Bacterial spores in spices and dried herbs: The risks for processed food

Production and world consumption of spices are constantly increasing. Although the antimicrobial properties of some spices are well documented, their use in the agri-food industry is also responsible for microbial contamination and spoilage. Bacterial spores introduced by spices can withstand different preparation processes, particularly thermal treatments, leading to food alterations during storage. This review brings together data from the literature about the prevalence and concentrations of spore-forming bacteria in all commercially available spices. The sporeformers found in spices belong mainly to the genera Bacillus and Clostridium. Such contaminations are very common and sometimes reach high levels, as in pepper and turmeric. Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus cereus are the most frequently detected species. Studying the harvesting, processing, and storage procedures for spices provides elements to explain why high prevalence and concentrations are observed. Spices are mostly produced in developing countries on small farms using traditional production methods. Spices become contaminated by bacterial spores in two main ways: by contact with soil during harvesting or drying, as for pepper, or by cross-contamination during the water-cooking step, as for turmeric. From these observations, we propose some recommendations. Different methods that can be used to eliminate bacterial spores from spices are presented indicating their efficiency and the limitations of their use.     

Investigation the correlation between chemical structure and swelling,thermal and flocculation properties of carboxymethylcellulose hydrogels

Hydrophilic polymer networks (hydrogels) based on sodium carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC) and polycarboxylic acids (oxalic, succinic, citric and adipic) as cross-linking agents are synthesized by esterification reaction; one series of NaCMC hydrogels cross-linked with citric acid is prepared with acrylamide and acrylic acid (Aam/Aac) copolymers using the design of semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (semi-IPN), in order to increase their potential application for flocculation purposes. The Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) of hydrogels confirms the esterification reaction between NaCMC and cross-linking agents. Results of swelling measurements show that citric acid in the amount of 15 wt% gives the hydrogels with the best absorption capacity. The results of Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) show no significant difference in thermal properties of neat and semi-interpenetrating NaCMC hydrogels. The amorphous nature of hydrogels is confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The results of flocculation study show that combination of NaCMC network and Aam/Aac copolymer with initial mass ratio of 10/90 creates a theoretical platform for the production of flocculant which could show high efficacy in purifying of water dominated by positively charged particles.     

State-space ARIMA for supply-chain forecasting

ARIMA is seldom used in supply chains in practice. There are several reasons, not the least of which is the small sample size of available data, which restricts the usage of the model. Keeping in mind this restriction, we discuss in this paper a state-space ARIMA model with a single source of error and show how it can be efficiently used in the supply-chain context, especially in cases when only two seasonal cycles of data are available. We propose a new order selection algorithm for the model and compare its performance with the conventional ARIMA on real data. We show that the proposed model performs well in terms of both accuracy and computational time in comparison with other ARIMA implementations, which makes it efficient in the supply-chain context.     

Tetrahydroindoles as Multipurpose Screening Compounds and Novel Sirtuin Inhibitors

Indoles are privileged structures in medicinal and bioorganic chemistry that are particularly well suited to serve as platforms for diversity. Among many other therapeutic areas, the indole scaffold has been used to design aromatic compounds useful to interfere with enzymes engaged in the regulation of substrate acylation status, such as sirtuins. However, the planarity of the indole ring is not necessarily optimal for all target enzymes, especially when functionalization with aromatic side chains is required. Replacement of flat scaffolds by nonplanar molecular cores dominated by sp³ hybridization is a common strategy to avoid the disadvantages associated with poor solubility and high promiscuity, while covering less-well-explored areas of chemical space. Thus, we synthesized fragment-like tetrahydroindoles suitable for fragment-based drug discovery as well as a well-characterized small library intended as multipurpose screening compounds. For proof of principle, these compounds were screened against sirtuins 1–3, enzymes known to be addressable by indoles. We found that 2,6,6-trimethyl-4-oxo-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-indole-3-carboxamides are potent and selective SIRT2 inhibitors. Compound 16 t displayed an IC₅₀ value of 0.98 μm and could serve as exquisite starting point for hit-to-lead profiling.     

Experimental and numerical analysis of the influence of cable tray arrangements on the resulting mass loss rate and fire spreading

In the context of industrial buildings and power plants, electrical installations and cable trays represent a main fuel load and a potential initial fire source due to possible short circuits or comparable malfunction. Furthermore, a fire can spread from one tray to additional trays mounted above and/or horizontally on one tray. Because of the high significance of cable fires, several research projects have been carried out, investigating the fire behaviour of cables from small‐scale tests, eg, the cone calorimeter, up to large‐scale tests, analysing complete cable tray constructions. The goal of the work presented in this paper is the extension of the knowledge regarding the influence of geometrical parameters like the packing density and tray distance on the burning behaviour and fire spread of cable tray installations. The results are considered, together with test results from the literature, to quantify the main physical parameters describing the burning behaviour. In a next step, the general applicability of these parameters as input data for the parametrization of the source term of numerical simulations is shown. The test results show that the burning behaviour and the fire spreading highly depend on the cable arrangement of the cables on the cable tray, in combination with other boundary conditions. By applying the results as input for a fire simulation, the mass loss rate is considered appropriately.     

Metabolism of Storage Lipids and the Role of Lipid Droplets in the Yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Storage lipids, triacylglycerols (TAG), and steryl esters (SE), are predominant constituents of lipid droplets (LD) in fungi. In several yeast species, metabolism of TAG and SE is linked to various cellular processes, including cell division, sporulation, apoptosis, response to stress, and lipotoxicity. In addition, TAG are an important source for the generation of value-added lipids for industrial and biomedical applications. The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is a widely used unicellular eukaryotic model organism. It is a powerful tractable system used to study various aspects of eukaryotic cellular and molecular biology. However, the knowledge of S. pombe neutral lipids metabolism is quite limited. In this review, we summarize and discuss the current knowledge of the homeostasis of storage lipids and of the role of LD in the fission yeast S. pombe with the aim to stimulate research of lipid metabolism and its connection with other essential cellular processes. We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of fission yeast in lipid biotechnology and recent achievements in the use of S. pombe in the biotechnological production of valuable lipid compounds.     

Dielectric relaxation of vegetable-based polyurethane

Vegetable-based polyurethane (PU) was prepared in the thin film form by spin coating. This polymer is synthesised from castor oil, which can be extracted from the seeds of a native plant in Brazil called mamona. This polymer is biocompatible and is being used as material for artificial bone. The PU was characterised by dielectric spectroscopy in a wide range of frequency (10^–5 Hz to 10⁵ Hz) and by thermally stimulated discharge current (TSDC) measurements. The glass transition temperature (T _g = 39°C) was determined and using the initial rise method the activation energy was found to be 1.58 eV.