Traceback Investigation for Salmonella Contamination at Egg Processing Plants in South Korea: Prevalence,Antibiotic Resistance,and Epidemiological Tracing by Rep‐PCR Fingerprinting

We conducted a survey of Salmonella from 8 egg‐breaking plants and a farm to determine the prevalence and the source of the bacteria. The contents of 2400 shell eggs (20 eggs per pool), 75 pasteurized liquid egg products, and 120 unpasteurized liquid egg products from 8 egg‐breaking plants in South Korea were examined. In liquid egg samples, 4 Salmonella‐positive samples from 120 unpasteurized ones (3.3%) and 5 positive samples from 75 pasteurized ones (6.7%) were identified; no eggs were positive for Salmonella among shell egg samples. To trace the source of Salmonella, we revisited the 2 Salmonella‐positive plants (plants A and C). We investigated the equipment and environments of the plants and a henhouse (farm A) that supplied shell eggs to plant A, and collected additional liquid eggs and shell eggs from plants A and C. All Salmonella isolates from plant A and the associated farm A, except for a single Typhimurium strain from farm A, were serotyped as Bareilly. Three serovars, including one Bareilly, four Tennessee, and one Richmond, were isolated from plant C. Most Salmonella isolates were susceptible to tested antibiotics. To identify differences between isolates, molecular subtyping by using the automated rep‐PCR system was conducted. All Salmonella Bareilly (S. Bareilly) strains from plant A exhibited high similarity, indicating possible contamination by Salmonella strains from the henhouse A. Meanwhile, 2 S. Bareilly strains from plant C, one from liquid egg at the 1st visit and the other from container at the 2nd visit, exhibited identical antibiotic resistance and similar subtyping pattern, but clearly discriminated from the ones of plant A.     

A comparison of dry and wet aging on physicochemical and sensory characteristics of pork loin with two aging times

This study investigated the effects of aging methods (wet aging and dry aging) and aging times (7 and 14 days) on the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of meat quality using pork loin. Dry-aged loin (DA) had significantly lower moisture content and higher crude fat protein content than wet-aged loin (WA). The pH of DA was significantly higher than that of WA and it increased with the aging time. DA showed lower cooking loss and higher aging loss than WA (p?<?0.001). Lipid oxidation and metmyoglobin content of DA were higher than those of WA (p?<?0.001). Shear force in DA was lower than that in WA (p?<?0.001) and myofibril protein index (MFI) increased in DA. In addition, DA recorded higher scores of roast color, flavor and overall acceptability compared to WA. These results suggested that the application of dry-aging on pork improved physicochemical, textural and sensory characteristics.     

Antioxidant activity of enzymatic extracts from a brown seaweed Ecklonia cava by electron spin resonance spectrometry and comet assay

The potential antioxidant activity of enzymatic extracts from Ecklonia cava was evaluated by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), hydroxyl and alkyl radical scavenging using a electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrophotometer compared with ESR signal intensity and inhibitory effect of DNA damage on comet assay. E. cava was enzymatically hydrolyzed with five food industrial carbohydrases (AMG, Celluclast, Termamyl, Ultraflo and Viscozyme) from Novozyme Nordisk. All the tested extracts exhibited strong radical scavenging activities and the values were dose-dependent. The DPPH and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities of the enzymatic extracts were compatible with the vitamin C, which the alkyl radical scavenging activity was even higher than that of vitamin C. Also in the present study, the enzymatic extracts showed strong inhibitory effect against DNA damage in a dose dependent manner. These results indicated that the E. cava might be valuable natural antioxidative source.     

Efficient Differential Pixel Value Coding in CABAC for H.264/AVC Lossless Video Compression

Since context-based adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) as the entropy coding method in H.264/AVC was originally designed for lossy video compression, it is inappropriate for lossless video compression. Based on the fact that there are statistical differences of residual data between lossy and lossless video compression, we propose an efficient differential pixel value coding method in CABAC for H.264/AVC lossless video compression. Considering the observed statistical properties of the differential pixel value in lossless coding, we modified the CABAC encoding mechanism with the newly designed binarization table and the context-modeling method. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves an approximately 12% bit saving, compared to the original CABAC method in the H.264/AVC standard.     

Comparison of bioactive compounds,antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of Mon Thong durian during ripening

The aim of this investigation was to compare the bioactive and nutrient compounds, fatty acids, and antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of Mon Thong durian at different stages of ripening. It was found that the total polyphenols, flavonoids, flavanols, ascorbic acid, tannins and the antioxidant activity determined by four assays (CUPRAC, DPPH, ABTS and FRAP) differed in immature, mature, ripe and overripe samples. The content of polyphenols and antioxidant activity were the highest in overripe durian, flavonoids were the highest in ripe durian, and flavanols and antiproliferative activity were the highest in mature durian (p < 0.05). FTIR spectra of polyphenols, HPLC profiles of fatty acids, the antioxidant and antiproliferative activities can be used as indicators to characterise different stages of durian ripening.     

Characterisation of pore structures in nanoporous materials for advanced bionanotechnology

Porous materials are potential candidates for applications in various fields, such as bionanotechnology, gas separation, catalysts and micro-electronics. In particular, their applications in bionanotechnology include biosensors, biomedical implants and microdevices, biosupporters, bio-encapsules, biomolecule separations and biomedical therapy. All these bionanotechnology applications utilise the shape, size and size distribution of pores in porous materials. Therefore the controlled creation of pores with desired shape, size and size distribution is most important in the development of nanoporous materials. Accordingly, the accurate evaluation of pore structure is necessary in the development of nanoporous materials and their applications. This article reviews recent developments in analytical techniques to characterise the pore structures of nanoporous materials.     

Protective effects of enzymatic digest from Ecklonia cava against high glucose‐induced oxidative stress in human umbilical vein endothelial cells

BACKGROUND: Antioxidants can prevent pathological damage caused by hyperglycaemia‐induced oxidative stress associated with diabetes. In the present study, we investigated whether the brown alga Ecklonia cava has protective effects against high glucose‐induced oxidative stress in Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). For that purpose, we prepared an enzymatic digest from E. cava (ECC) by using the carbohydrase, Celluclast. RESULTS: High glucose treatment induced HUVECs cell death, but ECC, at a concentration of 10 or 100 µg mL^?1, significantly inhibited the high glucose‐induced cytotoxicity. Furthermore, treatment with ECC dose‐dependently decreased thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), intracellular generation of reactive oxygen species, and the nitric oxide level increased by high glucose. In addition, ECC treatment increased activities of antioxidant enzymes including catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase in high‐glucose pretreated HUVECs. High glucose levels induced the overexpression of inducible nitric oxide synthase, cyclooxygenase‐2 and nuclear factor‐kappa B proteins in HUVECs, but ECC treatment reduced the overexpression of these proteins. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that ECC is a potential therapeutic agent that will reduce the damage caused by hyperglycaemia‐induced oxidative stress associated with diabetes. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Effect of O2 plasma pretreatment on structural and optical properties of ZnO films on PES substrate by atomic layer deposition

ZnO films were deposited on the O₂ plasma treated polyethersulfone (PES) substrates by atomic layer deposition. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements reveals that the grains in ZnO films show strongly (0 0 2) preferential orientation, when the duration of plasma pretreatment increases. The decreased grain size and improved crystallinity results in the decreased surface roughness of ZnO films. In contrast, when the duration of plasma pretreatment increases to 60 min, the surface roughness increases again due to the increased grain size and worse crystallinity. In photoluminescence measurement, slight blue shift of near-band-edge emission occurs with increasing duration of plasma pretreatment up to 30 min.     

Microstructure Evolution of Titanium Nitride Film during Vacuum Kinetic Spraying

Single crystal titanium nitride powder was used to fabricate titanium nitride films using a vacuum kinetic spray (VKS) process. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (FETEM) were used to investigate the microstructure of the as‐fabricated films under different process conditions. Plastic deformation features (i.e., amorphization, rotated grain, slip bands, and distorted lattices in the transition structure) revealed an elastic‐to‐inelastic transition of titanium nitride particles at high strain rate and high pressure induced by hypervelocity impact, which was considered vital for grain refinement and film growth during the process.