Effects of Chia Seed Levels on Quality and Bio-Functional Profile of Stirred Yoghurt

Yoghurt is considered as a healthy food. Thus, it could convey functional and bioactive ingredients. Chia seeds are of great interest due to their ability to improve consumer health. In this study, chia seeds were added to stirred yoghurt at diff erent doses (1.5, 3, 4.5, or 6%). The effects of chia seeds on physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory qualities were assessed during 28 days of refrigerated storage. The results showed that chia seeds slightly decreased post-acidification, the lowest value was obtained in yogurt with 3% chia seeds (24°D), but syneresis rose significantly (P<0.05) when 6% of chia seeds was added. Furthermore, chia seeds promote viability of yoghurt bacteria, and antioxidant activity reached 62.20±0.02% in yoghurt added with 1.5% chia seeds. However, proteolysis is not affected. The effects of chia seeds were not dose dependent as 4.5% and 6% did not follow trend. These findings were affirmed by sensory characteristics. Thus, stirred yoghurt containing 1.5 or 3% of chia seeds proved to be the most adequate choices

Ability to fatten Tunisian lambs in Sheepfold

L’aptitude à l’engraissement des agneaux de races tunisienne en fonction des régimes alimentaires disponibles est une demande importante voire obligatoire pour nos éleveurs à nos jours afin de trouver une synergie entre le coût de production d’un kg de viande et le prix de vente. Pour cela, on a procédé à réaliser un essai de performances des agneaux de races différentes conduits en bergerie et recevant une ration alimentaire classique à base de foin d’avoine et d’aliment concentré dans la ferme pédagogique de l'École Supérieure d’Agriculture de Mateur. Les résultats obtenus étaient dans les normes en tenant compte de la ration et l’âge des agneaux. L’ingestion moyenne de la matière sèche de foin d’avoine était de 551 g /j/agneau, l’indice de consommation moyen a été de 6,34 Kg MS/Kg de gain de poids, le poids vifs des agneaux évolue d’un semaine à l’autre pour atteindre un poids final de 18,2 kg. Mots clés: Engraissement, race ovine, Tunisie, Indice de consommationThe ability to fatten lambs of Tunisian breeds according to the diets available is an important or even a compulsory demand of our breeders today in order to find a synergy between the cost of production of one kg of meat and the price of sale. For this, we carried out a performance test of lambs of different breeds in sheepfolds and receiving a classic food ration based on oat hay and feed concentrate in the educational farm of the Higher School of Agriculture of Mateur. The obtained results were within the standards taking into account the ration and the age of the lambs. The average dry matter intake of oat hay was 551 g / day / lamb, the average consumption index was 6.34 Kg DM / Kg of weight gain, the live weight of lambs increased weekly to reach a final weight of 18.2 kg. Keywords: Fattening, sheep breed, Tunisia, Consumption inde

Multiple Analytical Approaches Reveal Distinct Gene-Environment Interactions in Smokers and Non Smokers in Lung Cancer

Complex disease such as cancer results from interactions of multiple genetic and environmental factors. Studying these factors singularly cannot explain the underlying pathogenetic mechanism of the disease. Multi-analytical approach, including logistic regression (LR), classification and regression tree (CART) and multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR), was applied in 188 lung cancer cases and 290 controls to explore high order interactions among xenobiotic metabolizing genes and environmental risk factors. Smoking was identified as the predominant risk factor by all three analytical approaches. Individually, CYP1A1*2A polymorphism was significantly associated with increased lung cancer risk (OR = 1.69;95%CI = 1.11–2.59,p = 0.01), whereas EPHX1 Tyr113His and SULT1A1 Arg213His conferred reduced risk (OR = 0.40;95%CI = 0.25–0.65,p<0.001 and OR = 0.51;95%CI = 0.33–0.78,p = 0.002 respectively). In smokers, EPHX1 Tyr113His and SULT1A1 Arg213His polymorphisms reduced the risk of lung cancer, whereas CYP1A1*2A, CYP1A1*2C and GSTP1 Ile105Val imparted increased risk in non-smokers only. While exploring non-linear interactions through CART analysis, smokers carrying the combination of EPHX1 113TC (Tyr/His), SULT1A1 213GG (Arg/Arg) or AA (His/His) and GSTM1 null genotypes showed the highest risk for lung cancer (OR = 3.73;95%CI = 1.33–10.55,p = 0.006), whereas combined effect of CYP1A1*2A 6235CC or TC, SULT1A1 213GG (Arg/Arg) and betel quid chewing showed maximum risk in non-smokers (OR = 2.93;95%CI = 1.15–7.51,p = 0.01). MDR analysis identified two distinct predictor models for the risk of lung cancer in smokers (tobacco chewing, EPHX1 Tyr113His, and SULT1A1 Arg213His) and non-smokers (CYP1A1*2A, GSTP1 Ile105Val and SULT1A1 Arg213His) with testing balance accuracy (TBA) of 0.6436 and 0.6677 respectively. Interaction entropy interpretations of MDR results showed non-additive interactions of tobacco chewing with SULT1A1 Arg213His and EPHX1 Tyr113His in smokers and SULT1A1 Arg213His with GSTP1 Ile105Val and CYP1A1*2C in nonsmokers. These results identified distinct gene-gene and gene environment interactions in smokers and non-smokers, which confirms the importance of multifactorial interaction in risk assessment of lung cancer