Fermented milk obtained with kefir grains as an ingredient in breadmaking

The objectives of this research were to study the effect of the addition of lyophilised kefir milk to premixes for household production of bread and evaluate the quality attributes of them. Four lyophilised samples were obtained from the followings: skim milk, acidified skim milk, fermented skim milk and neutralised fermented skim milk. Breads were prepared with commercial wheat flour, lyophilised milk samples and yeast through a straight dough process. Quality was assessed through loaf volume, crumb porosity and moisture, crumb texture and crust colour. Changes in texture and starch recrystallisation by X‐ray diffractometry were determined after 1 and 3 days of storage at room temperature. Breads with acidified milks showed the highest specific volumes and crumbs with the best texture properties. Crystallinity in bread with fermented milks was higher than for skim milk sample. This would indicate that there would be a certain effect of the type of milk processing on the promotion of starch retrogradation.     

Characterization of Soybean Proteins–Fatty Acid Systems

This study investigated, with the aim of obtaining more flexible and hydrophobic proteins, the attachment of a low chain fatty acid, decanoic acid, to alkaline and acid soybean proteins; and the effect on their conformational and functional properties. The extent of esterification was high at acid pH and also increased with heating. Protein solubility decreased, mainly at the highest temperature (60 °C). Increasing levels of fatty acid formed a complex with a slightly more soluble protein with less surface hydrophobicity. Esterified proteins exhibited aggregation/dissociation and were stabilized by different protein subunits belonging to 7S and 11S globulins. Denaturation of these soybean protein fractions (7S and 11S) were also detected in these complexes. The highest level of fatty acids favored formation of a more ordered protein structure.     

Rheological and Microstructural Study of Wheat Doughs Partially Replaced with Mesquite Flour (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Prosopis alba</Emphasis>) and Added with Transglutaminase

The incorporation of different flours into wheat bread may pursue different objectives, such as increasing the nutritional quality of the products or the recovery of flour with little use in the industry. The “mesquite flour” (MF) is rich in sugar, fiber, and protein and is an interesting additive to wheat flour in baking. In this study, we used crude and thermally processed bread dough formulations of wheat flour (WF), replacing 15, 25, and 35% with mesquite flour. Furthermore, each formulation was tested for two levels (0.01 and 0.1%) of the enzyme transglutaminase (TG). Dough rheology was studied by small amplitude oscillatory compression tests, and the microstructure was analyzed by laser confocal microscopy using fluorescein isothiocyanate and rhodamine B as fluorophores. It was concluded that the incorporation of mesquite into the dough resulted in changes in the structure, as evidenced by the increase in tan δ, microscopic observations (loss of the filamentary and cross-linked gluten structure), and by the increase in the gelatinization temperature. The addition of TG led to dissimilar effects on doughs, depending on the formulation (wheat/mesquite content), but most encouraging results indicate the recovery of the structure, evidenced by a reduction in tan δ and the generation of a more filamentary structure in the dough with a higher content of mesquite flour. However, the effect of TG addition on “processed dough” was attenuated and the viscoelastic matrix of gluten did not recover.     

Rheological and Microstructure Characterization of Composite Dough with Wheat and Mesquite (Prosopis spp) Flours

Rheological behavior and microstructural characteristics of composite dough with wheat and mesquite flours (from Prosopis alba) were analyzed by response surface methodology. A central composite design was applied varying proportions of water (50 to 80 g each 100 g wheat flour) and mesquite flour (0 to 70 each 100 g wheat flour). Texture profile analysis showed that increasing the amount of mesquite flour and decreasing the amount of water led to less cohesive and more resilient doughs. Stress relaxation curves were fitted with a Maxwell model and relaxation times were obtained. These parameters resulted higher for those formulations low in mesquite content and high water levels. Composite dough showed a typical viscoelastic behavior with higher elastic moduli (G’) when mesquite flour ratio in the mixture was increased. ¹H-RMN T2 relaxation assays revealed higher mobility in samples with high amounts of water and minimum level of mesquite. A farinograph was adequate to obtain optimum water amounts and showed that addition of mesquite led to less stable dough respect to control wheat dough. By using confocal laser scanning microscopy with fluorescent probes rhodamine B and fluoresceine isothiocyanate, a poor gluten network development or protein aggregation was observed when water contents were far from optimum.     

Composition and structure of carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) germ proteins

This study was focused on the analysis of the chemical composition of defatted carob germ flour and the protein isolate. The amino acid composition and the nature of the subunits that compose carob germ proteins were also studied. Isolate was obtained by alkaline extraction followed by isoelectric precipitation of proteins. Results showed that an isolate of 96.5% of protein content was obtained. A high amount of amino acids like glutamic acid, aspartic acid and arginine was detected. Carob proteins were found to be composed by aggregates formed by a 131 and 70 kDa subunits linked by non-covalent bonds, and other peptides strongly bounded by disulfide interactions. Both, aggregates and subunits were formed mainly by 100 and 48 kDa monomers linked by disulfide bonds. A considerable content of high molecular mass peptides (HMWP) strongly bounded were also found. Proteins became partially denatured and thermally stabilized at acid pH (pH 2). These results could be useful in the study of different functional properties of carob germ proteins, and the application of these proteins as nutritional ingredients in formulated food.     

A complete system for on-line 3D modelling from acoustic images

This paper presents a system for the three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of an underwater environment on the basis of multiple range views from an acoustical camera. The challenge is to provide the reconstruction on-line, as the range views are obtained from the sensor. The final target of the work is to improve the understanding of a human operator driving an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle. The acoustic camera provides a sequence of 3D images in real time. Data must be registered and fused to generate a unique 3D mosaic in the form of a triangle mesh, which is rendered through a graphical interface. Available technologies for registration and meshing have been modified and extended to match time constraints. Some experiments on real data are reported.     

Implicit–Explicit Schemes for BGK Kinetic Equations

In this work a new class of numerical methods for the BGK model of kinetic equations is presented. In principle, schemes of any order of accuracy in both space and time can be constructed with this technique. The methods proposed are based on an explicit–implicit time discretization. In particular the convective terms are treated explicitly, while the source terms are implicit. In this fashion even problems with infinite stiffness can be integrated with relatively large time steps. The conservation properties of the schemes are investigated. Numerical results are shown for schemes of order 1, 2 and 5 in space, and up to third-order accurate in time.     

Quad‐Mesh Generation and Processing: A Survey

Triangle meshes have been nearly ubiquitous in computer graphics, and a large body of data structures and geometry processing algorithms based on them has been developed in the literature. At the same time, quadrilateral meshes, especially semi‐regular ones, have advantages for many applications, and significant progress was made in quadrilateral mesh generation and processing during the last several years. In this survey we discuss the advantages and problems of techniques operating on quadrilateral meshes, including surface analysis and mesh quality, simplification, adaptive refinement, alignment with features, parametrisation and remeshing.     

Influence of breast- and formula-feeding on plasma cholesterol precursor sterols throughout the first year of life

We evaluated endogenous cholesterol synthesis and plasma lipid profile longitudinally from birth to 1 year old in infants who were exclusively breast-fed (n = 19) or formula-fed (n = 19) for the first 4 months of life. At 1 and 4 months of age, breast-fed infants had higher plasma total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein B levels than formula-fed infants, whereas plasma mevalonate and lanosterol levels were not different between the two study groups.