Española de Nefrología, FRIAT, Comunidad de Madrid en Biomedicina B2017/BMD-3686 CIFRA2-C