Identification of the contaminating psychrotrophic bacteria in refrigerated bulked raw milk and the assessment of their deteriorating potential

This work aimed to characterize, identify, and determine the deteriorating potential of the contaminating psychrotrophic bacteria in refrigerated raw milk. Samples were submitted to serial dilutions and plated in specific culture media to form a bacterial culture collection. The isolates were characterized for their morphology and biochemical characteristics. The deteriorating potential of the isolates was determined according to the proteolytic, lipolytic and lecithinase activities at 4.0 ºC, 6.5 ºC, and 25.0 ºC. The results obtained for deterioration potential were assessed by the multivariate statistical method and by the principal components analysis (PCA). A total of 159 isolates were characterized, and of these, 46 strongly proteolytic Gram-negative isolates were selected for identification using the API 20 NE kit. The predominant bacteria were Gram-negative and oxidase and catalase positive, with a predominance of bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas. Using PCA, it was shown that the bacteria with the greatest deterioration potential were lecithinase producers, and that, in the autumn, proteolytic bacteria predominated at 4.0 ºC. Of the 46 isolates identified, more than 80% belonged to the species Pseudomonas fluorescens. Thus, attention should be given to the importance of implementing microbial contamination prevention measures in the bulking process, since, even under refrigeration, psychrotrophic bacteria multiply and produce enzymes that deteriorate lipids and proteins, with consequent quality losses of the milk and its derivatives, yield losses in the production of dairy products, and economic losses.

Layers of Meaning and Evolution of Cultural Identity: The Case of Wind Towers in Dubai

Place identity is an important constituent of general cultural identity, in that it provides its share of continuity, sustainability, and character to the built environment. The image of cultural heritage is stored knowledge that reflects the identity of a specific culture. In the formation of a place, some features gain identity with the environment. This study aims to explore the evolving image formation of wind towers in Dubai, and how this image is related to the concept of meaning and cultural identity of the place. This study focuses on the process of place identity formation and its relation to the evolving cultural values of society, as well as how it is applied to the changing meaning of cultural heritage objects. Based on the value assessment approach, different examples of wind towers, taken from either traditional houses or contemporary buildings influenced by the local architecture in Dubai, the author attempted to study how the interpretation and meaning of wind towers has evolved through time, thus influencing the cultural identity of Dubai city. This study is based on qualitative research. It concludes that a wind tower, as a cooling device, represents a unique example of an evolving creative process of architectural expression, resulting from the social and cultural complexity of the Persian Gulf in the early twentieth century. They were introduced through commercial exchange, adapted by the mercantile community, and integrated into local cultural systems—thus creating new architectural features and urban character—and reintroduced as a modern symbol of cultural identity for Dubai and the UAE.

Prevention of the Sexual Abuse of Children in the School Environment

The aim of the article is to present the assumptions of the prevention of sexual violence against children in the school environment. Child sexual abuse has become a global problem that affects not only the family environment, but educational institutions as well. One example of such an institution is a school where, under the guise of upbringing, there may be numerous abuses committed by people who are an authority in the child’s life. School staff members are often unaware of institutional grooming and its perpetrators, which means that the entire institution may unknowingly contribute to promoting child sexual abuse. The author first presents the methods of grooming used by perpetrators, pointing to activities aimed at children and the mechanisms of institutional grooming that may create a specific culture that makes it difficult to protect children. The author then presents the standards and strategies for prevention in schools, paying attention to the need to involve the entire community: conducting proper recruitment and training of employees and constructing preventive programs adapted to the age and development of children and their proper implementation.

Biography of Things – A Ball

The presented text is a study of interest in ball as an element of formation and perception of childhood. The research project was embedded in the paradigm of qualitative, interpretative research, where the focus was on the language of the preschooler, which becomes a reflection of the world of physical culture present in the mind of the child – the narrator. The problem of research is focused on the question: To what extent is the ball and its meanings an element of material culture located in the area of physical culture, and in what circumstances is it a determinant of child-specific pre-school folklore? The resulting space of the presented analyzes is an element of the phenomenographic method, where the use of a partially structured interview with preschool children (N = 80) provided the basis for the analysis of the perception and use of a ball in the cognitive theory of a child’s language space. The main conclusions from the research are: 1) for younger children, the ball is more often an attribute of spontaneous play than conventional actions (governed by rules and patterns), 2) for 5- and 6-year-olds, the ball is an artifact of attractive motor activity, training complex motor skills and competition. In middle childhood, the ball is a domain of spontaneous emotionality and an attribute of children’s play, which becomes a material for perceiving, interpreting and situating oneself in a specific culture of movement. The research was conducted in ten municipal kindergartens in the city of Slupsk, Poland in 2016–2019.

Shallow Hydrothermal Vent Bacteria and Their Secondary Metabolites with a Particular Focus on Bacillus

Extreme environments are hostile for most organisms, but such habitats represent suitable settings to be inhabited by specialized microorganisms. A marine shallow-water hydrothermal vent field is located offshore in northeast Taiwan, near the shallow shore of the southeast of Kueishantao Island (121°55′ E, 24°50′ N). Research on extremophilic microorganisms makes use of the biotechnological potential associated with such microorganisms and their cellular products. With the notion that extremophiles are capable of surviving in extreme environments, it is assumed that their metabolites are adapted to function optimally under such conditions. As extremophiles, they need specific culture conditions, and only a fraction of species from the original samples are recovered in culture. We used different non-selective and selective media to isolate bacterial species associated with the hydrothermal vent crab Xenograpsus testudinatus and the sediments of its habitat. The highest number of colonies was obtained from Zobell marine agar plates with an overall number of 29 genetically distinct isolates. 16sRNA gene sequencing using the Sanger sequencing method revealed that most of the bacterial species belonged to the phylum Firmicutes and the class Bacilli. The present study indicates that hydrothermal vent bacteria and their secondary metabolites may play an important role for the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the phylum Procaryota.

Selection of Culture Conditions and Cell Morphology for Biocompatible Extraction of β-Carotene from Dunaliella salina

Biocompatible extraction emerges recently as a means to reduce costs of biotechnology processing of microalgae. In this frame, this study aimed at determining how specific culture conditions and the associated cell morphology impact the biocompatibility and the extraction yield of β-carotene from the green microalga Dunaliella salina using n-decane. The results highlight the relationship between the cell disruption yield and cell volume, the circularity and the relative abundance of naturally permeabilized cells. The disruption rate increased with both the cell volume and circularity. This was particularly obvious for volume and circularity exceeding 1500 µm3 and 0.7, respectively. The extraction of β-carotene was the most biocompatible with small (600 µm3) and circular cells (0.7) stressed in photobioreactor (30% of carotenoids recovery with 15% cell disruption). The naturally permeabilized cells were disrupted first; the remaining cells seems to follow a gradual permeabilization process: reversibility (up to 20 s) then irreversibility and cell disruption. This opens new carotenoid production schemes based on growing robust β-carotene enriched cells to ensure biocompatible extraction.

Archaeologies of Gossip: AIDS in Contemporary Gay Fiction

<p>Queer criticism is now in its third decade and, as critical orthodoxy, running up against its own limitations. What, for example, is a discipline preoccupied with the unspoken, the marginal and the blurring of gender boundaries to do with Edmund White’s unambiguously gay, masculine “red unsheathed fury of the third penis of the afternoon”? The Western AIDS novel is, overwhelmingly, a product of a historically precise, explicitly gay, male experience. This thesis seeks unapologetically to engage with this writing on its own terms, eschewing the queer critical lens as insufficient, and, rather, reading for a specifically gay aesthetic. Grounded in a broader overview of both AIDS novels and existing criticism, this thesis consists of extended close readings of two exemplary AIDS novels: Edmund White’s The Farewell Symphony and Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty. Firstly, I articulate the centrality of the gay sexual body to the representation of AIDS in The Farewell Symphony, tracing its representation of the disease through the epidemiological mapping of the virus itself, within the highly specific culture of gay New York in the 1970s. Secondly, I examine the way in which the re-imagination of a selective tradition of gay literary predecessors in The Line of Beauty, specifically Henry James and Oscar Wilde, provides an aesthetic solution to articulating AIDS.</p>

Archaeologies of Gossip: AIDS in Contemporary Gay Fiction

<p>Queer criticism is now in its third decade and, as critical orthodoxy, running up against its own limitations. What, for example, is a discipline preoccupied with the unspoken, the marginal and the blurring of gender boundaries to do with Edmund White’s unambiguously gay, masculine “red unsheathed fury of the third penis of the afternoon”? The Western AIDS novel is, overwhelmingly, a product of a historically precise, explicitly gay, male experience. This thesis seeks unapologetically to engage with this writing on its own terms, eschewing the queer critical lens as insufficient, and, rather, reading for a specifically gay aesthetic. Grounded in a broader overview of both AIDS novels and existing criticism, this thesis consists of extended close readings of two exemplary AIDS novels: Edmund White’s The Farewell Symphony and Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty. Firstly, I articulate the centrality of the gay sexual body to the representation of AIDS in The Farewell Symphony, tracing its representation of the disease through the epidemiological mapping of the virus itself, within the highly specific culture of gay New York in the 1970s. Secondly, I examine the way in which the re-imagination of a selective tradition of gay literary predecessors in The Line of Beauty, specifically Henry James and Oscar Wilde, provides an aesthetic solution to articulating AIDS.</p>

Microbial Contamination in Drinking Water Fountains and the Potential Risk Associated with Location and Cleanliness

As drinking water fountains are the main source of free drinking water in public spaces, microbiological quality standards in such facilities are strongly relevant to public health. The objective of this study was to evaluate the microbiological condition of drinking water fountains in a public institution, specifically investigating the presence of potentially pathogenic microorganisms and to establish possible causes of contamination. Microbiological analysis was conducted with samples from seven drinking water fountain bubbler faucets located near the restrooms. We evaluated the number of users of these fountains under two parameters: individuals who only drank water, and individuals who drank water after using the restroom. The biological samples were cultivated on a specific culture medium, and the results revealed the presence of potentially pathogenic microorganisms, including Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella spp. Although our findings indicate the presence of potentially pathogenic microorganisms, the results showed no correlation between the number of isolated microorganisms and the number of water fountain users. No specific correlation between the frequency of use of drinking water fountains and restrooms location was identified. We therefore suggest that the contamination present on the surface of the drinking water fountains is due to both the inefficacy of the cleaning procedures and the location of the water fountains. Identification of public health-relevant pathogens may have serious consequences for users.

Faith Embodied in Attitudes: Ethics of Dialogue and Brotherhood of All People in the ‘Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together’ in Abu Dhabi and the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti

This text is concerned with the ethical approach of inter-faith relations and the dialogue of culture in two documents of Pope Francis: ‘On Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together’ and the encyclical Fratelli Tutti. This ethical approach refers to God the Creator of all and the call to brotherhood of all human beings and refers to faith as a response to Revelation. Faith also forms ethical approaches for interreligious dialogue. Pope Francis’ approach in the documents is that the theological truth and values of religious traditions are embodied in attitudes of social friendship. Francis challenges us to build a specific environment that he calls a ‘new culture of dialogue’, having frequently called for the growth of a culture of encounter that is capable of transcending political and social barriers and encourages creating a specific culture of social and ‘political love’.