RAW MILK AT VENDING MACHINES: EVALUATION OF E. SAKAZAKII, COXIELLA BURNETII AND M. PARATUBERCULOSIS IN PIEDMONT EXPERIENCE

Italian consumers changed their food habits in the last period; the increase of raw milk consuming is also related to the high number of self service vending machines that have been authorized, particularly in Northern Italy. According to national rules on raw milk hygienic conditions, the most important bacteria are checked by Veterinary Services; the aim of this study was to investigate some emerging or re-emerging hazards in raw milk at vending machines. For this reason 100 raw milk samples were collected and analyzed in order to detect E. sakazakii, Coxiella burnetii and M. avium subsp paratuberculosis. One milk sample resulted to be positive with PCR method for E. sakazakii (no cultural confirmation was possible); 49% of samples resulted posivite for the presence of Coxiella burnetii specific DNA, and 5% of milk samples came out positive to the presence of M. paratuberuclosis antibodies with ELISA methods

The effect of iron re-deposition on the corrosion of impurity-containing magnesium

This article provides a contribution towards the mechanistic understanding of surface phenomena observed during the corrosion of Mg-based substrates particularly in the low anodic polarization range. The concept considers the recent literature explaining cathodic hydrogen evolution from noble acting areas even during global anodic polarization. Heavy metal impurities in the ppm range or intermetallics are always present even in highly pure magnesium. Their potential effect was investigated here in more detail. The experimental results contribute to understanding the role of iron impurities in dark area formation and suggest a way for linking the observed phenomena to the recent literature. The shown enhanced cathodic activity of dark areas especially at the corrosion front and the superfluous hydrogen are linked to an iron re-deposition mechanism due to iron reduction. The proposed mechanism is based on the results obtained from innovative characterisation techniques using magnetic fields, diffraction experiments and transmission electron microscopy, which show the formation of iron rich zones, especially at the corrosion front offering "in statu nascendi" metallic Fe films acting as active cathodes for hydrogen reduction

Analysis of the Volmer–Krishtalic mechanism for the chlorine electrode reaction

The dependencies of the current density and surface coverage of the adsorbed intermediates on overpotential were established without kinetic approximations for the chlorine electrode reaction under the Volmer–Krishtalic mechanism. Tafelian regions were obtained which slope values cannot be derived from the use of the rate determining step criteria, such as 2.3026(2RT/3F) and 2.3026(RT/F), as well as two or three Tafel regions with different slopes in the same anodic or cathodic curve. The existence of limiting kinetic current densities was also demonstrated. Finally, the results obtained were analysed and discussed, comparing them with those obtained by the usual methods. Keywords: Chlorine evolution, Volmer–Krishtalic mechanism, Tafel slope