The effect of improving solid waste collection on waste disposal behaviour and exposure to environmental risk factors in urban low-income communities in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the effect of improving waste collection services on waste disposal behaviour and exposure to environmental risk factors in urban, low-income communities in Pakistan. METHODS: We enrolled six low-income communities in Islamabad (Pakistan), four of which received an intervention consisting of a door-to-door low-cost waste collection service with centralised waste processing and recycling sites. Intervention communities underwent community-level and household-level mobilisation. The effect of the intervention on waste disposal behaviour, exposure to waste and synanthropic fly counts was measured using two cross-sectional surveys in 180 households per community. RESULTS: Intervention communities had less favourable socio-economic indicators and poorer access to waste disposal services at baseline than control communities. Use of any waste collection service increased from 5% to 49% in the intervention communities (difference 44%, 95% CI 41%, 48%), but the increase was largely confined to two communities where post-intervention coverage exceeded 80% and 90%, respectively. An increase in the use of waste collection services was also found in the two control communities (from 21% to 67%, difference 47%, 95% CI 41%, 53%). Fly counts decreased by about 60% in the intervention communities (rate ratio 0.4, 95% CI 0.3, 0.4) but not in the control communities (rate ratio 1.52, 95% CI 1.1, 2.2). The decrease in fly counts was largely confined to the two high-coverage intervention communities. CONCLUSION: Introduction of a low-cost waste collection service has the potential for high uptake in low-income communities and for decreasing the exposure to waste and synanthropic flies at household level. Intervention success was constrained by low uptake in half of the intervention communities.

Perspective of surface active agents in baking industry: an overview.

Different researchers have previously used surfactants for improving bread qualities and revealed that these compounds result in improving the quality of dough and bread by influencing dough strength, tolerance, uniform crumb cell size, and improve slicing characteristics and gas retention. The objective of this review is to highlight the areas where surfactants are most widely used particularly in the bread industries, their role and mechanism of interaction and their contribution to the quality characteristics of the dough and bread. This review reveals some aspects of surface-active agents regarding its role physiochemical properties of dough that in turn affect the bread characteristics by improving its sensory quality and storage stability.

Characterization of new exopolysaccharides produced by coculturing of L. kefiranofaciens with yoghurt strains.

This project was designed to study the coculturing affect of exopolysaccharide (EPS) producing strains Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens (L.k) ZW3, with non EPS producing strains L. bulgaricus (L.b) and Streptococcus thermophilus (S.t) in three different combinations: L.k+L.b, L.k+S.t, and L.k+L.b+S.t. FTIR analysis revealed presence of strong stretch in regions of 3400, 2900 and 1647cm(-1) which is characteristic of a typical polysaccharide. Co-cultured EPSs were composed of glucose, galactose, arabinose and xylose; and their sugar compositions were different from ZW3 polysaccharide that was mainly composed of gluco-galactan. Peak temperature for L.k+L.b, L.k+S.t, L.k+S.t+L.b and ZW3 polymers were 90.59, 87.61, 95.18 and 97.38°C, respectively. Thermal analysis revealed degradation temperature of 326.44, 294.6, 296.7 and 299.62°C for L.k+L.b, L.k+S.t, L.k+S.t+L.b and ZW3 polymers, respectively. SEM and AFM analysis divulged that three cocultured EPSs had different surface morphology than ZW3 polymer. Since co-cultured polymers have different structure than the polymer produced exclusively by EPS producing strain, it can be safely concluded from the study that co-culturing can be one way to change the structure of polymers. Coculturing of L. kefiranofaciens with non-EPS producing strains resulted in yoghurt with increased viscosity and delayed syneresis.