Decay microbial

Agro-residual fibers, similar to other plant fibers have moderate microbial resistance and thus they tend to decay. Microbial resistance is especially important during shipment and long-term storage [56], Microbial resistance of agro-residual fibers can be enhanced by increasing hydrophobicity [72]. 

Post-harvest quality loss of food, particularly the fresh fruits and vegetables, is primarily a function of respiration, ripening and senescence, water loss (transpiration), enzymatic discoloration of cut surfaces, decay (microbial), oxidation of fats causing ran-... 

Continuous chlorination of a cooling water system often seems most pmdent for microbial slime control. However, it is economically difficult to maintain a continuous free residual in some systems, especially those with process leaks. In some high demand systems it is often impossible to achieve a free residual, and a combined residual must be accepted. In addition, high chlorine feed rates, with or without high residuals, can increase system metal corrosion and tower wood decay. Supplementing with nonoxidizing antimicrobials is preferable to high chlorination rates. 

Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables are highly perishable products because of their intrinsic characteristics and the minimal processing (Ayala-Zavala and others 2008a). Microbial growth, decay of sensory attributes, and loss of nutrients are among the... 

Microbial spoilage appears to be one of the major causes of quality loss of fresh fruits and vegetables by formation of off-flavors, fermented aromas, and tissue decay. The shelf-life of many food products may be accurately predicted by quantifying the population of microbes present on the food product (Zhuang and others 2003). The... 

Aquifer sediments in the model are confined by and interleaved with fine-grained sediments that contain sedimentary organic matter. The organic matter decays gradually by microbial fermentation and anaerobic oxidation,... 

The Rothamsted Carbon Model (RothC) uses a five pool structure, decomposable plant material (DPM), resistant plant materials (RPM), microbial biomass, humified organic matter, and inert organic matter to assess carbon turnover (Coleman and Jenkinson 1996 Guo et al. 2007). The first four pools decompose by first-order kinetics. The decay rate constants are modified by temperature, soil moisture, and indirectly by clay content. RothC does not include a plant growth sub-module, and therefore NHC inputs must be known, estimated, or calculated by inverse modeling. Skjemstad et al. (2004) tested an approach for populating the different pools based on measured values. 

A peculiarity of thiamine is that the vitamin can easily become inactivated. An early instance was seen in 1941 when commercially reared mink became paralyzed (Chastek paralysis), a disorder which could be cured by giving the animals thiamine. The problem was traced to their having been fed fish that had partially decomposed. Later work showed that in decayed fish a microbial enzyme had been released, thiaminase, which destroyed the thiamine normally present in the food. A rather different process occurs when horses or cows are allowed to graze on bracken. This contains a protein which binds to thiamine, so reducing its availability. Once again the condition can be treated by administering the vitamin. 

Figure 3. Postulated mechanism for microbial decay of starch-plastic blends.

Specific Diffusion-based Limitations to Decay. If microbial colonization is confined to the surface of materials, the decay rate will inevitably be lower than seen where proximity between substrate and microbial cells is possible because enzymes produced by the cell and soluble products formed by enzymatic attack must diffuse a considerable distance. For example, if closer contact between the starch face and fungus were possible than seen in Figure 2, uptake of starch digestion products would occur at the growing tip and translocation within the mycelium by active transport would be possible. This... 

Decay will not occur if the dimensions of the degradable component are so small that neither microbial intrusion nor amylase diffusion into the material can take place. 

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