Fortifying wheat bread with whey proteins: impact on nutritional value and technological properties

Wheat bread is a widely consumed commodity around the world. It is poor and imbalanced in some essential amino acids. The aim of this study is to fortify wheat bread with whey proteins (WP), in order to inhence its nutri-tional value and to improve the balance of its essential amino acids. The composition of the different flours and breads enriched with WP was deter-mined by standard methods. The alveograph’s results show that the tenacity increases and the deformation energy decreases with increasing incorpora-tion of WP. The addition of WP leads to a dough that is resistant to defor-mation, extensible for incorporation rates of 2.5% and 3% and less extensible for 10% and 20%. The results on the composition of the different breads show that the addition of WP contributes to the improvement of the amino acid profiles of the breads, especially for P10 and P20. It corrects, especially, the deficit and imbalance of the bread in essential amino acids. The assess-ments of the organoleptic characteristics show that the majority of the tast-ers find the P2.5 and P3 breads are very close to the commercial breads and sometimes better. These loaves have a nice external appearance, regular shape, crispy golden crust, light texture, good taste and smell. The develop-ment of the breads during vacuum storage is very satisfactory. They keep their crispness and a good crumbliness after 7 days.

Analysis of Factors Affecting the Behavior of Coffee Shop Consumers in Jambi City

This study aims to analyze the factors that affect the behavior of coffee shop consumers in Jambi City. This research was conducted at a coffee shop in Jambi City. The selection of the location of this study was carried out by purposive sampling method. The data analysis used is primary data with the Structural Equation Partial Least Square Model (SEM-PLS) approach. The results showed the behavior of coffee shop consumers most who visited the coffee shop expressed agreement with the choice and decision in behaving. As many as 57.5% of consumers revealed that they chose the coffee shop because the price offered is affordable, coffee served quality, and it has a good taste, and 55% stated that they buy coffee in the coffee shop because according to their consumption needs, the coffee sold has a strong freshness, and has many flavor variants. Internal factors negatively affect the behavior of coffee shop consumers but not significantly. External factors have a positive effect on consumer behavior. Internal factors and external factors with variable moderation of coffee shop variables have a significant effect on consumer behavior.

Genome-Wide Analysis of Multiple Organellar RNA Editing Factor (MORF) Family in Kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) Reveals Its Roles in Chloroplast RNA Editing and Pathogens Stress

Kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) is well known for its high vitamin C content and good taste. Various diseases, especially bacterial canker, are a serious threat to the yield of kiwifruit. Multiple organellar RNA editing factor (MORF) genes are pivotal factors in the RNA editosome that mediates Cytosine-to-Uracil RNA editing, and they are also indispensable for the regulation of chloroplast development, plant growth, and response to stresses. Although the kiwifruit genome has been released, little is known about MORF genes in kiwifruit at the genome-wide level, especially those involved in the response to pathogens stress. In this study, we identified ten MORF genes in the kiwifruit genome. The genomic structures and chromosomal locations analysis indicated that all the MORF genes consisted of three conserved motifs, and they were distributed widely across the seven linkage groups and one contig of the kiwifruit genome. Based on the structural features of MORF proteins and the topology of the phylogenetic tree, the kiwifruit MORF gene family members were classified into six groups (Groups A–F). A synteny analysis indicated that two pairs of MORF genes were tandemly duplicated and five pairs of MORF genes were segmentally duplicated. Moreover, based on analysis of RNA-seq data from five tissues of kiwifruit, we found that both expressions of MORF genes and chloroplast RNA editing exhibited tissue-specific patterns. MORF2 and MORF9 were highly expressed in leaf and shoot, and may be responsible for chloroplast RNA editing, especially the ndhB genes. We also observed different MORF expression and chloroplast RNA editing profiles between resistant and susceptible kiwifruits after pathogen infection, indicating the roles of MORF genes in stress response by modulating the editing extend of mRNA. These results provide a solid foundation for further analyses of the functions and molecular evolution of MORF genes, in particular, for clarifying the resistance mechanisms in kiwifruits and breeding new cultivars with high resistance.

Muḥammad ʿAbduh’s Notion of Political Adab

This paper extends the emphasis on contingency and context in Islamic ethical traditions into the distinctly modern context of late 19th century Khedival Egypt. I draw attention to the way Muḥammad ʿAbduh’s engagement with Islamic ethical traditions was shaped by his practice in addressing the broad social and political questions of his context to do with nation-building and political journalism. As a bureaucrat and state publicist, he took pre-modern Islamic ethical concepts into the emerging discursive field of the modern state and the public sphere in Egypt. Looking at a series of newspaper articles for the state newspaper, al-Waqāʾiʿ al-miṣriyya, I show how he articulated an ethics of citizenship by defining a modern civic notion of adab that he called “political adab.” He conceived of this adab as the answer to the problem of how a unified nation emerges from the condition of “freedom” by which journalists and the reading public at the time were conceptualizing the politics of the ʿUrābī revolution in late 1881. This was a “freedom” of the public sphere that allowed for free speech and the power of public opinion to shape governance. ‘Political adab’ would be the virtue or situational skill, internalized in each participant in the public sphere, that would regulate this freedom, ensuring that it produces unity rather than anarchy. I argue that adab here enshrined ʿAbduh’s holistic approach to nation-building; Egypt with political rights would be a nation in which the very idea of the nation is comprehensively embedded—through adab—in people’s lives, animating their “souls”. This was a politics conceived not as a self-standing domain, but as growing out of society, becoming thereby an authentic unity and self-regulating “life”. In developing this vision, ʿAbduh was amplifying pre-modern meanings of adab implying wide breadth of knowledge, good taste, and the virtues, labelled in the paper as ‘comprehensivness,’ ‘consensus’ and ‘habitus.’ Keywords: Muḥammad ʿAbduh, Adab, Freedom, Nation, Politics, Egypt

Development and Proof-of-Concept Evaluation of a Sensory Science-Based Model for Product Development of Vegetable-Based Products for Children

Children’s vegetable intake is too low, and a key barrier to the inadequate intake is low acceptance. To facilitate successful development of new vegetable-based products for children, a sensory science approach to product development has been taken. A new theoretical model is proposed, the CAMPOV model: Children’s Acceptance Model for Product development of Vegetables. The model is informed by scientific literature and considers biological, psychological, and situational, and intrinsic and extrinsic product factors relevant to children’s acceptance of vegetables, with a focus on modifiable factors at the product level. Simultaneously, 14 new vegetable-based product concepts for children were developed and evaluated through focus groups with 5–8-year-olds (n = 36) as a proof-of-concept evaluation of the model. Children had high interest in six of the concepts. Factors identified from the literature that positively associated with the children’s interest in the concepts included bright colours, bite-sized pieces, good taste, fun eating experience, and familiarity. The CAMPOV model and proof-of-concept evaluation results can guide further sensory and consumer research to increase children’s acceptance of food products containing vegetables, which will in turn provide further insights into the validity of the model. The food industry can use the model as a framework for development of new products for children with high sensory appeal.

Biological features and cultivation of sesame (a review)

Sesame is an ancient oilseed crop grown throughout the arid and subarid climates. Sesame oil has a good taste and is appreciated for its beneficial properties. The genus Sesamum L. (Pedaliaceae Lindl.) includes up to 38 species. The only cultivated species is S. indicum L. (2n = 26). It is grown in areas located between 45° N and 45° S. South Africa is considered the homeland of S. indicum. Sesame seeds contain 50–63% of oil, 25–27% of protein, 20% of carbohydrates, and are sources of such micronutrients as copper, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, vitamins A, B1, C and E. Sesame seeds and oil are used not only in the food industry but also in medicine. Sesame meal is a good animal feed. Recently, thanks to the deciphering of the sesame nuclear genome and the development of various genomic resources, including molecular markers for qualitative and quantitative characters, molecular breeding has become possible for such agronomic traits as high oil content and its composition, drought resistance, resistance to waterlogging, disease resistance, and high yield. The world production of sesame seeds according to FAO estimates for 2019 was about 7 million tons. The largest cropping areas are located in Africa, India, and China. In Russia, sesame can be grown in southern regions: Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Rostov and Astrakhan Provinces. Breeding work on sesame was carried out at the All-Union Research Institute of Oil Crops, where cultivars resistant to bacterial blight and Fusarium wilt were developed. Currently, sesame breeding programs are absent in Russia. There are over 25,000 sesame accessions in the world’s genebanks, including about 1,500 accessions in the VIR collection.

EVALUATION OF ROMANIAN APPLE CULTIVARS IN LATVIA

Commercial apple growing in Latvia feels some lack of climate adapted modern cultivars. Development of fruits and trees is limited by active growth period (temperatures over 10 °C) of 135-150 days and active temperature sum of 1700-2100 °C. Winter hardiness also is essential, as temperatures below −30°C occur each 10 years, and winter thaws are frequent. Annual precipitation 692 mm favours development of fungal diseases. In 2016, a trial of four Romanian apple cultivars resistant to scab - ‘Aura’, ‘Ciprian’, ‘Jonaprim’ and ‘Romus 3’ was established in Latvia. Trees were grafted on dwarfing rootstock B.396 and planted as 1-year old whips in 3 replications with 2-3 trees in each replication, and trained as slender spindle. Commercial cultivars ‘Auksis’ (midseason) and ‘Ligol’ (late) were used as controls. Most trees of all cultivars in the 2nd year (2017) developed a well branched frame, from 37.5% trees of ‘Ciprian’ to 90% trees of ‘Jonaprim’. The first fruits were harvested in 2017, and commercially significant yield was achieved in 2018, except ‘Jonaprim’, which had the slowest yield increase. By the sum of yield in 2017-2021 ‘Aura’ and ‘Jonaprim’ surpassed commercial cultivar ’Auksis’, but were less productive than ‘Ligol’. Only slightly lower summary yield was obtained from ‘Ciprian’, while ‘Romus 3’ showed the lowest productivity and strong premature fruit drop. Very good taste panel results were obtained for ‘Aura’ and ‘Ciprian’, 7 to 8 points in average. Their fruits also kept well, to 5 months in common storage at 2 ±1oC. Fruits of the other two cultivars were too small and had mediocre or poor taste. The weather conditions in the trial years allowed to test susceptibility to spring frosts and drought. All cultivars showed good tree health after over-wintering. ‘Jonaprim’ and ‘Auksis’ in 2019 had the highest spring frost injury, 60-70% of fruits, while least injured were ‘Aura’ (21.5%) and ‘Ciprian’ (27.7%). Extreme drought in summer of 2021 led to low average fruit mass of all cultivars including the normally large fruited ‘Ligol’ (120-130 g), while in other years ‘Aura’ had fruits over 180 g, very attractive yellow with red stripes. Fruits of ‘Ciprian’ also had good size, but in some years too dark over-colour. ‘Aura’ and ‘Ciprian’ showed good adaptation to the climate of Latvia and can be recommended for wider trials at farms.