Antimicrobial Activity and Hydrophobicity of Edible Whey Protein Isolate Films Formulated with Nisin and/or Glucose Oxidase

The use of edible antimicrobial films has been reported as a means to improve food shelf life through gradual releasing of antimicrobial compounds on the food surface. This work reports the study on the incorporation of 2 antimicrobial agents, nisin (N), and/or glucose oxidase (GO), into the matrix of Whey protein isolate (WPI) films at pH 5.5 and 8.5. The antimicrobial activity of the edible films was evaluated against Listeria innocua (ATCC 33090), Brochothrix thermosphacta (NCIB10018), Escherichia coli (JMP101), and Enterococcus faecalis (MXVK22). In addition, the antimicrobial activity was related to the hydrophobicity and water solubility of the WPI films. The greatest antibacterial activity was observed in WPI films containing only GO. The combined addition of N and GO resulted in films with lower antimicrobial activity than films with N or GO alone. In most cases, a pH effect was observed as greater antimicrobial response at pH 5.5 as well as higher film matrix hydrophobicity. WPI films supplemented with GO can be used in coating systems suitable for food preservation.     

A Fluorometric CYP19A1 (Aromatase) Activity Assay in Live Cells

Inhibition of estrogen synthesis is an integral component of the frontline pharmacologic therapy for the treatment of estrogen receptor positive cancers. However, there is currently no direct, high-throughput-ready assay for aromatase (also known as CYP19A1) that can be performed in live cells. Herein we present a cell-based assay that allows for multiplexed assessment of enzyme activity, protein half-life, cell viability, and identification of inhibitors with slow off-rates.     

Procedural justice as a criterion in allocation decisions.

336 undergraduates considered allocations made within 16 representative types of interpersonal relationships that varied with regard to social-emotional or task basis, cooperative or competitive style of interaction, causal or rule-directed behavior, and power distribution. Ss also rated the importance of 8 allocation criteria, such as objectivity and practicality, and of 6 criteria for judging procedural fairness, such as consistency and correctability. Results suggest that procedural justice was a more important criterion in decisions concerning resource allocations than were a variety of nonfairness criteria and that it was equal in importance to distributive justice. The meaning of procedural justice in allocations and the relation of procedural justice concerns to social allocation goals are explored. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Just because you're imaging the brain doesn't mean you can stop using your head: A primer and set of first principles.

Developments within the neurosciences, cognitive sciences, and social sciences have contributed to the emergence of social neuroscience. Among the most obvious contemporary developments are brain-imaging procedures such as functional magnetic resonance imaging. The authors outline a set of first principles designed to help make sense of brain-imaging research within the fields of cognitive and social neuroscience. They begin with a principle few would debate--that social cognition, emotion, and behavior involve the brain--but whose implications might not be entirely obvious to those new to the field. The authors conclude that (a) complex aspects of the mind and behavior will benefit from yet a broader collaboration of neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and social scientists, and (b) social psychologists bring important theoretical, methodological, and statistical expertise to this interdisciplinary enterprise. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synthesis and corrosion inhibition mechanism of ammonium-based ionic liquids on API 5L X60 steel in sulfuric acid solution

A novel class of four new-free-halide-ionic liquids (ILs) derived from ammonium was synthesized and characterized via spectroscopic methods such as ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR. The synthesized compounds were evaluated as corrosion inhibitors (CIs) of API 5L X60 steel in 1 M sulfuric acid by means of the potentiodynamic polarization and weight loss techniques. The results confirmed that the inhibition efficiency displayed by the four ILs is a function of their concentration and molecular structure. The obtained inhibition efficiency (η) ranged from 51 to 89%, confirming that the new class of ILs is good for corrosion inhibition purposes. The analysis of the potentiodynamic results showed that these compounds inhibit the corrosion of steel, classifying them as mixed-type CIs. The adsorption process of these new CIs on the API 5L X60 steel surface, which obeyed the Langmuir isotherm, was found to be physical and chemical. The SEM and EDX analyses confirmed the protection of steel in the corrosive medium.     

Manipulation Complexity of Same-System Runoff Elections

Do runoff elections, using the same voting rule as the initial election but just on the winning candidates, increase or decrease the complexity of manipulation? Does allowing revoting in the runoff increase or decrease the complexity relative to just having a runoff without revoting? For both weighted and unweighted voting, we show that even for election systems with simple winner problems the complexity of manipulation, manipulation with runoffs, and manipulation with revoting runoffs are independent. On the other hand, for some important, well-known election systems we determine what holds for each of these cases. For no such systems do we find runoffs lowering complexity, and for some we find that runoffs raise complexity. Ours is the first paper to show that for natural, unweighted election systems, runoffs can increase the manipulation complexity.     

The complexity of online voter control in sequential elections

Previous work on voter control, which refers to situations where a chair seeks to change the outcome of an election by deleting, adding, or partitioning voters, takes for granted that the chair knows all the voters’ preferences and that all votes are cast simultaneously. However, elections are often held sequentially and the chair thus knows only the previously cast votes and not the future ones, yet needs to decide instantaneously which control action to take. We introduce a framework that models online voter control in sequential elections. We show that the related problems can be much harder than in the standard (non-online) case: For certain election systems, even with efficient winner problems, online control by deleting, adding, or partitioning voters is \(\mathrm {PSPACE}\)-complete, even if there are only two candidates. In addition, we obtain (by a new characterization of coNP in terms of weight-bounded alternating Turing machines) completeness for \({\mathrm {coNP}}\) in the deleting/adding cases with a bounded deletion/addition limit, and we obtain completeness for \({\mathrm {NP}}\) in the partition cases with an additional restriction. We also show that for plurality, online control by deleting or adding voters is in \({\mathrm {P}}\), and for partitioning voters is \({\mathrm {coNP}}\)-hard.