Effect of thermization of dahi on post fermentation acidification during refrigerated storage

Post fermentation acidification is defined as the development of acidity past the desired level of fermentation or acid development. Effect of thermization at 65oC for different periods (30 sec, 60 sec, 2 min and 5 min) on post fermentation acidification of dahi samples prepared using Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus 18 or Lacticaseibacillus casei 01 upon refrigerated storage was assessed in this study. Significant changes (p< 0.01) were observed between the two starter cultures in terms of their post acidification potential with L. rhamnosus 18 dahi showing lower pH, higher titratable acidity and lactobacilli count than L. casei 01 during refrigerated storage. On assessing the impact of heat treatment on post acidification, significant decrease (p< 0.05) in pH, increase (p< 0.01) in titratable acidity and lactobacilli count of the heat treated and control samples were observed throughout the storage. Based on this study, it can be inferred that heat treatment at 65oC for even upto 5 min is not having any significant inhibitory effect on post fermentation acidification characteristics of the lactobacilli cultures tested

Gain control network conditions in early sensory coding

Gain control is essential for the proper function of any sensory system. However, the precise mechanisms for achieving effective gain control in the brain are unknown. Based on our understanding of the existence and strength of connections in the insect olfactory system, we analyze the conditions that lead to controlled gain in a randomly connected network of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. We consider two scenarios for the variation of input into the system. In the first case, the intensity of the sensory input controls the input currents to a fixed proportion of neurons of the excitatory and inhibitory populations. In the second case, increasing intensity of the sensory stimulus will both, recruit an increasing number of neurons that receive input and change the input current that they receive. Using a mean field approximation for the network activity we derive relationships between the parameters of the network that ensure that the overall level of activity of the excitatory population remains unchanged for increasing intensity of the external stimulation. We find that, first, the main parameters that regulate network gain are the probabilities of connections from the inhibitory population to the excitatory population and of the connections within the inhibitory population. Second, we show that strict gain control is not achievable in a random network in the second case, when the input recruits an increasing number of neurons. Finally, we confirm that the gain control conditions derived from the mean field approximation are valid in simulations of firing rate models and Hodgkin-Huxley conductance based models

Macrophages in Breast Cancer: Do Involution Macrophages Account for the Poor Prognosis of Pregnancy-Associated Breast Cancer?

Macrophage influx is associated with negative outcomes for women with breast cancer and has been demonstrated to be required for metastasis of mammary tumors in mouse models. Pregnancy-associated breast cancer is characterized by particularly poor outcomes, however the reasons remain obscure. Recently, post-pregnancy mammary involution has been characterized as having a wound healing signature. We have proposed the involution-hypothesis, which states that the wound healing microenvironment of the involuting gland is tumor promotional. Macrophage influx is one of the prominent features of the involuting gland, identifying the macrophage a potential instigator of tumor progression and a novel target for breast cancer treatment and prevention

Proteomic characterization of HIV-modulated membrane receptors, kinases and signaling proteins involved in novel angiogenic pathways

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), hemangioma, and other angioproliferative diseases are highly prevalent in HIV-infected individuals. While KS is etiologically linked to the human herpesvirus-8 (HHV8) infection, HIV-patients without HHV-8 and those infected with unrelated viruses also develop angiopathies. Further, HIV-Tat can activate protein-tyrosine-kinase (PTK-activity) of the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor involved in stimulating angiogenic processes. However, Tat by itself or HHV8-genes alone cannot induce angiogenesis <it>in vivo </it>unless specific proteins/enzymes are produced synchronously by different cell-types. We therefore tested a hypothesis that <it>chronic </it>HIV-<it>replication in non-endothelial cells </it>may produce novel factors that provoke angiogenic pathways.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Genome-wide proteins from HIV-infected and uninfected T-lymphocytes were tested by subtractive proteomics analyses at various stages of virus and cell growth <it>in vitro </it>over a period of two years. Several thousand differentially regulated proteins were identified by mass spectrometry (MS) and >200 proteins were confirmed in multiple gels. Each protein was scrutinized extensively by protein-interaction-pathways, bioinformatics, and statistical analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>By functional categorization, 31 proteins were identified to be associated with various signaling events involved in angiogenesis. 88% proteins were located in the plasma membrane or extracellular matrix and >90% were found to be essential for regeneration, neovascularization and angiogenic processes during embryonic development.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Chronic HIV-infection of T-cells produces membrane receptor-PTKs, serine-threonine kinases, growth factors, adhesion molecules and many diffusible signaling proteins that have not been previously reported in HIV-infected cells. Each protein has been associated with endothelial cell-growth, morphogenesis, sprouting, microvessel-formation and other biological processes involved in angiogenesis (p = 10^-4to 10^-12). Bioinformatics analyses suggest that overproduction of PTKs and other kinases in HIV-infected cells has <it>suppressed </it>VEGF/VEGFR-PTK expression and promoted <it>VEGFR-independent </it>pathways. This unique mechanism is similar to that observed in neovascularization and angiogenesis during embryogenesis. Validation of clinically relevant proteins by gene-silencing and translational studies <it>in vivo </it>would identify specific targets that can be used for early diagnosis of angiogenic disorders and future development of inhibitors of angiopathies. This is the first comprehensive study to demonstrate that HIV-infection alone, without any co-infection or treatment, can induce numerous "embryonic" proteins and kinases capable of generating novel <it>VEGF-independent </it>angiogenic pathways.</p

Large-scale unit commitment under uncertainty: an updated literature survey

The Unit Commitment problem in energy management aims at finding the optimal production schedule of a set of generation units, while meeting various system-wide constraints. It has always been a large-scale, non-convex, difficult problem, especially in view of the fact that, due to operational requirements, it has to be solved in an unreasonably small time for its size. Recently, growing renewable energy shares have strongly increased the level of uncertainty in the system, making the (ideal) Unit Commitment model a large-scale, non-convex and uncertain (stochastic, robust, chance-constrained) program. We provide a survey of the literature on methods for the Uncertain Unit Commitment problem, in all its variants. We start with a review of the main contributions on solution methods for the deterministic versions of the problem, focussing on those based on mathematical programming techniques that are more relevant for the uncertain versions of the problem. We then present and categorize the approaches to the latter, while providing entry points to the relevant literature on optimization under uncertainty. This is an updated version of the paper "Large-scale Unit Commitment under uncertainty: a literature survey" that appeared in 4OR 13(2), 115--171 (2015); this version has over 170 more citations, most of which appeared in the last three years, proving how fast the literature on uncertain Unit Commitment evolves, and therefore the interest in this subject

Isolation, Identification and Characterization of Thermoduric Psychrotrophic Bacteria from Market Samples of Pasteurized Milk Collected from Mannuthy, Kerala State, India

Aims: To isolate, identify and characterize thermoduric psychrotrophic bacteria from locally available market samples of pasteurized milk. Study Design: Market samples of pasteurized milk were collected, subjected to laboratory pasteurization and thermoduric psychrotrophic bacteria were enumerated after 10 days of storage at 7ºC.The isolates obtained were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing and subsequent blasting. The isolates were characterized in terms of haemolytic, lipolytic and proteolytic activities. Selected isolates were also assessed for their decimal reduction time at 63ºC.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Place and Duration of Study: Verghese Kurien Institute of Dairy and Food Technology,&nbsp;&nbsp; (Formerly College of Dairy Science and Technology), Mannuthy, Thrissur, Kerala between September, 2019 to March, 2021. Methodology: A total of 42 market samples of pasteurized milk belonging to seven different brands were assessed for their thermoduric psychrotrophic bacterial population. The thermoduric psychrotrophic bacterial isolates were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing and the sequences obtained were searched with the NCBI BLAST program (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) for their closest relatives/reference strains with a homology of over or equal to 99 per cent. Haemolytic, proteolytic and lipolytic activities of the isolates&nbsp; were determined by&nbsp; streaking&nbsp; them on blood agar, skim milk agar (SMA) and tributyrin agar respectively and&nbsp; grading them based on the presence or absence&nbsp; of zone of clearance around the colonies developed. Decimal reduction time at 63ºC of two selected isolates was also determined. Results: Six thermoduric psychrotrophic bacteria were isolated from the 42 market samples of pasteurized milk i.e., only 14.3 % of tested samples had thermoduric psychrotrophic bacterial population. 16S rRNA sequencing and subsequent blasting identified the isolates as Aeromonas caviae, Moraxella osloensis, Delftia tsuruhatensis, Staphylococcus arlettae and two strains of Carnobacterium maltaromaticum. On assessing the haemolytic activity of the isolates, A.caviae DMV01 exhibited α haemolytic activity whereas Staphylococcus arlettae DMV02, M. osloensis DMV03, C. maltaromaticum DMV05 and C. maltaromaticum DMV06 exhibited ϒ haemolytic activities.&nbsp; A. caviae DMV01 was found to be lipolytic and the two Carnobacterium strains exhibited proteolytic activities. Staphylococcus arlettae DMV02 was found to be both proteolytic and lipolytic. Aeromonas caviae DMV01 exhibited&nbsp;D63 value of 4 minutes 38 seconds whereas for Moraxella osloensis DMV03 it was 25 minutes 18 seconds. Conclusion:&nbsp;&nbsp;Exhibition of heat resistance by microorganisms capable of low temperature growth presents quite a challenging situation in terms of quality assurance and shelf life extension of pasteurized milk. So it is high time that dairy industry takes up initiatives to remain updated with the changes happening in pasteurized milk microflora in order to address the challenges such microorganisms may pose in future

Enzymes for pharmaceutical and therapeutic applications

Enzymes are highly efficient and selective biocatalysts, present in the living beings. They exist in enormous varieties in terms of the types of reactions catalyzed by them for instance oxidation-reduction, group transfers within the molecules or between the molecules, hydrolysis, isomerization, ligation, bond cleavage, and bond formation. Besides, enzyme based catalyses are performed with much higher fidelity, under mild reaction conditions and are highly efficient in terms of number of steps, giving them an edge over their chemical counter parts. The unique characteristics of enzymes makes them highly applicable fora number of chemical transformation reactions in pharmaceutical industries, such as group protection and deprotection, selective acylation and deacylation, selective hydrolysis, deracemization, kinetic resolution of racemic mixtures, esterification, transesterification, and many others. In this review, an overview of the enzymes, their production and their applications in pharmaceutical syntheses and enzyme therapies are presented with diagrams, reaction schemes and table for easy understanding of the readers