Consumer acceptability test on the organoleptic factors of dedawang pindang fish in Dedawang Hamlet, Bawean Island, Indonesia

This study aims to measure the level of consumer preference for organoleptic factors of pindang fish produced from the traditional scavenger business of Dedawang Hamlet, Telukjati Dawang Village, Tambak Sub-district, Bawean Island - Gresik Regency.The research was conducted from July to September 2020 involving 221 respondents from various backgrounds as panelists to assess the level of preference for pindang fish. The test material came from one of the scaling efforts carefully selected by the researcher. The organoleptic test includes 8 (eight) things, namely: taste, deviated odor (indication of deterioration), specific aroma, color, appearance, consistency, packaging aesthetics, and durability. The results showed that the durability factor (score 93.57), product aesthetics (score 90.48), smell (score 86.35), and distinctive aroma (score 81.35) were the main attractions for consumers buying pindang fish. While the appearance (score 53.07), consistency (score 63.51), color (score 65.41), and taste (score 68.17) are things that need to be improved to increase attractiveness to consumers. Keywords: organoleptic, pindang, consumer acceptability

Differing Associations Between the Most Abundant Genera of the Fecal Microbiome and Sex, Fiber Intake Score, Stress, Stool Consistency and BMI in Healthy Young Adults

Objectives The objective of this secondary analysis was to characterize the relationships between the most abundant genera of the fecal microbiome and sex, fiber intake scores, stress, stool consistency and body mass index (BMI) in healthy young adults using data from the 1-week baseline period of a clinical study. Methods Data from a total of 182 participants (n = 120 female) with a mean age of 19.7 ± 0.1 y (mean ± SEM) and a healthy body mass index (BMI; 23.4 ± 0.3 kg/m2) were used. Participants self-reported stool consistency (Bristol stool score) as an estimate of gastrointestinal transit time and stress (0 = no stress to 10 = extremely stressed) daily for 1 week. The Rapid Eating Assessment-short questionnaire was completed at the end of baseline to assess intake frequency of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The food frequency scores from the 3 food categories were summed for the fiber intake score. Microbial composition was determined by 16s rRNA sequencing of 1 stool sample provided during the baseline period. The top 15 genera, identified by % abundance of OTU reads, were selected for further analysis. Relationships between each of the genera and sex, fiber intake score, stress, stool consistency and BMI were assessed using a multiple linear regression model. Results The top 15 genera in descending % abundance were Bacteroides, Faecalibacterium, Dialister, Prevotella, Parabacteroides, Ruminococcus, Oscillospira, Sutterella, Phascolarctobacterium, Blautia, Bifidobacterium, Lachnospira, Roseburia, Eubacterium and Collinsella. The % abundance of Faecalibacterium was higher in men (P = 0.018) and was inversely related to intake of fiber containing foods (P = 0.034). Ruminococcus % abundance was inversely related to BMI (P = 0.020). Oscillospira % abundance was higher in women (P = 0.012) and decreased with increasing BMI (P = 0.024), stress (P = 0.032) and stool consistency score (i.e., looser stools; P = 0.027). Lachnospira % abundance increased with a increasing stool consistency score (P = 0.029) and with decreasing intake of fiber containing foods (P = 0.025). Conclusions These findings show differing associations between the most abundant genera of the fecal microbiome and sex, fiber intake score, stress, stool consistency and BMI in healthy young adults. Funding Sources Supported by Wakunaga of America Co., Ltd.

Temporal changes in circulatory blood cell parameters of sheep genetically different for faecal worm egg count and diarrhoea from late summer to spring in a Mediterranean environment

Differences in haematology traits were investigated in worm-resistant and worm-susceptible Merino sheep that were genetically prone or less prone to developing diarrhoea in a winter rainfall region. The experiment was a 2 × 2 × 2 × 5 design. Male and female sheep aged 8–9 months old identified as having high (H) or low (L) breeding values for dags (breech soiling) and for worm egg counts (WEC) were allocated to one of four genetic groups: HH, HL, LH and LL (the first letter refers to dags and the second to WEC). The animals were sampled five times from autumn through winter to spring, in March, May, June (ewes only), July (rams only), August and in September after exposure to a natural paddock infection dominated by Trichostrongylus, Teladorsagia, Chabertia and Oesophagostomum. Measurements were packed cell volume, haemoglobin, red blood cell count, differential white cell counts, WEC and faecal consistency score. At all sampling times, there were large (P < 0.01) differences between groups within sex for both the faecal consistency score and WEC. The genetic effect for WEC was large (P < 0.01), as worm-susceptible sheep shed 10- (ewes) and 6-fold (rams) as many worm eggs at their WEC peak as the worm-resistant sheep at the end of the experiment. In the high-dag groups, the faecal consistency score was ~0.5 units higher for rams and 0.4 units higher for ewes, throughout the experiment. The optimum time to measure dags and WEC in this environment appears to be 6–8 weeks after the start of the winter rain. No differences were found among any of the treatment groups for any haematology trait. The haematogram changed significantly throughout the experiment, but genetic selection for low-dag score (reduced diarrhoea) or low WEC did not provide an acceptable discriminator in circulatory haematology traits between these genetically distinct groups of Merino sheep. It was concluded that circulatory haematology traits do not offer opportunities to select against diarrhoea or increased worm resistance in sheep.

The Choice between Crisp and Fuzzy Sets in Qualitative Comparative Analysis and the Ambiguous Consequences for Finding Consistent Set Relations

Empirical researchers using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) can work with crisp, multivalue, and fuzzy sets. The relative advantages of crisp and multivalue sets have been discussed in the QCA literature. There has been little reflection on the more frequent decision between crisp and fuzzy sets for which there often is no theoretical guidance. A review shows that researchers often prefer fuzzy over crisp sets, sometimes because they contain more information. This meets with the argument that fuzzy sets produce more conservative consistency measures and constitute tougher tests. In my article, I demonstrate analytically and with data from published QCA studies that the relationship between crisp sets, fuzzy sets, and the consistency score is ambiguous. It depends on the distribution of cases whether the consistency value is more or less conservative for fuzzy sets than for crisp sets. I outline the implications of the ambiguous relationship for empirical research.

Studies on Sensory Evaluation of Diabetic Shrikhand by using Jamun (Syzygium Cumini L.) Pulp

Shrikhand was prepared by using jamun pulp at 10 per cent, 20 per cent and 30 per cent on the weight basis of chakka with 40 per cent sugar. The main aim of using jamun pulp was to harvest and conserve the medicinal properties of jamun specially antidiabetic and used of a major and cheap source of manganese, calcium, iron, potassium and sodium. It is well known that inclusion of jamun in your diet and it may naturally reduce the amount of sugar in blood. The product obtained was subjected for sensory evaluation by panel of judges. It was observed that the colour and appearance score for treatment T0, T1, T2 and T3 was 7.63, 7.50, 8.00 and 8.50, respectively. Flavour score was 8.13, 8.00, 8.25 and 8.38, respectively. Taste score was 8.13, 7.75, 8.00 and 8.25, respectively. Consistency score was 8.25, 7.75, 7.75 and 7.75, respectively. Overall acceptability scores for sensory was 8.03, 7.75, 8.00 and 8.22, respectively. Sensory parameters of shrikhand i.e. Colour and appearance, flavour, taste and overall acceptability was increased progressively in all treatments but consistency goes on decreased and remain constant for jamun pulp added shrikhand.

A machine learning-based service for estimating quality of genomes using PATRIC

Background Recent advances in high-volume sequencing technology and mining of genomes from metagenomic samples call for rapid and reliable genome quality evaluation. The current release of the PATRIC database contains over 220,000 genomes, and current metagenomic technology supports assemblies of many draft-quality genomes from a single sample, most of which will be novel. Description We have added two quality assessment tools to the PATRIC annotation pipeline. EvalCon uses supervised machine learning to calculate an annotation consistency score. EvalG implements a variant of the CheckM algorithm to estimate contamination and completeness of an annotated genome.We report on the performance of these tools and the potential utility of the consistency score. Additionally, we provide contamination, completeness, and consistency measures for all genomes in PATRIC and in a recent set of metagenomic assemblies. Conclusion EvalG and EvalCon facilitate the rapid quality control and exploration of PATRIC-annotated draft genomes.

FaRM: Fair Reward Mechanism for Information Aggregation in Spontaneous Localized Settings

Although peer prediction markets are widely used in crowdsourcing to aggregate information from agents, they often fail to reward the participating agents equitably. Honest agents can be wrongly penalized if randomly paired with dishonest ones. In this work, we introduce selective and cumulative fairness. We characterize a mechanism as fair if it satisfies both notions and present FaRM, a representative mechanism we designed. FaRM is a Nash incentive mechanism that focuses on information aggregation for spontaneous local activities which are accessible to a limited number of agents without assuming any prior knowledge of the event. All the agents in the vicinity observe the same information. FaRM uses (i) a report strength score to remove the risk of random pairing with dishonest reporters, (ii) a consistency score to measure an agent's history of accurate reports and distinguish valuable reports, (iii) a reliability score to estimate the probability of an agent to collude with nearby agents and prevents agents from getting swayed, and (iv) a location robustness score to filter agents who try to participate without being present in the considered setting. Together, report strength, consistency, and reliability represent a fair reward given to agents based on their reports.