Conversion of no/low value waste frying oils into biodiesel and polyhydroxyalkanoates

A sustainable bioprocess was developed for the valorization of a no/low value substrate, i.e. waste frying oils (WFOs) with high content of free fatty acids (FFAs), otherwise unsuitable for biodiesel production. The bioprocess was verified using both recombinant (Escherichia coli) and native (Pseudomonas resinovorans) polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) producing cell factories. Microbial fermentation of WFOs provided a 2-fold advantage: i) the reduction of FFAs content resulting into an upgrading of the "exhausted waste oils" and ii) the production of a bio-based microbial polymer. Proper strain designing and process optimization allowed to achieve up to 1.5 g L-1 of medium chain length, mcl-PHAs, together with an efficient conversion (80% yield) of the treated WFO into biodiesel

Biosynthesis of emulsan biopolymers from agro-based feedstocks

Aims: The need for biocompatible, biodegradable, and versatile biopolymers permeates many fields including environmental and food technology. The goal of the study presented here is to establish the utility of agricultural oils as an inexpensive carbon source to produce materials useful for biomedical materials and offer positive attributes in terms of green chemistry. Methods and Results: Structural variants of the complex acylated polysaccha- ride, emulsan, secreted from Acinetobacter venetianus RAG-1, were biosynthe- sized in cultures supplemented with agricultural feedstocks to examine the feasibility of conversion of these substrates into value-added biopolymers. Acinetobacter venetianus produced chemically and biologically distinct emulsan variants in culture on soy molasses and tallow oil. These variants possess signi- ficant biological function, including macrophage activation and adjuvant activ- ity, in similar range to that observed for the standard emulsan formed on ethanol-fed A. venetianus. Conclusions: The results indicate that this novel family of biopolymers can be produced in significant quantities from the readily available renewable agricul- tural feedstocks and the resulting structures and functions can be correlated to the chemistry of these feedstocks. Significance and Impact of the Study: The significant quantities of agricultural oils produced annually represent an untapped source for bioconversion to valuable products. The results of this study confirm that the important polymer emulsan can be synthesized from this inexpensive carbon source.Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Fermentaciones Industriale

Co-application of biochar and phosphorus increases soil microbial biomass, mycorrhizal colonization, growth, and nutrition of subterranean clover

Phosphorus (P) plays important roles in the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) colonization and rhizobium nodulation processes. Additionally, biochar's positive roles in mycorrhizal colonization and nodulation are articulated. However, the effect of the co-application of biochar and P on AM colonization and rhizobium nodulation was poorly studied. This study investigated the effect of the co-application of wheat straw biochar and P using soil columns on mycorrhizal colonization, nodulation, and the growth of subterranean clover. The soil was amended with wheat straw biochar at 0, 5, and 10 t ha−1 with different levels of P fertilizer at 0, 5, and 10 kg P ha−1. These studies showed that adding biochar at 5 t ha−1 along with mineral P fertilizer increased plant growth, mycorrhizal root colonization and nodulation, and P concentration in plants. In most cases, the increasing trend of the biomass yield was higher when biochar and the P fertilizer were applied together at a higher level (P10). These findings suggested that an increased biochar application rate can increase the subterranean clover growth in soil with either no (P0) or a lower P (P5) fertilizer application. Mycorrhizal colonization could help to improve the P supply and subsequently stimulate the root nodulation of leguminous plants

Plant-Mycorrhiza Percent Infection as Evidence of Coupled Metabolism

A common feature of mycorrhizal observation is the growth of the infection on the plant root as a percent of the infected root or root tip length. Often, this is measured as a logistic curve with an eventual, though usually transient, plateau. It is shown in this paper that the periods of stable percent infection in the mycorrhizal growth cycle correspond to periods where both the plant and mycorrhiza growth rates and likely metabolism are tightly coupled.Comment: 11 pages; accepted by the Journal of Theoretical Biology (in press

Histopathological and biochemical findings of congenital copper deficiency: are these similar to those of caprine arthritis-encephalitis?

This study was done after identifying animals with a twisted carpal joint in goat herd. These included a kid goat walking on its articulus carpii and a newborn goat with a stiff leg. Necropsies of the diseased goats revealed swollen carpal joints that were twisted backwards. Arthritis was observed during microscopic examination of the carpal joints. Very low levels of eosinophil, leucocyte, and lymphocyte cell infiltration were found in the central nervous system and meninges. Serum copper levels were significantly decreased in most of the animals. All of these results led us to diagnose the animals with swayback disease

Learning mechanisms influencing infants’ early socio-pragmatic abilities

Advanced pragmatic skills are hypothesized to depend on early experience of interaction. However, we do not yet fully understand the causal pathways involved. In the current study, we explored one potential early learning mechanism by assessing whether increasing caregiver responsiveness to infant communication in turn promotes infants’ pre-linguistic communicative acts. In the first wave of a larger randomized controlled trial study, when their infants were around six months old, carers were randomly assigned to either a communication intervention or an active control intervention focused on physical health. When infants turned 12 months, home videos (N = 125, 64 active control intervention, 61 communication intervention) were analysed for infant pre-linguistic acts, and caregiver responses to infant pre-linguistic communication. We also examined whether these variables varied by socio-economic circumstances. Pre-registered analyses indicated that the intervention led to increases in infant communicative acts and caregiver semantically contingent responses to infant communicative behaviours. This indicates that the experience of communicating with a responsive caregiver has a causal effect on the development of the infant’s pre-linguistic pragmatic skills that are thought to provide the basis for later language, pragmatics and Theory of Mind. This article is part of the theme issue ‘At the heart of human communication: new views on the complex relationship between pragmatics and Theory of Mind’

Development of specific PCR assays for the detection of Cryptocaryon irritans

Cryptocaryon irritans is one of the most important protozoan pathogens of marine fish, causing the “white spot” disease and posing a significant problem to marine aquaculture. In the present study, a C. irritans-specific reverse primer (S15) was designed based on the published sequence of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS-2) of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) of C. irritans and used together with the conserved forward primer P1 to develop a specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for direct, rapid, and specific detection of C. irritans. The specificity of these primers was tested with both closely and distantly related ciliates (Pseudokeroronpsis rubra, Pseudokeroronpsis carnae, Euplotes sp. 1, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, Pseudourostyla cristata, and Paramecium caudaium), and only C. irritans was detected and no product was amplified from any other ciliates examined in this study using the specific primer set P1-S15. The specific PCR assay was able to detect as low as 45 pg of C. irritans DNA and a nested PCR assay using two primer sets (P1/NC2, P1/S15) increased the sensitivity, allowing the detection of a single C. irritans. The species-specific PCR assays should provide useful tools for the diagnosis, prevention, and molecular epidemiological investigations of C. irritans infection in marine fish

Increased prevalence of rotavirus among children associated gastroenteritis in Riyadh Saudi Arabia

The aim of this study is to assess the epidemiology along with the molecular structure of rotavirus causing pediatric diarrhea among Saudi patients. However, in this report we sited the epidemiological reflect coming from our project