Accidental and deliberate microbiological contamination in the feed and food chains--how biotraceability may improve the response to bioterrorism

A next frontier of the global food safety agenda has to consider a broad spectrum of bio-risks, such as accidental and intentional contaminations in the food and feed chain. In this article, the background for the research needs related to biotraceability and response to bioterrorism incidents are outlined. Given the current scale of international trade any response need to be considered in an international context. Biotraceability (e.g. the ability to use downstream information to point to processes or within a particular food chain that can be identified as the source of undesirable agents) is crucial in any food-born outbreak and particular in the response to bioterrorism events. In the later case, tested and proven biotraceability improves the following: (i) international collaboration of validated tracing tools and detection methods, (ii) multi-disciplinary expertise and collaboration in the field of food microbiology and conceptual modeling of the food chain, (iii) sampling as a key step in biotracing (iv) optimized sample preparation procedures, including laboratory work in Biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories, (v) biomarker discovery for relevant tracing and tracking applications, and (vi) high-throughput sequencing using bio-informatic platforms to speed up the characterization of the biological agent. By applying biotraceability, the response phase during a bioterrorism event may be shortened and is facilitated for tracing the origin of biological agent contamination.     

Evolutionary conservation of human drug targets in organisms used for environmental risk assessments

Pharmaceuticals are typically found in very low concentrations in the aquatic environment. Accordingly, environmental effects clearly assigned to residual drugs are consistent with high affinity interactions with conserved targets in affected wildlife species rather than with a general toxic effect. Thus, evolutionarily well-conserved targets in a given species are associated with an increased risk. In this study orthologs for 1318 human drug targets were predicted in 16 species of which several are relevant for ecotoxicity testing. The conservation of different functional categories of targets was also analyzed. Zebrafish had orthologs to 86% of the drug targets while only 61% were conserved in Daphnia and 35% in green alga. The predicted presence and absence of orthologs agrees well with published experimental data on the potential for specific drug target interaction in various species. Based on the conservation of targets we propose that aquatic environmental risk assessments for human drugs should always include comprehensive studies on aquatic vertebrates. Furthermore, individual targets, especially enzymes, are well conserved suggesting that tests on evolutionarily distant organisms would be highly relevant for certain drugs. We propose that the results can guide environmental risk assessments by improving the possibilities to identify species sensitive to certain types of pharmaceuticals or to other contaminants that act through well defined mechanisms of action. Moreover, we suggest that the results can be used to interpret the relevance of existing ecotoxicity data.     

Options for improving the load matching capability of distributed photovoltaics: Methodology and application to high-latitude data

At high latitudes, domestic electricity demand and insolation are negatively correlated on both an annual and a diurnal basis. With increasing integration of distributed photovoltaics (PV) in low-voltage distribution grids of residential areas, limits to the penetration level are set by voltage rise due to unmatched production and load. In this paper a methodology for determining the impacts of three options for increased load matching is presented and applied to high-latitude data. The studied options are PV array orientation, demand side management (DSM) and electricity storage. Detailed models for domestic electricity demand and PV output are used. An optimisation approach is applied to find an optimal distribution of PV systems on different array orientations and a best-case evaluation of DSM and a storage model are implemented. At high penetration levels, storage is the most efficient option for maximising the solar fraction, but at lower overproduction levels, the impact of DSM is equal or slightly better. An east-west orientation of PV arrays is suggested for high penetration levels, but the effect of the optimised orientation is small. Without an optimised storage operation, the overproduced power is more efficiently reduced by DSM than storage, although this is highly dependent on the applied DSM algorithm. Further research should be focused on the DSM potential and optimal operation of storage.     

Key factors for achieving project success in integration of automotive mechatronics

In this paper, we present a multiple case study on integration of automotive mechatronic components. Based on the findings, we identify that the root causes of problems in integration are largely related to decisions omitted in electronic strategy. We present and recommend use of checklists defining key factors to address in order to achieve successful integration projects in terms of cost and quality. Our recommendations are defined by checklists for critical decisions in areas: functionality, platform, integration, and stakeholder involvement. The recommendations are established based on practitioner experience and then validated in a multiple case study. Five cases of integration are studied for different heavy vehicles in one company, and the fulfillment of our recommendations is measured. Finally we define project success criteria and we compare the level of fulfillment with the project success in terms of time plan and resource consumption. The main contribution of this study is the validated recommendations, each including a set of checkpoints that defines recommendation fulfillment. We also present defining characteristics to identify a high-risk project. We provide a set of observable project properties and show how they affect project risk.     

Characterization and comparison of materials produced by Electron Beam Melting (EBM) of two different Ti–6Al–4V powder fractions

Electron Beam Melting (EBM) has been recognized as a revolutionary technique to produce mass-customized parts to near-net-shape from various metallic materials. The technique produces parts with unique geometries from a powder stock material and uses an electron beam to melt the powder layer-by-layer to fully solid structures. In this study we have investigated the use of two different Ti–6Al–4V powders of different size fractions in the EBM process; a larger 45–100 μm powder, and a smaller 25–45 μm powder. We have also investigated the effects of two build layer thicknesses, 70 μm and 50 μm, respectively. We hypothesize that the smaller powder has the potential to improve surface resolution of parts produced in the EBM process. The EBM as-built parts were investigated regarding surface and bulk chemistry, surface oxide thickness, macro- and microstructure, surface appearance and mechanical properties. We conclude from the results that both powders and both build layer thicknesses are feasible to use in the EBM process. The investigated material properties were not significantly affected by powder size or layer thickness within the studied range of process parameters. However, the surface appearance was found to be different for the samples made with the different powder sizes.     

Tandem Measurements of Aerosol Properties—A Review of Mobility Techniques with Extensions

When multiple instruments are used in tandem it is possible to obtain more complete information on particle transport and physicochemical properties than can be obtained with a single instrument. This article discusses tandem measurements in which submicrometer particles classified according to electrical mobility are then characterized with one or more additional methods. Measurement combinations that are summarized here include mobility plus mass, aerodynamic (or vacuum aerodynamic) diameter, integrated or multiangle light scattering, composition by single particle mass spectrometry, electron microscopy, and so on. Such measurements enable intercomparisons of different measures of size including mobility diameter, optical size, aerodynamic diameter, volume (for agglomerates and nanowires), length (for nanowires), and mass, even for particles that are morphologically and chemically complex. In addition, the article summarizes the use of tandem techniques to measure various transport properties (e.g., dynamic shape factor, sedimentation speed, diffusion coefficient) and physicochemical properties (e.g., mixing state, shape, fractal dimension, density, vapor pressure, equilibrium water content, composition). In addition to providing an overview of such tandem measurements we describe previously unreported results from several novel tandem measurement methods.     

GC-MS analysis and ecotoxicological risk assessment of triclosan, carbamazepine and parabens in Indian rivers

Pharmaceutical and personal care products are used extensively worldwide and their residues are frequently reported in aquatic environments. In this study, antiepileptic, antimicrobial and preservative compounds were analyzed in surface water and sediment from the Kaveri, Vellar and Tamiraparani rivers, and in the Pichavaram mangrove in India by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The mean concentration of carbamazepine recorded in the Kaveri River water (28.3 ng/L) was higher than in the other rivers and the mangrove. Because carbamazepine is used only in human drugs, this may reflect the relative contributions of human excretions/sewage in these rivers. The mean triclosan level in the Tamiraparani River (944 ng/L) was an order of magnitude greater than in the other water systems, and the concentrations at two of the sites reported here (3800-5160 ng/L) are, to our best knowledge, among the highest detected in surface waters. Sediment levels were, however, comparable with other sites. We conclude that industrial releases are likely major contributors of triclosan into this river system. Among parabens, ethyl paraben was predominantly observed. Hazard Quotients suggest greater environmental risks for triclosan than for carbamazepine and parabens. This is the first study on antiepileptic, antimicrobial and preservatives in rivers and mangroves from India.     

All-diamond microelectrode array device

We report the development of all-diamond microelectrochemical devices, namely, a microelectrode array (MEA), in which a periodic array structure with well-defined diameters, distance, and hexagonal unit cell pattern is micromachined using a combination of state-of-the-art microwave-induced plasma growth and laser ablation shaping techniques to prepare and coat a patterned boron-doped diamond (BDD) substrate with an intrinsic diamond insulating layer. The active BDD element can be tuned to between 10 and 50 microm in diameter with a 10 times diameter center-to-center distance between two adjacent conducting elements, which are exactly coplanar to the dielectric surroundings. This type of device should enable applications in harsh conditions such as high temperature, high pressure, and resistive media under dynamic flow regimes.