Tomato quality as influenced by different packaging materials and practices

In this study, the effect of retailing packaging material on tomato quality was investigated. Specifically, non-defective tomato fruits were selected after harvest and packed in four different packaging materials; open market bag, open box, sealed box and Xtend bag. A total of six treatments were prepared by storing the packaged fruits at 4 or 17°C for 10 days. Quality attributes of tomatoes such as calyx freshness, weight loss, fruit firmness, total soluble solids (TSS), colour and physiological damage were assessed. Generally, both packaging material and storage temperature affected the quality of the tomato fruits. The quality of tomato fruits stored at 4oC was generally superior to those stored at 17°C.Calyx of tomato fruits stored in open market bag (stored at 17°C) and open box (stored at 17°C) were very dry after storage compared to the tomato fruits stored at 4°C. Tomato fruits packed in Xtend bag and sealed box were firmer than those packed in open box and open market bag. The carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in sealed box was substantially higher (8.25%) than that in Xtend bag (2.07%). In contrast, the oxygen (O2) concentration in the Xtend bag was higher (18.90%) than that in the sealed box (14.75%). Tomatoes packed in Xtend bag and sealed box had minimal changes in colour intensity (C*), showed lower TSS values compared to tomato fruits packed in other packaging materials. Xtend bag and sealed box seems to be better packaging material for storing tomato fruits for a period of 10 days

Healthcare Access and Quality Index based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990-2015 : a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Background National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care (ie, amenable mortality). Previous analyses of mortality amenable to health care only focused on high-income countries and faced several methodological challenges. In the present analysis, we use the highly standardised cause of death and risk factor estimates generated through the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) to improve and expand the quantification of personal health-care access and quality for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015. Methods We mapped the most widely used list of causes amenable to personal health care developed by Nolte and McKee to 32 GBD causes. We accounted for variations in cause of death certification and misclassifications through the extensive data standardisation processes and redistribution algorithms developed for GBD. To isolate the effects of personal health-care access and quality, we risk-standardised cause-specific mortality rates for each geography-year by removing the joint effects of local environmental and behavioural risks, and adding back the global levels of risk exposure as estimated for GBD 2015. We employed principal component analysis to create a single, interpretable summary measure-the Healthcare Quality and Access (HAQ) Index-on a scale of 0 to 100. The HAQ Index showed strong convergence validity as compared with other health-system indicators, including health expenditure per capita (r= 0.88), an index of 11 universal health coverage interventions (r= 0.83), and human resources for health per 1000 (r= 0.77). We used free disposal hull analysis with bootstrapping to produce a frontier based on the relationship between the HAQ Index and the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a measure of overall development consisting of income per capita, average years of education, and total fertility rates. This frontier allowed us to better quantify the maximum levels of personal health-care access and quality achieved across the development spectrum, and pinpoint geographies where gaps between observed and potential levels have narrowed or widened over time. Findings Between 1990 and 2015, nearly all countries and territories saw their HAQ Index values improve; nonetheless, the difference between the highest and lowest observed HAQ Index was larger in 2015 than in 1990, ranging from 28.6 to 94.6. Of 195 geographies, 167 had statistically significant increases in HAQ Index levels since 1990, with South Korea, Turkey, Peru, China, and the Maldives recording among the largest gains by 2015. Performance on the HAQ Index and individual causes showed distinct patterns by region and level of development, yet substantial heterogeneities emerged for several causes, including cancers in highest-SDI countries; chronic kidney disease, diabetes, diarrhoeal diseases, and lower respiratory infections among middle-SDI countries; and measles and tetanus among lowest-SDI countries. While the global HAQ Index average rose from 40.7 (95% uncertainty interval, 39.0-42.8) in 1990 to 53.7 (52.2-55.4) in 2015, far less progress occurred in narrowing the gap between observed HAQ Index values and maximum levels achieved; at the global level, the difference between the observed and frontier HAQ Index only decreased from 21.2 in 1990 to 20.1 in 2015. If every country and territory had achieved the highest observed HAQ Index by their corresponding level of SDI, the global average would have been 73.8 in 2015. Several countries, particularly in eastern and western sub-Saharan Africa, reached HAQ Index values similar to or beyond their development levels, whereas others, namely in southern sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and south Asia, lagged behind what geographies of similar development attained between 1990 and 2015. Interpretation This novel extension of the GBD Study shows the untapped potential for personal health-care access and quality improvement across the development spectrum. Amid substantive advances in personal health care at the national level, heterogeneous patterns for individual causes in given countries or territories suggest that few places have consistently achieved optimal health-care access and quality across health-system functions and therapeutic areas. This is especially evident in middle-SDI countries, many of which have recently undergone or are currently experiencing epidemiological transitions. The HAQ Index, if paired with other measures of health-systemcharacteristics such as intervention coverage, could provide a robust avenue for tracking progress on universal health coverage and identifying local priorities for strengthening personal health-care quality and access throughout the world. Copyright (C) The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Solar-assisted membrane technology for water purification: a review

status: publishe

Characterization and beneficiation of Ethiopian kaolin for use in fabrication of ceramic membrane

Kaolin (china clay) is a rock material that is very rich in kaolinite. A kaolin ore from Debre Tabor, Ethiopia containing 59.2 wt% SiO _2 , 24.9 wt% Al _2 O _3 , 2.4 wt% Fe _2 O _3, and 8.22 wt% loss on ignition (LOI) was physically beneficiated, chemically leached, and thermally treated for possible industrial use, especially for ceramic membrane fabrication. The leaching experiments were carried out using oxalic acid solutions as leaching reagents for the iron extraction process. The effect of acid concentration, reaction temperature, and contact time on iron leaching was investigated. It was determined that the rate of iron extraction increased with the oxalic acid concentration, leaching temperature, and contact time. A substantial reduction of iron oxide (2.4 to 0.36 wt%) from the raw kaolin was observed at operating conditions of 2.0 M oxalic acid, the temperature of 120 °C, and contact time of 120 min. A maximum kaolin whiteness index of 81.4% was achieved through this leaching process. Finally, the physically beneficiated, chemically leached, and thermally treated kaolin raw material was used to fabricate a low - cost kaolin - based ceramic membrane. After firing at 1100 °C the ceramic membrane was found to have a mass loss of 11.04 ± 0.05%, water absorption of 8.9 ± 0.4%, linear shrinkage of 14.5 ± 0.05%. It was demonstrated to be chemically stable, having less than 3% mass loss in acid solution, and less than 1% mass loss in alkali solution. The newly developed membranes have thus properties comparable to commercial ceramic membranes