Analysis of the Composition of Different Instars of Tenebrio molitor Larvae using Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy for Prediction of Amino and Fatty Acid Content.

Insects are a sustainable protein source for food and feed. The yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor L.) is a promising candidate for industrial insect rearing and was the focus of this study. This research revealed the diversity of Tenebrio molitor larvae in the varying larval instars in terms of the nutritional content. We hypothesized that water and protein are highest in the earlier instar, while fat content is very low but increases with larval development. Consequently, an earlier instar would be a good choice for harvest, since proteins and amino acids content decrease with larval development. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) was represented in this research as a tool for predicting the amino and fatty acid composition of mealworm larvae. Samples were scanned with a near-infrared spectrometer using wavelengths from 1100 to 2100 nm. The calibration for the prediction was developed with modified partial least squares (PLS) as the regression method. The coefficient for determining calibration (R2C) and prediction (R2P) were >0.82 and >0.86, with RPD values of >2.20 for 10 amino acids, resulting in a high prediction accuracy. The PLS models for glutamic acid, leucine, lysine and valine have to be improved. The prediction of six fatty acids was also possible with the coefficient of the determination of calibration (R2C) and prediction (R2P) > 0.77 and >0.66 with RPD values > 1.73. Only the prediction accuracy of palmitic acid was very weak, which was probably due to the narrow variation range. NIRS could help insect producers to analyze the nutritional composition of Tenebrio molitor larvae fast and easily in order to improve the larval feeding and composition for industrial mass rearing.

[The global Corona Pandemic in the mirror of personal postings-Platform-related modes of communication in social media]. / Die globale Corona-Pandemie im Spiegel persönlicher Postings ­ Plattformbezogene Kommunikationsmodi in Sozialen Medien.

The article typifies individual experiences as well as collective negotiations of the crisis and the handling of it in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic on the basis of the platform Imgur.com. For this, we draw on a sample of 2% of the highest rated posts (645 posts) published under the hashtag #coronavirus. The posts were coded according to the principles of (Visual) Grounded Theory and descriptively-statistically analyzed following a mixed-method approach. It is not only noticeable how many different media formats are used, but also that the participants' own posts appear alongside posts from other social media that have been reused. The platform itself is thus also a filter for contributions from other platforms. In addition, personal posts on dealing with the pandemic appear alongside political criticism and informative postings. Along the analyzed data material, it can thus be shown that users can combine different communication purposes, such as entertainment, information and social connection, in rapid succession on the same platform. One focus of the analyses is on the media format of memes, which play a prominent role in social media and which, due to their multimodality and their reference context based on adaptive seriality, pose challenges to the process of data collection and analysis. The reflection on the basis of the material therefore provides new impulses for the study of memes and communication on social media.