The current global developments have the potential to cause a ‘perfect storm’ at the core of the Anthropocene: the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus. To discuss the ethical consequences of these developments, i.e., insufficient access to the life sustaining nexus resources, the analysis is focused on Rawls' theory of justice and its implementation in Germany with a special focus on the FEW nexus. Rawls stresses in his theory of justice the prominent meaning of institutions for a fair society to meet societal challenges and to meet the challenge of our time: a stable and just society.Hence, the realization of his ideas in Germany is scrutinized and income tax and value added tax are interpreted in the sense of Douglas North and John Rawls as institutions and formal rules of society. This paper focuses on taxes as the most important institutional incentive to organize and structure the political, social and economic cooperation and analyses how these incentives affect selected German households (all households, singles, single man and woman, and couples) with respect to income and FEW expenditures.The relevant income and usage data sample (Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichprobe (EVS)) for Germany is used for the analysis of the distribution of income types, FEW expenditures and the revenues of income tax and value added tax, i.e., the main instruments to manage the challenges of the FEW nexus. Therefore two distribution measures have been used: the dispersion of income, taxes and FEW expenditures and their skewness. Five household groups were selected for this analysis: All households, all single households, the single women households, the single men households, as well as the households of couples. The EVS data sample allows the analysis of consequences of the current societal conditions on the various households and thus serves to provide a deeper understanding of the differences between singles and couples but also between single women and men.

Temperature is considered as the major factor determining virus inactivation in the environment. Food industries, therefore, widely apply temperature as virus inactivating parameter. This review encompasses an overview of viral inactivation and virus genome degradation data from published literature as well as a statistical analysis and the development of empirical formulae to predict virus inactivation. A total of 658 data (time to obtain a first log10 reduction) were collected from 76 published studies with 563 data on virus infectivity and 95 data on genome degradation. Linear model fitting was applied to analyse the effects of temperature, virus species, detection method (cell culture or molecular methods), matrix (simple or complex) and temperature category (<50 and ≥50°C). As expected, virus inactivation was found to be faster at temperatures ≥50°C than at temperatures <50°C, but there was also a significant temperature–matrix effect. Virus inactivation appeared to occur faster in complex than in simple matrices. In general, bacteriophages PRD1 and PhiX174 appeared to be highly persistent whatever the matrix or the temperature, which makes them useful indicators for virus inactivation studies. The virus genome was shown to be more resistant than infectious virus. Simple empirical formulas were developed that can be used to predict virus inactivation and genome degradation for untested temperatures, time points or even virus strains.

Se ha determinado la actividad del agua (aw), valor pH, humedad y contenido en cenizas de 50 muestras correspondientes a 27 tipos diferentes de alimentos de humedad intermedia (AHI) comerciales de panaderia y reposteria, ademas de un grupo miscelaneo de procedencia vegetal. Considerando a los alimentos de humedad intermedia como aquellos cuya aw se encuentra entre 0,600 y 0,910, los valores encontrados para estos parametros oscilaron entre 0,608 y 0,922 para la aw y entre 11,60 y 55,37 por ciento para la humedad. El pH de la mayor parte de los alimentos analizados oscilo entre 3,00 y 7,00, destacando con valores mas bajos los productos elaborados a base de fruta, siendo el minimo el correspondiente a la "salsa de arandanos" con un pH extremo de 2,70. Los mas elevados correspondieron a las magdalenas, con un valor pH extremo de 9,16.

Alkaline electrolyzed water (REW) is known for its cleaning action. The aim of this work was to assess REW effectiveness in reducing microbial load on surfaces intended for contact with food. Stainlesssteel surfaces were experimentally contaminated, bacterial inactivation was tested before and after treatment with REW. Treatment with REW was operated spraying it on the contaminated plates until drying. Tests were conducted for Salmonella spp., Listeria spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The treatment revealed different degrees of sanitizing activity of REW on different bacterial species, with higher efficacy on E. coli and Salmonella spp. than S. aureus, Listeria spp.. Statistical analysis revealed a significant microbial load reduction (p<0.01) after treatment with REW, suggesting that it has a good disinfectant activity which, along with its easy and safe use, makes it a good alternative to many other more widely used disinfectants.

Groundwater is a precious freshwater resource heavily relied upon by agricultural activities in many parts of the world, and especially by countries with limited water resources located in arid regions. Groundwater resources are under severe pressures due to population increase, urbanisation and socio-economic development, with potential for causing long-term threats to human life and natural ecosystems. This study attempts to investigate the impacts of local and regional climatic trends, and establish key forcing functions that have changed local groundwater resources. The main questions answered through this study include: Are these changes beneficial or detrimental? If they are detrimental, what is the future outlook for impacts on the ecosystem? What are the corrective actions needed to avert the long-term risks in arid environments? In view of this, the methodology developed in this study focuses on a joint time-series statistical analysis using ground data as well as Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data. Results show a substantial depletion in the groundwater thickness (0.24 ± 0.20 cm/year) during the period of observation (2002–2020). Long-term temperature data indicates that the annual mean temperature increased significantly by 1.02 °C between 1987 and 2016, while total rainfall exhibited a slight decreasing trend. In addition to groundwater extraction, fluctuations in monthly rainfall, soil moisture, evapotranspiration and relative humidity support the groundwater thickness reduction of GRACE datasets. The use of desalinated water and wastewater reuse in the agriculture sector may reduce the pressure on groundwater resources. Optimization, adaptation and mitigation in the EWF nexus will further improve the sustainability of the EWF resources.

A simple and low cost assay for total iron in various samples based on dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) coupled with digital scanning image analysis was proposed. Orthogonal experiment design was utilized to optimize the amount of extraction solvent and disperser solvent, O-phenanthroline concentration and buffer pH. Under the optimum conditions, the calibration curve was linear over the range of 0.047–1.0μgmL−1 (R2>0.99) of iron. The limit of detection (LOD) for iron was 14.1μgL−1 and limit of quantification (LOQ) was 46.5μgL−1. The relative standard deviations for seven replicate determinations of 0.5μgmL−1 of iron was 3.75%. The method was successfully applied for analysis of total iron in water and food samples without using any spectral instrument and it could have a potential industrial impact in developing fast and portable devices to analyze the iron content in water and certain foods.

One disadvantage of pesticide use in agriculture are the residues that remain in food and drinking water. In addition to analyzing consumer intolerance to pesticide residues for various food groups (fruit/vegetables, cereals/cereal products, and potatoes) according to the degree of product processing, the present study investigates consumer knowledge and attitudes regarding the EU's regulations on maximum residue levels (comparatively) for both food and drinking water. A survey of 1,195 German consumers was conducted by means of an online questionnaire. Different statistical analysis methods were used for the data analysis. The results show that EU regulations on maximum residue levels were known to 62.7% of respondents regarding food, and to 60.9% of the respondents regarding drinking water. Both pesticide residues in general and those exceeding the maximum residue levels were considered rather problematic. There was an ambivalent attitude towards the maximum residue levels. The attitudinal differences between food and drinking water were small to marginal. The analyses of pesticide residue intolerance with respect to degree of food processing showed that the highest intolerance was found with unprocessed/minimally processed products, followed by food products with higher processing degrees. Overall, these findings underline the consumer-sided general importance of the residue issue and argue for more sustainable agricultural systems characterized by pesticide use reduction or avoidance.

The presented study investigates the application of MnO₂/3MgO nanocomposite, as a new sorbent for solid phase extraction and determination of trace amounts of Pb²⁺ and Cu²⁺ from various samples using flame atomic absorption spectrometry. After extraction, the analytes were desorbed using 0.01 M ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. The effects of various parameters were studied and optimized. Under optimized experimental conditions the linear dynamic ranges for Cu²⁺ and Pb²⁺ were 10‒900 and 30‒900 μg/L, respectively, with a preconcentration factor of 20. The detection limits of Cu²⁺ and Pb²⁺ were 4 and 11 μg/L, respectively, and relative standard deviations for eight determinations of 100 μg/L were 3.6 and 3.8% for Cu²⁺ and Pb²⁺, respectively. The method was successfully applied for determination of copper and lead in mushrooms, rice, tap water and refinery wastewater with good spike recoveries ranging between 95‒106%.