Cadmium and lead contamination in vegetables collected from industrial, traffic and rural areas in Bursa Province, Turkey.

Cadmium and lead contamination of vegetables produced in rural areas of Bursa Province, Turkey, was found to be less contaminated than vegetables grown close to heavy traffic and industrial activities. The highest levels of cadmium and lead were found in lettuce; the lowest levels in vegetables were found in leeks. The lead levels in spinach grown in traffic areas were at least twofold higher than those found in industrial areas. For other vegetables, the results from industrial and traffic areas were almost identical. Lettuce grown in traffic areas had the highest amount of cadmium (0.81 +/- 0.25 mg kg(-1)) and lead (1.59 +/- 0.45 mg kg(-1)), whilst leeks grown in rural areas had the lowest levels of lead (0.10 +/- 0.03 mg kg(-1)) and cadmium (0.05 +/- 0.01 mg kg(-1)) compared with other vegetables. This study shows that people and animals living in the same area in Bursa are always exposed to metallic pollution and in turn the consumption of contaminated vegetables could lead to increased dietary intake.     

A new application for the valorisation of pomegranate seed oil: nanoencapsulation of pomegranate seed oil into electrospun nanomats for food preservation

Pomegranate seed oil (PSO) contains many bioactive materials including antimicrobials, antioxidants, tocopherol and unsaturated fatty acids such as punicic acids. Utilising PSO with nanotechnological ways is a novel approach. Therefore, in this study, PSO-loaded nanomats having an average diameter of 327 nm with 97.6% encapsulation efficiency were produced. Then, the protection potential of nanomats was determined in terms of the microbial and oxidative deterioration of food samples. On the 1st day of storage, the TMAB load of the control kashar cheese was 4.35 log CFU g⁻¹, while it was 3.05 log CFU g⁻¹ in the coated cheese (change: 1.3 logs). On the 20th day of storage, the TMAB load of the CK sample and PSc sample was 5.52 and 4.22 log CFU g⁻¹, respectively (change: 1.3 logs). For fish fillets, nanoencapsulated PSO enabled a bacterial reduction of 1.22 log cycles after 9 days of storage. The total mould and yeast number of cheese samples increased during storage, but the increase was lower in the coated group. Nanomats also increased the oxidative stability of food samples. Thiobarbituric acid values of coated samples were lower than uncoated samples.     

Guidance on validation of lethal control measures for foodborne pathogens in foods

Food manufacturers are required to obtain scientific and technical evidence that a control measure or combination of control measures is capable of reducing a significant hazard to an acceptable level that does not pose a public health risk under normal conditions of distribution and storage. A validation study provides evidence that a control measure is capable of controlling the identified hazard under a worst-case scenario for process and product parameters tested. It also defines the critical parameters that must be controlled, monitored, and verified during processing. This review document is intended as guidance for the food industry to support appropriate validation studies, and aims to limit methodological discrepancies in validation studies that can occur among food safety professionals, consultants, and third-party laboratories. The document describes product and process factors that are essential when designing a validation study, and gives selection criteria for identifying an appropriate target pathogen or surrogate organism for a food product and process validation. Guidance is provided for approaches to evaluate available microbiological data for the target pathogen or surrogate organism in the product type of interest that can serve as part of the weight of evidence to support a validation study. The document intends to help food manufacturers, processors, and food safety professionals to better understand, plan, and perform validation studies by offering an overview of the choices and key technical elements of a validation plan, the necessary preparations including assembling the validation team and establishing prerequisite programs, and the elements of a validation report.     

Free amino acids profile and quantities of 'sırt', 'bohca' and 'sekerpare' pastirma, dry cured meat products

BACKGROUND: Pastirma is a dry‐cured and semi‐fermented meat product, produced from whole beef or water buffalo muscles. Sixteen to twenty different types of pastirma can be produced from a carcass, and each pastirma type has a different name, shape and quality characteristics. The objective of this study was to determine the free amino acid (FAA) composition, pH and moisture values of ‘s?rt’, ‘bohca’ and ‘sekerpare’ pastirma. RESULTS: Significant differences were determined among the pastirma types in glutamic acid (P < 0.05), threonine (P < 0.05), arginine (P < 0.05), alanine (P < 0.01), methionine (P < 0.01), tryptophan (P < 0.05), proline (P < 0.01) and valine (P < 0.01). Threonine, methionine and valine were higher in s?rt pastirma than the others; glutamic acid, arginine and tryptophan were higher in sekerpare pastirma. The predominant FAA in the all pastirma samples was alanine, while the lowest was asparagine. The highest mean pH was in s?rt pastirma, and the lowest mean pH in bohca pastirma. There was no significant difference in mean moisture values among pastirma types. CONCLUSION: Significant differences were determined among pastirma types in some FAA. Analysis results indicated that quality and nutritional properties for different pastirma types are different. The most advantageous pastirma types in terms of FAA were bohca and s?rt, which contain the highest quantity of threonine, methionine and valine. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Evaluation of Pyrite in a Tailings Dam by Flotation

Pyrite is presented as a gangue mineral in most of complex sulphide ores and most of time it is removed as a tailing. However, beneficiation of pyrite from railings could be important because of its economical value and the environmental concern. This paper presents a research for the enrichment of pyrite from copper plant tailings, Siirt-Madenkoy/Turkey, by flotation. Siirt-Madenkoy copper mine is operated by Park Electric Production Mining and Industry since 2005. In order to obtain the pyrite from Siirt-Madenkoy copper plant tailings, laboratory test work has to be done to determine the type of reagents, the flowsheet and the size of plant. The objective of the company is to develop a pyrite flotation circuit for concentration of pyrite from tailing dam to obtain 750,000 tons/year pyrite concentrate. There are about 4 million tons tailings that containing pyrite in the railings dam. Experiments were carried out with three different types of tailings from the plant and the pyrite concentrate with 46%Fe and 90% recovery has been obtained. Therefore, this study shows that high grade pyrite with high recovery can be recovered from the tailings.     

Potential intelligence or intelligence test potential? A question of empirical validity.

Administered a written form of the WAIS Comprehension and Similarities subtests to 27 male and 23 female undergraduates. Ss wrote down all of the correct answers they knew for each. The total correct responses were summed to obtain experimental scores. Differences between the experimental and standard scores were significant (p     

Binding of methyl orange or ethyl orange dyes by some dioxolane copolymers: Synthesis of the copolymers and thermodynamics of the dye–copolymer interactions

The extent of binding of methyl orange or ethyl orange by (2‐phenyl‐1,3‐dioxolane‐4‐yl) methyl methacrylate (PDMMA), 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), and vinyl‐pyrrolidone (VPy) copolymers has been investigated by the equilibrium dialysis method. The dialysis experiments have been carried out in a Tris (hydroxy methyl) aminomethane buffer (pH = 7) and at the temperatures of 15, 25, and 35°C. The PDMMA‐co‐HEMA and PDMMA‐co‐VPy copolymers have been prepared in the laboratory by using the related monomers in different ratios. The synthesized products were analyzed by Fourier Transform‐infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy, differential thermal analysis (DTA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. The binding extent of the dyes by the copolymers was determined by ultraviolet (UV) absorbance measurements. The results indicate that the extent of binding is relatively higher for ethyl orange than that for methyl orange under identical conditions. The binding slightly decrease with increasing temperature, and it is accompanied with favorable free energy, and exothermic enthalpy change within the temperature range studied. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 3355–3361, 2004     

Correspondence of brief intelligence measures to the Wechsler scales with delinquents.

Examined the relative utility of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Quick Test, and the Revised Beta as measures of intelligence in relation to the WAIS and the Revised WISC (WISC-R). 69 juvenile offenders (mean age 15.6 yrs) were selected by a sampling procedure that produced a group representative of the offenders in all of Virginia's state institutions. Although the correlations among the measures were significant, mean differences and percentage-of-classification-agreement tallies indicate that the brief measures are not acceptable Wechsler substitutes with juvenile delinquents. The best overall predictors (the 3 Quick Test forms combined and the Revised Beta) were accurate only about 50% of the time. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Boron removal from aqueous solutions by activated carbon impregnated with salicylic acid

In this study, the removal of boric acid from aqueous solution by activated carbon impregnated with salicylic acid was studied in batch system. pH, adsorbent amount, initial boron concentration, temperature, shaking rate and salicylic acid film thickness were chosen as parameters. Boron removal efficiencies increased with increasing adsorbent amount, temperature and pH, decreasing initial boron concentration. As thickness of salicylic acid film on activated carbon becomes thin up to 0.088nm, the efficiency increased, and then, the efficiency decreased with becoming thinner than 0.088nm of salicylic acid film. Shaking rate was no effect on removal efficiency. In result, it was determined that the use of salicylic acid as an impregnant for activated carbon led to the increase of the amount of boron adsorbed. A lactone ring, being the most appropriate conformation, forms between boric acid and -COOH and -OH groups of salicylic acid.