The core microbiome of cultured Pacific oyster spat is affected by age but not mortality.

The Pacific oyster is the most widely cultured shellfish worldwide, but production has been affected by mortality events, including in hatcheries that supply the seed for growers. Several pathogens cause disease in oysters, but in many cases, mortality events cannot be attributed to a single agent and appear to be multifactorial, involving environmental variables and microbial interactions. As an organism's microbiome can provide resilience against pathogens and environmental stressors, we investigated the microbiomes in cohorts of freshly settled oyster spat, some of which experienced notable mortality.

The prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbiome of Pacific oyster spat is shaped by ocean warming but not acidification.

Pacific oysters ( a.k.a.

Effect of particle size on the dispersion behavior of magnesium stearate blended with microcrystalline cellulose.

The majority of tablets manufactured contain lubricants to reduce friction during ejection. However, especially for plastically deforming materials, e.g.

Investigation of Dispersion Kinetics of Particulate Lubricants and their Effect on the Mechanical Strength of MCC Tablets.

Introduction: Tablets are commonly produced by internally adding particulate lubricants, which are known to possibly lower the mechanical strength of tablets. This reduction is caused by the coverage of matrix forming components by lubricant particles, resulting in decreased interparticulate interactions. The known incompatibilities with some active compounds of the predominantly used lubricant, magnesium stearate, call for the in-depth characterization of alternative lubricants.

Process and formulation parameters influencing the survival of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during spray drying and tableting.

Probiotic microorganisms provide health benefits to the patient when administered in a viable form and in sufficient doses. To ensure this, dry dosage forms are preferred, with tablets in particular being favored due to several advantages. However, the microorganisms must first be dried as gently as possible.

Tableting of fluidized bed granules containing living microorganisms.

Tablets are the favored dosage form for numerous active pharmaceutical ingredients, among others because they are easy to take, ensure safe dosing and allow cost-effective production on a large scale. This dosage form is also frequently chosen for the administration of viable probiotic microorganisms. Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells granulated in a fluidized bed process, with dicalcium phosphate (DCP), lactose (LAC) and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) as carrier materials, were tableted using a compaction simulator, varying the compression stress.

Enhanced multi-component model to consider the lubricant effect on compressibility and compactibility.

Modeling of structural and mechanical tablet properties consisting of multiple components, based on a minimum of experimental data is of high interest, in order to minimize time- and cost-intensive experimental trials in the development of new tablet formulations. The majority of commonly available models use the compressibility and compactibility of constituent components and establish mixing rules between those components, in order to predict the tablet properties of formulations containing multiple components. However, their applicability is limited to single materials, which form intact tablets (e.

The Effect of Particle Shape on the Compaction of Realistic Non-Spherical Particles-A Multi-Contact DEM Study.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the deformation behavior of non-spherical particles during high-load compaction using the multi-contact discrete element method (MC-DEM). To account for non-spherical particles, the bonded multi-sphere method (BMS), which incorporates intragranular bonds between particles, and the conventional multi-sphere (CMS), where overlaps between particles are allowed to form a rigid body, were used. Several test cases were performed to justify the conclusions of this study.

Effect of Process Parameters, Protectants and Carrier Materials on the Survival of Yeast Cells during Fluidized Bed Granulation for Tableting.

The administration of living microorganisms is of special interest, with regard to probiotic microorganisms providing health benefits to the patient. Effective dosage forms require the preservation of microbial viability until administration. Storage stability can be improved by drying, and the tablet is an especially attractive final solid dosage form due to its ease of administration and its good patient compliance.

Embedding of Poorly Water-Soluble Drugs in Orodispersible Films-Comparison of Five Formulation Strategies.

The poor bioavailability of many newly developed active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) poses a major challenge in formulation development. To overcome this issue, strategies such as the preparation of amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs), and the application of the APIs in lipid nanocarriers or the wet-milling of the substances into nanoparticles have been introduced. In addition to an efficient formulation strategy, a dosage form that is accepted by all patients is also of great importance.

Deep6: Classification of Metatranscriptomic Sequences into Cellular Empires and Viral Realms Using Deep Learning Models.

Deep6 is a deep learning model that classifies metatranscriptomic sequences as short as 250 nucleotides into prokaryotes, eukaryotes, or one of the four viral realms, using a reference-independent and alignment-free approach. Average accuracies range from 0.87 to 0.

Amorphization and modified release of ibuprofen by post-synthetic and solvent-free loading into tailored silica aerogels.

Promising active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) often exhibit poor aqueous solubility and thus a low bioavailability that substantially limits their pharmaceutical application. Hence, efficient formulations are required for an effective translation into highly efficient drug products. One strategy is the preservation of an amorphous state of the API within a carrier matrix, which leads to enhanced dissolution.

Modified release kinetics in dual filament 3D printed individualized oral dosage forms.

On demand production of totally customizable combinative preparations is a central goal of a patient-centric pharmaceutical supply chain. Additive manufacturing techniques like fused deposition modeling (FDM) could be key technologies towards such individualized dosage forms. As so far only a limited number of studies on 3D printed combinative preparations applying FDM have been reported, a core-shell dosage form was the focus of the present study.

Prediction of the impact of lubrication on tablet compactibility.

The tableting of most pharmaceutical formulations requires the addition of lubricants to reduce ejection forces, prevent tooling damage and tablet defects. The internal addition of lubricants is known to reduce tablet tensile strength, especially of mainly plastically deforming materials. To date, available models show only limited quantitative predictive accuracy for the influence of lubricant concentration on the mechanical strength of tablets.

Tablet Disintegration and Dispersion under In Vivo-like Hydrodynamic Conditions.

Disintegration and dispersion are functional properties of tablets relevant for the desired API release. The standard disintegration test (SDT) described in different pharmacopoeias provides only limited information on these complex processes. It is considered not to be comparable to the biorelevant conditions due to the frequent occurrence of high hydrodynamic forces, among other reasons.

Modeling of High-Density Compaction of Pharmaceutical Tablets Using Multi-Contact Discrete Element Method.

The purpose of this work is to simulate the powder compaction of pharmaceutical materials at the microscopic scale in order to better understand the interplay of mechanical forces between particles, and to predict their compression profiles by controlling the microstructure. For this task, the new framework of multi-contact discrete element method (MC-DEM) was applied. In contrast to the conventional discrete element method (DEM), MC-DEM interactions between multiple contacts on the same particle are now explicitly taken into account.

Tablet formulation development focusing on the functional behaviour of water uptake and swelling.

The functional behaviour of tablets is strongly influenced by their manufacturing process and the choice of excipients. Water uptake and swelling are prerequisites for tablet disintegration, dispersion and hence active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) dissolution. High proportions of polymeric excipients in tablets, which are typically used as API carriers in amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs), may be challenging due to the formation of a gelling polymer network (GPN).

Opposing Effects of Additives in Dry Milling and Tableting of Organic Particles.

Applying additives and excipients during the dry processing of fine particles is a common measure to control the particle-particle interactions, to specifically influence the powder properties and to enhance the process efficiency or product quality. In this study, the impacts of a particulate lubricant, a nano-disperse flow additive and liquid grinding aids on the dry fine milling and subsequent tableting of the ground material were investigated for three different organic model compounds. It is presented that the three additive classes cause varying and partly opposing effects during these process steps.

The use of X-ray microtomography to investigate the microstructure of pharmaceutical tablets: Potentials and comparison to common physical methods.

Within this study, tablets microstructure was investigated by X-ray microtomgraphy. The aim was to gain information about their microstructure, and thus, derive deeper interpretation of tablet properties (mechanical strength, component distribution) and qualified property functions. Challenges in image processing are discussed for the correct identification of solids and voids.

Process Modeling and Simulation of Tableting-An Agent-Based Simulation Methodology for Direct Compression.

In pharmaceutical manufacturing, the utmost aim is reliably producing high quality products. Simulation approaches allow virtual experiments of processes in the planning phase and the implementation of digital twins in operation. The industrial processing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into tablets requires the combination of discrete and continuous sub-processes with complex interdependencies regarding the material structures and characteristics.

How can single particle compression and nanoindentation contribute to the understanding of pharmaceutical powder compression?

The deformation behaviour of a powder and, thus, of the individual particles is a crucial parameter in powder compaction and affects powder compressibility and compactibility. The classical approach for the characterization of the deformation behaviour is the performance of powder compression experiments combined with the application of mathematical models, such as the Heckel-Model, for the derivation of characteristic compression parameters. However, the correlation of these parameters with the deformation behaviour is physically often not well understood.