Engineering strategies of microalgal cultivation for potential jet fuel production – A critical review

The aviation industry stands as a well-known "hard to electrify" sector, currently responsible for the consumption of massive amounts of fossil fuels, considerably contributing to global CO2 emissions. The need to reduce the aviation carbon footprint to comply with the European Green Deal objectives, has driven intensive research into the so-called bio-jet fuels (BJF) that can be obtained from different lipid-rich substrates, including microalgae among the most promising. Starting from the analysis of existing studies dealing with the selection of the strains more indicated for BJF production, this review examines the most recent breakthrough in microalgae cultivation techniques and lipid accumulation strategies, focusing on the approaches targeting the enhancement of the process environmental sustainability. The main bottlenecks in each phase of the production process are identified and critically reviewed. The most recent solutions are also thoroughly discussed to point out room for improvements in consolidated engineering strategies, as well as areas of further scientific research to advance the state of the art on micro-algal potential for BJF production

A Comparative Study of the Antibacterial, Antifungal and Antioxidant Activity and Total Content of Phenolic Compounds of Cell Cultures and Wild Plants of Three Endemic Species of Ephedra

Investigations were carried out to determine antimicrobial and antioxidant properties and total phenol content of three wild species of Ephedra compared with their respective callus cultures. Callus induction was performed in a standard Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with the following hormonal ranges (mg/L) for every species NAA:1.5, Kin:1 for Ephedra strobiliacea, NAA:2, Kin:1 for Ephedra procera and NAA:2, Kin:0.5 for Ephedra pachyclada. These ranges of PGPR (Plant Growth Promote Regulators) were chosen based on callus induction rates, RGR (Relative Growth Rate) and their fresh weights. An antimicrobial test against five Gram negative and two Gram positive bacteria and two fungi was performed using the disc diffusion method. All methanolic extracts showed antimicrobial activity, but the antimicrobial activity of the callus cultures was lower than those of the wild plants. E. strobilacea showed the highest antimicrobial activity, and all methanolic extracts of the wild plants and callus cultures unexpectedly showed the highest antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A FRAP (Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power) test was conducted to evaluate extracts for antioxidant activity. E. strobilacea with 1.61 ± 0.08 mmol eq quercetin/gextract and 0.278 ± 0.02 mmol eq quercetin/gextract for the wild plant and callus, respectively, showed the highest results.The total phenol content of extracts was measured by a Folin Ciocalteau test. All the chosen species displayed phenol contents but E. strobilacea had the highest amount (504.9 ± 41.51 μmol eq catechin/gextracts and 114.61 ± 15.13 μmol eq catechin/gextracts for the wild plants and callus, respectively)

An ensemble deep learning model to enhance feature representation for entity detection

One of the main processes in most natural language processing (NLP), is named entity recognition (NER). In this regard, some machine learning techniques have been presented that traditionally use manual features. Also, in recent years, deep neural network-based models have been proposed that achieve higher accuracy without relying on huge computations for feature engineering. Thus, in this article, we employ a combination of two deep learning models to capture the properties of the input sentence, including: long short term memory (LSTM) and convolutional neural network (CNN). In this architecture, extracting local features along with global features, more information is acquired for more accurate classification. We evaluate the performance of this architecture on two datasets CoNLL2003 and ACE05; and demonstrate that by adding a word level CNN, useful local properties are extracted that enhance the accuracy of the performance. Finally, we compare the performance of our system with competitors and our superiority is reported

A Comparative Study of the Antibacterial, Antifungal and Antioxidant Activity and Total Content of Phenolic Compounds of Cell Cultures and Wild Plants of Three Endemic Species of

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The effects of different levels of prebiotic (A-MAX) on digestibility, and blood biochemical parameters in West Azarbaijan kids

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of different levels of prebiotic (A-MAX) which includes cell wall composition of Saccharomyces cervisiae yeast on digestibility and blood parameters in West Azarbaijan kids. Twenty kids with an average weight of 11.1 ± 1.8 kg and about five to six months of age. Were used in a randomized complete block design with 4 treatments (5 kids per treatment). Treatments included 1) no prebiotic (control), 2) 2gram, 3) 4gram and 4) 6 gram prebiotic /day per animal, which were fed with a basal diet. Apparent digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ADF, NDF were not affected by treatments. Moreover blood metabolites including glucose, albumin, total protein, BHBA and BUN were not significantly different between groups. The results indicate that the addition of prebiotic (A-MAX) to the diet of kids had no significant effect on digestibility and blood biochemical parameters

The Inhibitory Effects of 2 Commercial Probiotic Strains on the Growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Gene Expression of Enterotoxin A

Background: Food-borne intoxications are current problems in human society and most of them are caused by the enterotoxins of Staphylococcus aureus. Staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) is the most frequently responsible for staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks. From a food safety and human health point of view, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) may provide a promising strategy to combat the pathogenic bacteria, particularly S. aureus. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the inhibitory activity of two commercial lactobacillus strains on growth and enterotoxin A production by S. aureus. Moreover, the inhibitory effect of these strains on gene expression of enterotoxin type A was assessed using real-time Polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Materials and Methods: In this study the inhibitory effect of two commercial probiotic strains, Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA5) and Lactobacillus casei 01 on the growth and enterotoxin production of S. aureus was evaluated at 25 and 35°C. The gene expression of SEA of S. aureus was also evaluated by real time (RT) PCR technique. Results: The lactobacillus strains decreased the bacterial count at both temperatures compared with the control group. This reduced effect was greater at 25°C (3 log/CFU) than 35°C (2 log/CFU). The production of SEA, SEC and SEE was inhibited by the lactobacillus strains. Furthermore, the gene expression of SEA was significantly suppressed in S. aureus co cultured with studied lactobacillus strains and the greatest down-regulation of sea (10.31 fold) was observed in co-incubation of S. aureus with LC01 at 25°C. Conclusion: This research raises important implications for the potential use of LAB as a natural preservative in foodstuffs by correct microbial ecology of the environment and a new approach for biocontrol of S. aureus

Microplastics and their interactions with microbiota

As a new pollutant, Microplastics (MPs) are globally known for their negative impacts on different ecosystems and living organisms. MPs are easily taken up by the ecosystem in a variety of organisms due to their small size, and cause immunological, neurological, and respiratory diseases in the impacted organism. Moreover, in the impacted environments, MPs can release toxic additives and act as a vector and scaffold for colonization and transportation of specific microbes and lead to imbalances in microbiota and the biogeochemical and nutrients dynamic. To address the concerns on controlling the MPs pollution on the microbiota and ecosystem, the microbial biodegradation of MPs can be potentially considered as an effective environment friendly approach. The objectives of the presented paper are to provide information on the toxicological effects of MPs on microbiota, to discuss the negative impacts of microbial colonization of MPs, and to introduce the microbes with biodegradation ability of MPs

The effect of probiotics on health status and performance of Holstein calves

The positive effect of probiotics on performance and health status of suckling calves has long been demonstrated. Probiotics are a group of living microorganisms used in livestock feeding, These additives not only have no harmful effects to living organisms, but secrete various enzymes which break down organic carbon chains and produce substances such as sugars, alcohols, vitamins and other nutrients. In order to carry out the present study, 24 male and female calves with an average weight of 50±3 kg and age of 40±3 days were selected for an experimental period of 45 days. The treatments included consisted of, 1- control group, 2- the group receiving Lactobacillus casei and 3- the group receiving Lactobacillus acidophilus. The probiotics were given to calves along withphysiological saline solution. The use oflactobacilli had no significant effect on feed intake although their supplementation increased the weight of the calves during the entire period (ppp<0.05). Inversely, no significant effect on the amount of total protein, albumin, triglycerides and blood cholesterol was shown. Furthermore, the results showed that probiotic supplements improved health indicators numerically but not statistically. According to the results, it can be concluded that supplementation of probiotics in the diet of calves improves performance and has a beneficial effect on some blood parameters