Extractive Fermentation of Lactic Acid in Lactic Acid Bacteria Cultivation:A Review

Lactic acid bacteria are industrially important microorganisms recognized for their fermentative ability mostly in their probiotic benefits as well as lactic acid production for various applications. Nevertheless, lactic acid fermentation often suffers end-product inhibition which decreases the cell growth rate. The inhibition of lactic acid is due to the solubility of the undissociated lactic acid within the cytoplasmic membrane and insolubility of dissociated lactate, which causes acidification of cytoplasm and failure of proton motive forces. This phenomenon influences the transmembrane pH gradient and decreases the amount of energy available for cell growth. In general, the restriction imposed by lactic acid on its fermentation can be avoided by extractive fermentation techniques, which can also be exploited for product recovery

Dinophysis toxins: Causative Organisms, Distribution and Fate in Shellfish

Several Dinophysis species produce diarrhoetic toxins (okadaic acid and dinophysistoxins) and pectenotoxins, and cause gastointestinal illness, Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP), even at low cell densities (<103 cells·L−1). They are the main threat, in terms of days of harvesting bans, to aquaculture in Northern Japan, Chile, and Europe. Toxicity and toxin profiles are very variable, more between strains than species. The distribution of DSP events mirrors that of shellfish production areas that have implemented toxin regulations, otherwise misinterpreted as bacterial or viral contamination. Field observations and laboratory experiments have shown that most of the toxins produced by Dinophysis are released into the medium, raising questions about the ecological role of extracelular toxins and their potential uptake by shellfish. Shellfish contamination results from a complex balance between food selection, adsorption, species-specific enzymatic transformations, and allometric processes. Highest risk areas are those combining Dinophysis strains with high cell content of okadaates, aquaculture with predominance of mytilids (good accumulators of toxins), and consumers who frequently include mussels in their diet. Regions including pectenotoxins in their regulated phycotoxins will suffer from much longer harvesting bans and from disloyal competition with production areas where these toxins have been deregulated.

Valorisation of Biowastes for the Production of Green Materials Using Chemical Methods

With crude oil reserves dwindling, the hunt for a sustainable alternative feedstock for fuels and materials for our society continues to expand. The biorefinery concept has enjoyed both a surge in popularity and also vocal opposition to the idea of diverting food-grade land and crops for this purpose. The idea of using the inevitable wastes arising from biomass processing, particularly farming and food production, is, therefore, gaining more attention as the feedstock for the biorefinery. For the three main components of biomass—carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins—there are long-established processes for using some of these by-products. However, the recent advances in chemical technologies are expanding both the feedstocks available for processing and the products that be obtained. Herein, this review presents some of the more recent developments in processing these molecules for green materials, as well as case studies that bring these technologies and materials together into final products for applied usage

Titan of Terror: A Personification of the Destroyer of Worlds

In 1954, Japan was barely recovering from a devastating defeat in World War II and a humiliating seven-year American occupation when the United States dropped two atomic bombs over Hi roshima and Nagasaki. Plunged into the Atomic Age, Japan produced a film, Gojira (Godzilla), that reflected the psychological trauma of a people trying to salvage their cities, their culture, and their lives. In the film, the monster is the physical embodiment of the destructive forces of nuclear power. Its poignancy is derived from its historical allusions to real events, including the Lucky Dragon 5 incident in which a Japanese Tuna trawler was covered in radioactive ash from the detonation of an underwater American atom bomb. Moreover, the film captures the conflict between censorship of athe exposition of truth, focusing on the burden of scientific responsibility. Fi nally, the film concludes by underscoring the ultimate victimization of humanity under the tyranny of massive destruction and warns against the perils of nuclear proliferation

The stability conditions of the fed-batch reactor. Part II: Luedeking-Piret type growth kinetics

The performance of a cyclic reactor was examined using a kinetic model allowing for inhibition by the metabolic product of the growth of microorganisms and production coupled with their growth and maintenance. The reactor's stability field was investigated through a search for cyclically stable solutions giving Sf ≠ O and Xf ≠ O. The productivity pattern and substrate utilisation as functions of the operating variables were studied within this field. Comparison of these results with those obtained with a Monod-type kinetics leads to the conclusion that they are of general validity and do not depend on the kinetic model adopted