The Development of a Screening Tool for Childcare Professionals to Detect and Refer Infant and Toddler Maltreatment and Trauma: A Tale of Four Countries.

Unlabelled: Child maltreatment is considered a pressing social question, compromising the present and future mental and physical health of one in four children in Europe. While children younger than three years of age are especially vulnerable, few screening instruments are available for the detection of risk in this age group. The purpose of this research was to develop a screening tool for childcare professionals working in public and private daycare settings to support them in the early identification and referral of infants and toddlers exposed to emotional and physical abuse and neglect by primary caregivers, to be used in different settings across four European countries: Belgium, Italy, Latvia, and Hungary.

Transfer of certain beta-lactam antibiotics from cow's milk to fresh cheese and whey.

The aim of this study was to investigate the transfer of cephalexin, penicillin-G, and ampicillin & cloxacillin from cow's milk to cheese and whey. For this purpose, raw milk was artificially contaminated to different antibiotic levels and then heat-treated to prepare fresh cheese from it. Antibiotic levels of the milk, whey and cheese were measured with LC-MS/MS.

LC-MS study of the heat degradation of veterinary antibiotics in raw milk after boiling.

The aim of our study was to examine the degradation of veterinary antibiotics in milk during boiling. Raw cow milk samples were fortified with the target compounds and boiled for various short time-intervals prevailing in household practice. Antibiotic concentrations were determined by LC-MS/MS measurements.

In vitro study on the effect of doxycycline on the microbial activity of soil determined by redox-potential measuring system.

The potential effect of doxycycline on the microbial activity was investigated in three types of soil. Soil samples were spiked with doxycycline, incubated at 25°C and tested at 0, 2, 4 and 6 days after treatment. The microbiological activity of the soil was characterized by the viable count determined by plate pouring and by the time necessary to reach a defined rate of the redox-potential decrease termed as time to detection (TTD).

Rapid detection of Listeria monocytogenes in raw milk and soft cheese by a redox potential measurement based method combined with real-time PCR.

The incidence of outbreaks of foodborne listeriosis has indicated the need for a reliable and rapid detection of the microbe in different foodstuffs. A method combining redox potential measurement and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was developed to detect Listeria monocytogenes in artificially contaminated raw milk and soft cheese. Food samples of 25 g or 25 ml were homogenised in 225 ml of Listeria Enrichment Broth (LEB) with Oxford supplement, and the redox potential measurement technique was applied.