Longitudinal trends, individual quality, and foraging of a temperate seabird

Tanya investigated individual quality of Australasian gannets specifically breeding success, foraging behaviour, and diet. Tanya’s thesis presented previously unreported findings of how quality manifests itself among seabirds, and, demonstrated the importance of accounting for individual variation when examining parameters of reproductive success, particularly in relation to long-term ecological processes.

Mohair fibre quality and production as related to animal size

Mohair is a luxury fibre produced by Angora goats. Mohair has special textile properties and is famed for its lustre. There are many reports of the relationships between mohair attributes and processing. While mohair production can be profitable to farmers there are severe price discounts for faults and poor quality. While genetics is known to affect mohair quality, fundamental relationships between body size and mohair quality have not been determined. We conducted a series of investigations to quantify the relationships between important mohair quality attributes and live weight and other lifetime factors associated with Angora goats.

Improving knowledge, fibre and textile quality, and communications

This is a technical report summarising activities to improve the knowledge about rare natural animal fibres in Australia, including aspects of their production, fibre quality, and textiles made from these fibres. It summarises results of Australian investment on these subjects, and makes recommendations about future investment. This is important, as there is limited scientific understanding of how to improve productivity, quality and financial returns from these industries in Australia.

Effect of sorghum flour addition on in vitro starch digestibility, cooking quality and consumer acceptability of durum wheat pasta

Whole grain sorghum is a valuable source of resistant starch and polyphenolic antioxidants and its addition into staple food like pasta may reduce the starch digestibility. However, incorporating nondurum wheat materials into pasta provides a challenge in terms of maintaining cooking quality and consumer acceptability. Pasta was prepared from 100% durum wheat semolina (DWS) as control or by replacing DWS with either wholegrain red sorghum flour (RSF) or white sorghum flour (WSF) each at 20%, 30%, and 40% incorporation levels, following a laboratory-scale procedure. Pasta samples were evaluated for proximate composition, in vitro starch digestibility, cooking quality, and consumer acceptability. The addition of both RSF and WSF lowered the extent of in vitro starch digestion at all substitution levels compared to the control pasta. The rapidly digestible starch was lowered in all the sorghum-containing pastas compared to the control pasta. Neither RSF or WSF addition affected the pasta quality attributes (water absorption, swelling index, dry matter, adhesiveness, cohesiveness, and springiness), except color and hardness which were negatively affected. Consumer sensory results indicated that pasta samples containing 20% and 30% RSF or WSF had acceptable palatability based on meeting one or both of the preset acceptability criteria. It is concluded that the addition of wholegrain sorghum flour to pasta at 30% incorporation level is possible to reduce starch digestibility, while maintaining adequate cooking quality and consumer acceptability.

Associations between diet quality and mental health in socially disadvantaged New Zealand adolescents

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between diet quality and mental health in an ethnically diverse adolescent population in New Zealand.