Synergistic inhibition of Haemonchus contortus exsheathment by flavonoid monomers and condensed tannins

This study investigated the separate and combined anthelmintic (AH) effects of different phenolic compounds, including condensed tannins and flavonoids, all of which are known to occur in willow leaves, a potentially valuable dry season feed. A range of contrasting model tannins, which span the whole range of willow tannins, were isolated from tilia flowers, goat willow leaves, black currant leaves and red currant leaves. All together, the tested compounds represented the major tannin types (procyanidins and prodelphinidins) and flavonoid types (flavonols, flavones and flavanones). The larval exsheathment inhibition assay (LEIA) was used to assess their in vitro effects on Haemonchus contortus third stage larvae. Arbutin, vanillic acid, and taxifolin proved to be ineffective whereas naringenin, quercetin and luteolin were highly effective at 250 μM concentrations. Procyanidin (PC) tannins tended to be less active than prodelphinidin tannins (PD). Experiments with combinations of tannins and quercetin or luteolin revealed for the first time the existence of synergistic AH effects between tannins and flavonoid monomers. They also provided evidence that synergistic effects appear to occur at slightly lower concentrations of PC than PD. This suggests that the AH activity of condensed tannins can be significantly enhanced by the addition of quercetin or luteolin. This information may prove useful for plant breeding or selection and for designing optimal feed mixtures.

Extraction of unexpected rules from Twitter hashtags and its application to sport events

Twitter has become a dependable microblogging tool for real time information dissemination and newsworthy events broadcast. Its users sometimes break news on the network faster than traditional newsagents due to their presence at ongoing real life events at most times. Different topic detection methods are currently used to match Twitter posts to real life news of mainstream media. In this paper, we analyse tweets relating to the English FA Cup finals 2012 by applying our novel method named TRCM to extract association rules present in hash tag keywords of tweets in different time-slots. Our system identify evolving hash tag keywords with strong association rules in each time-slot. We then map the identified hash tag keywords to event highlights of the game as reported in the ground truth of the main stream media. The performance effectiveness measure of our experiments show that our method perform well as a Topic Detection and Tracking approach.

Enzyme assisted extraction of chitin from shrimp shells (Litopenaeus vannamei)

BACKGROUND: Chemical chitin extraction generates large amounts of wastes and increases partial deacetylation of the product. Therefore, the use of biological methods for chitin extraction is an interesting alternative. The effects of process conditions on enzyme assisted extraction of chitin from the shrimp shells in a systematic way were the focal points of this study. RESULTS: Demineralisation conditions of 25C, 20 min, shells-lactic acid ratio of 1:1.1 w/w; and shells-acetic acid ratio of 1:1.2 w/w, the maximum demineralisation values were 98.64 and 97.57% for lactic and acetic acids, respectively. A total protein removal efficiency of 91.10% by protease from Streptomyces griseus with enzyme-substrate ratio 55 U/g, pH 7.0 and incubation time 3 h is obtained when the particle size range is 50-25 μm, which was identified as the most critical factor. The X-ray diffraction and 13C NMR spectroscopy analysis showed that the lower percent crystallinity and higher degree of acetylation of chitin from enzyme assisted extraction may exhibit better solubility properties and less depolymerisation in comparison with chitin from the chemical extraction. CONCLUSION: The present work investigates the effects of individual factors on process yields, and it has shown that, if the particle size is properly controlled a reaction time of 3 h is more than enough for deproteination by protease. Physicochemical analysis indicated that the enzyme assisted production of chitin seems appropriate to extract chitin, possibly retaining its native structure.

Aqueous enzyme assisted oil extraction from oilseeds and emulsion de-emulsifying methods: a review

Regulatory, safety, and environmental issues have prompted the development of aqueousenzymatic extraction (AEE) for extracting components from oil-bearing materials. The emulsion resulting from AEE requires de-emulsification to separate the oil; when enzymes are used for this purpose, the method is known as aqueous enzymatic emulsion de-emulsification (AEED). In general, enzyme assisted oil extraction is known to yield oil having highly favourable characteristics. This review covers technological aspects of enzyme assisted oil extraction, and explores the quality characteristics of the oils obtained,focusing particularly on recent efforts undertaken to improve process economics by recovering and reusing enzymes.

Valorisation of side streams from wheat milling and confectionery industries for consolidated production and extraction of microbial lipids

Crude enzymes produced via solid state fermentation (SSF) using wheat milling by-products have been employed for both fermentation media production using flour-rich waste (FRW) streams and lysis of Rhodosporidium toruloides yeast cells. Filter sterilization of crude hydrolysates was more beneficial than heat sterilization regarding yeast growth and microbial oil production. The initial carbon to free amino nitrogen ratio of crude hydrolysates was optimized (80.2 g/g) in fed-batch cultures of R. toruloides leading to a total dry weight of 61.2 g/L with microbial oil content of 61.8 % (w/w). Employing a feeding strategy where the glucose concentration was maintained in the range of 12.2 – 17.6 g/L led to the highest productivity (0.32 g/L∙h). The crude enzymes produced by SSF were utilised for yeast cell treatment leading to simultaneous release of around 80% of total lipids in the broth and production of a hydrolysate suitable as yeast extract replacement.

SPARE-ICE: synergistic Ice Water Path from passive operational sensors

This article presents SPARE-ICE, the Synergistic Passive Atmospheric Retrieval Experiment-ICE. SPARE-ICE is the first Ice Water Path (IWP) product combining infrared and microwave radiances. By using only passive operational sensors, the SPARE-ICE retrieval can be used to process data from at least the NOAA 15 to 19 and MetOp satellites, obtaining time series from 1998 onward. The retrieval is developed using collocations between passive operational sensors (solar, terrestrial infrared, microwave), the CloudSat radar, and the CALIPSO lidar. The collocations form a retrieval database matching measurements from passive sensors against the existing active combined radar-lidar product 2C-ICE. With this retrieval database, we train a pair of artificial neural networks to detect clouds and retrieve IWP. When considering solar, terrestrial infrared, and microwave-based measurements, we show that any combination of two techniques performs better than either single-technique retrieval. We choose not to include solar reflectances in SPARE-ICE, because the improvement is small, and so that SPARE-ICE can be retrieved both daytime and nighttime. The median fractional error between SPARE-ICE and 2C-ICE is around a factor 2, a figure similar to the random error between 2C-ICE ice water content (IWC) and in situ measurements. A comparison of SPARE-ICE with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Pathfinder Atmospheric Extended (PATMOS-X), and Microwave Surface and Precipitation Products System (MSPPS) indicates that SPARE-ICE appears to perform well even in difficult conditions. SPARE-ICE is available for public use.

Long-term changes to the frequency of occurrence of British moths are consistent with opposing and synergistic effects of climate and land-use changes

1. Species’ distributions are likely to be affected by a combination of environmental drivers. We used a data set of 11 million species occurrence records over the period 1970–2010 to assess changes in the frequency of occurrence of 673 macro-moth species in Great Britain. Groups of species with different predicted sensitivities showed divergent trends, which we interpret in the context of land-use and climatic changes. 2. A diversity of responses was revealed: 260 moth species declined significantly, whereas 160 increased significantly. Overall, frequencies of occurrence declined, mirroring trends in less species-rich, yet more intensively studied taxa. 3. Geographically widespread species, which were predicted to be more sensitive to land use than to climate change, declined significantly in southern Britain, where the cover of urban and arable land has increased. 4. Moths associated with low nitrogen and open environments (based on their larval host plant characteristics) declined most strongly, which is also consistent with a land-use change explanation. 5. Some moths that reach their northern (leading edge) range limit in southern Britain increased, whereas species restricted to northern Britain (trailing edge) declined significantly, consistent with a climate change explanation. 6. Not all species of a given type behaved similarly, suggesting that complex interactions between species’ attributes and different combinations of environmental drivers determine frequency of occurrence changes. 7. Synthesis and applications. Our findings are consistent with large-scale responses to climatic and land-use changes, with some species increasing and others decreasing. We suggest that land-use change (e.g. habitat loss, nitrogen deposition) and climate change are both major drivers of moth biodiversity change, acting independently and in combination. Importantly, the diverse responses revealed in this species-rich taxon show that multifaceted conservation strategies are needed to minimize negative biodiversity impacts of multiple environmental changes. We suggest that habitat protection, management and ecological restoration can mitigate combined impacts of land-use change and climate change by providing environments that are suitable for existing populations and also enable species to shift their ranges.

Edible oil from Tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus L.): mechanical pressing and aqueous enzymatic extraction methods

The tiger nut tuber of the Cyperus esculentus L. plant is an unusual storage system with similar amounts of starch and lipid. The extraction of its oil employing both mechanical pressing and aqueous enzymatic extraction (AEE) methods was investigated and an examination of the resulting products was carried out. The effects of particle size and moisture content of the tuber on the yield of tiger nut oil with pressing were initially studied. Smaller particles were found to enhance oil yields while a range of moisture content was observed to favour higher oil yields. When samples were first subjected to high pressures up to 700 MPa before pressing at 38 MPa there was no increase in the oil yields. Ground samples incubated with a mixture of α- Amylase, Alcalase, and Viscozyme (a mixture of cell wall degrading enzyme) as a pre-treatment, increased oil yield by pressing and 90% of oil was recovered as a result. When aqueous enzymatic extraction was carried out on ground samples, the use of α- Amylase, Alcalase, and Celluclast independently improved extraction oil yields compared to oil extraction without enzymes by 34.5, 23.4 and 14.7% respectively. A mixture of the three enzymes further augmented the oil yield and different operational factors were individually studied for their effects on the process. These include time, total mixed enzyme concentration, linear agitation speed, and solid-liquid ratio. The largest oil yields were obtained with a solid-liquid ratio of 1:6, mixed enzyme concentration of 1% (w/w) and 6 h incubation time although the longer time allowed for the formation of an emulsion. Using stationary samples during incubation surprisingly gave the highest oil yields, and this was observed to be as a result of gravity separation occurring during agitation. Furthermore, the use of high pressure processing up to 300 MPa as a pre-treatment enhanced oil yields but additional pressure increments had a detrimental effect. The quality of oils recovered from both mechanical and aqueous enzymatic extraction based on the percentage free fatty acid (% FFA) and peroxide values (PV) all reflected the good stabilities of the oils with the highest % FFA of 1.8 and PV of 1.7. The fatty acid profiles of all oils also remained unchanged. The level of tocopherols in oils were enhanced with both enzyme aided pressing (EAP) and high pressure processing before AEE. Analysis on the residual meals revealed DP 3 and DP 4 oligosaccharides present in EAP samples but these would require further assessment on their identity and quality.