A note on the incidences of Salmonella spp., Listeria spp. and Escherichia coli O157:H7 serotypes in Turkish sausage (Soudjouck)

The incidence of Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli O157:H7 was determined in 100 Turkish sausage (soudjouck) samples collected from shops and markets in the Afyon province, Turkey. Salmonella spp. were detected in 7% of the samples. All of the isolates were S. enterica Paratyphi B. In addition, Listeria spp. were detected in 9% of the samples. Its distribution was 7% L. monocytogenes and 1% each of L. ivanovii and L. innocua. Serological study of the seven L. monocytogenes isolates showed that three of these were 1/2 ab, three were 5/6 ab and one was 1 ab. E. coli O157:H7 was not detected in any of the samples. The pH values of the samples ranged from 4.8 to 6.5. In conclusion, increasing number of listeriosis and salmonellosis cases in Turkey and the contamination levels found indicate that risk assessment and improved preventive measures are required for these sausages.     

超越20世纪

<正>在20世纪的土耳其建筑史中,我们见证了它在阐释和表现一种"现代"身份时,为回应东/西方二元性所作的无数次尝试。建筑师们和学者们在这些尝试中摇摆不定,一头是要"提升"他们的西方身份,另一头是要创造一种"真实的"安那托利亚/土耳其的现代。前者把现代性理解为一个适合每个人的国际化情境;而后者则认为需要根据特定的国家情况来融入和吸收现代性。在21世纪,这些态度都不再重要了:身份问题不再     

Evaluation of antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of strawberry tree (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Arbutus Unedo</Emphasis> L.) leaf

In present study, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo L.) leaves were investigated. Antioxidant activity was determined by methods of DPPH scavenging, β-carotene bleaching, reducing power, metal chelating, superoxide anion scavenging, and hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity. Total phenolic content were determined to be 197.16±1.43 mg GAE/g extract in aqueous extract. The EC₅₀ value of methanolic extracts was found to be 0.423 mg/mL. The extracts of leaves showed nearly 1/4 metal chelating capacity of standard EDTA, high reducing power, superoxide anion scavenging, and hydrogen peroxide scavenging activities. While the strawberry tree leaves exhibited antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, there was no inhibitory effect against Escherichia coli and Salmonella enteritidis. The strawberry tree leaves exhibited antifungal effect against 2 aflatoxigenic molds namely Aspergillus parasiticus NRRL 2999 and NRRL 465. These results suggest that the strawberry tree leaves may be used as an antioxidant source for pharmaceutical application, nutraceutical and functional food industries.     

Antioxidant Potential of Different Dill (Anethum Graveolens L.) Leaf Extracts

Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) have been extensively used in salads, soups, and pickles for its aromatic odor and flavor. Recently, interest in plant-derived food additives has grown. In this study, the possible antioxidant properties of water, ethanol, and acetone extracts of dill leaves were investigated. In order to evaluate antioxidant activities of all extracts, different antioxidant tests were used, such as total antioxidant activity by ferric thiocyanate method, reducing power, DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl) free radical scavenging, hydrogen peroxide scavenging, and ferrous ions chelating activities. The content of phenolic compounds was also determined to be the gallic acid equivalent. Among the three extracts, the water extract of dill leaf showed the most potent antioxidative capacity in each assay, showing 79.66% (at 1 mg/mL) in the DPPH^? radical scavenging activity, 63% (at 800 μg/mL) in the metal chelating effect, 60% (at 400 μg/mL) in the H₂O₂ scavenging activity, and 0.61 absorbance (at 1 mg/mL) in the reducing power.     

Measurement of Thermal Conductivity of Edible Oils Using Transient Hot Wire Method

Thermal conductivities of three different edible oils, namely sunflower oil, corn oil and olive oil, were measured at temperatures 25, 40, 60, and 80°C. The measurements were carried out using a hot wire probe method. The calibration of the probe was performed using 0.3% agar gel with water and glycerin. In general, thermal conductivities of oils used in this study are found to be decreasing with temperature. The values of thermal conductivity measured are quite near to each other, the highest and the lowest being respectively 0.168 W/m K for sunflower oil at 25°C and 0.152 W/m K for corn oil at 80°C.     

Robust Image Transmission Over Wireless Sensor Networks

Robust image and video communications have become more imperative due to the ubiquitous proliferation of multimedia applications over wireless sensor networks. In this work, the transmission distortions on the image data induced by both channel and instant node failures for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are considered. The effect of two techniques and their integration with multipath transmission are investigated to compensate the multimedia distortions at the expense of incurring additional energy consumption and/or wasting bandwidth resources. First technique is watermarking based error concealment utilizing discrete wavelet transform for embedding downsized replicas of original image into itself. The other is conventional Reed–Solomon (RS) coding utilizing additional information bits to correct bit/symbol errors. Performance results obtained from extensive simulations utilizing a communication and energy model applicable to WSN show that error concealment (EC) integrated schemes, especially EC with multipath fusion (ECMF), are more promising to compensate losses than RS-coding-integrated and pure multipath transmission techniques in WSN.     

Chemical, microbiological and sensory changes associated with fish sauce processing

The production of sardine fermented fish sauce was replicated in the laboratory in order to study the chemical, microbiological and sensory changes associated with the process. Fish sauce were produced by incubating mixtures of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) at different concentrations of sodium chloride and glucose at 37 °C for 57 days. Changes in chemical composition (moisture, protein, fat contents), pH, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N, mg N/100 g fish flesh), trimethylamine (TMA-N, mg/100 g fish flesh), thiobarbituric acid (TBA, mg malonaldehyde/kg fish flesh), water activity (aw), color measurement, total viable count, lactic acid bacteria count, yeast and moulds counts and sensory analyses were observed. The fish sauces with spices were determined lower bacteria counts than fish sauces without spices. The addition of glucose to the fish sauces caused a significant increasing in the bacterial counts. Staphylococcus aureus and yeast-mould counts were not detected during fermentation period. The use of spices in fermentation of sardine enhanced good color, aroma and taste.     

High genetic and phenotypic variability of Streptococcus thermophilus strains isolated from artisanal Yuruk yoghurts

Streptococcus thermophilus is a commonly used starter bacterium in dairy industry. It reduces the pH of milk rapidly and equilibrates the medium for the growth of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus during yoghurt fermentation. Efforts to increase the diversity of artisanal yoghurt starters are not only important to bring new strains with novel and desirable characteristics, but also for the preservation of natural diversity which diminishes with the overuse and spread of industrial starters to natural resources. In the present study, 14 artisanal yoghurt samples were processed for the isolation of promising strains for yoghurt starter culture production and 66 strains were subsequently characterized. They were all identified as S. thermophilus using species-specific PCR and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Genotypic diversity at the strain level was investigated by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and 22 homology groups were obtained. Further phenotypic characterization unearthed a significant phenotypic heterogeneity within homology groups, mostly with atypical novel character. Only 7 out of 66 strains showed S. thermophilus type-strain like phenotypic traits. Majority of the isolates were determined to be protease positive and fast milk acidifier to be used as yoghurt starter culture.     

Ohmic Heating Behaviour and Rheological Properties of Ice Cream Mixes

Ohmic heating is an alternative heating method for Maras-type ice cream mix, which is a traditional ice cream in Turkey. Fast and uniform heating is necessary for the pre-heating of ice cream mixes. Maras-type ice cream, produced in continuous system, was investigated in this study. The results obtained were compared with those of standard ice cream. The ice cream mix used for this study was supplied before the pasteurization step. A voltage gradient of 10–60 V/cm was used to heat the ice cream mixes ohmically from 4°C to 80°C. Temperature dependent electrical conductivity relations were obtained for different ohmic heating rates. Electrical conductivity of the standard type ice cream mix was lower than that of the Maras type ice cream mix. Fat content and temperature had an effect on the electrical conductivity values. The rheological properties of the ice cream mixes were also measured at 4, 25, 40, 60, 70, and 80°C by a Brookfield viscometer. Experimental data were evaluated according to power the law model—rheological constants (K, n) of Maras type ice cream mix were found to be greater than the standard type ice cream mix and increased with temperature.     

Comparison of the shelf lifes of map and vacuum packaged hot smoked rainbow trout (Onchoryncus mykiss)

The objective of this study was to determine the differences of microbiological and chemical quality in MAP and VP packages in refrigerated smoked trout fillets. Such information is important in evaluating the safety of these products. Three groups were constituted: group A – packed in 60%Co₂/40% N₂; group B – packed in 50%CO₂/50% N₂ and group C– vacuum packed. The ratio of fillet to package volume was 1/3 chemical analysis and microbiological analysis were done and also instrumental and sensory analysis were used to determined the shelf life. The observed shelf life of smoked trout was found at least 33 days in vacuum package, 47 days in 60% CO₂/40% N₂ gas mixture and 40 days in 50% CO₂/50% N₂ gas mixture according to results of microbiological analysis. The observed shelf life of smoked trout in MAP group A was determined as 14 days more than VP packs according to results of microbiological and sensory analysis in the study.