Inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus using high hydrostatic pressure

The aim of this work was to develop a high-pressure decontamination and sterilization process for pharmaceutical treatments as was developed in food processing in the late eighties. The lack of normalized biological indicators able to validate sterilizing treatments under high pressure led us to select representative pathogenic strains from flora and the European Pharmacopoeia. We selected the following four bacterial strains: Candida albicans (ATCC 10231), Psuedomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 9027), spores of Aspergillus niger (ATCC 16404) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538).

This present study is focussed on S. aureus. Successive pressurization and depressurization cycles appeared to be more efficient than a continuous high-pressure treatment. Importantly, these pressure conditions, temperature and process duration are perfectly compatible with current industrial plants. These results show that HHP technology is a new alternative to inactivate pathogenic strains in accordance with pharmaceutical requirements.     

Effect of high pressure on heat and ethanol stabilities of milk

Abstract

The effect of high pressure (in range from 200 to 1000 MPa) and periods of exposure time (from 15 to 35min) on the changes of selected physico-chemical characteristics of skim milk, particularly considering its heat and ethanol stability, was studied.

Due to High pressure the conformation of milk proteins and the milk salt system were changing. Pressurization caused slightly change in the ethanol stability of milk. The influence of pressurization on heat stability was more evident. The heat stability of milk increased with an increase in pressure and exposure time.     

Optimization of high pressure processing parameters of Indian white prawn (Fenneropenaeus indicus)

The effect of pressure (150, 250 and 350?MPa), ramp rate (200, 400 and 600?MPa/min) and holding time (3, 6 and 9?min) on the quality indices (dependent variable) of Indian white prawn (Fenneropenaeus indicus) was optimized using response surface methodology. Box–Behnken response surface design was used with 15 runs. Second-order response surface model was fitted to the experimental data and the model adequacy was measured by R² value. The linear and quadratic effect of pressure, ramp rate and holding time was significant for tri-methylamine, total volatile base nitrogen and total plate count. Based on the ridge analysis and response surface plots, the optimum combination obtained was 250?MPa pressure, 400?MPa/min ramp rate and 6?min holding time for high pressure (HP) processing of Indian white prawn. Validation of the experiment indicated that the developed model was appropriate to predict quality indices in Indian white prawn processed by HP processing.     

Comparison of microbiological loads and physicochemical properties of raw milk treated with single-/multiple-cycle high hydrostatic pressure and ultraviolet-C light

The effects of ultraviolet-C radiation (UV-C, 11.8?W/m²), single-cycle and multiple-cycle high hydrostatic pressure (HHP at 200, 400 or 600?MPa) on microbial load and physicochemical quality of raw milk were evaluated. Reductions of aerobic plate count (APC) and coliform count (CC) by HHP were more than 99.9% and 98.7%, respectively. Inactivation efficiency of microorganisms increased with pressure level. At the same pressure level, two-cycle treatments caused lower APC, but did not show CC differences compared with single-cycle treatments. Reductions of APC and CC by UV-C were somewhere between 200?MPa and 400/600?MPa. Both HHP and UV-C significantly decreased lightness and increased pH, but did not change soluble solids content and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances’ values. Two 2.5?min cycles of HHP at 600?MPa caused minimum APC and CC, and maximum conductivity. Compared with HHP, UV-C markedly increased protein oxidation and reduced darkening.     

Effect of high pressures on the enzymatic activity of commercial milk protein coagulants

This study was aimed at determining the effect of high pressures in the range of 100–1000 MPa/15 min, applied in 100 MPa increments, on the coagulating and proteolytic activity of commercial coagulants produced with genetic engineering methods: Maxiren, Chymogen, Chymax and of a natural rennin preparation, Hala. The coagulating activity of Hala preparation differed compared with the other preparations, due to greater resistance to high pressures, especially in the range of 500–600 MPa. The preparations produced with genetic engineering methods lost their capability for milk protein coagulation by 500 MPa. Pressurization at 200 MPa contributed to their reduced capability for casein macroproteolysis. In contrast, an increase in Chymax, Chymogen, Maxiren and Hala preparations’ hydrolytic capability for the macroproteolysis of isoelectric casein was observed upon pressure treatment at 100 and 400 MPa and for microproteolysis after pressure treatment at 200 MPa. Storage (48 h/5°C) of the pressurized preparations had an insignificant effect on their coagulating and proteolytic activities.     

High pressure applications in milk treatment for cheese-making and accelerated ripening

Abstract

Several studies have been carried out in order to evaluate the effect of high hydrostatic pressure on food components, its impact on microorganisms and enzymes, and the modifications it produces at the nutritional and sensory level. However, practical applications of high pressure treatment have received little attention. This paper examines our recent ongoing work toward the development of high pressure applications, such as the production of raw milk cheeses from high pressure-treated milk and the possibility of cheese ripening acceleration.     

In situ studies of microbial inactivation during high pressure processing

High pressure processing (HPP) has been shown to reduce microbial concentration in foods. The mechanisms of microbial inactivation by HPP have been associated with damage to cell membranes. The real-time response of bacteria to HPP was measured to elucidate the mechanisms of inactivation, which can aid in designing more effective processes. Different pressure cycling conditions were used to expose Enterobacter aerogenes cells to HPP. Propidium iodide (PI) was used as a probe, which fluoresces after penetrating cells with damaged membranes and binding with nucleic acids. A HPP vessel with sapphire windows was used for measuring fluorescence in situ. Membrane damage was detected during pressurization and hold time, but not during depressurization. The drop in fluorescence was larger than expected after pressure cycles at higher pressure and longer times. This indicated possible reversible disassociation of ribosomes resulting in additional binding of PI to exposed RNA under pressure and its release after depressurization.     

Synergistic influences of titanium,boron, and oxygen on large-size single-crystal diamond growth at high pressure and high temperature

The synergistic influences of boron, oxygen, and titanium on growing large single-crystal diamonds are studied using different concentrations of B₂O₃ in a solvent-carbon system under 5.5 GPa-5.7 GPa and 1300 ℃-1500 ℃. It is found that the boron atoms are difficult to enter into the crystal when boron and oxygen impurities are doped using B₂O₃ without the addition of Ti atoms. However, high boron content is achieved in the doped diamonds that were synthesized with the addition of Ti. Additionally, boron-oxygen complexes are found on the surface of the crystal, and oxygen-related impurities appear in the crystal interior when Ti atoms are added into the FeNi-C system. The results show that the introduction of Ti atoms into the synthesis cavity can effectively control the number of boron atoms and the number of oxygen atoms in the crystal. This has important scientific significance not only for understanding the synergistic influence of boron, oxygen, and titanium atoms on the growth of diamond in the earth, but also for preparing the high-concentration boron or oxygen containing semiconductor diamond technologies.     

Evaluation of high hydrostatic pressure effects on bovine red blood cells and platelets

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) on the stability of red blood cells (RBCs) and platelets. Bovine blood cells (n=5) were treated with the pressure of 55, 110, 154 and 220 MPa at 25 °C for 5 min. Light microscopy, atomic force microscopy and flow cytometry studies revealed that RBCs were morphologically stable up until the 220 MPa pressure treatments, at which surface modifications were observed. The platelets were found to be less stable than RBCs. HHP application did not cause any significant change in the signal intensity, band area and frequency values of the infrared bands with the exception that a significant variation was observed in the area of the cholesterol band. No statistically significant variations were observed in the secondary structure elements due to HHP treatment according to the artificial neural network study based on the FTIR data.     

Effects of high pressure treatment on the quality of chicken patties

The effects of high pressure treatment (500 MPa, 10 min, 20 °C) on the quality of commercial chicken patties (breaded and unbreaded) were evaluated. Physical, chemical and microbiological tests were performed 24 h after high pressure processing (HPP), as well as after 14 and 21 days of storage in refrigerated conditions. It was concluded that the use of high pressures extends the shelf life of vacuum-packaged chicken patties by up to 3 weeks, based on the condition of storage during refrigeration. After this period, the number of mesophilic, psychrotrophic and lactic acid bacteria in the pressure-treated patties was five to six logarithmic cycles lower than that in the control products. HPP did not considerably influence the amount of storage drip loss, texture or colour of the patties; however, it quickened the process of lipid oxidation.     

Inactivation of Enterobacter aerogenes in reconstituted skim milk by high- and low-frequency ultrasound

The inactivation of Enterobacter aerogenes in skim milk using low-frequency (20 kHz) and high-frequency (850 kHz) ultrasonication was investigated. It was found that low-frequency acoustic cavitation resulted in lethal damage to E. aerogenes. The bacteria were more sensitive to ultrasound in water than in reconstituted skim milk having different protein concentrations. However, high-frequency ultrasound was not able to inactivate E. aerogenes in milk even when powers as high as 50 W for 60 min were used. This study also showed that high-frequency ultrasonication had no influence on the viscosity and particle size of skim milk, whereas low-frequency ultrasonication resulted in the decrease in viscosity and particle size of milk. The decrease in particle size is believed to be due to the breakup of the fat globules, and possibly to the cleavage of the κ-casein present at the surface of the casein micelles. Whey proteins were also found to be slightly affected by low-frequency ultrasound, with the amounts of α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin slightly decreasing.     

Synthesis and characterizations of boron and nitrogen co-doped high pressure and high temperature large single-crystal diamonds with increased mobility

We synthesized and investigated the boron-doped and boron/nitrogen co-doped large single-crystal diamonds grown under high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) conditions (5.9 GPa and 1290℃). The optical and electrical properties and surface characterization of the synthetic diamonds were observed and studied. Incorporation of nitrogen significantly changed the growth trace on surface of boron-containing diamonds. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements showed good evident that nitrogen atoms successfully incorporate into the boron-rich diamond lattice and bond with carbon atoms. Raman spectra showed differences on the as-grown surfaces and interior between boron-doped and boron/nitrogen co-doped diamonds. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements indicated that the nitrogen incorporation significantly decreases the boron acceptor concentration in diamonds. Hall measurements at room temperature showed that the carriers concentration of the co-doped diamonds decreases, and the mobility increases obviously. The highest hole mobility of sample BNDD-1 reached 980 cm²·V^-1·s^-1, possible reasons were discussed in the paper.     

Quantitative analysis of dissociation of LDH by high pressure native PAGE

ABSTRACT

High pressure native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis has been designed to visualize the dissociation/association process of protein complexes. This paper reports this methodology in more quantitative way by inspecting pressure dissociation of pig heart lactate dehydrogenase, a tetrameric protein, which was extensively investigated in spectroscopic methods. We observed the change of electrophoresis pattern with pressure up to 150?MPa. By optimizing the buffer system and careful image analysis of the stained gels, we quantified all the dissociates in the process of pressurization. We discussed the characteristics of our methodology by comparing the result with the previously reported.     

超高压对枯草杆菌胞外蛋白酶的影响

 以枯草杆菌为研究对象,采用Box-Behnken响应曲面设计,研究了超高压处理对枯草杆菌胞外蛋白酶的影响以及菌体致死与胞外酶的关系。结果表明,超高压能显著抑制枯草杆菌胞外蛋白酶的活性,处理过程中压力和温度是酶失活的主要因素,并且两者之间存在交互作用,超高压处理时温度协同有效。利用Design Expert软件建立了胞外蛋白酶超高压钝化模型,决定系数R₂=0.974 7,调整决定系数R_2,adj=0.942 1。方差分析表明,模型显著,可应用于钝化效果分析与预测。实验结果还表明,超高压处理后枯草杆菌的致死率与胞外蛋白酶活的变化相关性达到极显著水平（R=0.933 0）,胞外酶可作为超高压处理对微生物影响的一个评价指标。     

Hardness of materials at high temperature and high pressure

The intrinsic character of the correlation between hardness and thermodynamic properties of solids has been established. The proposed thermodynamic model of hardness allows one to easily estimate hardness and bulk moduli of known or even hypothetical solids from the data on Gibbs energy of atomization of the elements or on the enthalpy at the melting point. The correctness of this approach is illustrated by an example of the recently synthesized superhard diamond-like BC₅ and orthorhombic modification of boron, γ-B₂₈. The pressure and/or temperature dependences of hardness were calculated for a number of hard and superhard phases, i.e. diamond, cBN, B₆O, B₄C, SiC, Al₂O₃, β-B₂O₃ and β-rh boron. Excellent agreement between experimental and calculated values is observed for temperature dependences of Vickers and Knoop hardness. In addition, the model predicts that some materials can become harder than diamond at pressures in the megabar range.     

Effect of high hydrostatic pressure and high dynamic pressure on stability and rheological properties of model oil-in-water emulsions

Both static and dynamic high pressure applications provide interesting modifications in food structures which lead to new product formulations. In this study, the effects of two different treatments, high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and high dynamic pressure (HDP), on oil-in-water emulsions were identified and compared. Microfluidization was selected from among the HDP homogenization techniques. The performance of each process was analyzed in terms of rheological modifications and emulsion stability improvements compared with the coarse emulsions. The stability of the emulsions was determined comparatively by using an analytical photo-centrifuge device employing novel analysis technology. Whey protein isolate (WPI) in combination with a food polysaccharide (xanthan gum, guar gum or locust bean gum) were used as emulsifying and stabilizing ingredients. The effective disruption of oil droplets and the degradation of polysaccharides by the shear forces under high pressure in HDP microfluidization yielded finer emulsions with lower viscosities, leading to distinctive improvements in emulsion stability. On the other hand, improvements in stability obtained with HHP treatment were due to the thickening of the emulsions mainly induced by protein unfolding. The corresponding increases in viscosity were intensified in emulsion formulations containing higher oil content. Apart from these, HHP treatment was found to be relatively more contributive to the enhancements in viscoelastic properties.     

Structures and application of oligosaccharides in human milk

Comparative study of the oligosaccharide profiles of individual human milk revealed the presence of three different patterns. Four oligosaccharides containing the Fucα1-2Gal group were missing in the milk of non-secretor, and three oligosaccharides containing the Fucα1-4GlcNAc group were missing in the milk of Lewis negative individuals. Disappearance of some major oligosaccharides in these samples led to the finding of five novel minor oligosaccharides, which were hidden under the missing oligosaccharides. Following these studies, structures of many novel milk oligosaccharides were elucidated. At least 13 core oligosaccharides were found in these oligosaccharides. By adding α-fucosyl residues and sialic acid residues to these core oligosaccharides, more than one hundred oligosaccharides were formed. All these oligosaccharides contain lactose at their reducing termini. This evidence, together with the deletion phenomena found in the milk oligosaccharides of non-secretor and Lewis negative individuals, suggested that the oligosaccharides are formed from lactose by the concerted action of glycosyltransferases, which are responsible for elongation and branching of the Galβ1-4GlcNAc group in the sugar chains of glycoconjugates on the surface of epithelial cells. Therefore, oligosaccharides in human milk could include many structures, starting from the Galβ1-4GlcNAc group in the sugar chains of various glycoconjugates. Many lines of evidence recently indicated that virulent enteric bacteria and viruses start their infection by binding to particular sugar chains of glycoconjugates on the target cell surfaces. Therefore, milk oligosaccharides could be useful for developing drugs, which inhibit the infection of bacteria and viruses.     

Isothermal bulk modulus and its first pressure derivative of NaCl at high pressure and high temperature

The isothermal bulk modulus and its first pressure derivative of NaCl are investigated using the classical molecular dynamics method and the quasi-harmonic Debye model.To ensure faithful molecular dynamics simulations,two types of potentials,the shell-model(SM) potential and the two-body rigid-ion Born-Mayer-Huggins-Fumi-Tosi(BMHFT) potential,are fully tested.Compared with the SM potential based simulation,the molecular dynamics simulation with the BMHFT potential is very successful in reproducing accurately the measured bulk modulus of NaCl.Particular attention is paid to the prediction of the isothermal bulk modulus and its first pressure derivative using the reliable potential and to the comparison of the SM and the BMHFT potentials based molecular dynamics simulations with the quasi-harmonic Debye model.The properties of NaCl in the pressure range of 0-30 GPa at temperatures up to the melting temperature of 1050 K are investigated.     

Isothermal bulk modulus and its first pressure derivative of NaCl at high pressure and high temperature

The isothermal bulk modulus and its first pressure derivative of NaCl are investigated using the classical molecular dynamics method and the quasi-harmonic Debye model. To ensure faithful molecular dynamics simulations, two types of potentials, the shell-model (SM) potential and the two-body rigid-ion Born-Mayer-Huggins-Fumi-Tosi (BMHFT) potential, are fully tested. Compared with the SM potential based simulation, the molecular dynamics simulation with the BMHFT potential is very successful in reproducing accurately the measured bulk modulus of NaCl. Particular attention is paid to the prediction of the isothermal bulk modulus and its first pressure derivative using the reliable potential and to the comparison of the SM and the BMHFT potentials based molecular dynamics simulations with the quasi-harmonic Debye model. The properties of NaCl in the pressure range of 0-30 GPa at temperatures up to the melting temperature of 1050 K are investigated.