323,016 research outputs found
Assessment of microbiological indoor air quality in an Italian office building equipped with an HVAC system
No full textEffect of different conditions on bacterial inactivation of Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) treatment
No full textThe aim of this study was to evaluate Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF) bacterial inactivation ability in relation to different conditions (initial bacterial concentration and mixing). The experiments were performed on E. coli, E. coli O157:H7 and S. aureus. A laboratory scale PEF batch unit with a rectangular electric pulse was used. Measures of inactivation were carried out at 25 Kv/cm (E. coli, E. coli O157:H7) and at 30 kV/cm (S. aureus), 1 μs, pulse repetition rate of 1 Hz, at different pulse number (range 20-350). The initial bacterial concentration tested ranged between 10^5-10^10, 10^5-10^12, 10^3-10^11 CFU/mL for E. coli, E. coli O157:H7 and S. aureus respectively. The trials with and without bacterial suspension mixing were performed at 300 pulses. A similar behaviour was observed for all bacteria studied. Results indicated that microbial inactivation statistically depends on the bacterial concentration at high pulse number (>200). A
higher inactivation rate was observed at the greatest bacterial concentrations. Considering the experiments with and without mixing a higher bacterial inactivation was observed with mixing.
Since PEF inactivation activity seems to be influenced by the different conditions investigated further studies are needed to improve and optimise PEF treatment as a non-thermal process of food preservation
Development of an investigation method for evaluation of microbiological indoor air quality
No full textEvaluation of bacterial and fungal indoor air contamination using a preventive approach and an alternative bacterial identification method
No full textDNA damage in A549 cells exposed to different extracts of PM2.5 from industrial, urban and highway sites
No full textHow much Italian children follow the Mediterranean diet?
No full textBackground
The Mediterranean diet (MD) is considered one of the
healthiest dietary models, which decrease the risk of chronic
diseases and may modulate the organism early response to
environmental pollution. In the last decades, Mediterranean
countries are replacing the traditional diet with other less
healthy eating habits, especially in children and teenagers. As
part of the MAPEC_LIFE (Monitoring Air Pollution Effects on
Children for supporting public health policy), a project
founded by EU Life+ Programme (LIFE12 ENV/IT/000614)
which intends to investigate the association between air
pollution exposure and early biological effects in children,
this study wanted to evaluate children diet style and the level of
adherence to MD in over than 1000 children, in relation to
their residence, lifestyle, social and family contexts.
Methods
During the two sampling campaign of the project, a
questionnaire was administered to children’s parents. Thediet section contained 116 questions, which investigate
consumption frequency of different types of food. Total
energy load and diet composition in micro and macro
nutrients were calcualted from consumption frequency and
the Italian Mediterranean Index (IMI), ranged from 0 to 10,
was calculated taking into account the intake of 6 typical
Mediterranean and 4 non-Mediterranean foods. On the basis
of IMI score, the adherence to MD was classified as low ( 3
IMI score), medium (4-5) and high ( 6).
Results
Diet analysis was computed on 1162 subjects with two
complete questionnaires. The body mass index, calculated for
each subjects, showed that the 28.9% of the children were
overweighted, with some difference between different residence
areas. As regards the adherence to MD, the 59.1% of the
children were low adherents to MD.
Conclusions
The results of this study showed that most of Italian children
did not follow MD and that the socio-economic characteristics
seemed to not be associated with the diet style
- …
