Design consideration and modelling studies of ultrasound and ultraviolet combined approach for shelf-life enhancement of pine apple juice.

Although both ultraviolet (UV) radiation and ultrasound (US) treatment have their capabilities in microbial inactivation, applying any one method alone may require a high dose for complete inactivation, which may affect the sensory and nutritional properties of pineapple juice. Hence, this study was intended to analyse and optimise the effect of combined US and UV treatments on microbial inactivation without affecting the selected quality parameters of pineapple juice. US treatment (33 kHz) was done at three different time intervals, viz. 10 min, 20 min and 30 min., after which, juice samples were subjected to UV treatment for 10 min at three UV dosage levels, viz. 1 J/cm2, 1.3 J/cm2, and 1.6 J/cm2. The samples were evaluated for total colour difference, pH, total soluble solids (TSS), titrable acidity (TA), and ascorbic acid content; total bacterial count and total yeast count; and the standardization of process parameters was done using Response Surface Methodology and Artificial Neural Network. The results showed that the individual, as well as combined treatments, did not significantly impact the physicochemical properties while retaining the quality characteristics. It was observed that combined treatment resulted in 5 log cycle reduction in bacterial and yeast populations while the individual treatment failed. From the optimization studies, it was found that combined US and UV treatments with 22.95 min and1.577 J/cm2 ensured a microbiologically safe product while retaining organoleptic quality close to that of fresh juice.

Ohmic heating as a pre-treatment in solvent extraction of rice bran.

Rice bran, which is one of the major by products of paddy contain high quality proteins and edible oil apart from fibre, ash and NFE (nitrogen free extract). The existing solvent extraction method employs n-hexane as the most viable solvent for the extraction of oil from rice bran. But the high cost and scarce availability of n-hexane resulted in uneconomical extraction of rice bran oil. In this study, rice bran was ohmically heated for different time periods(1, 2 and 3 min) with different current values (5, 15 and 20 A) and with different concentration of sodium chloride (1 M, 0.1 M and 0.01 M) as conducting medium. The ohmically heated rice bran was subjected to extraction studies. Ohmic heating of rice bran of paddy varieties Red Triveni and Basmati reduced the extraction time by nearly 75 % and 70 % respectively and gave a maximum quantity of oil extracted when compared to bran, which was not ohmically heated. From the experiments with varying concentrations, residence time of ohmic heating and currents, it was found that ohmically heating the rice bran with 1 M sodium chloride solution and with a current value of 20 A for 3 min gave maximum oil extraction with minimum extraction time.

Rectal gonorrhoea in men -- is microscopy still a useful tool?

Rectal gonorrhoea (GC) in men may cause anal discharge or proctitis, but these symptoms have been shown to correlate poorly with rectal infection. Culture of Neisseria gonorrhoeae from an exposed site offers a readily available, sensitive and cheap diagnostic test, and is currently the gold standard for diagnosis; however, these results can take a few days and therefore do not offer an instant diagnosis. Gram staining of rectal smears for N. gonorrhoeae has a low sensitivity but a high specificity when performed by experienced personnel. We audited whether rectal microscopy increased the number of patients diagnosed and treated for rectal GC at initial presentation at one inner London genitourinary clinic over a 12-month period. One hundred and thirty-six episodes of rectal GC were identified in 132 men. In all, 134/136 had rectal microscopy of whom, 47/134 (35%) were smear-positive for GC. Of the 136 cases, 90 received antibiotics for GC at their first presentation. Twenty-four of 90 (27%) would not have been treated until culture results were available, if rectal microscopy had not been performed. These results suggest that rectal microscopy remains an important tool and increases the proportion of men treated for GC at their first attendance.