Upscale fermenter design for lactic acid production from cheese whey permeate focusing on impeller selection and energy optimization.

Unlabelled: This study focusses on the design and scale-up of industrial lactic acid production by fermentation of dairy cheese whey permeate based on standard methodological parameters. The aim was to address the shortcomings of standard scale-up methodologies and provide a framework for fermenter scale-up that enables the accurate estimation of energy consumption by suitable selection of turbine and speed for industrial deployment. Moreover, life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out to identify the potential impacts and possibilities to reduce the operation associated emissions at an early stage.

A Web-Based Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Program (Strong & Deadly Futures) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander School Students: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: There are no available school-based alcohol and drug prevention programs with evidence of effectiveness among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth. To address this, we codeveloped the Strong & Deadly Futures well-being and alcohol and drug prevention program in partnership with an Indigenous creative design agency and 4 Australian schools.

Objective: This paper presents the protocol to evaluate the effectiveness of Strong & Deadly Futures in reducing alcohol and other drug use and improving well-being among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth.

Mode Crystallography Analysis through the Structural Phase Transition and Magnetic Critical Behavior of the Lacunar Spinel GaMoSe.

In the lacunar spinels, with the formula ABX, transition-metal ions form tightly bound B clusters resulting in exotic physical properties such as the stabilization of Néel-type skyrmion lattices, which hold great promise for energy-efficient switching devices. These properties are governed by the symmetry of these compounds with distortion of the parent noncentrosymmetric 4̅3 space group to the polar 3, with recent observation of a coexisting 2 low-temperature phase. In this study, through powder neutron diffraction, we further confirm that a metastable 2 coexists with the 3 phase in GaMoSe and we present its structure.

The impact of online brain training exercises on experiences of depression, anxiety and emotional wellbeing in a twin sample.

This study assessed the effectiveness of cognitive and emotional brain training and transfer effects to wellbeing and depression and anxiety symptoms. 352 healthy adult twins were randomised to a training group where they were asked to play brain training games over a 30-day period, or a waitlist control group. This study focused on the impact of the brain training on explicit and implicit emotional cognition, and analysed effects using both Intention-To-Treat (ITT) and Per-Protocol (PP) approaches.

Photoperiodic regulation in a wild-derived mouse strain.

MSM/Ms (MSM) is a mouse strain derived from Japanese wild mice, , that maintains the ability to synthesize melatonin in patterns reflecting the ambient photoperiod. The objective of this study was to characterize the effects of photoperiodic variation on metabolic and reproductive traits, and the related changes in pituitary-hypothalamic gene expression in MSM mice. MSM mice were kept in long (LP) or short photoperiod (SP) for 6 weeks.

Photoperiodic regulation in a wild-derived mouse strain.

Mus musculus molossinus (MSM) is a wild-derived mouse strain which maintains the ability to synthesize melatonin in patterns reflecting the ambient photoperiod. The objective of this study was to characterize the effects of photoperiodic variation on metabolic and reproductive traits, and the related changes in pituitary-hypothalamic gene expression in MSM mice. MSM mice were kept in long (LP) or short photoperiod (SP) for 6 weeks.

A negative association between brainstem pontine grey-matter volume, well-being and resilience in healthy twins.

Background: Associations between well-being, resilience to trauma and the volume of grey-matter regions involved in affective processing (e.g., threat/reward circuits) are largely unexplored, as are the roles of shared genetic and environmental factors derived from multivariate twin modelling.

Genetic correlations between wellbeing, depression and anxiety symptoms and behavioral responses to the emotional faces task in healthy twins.

Currently there is a very limited understanding of how mental wellbeing versus anxiety and depression symptoms are associated with emotion processing behaviour. For the first time, we examined these associations using a behavioural emotion task of positive and negative facial expressions in 1668 healthy adult twins. Linear mixed model results suggested faster reaction times to happy facial expressions was associated with higher wellbeing scores, and slower reaction times with higher depression and anxiety scores.

The shared and unique genetic relationship between mental well-being, depression and anxiety symptoms and cognitive function in healthy twins.

Alterations to cognitive function are often reported with depression and anxiety symptoms, yet few studies have examined the same associations with mental well-being. This study examined the association between mental well-being, depression and anxiety symptoms and cognitive function in 1502 healthy adult monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, and the shared/unique contribution of genetic (G) and environmental (E) variance. Using linear mixed models, mental well-being was positively associated (p < .

Shared versus distinct genetic contributions of mental wellbeing with depression and anxiety symptoms in healthy twins.

Mental wellbeing and mental illness symptoms are typically conceptualized as opposite ends of a continuum, despite only sharing about a quarter in common variance. We investigated the normative variation in measures of wellbeing and of depression and anxiety in 1486 twins who did not meet clinical criteria for an overt diagnosis. We quantified the shared versus distinct genetic and environmental variance between wellbeing and depression and anxiety symptoms.

Characterization of the response of primary cells relevant to dialysis-related amyloidosis to β2-microglobulin monomer and fibrils.

The formation of insoluble amyloid fibrils is associated with an array of devastating human diseases. Dialysis-related amyloidosis (DRA) is a severe complication of hemodialysis that results in the progressive destruction of the bones and joints. Elevated concentrations of β(2)-microglobulin (β(2)m) in the serum of subjects on hemodialysis promote the formation of amyloid fibrils in the osteoarticular tissues, but the cellular basis for the destruction of these tissues in DRA is poorly understood.

Techno-economic implications of improved high gravity corn mash fermentation.

The performance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae MBG3964, a strain able to tolerate >18% v/v ethanol, was compared to leading industrial ethanol strain, Fermentis Ethanol Red, under high gravity corn mash fermentation conditions. Compared to the industrial ethanol strain, MBG3964 gave increased alcohol yield (140g L(-1) vs. 126g L(-1)), lower residual sugar (4g L(-1) vs.

Emergent properties of proteostasis-COPII coupled systems in human health and disease.

In eukaryotic membrane trafficking, emergent protein folding pathways dictated by the proteostasis network (the 'PN') in each cell type are linked to the coat protein complex II (COPII) system that initiates transport through the exocytic pathway. These coupled pathways direct the transit of protein cargo from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to diverse subcellular and extracellular destinations. Understanding how the COPII system selectively manages the trafficking of distinct folded states of nascent cargo (comprising one-third of the proteins synthesized by the eukaryotic genome) in close cooperation with the PN remains a formidable challenge to the field.

Effect of photoperiod on the thyroid-stimulating hormone neuroendocrine system in the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus).

Recent studies have characterised a retrograde mechanism whereby the pineal hormone melatonin acts in the pars tuberalis (PT) of the pituitary gland to control thyroid hormone action in the hypothalamus, leading to changes in seasonal reproductive function. This involves the release of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) from PT that activates type II deiodinase (DIO2) gene expression in hypothalamic ependymal cells, locally generating biologically active T3, and thus triggering a neuroendocrine cascade. In the present study, we investigated whether a similar regulatory mechanism operates in the European hamster.

Competition between intramolecular and intermolecular interactions in an amyloid-forming protein.

Despite much progress in understanding the folding and the aggregation processes of proteins, the rules defining their interplay have yet to be fully defined. This problem is of particular importance since many diseases are initiated by protein unfolding and hence the propensity to aggregate competes with intramolecular collapse and other folding events. Here, we describe the roles of intramolecular and intermolecular interactions in defining the length of the lag time and the apparent rate of elongation of the 100-residue protein human beta(2)-microglobulin at pH 2.

Fibril growth kinetics reveal a region of beta2-microglobulin important for nucleation and elongation of aggregation.

Amyloid is a highly ordered form of aggregate comprising long, straight and unbranched proteinaceous fibrils that are formed with characteristic nucleation-dependent kinetics in vitro. Currently, the structural molecular mechanism of fibril nucleation and elongation is poorly understood. Here, we investigate the role of the sequence and structure of the initial monomeric precursor in determining the rates of nucleation and elongation of human beta(2)-microglobulin (beta(2)m).

Inhibitors of CTP biosynthesis potentiate the anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 activity of 3TC in activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

Unlike hydroxyurea, the CTP synthetase inhibitor acivicin and, to a lesser extent, two other inhibitors of CTP synthesis, increased the phosphorylation and anti-HIV-1 activity of 3TC in PHA-P-activated PBMC. These data suggest that to improve the antiretroviral activity of 3TC, it may be worth focusing on inhibition of CTP synthesis.