Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising renewable resource for the production of biofuels and biochemicals. Energycane is considered a lignocellulosic biomass characterized by its high fiber content and cold tolerance. It can be planted on marginal land and does not need to compete with the food supply. Wet storage in combination with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or white-rot fungi was applied to energycane bagasse to preserve the lignocellulosic polymeric sugars (cellulose and hemicellulose) during short-term storage (60 days) and to make them accessible for conversion into biofuels and biochemicals. Alkaline-assisted wet storage was successful in preserving the biomass by minimizing microbial degradation, increasing lignin degradation, preventing cellulose degradation, and enhancing sugar digestibility. Four sodium hydroxide loadings (0, 5, 7.5, and 10 g NaOH/kg dry matter) at two moisture contents (45% and 75%) were applied to energycane bagasse. Higher loadings of sodium hydroxide and lower moisture content resulted in less cellulose degradation and greater lignin degradation. Higher moisture content (75%) resulted in higher sugar digestibility. Sodium hydroxide loading of 10% wt. at a moisture content of 45% was the optimal condition that preserved the most glucan (40%), degraded the most lignin (67%) and hemicellulose (48%), and resulted in 69% cellulose digestibility and 43% hemicellulose digestibility during the 60 days storage of energycane bagasse. Fungal-assisted wet storage using white-rot fungus, Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, was also successful in preserving the biomass by inhibiting microbial growth, increasing lignin degradation, preventing cellulose degradation, and enhancing sugar digestibility. At 75% moisture, fungal-assisted storage of energycane bagasse resulted in 44% lignin degradation and 2% cellulose loss as compared to 14% and 31% from untreated samples, respectively. The majority of lignin degradation occurred after 10 days, and no significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed in fungal treated samples after 50 days. Cellulose digestibility (67%) and hemicellulose digestibility (34%) of white-rot fungus treated samples were higher than untreated samples (38% and 20%, respectively). This study indicated that sodium hydroxide and white-rot fungal assisted wet storage were efficient in preserving glucan, removing lignin and increasing sugar digestibility of energycane bagasse.

Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic immune-mediated disease of the small intestine caused by the ingestion of gluten. Gluten presents to the intestine largely intact where it is deamidated by Transglutaminase-2 (TG2), increasing affinity for Human Leukocyte Antigen DQ2 (HLA-DQ2) and forming a complex that elicits an inflammatory response ultimately leading to villous atrophy. The only current treatment is strict adherence to a gluten-free diet, though TG2 inhibition is an attractive therapy due its central role in CD pathogenesis. Cocoa contains procyanidin-B2, theobromine and caffeine and may be capable of inhibiting TG2-induced intestinal inflammation and reduce CD symptoms. Procyanidin-B2 rich cocoa extracts reduced TG2 levels by up to 77% in vitro using Caco-2 cells. Significant TG2 inhibition was seen when cocoa extracts contained at least 8.5 μM procyanidin-B2 (p<0.05). Other CD inflammatory biomarkers including COX-2 and IL-15 were also significantly decreased in the presence of cocoa extracts. Serum cytokines IL-6, IL-8 and IL-1β are commonly used to monitor CD and were analyzed using ELISA to confirm the inhibition of inflammatory biomarkers. This study shows promising results for use of a bioactive-rich cocoa product as a dietary inhibitor of TG2 that can be used with wheat-based products as an alternative therapy in CD.

Juglone, a naphthoquinone found in Juglandaceae family, which includes black walnut, European walnut, and butter nut possess various biological activities. The anti-cancer properties of juglone has been reported; however, the effect of juglone in pancreatic cancer (PC) has not been elucidated yet. PC is an aggressive lethal, highly metastatic disease associated with poor prognosis and high mortality rate. PC is usually diagnosed in advanced stage and chemotherapy is provided as a first line of treatment. The de novo chemoresistance that develops with chemotherapeutic treatment creates a critical need for identification of novel therapeutic agents for effectively targeting the disease. The effects of juglone on PC cell proliferation, level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and expression of various oncogenic signal transduction molecules in MIA Paca-2, pancreatic carcinoma cells were investigated. The major findings indicate that treatment with juglone dose dependently suppressed the in vitro proliferation and induced cell death of rapidly dividing human PC cells with an IC50 value of 5 μM at 24 h. Long-term colonies forming ability of PC cells was also significantly inhibited. The molecular mechanisms behind juglone-induced apoptosis of PC cells indicated activation of caspase-3, cleavage of PARP, upregulation of Bax, down regulation of Akt, ERK, HER-2, Cox-2, and Bcl-2 and very high production of ROS leading to chromatin condensation, DNA damage and cell death. Changes in morphological features of cell treated with juglone were obtained by confocal microscopy using Hoechst staining, which specified apoptotic features in treated cells. The results also revealed the anti-angiogenic and anti-metastatic potential of juglone. PC cell migration and invasion was significantly reduced with juglone treatment and the potential of endothelial cells to form tubes was also limited when treated with juglone. Key angiogenic regulators such as HIF-1α and VEGF were also downregulated with juglone treatment. Taken together, our data suggest that of ROS-inducing agent juglone could provide a novel therapeutic approach for PC treatment.

Chitosan (CH) is a biopolymer obtained from the deacetylation of chitin, a polysaccharide present in the exoskeleton of crustaceans and cell walls of fungi. Application of CH may be limited by its water-insolubility. It can be dissolved in acids and forms relatively high viscosity solutions. CH solutions have antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. CH penetration into shrimp may be facilitated by vacuum tumbling with low viscosity chitosan-sodium tripolyphosphate (CH-TPP) nanoparticle or water-soluble chitosan (WSC) solutions. It is expected that this would reduce lipid oxidation and microbial loads. In this study, CH-TPP and WSC solutions were developed and applied to shrimp, and the quality characteristics during frozen storage were evaluated. This research was conducted in two separate studies. In the first study, four treatment solutions were prepared: (1) a 1% acetic acid (AA) solution, (2) a CH in AA solution, (3) a sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) in AA solution, and (4) a CH-TPP in AA solution. The solutions were sonicated and then sheared in an ultra-homogenizer to reduce particle size. In the second study, WSC was produced by enzymatic hydrolysis. Two treatment solutions were prepared: (1) a 0.1 M AA solution and (2) a WSC in distilled water (DW) solution. In both studies, fresh shrimp meat was separately vacuum tumbled with the solutions, cryogenically frozen, and evaluated for quality characteristics under frozen storage. Fresh shrimp meat tumbled with DW and fresh shrimp meat without tumbling (NT) were used as controls. Shrimp treated with CH, CH-TPP, and WSC had lower aerobic plate counts (APC) compared to other treatments after 120 days of storage at -20 °C. However, only the WSC treatment decreased yeast and mold counts (YMC) in the shrimp. CH, CH-TPP, and WSC treatments could aid in retention of color, texture, and moisture content of shrimp. Additionally, CH, CH-TPP, and WSC treatments produced the highest reduction in lipid oxidation compared to other treatments. This research indicated that CH, CH-TPP, and WSC solutions, combined with vacuum tumbling, can be effective at reducing APC and lipid oxidation in shrimp during frozen storage. As WSC can be dissolved in water, it may have greater application potential in seafood than CH or CH-TPP.

Use of pesticide has become part of modern day agricultural practice. Some pesticides can remain in the environment for decades and contaminate surface water that is used for irrigation of produce. Two studies were conducted- first to examine possible pesticide residue in surface water and some fruits, vegetables and cereals in Louisiana; and second was to alleviate possible pesticide residues in the water using zeolite filtration. Samples of 8 foods (tomato, corn, rice, blueberry, cucumber, cabbage, wheat and melon) and 35 surface waters were studied using a QuEChERS extraction method for food samples and an EPA method for the water samples. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to analyze water and food samples. Alleviation of pesticide residues was attempted for 10 water samples using a natural zeolite filtration. One water sample was filtered through a surfactant (HDTMA-Cl)-modified-zeolite. Eighteen pesticides were detected in the surface water samples and 5 in the food samples. Pesticides detected were below FDA limit but 0.18 ppm cypermethrin found in tomato was 90 % close to the FDA limit (0.2 ppm). Alleviation was achieved in 9 water samples out of 10 samples that were filtered through zeolite. The highest removal of pesticides from water with zeolite was 100 % in bifenthrin in CLC sample, followed by 99.1 % in atrazine in the same sample. Minimum reduction of 10.9 % was in metolachlor in sample BRH. Further reduction of pesticide residues up to 50 % was recorded in the SMZ treatment as the concentrations of 4 out of 8 pesticide residues were reduced. This study suggests the need to intermittently monitor pesticide contamination in our food and water.

The use of beans in the human diet provides an excellent source of dietary fiber and has potential for lowering glycemic load. Prepared meals with high levels of dietary fiber and low glycemic loads were found to be rare in a market survey of nine stores with various price points in the greater Baton Rouge area. The majority of the prepared meals found fell into low or medium fiber categories with medium to high glycemic loads. This indicates a need to increase the fiber level and decrease the glycemic load in popular foods. The purpose of this research is to accomplish these changes in prepared meals by substituting a portion of the standard pasta flour with bean flour. Various mixtures of pinto bean, navy bean, black bean, enriched semolina, and 00 flours (a high-gluten red spring wheat flour) were tested using a standard Rapid Visco Analysis method and the visco-elastic properties were compared with the control flour. The addition of navy bean four to the control flour was found to produce a composite flour with a similar texture at 25%, 30%, and 50% substitution levels. A calculated proximate analysis was performed on three ravioli produced: a control, a 50%, and a 75% navy bean ravioli. A 14% DV and a 21% DV increase in dietary fiber were predicted for the 50% and 75% navy bean ravioli, respectively. A seven and a ten gram decrease in glycemic load were predicted for the 50% and the 75% navy bean ravioli. The three ravioli types were also subjected to a sensory study with 103 participants. It was found that the color, texture, aroma, appearance, and liking preferences were not significantly changed by the substitution of navy bean flour at a 50% substitution level (α = 0.05). These characteristics of commercially available frozen pasta meals were also measured with a blind consumer survey of consumers ages 65 and older. The predominant unsatisfactory characteristics found were texture and color. In comparison, the texture and color were not significantly altered by the 50% substitution of navy bean flour in the ravioli sensory study.

Norovirus (NoV) is the principal cause of viral gastroenteritis in the United States. It has been linked to filter-feeding molluscan shellfish, that bioaccumulate the virus from contaminated surrounding waters. The consumption of raw or undercooked contaminated oysters may result in acute gastroenteritis. We investigated the occurrence of NoV GI and GII and microbial indicators of fecal contamination in oysters and harvesting water from areas along the Louisiana Gulf Coast. We developed a filtration and concentration method for the detection of NoV from oyster harvesting waters. Lastly, this body of work compares commonly used molecular techniques (RT-PCR) and a commercial enzyme immunoassay for the detection of NoV. One oyster sample was positive for norovirus GII at 3.5 ± 0.2 log10 genomic equivalent copies/g digestive tissues, however the surrounding water tested negative for NoV. Zeolite granules were used for the filtration of norovirus-seeded waters. Beef Extract (10%) in McIlvaines buffer was the optimal elution buffer resulting in an average percent recovery of 41.76 + 0.07 (p<0.05). Artificial and environmental waters with 20ppt salt had an observed average percent recovery of 40.79 + 0.19 and 18.95 + 0.24, respectively which was significantly higher than 0, 5, 10, 15, and 25ppt (p<0.05). The observed percent recoveries for artificial and environmental waters were 44.03 + 0.20 and 34.36 + 0.02, respectively. The percent recovery for artificial and environmental water using TaqMan® Fast Virus 1-Step RT-qPCR was 38.85% + 0.27 and 19.77% + 0.07, respectively. In comparison, SuperScript® III Platinum One-Step qRT-PCR exhibited an average percent recovery of 11.12% + 0.183 and 15.55% + 0.225 for artificial and environmental waters. The EIA assay assay was not sensitive enough to detect NoV in the elution samples despite RT-qPCR methods quantifying the virus concentration between 104 and 105 genomic copies/ml. As such, it is not an effective method for the detection of NoV from environmental water matrices without RT-qPCR as a secondary validation method. This body of work provides an effective method to detect norovirus in oyster harvesting waters. Our results emphasize the need for regular monitoring of pathogenic viruses in oyster harvesting areas to reduce viral gastroenteritis incidences.

Foodservice outlets have the potential to enhance the experience of visitors to a wide range of visitor attractions. As such introducing authentic foodservice outlets could potentially play significant role in the development of cultural-heritage and natural attractions in Ghana. Consuming local traditional foods leave nostalgic, memorable feelings, which create 'golden locations' and in turn encourage repeat visits and increase visitor traffic at these locations. The foodservice sector has however, been supported in Ghana generally and has been largely ignored at visitor attractions. In situations where foodservice outlets are limited, visitors can potentially find themselves unable to purchase any refreshments at the attractions. This detracts from their experience and discourages repeat visits. The main aim of this thesis is critically to evaluate the integration of foodservice at Ghanaian visitor attractions and to identify a suitable approach for developing authentic foodservice outlets at the sites. This thesis derived data from both secondary and primary research. With the lack of available data and records on Ghanaian visitor attractions and foodservice operations, the primary data collection exercise used a mixed-method approach in a two-Phase study over a one-year period. An exploratory survey of visitor attractions and foodservice operations in the research area, which also involved focus groups (n=56) and individual (n=6) interviews, within the academia and with stakeholders of tourism and foodservice sectors. Based on the findings of the Phasel study, the Phase2 study, involved a visitor survey (n=528) at six selected visitor attractions. A follow-up interview was conducted with attractions and foodservice personnel (n=24) at the attractions where the survey was conducted. The findings of the research have confirmed that the Ghanaian tourism industry has overlooked foodservice sector in the development of tourism and particularly at visitor attractions. It also established the importance of foodservice as part of the overall experiences at visitor attractions. It proposes independent! multi-owned/ franchises as the best alternative approaches for developing and integrating authentic foodservice outlets with Ghanaian visitor attractions. Therefore, the study proposes introducing formally trained staff to the informal traditional foodservice outlets to develop authentic foodservice outlets at visitor attractions as a positive way to support the tourism industry in Ghana. It also suggests that the proposals made to address the current situation in Ghana may be applicable to other countries in Africa seeking to develop sectors of their economies and be of interest to the relevant and the international bodies such as UNWTO, UNDP, and UNEP who seek to promote the development of sustainable tourism practices.

The subject of this Ph.D. thesis is Customer Satisfaction in Malaysian Malay Restaurants Dining Experience. The research was conducted in three Malay family restaurants in Malaysia by using an inductive Case Study research approach. The aim of the research was to propose a conceptual framework for customer satisfaction dining experience. It focused on dining experience satisfaction consumption related to factors in, and the management of, customer satisfaction. The implications of the findings provide a theoretical and methodological contribution to the knowledge in both, Malaysia and the rest of the world. Adopting the Case Study research approach gave an opportunity to collect data that stems from three Malay family restaurants in Malaysia using a wide variety of data collection methods. The findings presented in this thesis were based on an in-depth interview with 108 restaurant customers who dined at the restaurants and 18 restaurant staff, particularly front of house and kitchen staff, besides the owner and manager of each restaurant. Daily participant observation for each restaurant took 5 to 9 hours a day for between 27 and 30 days. The findings were also based on a number of supplementary data from documentary evidence such as staff working timetables, menu cards/ books, staff attendance punch cards, stock check lists, reservation records and restaurant organisational charts. The contributions of this study comprise of six major themes: Firstly, dining experience is a continuous process which starts with the customers’ first engagement with the restaurant at the reservation stage and continues until they leave the restaurant at the departure stage. Therefore, to ensure customers’ loyalty, restaurateurs needed to ensure all tangible and intangible factors that influenced satisfaction at each stage of the dining process (pre-meal experience; antecedent experience; reservation experience and arrival experience; the actual meal experience: seating experience and food experience; and post-meal experience: payment experience and departure experience) were integrated together (they did not work as separate entities and should not be treated individually) to provide valuable, meaningful, memorable and holistic satisfaction to every customer who dined at the restaurant. Secondly, factors influencing customer satisfaction at the pre-meal experience were the availability of a reservation service, both formal and informal, and customers’ phone calls for reservations being answered quickly by restaurants’ polite and professional staff. Meanwhile, at the dining arrival stage, factors influencing customers’ satisfaction were being assisted by a free parking attendant, having a parking area close to the premises, punctuality of restaurant business hours and offering a 24-hour restaurant operation to the public. The meal experience stage was found to be a major stage among seven stages of the dining experience process, with menu variety, and food presentation and display as the core of restaurant service. iv Factors influencing dining satisfaction during the actual meal experience were related to a unique cultural preference concept for Malay restaurants such as private dining space, food quality attribute of authenticity, eating style, restaurant decoration, waiting activities, prayer room, and traditional live band. Satisfaction influence factors for post-meal experience were self service payment, being bid farewell and being escorted to the exit door. Thirdly, this study because it adopted a qualitative research approach, managed to venture the role of Maslow’s Theory in customer satisfaction through the hierarchy of satisfaction of dining experience. The lowest level satisfaction was achieved when the basic needs of the customers’ dining at the restaurant was fulfilled or what restaurants provided to the customers was adequate or equal with customers’ expectation. A moderate level of satisfaction was achieved when customers could control their own dining activities. A high level of satisfaction resulted when the restaurants offered something above ordinary or which exceeded customers’ expectation. The highest level of satisfaction was achieved when the restaurants provided something that was outstanding and which surpassed the ordinary needs of the customers. Fourthly, the major way of managing factors influencing customer satisfaction dining experience was based on a systematic restaurant operation system. However, the key element that was responsible for the management of a systematic restaurant operation system depended on human resource management (the restaurant manager, front of house staff and kitchen staff), staff training and development, and restaurant rules. Fifthly, the analyses of customer satisfaction in a new socio-cultural context: Malaysian Malay restaurants provided an opportunity for a cross-comparison of ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ research findings and the identification of what was the same and what was different depending on the cultural context. Sixthly, the development of a conceptual framework had three major concepts: the input for the dining experience satisfaction (which consisted of factors influencing dining satisfaction and ways of managing it); the consumption of dining experience satisfaction at three phases: pre-meal, the actual meal and post-meal experience and the cognitive evaluation process of dining experience that led to satisfaction. And, lastly, the outcomes of dining experience satisfaction (in a form of pleasurable feelings and behavioural changes) which aided the understanding of customer satisfaction with the dining experience and ways managing it. This research suggested future research should consider additional factors to explain the overall satisfaction with the dining experience at Malaysian Malay restaurants (and /including) cross- type of restaurants and demographic profiles of customers; expand this research throughout the country to improve the transferability of the findings to other types of restaurant to assist restaurant managers in better matching the needs of each customer segment; extend the research to different ethnic restaurants that have different characteristics and attributes; undertake a comparative study of factors influencing customer satisfaction in Malay restaurants between two different groups of customers, such as Eastern versus Western; conduct a longitudinal study to compare changes in factors that influence customers’ satisfaction with dining experience at different times; and investigate whether the meal experience stage still plays the most important role in different types of restaurants.

Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is regarded as the major cause of infectious diarrhea in humans after antimicrobial treatment. C. difficile has been reported to be widely isolated from food animals and meat. The main purpose of this study was to characterize C. difficile isolates from retail fresh vegetable (lettuce), test the antibiotic-resistance property using five common clinical-selected antibiotics (metronidazole, vancomycin, clindamycin, erythromycin, and cefotaxime). Lettuces (grown in California, Arkansas, and Louisiana) were purchased from retail stores. Toxigenic C. difficile was isolated from 13.8% (41/297) of the lettuce samples. Among the toxigenic isolates, 82.9% (34/41) only produce toxin B, and 17.1% (7/41) produced both toxin A and toxin B. Under the treatment of the five antibiotics, the virulence C. difficile isolates were identified as having antibiotic resistance to metronidazole, vancomycin, and erythromycin. The present study reports the highest toxigenic C. difficile yield rate from varieties of retail vegetables (lettuce) in the USA. The antibiotic resistance to metronidazole, vancomycin, and erythromycin of the isolated C. difficle from varieties of retail lettuces could lead to public health concerns.