Utilization of palm sludge oil for rhamnolipid biosynthesis by Pseudomonas aeruginosa USM-AR2 in a stirred tank reactor.

The study focused on rhamnolipid production by batch fermentation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa USM-AR2 in a 3-L stirred-tank reactor (STR) using palm sludge oil (PSO) as the sole carbon source. The impact of various agitation rates towards the dispersion of PSO in the medium was evaluated to improve biomass growth and rhamnolipid production. A mechanical foam collection and recycling system was designed and retrofitted to the STR to overcome severe foam formation during fermentation.

Tangential flow filtration facilitated fractionation of polymerized human serum albumin: Insights into the effects of molecular size on biophysical properties.

Human serum albumin (HSA) is currently used as a plasma expander (PE) to increase blood volume during hypovolemic conditions, such as blood loss. However, its effectiveness is suboptimal in septic shock and burn patients due to their enhanced endothelial permeability, resulting in HSA extravasation into the tissue space leading to edema, and deposition of toxic HSA-bound metabolites. Hence, to expand HSA's applicability toward treating patients with compromised endothelial permeability, HSA has been previously polymerized to increase its molecular size thus compartmentalizing the polymerized HSA (PolyHSA) molecules in the vascular space.

Screening biosurfactant-producing actinomycetes: Identification of Streptomyces sp. RP1 as a potent species for bioremediation.

This study aimed to isolate biosurfactant-producing and hydrocarbon-degrading actinomycetes from different soils using glycerol-asparagine and starch-casein media with an antifungal agent. The glycerol-asparagine agar exhibited the highest number of actinomycetes, with a white, low-opacity medium supporting pigment production and high growth. Biosurfactant analyses, such as drop collapse, oil displacement, emulsification, tributyrin agar test, and surface tension measurement, were conducted.

The Molecular Size of Bioengineered Oxygen Carriers Determines Tissue Oxygenation in a Hypercholesterolemia Guinea Pig Model of Hemorrhagic Shock and Resuscitation.

Polymerized human hemoglobin (PolyhHb) has shown promise in preclinical hemorrhagic shock settings. Different synthetic and purification schemes can control the size of PolyhHbs, yet research is lacking on the impact of polymerized hemoglobin size on tissue oxygenation following hemorrhage and resuscitation in specialized animal models that challenge their resuscitative capabilities. Pre-existing conditions that compromise the vasculature and end organs, such as the liver, may limit the effectiveness of resuscitation and exacerbate the toxicity of these molecules, which is an important but minimally explored therapeutic dimension.

Biophysical Analysis and Preclinical Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics of Tangential Flow Filtration Fractionated Polymerized Human Hemoglobin as a Red Blood Cell Substitute.

Red blood cell (RBC) substitutes tested in late-phase clinical trials contained low-molecular-weight hemoglobin species (<500 kDa), resulting in vasoconstriction, hypertension, and oxidative tissue injury; therefore, contributing to poor clinical outcomes. This work aims to improve the safety profile of the RBC substitute, polymerized human hemoglobin (PolyhHb), via in vitro and in vivo screening of PolyhHb fractionated into four molecular weight brackets (50-300 kDa [PolyhHb-B1]; 100-500 kDa [PolyhHb-B2]; 500-750 kDa [PolyhHb-B3]; and 750 kDa to 0.2 μm [PolyhHb-B4]) using a two-stage tangential flow filtration purification process.

Improved chemical and isotopic labeling of biomembranes in by leveraging CRISPRi inhibition of beta-ketoacyl-ACP synthase ().

Assessing the structure of living microbial cell membranes is a challenging analytical goal. The cell membrane is defined by its transverse structure, an approximately 5 nm-thick selectively permeable bilayer that serves many important cellular functions. Compositionally complex, dynamic, and organized in both the transverse and lateral dimensions, understanding the cell membrane structure-and the role that structure plays in cellular function, communication, and environmental sensing is an active scientific effort.

Influence of vanillic acid immobilization in Nafion membranes on intramembrane diffusion and structural properties.

Pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR in combination with quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) was used to investigate self-diffusion of water and acetone in Nafion membranes with and without immobilized vanillic acid (VA). Complementary characterization of these membranes was performed by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and NMR relaxometry. This study was motivated by the recent data showing that an organic acid, such as VA, in Nafion can preserve its catalytic activity in the presence of water even at high intra-polymer water concentrations corresponding up to 100% ambient relative humidity.

Motion characteristics of subclinical tremors in Parkinson's disease and normal subjects.

The characteristics of the Parkinson's disease tremor reported previously are not applicable to the full spectrum of severity. The characteristics of high- and low-amplitude tremors differ in signal regularity and frequency dispersion, a phenomenon that indicates characterisation should be studied separately based on the severity. The subclinical tremor of Parkinson's disease is close to physiological tremor in terms of amplitude and frequency, and their distinctive features are still undetermined.

Bone Quality in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients: Current Concepts and Future Directions - Part II.

Background: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have an increased risk of osteoporotic fractures, which is due not only to low bone volume and mass but also poor microarchitecture and tissue quality. The pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions detailed, herein, are potential approaches to improve bone health in CKD patients. Various medications build up bone mass but also affect bone tissue quality.

Bone Quality in CKD Patients: Current Concepts and Future Directions - Part I.

Background: There is ample evidence that patients with CKD have an increased risk of osteoporotic fractures. Bone fragility is not only influenced by low bone volume and mass but also by poor microarchitecture and tissue quality. More emphasis has been given to the quantitative rather than qualitative assessment of bone health, both in general population and CKD patients.

Comparison of fixed dose versus train-of-four titration of cisatracurium in acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Purpose: To compare the ventilatory and clinical outcomes associated with a fixed-dose cisatracurium infusion versus a titrated infusion strategy in patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).

Materials And Methods: Single-center, retrospective, cohort study in a medical ICU of a tertiary care academic medical center. Adult patients ≥18 years old with a continuous infusion of cisatracurium for ≥12 h for treatment of ARDS were included.

A life-threatening condition - ruptured ectopic pregnancy with negative urine pregnancy test: A case report.

Ectopic pregnancy is an extra-uterine pregnancy and is a potentially life-threatening condition that can lead to death from intra-peritoneal hemorrhage. This case reports a rare occurrence of ruptured tubal pregnancy in which the patient presented early with abdominal pain and a negative urine pregnancy test but subsequently presented again with evidence of intra-peritoneal hemorrhage. A negative urine pregnancy test is often used to rule out pregnancy, but it is not 100% sensitive.

Production of lipopeptide biosurfactant in batch and fed-batch Streptomyces sp. PBD-410L cultures growing on palm oil.

The present study focused on lipopeptide biosurfactant production by Streptomyces sp. PBD-410L in batch and fed-batch fermentation in a 3-L stirred-tank reactor (STR) using palm oil as a sole carbon source. In batch cultivation, the impact of bioprocessing parameters, namely aeration rate and agitation speed, was studied to improve biomass growth and lipopeptide biosurfactant production.

Transition between Different Diffusion Regimes and Its Relationship with Structural Properties in Nafion by High Field Diffusion NMR in Combination with Small-Angle X-ray and Neutron Scattering.

Pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR at high field was utilized to directly observe a transition between two different diffusion regimes in a Nafion 117 membrane loaded with water and acetone. Although water self-diffusivity at small water loadings was observed to be diffusion time-independent in the limit of small and large diffusion times, it showed a significant decrease with increasing diffusion time at intermediate times corresponding to root mean square displacements on the order of several microns. Under our experimental conditions, no self-diffusivity dependence on diffusion time was found for water at large water loadings and for acetone at all studied acetone loadings.

Molecular origins of bulk viscosity in liquid water.

The rapid equilibrium fluctuations of water molecules are intimately connected to the rheological response; molecular motions resetting the local structure and stresses seen as flow and volume changes. In the case of water or hydrogen bonding liquids generally, the relationship is a non-trivial consideration due to strong directional interactions complicating theoretical models and necessitating clear observation of the timescale and nautre of the associated equilibrium motions. Recent work has illustrated a coincidence of timescales for short range sub-picosecond motions and the implied timescale for the shear viscosity response in liquid water.

Review: Contemporary biological therapies for cardiovascular diseases.

Cardiovascular diseases are top cause of mortality in the world. Current interventional therapy and pharmacotherapy may alleviate symptoms or slow disease progression but are unable to cure or treat them. Molecular and pathophysiological advances have paved the way for contemporary biological therapies to be tested and standardized for the treatment of these diseases.

Biomechanical System Versus Observational Rating Scale for Parkinson's Disease Tremor Assessment.

There is a lack of evidence that either conventional observational rating scale or biomechanical system is a better tremor assessment tool. This work focuses on comparing a biomechanical system and the Movement Disorder Society-sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale in terms of test-retest reliability. The Parkinson's disease tremors were quantified by biomechanical system in joint angular displacement and predicted rating, as well as assessed by three raters using observational ratings.

Lipid Rafts: Buffers of Cell Membrane Physical Properties.

Lateral organization of lipids in the cell membrane appears to be an ancient feature of the cell, given the existence of lipid rafts in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. Currently seen as platforms for protein partitioning, we posit that lipid rafts are capable of playing another role: stabilizing membrane physical properties over varying temperatures and other environmental conditions. Membrane composition defines the mechanical and viscous properties of the bilayer.

An In-Laboratory Validity and Reliability Tested System for Quantifying Hand-Arm Tremor in Motions.

Despite the advancement of the tremor assessment systems, the current technology still lacks a method that can objectively characterize tremors in relative segmental movements. This paper presents a measurement system, which quantifies multi-degrees-of-freedom coupled relative motions of hand-arm tremor, in terms of joint angular displacement. In-laboratory validity and reliability tests of the system algorithm to provide joint angular displacement was carried out by using the two-degrees-of-freedom tremor simulator with incremental rotary encoder systems installed.

Errors in accident data, its types, causes and methods of rectification-analysis of the literature.

Most of the decisions taken to improve road safety are based on accident data, which makes it the back bone of any country's road safety system. Errors in this data will lead to misidentification of black spots and hazardous road segments, projection of false estimates pertinent to accidents and fatality rates, and detection of wrong parameters responsible for accident occurrence, thereby making the entire road safety exercise ineffective. Its extent varies from country to country depending upon various factors.

The influence of agitation on oil substrate dispersion and oxygen transfer in Pseudomonas aeruginosa USM-AR2 fermentation producing rhamnolipid in a stirred tank bioreactor.

Water-immiscible substrate, diesel, was supplied as the main substrate in the fermentation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa USM-AR2 producing rhamnolipid biosurfactant, in a stirred tank bioreactor. In addition to the typical gas-aqueous system, this system includes gas-hydrocarbon-aqueous phases and the presence of surfactant (rhamnolipid) in the fermentation broth. The effect of diesel dispersion on volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient, k a, and thus oxygen transfer, was evaluated at different agitations of 400, 500 and 600 rpm.

Production and partial characterization of biosurfactant produced by Streptomyces sp. R1.

The present study focused on developing a wild-type actinomycete isolate as a model for a non-pathogenic filamentous producer of biosurfactants. A total of 33 actinomycetes isolates were screened and their extracellular biosurfactants production was evaluated using olive oil as the main substrate. Out of 33 isolates, 32 showed positive results in the oil spreading technique (OST).

Purification of BmR1 recombinant protein.

This paper describes a refinement in the purification step that facilitated the downstream recovery of high purity BmR1 recombinant protein, which is a protein used as a test reagent in the commercialized rapid tests for detection of lymphac filariasis i.e. Brugia Rapid™ and panLF rapid™.

Comparison of pro B-natriuretic peptide in hypertensive patients with and without diastolic dysfunction.

Aim: to evaluate whether pro BNP can be used for detection of diastolic dysfunction.

Methods: thirty nine hypertensive patients with normal systolic function, consecutively referred for echocardiography examination between October and December 2004 were recruited in the study. Diastolic dysfunction was diagnosed when echocardiographic mitral flow pattern demonstrated impaired relaxation, pseudonormalization or restrictive like patterns.