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The role of inorganic nanoparticles in our society is increasing every day, from its use in sunscreens to their introduction in analytical laboratories, pharmacy, medicine, agricultural and other uses. Therefore, in order to establish precautions as well as correct handling of this type of material by operators, it is important to determine the ability of these compounds to travel through the different layers of the skin and to study their possible toxicological effects. In this sense, several authors have studied the ability of inorganic nanoparticles to penetrate the skin barrier by diverse methodologies in in vivo and in vitro modes. In the first case, most of the studies have been performed with animal skins that can imitate the human one (porcine, mouse and guinea pigs, among others), although human skin from surgery have been also explored. However, the use of animals is a common model that should be avoided in the following years due to ethical issues. In this sense, the use of in vitro methodologies is also usually selected to study the dermal absorption of nanoparticles through the skin. Nevertheless, most of the studies are performed with authentic animal skins, instead of the use of synthetic skins that imitate the permeability of our skin system, which has been scarcely studied. In addition, most of the literature is focused in achieving high-transdermal uptake to use nanoparticles (not only inorganic) as carriers for drugs, but little efforts have been done in the study of their inherent percutaneous absorption and toxicity. For these reasons, this review covers the current state-of-the-art of dermal absorption of inorganic nanoparticles in skin and their possible toxicity taking into account that people can be in contact with these nanomaterials in daily life, work or other places. In this sense, the observed results showed that the nanoparticles rarely reach the blood circulatory system, and no big toxicological effects were commonly found when in vivo and actual skin was used. In addition, similar results were found when synthetic skins were used, demonstrating the possibility of avoiding animals in these studies. In any case, more studies covering the dermal absorption of nanoparticles should be performed to have a better understanding of how nanoparticles can affect our health.

Antibiotics are widely used to prevent or treat some diseases in human and veterinary medicine and also as animal growth promoters. The presence of these compounds in foods derived from food-producing animals can be a risk for human health. Consequently, regulatory agencies have set maximum residue limits for antibiotics in food samples. Therefore, the development of novel methodologies for its determination in food samples is required. Specifically, the analysis and quantification of these substances in meat tissues is a challenge for the analytical chemistry research community. This is due to the complexity of the matrix and the low detection limits required by the regulatory agencies. In this sense, a comprehensive review on the development of new sample preparation treatments involving extraction, cleanup, and enrichment steps of antibiotics in meat samples in combination with sensitive and sophisticated determination techniques that have been carry out in the last years is necessary. Therefore, the aim of this work is to summarize the published methodologies for the determination of antibiotics from 2016 until the beginning of the second semester of 2020. The first part of this review includes an introduction about antibiotic families, followed by sample preparation and determination techniques applied to the different families. Finally, a detailed discussion of the current trends and the future possible perspectives in this field are also included.

[EN] Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) and its derivatives are appreciated for their aroma, color, and healthy properties, and are commodities of high economic value worldwide. Wide ranges of conventional methods have been used for years to guarantee cocoa quality. Recently, however, demand for global cocoa and the requirements of sensory, functional, and safety cocoa attributes have changed. On the one hand, society and health authorities are increasingly demanding new more accurate quality control tests, including not only the analysis of physicochemical and sensory parameters, but also determinations of functional compounds and contaminants (some of which come in trace quantities). On the other hand, increased production forces industries to seek quality control techniques based on fast, nondestructive online methods. Finally, an increase in global cocoa demand and a consequent rise in prices can lead to future cases of fraud. For this reason, new analytes, technologies, and ways to analyze data are being researched, developed, and implemented into research or quality laboratories to control cocoa quality and authenticity. The main advances made in destructive techniques focus on developing new and more sensitive methods such as chromatographic analysis to detect metabolites and contaminants in trace quantities. These methods are used to assess cocoa quality; study new functional properties; control cocoa authenticity; or detect frequent emerging frauds. Regarding nondestructive methods, spectroscopy is the most explored technique, which is conducted within the near infrared range, and also within the medium infrared range to a lesser extent. It is applied mainly in the postharvest stage of cocoa beans to analyze different biochemical parameters or to assess the authenticity of cocoa and its derivatives., The authors wish to acknowledge the financial assistance provided by the Spanish Government and European Regional Development Fund (Project RTC-2016-5241-2). Maribel Quelal Vásconez thanks the Ministry Higher Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation (SENESCYT) of the Republic of Ecuador for her PhD grant.

In recent years, important efforts have been put into miniaturization, coming on the scene formats such as chips, 3D-printed objects and paper-based devices. These systems have been applied to biological and chemical processes taking profit of their advantages such as waste reduction, low cost, portability, etc. Despite their benefits, there is a need to continue developing easier-to-use devices with enhanced performance addressed to face the current analytical challenges. In this sense, reticular porous materials such as metal- (MOFs) and covalent- (COFs) organic frameworks with unique features including tailorable porous architectures and tunable chemistry have attracted a lot of attention in various fields. Nevertheless, the combination of these materials with miniaturized and emerging formats has been scarcely investigated. This review is intended to bridge this gap and highlight the recent contributions of these materials in these analytical formats. Thus, this work aims to provide a comprehensive review of the field, highlighting incorporation strategies into the functional supports available to date, and the applications of the resulting systems in both off-site laboratory studies (mostly dedicated to (micro)extraction purposes) and on-site analysis. Finally, a discussion of challenges and future directions in this field is also given.

A total of 56 key volatile compounds present in natural and alkalized cocoa powders have been rapidly evaluated using a non-target approach using stir bar sorptive extraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry (SBSE-GC–MS) coupled to Parallel Factor Analysis 2 (PARAFAC2) automated in PARADISe. Principal component analysis (PCA) explained 80% of the variability of the concentration, in four PCs, which revealed specific groups of volatile characteristics. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) helped to identify volatile compounds that were correlated to the different degrees of alkalization. Dynamics between compounds such as the acetophenone increasing and toluene and furfural decreasing in medium and strongly alkalized cocoas allowed its differentiation from natural cocoa samples. Thus, the proposed comprehensive analysis is a useful tool for understanding volatiles, e.g., for the quality control of cocoa powders with significant time and costs savings.

In this study, single-stranded DNA aptamers with binding affinity to Ole e 1, the major allergen of olive pollen, were selected using systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) method. Binding of the aptamers was firstly established by enzyme-linked oligonucleotide assay (ELONA) and aptaprecipitation assays. Additionally, aptamer-modified monolithic capillary chromatography was used in order to evaluate the recognition of this allergenic protein against other non-target proteins. The results indicated that AptOle1#6 was the aptamer that provided the highest affinity for Ole e 1. The selected aptamer showed good selective recognition of this protein, being not able to retain other non-target proteins (HSA, cyt c, and other pollen protein such as Ole e 9). The feasibility of the affinity monolithic column was demonstrated by selective recognition of Ole e 1 in an allergy skin test. The stability and reproducibility of this monolithic column was suitable, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) in retention times and peak area values of 7.8 and 9.3%, respectively (column-to-column reproducibility). This is the first study that describes the design of an efficient DNA aptamer for this relevant allergen.

This article reviews the research contributions along the past five years concerning to monolithic materials for the development of affinity-based sorbents in the field of microextraction techniques. The first part of this paper includes an introduction regarding monolithic affinity media and information of different binding agents (such as immunoglobulin-binding proteins, enzymes, lectins, antibodies, aptamers, dyes and immobilized metal ions and nanoparticles, among others) that can act as affinity ligands. Then, the preparation of monoliths and ligand immobilization strategies as well as the different available formats (syringes, pipette tips, spin columns, capillaries, disks and microfluidic devices) for their use in micro-solid phase extraction are mentioned. On the basis of the binding agents used to prepare affinity monolithic-based sorbents, the last part of manuscript includes several analytical and preparative applications of these monoliths for sample preparation covering different fields (analytical chemistry, biotechnology, proteomics, etc.). Current trends and possible future directions of these affinity-based sorbents in sample preparation are also given.

[EN] The rapid and easy classification of almond varieties with similar morphology, different quality properties and, in most cases, different prices is interesting to protect both the almond industry and the consumers from fraud. Therefore, in this work, intact almond kernels from four Spanish varieties (`Guara¿, `Rumbeta¿, `Marcona¿ and `Planeta¿) were analysed using both near infrared (NIR) and attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. After spectra measurement, NIR and ATR-FTIR spectral data were pre-treated and employed to construct two classification methods (partial least square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA)) in order to check their ability to classify almonds according to their variety. The best overall accuracies (94.45%) were obtained with the PLS-DA model of ATR-FTIR and the QDA model of NIR data. These results confirm that both spectroscopic techniques, if the optimal statistical model is selected, are powerful tools to reliably discriminate almonds according to their varieties., Victoria Cortés López thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports for the FPU grant (FPU13/04202). The authors wish to thank the cooperative Agricoop for kindly providing the samples used in the experiments. This work was partially funded by INIA and FEDER funds through project RTA2015-00078-00-00.

[EN] Variation in methylxanthines (theobromine and caffeine) and flavanols (catechin and epicatechin) was studied in a large set of cocoa powders (covering different origins, processing parameters and alkalisation levels). The content of these compounds was established by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), whose results showed that the alkalisation process lowered the content of all analytes, whose loss was more evident in flavanols. Therefore, the determination of these analytes in a huge set of samples allowed not only better knowledge of the concentration variability in natural commercial cocoas from different origins, but also the understanding of the effect that industrial alkalisation has on these contents. The feasibility of reflectance near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) combined with partial least square (PLS) to non-destructively predict these contents, was also evaluated. All the analytes were generally well predicted, with predictions for methylxanthines (R-P(Z) 0.819-0.813 and RMSEP 0.068-0.022%, and bias 0.005 and 0.007 for theobromine and caffeine, respectively) and for flavanols (R-P(Z) 0.830-0.824; RMSEP 8.160-7.430% and bias - 1.440 and -1.034 for catechin and epicatechin, respectively). Thus NIRS could be an alternative fast reliable method for the routine assessment of these analytes in the cocoa industry., The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Government and European Regional Development Fund (Project RTC-2016-5241-2). M. A. Quelal thanks the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT) of the Republic of Ecuador for her PhD grant. Olam Food Ingredients Company is aknowledged for proving part of the cocoa samples used in the study.

Combinatorial peptide ligand libraries coupled to MS was applied to extensively map the proteome of apple fruit, and to detect its presence in commercial apple juice and cider to evaluate their authenticity and genuineness. Using the Uniprot_Malus database, 96 proteins were detected in apples, among which 30 proteins were specifically captured via combinatorial peptide ligand libraries. Next, three proteins, previously recognized in fruits, were found in apple juice, which were involved in cellular metabolism of fruit maturation and in allergenic reactions. On the other hand, only one Malus allergen was identified in cider beads eluate, demonstrating that the industrial processes did not prevent any negative effects in sensitive subjects. Thus, the present study not only increases the knowledge of the apple proteome but also offers a reliable analytical method to assess quality and genuineness of commercial products, which could be also used to inform consumers about the presence of allergens.

The suitability of sterol profiles established by HPLC–MS as a tool to discriminate between seven cultivars of Tunisian virgin olive oils (VOOs) was evaluated in this study. Moreover, some cultivars (Chemchali, Fouji and Zarrazi) have been also classified according to their maturity index. A total of nine sterol peaks, which appeared in all samples, were used to develop linear discriminant analysis (LDA) models able to distinguish Tunisian VOOs according to their cultivar or maturity index. An excellent predictive classification was obtained since all samples were correctly classified. Therefore, it has been demonstrated that sterol profiles are a powerful tool to discriminate VOOs coming from different cultivars and maturity indexes.

A simple, cheap, and reliable capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method with indirect UV detection to determine the main organic acids in several fruit juices has been developed in this work. The parameters affecting CZE separation including the chromophore reagent (2,6-pyridinedicarboxylic acid, PDC) concentration and pH in background electrolyte (BGE), temperature, and applied voltage were studied. The analytical parameters of the method as linearity, precision, and detection and quantification limits were also investigated. The proposed method was applied to the evaluation of organic acid contents of commercial fruit juices from apple, grape, mandarin, orange, and pineapple and compared with the levels allowed by European legislation. A chemometric technique such as linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was also applied to differentiate fruit juices based on CZE data. This simple and reliable developed procedure allows a rapid control of adulteration of high-value commercial fruit juices, which constitutes an important tool for authenticity texting in food industries and regulatory agencies.

The authors describe a method for the extraction and determination of phospholipids (PLs) from human milk fat by using a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) as the sorbent material and liquid chromatography for detection. The MIP was synthesized by thermal polymerization using L-α-phosphatidylcholine (PC) as the template, methacrylic acid as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linker, and acetonitrile as the porogenic solvent. The resulting MIP was employed as a sorbent for solid-phase extraction of PLs from human milk fat samples. The extracted PLs were then determined by means of hydrophilic interaction LC in combination with evaporative light scattering detection. Variables affect the extraction efficiency (such as the porogenic solvent, template/functional monomer/cross-linker ratio and extraction conditions) were optimized. The selectivity of the MIP over PLs different from PC was investigated, and the adsorption capacity, breakthrough volume and reusability of the MIP was determined. The MIP displays a satisfactory loading capacity (ca. 41 μg PC per g of sorbent) and a high affinity and selectivity for PC and structurally related PLs, such as sphingomyelin and L-α-phosphatidylethanolamine. The MIP can be reused at least 20 times in case of PL standards, and at least 6 times in case of human milk fat samples.

The authors describe four different kinds of sorbents for solid-phase extraction (SPE) and preconcentration of proteins from complex samples. All are based on the use of a poly(glycidyl-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) host monolith that was chemically functionalized by using two different ligands (ammonia and cysteamine). Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) or silver NPs were then assembled to the amino or thiol groups. The resulting materials are shown to be viable stationary phases for use in SPE cartridges. The sorbents can selectively retain bovine serum albumin, and the thiol-modified sorbents containing AuNPs and AgNPs provide the highest recoveries (>90%) and satisfactory loading capacities (29.3 and 17.6 μg⋅mg−1 of sorbent, respectively). The applicability of these nanosorbents was demonstrated by preconcentrating viscotoxins from mistletoe extracts. The enriched fractions were subjected to MALDI-TOF analysis to underpin their selectivity.

[EN] Folic acid (FA) is a synthetic vitamin commonly used for food fortification. However, its vulnerability to processing and storage implies loss of efficiency, which would induce over-fortification by processors to obtain a minimum dose upon consumption. Recent studies have indicated potential adverse effects of FA overdoses, and FA protection during processing and storage could lead to more accurate fortification. In addition, sustained vitamin release after consumption would help improve its metabolism. The objective of this work was to study controlled FA delivery and stability in fruit juices to reduce potential over-fortification risks by using gated mesoporous silica particles (MSPs). The obtained results indicated that FA encapsulation in MSPs significantly improved its stability and contributed to controlled release after consumption by modifying vitamin bioaccessibility. These results confirmed the suitability of MSPs as support for controlled release and protection of bioactive molecules in food matrices in different food production and storage stages., Authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and FEDER-EU (Projects AGL2012-39597-C02-01, AGL2015-70235-C2-1-R, AGL2015-70235-C2-2-R and MAT2015-64139-C4-1-R (MINECO/FEDER)) and the Generalitat Valenciana (Project PROMETEOII/2014/047). M.R.R. is grateful to the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion for her grant (AP2010-4369). The authors also thank the Electron Microscopy Service at the UPV for support.

The suitability of protein profiles established by capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE) as a tool to discriminate between 11 cultivars of Citrus (orange and tangerine) peel and pulp was evaluated in this work. Before CGE analysis, different extraction buffers (which included enzyme-assisted treatments) were compared. The best results were achieved using 5% ( v/v ) Celluclast ® 1.5 L and 5% ( v/v ) Palatase ® 20,000 L buffers for Citrus peel and pulp protein extracts, respectively. The resulting protein profiles obtained were used to construct linear discriminant analysis (LDA) models able to distinguish Citrus peel and pulp samples according to their cultivar. In both cases, all samples were correctly classified with an excellent resolution among all categories, which demonstrated that protein patterns are a powerful tool to discriminate Citrus samples coming from different cultivars.

[ES] Desarrollar el resultado estudiantil de "Comunicación oral efectiva" es una nueva estrategia dentro de los estudios universitarios, tanto en licenciatura como en másteres. Para alcanzar este objetivo, se creó la metodología Comunica’t en 2017 dentro de un Proyecto de Innovación y Mejora Educativa. (PIME) en la Universitat Poliècnica de València. El proyecto tiene como objetivo fundamental que el estudiante, después de realizar un test de autodiagnóstico, pueda mejorar su comunicación oral efectiva a través de un itinerario de autoaprendizaje. De esta manera, el estudiante, a partir de su nivel inicial de competencia en términos de comunicación oral efectiva, sigue un itinerario autoformativo particularizado a su situación específica, con las actividades de capacitación apropiadas. Después de dos años académicos de implementación, el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el grado de contribución de esta metodología al desarrollo de la competencia "Comunicación oral efectiva" de los estudiantes que siguieron la citada metodología durante la asignatura Auditorías de Sistemas de Gestión de la Calidad y Seguridad Alimentaria, perteneciente al Máster en Gestión de Calidad y Seguridad Alimentaria. Los resultados mostraron que la metodología contribuyó en gran medida a mejorar el orden de las ideas en la presentación, la comunicación no verbal y el diseño de las diapositivas., [EN] Developing the "Effective Oral Communication” student outcome is a new strategy within the university studies, both in Bachelor's and Master's degrees. To reach this goal, the Comunica’t methodology was created in 2017. This methodology has been developed within a Project of Innovation and Educational Improvement (PIME) at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and has as its fundamental objective that the student, after performing a self-diagnosis, can improve their effective oral communication through a self-learning itinerary. In this way, the student, starting from his level of initial proficiency in terms of effective oral communication, follows a self-formative itinerary particularized to his specific situation, with the appropriate training activities. After two academic years of implementation, the goal of this work is to analyse the degree of contribution of this methodology to development of the "Effective Oral Communication” students outcome of students that followed the methodology during the subject Audits of Food Safety and Quality Systems, belonging to the Master in Food Safety and Quality Management. Results showed that the methodology contributed in a great extent to improve the ordering of ideas in the presentation, the non-verbal communication and the design of the slides.

[EN] The main goal of the present study is to analyze the satisfaction level of the students from the master degree "Food Safety and Quality Management" with the "ComunicaT" methodology, which was applied to improve the mastery level of the "Effective Oral Communication" student outcome. This methodology is being developed under an innovative and educational improvement research project funded by the Universitat Politècnica de València, and the general idea behind it is that the student, after performing an auto-diagnosis test, becomes capable to autonomously improve its oral communication skills. Thereby, the student, starting from his initial mastery level on this student outcome, follows a selfformative, adapted learning itinerary with proper learning activities for him/her to enhance his masterliness on this topic. The methodology has been carefully designed by several university lecturers coming from different universities, with a wide range of different profiles. It is mandatory to retrieve feedback from the students that participated in this methodology, in order to make it better, simpler and more efficient in further applications. With the results obtained in this work we assess the satisfaction level of the students with the "ComunicaT" methodology, and we identify improvement opportunities that can be exploited in the future., This work has been developed within the research project called Implementación de una plataforma cloud para el desarrollo de una metodología autoformativa de la CT Comunicación Efectiva y sus procesos de evaluación (Exp.: PIME/18-19/51) funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Studies, Quality and Acreditation of the Universitat Politècnica de València.

[EN] During academic course 2017-2018 the Comunica't methodology was created to help students to self-learn all the skills needed to master the areas of domain of the general student outcome effective oral communication. After two academic years of implementation, the goal of this work is to analyse the degree of contribution of this methodology to development of the "Effective Oral Communication students outcome of students that followed the methodology during the subject Audits of Food Safety and Quality Systems, belonging to the Master in Food Safety and Quality Management. To this end, at the beginning of the subject, students were asked to present a topic related to the subject and evaluated with respect to the six areas in which the project has defined the development of the outcome following a rubric. Then the methodology was presented, and at the end of the teaching period the procedure was repeated. Finally, marks obtained before and after the learning intervention were compared. Results showed that the methodology contributed in a great extent to improve the ordering of ideas in the presentation, the non-verbal communication and the design of the slides. Therefore, although there are fields where the methodology contributed to a lower percentage, it can be concluded that the methodology is very effective in improving effective oral communication student outcome., This work has been developed within the research project called Implementación de una plataforma cloud para el desarrollo de una metodología autoformativa de la CT Comunicación Efectiva y sus procesos de evaluación (Exp.: PIME/18-19/51) funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Studies, Quality and Acreditation of the Universitat Politècnica de València.

[EN] In this work, the effect of the addition of olive leaf extracts on the quality of vacuum-packed salmon burgers stored at 4? during 16 days has been studied. Olive leaf extract and its hydrolysate were initially characterized and then incorporated to salmon burgers. A shelf life study was conducted in three different batches (control, olive leaf extract, and hydrolyzed olive leaf extract burgers). Among the chemical indices determined, total volatile base nitrogen values were lower in hydrolyzed olive leaf extract and olive leaf extract burgers than in control samples. Lipid oxidation was lower in salmon burger with olive leaf extract. Salmon mince treated with hydrolyzed olive leaf extract showed lower microbial counts during the whole study, which extended the shelf life of the fish product. Therefore, the potential of olive leaf extracts to preserve salmon burgers during cold storage has been demonstrated., The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Tunisia (Laboratories LR14ES08 and LR11ES45). MJ Lerma-Garcia thanks the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for a postdoctoral contract (PAID-10-14).

[EN] Intact almond kernels (N¿=¿360, half sweet and half bitter) were analyzed using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) for the prediction of amygdalin concentration and to classify them according to their bitterness. Amygdalin concentrations for sweet and bitter almonds, determined by high performance liquid chromatography, were between 0.7¿350 and 15,000-50,000¿mg kg¿1, respectively. Concentrations were successfully predicted by applying partial least squares (PLS) to the pre-treated spectral data with R2p of 0.951 and RMSEP of 0.398. Additionally, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) and PLS-DA models were constructed to classify samples according to their bitterness. All three models provided a satisfactory discrimination of almonds into sweet and bitter categories, providing overall accuracy values of 83.3%, 86.1% and 98.6%, respectively. The results indicate the potential of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy for the reliable, easy and fast prediction of amygdalin concentration, and for almond classification according to their bitterness., Victoria Cortés López thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports for the FPU grant (FPU13/04202). The authors wish to thank the cooperative Agricoop for kindly donating the almonds.

[EN] Effective oral communication is one of the most demanded student outcomes in the labour market, especially for degree students on International Business. Although this outcome is usually evaluated in several subjects along the curriculum, it is barely worked neither inside nor outside the classroom, mainly due to lack of time and to unavailability of proper learning methodologies. The PIMECOE project, an innovation and educational improvement project on this matter, has developed a self-learning methodology on the Effective Oral Communication student outcome, in which auto-diagnosis tests, selflearning tools and peer assessments are conveniently combined to enhance the proficiency level of the students in an autonomous way. As part of this project, and after some previous successful pilot studies, we have run this methodology with International Bussiness¿ students within the ¿Learning instruments and techniques¿ subject during the first semester of the 2018/2019 academic year at the Universitat de València. After carrying out a quantitative analysis of the results, we have found generalised improvements on the proficiency level of the oral communication outcome of the participant students. Satisfaction surveys suggest that the application of this methodology has really helped the student to become conscious of unrealised weaknesses and therefore to boost their oral skills., This work has been developed within the research project called Implementación de una plataforma cloud para el desarrollo de una metodología autoformativa de la CT Comunicación Efectiva y sus procesos de evaluación (B20) funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Studies, Quality and Acreditation of the Universitat Politècnica de València.

[EN] Cocoa shell must be removed from the cocoa bean before or after the roasting process. In the case of a low efficient peeling process or the intentional addition of cocoa shell to cocoa products (i.e. cocoa powders) to increase the economic benefit, quality of the final product could be unpleasantly affected. In this scenario, the Codex Alimentarius on cocoa and chocolate has established that cocoa cake must not contain more than 5% of cocoa shell and germ (based on fat-free dry matter). Traditional analysis of cocoa shell is very laborious. Thus, the aim of this work is to develop a methodology based on near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and multivariate analysis for the fast detection of cocoa shell in cocoa powders. For this aim, binary mixtures of cocoa powder and cocoa shell containing increasing proportions of cocoa shell (up to ca. 40% w/w based on fat-free dried matter) have been prepared. After acquiring NIR spectra (1100-2500 nm) of pure samples (cocoa powder and cocoa shell) and mixtures, qualitative and quantitative analysis were done. The qualitative analysis was performed by using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), finding that the model was able to correctly classify all samples containing less than 5% of cocoa shell. The quantitative analysis was performed by using a partial least squares (PLS) regression. The best PLS model was the one constructed using extended multiple signal correction plus orthogonal signal correction pre-treatment using the 6 main wavelengths selected according to the Variable Importance in Projection (VIP) scores. Determination coefficient of prediction and root mean square error of prediction values of 0.967 and 2.43, respectively, confirmed the goodness of the model. According to these results it is possible to conclude that NIR technology in combination with multivariate analysis is a good and fast tool to determine if a cocoa powder contains a cocoa shell content out of Codex Alimentarius specifications., The authors wish to acknowledge the financial assistance provided the Spanish Government and European Regional Development Fund (Project RTC-2016-5241-2). M. A. Quelal thanks the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT) of the Republic of Ecuador for her PhD grant.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the presence of palm oil in food products on sale, and to study and compare consumers’ opinions about this oil type in Spain (importing country) and Peru (producing country). Design/methodology/approach Recent news published in both countries, which could influence consumer perceptions, were analysed. A study on the labelling of foodstuffs in Spain was carried out, as was a survey with Spanish and Peruvian consumers. Findings Palm oil was found in a large number of products and in a wide range of foods, especially those from the bakery sector. The percentages of saturated fats varied substantially within the same product type. Spanish consumers showed much more interest in the labelling and information on nutritional properties, especially energy values, saturated fats and sugars, while Peruvians focused more on energy values, and protein, vitamin and mineral contents. In Spain, palm oil was considered the worst quality fat/oil and had a clearly negative effect on both health and the environment. In Peru, palm oil was neither perceived by the majority of respondents as low quality oil nor associated with negative health effects. However, they were aware of the environmental problems that could result from its production. Originality/value These results confirm that the food industry should make efforts to reduce or replace palm oil in foods, mainly in Spain, as most consumers believe that palm oil negatively affects their health and the environment.

Sample preparation is a relevant step in food analysis to achieve adequate extraction and preconcentration of target analytes before their introduction in the analytical system. Current trends in sample preparation involve moving towards miniaturized extraction devices combined with advanced affinity-based sorbents. Within affinity-based materials, aptamer-based ones have attracted much attention due to their excellent molecular recognition properties, high stability, and the possibility of immobilization onto the surface of different supporting materials, such as nanoparticles, monolithic stationary phases, etc. This review gives an overview of the literature published regarding aptamer-based sorbents and their potential application in the isolation and determination of several compounds such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), antibiotics, toxins and bacteria in different food matrices. For this purpose, the most relevant improvements achieved in the last five years (from 2016 to 2020) in sample preparation by the integration of these new materials as sorbents in different miniaturized extraction techniques will be reviewed.

In this work, two novel boronate affinity monolithic materials able to extract glycopeptides within a polypropylene syringe are described and compared. The first material was synthesized from glycidyl methacrylate (GMA)-based monoliths modified with poly-3-mercaptopropyl-methylsiloxane (PMPMS) followed by attachment of 4-vinylphenylboronic acid (VPBA) via thiol-ene click reaction. The second material was prepared by using gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-modified monoliths as substrate followed by subsequent attachment of PMPMS and VPBA. The resulting materials were used as sorbents for solid-phase extraction (SPE) to selectively preconcentrate glycopeptides from horseradish peroxidase (HRP) digests. The material that gave the superior performance was that prepared with AuNPs due to the presence of abundant boronic acid groups, being its practical applicability also examined. The hybrid material exhibited a satisfactory efficiency of glycopeptide enrichment (identifying 24 glycopeptides from a total of 27) in mixture of tryptic digests of HRP and bovine serum albumin (BSA) (1:100, w/w). The sorbent shows low sensitivity (0.5 fmol/µL), good adsorption capacity (25 mg g−1) and suitable reusability (over 10 times). Moreover, the hybrid monolith was successfully applied to the selective enrichment of glycopeptides from human serum digests, without any pretreatment, in which 85 glycopeptides were identified by nano-LC-MS/MS, suggesting a great potential for application in glycoproteome field.

A method for the determination of water-soluble vitamins in several energy and sport drinks by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) has been developed in this work. The separation of vitamins was studied in terms of background electrolyte composition (borate content, pH, surfactant type and content) and in other MEKC parameters. A study of the possible compounds found in the vitamin-enriched drinks that could interfere in vitamin determination was also performed, and a modified procedure with enhanced resolution was developed. The proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of water-soluble vitamins in a variety of energy and sport drinks and also in fruit nectars. The method implies minimal sample preparation and reagent consumption, being environmentally sustainable. Thus, the proposed methodology could be useful for quality control purposes in the soft drink industry.

In this study, a novel polymeric material functionalized with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was prepared as solid-phase extraction (SPE) sorbent for isolation of proteins. The sorbent was synthesized from a powdered poly(glycidyl-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) monolith, and modified with ammonia, followed by immobilization of AuNPs on the pore surface of the material. To evaluate the performance of this SPE support, proteins were selected as test solutes, being the extraction conditions and other parameters (loading capacity and regenerative ability of sorbent) established. The results indicated that this sorbent could be employed to selectively capture proteins according to their pI, on the basis of the strong affinity of these biomacromolecules towards to AuNPs surface. The applicability of this sorbent was demonstrated by isolating protein species of interest (bovine serum albumin, cytochrome c and lectins in European mistletoe leaves), followed by SDS-PAGE analysis.

The usefulness of triacylglycerol (TAG) profiles established by high-performance liquid chromatography using both UV and evaporative light scattering (ELSD) detectors as a tool to discriminate between seven cultivars of Tunisian extra virgin olive oils (EVOOs) was evaluated in this work. Moreover, the discrimination of EVOOs from the cultivars Chemchali, Fouji and Zarrazi, characterized with different maturity indexes, was also studied. With both detectors, a total of 19 peaks, which were common to all the EVOOs studied, were observed. However, ELSD peaks, which provided a higher signal-to-noise ratio than the UV peaks, were selected to construct linear discriminant analysis models for cultivar and maturity index prediction. In all cases, an excellent resolution between all category pairs was achieved, which demonstrated that TAG profiles are a good marker of both cultivar and maturity index of EVOOs.

An enhanced method for the determination of organic acids in several fruit juices by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) with direct UV-Vis detection has been developed in this work. First, a study with simulated real juice samples was done to find the best separation conditions. Next, several commercial fruit juices were analyzed, and the organic acid contents were quantified in less than 12 min using a poly(vinyl alcohol)-coated fused-silica 'bubble cell' capillary. The present method is reliable, fast and provides detection limits comprised between 0.1 and 2.5 μg mL(-1). Moreover, different chemometric techniques, based on CZE data, were examined. Linear discriminant analysis allowed the differentiation of fruit juices according to the fruit type, whereas multiple linear regression models predicted the percentages of orange and pineapple juices in binary blends with grape. Thus, the present methodology is of utmost interest for routine and quality control purposes in food industries.

In this work, a sorbent based on poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) polymer has been synthesized for solid-phase extraction (SPE) of sulfonamides (sulfaguanidine, sulfadiazine, sulfathiazole, sulfapyridine, sulfamethazine, sulfamonomethoxine, sulfamethoxazole, sulfisoxazole) from different meat matrices, which were subsequently determined by HPLC-DAD. Several extraction parameters such as loading and elution solvents as well as other variables (loading capacity, breakthrough volume and reusability) influencing on the analytical performance of the sorbent were optimized. Under the optimal conditions, the developed method was successfully applied to determine the eight sulfonamides in meat samples including pork bacon, pork liver and chicken muscle. Satisfactory recovery values of sulfonamides comprised between 70% and 108% were obtained. The results demonstrated the suitability of the PEGDA-700 material to be used as sorbent in SPE for effective clean-up and extraction of sulfonamides in complex samples.

[EN] The ability to communicate effectively is an essential skill in today's world. Thus, a great effort is being done at the universities to help the students to reach this skill. In fact, in some universities, such as the Universitat Politècnica de València, to communicate efficiently is so important, that it is considered a student outcome that the graduates must demonstrate to obtain their degree. To help students to reach this generic outcome, it might be worked at class and evaluated. In this context, we present herein a pilot experience to help students of the subject ¿Audits of food quality¿, belonging to the Master of Food Safety and Quality Management of the Universitat Politècnica de València, to develop their communication skills through a self-evaluation, co-evaluation and self-working. The work was divided in different parts. In the first part, students were asked to prepare a short presentation of a topic related to the subject. During the presentation, students were evaluated from their class-mates with the help of a rubric (second step). In the third step, a self-evaluation test was given to the students to help them to reflect on their weak and strong points in the preparation and execution of the oral presentation. Based on the mark of this co- and auto-evaluation, students were invited to work on specific activities to reinforce their weaknesses. At the end of the course, students were asked to prepare a new presentation, which was again evaluated by their class-mates and the teachers of the subject following the initial rubric. After the whole process, students had to prepare a portfolio that gathered all their reflections on their weaknesses, strengths and how the different proposed activities had contributed to improve their communication skill. Finally, to assess the efficiency of the proposed methodology, different approaches were followed: a comparison of initial and final marks, evaluation of their portfolio and a satisfaction test. Results shown that following the three assessment approaches the methodology contributed to the development of the effective communication outcome. Especially, students stated that they had worked hard during the course, but the result/effort ratio had been satisfactory, This work has been developed within the research project called “Autodiagnóstico del nivel de dominio inicial de la competencia transversal “Comunicación Efectiva” y su mejora a través de un itinerario autoformativo” (Ref.: PIME/2017/B/025-14) funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Studies, Quality and Acreditation of the Universitat Politècnica de València.

[EN] This work aimed to characterise four seaweed species: nori (Phorphyra), kombu (Laminaria), wakame (Undaria) and sea spaghetti (Himanthalia elongata). Their nutritional composition, total phenolic compounds (TPC), antioxidant capacity, oil and water holding capacity (OHC and WHC), and swelling capacity (SC) were determined. Wakame and nori exhibited the highest proteins contents, rich in essential amino acids and in those related to umami flavour. All the samples had a low lipid content and high ash content values. High fibre levels were observed, especially in kombu. The TPC content and antioxidant capacity of sea spaghetti was significantly higher than in the other samples. The OHC, WHC and SC of the seaweeds demonstrated their potential influence on texture of food products. The incorporation of these seaweeds into different foodstuffs could entail an improvement of the nutritional quality and texture properties, and could also reduce the use of Na and synthetic additives., The reported experiment forms part of a project financially supported by the Universitat Politècnica de València ( SaPesAl (UPV-FE-2014-55)), which the authors gratefully acknowledge. M.J. Lerma-García thanks the Universitat Politècnica de València for a postdoctoral contract (PAID-10-14)

[EN] Among the different student outcomes that scholars should achieve during their University studies, ¿Effective Oral Communication¿ is one of the most important ones since being an excellent communicator is essential not only for their professional careers but also for their social life. However, the different provenance of students when arrived at University results in most cases in a huge disparity in the mastery of the outcome, which makes it difficult to work in class through collective activities. In order to solve this problem, in this work, the development of a self-diagnosis guide to assess the initial mastery level of the ¿Effective Oral Communication¿ student outcome is proposed. With this tool, both students and teachers will have a complete knowledge of the initial level of the outcome in order to detect the weaknesses and strengths in its mastery outcome. Therefore, the proposed self-diagnosis guide will permit teachers to adapt the activities to work the outcome in class to the actual level of their students which will result in a higher improve of the mastery level of the outcome, This work has been developed within the research project called "Autodiagnóstico del nivel de dominio inicial de la competencia transversal "Comunicación Efectiva" y su mejora a través de un itinerario autoformativo" (Ref.: PIME/2017/B/025-14) funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Studies, Quality and Acreditation of the Universitat Politècnica de València

[EN] Since the breakthrough of student outcomes in the university environment, "Effective Communication" is one of the most studied in Bachelor's degrees and Master's subjects. An inefficient communication can lead to misinterpretations and wrong conclusions. Therefore, it is a very important competence both in the university and in the business field. The student / graduate must know how to communicate effectively, both orally and writing, appropriately using the necessary resources and adapting to the characteristics of the situation and the audience. Despite its importance, the disparity in the domain of the competence by the students makes it difficult to work in the classroom through collective activities. This paper presents the PIMECOE, an Innovation and Educational Improvement Project. This project aims to work on the student outcome "Effective Communication". It focuses specifically on oral communication, and to work on it, it proposes to assess the level of initial proficiency of oral communication through self-diagnosis tools. This allows the student to detect their weaknesses and strengths in the domain of the competence. Likewise, the project aims to develop a self-formative itinerary for students, which includes learning activities that improve the domain level of the competence. In this way, first, students will have an assessment of their level of competence through a selfdiagnostic survey; and second, will have access to a series of activities that will allow him to develop the competence based on the results obtained in the self-diagnosis., This work has been developed within the research project called ¿Autodiagnóstico del nivel de dominio inicial de la competencia transversal ¿Comunicación Efectiva¿ y su mejora a través de un itinerario autoformativo¿ (Ref.: PIME/2017/B/025-14) funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Studies, Quality and Acreditation at Universitat Politècnica de València

[EN] Universities all over the world are implementing a competence-based type of teaching and learning to guarantee certain student learning outcomes at the end of the studies. To reach these student outcomes, active methodologies should be included in teaching practice at the same time that carefully designed rubrics might be used for the evaluation of the students. Despite the fact that teachers introduce more and more authentic tasks in the classroom, these activities are not still well employed by all the University teaching staff. The goal of this work is to propose a guideline of activities to promote the self-learning of the effective communication outcome by the students. For that purpose, rubrics to assess the outcome proficiency developed by different institutions have been collected and analysed. From those rubrics, six main areas of proficiency have been identified: personal disposition towards communication, quality of the presentation content, structure of the speech, verbal language, non-verbal language and presentation tools. Finally, for each of these areas, keywords to find out effective activities on Internet to improve the proficiency of a piece of the outcome have been proposed., This work has been developed within the research project "Autodiagnóstico del nivel de dominio inicial de la competencia transversal "Comunicación Efectiva" y su mejora a través de un itinerario autoformativo" (Ref.: PIME/2017/B/025-14) funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Studies, Quality and Acreditation at Universitat Politècnica de València