Diversity of allochtonous substances detected in bee pollen pellets

Received: 2016-08-07 | Accepted: 2016-09-13 | Available online: 2017-09-30http://dx.doi.org/10.15414/afz.2017.20.03.60-65This paper quantifies the diversity of natural and artificial allochthonous materials in bee pollen pellets and assesses their impact on potential applications. Bee products used in medicine, pharmacology and food products contain honey bee wax, propolis and flower pollens, and bee pollen pellet composition is dependent on the flower’s locality and methods used in technological preparation and storage. The quality of commercially available pollen and its positive and negative mode-of-actions are significantly influenced by natural and artificial allochthonous substances. The flower pollen pellets for this study were obtained from the Levice district in the Slovak Republic and analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). These visual and chemical analyses confirmed; (i) 4 different botanical pollen species were present in the pellets, (ii) minimal harmful substances were detected; with bee fragments and dead fungal hyphae biomass noted, (iii) different types of soil particles/aggregates were adsorbed; mainly Fe, Si oxides, silicates and alumosilicates and (iv) analysis revealed one artificial Ti-Mn-Fe grain, but this was most likely a residue from technological processes. Determination of all hazardous substances is necessary for bee pollen to be widely commercially available as food nutritional and energy supplements, and this can be achieved by microscopic study and the wide range of current analytical techniques.Keywords: bee pollen, food sources, pollen pellets, soil particles, artificial contaminantsReferencesAlmeida-Muradian, L.B. et al. (2005) Chemical composition and botanical evaluation of dried bee pollen pellets. 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Bflier's: A Novel Butterfly Inspired Multi-robotic Model in Search of Signal Sources

The diversified ecology in nature had various forms of swarm behaviors in many species. The butterfly species is one of the prominent and a bit insightful in their random flights and converting that into an artificial metaphor would lead to enormous possibilities. This paper considers one such metaphor known as Butterfly Mating Optimization (BMO). In BMO, the Bfly follows the patrolling mating phenomena and simultaneously captures all the local optima of multimodal functions. To imitate this algorithm, a mobile robot (Bflybot) was designed to meet the features of the Bfly in the BMO algorithm. Also, the multi-Bflybot swarm is designed to act like butterflies in nature and follow the algorithm's rules. The real-time experiments were performed on the BMO algorithm in the multi-robotic arena and considered the signal source as the light source. The experimental results show that the BMO algorithm is applicable to detect multiple signal sources with significant variations in their movements i.e., static and dynamic. In the case of static signal sources, with varying initial locations of Bflybots, the convergence is affected in terms of time and smoothness. Whereas the experiments with varying step-size leads to their variation in the execution time and speed of the bots. In this work, experiments were performed in a dynamic environment where the movement of the signal source in both maneuvering and non-maneuvering scenarios. The Bflybot swarm is able to detect the single and multi-signal sources, moving linearly in between two fixed points, in circular, up and down movements.To evaluate the BMO phenomenon, various ongoing and prospective works such as mid-sea ship detection, aerial search applications, and earthquake prediction were discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 17 figure

Field application of ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles on agricultural plants

Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) have potential application in precision farming and sustainable agriculture. Studies have shown that ENPs enhance the efficiency of the delivery of agrochemicals and thus, have the potential to positively affect the environment, thereby improving the growth and health of the crops. However, the majority of the research on the effects of ENPs on plants and in agricultural applications have been limited to controlled laboratory conditions. These conditions do not fully consider various aspects inherent to the growth of agricultural plants in fields under changing weather and climate. Some of the most investigated ENPs in the agricultural research area are ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs). ZnO NPs have the potential to increase crop production and stress resistance, mainly by the slow release of Zn ions to crops. Unlike ZnO NPs, TiO2 NPs have less well-understood means of action, and are generally considered as plant growth promoter. This mini review presents information compiled for ZnO and TiO2 NPs(,) their influence on agricultural plants with emphasis on particularly effect on plant growth, nutrient distribution and pollution remediation under field conditions. It is concluded that in order to gain a broader perspective, more field studies are needed, particularly multigeneration studies, to fully understand the effects of the ENPs on agricultural plants' growth and improvement of their health.Web of Science1111art. no. 228

pH sensitive smart gels of cetylpyridinium chloride in binary solvent mixtures: phase behaviour, structure and composition

Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) gels from binary solvent mixtures of chlorinated solvents in the presence of water at a specific composition ratio have been studied. A transparent gel has been formed from CPC with dichloromethane, while a turbid gel with chloroform and a very weak opaque gel with carbon tetrachloride were observed in the presence of water. The CPC gel in a binary solvent mixture at a critical solvent composition of 3 : 1 v/v CHCl3 : H2O has been investigated as a function of pH between 4.1–11.8. The self-assembly of CPC and its morphology was found to be dependent on the solvent polarity/dielectric constant and pH of the medium. The absorption and emission characteristics of the CPC gel showed a significant response in a highly alkaline medium. The microstructure of the CPC gels in various chlorinated solvent combinations was proposed based on spectroscopic and microscopic investigations.Web of Science562503115030

Phase evolution, structural characteristics and mechanism of vesicle formation from a synthetic amphiphile : controlled morphology by tuning solution phase parameters

We report herein, the aggregation behavior of 3, 4-di(dodecyloxy)benzoic acid-4-hydroxy phenyl ester (DDBE), a synthetic amphiphile and a true non-ionic surfactant system as per the geometrical considerations. The true surfactant nature of the system stems from its hydrophilic-lipophilic-balance (HLB = 4.7), comparable to that of Span-60, also a true non-ionic surfactant. This compound undergoes spontaneous vesicle formation in THF:water binary solvent mixtures which further underwent fission at lower DDBE concentrations and fusion at higher concentrations, leading to giant vesicles of the order of 3000 nm. These vesicles are sensitive to the polarity of their environment. The predominant mode of interaction as observed from the molecular dynamics simulations were found to be π-π stacking with the phenyl rings of the molecule. Further, the system, upon complete extraction into water, formed spherical aggregates of size 50 nm based on the good solvent-poor solvent combination as the necessary condition for the vesicle formation.Supporting Information: Visual snaps, Solvent polarity towards aggregation plots, geometry opti-mized structure of DDBE, MD Calculations, Dynamic light scattering plot. This material is available online free of charge via Figshare.The UP staff exchange programme 2016.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ldis20hj2020Chemistr

Novel Two-Component Gels of Cetylpyridinium Chloride and the Bola-amphiphile 6-Amino Caproic Acid: Phase Evolution and Mechanism of Gel Formation

A two-component gel resulting from the amphiphilic cationic surfactant cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) in the presence of a structure-forming bola-amphiphilic additive 6-aminocaproic acid (6-ACA) was realized and investigated. At a critical 6 wt % of 1:1 CPC:6-ACA, the yellow colored gel resulted from a 3:1 v/v CHCl₃:H₂O critical binary solvent composition. The mixed amphiphilic system formed a 1:1 complex with a binding constant ∼0.83 × 10⁴ M^–1. Phase evolution and mechanism of gelation in the mixed CPC:6-ACA system was unraveled upon investigating the gel microstructure, based on spectroscopic, microscopic, and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) investigations. The gel assembled as a lamellar organization, maintaining a loosely interdigitated bilayer structure of CPC and 6-ACA molecules through predominant charge transfer, H-bonding, and hydrophobic and intercomplex interactions. The SAXS pattern indicated a semicrystalline form to be the stable phase with alternating crystalline and amorphous layers; a novel mode of gelation with a widely disparate semicrystalline form of the lamellar gel was thus indicated, where the lamellar structure was deduced from the interplanar spacings. A transition from low viscosity reverse micellar solution to a yellow rigid gel upon aging was thus comprehended. The mixed amphiphile in varying polarity organic solvents in the presence of water indicated the nonconducive nature of gelation in very highly polar solvents, methanol, and DMF or, in very low polarity solvents, such as, cyclohexane and carbon tetrachloride

Structural, magnetic, optical, and magneto-optical properties of CoFe2O4 thin films fabricated by a chemical approach

Homogeneous, smooth, and partially transparent nanocrystalline thin films of CoFe2O4 were fabricated using a chemical solution approach with additional annealing for 2 h in a temperature range of 300 degrees C to 600 degrees C. Structural properties investigated by X-ray diffraction showed a single-phase spinel structure with a random crystallographic orientation for samples annealed above 400 degrees C. The ferromagnetic nature of prepared films was established from combined substrate with film hysteresis loops measured using a vibrating sample magnetometer. Optical and magneto-optical spectroscopic measurements revealed an improvement in the structural quality of the films after annealing up to 600 degrees C.Web of Science1171029

Heterotrophic Bacterial Leaching of Zinc and Arsenic from Artificial Adamite

Artificial adamite [Zn2(AsO4)(OH)] is a convenient structural model because it is isostructural with other rock-forming minerals in secondary ore deposits formed in cementation zones. Microbial activity in these zones accelerates mineral biogeochemical deterioration and metal release, and our results confirmed that Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus and Cupriavidus strains accelerate adamite leaching by 10 to 465 times compared to controls. Here, the Pseudomonas chlororaphis ZK-1 bacterial strain in a static 42-day cultivation proved more effective than Rhodococcus and Cupriavidus by leaching over 90% arsenic and 10% zinc from adamite in one-step in vitro. We evaluated adamite with the VESTA visualization system for electronic and structural analysis, and our results enhance understanding of zinc and arsenic biogeochemical cycles and mobilization, and highlight bacteria’s beneficial natural and biotechnological application in environmental geochemistry and biohydrometallurgy