The microbiology of mixed salad containing raw and cooked ingredients without dressing

Growth of aerobic mesophilic bacteria in mixed salad without dressing, containing cooked sweet corn and raw endive, was similar to that of raw endive alone. At 9°C, sweet corn permitted the growth of the lactic acid bacterium Leuconostoc mesenteroides , whenever the bacterium was present on raw endive, whereas no growth of lactic acid bacteria was recorded on raw endive alone. Listeria monocytogenes , artificially inoculated in the samples, grew more in the mixed salad than in the raw endive alone, for products stored at 6°C and 9°C. Acidification of sweet corn to pH 5.0 was proposed to reduce the development of L. monocytogenes in the mixed salad to a level similar to that recorded in the raw endive alone. Acidification with citric acid reduced spoilage of sweet corn, whereas acetic acid caused necrosis on the leaves of raw endive.     

Protein translocation: delivering virulence into the host cell

A wide variety of plant and human bacterial pathogens use a specialized 'type III' protein secretion system to deliver virulence factors into host cells. Appendage-like surface structures have recently been identified on several bacterial pathogens and there are indications that these may be conduits for virulence factor delivery.     

Binding characteristics of novel nonsteroidal antiestrogens to the rat uterine estrogen receptors

Tamoxifen (TAM), the only antiestrogen currently available for the endocrine therapy of breast cancer behaves as a mixed agonist/antagonist of estrogen action, thus limiting its therapeutic potential. We report the binding characteristics of a novel series of nonsteroidal antiestrogens to the rat uterine estrogen receptor. As measured by competition studies, the affinity of EM-652, the active metabolite of the prodrug EM-800, for the estrogen receptor is 7-11 times higher than that of 17beta-estradiol (E2), ICI 182780, and hydroxy-tamoxifen (OH-TAM), the active metabolite of Tamoxifen. EM-652 is 20x more potent than ICI 164384 and Droloxifene while it is 400 times more potent than Toremifene in displacing [3H]E2 from the rat uterine estrogen receptor. On the other hand, the prodrug EM-800 and Tamoxifen have respectively 150-fold and 410-fold less affinity for the estrogen receptor than the pure antiestrogen EM-652. No significant binding of EM-652, EM-800, TAM or OH-TAM was observed to the rat uterine progesterone receptor at concentrations up to 10,000 nM except for TAM that caused a 50% displacement of labeled R5020 at 4000 nM. No significant binding of EM-652 or EM-800 was observed on the rat ventral prostate androgen receptor or the rat uterine progesterone receptor. The present data demonstrate the high affinity and specificity of the new antiestrogen, EM-652, for the rat uterine estrogen receptor. The antiestrogen EM-652 thus becomes the compound having the highest known affinity for the estrogen receptor. Due to its unique potency and its pure antiestrogenic activity already demonstrated in many systems, this antiestrogen could well offer an important advance for the endocrine therapy of breast cancer, uterine cancer, and other estrogen-sensitive diseases in women.     

Mécanisme de l’évolution des champs électromagnétiques dans un simulateur de grandes dimensions. Projet d’un simulateur semi-rhombique

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate theoretically and experimentally the transient electric field in anemp simulator. Using a time domain analysis, the mechanism of the field deformation can be analysed and consequently modifications can be introduced in the conception of new simulators (for example: rhombic simulator).     

Realizations of nonlinear analytic input-output maps

Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the existence of paracompact realizations of nonlinear analytic input-output maps when these are defined for positive time and when the set of control values is finite. (This work is a sequel to that of Jakubczyk and Gauthier and Bornard.) Finally, we underline, via an example, the difficulty of this problem in the case of infinitely many control values.     

Physicochemical Properties of Palm Oil-Based Puff Pastry Model Margarines Related to Their Baking Performance in Long-Term Storage

Developing trans-free alternative fat solutions suitable for specific applications remains a challenge in edible fats and other domains. This is particularly true for palm oil-based puff pastry margarines, which suffer from post crystallization problems, leading to dramatic loss of functionality. This research is aimed at investigating the influence of triacylglycerol (TAG) compositions of palm oil-based puff pastry margarines on the physical properties of the fat crystal network, which determine the functionality of such products. Three model puff pastry margarines are produced at pilot scale under the same crystallization conditions. They share the same fatty acid composition and close solid fat content (SFC) profiles, whereas the proportions of major TAG (tripalmitoylglycerol (PPP), 1,3-di-palmitoyl-2-oleoylglycerol (POP), 1,2-di-palmitoyl-3-oleoylglycerol (PPO), 1,2-dioleoyl-3-palmitoylglycerol (POO)) are different. Polymorphism, melting profile, hardness, microscopic structures, and baking performance (puffing effect) of the model fats are examined during a period of 6 months. The following results are obtained: 1) The TAG composition significantly influences the post crystallization processes occurring in palm oil-based margarines. 2) High amounts of POP show negative influences. 3) The proportions of POP, PPO, and PPP should be carefully balanced to prevent detrimental crystal network rearrangements, leading to textural modifications (hardness increase) and significant reduction in baking performance. Practical Applications : The results presented in this work could be helpful for edible fat products developers, especially for roll-in fat applications. This research provides an overview of the relevant properties to study for the assessment of puff pastry margarine functionality. It also highlights the importance of ensuring long-term stability of palm oil-based fat products. Finally, it emphasizes that certain combinations of fat materials should be avoided to maintain the quality of palm oil-based puff pastry margarines.     

Degree of crosslinking and mechanical properties of crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) beads for use in solid-phase organic synthesis

The limited swellability in polar media of the commonly used polystyrene/divinylbenzene (PS-DVB) support materials for solid-phase organic synthesis has led to the development of novel, highly swellable hydrophilic gels designed for use in aqueous or polar media. Poly(vinyl alcohol) beads crosslinked with epichlorohydrin (PVA-EP) were prepared by a two-step inverse-suspension polymerization method. While it is known that the morphology of the resulting beads can be controlled by the ratio of EP versus PVA as well as by the pre-crosslinking time, the actual degree of crosslinking of the beads and their mechanical properties remain unknown. It is therefore the purpose of this study to evaluate the actual degree of crosslinking of beads prepared with different quantities of crosslinker in the feed by spectroscopic (Raman, nuclear magnetic resonance) and chemical (functional group loading) methods. The mechanical properties of these swollen PVA-EP beads will be evaluated by single-bead unconfined compression in solvents such as water, N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), and tetrahydrofuran (THF) and compared to model PS-DVB beads commonly used for solid phase synthesis.     

Reactive surfactants in heterophase polymerization. XVII. Influence of the surfactant on the mechanical properties and hydration of the films

In the context of a European union‐supported network on “Reactive Surfactants for Heterophase Polymerization,” different polymerizable surfactants (surfmers) have been synthesized and engaged in the emulsion polymerization of styrene, butyl acrylate, and acrylic acid. The thermomechanical properties of films cast from these different latices are reported in this article. The evolution of the mechanical properties with temperature and the effect of water molecules on these properties are studied. We observed that the studied surfactants do not influence the properties of the dry films. However, some differences due to grafting of reactive surfactants appeared when the films were wet. The amount of water uptake is drastically decreased when only reactive surfactants are present in the film. Concerning the mechanical behavior of the wet films, a decrease of the plastic flow stress is observed for all the samples whatever the nature of the surfactant (reactive or conventional). Hence, calorimetric measurements and dynamic mechanical analysis are used to identify the possible mechanisms that induce the change in the mechanical behavior of the latex films. In the case of reactive surfactant grafted to the polymer, the very low value of water uptake is accompanied by a plasticization of the polymer. In contrast, no plasticizing effect is observed in the case of nonreactive surfactant, even if the amount of water is very large. Finally, the tensile behavior of the styrene–butyl acrylate copolymer versus temperature is analyzed in the frame of the quasi point defects (qpd) model. Both rubber elasticity and chain orientation effects are taken into account to describe the behavior laws at large extensions (i.e., ? ≈ 1.2). © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 1686–1700, 2002; DOI 10.1002/app.10548     

Structures and morphologies of cast and plastically strained polyamide 6 films as evidenced by confocal Raman microspectroscopy and atomic force microscopy

Both confocal Raman microspectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been undertaken to study the crystalline and the morphological aspects of cast PA 6 films at a sub-microscopic scale. The percentages of the different crystalline structures present within PA 6 cast films, i.e. the monoclinic α, the pseudo-hexagonal β, and the monoclinic γ, have been measured by confocal Raman microspectroscopy. In cast films, the prevailing structure is the β one. AFM has been used to characterize the morphology of the PA 6 films. Simultaneously, the deformed state has been considered as well. Our main interest has been to follow the evolution of the percentage of each crystalline structure as a function of the plastic deformation mechanisms which are responsible of the yielding of PA 6 films: shear banding for temperatures T lower than 160 °C and formation of fibrils for      

MPaaS: Mobility prediction as a service in telecom cloud

Mobile applications and services relying on mobility prediction have recently spurred lots of interest. In this paper, we propose mobility prediction based on cellular traces as an infrastructural level service of telecom cloud. Mobility Prediction as a Service (MPaaS) embeds mobility mining and forecasting algorithms into a cloud-based user location tracking framework. By empowering MPaaS, the hosted 3rd-party and value-added services can benefit from online mobility prediction. Particularly we took Mobility-aware Personalization and Predictive Resource Allocation as key features to elaborate how MPaaS drives new fashion of mobile cloud applications. Due to the randomness of human mobility patterns, mobility predicting remains a very challenging task in MPaaS research. Our preliminary study observed collective behavioral patterns (CBP) in mobility of crowds, and proposed a CBP-based mobility predictor. MPaaS system equips a hybrid predictor fusing both CBP-based scheme and Markov-based predictor to provide telecom cloud with large-scale mobility prediction capacity.