Pharmaceutical products that mix natural raw materials are subject to unavoidable contamination with microorganisms from the environment and animals. This study focused on the effect of radiation on the quality of primary packaged pills, which are crude drug products. The pills, which were sealed in a sack for primary packaging laminated with polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene, and aluminum foil, were irradiated by gamma rays or electron beam (EB). The survival counts of bacteria were reduced to 103 CFU/g or less by 6 kGy of irradiation. The counts of the spore-forming bacteria Bacillus megaterium, B. cereus, and Brevibacillus brevis in the pills were reduced to not over 100 CFU/g after 10 kGy irradiation. Although some of the cinnamaldehyde in the pills was oxidized to cinnamic acid, the decomposition of swertiamarin, berberine, glycyrrhizin, and cinnamaldehyde in the pills after 10 kGy irradiation were within the analytical accuracy by high-performance liquid chromatography. Ga... [more]

Bambara groundnut (BGN) starch-soluble dietary fibre nanocomposite (STASOL) was manufactured by grafting 1.95 g BGN soluble dietary fibre (BGN-SDF) onto 15 g BGN starch (BGNS). The particle sizes, functional groups, crystallinity, morphology and thermal properties of BGNS, BGN-SDF and STASOL were studied using a Zetasizer, Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and differential scanning calorimetry, respectively. STASOL had a particle size and conductivity of 74.01 nm and −57.3 mV, respectively. BGN-SDF and STASOL were amorphous and BGNS was classified as type C starch, typical of legumes. The biopolymers had functional groups in the regions 2900−3600, 1600−1642, 900−1200 and 800−1300 cm−1, which could be attributed to the vibrational stretching of OH groups, vibration of OH groups in the non-crystalline region of starch, vibration of C-O, C-C and C-H-O bonds and the vibration of C-O and C-C bonds, respectively. BGNS had smooth, oval structures whil... [more]

Worldwide, Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. Ocimum sanctum, commonly known as holy basil (Tulsi), is an herbaceous perennial that belongs to the family Lamiaceae and is considered one of the most important sources of medicine and drugs for the treatment of various diseases. The presented study aims to discover the potential phenomenon of Ocimum sanctum in the medicament of tuberculosis using a network pharmacology approach. Active ingredients of Ocimum sanctum were fetched through two different databases and from literature review and then targets of these compounds were harvested by SwissTargetPrediction. Potential targets of TB were downloaded from GeneCards and DisGNet databases. After screening of mutual targets, enrichment analysis through DAVID was performed. Protein−protein interaction was performed using the String database and visualized by Cytoscape. Then the target-compound-pathway network was constructed with Cytoscape. In the end, molecul... [more]

Propolis has given rise to refreshing interest in recent years in the field of conventional medicine. Its extraction represents an important process that requires optimal conditions, which strongly affect the yield of extraction, total polyphenols, flavonoid content, and radical scavenging capacity markers. The objective of the present study was to optimize the ultrasound-assisted extraction conditions of Moroccan propolis. The studied responses were the extraction yield, total polyphenols, flavonoid contents (TPC, TFC), and antioxidant activity of the extract evaluated by DPPH-IC50 and FRAP-EC50 assays. The response surface methodology (RSM) and specifically the Box−Behnken design (BBD) were used, taking into account three variables: sonication time (min), solvent/propolis ratio (mL/g), and ethanol concentration (%). After the realization of experiments and data analysis, optimal response values were 15.39%, 192 mg GAE/g of propolis,45.15 mg QEq/g, 29.8 µg/mL, and 128.3 µmol Fe2+/g fo... [more]

In submerged arc welding (SAW) of chromium containing steels, the chromium in the weld metal is usually sourced from weld wire. Manufacturing of precise weld wire compositions for alloying of the weld metal is expensive. In addition, alloying of weld metal with high levels of copper via weld wire is hindered by work hardening of the weld wire. In the SAW process, a large quantity of oxygen is added to the weld pool. Because chromium has a high affinity for oxygen, the oxygen partial pressure at the weld pool-molten flux interface must be controlled to ensure high recovery of chromium to the weld metal. This study illustrates the application of copper as stabilizer, in conjunction with aluminum, to enhance chromium transfer to the weld pool. The stabilizer effect occurs because the Cr-Al-Cu alloy liquidus temperatures are much lower than the pure Cr liquidus temperature. The result is an increase in the total quantity of Cr, Al, and Cu powder melted into the weld pool. The application o... [more]

The 42 wt.% Sn−58 wt.% Bi (Sn-58Bi) Ball Grid Array (BGA) solder balls were mounted to electroless nickel-electroless palladium-immersion gold (ENEPIG) pads by employing the reflow process profile. The effects of reflow cycles and aging time on the interfacial microstructure and growth behavior of intermetallic compounds, as well as the mechanical properties, were investigated. Pd-Au-Sn intermetallic compound (IMC) was formed at the Sn-58Bi/ENEPIG interface. With the increase in reflow cycles and aging time, the IMC grew gradually. After five reflow cycles, the shear strength of the Sn-58Bi/ENEPIG solder joints first decreased and then increased. After 500 h of aging duration under −40 °C, the shear strength of the Sn-58Bi/ENEPIG solder joints decreased by about 12.3%. The fracture mode transferred from ductile fracture to ductile and brittle mixed fracture owing to the fact that the fracture location transferred from the solder matrix to the IMC interface with the increase in reflow c... [more]

Waste management solutions including the valorization of waste materials in biotechnological processes is an important issue needing to be explored. A significant amount of waste is being generated by the food industry. In this study, an attempt was made to utilize two fish industry wastes simultaneously—waste brine and post-frying oil from frying fish fillets in Yarrowia lipolytica culture with high single cell oil synthesis yield. Oxygenation in the culture medium had a positive effect on the biosynthesis efficiency of microbial oil, resulting in the highest content of lipids in yeast cells at the level of 0.431 g/g d.m (dry mass). Y. lipolytica yeast preferentially accumulated oleic acid and linoleic acid, and the high content of linolenic acid, valuable from a nutritional point of view, was also found in microbial oil. This study proved that the use of post-frying rapeseed oil gives a chance to obtain valuable storage lipids in Y. lipolytica yeast cells via ex novo biosynthesis pat... [more]

Rye (Secale cereale L.) is abundantly cultivated in countries like Europe and North America, particularly in regions where soil and climate conditions are unfavorable for the growth of other cereals. Among all the cereals generally consumed by human beings, rye grains are characterized by the presence of the highest content of fiber. They are also a rich source of many phytochemical compounds, which are mainly distributed in the outer parts of the grain. This review focuses on the current knowledge regarding the characteristics of rye bran and wholemeal rye flour, as well as their applications in the production of both food and nonfood products. Previous studies have shown that the physicochemical properties of ground rye products are determined by the type of milling technique used to grind the grains. In addition, the essential biologically active compounds found in rye grains were isolated and characterized. Subsequently, the possibility of incorporating wholemeal rye flour, rye bra... [more]

The conventional elastic least-squares reverse time migration (LSRTM) generally inverts the parameter perturbation of the model rather than the reflectivity of reflected P- and S-modes, which leads to difficulty in directly interpreting the physical properties of the subsurface media. However, an accurate velocity model that is needed by the separation of seismic records of conventional LSRTM is usually unavailable in real data, which limits its application. In this study, we introduce a new practical correlative LSRTM (CLSRTM) scheme based on wave mode decomposition without amplitude and phase distortion, which frees from separation of seismic records. In this study, we deduced the migration and the de-migration operators using the decoupled P- and S-wave equations in heterogeneous media, which needs no extra wavefield decomposition in simulated data. To accelerate the convergence and improve the efficiency of the inversion, we adopted an analytical step-length formula that can be inc... [more]

Infectious diseases are one of the core biological complications for public health. It is important to recognize the pathogen-specific mechanisms to improve our understanding of infectious diseases. Differentiations between bacterial- and viral-targeted human proteins are important for improving both prognosis and treatment for the patient. Here, we introduce machine learning-based classifiers to discriminate between the two groups of human proteins. We used the sequence, network, and gene ontology features of human proteins. Among different classifiers and features, the deep neural network (DNN) classifier with amino acid composition (AAC), dipeptide composition (DC), and pseudo-amino acid composition (PAAC) (445 features) achieved the best area under the curve (AUC) value (0.939), F1-score (94.9%), and Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) value (0.81). We found that each of the selected top 100 of the bacteria- and virus-targeted human proteins from a candidate pool of 1618 and 391... [more]

The use of geothermal energy (GE) and the green economy in the environment of Slovak municipalities and towns is significant, due to the reduction in the negative influences and impacts of human society’s constant consumer lifestyle. The authors highlight the use of modern scientific knowledge, practical experience, and ever-improving technologies in the field of renewable energy sources RES. The aim of this contribution is to draw attention to the under-utilization of GE’s potential in Slovakia. Given the country’s commitment to meeting emission limits under EU carbon neutrality agreements by 2050, the use of this resource is very pertinent. Slovakia has significant geothermal resources that are not currently sufficiently utilized. The article suggests using GE to heat housing units of the housing estate near the geothermal source. Three scenarios (60 °C (pessimistic), 65 °C (conservative), and 70 °C (optimistic)) were considered in our energy balance and economic advantage calculatio... [more]

Coal-based activated carbons (CACs) have excellent valuable applications, and have been industrially produced. However, ultra-fine coal-based activated carbons (UCACs) and their removal of methylene blue (MB) have rarely been reported in the present literature. Two kinds of UCACs were obtained in this paper and the adsorption test of MB was carried out. The adsorption performance of MB on UCAC was simulated by Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GC-MC) method. The experimental results were validated by molecular simulation, and the adsorption mechanism was investigated. The adsorption amount of MB, the d50, and specific surface area values of the UCACnew (obtained by the new method) and UCACcm (obtained by the conventional chemical method) were 746.95 mg/g, 12.54 μm, 1225.36 m2/g and 652.77 mg/g, 12.10 μm, 713.76 m2/g, respectively. The results of the molecular simulation calculations were consistent with the pattern of magnitude of the experimental results. The peak of the adsorption concent... [more]

In order to study the effect of interlayer thickness on the deformation and strength characteristics of interbedded sandstone under load, uniaxial compression and conventional triaxial compression tests were carried out on four interbedded medium-grained sandstone samples with different interlayer thickness, accounting for different proportions of the total height of the sample (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%). The samples were from the Shendong Mining Area and investigated using an RMT-150C rock mechanics test system. Then the stress−strain curve characteristics, strength characteristics, and failure characteristics of the interbedded medium-grained sandstone with different interlayer thickness were analyzed, and the applicability of Mohr−Coulomb strength criterion and Rocker criterion to interbedded medium-grained sandstone with different interlayer thickness was evaluated. The research results show that, as the thickness of the interlayer gradually increases, the uniaxial compressive strengt... [more]

An extended membrane system using a tissue-like P system with evolutional symport/antiport rules and a promoter/inhibitor, which is based on the evolutionary mechanism of quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO) and improved QPSO, named CQPSO-ETP, is designed and developed in this paper. The purpose of CQPSO-ETP is to enhance the optimization performance of statistical network structure-based membrane-inspired evolutionary algorithms (SNS-based MIEAs) and the QPSO technique. In CQPSO-ETP, evolution rules with a promoter based on a standard QPSO mechanism are introduced to evolve objects, and evolution rules with an inhibitor based on an improved QPSO mechanism using self-adaptive selection, and cooperative evolutionary and logistic chaotic mapping methods, are adopted to avoid prematurity. The communication rules with a promoter/inhibitor for objects are introduced to achieve the exchange and sharing of information between different membranes. Under the control of the evoluti... [more]

Co-gasification of coal and biomass is an important way to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and achieve the efficient utilization of biomass resources. Two kinds of biomass containing corn straw (CS) and poplar sawdust (PS) were blended with different coal. Then, the coal char was separated from the blended char after co-pyrolysis based on the difference in particle size. The structural properties, including alkali and alkaline earth metals (AAEMs), microcrystalline structures, and molecular structures of the char samples were analyzed. Gasification reactivity of the char was determined by thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). Results indicated that K and Mg contents in biomass evaporated easily and deposited on coal char, resulting in the increase in those in coal char during co-pyrolysis, and then the AAEMs contents in coal char were determined by the AAEM species and contents in biomass. Meanwhile, the inhibition effect on the graphitization degree of coal char increased with incr... [more]

Cross-flow microfiltration and membrane plate filtration are the main filtration processes used in wineries. However, the inherent compositional variability of red wines could affect the impact of these two filtration techniques on the final wine quality. Thus, this work aims to study, under winery-scale conditions, the impact of these two filtration processes on the turbidity level, phenolic composition, chromatic characteristics and sensory profile of red wine. For this purpose, three different Portuguese red wines with different initial phenolic contents were used. In this context, several methodologies were used to quantify the total phenolic composition, chromatic characteristics, individual anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins before and after filtration. The sensory profiles of the different red wines were also considered. The results indicated that each filtration process produced a substantial reduction in turbidity values and, consequently, an increase in wine clarification. In... [more]

Trichlorophenols are on the US environmental protection agency’s list of priority pollutants due to their serious damage to water safety. With the aim of adsorbing the 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP), Zn2+-Al3+-tartrate layered double hydroxides (Zn2+-Al3+-C4H4O62−-LDHs) adsorbent was synthesized via homogeneous precipitation method. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) were used to characterize Zn2+-Al3+-C4H4O62−-LDHs. The concentration of 2,4,6-TCP was determined using gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Zn2+-Al3+-C4H4O62−-LDHs exhibited a good adsorption performance of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, since a bigger layer spacing of Zn2+-Al3+-C4H4O62−-LDHs was obtained than that in Zn2+-Al3+-CO32−-LDHs. Adsorption parameters of adsorption temperature, contact time, adsorbent dosage, and solution pH were investigated, the initial concentration of 2,4,6-TCP was 2.0 g/L. Resp... [more]

Nowadays, plant-based proteins are gaining momentum due to their wide availability, good amino acid content, and their market appeal. Unfortunately, these molecules usually have low water solubility, affecting other functional characteristics, such as foaming and emulsification, opening technological opportunities for research. Some plant-based protein applications rely on adjustments to final formulations and changing these chemical structures to produce new protein ingredients is also a path widely used in recent research. These modifications can be classified as physical or chemical, the latter being the most popular, and hydrolysis is one of the more widely reported modifications. This review explores the application of chemical modifications to plant-based proteins to improve techno-functional properties, when applied as part of food formulations. In addition, acetylation and succinylation, as the second and third most used processes, are discussed, including a deep analysis of th... [more]

In mechanized rice harvesting, the performance of the cleaning device is one of the important factors that affect the overall efficiency of the combine-harvester. To study the influence of different parameters on the cleaning efficiency, the influence of airflow velocity and the inclination angle on the cleaning effect was analyzed. Both simulation and experimental results prove that the increase of airflow velocity and the inclination angle will reduce the impurity rate of rice and increase the entrainment loss rate. The addition of a vibrating sieve to the device reduces the trash rate of rice, but the entrained loss rate increases accordingly. After tilting the sieve surface by 10°, a reduction in both the impurity rate and the entrainment loss rate of rice was found in combination with the force analysis of the particles on the sieve surface. The effect of the device structure on the internal flow field distribution was analyzed by comparing the eddy viscosity and velocity flow lin... [more]

The mixture of water extracts from Tanacetum parthenium and Salix alba was studied in an ex vivo assessment of neurotoxicity constituted by isolated mouse cortex specimens challenged with K+ 60 mM Krebs−Ringer buffer (neurotoxicity stimulus). The effects of the mixture on lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), nitrite and serotonin levels were investigated. The phytochemical profile of the mixture was also evaluated. A docking approach was conducted to predict, albeit partially, the putative mechanism underlying the observed effects. The extracts displayed a good profile of polyphenolic compounds (22 chromatographic peaks detected), with caftaric acid and epicatechin being the prominent phenols. In isolated cortex, the association of T. parthenium and S. alba extracts was effective in reducing the K+ 60 mM-induced levels of LDH and nitrites, whereas the neurotoxicity stimulus-induced serotonin depletion was prevented by the treatment. Regarding the inhibition of serotonin catabolism, epicatechin... [more]

In this study, we assessed the coating of ‘Tommy Atkins’ mangoes with films containing chitosan and nano-silicon dioxide in terms of the effects on fruit parameters as an indicator of quality. After coating, the fruits were first stored at 13 ± 1 °C and 90−95% RH for 30 days, and then at 20 ± 2 °C and 70−75% RH for 5 days, which corresponds to the marketing period. The results showed that coating treatments significantly decreased the fruits’ weight loss and decay percentage compared to the uncoated control samples over the storage period. Additionally, all coated treatments delayed skin degreening, reduced endogenous ethylene production, suppressed respiration rate, and maintained the firmness, compared to untreated control fruit. Titratable acidity and vitamin C significantly decreased in all samples during storage, but this decrease was less pronounced in the coated fruits. Furthermore, coating can delay the increments in total soluble solids and total sugars while maintaining total... [more]

This article presents the application of a novel system for the treatment of fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) using the combination of treatment by the application of the liquid fraction to an anaerobic hydrolytic bioreactor and a constructed wetland. The batch-fed anaerobic bioreactor (AB) had an average organic loading rate of 44 g COD/L-d and a hydraulic residence time (HRT) of 24 h for the degradation of the liquid fraction of the FVW with an average COD removal of 55%. Subsequently, the constructed wetlands (CWs) were fed a subsurface vertical flow of the effluent from the AB by stepwise concentration increments from 1 to 12 g COD/L and a HRT = 72 h until the limit conditions of the operation were identified. For the tropical ornamental species of the CWs in red volcanic gravel (RVG) and RVG + polyethylene (PE) supports, the monoculture of Hippeastrum rutilum and Spathiphyllum wallisii presented removals of COD, Tot-P, and TKN of 90%, 80%, and 85%, respectively. The polycultures wi... [more]

The aim of this study was to explore the impact of aqueous ozone technology on maintaining grapefruit flavor and freshness by minimizing the occurrence of postharvest deterioration. During the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Star Ruby grapefruit fruits were treated with 0.3 and 0.6 ppm aqueous ozone for 5 and 10 min after harvest at water temperatures of 5 °C and 15 °C, respectively. The fruits were stored for 40 days at 8 ± 1 °C with 85−90% relative humidity. The results revealed that all the ozonated water treatments reduced physiological weight loss, disease infection, and decay, as well as providing long-term protection to the fruits throughout storage. The best treatment for preserving the postharvest quality was 0.6 ppm ozonated water at 5 °C for 5 min, which successfully delayed ripening while concurrently preserving the TSS/acid ratios, total phenolics, and antioxidant activity. Overall, aqueous ozone treatment is a promising example of a treatment that is beginning to be utilized on a... [more]

This paper is concerned with the real-time configuration of fault detection systems by exploiting an gradient optimization scheme. It is known that industrial processes may often encounter some uncertainties or changes of operating points and environment, which would lead to an unsatisfactory fault detection result. To handle this problem, a real-time (or online) configuration strategy is introduced, which plays an important role in ensuring the efficiency of the fault detection method without a high industrial cost. In this paper, a gradient-based iterative optimization scheme is taken into account for the real-time configuration implementation. By utilizing the gradient-based iterative algorithm to minimize the K-gap between the residual generator and the current system, the parameters of the residual generator can be configured from the online input/output data. Based on this, real-time configuration of the residual generator parameters is achieved and, correspondingly, the fault de... [more]

Gas dispersion in non-Newtonian fluids is encountered in a broad range of chemical, biochemical, and food industries. Mechanically agitated vessels are commonly employed in these processes because they promote high degree of contact between the phases. However, mixing non-Newtonian fluids is a challenging task that requires comprehensive knowledge of the mixing flow to accurately design stirred vessels. Therefore, this review presents the developments accomplished by researchers in this field. The present work describes mixing and mass transfer variables, namely volumetric mass transfer coefficient, power consumption, gas holdup, bubble diameter, and cavern size. It presents empirical correlations for the mixing variables and discusses the effects of operating and design parameters on the mixing and mass transfer process. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the advantages of employing computational fluid dynamics tools to shed light on the hydrodynamics of this complex flow. The liter... [more]