Reasoning about the implications of facial expressions: a behavioral and fMRI study on low and high social impact.

Inferring the cause of another person's emotional state is relevant for guiding behavior in social interactions. With respect to their potentially evoked behavioral reactions some emotional states like anger or happiness are considered to have high social impact while others such as fear and sadness have low social impact. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study to map the brain activation patterns related to reasoning about facial expressions of emotions with high or low social impact in twenty-six healthy volunteers with good emotional competence, self-reported empathy, and explicit facial affect recognition abilities. Our data show that empathic reasoning was faster and more accurate for high impact emotional states than for low impact emotional states. Activated brain areas involved brain circuits associated with basic and higher order empathy and decision-making in the dorsomedial and dorsolateral frontal cortex. However, activation in higher order areas was less during reasoning about emotional states of high social impact. Taken together, reasoning of high and low impact emotional states relied on similar empathy-related brain areas with reasoning about emotional states of low social impact being more erroneous and requiring more cognitive resources.

Comparison of immunohistochemical, histochemical and immunochemical methods for the detection of wheat protein allergens in meat samples and cooked, dry, raw and fermented sausage samples.

Nowadays is it a common practice to add vegetable protein in the production of meat products. Because of the possible substitution of high-quality raw meat with vegetable protein without the labelling the product package and because of the allergenic potential of many vegetable proteins, it is important to develop accurate methods for its detection. The objective of the study was to compare histochemical, immunochemical (ELISA, ALERT gliadin screening test) and immunohistochemical methods for the detection of wheat protein in meat samples and sausages. Histochemical methods were useful for the detection of flour in meat samples, but the immunohistochemical method was better for the detection of wheat protein. ALERT gliadin screening test detected gliadin from 10 mg kg(-1), while an immunohistochemical method detected wheat protein concentrations from 1 g kg(-1) and an ELISA method detected wheat protein concentrations from 4 g kg(-1). ALERT gliadin screening test showed results within 1 day, whilst an ELISA detection method took 2 days, and an immunohistochemical procedure took 5 days at the soonest, all including sample preparation. This study also focused on optimisation of an immunohistochemical method for samples of cooked sausage. In addition, three samples were sufficient for wheat protein detection at a concentration of 1 g kg(-1) (and greater) with a confidence level greater than 95%.

Carcass and meat quality of selected final hybrids of pigs in the Czech Republic.

The objective of this work was to compare the quality of carcass and meat in the selected crossbred pigs used in the Czech Republic. A total of 200 pigs that arose from four crossbreeding was studied; the dam line was in all combination of hybrids represented by Czech Large White × Landrace. Sire line included Large White × Belgian Landrace (I), Hampshire × Pietrain (II), Duroc × Pietrain (III) and Czech meat pig (IV). Influence of crossbreeding on lean meat percentage and muscle depth was statistically highly significant (P<0.001), influence on fat depth was evident (P<0.05). Differences in pH(1) value among the individual final hybrids were not statistically significant but variance of pH(24) value was highly notable (P<0.001). All colour parameters (L(∗), a(∗), b(∗) values), drip loss and exudate also were influenced by hybrid combination (P<0.001). Influence of crossbreeding on intramuscular fat content was not statistically significant (P=0.067). Higher content of intramuscular fat was determined in the hybrids with Duroc breed in sire line. In the whole group, 8.5% pig with PSE defect was found. By comparison of all the various hybridisation, positive influence of Hampshire breed on the carcass quality and negative influence on meat quality was confirmed. On the other hand, meat quality is positively influenced Duroc and Czech meat pig breeds.

[The effects of some technologies on survival of Campylobacter jejuni in food of animal origin]. / Technologické vlivy pusobící na prezívání Campylobacter jejuni v potravinách zivocisného puvodu.

The effects of some technologies (cooling, freezing, salting, packaging, fermentation, cold smoking, heat treatment) on the survival of Campylobacter jejuni were investigated. The different technological procedures can be considered as barriers influencing to a certain degree the survival of C. jejuni. The low value aw on the surface of chilled meat and oxygen presence reduce the occurrence of C. jejuni, but the low storage temperature prolongs the survival of C. jejuni to two days. In chilled poultry the high relative water content is combined with the low temperature and C. jejuni is able to survive even for five days. In the freezing process the low temperature has only partial effects on C. jejuni devitalization; C. jejuni can survive in this case for two to eight weeks. The survival of C. jejuni is prolonged considerably by packaging: six to seven days in polyethylene sheet, 10 days in vacuum packing and 10 to 13 days in gas packing (80% N2 and 20% CO2). NaCl can partly devitalize C. jejuni, and in comminuted meant it survives for five to seven days. In the non-precooked meat products (TNMV) and with the minimally fortnight time of ripening a number of barriers play their role which are destroying C. jejuni (aw, pH, antagonistic microflora). Due to these barriers C. jejuni was isolated in these products maximally for seven days. In this type of products with short durability (two to three days) the action of barriers is limited, that means C. jejuni could be demonstrated for two to six days.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Determination of sodium chloride in preserving brines using ion selective electrodes]. / Stanovení chloridu sodného v nakládacích lácích pomocí iontove selektivní elektrody.

The determination of sodium chloride content in salt brines is important for many reasons, including that of influencing the organoleptic properties of final products already prior to production. The method of determination by direct potentiometry is rapid, simple, requires no chemicals and has sufficient accuracy for use in producers' laboratories. The comparison of both methods of sodium chloride determination--direct potentiometry and direct titration without previous adjustment of samples--showed that titration gave higher sodium chloride levels (by 2.5 g per litre, i. e. 2.15%) than did ISE determination. For current laboratory examinations and for sodium chloride determination in meat plants, this difference is almost negligible. However, if sodium chloride is to be determined by the so called conclusive method, the measurement cannot be performed without previous mineralization of samples and without the use of buffer to damp down the effect of interfering ions.

[Microbiology of various liver products]. / Mikrobiologie nekterých játrových výrobku.

The proportions of mesophilic, thermophilic and psychrophilic microorganisms were investigated in the total number of microbes and aerobic sporogenic microorganisms in delicatessen liver sausages and liver cheeses. At the same time the content of ammonia and the pH of the products were determined. The largest part of the microflora comprised mesophilic microorganisms, 10 to 25% of which belonged to the sporogenic microflora. The incidence of staphylococci, enterococci and coliform microorganisms was also studied. The total number of microbes contributed to the ammonia content in the products, however, no intercorrelation was statistically proved. In the case of pH no relationship between its value and the number or kind of investigated microorganisms was found. All the indicators were followed in the raw material, in the finished products after heat processing and in products stored at refridgerator and room temperatures for one week.