Search results for "Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences"
showing 10 items of 2301 documents
Artificial Neural Networks for Predicting the Water Retention Curve of Sicilian Agricultural Soils
2018
Modeling soil-water regime and solute transport in the vadose zone is strategic for estimating agricultural productivity and optimizing irrigation water management. Direct measurements of soil hydraulic properties, i.e., the water retention curve and the hydraulic conductivity function, are often expensive and time-consuming, and represent a major obstacle to the application of simulation models. As a result, there is a great interest in developing pedotransfer functions (PTFs) that predict the soil hydraulic properties from more easily measured and/or routinely surveyed soil data, such as particle size distribution, bulk density (&rho
Effect of consumers’ origin on perceived sensory quality, liking and liking drivers: A cross-cultural study on European cheeses
2021
Abstract We aim at studying consumers’ Perceived Sensory Quality (PSQ) concept. We manipulated a priori both familiarity (contrast local vs. foreign cheeses) and quality level (contrast PDO or traditional cheeses vs. their non-PDO and/or industrial counterpart). The study was run in four European countries. Thus, eight cheeses (one PDO or traditional cheese and one non-PDO cheese from each of the four European countries) were assessed by a total of 438 consumers (from 100 to 120 consumers from each region) in terms of PSQ and liking. The cheeses were also described by a trained panel. PSQ depended on both consumers’ and cheeses’ origin. The main finding is that in the three countries with P…
Diuron mobility through vineyard soils contaminated with copper
2005
International audience; The herbicide diuron is frequently applied to vineyard soils in Burgundy, along with repeated treatments with Bordeaux mixture (a blend of copper sulfate and calcium hydroxide) that result in elevated copper concentrations. Cu could in principle affect the fate and transport of diuron or its metabolites in the soil either directly by complexation or indirectly by altering the populations or activity of microbes involved in their degradation. To assess the effect of high Cu concentrations on diuron transport, an experiment was designed with ten undisturbed columns of calcareous and acidic soils contaminated with 17–509 mg kg−1 total Cu (field-applied). Grass was plant…
Antioxidant Potential of Extracts Obtained from Macro- (Ascophyllum nodosum, Fucus vesiculosus and Bifurcaria bifurcata) and Micro-Algae (Chlorella v…
2018
Background: Natural antioxidants, which can replace synthetic ones due to their potential implications for health problems in children, have gained significant popularity. Therefore, the antioxidant potential of extracts obtained from three brown macroalgae (Ascophyllum nodosum, Fucus vesiculosus and Bifurcaria bifurcata) and two microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris and Spirulina platensis) using ultrasound-extraction as an innovative and green approach was evaluated. Methods: Algal extracts were obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction using water/ethanol (50:50, v:v) as the extraction solvent. The different extracts were compared based on their antioxidant potential, measuring the extraction …
Risk assessment of information on the subcombination Bt11 × 1507 × GA21, related to the application of Syngenta (EFSA‐GMO‐DE‐2011‐99) for authorisati…
2017
Efsa Panel On Genetically Modified Organisms (gmo)StatementRequestor: European CommissionQuestion number: EFSA-Q-2016-00730; The EFSA Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) has previously assessed the single events Bt11, MIR162, MIR604 and GA21 as well as different stacked events corresponding to combinations of these events. These maize events were found to be as safe as their conventional counterparts and other appropriate comparators with respect to potential effects on human and animal health and the environment. In its assessment of the four-event maize stack Bt11 9 MIR162 9 MIR604 9 GA21, the GMO Panel also assessed all the subcombinations of these events not previously assesse…
Effects of the Extraction Technology on Pomegranate Juice Quality
2020
Pomegranate juice is a rich source of phenolic components; its consumption has considerably increased throughout the world in recent years, due to its nutraceutical properties. Commercial juice production involves pressing the fruits. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of the pressing stage on pomegranate juice properties, in terms of value, duration of the applied pressure and juice yield in order to examine the influence of pressure level on volatiles and nutraceutical properties of the juice. Pomegranate fruits cv. Wonderful One were manually harvested and mechanically processed for extracting the juice by means of a shelling machine, a peristaltic pump and a pneumatic pre…
Actual provision as an alternative criterion to improve the efficiency of payments for ecosystem services for C sequestration in semiarid vineyards
2016
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of the PES scheme actually used in the Sicilian rural development program, based on an egalitarian criterion, and proposing an alternative scheme in order to guarantee a greater equity and fairness of premium distribution in relation to soil carbon (C) sequestration potential. We, first, assessed the ecosystem services (ES) provided by agri-environmental measures (AEM) in terms of SOC stock increase in Sicilian vineyards. Based on these data we evaluated the efficiency of agro-environmental payments according to an egalitarian criterion and simulated the effects of the actual provision criterion adoption. Results showed that the adoption o…
Challenges in the use of Near Infrared Spectroscopy for improving wood quality: A review
2018
Aims of study: Forestry-related companies require quality monitoring methods capable to pass a large number of samples. This review paper is dealing with the utilization of near infrared (NIR) technique for wood analysis.Area of study: We have a global point of view for NIR applications and characterization of different kind of wood species is considered.Material and methods: NIR spectroscopy is a fast, non-destructive technique, applicable to any biological material, demanding little or no sample preparation. NIR spectroscopy and multivariate analysis serve well in laboratories where the conditions are controlled. The main challenges to NIR spectroscopy technique in field conditions are mo…
Culture and odor categorization : agreement between cultures depends upon the odors
2003
This study evaluated the effect of culture on the relationship between psychological dimensions underlying odor perception and odor categorization. In a first experiment, French, Vietnamese and American participants rated several perceptual dimensions of everyday odorants, and sorted these odorants on the basis of their similarity. Results showed that the three groups of participants differed in their perceptual judgments but agreed in categorizing the odors into four consensual groups (floral, sweet, bad, and nature). Three dimensions––pleasantness, edibility, cosmetic acceptability––discriminated these groups in the same way in the three countries. In a second experiment, the participants…
Wine Quality Perception: A Sensory Point of View
2016
Wine is a complex product, which had moved from a nutritional food to a hedonic beverage in consumer representation. This fact has increased the demand of quality products in the market. In this context, it is of high interest for wine producers to understand the underlying indicators of consumers’ quality perception as well as the relative importance they attach to these cues when inferring quality in wine to reach the alignment of consumers’ expectations, needs and wants. This chapter is aimed at giving an overview of the current state of knowledge of the indicators of wine quality perception from a sensory point of view. For this purpose, the factors driving perceived quality of wine as …