Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella enteritidis and other salmonellas in the eggs and egg-storing trays from retail markets of Coimbatore, South India

A study was conducted to determine the incidence of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis and other Salmonella serovars on eggshell, egg contents and on egg-storing trays. A total of 492 eggs and 82 egg-storing trays were examined over a period of 1 year from different retail outlets of a residential area of Coimbatore city, South India. Salmonella contamination was recorded in 38 of 492 (7.7%) eggs out of which 29 was in eggshell (5.9%) and 9 in egg contents (1.8%). Around 7.5% of the egg-storing trays were also found to be contaminated with Salmonella. Serotyping of the Salmonella strains showed that 89.7% of the strains from eggshell, 100% of the strains from egg contents and 71.4% of the strains from egg-storing trays were Salmonella Enteritidis. Other serovarvars encountered were S. Cerro, S. Molade and S. Mbandaka from eggshell and S. Cerro from egg-storing trays. Seasonal variations in the prevalence pattern were identified with, a higher prevalence during monsoon months followed by post-monsoon and premonsoon. Further examination of the Salmonella strains was carried out by testing their antimicrobial sensitivity against 10 commonly used antimicrobials. Results revealed high prevalence of multiple antimicrobial resistance among these strains suggesting possible prior selection by use of antimicrobials in egg production.     

Recycling of agricultural solid waste, coir pith: removal of anions, heavy metals, organics and dyes from water by adsorption onto ZnCl2 activated coir pith carbon

The abundant lignocellulosic agricultural waste, coir pith is used to develop ZnCl(2) activated carbon and applied to the removal of toxic anions, heavy metals, organic compounds and dyes from water. Sorption of inorganic anions such as nitrate, thiocyanate, selenite, chromium(VI), vanadium(V), sulfate, molybdate, phosphate and heavy metals such as nickel(II) and mercury(II) has been studied. Removal of organics such as resorcinol, 4-nitrophenol, catechol, bisphenol A, 2-aminophenol, quinol, O-cresol, phenol and 2-chlorophenol has also been investigated. Uptake of acidic dyes such as acid brilliant blue, acid violet, basic dyes such as methylene blue, rhodamine B, direct dyes such as direct red 12B, congo red and reactive dyes such as procion red, procion orange were also examined to assess the possible use of the adsorbent for the treatment of contaminated ground water. Favorable conditions for maximum removal of all adsorbates at the adsorbate concentration of 20 mg/L were used. Results show that ZnCl(2) activated coir pith carbon is effective for the removal of toxic pollutants from water.     

Inaccuracy in Legionella tests of building water systems due to sample holding time

Most Legionella culture tests are performed on building water samples that have been shipped to analytical laboratories for analysis. Significant (≥1 log₁₀ unit) changes in results were observed in 52% of held samples (6 h or longer, ambient temperature) drawn from building water systems in a 42-sample initial survey. It was not practical to use the spread plate protocol for on-site “t = 0” cultures in a larger, more diverse survey of thousands of building water systems. Two thousand four hundred twenty-one (2421) building water samples were split for on-site analysis using a field culture protocol and then also cultured after overnight shipment to the lab for analysis with the standardized spread plate method. Legionella test results from building water system samples are usually interpreted as ≥a numerical detection or action limit. Therefore, binary statistical analyses were calculated by setting t = 0 culture results to “true”. Overall in this survey, 10.4% of water samples sent to the laboratory for analysis returned either false-positive or false-negative results. The overall positive predictive value of results was poor (36%). Most (83%) false-positive results were returned from utility water systems. Most (74%) false-negative results were returned from potable water systems. These inaccuracies have serious implications in regard to interpretation and use of Legionella test results. The overall negative predictive value of results was excellent (99%) and also it was good (92%) for results from a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay that can be therefore used as a negative screening method.     

AUTOMATICALLY CONFIGURING RADIAL BASIS FUNCTION NEURAL NETWORKS FOR NONLINEAR INTERNAL MODEL CONTROL

A nonlinear internal model control (NIMC) strategy based on automatically configuring radial basis function networks (RBFN) is proposed for single-input single-output (SISO) systems of relative degree greater than unity. The automatic configuration and training of the RBFN is carried out employing hierarchically-self-organizing-learning algorithm, which eliminates a predefined network structure, with closed-loop input-output data generated for a series of setpoint changes using PI controller. Simulation studies with automatically configuring RBFN for isothermal polymerization reactor control demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed control strategy with automatically configuring RBFN over PI control for setpoint tracking as well as disturbance rejection.     

Bioconvective Casson nanofluid flow toward stagnation point in non-Darcy porous medium with buoyancy effects,chemical reaction,and thermal radiation

The emphasis on non-Newtonian fluid encountered in biomedical, pharmaceuticals, mining, food, chemical, and plastics industries and in noticeably enormous diverse industrial applications influenced this article. This study is accomplished in a non-Darcy porous stretching surface to investigate the stagnation point of bioconvective Casson nanofluid. Chemical reaction, applied consistent magnetic field, radiative heat transfer, and buoyancy force consequences are studied for numerical examination. Composed of nonlinear partial differential equations for the above presumptions and reforming them into ordinary differential equations by means of compatible transformations are enforced. Adopting the fifth order Runge–Kutta Felhberg method with the shooting technique obtained a numerical solution. Obtained solutions are authenticated by comparing previous solutions. The major finding includes the reduction of the Casson parameter on the skin friction coefficient.     

Physicochemical,techno-functional and structural properties of gluten-free crackers developed from sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.)) varieties

The present study was conducted to develop gluten-free crackers using six different white varieties of sorghum, namely CO30, K12, Parbhani Moti (PM), Parbhani Shakti (PS), ICSV15021 and M35-1. The physico-chemical, mineral and functional properties of developed crackers were studied. The crackers from soft wheat flour serve as a control. Highest protein (7.35 g/100 g), iron (6.63 mg/100 g) and potassium (199.86 mg/100 g) were found in ICSV15021 crackers, whereas highest total dietary fibre (9.01 g/100 g), magnesium (31.13 mg/100 g), copper (1.47 mg/100 g), zinc (1.92 g/100 g) and manganese (1.32 mg/100 g) were found in PS crackers. All exhibited A-type crystallinity pattern except PS crackers (V-type pattern). Overall acceptability of K12 sorghum crackers was found to be similar to control. In conclusion, this study evidenced that gluten-free sorghum crackers exhibited higher nutrients and mineral composition and can be regarded as health-promoting functional food, which is also cost-effective than commercially available gluten-free products.     

A machine learning assisted optical multistage interconnection network: Performance analysis and hardware demonstration

Integration of the machine learning (ML) technique in all-optical networks can enhance the effectiveness of resource utilization, quality of service assurances, and scalability in optical networks. All-optical multistage interconnection networks (MINs) are implicitly designed to withstand the increasing high-volume traffic demands at data centers. However, the contention resolution mechanism in MINs becomes a bottleneck in handling such data traffic. In this paper, a select list of ML algorithms replaces the traditional electronic signal processing methods used to resolve contention in MIN. The suitability of these algorithms in improving the performance of the entire network is assessed in terms of injection rate, average latency, and latency distribution. Our findings showed that the ML module is recommended for improving the performance of the network. The improved performance and traffic grooming capabilities of the module are also validated by using a hardware testbed.