The genotype-phenotype relationship in multicellular pattern-generating models - the neglected role of pattern descriptors

Background: A deep understanding of what causes the phenotypic variation arising from biological patterning processes, cannot be claimed before we are able to recreate this variation by mathematical models capable of generating genotype-phenotype maps in a causally cohesive way. However, the concept of pattern in a multicellular context implies that what matters is not the state of every single cell, but certain emergent qualities of the total cell aggregate. Thus, in order to set up a genotype-phenotype map in such a spatiotemporal pattern setting one is actually forced to establish new pattern descriptors and derive their relations to parameters of the original model. A pattern descriptor is a variable that describes and quantifies a certain qualitative feature of the pattern, for example the degree to which certain macroscopic structures are present. There is today no general procedure for how to relate a set of patterns and their characteristic features to the functional relationships, parameter values and initial values of an original pattern-generating model. Here we present a new, generic approach for explorative analysis of complex patterning models which focuses on the essential pattern features and their relations to the model parameters. The approach is illustrated on an existing model for Delta-Notch lateral inhibition over a two-dimensional lattice. Results: By combining computer simulations according to a succession of statistical experimental designs, computer graphics, automatic image analysis, human sensory descriptive analysis and multivariate data modelling, we derive a pattern descriptor model of those macroscopic, emergent aspects of the patterns that we consider of interest. The pattern descriptor model relates the values of the new, dedicated pattern descriptors to the parameter values of the original model, for example by predicting the parameter values leading to particular patterns, and provides insights that would have been hard to obtain by traditional methods. Conclusion: The results suggest that our approach may qualify as a general procedure for how to discover and relate relevant features and characteristics of emergent patterns to the functional relationships, parameter values and initial values of an underlying pattern-generating mathematical model

The evaluation of (social-)psychological comfort in clothing, a possible approach

This paper presents the first results of a PhD research on psychological comfort of clothing. In order to understand and conceptualize the psychological aspects of clothing comfort, a variation of the Delphi Method was used to seek opinions from experts. This method was chosen because of its consensus-building features. The results were obtained from a qualitative text analysis, conducted over the experts’ responses to the first round of questions. The analytic process shed some light on the formation of the psychological comfort concept as well as the potential attributes to be evaluated when assessing this comfort dimension.This work is supported by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136. The first author would also like to gratefully acknowledge the support from the Araucaria Foundation of Paraná State and the Federal University of Technology, specially, the Fashion Design Department and the Office of Research and Graduate Studies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Colour and rheological properties of non-conventional grapefruit jams: instrumental and sensory measurement

Alternative methods with which to obtain grapefruit jams have been applied. These include the use of osmotic dehydration (OD) and/or microwave energy (MW), as an alternative to conventional heating, and the incorporation of bamboo fibre together with pectin in order to increase the jam's consistency. Colour, consistency and rheological behaviour were measured and sensory evaluation was carried out to compare product quality. When compared to the fresh fruit, the greatest colour changes took place in those jams processed by MW and conventional heating, both of them showing lower L*, a*, b* and chrome values than the rest of the samples obtained by applying osmotic dehydration. By adding bamboo fibre, the colour of OD samples approaches that of fresh fruit. The higher yield stress, greater consistency and more viscoelastic behaviour was displayed by jams obtained by combining OD and MW processes. In the sensory analysis, the judges awarded this sample a better score. The sensory attribute product coverage in mouth was closely related to viscosity at a shear rate of 120 s(-1) and consistency. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Igual Ramo, M.; Contreras Monzón, CI.; Martínez Navarrete, N. (2014). Colour and rheological properties of non-conventional grapefruit jams: instrumental and sensory measurement. Food Science and Technology. 56(1):200-206. doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2013.10.038S20020656

Using trendsetting chefs to design new culinary preparations with the "Penjar" tomato

New food products are normally marketed after research regarding consumers' preferences. As an alternative, we used trendsetting chefs to develop and evaluate products with the traditional, long shelf life,Postprint (published version

Enrichment of antioxidant capacity and vitamin E in pita made from barley

This study aimed to enhance total antioxidant and vitamin E content of pita bread, by replacing 50% of the standard baker's flour with flours milled from covered (WI2585 and Harrington) or hulless (Finniss) barley genotypes, previously shown to have high antioxidant and vitamin E levels at harvest. Pita breads were made from either 100% baker's flour (control) or 50% malt flour, whole-grain flour, or flour from barley grains pearled at 10%, 15%, and 20% grain weight. Antioxidant capacity and vitamin E content of flours and pitas were determined by their ability to scavenge 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radicals and high performance liquid chromatography, respectively. The physical and sensory properties of the pitas were also assessed. All pitas made from either whole grain or pearled barley flour had a higher antioxidant capacity and most also had higher vitamin E content than standard pita. The antioxidant and vitamin E levels were reduced in pearled compared to whole grains, however the extent of that reduction varied among genotypes. The greatest antioxidant and vitamin E levels were found in pita made from malt flour or Finniss whole grain flour. Furthermore, sensory analysis suggested these pitas were acceptable to consumers and retained similar physical and sensory properties to those in the control pita.Thi Thu Dung Do, Beverly Muhlhausler, Amanda Box and Amanda J. Abl

Physicochemical and sensorial properties of grapefruit jams as affected by processing

Jam is an effective and tasty way of preserving fruit. Jam processing procedures as well as storage conditions and duration are important factors for jam quality. Traditional jam processing involves the application of severe thermal treatments that imply undesirable changes in the product quality characteristics such as colour, texture, flavour and nutritional and functional value. In this work, osmotic dehydration (OD) and/or microwave energy (MW) was proven as adequate to obtain jam with the typical characteristics of water content, degree Brix, pH and water activity of jam obtained by conventional thermal heating. The sensory evaluation carried out to compare the product showed that samples submitted to more intense heating treatments (conventional or MW) had significantly higher scores in colour saturation, brightness, grapefruit taste and extensibility than OD or OD+MW ones. As deduced from the obtained results, OD treatment prevents grapefruit colour changes, and mild MW heating contributes to increase the consistency and decrease the extensibility of the obtained jam. In this way, OD+MW jam was preferred by assessors mainly due to its higher consistency. The sample obtained by this procedure was stable during storage.The authors would like to thank the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia for the financial support given throughout the Project AGL 2005-05994. The language revision of this paper was funded by the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain.Igual Ramo, M.; García Martínez, EM.; Camacho Vidal, MM.; Martínez Navarrete, N. (2013). Physicochemical and sensorial properties of grapefruit jams as affected by processing. Food and Bioprocess Technology. 6(1):177-185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-011-0696-2S17718561AENOR (2009). Sensory analysis. Methodology. Paired comparison test. UNE-EN-ISO 5495.AOAC. (2000). Official methods of analysis of AOAC International (17th ed.). Gaithersburg: AOAC International.Baker, R.-A., Berry, N., Hui, Y.-H., & Barrett, D.-M. (2005). Fruit preserves and jams. In Processing fruits: science and technology (2nd ed., pp. 113–125). Boca Ratón: CRC Press.Bodart, M., de Peñaranda, R., Deneyer, A., & Flamant, G. (2008). Photometry and colorimetry characterisation of materials in daylighting evaluation tools. Building and Environment, 43, 2046–2058.BOE (1990). Real Decreto 670/1990, de 25 de mayo, por el que se aprueba la norma de calidad para confituras, jaleas y marmalade de frutas, crema de castañas y mermelada de frutas. BOE Nº 130 (31/5/1990), 15140–15144.Bourne, M. (1982). Food texture and viscosity—concept and measurement. New York: Academic.Cañumir, J.-A., Celis, J.-E., Brujin, J., & Vidal, L. (2002). Pasteurisation of apple juice by using microwaves. Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft und Technologie, 35, 389–392.Contreras, C., Martín-Esparza, M.-E., Martínez-Navarrete, N., & Chiralt, A. (2008). Influence of microwave application on convective drying: effects on drying kinetics, and optical and mechanical properties of apple and strawberry. Journal of Food Engineering, 88, 55–64.Dervisi, P., Lamb, J., & Zabetakis, I. (2001). High pressure processing in jam manufacture: effects on textural and color properties. Food Chemistry, 73, 85–91.Deyhim, F., Garica, K., Lopez, E., Gonzalez, J., Ino, S., Garcia, M., et al. (2006). Citrus juice modulates bone strength in male senescent rat model of osteoporosis. Nutrition, 22(5), 559–563.García-Martínez, E., Ruiz-Diaz, G., Martínez-Monzó, J., Camacho, M.-M., Martínez-Navarrete, N., & Chiralt, A. (2002). Jam manufacture with osmodehydrated fruit. Food Research International, 35, 301–306.Igual, M., García-Martínez, E., Camacho, M.-M., & Martínez-Navarrete, N. (2010a). Effect of thermal treatment and storage on the stability of organic acids and the functional value of grapefruit juice. Food Chemistry, 118, 291–299.Igual, M., Contreras, C., & Martínez-Navarrete, N. (2010b). Non-conventional techniques to obtain grapefruit jam. Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies, 11(2), 335–341.Meilgaard, M., Civille, G.-V., & Carr, B.-T. (1999). Attribute differences test. Pairwise ranking test: Friedman analysis. Sensory evaluation techniques (pp. 103–106). Boca Ratón: CRC Press.Moraga, M.-J., Moraga, G., Fito, P. J., & Martínez-Navarrete, N. (2009). Effect of vacuum impregnation with calcium lactate on the osmotic dehydration kinetics and quality of osmodehydrated grapefruit. Journal of Food Engineering, 90, 372–379.Nikdel, S., Chen, C., Parish, M., MacKellar, D., & Friedrich, L. (1993). Pasteurization of citrus juice with microwaves energy in a continuous-flow unit. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 41, 2116–2119.Poulose, S.-M., Harris, E.-D., & Patil, B.-S. (2005). Citrus limonoids induce apoptosis in human neuroblastoma cells and have radical scavenging activity. Journal of Nutrition, 135, 870–877.Sanchez-Moreno, C., Plaza, L., De Ancos, B., & Cano, M.-P. (2003). Quantitative bioactive compounds assessment and their relative contribution to the antioxidant capacity of commercial orange juices. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 83, 430–439.Shi, X.-Q., Chiralt, A., Fito, P., Serra, J., Escoin, C., & Gasque, L. (1996). Application of osmotic dehydration technology on jam processing. Drying Technology, 14(3&4), 841–857.Tárrega, A., & Costell, E. (2007). Colour and consistency of semi-solid dairy desserts: instrumental and sensory measurements. Journal of Food Engineering, 78, 655–661.Vanamala, J., Reddivari, L., Yoo, K.-S., Pike, L.-M., & Patil, B.-S. (2006). Variation in the content of bioactive flavonoid in different brands of orange and grapefruit juices. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, 19(2–3), 157–166.Wicklund, T., Rosenfeld, H.-J., Martinsen, B.-K., Sundførb, M.-W., Lea, P., Bruun, T., et al. (2005). Antioxidant capacity and colour of strawberry jam as influenced by cultivar and storage conditions. LWT-Food Science and Technology, 38(4), 387–391.Yu, L.-L., Zhou, K.-K., & Parry, J. (2005). Antioxidant properties of cold-pressed black caraway, carrot, cranberry, and hemp seed oils. Food Chemistry, 91, 723–729

Vinegar production from fruit concentrates: effect on volatile composition and antioxidant activity

Vinegar stands as a highly appreciated fermented food product due to several functional properties and multiple applications. This work focuses on vinegar production from fruit wines derived from fruit concentrates, to attain a food product with nutritional added value. Four fruit vinegars (orange, mango, cherry and banana), were produced and characterized, with total acidities of 5.3 ± 0.3% for orange, 5.6 ± 0.2% for mango, 4.9 ± 0.4% for cherry and 5.4 ± 0.4% for banana. Acetification showed impact on aroma volatiles, mainly related to oxidative reactions. Minor volatiles associated with varietal aroma were identified, monoterpenic alcohols in orange vinegar, esters in banana vinegar, C13-norisoprenoids in cherry vinegar and lactones in mango vinegar, indicating fruit vinegars differentiated sensory quality. Total antioxidant activity analysis by FRAP, revealed fruit vinegars potential to preserve and deliver fruit functional properties. Antioxidant activity of fruit vinegars, expressed as equivalents of Fe2SO4, was of 11.0 ± 1.67 mmol L1 for orange, 4.8 ± 0.5 mmol L1 for mango, 18.6 ± 2.33 mmol L1 for cherry and 3.7 ± 0.3 mmol L1 for banana. Therefore, fruit vinegars presented antioxidant activity close to the reported for the corresponding fruit, and between 8 and 40 folds higher than the one found in commercial cider vinegar, demonstrating the high functional potential of these novel vinegar products.Authors would like to acknowledge the financial funding of: FruitVinegarDRINK QREN Project (Ref. 23209), Project "BioInd-Biotechnology and Bioengineering for improved Industrial and Agro-Food processes, REF. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000028" Co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2 - O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER and the FCT Strategic Project Pest OE/EQB/LA0023/2013. Authors would also like to acknowledge the participation of Mendes Goncalves S.A. and Frulact S.A. staff, for the active input, which led to the work basis and rationale.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Identification of a Protein with Antioxidant Activity that is Important for the Protection against Beer Ageing

This study was carried out with fresh Australian lager beer which was sampled directly off the production line, the same samples aged for 12 weeks at 30 °C, and the vintage beer which was kept at 20 °C for 5 years. Characteristic Australian lager flavour was maintained in the fresh and vintage beers but was lost in the aged beer. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and free thiol group labelling analyses of beer proteins found that this flavour stability correlated with the presence of an unknown 10 kilodaltons (kDa) protein with a higher level of free thiols. The protein was purified by size-exclusion chromatography, then peptide sequencing and database matching identified it as the barley lipid transfer protein (LTP1). Further characterisation using diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging and a Saccharomyces cerevisiae-based antioxidant screening assay demonstrated that the LTP1 protein was active in DPPH reduction and antioxidant activity. The absence of free thiol in the aged beer indicates that the thiol functional groups within the LTP1 protein were saturated and suggests that it is important in the flavour stability of beer by maintaining reduction capacity during the ageing process