Enhancement of microbial quality and inactivation of pathogenic bacteria by gamma irradiation of ready-to-cook Iranian barbecued chicken

Ready-to-cook Iranian barbecued chicken consists of cubed chicken breast, lemon juice, salt, red pepper, onion, saffron and vegetable oil with an overall pH value of about 5.5. This product is sometimes consumed under-cooked, hence it may pose health hazards to consumers when contaminated with food-borne pathogens. In this study, the effect of gamma irradiation (0, 1.5, 3 and 4.5 kGy) on the microbial quality of ready-to-cook (RTC) barbecued chicken samples stored at 4 °C for 15 days was investigated. Moreover, the effectiveness of irradiation for inactivating Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella typhimurium inoculated into the samples was also studied. Irradiation of the samples resulted in dose dependent reduction in counts of aerobic mesophilic bacteria, yeasts and molds, Enterobacteriaceae and lactic acid bacteria. Among the microbial flora, yeasts and molds and Enterobacteriaceae were more sensitive to irradiation and got completely eliminated at dose of 3 kGy. D₁₀ values of L. monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7 and S. typhimurium inoculated into the samples were 0.680, 0.397 and 0.601 kGy, respectively. An irradiation dose of 3 kGy reduced the counts of E. coli O157:H7 to an undetectable level in RTC barbecued chicken but was ineffective on elimination of L. monocytogenes and S. typhimurium. However, none of the food-borne pathogens were detected in the samples irradiated at 4.5 kGy. This study showed that irradiation had no undesirable effects on the initial sensory attributes of barbecued chicken. At the end of the storage period, irradiated samples were more acceptable compared to non-irradiated ones.     

The effect of anti-reflection coating of porous silicon on solar cells efficiency

Anti-reflection coatings of solar cells have been fabricated using different techniques. The techniques used include SiO₂ thermal oxidation, ZnO/TiO₂ sputtering deposition and porous silicon prepared by electrochemical etching. Surface morphology and structural properties of solar cells were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy and atomic forces microscopy. Optical reflectance was obtained by using optical reflectometer. I-V characterizations were studied under 80 mW/cm² illumination conditions. Porous silicon was found to be an excellent anti-reflection coating against incident light when it is compared with another anti-reflection coating and exhibited good light-trapping of a wide wavelength spectrum which produced high efficiency solar cells.     

Multilayer transition in a spin-1 Blume–Capel model with RKKY interaction and quantum transverse anisotropy

Using mean-field theory, we have studied the effect of quantum transverse anisotropies with RKKY interaction on the multi-layer transition and magnetic properties of the spin-1 Blume--Capel model of a system formed by two magnetic multi-layer materials, of different thicknesses, separated by a non-magnetic spacer of thickness M. It is found that the multilayer magnetic order--disorder transition temperature depends strongly on the value of the transverse anisotropy. The multilayer transition temperature decreases when increasing the transverse anisotropy. Furthermore, there exists a critical quantum transverse anisotropy Δ_xL beyond which the separate transitions occur in the two magnetic layers. The critical transverse anisotropy Δ_xL decreases (increases) on increasing the non-magnetic spacer of thickness M (on increasing the crystal field), and Δ_xL undergoes oscillations as a function of the Fermi level.     

Effect of interdiffusion on band structure and intersubband absorption coefficient of GaAs/GaAlAs double quantum well

The influence of Ga and Al atoms interdiffusion on the band structure and absorption coefficient of coupled double quantum wells are investigated on the basis of a potential composed of four modified Wood–Saxon potentials. Wave functions of the real potential are expressed as a superposition of the stationary state wave functions of the “basal” potential. It is shown that interdiffusion leads to the smearing of the rectangular profile of the potential and to the disappearance of the barrier between the wells, as a result of which, the degradation of doublet character of the electron energetic spectrum is observed. It is also shown that interdiffusion leads to the significant change in oscillator strength and in the enhancement of the thermal stability of the absorption spectrum of the considered heterostructure.     

Design of polyethers,thioethers, and amines with pendent iron moieties

Soluble organoiron polyethers, thioethers, and amines were synthesized via nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions. The synthesis of these classes of organometallic polymers involved either the reaction of cyclopentadienyliron complexes of dichloroarenes with various oxygen and sulfur dinucleophiles or the reaction of ether‐ or amine‐containing diiron complexes with dithiols. Polymerization reactions with the diiron complexes gave rise to organoiron polymers with alternating ether/thioether or amine/thioether bridges. Removal of the iron moieties from the backbone of these polymers allowed for the production of the corresponding organic materials. Furthermore, the organometallic polymers had much higher solubilities than their organic analogues. Thermogravimetric analysis of the organoiron polymers indicated that the polymers lost their metallic moieties at approximately 200 °C, whereas degradation of the polymer backbones occurred around 500 °C. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 39: 1216–1231, 2001     

Biosensors based on cholinesterase inhibition for insecticides, nerve agents and aflatoxin B1 detection (review)

The present review reports the research carried out during last 9 years on biosensors based on cholinesterase inhibition for nerve agents, organophosphorus and carbammic insecticides, and aflatoxin B₁ detection. Relative applications in environmental and food areas are also reported. Special attention is paid to the optimization of parameters such as enzyme immobilization, substrate concentration, and incubation time in the case of reversible inhibition by aflatoxin B₁ or irreversible inhibition by organophosphorus and carbamic insecticides, and nerve agents in order to optimize and improve the analytical performances of the biosensor. Evaluation of selectivity of the system is also discussed.     

A memetic algorithm for the team orienteering problem

The team orienteering problem (TOP) is a generalization of the orienteering problem. A limited number of vehicles is available to visit customers from a potential set. Each vehicle has a predefined running-time limit, and each customer has a fixed associated profit. The aim of the TOP is to maximize the total collected profit. In this paper we propose a simple hybrid genetic algorithm using new algorithms dedicated to the specific scope of the TOP: an Optimal Split procedure for chromosome evaluation and local search techniques for mutation. We have called this hybrid method a memetic algorithm for the TOP. Computational experiments conducted on standard benchmark instances clearly show our method to be highly competitive with existing ones, yielding new improved solutions in at least 5 instances.     

Robin-type boundary control problems for the nonlinear Boussinesq type equations

In this paper, we study a linear and a nonlinear boundary control problems arising from viscous flows. The equations are of nonlinear Navier-Stokes type for the velocity and pressure, of transport-diffusion type for the temperature and the salinity. The essential difficulties are due to the nonlinear nature of a part of the boundary conditions and to the nature of the equations: time-dependent, coupled and nonlinear. The existence and the conditions of the uniqueness of the solution, for the variational problem, are studied. The control is of linear or nonlinear Robin-type and acts on a part of the boundary during a time T. The cost function measures the distance between the observed and the computed vorticity. The existence of an optimal control in the admissible set of states and controls is proved. A first order necessary conditions of optimality are obtained.     

Justification of the kinematic assumptions for thin-walled rods with shallow profile

In this Note we present a justification of the kinematic assumptions for thin-walled rods with shallow profile. These assumptions are fundamental to writing the one-dimensional equilibrium equations for such structures. The obtained kinematics are different from the Vlassov case, which is only valid for strongly curved profiles. They are also different from the that classically used in shell theory. The justification given in this Note is based on an asymptotic approach. To cite this article: L. Grillet et al., C. R. Mecanique 333 (2005).