scholarly journals Fast-Growing Bacterial Cellulose with Outstanding Mechanical Properties via Cross-Linking by Multivalent Ions

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2838
Author(s):  
Andrea Knöller ◽  
Marc Widenmeyer ◽  
Joachim Bill ◽  
Zaklina Burghard

Bacterial cellulose is an organic product of certain bacterias’ metabolism. It differs from plant cellulose by exhibiting a high strength and purity, making it especially interesting for flexible electronics, membranes for water purification, tissue engineering for humans or even as artificial skin and ligaments for robotic devices. However, bacterial cellulose’s naturally slow growth rate has limited its large-scale applicability to date. Titanium (IV) bis-(ammonium lactato) dihydroxide is shown to be a powerful tool to boost the growth rate of bacterial cellulose production by more than one order of magnitude and that it simultaneously serves as a precursor for the Ti4+-coordinated cross-linking of the fibers during membrane formation. The latter results in an almost two-fold increase in Young’s modulus (~18.59 GPa), a more than three-fold increase in tensile strength (~436.70 MPa) and even a four-fold increase in toughness (~6.81 MJ m−³), as compared to the pure bacterial cellulose membranes.

1970 ◽  
pp. 01-07
Author(s):  
Saumitro Das ◽  
L.K. Jha

The natural population of Taxus baccata L. (Himalayan Yew) throughout the Indian Himalayan Region is greatly reduced due to its extensive and reckless exploitation for “Taxol” an anticancer drug. The effects of overexploitation are exacerbated by the species poor regeneration process, slow growth rate and prolonged seed dormancy. Therefore vegetative propagation by branch cuttings seems to be only practical solution for its large scale multiplication. A study was conducted on six candidate trees (CTs) to examine the effect genotype, physiological age of stem, IBA treatment on rooting of Taxus baccata cuttings. Results revealed that rooting behaviour of cuttings was significantly affected by all the factors under study. Among the six CTs studied, CT 2 (from BSI, Shillong) had given the highest rooting response (46.28%). The juvenile cuttings have the higher rooting capacity; however the callusing was more prominent in mature cutting. The influence of IBA treatment was also significant for rooting where 1000 was most effective for stimulating rooting juvenile cuttings and 2000 ppm in mature cuttings.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-45
Author(s):  
N. Upadhyay ◽  
Y. N. Ghimire ◽  
B. Sharma ◽  
Y. Acharya ◽  
S. Gairhe ◽  
...  

This study examined status of adoption of improved maize varieties in Nepal. Six hundred eighty two households were sampled from six districts namely Sindhupalchowk, Lalitpur, Khotang, Dang, Chitwan and Dadeldhura. Data was analyzed through descriptive statistics. The results indicated that the slow growth rate of area, production and yield was around 2.7% p.a. and growth rate is moreover stagnant rate from 1990-2015. Adoption of modern variety was found to be 75% of household. Mean area of maize cultivation in Nepal is 0.431 ha/HH. Only seven improved variety were adopted in large scale and they were adopted in 70.60% of maize cultivating areas. Improved variety Rampur composite, Mankamana-3 and Deuti and Hybrid CP 808 were found to be highly adopted. While CP 808, Shrestha and Rajkumar hybrids were dominating hybrids. Age of household head, Caste, Migration, credit accessibility, cooperative involvement, extension visit, training, formal sector seed availability and knowledge about agricultural insurance were found positive factors affecting adoption of modern variety of maize. However education and livestock numbers found negatively contribute to adoption.


Author(s):  
Mazhar Ul-Islam ◽  
Furqan Ahmad ◽  
Atiya Fatima ◽  
Nasrullah Shah ◽  
Somayia Yasir ◽  
...  

The innate structural and functional properties of bacterial cellulose (BC) have been greatly improved by developing its composites with other materials for its applications in different fields. In the present study, BC-Aloe vera (BCA) gel composite with high tensile strength was ex situ developed and characterized for its potential applications in environmental and medical fields. FE-SEM micrographs showed the impregnation of Aloe vera gel into the fibril network of BC. The dry weight analysis showed the addition of 40 wt.% Aloe vera contents into the BC matrix. The addition of Aloe vera resulted in a 3-fold increase in the mechanical strength of BCA composite. The critical strain or stress concentration points were accurately identified in the composite using a three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) system. The BCA composite retained water for an extended period of up to 70 h. The BCA composite effectively adsorbed Cu, Co, Fe, and Zn metals. Moreover, the BCA composite supported the adhesion and proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells. The findings of this study suggest that the developed BCA composite could find multipurpose applications in different fields.


Author(s):  
Aline Krindges ◽  
Vanusca Dalosto Jahno ◽  
Fernando Morisso

Incorporation studies of particles in different substrates with herbal assets growing. The objective of this work was the preparation and characterization of micro/nanoparticles containing cymbopogon nardus essential oil; and the incorporation of them on bacterial cellulose. For the development of the membranes was used the static culture medium and for the preparation of micro/nanoparticles was used the nanoprecipitation methodology. The incorporation of micro/nanoparticles was performed on samples of bacterial cellulose in wet and dry form. For the characterization of micro/nanoparticles were carried out analysis of SEM, zeta potential and particle size. For the verification of the incorporation of particulate matter in cellulose, analyses were conducted of SEM and FTIR. The results showed that it is possible the production and incorporation of micro/nanoparticles containing essential oil in bacterial cellulose membranes in wet form with ethanol.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parsoa Khorsand ◽  
Fereydoun Hormozdiari

Abstract Large scale catalogs of common genetic variants (including indels and structural variants) are being created using data from second and third generation whole-genome sequencing technologies. However, the genotyping of these variants in newly sequenced samples is a nontrivial task that requires extensive computational resources. Furthermore, current approaches are mostly limited to only specific types of variants and are generally prone to various errors and ambiguities when genotyping complex events. We are proposing an ultra-efficient approach for genotyping any type of structural variation that is not limited by the shortcomings and complexities of current mapping-based approaches. Our method Nebula utilizes the changes in the count of k-mers to predict the genotype of structural variants. We have shown that not only Nebula is an order of magnitude faster than mapping based approaches for genotyping structural variants, but also has comparable accuracy to state-of-the-art approaches. Furthermore, Nebula is a generic framework not limited to any specific type of event. Nebula is publicly available at https://github.com/Parsoa/Nebula.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 3346
Author(s):  
Agata Sommer ◽  
Paulina Dederko-Kantowicz ◽  
Hanna Staroszczyk ◽  
Sławomir Sommer ◽  
Marek Michalec

This article compares the properties of bacterial cellulose/fish collagen composites (BC/Col) after enzymatic and chemical cross-linking. In our methodology, two transglutaminases are used for enzymatic cross-linking—one recommended for the meat and the other proposed for the fish industry—and pre-oxidated BC (oxBC) is used for chemical cross-linking. The structure of the obtained composites is characterized by scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and their functional properties by mechanical and water barrier tests. While polymer chains in uncross-linked BC/Col are intertwined by H-bonds, new covalent bonds in enzymatically cross-linked ones are formed—resulting in increased thermal stability and crystallinity of the material. The C2–C3 bonds cleavage in D-glucose units, due to BC oxidation, cause secondary alcohol groups to vanish in favor of the carbonyl groups’ formation, thus reducing the number of H-bonded OHs. Thermal stability and crystallinity of oxBC/Col remain lower than those of BC/Col. The BC/Col formation did not affect tensile strength and water vapor permeability of BC, but enzymatic cross-linking with TGGS improved them significantly.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document