Evidence of membrane lipid oxidation of spray-dried Lactobacillus bulgaricus during storage

Membrane fatty acids of Lactobacillus bulgaricus were analysed by gas-liquid chromatography before and after spray drying. The ratio unsaturated/saturated fatty acids decreased following spray drying, indicating the formation of lesions in cellular lipid-containing structures. The same method was used to analyse membrane lipids of Lact. bulgaricus during storage. Similarly the ratio of unsaturated/saturated fatty acids in dried cells decreased further during storage in air, presenting evidence of lipid oxidation after prolonged storage. The mechanisms of cell death during storage in the dried state are still unknown, but from these results and those presented in the literature, it seems evident that lipid oxidation and survival during storage may be related

Spray drying as a method for preparing concentrated cultures of Lactobacillus bulgaricus

Spray drying and freeze drying as methods for concentration of Lactobacillus bulgaricus starter cultures were compared in terms of viability,lag phase until onset of pH decrease and total acid production. For the experimental conditions used, no significant differences were detected between the methods. The effect of spray drying on the cell membrane of Lactobacillus bulgaricus was studied. Five separate methods were used to study the theory that spray drying causes cell membrane damage; three relating to leakage of intracellular components from the cell into the surrounding environment (260 and 280 nm absorbing materials, potassium ions and proteins) ; and two relating to increased cell permeability (increased sensitivity to NaCl and increased permeability to o-nitrophenyl-P-D-galactopyranoside (ONPG). Partial loss of some cytoplasmic material from the damaged cells was observed. The dried cells also became sensitive to NaCl and permeable to ONPG. Heat shock increased the survival of exponential cells as compared to controls but did not result in normal levels found with unshocked stationary phase cells. Heat shock had no effect on stationary phase cells. Different rehydration methods and media were investigated : slow rehydration increased survival

Injection locking of a low cost high power laser diode at 461 nm

Stable laser sources at 461 nm are important for optical cooling of strontium atoms. In most existing experiments this wavelength is obtained by frequency doubling infrared lasers, since blue laser diodes either have low power or large emission bandwidths. Here, we show that injecting less than 10 mW of monomode laser radiation into a blue multimode 500 mW high power laser diode is capable of slaving at least 50% of the power to the desired frequency. We verify the emission bandwidth reduction by saturation spectroscopy on a strontium gas cell and by direct beating of the slave with the master laser. We also demonstrate that the laser can efficiently be used within the Zeeman slower for optical cooling of a strontium atomic beam.Comment: 2nd corrected version (minor revisions); Manuscript accepted for publication in Review of Scientific Instruments; 5 pages, 6 figure

Identification of sites of injury in Lactobacillus bulgaricus during heat stress

Heat resistance of Lactobacillus bulgaricus in skimmed milk at 62°, 64°, 65° and 66°C was studied. The response to increasing temperatures in this range was not linear, with temperatures at 65°C and above giving a lower survival rate than would be predicted from experiments at lower temperatures. To identify sites of injury at these temperatures, chemical markers were used. Heating at 64°C and below resulted in damage to the cytoplasmic membrane. At temperatures of 65°C and above chemical markers also indicated damage in the cell wall and proteins. Using differential scanning calorimetry analysis of whole cells of Lact. bulgaricus seven main peaks were observed (l–51, m1–61, m2–73, n–80, p–89, q–100,r–112°C). Three of these peaks (lr, mr and pr) were the result of reversible reactions. Analysis of cell fractions identified the cell structure involved in giving rise to each of the three reversible peaks; lr, cell membrane lipids, mr, ribosomes, and pr, DNA. The evidence presented in this paper shows that irreversible reactions in the cell ribosomes are a critical site of damage in Lact. bulgaricus during heat stress in liquid media at 65°C and above

Influência do espaçamento na bandeja pelos tubetes e da aplicação de fertilizantes de liberação lenta, durante a fase de pré-viveiro, no crescimento, na partição de matéria seca e na nutrição de mudas de dendezeiro.

Este trabalho teve como objetivo verificar a influência do tipo e da dose de adubo de liberação lenta e da distribuição dos tubetes nas bandejas, durante a fase de pré-viveiro, no crescimento, na nutrição e na partição de matéria seca de mudas de dendezeiro

Influência de plantas daninhas na qualidade fisiológica de sementes de genótipos de feijão.

Objetivou-se com este trabalho avaliar o efeito de diferentes sistemas de manejo de plantas daninhas (com capina e sem capina) sobre a qualidade fisiológica das sementes de três cultivares de feijão produzidas na região de cerrado

Mapping accretion and its variability in the young open cluster NGC 2264: a study based on u-band photometry

We aim at characterizing the accretion properties of several hundred members of the star-forming cluster NGC 2264 (3 Myr). We performed a deep u,g,r,i mapping and a simultaneous u+r monitoring of the region with CFHT/MegaCam in order to directly probe the accretion process from UV excess measurements. Photometric properties and stellar parameters are determined homogeneously for about 750 monitored young objects, spanning the mass range 0.1-2 Mo. About 40% are classical (accreting) T Tauri stars, based on various diagnostics (H_alpha, UV and IR excesses). The remaining non-accreting members define the (photospheric+chromospheric) reference UV emission level over which flux excess is detected and measured. We revise the membership status of cluster members based on UV accretion signatures and report a new population of 50 CTTS candidates. A large range of UV excess is measured for the CTTS population, varying from a few 0.1 to 3 mag. We convert these values to accretion luminosities and obtain mass accretion rates ranging from 1e-10 to 1e-7 Mo/yr. Taking into account a mass-dependent detection threshold for weakly accreting objects, we find a >6sigma correlation between mass accretion rate and stellar mass. A power-law fit, properly accounting for upper limits, yields M_acc $\propto$ M^{1.4+/-0.3}. At any given stellar mass, we find a large spread of accretion rates, extending over about 2 orders of magnitude. The monitoring of the UV excess on a timescale of a couple of weeks indicates that its variability typically amounts to 0.5 dex, much smaller than the observed spread. We suggest that a non-negligible age spread across the cluster may effectively contribute to the observed spread in accretion rates at a given mass. In addition, different accretion mechanisms (like, e.g., short-lived accretion bursts vs. more stable funnel-flow accretion) may be associated to different M_acc regimes.Comment: 24 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Nutritional and sensory characterization of semi-intensively and intensively grown beef

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Electro-Mechanical Fredericks Effects in Nematic Gels

The solid nematic equivalent of the Fredericks transition is found to depend on a critical field rather than a critical voltage as in the classical case. This arises because director anchoring is principally to the solid rubbery matrix of the nematic gel rather than to the sample surfaces. Moreover, above the threshold field, we find a competition between quartic (soft) and conventional harmonic elasticity which dictates the director response. By including a small degree of initial director misorientation, the calculated field variation of optical anisotropy agrees well with the conoscopy measurements of Chang et al (Phys.Rev.E56, 595, 1997) of the electro-optical response of nematic gels.Comment: Latex (revtex style), 5 EPS figures, submitted to PRE, corrections to discussion of fig.3, cosmetic change