Selection and analysis of bacteriophage‐insensitive mutants of Streptococcus thermophilus isolated in Ukraine

Bacteriophage‐insensitive Streptococcus thermophilus mutants (BIMs) were obtained by treating the phage‐sensitive industrial strains with virulent phages. Five BIMs acquired resistance to S. thermophilus phages of two (cos and pac) main groups selected at Ukrainian dairy processing enterprises. In addition, the valuable biotechnological properties of BIMs were characterised. During fermentation, they formed fermented milk curds with a homogeneous, dense consistency, with pleasant taste and flavour. The BIMs were identified as S. thermophilus by phenotypic and species‐specific PCR methods. The BIMs could be used as starters to stabilise the fermentation process under phage infection conditions.     

Experimental Evaluation of Food-Grade Semi-Refined Carrageenan Toxicity

The safety of food additives E407 and E407a has raised concerns in the scientific community. Thus, this study aims to assess the local and systemic toxic effects of the common food additive E407a in rats orally exposed to it for two weeks. Complex evaluations of the effects of semi-refined carrageenan (E407a) on rats upon oral exposure were performed. Local effects of E407a on the intestine were analyzed using routine histological stains and CD68 immunostaining. Furthermore, circulating levels of inflammatory markers were assessed. A fluorescent probe O1O (2- (2′-OH-phenyl)-5-phenyl-1,3-oxazole) was used for evaluating the state of leukocyte cell membranes. Cell death modes of leukocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry using Annexin V and 7-aminoactinomycin D staining. Oral administration of the common food additive E407a was found to be associated with altered small and large intestinal morphology, infiltration of the lamina propria in the small intestine with macrophages (CD68⁺ cells), high systemic levels of inflammation markers, and changes in the lipid order of the phospholipid bilayer in the cell membranes of leukocytes, alongside the activation of their apoptosis. Our findings suggest that oral exposure to E407a through rats results in the development of intestinal inflammation.     

Thermodynamic Modeling of MgO-Al2O3-TiO2 System

This scientific paper gives consideration to the information on the structure of the triple component system,in particular MgO-Al2O3-TiO2 that serves as a basis...     

Nonlinear magnetic vortex dynamics in a circular nanodot excited by spin-polarized current

We investigate analytically and numerically nonlinear vortex spin torque oscillator dynamics in a circular magnetic nanodot induced by a spin-polarized current perpendicular to the dot plane. We use a generalized nonlinear Thiele equation including spin-torque term by Slonczewski for describing the nanosize vortex core transient and steady orbit motions and analyze nonlinear contributions to all forces in this equation. Blue shift of the nano-oscillator frequency increasing the current is explained by a combination of the exchange, magnetostatic, and Zeeman energy contributions to the frequency nonlinear coefficient. Applicability and limitations of the standard nonlinear nano-oscillator model are discussed.     

Ultrasonic mineralization of a reactive textile azo dye, remazol black B

The degradation of a reactive black dye in oxygen saturated aqueous solution has been investigated using a high frequency ultrasonic generator. The ˙OH radical initiated oxidative degradation of the dye results in 65% mineralization as measured by the decrease in the total organic content. Ion chromatography indicates that the only remaining components are oxalate, sulfate and nitrate ions.     

Virtual unrolling and information recovery from scanned scrolled historical documents

The objective of our work is to enable the reading of fragile scrolled historical parchments without the need to physically unravel them, thus providing valuable information to a wide range of scholarly disciplines. This problem has not been investigated by the computer vision community properly yet due to the need for parchment scanning technology: standard X-ray equipment is not sufficient as there is a requirement to extract out parchment ink in addition to the parchment's underlying structure. Effective data recovery is also compromised as content from historical scrolled documents is inaccessible due to the deterioration of the parchment. We create a 3D volumetric model of a scrolled parchment's underlying geometry and perform digital unwrapping of the parchment, producing a readable image of the text as an output. The proposed recovery framework consists of structure preserving anisotropic filtering in combination with robust segmentation, surface modelling and ink projection. We demonstrate with real examples how our algorithm is able to recover the underlying text and to solve the major challenge for scrolled parchment analysis, namely segmentation of connected layers and processing the data without user interaction.     

Synthesis and evaluation of N,N-dibutylundecenamide as new eco-friendly plasticizer for polyvinyl chloride

Journal of Materials Science - Tertiary fatty amide, namely N,N-dibutylundecenamide (DBUA), has been synthesized and evaluated as potential plasticizer for polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Homogeneous...