Current and emerging molecular diagnostic technologies applicable to bacterial food safety

There is an increasing need for rapid test methods to certify the quality and safety of food products. Current tests applied for the microbiological assessment of food products are based on standard approved culture-based isolation methods and can take several days to yield results. Nucleic acid diagnostic (NAD) tests for the identification of bacterial foodborne pathogens employing in vitro amplification technologies are capable of sensitive and specific detection of single or multiple pathogens in foods in a shorter timeframe than traditional methods. New developments in molecular biosensors have the potential to provide at-line bioanalysis, whereas microarray-based technologies may in the future be the NAD platforms of choice for multiple pathogen detection and identification. This article reviews current and emerging NAD platforms for foodborne bacterial pathogens that have the potential to impact food safety.     

Dry kiln scheduling in furniture production

In this paper, a dry kiln scheduling problem from the furniture manufacturing industry is considered. Factory-specified due dates for orders, kiln availability, kiln capacity, and travel time from the kilns to the factories are all incorporated in a model which is formulated as an integer linear program. The objective of the formulation is to minimize the maximum tardiness of orders arriving at the plants by solving a special case of scheduling n independent jobs on m non-identical parallel ciachines. Because of the computational complexity, and the fact that standard integer programming packages appear to perform very poorly on the problem, a heuristic approach is developed. Computational experience is provided which indicates that the heuristic gives very high quality solutions to problems in near real-time.     

"The Outside Is the Result of an Inside": Some Sources of One of Modernism's Most Persistent Doctrines

One of the most pervasive doctrines of composition for modernism was the necessary correspondence between the interior and the exterior as expressed in Le Corbusier's maxim, "The outside is the result of an inside." Many Modern movement architects interpreted this maxim as requiring that both "space" and "program" be expressed on the exterior of their buildings. Although Modern movement architects and theorists themselves wrote little on this subject, a number of earlier writings, including some nineteenth- and twentieth-century books by traditionalists, reveal the academic roots of these precepts. This paper traces the development of these ideas.     

PASTING CHARACTERISTICS OF RICE FLOUR-BASED BATTER COMPARED TO WHEAT FLOUR-BASED BATTER

Rice flour‐based batter (RFBB) formulations were developed for deep fat fried chickendrumstick application. The effects of ingredients on pasting characteristics of RFBB and wheat flour based‐batter (WFBB) were compared using the Rapid Visco‐Analyzer (RVA). Pasting properties were influenced significantly by ratios of rice to corn flour, oxidized corn starch, and methylcellulose. The peak viscosity, breakdown, and setback increased significantly as rice flour level increased, whereas increasing levels of oxidized corn starchyielded opposite results. Pasting characteristics of RFBB were significantly different from those of WFBB.     

STABILIZATION OF CARROT JUICE BY DILUTE ACID TREATMENT

SUMMARY– A problem arises if juice extracted from raw carrots is heated to about 180° before or during conventional canning practices. An unsightly, unappetizing coagulum forms and the color of the juice precipitates with the coagulum. The coagulum is not as evident if the carrots are heated 5 min in water prior to juice extraction, but the juice loses some of its bright-orange color. The canned juice extracted from carrots heated 5 min in a .05 N acetic acid solution does not coagulate and the amount of juice which can be extracted from the carrots is 3.3% greater than that from carrots heated 5 min in water. The centrifuged juice from acid-treated carrots had a brighter orange color than juice from the water-treated carrots. The color notation was Rd, 23.7, a, 30.4 and b, 34.8 for juice from acid-treated carrots compared with a notation of Rd, 19.2, a, 24.4 and b, 31.4 for the juice from water-treated carrots. The canned juice extracted from raw carrots had less pectic substances and starch and about the same amount of protein as the canned juice from the carrots heated in water or .05 N acetic acid, but the canned juice from raw carrots coagulated. The juice from carrots heated in acid does not form a coagulum and maintains its orange color, probably because of the action of the heat and acid on the protoplasmic liquid of the cell before or immediately after the cell is ruptured.     

A Museum of Living Architecture

This paper explores the design and construction of the Des Moines Art Center, revealing a set of distinct approaches to both architectural design and the preservation and extension of existing though not yet historic work. Three architects, Eliel Saarinen, I.M. Pei, and Richard Meier, designed the center in three separate phases. Each of these projects had to take the existing fabric of landscape and building into account, and each adopted startlingly distinctive methods for both preserving and extending the work of their predecessors. The resulting museum, seen as a place for experiencing and making art, and as a record of architectural strategies, forms a unique opportunity for investigation of and reflection upon attitudes toward renovation, preservation, extension, and alteration of recently completed work.     

Production of Microbiologically Stable Apple Juice by Metallic Membrane Ultrafiltration

The potential for production of microbiologically stable apple juice by metallic membrane ultrafiltration was assessed. Thermal sterilization treatments caused no detectable changes in membrane performance. Sterile membranes were challenged with approximately 3 × 10⁶ colony forming units per gram of each of three organisms, Pseudomonas diminuta, Bacillus coagulans, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, suspended in apple puree or peptone. Reductions achieved by ultrafiltration of peptone at operating pressure were 5.1, 7.6, and >9.0 logs for the three organisms, respectively. Reductions of organisms in apple puree were at least 1.5 logs greater. Metallic membranes eliminated yeasts and molds from juice. Apple juice produced from uninoculated apple puree was stable at 20–25°C for 1 yr.