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Abstract
Food manufacturing and processing are part of the nation's critical infrastructure. Due to the recent global spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the potential contamination of the food chain and the resulting public health implications are of high consequence to society. The current primary food manufacturing and processing facilities already have various mechanisms such as hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) system in place. However, the widespread microbial infections in these facilities raise concerns that they will not only threaten the welfare of food processing workers, but also have a potentially greater consequence on the public if the food is contaminated with an infectious agent.
Despite the increasingly recognised role of the environment in the spread of microbes, the effect of air properties remains poorly understood. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in meat processing facilities not only provide a means of transport for viruses and bacteria but may also deposit them on surfaces where they can survive for days. To maintain a stable and safe food chain supply during the pandemic, the challenges to ensure safe food supply and protect the workers' health must be quickly addressed through sustainable, safe and economic approaches. With these two imminent challenges in mind, the overall goal of this review article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of the environment in the impaction and resuspension of bioaerosols, focusing on airborne bacteria and viruses. The review includes the latest results of modeling the spread of microbial aerosols in the airflow and the development of preventive measures to mitigate virus contamination in the unique environment of meat processing operations. By understanding how the environmental factors and seasonality affect the infectivity and spread of airborne pathogens, mitigation measures can be designed to minimise future infections within and beyond these facilities.
Abstract
The effect of the storage conditions of light (presence; absence) and relative humidity (50%; 75% RH) on the water content and colour of Porphyridium cruentum microalga powder was studied, then two packaging materials, low-density polyethylene (PE-LD) and metallised polyethylene terephthalate with polyethylene (PETmet/PE), were used to study their effect on the water content, colour, total carotenoids and chlorophylls contents, total phenolic content (TPC), and antioxidant activity (ABTS, DPPH, ORAC) of P. cruentum during storage at 23 °C and 50% RH. An atmosphere with 50% RH is recommended to minimise the water vapour absorption and lightness loss. In addition to the expected light protection, PETmet/PE material protected P. cruentum powder also against water absorption, contrary to PE material. There were no relevant colour changes of the microalga during storage in PETmet/PE. Regarding the total content of carotenoids and the antioxidant activity of the microalga, no significant differences were found between the biomasses stored in either packaging material. The TPC and DPPH values were practically constant during two months of storage, while ABTS and ORAC decreased more than 50% and 20%, respectively, during this time.
Abstract
The utilization of sea buckthorn pomace (SBP) is attracting growing attention since it is valuable industrial waste. This pomace can find usage as a functional ingredient of food because it contains bioactive, health-promoting components, but to our knowledge, few scientists have so far studied utilization of the antimicrobial activity of fruit pomace. The study aims are to broaden our knowledge of antioxidant and antimicrobial status of SBP by utilizing pomace as a functional apple juice ingredient and by monitoring the antioxidant capacity, the total polyphenol content and microbial changes that occur during the storage of juice samples. Our results of this study highlight that the importance of the utilization of SBP because the results reported here provide further evidence that SBP can contribute to increasing the content of valuable components in apple juice samples and inhibiting the growth of microorganisms during storage.
Abstract
A novel magnetic molecular-imprinted polymer (MMIP) was used to selectively extract folic acid directly from real samples. Folic acid was used as template molecule, Fe3O4/SiO2-3-triethoxysilyl-propyl-acrylamide as functional monomer, azobisisobutyronitrile as initiation, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinker agent, and acrylamide as the secondary monomer in a mixed ethanol-water solvent. The effect of different parameters on the extraction efficiency was studied, and the optimum conditions were established as follows: the concentrations of crosslinking and template were fixed at 0.05 and 0.06 g, absorption percentage was 96.5, pH was adjusted to 8, and extraction time was 8 h with a temperature of 25 °C. By examining the effect of pH, we tried to investigate the effect of the amide groups that present in MMIP and its intermolecular hydrogen interaction with folic acid. After optimising the effective parameters in polymer synthesis and adsorption rate, a magnetic imprinting dispersive solid-phase extraction method combined with fluorescence spectrophotometry at λem = 367 nm (MMIP-DSPE-FL) was constructed for sensitive determination of folic acid in tomato samples. The limit of quantification (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) values were 30.00 ± 0.01 μg L−1 and 10.00 ± 0.03 μg L−1, respectively, after the MMIP-DSPE preconcentration. Three tomato samples were analysed to give recoveries in the range of 80.2–81.6%, with relative standard deviation values below 0.6% (n = 3). The prepared MMIP-DSPE showed high selectivity toward folic acid, which could be used six times without changing adsorption capacity. The adsorption isotherm of the folic acid-imprinted polymer pursued the Langmuir model (RL = 0.029), and the kinetics model followed pseudo-first-order (R 2 = 0.9974).
Abstract
All described Uropodina species (351) are listed from the last 30 years with the original occurrences. On continent level, the most of the described species are from Asia (121), from Central and South America (87) and from Africa (79). On country level, the most species were described from Ecuador (21), Vietnam (21), Kenya (18), Thailand (16), Costa Rica (15), China (14), Slovakia (14), Malaysia (14), Madagascar (14), Brazil (13), Indonesia (11), India (10) and Peru (10) and nine or fewer species were described from the other countries in the last 30 years. Trichouropoda pocsi Kontschán, 2004 (Comoro Islands) is a junior homonymous name of Trichouropoda pocsi Hirschmann & Wisniewski, 1987. The new replacement name for the T. pocsi Kontschán, 2004 is Trichouropoda pocstamasi nom. nov.
Abstract
The work was carried out to explore whether the anti-inflammatory effect of n-3 unsaturated fatty acids on patients with rheumatoid arthritis is related to the levels of inflammatory markers CRP and ESR. Studies on the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with n-3 unsaturated fatty acid diet therapy and the outcome index containing CRP and/or ESR were included, and studies on the subjects suffering from other diseases affecting the outcome index were excluded. PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE and Google Scholar were systematically searched, and all studies published from the establishment of the library to 2024 were collected. The Cochrane Bias Risk Assessment tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. Data analysis was performed using Stata 16.0 software. Seven studies were included in this analysis. A total of 399 subjects were studied to explore the effect of an n-3 unsaturated fatty acid diet on rheumatoid arthritis. The results showed that there was no significant difference in CRP (Hedges's g = 0.06, 95% CI: −0.48–0.37, P = 0.79) and ESR (Hedges's g = −0.14, 95% CI: −0.61–0.33, P = 0.55) between the intervention and control groups. The results of this study showed that the anti-inflammatory effect of unsaturated fatty acids on rheumatoid arthritis was not correlated with CRP and ESR levels. Due to the small number of included studies, more high-quality studies are still needed to confirm this.
Abstract
Along with climate change, or by transportation of agricultural products, such as fruits and ornamental plants, their alien insect pests have also started to appear in Hungary. Although these pest species are sometimes sparsely studied, their biology and interactions with their host plants provide key information for monitoring their spread and identifying their vulnerable points, targets for developing methods preventing their overpopulation. In this review article we have collected data on newly emerged moth species recently found in Hungary that might threaten plantations in Hungary in the near future.
Abstract
Foodborne pathogens' transmission is essential in the spread of antibiotic resistance, and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli especially threatens public health. E. coli plays an essential role in the resistance to commonly used beta-lactam group antibiotics. Ready-to-eat (RTE) stuffed mussels are among many restaurants and street vendors, presenting potential health risks of food hygiene origin. 200 RTE stuffed mussels were collected from the Asian and European sides of Istanbul and analysed for the presence of E. coli. As a result of PCR analysis, E. coli was detected in 7 (3.5%) samples. An antibiotic susceptibility test was performed using the disc diffusion method to determine ESBL and carbapenem resistance. All isolates were resistant to ampicillin. The double-disk synergy test was performed as an ESBL phenotypic confirmation test, and no phenotypically ESBL-producing E. coli were detected. The bla TEM gene was detected in one isolate (14.2%) by mPCR, but bla CTX-M, bla SHV, and bla OXA genes were not observed. Meropenem and imipenem were used with the disk diffusion method for carbapenem resistance study, and no resistant isolate was found. Carbapenem resistance genes were investigated by monoplex PCR, and bla NDM-1, bla OXA-48, bla VIM, and bla IMP resistance genes were not detected. This is the first report on ESBL-producing E. coli in RTE stuffed mussels in Türkiye, which draws attention to a public health risk.
A hazai láptalajok osztályozás-története és az osztályozás továbbfejlesztése
History of classification of bog soils in Hungary and a proposal for the further development of classification
A vitaalapnak szánt dolgozat bemutatja a hazai láptalajok kutatás- és osztályozás történeti (kronológiai) fejlődését 1859-től napjainkig. A bemutató ismertetés, kritikai elemzés kiemeli az osztályozás fejlődése, és a genetikus, talajföldrajzi osztályozás kialakulása szempontjából fontos eredményeket. Meghatározza a kialakult osztályozás továbbfejlesztését képező ismereteket, amelyek a következők (DÖMSÖDI, 2015; DÖMSÖDI, 1988):
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A „láp” és a „láptalaj” képződés genezise: folyamata, szakaszai, típusai
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A láptalajok talajképző tényezői:
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2.1 Az egykori láp környezetének éghajlati viszonyai (főként éghajlati, klimatikus tényező).
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2.2 A láp élővilág jellege: rétláp, mohaláp, al-láp, fel-láp, (ökológiai fejlődéstörténeti) és növényzete (vegetáció) tényező.
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2.3 A láp felszínalaktani jellege és geomorfológiai helye (síkláp, dombláp, völgyláp, medenceláp), domborzati tényező.
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2.4 A láp, illetve a talaj kora (földtörténeti; abszolút, relatív kortényező).
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2.5 A láp, illetve a talaj földhasználata: rét, legelő, erdő, szántó művelése (antropogén hatások tényezője).
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A láptalajok típusai, altípusai, az altípusok típusszelvényei, mindezek definíciói és dimenziói.
