Current and promising strategies to prevent and reduce aflatoxin contamination in grains and food matrices

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
S.L. Gibellato ◽  
L.F. Dalsóquio ◽  
I.C.A. do Nascimento ◽  
T.M. Alvarez

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by filamentous fungi that colonise various crops around the world and cause major damage to the agro-industrial sector on a global scale. Considering the estimative of population growth in the next decades, it is of fundamental importance the implementation of practices that help prevent the economics and social impacts of aflatoxin contamination. Even though various approaches have been developed – including physical, chemical and biological approaches – there is not yet one that strikes a balance in terms of safety, food quality and cost, especially when considering large scale application. In this review, we present a compilation of advantages and disadvantages of different strategies for prevention and reduction of aflatoxin contamination. Biological approaches represent the trend in innovations mainly due to their specificity and versatility, since it is possible to consider the utilisation of whole microorganisms, culture supernatants, purified enzymes or even genetic engineering. However, challenges related to improvement of the efficiency of such methods and ensuring safety of treated foods still need to be overcome.

npj Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaos C. Kyriakidis ◽  
Andrés López-Cortés ◽  
Eduardo Vásconez González ◽  
Alejandra Barreto Grimaldos ◽  
Esteban Ortiz Prado

AbstractThe new SARS-CoV-2 virus is an RNA virus that belongs to the Coronaviridae family and causes COVID-19 disease. The newly sequenced virus appears to originate in China and rapidly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic that, until January 5th, 2021, has caused more than 1,866,000 deaths. Hence, laboratories worldwide are developing an effective vaccine against this disease, which will be essential to reduce morbidity and mortality. Currently, there more than 64 vaccine candidates, most of them aiming to induce neutralizing antibodies against the spike protein (S). These antibodies will prevent uptake through the human ACE-2 receptor, thereby limiting viral entrance. Different vaccine platforms are being used for vaccine development, each one presenting several advantages and disadvantages. Thus far, thirteen vaccine candidates are being tested in Phase 3 clinical trials; therefore, it is closer to receiving approval or authorization for large-scale immunizations.


Toxins ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Ferenc Peles ◽  
Péter Sipos ◽  
Szilvia Kovács ◽  
Zoltán Győri ◽  
István Pócsi ◽  
...  

Aflatoxins (AFs) are toxic secondary metabolites produced mostly by Aspergillus species. AF contamination entering the feed and food chain has been a crucial long-term issue for veterinarians, medicals, agroindustry experts, and researchers working in this field. Although different (physical, chemical, and biological) technologies have been developed, tested, and employed to mitigate the detrimental effects of mycotoxins, including AFs, universal methods are still not available to reduce AF levels in feed and food in the last decades. Possible biological control by bacteria, yeasts, and fungi, their excretes, the role of the ruminal degradation, pre-harvest biocontrol by competitive exclusion or biofungicides, and post-harvest technologies and practices based on biological agents currently used to alleviate the toxic effects of AFs are collected in this review. Pre-harvest biocontrol technologies can give us the greatest opportunity to reduce AF production on the spot. Together with post-harvest applications of bacteria or fungal cultures, these technologies can help us strictly reduce AF contamination without synthetic chemicals.


Author(s):  
Gordon Boyce

This book is an in-depth case study of the Furness Withy and Co Shipping Group, which operated both tramp and liner services and was one of the five major British shipping groups of the early twentieth century. It demonstrates how British shipowners of this period generated success by exploring Christopher Furness’ career in relation to the social, political, and cultural currents during a time of tremendous shipping growth in Britain and the establishment of some of the largest shipping firms in the world. It approaches the study from three angles. The first analyses how the Furness Group expanded its shipping activities and became involved with the industrial sector. The second illustrates the organisational and financial structure of the enterprise. Finally, the Group’s leadership and entrepreneurship is scrutinised and placed within the wider context of twentieth century British business. The case study begins in 1870, with an introduction explaining how Christopher Furness came to join the family company, Thomas Furness and Co. in order develop services, expand, and instigate the changes and mergers that brought the Furness Group into existence. There are thirteen chronologically presented chapters, a bibliography, and seven appendices of data including an ownership timeline, tonnage statistics, acquisitions, a list of maritime associates, and a timeline of Christopher Furness’ life. The book concludes in 1919 with the de-merging of the Furness Group’s shipping and industrial holdings, the resignation of the Furness family from the company’s board, the sale of their shares, and the move into managing the firm’s industrial interests.


Author(s):  
Koji Takahashi ◽  
Yasuo Kasugai ◽  
Isao Fukuda

In case of ocean space utilization, the factors which have to be taken into consideration in order to form an international basic container route are geographical factors which are the position on a global scale, the economic scale of port hinterland, the ocean climatic condition for setting the route etc. as well as factors from the viewpoint of transport such as the volume of container cargo and both size of container ships and container terminals. It is important to consider these geographical factors not only in order to study the port placement from the global point of view but also to devise the port policy. Although there are many studies on factors from the viewpoint of transport, there is almost no study on these geographical factors. Then, the authors made a new simulation model and analyzed these geographical factors of the international container ports in all parts of the world. As a result of analysis, the authors got the conclusion that there were three port placement patterns. The first type is ‘the Continent Base Port Type’, which it is located in the continent and has the large economic hinterland. Typical ports of this type are Antwerp, LA, LB and Shanghai. The second type is ‘the Ocean Base Port Type’, which is located in the ocean space where geographical predominance is high. This type forms route hubs. Typical ports of this type are Singapore, Malta and Kaohsiung. The third type is ‘the Tight Hinterland Port Type’, which is located in an island and has the tight economic hinterland where the economic activities density is very high. This type has characteristics that the distance between the ports is short and there are a lot of numbers of ports, which is unique and special in the world. Japan’s ports are classified in the third type. Furthermore, Japan has a characteristic that there are many large-scale earthquakes and has to consider earthquake measures to reduce disaster risks. The authors will suggest the most suitable port placement theory in consideration of these characteristics in case of ocean space utilization.


JOGED ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-91
Author(s):  
Arjuni Prasetyorini

ABSTRAK“Mampir Ngombe” adalah film tari yang merefleksikan kondisi Pandemi Covid-19. Sejak akhir tahun 2019 hingga saat ini, seluruh manusia di bumi sedang menghadapi Pandemi dengan skala global. Memasuki tahun 2020 negara-negara di dunia mulai melakukan lockdown atau pembatasan sosial berskala besar bagi negaranya. Tingkat kematian akibat Pandemi Covid-19 ini selalu diberitakan melalui berbagai media setiap harinya, bahkan terdapat beberapa kerabat dan kawan yang terkonfirmasi positif Covid-19, hingga sembuh kembali namun juga ada yang meninggal. Duka dan kecemasan meliputi hampir disetiap harinya. Pandemi Covid-19 secara langsung dan tidak langsung memberi berbagai dampak. Salah satu dampak yang terjadi jika direnungkan secara dalam akan muncul suatu kesadaran, di mana hidup terasa benar-benar singkat bahwa setiap manusia tidak tahu kapan akan dipanggil pulang.Sebuah pepatah Jawa atau pitutur Jawa mengatakan “Urip iku mung sadermo mampir ngombe, yang memiliki arti hidup itu sangat singkat, ibarat hanya singgah minum. Pepatah itu menjadi sangat terasa pada kondisi saat ini. Waktu yang demikian singkat ini manusia diharapkan mengisinya dengan fikiran yang positif dan dan berusaha memanfaatkannya dengan melakukan hal-hal yang baik dan bermanfaat. Daripada hidup dalam ketakutan, kecemasan, dan kekuatiran, sebaiknya diisi dengan doa, serta belajar untuk ikhlas setiap harinya, hingga setiap langkah yang dijalani akan menjadi laku yang migunani tumpraping diri lan liya. Koreografer menggunakan media video/film sebagai media ungkap sebagai respons dan adaptasi pada kondisi Pandemi Covid-19. Pandemi Covid-19 membatasi gerak seni pertunjukan dalam hal ini tari yang secara normatif dapat dinikmati secara langsung oleh mata dan energi dirasakan hadir secara nyata, namun pada kondisi ini harus dinikmati melalui video/film. Karya ini merupakan sebuah ekperimentasi langkah baru bagi koreografer untuk mencoba dan berusaha mengekpresikan tari melalui media video/film dengan durasi 6.44 detik.ABSTRACTThe dance film entitled "Mampir Ngombe" with a short duration is a reflection and introspection on the current conditions of the Covid-19 Pandemic, all people on earth are facing a pandemic on a global scale since the end of 2019, entering 2020 countries in the world have begun. carry out lockdowns or large-scale social restrictions for the country. The death rate due to the Covid-19 Pandemic is always reported through various news media every day, there are even some relatives and friends who have been confirmed positive for Covid-19, until they recover, but some have died. Grief and anxiety always cover almost every day. The Covid-19 pandemic directly and indirectly has various impacts. One of the impacts that occurs if you think about it deeply will emerge an awareness, where life feels really short that every human being does not know when to be called home. A Javanese proverb or Javanese pitutur “states Urip iku mung sadermo mampir ngombe, which means life is like just stopping by for a drink, very briefly. The proverb is very pronounced in the current condition. This time is so short that humans are expected instead of every day filled with worries, fears and worries, it would be nice if they were filled with positive thoughts and and trying to make use of them by doing good and useful things, such as filling them with prayers, working with them. following health protocols, trying to live up to the advice from the government, namely Gerakan 5M Covid-19 (Wearing a mask, washing hands with soap with running water, keeping your distance, keeping away from crowds) and learning to do iklas every day, so that every step you take will become a laku that migunani tumprapting liyan. Choreographers use video / film media as a medium of expression as a response and adaptation to the conditions of the Covid-19 Pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic limits the movement of performing arts, in this case dance, which can normally be enjoyed directly by the eye and the energy is felt to be present in real terms, but in this condition it must be enjoyed through videos / films. This work is an experimentation of a new step for choreographers to try and try to express dance through video / film media with short duration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 3279
Author(s):  
Santiago Peña-Luque ◽  
Sylvain Ferrant ◽  
Mauricio C. R. Cordeiro ◽  
Thomas Ledauphin ◽  
Jerome Maxant ◽  
...  

Water stock monitoring is a major issue for society on a local and global scale. Sentinel-1&2 satellites provide frequent acquisitions to track water surface dynamics, proxy variables to enable water surface volume monitoring. How do we combine such observations along time for each sensor? What advantages and disadvantages of single-date, monthly or time-windowed estimations? In this context, we analysed the impact of merging information through different types and lengths of time-windows. Satellite observations were processed separately on optical (Sentinel-2) and radar (Sentinel-1) water detectors at 10m resolution. The analysis has been applied at two scales. First, validating with 26 large scenes (110 × 110 km) in different climatic zones in France, time-windows yielded an improvement on radar detection (F1-score improved from 0.72 to 0.8 for 30 days on average logic) while optical performances remained stable (F1-score 0.89). Second, validating reservoir area estimations with 29 instrumented reservoirs (20–1250 ha), time-windows presented in all cases an improvement on both optical and radar error for any window length (5–30 days). The mean relative absolute error in optical area detection improved from 16.9% on single measurements to 12.9% using 15 days time-windows, and from 22.15% to 15.1% in radar detection). Regarding reservoir filling rates, we identified an increased negative bias for both sensors when the reservoir is nearly full. This work helped to compare accuracies of separate optical and radar capabilities, where optical statistically outperforms radar at both local and large scale to the detriment of less frequent measurements. Furthermore, we propose a geomorphological indicator of reservoirs to predict the quality of radar area monitoring (R2 = 0.58). In conclusion, we suggest the use of time-windows on operational water mapping or reservoir monitoring systems, using 10–20 days time-windows with average logic, providing more frequent and faster information to water managers in periods of crisis (e.g., water shortage) compared to monthly estimations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 805 ◽  
pp. 395-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacopo Seccatore ◽  
Giorgio de Tomi ◽  
Marcello Veiga

The world is going through a new-millennium rush in precious metals, especially gold. The great increase in gold price in the last years, probably due to a shift towards safe investments in a period of crisis in the global economy, created a rapid increase in gold production. The faster response to this shift in production came from Artisanal (ASM) and Small-scale (SSM) mining units in remote locations of the world, and Brazil is one of the main countries that has ASM and SSM on its territory. The present paper draws some definitions of Small-Scale Mining and Artisanal Mining, based on its productivity and its actual social and environmental implications, and of their sustainability. The analysis of production data of Small Scale and Large Scale Mining on global scale and on Brazilian scale shows the high potential of SSM in dealing with lower mineral grades and market fluctuations, due to its high flexibility. A general growth of the role of SSM in precious metals production in the next decades is foreseen. An elaboration on world ASM data led to a clear correlation between efficiency in production and an index of human development; this result is shown and discussed. Based on the potential of SSM to attend to the mineral market needs, efficiency in productivity is finally proposed as the main path to turn an ASM unit into a sustainable and profitable Small-Scale industrial extractive unit.


Processes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Zentou ◽  
Zurina Abidin ◽  
Robiah Yunus ◽  
Dayang Awang Biak ◽  
Danil Korelskiy

This study aims at reviewing the alternative techniques for bioethanol recovery, highlighting its advantages and disadvantages, and to investigate the technical challenges facing these alternatives to be widely used. The findings showed that the integration of these techniques with the fermentation process did not meet a large acceptance in the industrial sector. The majority of conducted studies were mainly focusing on ethanol recovery from aqueous standard solution rather than the investigation of these techniques performance in fermentation-separation coupled system. In this context, pervaporation has received more attention as a promising alternative to distillation. However, some challenges are facing the integration of these techniques in the industrial scale as the fouling problem in pervaporation, the toxicity of solvent in liquid extraction, energy consumption in vacuum fermentation. It was also found that there is a lack of the technical economic analysis for these techniques which may limit the spread of its application in the large scale. Currently, hybrid systems integrating distillation with other alternative techniques are considered as an innovative solution to reduce the high cost of the distillation process and the low separation efficiency of the alternatives techniques.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Guevara ◽  
Rodrigo Vargas

<p>The response of SOC spatial variability to different soil moisture conditions has not been explored at the global scale in part due to the lack of continuous information of these variables across large areas of the world. Analyzing this relationship could be useful to reduce the current uncertainty around SOC distribution and change. Large scale models and SOC mapping efforts contrast with country specific SOC maps, and large uncertainties on SOC magnitudes and patterns remain across large areas of the world. Our main objective was to explore SOC trends using soil moisture values as prediction factors. Using SOC point data from the World Soil Information Service (WoSIS, n=87002 point data between the years 1991 and 2015) we applied a cross validation-based ensemble learning approach to generate continuous SOC maps in a quinquennial basis (limited to 0-30 cm depth). The cross validated root mean squared error (RMSE) of our ensemble for the period 1991 -1995 varied from 32 to 33 g/kg while the correlation between modeled and observed data varied from r=0.45 to r=0.55. The accuracy of SOC estimates increased for the period 2011-2015 (r=0.75 to r=0.81 and RMSE= 20 to 23 g/kg). However the lower RMSE (16 to 17 gr/kg) was found for the years 2001-2005 (r=52 to r=58). Trend detection analysis applied to SOC predictions reveal areas showing significant (p-value < 0.05) positive trends across ~2.7 million km2 at the global scale ranging from 0.3 to 29 g/kg. Significant negative trends of SOC were found across ~3.6 million km2 at the global scale ranging from -22.2 to -0.3 g/kg. Main SOC losses were found across North America, Europe, central Africa, and Siberia. Our results quantifying the response of soils to changing soil moisture conditions contribute with new insights that are useful for the development of soil carbon monitoring systems.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 1132-1155
Author(s):  
Husan S. UMAROV

Subject. The article considers digital currencies in the context of global and national financial system development. Objectives. The purpose is to identify and justify the role of digital currencies in the global finance development and the place of modern central bank policies in the development of digital currencies, to underpin the need for changing approaches to digital currencies on the part of central banks, and to predict possible scenarios for the development of digital currencies on the global scale. Methods. The study applies methods of logical and statistical analysis, the comparative approach, and systematization. Results. The paper describes major pros and cons of digital currencies by comparing them with cryptocurrencies; identifies the beneficiaries of the introduction of digital currencies in countries with the most developed strategies for the introduction of national digital currencies. It also unveils barriers to a large-scale introduction of digital currencies to the world market, and highlights the main areas of their use. I developed three scenarios of digital currencies introduction to the world market. Conclusions. A large-scale introduction of digital currencies as a means of international settlements is not possible at the present stage, however, their use as a tool for dealing with financial crises is the most realistic scenario.


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