Evaluation of the Microbial Safety of Child Food of Animal Origin in Greece

Foodborne illness is a major cause of morbidity and mortality especially for children, even in the developed world. The aim of this study was to assess the microbial safety of food of animal origin intended for consumption by children in Greece. Sampling involved 8 categories of retail products and was completed with a collection of 850 samples. These were tested by PCR and/or culture for Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli O157, Salmonella spp., Cronobacter sakazakii, Brucella spp., and Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis (MAP). The number of positive results recorded collectively for the pathogens under investigation over the total number of samples tested was 3.52% and 0.12% by PCR and culture, respectively. The most frequently detected pathogen was enterohemorrhagic E. coli (1.29%) followed by Brucella (0.82%) and Listeria (0.82%). DNA belonging to MAP was detected in 0.35% of samples, which was also the percentage of positivity recorded for Campylobacter. The percentage for Salmonella was 0.12%. It can be concluded from the results that there is no indication of noncompliance for the tested food samples. However, detection of DNA belonging to pathogens that are transmissible to humans through food is indicative that constant vigilance regarding food safety is an absolute necessity.     

Optical performance and instantaneous efficiency calculation of linear Fresnel solar collectors

The main objective of this study is the investigation of the effect of the optical path of incident beam solar radiation on the performance of a linear Fresnel concentrating solar collector. The requirements regarding the kinematics of the reflectors are examined, allowing the effective focus of the reflected radiation on the receiver cover. A methodology for the calculation of the reflection angles of the sun rays incident on the mirrors, as well as of the incidence angles of the reflected rays on the cover, as a function of the sun position and the geometry of the collector is proposed. Specific scenarios, describing the effect of the solar radiation optical path on the collected heat, are formulated, each of them leading to a different form for the instantaneous efficiency equation. The evaluation and analysis of these scenarios, on the basis of actual operation conditions, has shown that the effect of the reflection and incidence angles throughout the modeling of the collector and the calculation of the useful thermal power cannot be neglected.     

Comparison of direct steam injection and steam-jacketed heating in squid protein hydrolysis for energy consumption and hydrolysis performance

Direct steam injection (DSI) and conventional steam-jacketed (SJ) heating systems were compared for energy consumption and hydrolysis performance in producing squid hydrolysates (SH). Hydrolysis was carried out with endogenous enzymes at 55 °C for 90 min and native pH (6.5 ± 0.2), followed by pasteurization at 75 °C for 30 min. Hydrolysis performance was evaluated by monitoring the changes in viscosity, degree of hydrolysis (DH), and protein profile during the course of hydrolysis. The DSI heating process was more energy efficient than SJ heating with significantly less energy usage (∼30% energy reduction), shorter come-up times, and total processing time. While considerable fouling was evident with SJ heating, no fouling was observed with DSI heating. No appreciable differences in hydrolysis performance were observed between DSI and SJ heating, although the DSI-treated hydrolysate exhibited slightly lower values in viscosity and DH, as well as weaker protein band intensities due to dilution caused by steam condensation. The use of a steam filtration unit in DSI not only filtered the incoming steam, but also reduced condensation. Results suggest that DSI heating with steam filtration is an energy efficient and fouling-free process for preparing SH and potentially for other type of enzymatic protein hydrolysates.     

Natural Origin Lycopene and Its “Green” Downstream Processing

Lycopene is an abundant natural carotenoid pigment with several biological functions (well-known for its antioxidant properties) which is under intensive investigation in recent years. Lycopene chemistry, its natural distribution, bioavailability, biological significance, and toxicological effects are briefly outlined in the first part of this review. The second, major part, deals with various modern downstream processing techniques, which are assessed in order to identify promising approaches for the recovery of lycopene and of similar lipophilic compounds. Natural lycopene is synthesized in plants and by microorganisms, with main representatives of these two categories (for industrial production) tomato and its by-products and the fungus Blakeslea trispora, respectively. Currently, there is a great deal of effort to develop efficient downstream processing for large scale production of natural-origin lycopene, with trends strongly indicating the necessity for “green” and mild extraction conditions. In this review, emphasis is placed on final product safety and ecofriendly processing, which are expected to totally dominate in the field of natural-origin lycopene extraction and purification.     

In vitro and in vivo antihyperglycemic effect of 2 amadori rearrangement compounds, arginyl-fructose and arginyl-fructosyl-glucose

During the heat processing of raw ginseng to produce red ginseng, amino acid derivatives such as arginyl-fructose (AF) and arginyl-fructosyl-glucose (AFG) are formed at high levels, through amadori rearrangement, the early step of Maillard reaction, from arginine and glucose or maltose, respectively. However, very limited information is available about the effect of the structural difference between AF and AFG on various biological activities. This is the first report of the mode of action and effect of AF and AFG on the type 2 diabetes management related inhibition of postprandial hyperglycemia in vitro and in animal model. In our previous study, standards AF and AFG were chemically synthesized and in this study their inhibitory activities against rat intestinal α-glucosidases and porcine pancreatic α-amylase were investigated in vitro. The IC(50) value of the in vitro inhibitory activity of AF and AFG on rat intestinal sucrase was high and in similar levels (6.40 and 6.20 mM, respectively). Additionally, a mild pancreatic α-amylase inhibitory activity was observed, with IC(50) values 36.30 and 37.60 mM for AF and AFG, respectively. The effect of AF and AFG on the postprandial blood glucose increase after meal was investigated in Sprague Dawley rats fed on starch or sucrose meals. Both amadori compounds significantly reduced the postprandial blood glucose levels after starch or sucrose loading. These results indicate that AF and AFG, Maillard reaction products, may have antidiabetic effect by suppressing carbohydrate absorption in the gastrointestinal level, and thereby reducing the postprandial increase of blood glucose.     

Serverless streaming for emerging media: towards 5G network-driven cost optimization

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Immersive 3D media is an emerging type of media that captures, encodes and reconstructs the 3D appearance of people and objects, with applications in...     

Development of an innovative information system: a fish identification e-key with update capabilities

A dichotomous identification key organizes fishes based on their similarities and differences, and is an essential tool in which ichthyologists, biologists, fishery biologists and others can use for accurate identification of specimens or finding information on correct names, biology and distribution of species. This research work focuses on the development and implementation of a totally new information system that is able to identify correctly fish species names. The developed system is a fully interactive fish identification e-key, which can be used in both forms; locally and remotely via the World Wide Web. This new dichotomous classification e-key provides the capability to identify any species in a compact and easy to use environment, which gives the user excellent operation capabilities and complete information about all included fish species. Moreover, the application provides the capability to search for a random fish species and to show a list which includes all the fish species that currently exist in the application's database. There is an extra attribute that makes the new system novel, and this is its expandability: the information system is fully dynamic having the capability to be extended every time a new species is identified. This attribute is innovative because, until now, there is not any fish identification e-key that gives the user the capability to insert new fish species into the application's database.     

Accurate and large-scale privacy-preserving data mining using the election paradigm

With the proliferation of the Web and ICT technologies there have been concerns about the handling and use of sensitive information by data mining systems. Recent research has focused on distributed environments where the participants in the system may also be mutually mistrustful. In this paper we discuss the design and security requirements for large-scale privacy-preserving data mining (PPDM) systems in a fully distributed setting, where each client possesses its own records of private data. To this end we argue in favor of using some well-known cryptographic primitives, borrowed from the literature on Internet elections. More specifically, our framework is based on the classical homomorphic election model, and particularly on an extension for supporting multi-candidate elections. We also review a recent scheme [Z. Yang, S. Zhong, R.N. Wright, Privacy-preserving classification of customer data without loss of accuracy, in: SDM’ 2005 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining, 2005] which was the first scheme that used the homomorphic encryption primitive for PPDM in the fully distributed setting. Finally, we show how our approach can be used as a building block to obtain Random Forests classification with enhanced prediction performance.     

Co-localization of Carbonic Anhydrase and Phosphoenol-pyruvate Carboxylase and Localization of Pyruvate Kinase in Roots and Hypocotyls of Etiolated Glycine max Seedlings

We investigated the presence of carbonic anhydrase in root and hypocotyl of etiolated soybean using enzymatic, histochemical, immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization approaches. In parallel, we used in situ hybridization and immunolocalization to determine the expression pattern and localization of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase. Their co-localization in the root tip as well as in the central cylinder, suggests that a large fraction of the CO₂ may be re-introduced into C4 compounds. GmPK3 expression, coding for a cytoplasmic isoform of pyruvate kinase, was detected in all different root cell types, suggesting that both phosphoenolpyruvate-utilizing enzymes are involved in phosphoenolpyruvate metabolism in etiolated soybean roots; a case indicative of the necessary flexibility plant metabolism has to adopt in order to compensate various physiological conditions.