A study of Salmonella prevalence in pork value chain from pig slaughterhouses to markets in Hung Yen, Vietnam

Salmonella which exists in livestock intestine is one of important hazardous pathogens causing food poisoning, and most salmonellosis cases in humans occur due to consumption of contaminated animal origin foods such as meat and eggs. In Vietnam, pork is the most consumed meat and contamination of pork with Salmonella spp. is serious public health problem. This study aimed to trace the value chain forward from pig slaughterhouses to the markets in order to elucidate the dynamics of Salmonella contamination on pork value chain in Hung Yen, Vietnam. This survey was conducted in February 2014 in two slaughterhouses which were randomly selected from the list of slaughterhouses in Hung Yen province and swab samples were collected from 88 carcasses after split there. Out of them, 21 carcasses were traced to the markets and pork samples were collected. Microbial tests were performed for the presence of Salmonella from carcass samples at slaughterhouses. MPN was determined in addition to the presence of Salmonella for pork in markets. For comparison of two slaughterhouses, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of pig carcass samples between them (22.2% (10/45), and 27.9% (12/43), x2=0.18, df=1, p=0.71). In addition, there was also no significant difference between the prevalence on carcasses and pork (25.0% (22/88), and 28.6% (6/21), x2=0.0034, df=1, p=0.95). There was transition of status of Salmonella contamination on pork but kappa value was 0.53 which means there was substantial agreement between the prevalence in slaughterhouses and in markets. MPN of positive pork samples was in the range of <3.0 to 15 MPN/g. In Hung Yen, Salmonella prevalence on pork was high and it was suggested that the level of hygiene at meat processing was not adequate. The prevalence was kept in the same level at between slaughterhouse and market, and it was found that contamination mainly occurred before the end of slaughtering. In this study, only the slaughterhouses processing pig carcasses on the floor were studied. In considering effective improvement of hygiene, a comparison of microbiological study with the other type of slaughterhouses using hanging style, maybe needed, to examine its efficacy in hygiene, as contamination of pork with Salmonella can easily occur on the floor of slaughterhouses

DETERMINATION OF BODY SEGMENT INERTIA PARAMETERS USING 3D HUMAN BODY SCANNER AND 3D CAD SOFTWARE

In the field of sports biomechanics, a human body is often treated as a linkage model to investigate various kinds of human movement. This modeling requires body segment inertia parameters (BSPs) such as masses, centers of mass, and moments of inertia. As the quality of motion capture system increases, more accurate BSPs are also needed to get accurate inverse dynamics results. Advanced technology has enabled us to obtain three-dimensional coordinates of the entire body surface. A 3D CAD software has also been able to be applied to measure the human body. It was hypothesized that BSPs with high accuracy could be determined by the combination of a 3D body scanner and a 3D CAD software. The purposes of this study are, first, to introduce a new method of measuring subject-specific BSPs and, second, to compare the BSPs from this study with those from an existing mathematical model in order to show that the proposed method can be used to produce more accurate BSPs

Evaluation of the microseismic motion at the KAGRA site based on the ocean wave data

The microseismic motion, which is the ambient ground vibration caused by ocean waves, affects ground-based gravitational detectors. In this study, we characterized the properties of the microseismic motion at the KAGRA site and the ocean waves at 13 coasts of Japan, such as the seasonal variation and the correlation between them. As a result, it almost succeeded to explain the microseismic motion at the KAGRA site by the principal components of the ocean wave data. One possible application of this study is the microseismic forecast and its example is also shown

Application of the Hilbert-Huang transform for analyzing SASI induced gravitational waves in a core-collapse supernova

Through numerical simulations, it is predicted that the gravitational waves (GWs) reflect the characteristics of the core-collapse supernova (CCSN) explosion mechanism. There are multiple GW excitation processes that occur inside a star before its explosion, and it is suggested that the GWs originating from the CCSN have a mode for each excitation process in terms of time-frequency representation. Therefore, we propose an application of the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT), which is a high-resolution time-frequency analysis method, to analyze these GW modes for theoretically probing and increasing our understanding of the explosion mechanism. The HHT defines frequency as a function of time, and is not bound by the trade-off between time and frequency resolutions. In this study, we analyze a gravitational waveform obtained from a three-dimensional general-relativistic CCSN model that showed a vigorous activity of the standing-accretion-shock-instability (SASI). We succeed in extracting the SASI induced GWs with high resolution on a time-frequency representation using the HHT and we examine their instantaneous frequencies

Development of Advanced Photon Calibrator for KAGRA

The KAGRA cryogenic gravitational-wave observatory has begun joint observation with the worldwide gravitational waves detector network. Precise calibration of the detector response is essential for the parameter estimation of gravitational wave sources. The photon calibrator is the main calibrator in LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA, and we used this calibrator in joint observation 3 on 2020 April with GEO600 in Germany. KAGRA improved the system for joint observation 3 with three unique points: high laser power, power stabilization system, and remote beam position control. KAGRA employs the 20 W laser and divides it into two beams injected on the mirror surface. By using a high-power laser, we can calibrate the response at the kHz region. To control the power of each laser independently, we also installed an optical follower servo for each beam power stabilization. By controlling the optical path of the photon calibrater beam positions with pico-motors, we were able to characterize the rotation response of the detector. We also installed a telephoto camera and QPD to monitor beam position and controlled beam position to optimize mirror response. In this paper, we discussed the statistical error with the result of the relative power noise measurement. We also discussed systematic errors about the power calibration model of photon calibrator and simulation of elastic deformation effect with the finite element analysis.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure

Regulation of Lithospermic Acid B and Shikonin Production in Lithospermum erythrorhizon Cell Suspension Cultures

Cell suspension cultures of Lithospermum erythrorhizon produced a large amount of lithospermic acid B, a caffeic acid tetramer, as well as shikonin derivatives (each ca. 10% of dry wt.) when cultured in shikonin production medium M-9. Various culture factors for increasing the production of lithospermic acid B were investigated. Lithospermic acid B production was inhibited by 2, 4-D or NH4+, whereas it was stimulated by Cu2+. These regulatory patterns were similar to those for the production of shikonin derivatives in these cell cultures, suggestive of close relations and similar metabolic regulation between the production of these compounds. Cultivation under light illumination, however, showed that these metabolisms were independently regulated. In particular, blue light showed a stimulatory effect on lithospermic acid B production, while shikonin production was strongly inhibited, indicative of an effective condition for lithospermic acid B production