The effect of salinity on the growth,yield and essential oils of turnip‐rooted and leaf parsley cultivated within the Mediterranean region

BACKGROUND: Turnip‐rooted parsley, a field‐crop of northern Europe, has recently been introduced to the Mediterranean region for fresh consumption or production of essential oil. Because of soil salinity within this area, the sensitivity of turnip‐rooted and two other parsley subspecies (plain‐ and curly‐leafed) to salt was studied. RESULTS: NaCl or CaCl₂ additions to the irrigation water raised the electrical conductivity (EC) in increments from 0.5 dS m^?1 to 4.5 dS m^?1 (year 1) or 6.0 dS m^?1 (year 2), reducing parsley foliage weight in year 2, but increasing the root weight of turnip‐rooted parsley in year 1. Raising the EC with NaCl increased the yield of foliar essential oil from curly‐leafed parsley (both years), but not from the other cultivars. CaCl₂ had less effect on oil yield. The relative concentrations of the principal aroma constituents (β‐phellandrene, myristicin, β‐myrcene and apiole) of the foliar essential oil were affected by NaCl or CaCl₂ in a way that differed between cultivars. Oil yield from parsley roots was very low and apparently unaffected by salinity. CONCLUSION: All three parsley subspecies are moderately sensitive to salinity, but may be cultivated at <4.5 dS m^?1 EC. Salinity may assist oil production by increasing oil yield (curly‐leafed parsley) and positively affecting certain aroma constituents. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Behavior of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella Typhimurium in teewurst, a raw spreadable sausage

The fate of Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Typhimurium, or Escherichia coli O157:H7 were separately monitored both in and on teewurst, a traditional raw and spreadable sausage of Germanic origin. Multi-strain cocktails of each pathogen (ca. 5.0 log CFU/g) were used to separately inoculate teewurst that was subsequently stored at 1.5, 4, 10, and 21 °C. When inoculated into commercially-prepared batter just prior to stuffing, in general, the higher the storage temperature, the greater the lethality. Depending on the storage temperature, pathogen levels in the batter decreased by 2.3 to 3.4, ca. 3.8, and 2.2 to 3.6 log CFU/g for E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, and L. monocytogenes, respectively, during storage for 30 days. When inoculated onto both the top and bottom faces of sliced commercially-prepared finished product, the results for all four temperatures showed a decrease of 0.9 to 1.4, 1.4 to 1.8, and 2.2 to 3.0 log CFU/g for E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, and L. monocytogenes, respectively, over the course of 21 days. With the possible exceptions for salt and carbohydrate levels, chemical analyses of teewurst purchased from five commercial manufacturers revealed only subtle differences in proximate composition for this product type. Our data establish that teewurst does not provide a favourable environment for the survival of E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, or L. monocytogenes inoculated either into or onto the product.     

Growth of Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium in the presence of quorum sensing signalling compounds produced by spoilage and pathogenic bacteria

The effect of acylated homoserine lactones (AHLs) and autoinducer-2 (AI-2) signalling compounds present in the cell-free culture supernatants (CFS), of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Yersinia enterocolitica-like GTE 112, Serratia proteamaculans 00612, Y. enterocolitica CITY650 and Y. enterocolitica CITY844, on the growth of two Salmonella Enteritidis and two S. Typhimurium strains was assessed though monitoring of changes in conductance of the medium. Detection times (T_det), area and slope of conductance curves were recorded. Except for P. aeruginosa 108928, which was not found to produce AI-2, all other strains produced both AHLs and AI-2. Thereafter, aliquots (20% in the final volume) of these CFS were transferred into NZ Amine broth inoculated with ca. 10³ CFU/ml of stationary phase cultures of each Salmonella strain. While the CFS of P. aeruginosa induced a shorter detection time, i.e. acceleration of the metabolic activity, the CFS of the other microorganisms increased the detection time of Salmonella strains compared to control samples (i.e. without CFS). Results indicate that the growth of Salmonella may be affected by the presence of Quorum sensing (QS) signalling compounds and/or other novel signals existing in CFS, produced by other bacterial species and confirm the complexity of bacterial communication.     

Conducting polymers for corrosion protection: a review

Conducting polymers (CPs) such as polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPy), and polythiophene (PTh) are used for the corrosion protection of metals and metal alloys. Several groups have reported diverse views about the corrosion protection by CPs and hence various mechanisms have been suggested to explain anticorrosion properties of CPs. These include anodic protection, controlled inhibitor release as well as barrier protection mechanisms. Different approaches have been developed for the use of CPs in protective coatings (dopants, composites, blends). A judicious choice of synthesis parameters leads to an improvement in the anticorrosion properties of the coatings prepared by CPs for metals and their alloys. This article is prepared as a review of the application of CPs for corrosion protection of metal alloys.     

Environmental,social and economic information management for the evaluation of sustainability in urban areas: A system of indicators for Thessaloniki,Greece

The use of indicators constitutes internationally an important tool for assessing the progress achieved towards sustainable development. Measuring the sustainability in urban areas – which are crucial engines of local socio-economic development, but at the same time present concentration points of environmental decay – is a major challenge for environmental managers and decision-makers. This paper aims at the development and utilisation of a system of indicators as a dynamic tool for the management of environmental, social and economic information in order to evaluate sustainability in urban areas. In this context, guidelines for the system’s development and use are proposed, together with a suggestion for its communication among local stakeholders. An application of this system is demonstrated through a case study using the Greater Thessaloniki Area, Greece, a domain with considerable socio-economic development, which is also encountering significant environmental pressures.     

Where does the money go? Economic flow analysis of construction projects

A new approach is introduced for analysing the economic flows in a construction project that will complement the existing methods. The main focus of the new method is to trace the flow of costs in the project and identify their spatial characteristics as well as who are the final recipients. This type of analysis highlights the flow of costs of the specific project in the local economy. It can be used for decision-making purposes from the project-commissioning party. Costs were divided into six categories, namely: labour, materials, energy, office overheads, taxes and personnel, and into two levels: local and national. Three case studies of stone and reinforced concrete structures were selected and analysed to test the application of this method. The case studies showed that this method and the representation by a Sankey diagram can provide useful insights regarding both the spatialized distribution of the cost of a project and the economic flows going to direct labour versus overhead and taxes. For future projects, local authorities or developers can select the most economically suitable strategy maximizing the income of the local community.     

Development of an urban health and wellbeing index for work precincts: A comparative study in Sydney,Australia

Work precincts are recognized for their significant role as generators of employment and associated commerce within urban areas. This study describes a method for analyzing the physical characteristics of urban work precincts in promoting the health and wellbeing of their occupants. The following physical parameters are analyzed: public transport accessibility, green and blue spaces, food environments, fitness facilities, supermarkets, and grocery stores. The parameters are assessed using quantitative spatial analysis based on street network data, as well as point of interest data acquired from OpenStreetMap (OSM). The streets and their intersections are stored in the OSM database as links and nodes, respectively. The evaluation of the performance metrics involves measuring the street network distance from each node to the closest node of interest for each parameter. The metrics are then combined, forming an urban health and wellbeing index (UHWI), which can be used to compare the performance of different precincts. The method was tested by investigating four work precincts in Sydney, Australia, all hosting a large office building belonging to the same business institution. Our results identified two of the four precincts with a high UHWI and resulted in the identification of one underperforming precinct.     

Characterisation of the supramolecular structure of chemically and physically modified regenerated cellulosic fibres by means of high-resolution Carbon-13 solid-state NMR

Carbon-13 high-resolution solid-state NMR techniques have been invaluable in elucidating the structure of regenerated cellulosic materials. Studies of a range of fibres have shown systematic changes in chemical shifts, which can be related to the influences of physical processing or chemical modification. A constrained curve fitting method has been applied, where the C4 spectral envelope is represented as the sum of contributions from polymer in ordered, partially-ordered and disordered environments, associated with differing conformational arrangements of the cellulose hydroxymethyl and glycocidic bonds. The empirical gamma-gauche effect seems likely to provide the best rationalization for the relationship between C4 shifts and conformational order, taking into account the increased range of bond angles in disordered environments. The quantification of proportions of polymer units within different conformational groupings will provide new insights into the development of supramolecular texture. This will allow better appreciation of the relationships between fibre processing and ultimate fibre performance.     

Grip to the Colon by Means of Macroscopic Adhesion-Controlled Friction

Manipulating friction without applying high normal forces is important for an intestine inspection and intervention device in order to eliminate the risk of tissue damage. One possible solution is to generate friction by means of adhesive forces. The adhesive forces should be high to offer sufficient grip without needing high normal forces. The generated friction is then called adhesion-controlled and depends on the size of the area in contact. Adhesion-controlled friction is well known to be dominant at microscopic and molecular levels. According to this paper, adhesion-controlled friction can be applicable on the macroscopic scale as well and, more specifically, within a range of forces in which friction is usually considered to be load-controlled. The intestine inspection and intervention device manipulates the friction with the colonic wall by means of mucoadhesive films. In this way, grip with high static friction is achieved without the need to apply high normal forces and friction is altered by changing the size of the area of the mucoadhesive film. Friction theories on different scales are revisited and considered in order to understand the dominant phenomena and the principles associated with this macroscopic adhesion-controlled friction.