Search results for "agricultural and biological sciences"
showing 10 items of 1704 documents
Influence of the physical state of water on the barrier properties of hydrophilic and hydrophobic films.
2000
Water transfer through different films, as a function of the physical state of water in contact with the film, the relative humidity difference, and the water vapor pressure difference, was investigated. The films were two synthetic packagings (hydrophobic polyethylene and hydrophilic cellophane) and an edible film. The physical state of water affects water sensitive films, such as cellophane, inducing a higher liquid water transfer due to interactions with the polymer. For hydrophobic polymers, such as polyethylene, neither the physical state of water nor the relative humidity has an influence on the water permeability. In complex system, such as an edible film composed of hydrophilic part…
Relationships between metabolic fluxes and enzyme amino acid composition
2013
AbstractMetabolic fluxes are a key parameter of metabolic pathways being closely related to the kinetic properties of enzymes and could be conditional on their sequence characteristics. This study examines possible relationships between the metabolic fluxes and the amino acid (AA) composition (AAC) for enzymes from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae glycolysis pathway. Metabolic fluxes were quantified by the COPASI tool using the kinetic models of Hynne and Teusink at 25 mM, 50 mM, and 100 mM of external glucose or employing literature data for cognate kinetic or stoichiometric models. The enzyme sequences were taken from the UniProtKB, and the AAC computed by the ExPASy/ProtParam tool. Mul…
Discriminative features of type I and type III secreted proteins from Gram-negative bacteria
2006
AbstractThe amino acid composition of sequences and structural attributes (α-helices, β-sheets) of C-and N-terminal fragments (50 amino acids) were compared to annotated (SWISS-PROT/ TrEMBL) type I (20 sequences) and type III (22 sequences) secreted proteins of Gram-negative bacteria.The discriminant analysis together with the stepwise forward and backward selection of variables revealed the frequencies of the residues Arg, Glu, Gly, Ile, Met, Pro, Ser, Tyr, Val as a set of strong (1-P < 0.001) predictor variables to discriminate between the sequences of type I and type III secreted proteins with a cross-validated accuracy of 98.6–100 %. The internal and external validity of discriminant…
Effect of Heating Time and Temperature on the Chemical Characteristics of Biochar from Poultry Manure
2014
Poultry manure (PM) chars were obtained at different temperatures and charring times. Chemical-physical characterization of the different PM chars was conducted by cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) (13)C NMR spectroscopy and thermal analysis. CPMAS (13)C NMR spectra showed that the chemical composition of PM char is dependent on production temperature rather than on production duration. Aromatic and alkyl domains in the PM chars obtained at the lowest temperatures remained unchanged at all heating times applied for their production. The PM char obtained at the highest temperature consisted only of aromatic structures having chemical nature that also appeared invariant with hea…
Methylcellulose-Based Edible Films and Coatings: 2. Mechanical and Thermal Properties as a Function of Plasticizer Content
1997
Several edible films based on methylcellulose and polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG400) were prepared and stored until equilibration at different relative humidities. Tensile stress−strain curves show very different behaviors as a function of PEG400 and relative humidity. Tensile strength strongly depends on relative humidity and then on water content, more than on PEG400 content. On the contrary, elongation is dependent both on water and PEG400. These differences correspond to the glass transition of the polymer, which affects the elongation more than the tensile strength. However, from DSC measurements, it appears that the PEG400 has no or a very low compatibility with the methylcellulose matr…
Interactions between aroma and edible films. 1. Permeability Of methylcellulose and low-density polyethylene films to methyl ketones.
1998
This work contributes to the study of aroma transfers through edible and plastic packaging films. Permeability, sorption, and diffusivity of three methyl ketones (2-heptanone, 2-octanone, and 2-nonanone) in and through low-density polyethylene and methylcellulose-based edible films have been determined. Permeability was measured using a dynamic method coupled with a gas chromatograph. The methyl ketone permeability of polyethylene films mainly depends on diffusivity of the penetrant in the polymer. In the case of 2-heptanone, a saturation of the polymer network is observed at high vapor concentrations. The formation of clusters could take place when concentrations are higher in the vapor ph…
Stilbene Content of MatureVitis viniferaBerries in Response to UV-C Elicitation
2001
A method using HPLC analysis has been used to compare the level of resveratrol and its derivatives, piceid, pterostilbene and epsilon-viniferin, in grapevine berries of three Vitis vinifera varieties. The concentration of these compounds has been evaluated in healthy and Botrytis cinerea infected grape clusters, both in natural vineyard conditions and in response to UV elicitation.
Influence of Several Effectors on the Structure-Activity Relationship of Spleen Phosphodiesterase
1993
The influence of Mg(II) and organic solvents on the structure-activity relationship of spleen phosphodiesterase II was analyzed using UV and fluorescence spectroscopies. An increase in the RNase activity found in the presence of Mg(II) was related to the enzyme-Mg(II) interaction detected by UV spectroscopy. In the fluorescence spectra of phosphodiesterase strong hypochromic and bathochromic effects were observed when RNA was present at a concentration (52 μg ml−1) of the same magnitude as the concentration that inhibits the activity (Ki = 40 μg ml−1). The strong quenching observed in the presence of RNA shows the importance of large dynamic and static quenching of the Trp residues of the e…
Determination of soyasaponins I and βg in raw and cooked legumes by solid phase extraction (SPE) coupled to liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrome…
2013
Legumes contain a rich variety of phytochemicals as soyasaponins, triterpenoidal glycosides that possess multiple health-promoting properties, such as lowering of cholesterol. In this work, the quantification of soyasaponins I and βg in 60 raw and cooked legumes by using a solid phase extraction (SPE) coupled to a liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrometry (MS) method was carried out. Results showed that lentils are a good source of soyasaponins, with a content of soyasaponin I that ranged from 636 to 735 mg kg(-1) and of soyasaponin βg from 672 to 1807 mg kg(-1). The cooking process produced a small loss of soyasaponins in water, that is, 4.8-8.7%, and partially converted soyasaponin βg …
Quantitative Comparison of Free and Bound Volatiles of Two Commercial Tomato Cultivars (Solanum lycopersicumL.) during Ripening
2009
The changes in the profile of both free and glycosidically bound volatiles were studied in Moneymaker and Raf tomato cultivars during fruit ripening. The concentrations of 20 of 24 and of 27 of 30 compounds detected in the free volatile fraction (FVF) and glycosidically bound fraction (GBF), respectively, differed significantly between cultivars during ripening. Most free and bound volatiles increased during ripening in both cultivars. The contribution of each free volatile compound to the overall aroma was estimated by calculating its log U value, which indicated that only 11 compounds seem to exert a strong influence. Nine volatiles were detected exclusively in the GBF, among them geranio…