The efficiency of DBD cold plasma pen treatment on the oyster mushroom bacterial decontamination

Cold plasma provided bacterial inactivation role in food industry. In this study, the cold plasma play a crucial inactivation role when effectively reduces the bacteria colonies on oyster mushroom surface. By development of the dielectric barrier discharge-cold plasma pen (DBD-CPP) system, the mushroom surface was exposed to the cold plasma discharge with variable of exposure treatment time (0 min, 0.5 min, 1 min, 3 min and 5 min) with ~6 kV of power voltage and 5 SLM of atmospheric gas pressure flow rate. In order to identify the reduction of the microbial growth, isolation technique will be carry out by excising the mushroom sample into a suspension and serial dilution follows by identification of its colony morphologies and characteristics. Results screening shows increments of exposure treatment times up to 3 min shows none growth of bacteria colonies. This because the bacteria cell wall was disrupt and destruction by the plasma bombardment. Thus, this study able to extend the lifetime of the mushroom and produce a free microbial fresh mushroom by decontaminate the bacteria on the mushroom surface

Patterns of active and passive smoking, and associated factors, in the South-east Anatolian Project (SEAP) region in Turkey

BACKGROUND: Smoking is an important health threat in Turkey. This study aimed to determine the frequency of and main factors associated with smoking in persons of 15 years and over, and the frequency of passive smoking in homes in the South-east Anatolian Project (SEAP) Region in Turkey. METHODS: A cross sectional design was employed. The sample waschosen by the State Institute of Statistics using a stratified cluster probability sampling method. 1126 houses representing the SEAP Region were visited. Questionnaires about tobacco smoking and related factors were applied to 2166 women and 1906 men (of 15 years old and above) in their homes. Face-to-face interview methods were employed. Participants were classified as current, ex, and non-smokers. The presence of a regular daily smoker in a house was used as an indication of passive smoking. The chi-square andlogistic regressionanalysis methods were used for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of smoking, in those of 15 years and over, was 11.8% in women and 49.7% in men. The prevalence of current smokers was higher in urban (34.5 %) than in rural (22.8 %) regions. The mean of total cigarette consumption was 6.5 packs/year in women and 17.9 packs/year in men. There was at least one current smoker in 70.1% of the houses. CONCLUSION: Smoking is a serious problem in the South-eastern Anatolian Region. Male gender, middle age, a high level of education and urban residency were most strongly associated with smoking

Air temperature measurement and monitoring inside cold plasma treatment reactor for steel wire surface cleaning using fiber bragg grating (fbg)

Surface cleaning is one of the critical preliminary process in wire manufacturing surface treatment for the purpose of improved surface wettability and adhesion. However, concern in terms of environmental impacts arises due to common practices of wet-chemicals which led to severe human health. Surface cleaning using cold plasma treatment might become an alternative, but it seems that the issue of gas temperature measurement and monitoring have not been dealt with in depth, since the gas temperature can indicate the type of plasma formed inside the designed reactor. Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) might became an option for gas temperature measurement and monitoring. In this research, air temperature in cold plasma treatment reactor was measured and monitored using FBG, with effects of graphene electrode. Surface roughness of metalwire surface was measured and qualitative observation through optical microscope was carried out, before and after plasma treatment for the purpose of performance evaluation. From the results, it is found that type of plasma discharge formation has been successfully identified through air temperature profiling and monitoring using FBG. Highest surface roughness reduction is performed by filamentary type of discharge of 9 kV applied voltage based on generated air temperature profile by FBG

Development of simultaneous substrate mixer and cold atmospheric plasma treatment for mushroom cultivation

The purpose of this study is to design and develop a substrate mixer for mushroom cultivation and also to investigate the effect of Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) treatment on the substrate. Three design concepts were developed to enable evaluation on function of the substrate mixer. System design procedure such as using morphology chart and Pugh's method was adopted to carry out the analysis on function and performance. This analysis was conducted in order to get the most suitable functional and performance design criteria selection for the mixer mechanism. The ability of mixer mechanism includes the function of mixing and transporting process was selected. The prototype with spiral stirrer was fabricated by using 3D printing machine of FDM technology. An atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) system was used for the plasma generation method. In order to undergo the decontamination treatment, APPJ system was assembled to the substrate mixer. The substrates were placed directly under the plasma tube within gap of 10mm with selected treatment time. Samples were treated at 5 kV supplied voltage for treatment time of 5min, 10min and 15min and an untreated sample as control. Analysis had been conducted by using Colony Forming Unit (CFU) testing to know the amount of growth bacteria for the non-treated and treated of mushroom substrate. Results show that all CAP treated substrate had significant reduction in bacteria growth. It is found that 15min treatment indicates the lowest bacteria growth in CFU unit