Sensory Characteristics and Nutritional Quality of Food Products Made with a Biofortified and Lectin Free Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Flour

Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) are an important source of nutrients with beneficial effects on human health. However, they contain lectins, that limit the direct use of flour in food preparations without thermal treatment, and phytic acid, that reduces mineral cation bioavailability. The objectives of this research were: to obtain biofortified snacks and a cream using an untreated common bean flour devoid of active lectins (lec−) and with reduced content of phytic acid (lpa) and to evaluate the sensorial appreciation for these products. The main results of the present work were: the products with the lpa lec− flour did not retain residual hemagglutinating activity due to lectins; they showed higher residual α-amylase inhibitor activity (from 2.2 to 135 times), reduced in vitro predicted glycemic index (about 5 units reduction) and increased iron bioavailability compared to the products with wild type flour; products with common bean flour were less appreciated than the reference ones without this flour, but the presence of an intense umami taste can be a positive attribute. Results confirmed that the use of the lpa lec− flour has important advantages in the preparation of safe and nutritionally improved products, and provide useful information to identify target consumers, such as children and elderly people.

How is Supply Chain Visibility Affecting SME's Operating in International Supply Chains?

<p>Supply chain visibility is generally seen as a positive attribute for individual supply chain partners and the supply chain as a whole. There is limited research on how increasing levels of supply chain visibility can impact individual organizations, particularly smaller entities (SME's). This paper uses an Australasian SME (Orion) as a case study to investigate how increasing visibility is affecting them and the way they operate within international supply chains. The results indicate that increasing visibility can pose significant challenges and potentially negative consequences for smaller organizations. In addition to the extra resources required and complexity for the SME itself, diverging expectations and a lack of trust between supply partners can negatively impact on supply chain relations and long term supply chain innovation. Within the supply chains Orion operates, increasing visibility does not appear to be leading to improvements in collaboration, risk sharing or shared goals. Viewed through the lens of Michael Porter's five forces model Orion is in a precarious environment, although there remain options for increased visibility to be used to Orion's advantage.</p>

How is Supply Chain Visibility Affecting SME's Operating in International Supply Chains?

<p>Supply chain visibility is generally seen as a positive attribute for individual supply chain partners and the supply chain as a whole. There is limited research on how increasing levels of supply chain visibility can impact individual organizations, particularly smaller entities (SME's). This paper uses an Australasian SME (Orion) as a case study to investigate how increasing visibility is affecting them and the way they operate within international supply chains. The results indicate that increasing visibility can pose significant challenges and potentially negative consequences for smaller organizations. In addition to the extra resources required and complexity for the SME itself, diverging expectations and a lack of trust between supply partners can negatively impact on supply chain relations and long term supply chain innovation. Within the supply chains Orion operates, increasing visibility does not appear to be leading to improvements in collaboration, risk sharing or shared goals. Viewed through the lens of Michael Porter's five forces model Orion is in a precarious environment, although there remain options for increased visibility to be used to Orion's advantage.</p>

Product Attributes, Evaluability, and Consumer Satisfaction

We studied the determinants of consumer satisfaction with mobile phones on the basis of their perceived product attribute performance, and the disconfirmation of product attribute expectations. Disconfirmation refers to the discrepancy between the prior expectation about the performance of a product’s attributes, and its perceives realizations after purchase. Evaluability theory assumes that the perceived attribute performance has a larger effect on consumer satisfaction for easy-to-evaluate than for difficult-to-evaluate attributes, after product acquisition. Furthermore, we used predictions of the asymmetric evaluations of gains (product performs better than expected) and losses (product performs worse than expected) from prospect theory, in combination with evaluability theory. We studied how evaluability influences the effects of the asymmetric evaluations of both positive and negative disconfirmation of product attribute expectations on consumer satisfaction. Our empirical study included 3099 participants of Amazon Mechanical Turk. We found that negative attribute disconfirmation had a larger effect on satisfaction than positive attribute disconfirmation, which is in line with loss aversion theory. Although the perceived product attribute performance positively influenced satisfaction, we found little support for the effects of perceived attribute performance being influenced by attribute evaluability. However, our findings indicated that negative attribute disconfirmation influenced satisfaction to a greater extent for relatively difficult-to-evaluate attributes than for relatively easy-to-evaluate attributes. We discuss both theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.

Effect of Moisture Distribution Changes Induced by Different Cooking Temperature on Cooking Quality and Texture Properties of Noodles Made from Whole Tartary Buckwheat

While precooking and processing have improved the quality of gluten-free noodles, the effects of different cooking temperatures on their quality—neither gluten-free noodles nor whole Tartary buckwheat noodles—have rarely been clarified. This study investigated the key role of moisture distribution induced by different cooking temperatures in improving the noodle quality of whole Tartary buckwheat. The results showed that cooking temperatures higher than 70 °C led to a sharp increase in cooking loss, flavonoid loss and the rate of broken noodles, as well as a sharp decrease in water absorption. Moreover, the noodles cooked at 70 °C showed the lowest rate of hardness and chewiness and the highest tensile strength of all cooking temperatures from 20 °C to 110 °C. The main positive attribute of noodles cooked at 70 °C might be their high uniform moisture distribution during cooking. Cooking at 70 °C for 12 min was determined as the best condition for the quality improvement of whole Tartary buckwheat noodles. This is the first study to illustrate the importance of cooking temperatures on the quality of Tartary buckwheat noodles. More consideration must also be given to the optimal cooking conditions for different gluten-free noodles made from minor coarse cereals.

Construction and evaluation of a bioluminescent Pseudomonas aeruginosa reporter for use in preservative efficacy testing

Preservative efficacy testing (PET) is a fundamental practice in industrial microbiology used to ensure product shelf-life and quality. To improve on current growth-based PET, bioluminescence was evaluated as a real-time bacterial viability indicator using Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Random mutagenesis of an industrial P. aeruginosa strain with a promoter-less luxCDABE mini-Tn5 was used to select a stable reporter (LUX12H5) with an un-altered growth and preservative susceptibility phenotype. Bioluminescence and viability were measured with and without preservatives (isothiazolinones, phenoxyethanol, and dimethyl dimethylol hydantoin) and an antibiotic comparator (ciprofloxacin). In the absence of antimicrobials, a good correlation between bioluminescence and viability (r2=0.92) was established. However, metabolic inhibition by isothiazolinone preservatives caused a rapid decline in light output that did not correlate to a reduced viability. Conversely, after ciprofloxacin exposure, the decline in viability was greater than that of bioluminescence. A positive attribute of the bioluminescence was the early detection of metabolic recovery and re-growth of preservative injured bacteria. Overall, while initial bioluminescence read-outs were less suited to current PET requirements, it shows promise as an early, direct indicator of bacterial regrowth in the context of long-term evaluation of preservative efficacy.

A Model of Caring in Organizations for Human Resource Development

Although caring and an ethics of care have been part of the nursing and education literature for many years, it has seldom been the focus of research and models in the HRD literature which has tended to be dominated by masculine rationality and models that focus on performance. In this paper, I argue that caring represents an important positive attribute of organizations and that a model of caring provides an alternative to HRD models based on masculine rationality and a performance philosophy. Research on caring in nursing and education is reviewed along with calls for an ethic of care in HRD. This is followed by a review of research on caring in organizations which provides the basis for the development of a model of caring in organizations for HRD. The model demonstrates the relationships between caring from three sources or levels in an organization (the organization or business unit, management, and co-workers), a climate of care for employees, and positive employee outcomes. HRD care-enhancing interventions for developing caring in organizations are then discussed. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of a model of caring for HRD research and practice.

Superconcentrated Electrolytes Widens Insertion Electrochemistry to Soluble Layered Halides

Insertion compounds provide the fundamental basis of today’s commercialized Li-ion batteries. Throughout history, intense research has focus on the design of stellar electrodes mainly relying on layered oxides or sulfides, and leaving aside the corresponding halides because of solubility issues. This is no longer true. In this work, we show for the first time the feasibility to reversibly intercalate electrochemically Li⁺ into VX₃ compounds (X = Cl, Br, I) via the use of superconcentrated electrolytes, (5 M LiFSI in dimethyl carbonate), hence opening access to a novel family of Li_xVX₃ phases. Moreover, through an electrolyte engineering approach we unambiguously prove that the positive attribute of superconcentrated electrolytes against solubility of inorganic compounds is rooted in a thermodynamic rather than a kinetic effect. The mechanism and corresponding impact of our findings enrich the fundamental understanding of superconcentrated electrolytes and constitute a crucial step in the design of novel insertion compounds with tunable properties for a wide range of applications beyond Li-ion batteries.

Superconcentrated Electrolytes Widens Insertion Electrochemistry to Soluble Layered Halides

Insertion compounds provide the fundamental basis of today’s commercialized Li-ion batteries. Throughout history, intense research has focus on the design of stellar electrodes mainly relying on layered oxides or sulfides, and leaving aside the corresponding halides because of solubility issues. This is no longer true. In this work, we show for the first time the feasibility to reversibly intercalate electrochemically Li⁺ into VX₃ compounds (X = Cl, Br, I) via the use of superconcentrated electrolytes, (5 M LiFSI in dimethyl carbonate), hence opening access to a novel family of Li_xVX₃ phases. Moreover, through an electrolyte engineering approach we unambiguously prove that the positive attribute of superconcentrated electrolytes against solubility of inorganic compounds is rooted in a thermodynamic rather than a kinetic effect. The mechanism and corresponding impact of our findings enrich the fundamental understanding of superconcentrated electrolytes and constitute a crucial step in the design of novel insertion compounds with tunable properties for a wide range of applications beyond Li-ion batteries.

On measuring agreement with numerically bounded linguistic probability schemes: A re-analysis of data from Wintle, Fraser, Wills, Nicholson, and Fidler (2019)

Across a wide range of domains, experts make probabilistic judgments under conditions of uncertainty to support decision-making. These judgments are often conveyed using linguistic expressions (e.g., x is likely). Seeking to foster shared understanding of these expressions between senders and receivers, the US intelligence community implemented a communication standard that prescribes a set of probability terms and assigns each term an equivalent numerical probability range. In an earlier PLOS ONE article, [1] tested whether access to the standard improves shared understanding and also explored the efficacy of various enhanced presentation formats. Notably, they found that embedding numeric equivalents in text (e.g., x is likely [55–80%]) substantially outperformed the status-quo approach in terms of the percentage overlap between participants’ interpretations of linguistic probabilities (defined in terms of the numeric range equivalents they provided for each term) and the numeric ranges in the standard. These results have important prescriptive implications, yet Wintle et al.’s percentage overlap measure of agreement may be viewed as unfairly punitive because it penalizes individuals for being more precise than the stipulated guidelines even when the individuals’ interpretations fall perfectly within the stipulated ranges. Arguably, subjects’ within-range precision is a positive attribute and should not be penalized in scoring interpretive agreement. Accordingly, in the present article, we reanalyzed Wintle et al.’s data using an alternative measure of percentage overlap that does not penalize in-range precision. Using the alternative measure, we find that percentage overlap is substantially elevated across conditions. More importantly, however, the effects of presentation format and probability level are highly consistent with the original study. By removing the ambiguity caused by Wintle et al.’s unduly punitive measure of agreement, these findings buttress Wintle et al.’s original claim that the methods currently used by intelligence organizations are ineffective at coordinating the meaning of uncertainty expressions between intelligence producers and intelligence consumers. Future studies examining agreement between senders and receivers are also encouraged to reflect carefully on the most appropriate measures of agreement to employ in their experiments and to explicate the bases for their methodological choices.