Comparison of Global Food Traceability Regulations and Requirements

The food traceability regulations of 21 Organization for Economic Co‐Operation and Development (OECD) countries were examined with attention to whether these regulations are comprehensive for all food commodities and processed foods. The countries were evaluated based on responses to a series of questions that were developed to allow assessment of their traceability programs. The questions sought background information on whether: mandatory traceability regulation(s) exists at the national level within a given country; regulations include imported products, and the nature of required documentation for imports; an electronic database(s) for traceability exists and, if present, its accessibility; and labeling regulations allow consumer access and understanding of traceability. The examination ranked the countries that have specific traceability regulations for all commodities, both domestic and imports, as “Progressive,” while countries with less broad or stringent regulations were ranked as “Moderate,” and countries that were still in the developmental stage of mandatory or industry‐led traceability requirements were ranked as “Regressive.” Aggregate scores were developed from all of the rankings, determined on the basis of the questions, for each of the 21 countries, to provide an overall world ranking score. The aggregate scores were “Superior,” “Average,” or “Poor.”     

Investigation of the thermal comfort properties of knitted fabric produced from Estabragh (Milkweed)/cotton-blended yarns

In this research, the thermal comfort properties of a newly known fiber called Estabragh (Milkweed) have been investigated. Estabragh is a natural hollow fiber which is expected to provide excellent insulation properties due to their individual characteristics. Thermal comfort is one of the important fabric properties especially in the area of sport application which is considered in this research. For investigating this, 50–50% Estabragh/cotton-blended spun yarns was produced using short-staple spinning system. Two different sets of interlock-knitted samples using 100% cotton and Estabragh/cotton-blended yarns were produced individually on a flat knitting machine. Heat transfer rate, water vapor transmission, air permeability, and capillary absorption of produced fabrics were measured and compared. The results revealed that the vapor transmission rate through the knitted samples produced from Estabragh/cotton-blended yarns was 66.4% which is higher than that of the 100% cotton samples as 60.22%. It was also found that 100% cotton samples exhibited less moisture transfer rate than cotton/Estabragh samples. As far as heat transfer is concerned, it was concluded that the heat transfer ability of 100% cotton samples is higher than that of the Estabragh/cotton samples by about 47%. It was also shown that the capillary absorption of samples produced from Estabragh/cotton-blended yarns was higher than that of the 100% cotton samples. Compared to the 100% cotton samples, air permeability of Estabragh/cotton-knitted structures was found to be relatively low. The results totally proved that Estabragh fibers have a lot of advantages in order to be used in different fields of applications especially in sport areas.     

Ion Beam Emission in a Low Energy Plasma Focus Device

The characteristics of the Ar ion beam generated in a low energy plasma focus device were investigated. A Mather-type PF device filled with argon gas driven by an 11 μF single capacitor bank was used. A Faraday cup, operating in the bias ion collector mode, is used to estimate the energy spectrum and ion flux along the PF axis. The results of the experiments show the dependence of the energy spectrum on the gas pressure and the anode shape.     

Chemical Composition and Antioxidative Activity of Echinophora platyloba DC. Essential Oil,and Its Interaction with Natural Antimicrobials against Food‐Borne Pathogens and Spoilage Organisms

Abstract: This study was undertaken to determine the chemical composition and antioxidative capacity of Echinophora platyloba DC. essential oil, and its antimicrobial potency against Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Rhodotorula rubra, and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa. The essential oil was analyzed by GC and GC‐MS; and evaluated for its antioxidative and antimicrobial (singly or in combination with chitosan, nisin, monolaurin, or amphotericin B) activity. Thirty‐three components were characterized representing 95.69% of the total oil composition in which thymol, trans‐ocimene, carvacrol, and (E)‐sesqui‐lavandulol were the major constituents. The oil exhibited high scavenging (IC₅₀: 49.7 ± 2.3 μg/mL) and relative antioxidative activity (RAA%: 85.21 ± 0.4) in 1,1‐diphenyl‐2‐picrylhydrazyl radicals and β‐carotene/linoleic acid bleaching assays, respectively. The oil showed antimicrobial activity against L. monocytogenes, B. cereus, B. subtilis, S. aureus, S. typhimurium, E. coli O157:H7, P. aeruginosa, C. albicans, C. tropicalis, R. Rubra, and R. mucilaginosa. Moreover, R. mucilaginosa and P. aeruginosa were the most susceptible and most resistant organisms, respectively. Regarding the checkerboard data, 47 fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICIs) (≤0.5) indicated synergistic, whereas 7 FICIs (>0.5 to 1) indicated additive effect. Consequently, E. platyloba DC. essential oil could be used as a recommended natural antioxidant and antimicrobial substance for food preservation.     

Improving the Spatiotemporal Resolution of Soil Moisture through a Synergistic Combination of MODIS and LANDSAT8 Data

Water Resources Management - Accurate soil moisture (SM) data with continuous spatiotemporal distribution has greatly contributed to various analyses in the fields of agricultural dryness and...     

Designing mm-wave electromagnetic engineered surfaces using generative adversarial networks

Neural Computing and Applications - In this paper, we investigate the capability of generative adversarial networks, including conditional and conditional convolutional generative adversarial...     

Assessment of Water Storage Changes Using GRACE and GLDAS

Water Resources Management - Water crisis is one of the main global risks that has different impacts on the society. This work uses available data and tools to track water storage changes in Iran,...     

In-situ synthesis of CuO nanoparticles on cotton fabrics using spark discharge method to fabricate antibacterial textile

In this research, the spark discharge method (SDM) was used for in-situ synthesis of copper and copper oxide nanoparticles (NPs) on cotton fabrics for producing antibacterial textile. Varieties of analytical techniques were applied for the characterization of both NPs and synthesized CuO NPs on cotton fabrics. The structural characterization of the particles was carried out by the X-ray powder diffraction method. Also, the morphological properties of treated cotton samples were investigated using scanning electron microscope. Particle size and size distribution were measured by dynamic light scattering apparatus. The results show that concentration of 100 ppm is enough for killing 10⁶ CFU/mL of bacteria. It is indicated that the synthesized CuO NPs are very strong against both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Also, the durability of antibacterial efficiency after 15 times of washing was tested. The results confirm that the antibacterial fastness properties are significant and no colonies spread over agar plate after 15 cycles of washing. It was concluded that SDM for in-situ synthesize of nano-CuO on cotton fabrics in batch systems is very promising method.     

Sound absorption characteristics of needle-punched sustainable Typha /polypropylene non-woven

Natural fibers are the acoustical sustainable materials used in blends with polypropylene as carded needle-punched non-woven for the automobile industry. Among the variety of natural fibers, studying the noise-absorptive properties of a novelty introduced fiber called Leafiran extracted from the Typha Australis plant has been aimed in this paper. Typha natural fibers were blended with polypropylene fibers in order to investigate the effect of this newly known natural fiber on the acoustic performance of producing non-woven composite structures. For this aim, five different blend ratios of Typha/polypropylene including 0:100, 30:70, 50:50, 70:30, and 100:0 were prepared. The non-woven porosity, areal density, and sound absorption properties were studied. Impedance Tube Method, which provides the normal incidence sound absorption coefficient (SAC) of materials, was used for determining the acoustic properties of produced non-woven samples. The results of SACs of Typha non-woven revealed that the Typha fibers have good acoustic performance with normal incidence absorption coefficient greater than 0.6 from 500 to 4 kHz. Finally, according to the obtained results from this research, it is claimed that Typha natural fibers could be an acceptable choice for sound reduction applications.     

Application of response surface methodology for modeling of reactive dye removal from solution using starch‐montmorillonite/polyaniline nanocomposite

In this study, starch‐montmorillonite/polyaniline (St‐MMT/PANI) nanocomposite was synthesized by chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline in the presence of St‐MMT nanocomposite dispersion. The prepared ternary nanocomposite was characterized using FTIR, XRD, and SEM techniques. Adsorption properties of the nanocomposite were investigated for removal of reactive blue (RB 194) as a model reactive dye from aqueous solution. Response surface methodology was employed for the modeling of adsorption capacity of the nanocomposite. A second‐order empirical relationship between adsorption capacity and independent variables (initial dye concentration, amount of the nanocomposite, and pH of the solution) was obtained. Pareto analysis for identification of the factors effect on the system revealed that initial dye concentration was the most effective parameter. The adsorption capacity value of reactive dye on St‐MMT/PANI nanocomposite was 91.74 mg g^?1. Further investigations indicated that the adsorption experimental data were well fitted to the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo‐second‐order kinetic model. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:1595–1607, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers