Type of bacterial starter culture,aging and fermentation effects on some characteristics of inoculated beef sausages

Beef sausage mixes were inoculated with either Pediococcus acidilactici with Staphylococcus xylosus or P. acidilactici with S. carnosus, subdivided and then held for 0, 24, 48 or 72 h at 8–10 °C prior to fermentation. After aging (pre-fermentation holding), the mixes were fermented for 16 h ending at 41 °C. Moisture, protein and fat contents of all sausage mixes did not differ due to holding effects over all starter cultures. The pH of mixes followed the same pattern for all mixes, declining (p < 0.05) from approximately 5.8 to pH 5.2–5.3 at 72 h aging and to 4.4–4.5 after fermentation. Total acidity of the mixes followed an inverse pattern to pH, increasing (p < 0.05) after fermentation although there was no effect due to type of starter culture. Aging had no effect on nonprotein nitrogen (NPN) content as ΔNPN among all cultures. After fermentation, however, sausages held 72 h and inoculated with S. carnosus had higher NPN contents compared to P. acidilactici alone (p < 0.05) and with S. xylosus (p < 0.10). The same effects of starter cultures on changes in total amino acid concentration were observed. Concentrations of individual amino acids showed increases depending on pre-fermentation aging period (0 h versus 72 h) followed by fermentation.     

Somatic cell cloned transgenic bovine neurons for transplantation in parkinsonian rats

OBJECTIVE: To identify consistent relevant mechanisms of small intestinal dysfunction in cats with experimentally induced feline immunodeficiency virus infection (FIV) that developed chronic diarrhea during the time they were being used in studies of pathogenicity and transmission of FIV. ANIMALS: 10 cats. PROCEDURE: The following investigative tests and techniques were performed on each of the cats: routine hematologic and serum biochemical analyses; urinalysis; fecal parasitologic and microbiologic examinations; breath hydrogen lactulose (BH2LT) and xylose (BH2XT) tests; intestinal permeability test; endoscopic examination of the intestinal mucosa; bacteriologic culture of endoscopically collected small intestinal juice; and histologic examination of endoscopically obtained intestinal biopsy specimens. RESULTS: Neutrophilia was evident in 3 cats, and lymphopenia was detected in 2 cats. Serum biochemical abnormalities were not observed. Urinalysis results were unremarkable. Fecal bacteriologic and parasitologic results were normal, except for isolation of Campylobacter sp from 1 cat. Abnormal BH2XT values suggestive of D-xylose malabsorption were identified in 2 cats, and BH2LT values indicated evidence of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in 1 cat. Finally, permeability test results, quantitation of bacterial flora from the proximal part of the small intestine and histologic examination of biopsy specimens did not reveal any abnormalities. CONCLUSIONS: Enteric pathogens did not account for the development of diarrhea in cats with experimentally induced FIV infection, and consistent relevant mechanisms of small intestinal dysfunction were not identified.     

Surface texturing of Mo–V–Te–Nb–O x selective oxidation catalysts

The paper concentrates on the study of Mo–V–Te–Nb oxide mixtures by electron microscopy combined with catalytic investigation of these materials in the partial oxidation of propane. Surface texturing of catalyst particles composed of two phases referred to in the literature as M1 and M2 is revealed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy of high performing catalysts. The chemical composition of the catalyst surface is modified by treatment in water to obtain a significant increment in yield of acrylic acid. A chemical realization of the site isolation concept recurring on a supramolecular arrangement of catalyst and reactant rather than on atomic site isolation is suggested. A complex Mo–V–Te–Nb–O _x precursor phase carries nanoparticles made from a network of oxoclusters active as catalyst for the conversion of propane to acrylic acid. The designed synthesis of the multi-element oxide bulk and of the surface structure with a different composition than the precursor phase improved the performance by a factor of 4.     

PLA/metal oxide biocomposites for antimicrobial packaging application

ABSTRACT

The effects of metal oxide addition in polylactic acid (PLA) film were investigated in this study. PLA/Metal Oxide biocomposites were prepared by solvent casting method. The incorporation of metal oxide resulted in no chemical structure change of neat PLA. PLA/ZnO and PLA/MgO exhibited the widest inhibition while PLA/TiO₂ resulted in the smallest inhibition zone. The addition of metal oxides caused fracture and void on the surface of PLA. The addition of metal oxide into PLA films decreased the tensile strength at the concentration higher than 0.1 per hundred resin (phr). Incorporation of metal oxides accelerated the thermal degradation of PLA and tends to increase the biodegradability of PLA.     

Fabrication of Antireflective Sub-Wavelength Structures on Silicon Nitride Using Nano Cluster Mask for Solar Cell Application

We have developed a simple and scalable approach for fabricating sub-wavelength structures (SWS) on silicon nitride by means of self-assembled nickel nanoparticle masks and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) ion etching. Silicon nitride SWS surfaces with diameter of 160–200 nm and a height of 140–150 nm were obtained. A low reflectivity below 1% was observed over wavelength from 590 to 680 nm. Using the measured reflectivity data in PC1D, the solar cell characteristics has been compared for single layer anti-reflection (SLAR) coatings and SWS and a 0.8% improvement in efficiency has been seen.     

Synthesis and characterization of green urethane non-isocyanate from oleic acid for wood composite application

Conventional polyurethane (PU) is usually synthesized by a reaction between isocyanate and polyol. The use of isocyanate compounds is associated with significant health and environmental problems. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an environmentally friendly alternative method for manufacturing PUs without isocyanate routes. The aim of this research work was to synthesize green urethane from oleic acid, which included the following three stages: the synthesis of epoxidized oleic acid (EOA), the synthesis of carbonated oleic acid (COA), and the synthesis of green urethane from oleic acid (UOA). The resulting product was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) analyses, and by determining the iodine number, oxirane number, and hydroxyl value. The results of FTIR and NMR showed that EOA was successfully synthesized. The optimum COA synthesis process was obtained on TBAB catalyst usage of 1% (wt/wt) at 140°C for 48 h with a 500-rpm stirring rate and CO₂ gas flow rate of 0.2 mL/min with the resulting COA oxirane value of 0.00. The optimum condition of UOA synthesis through the aminolysis process resulted in the use of LiCl of 19.8% (wt/wt) at 70°C for 3 h with a stirring speed of 1200 rpm with a UOA hydroxyl number generated of 237.93 mg/mL.     

Novel Cu/Cr/Ge/Pd Ohmic Contacts on Highly Doped n-GaAs

The thermal stability of the Cu/Cr/Ge/Pd/n⁺-GaAs contact structure was evaluated. In this structure, a thin 40 nm layer of chromium was deposited as a diffusion barrier to block copper diffusion into GaAs. After thermal annealing at 350°C, the specific contact resistance of the copper-based ohmic contact Cu/Cr/Ge/Pd was measured to be (5.1 ± 0.6) × 10⁻⁷ Ω cm². Diffusion behaviors of these films at different annealing temperatures were characterized by metal sheet resistance, X-ray diffraction data, Auger electron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The Cu/Cr/Ge/Pd contact structure was very stable after 350°C annealing. However, after 400°C annealing, the reaction of copper with the underlying layers started to occur and formed Cu₃Ga, Cu₃As, Cu₉Ga₄, and Ge₃Cu phases due to interfacial instability and copper diffusion.     

Effect of metal oxide as antibacterial agent on thermoplastic starch/metal oxide biocomposites properties

ABSTRACT

This research was purposed at studying the effect of the addition of metal oxide (MO) as antibacterial agent on thermoplastic starch (TPS) properties. TPS/MO biocomposites with 0.1 until 2.0 phr of metal oxide were prepared. Antibacterial activity of TPS and TPS/MO biocomposites against bacteria was investigated. The inhibition zone of biocomposite films was dramatically increased along with the increasing of metal oxides contents. The addition of ZnO content resulted in an increase in inhibition zone for E. coli and S. aureus. The incorporation of MO into TPS/MO biocomposites tends to reduce mechanical properties, the mass loss and T50% of TPS/MO biocomposites.     

An approach for sub-ontology evolution in a distributed health care enterprise

In response to the changing nature of health issues, standardized health ontologies such as SNOMED CT and UMLS incline to change more frequently than most other domain ontologies. Yet, semantic interoperability shared among institutions within a distributed health care enterprise relies heavily on the availability of a valid and up-to-date standardized ontology. In this paper, we propose the creation and preservation of sub-ontologies to deal with the frequent changes in health ontologies. Our approach focuses on the nature and characteristics of standard health ontologies, however it can also be applied to other domain ontologies with similar characteristics. Our sub-ontology evolution approach defines ways to create valid sub-ontologies for each specific health application, and to effectively develop a series of propagation mechanism when the main ontology changes. Our approach will (i) isolate the required change propagation to the relevant health applications that utilized the changing concepts only, and (ii) optimize the propagation mechanism to include the minimum number of operations only. Since a sub-ontology should be a valid ontology by itself, the change propagation approach used in this process should contain the rules to assure the validity of the produced sub-ontology while keeping the consistency of the sub-ontology to the evolved base ontology. A change identification process, which considers the nature of the health ontology change logs, is conducted to identify the semantics of the changes. From the evaluation, it is shown that the content of the evolved sub-ontologies produced using our approach is consistent to the evolved base ontology. Moreover, the propagation process can be performed more efficiently because the number of operations required for our change propagation method is lower than the number of operations required for direct re-extraction from the evolved base ontology.