Binary Blends of Polytetrafluoroethylene and Liquid Crystalline Polymer

Blends of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) were prepared by varying the amount of LCP when using a melt mixing technique. The rheological, morphological, thermal, and dynamic mechanical properties of the blends were investigated. The viscosity of the blends was decreased with the increasing LCP content in the blends up to 20% of LCP. With further loadings of LCP a slight improvement in viscosity was observed. This decrease in the viscosity was attributed to be the interlayer slip of the polymers due to formation of the elongated fibrils of LCP, whereas at higher amounts of LCP the fibril nature of LCP was not apparent, which is revealed by the scanning electron microscopic study. The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results showed a shift in the melting temperature (T_m) of PTFE with the addition of LCP. This shift in the T_m of PTFE is due to increasing crystallinity. This is further supported by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) studies.     

Association Between Increased DNA Mutational Frequency and Thermal Inactivation of Aerosolized Bacillus Spores Exposed to Dry Heat

Inactivation of viable bioaerosol particles, especially stress-resistant microorganisms, has important implications for biodefense and air quality control. It has earlier been shown that the loss of viability of bacterial endospores due to exposure to dry heat is associated with mutational damage. Previous studies, however, used non-aerosolized spores, long exposure times, and moderately elevated temperatures. This study was designed to investigate the mechanism of inactivation of aerosolized Bacillus endospores exposed to high temperatures for sub-second time periods. Bioaerosol was tested in a continuous air flow chamber under two flow rates, 18 L/min and 36 L/min. The chamber had a cylindrical electric heating element installed along its axis. The estimated characteristic exposure temperature (T_exposure ) ranged from 164°C to 277°C (with an uncertainty of 21–26°C). To quantify mutational frequency, spores were cultivated after dry heat exposure on tryptic-soy agar and on antibiotic nalidixic acid media. Increases in the exposure temperature caused viability loss and increase in mutational frequency of the spore DNA. Significant association was found between the inactivation factor and the mutational frequency ratio (heat exposed versus non-exposed) with R² of 0.985 for both flow rates combined. The results suggest that mutational damage is involved in the causal chain of events leading to inactivation of aerosolized endospores exposed to heat for sub-second time periods.     

Production of trans‐free margarine stock by enzymatic interesterification of rice bran oil,palm stearin and coconut oil

BACKGROUND: Trans‐free interesterified fat was produced for possible usage as a spreadable margarine stock. Rice bran oil, palm stearin and coconut oil were used as substrates for lipase‐catalyzed reaction. RESULTS: After interesterification, 137–150 g kg^?1 medium‐chain fatty acid was incorporated into the triacylglycerol (TAG) of the interesterified fats. Solid fat contents at 25 °C were 15.5–34.2%, and slip melting point ranged from 27.5 to 34.3 °C. POP and PPP (β‐tending TAG) in palm stearin decreased after interesterification. X‐ray diffraction analysis demonstrated that the interesterified fats contained mostly β′ polymorphic forms, which is a desirable property for margarines. CONCLUSIONS: The interesterified fats showed desirable physical properties and suitable crystal form (β′ polymorph) for possible use as a spreadable margarine stock. Therefore, our result suggested that the interesterified fat without trans fatty acid could be used as an alternative to partially hydrogenated fat. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry     

Physicochemical and functional properties of lentil protein isolates prepared by different drying methods

Lentil protein isolate (LPI) extract was converted into powder by freeze drying, spray drying and vacuum drying. Differences in particle size distribution, protein subunit composition and colour and surface morphology were observed amongst the three drying methods. Spray and freeze-dried LPI powders exhibited higher solubility (81% and 78%, respectively) compared to vacuum dried powders (50%). The spray dried powders showed a low water absorption capacity (0.43 ± 0.02 g/g) compared to freeze (0.48 ± 0.02 g/g) and vacuum-dried (0.47 ± 0.01 g/g) LPI powders. Spray and freeze-dried powders displayed better gelation ability and higher gel strength, compared to vacuum-dried powder. Both spray and freeze-dried gels showed typical viscoelastic gel characteristics, with G′ dominating over G″ and very low loss tangent. The holding time required for gelation of vacuum dried powder at 90 °C was significantly longer, compared to spray and freeze dried powders. Hence, drying methods used for preparation of lentil protein isolate powders can affect physicochemical and associated functional properties.     

Peanut Allergy: Characteristics and Approaches for Mitigation

Peanut allergy has garnered significant attention because of the high sensitization rate, increase in allergy, and severity of the reaction. Sufficiently reliable therapies and efficient mitigating techniques to combat peanut allergy are still lacking. Current management relies on avoiding peanuts and nuts and seeds with homologous proteins, although adverse events mostly occur with accidental ingestion. There is a need for hypoallergenic peanut products to protect sensitized individuals and perhaps serve as immunotherapeutic products. Alongside traditional practices of thermal and chemical treatment, novel processing approaches such as high‐pressure processing, pulsed ultraviolet light, high‐intensity ultrasound, irradiation, and pulsed electric field have been performed toward reducing the immunoreactivity of peanut. Covalent and noncovalent chemical modifications to proteins also have the tendency to alter peanut allergenicity. Enzymatic hydrolysis seems to be the most advantageous technique in diminishing the allergenic potential of peanut. Furthermore, the combined processing approach (hurdle technologies) such as enzymatic hydrolysis followed by, or in conjunction with, roasting, high pressure and heat, ultrasound with enzymatic treatment, or germination have shown a significant reduction of peanut immunoreactivity and may emerge as useful techniques in reducing the allergenicity of peanut and other foods. This study represents our current knowledge about the alterations in allergenic properties of peanut via different processing mechanisms as well as evaluating its future potential, geographical based data on increasing sensitization, clinical relevance, eliciting dose, and current management of peanut allergy. Furthermore, the molecular characteristics and clinical relevance of peanut allergens have been discussed.     

Comparative study of film forming behaviour of low and high amylose starches using glycerol and xylitol as plasticizers

In this study, the film forming behaviour of low amylose (LA) and high amylose (HA) starches was studied. The starch-alone and a blend of plasticizer (polyol)-starch films were developed by gelatinising at various temperatures and casting at 25 °C. The starch-plasticizer films contained glycerol and xylitol either individually or in 1:1 combination. The concentration of plasticizer used was 15%, 20% and 30% for LA films while it was 20%, 30% and 40% for HA films on dry solid basis. The HA-glycerol films retained the highest moisture content among all the films. The HA films exhibited higher glass transition temperature, higher tensile strength, higher modulus of elasticity and lower elongation at break than those obtained from LA starch. The tensile strength and modulus of elasticity decreased and the elongation increased with increasing plasticizer concentrations above 15% on dry solid basis regardless the starch type. Low water vapour permeability was evident in LA and HA films plasticized by combined plasticizers at 20% plasticizer concentration. Rheological measurements showed that most of the suspensions exhibited Herschel-Bulkley behaviour and some of the HA suspensions exhibited Bingham plastic behaviour. At 15% (on dry solid basis) plasticizer concentration, the films obtained from both the starches were brittle due to the anti-plasticization behaviour.     

Effect of physico‐chemical properties of tropical starches and hydrocolloids on rice gels texture and noodles water retention ability

The links between the physico‐chemical properties of rice flour (RF), cassava (CS), sago (SS), canna (CaS), sweet potato (SPS), and mung bean (MS) starches, and the gelling properties of rice flour blends with these starches in different proportions (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% pure starches) and with xanthan (XG) and carrageenan (CG) gums were studied. Water retention ability of starches and hydrocolloids blends in noodle systems during drying at 40°C was also investigated. The mean granule diameter and AM content values of RF, CS, SPS, SS, CaS, and MS were in the range of 12.8–41.0 µm and 21.9–39.4%, respectively. Thermal properties showed significant differences (p < 0.05) between the starches in terms of gelatinization temperature and enthalpy, as well as retrogradation tendency. Different starches produced gels with a wide range of textural properties. Results confirmed the role of AM content in determining the gel strength, and indicated a possible role of retrogradation in increasing the dissipation of mechanical energy during compression and relaxation tests, which can have an effect on mouth feel. Blends of RF with other starches and hydrocolloids generally improved the characteristics of RF‐based gels, by increasing gel strength. In particular, the use of MS markedly increased the strength of RF‐based gels. Addition of hydrocolloids significantly reduced the drying rate of noodles, although overall water retention ability was reduced only to a limited extent. This may be used to produce starch‐based products, especially noodles, in a range of desired characteristics.     

Host-Assisted Delivery of a Model Drug to Genomic DNA: Key Information from Ultrafast Spectroscopy and in silico Study

Drug delivery to a target without adverse effects is one of the major criteria for clinical use. Herein, we have made an attempt to explore the delivery efficacy of SDS surfactant in a monomer and micellar stage during the delivery of the model drug, Toluidine Blue (TB) from the micellar cavity to DNA. Molecular recognition of pre-micellar SDS encapsulated TB with DNA occurs at a rate constant of k₁ ∼652 s⁻¹. However, no significant release of encapsulated TB at micellar concentration was observed within the experimental time frame. This originated from the higher binding affinity of TB towards the nano-cavity of SDS at micellar concentration which does not allow the delivery of TB from the nano-cavity of SDS micelles to DNA. Thus, molecular recognition controls the extent of DNA recognition by TB which in turn modulates the rate of delivery of TB from SDS in a concentration-dependent manner.     

Synthesis of Dihydrobenzofuro[3,2-b]chromenes as Potential 3CLpro Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2: A Molecular Docking and Molecular Dynamics Study

The recent emergence of pandemic of coronavirus (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has raised significant global health concerns. More importantly, there is no specific therapeutics currently available to combat against this deadly infection. The enzyme 3-chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease (3CLpro) is known to be essential for viral life cycle as it controls the coronavirus replication. 3CLpro could be a potential drug target as established before in the case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). In the current study, we wanted to explore the potential of fused flavonoids as 3CLpro inhibitors. Fused flavonoids (5a,10a-dihydro-11H-benzofuro[3,2-b]chromene) are unexplored for their potential bioactivities due to their low natural occurrences. Their synthetic congeners are also rare due to unavailability of general synthetic methodology. Here we designed a simple strategy to synthesize 5a,10a-dihydro-11H-benzofuro[3,2-b]chromene skeleton and it's four novel derivatives. Our structural bioinformatics study clearly shows excellent potential of the synthesized compounds in comparison to experimentally validated inhibitor N3. Moreover, in-silico ADMET study displays excellent druggability and extremely low level of toxicity of the synthesized molecules. Further, for better understanding, the molecular dynamic approach was implemented to study the change in dynamicity after the compounds bind to the protein. A detailed investigation through clustering analysis and distance calculation gave us sound comprehensive data about their molecular interaction. In summary, we anticipate that the currently synthesized molecules could not only be a potential set of inhibitors against 3CLpro but also the insights acquired from the current study would be instrumental in further developing novel natural flavonoid based anti-COVID therapeutic spectrums.     

Scaling the SIESTA magnetohydrodynamics equilibrium code

We report the results of a scaling effort that increases both the speed and resolution of the SIESTA magnetohydrodynamics equilibrium code. SIESTA is capable of computing three‐dimensional plasma equilibria with magnetic islands at high spatial resolutions for toroidally confined plasmas. Starting with a small‐scale parallel implementation, we identified scale‐dependent bottlenecks of the code and developed scalable alternatives for each performance‐significant functionality, cumulatively improving both its runtime speed (on the same number of processors) and its scalability (across larger number of processors) by an order of magnitude. The net outcome is an improvement in speed by over 10‐fold, utilizing a few thousand processors, enabling SIESTA to simulate high spatial‐resolution scenarios in under an hour for the first time. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.