Diversity of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria communities associated with the stages of canola growth

Farina R, Beneduzi A, Ambrosini A, et al. Diversity of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria communities associated with the stages of canola growth. Applied Soil Ecology. 2012;55:44-52

Editorial survey: swarm intelligence for data mining

This paper surveys the intersection of two fascinating and increasingly popular domains: swarm intelligence and data mining. Whereas data mining has been a popular academic topic for decades, swarm intelligence is a relatively new subfield of artificial intelligence which studies the emergent collective intelligence of groups of simple agents. It is based on social behavior that can be observed in nature, such as ant colonies, flocks of birds, fish schools and bee hives, where a number of individuals with limited capabilities are able to come to intelligent solutions for complex problems. In recent years the swarm intelligence paradigm has received widespread attention in research, mainly as Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). These are also the most popular swarm intelligence metaheuristics for data mining. In addition to an overview of these nature inspired computing methodologies, we discuss popular data mining techniques based on these principles and schematically list the main differences in our literature tables. Further, we provide a unifying framework that categorizes the swarm intelligence based data mining algorithms into two approaches: effective search and data organizing. Finally, we list interesting issues for future research, hereby identifying methodological gaps in current research as well as mapping opportunities provided by swarm intelligence to current challenges within data mining research

Changes in Root Bacterial Communities Associated to Two Different Development Stages of Canola (Brassica napus L. var oleifera) Evaluated through Next-Generation Sequencing

Bolzan de Campos S, Youn J-W, Farina R, et al. Changes in Root Bacterial Communities Associated to Two Different Development Stages of Canola (Brassica napus L. var oleifera) Evaluated through Next-Generation Sequencing. Microbial Ecology. 2013;65(3):593-601

Innovative analytical tools to characterize prebiotic carbohydrates of functional food interest

Functional foods are one of the most interesting areas of research and innovation in the food industry. A functional food or functional ingredient is considered to be any food or food component that provides health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Recently, consumers have shown interest in natural bioactive compounds as functional ingredients in the diet owing to their various beneficial effects for health. Water-soluble fibers and nondigestible oligosaccharides and polysaccharides can be defined as functional food ingredients. Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and inulin are resistant to direct metabolism by the host and reach the caecocolon, where they are used by selected groups of beneficial bacteria. Furthermore, they are able to improve physical and structural properties of food, such as hydration, oil-holding capacity, viscosity, texture, sensory characteristics, and shelf-life. This article reviews major innovative analytical developments to screen and identify FOS, inulins, and the most employed nonstarch carbohydrates added or naturally present in functional food formulations. Highperformance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed electrochemical detection (HPAEC-PED) is one of the most employed analytical techniques for the characterization of those molecules. Mass spectrometry is also of great help, in particularly matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization timeof- flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS), which is able to provide extensive information regarding the molecular weight and length profiles of oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. Moreover, MALDI-TOF-MS in combination with HPAEC-PED has been shown to be of great value for the complementary information it can provide. Some other techniques, such as NMR spectroscopy, are also discussed, with relevant examples of recent applications. A number of articles have appeared in the literature in recent years regarding the analysis of inulin, FOS, and other carbohydrates of interest in the field and they are critically reviewed