Biogenic amines and potential histamine – Forming bacteria in Rihaakuru (a cooked fish paste)

The biogenic amine concentration in Rihaakuru (a fish paste) (n = 28), obtained from different parts of the Maldives (North, South, and Central), was determined by HPLC. Ten biogenic amines were detected; agmatine, not detected (ND) – 161 ppm; cadaverine, ND – 387 ppm; histamine, ND – 5487 ppm; putrescine, ND – 290 ppm; phenylethylamine, ND – 23 ppm; serotonin, ND – 91 ppm; spermine, ND – 329 ppm; spermidine, ND – 79 ppm; tryptamine, ND – <5 ppm; and tyramine, ND – 50 ppm. Nine biogenic amines were found in 3 samples, 8 in 10 samples, 7 in 6 samples, 6 in 3 samples, 4 in 5 samples, and 1 was found in 1 sample. Histamine was detected at levels that are regarded as a risk to human health. Fourteen isolates were selected from two randomly selected samples out of the 28 samples of Rihaakuru and screened for histamine production. Twelve of the 14 isolates produced histamine, with the highest histamine producers being Bacillus massiliensis Nai5 (6.65 ppm) and Bacillus polyfermenticus (5.58 ppm); while Bacillus malacitensis produced the least (<0.5 ppm).     

Histamine stability in Rihaakuru at -80, 4 and 30°C

Rihaakuru is a shelf stable fish paste product formed from a fish soup prepared from tuna. Histamine contamination is a food safety issue with this product that is manufactured from tuna fish that has been temperature abused. Histamine concentrations decreased between 31% and 73% in Rihaakuru stored for 10months at either -80, 4 or 30°C. This appears to be a property of the product as histamine solutions are reported to be stable, at least under frozen storage. The risk of histamine food poisoning due to Rihaakuru may reduce during the storage of the product.     

Companies' opinions and acceptance of global food safety initiative benchmarks after implementation

International attention has been focused on minimizing costs that may unnecessarily raise food prices. One important aspect to consider is the redundant and overlapping costs of food safety audits. The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) has devised benchmarked schemes based on existing international food safety standards for use as a unifying standard accepted by many retailers. The present study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the decision made by Walmart Stores (Bentonville, AR) to require their suppliers to become GFSI compliant. An online survey of 174 retail suppliers was conducted to assess food suppliers' opinions of this requirement and the benefits suppliers realized when they transitioned from their previous food safety systems. The most common reason for becoming GFSI compliant was to meet customers' requirements; thus, supplier implementation of the GFSI standards was not entirely voluntary. Other reasons given for compliance were enhancing food safety and remaining competitive. About 54 % of food processing plants using GFSI benchmarked schemes followed the guidelines of Safe Quality Food 2000 and 37 % followed those of the British Retail Consortium. At the supplier level, 58 % followed Safe Quality Food 2000 and 31 % followed the British Retail Consortium. Respondents reported that the certification process took about 10 months. The most common reason for selecting a certain GFSI benchmarked scheme was because it was widely accepted by customers (retailers). Four other common reasons were (i) the standard has a good reputation in the industry, (ii) the standard was recommended by others, (iii) the standard is most often used in the industry, and (iv) the standard was required by one of their customers. Most suppliers agreed that increased safety of their products was required to comply with GFSI benchmarked schemes. They also agreed that the GFSI required a more carefully documented food safety management system, which often required improved company food safety practices and increased employee training. Adoption of a GFSI benchmarked scheme resulted in fewer audits, i.e., one less per year. An educational opportunity exists to acquaint retailers and suppliers worldwide with the benefits of having an internationally recognized certification program such as that recognized by the GFSI.     

Risk management: Uncovering hidden insights from VaR simulation data for financial performance

Value at Risk (VaR) is a widely used risk measure to examine the risk of loss on a specific portfolio of financial assets. In fact, it has become “best practice” for companies to report VaR of their derivative portfolio in their annual financial statements. As a result, in the natural gas and power industries, VaR has evolved to a simplistic calculation largely adapted for reporting purposes and often misunderstood, yet less employed to business performance and capital adequacy.     

The application of time-frequency analysis to the air-coupled ultrasonic testing of concrete

Air-coupled ultrasound has been used for the nondestructive evaluation of concrete, using broad bandwidth electrostatic transducers and chirp excitation. This paper investigates the benefits of using time-frequency analysis in such situations, for both waveform retrieval and imaging in the presence of low signal levels. The use of the short-term Fourier transform, the Wavelet transform, and the Wigner-Ville distribution all are considered, in which accurate tracking of the ultrasonic chirp signals is demonstrated. The Hough transform then is applied as a filter. An image of a steel reinforcement bar in concrete has been produced to illustrate this approach.     

Mechanism of Hericium erinaceus (Yamabushitake) mushroom-induced apoptosis of U937 human monocytic leukemia cells

Phytochemicals in some foods are a potential source of bioactive safe compounds for cancer chemoprevention and suppression of tumor initiation, promotion, and metastasis. In the present study, we evaluated hot water (HWE), microwaved 50% ethanol (MWE), acidic (ACE), and alkaline (AKE) extracts of the fruitbody (sporocarp) of Hericium erinaceus (Yamabushitake, Lion's Mane) mushrooms for their ability to induce apoptosis (programmed cell death) in U937 human monocytic leukemia cells. Cell culture, cell viability, cytotoxicity, flow cytometry, chromosomal DNA integrity, mitochondrial membrane potential, expression of pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins, and activation and inhibition of caspase assays were carried out to help define the mechanism of observed apoptosis. The aqueous and aqueous/ethanolic extracts were active in all assays, whereas the acidic and alkaline extracts with the similar proximate compositions were both inactive. The results of the bioassays with the active extracts are consistent with an apoptosis mechanism governing suppression of the cell proliferation pathway that involves activation of mitochondria-mediated caspase-3 and caspase-9 but not caspase-8. Proximate analysis of the freeze-dried mushroom powder showed that it contains high amounts of proteins, carbohydrates, and minerals. The results indicate that H. erinaceus mushrooms may have therapeutic potential against human leukemia.     

Nondestructive estimation of maturity and textural properties on tomato ‘Momotaro’ by near infrared spectroscopy

Near infrared spectroscopy offers the possibility to classify and predict the internal quality of fruits and vegetables. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of near infrared spectroscopy to classify the maturity level and to predict textural properties of tomatoes variety “Momotaro”. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) were used to distinguish among different maturities (mature green, pink and red). Partial least squares (PLS) regression was used to estimate textural properties, alcohol insoluble solids and soluble solids content of the tomatoes. The PCA calibration model with mean normalization pretreatment spectra of mature green tomatoes, gave the highest distinguishability (96.85%). It could classify 100.00% of red and pink tomatoes. The SIMCA model could not give better accuracy in maturity classification than individual PCA models. Among the textural parameters measured, the bioyield force from the puncture test with the near infrared (NIR) spectra (between 1100 and 1800 nm) pretreated by multiplicative scatter correction (MSC) had the highest correlation coefficient between NIR predicted and reference values (r = 0.95) and lowest standard error of prediction (SEP = 0.35 N) and bias of 0.19 N. The ratio of standard deviation of reference data of prediction set to standard error of prediction (RPD) was 2.71. In the case of Momotaro tomato, NIR spectroscopy by using PLS regression could not predict alcohol insoluble solids in fresh weight accurately but could predict soluble solids content well with r of 0.80, SEP of 0.210 %Brix and bias of 0.022 %Brix.     

Catastrophizing mediates associations between pain severity, psychological distress, and functional disability among persons with spinal cord injury.

Objective: To examine associations between pain severity, psychological distress, catastrophizing, and indices of functional disability in a sample of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). Catastrophizing was examined as a potential mediator of associations between pain severity, psychological distress, and functional disability. Design and Participants: Questionnaires assessing pain severity, psychological distress, catastrophizing, pain interference, and community integration were completed by 237 persons with SCI. Results: Psychological distress and pain severity were associated significantly with greater functional disability. Moreover, the association between pain severity and functional disability was strongest among persons with high psychological distress. Catastrophizing appeared to mediate the associations between pain severity, psychological distress, and functional disability. Conclusions: Pain severity and psychological distress have the potential for both direct and interactive effects on functional disability, possibly through the mediating effects of catastrophizing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leaf Scorching due to Foliar Application of Synthetic Acid Mine Drainage and the Effectiveness of an Antitranspirant in Protecting Leaves

Mine Water and the Environment - Untreated acid mine drainage (AMD) is being considered for crop irrigation on strategically limed soils, but foliar scorching is of potential concern. To test...     

Efficient material-gain models for the transmission-line laser model

Transmission-line laser models (TLLMs) are time-domain models suitable for the simulation of complex phenomena in semiconductor lasers. TLLMs include time-domain filters based on transmission-line stubs to model the spectral dependence of the material gain. In this paper, numerical simulations are presented which show that the accuracy of these gain models is dependent on the model's iteration timestep. Analytical formulae are derived that relate the accuracy of the filters to the timestep, filter centre frequency, and filter bandwindth. A new wideband stub filter which allows the material gain to be modelled using a larger timestep is presented. This is equivalent to a digital infinite-impulse-response filter, which is more computationally efficient than finite-impulse-response filters, and is unconditionally stable. The new gain model can improve the computational speed for simulating for multimode Fabry-Perot lasers by a factor of 10–100.