Relation among taste-related compounds (phenolics and caffeine) and sensory profile of erva-mate (Ilex paraguariensis)

Erva-mate (Ilex paraguariensis St. Hil.) is a native species from temperate regions of South America, such as Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, that is consumed as a beverage known as mate. The objective of this research was to determine the content of caffeic acid, catechin, chlorogenic acid, caffeine, and gallic acid in mate to explain their influence in beverage taste and sensory differences between native and reforested plants, as well as between beverages from plants of different regions of Brazil (Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states). Compounds were determined by HPLC and results were related to a sensory evaluation performed by trained tasters. Tasters considered the beverage from reforested plants to be more bitter than the beverage from native plants. Beverages from reforested plants had significantly higher caffeic acid and lower catechin, chlorogenic acid, caffeine, and gallic acid content than native plants. Beverages from plants of Santa Catarina state had significantly higher catechin, caffeine, and gallic acid content than plants from Rio Grande do Sul state.     

Comparative evaluation of the olive oil given by a new processing system

To evaluate the level of quality of the olive oil given by a new processing system we compared it with the percolation oil, which is known to be of high quality. The new product was characterized by the following: (i) higher contents of tocopherols, tyrosol- and hydroxytyrosol-aglycones, volatile aromatic substances, sterols, triterpene alcohols and lipochromes, and higher values of 1,2-diglycerides/1,3-diglycerides and campesterol/stigmasterol ratios, colour indices and turbidity; (ii) lower contents of waxes and triterpene dialcohols, and lower values for spectrophotometric indices, carbonyl index, Wolff's ratio (K₂₃₂/K₂₇₀), acidity, and peroxide number; (iii) similar contents of phenols, o- diphenols, free tyrosol, free hydroxytyrosol, triglycerides, stigmastadienes, and aliphatic alcohols, similar sensory score, and similar value of resistance to autoxidation, alcohol index, overall quality indices, and fatty acid composition.     

Synthesis of macroporous ZrO2–Al2O3 mixed oxides with mesoporous walls, using polystyrene spheres as template

Macroporous ZrO₂–Al₂O₃ mixed oxides with mesoporous walls were synthesized. The three-dimensional interconnected macroporous structures, of inorganic zirconia–alumina mixed oxides containing different alumina compositions (25, 50, 100 wt%), were prepared by sol–gel method from inorganic precursors and using polystyrene microspheres with diameters of 685 and 1520 nm as templates. The final porous arrays with controllable pore size in the submicrometer range could be obtained by calcination of the organic template. The structural characteristics are discussed. The physicochemical characterization of the samples was carried out by N₂ physisorption (S_BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The shrinkage of pore diameter was approximately 35%, and the wall thickness of inorganic framework varied between 135 and 154 nm. The specific surface areas, of the samples, were between 123 and 287 m²/g, obtaining the largest surface area with the highest alumina contents and the smallest templates.     

Variations of iridoid oleuropein in Italian olive varieties during growth and maturation

This research paper reports on the concentrations of oleuropein in fruits of seven Italian olive cultivars. These oleuropein levels, during fruit growth and maturation, were monitored by taking olive samples from the same olive trees grown in Middle Italy. A novel high‐resolution gas chromatography (HRGC) oleuropein quantification method and a new high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method were developed. The olive fruits showed high contents of oleuropein, which were greatly influenced by the olive cultivar (genetic store) factor. The stage of fruit growth and maturation was another factor strongly affecting the contents of iridoid oleuropein in olive drupes, whatever the olive cultivar considered. Green olives had much higher concentrations of this biofunctional glucoside, which decreased regularly during fruit growth and ripeness. No differences were observed between the two developed oleuropein quantification methods, which gave, for all the olive cultivars, average values of fruit oleuropein contents that were not statistically different. These two reliable repetitive methods, noticeably the HPLC one (which also showed a lower running time), could be used for routine determination of oleuropein in olive drupes. We observed that, in general, olive cultivars having high oleuropein concentrations in the fruits were also characterized by marked oleuropein contents in the leaves.     

Liquid-crystallization induced reactions. Microstructure and morphology of copolyesters synthesized by transesterification of PET with some LCP monomers

The transesterification of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) with a mixture of sebacic acid (S), 4,4′-diacetoxybiphenyl (B) and 4-acetoxybenzoic acid (H), carried out under conditions expectedly favoring the formation of a p(ET-SBH) random copolyester, produces biphasic materials with an isotropic matrix and a highly fibrous, liquid-crystalline dispersed phase. Spectroscopic, calorimetric, microscopic and diffractometric characterization of the fractions separated by solvent extraction has shown that the two phases consist of practically random copolyesters having different average composition. Interestingly, the degree of aromaticity of the matrix is even lower than that of PET, whereas that of the minor phase is appreciably higher than that calculated for the SBH copolyester that would be produced from the monomer mixture in the absence of PET. This unexpected result is interpreted on the basis of an enthalpy-driven progressive diffusion of aromatic-rich material toward the mesophase which segregates at an early stage of the polycondensation within the isotropic mixture of low molar mass oligomers initially produced by the PET acidolysis. Thus, an increasing differentiation, rather than an equilibration, of the composition of the two phases takes place. It is noteworthy that, despite the strong compositional difference, the two phases of these products show fairly good compatibility and interfacial adhesion.     

Rule compliance and peer sociability: A study of family process, school-focused parent–child interactions, and children's classroom behavior.

This study examined the associations among family processes (cohesion, control, and conflict), school-focused parent–child interactions (support and pressure about achievement), and the child's own characteristics (assertiveness, frustration tolerance, intellectual effectiveness, and self-esteem) as correlates of rule compliance and peer sociability in the classroom. The sample consisted of 161 Grade 4 and 151 Grade 7 children. Family processes and parent-child interactions about school issues were associated with children's personal characteristics, which, in turn, predicted children's rule compliance and peer sociability. Some differences were found between the 4th- and 7th-grade samples; however, many variables consistently predicted the same outcomes across grades. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fatty acid profiles in meat from Caiman yacare (Caiman crocodilus yacare) raised in the wild or in captivity

Chemical composition and fatty acid profiles were determined in Caiman yacare meat originating from the neck and tail cuts of animals raised in the wild (n = 6) or in captivity (n = 6), slaughtered at a live weight of approximately 6 kg. All experimental methods were approved by the appropriate environmental protection agencies. Most chemical components were affected by the origin-cut interaction, with the tail cut of wild animals having the highest amount of intramuscular fat (19.2% of DM) and the lowest of moisture (71.8%) and protein (77.0% of DM). Yacare meat had low amounts of SFA (35.1%), which were similar (P > 0.05) in the cuts and origins studied. The total amount of PUFA was higher (P < 0.05) in wild (31.0%) than in captive animals (23.6%), and n − 3 fatty acids had means of about 5% and 2% for the same groups, respectively (P < 0.05). In general, the FA profile of intramuscular fat in yacare meat had a desirable PUFA/SFA ratio above 0.4.     

A BEM for time dependent infiltration from an irrigation channel

In this paper some two dimensional time dependent infiltration problems are considered. The problems involve infiltration from an irrigation channel into a homogenous soil and a soil which contains an impermeable finite inclusion. The problems are reduced to boundary integral equations which may be solved numerically using established procedures. Numerical results are obtained to provide the distribution of the matric flux potential for some particular impermeable inclusions and a particular channel shape. The results indicate how the distance from the channel influences the speed with which the matric flux potential reaches its steady state value. They also illustrate how the presence of an impermeable inclusion can increase the matric flux potential at points below the surface.     

Syntactic priming in comprehension: The role of argument order and animacy.

Two visual-world eye-movement experiments investigated the nature of syntactic priming during comprehension--specifically, whether the priming effects in ditransitive prepositional object (PO) and double object (DO) structures (e.g., "The wizard will send the poison to the prince/the prince the poison?") are due to anticipation of structural properties following the verb (send) in the target sentence or to anticipation of animacy properties of the first postverbal noun. Shortly following the target verb onset, listeners looked at the recipient more (relative to the theme) following DO than PO primes, indicating that the structure of the prime affected listeners' eye gazes on the target scene. Crucially, this priming effect was the same irrespective of whether the postverbal nouns in the prime sentences did ("The monarch will send the painting to the president") or did not ("The monarch will send the envoy to the president") differ in animacy, suggesting that PO/DO priming in comprehension occurs because structural properties, rather than animacy features, are being primed when people process the ditransitive target verb. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Element concentrations in shell of Pinctada margaritifera from French Polynesia and evaluation for using as a food supplement

Element concentrations in shell of Pinctada margaritifera (black-lip pearl oyster) from Manihi, French Polynesia, were measured with Inductively Coupled Plasma – Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES). The respective average concentrations were: calcium (Ca) 396.4 mg/g, sodium (Na) 5.536 mg/g, magnesium (Mg) 2.136 mg/g, strontium (Sr) 890.6 ppm, iron (Fe) 67.89 ppm, aluminum (Al) 45.74 ppm, phosphorus (P) 27.19 ppm, boron (B) 12.17 ppm, manganese (Mn) 2.308 ppm, copper (Cu) 1.050 ppm, zinc (Zn) 0.7180 ppm; and nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and vanadium (V) were below detection limits with ICP-AES.