Lovastatin production by Aspergillus terreus in a two‐staged feeding operation

BACKGROUND: Lovastatin is known to inhibit its own synthesis in the fungus Aspergillus terreus. Therefore, the use of a fermentation strategy that continuously removes some of the lovastatin produced from the bioreactor can enhance its productivity. This paper reports on the effects of dilution rate and the composition of the feed medium on lovastatin production by A. terreus. RESULTS: The feeding strategy consisted of an initial batch/fed‐batch phase and a semi‐continuous culture phase in which the pelleted biomass was retained inside a slurry bubble column. A nitrogen‐free medium was fed at various fixed dilution rates in the semi‐continuous phase. In experiments that were designed to assess the effects of the composition of the medium, the dilution rate was held at 0.42 d^?1, but different feed media were used in separate runs. The best two‐staged production strategy was shown to consist of a 96 h batch/fed‐batch phase that used a nutritionally complete medium. This was followed by a semi‐continuous operation using a medium that was free of both nitrogen and carbon sources. CONCLUSION: Semi‐continuous operation enhanced productivity of lovastatin by 315% compared with a conventional batch operation. The optimal dilution rate in semi‐continuous operation was about 0.42 d^?1. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

A General Framework for Web Content Filtering

Web content filtering is a means to make end-users aware of the ‘quality’ of Web resources by evaluating their contents and/or characteristics against users’ preferences. Although they can be used for a variety of purposes, Web content filtering tools are mainly deployed as a service for parental control purposes, and for regulating the access to Web content by users connected to the networks of enterprises, libraries, schools, etc. Current Web filtering tools are based on well established techniques, such as data mining and firewall blocking, and they typically cater to the filtering requirements of very specific end-user categories. Therefore, what is lacking is a unified filtering framework able to support all the possible application domains, and making it possible to enforce interoperability among the different filtering approaches and the systems based on them. In this paper, a multi-strategy approach is described, which integrates the available techniques and focuses on the use of metadata for rating and filtering Web information. Such an approach consists of a filtering meta-model, referred to as MFM (Multi-strategy Filtering Model), which provides a general representation of the Web content filtering domain, independently from its possible applications, and of two prototype implementations, partially carried out in the framework of the EU projects EUFORBIA and QUATRO, and designed for different application domains: user protection and Web quality assurance, respectively.     

Phenolic Profiles of Red Wine Relate to Vascular Endothelial Benefits Mediated by SIRT1 and SIRT6

Dietary phenolic compounds possess potent bioactivity against inflammatory pathways of chronic inflammatory conditions, such as type 2 diabetes. Here, the phenolic profile and bioactivity of Italian red wines Gaglioppo, Magliocco, and Nerello Mascalese were characterized. NMR, HPLC/UV-Vis and spectrophotometric characterization showed that Magliocco was the richest wine in monomeric anthocyanins (two-fold), catechins, and low molecular weight phenolics (LMWP). A positive correlation was observed between the polyphenolic content and antioxidant capacity (p < 0.05), with Magliocco displaying the highest antioxidant capacity (p < 0.01). In vitro evidence on the endothelial cell models of insulin resistance and hyperglycemia showed the ability of Magliocco to reduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) (p < 0.01) and cytokine release (p < 0.01) and to upregulate SIRT1 and SIRT6 (p < 0.01). On the whole, the results indicated that the quantitative and qualitative phenolic profiles of red wines influence their in vitro beneficial effects on oxidative and proinflammatory milieu in endothelial cells, showing a positive modulation of SIRT1 and SIRT6, both implied in vascular aging.     

Synthesis and characterization of novel poly(γ‐benzyl‐L‐glutamate) derivatives tailored for the preparation of nanoparticles of pharmaceutical interest

Four poly(γ‐benzyl‐L ‐glutamate) (PBLG) derivatives bearing at one end specific groups were synthesized by ring‐opening polymerization of the corresponding γ‐benzyl‐L ‐glutamate N‐carboxyanhydride using different amine‐terminated initiators. These moieties were chosen to introduce, on demand, specific functionalities in nanoparticles of pharmaceutical interest. The PBLG and PBLG derivatives were characterized by ¹H NMR, viscosimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. Nanoparticles smaller than 100 nm in diameter could be easily prepared from these PBLG derivatives by slight modification of a known nanoprecipitation technique. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Blending of styrene‐block‐butadiene‐block‐styrene copolymer with sulfonated vinyl aromatic polymers

Different polymers containing sulfonic groups attached to the phenyl rings were prepared by sulfonation of polystyrene (PS) and styrene‐block‐(ethylene‐co‐1‐butene)‐block‐styrene (SEBS). The sulfonation degree (SD) was varied between 1 and 20 mol% of the styrene units. Polyphase materials containing sulfonated units were prepared by blending styrene‐block‐butadiene‐block‐styrene (SBS), with both sulfonated PS and sulfonated SEBS in a Brabender mixer. Such a procedure was performed as an alternative route to direct sulfonation of SBS which is actually not selective towards benzene rings because of the great reactivity of the double bonds in polybutadiene (PB) blocks to sulfonation agents. Thermal and dynamic‐mechanic analysis, together with morphology characterization of the blends, is consistent with obtaining partially compatible blends characterized by higher T_g of the polystyrene domains and improved thermal stability. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry     

Challenges in atherosclerotic plaque characterization with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS): from data collection to classification

In vivo plaque characterization is an important research field in interventional cardiology. We will study the realistic challenges to this goal by deploying 40 MHz single-element, mechanically rotating transducers. The intrinsic variability among the transducers' spectral parameters as well as tissue signals will be demonstrated. Subsequently, we will show that global data normalization is not suited for data calibration, due to the aforementioned variations as well as the stringent characteristics of spectral features. We will describe the sensitivity of an existing feature extraction algorithm based on eight spectral signatures (integrated backscatter coefficient, slope, midband-fit (MBF), intercept, and maximum and minimum powers and their relative frequencies) to a number of factors, such as the window size and order of the autoregressive (AR) model. It will be further demonstrated that the variations in the transducer's spectral parameters (i.e., center frequency and bandwidth) cause inconsistencies among extracted features. In this paper, two fundamental questions are addressed: 1) what is the best reliable way to extract the most informative features? and 2) which classification algorithm is the most appropriate for this problem? We will present a full-spectrum analysis as an alternative to the eight-feature approach. For the first time, different classification algorithms, such as k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) and linear Fisher, will be employed and their performances quantified. Finally, we will explore the reliability of the training dataset and the complexity of the recognition algorithm and illustrate that these two aspects can highly impact the accuracy of the end result, which has not been considered until now.     

Thermal properties of ecological phosphate and silicate glasses

The present work deals with ecological phosphate and silicate glasses that belong to the oxide systems: Li₂O-MgO-P₂O₅, Li₂O-CaO-P₂O₅, Li₂O-MgO-P₂O₅-Fe₂O₃; Li₂O-CaO-P₂O₅-Fe₂O₃ and SiO₂-R₂O-R′O (R = Na, K; R′ = Mg, Ca), the last system contains certain amounts of ZrO₂, ZnO, TiO₂. These ecological glasses do not contain toxic substances as BaO, PbO, As₂O₃, As₂O₅, fluorine, CdS, CdSe and they have applications as regards the retention and counteracting action of the harmful compounds resulted from the nuclear plants. The replacement of MgO by CaO leads to an insignificant increasing of the thermal expansion index and a slight decreasing of the characteristic temperatures, except the softening point where the effect is opposite. Adding of iron oxide in the phosphate glass composition causes the increasing of characteristic temperatures and the decreasing of thermal expansion index, both in MgO and CaO-containing phosphate glasses. The ecological silicate glasses are used as opal glasses free of fluorine as well as for lead-free crystal glass (CFP) where BaO and PbO are replaced by non-toxic oxides as K₂O, MgO, ZrO₂, and TiO₂. The paper presents different glass compositions and the technological parameters to prepare the ecological glass samples. Both ecological phosphate and silicate glasses have been characterized as regards the characteristic temperatures (vitreous transition point, low and high annealing points, softening point) and the thermal expansion coefficient. This study presents the changes of the thermal parameters when CaO replaces MgO in phosphate glass samples and the role of iron oxide in the vitreous network. In the case of silicate glasses, the viscosity and wetting angle dependency of temperature are presented. The elemental analysis of the ecological glasses was made by XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) which also put in evidence the iron species from the vitreous network.     

CO Preferential Oxidation Activity of CuO/CeO2 Supported on Zirconium Doped Mesoporous MSU Type Silica

In this paper the comparison of activity of hopcalite (Mn–Cu mixed oxides) modified with noble metals (Pd, Pt and Au) calcined at 300, 400 and 500 °C in oxidation of thiophene was presented. Hopcalite modified with Pd demonstrated the highest activity among the studied samples, thus the results of a more detailed study of the most promising palladium catalyst were also shown. Surface and bulk properties of catalyst were studied with BET, XRD, TPR_H2 and TG-DTA-MS. The redox properties and distribution of active components on the catalyst surface seem to be important factors influencing the modified hopcalite performance in the oxidation reactions. It was found that irreversible changes occurred during thermal treatment in the Pd-modified hopcalite structure, however they have no marked influence on activity of modified catalysts.     

A liquid chromatography miniaturised system for agrofood applications

This work presents the realization of a Si-based miniaturised device for liquid chromatography (LC), targeted for agrofood applications and in particular for wine quality monitoring. The main modules of the system are: (1) a Si-based separation column, functionalized by n-octyltriethoxysilane (C8-TEOS), with inlet/outlet for fluidic connections; (2) a three-microelectrode voltammetric sensor. The system has been properly packaged and the capability of the sensing module to detect acetic acid concentration changes has been verified.     

Seasonal variation in the phytoplankton of a saline lowland river (Buenos Aires,Argentina) throughout an intensive sampling period

The aim of this survey was to analyse seasonal variations in phytoplankton composition and abundance with respect to temperature and conductivity values at two sampling sites in the Salado River's lower basin: El Destino and Guerrero. Samples were taken twice a week from 9 March 2004 to 20 July 2004. A total of 145 and 143 species were identified for these two sites, respectively. Infrequent species were discarded to avoid statistical misinterpretations. Autocorrelation analyses (Ljung‐Box Q‐statistic) were performed in order to establish seasonal patterns for species abundance. Similar significant (p < 0.05) autocorrelation patterns were observed for phytoplankton species composition, temperature and conductivity, thus, illustrating correlations with seasonal behaviour. On the basis of these data, species were grouped as (1) late‐summer: with 34 species well represented in warm waters (>22°C) (e.g. Planctonema lauterbornii and Chroococcus spp.); (2) winter: with 10 species that reached their highest densities in cold waters (<12°C) (e.g. Binuclearia eriensis and Microcystis firma); (3) transitional: of only four species with abundance peaks during intermediate conditions (15.5°C average) such as Closteriopsis acicularis and Nodularia spumigena and (4) independent: with 22 species of random behaviour whose autocorrelations remain within confidence limits. These four classifications pertain to species with similar presence at both sampling sites; the rest of the species evinced slightly different patterns. An apparent season‐associated succession of species was detected with those adapted to the warm, stagnant water of the late summer being replaced by others acclimated to the cold water of the winter. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.