scholarly journals Biogenic Sulfur-Based Chalcogenide Nanocrystals: Methods of Fabrication, Mechanistic Aspects, and Bio-Applications

Molecules ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 458
Author(s):  
Oscar P. Yanchatuña Aguayo ◽  
Lynda Mouheb ◽  
Katherine Villota Villota Revelo ◽  
Paola A. Vásquez-Ucho ◽  
Prasad P. Pawar ◽  
...  

Bio-nanotechnology has emerged as an efficient and competitive methodology for the production of added-value nanomaterials (NMs). This review article gathers knowledge gleaned from the literature regarding the biosynthesis of sulfur-based chalcogenide nanoparticles (S-NPs), such as CdS, ZnS and PbS NPs, using various biological resources, namely bacteria, fungi including yeast, algae, plant extracts, single biomolecules, and viruses. In addition, this work sheds light onto the hypothetical mechanistic aspects, and discusses the impact of varying the experimental parameters, such as the employed bio-entity, time, pH, and biomass concentration, on the obtained S-NPs and, consequently, on their properties. Furthermore, various bio-applications of these NMs are described. Finally, key elements regarding the whole process are summed up and some hints are provided to overcome encountered bottlenecks towards the improved and scalable production of biogenic S-NPs.

DYNA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 82 (194) ◽  
pp. 21-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio A. Trujillo-Roldán ◽  
John Fredy Monsalve-Gil ◽  
Angélica Maria Cuesta-Álvarez ◽  
Norma A. Valdez-Cruz

Alginate is a linear polymer composed of <span style="font-family: symbol;">b</span>-1,4 linked mannuronic acid and its epimer, <span style="font-family: symbol;">a</span>-L-guluronic acid, and frequently extracted from marine algae, as from bacteria such as Azotobacter and Pseudomonas. Here, we show the impact of conventional and unconventional carbon sources on A. vinelandii growth, alginate production, its mean molecular weight (MMW) and its viscosifying power. Starting with 20 g/L of sugars, the highest biomass concentration was obtained using deproteinized and hydrolyzed whey (6.67±0.72 g/L), and sugarcane juice (6.68±0.45 g/L). However, the maximum alginate production was achieved using sucrose (5.11±0.37 g/L), as well the highest alginate yield and specific productivity. Otherwise, the higher alginate MMW was obtained using sugarcane juice (1203±120 kDa), and the higher viscosifying power was obtained using deproteinized/ hydrolyzed whey (23.8±2.6 cps L/galg). This information suggests that it is possible to manipulate the productivity and molecular characteristics of alginates, as a function of the carbon source used. All this, together with the knowledge of the effects of environmental conditions will allow for high yields of high added value biopolymers.


Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1831
Author(s):  
Nicola De Simone ◽  
Pasquale Russo ◽  
Maria Tufariello ◽  
Mariagiovanna Fragasso ◽  
Michele Solimando ◽  
...  

Selected biological resources used as raw materials in beer production are important drivers of innovation and segmentation in the dynamic market of craft beers. Among these resources, local/regional ingredients have several benefits, such as strengthening the connection with territories, enhancing the added value of the final products, and reducing supply costs and environmental impacts. It is assumed that specific ingredients provide differences in flavours, aromas, and, more generally, sensory attributes of the final products. In particular, of interest are ingredients with features attributable and/or linked to a specific geographical origin. This review encompasses the potential contribution and exploitation of biodiversity in the main classes of beer inputs, such as cereals, hops, microbes, and adjuncts, with a specific emphasis on autochthonous biological resources, detailing the innovative paths already explored and documented in the scientific literature. This dissertation proposes an overview of the impact on beer quality for each raw material category, highlighting the benefits and limitations that influence its concrete applications and scale-up, from the field to the stain. The topics explored promote, in the sector of craft beers, trends already capitalised in the production of other alcoholic beverages, such as the preservation and revalorisation of minor and autochthonous varieties, the exploitation of yeast and bacteria strains isolated from specific sites/plant varieties, and the valorisation of the effects of peculiar terroirs on the quality of agricultural products. Finally, the examined tendencies contribute toward reducing the environmental impacts of craft beer manufacturing, and are in line with sustainable development of food systems, increasing the economic driver of biodiversity preservation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 268-279
Author(s):  
Mohamed E.I. Badawy ◽  
Ibrahim E.A. Kherallah ◽  
Ahmed S.O. Mohareb ◽  
Mohamed. Z.M. Salem ◽  
Hameda A. Yousef

Background:Plant extracts are important products in the world and have been widely used for isolation of important biologically active products. Because of their significant environmental impact, extensive research has been explored to determine the antimicrobial activity of plant extracts.Methods:Acetone extracts of the bark and leaf of Cupressus sempervirens and Juniperus phoenicea, collected from three different altitudes (125, 391, and 851 m high of sea level) at Al- Jabel Al-Akhdar area, Libya were obtained and analyzed by GC/MS. The antimicrobial activity of the extracts was further evaluated against plant bacteria Rhizobium radiobacter, Erwinia carotovora, Rhodococcus fascians and Ralstonia solanacearum and fungus Botrytis cinerea.Results:The impact of the altitude from the sea level on the quantity and chemical constituents of the extracts was investigated. The yield was largely dependent on tree species and the highest yield (6.50%) was obtained with C. sempervirens L bark of altitude III (851 m of the sea level), while the lowest (1.17%) was obtained with the leaf extract of C. sempervirens L from altitude I (125 m). The chemical composition analyzed by GC/MS confirmed that the leaf extracts of C. sempervirens and J. phoenicea contained a complex mixture of monoterpene hydrocarbons, sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, diterpenoids, terpenophenolic, steroids and phthalates. However, the bark extracts of both trees contained a mixture of sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, diterpenoids, terpenophenolics, phthalates, retinol and steroids. These constituents revealed some variability among the extracts displaying the highest interesting chemotype of totarol (terpenophenolic) in all extracts (14.63-78.19% of the total extract). The extracts displayed a noteworthy antifungal potency with varying degrees of inhibition of growth with EC50 values ranged from 78.50 to 206.90 mg/L. The extracts obtained from the leaves of C. sempervirens showed that the highest inhibitory activity was obtained with the extract of altitude II (391 m) with MIC 565, 510, 380 and 710 mg/L against E. carotovora, R. fascians, and R. radiobacter and R. solanacearum, respectively.Conclusion:Based on antimicrobial activity, raw plant extracts can be a cost-effective way to protect crops from microbial pathogens. Because plant extracts contain several antimicrobial compounds, the development of resistant pathogens can be delayed.


Author(s):  
Ashish Kumar ◽  
Amar Partap Singh Pharwaha

Background: Patch antennas are composed of the substrate material with patch and ground plane on the both sides of the substrate. The dimensions and performance characteristics of the antenna are highly influenced by the choice of the appropriate substrate depending upon the value of their dielectric constant. Generally, low index substrate materials are used to design the patch antenna but there are also some of the applications, which require the implementation of patch antenna design on high index substrate like silicon and gallium arsenide. Objective: The objective of this article is to review the design of antennas developed on high index substrate and the problems associated with the use of these materials as substrate. Also, main challenges and solutions have been discussed to improve the performance characteristics while using the high index substrates. Method: The review article has divided into various sections including the solution of the problems associated with the high index substrates in the form of micro-machining process. Along with this, types of micro machining and their applications have discussed in detail. Results: This review article investigates the various patch antennas designed with micro-machining technology and also discusses the impact of micro-machining process on the performance parameters of the patch antennas designed on high index substrates. Conclusion: By using the micro-machining process, the performance of patch antenna improves drastically but fabrication and tolerances at such minute structures is very tedious task for the antenna designers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 2791-2800
Author(s):  
Jarkko Pakkanen ◽  
Teuvo Heikkinen ◽  
Nillo Adlin ◽  
Timo Lehtonen ◽  
Janne Mämmelä ◽  
...  

AbstractThe paper studies what kind of support could be applied to the management of partly configurable modular systems. The main tasks of product management, product portfolio management and product variety management are defined. In addition, a partly configurable product structure and modular system are defined. Because the limited support in the literature for managing partly configurable modular systems, the article reviews previous product development cases in which authors have been involved on lessons learnt basis, i.e., if the methods and tools used in the cases could provide support for the research objective. As a result, the existing definition of the modular system should be extended by the concepts of non-module and design decision sequence description when dealing with partly configurable modular systems. This is because engineer-to-order should be made possible in cases where it brings clear added value to the customer compared to completely pre-defined solutions that may limit the customer's interest in the offering. Tools to assess the impact of changes to the product offering are required. These should be taken into account in frameworks that are used in method and tool development.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Shahid Nisar ◽  
Muhammad Awais Ismail ◽  
Hassan Ramzan ◽  
Muhammad Mudassar Maqbool ◽  
Tasneem Ahmed ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4058
Author(s):  
Paolo Esposito ◽  
Valerio Brescia ◽  
Chiara Fantauzzi ◽  
Rocco Frondizi

The aim of this paper is twofold: first, it aims to analyze what kind of value is generated by hybrid organizations and how; second, it aims to understand the role of social impact assessment (SIA) in the measurement of added value, especially in terms of social and economic change generated by hybrids. Hybrid organizations are a debated topic in literature and have different strengths in responding to needs, mainly in the public interest. Nevertheless, there are not many studies that identify the impact and change generated by these organizations. After highlighting the gap in the literature, the study proposes an innovative approach that combines SIA, interview, interventionist approach and documental analysis. The breakdown of SIA through the five elements of the value chain (inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impact) guarantees a linear definition of the value generated through change with procedural objectivity capable of grasping hybrid organizations’ complexity. The value generated or absorbed is the change generated by the impact measured based on the incidence of public resources allocated. Through the SIA and counterfactual approach, the civil service case study analysis highlights how the value generated by public resources can be measured or more clearly displayed in the measurement process itself.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 777-777
Author(s):  
Qian-Li Xue ◽  
Kristine Ensrud ◽  
Shari Lin

Abstract As population aging is accelerating rapidly, there is growing concern on how to best provide patient-centered care for the most vulnerable. Establishing a predictable and affordable cost structure for healthcare services is key to improving quality, accessibility, and affordability. One such effort is the “frailty” adjustment model implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that adjusts payments to a Medicare managed care organization based on functional impairment of its beneficiaries. Earlier studies demonstrated added value of this frailty adjuster for prediction of Medicare expenditures independent of the diagnosis-based risk adjustment. However, we hypothesize that further improvement is possible by implementing more rigorous frailty assessment rather than relying on self-report of ADL difficulties as used for the frailty adjuster. This is supported by the consensus and clinical observations that neither multimorbidity nor disability alone is sufficient for frailty identification. This symposium consists of four talks that leverage data from three CMS-linked cohort studies to investigate the utility of assessment of the frailty phenotype for predicting healthcare utilization and costs. Talk 1 and 2 use data from the NHATS cohort to assess healthcare utilization by frailty status in the general population and the homebound subset. Talk 3 and 4 use data from the MrOS study and the SOF study to investigate the impact of frailty phenotype on healthcare costs. Taken together, their findings highlight the potential of incorporating phenotypic frailty assessment into CMS risk adjustment to improve the planning and management of care for frail older adults.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Andreas Tsatsaris ◽  
Kleomenis Kalogeropoulos ◽  
Nikolaos Stathopoulos ◽  
Panagiota Louka ◽  
Konstantinos Tsanakas ◽  
...  

Human activities and climate change constitute the contemporary catalyst for natural processes and their impacts, i.e., geo-environmental hazards. Globally, natural catastrophic phenomena and hazards, such as drought, soil erosion, quantitative and qualitative degradation of groundwater, frost, flooding, sea level rise, etc., are intensified by anthropogenic factors. Thus, they present rapid increase in intensity, frequency of occurrence, spatial density, and significant spread of the areas of occurrence. The impact of these phenomena is devastating to human life and to global economies, private holdings, infrastructure, etc., while in a wider context it has a very negative effect on the social, environmental, and economic status of the affected region. Geospatial technologies including Geographic Information Systems, Remote Sensing—Earth Observation as well as related spatial data analysis tools, models, databases, contribute nowadays significantly in predicting, preventing, researching, addressing, rehabilitating, and managing these phenomena and their effects. This review attempts to mark the most devastating geo-hazards from the view of environmental monitoring, covering the state of the art in the use of geospatial technologies in that respect. It also defines the main challenge of this new era which is nothing more than the fictitious exploitation of the information produced by the environmental monitoring so that the necessary policies are taken in the direction of a sustainable future. The review highlights the potential and increasing added value of geographic information as a means to support environmental monitoring in the face of climate change. The growth in geographic information seems to be rapidly accelerated due to the technological and scientific developments that will continue with exponential progress in the years to come. Nonetheless, as it is also highlighted in this review continuous monitoring of the environment is subject to an interdisciplinary approach and contains an amount of actions that cover both the development of natural phenomena and their catastrophic effects mostly due to climate change.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 542
Author(s):  
Dariusz Kulus ◽  
Natalia Miler

Lamprocapnos spectabilis (L.) Fukuhara (bleeding heart) is valued both in the horticultural and pharmaceutical markets. Despite its great popularity, information on the in vitro tissue culture technology in this species is limited. There is also little knowledge on the application of plant extracts in the tissue culture systems of plants other than orchids. The aim of this study is to compare the utility of traditional plant growth regulators (PGRs) and natural extracts—obtained from the coconut shreds, as well as oat, rice, and sesame seeds—in the micropropagation and cryopreservation of L. spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’ and ‘White Gold’. The biochemical analysis of extracts composition is also included. In the first experiment related to micropropagation via axillary buds activation, the single-node explants were cultured for a 10-week-long propagation cycle in the modified Murashige and Skoog medium fortified either with 1.11 µM benzyladenine (BA) and 1.23 µM indole-3-butritic acid (IBA) or with 10% (v/v) plant extracts. A PGRs- and extract-free control was also considered. In the cryopreservation experiment, the same 10% (v/v) extracts were added into the medium during a seven-day preculture in the encapsulation-vitrification cryopreservation protocol. It was found that the impact of natural additives was cultivar- and trait-specific. In the first experiment, the addition of coconut extract favoured the proliferation of shoots and propagation ratio in bleeding heart ‘Gold Heart’. Rice extract, on the other hand, promoted callus formation in ‘White Gold’ cultivar and was more effective in increasing the propagation ratio in this cultivar than the conventional plant growth regulators (4.1 and 2.6, respectively). Sesame extract suppressed the development of the explants in both cultivars analysed, probably due to the high content of polyphenols. As for the second experiment, the addition of plant extracts into the preculture medium did not increase the survival level of the cryopreserved shoot tips (sesame and oat extracts even decreased this parameter). On the other hand, coconut extract, abundant in simple sugars and endogenous cytokinins, stimulated a more intensive proliferation and growth of shoots after rewarming of samples. Analysing the synergistic effect of conventional plant growth regulators and natural extracts should be considered in future studies related to L. spectabilis.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document