Degradation of 14c‐maneb in sediment from a Nicaraguan estuary

Sediment samples were collected at 5 sites in the Nicaraguan estuary “El Naranjo” in July 94 and September 94. The samples were incubated with ¹⁴C‐maneb (0.08 μg.g^‐1 dw sediment), and evolved ¹⁴CO₂ and residual ¹⁴C‐ETU in soil were measured. Mineralization kinetics of ^I4C‐maneb was best described with kinetic models which include growth of microorganisms. The amounts of ¹⁴C‐maneb mineralized were highest at the sites closest to the mouth of the river. No significant differences in degradation between July and September were seen. After 67 days between 9.73 and 16.18% of added ¹⁴C had evolved as ¹⁴CO₂ in the July samples and after 150 days between 11.18 and 27.37% of added ¹⁴C had evolved as ¹⁴CO₂ from the September samples. When 4.61–8.20% of added ^I4C was found in the soil extract, 0.00–2.72% was ¹⁴C‐ETU.     

Cross-sectional study on the relationship between the Mediterranean Diet Score and blood lipids

The portion size of food is a determinant of energy intake, linking with obese traits. A healthy plate for portion control has recently been made in a Japanese style. The aim of the current study was to assess the efficacy of a lifestyle intervention program using the Japanese-style healthy plate on weight reduction in overweight and obese diabetic Japanese subjects. We randomized overweight and obese diabetic subjects (n = 19, 10 women) into an intervention group including educational classes on lifestyle modification incorporating the healthy plate (n = 10) or a waiting-list control group (n = 9). The intervention period was three months, and the educational classes using the healthy plate were conducted monthly in a group session for the intervention group. The body weight, blood glycemic and metabolic measures, and psychosocial variables were measured at the baseline and after the 3-month intervention in both groups. The impression of the intervention was interviewed using a structured questionnaire. There was one drop-out in the control group. No adverse events were reported in the groups. Subjects in the intervention group had a greater weight change from baseline to the end of the 3-month intervention period (-3.7 +/- 2.5 [SD] kg in the intervention group vs. -0.1 +/- 1.4 kg in the control group, P = 0.002). Most subjects recorded that the use of a healthy plate could be recommended to other people. The lifestyle intervention program using the Japanese-style healthy plate, which was developed for portion control, may effectively reduce body weight in overweight and obese diabetic subjects in Japan. Further studies are needed to establish the efficacy of this methodology on weight management.     

Dietary Lipid Intake only Partially Influences Variance in Serum Phospholipid Fatty Acid Composition in Adolescents: Impact of Other Dietary Factors

The present study aimed to assess the correlation between food and fatty acid (FA) intake and the serum phospholipid (PL) FA status in European adolescents and explored the percentage of variation in serum PL FA that could be attributed to dietary habits. Participants included 528 adolescents recruited in the HELENA Study. Dietary intake was assessed by two, self-administered, non-consecutive 24-h recalls. PL FA concentrations were measured in fasting venous serum samples. Reduced rank regressions were applied to examine the combined effect of food intakes. Results indicated that the variance in serum PL FA in adolescents, that could be explained by diet varied from 7.0 % for MUFA to 14.2 % for n-3FA. The variance in the long-chain n-3FA was mainly explained by fish intake but also by coffee and tea consumption. In conclusion this study indicated that dietary intake influences the serum PL FA status to a limited amount but that also other factors interfere. However, dietary intake is important as it is among those factors that could be modified. Furthermore, the results suggest that the overall dietary habits should be considered instead of only the consumption of single foods or nutrients, as the medium of the food or concomitant intake of foods and nutrients might interact and as such influence absorption or metabolism.     

Surahammar: a case study of the impacts of installing food waste disposers in 50% of households

This paper reviews 15 years of sewage works' monitoring data to assess the effect of installing in-sink food waste disposers (FWD) and how these effects compare with the published scientific literature. For the first time, it has been possible to assess at full scale the load/cost transfer from solid-waste to wastewater management. Within a period of 10 years, 50% of households in the town of Surahammar in Sweden chose to have FWD installed as their means of managing their kitchen food waste. The drainage from the households feeds a single wastewater treatment works (WwTW) that comprises primary settlement, activated sludge, followed by chemical phosphate precipitation and mesophilic anaerobic digestion. The sewer system is separate but with overflow between foul and surface water in times of surcharge; the diameters and gradients of the sewers are unexceptional. This paper reviews the influent and biogas monitoring data for the years before installation started and the 10 years after the first peak of installations (by which time they had been installed in 30% of households). This provides a unique opportunity to verify the published research on FWD. The operational monitoring data are consistent with the already published research that FWD have little or no impact on water use, sewer blockages, vermin or wastewater treatment. The data are consistent with a hypothesis that in-sewer biological process acclimated to the change in wastewater composition and treated the dissolved and fine particulate load before it reached the WwTW. The digesters produced 46% more biogas than before FWD were installed (P=0.01). There was no significant increase in hydraulic load, or in the loading of BOD₇, COD, N or NH₄. As a result of Surahammar's overall waste strategy, not just the FWD, but the tonnage of waste to landfill from the municipality has also decreased from 3600 tonnes/year in 1996 to 1400 tonnes/year in 2007.     

Yersinia enterocolitica in slaughter pig tonsils: Enumeration and detection by enrichment versus direct plating culture

Tonsil samples from 139 slaughter pigs were examined for the presence of pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica by enrichment procedures based on the standard method ISO 10273:2003. In addition, samples were tested by direct plating method to evaluate its efficiency compared to the enrichment culture methods and to quantify the level of contamination in porcine tonsils. In total, 52 samples (37.4%) were positive for pathogenic Y. enterocolitica, all belonging to bioserotype 4/O:3. Fifty out of the 52 positive samples (96.2%) were detected by direct plating. Enumeration showed an average concentration of 4.5 log₁₀ CFU g⁻¹ and 4.4 log₁₀ CFU g⁻¹ tonsil on Salmonella-Shigella-desoxycholate-calcium chloride (SSDC) and cefsulodin-irgasan-novobiocin (CIN) agar plates, respectively. The enrichment procedures recommended by the ISO 10273:2003 method were not optimal for the isolation of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica from pig tonsils: two days enrichment in irgasan-ticarcillin-potassium chlorate (ITC) broth resulted in an isolation rate of 84.6%, while 5 days enrichment in peptone-sorbitol-bile (PSB) broth recovered only 59.6% of positive samples. Reducing the enrichment time in PSB from 5 to 2 days resulted in a significantly higher recovery rate (94.2%) and might serve as an appropriate enrichment protocol for the isolation of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica from pig tonsils. Compared to enrichment culture methods, results based on direct plating can be obtained in a shorter time course and provide quantitative data that might be needed for further risk assessment studies.     

Book review

Book reviewed in this article: Sensory Evaluation Techniques, 4th edition Authors: Morten C. Meilgaard, B. Thomas Carr and Gail Vance Civille     

Statistical and Hybrid Methods for Speech Recognition in Romanian

The present paper describes the evolution of our work concerning the problem of speech recognition. Beginning with a classical hidden Markov model (HMM), we have investigated two ways to improve the performance of this basic structure. The first way was to realize a neuro-statistical hybrid by integrating a multilayer perceptron (MLP) as a posteriori probability estimator. The system was further refined by adding supplementary discriminative training (DT) based on the minimum classification error (MCE). Tests performed on a 15,000 isolated spoken-word database, showed an increase in the recognition rate from 92.2% for the HMM-based recognition system, to 94.7% for the HMM-MLP system, and then to 98.1% for the refined HMM-MLP-DT system. The second way to improve the classical HMM was to build a fuzzy-statistical hybrid, FHMM, based on a fuzzy similarity measure instead of the probabilistic measure specific to the usual statistical model. The benefits of the fuzzy measure introduction were evaluated on a vowel recognition task, and a decrease of approximately 3% in the error rate is reported.     

Knobology in use: an experimental evaluation of ergonomics recommendations

The scientific basis for ergonomics recommendations for controls has usually not been related to active goal-directed use. The present experiment tests how different knob sizes and torques affect operator performance. The task employed is to control a pointer by the use of a control knob, and is as such an experimentally defined goal-directed task relevant to machine systems in general. Duration of use, error associated with use (overshooting of the goal area) and movement reproduction were used as performance measures. Significant differences between knob sizes were found for movement reproduction. High torques led to less overshooting as opposed to low torques. The results from duration of use showed a tendency that the differences between knob sizes were reduced from the first iteration to the second iteration. The present results indicate that the ergonomically recommended ranges of knob sizes might differently affect operator performance.