Major depressive episode with insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness: A more homogeneous and severe subtype of depression.

Previous studies have noted the crucial role of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in the course of depressive illness, and more recently, a few studies documented its strong associations with an increased risk of suicide. While insomnia is associated with heightened emotional reactivity, suicidal behaviors, and increased relapses and recurrence. Our main hypothesis is that major depressive episodes (MDE) with insomnia and EDS are associated with more severe manifestations of depression. However, to date, no study has directly compared MDE with insomnia without EDS (Ins), and MDE with insomnia with EDS (InsEDS) using both subjective biomarkers (administration of self-assessment questionnaires for psychiatric evaluation and sleep complaints) and objective biomarkers (of sleep and circadian rhythms (using actigraphy). The InsEDS group, compared to the Ins group, exhibited significantly increased suicidal ideation, larger seasonal impacts on mood, alterations in sleep duration, weight, appetite, energy levels, and social activities throughout the year. Furthermore, they had significant delayed onset of daily activity measured with actigraphy. These findings provided new insights into the link between suicide, sleep, alertness, and biological clock. They also hold significant implications for identifying individuals with more severe depressive manifestations and for developing tailored and personalized therapeutic strategies.

Comparison of consumer-based methodologies for optimizing the development of new products: A case study with probiotic chocolate flavored milk.

Several studies have reported that most new products do not achieve satisfactory results when launched on the market. There is a need to increase the efficiency of the methodologies used in the development of new products to increase success rates. Rapid sensory methodologies named Polarized Sensory Positioning (PSP), Check-all-that-apply (CATA), Projective mapping (PM) or Napping were applied to obtain sensory and hedonic information of a new product, probiotic-added chocolate flavored milk, aiming at determining preference guides that can be used to obtain a high overall liking level. It was possible to develop a probiotic chocolate flavored milk with general positive overall liking. The preferred sample was formulated with high content of sugar and chocolate, concluding that these characteristics are preference guides. The results supplied by the consumers using different methodologies were consistent, although the methodologies differed in their ability for sample differentiation. CATA methodology allowed better discrimination between samples than the other methodologies, followed by Projective Mapping, PSP with scales and triadic PSP. We could confirm that those rapid methodologies of sensory characterization are efficient when applied to product development.Practical applications Using those methodologies, it was possible to develop a probiotic chocolate flavored milk that meets both, consumer's expectations in relation to nutrition and taste and functionality. The methodologies proved to be efficient in characterizing consumer preference guides, and therefore fundamental to the development of a product with higher overall liking.

Relationship between volatile compounds and consumer-based sensory characteristics of bacon smoked with different Brazilian woods.

Bacon is a product made from pork meat that is subjected to curing, drying, and smoking. Researchers aim to associate the worldwide high-acceptance of such a product with the sensory and chemical properties of bacon. In this context, the objective of the present study was to characterize bacon samples smoked with different woods from reforestation using chemical and sensory methodologies, which were subsequently correlated by means of statistical multi-block analysis. Volatile compounds (VCs) of the smoked bacons were studied using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and the consumer sensory perception was explored by the Napping technique. VCs were identified in smoked samples, which triggered sensory attributes related to odor, flavor, and texture, such as "smoky flavor", "salty taste", "pleasant taste", "woodsy flavor", and "hard texture". Multi-block analysis showed that the sensory attributes were associated with a group of VCs and not by a single compound.