Sourdough bread preparation using selected lactic acid bacterial starter cultures

The lactic fermentation of cereals is known to improve the food quality through the development of flavor, enhancement of the nutritional value and shelf life, and by removing toxic or antinutritional factors of food products. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains are able to improve the shelf life of several food products. The efficiency of the LAB cultures determined in in vitro assays was confirmed in bread manufacture. The sourbread prepared using 50 per cent yeast and 50 per cent LAB starter (based on cell density) was found to be superior to the conventional bread in textural characteristics, flavor, appearance and even taste. It contained enough protein (10.15%) and the least fat value (7.68%). It scored the highest acceptability index of 81.70. These results point out the advantages of using selected LAB strains as starter cultures for sourdough fermentation

Length functions on currents and applications to dynamics and counting

The aim of this (mostly expository) article is twofold. We first explore a variety of length functions on the space of currents, and we survey recent work regarding applications of length functions to counting problems. Secondly, we use length functions to provide a proof of a folklore theorem which states that pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms of closed hyperbolic surfaces act on the space of projective geodesic currents with uniform north-south dynamics.Comment: 35pp, 2 figures, comments welcome! Second version: minor corrections. To appear as a chapter in the forthcoming book "In the tradition of Thurston" edited by V. Alberge, K. Ohshika and A. Papadopoulo

Geometric Aspects of the Moduli Space of Riemann Surfaces

This is a survey of our recent results on the geometry of moduli spaces and Teichmuller spaces of Riemann surfaces appeared in math.DG/0403068 and math.DG/0409220. We introduce new metrics on the moduli and the Teichmuller spaces of Riemann surfaces with very good properties, study their curvatures and boundary behaviors in great detail. Based on the careful analysis of these new metrics, we have a good understanding of the Kahler-Einstein metric from which we prove that the logarithmic cotangent bundle of the moduli space is stable. Another corolary is a proof of the equivalences of all of the known classical complete metrics to the new metrics, in particular Yau's conjectures in the early 80s on the equivalences of the Kahler-Einstein metric to the Teichmuller and the Bergman metric.Comment: Survey article of our recent results on the subject. Typoes corrrecte

Sum of Lyapunov exponents of the Hodge bundle with respect to the Teichmuller geodesic flow

We compute the sum of the positive Lyapunov exponents of the Hodge bundle with respect to the Teichmuller geodesic flow. The computation is based on the analytic Riemann-Roch Theorem and uses a comparison of determinants of flat and hyperbolic Laplacians when the underlying Riemann surface degenerates.Comment: Minor corrections. To appear in Publications mathematiques de l'IHE

Ergodic infinite group extensions of geodesic flows on translation surfaces

We show that generic infinite group extensions of geodesic flows on square tiled translation surfaces are ergodic in almost every direction, subject to certain natural constraints. Recently K. Fr\c{a}czek and C. Ulcigrai have shown that certain concrete staircases, covers of square-tiled surfaces, are not ergodic in almost every direction. In contrast we show the almost sure ergodicity of other concrete staircases. An appendix provides a combinatorial approach for the study of square-tiled surfaces

Generic Continuous Spectrum for Ergodic Schr"odinger Operators

We consider discrete Schr"odinger operators on the line with potentials generated by a minimal homeomorphism on a compact metric space and a continuous sampling function. We introduce the concepts of topological and metric repetition property. Assuming that the underlying dynamical system satisfies one of these repetition properties, we show using Gordon's Lemma that for a generic continuous sampling function, the associated Schr"odinger operators have no eigenvalues in a topological or metric sense, respectively. We present a number of applications, particularly to shifts and skew-shifts on the torus.Comment: 14 page

Quadratic differentials as stability conditions

We prove that moduli spaces of meromorphic quadratic differentials with simple zeroes on compact Riemann surfaces can be identified with spaces of stability conditions on a class of CY3 triangulated categories defined using quivers with potential associated to triangulated surfaces. We relate the finite-length trajectories of such quadratic differentials to the stable objects of the corresponding stability condition.Comment: 123 pages; 38 figures. Version 2: hypotheses in the main results mildly weakened, to reflect improved results of Labardini-Fragoso and coauthors. Version 3: minor changes to incorporate referees' suggestions. This version to appear in Publ. Math. de l'IHE

The role of UV photolysis and molecular transport in the generation of reactive species in a tissue model with a cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet

Cold atmospheric pressure plasma jets (plasma) operated in ambient air provide a rich source of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), which are known to influence biological processes important in disease. In the plasma treatment of diseased tissue such as subcutaneous cancer tumors, plasma RONS need to first traverse an interface between the plasma-skin surface and second be transported to millimeter depths in order to reach deep-seated diseased cells. However, the mechanisms in the plasma generation of RONS within soft tissues are not understood. In this study, we track the plasma jet delivery of RONS into a tissue model target and we delineate two processes: through target delivery of RONS generated (primarily) in the plasma jet and in situ RONS generation by UV photolysis within the target. We demonstrate that UV photolysis promotes the rapid generation of RONS in the tissue model target's surface after which the RONS are transported to millimeter depths via a slower molecular process. Our results imply that the flux of UV photons from plasma jets is important for delivering RONS through seemingly impenetrable barriers such as skin. The findings have implications not only in treatments of living tissues but also in the functionalization of soft hydrated biomaterials such as hydrogels and extracellular matrix derived tissue scaffolds