Physical Pretreatment Methods for Improving Microalgae Anaerobic Biodegradability

Microalgae may be a potential feedstock for biogas production through anaerobic digestion. However, this process is limited by the hydrolytic stage, due to the complex and resistant microalgae cell wall components. This fact hinders biomass conversion into biogas, demanding the application of pretreatment techniques for inducing cell damage and/or lysis and organic matter solubilisation. In this study, sonication, thermal, ultrasound, homogeneizer, hydrothermal and steam explosion pretreatments were evaluated in different conditions for comparing their effects on anaerobic digestion performance in batch reactors. The results showed that the highest biomass solubilisation values were reached for steam explosion (65–73%) and ultrasound (33–57%). In fact, only applied energies higher than 220 W or temperatures higher than 80 °C induced cell wall lysis in C. sorokiniana. Nonetheless, the highest methane yields were not correlated to biogas production. Thermal hydrolysis and steam explosion showed lower methane yields in respect to non-pretreated biomass, suggesting the presence of toxic compounds that inhibited the biological process. Accordingly, these pretreatment techniques led to a negative energy balance. The best pretreatment method among the ones evaluated was thermal pretreatment, with four times more energy produced that demanded.     

Synthesis of "two-story" calix[6]aza-cryptands

The first four members of a new family of C(3v)-symmetrical "two-story" calix[6]aza-cryptands have been synthesized. These large funnel shaped aza-ligands are formed through introduction of three aromatic arms as spacers onto the small rim of a calix[6]arene and subsequently capped with the tripodal aza caps tacn [1,3,5-triazacyclononane] or tren [tris(aminoethyl)amine]. A key feature for an efficient final 1:1 macrocyclization appears to be an adequate geometrical fit between the extended calixarene scaffold and the aza caps.     

Thermal stability of recombinant green fluorescent protein (GFPuv) at various pH values

The thermal stability of the recombinant green fluorescent protein (GFPuv) expressed by Escherichia coli cells and isolated by three-phase partitioning extraction with hydrophobic interaction chromatography was studied. The GFPuv (3.5–9.0 μg of GFPuv/mL) was exposed to various pH conditions (4.91–9.03) and temperatures (75–95°C) in the 10 mM buffers: acetate (pH 5.0–7.0), phosphate (pH 5.5–8.0), and Tris-HCl (pH 7.0–9.0). The extent of protein denaturation (loss of fluorescence intensity) was expressed in decimal reduction time (D-value), the time exposure required to reduce 90% of the initial fluorescence intensity of GFPuv. For pH 7.0 to 8.0, the thermostability of GFPuv was slightly greater in phosphate buffer than in Tris-HCl. At 85°C, the D-values (pH 7.1–7.5) ranged from 7.24 (Tris-HCl) to 13.88 min (phosphate) The stability of GFPuv in Tris-HCl (pH>8.0) was constant at 90 and 95°C, and the D-values were 7.93 (pH 8.38–8.92) and 6.0 min (pH 8.05–8.97), respectively. The thermostability of GFPuv provides the basis for its potential utility as a fluorescent biologic indicator to assay the efficacy of moist-heat treatments at temperatures lower than 100°C.     

Soft electron (low energy electron) processing of foods for microbial control

“Soft-electron” is a new term we have created referring to electrons with energies of 300 kV or lower. Homogenous irradiation of surfaces with soft electrons can decontaminate dry food ingredients such as gains, pulses, spices, dehydrated vegetables and tealeaves without detrimental effects. Treatment of soybeans with electrons of acceleration voltages at 170 kV reduced their microbial count to an undetectable level. Pre-treatment of soybeans with soft electrons enabled the extension of soymilk without sterilization process at a high temperature (120°C). The gelatinized property of soymilk from soft electron-treated beans was better than that of high-temperature sterilized soymilks. These results indicate that soft-electron sterilization improved the quality of soybeans for the processing of soymilk and Tofu(soymilk curd).     

Biodegradable poly(ethylene carbonate) nanoparticles as a promising drug delivery system with "stealth" potential

The goal of this study was to investigate the suitability of poly(ethylene carbonate) (PEC) nanoparticles as a novel drug delivery system, fulfilling the requirements for a long circulation time. Particles were obtained with a narrow size distribution and nearly neutral zeta potential. Adsorption studies with human plasma proteins revealed that PEC nanoparticles bind much less proteins in comparison to polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles. Cell experiments with fluorescently labeled PEC showed no uptake of the nanoparticles by macrophages. These novel PEC nanospheres with their unique surface properties are a promising candidate for long circulating drug delivery systems in vivo.     

Congruences modulo 16, 32, and 64 for Andrews’s singular overpartitions

In a recent work, Andrews gave a definition of combinatorial objects which he called singular overpartitions and proved that these singular overpartitions, which depend on two parameters k and i, can be enumerated by the function \(\overline{C}_{k,i}(n) \) which denotes the number of overpartitions of n in which no part is divisible by k and only parts \(\equiv \pm i \ (\mathrm{mod}\ k)\) may be overlined. Andrews, Chen, Hirschhorn and Sellers, and Ahmed and Baruah discovered numerous congruences modulo 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9 for \(\overline{C}_{3,1}(n)\). In this paper, we prove a number of congruences modulo 16, 32, and 64 for \(\overline{C}_{3,1}(n)\).     

New modular relations involving cubes of the Göllnitz–Gordon functions

Chen and Huang established some elegant modular relations for the Göllnitz–Gordon functions analogous to Ramanujan’s list of forty identities for the Rogers–Ramanujan functions. In this paper, we derive some new modular relations involving cubes of the Göllnitz–Gordon functions. Furthermore, we also provide new proofs of some modular relations for the Göllnitz–Gordon functions due to Gugg.     

Weak real integral characterizations for exponential stability of semigroups in reflexive spaces

Let (t _n ) be a sequence of nonnegative real numbers tending to ∞, such that 1≤t _n+1?t _n ≤α for all natural numbers n and some positive α. We prove that a strongly continuous semigroup {T(t)} _t≥0, acting on a Hilbert space H, is uniformly exponentially stable if $$\sum_{n=0}^\infty\varphi\bigl(\bigl|\bigl\langle T(t_n)x, y\bigr\rangle\bigr|\bigr)<\infty, $$ for all unit vectors x, y in H. We obtain the same conclusion under the assumption that the inequality $$\sum_{n=0}^\infty\varphi\bigl(\bigl|\bigl\langle T(t_n)x, x^\ast\bigr\rangle\bigr|\bigr)<\infty, $$ is fulfilled for all unit vectors x∈X and x ^?∈X ^?, X being a reflexive Banach space. These results are stated for functions φ belonging to a special class of functions, such as defined in the second section of this paper. We conclude our paper with a Rolewicz’s type result in the continuous case on Hilbert spaces.