Biological Activities of Chickpea in Human Health (Cicer arietinum L.). A Review

Plant Foods for Human Nutrition - Chickpea is one of the most consumed legumes worldwide. Among their benefits are the high protein concentration that reflects not only at the nutritional level but...     

Sorghum Pasta and Noodles: Technological and Nutritional Aspects

Plant Foods for Human Nutrition - Sorghum is a major cereal crop with various agronomic advantages, contains health-promoting compounds and is gluten-free. There is a growing tendency to use...     

Comparison of Chemical Composition and Biological Properties of Essential Oils Obtained by Hydrodistillation and Steam Distillation of Laurus nobilis L.

Plant Foods for Human Nutrition - The purpose of this study was to compare the yield, chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of essential oils isolated from leaves of Laurus...     

Bioactive Compounds in Wild Asteraceae Edible Plants Consumed in the Mediterranean Diet

Plant Foods for Human Nutrition - Three wild edible plant species belonging to the Asteraceae family, Crepis vesicaria L. (s.l.), Sonchus asper (L.) Hill s.l., and Sonchus oleraceus L., usually...     

Replacing Wheat Flour with Debittered and Fermented Lupin: Effects on Bread’s Physical and Nutritional Features

Plant Foods for Human Nutrition - In this study the breadmaking potential of lupin flour from L. mutabilis after being debittered (DLF) and solid state fermented (FLF) was evaluated in lupin-wheat...     

Thermal performance curves based on field movements reveal context-dependence of thermal traits in a desert ectotherm

Landscape Ecology - Thermal traits likely mediate organismal responses to changing thermal environments. As temperatures increase, predicting species responses will depend on understanding how...     

Implications of future climate- and land-change scenarios on grassland bird abundance and biodiversity in the Upper Missouri River Basin

Landscape Ecology - Over the past decades, numerous threats from climate- and land-use change to ecosystems have been identified. Grassland ecosystems are among the most endangered in the world and...     

Strangulation of the duodenum just oral to its caudal flexura caused by a volvulus

An 8-year-old Haflinger mare with a 10-day-old foal at foot was referred with mild abdominal pain. On the basis of clinical examination, blood and peritoneal fluid analysis, the cause of pain was suspected septic peritonitis. The horse was initially managed medically, with the horse placed in box confinement under close monitoring. No permission was given for an exploratory laparotomy, and it was decided to perform a diagnostic laparoscopy in the standing horse. The laparoscopy revealed a 360-degree anticlockwise partial duodenal volvulus of the caudal descending duodenum, which was manually reduced (hand-assisted laparoscopy). After the release, the mesentery of the duodenum showed an ischaemic band (yellowish white and dark red with a hyperaemic side) and the duodenum had a distinct ischaemic ring (orally and aborally) distinguishing the incarcerated part from the normal duodenum. Ten minutes after the release, the colour remained the same. In conjunction with the owner, it was decided to euthanise the pony. Pathology confirmed the presence of a strangulation ring and the ischaemic condition of the involved duodenum.     

Thresholds,sensitive stages and genetic variability of finger millet to high temperature stress

Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] is an important coarse cereal crop grown in the arid and semi‐arid regions and often experiences high temperature (HT) stress. The objectives of this research were (i) to quantify effects of season‐long HT stress on physiological and yield traits, (ii) to identify the developmental stages most sensitive to HT stress and (iii) to quantify the genetic variability for HT stress tolerance in finger millet. Research was conducted in controlled environment conditions. HT stress decreased the chlorophyll index, photosystem II activity, grain yield and harvest index. Maximum decrease in number of seeds per panicle and grain yield per plant was observed when stress was imposed during booting, panicle emergence or flowering stages. Maximum genotypic variation was explained by panicle width and number of seeds per panicle at optimum temperature (OT) and grain yield per plant at HT and number of seeds at HT. Based on the stress response and grain yield, tolerant or susceptible genotypes were identified. Finger millet is sensitive to HT stress during reproductive stages, and there was genotypic variability among the finger millet genotypes for number of seeds per panicle and grain yield under HT, which can be exploited to enhance stress tolerance.     

Variation in prey selection and foraging success associated with early‐life ontogeny and habitat use of American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula)

Many fishes are planktivorous during early life and switch to piscivory or consume larger food items as ontogeny progresses. In contrast, paddlefish start as particulate feeders and later become filter feeders. Few studies have identified food items essential for paddlefish growth, survival and recruitment surrounding this ontogenetic diet shift. The objectives of this study were to investigate (i) prey types consumed by paddlefish, (ii) variability in prey selection surrounding an ontogenetic diet shift and (iii) whether habitat affected paddlefish prey selection or foraging success. We analysed gut contents of 189 wild age‐0 paddlefish from the middle Mississippi River (MMR) and also conducted a laboratory experiment to address these objectives. We found that paddlefish primarily foraged on benthic macroinvertebrates in the MMR, which differed from previous studies in lentic systems, suggesting young paddlefish prey selection may be labile depending on habitat (i.e., lotic versus lentic). Dominant prey of wild‐caught and experimental age‐0 paddlefish were caddisfly larvae (Trichoptera), followed by hemipterans and amphipods. We found little evidence that habitat attributes affected foraging success, but the most common prey items consumed were associated with wing dike habitat and the upstream and downstream tips of alluvial islands. Our experimental study revealed that if provided a mixture of organisms, age‐0 paddlefish will primarily consume macroinvertebrates while age‐1 paddlefish will mainly filter zooplankton. Overall results suggest young paddlefish prey selection can be highly variable, but also heavily reliant on a narrow group of prey resources.