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Recent consumer interest in controlling and preventing chronic diseases through improved diet has promoted research on the bioactive components of agricultural products. Wheat is an important agricultural and dietary commodity worldwide with known antioxidant properties concentrated mostly in the bran fraction. The objective of this study was to determine the relative contributions of genotype (G) and growing environment (E) to hard winter wheat bran antioxidant properties, as well as correlations of these properties to growing conditions. Bran samples of 20 hard winter wheat varieties grown in two locations were examined for their free radical scavenging capacities against DPPH, ABTS cation, peroxyl (ORAC), and superoxide anion radicals and chelating properties, as well as their total phenolics and phenolic acid compositions. Results showed significant differences for all antioxidant properties tested and multiple significant correlations between these properties. A factorial designed analysis of variance for these data and pooled previously published data showed similar results for four of the six antioxidant properties, indicating that G effects were considerably larger than E effects for chelating capacity and DPPH radical scavenging properties, whereas E was much stronger than G for ABTS cation radical scavenging capacity and total phenolics, although small interaction effects (G × E) were significant for all antioxidant properties analyzed. Results also showed significant correlations between temperature stress or solar radiation and some antioxidant properties. These results indicate that each antioxidant property of hard winter wheat bran is influenced differently by genotype and growing conditions.

The bran fraction of wheat grain is known to contain significant quantities of bioactive components. This study evaluated the potential of solid-state yeast fermentation to improve the health beneficial properties of wheat bran, including extractable antioxidant properties, protein contents, and soluble and insoluble fiber compositions. Three commercial food grade yeast preparations were evaluated in the study along with the effects of yeast dose, treatment time, and their interaction with the beneficial components. Solid-state yeast treatments were able to significantly increase releasable antioxidant properties ranging from 28 to 65, from 0 to 20, from 13 to 19, from 0 to 25, from 50 to 100, and from 3 to 333% for scavenging capacities against peroxyl (ORAC), ABTS cation, DPPH and hydroxyl radicals, total phenolic contents (TPC), and phenolic acids, respectively. Yeast treatment increased protein content 11-12% but did not significantly alter the fiber composition of wheat bran. Effects of solid-state yeast treatment on both ORAC and TPC of wheat bran were altered by yeast dose, treatment time, and their interaction. Results suggest that solid-state yeast treatment may be a commercially viable postharvest procedure for improving the health beneficial properties of wheat bran and other wheat-based food ingredients.

We present and analyze a model for the evolution of the wealth distribution within a heterogeneous economic environment. The model considers a system of rational agents interacting in a game theoretical framework, through fairly general assumptions on the cost function. This evolution drives the dynamic of the agents in both wealth and economic configuration variables. We consider a regime of scale separation where the large scale dynamics is given by a hydrodynamic closure with a Nash equilibrium serving as the local thermodynamic equilibrium. The result is a system of gas dynamics-type equations for the density and average wealth of the agents on large scales. We recover the inverse gamma distribution as an equilibrium in the particular case of quadratic cost functions which has been previously considered in the literature.

We develop a model for the evolution of wealth in a non-conservative economic environment, extending a theory developed earlier by the authors. The model considers a system of rational agents interacting in a game theoretical framework. This evolution drives the dynamic of the agents in both wealth and economic configuration variables. The cost function is chosen to represent a risk averse strategy of each agent. That is, the agent is more likely to interact with the market, the more predictable the market, and therefore the smaller its individual risk. This yields a kinetic equation for an effective single particle agent density with a Nash equilibrium serving as the local thermodynamic equilibrium. We consider a regime of scale separation where the large scale dynamics is given by a hydrodynamic closure with this local equilibrium. A class of generalized collision invariants (GCIs) is developed to overcome the difficulty of the non-conservative property in the hydrodynamic closure derivation of the large scale dynamics for the evolution of wealth distribution. The result is a system of gas dynamics-type equations for the density and average wealth of the agents on large scales. We recover the inverse Gamma distribution, which has been previously considered in the literature, as a local equilibrium for particular choices of the cost function.