Molecular identification of the microbiota of French sourdough using temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis

The microbiota of four industrial French sourdoughs (BF, GO, VB and RF) was characterized by PCR temporal temperature gel electrophoresis (TTGE). The TTGE technique reveals differences in the 16S rDNA V6–V8 regions of these bacteria. DNA was extracted directly from sourdough samples. A specific TTGE fingerprint was determined for 30 bacterial species, including members of the genera Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc and Weissella, all known to be present in sourdough.These sourdoughs contain different species of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) depending on ecological conditions prevailing in the different sourdough fermentations. Only a few LAB species were found to be competitive and became dominant. Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis was observed as the most frequently found species. In sourdough GO, L. sanfranciscensis, Lactobacillus panis and two new species, Lactobacillus nantensis and Lactobacillus hammesii, were detected. Sourdough BF contain L. sanfranciscensis, Lactobacillus spicheri and Lactobacillus pontis. In sourdough VB, which differed in the process temperature, we identified exclusively L. sanfranciscensis and Leuconostoc mesenteroïdes subsp. mesenteroïdes. Lactobacillus frumenti, L. hammesii and Lacobacillus paralimentarius became the predominant species in sourdough RF. Compared with conventional bacteriological methods, the use of this new molecular approach to analyze the sourdough ecosystem should therefore allow a more complete and rapid assessment of its specific microbiota.     

A fuzzy neighborhood-based training algorithm for feedforward neural networks

In this work we present a new hybrid algorithm for feedforward neural networks, which combines unsupervised and supervised learning. In this approach, we use a Kohonen algorithm with a fuzzy neighborhood for training the weights of the hidden layers and gradient descent method for training the weights of the output layer. The goal of this method is to assist the existing variable learning rate algorithms. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm compared with other well-known learning methods.     

High-level frameworks for the specification and verification of scheduling problems

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer - Over the years, schedulability of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) has mainly been performed by analytical methods. These techniques...     

Factorial Design of Phenylpropanolamine Prolonged Release Tablets Formulations Using Fluid Bed Dryer Granulator

A two level factorial design approach was applied to the formulation of prolonged release phenylpropanolamine tablets using three factors: Ethylacrylate-methyl meth-acrylate co-polymer (Eudragit NE-40D) concentration, Microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel PH102) addition to the tablets formula, and the milling of the granulations before compression. The release rate of the drug was the measured parameter. The rate of drug release was mainly affected by the level of the Eudragit. Avicel promotes the release of the drug, specially at low Eudragit level concentrations. Tablets prepared from unmilled lots showed slower drug release than the corresponding lots of milled granules.     

Fuzzy optimization models for analog test decisions

Test decisions still constitute one of the most difficult and time-consuming design tasks. This is particularly true in the analog domain where some basic test questions have not yet been completely resolved. Since the gap between a good and a bad analog circuit is not always well-defined, extensive tests may result in the rejection of many fault-free ICs. The objective of this article is to propose fuzzy optimization models that can help in the more realistic formulation and resolution of the analog test problem. The set of good or fault-free ICs is considered as a fuzzy set. Each performance test is represented by a membership function. A global test measure is obtained by aggregating all the performance tests. An illustrative example using these concepts is provided.     

Mass Diffusion and Thermal Diffusivity of the Decane-pentane Mixture Under High Pressure as a Ground-based Study for SCCO Project

Thermodiffusion experiments on isomassic binary mixture of decane and pentane in the liquid phase have been performed between 25 ^°C and 50 ^°C and for pressures from 1MPa until 20MPa. By dynamic analysis of the light scattered by concentration non-equilibrium fluctuations in the binary mixture we obtained the mass diffusion coefficients of the mixture at each temperature and pressure. For the first time we were able to apply similar analysis to thermal fluctuations thus getting a simultaneous measurement of the thermal diffusivity coefficient. While mass diffusion coefficients decrease linearly with the pressure, thermal diffusivity coefficients increase linearly. In principle the proposed method can be used also for measuring the Soret coefficients at the same time. However, for the present mixture the intensity of the optical signal is limited by the optical contrast factor. This affects our capability of providing a reliable estimate of the Soret coefficient by means of dynamic Shadowgraph. Therefore the mass diffusion coefficients measurements would need to be combined with independent measurements of the thermodiffusion coefficients, e.g. thermogravitational column, to provide Soret coefficients. The obtained values constitute the on-ground reference measurements for one of the mixture studied in the frame of the project SCCO-SJ10, which aims to measure the Soret coefficients of multicomponents mixtures under reservoir conditions. Microgravity experiments will be performed on the Chinese satellite SJ10 launched in April 2016.     

Novel chlorhexidine dermal patches,preparation characterization and antimicrobial evaluation

Polymer Bulletin - The purpose of this work is to develop chlorhexidine dermal patches using Eudragit® RL100 as the patch forming polymer. Solvent casting technique was employed in the...     

The effect of γ-irradiation on optical and electrical properties of polycarbonate

Poly-(bisphenol A carbonate) (PC) samples were exposed to different doses of γ-rays from a ⁶⁰Co source (from 0.05 to 0.3 M rad) at room temperature. Conductivity and dielectric constant as well as optical measurements were carried out. It was noticed that almost no work has been reported on the electrical conductivity of polycarbonate at high temperatures. γ-irradiation of polycarbonate is believed to create free radicals which increases the state of disorder and perturb the orientation of dipoles inside the polymer. At about 95°C, the electrical conductivities of irradiated samples were found to increase by nearly one order of magnitude with respect to the unirradiated one. The dielectric constant, ?, of fresh polycarbonate was nearly temperature independent over a range of ～ 70°C, then it increased with temperature, but for γ-irradiated samples (from 0.05 to 0.3 M rad) the dielectric constant increased continuously with temperature and also with respect to the fresh sample what confirms the effect of γ-irradiation in perturbing the orientation of the dipoles in the polymer. It was found that the UV absorption spectrum has a broad band at 0.280 μm and the absorption intensity was strongly dependent on the dose of γ-irradiation.