Effects of pulsed electric fields on yield extraction and quality of olive oil

The effect of the application of pulsed electric field (PEF) treatments of different intensities (0–2 kV/cm) on Arbequina olive paste in reference to olive oil extraction at different malaxation times (0, 15, and 30 min) and temperatures (15 and 26 °C) was investigated. The extraction yield improved by 54 % when the olive paste was treated with PEF (2 kV/cm) without malaxation. When the olive paste was malaxated at 26 °C, the application of a PEF treatment did not increase the extraction yield as compared with the control. However, at 15 °C, a PEF treatment of 2 kV/cm improved the extraction yield by 14.1 %, which corresponded with an enhancement of 1.7 kg of oil per 100 kg of olive fruits. The application of a PEF treatment could permit reduction of the malaxation temperature from 26 to 15 °C without impairing the extraction yield. Param-eters legally established (acidity, peroxide value, K232, and K270) to measure the level of quality of the virgin olive oil were not affected by the PEF tres. A sensory analysis revealed that the application of a PEF treatment did not generate any bad flavor or taste in the oil

Dietary Fat Intake and the Risk of Depression: The SUN Project

Emerging evidence relates some nutritional factors to depression risk. However, there is a scarcity of longitudinal assessments on this relationship

Variation in functional leaf traits among beech provenances during a Spanish summer reflects the differences in their origin

We assessed the response of 11-year-old saplings from six beech provenances growing in a common-garden trial at the southwestern range limit. Provenances from distinct climatic regions across the European beech distribution were selected. The local Spanish provenance appeared well suited to the site conditions, maintaining high rates of assimilation even in midsummer, but so did the provenance of southern continental origin, from Gotze-Delchev, Bulgaria. Those provenances from cooler sites in central Europe, a continental mountain climate in the Czech Republic and a continental range-edge site in eastern Poland, along with a German provenance of mild maritime origin, had good physiological functionality in early summer but reduced carbon assimilation (A area) and apparent soil-leaf hydraulic conductivity (K L) in midsummer. The northern maritime provenance from Sweden demonstrated severely-reduced photosynthetic capacity. These groupings of provenances according to their photosynthetic performance, stable carbon isotope composition (δ 13C; a proxy for water-use efficiency) and leaf water potential under marginal conditions, during late summer in the trial, suggest that they have divergent strategies for water use. The research highlights large intraspecific differences among beech provenances of distinct origin and strategies which are expected to modify their response to drought, requiring future genetic studies to explicitly determine the basis of this ecophysiological differentiation