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Though not as widely studied as the Research Article (RA), the abstract has attracted increasing interest among researchers over last decades (Swales 1990, Bhatia 1993, Dos Santos 1996, Lorés-Sanz 2008, Bondi/Cavalieri 2012, Cavalieri 2014). A number of contrastive or comparative studies of abstracts in English and other languages (Martín-Martín 2005, Lorés Sanz 2006, Van Bonn & Swales 2007, Diani 2014) have already been carried out considering mainly the hard sciences and some soft sciences such as linguistics and history, however no cross-cultural analyses have been conducted so far between RA abstracts in English and RA abstracts in French published in the legal field.

Le langage juridique est connu pour son caractère fortement polysémique, alors que l’on prête moins souvent attention au phénomène des « rapports d’analogie » qui l’envahissent et que Cornu (2000 : 178-182) subdivise entre synonymes et à peu près (ou parasynonymes). Si les équivalents sémantiques totalement interchangeables sont rarissimes (Cornu 2000 : 179 ; Groffier, Reed 1990 : 64), les à peu près sont en revanche fréquents et se fondent sur plusieurs types de relation. Dans cette contribution, nous sous proposons d’analyser la manière dont les lexicographes/juristes rendent compte des variantes (para)synonymiques dans cinq dictionnaires juridiques français contemporains (Vocabulaire Juridique de Cornu, Vocabulaire du Juriste Débutant de Lerat, Lexique des termes juridiques de Guillien et Vincent, Dictionnaire du vocabulaire juridique de Cabrillac et Guide du langage juridique : vocabulaire - pièges et difficultés de Bissardon), afin de proposer une typologie des variantes présentées et de vérifier leur traitement au niveau de micro- et medio-structure.

Common beans are a common staple food with valuable nutritional qualities, but their high contents in antinutritional factors (ANFs) can decrease the bioavailability of (i) fat-soluble micronutrients including carotenoids and (ii) minerals. Our objective was to select ANF-poor bean lines that would not interfere with carotenoid and mineral bioavailability. To achieve this objective, seeds of commercial and experimental Phaseolus vulgaris L. bean lines were produced for 2 years and the bean's content in ANFs (saponins, phytates, tannins, total polyphenols) was assessed. We then measured carotenoid bioaccessibility and mineral solubility (i.e. the fraction of carotenoid and mineral that transfer into the aqueous phase of the digesta and is therefore absorbable) from prepared beans using in vitro digestion. All beans contained at least 200 mg/100 g of saponins and 2.44 mg/100 g tannins. The low phytic acid (lpa) lines, lpa1 and lpa1 2 exhibited lower phytate levels (≈ - 80%, p = 0.007 and p = 0.02) than their control BAT-93. However, this decrease had no significant impact on mineral solubility. HP5/1 (lpa + phaseolin and lectin PHA-E free) bean line, induced an improvement in carotenoid bioaccessibility (i.e., + 38%, p = 0.02, and + 32%, p = 0.005, for phytofluene bioaccessibility in 2021 and 2022, respectively). We conclude that decrease in the phytate bean content should thus likely be associated to decreases in other ANFs such as tannins or polyphenols to lead to significant improvement of micronutrient bioaccessibility., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In recent decades, scarcity of available resources, population growth and the widening in the consumption of processed foods and of animal origin have made the current food system unsustainable. High-income countries have shifted towards food consumption patterns which is causing an increasingly process of environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, with the increased incidence of malnutrition due to excess (obesity and non-communicable disease) and due to chronic food deprivation. An urgent challenge is, therefore, to move towards more healthy and sustainable eating choices and reorientating food production and distribution to obtain a human and planetary health benefit. In this regard, legumes represent a less expensive source of nutrients for low-income countries, and a sustainable healthier option than animal-based proteins in developed countries. Although legumes are the basis of many traditional dishes worldwide, and in recent years they have also been used in the formulation of new food products, their consumption is still scarce. Common beans, which are among the most consumed pulses worldwide, have been the focus of many studies to boost their nutritional properties, to find strategies to facilitate cultivation under biotic/abiotic stress, to increase yield, reduce antinutrients contents and rise the micronutrient level. The versatility of beans could be the key for the increase of their consumption, as it allows to include them in a vast range of food preparations, to create new formulations and to reinvent traditional legume-based recipes with optimal nutritional healthy characteristics., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Lisciani, Marconi, Le Donne, Camilli, Aguzzi, Gabrielli, Gambelli, Kunert, Marais, Vorster, Alvarado-Ramos, Reboul, Cominelli, Preite, Sparvoli, Losa, Sala, Botha and Ferrari.)

Arsenic is a well-known carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic element and occurs in the environment both as inorganic arsenic (iAs) and organoarsenical compounds (oAsCs). Since the toxicity of arsenic compounds depends on their chemical form, the identification and determination of arsenic species are essential. Recently, the European Food Safety Authority, following the European Commission request, published a report on chronic dietary exposure to iAs and recommended the development and validation of analytical methods with adequate sensitivity and refined extraction procedures for this determination. Moreover, the authority called upon new arsenic speciation data for complex food matrices such as seaweeds, grains and grain-based products. Looking at this context, an optimized, sensitive and fast analytical method using high performance liquid chromatography followed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (HPLC/ICP-MS) was developed for the determination of iAs (sum of arsenite-As III and arsenate-As V ) and the most relevant oAsCs, arsenobetaine, dimethylarsinic acid and monomethylarsonic acid. The method was validated with satisfactory results in terms of linearity, sensitivity, selectivity, precision, recovery, uncertainty, ruggedness and matrix effect, and then successfully applied for the analysis of several matrices, i.e., processed and unprocessed cereal and cereal products, fruits, vegetables, legumes, seaweeds, nuts and seeds. The results obtained indicate that not only seaweed and rice matrices but also many cereals, legumes and plant-based foods for infants and young children contain significant concentrations of iAs and oAsCs. These findings contribute to the data collection necessary to assess the role of these matrices in the total arsenic exposure and if specific maximum limits have to be established.

Durum wheat grains, which are mostly used for the production of pasta and several baked goods, represent a main source of vegetable proteins and calories. Concurrently, many contaminants, including toxic trace elements, may accumulate in them, posing a potential severe hazard to human health. In this context, for official control and food safety purposes, 346 samples of whole durum wheat imported into the Italian market from six countries (Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey, and the United States) during the period 2015-2020 were analysed for cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg) content using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). All the analysed samples were compliant with Food Agriculture Organization-World Health Organization and European Union regulations. The mean values were 0.0322 and 0.0162 mg kg -1 , respectively, for Cd and Pb, while all samples showed levels below the limit of detection (0.004 mg kg -1 ) for Hg. The results were construed in terms of seasonality, year, and country of production, and compared with reference tolerance values. Confirming previous exposure studies, the obtained data and the dietary intake assessment showed that durum wheat-based products may have a significant impact on exposure to Pb and Cd (20-50%) in the overall population, particularly in more sensitive and/or exposed subgroups (infants, toddlers, and females).