Native and modified porcine plasma protein as wall materials for microencapsulation of natural essential oils

Porcine plasma protein (PPP) is of interest as a wall material to encapsulate lemongrass oil, turmeric oil and eucalyptus oil using emulsion technique and freeze drying. The properties of microcapsules were used to evaluate two types of wall material (native porcine plasma protein; NPPP and modified porcine plasma protein; MPPP) at two different ratios of wall material (W) and core material (C) (W:C; 4:1 and 3:1). All NPPP and MPPP emulsions showed Bingham plastic fluid flow behaviours. Moreover, MPPP microcapsules showed lower free oil content on their surface (0.10–0.50%) with higher encapsulation efficiency (91–98%). Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy showed the outstanding chemical structure of microcapsules. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy indicated holes on the surface of microcapsules encapsulated with essential oils. Both PPPs can be used as encapsulation material for natural extract and food additives to improve the food texture and as a biopolymer film to maintain the quality of food products.     

Synthesis and Evaluation of a Series of Bis(pentylpyridinium) Compounds as Antifungal Agents

A series of bis(4‐pentylpyridinium) compounds with a variety of spacers between the pyridinium headgroups was synthesised, and the antifungal activity of these compounds was investigated. Lengthening the alkyl spacer between the pentylpyridinium headgroups from 12 to 16 methylene units resulted in increased antifungal activity against C. neoformans and C. albicans, but also resulted in increased hemolytic activity and cytotoxicity against mammalian cells. However, inclusion of an ortho‐substituted benzene ring in the centre of the alkyl spacer resulted in decreased cytotoxicity and hemolytic activity, while maintaining antifungal potency. Replacement of the alkyl and aromatic‐containing spacers by more hydrophilic ethylene glycol groups resulted in a loss of antifungal activity. Some of the compounds inhibited fungal PLB1 activity, but the low correlation of this inhibition with antifungal potency indicates PLB1 inhibition is unlikely to be the predominant mode of antifungal action of this class of compounds, with preliminary studies suggesting they may act via disruption of fungal mitochondrial function.     

Modification and characterisation of porcine plasma protein with natural agents as potential cross‐linkers

Modification of porcine plasma protein (PPP) using the natural cross‐linkers at different concentrations of rutin (0.6–1% w/w), caffeic acid (1–3% w/w) and genipin (0.15–0.5% w/w) on chemical and thermal properties of PPP was investigated. Among these, rutin was the most significant effective natural agent corresponding to a decrease in the free amino group and sulphydryl group contents including a change in the protein bands’ intensity from SDS‐PAGE. However, genipin exhibited greater thermal properties of modified PPP. Moreover, the modification affected the colour of PPP and a change in the FT‐IR spectra of the samples. The suitable concentrations of each natural agent were 0.6% rutin, 0.5% genipin and 3% caffeic acid. Therefore, natural cross‐linkers such as rutin, caffeic acid and genipin can be considered as alternative cross‐linkers to improve the properties of PPP for food processing and biopolymer material applications as they are nontoxic.     

Ontology-based multiperspective requirements traceability framework

Large-scaled software development inevitably involves a group of stakeholders, each of whom may express their requirements differently in their own terminology and representation depending on their perspectives or perceptions of their shared problems. In view of that, the heterogeneity must be well handled and resolved in tracing and managing changes of such requirements. This paper presents our multiperspective requirements traceability (MUPRET) framework which deploys ontology as a knowledge management mechanism to intervene mutual “understanding” without restricting the freedom in expressing requirements differently. Ontology matching is applied as a reasoning mechanism in automatically generating traceability relationships. The relationships are identified by deriving semantic analogy of ontology concepts representing requirements elements. The precision and recall of traceability relationships generated by the framework are verified by comparing with a set of traceability relationships manually identified by users as a proof-of-concept of this framework.     

Influence of SCN− moiety on CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite film properties and the performance of carbon-based hole-transport-layer-free perovskite solar cells

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite films were prepared via a hot-casting method using six different CH3NH3I, PbI2 and Pb(SCN)2 solutions. Surface...