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  • The Assessment of Sustainable Tourism
    414-421
    Views:
    133

    Tourism as one of the most significant sectors of the world economy plays an important role in achieving the goals of sustainable development. The fundamental conditions of sustainable development are the proper management of the environmental, social and economic impacts, as well as the well-established planning based on a detailed analysis. Measuring the changes and evaluating the results are tasks carried out by governmental and professional organizations. The first step of the assessment is defining the concept of sustainable tourism. Indicators are the most widely used set of tools for the assessment. Several international organizations have focused on elaborating the most suitable indicators for sustainable tourism development and formulating assessment models based on indicators since the beginning of the 1990s. Neither a generally accepted set of indicators nor a universally applicable assessment method has been put together until now. In the present study a few definitions of sustainable tourism are reviewed, criteria for indicator selection are listed, followed by the presentation of a sustainable tourism model. Finally a recently published assessment procedure based on the Bellagio Principles is summarized.

  • Significance of risk assessment metric in audit of financial statements and reports
    215-225
    Views:
    76

    Management and decision-support of today’s businesses require design and application of management reports based and high-end controlling systems. One of the main source of information for controlling systems is financial accounting that should be designed to support planning, controlling and monitoring systems. Financial and accounting information is essential for decision making support of organizations. Therefore
    eligible assurance is needed that these information are true and fair. Internal and external financial audits as assurance qualifiers are linking to the controlling systems through assurance. Weaknesses of and threats to controlling systems shall be recovered and communicated to the management during qualifying process. Recovering of threats should be based on risk analysis, assessment. In this study I would like to present some methods and tools of risk assessment of financial reports, statements and a way on they can be further developed.

  • Methods for the examination of the role of the time factor in managerial and organizational processes
    24-32
    Views:
    62

    managerial efficiency. The system of investigations is in accordance with the method elaborated and applied by the Department of Management Science of UD, CAS, Faculty of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (Berde, 2003). This method involves questionnaire interviews and corporate data collection. The first part of the questionnaire contains data with respect to the company, while the second part focuses on the manager being interviewed. The third part is a closed, directed interview-based preference assessment. I aim to assess the sample at my disposal in order to test the research model.
    In the course of the assessment of questionnaires, I apply descriptive statistical methods for the assessment of the personal and professional features of the managers interviewed and the characteristics of the companies. In the case of questions substantively concerning the time factor – resource, managerial function, reaction time, and impact assessments – I carry out hypothesis testing. I draw up a zero hypothesis, whose appropriateness I test by means of statistical methods. I usually apply rank correlation for the evaluation of the relationship between the variables measured on an ordinal scale in my investigations. This can be applied if not the exact values of the given variables, but only their order in one respect or another is known. If the group building criterion is two-variable Mann-Whimey, if a multi-variable Kruskal-Wallis trial can be applied, which, after the rank transformation, gives information about the acceptance or refusal of the Ho hypothesis through the average of the ranks. The model also contains the managers’ evaluation of the time factor in management work.

  • Methodologies in measuring risk of financial statements
    117-120
    Views:
    68

    Aim of financial statements’ risk analysis is to optimally allocate the audit resources. That optimum point can be reached, if we achieve maximum possibility of recovery of material risks. There are more than one procedures exist for researching of optimum point or risk assessment in other word, and they are needed to use even parallel. In order to take into consideration effects of risk we need to measure them somehow. At risk assessments risks are usually some kind of result of impact and possibility. Knowledge and measurement of impacts and possibilities are far not enough for assessment of certain risks. In this study I will present a possible usable risk assessment methodology for financial audit activities with using Multi Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT in the followings).

  • Assessment of Environmental Susceptibility/Vulnerability of Soils
    62-74
    Views:
    90

    Soils represent a considerable part of the natural resources of Hungary. Consequently, rational land use and proper soil management – to guarantee normal soil functions – are important elements of sustainable (agricultural) development, having special importance both in the national economy and in environment protection.
    The main soil functions in the biosphere are as follows: conditionally renewable natural resource; reactor, transformer and integrator of the combined influences of other natural resources (solar radiation, atmosphere, surface and subsurface waters, biological resources), place of „sphere-interactions”; medium for biomass production, primary food-source of the biosphere; storage of heat, water and plant nutrients; natural filter and detoxication system, which may prevent the deeper geological formations and the subsurface waters from various pollutants; high capacity buffer medium, which may prevent or moderate the unfavourable consequences of various environmental stresses; significant gene-reservoir, an important element of biodiversity.
    Society utilizes these functions in different ways (rate, method, efficiency) throughout history, depending on the given natural conditions and socio-economic circumstances. In many cases the character of the particular functions was not properly taken into consideration during the utilization of soil resources, and the misguided management resulted in their over-exploitation, decreasing efficiency of one or more soil functions, and – over a certain limit – serious environmental deterioration.
    Soil resources are threatened by the following environmental stresses:
    – soil degradation processes;
    – extreme moisture regime;
    – nutrient stresses (deficiency or toxicity);
    – environmental pollution.
    Environmental stresses caused by natural factors or human activities represent an increasing ecological threat to the biosphere, as well as a socio-economic risk for sustainable development, including rational land use and soil management.
    The stresses are caused by the integrated impacts of various soil properties, which are the results of soil processes (mass and energy regimes, abiotic and biotic transport and transformation and their interactions) under the combined influences of soil forming factors. Consequently, the control of soil processes is a great challenge and the main task of soil science and soil management in sustainable development.
    The efficient control of these processes necessitates the following consecutive steps:
    • registration of facts and consequences (information on land and soil characteristics, land use, cropping pattern, applied agrotechnics, yields, with their spatial and temporal variability);
    • evaluation of potential reasons (definition and quantification of soil processes, analysis of influencing factors and their mechanisms);
    • assessment of the theoretical, real, rational and economic possibilities for the control of soil processes (including their risk-assessment and impact analysis);
    • elaboration of efficient technologies for the „best” control alternatives (best management practice).
    Scientifically based planning and implementation of sustainable land use and rational soil management to ensure desirable soil functions, without any undesirable environmental side-effects, require adequate soil information. In the last years such data were organized into a computer-based GIS soil database in Hungary, giving opportunities for the quantification, analysis, modelling and forecasting of the studied environmental stresses and for the efficient and scientifically based prevention, elimination or reduction of environmental stresses and their unfavourable ecological and economical consequences.
    Special attention was paid to the assessment of various soil degradation processes, as: (1) soil erosion by water or wind; (2) soil acidification; (3) salinization and/or alkalization; (4) physical degradation (structure destruction, compaction); (5) extreme moisture regime: drought sensitivity and waterlogging hazard; (6) biological degradation; (7) unfavourable changes in the plant nutrient regime; (8) decrease of natural buffering capacity, (9) soil (and water) pollution.
    The actions against undesirable environmental stresses and their unfavourable consequences are important elements of sustainable, efficient, economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally sound crop production and agricultural development. These are joint tasks of the state, decision makers on various levels, the land owners, the land users and – to a certain extent – of each member of the society.

  • A simple but powerful tool for the assessment of financial progress in EU co-funded grant programmes – Simple Progress Overview Tool (SPOT)
    67-72
    Views:
    126

    Mid-term evaluation of grant programmes always aim to assess the financial progress of the programme. Progress to date assessment is conducted via addressing three issues: by overviewing progress so far, by exploring the reasons behind the current level of progress, and by answering the specific evaluation questions formulated as a result of progress overview. The Simple Progress Overview Tool is a method and a tool facilitating the overview of financial progress, supporting the exploration of reasons behind the current level of progress and enabling the identification of targeted further evaluation questions. The methodology applies the Du Pont approach of division to factors, in which the variable describing a phenomenon is divided into the multiplication of factors (milestone stages of the process) influencing the variable. Also, this division to factors facilitates the identification of reasons behind progress. The factors carry individually meaningful information to the evaluation of progress. This method was used by many EU member states including the Czech Republic, Romania, and Malta for the evaluation of progress in the course of the mid-term evaluation of their National Strategic Reference Frameworks.

  • SIM Samples Investigation by Statistical Methods
    194-197
    Views:
    76

    The assessment of the present condition of the soil is very important, because the accession of the number of the European Union members is in the near future. This can be the base of the modern agrarian environmental management programme. The assessment must be objective, detailed and analyse the processes in the soil.
    Respecting the above causes was decided to create an Environmental Information Monitoring System. This system consists of more parts. One of them is the Soil Information Monitoring System (SIM). This system started to work in 1992.
    This system has two functions. Creating and actuation is obligatory from the international contracts, on the other hand the public SIM has very important role in the conservation of the soil.
    The SIM territorial measuring grid consists of 1236 measuring points. These points are representatives. The distributions of the points by the types of soil attend the variety of the types of soil of the country.
    The investigated elements in 6 types of soil were in our experiment (the group of scandium and the lanthanide series elements). There are 6 elements above the detection limit (Gadolinium, Neodymium, Praseodymium, Scandium, Samarium, Yttrium).
    The Neodymium concentration is 2 times higher than the content of Gadolinium and Yttrium.
    The Neodymium concentration is 4 times higher than the content of Praseodymium, Scandium and Samarium.
    In the case of Dysprosium, Europium, Lutetium, Terbium, Ytterbium the concentrations were below 1 mg/kg.

  • An advanced classification method for urban land cover classification
    51-57
    Views:
    88

    This manuscript presents a detailed comparative analysis of three advanced classification techniques that were used between 2018 and 2020 to classify land cover using Landsat8 imagery, namely Support Vector Machine (SVM), Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLSC), and Random Forests (RF). The study focuses on evaluating the accuracy of these methods by comparing the classified maps with a higher-resolution ground truth map, utilising 500 randomly selected points for assessment.

    The obtained results show that, compared to MLSC and RT, the Support Vector Machine (SVM) approach performs better. The SVM model demonstrates enhanced precision in land cover classification, showcasing its effectiveness in discerning subtle differences in landscape features.

    Furthermore, using the precise classification results produced by the SVM method, this study examines the temporal variations in land cover between 2018 and 2020. The results provide insight into dynamic land cover changes and highlight the significance of applying reliable classification techniques for thorough temporal analysis with Landsat8 images.

  • Modern approaches to assessment of PAHs bioavailability in soil for environmental toxicology research
    35-36
    Views:
    105

    The efficiency of TENAX beads sorption method enabling to separate the bioavailable fraction of PAHs in the soil has been estimated. Due to the method the PAHs effects on soil biota have been explored. Laboratory investigations have ascertained possibility of application of TENAX beads sorption for soil quality assessment.

  • Economic Assessment of Biodiesel Production for Hungarian Farmers
    72-76
    Views:
    77

    Utilisation of oil of plant origin as a fuel is gaining acceptance in the European Union and elsewhere. Besides environmental protection, energy saving, and decreasing over-production of food. Additionally, the subsidisation of farmers and the development of rural sub-regions also contribute to its spread. This study specifically focuses on the direct effects biodiesel's raw materials and final products are now having on farmers, while reviewing and quantifying these effects. I have purposely restricted my analysis to these two elements of the biodiesel chain.
    The biodiesel chain seems to be a great method for improving the economic and social position of participant farmers in many ways. Presently, the profitability of raw materials’ production looks to be the crucal point in the chain, and could be strengthened best with intensive, habitat-specific agrotechnic. It would only be possible to reach a favourable profit margin for farmers if yields reach unrealistic averages or if there is a significant hike of the 2000 producer’s price in the oil plant branch.
    The main attraction of sunflower- and oilseed rape production lies in the stabilization of market conditions, which is not only gong to appear in oil plant branch but – thanks to the reduction of outputs – also in the cereal branches. Better economic safety for farmers may play a role at least on the same level as in plant production, which involves more risks than profit maximalization.
    The reduction of the prime cost of biodiesel could be possible through the direct combustion of the whole oilseed plant or its residues or electricity production using them. Whereas energy demand for biodiesel production is low (appr. 5%) but it needs subsidization and the prices of natural gas and electrical energy presently look favourable in Hungary. Additionally harvesting and baling of the residues is technically problematic, which is why their use may seem to be reasonable just over the middle or long term. Another possible factor of cost reduction could be the centralization of some partial operations, which needs serious financial resources to reduce amortization cost per product, provided there be several biodiesel projects near each other during establishment. Creation and operation of a logistical system could also be a good method for improving the viability of the biodiesel chain, in order to optimize transport schedule and distances. However there are also some organizational difficulties in this case.

  • Comparison of Pálfai’s drought index and the Normalised Precipitation Index in the North Great Plain region
    59-64
    Views:
    182

    Agriculture has always been an important role in economy, food supplies, sustainability of society and creation of job opportunities in Hungary. Our country has resource-related strength of agriculture, because we have more than 4.5 million ha for agricultural production. Agricultural production can be influenced by several factors, including climate, hydrology, soil conditions and antropogenic impacts. Climate determines the quality and quantity of the crop yields. The climate conditions in Hungary are variable and it shows spatial and temporal extremes. As a result of this, drought have become more frequent in our country (2003, 2007, 2009, 2012), which is reflected in the decline in yields as well. In the present study, Pálfai's Drought Index (PAI) and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) were compared 2003–2012 in Debrecen. The temperature and precipitation data were calculated from data provided by a local meteorological station to work out PAI, while the SPI-3 index values were downloaded from the database of the European Drought Observatory. This allowed to drought assessment in a local and regional scale. Our study was supplemented with SPI-3, soil moisture anomalies, PAI and yields of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) to evaluating the impact of drought on agriculture.

  • Assessment of energy generated by biogas production in the educational industrial unit of the University of Szeged, Faculty of Agriculture, with special regard to biomass originating from agriculture and the food industry
    137-140
    Views:
    86

    The importance of waste treatment is increasing. Environmental aims are the main driving force. Stricter regulations for landfills lead to the development of alternative treatment methods for waste. For agro-mechanical research, wastes from animal rearing and the food industry, secondary-tertiary biomass, is of deep concern. Available technology is versatile and relatively simple to use as a reliable and effective means of producing a gaseous fuel from various organic waste. The most common application has been the digestion of animal dung, agricultural, and food-industrial waste. This was studied by our department in our pilot farm of our Faculty. The 50-dairy cow, family sized model farm was built in the summer of 1991, as a result of a Dutch – Hungarian cooperation, on the property of the Faculty. The new pig farm, with 30 sows, and the new goat farm, with 100 nannies, was given to the Faculty on 25 April 2001. On the basis of livestock data, the annual dung production and the producible energy were determinate. The energy was calculated by biogas production coefficients in literature.

  • Comparison of apricot cultivars for suitability for organic growing
    63-65
    Views:
    64

    Nowadays, important task is using more widely the environmentally friendly production technologies. There are considerable differences
    among technologies using reduced spray programs (integrated and organic) in plant protection and plant nutrition.
    In this case integrated production has a better position as roles for organic production more strict and due to this fruits has an obvious
    temporal and permanent reduction in tree conditions. Fitotechnical elements and renewal and regeneration of cultivars are important
    factors for offseting or delaying of condition weakening.
    In this study, 5 apricot cultivars (not pruned for 8 years) were compared in their characteristics (assessment of inactive, semi-active and
    active plant parts).
    Our study showed that there were 50-70% differences among observed characteristics. Our study confirmed those cultivars which are
    suitable for organic production and which one more resistant to condition weakening and which one able to tolerate negative technological
    effects.

  • Interpretation of rurality and the situation of land use in Hungary
    79-85
    Views:
    189

    The summarizing data collection of our study has been carried out in the scope of the FP7-REGPOT-2010-1 ’UD_AGR_REPO’ project as a part of the cooperation with the University of Lincoln. The University of Lincoln is an important partner of the project, the knowledge transfer activities that have been carried jointly with them are multilateral. One of the most important cooperation areas is the analysis of rural areas, rurality itself, determination of breakout points, exploration of alternative income sources, diversification possibilities. Some part of the work of the University of Lincoln on the field of rural development is based on the assessment and documentation global similarities and differences of rural areas. Present study also contributes to that work, it has been prepared on the request of the University of Lincoln with the aim of providing insight into the special political and economic changes/processes that took place in Hungary, and through them into the structure and operation of the unique Hungarian rural areas.

    The study first positions the definition of rurality and rural areas into context on the basis of official EU and Hungarian legal classification. Then it covers the important agricultural nature of Hungary, which significantly determines the possibilities and properties of Hungarian rural areas. The further description of rural areas is completed by some historical summary, the introduction of ownership changes, detailed description of employment and income conditions and finally by the listing of breakout points of rural areas as a conclusion.

  • The Role of the 4M-ECO Agrieconomical Modell in the Crop Cultivation
    170-173
    Views:
    96

    Today, c for agricultural use are of ever increasing significance. These provide an opportunity for more accurate planning, and favourably influence the efficiency and economic performance of given enterprise. The relevant literature divides models according to various criteria. The most common is the division between optimising and non-optimising models. Non-optimising models generally endeavour to make the best use of technological lines, machine capacity, while optimising models are used to optimise revenue returns from sales or, occasionally, production costs. In our case, revenue and returns from sales were optimised. The models examined consist of several modules. Which include the following: plant cultivation modules, evaluations (assessment of situation, conception plan, complex corporate evaluation), supplementary sheets (sheets and charts for ancillary plant production, general costs of operation, summary and crops structure optimisation). With the help of the model, annual a particular can be made for an optimal crop structure the resources of the enterprise. This it becomes possible to define the largest net revenue on a corporate level.

  • Interpretation of sustainability in the utilization of renewable energy sources
    61-64
    Views:
    109

    The utilization of renewable energy sources (res) is crucial regarding to sustainable reconstruction of energy systems. The target is a balanced, sustainable development of Hungarian energy management considering equally the ecological, social and economic aspects. There are many different technologies of utilization of res varied by sources, conversion processes, size and products. The comparison of each technology and their sustainability assessment are required by the importance of efficient remodeling of energy infrastructure. The group of attributes was composed by numerous important parameters in the course of our analysis with the choice experiment (ce) methodology. The estimation of each attributes’ influence on the individual’s preferences and choices was possible by this method and the preferences of the statistical population was concluded. So thus the utility derived from each attribute was estimated. The result of the ce analysis for the population of experts is demonstrated in the current phase of our research.

  • Results of Sulphur Fertilization Experiment with Oilseed Rape
    174-178
    Views:
    98

    The rape is definitely a sulphur-demanding crop, which yield and the quality of its oil is threaten by the emerging shortage of sulphur nowadays. We made sulphur fertilising trials on two places in the northeastern rape growing area (in Felsőzsolca and Mezőkövesd), in the season 2001/2002. We compared the result the 5 five treating set in 2 repeats on brown forest soil with the results of the control plots. We used FitoHorm 32 S sulphur solution as sulphur fertiliser, with the dose of 3, 6 and 10 litres per hectare, as well as the joint effects of sulphur and boron; and the effect of boron alone. On the assessment of our results we looked for relation between the sulphur fertilising, the seed production, the oil content and the protein content.

  • Assessment and comparison of selenium-enriched maize with sodium selenite and sodium selenate
    11-15
    Views:
    176

    Selenium is an element of environmental interest owing to the narrow range between its nutritionally required and toxic concentrations in many organisms. Its mobility and bioavailability differ greatly depending on individual Se species. In this regard, in present study, the uptake and distribution of Se, the changes in Se content, and the effects of different concentration of Se in two forms of sodium selenite and sodium selenate on maize plants were measured in nutrient solution experiments to clarify their response to the two forms of Se. The results revealed that the Se content in shoots and roots of maize plants significantly increased as the Se level increased. Two Se forms behaved differently and the effects of toxic damage in samples which had been treated with selenite were much more than in the selenate treatments.

  • Complex assessment of inland water fish stocks
    74-80
    Views:
    80

    In the domestic fish production, natural waters have yielded for several years about 7-8 thousand tons. This, from the point of view of outputs, considering the almost 130 thousand hectares of natural water, is rather low, it means approximately 55-60 kg/ha mixed fish.Although the various natural waters can differ significantly on the basis of yields, yet on the majority of the territories, the results were low. In the case of our extensive still waters and rivers, the reason can undoubtedly be found in the combined effect of the lack of the possibility of reproduction of the fish stock and the over-fishing. Fishery built on planning supposes the best possible knowledge in the given circum stances of the parameters of the water area and its fishstock. Lacking this knowledge, it is not possible to establish the optimal use fulness of the resources, what is more, the management can make faulty decisions – as a result of a lack of information -, which can risk the success of later activities.
    It is known that many factors have an impact on the success of the fishery, as well as some information in connection with the water area and the fish stock are necessary, the knowledge of which make it possible to manage the fishery in a planned way. One part of the information is available, while the other part is incomplete or not deep enough. The necessary data are dissimilar depending on their nature, can be obtained from different places, by different methods.
    As the first step for executing the field surveys and processing data, I developed a complex model, which contains in a unified system the steps of estimating the fishstock. I made the sampling on the basis of this. Part of the model is a fish faunistic survey, as well as a morphological survey of the water area. The information gained from these are important for making more accurate the system of devices of the samplings for stock estimation (duration, number of net-rows) and for assigning its place (places representing the best way the physical characteristics of the given water area). The major stages of stock-survey: A) faunistic survey, B) physical survey of the bed, and C) sampling with the help of gill-nets. This is followed by the evaluation by the computer module.
    The results of the research create a methodological and technical background for the fish faunistic and population biologic surveys still performed in different ways in our country, and by applying these methods together, all basic information about natural waters which help decision-making concerning fisheries can be obtaine deffectively.

  • The toxic effects of aflatoxin microorganisms in plants used as spices
    59-62
    Views:
    75

    As an extension of the analysis of black, white and capsicum peppers for aflatoxins , we have examined an additional 11 types of spices and
    4 herbs for these mycotoxins. The investigations consisted of assessment of the applicability of available methods of analysis and modifications of
    these, where necessary together, with a limited survey of each spice and herb for aflatoxins. The analysis of 13 types of ground spices reported
    the presence of low concentrations of aflatoxins in some samples of black pepper, celery seed, and nutmeg. We decided to include in our study 5
    of the spices examined by these workers (cinnamon, celery seed, coriander, nutmeg, and turmeric) for a comparison purpose. In addition we
    examined ginger, mace, cumin seed, dill seed, garlic powder, onion powder, and the herbs marjoram, rosemary, thyme, and sage.

  • Career Monitoring, Institutional Assessment and Ranking
    73-77
    Views:
    95

    The labour market started to make a difference between the diplomas issued by higher educational institutions. The decision of prospective students considerably depends on the labour market value of a certain diploma. Career monitoring of graduates is a very important task of higher educational institutions. Feedback and experiences from the graduates and the employers are valuable sources of information for the institutions to shape their teaching activities in order to meet the actual demand of the labour market. Career monitoring of graduates is not a common activity at present in Hungary. Some institutions regularly monitor the labour market position of their graduates, but unfortunately most institutions do not invest time or manpower in such activities. A country level study has already been introduced that included almost all the higher educational institutions in Hungary. This study, coordinated by the Hungarian Ministry of Education, appears ready to be continued. The aim of this study is to introduce some institutional and country level initiations of career monitoring.

  • Application of advanced environmental assessment methods in orchard management
    221-225
    Views:
    133

    Our reseaches were carried out in apple and pear orchards at Farm and Regional Research Institute in Pallag of the University of Debrecen and Pear Gene Reservoir in Újfehértó. Aim of this study is to interpret and analyse field studies with the aim of a GIS based database. Furthermore, beside field measurements, airborne and field hyperspectraldatacollection and analysis were also made to facilitate special watermanagement and irrigation related surveys. The integration of unified, geoinformatics systems with high spatial resolution and calibrated airborne hyperspectral data are appropriate tool for decision support systems, which support the continuous update and actualization of the changing cropping data, the analysis of cropping results in a unified complex data system, the acquiring of agro environmental subsidies, the establishment of monitoring system, and the optimization of irrigated fruit production.

  • Differentiation of enterprises headquarters and activities
    55-59
    Views:
    119

    The University of Miskolc – as part of a needs assessment – took up contact with businesses that have the nature of the industry in line with the strategic objective areas of the institution. The survey focused on industry-wide is so limited, most of the knowledge-intensive company was that the knowledge economy is distinguished by relevant stakeholders through innovation activity.

    The research results of the questionnaire are within the framework of this study, we intend to review how the knowledge-intensive small and medium enterprises differentiate implantation of the headquarters and activities their scope.

    There are two types of embeddedness adapt the functions of universities with the aim to investigate the geographic scope of their activities in the extent of whether there is any impact on the local embedded and engagement.

  • Use of extensigraph in the examination of wheat flours
    17-23
    Views:
    144

    The extensograph is widely used in quality control and research laboratories studying wheat flour quality. The most commonly used measurements include Rm, the maximum resistance (maximum height of the curve); R5 the resistance at a constant extension of 5 cm; E, extensibility (total curve length); Rm/E, the ratio of maximum resistance to extension; and A, the area under curve. The extensograph has proved useful in the classification and assessment of flours on the physical dough properties. Another important application is its use in wheat breeding programs. Furthermore, extensograph is an excellent tool to study the effects of a wide range of ingredients on dough properties of wheat flour (like oxidants, enzymes, salt and additives), and it can also be used measure the changes during the frozen storage. In the present study we provide a review of the scientific literature concerning the possible applications of the extensograph.

  • Microbial assessment of potential functional dairy products with added dried herbs
    59-63
    Views:
    122

    The market of dairy products is a dynamically developing sector of the food industry. Potential, functional dairy products, made by adding herbs or spices, will have antimicrobial and antioxidant effect due to the active biochemical agents of the plant additives. Furthermore, these active components will widen the storage life of food products and enhance their organoleptic properties too. We worked out a technology for creating fresh cheeses using a gentle pasteurizing method by treating the mixture of raw milk and 1.5% fat contained in commercial milk. As herb additives, we used citronella (Melissa officinalis), and peppermint (Mentha x piperita) harvested by us and dried them via Tyndall-method in convective dryer on 40 °C for 5.5 hours per day. The drying period took three days. We bought dried citronella and mint from the supermarket, which were dried by ionizing radiation, to compare the microbiological pollution with the herbs dried by us.

    The main target of this research was to create a microbiologically stable, potential functional dairy product. However, because of the bad quality of the raw milk and the gentle heat treatment we used for sterilizing bulk milk, or else, cheeses were not safe for human consumption. As a consequence, we need further studies to modify our technology and get a microbiologically stable product.