Metadata-only (no full-text)
Permalink for this collection
This collection contains items published by Lincoln University researchers where we do not have the full text or cannot make it open access. Instead we provide the bibliographic data (title, author, date etc), the abstract, and where relevant a link to the publisher's site.
Recent Submissions
Item Ecological functions of fungal sesquiterpenes in the food preference and fitness of soil Collembola(The Royal Society Publishing, 2024-02) Slonka, M; Vosteen, I; Mendoza-Mendoza, A; Rostás, MVolatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by fungi play a key role in locating and selecting hosts for fungivorous arthropods. However, the ecological functions of many common VOC classes, such as sesquiterpenes, remain unknown. Mutants of Trichoderma virens, defective in the emission of most sesquiterpenes owing to the deletion of the terpene cyclase vir4, were used to evaluate the role of this compound class in the food preference and fitness of the soil Collembola Folsomia candida. Choice experiments with and without direct contact with fungal mycelium revealed that Collembola were preferentially attracted to Δvir4 mutants impaired in sesquiterpene synthesis compared to wild-type T. virens. Grazing by F. candida on the sesquiterpene deficient T. virens strain had no effect on Collembola survival, reproduction and growth compared to wild-type T. virens. The results suggest that sesquiterpenes play an important role in fungal defence as repellents, but not as deterrents or toxins, against fungivorous Collembola. Our research contributes to the understanding of ecological interactions between fungi and fungivorous arthropods, providing insights into the specific ecological functions of sesquiterpenes. The study has implications for chemical ecology and the dynamics of multitrophic interactions in soil ecosystems.Item Quality assurance of packaged food using nanotechnology(Academic Press, 2022-11-01) Muthukumar, J; Kumar, S; Arunachalam, N; Kumar, Lokesh; Chidambaram, R; Sharma, A; Vijayakumar, PS; Prabhakar, PK; Kumar, RQuality assurance is indeed the standard that ensures the quality of the food commodities as per the acceptability of the customer and regulatory authorities. These include appearance, texture, taste, nutrient composition, and reliability. Quality assurance is widely expected during the shelf life of the packaged food products owing to the market demand. Traditionally, the conventional food-grade quality assessment methods are surface sampling, direct counting, and molecular methods. These quality inspection approaches have certain constraints such as factual inaccuracies, elevated risk of contamination, nutrient depletion which limits the way of progression in the food-grade analysis. One of the main aspects of nanotechnology is discovering innovative analytical techniques for the food sector. They are valuable for both the consumers as well as industries to retain market dominance. Nanomaterials are incorporated in the design of sensing frameworks to boost the efficiency of traditional food analysis methods containing low recognition boundaries. Though these methods are quite expensive than the conventional methods, their implementation is superior to existing food quality detection methods on considering the factors like ultra-sensitivity, selectivity, multiple targeting, portability, and noninvasive packaged item monitoring. They require the minimal use of organic compounds like sugars or proteins from food samples as the nanostructured target-recognition class for nanoscale devices like nanofood sensors. The specific optoelectronics, and chemical morphologies of these nanosensors aids in detecting the presence of various contaminants in complex food matrices and regenerate the test speed in an array of biosensors/lab-on-chip, electronic noses & tongues, test-strips, etc. Despite the incorrect perception about nanotechnology among various sectors, they will persist to have a significant role in making food supplies cleaner, better, and more sustainable.Item The effects of purchase and consumption on beef quality attribute beliefs: A study of tourists visiting VanuatuLees, Nicholas; Greenhalgh, JThis study investigates the effects of purchase and consumption on beef quality attribute beliefs. In particular, it focuses on credence and experience attribute beliefs in the context of tourists visiting Vanuatu. The tourists in the study had little prior knowledge of the quality attributes of Vanuatu beef. Primary data was collected through a survey of 200 tourists visiting Vanuatu. Factor analysis, comparison of means and multiple linear regression were used to analyse the data. The results showed that the importance and initial beliefs the tourists had about credence attributes influenced both credence and experience attributes beliefs after purchase and consumption. In contrast, the importance and initial beliefs regarding experience attributes had a lesser impact on credence or experience quality beliefs following this process. The only effect of the experience attribute variables were on beliefs regarding credence attributes after purchase and consumption. This shows how the importance and initial beliefs tourists have about credence attributes affects the formation of their beliefs regarding other beef quality attributes. Not only do the credence attribute variables affect beliefs related to credence attributes but it has a significant effect on beliefs regarding experience attributes. The study has some important management implications. It shows that beef consumers place greater importance on experience attributes and in particular eating quality dimensions such as taste and tenderness. This indicates that managers should not focus on credence attributes at the expense of beef eating experience. Credence attributes can complement experience attributes but are not a substitute.Item Minutes of the inaugural 25 October 2022 meeting of International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP) Subcommittees on Taxonomy representatives: Challenges, trends, and perspectives for microbial taxonomists(Microbiology Society, 2023-10-03) On, StephenA special online meeting to discuss contemporaneous issues facing ICSP Subcommittees on Taxonomy was convened for Chairs and/or Secretaries of these groups by the current Secretary for Subcommittees, S.L.W. On. In attendance were representatives from 13 of the 16 Subcommittees currently active: namely those covering aerobic Bacteroidota (J. Bowman), Aeromonadaceae, Vibrionaceae and related organisms (F. Thompson), Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus and related organisms (P. Mattarelli), Campylobacter and related bacteria (S.L.W. On), Chlamydiae (N. Borel), Halobacteria (A. Oren), Halomonadaceae (D.R. Arahal), Methanogenic Archaea (O.P. Sharma), Micrococcinaceae (K.-I. Suzuki), Myxococcota (R.L. Hahnke, R. Garcia), Pasteurellaceae (H. Christensen), Phototrophic bacteria (A. Wilmotte), Rhizobia and Agrobacteria (J.P.W. Young). The Chair of the ICSP, I.C. Sutcliffe, was also in attendance. The meeting was convened at 8 pm (NZT) on 25 October 2022.Item Saccharide-passivated graphene quantum dots from graphite for iron(III) sensing and bioimaging(American Chemical Society, 2023-07-14) Cai, J; Ma, G; Li, X; On, Stephen; Wang, XSo far, it is difficult to prepare graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with high quantum yield (QY), high biocompatibility, and high yield by conventional top-down methods. We describe here a facile strategy to synthesize GQDs in NaOH/N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) under sonication, which was subsequently passivated by saccharide to improve their stability. In the synthesis process, the GQDs were predominantly generated through exfoliation of graphite sheets. NaOH boosted the formation of GQDs by intercalation into the layer of graphite sheets, and the yield could be effectively increased to 7.54% with a prolonged sonication time and enhanced power, which was different from traditional methods. Due to the structure of the GQDs being similar to that of pristine graphene, GQDs possessed relatively high QYs, up to 19.12%. With further functionalization by hydrophilic saccharide, xylan-passivated GQDs with better stability and QY were applied for the detection of Fe³⁺ in the range of 0-75 μM with a limit of detection of 92.8 nM. Furthermore, chitosan-oligosaccharide (COS)-passivated GQDs showed good performance in cell imaging. Therefore, this work provides an efficient method to prepare GQDs and presents their promising application in ferroptosis after passivation.