Sanitation Methods Research Articles

Prevalence of Visual Impairment and Blindness in Upper Egypt: A Gender-based Perspective

Purpose: To estimate the prevalence, causes of and risk factors for vision loss in Upper Egypt.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, four villages in Upper Egypt were randomly selected; within these four villages, households were randomly selected and within the selected households all residents aged ≥40 years were enumerated and enrolled. Door-to-door eye examinations of household members were conducted. Data on relevant demographic and socioeconomic characteristics were collected. The prevalence and causes of vision loss and associated risk factors were assessed. Sex differences in prevalence and determinants were also evaluated.Results: The prevalence of best eye presenting visual impairment, severe visual impairment, and blindness were 23.9%, 6.4%, and 9.3% respectively. The prevalence of blindness among women significantly exceeded that among men (11.8% vs. 5.4%, respectively, p = 0.021). The prevalence of cataract was 22.9% (higher in women, 26.5% than men 17.2%, p = 0.018). The prevalence of trachomatous trichiasis was 9.7% (higher among women, 12.5%, than men, 5.4%, p = 0.012). The principal causes of blindness were cataract (60%), uncorrected refractive errors (16%) and corneal opacities (12%). Age, sex, family size, illiteracy, unemployment, water source and sanitation methods and living conditions were the major risk factors for vision loss.Conclusion: The prevalence of visual impairment remains high in Egypt, particularly among women. Risk factors for blindness may differ between men and women. There is a need for qualitative investigations to better understand the causes behind the excess in prevalence of blindness among women.

Acute Peritonitis On The Modern Stage – Problems, Achievements And Prospects

The experience of treatment of more than 1,200 patients with acute peritonitis for over 20 years is summarized. The medical tactics, based on the studies conducted by the mechanisms of acute peritonitis pathogenesis, was applied for these patients. The basis for therapeutic measures selection complex was the suggested classification of acute peritonitis. The suggested comprehensive approach provides the use of the developed methods of peritonitis diagnostics, sanitization and drainage of the peritoneal cavity, determining the viability of the hollow digestive organs, the methods to apply sutures and prevention of their failure, methods of postoperative treatment. The use of the mentioned tactics enabled to reduce mortality of common forms of peritonitis to 8,67%.

An automated system for rapid and secure device sanitization

Public and private organizations face the challenges of protecting their networks from cyber-attacks, while reducing the amount of time and money spent on Information Technology. Organizations can reduce their expenditures by reusing server, switch and router hardware, but they must use reliable and efficient methods of sanitizing these devices before they can be redeployed. The sanitization process removes proprietary, sensitive or classified data, as well as persistent malware from a device prior to reuse. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has developed an automated, rapid, and secure method for sanitizing servers, switches and routers. This sanitization method was implemented and tested on several different types of network devices during the Cyber Measurement & Analysis Center project, which was funded under Phases I and II of the DARPA (2008) National Cyber Range program. The performance of the automated sanitization system was excellent with an order of magnitude reduction in the time required to sanitize servers, routers and switches, and a significant improvement in the effectiveness of the sanitization process through the addition of persistent malware removal.

The Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites in Children with Helicobacter pylori Gastritis Evaluated Retrospectively

H. pylori infection is more frequent and is seen in younger ages in developing countries when compared to developed countries. Etiopathogenetic factors include living in crowded families, low educational level of mother, low income and infected drinking water. Intestinal parasites are more frequent in low socioeconomical populations. In this study, it was aimed to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasite in patients with H. pylori gastritis proven with endoscopic and histopathological study. Parasitology laboratory results of children who had undergone upper gastrointestinal system endoscopy (UGE) and were proved to have H. pylori gastritis were evaluated retrospectively. Stool samples were examined using native lugol and precipitation by formol ethyl acetate methods. A total of 138 children had undergone upper GIS endoscopy. Among those children, 97,1% had H. pylori positive gastritis. Of those H. pylori positive gastritis children, we obtained the stool test results of 105 children. Six children (5.71%) had Blastocystis hominis and 2 (1.91%) had Giardia intestinalis so a total of 8 patients had (7.61%) intestinal parasites. H. pylori and intestinal parasites are frequent among individuals living in low socioeconomical countries. The co-existence of hp and intestinal parasites, which have a negative effect on thriving and iron status in a growing child is a very important public health problem. National sanitation education and methods may help decrease the co-existence of these synergistic microorganisms.

Assessment of the food hygiene practices of food handlers in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria

Background: The principle of food hygiene implies that there should be minimal handling of food items. Food handlers are thus expected to observe proper hygiene and sanitation methods as the chances of food contamination largely depend on their health status and hygiene practices. Objective: This study assessed the food hygiene practices of food handlers and made recommendations for improved food safety measures within food establishments in the Federal Capital Territory. Materials and Methods: The study design was cross-sectional descriptive. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select 168 food handlers of various types. Data was collected using a mix of quantitative methods (structured interviewer-administered questionnaires and observation checklist). Data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences version 14. Results: Four categories of food handlers were identified in 45 food establishments. Seventy-one (42.3%) of the subjects are males, whereas 97 (57.7%) are females. Most of them, 122 (72.7%), had secondary education and above, whereas 46 (27.3%) had primary education and below. One hundred and fifty (89.3%) of them wash their hands after the use of toilets, whereas only 44 (26.7%) change their hand gloves at work. One hundred and twenty (71.4%) of them undergo regular medical checkup, whereas 53 (31.5%) are isolated from workplace when ill. A few of them, 51 (30.4%) use sanitizers/disinfectants at workplace, whereas 38 (22.6%) check food temperature with thermometer. Also, 103 (61.3%) use ideal waste disposal methods at workplace ( P Conclusion: Establishments should train staff regularly on basic personal hygienic techniques, self care and good house-keeping practices.

The Study of School Hygiene and Physical Education in Chosun during the Early Japanese Colonial Period Carried Out through Educational Magazines: Focusing on the Time Period before the Manchurian Incident in 1910-1931

This research mainly dealt with sanitation and hygiene related editorials quoted from educational magazines published in Chosun until the Manchurian Incident during the Japanese colonial period. The study revealed that modern Japan became aware of the importance of public sanitation from the late nineteenth century and established modern programs so that schools can comprehensively teach students about sanitation and hygiene so as to enter modern imperial society. Japan particularly introduced and carried out modern physical(gymnastics) education as a means of "complete sanitation and hygiene" to improve students' health. As a result of having two times of war, the Japanese Empire reaffirmed the significance of modern sanitation and hygiene. After colonization of Chosun, Japan organized official educational groups and enlightened the public about sanitation and hygiene through editorials on the educational magazines which the groups had published. In order for schools to promote complete sanitation and hygiene based on modern medicine, Japan actively engaged in suggesting the necessity of physical(gymnastics) education which was critical to human's growth and development. After Japanese Government-General of Korea legislated on school hygiene in 1913, Japanese governments school started hiring school doctors and nurses. They stressed the need of providing sanitation and hygiene education in school to prepare for war in 1910's in advance; highlighted that physical (gymnastics) education should be enforced to help students grow and improve their physical strength from a modern medical point of view. In April, 1919, the Japanese Empire implemented the same instruction to the schools where Chosun people attended. But it was found that the law was not applied well to those schools in effect. The Japanese Empire was seen to proclaim the second educational decree in 1922; proposed international hygienic achievement of the time and comments; enlightened the public by connecting "Fletcherism" of the USA with rice crisis, which was a big social issue back then. In an attempt to complement modern sanitation and hygiene, Japan strongly recommended students appropriate physical gymnastics as the most desirable and complete sanitation method, saying it would help them correct their imbalanced condition-which was found from physical examination - and grow up. They even claimed such an absurd logic that ones whose body did not develop normally tend to become criminals, reflecting the then atmosphere of the society, and considered military gymnastics as one of the most important sanitation and hygiene factors that positively influence growth and development. All the fact that Japan tried hard to apply the practice to students cannot be ignored.

Pathogen inactivation and removal methods for plasma-derived clotting factor concentrates.

Pathogen safety is crucial for plasma‐derived clotting factor concentrates used in the treatment of bleeding disorders. Plasma, the starting material for these products, is collected by plasmapheresis (source plasma) or derived from whole blood donations (recovered plasma). The primary measures regarding pathogen safety are selection of healthy donors donating in centers with appropriate epidemiologic data for the main blood‐transmissible viruses, screening donations for the absence of relevant infectious blood‐borne viruses, and release of plasma pools for further processing only if they are nonreactive for serologic markers and nucleic acids for these viruses. Despite this testing, pathogen inactivation and/or removal during the manufacturing process of plasma‐derived clotting factor concentrates is required to ensure prevention of transmission of infectious agents. Historically, hepatitis viruses and human immunodeficiency virus have posed the greatest threat to patients receiving plasma‐derived therapy for treatment of hemophilia or von Willebrand disease. Over the past 30 years, dedicated virus inactivation and removal steps have been integrated into factor concentrate production processes, essentially eliminating transmission of these viruses. Manufacturing steps used in the purification of factor concentrates have also proved to be successful in reducing potential prion infectivity. In this review, current techniques for inactivation and removal of pathogens from factor concentrates are discussed. Ideally, production processes should involve a combination of complementary steps for pathogen inactivation and/or removal to ensure product safety. Finally, potential batch‐to‐batch contamination is avoided by stringent cleaning and sanitization methods as part of the manufacturing process.

Alternative sanitization methods for minimally processed lettuce in comparison to sodium hypochlorite.

Lettuce is a leafy vegetable widely used in industry for minimally processed products, in which the step of sanitization is the crucial moment for ensuring a safe food for consumption. Chlorinated compounds, mainly sodium hypochlorite, are the most used in Brazil, but the formation of trihalomethanes from this sanitizer is a drawback. Then, the search for alternative methods to sodium hypochlorite has been emerging as a matter of great interest. The suitability of chlorine dioxide (60 mg L(-1)/10 min), peracetic acid (100 mg L(-1)/15 min) and ozonated water (1.2 mg L(-1)/1 min) as alternative sanitizers to sodium hypochlorite (150 mg L(-1) free chlorine/15 min) were evaluated. Minimally processed lettuce washed with tap water for 1 min was used as a control. Microbiological analyses were performed in triplicate, before and after sanitization, and at 3, 6, 9 and 12 days of storage at 2 ± 1 °C with the product packaged on LDPE bags of 60 μm. It was evaluated total coliforms, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., psicrotrophic and mesophilic bacteria, yeasts and molds. All samples of minimally processed lettuce showed absence of E. coli and Salmonella spp. The treatments of chlorine dioxide, peracetic acid and ozonated water promoted reduction of 2.5, 1.1 and 0.7 log cycle, respectively, on count of microbial load of minimally processed product and can be used as substitutes for sodium hypochlorite. These alternative compounds promoted a shelf-life of six days to minimally processed lettuce, while the shelf-life with sodium hypochlorite was 12 days.

Preventing Private Information Inference Attacks on Social Networks

Online social networks, such as Facebook, are increasingly utilized by many people. These networks allow users to publish details about themselves and to connect to their friends. Some of the information revealed inside these networks is meant to be private. Yet it is possible to use learning algorithms on released data to predict private information. In this paper, we explore how to launch inference attacks using released social networking data to predict private information. We then devise three possible sanitization techniques that could be used in various situations. Then, we explore the effectiveness of these techniques and attempt to use methods of collective inference to discover sensitive attributes of the data set. We show that we can decrease the effectiveness of both local and relational classification algorithms by using the sanitization methods we described.

The Contagious City: The Politics of Public Health in Early America by Simon Finger (review)

The Contagious City: The Politics of Public Health in Early America. By Simon Finger. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012. Pp. 226. Hardcover, $39. 95.)Simon Finger's The Contagions City is the engaging historiography of a city wracked by the twin dangers of disease and political rivalry. With each new crisis Philadelphians found themselves stuck in the interstices of prosperity [and] annihilation, which inspired political ingenuity to resolve (146). Comprehensive yet streamlined, The Conta-gions City thoughtfully surveys the history of public health, which Finger localizes in Philadelphia and situates at the intersection of medical, envi-ronmental, and political history.Finger argues that the constitutions of Philadelphia and its residents were mutually constitutive from the colonial period into the nineteenth century, the era of reform that has attracted the most scholarly attention. In planning Philadelphia, William Penn envisioned a space that would nurture the minds, spirits, and bodies of the populace-to facilitate sound constitutions for all its residents. According to seventeenth-and eighteenth-century Galenic principles of human physiology, a body's physical constitution, or humoral balance/imbalance, was influenced by interaction with the built or natural environment. Urban dwellers were threatened by moral and physical degeneration, which caused an imbal-ance in the bodily (i.e., blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile), thus weakening their constitutions and making them vulnerable to disease (10).For Finger, the politics of public was shaped by efforts to achieve a balance within the city's humors or influences. Through policies and institutions, administrators of public sought a balance between individual and community needs, between guarding and grow-ing the population, between humanitarian and economic interests. As Finger argues, Equilibrium was essential to their sanitary calculus (155); however, like achieving balance or equilibrium in a body's consti-tution, keeping Philadelphia's interests and objects balanced required maintenance and negotiation when new hazards to the equilibrium were introduced.In observing the pattern of public in Philadelphia from its ori-gin as a would-be Quaker capital to a commercial, cultural, and even national capital, Finger observes the use of as a flexible political tool, helpful in establishing a communal identity and implementing poli-cies (6). By the early eighteenth century, Philadelphia had dramatically changed in population and appearance. Due to increased population, poor sanitation methods, crowding, and the constant arrival of ships ferrying new disease-causing microbes, a healthy constitution was in-creasingly harder to obtain (57). Emerging risks gave rise to efforts and institutions that comprise a general of the term pub-lic health that Finger understands as always already political. For instance, the flux in immigration and trans-Atlantic trade made it nec-essary to implement quarantine laws, establish lazarettos (quarantine hospitals specifically for maritime travel), and engage medical/political officials to oversee it all. Philadelphias feared and resented newcomers who brought diseases ashore from their ships; to these inhabitants, the lazaretto represented danger (35). To popular and proprietary politi-cians, however, new arrivals meant potential voters who could be useful in their disputes over control of the colony.Not all of Philadelphia's public conflicts concerned the con-frontation of difference as immigration and import did. The clearest example, by Finger's own estimation, for understanding the clashing ideologies of and public action is the establishment of the Penn-sylvania Hospital in 1751 (60). …

Minimizing the disclosure risk of semantic correlations in document sanitization

Text sanitization is crucial to enable privacy-preserving declassification of confidential documents. Moreover, considering the advent of new information sharing technologies that enable the daily publication of thousands of textual documents, automatic and semi-automatic sanitization methods are needed. Even though several of these methods have been proposed, most of them detect and sanitize sensitive terms (e.g., people names, addresses, diseases, etc.) independently, neglecting the importance of semantic correlations. From the attacker’s perspective, semantic correlations can be exploited to disclose a sanitized term from the presence of one or several non-sanitized words. To tackle this problem, this paper presents a general-purpose method that, by taking the output of a standard sanitization mechanism, analyses, detects and proposes for sanitization those semantically correlated terms that represent a plausible disclosure risk for the already sanitized ones. Our method relies on an information-theoretic formulation of disclosure risk which is able to adapt its behavior to the criterion of the initial sanitizer. The evaluation, carried on over a collection of real documents, shows that semantic correlations represent a real privacy threat in prior sanitized documents, and that our method is able to detect them effectively. As a result, the disclosure risk of the sanitized output is significantly reduced with respect to standard sanitization mechanisms.

Bactericidal effects of nonthermal low-pressure oxygen plasma on S. typhimurium LT2 attached to fresh produce surfaces

This work investigates the feasibility of nonthermal low-pressure oxygen plasma on sanitization of spinach, lettuce, tomato and potato surfaces from Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium str. LT2 (Salmonella typhimurium LT2). It was shown that the time of exposure and plasma power density were two critical parameters influencing the bactericidal efficiency. Surface roughness and hydrophobicity did not influence the sanitization of produce. Oxygen plasma was more effective than washing with 3% H2O2 on eliminating S. typhimurium LT2 on spinach. Plasma treatment chemically changed a very thin section of tomato wax cuticle layer by oxidation reaction and decomposition of carbon chains, which could readily and completely be removed by water. Overall, this study confirms that nonthermal oxygen plasma can be a new effective method of sanitization for fresh produce.

Development of a flaming machine for the disinfection of poultry grow-out facilities

Chemical treatments are commonly adopted for poultry house sanitation. In fact, ordinary floor disinfection is needed to deplete the pathogenic population (<em>i.e. </em>various species of bacteria and fungi) and reduce the risk of meat contamination. The increasing focus on the health of consumers and operators, as well as on food quality, has led farmers to consider alternative environmentally friendly methods. Research was carried out to set up a new machine for floor disinfection of poultry houses by open flame. The trials were run in controlled conditions in the laboratory of the University of Pisa, Italy, and on a private farm. The first experiment consisted of a series of test bench trials carried out to evaluate the efficacy and the adjustment of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)-fed open flame burners on pre-inoculated steel plates. In the second experiment, the operative parameters of a custom-built 1.5 m wide mounted flaming machine were determined and the biological effects of the treatment were compared to ordinary chemical treatments. The results obtained were very promising. Test bench trials showed a 4-log reduction in E. coli, and microbial determinations carried out on-farm did not show any difference between thermal and chemical treatment. In addition, the cost estimation showed that thermal disinfection is approximately 4-fold cheaper than chemical sanitation methods. The effective working capacity of the machine was approximately 1700 m<sup>2</sup> h<sup>–1</sup>, and the LPG consumption was approximately 16 kg per 1000 m<sup>2</sup>. Flame disinfection of poultry grow-out facilities could represent a valid alternative to chemical disinfection.

Development of a flaming machine for the disinfection of poultry grow-out facilities

Chemical treatments are commonly adopted for poultry house sanitation. In fact, ordinary floor disinfection is needed to deplete the pathogenic population (i.e. various species of bacteria and fungi) and reduce the risk of meat contamination. The increasing focus on the health of consumers and operators, as well as on food quality, has led farmers to consider alternative environmentally friendly methods. Research was carried out to set up a new machine for floor disinfection of poultry houses by open flame. The trials were run in controlled conditions in the laboratory of the University of Pisa, Italy, and on a private farm. The first experiment consisted of a series of test bench trials carried out to evaluate the efficacy and the adjustment of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)-fed open flame burners on pre-inoculated steel plates. In the second experiment, the operative parameters of a custom-built 1.5 m wide mounted flaming machine were determined and the biological effects of the treatment were compared to ordinary chemical treatments. The results obtained were very promising. Test bench trials showed a 4-log reduction in E. coli, and microbial determinations carried out on-farm did not show any difference between thermal and chemical treatment. In addition, the cost estimation showed that thermal disinfection is approximately 4-fold cheaper than chemical sanitation methods. The effective working capacity of the machine was approximately 1700 m2 h–1, and the LPG consumption was approximately 16 kg per 1000 m2. Flame disinfection of poultry grow-out facilities could represent a valid alternative to chemical disinfection.

Automatic General-Purpose Sanitization of Textual Documents

The advent of new information sharing technologies has led society to a scenario where thousands of textual documents are publicly published every day. The existence of confidential information in many of these documents motivates the use of measures to hide sensitive data before being published, which is precisely the goal of document sanitization. Even though methods to assist the sanitization process have been proposed, most of them are focused on the detection of specific types of sensitive entities for concrete domains, lacking generality and and requiring user supervision. Moreover, to hide sensitive terms, most approaches opt to remove them, a measure that hampers the utility of the sanitized document. This paper presents a general-purpose sanitization method that, based on information theory and exploiting knowledge bases, detects and hides sensitive textual information while preserving its meaning. Our proposal works in an automatic and unsupervised way and it can be applied to heterogeneous documents, which make it specially suitable for environments with massive and heterogeneous information-sharing needs. Evaluation results show that our method outperforms strategies based on trained classifiers regarding the detection recall, whereas it better retains the document's utility compared to term-suppression methods.

Water sanitation, access, use and self-reported diarrheal disease in rural Honduras

Only 79% of individuals living in rural Honduras use improved water sources. Inadequate drinking water quality is related to diarrheal illness, which in Honduras contributes to 18.6 episodes of diarrhea per child year in children under five years of age. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare access to drinking water and sanitation, as well as self-reported diarrheal disease incidence among three proximal communities in the Department of Yoro area of Honduras. An 11-item language-specific, interviewer-administered, anonymous questionnaire was administered to 263 randomly selected adults attending a June 2011 medical brigade held in the communities of Coyoles, La Hicaca, and Lomitas. Chi-square with Fisher exact tests were utilized to compare water access, sanitation, and self-reported diarrheal incidence among these communities. Coyoles and La Hicaca used private faucets as their primary water sources. Coyoles had the greatest use of bottled water. Lomitas used rivers as their primary water source, and did not use bottled water. Mostly, females were responsible for acquiring water. Usage of multiple water sanitation methods was most common in Coyoles, while no sanitation method was most common in Lomitas. In Lomitas and La Hicaca, water filters were mostly provided via donation by non-governmental organizations. Lomitas had the highest reported incidence of diarrhea among self and other household members. Critical differences in water access, sanitation, and self-reported diarrheal incidence among three geographically distinct, yet proximal, communities highlights the need for targeted interventions even in geographically proximal rural areas.

Pit Latrines and Groundwater Contamination: Negative Impacts of a Popular Sanitation Method

Worldwide an estimated 1.77 billion people use pit latrines as their primary mode of sanitation. With the prevalence of pit latrine use growing in developing countries, there is heightened concern about the negative impacts on drinking water. A new review assesses the known and measured environmental health impacts associated with groundwater contamination by pit latrines [EHP 121(5):521–530; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1206028]. By 2015 the United Nations aims to increase by nearly 2 billion the number of people with sustainable access to “improved” sanitation. “Improved” means the waste is kept separate from the people who use the facilities. Covered pit latrines, although basic, are a vast improvement over open defecation and other unsanitary forms of waste management. But because pit latrines usually lack a physical barrier to keep waste contained in the pit, microbial and chemical contaminants can emanate from them, threatening nearby groundwater sources such as springs, wells, and boreholes. The authors of the current review used survey data from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Children’s Fund to calculate global use of improved (covered with a platform or concrete slab) and unimproved (no platform or slab) sanitation units; excreta production; and groundwater use. The team also conducted a literature search for groundwater contamination associated with pit latrines. A woman cleans an improved pit latrine in Guinea. Two-thirds of households in Guinea use pit latrines as their primary method of sanitation, and nearly that many rely on groundwater for their drinking water. In some countries of West Africa and the Middle East, the vast majority of the population uses pit latrines. Countries where pit latrine use is prevalent also tend to have high rates of groundwater use. Siting recommendations appeared to vary across countries, ranging anywhere from 15 to 75 meters between water sources and sanitation units. Studies have associated pit latrine use with the transport of microbes (typically fecal coliforms, although one study assessed adenovirus and rotavirus) and chemicals (e.g., nitrate, phosphate, chloride, and ammonia) through soil and into local water sources. Microbes and chemicals usually traveled less than 15 meters from latrines, although some studies reported contamination up to about 25 meters away. Viruses were detected up to 50 meters from pit latrines. But different studies have found very different results even for the same location, reflecting a perplexing variety of experimental designs. Most groundwater contamination was reported downstream of pit latrines. Pit latrines are an established, proven strategy for improving human waste disposal, but they can pose a tangible risk to drinking water resources in developing countries. The authors write that clear standards need to be established for siting pit latrines in relation to groundwater supplies. Future studies should also examine emerging contaminants and empirically test specific guidelines under a variety of conditions.

Antimicrobial activity of natural antimicrobial substances against spoilage bacteria isolated from fresh produce

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of natural antimicrobial substances for inhibiting vegetable spoilage bacteria. Natural antimicrobial compounds (carvacrol, thymol, eugenol, cinnamic acid, nisin, and chitosan), organic acids (acetic acid and lactic acid), and chemical sanitizers (sodium hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide) were evaluated for their antibacterial activities, as single and combination treatments, against 15 spoilage bacteria isolated from vegetables, using the agar disc diffusion and broth dilution methods. Carvacrol, thymol, and eugenol showed strong inhibitory effects compared to those of the other antimicrobial substances, and their average minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values against 15 spoilage bacteria were 167, 648, and 168 μg/ml, respectively. When they were combined, four kinds (carvacrol + thymol, carvacrol + eugenol, thymol + eugenol, and carvarol + thymol + eugenol) of the combination formulas showed higher antibacterial effect than others against spoilage bacteria, with average MIC values of 47, 43, 59, and 42 μg/ml, respectively. However, two combinations (carvacrol + thymol, and carvacrol + thymol + eugenol) showed the strongest inhibitory effects against bacteria in fresh vegetables among all treatments. These results could be used for the development of new sanitation or preservation methods to improve freshness and to extend the shelf-life of fresh produce.

Sanitation Options for Managing Oak Wood Infested With the Invasive Goldspotted Oak Borer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) in Southern California

Movement of invasive wood-boring insects in wood products presents a threat to forest health and a management challenge for public and private land managers. The goldspotted oak borer, Agrilus auroguttatus Schaeffer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), is a new pest in San Diego and Riverside Cos., CA, believed to have been introduced on firewood. This beetle has caused elevated levels of oak mortality since 2002. From 2009-2011, we tested several sanitation methods, applicable to large and small land parcels, to reduce or prevent goldspotted oak borer emergence from infested oak wood. In most experiments, emergence of goldspotted oak borer adults from the positive controls demonstrated that the beetle could complete development in firewood-sized pieces of cut oak wood. In 2009, adult emergence from sun-exposed oak wood began and peaked 2- to 4-wks earlier at a low elevation site than at a high elevation site (late May to late June). However, there were no significant effects of elevation or host species on the emergence response of goldspotted oak borer by solarization treatment in this study. Solarization of infested wood with thick (6 mil) and thin (1 mil) plastic tarpaulins (tarps) did not significantly reduce emergence of adults despite recordings of greater mean and maximum daily temperatures in both tarped treatments and greater relative humidity in the thick-tarped treatment (all compared with nontarped controls). Grinding wood with a 3"-minus screen (< or = 7.6 cm) significantly reduced goldspotted oak borer emergence compared with control treatments, and this was the best method for reducing adult emergence among those tested. In a separate grinding study, no adults emerged when wood was ground to 9"-minus (22.9 cm), 2"-minus (5.1 cm), or 1"-minus (2.5 cm) screen sizes, but a low level of adult emergence from the positive controls limited any inferences from this experiment. Debarking cut wood pieces eliminated goldspotted oak borer emergence from the wood fraction, but adults emerged from the shaved bark and phloem.

Safety of Ready‐to‐Eat Watercress Using Environmentally Friendly Sanitization Methods

AbstractChlorine‐based washing systems have been widely used by the fresh‐cut industry. However, there is much interest in developing safer and more environmentally friendly sanitization methods. Watercress was immersed in sodium hypochlorite (100 mg/L), hydrogen peroxide (167 mg/L) or citric acid (10 g/L) or exposed to ultraviolet C (UV‐C) light (6 or 18 kJ/m2 by exposure for 3 or 7 min, respectively), and stored in modified atmosphere packaging at 5C and 95% relative humidity. The respiration rate, packaging gas composition, color, microbiological growth (psychrotrophic and mesophilic microorganisms, Enterobacteriaceae, mold and yeasts), antioxidant capability, polyphenol content and sensory quality were measured. The different treatments did not affect the respiration rate (average 22 mg CO2/kg·h) after 14 days. Psychrotrophic bacteria reached approximately 7 log10 cfu/g, regardless of the treatment, after 14 days. UV‐C decreased mesophilic counts, while H2O2 reduced Enterobacteriaceae. UV‐C exposure increased the antioxidant capability, which was maintained throughout the storage. None of the treatments affected the color parameters and sensory quality. All of the treatments analyzed, especially UV‐C, may be useful for maintaining watercress quality.Practical ApplicationsIncreasing popularity of nontraditional vegetables has created a new opportunity for innovation in the development of horticultural minimally processed fresh products. This industry is interested in developing safer and more environmentally friendly sanitization methods to replace chlorine‐based washing systems. This study focused on the assessment of immersion in three chemical‐sanitizer solutions (sodium hypochlorite, hydrogen peroxide and citric acid) or the exposure to ultraviolet C (UV‐C) light in combination with modified atmosphere packaging and refrigerated storage (5C and 95% relative humidity). The evaluated disinfection methods resulted as or more effective at reducing microbial growth than chlorine washing. The UV‐C treatments improved the functional quality of watercress by increasing the total antioxidant capability and total polyphenol content. The implementation of low cost sanitization methods such as the tested alternative sanitizers or UV‐C light may be useful for maintaining the overall quality and extending the shelf life of ready‐to‐eat watercress and other vegetables.