The aim of the work was to determine the shelf-life and the microbiological quality of minced meat packaged in modified atmosphere (MAP, 20% O2, 5% CO2, 75% N2). Changes in the microflora and in the chemical characteristics were monitored for a total period of 10 days. Different samples of minced pork meat and of minced mixed pork and beef meat (50% w/w) were packaged and stored at +1-2ÆC. The ...

The first North American full scale post aerobic digester (PAD) is successfully operating at the Spokane County Regional Water Reclamation Facility (SCRWRF). The SCRWRF PAD has demonstrated ammonia removals of 90% or above without alkalinity or supplemental carbon addition. When operational controls were optimized for total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) removal, the SCRWRF PAD demonstrated effluent ...

RATIONALE Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) relies on continuous flow combustion of organic substances to CO(2) and N(2) in a miniature reactor to measure (13)C/(12)C and (15)N/(14) N stable isotope ratios. Accurate analysis is well established for many volatile hydrocarbons. In contrast, compounds which contain hetero and halogen atoms are less volatile and may be more recalcitrant to ...

The aim of this study was to compare two tropical grass species, Panicum maximum and Digitaria eriantha, in terms of silage fermentation attributes and certain rumen fermentation characteristics of silage made either at the boot or full bloom stages of growth. A lower silage pH was recorded for the D. eriantha than for the P. maximum silage. Neither species nor maturity stage had a significant ...

Autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion (ATAD) is a promising process for sewage sludge stabilization. Batch experiments were conducted on sewage sludge collected from a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Shanghai, China, to evaluate the effectiveness of the ATAD system by determining changes in volatile suspended solids (VSSs) and to study its microbial diversity by denaturing gradient...

The samples were stored at -18oC and undergone microbial analysis, chemical characteristics and sensory evaluation at 2-month intervals. Mean bacterial loads and coliform counts were 7.1×10±2.0×10 and 1.9×10±7.1×10 CFU/g. In this study, frozen storage was more effective than either treatment alone at decreasing total and coliform counts. Microbial analysis indicated that freezing storage had a ...

Free swelling index (FSI) is an important parameter for cokeability and combustion of coals. In this research, the effects of chemical properties of coals on the coal free swelling index were studied by artificial neural network methods. The artificial neural networks (ANNs) method was used for 200 datasets to estimate the free swelling index value. In this investigation, ten input parameters ...

The freezing-thawing effect on the meat quality of whole, gutted and fillets of sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) were investigated. It was aimed to investigate the changes in the meat quality of whole, gutted and fillets of sea bass in multiple frozen (-18±2ºC) and thawed cycles in refrigerated conditions (4±2°C). The meat quality assessment of the sea bass groups (whole, gutted and fillets) sub...