Trends in the biomanufacture of polyhydroxyalkanoates with focus on downstream processing.

The aim of the current review is to analyze trends in development of an efficient technology for polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biomanufacture highlighting the up-to-date progress on PHA biosynthesis and focusing on the downstream processing. Three main production pathways were identified: through microbial, enzymic, or plant routes. Microbial fermentation processes were predominant, with a wide range of microorganisms, starting materials and culture conditions reported.

Enhancement of methane production from co-digestion of chicken manure with agricultural wastes.

The potential for methane production from semi-solid chicken manure (CM) and mixture of agricultural wastes (AWS) in a co-digestion process has been experimentally evaluated at thermophilic and mesophilic temperatures. To the best of author(')s knowledge, it is the first time that CM is co-digested with mixture of AWS consisting of coconut waste, cassava waste, and coffee grounds. Two types of anaerobic digestion processes (AD process) were used, process 1 (P1) using fresh CM (FCM) and process 2 (P2) using treated CM (TCM), ammonia stripped CM, were conducted.

[Comorbid depression mediates the association of childhood/adolescent maltreatment and fibromyalgia syndrome. A study with patients from different clinical settings].

Background: Emotional and physical abuse and neglect in childhood and adolescence [childhood maltreatments (CMs)] are considered to play a role in the etiology of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). Whether the association between FMS and CMs can be explained by mediators has not been studied.

Methods: CMs of consecutive FMS patients from three different clinical settings were assessed by the German version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire.

Emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in fibromyalgia syndrome: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

Objective: To systematically assess the potential association of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) with emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

Methods: The databases EMBase, Google Scholar, Medline, and PsycINFO (through April 2010) and the reference sections of original studies were searched for eligible studies. Eligible studies were cohort or case--control studies that assessed at least one type of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse in childhood or adulthood in patients with FMS and in controls.

[Validation of the German version of the Regional Pain Scale for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia syndrome].

Objective: Use of the American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for the clinical diagnosis of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is under debate. The Regional Pain Scale (RPS) had been developed for the diagnosis of FMS in clinical practice and in survey settings (survey criteria of FMS). So far a German version has not been validated.

Improved methane fermentation of chicken manure via ammonia removal by biogas recycle.

This study demonstrates methane fermentation that was carried out along with ammonia striping to avoid ammonia accumulation that significantly inhibited methane production. Ammonia was successfully removed by means of recycling of biogas followed by gas washing in sulfuric acid to capture ammonia, when chicken manure was anaerobically digested for 4 days at 55 degrees C and at an initial pH of 8-9. By using this method, 80% of total nitrogen in chicken manure was converted to ammonia and 82% of the produced ammonia was removed.

Processing of food wastes.

Every year almost 45 billion kg of fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, and grain products is lost to waste in the United States. According to the EPA, the disposal of this costs approximately $1 billion. In the United Kingdom, 20 million ton of food waste is produced annually.

Use of immobilised biocatalysts in the processing of cheese whey.

Food processing industry operations need to comply with increasingly more stringent environmental regulations related to the disposal or utilisation of by-products and wastes. These include growing restrictions on land spraying with agro-industrial wastes, and on disposal within landfill operations, and the requirements to produce end products that are stabilised and hygienic. Much of the material generated as wastes by the dairy processing industries contains components that could be utilised as substrates and nutrients in a variety of microbial/enzymatic processes, to give rise to added-value products.

Applicability of pectate-entrapped Lactobacillus casei cells for L(+) lactic acid production from whey.

Lactic acid is a versatile organic acid, which finds major application in the food, pharmaceuticals, and chemical industries. Microbial fermentation has the advantage that by choosing a strain of lactic acid bacteria producing only one of the isomers, an optically pure product can be obtained. The production of L: (+) lactic acid is of significant importance from nutritional viewpoint and finds greater use in food industry.

Monitoring population dynamics of the thermophilic Bacillus licheniformis CCMI 1034 in batch and continuous cultures using multi-parameter flow cytometry.

Multi-parameter flow cytometry was used to monitor the population dynamics of Bacillus licheniformis continuous cultivations and the physiological responses to a starvation period and a glucose pulse. Using a mixture of two specific fluorescent stains, DiOC6(3) (3,3'-dihexylocarbocyanine iodide), and PI (propidium iodide), flow cytometric analysis revealed cell physiological heterogeneity. Four sub-populations of cells could be easily identified based on their differential fluorescent staining, these correspond to healthy cells (A) stained with DiOC6(3); cells or spores with a depolarised cytoplasmic membrane (B), no staining; cells with a permeabilised depolarised cytoplasmic membrane (C), stained with PI; and permeablised cells with a disrupted cytoplasmic membrane 'ghost cells' (D), stained with both DiOC6(3) and PI.

Encapsulated lactic acid bacteria for control of malolactic fermentation in wine.

The kinetics of both malolactic fermentation in Chardonnay wine by encapsulating Lactobacillus casei cells in pectate gel and lyophilized Oenococcus oeni culture has been carried out. The influence of acidity, sulfur dioxide content, and organic acid content on the malolactic activity of the bacteria has been controlled. Encapsulated bacteria degraded 30%, of malic acid in white wine, deacidifying it from pH 3.