Characterization of potential probiotics isolated from fermented under-utilized Chrysophyllum albidum Linn kernels using microbiological, biochemical and molecular techniques

Chrysophyllum albidum is a crop of commercial value in Nigeria, however, the seeds are either used for local games or thrown away. This study aimed at exploring this under-utilized kernel as a novel source for obtaining health beneficial bacteria with desired probiotic characteristics. Isolation of potential probiotic bacteria from naturally fermented C. albidum seeds was carried out and followed by their safety evaluation, Gram staining, catalase test, acid tolerance, bile tolerance, cellular hydrophobicity and auto-aggregation assays. 16S rRNA sequencing and the detection of bile salt hydrolase (bsh) gene were the molecular methods applied for the bacteria characterization. Three potential probiotic bacteria were isolated from the fermented seeds. All isolates were non-haemolytic, Gram positive cocci, and catalase negative, grew in 1% bile, acidic pH of 3.5, and showed good auto-aggregation property. 16Sr RNA sequencing revealed isolates to be strains of Enterococcus durans, and the bsh gene was detected in all the strains. In conclusion, novel naturally fermented foods as seen in the fermented C. albidum kernels can serve as sources for the isolation of probiotic bacteria with great interest, and thus serve as starter culture to improve the organoleptic property of dairy and non-dairy foods.

An apta-aggregation based machine learning assay for rapid quantification of lysozyme through texture parameters

A novel assay technique that involves quantification of lysozyme (Lys) through machine learning is put forward here. This article reports the tendency of the well- documented Ellington group anti-Lys aptamer, to produce aggregates when exposed to Lys. This property of apta-aggregation has been exploited here to develop an assay that quantifies the Lys using texture and area parameters from a photograph of the elliptical aggregate mass through machine learning. Two assay sets were made for the experimental procedure: one with high Lys concentration between 25–100 mM and another with low concentration between 1–20 mM. The high concentration set had a sample volume of 10 μl while the low concentration set had a higher sample volume of 100 μl, in order to obtain the statistical texture values reliably from the aggregate mass. The platform exhibited an experimental limit of detection of 1 mM and a response time of less than 10 seconds. Further, two potential operating modes for the aptamer were hypothesized for this aggregation property and the more accurate mode among the two was ascertained through bioinformatics studies.

A New GNSS Interference Detection Method Based on Rearranged Wavelet–Hough Transform

Since radio frequency interference (RFI) seriously degrades the performance of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver, interference detection becomes very important for GNSS receivers. In this paper, a novel rearranged wavelet–Hough transform (RWHT) method is proposed in GNSS interference detection, which is obtained by the combination of rearranged wavelet transform and Hough transform (HT). The proposed RWHT method is tested for detecting sweep interference and continuous wave (CW) interference, the major types of GNSS interfering signals generated by a GNSS jammer in a controlled test bench experiment. The performance of the proposed RWHT method is compared with the conventional techniques such as Wigner–Ville distribution (WVD) and Wigner–Hough transform (WHT). The analysis results show that the proposed RWHT method reduces the influence of cross-item problem and improves the energy aggregation property in GNSS interference detection. When compared with the WHT approach, this proposed RWHT method presents about 90.3% and 30.8% performance improvement in the initial frequency and chirp rate estimation of the GNSS sweep interfering signal, respectively. These results can be further considered to be the proof of the validity and effectiveness of the developed GNSS interference detection method using RWHT.

Dithienobenzoxadiazole-based wide bandgap donor polymers with strong aggregation properties for the preparation of efficient as-cast non-fullerene polymer solar cells processed using a non-halogenated solvent

The efficient as-cast polymer solar cells processed by non-halogenated solvent are achieved through new dithienobenzoxadiazole-based wide bandgap donor polymers with strong aggregation property.

Cyclodextrin Based Nanoparticles For Improved Solubility and Drug Delivery

Biopharmaceutical properties (Solubility and permeability etc.) of the drugs are the major factors responsible for absorbing the drug. A huge fraction of pharmaceutical drugs belongs to classes II and IV, showing more lipophilic nature with low solubility. These drugs can be complexed with cyclodextrin for improving the biopharmaceutical properties and drug delivery. Cyclodextrin is widely utilized in pharmaceutical formulations as an associate excipient to extend stability and solubility—cyclodextrin tends to form complexes, and self-aggregation property results to form nano or micro preparations. Nano preparation of cyclodextrins can be used for drug delivery. This review deals with cyclodextrin inclusion complexes/ nanoparticles, their preparations, application, and drug delivery role.

Random terpolymer based on thiophene-thiazolothiazole unit enabling efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells

Developing a high-performance donor polymer is critical for achieving efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells (OSCs). Currently, most high-efficiency OSCs are based on a donor polymer named PM6, unfortunately, whose performance is highly sensitive to its molecular weight and thus has significant batch-to-batch variations. Here we report a donor polymer (named PM1) based on a random ternary polymerization strategy that enables highly efficient non-fullerene OSCs with efficiencies reaching 17.6%. Importantly, the PM1 polymer exhibits excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility. By including 20% of a weak electron-withdrawing thiophene-thiazolothiazole (TTz) into the PM6 polymer backbone, the resulting polymer (PM1) can maintain the positive effects (such as downshifted energy level and reduced miscibility) while minimize the negative ones (including reduced temperature-dependent aggregation property). With higher performance and greater synthesis reproducibility, the PM1 polymer has the promise to become the work-horse material for the non-fullerene OSC community.

Electrochemical, Photophysical and Theoretical Studies of Novel Zinc Phthalocyanines

In this research, we successfully synthesized three novel zinc phthalocyanines and applied for electrochemical and photo physical properties. These phthalocyanines are naphthoxy derivatives with methyl, benzyl and butyl-benzyl, with halo substitution (PCME, PCBN and PCBBN) and poses very good solubility in all industrial solvents. To check the preliminary results of LCD green color filter properties of these molecules, we taken the UV-Visible absorption and transmittance studies in Propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate and achieved around 90% of transmittance in the region of 400–550 nm. Further understand the solubility of our phthalocyanines, we checked the aggregation property in PGMEA and we observed no any aggregation. All compounds showed very nice electro chemical properties with nice oxidation and reduction peaks. These phthalocyanines are fit for LCD color filter applications. Finally to get insights of the electronic and UV-Visible properties of the new dyes, the DFT calculations were performed.