On June 14, 2008, an outbreak of gastroenteritis occurred among elementary school students in Incheon. We conducted an investigation to identify the source and described the extent of the outbreak. We performed a retrospective cohort study among students, teachers and food handlers exposed to canteen food in the elementary school. Using self-administered questionnaires we collected information ...

BACKGROUND Currently chemotherapy is limited mostly to genotoxic drugs that are associated with severe side effects due to non-selective targeting of normal tissue. Natural products play a significant role in the development of most chemotherapeutic agents, with 74.8% of all available chemotherapy being derived from natural products. OBJECTIVE To scientifically assess and validate the antican...

Black pepper ( Piper nigrum ) from Piperaceae and its main ingredient (piperine) reduces gastric emptying in rats. In Iranian traditional medicine, black pepper is used to relief the menorrhalgia in women. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of black pepper fruit aqueous extract on non-pregnant rat uterus contractions and the mechanism(s) of its action. To prepare the extract, b...

In September 1974, the largest outbreak of foodborne salmonellosis ever reported to the Center for Disease Control--affecting an estimated 3,400 persons--occurred on the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation. The responsible agent was Salmonella newport and the vehicle of transmission was potato salad served to an estimated 11,000 persons at a free barbecue. The cooked ingredients of the potato sala...

Notch-mediated lateral inhibition regulates binary cell fate choice, resulting in salt and pepper patterns during various developmental processes. However, how Notch signaling behaves in combination with other signaling systems remains elusive. The wave of differentiation in the Drosophila visual center or "proneural wave" accompanies Notch activity that is propagated without the formation of a...

To improve the spatial resolution of low resolution image with Gaussian blur and Pepper & salt noise, a blind single-image super resolution reconstruction method is proposed. In the low resolution imaging model, the Gaussian blur, down-sampling, as well as Pepper & Salt noise are all considered. Firstly, the Pepper & Salt noise in the low resolution image is reduced through median filtering met...

Hot peppers (Capsicum annuum.) belong to the Solanaceae and grow widely in various parts of the world especially in the temperate regions. Among hot pepper producing countries, China is the leading producer followed by Mexico and Turkey with above 1,745,000 tons of produce per year (Firatligil-Durmus & Evranuz, 2010). Hot pepper is widely used as a flavoring and for nutritional purposes. Hot pe...

Sádecká J. (2010): Influence of two sterilisation ways, gamma-irradiation and heat treatment, on the volatiles of black pepper (Piper nigrum L.). Czech J. Food Sci., 28: 44–52. The objective of this study was to investigate and compare the effects of ionising irradiation with different doses of gamma-rays (5 kGy, 10 kGy, and 30 kGy) versus the effect of heat sterilisation (dry steam, 130°C, 3 m...

Pepper is an economically important horticultural plant that has been widely used for its pungency and spicy taste in worldwide cuisines. Therefore, the domestication of pepper has been carried out since antiquity. Owing to meet the growing demand for pepper with high quality, organoleptic property, nutraceutical contents, and disease tolerance, genomics assisted breeding techniques can be inco...