Nisin‐loaded alginate‐high methoxy pectin microparticles: preparation and physicochemical characterisation

The bacteriocin nisin has been extensively used as potential natural preservative in the food industry. However, antimicrobial activity of nisin due to its binding with food components and inactivation by enzymatic degradation is reduced when it is applied in food. Encapsulation of nisin is an efficient approach to overcome the problems related to the direct application of this antimicrobial peptide in foods. In this study, nisin was encapsulated in alginate‐high methoxy pectin (HMP) microparticles, and its release studies were performed in water to determine the diffusion and the kinetic behaviour of the matrix. Results showed that the nisin content had a significant influence on encapsulation efficiency (EE), loading capacity (LC) and microparticles size. The values of EE, LC and particle mean diameter were about 47–54%, 16–21% and 57–131 μm, respectively. The nisin‐loaded microparticles showed nearly spherical structure with fold on the surface, as displayed by scanning electron micrograph. Interaction between alginate and HMP was confirmed by the changes in the intensity and wave number of the stretching vibrations of the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups in alginate‐HMP microparticles FTIR spectra. Furthermore, the addition of nisin resulted in a markedly increase in intensity of carboxylic peak at 1620 cm^?1, indicating the presence of nisin inside of the microparticles. The in vitro nisin release from these microparticles followed a sustained release profile consistent with a Fickian diffusion mechanism.     

The effect of nano sized SrFe<Subscript>12</Subscript>O<Subscript>19</Subscript> additions on the magnetic properties of chromium-doped strontium-hexaferrite ceramics

Strontium hexaferrite (SrFe₁₂O₁₉) which crystallizes in the hexagonal system and has a uniaxial magnetoplumbite structure, displays distinctive magnetic characteristics, good chemical stability, good tribological properties and a weak temperature dependent coercivity at about room temperature. In the present work the synthesis conditions for the solid-state preparation of the chromium-doped hexaferrite SrCr_0.3Fe_11.7O₁₉ were optimised and the effect on the magnetic properties of this compound of additions of nanosized SrFe₁₂O₁₉ was studied. The nanosized SrFe₁₂O₁₉ additive, synthesized by the citrate–nitrate reaction, was substituted in varying amounts for a commercial calcium silicate borate sintering additive mixture. A combination of 0.75 wt% of nano-sized SrFe₁₂O₁₉ with 0.75 wt% of the commercial additive increases the intrinsic coercivity, remanence magnetization and rectangularity ratio and results in superior magnetic properties than obtained with 1.5 wt% of nanosized SrFe₁₂O₁₉ or the commercial sintering additive alone.     

Hydroxymethylfurfural in fruit puree and juice: preconcentration and determination using microextraction method coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography and optimization by Box–Behnken design

In the present study, a sensitive and rapid method for separation and determination of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in fruit puree and juices was proposed. Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used for extraction and quantitative determination of HMF in fruit puree and juices. The effective parameters such as the type and volume of extraction and dispersive solvents, pH and salt amount (NaCl) were studied and optimized with the aid of response surface methodology based on Box–Behnken design to obtain the best condition for HMF extraction. At the optimized conditions, parameter values were 60 µL extracting solvent, 600 µL dispersive solvent, 2 g NaCl and pH 5. Repeatability of the method, described as the relative standard deviation, was 3.1% (n?=?6) and the recovery was 98.4%. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 1.47 and 5.28 µg L^?1, respectively. The merit figures of DLLME–HPLC–UV method showed that the proposed method can be noticed as a new, fast and good alternative method for investigation of HMF in various fruit puree and juice samples.     

Preparation and characterization of low‐density polyethylene/thermoplastic starch composites reinforced by cellulose nanofibers

In the current study, the effect of extracted cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) on rheological and mechanical properties and biodegradability of polyethylene/starch blend was investigated. The CNFs were extracted from wheat straws using a chemo‐mechanical method. Polyethylene/starch blend was reinforced by different amounts of CNF (6–14 wt%) using an internal mixer followed by a single screw extruder. The flow properties of nanocomposites were investigated by determining Melt Flow Index (MFI) and viscosity. Due to the weak interaction of cellulosic nanofibers and polymers, the flow behavior of nanocomposites was undesirable. Tensile tests were performed to evaluate the mechanical performance of nanocomposites. By increasing the CNF content, the tensile strength and elongation at break declined; whereas, the Young's modulus was improved. The biodegradation of cellulose nanocomposites was investigated by water absorption and degradability tests. Both experiments confirmed the progressive effect of cellulose nanofibers on the degradation of the composites. POLYM. COMPOS., 36:2309–2316, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Constitutive modeling of isotropic hyperelastic materials using proposed phenomenological models in terms of strain invariants

Rubber‐like materials deform largely and nonlinearly under loading and preserve their initial configuration after removal of the load. These materials are usually modeled as being homogeneous, isotropic, and incompressible elastic solids that are supported by experimental data. In this article, a general form for the strain energy density of these materials is assumed as the sum of two independent functions of the first and second strain invariants. Applying the essential requirements on the form of the strain energy density, the mathematical form of these functions is obtained as polynomial, logarithmic, and exponential. Then a general form is derived for the strain energy density of compressible materials and its effectiveness is evaluated for hydrostatic compression and uniaxial tension tests. The determination of material parameters and the evaluation of effectiveness of models are done based on the correlation between the values of the strain energy density (rather than the stresses) cast from the theory and the test data. Comparison of the theoretical predictions with the experimental data indicates that the represented models can achieve a satisfactory agreement with the behavior of different materials. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 56:299–308, 2016. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Characterization of the produced electrospun fish gelatin nanofiber containing fucoxanthin

Food Science and Biotechnology - This study aims to prepare fish gelatin nanofibers extracted from fish waste by using electrospinning method and its encapsulation with fucoxanthin extracted from...     

A robust spread spectrum based image watermarking in ridgelet domain

A new robust method of spread spectrum based image watermarking is proposed in this article. Spread spectrum technique and scrambling are used for increasing robustness and invisibility of the algorithm. Our suggested method is carried out using ridgelet transform as an efficient transform for representing images with line singularities. In embedding part, the host image is partitioned into non-overlapping blocks and ridgelet transform is applied to each single block. In this way, a curved edge is divided into some straight edges so that ridgelet transform shows optimal performance even for complicated images with curve edges. To embed the watermark bits, the best directions of ridgelet coefficients are selected with respect to their variance intensity. In extraction part, a computationally efficient detection method is used for detecting watermark logo blindly from distorted watermarked image. To achieve more robust algorithm firstly, we find the best place to insert the watermark bits and secondly, we encode the scrambled watermark bits by pseudo random sequences with an authentication key. Robustness of our proposed method is tested against different kinds of attacks. According to the experimental results, proposed method shows much improved performance in comparison to other published works.     

The Effect of Germination on Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Activity of Pulses

In this study the changes of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of four different pulses namely white bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L), Common vetch (Vicia sativa), Lentil (Lens culinaris) and Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) seeds before and after germination were investigated. Seeds germinated in dark chambers maintained near 100 % relative humidity at 20 °C. Three different solvents namely acetone, hexane and methanol were employed to extract the phenolic compounds present in the seeds and sprouts. Total content of phenolic compounds was measured by the Folin–Ciocalteu method and antioxidant activity determined by the delay in fat oxidation. Different concentrations of extracts (0.02 and 0.1 % w/w) were added to tallow and the stabilities of the treatments were determined by the peroxide value and induction period measurements to evaluate the antioxidant activities. The results indicated that the increases in phenolic content from dormant seed to sprouted seed were significant (P ≤ 0.05) in all the samples. The significant differences between induction periods of tallow treated with sprouted seed extracts were observed (P < 0.05). The results indicated that the greatest increase in stability was obtained when tallow was treated with a 0.1 % concentration of acetone chickpea sprout extract. The pulses' sprout flour or extract might be recommended for use as a source of natural antioxidants in functional foods.     

Effect of molecular weight and polymer concentration on the triple temperature/pH/ionic strength-sensitive behavior of poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate)

Poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) samples were synthesized via aqueous atom transfer radical polymerization with DP_n of 35, 151, 390, and 546 and dispersity of 1.13, 1.17, 1.20, and 1.18, respectively. All samples were exposed to temperature and pH variations at different concentration of polymer and salt (NaCl). Results indicated that cloud point (T_cl) can be controlled by changing DP_n, polymer concentration, and ionic strength of solution. According to results, T_cl of the PDMAEMA chains shifted to lower temperatures with increasing solution pH at all molecular weight ranges due to deprotonation of tertiary amine groups in polymer structure. However, higher molecular weight polymers were more sensitive to pH variation especially in alkaline media. Also, higher polymer concentration acted as driving force to decrease cloud point of samples and formation of aggregates that was more predominant for higher molecular weights at alkaline media. T_cl of PDMAEMA chains decreased with increasing ionic strength even at low pH values for low molecular weight polymers.     

Composition,Cytotoxic and Antimicrobial Activities of Satureja intermedia C.A.Mey Essential Oil

In this study, the essential oil (EO) constituents from the aerial parts of Satureja intermedia C.A.Mey were detected by GC and GC/MS. The antimicrobial activity of EO on oral pathogens and its cytotoxicity to human cancer cells were determined by the microbroth dilution method and the crystal violet staining method, respectively. Thirty-nine compounds were identified and the main EO constituents were γ-terpinene (37.1%), thymol (30.2%), p-cymene (16.2%), limonene (3.9%), α-terpinene (3.3%), myrcene (2.5%), germacrene B (1.4%), elemicine (1.1%) and carvacrol (0.5%). The S. intermedia EO showed a concentration-dependent decrease in viability of Hep-G2 (hepatocellular carcinoma) and MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma) human cancer cell lines (p < 0.05). Antimicrobial screening of S. intermedia EO demonstrated slight antibacterial and antifungal activities against Streptococcus mutants, S. salivarius, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and C. glabrata. Further preclinical studies are needed to assess the efficacy and safety of S. intermedia EO as a new promising anticancer agent.