Food safety issues have led to development of new sanitizers to eliminate spoilage and pathogenic organisms in food. This study provides the foundation for further application of slightly acidic low concentration electrolyzed water (SlALcEW) as a sanitizing agent in meat industry. SlALcEW can be produced on site on demand and no chemicals are necessary except NaCl solution. It does not leave any residue in food due to low chlorine concentration and it is safe to handle for its semineutral pH.

BackgroundCostus speciosus (Koen ex.Retz.) Sm (Costaceae) is an Indian ornamental plant which has long been used medicinally in traditional systems of medicine. The plant has been found to possess diverse pharmacological activities. Rhizomes are used to treat pneumonia, rheumatism, dropsy, urinary diseases, jaundice, skin diseases and leaves are usedto treat mental disorders.MethodAntibacterial and antifungal activities were tested using Disc diffusion method and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). Column chromatography was used to isolate compounds from hexane extract. X-ray crystallography technique and GC-MS analysis were used to identify the compoundsResultsAntibacterial and antifungal activities were observed in hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts. Hexane extract of C.speciosus showed good activity against tested fungi also. Two sesquiterpenoid compounds were isolated (costunolide and eremanthin) from the hexane extract. Both the compounds did not inhibit the growth of tested bacteria. But, both the compounds inhibited the tested fungi. The compound costunolide showed significant antifungal activity. The MIC values of costunolide were; 62.5 μg/ml against Trichophyton mentagrophytes, 62. μg/ml against T. simii, 31.25 μg/ml against T. rubrum 296, 62.5 μg/ml against T. rubrum 57, 125 μg/ml against Epidermophyton floccosum, 250 μg/ml against Scopulariopsis sp, 250 μg/ml against Aspergillus niger, 125 μg/ml against Curvulari lunata, 250 μg/ml against Magnaporthe grisea.ConclusionHexane extract showed promising antibacterial and antifungal activity. The isolated compound costunolide showed good antifungal activity.

A quantitative method based on ultrasound-assisted toluene extraction followed by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry for the analysis of C60 and C70 fullerenes, N-methylfulleropyrrolidine, [6, 6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester and [6, 6]-thienyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester has been developed. The method was validated using fortified blank river sediments according to the criteria of Commission Decision 2002/657/EC. The method limits of detection ranged from 14 to 290 pg/g, making it suitable for its application in environmental analysis. The method has been applied to investigate fullerene content in 58 soil samples collected from different urban and industrial areas in Saudi Arabia and in river sediment from six different sites in the Llobregat River Basin. In addition, in the case of the Llobregat River, superficial water samples from the same sites of the sediments were collected and analysed using a previous method. In soils from Saudi Arabia, C60-fullerene was the only compound that was detected and quantified in 19% of samples. In the sediments of the Llobregat River, C60-fullerene was also the only one detected (33% of the samples), while in river water, C70-fullerene was the most frequent compound, and it was quantified in 67% of the samples. However, C60-fullerene was present in two of the six samples, but at higher concentrations than C70-fullerene, ranging from 0.9 to 7.8 ng/L.

We proposed two different time-dependent modeling approaches for variation of device characteristics of per-ovskite solar cells under stress conditions. The first approach follows Sah-Noyce-Shockley (SNS) model based on Shockley-Read-Hall recombination/generation across the depletion width of pn junction and the second approach is based on thermionic emission model for Schottky diodes. The connecting point of these approaches to time variation is the time-dependent defect generation in depletion width (W) of the junction. We have fitted the two models with experimental data reported in the literature to perovskite solar cell and found out that each model has a superior explanation for degradation of device metrics e.g. current density and efficiency by time under stress conditions. Nevertheless, the Sah-Noyce-Shockley model is more reliable than thermionic emission at least for solar cells.

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