Selection of carrier for immobilization of fructosyltransferase from Aureobasidium pullulans

The study deals with the development of an immobilized biocatalyst for the production of fructooligosaccharides. Several commercial anion-exchange resins and polymethacrylate carriers were tested for the immobilization either by the direct attachment of fructosyltransferase or by the attachment accompanied by simultaneous glutaraldehyde crosslinking in the pH range from 5.7 to 7.1. On the basis of the efficiency of immobilization and the storage stability, Amberlite IRA 900 and Dowex Marathon MSA were selected as the best carriers for fructosyltransferase immobilization by direct attachment at pH 5.7. Regular paper An erratum to this article is available at .     

Characterization of pore structure of a strong anion-exchange membrane adsorbent under different buffer and salt concentration conditions

The quantitative characterization of pore structure of Sartobind Q, a strongly basic membrane anion exchanger that is formed by cross-linked cellulose support and a hydrogel layer on its pore surface, was made combining the results obtained by several experimental techniques: liquid impregnation, batch size-exclusion, inverse size-exclusion chromatography, and permeability. Mercury intrusion and nitrogen sorption porosimetry were carried out for a dry cellulose support membrane in order to get additional information for building a model of the bimodal pore structure. The model incorporated the distribution of the total pore volume between transport and gel-layer pores and the partitioning of solutes of different molecular weights was expressed through the cylindrical pore model for the transport pores and random plane model for the gel layer. The effect of composition of liquid phase on the pore structure was investigated in redistilled water, phosphate and Tris–HCl buffers containing up to 1 M NaCl. Evident differences in the bimodal pore structure were observed here when both the specific volume and size of the hydrogel layer pores significantly decreased with the ionic strength of liquid phase.     

Application of thermodynamics in a specific force field to the adsorption of Al ions on the chelating resins Ostsorb Oxin, Ostsorb Salicyl, Spheron Oxin, and Spheron Salicyl: Mathematical analysis of sorption isotherms using nonlinear mean square software

The sorption mechanism of Al³⁺ on chelating resins by means of mathematical analysis of sorption isotherms using nonlinear mean square software was studied. This method should yield more detailed information than classical thermodynamics and should be more flexible than the statistical-mechanical method, so that it would make it possible to obtain fairly easily relations directly applicable in practice. This model defined the specific potential Φ_Al^R for the ion in a resin (which depends on properties of resin and ion). On the basis of this model, N and PO isotherms were derived. To study the sorption mechanism, the Freundlich, Langmuir, N and PO equations (models) of isotherms were used. It was estimated that the functional groups (8-hydroxyquinoline and salicylate) in the studied chelating resins influence Φ_Al^R and thus their mechanism and sorption capacity.     

Efficiency of decomposition procedures for the determination of some elements in soils by atomic spectroscopic methods

Nine decomposition procedures for soil samples, such as via acid mixtures and fusion in open systems and microwave and autoclave dissolution (in closed systems under elevated temperature and pressure) were assessed using certified soil reference materials. The determination of various elements in solutions was performed by FAAS and ICP-OES and the results were compared with certified values and with direct current arc OES analysis.     

Physical and Bioengineering Properties of Polyvinyl Alcohol Lens-Shaped Particles Versus Spherical Polyelectrolyte Complex Microcapsules as Immobilisation Matrices for a Whole-Cell Baeyer–Villiger Monooxygenase

Direct comparison of key physical and chemical-engineering properties of two representative matrices for multipurpose immobilisations was performed for the first time. Polyvinyl alcohol lens-shaped particles LentiKats® and polyelectrolyte complex microcapsules were characterised by advanced techniques with respect to the size distribution of the particles, their inner morphology as revealed by fluorescent probe staining, mechanical resistance, size-exclusion properties, determination of effective diffusion coefficient and environmental scanning electron microscope imaging. While spherical polyelectrolyte complex microcapsules composed of a rigid semipermeable membrane and a liquid core are almost uniform in shape and size (diameter of 0.82 mm; RSD?=?5.6 %), lens-shaped LentiKats® are characterised by wider size distribution (diameter of 3.65 mm; RSD?=?10.3 % and height of 0.341 mm; RSD?=?32.3 %) and showed the same porous structure throughout their whole volume at the mesoscopic (micrometre) level. Despite differences in their inner structure and surface properties, the pore diameter of?～?2.75 nm for regular polyelectrolyte complex microcapsules and?～?1.89 nm for LentiKats® were similar. These results were used for mathematical modelling, which provided the estimates of the effective diffusion coefficient of sucrose. This value was 1.67?×?10^?10 m² s^?1 for polyelectrolyte complex microcapsules and 0.36?×?10^?10 m² s^?1 for LentiKats®. Recombinant cells Escherichia coli-overexpressing enzyme cyclopentanone monooxygenase were immobilised in polyelectrolyte complex microcapsules and LentiKats® for comparison of their operational stability using model Baeyer–Villiger oxidation of (±)-cis-bicyclo [3.2.0] hept-2-en-6-one to regioisomeric lactones as important chiral synthons for potential pharmaceuticals. Both immobilisation matrices rendered high operational stability for whole-cell biocatalyst with no reduction in the biooxidation rate over 18 repeated reaction cycles.     

Generalized Effect Algebras of Positive Operators Densely Defined on Hilbert Spaces

Axioms of quantum structures, motivated by properties of some sets of linear operators in Hilbert spaces are studied. Namely, we consider examples of sets of positive linear operators defined on a dense linear subspace D in a (complex) Hilbert space ℋ. Some of these operators may have a physical meaning in quantum mechanics. We prove that the set of all positive linear operators with fixed such D and ℋ form a generalized effect algebra with respect to the usual addition of operators. Some sub-algebras are also mentioned. Moreover, on a set of all positive linear operators densely defined in an infinite dimensional complex Hilbert space, the partial binary operation is defined making this set a generalized effect algebra.     

Effect of pH on protein adsorption capacity of strong cation exchangers with grafted layer

The effect of pH on the static adsorption capacity of immunoglobulin G, human serum albumin, and equine myoglobin was investigated for a set of five strong cation exchangers with the grafted tentacle layer having a different ligand density. A sharp maximum of adsorption capacity with pH was observed for adsorbents with a high ligand density. The results were elucidated using the protein structure and calculations of pK(a) of ionizable groups of surface basic residues. Inverse size-exclusion experiments were carried out to understand the relation between the adsorption capacity and pore accessibility of the investigated proteins.     

Chromatographic separation of prebiotic oligosaccharides. Case study: separation of galacto-oligosaccharides on a cation exchanger

Chromatographic separation of prebiotic oligosaccharides, galacto-oligosaccharides from a typical post-reaction mixture containing unreacted substrate lactose and by-products glucose and galactose was investigated. A commercial cation-exchange resin Dowex 50WX4 was chosen as a prospective preparative-scale adsorbent and separation performance of its four ionic forms, H⁺, Na⁺, K⁺ and Ca²⁺, was tested. Since adsorption equilibrium isotherms were linear within the entire investigated range of concentrations, they were determined by pulse experiments for all saccharides present in a typical post reaction mixture including tri- and tetragalacto-oligosaccharides. From the four counter ions listed above, hydrogen offered the best selectivity and column performance. The selected H⁺-form of the cation exchanger was further investigated by means of frontal analysis where high ionic strength and elevated viscosity appear and can play a substantial role. Breakthrough curves were measured for monosaccharides, lactose, glucose–lactose mixture and a multicomponent commercial mixture of galacto-oligosaccharides, Vivinal^® GOS. The breakthrough curves were successfully described by the dispersive plug flow model with linear driving force approximation.