Edible packaging based on natural sources for food applications

16th IUFoST World Congress of Food Science and Technology: Addressing Global Food Security and Wellness through Food Science and Technology[Excerpt] Innovations constantly appear in food packaging, always aiming at creating a more efficient quality preservation system while improving foods’ attractiveness and marketability. The utilization of renewable sources for packaging materials, such as hydrocolloids from biological origin, is one of the main trends of the food packaging industry. Edible films/coatings have been considered as one of the potential technologies that can be used to increase the storability of foods and to improve the existent packaging technology, helping to ensure microbial safety and preservation of food from the influence of external factors. [...]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Translocating the blood-brain barrier using electrostatics

Copyright © 2012 Ribeiro,Domingues, Freire,Santos and Castanho. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.Mammalian cell membranes regulate homeostasis, protein activity, and cell signaling. The charge at the membrane surface has been correlated with these key events. Although mammalian cells are known to be slightly anionic, quantitative information on the membrane charge and the importance of electrostatic interactions in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics remain elusive. Recently, we reported for the first time that brain endothelial cells (EC) are more negatively charged than human umbilical cord cells, using zeta-potential measurements by dynamic light scattering. Here, we hypothesize that anionicity is a key feature of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and contributes to select which compounds cross into the brain. For the sake of comparison, we also studied the membrane surface charge of blood components—red blood cells (RBC), platelets, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).To further quantitatively correlate the negative zeta-potential values with membrane charge density, model membranes with different percentages of anionic lipids were also evaluated. From all the cells tested, brain cell membranes are the most anionic and those having their lipids mostly exposed, which explains why lipophilic cationic compounds are more prone to cross the blood-brain barrier.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia — Ministério da Educação e Ciência (FCT-MEC, Portugal) is acknowledged for funding (including fellowships SFRH/BD/42158/2007 to Marta M.B. Ribeiro, SFRH/BD/41750/2007 to Marco M. Domingues and SFRH/BD/70423/2010 to João M. Freire) and project PTDC/QUI-BIQ/119509/2010. Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (European Commission) is also acknowledged for funding (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-3-1-IAPP, Project 230654)

Bio-based coatings for food processing applications

Innovations constantly appear in food packaging, always aiming at creating a more efficient quality preservation system while improving foods attractiveness and marketability. The utilization of renewable sources for packaging materials, such as hydrocolloids from biological origin, is one of the main trends of the food packaging industry. Edible coatings have been considered as one of the potential technologies that can be used to increase the storability of foods and to improve the existent packaging technology, helping to ensure microbial safety and preservation of food from the influence of external factors. In view of these advantages concerning the application of edible coating solutions, recent developments have been achieved regarding the utilization of new materials. Work has been developed on the application of galactomannans, chitosan, Policaju, and collagen-based coatings on fruits (1, 2), cheese (3, 4) and fish (5), with the incorporation in some cases of antimicrobials and antifungals (5,7). Recently, the layerby- layer technique was used to apply these bio-based coatings as a nanolayer in fruits such as pears and mangoes (8, 9) using materials such as chitosan, lysozyme, pectin and k-carrageenan. Globally, results showed that the application of bio-based coatings on food products lead to the improvement of the quality and to the increase of shelf-life of food products. It is viewed that in a near future tailored edible packaging solutions based on natural biopolymers can be applied to selected foods, partially replacing nonbiodegradable/ non-edible plastics.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Therapeutic collaboration and resistance: describing the nature and quality of the therapeutic relationship within ambivalence events using the therapeutic collaboration coding system

We understand ambivalence as a cyclical movement between two opposing parts of the self. The emergence of a novel part produces an innovative moment, challenging the current maladaptive self-narrative. However, the novel part is subsequently attenuated by a return to the maladaptive self-narrative. This study focused on the analysis of the therapeutic collaboration in episodes in which a relatively poor-outcome client in narrative therapy expressed ambivalence. Method: For our analysis we used the Therapeutic Collaboration Coding System, developed to assess whether and how the therapeutic dyad is working within the therapeutic zone of proximal development (TZPD). Results: Results showed that when the therapist challenged the client after the emergence of ambivalence, the client tended to invalidate (reject or ignore) the therapist’s intervention. Conclusions: This suggests that in such ambivalence episodes the therapist did not match the client’s developmental level, and by working outside the TZPD unintentionally contributed to the maintaining the client’s ambivalence

Characterization of edible beeswax-based oleogels aiming at food incorporation

São Paulo School of Advanced Sciences on Reverse Engineering of Processed Foods[Excerpt] Uprising concern and consciousness of consumers, regarding saturated fat consumption, and the consequent demand for healthier food products are well visible in today’s society. Such continuous challenges question the food industry to quickly present solutions. Replace saturated fats in the food processing chain can be accomplished with the incorporation of edible oilbased gels or oleogels, which try to reproduce common fat structural and sensorial characteristics. Oil gelation effectiveness is managed by the gelators’ crystallization behaviour, where beeswax rises as a good candidate. [...]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Partículas de gel biopoliméricas para aplicações alimentares e farmacêuticas

National Patent (INPI)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Insights on bubble encapsulation after drop impact on thin liquid films

The accurate understanding of the phenomenology of drop impact onto dry/ wetted and cold/heated surfaces is increasingly relevant to implement biofuels in civil aviation. The outcome of drop impact depends on the pre-impact conditions and a seldom researched event is the encapsulation of a bubble when this impact occurs on thin liquid films. Therefore, the goal of the experimental work reported is to investigate the mechanism of this bubble encapsulation. Results show that the mechanism leading to a bubble formation has two stages. In the first stage, after the drop impacts a steady liquid film, a prompt splash occurs followed by a crown splash. The uprising sheet propagates in an almost normal direction relative to the liquid film, but its radius at the base continues to expand, eventually leading to the inward collapse of the crown-bounding rim encapsulating air inside the dome. In the second stage, three different phenomenologies of bubble encapsulation can occur. At the top of the closed crown, one jet (phenomenology 1) or two jets are formed (phenomenologies 2 and 3). For phenomenology 2, the upward jet eventually collapses due to gravitational influence, while the downward jet continues to grow until it reaches the liquid film, attaching to it, stretching and detaching from the top at the hemispheric thin sheet, forming a bubble. In phenomenology 3, the upward jet is high enough to allow its breakup and ejection of one large droplet before the collapse of the upward jet. Many secondary droplets fall on the bubble and one of them will eventually break the dome, leading to more secondary atomization. Additionally, the first perturbation imposed on the liquid film by the droplet impact is studied and an empirical correlation is proposed for its propagation velocity. Finally, bubble geometry is investigated.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analysis And Visualization Of The Perturbations Imposed On The Liquid Film By Crown Sheet Collapse Or Closure

Bubble encapsulation is a phenomenon that results from droplet impact on a liquid film for very specific impact conditions. After splashing, the crown liquid sheet starts to bend inwards, and eventually, the jets at the top of the crown merge and form a perfect empty bubble. This bubble bursts due to the impingement of a secondary droplet that falls in the spherical dome or by reaching its critical thickness. However, bubble encapsulation is seldom reported in the literature. Due to that, this work focuses on understanding better its dynamics and formation mechanisms. By using a bottom perspective of the phenomenon, important information about its dynamics is disclosed. From the bottom shadowgraphs, the capillary waves and the perturbations imposed on the steady liquid film are clearly observed. From previous works, it was confirmed that its occurrence is systematic, so, one of the goals of this study is to realize how the impact conditions influence the phenomenon and if we can establish a criterion for its occurrence. Despite the scarce information about the phenomenon, there are some works about it that are focused on the cavity underneath the bubble. In this study, we observed the cavity and conclude that the cavity shape does not influence the bubble encapsulation phenomenon. Finally, the crown closure time was measured for a specific set of impact conditions and it was analyzed depending on the dimensionless thickness of the liquid film.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio