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Sample records for culture productivity model

  1. Modeling pure culture heterotrophic production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mozumder, Md Salatul Islam; Goormachtigh, Laurens; Garcia-Gonzalez, Linsey; De Wever, Heleen; Volcke, Eveline I P

    2014-03-01

    In this contribution a mechanistic model describing the production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) through pure-culture fermentation was developed, calibrated and validated for two different substrates, namely glucose and waste glycerol. In both cases, non-growth-associated PHB production was triggered by applying nitrogen limitation. The occurrence of some growth-associated PHB production besides non-growth-associated PHB production was demonstrated, although it is inhibited in the presence of nitrogen. Other phenomena observed experimentally and described by the model included biomass growth on PHB and non-linear product inhibition of PHB production. The accumulated impurities from the waste substrate negatively affected the obtained maximum PHB content. Overall, the developed mathematical model provided an accurate prediction of the dynamic behavior of heterotrophic biomass growth and PHB production in a two-phase pure culture system. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. A REVIEW: A MODEL of CULTURAL ASPECTS for SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DESIGN

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    Ihwan Ghazali,

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Product design stages are important to consider critically in production. Generally, product design that shall be created by designer, should consider what the customer wants and needs. Nowadays issues, product design does not only consider the “wants and needs” of user, but also how the design can be created by embedding sustainability aspects in the product. Culture is also one of the important aspects which need to be considered in product design as culture affects the way users respond to the product. This paper aims to develop a new model for design development, in which the aspects of culture are incorporated into sustainable product design. By reviewing the existing literature, the authors attempt to identify the gaps of the existing papers, which illustrate how culture affects sustainable product design. Recent papers have only shown that culture influences product design, but they do not explore sustainability and the culture aspects in product design. Due to these gaps, it is therefore important to create a model which will assist designers to elicit sustainable product design based on cultural aspects. In summary, designers need to reflect on the “wants and needs” of users. The framework presented in this paper can be integrated into designers’ and companies’ decision-making during product design development.

  3. Metabolic modelling of polyhydroxyalkanoate copolymers production by mixed microbial cultures

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    Reis Maria AM

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background This paper presents a metabolic model describing the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA copolymers in mixed microbial cultures, using mixtures of acetic and propionic acid as carbon source material. Material and energetic balances were established on the basis of previously elucidated metabolic pathways. Equations were derived for the theoretical yields for cell growth and PHA production on mixtures of acetic and propionic acid as functions of the oxidative phosphorylation efficiency, P/O ratio. The oxidative phosphorylation efficiency was estimated from rate measurements, which in turn allowed the estimation of the theoretical yield coefficients. Results The model was validated with experimental data collected in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR operated under varying feeding conditions: feeding of acetic and propionic acid separately (control experiments, and the feeding of acetic and propionic acid simultaneously. Two different feast and famine culture enrichment strategies were studied: (i either with acetate or (ii with propionate as carbon source material. Metabolic flux analysis (MFA was performed for the different feeding conditions and culture enrichment strategies. Flux balance analysis (FBA was used to calculate optimal feeding scenarios for high quality PHA polymers production, where it was found that a suitable polymer would be obtained when acetate is fed in excess and the feeding rate of propionate is limited to ~0.17 C-mol/(C-mol.h. The results were compared with published pure culture metabolic studies. Conclusion Acetate was more conducive toward the enrichment of a microbial culture with higher PHA storage fluxes and yields as compared to propionate. The P/O ratio was not only influenced by the selected microbial culture, but also by the carbon substrate fed to each culture, where higher P/O ratio values were consistently observed for acetate than propionate. MFA studies suggest that when mixtures of

  4. The impact of culture and employee-focused criteria on productivity: A structural equation modelling approach

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    Ab Hamid, Mohd Rashid; Mustafa, Zainol; Mohd Suradi, Nur Riza; Idris, Fazli; Abdullah, Mokhtar

    2013-04-01

    Culture and employee-focused criteria are important factors for the success of any organization. These factors have to be aligned with the productivity initiatives in the organization in order to gear ahead for excellence. Therefore, this article investigated the impact of culture and employee-focused criteria on productivity in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia using intangible indicators through core values. The hypothesized relationship was tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the PLS estimation technique. 429 questionnaires were returned from the target population. The results of the modelling revealed that the PLS estimation confirmed all the hypotheses tested as in the hypothesized model. The results generally support significant relationships between culture values, employee-focused values and productivity-focused values. The study also confirmed the mediating role of employee-focused values for the relationship between culture values and productivity-focused values. In conclusion, the empirically validated results supported the adequacy of the hypothezised model of the impact of culture and employee-focused criteria on productivity in HEI through value-based indicators.

  5. Mammalian Cell Culture Process for Monoclonal Antibody Production: Nonlinear Modelling and Parameter Estimation

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    Dan Selişteanu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs are at present one of the fastest growing products of pharmaceutical industry, with widespread applications in biochemistry, biology, and medicine. The operation of mAbs production processes is predominantly based on empirical knowledge, the improvements being achieved by using trial-and-error experiments and precedent practices. The nonlinearity of these processes and the absence of suitable instrumentation require an enhanced modelling effort and modern kinetic parameter estimation strategies. The present work is dedicated to nonlinear dynamic modelling and parameter estimation for a mammalian cell culture process used for mAb production. By using a dynamical model of such kind of processes, an optimization-based technique for estimation of kinetic parameters in the model of mammalian cell culture process is developed. The estimation is achieved as a result of minimizing an error function by a particle swarm optimization (PSO algorithm. The proposed estimation approach is analyzed in this work by using a particular model of mammalian cell culture, as a case study, but is generic for this class of bioprocesses. The presented case study shows that the proposed parameter estimation technique provides a more accurate simulation of the experimentally observed process behaviour than reported in previous studies.

  6. Response Surface Modelling of Noradrenaline Production in Hairy Root Culture of Purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.

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    Mehdi Ghorbani

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Common purslane (Portulaca oleracea L. is an annual plant as one of the natural sources for noradrenaline hormone. In this research, hairy root culture of purslane was established by using Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain ATCC 15834. In the following, Box-Behnken model of response surface methodology (RSM was employed to optimize B5 medium for the growth of P. oleracea L. hairy root line. According to the results, modelling and optimization conditions, including sucrose, CaCl2.H2O, H2PO4 and NO3-/NH4+ concentrations on maximum dry weight (0.155 g and noradrenaline content (0.36 mg.g-1 DW was predicted. These optimal conditions predicted by RSM were confirmed the enhancement of noradrenaline production as an application potential for production by hairy root cultures.

  7. Organizational Culture Influence On Total Productive Maintenance (TPM and Operational Performance Using RASCH Model Analysis

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    Mohd Norhasni Mohd Asaad

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract. Market globalization, competitive product and services, high economic crises are the most critical factors that influence the success of the manufacturing companies in global market. Therefore it is critical to the manufacturing companies to be efficient in production and lean tool may used to achieve that.  The most frequently used is the Total Preventive Maintenance (TPM, even though there are many studies have been conducted in relation to the TPM but there is limited research in investigating the effects of the TPM on operational performance. However, the result of the studies was not consistent, where TPM practice may have positive and negative impact on operational performance. Among the reason is the culture of the organization that influenced the implementation of TPM and operational performance. Due to that this study attempts to investigate the influence of organizational culture on the TPM implementation and operational performance.  Rasch model is used in this study due to its ability in interpreting and analyzing the ability of respondents in performing the difficult items. The online questionnaires were distributed to 63 randomly selected automotive companies located at Northern Region of Malaysia.  Results of the study revealed that the organizational culture has influenced on the successful implementation of TPM and operational performance. Therefore by the implementation of TPM in outstanding organizational culture can improve operational performance.   Keyword: Total Preventive Maintenance (TPM, Lean manufacturing, Operational performance, Organizational culture, Rasch modeldoi:10.12695/ajtm.2013.6.2.2How to cite this article:Mohd Asaad, M.N and Yusoff, R.Z. (2013. Organizational Culture Influence On Total Productive Maintenance (TPM and Operational Performance Using RASCH Model Analysis . The Asian Journal of Technology Management 6 (2: 72-81. Print ISSN: 1978-6956; Online ISSN: 2089-791X.  doi:10.12695/ajtm

  8. RADISH SEED PRODUCTION (TRANSPLANTATION CULTURE; STANDARD OF ORGANISATION FOR MODEL TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS

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    L. V. Pavlov

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The standard of organization for model technological process of seed production waselaborated at VNIISSOK. Requirements established are for implementation of technological operation at radish seed production as transplantation culture as followed: seed plant growing in polyhouses to produce elite seeds, seedlings planting out, plant nursing, harvesting and postharvest processing. The standard is aimed to provide the qualified work in radish seed production through transplantation culture. Radish seed plants for elite seed production are grown on warmed soil beds in winter greenhouses with use of plastic roofing or in plastic houses supplied with heating system. Seeds with germination not less than 85 % according to GOST 32592-2013 are taken for seed production aims. Hand sowing under marker ensures the identical all-around nutrition for plants that is particularly important when growing and selecting the seed plants (1 hectare - 55-60 thousand seed plant roots. Approbation of seed plants is carried out just before harvesting. The terms of seed plant planting are the earliest. Scheme of planting is 70 x 15 - 20 (cm, 60 x 30 (cm or 90 x 15 (cm. To protect the seed production plantation of radish against weeds, diseases and pests, the pesticides are allowed to apply in accordance with State Catalogue of Pesticides and Agrochemicals, permitted to use in the territory of Russian Federation. Postharvest desiccation of seed plants enables to yield radish by means of direct combining. Radish seeds after processing on sowing qualities have to meet all sowing requirements according to the acting standard. The standard of organization is agreed and affirmed in 2016 CTO45727225-52-16.

  9. Modeling of rheological characteristics of the fermented dairy products obtained by novel and traditional starter cultures.

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    Vukić, Dajana V; Vukić, Vladimir R; Milanović, Spasenija D; Ilicić, Mirela D; Kanurić, Katarina G

    2018-06-01

    Tree different fermented dairy products obtained by conventional and non-conventional starter cultures were investigated in this paper. Textural and rheological characteristics as well as chemical composition during 21 days of storage were analysed and subsequent data processing was performed by principal component analysis. The analysis of samples` flow behaviour was focused on their time dependent properties. Parameters of Power law model described flow behaviour of samples depended on used starter culture and days of storage. The Power law model was applied successfully to describe the flow of the fermented milk, which had characteristics of shear thinning and non-Newtonian fluid behaviour.

  10. First complete and productive cell culture model for members of the genus Iridovirus.

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    D'Costa, Susan M; Vigerust, David J; Perales-Hull, Marsha R; Lodhi, Sundus A; Viravathana, Polrit; Bilimoria, Shän L

    2012-11-01

    Chilo iridescent virus (CIV; the type strain of the genus Iridovirus) replicates productively in larvae of the boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis. This study focuses on characterizing productive infections of a boll weevil cell line, BRL-AG-3A (AG3A), starting with CIV reared in the waxworm, Galleria mellonella. We show that CIV can be continually and productively passaged to high titer in AG3A cells. The replication of larval-derived CIV in AG3A was analyzed by observing viral DNA replication and restriction endonuclease digestion profiles, morphogenesis, and infectivity using TCID(50) assays with AG3A as an indicator cell line. The data showed that virus passaged in the AG3A host is stable. AG3A cells are more efficient than previously utilized CF-124T cells from Choristoneura fumiferana. This system constitutes a superior model for cellular and molecular studies on CIV; it represents the first complete, productive cell culture model for the replication of CIV or any member of the genus Iridovirus.

  11. Visual Culture as a Strategic Approach to Art Production in Education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Buhl, Mie

    2005-01-01

    The concept of visual culture challenges tradtitional approaches to art production in education. Art education lacks adequate concepts for understanding contemporary productive processes. The article suggests that the theoretical framework for the productive process should be reconsidered. Visual...... culture as a strategic approach focuses on conditions surrounding viewing rather than on the substance of aesthetic objects A new termonology is needed for use in student and teacher dialogue. The article presents a model for teaching art production bases on a visual culture approach to visual arts...

  12. Product Safety Culture: A New Variant of Safety Culture?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suhanyiova, L.; Flin, R.; Irwin, A.

    2016-01-01

    Product safety culture is a new research area which concerns user safety rather than worker or process safety. The concept appears to have emerged after the investigation into the Nimrod aircraft accident (Haddon-Cave, 2009) which echoed aspects of NASA’s Challenger and Columbia crashes. In these cases, through a blend of human and organizational failures, the culture deteriorated to the extent of damaging product integrity, resulting in user fatalities. Haddon-Cave noted that it was due to a failure in leadership and organizational safety culture that accidents such as the Nimrod happened, where the aircraft exploded due to several serious technical failures, preceded by deficiencies in the safety case. Now some organizations are starting to measure product safety culture. This is important in day-to-day life as well, where a product failure as a result of poor organizational safety culture, can cause user harm or death, as in the case of Takata airbags scandal in 2015. Eight people have lost their lives and many were injured. According to investigation reports this was due to the company’s safety malpractices of fixing faulty airbags and proceeding to install them in vehicles, as well as secretly conducting tests to assess the integrity of their product and then deleting the data and denying safety issues as a result of the company’s cost-cutting policies. As such, organizational culture, specifically the applications of safety culture, can have far-reaching consequences beyond the workplace of an organization.

  13. Mediating production and consumption: cultural capital and 'cultural workers'.

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    Wright, David

    2005-03-01

    This paper examines recent debates about the role of what Bourdieu termed cultural intermediaries in the formation and reproduction of the relations of cultural capital. Workers in the cultural or creative industries were given a central place in Bourdieu's schema in the creation of hierarchies of value in the production and consumption of symbolic goods. Subsequent writers about the apparent emergence of a creative economy (Lash and Urry 1994; Featherstone 1991) have given workers involved in the production and distribution of cultural goods a pivotal place in the development of late or post-modernity. More recent work (Negus 2002; Nixon and du Gay 2002) has criticized the validity and coherence of the term as it has come to be understood and called for more rigour in its definition and use. This paper adds to this debate by considering the book trade as a space in which the gap between production and consumption of cultural goods is mediated. It suggests that cultural intermediaries, as cultural workers, are engaged in the reproduction of the cultural aspects of social class by 'shoring up' their insecure position in the relations of cultural capital, rather than simply being the taste leaders of a reflexive modernity.

  14. The influences of the cultural models on agricultural production structures in Romania and some EU-28 countries: A perspective

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    Andrei Jean Vasile

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy and the changing of its paradigm was a subject of extensive consideration in the literature, but never the implications of specific cultural aspects on agricultural performance and production structures were ever taken into consideration. The main aim of the paper is the analysis of the some aspects regarding the influences of the cultural models on agricultural production structures in Romania and some EU-28 countries, form a larger perspective, starting with the CAP transformations over the time and the European agricultural model, analysing the role of the multifunctional agriculture in shaping the holding's structure and performances, and in the last it is considered the role of agriculture and rural communities in promoting renewable including bio-fuels.

  15. Nuclear safety culture evaluation model based on SSE-CMM

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang Xiaohua; Liu Zhenghai; Liu Zhiming; Wan Yaping; Peng Guojian

    2012-01-01

    Safety culture, which is of great significance to establish safety objectives, characterizes level of enterprise safety production and development. Traditional safety culture evaluation models emphasis on thinking and behavior of individual and organization, and pay attention to evaluation results while ignore process. Moreover, determining evaluation indicators lacks objective evidence. A novel multidimensional safety culture evaluation model, which has scientific and completeness, is addressed by building an preliminary mapping between safety culture and SSE-CMM's (Systems Security Engineering Capability Maturity Model) process area and generic practice. The model focuses on enterprise system security engineering process evaluation and provides new ideas and scientific evidences for the study of safety culture. (authors)

  16. Free Publishing Culture. Sustainable Models?

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    Silvia Nanclares Escudero

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available As a result of the collective research on the possibilities for publishing production and distribution offered nowadays by the Free Culture scenario, we present here a mapping of symptoms in order to propose a transitory diagnostic of the question: Is it possible to generate an economically sustainable publishing model based on the uses and customs generated and provided by Free Culture? Data, intuitions, experiences and ideas attempt to back up our affirmative answer.

  17. A Model to align the organizational culture to Lean

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    Mehrsa Taherimashhadi

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: Since the emergence of Lean Manufacturing many organizations strived to implement it. Nonetheless, sustainable Lean transformation is not as easy as to be simply achieved. Several aspects need to be taken into account before Lean implementation which national and organizational culture are important. By considering influences of national culture on the organizational culture, this paper aims at proposing an evaluation model to determine the cultural weaknesses of an organization and give some recommendations to manage people before implementing Lean. Design/methodology/approach: This research has been conducted based on literature review survey and semi-structured interviews. Research papers, conference proceedings, books, and official websites regarding Lean philosophy were reviewed to find the influence of national culture in Lean implementation. Different databases were scrutinized, from 2015 to 2017, containing Scopus and Web of Science with the time period of 1996-2016. A set of key terms and their combinations were used including: Toyota Production system, Lean production, Lean manufacturing, Lean management, Transformation, Implementation, Barriers/ Impediments/Challenges/Difficulties, Human resources, Success factors, Organizational culture, and National culture. Findings: The proposed evaluation model is a guide for organizations to determine cultural misalignments between the corporate culture and the Lean culture before its implementation and gives some managerial recommendations to correct them. Originality/value: This study is the first attempt to integrate the national models   with Lean culture to provide an evaluation model and some recommendations to help the organization to align its culture to Lean culture before its implementation.

  18. Environmental impacts of cultured meat production.

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    Tuomisto, Hanna L; de Mattos, M Joost Teixeira

    2011-07-15

    Cultured meat (i.e., meat produced in vitro using tissue engineering techniques) is being developed as a potentially healthier and more efficient alternative to conventional meat. Life cycle assessment (LCA) research method was used for assessing environmental impacts of large-scale cultured meat production. Cyanobacteria hydrolysate was assumed to be used as the nutrient and energy source for muscle cell growth. The results showed that production of 1000 kg cultured meat requires 26-33 GJ energy, 367-521 m(3) water, 190-230 m(2) land, and emits 1900-2240 kg CO(2)-eq GHG emissions. In comparison to conventionally produced European meat, cultured meat involves approximately 7-45% lower energy use (only poultry has lower energy use), 78-96% lower GHG emissions, 99% lower land use, and 82-96% lower water use depending on the product compared. Despite high uncertainty, it is concluded that the overall environmental impacts of cultured meat production are substantially lower than those of conventionally produced meat.

  19. The influence of organizational and national culture on new product performance

    OpenAIRE

    Eisend, Martin; Evanschitzky, Heiner; Gilliland, David I.

    2016-01-01

    The authors conduct a meta-analysis on the combined influence of organizational and national culture on new product performance. For this purpose, they refer to the effectiveness of value congruency and develop a conceptual model describing the fit between organizational culture types as suggested by the competing values framework and national culture, as described by Hofstede's cultural dimensions. The meta-analysis is based on 489 effect sizes taken from 123 manuscripts. The findings show t...

  20. Perfusion seed cultures improve biopharmaceutical fed-batch production capacity and product quality.

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    Yang, William C; Lu, Jiuyi; Kwiatkowski, Chris; Yuan, Hang; Kshirsagar, Rashmi; Ryll, Thomas; Huang, Yao-Ming

    2014-01-01

    Volumetric productivity and product quality are two key performance indicators for any biopharmaceutical cell culture process. In this work, we showed proof-of-concept for improving both through the use of alternating tangential flow perfusion seed cultures coupled with high-seed fed-batch production cultures. First, we optimized the perfusion N-1 stage, the seed train bioreactor stage immediately prior to the production bioreactor stage, to minimize the consumption of perfusion media for one CHO cell line and then successfully applied the optimized perfusion process to a different CHO cell line. Exponential growth was observed throughout the N-1 duration, reaching >40 × 10(6) vc/mL at the end of the perfusion N-1 stage. The cultures were subsequently split into high-seed (10 × 10(6) vc/mL) fed-batch production cultures. This strategy significantly shortened the culture duration. The high-seed fed-batch production processes for cell lines A and B reached 5 g/L titer in 12 days, while their respective low-seed processes reached the same titer in 17 days. The shortened production culture duration potentially generates a 30% increase in manufacturing capacity while yielding comparable product quality. When perfusion N-1 and high-seed fed-batch production were applied to cell line C, higher levels of the active protein were obtained, compared to the low-seed process. This, combined with correspondingly lower levels of the inactive species, can enhance the overall process yield for the active species. Using three different CHO cell lines, we showed that perfusion seed cultures can optimize capacity utilization and improve process efficiency by increasing volumetric productivity while maintaining or improving product quality. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

  1. Ethos of independence across regions in the United States: the production-adoption model of cultural change.

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    Kitayama, Shinobu; Conway, Lucian Gideon; Pietromonaco, Paula R; Park, Hyekyung; Plaut, Victoria C

    2010-09-01

    Contemporary U.S. culture has a highly individualistic ethos. Nevertheless, exactly how this ethos was historically fostered remains unanalyzed. A new model of dynamic cultural change maintains that sparsely populated, novel environments that impose major threats to survival, such as the Western frontier in the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries, breed strong values of independence, which in turn guide the production of new practices that encourage self-promotion and focused, competitive work. Faced with few significant threats to survival, residents in traditional areas are likely to seek social prestige by adopting existing practices of other, higher status groups. Because of both the massive economic success of the frontier and the official endorsement of the frontier by the federal government, eastern residents of the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries may have actively adopted the frontier practices of independence, thus incorporating the frontier ethos of independence to form the contemporary U.S. national culture. Available evidence is reviewed, and implications for further research on cultural change are suggested. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

  2. Measuring culture outside the head: a meta-analysis of individualism-collectivism in cultural products.

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    Morling, Beth; Lamoreaux, Marika

    2008-08-01

    Although cultural psychology is the study of how sociocultural environments and psychological processes coconstruct each other, the field has traditionally emphasized measures of the psychological over the sociocultural. Here, the authors call attention to a growing trend of measuring the sociocultural environment. They present a quantitative review of studies that measure cultural differences in "cultural products": tangible, public representations of culture such as advertising or popular texts. They found that cultural products that come from Western cultures (mostly the United States) are more individualistic, and less collectivistic, than cultural products that come from collectivistic cultures (including Korea, Japan, China, and Mexico). The effect sizes for cultural products were larger than self-report effect sizes for this dimension (reported in Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002). In addition to presenting this evidence, the authors highlight the importance of studying the dynamic relationships between sociocultural environments and psyches.

  3. Modeling of plant in vitro cultures: overview and estimation of biotechnological processes.

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    Maschke, Rüdiger W; Geipel, Katja; Bley, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    Plant cell and tissue cultivations are of growing interest for the production of structurally complex and expensive plant-derived products, especially in pharmaceutical production. Problems with up-scaling, low yields, and high-priced process conditions result in an increased demand for models to provide comprehension, simulation, and optimization of production processes. In the last 25 years, many models have evolved in plant biotechnology; the majority of them are specialized models for a few selected products or nutritional conditions. In this article we review, delineate, and discuss the concepts and characteristics of the most commonly used models. Therefore, the authors focus on models for plant suspension and submerged hairy root cultures. The article includes a short overview of modeling and mathematics and integrated parameters, as well as the application scope for each model. The review is meant to help researchers better understand and utilize the numerous models published for plant cultures, and to select the most suitable model for their purposes. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Study on Batch Culture Growth Model for Lactococcus lactis IO-1

    OpenAIRE

    Ishizaki, Ayaaki; Ohta, Tomomi; Kobayashi, Genta; 石崎, 文彬; 太田, 智美; 小林, 元太

    1991-01-01

    L-lactate fermentation employing Lactncoccus lactis IO-1 demonstrated a typical end product inhibition. By numerical analysis of fermentation results of the batch culture of this microorganism, the specific rates for cell growth, substrate consumption and product formation were clearly expressed by the end product inhibition formulae. All constants for those formulae were determined by the fermentation results. A mathematical model for batch culture growth of this microorganism in which the n...

  5. Body of Cultural Tourism in Turkey and Need of Product Differentiation Based On Tangible Cultural Assets

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    Bilgehan Gülcan

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Although Turkey has started its tourism journey with cultural tourism, after 1980’s sea, sand, sun based and entertainment dominant torism approach has developed. Nowadays, more than half of the foreign tourists come to Turkey for the above purpose. Keeping in mind the cultural assets of Turkey, cultural tourism is often pronounced to be the best candidate to diversify the tourism, but only 6% of the overall foreign tourists visit Turkey for cultural purposes. On the other hand, this ratio has a tendency to decrease year by year. In this paper which has been generated using secondary data, the problems faced in the progress of cultural tourism in Turkey has been identified and discussed. First problem is idenfied being the all-inclusive type accommodation, and the latter one is identified as being the body of the product in cultural tourism which is taken as the focus of this study. According to the results, Turkey’s cultural tourism product is especially based on tangible cultural assets, but this product shows strong dependancy on both geographical and some particular historical periods. In addition, it is identified that existing character of the products has not been changed for a long time and as a result has disadvantages in competitiveness. Thus it has been shown that, differentation is needed in tangible culture based product. In this context, some alternatives for product differentiation oppotunities for product developers are also advised.

  6. Construction of a biodynamic model for Cry protein production studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Navarro-Mtz, Ana Karin; Pérez-Guevara, Fermín

    2014-12-01

    Mathematical models have been used from growth kinetic simulation to gen regulatory networks prediction for B. thuringiensis culture. However, this culture is a time dependent dynamic process where cells physiology suffers several changes depending on the changes in the cell environment. Therefore, through its culture, B. thuringiensis presents three phases related with the predominance of three major metabolic pathways: vegetative growth (Embded-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway), transition (γ-aminobutiric cycle) and sporulation (tricarboxylic acid cycle). There is not available a mathematical model that relates the different stages of cultivation with the metabolic pathway active on each one of them. Therefore, in the present study, and based on published data, a biodynamic model was generated to describe the dynamic of the three different phases based on their major metabolic pathways. The biodynamic model is used to study the interrelation between the different culture phases and their relationship with the Cry protein production. The model consists of three interconnected modules where each module represents one culture phase and its principal metabolic pathway. For model validation four new fermentations were done showing that the model constructed describes reasonably well the dynamic of the three phases. The main results of this model imply that poly-β-hydroxybutyrate is crucial for endospore and Cry protein production. According to the yields of dipicolinic acid and Cry from poly-β-hydroxybutyrate, calculated with the model, the endospore and Cry protein production are not just simultaneous and parallel processes they are also competitive processes.

  7. DETECTING VERTICAL INTRA-INDUSTRY TRADE IN CULTURAL PRODUCTS

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    Affortunato Francesca

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available The European integration process has always since markedly characterized by the increasing incidence of Intra-Industry Trade. This has been theoretically justified on the grounds of the new approaches emerging in international trade literature, based on imperfect competition and differentiated products. In recent years another distinctive economic feature of European Union is the importance gained by the so called “cultural and creative sectors”, which are often studied and monitored by reports for their great growth potential. We provide here a systematic decomposition of world trade in “cultural/creative goods” for the year 2009 (using harmonised bilateral flows for some 213 products defined as “cultural products” by UNESCO, 2009 into three trade types: inter-industry, intra-industry (IIT in horizontally versus vertically differentiated products. We show that the world trade in cultural goods is significantly characterised by two-way trade of vertically differentiated products. Moreover we specifically focus on the Italian peculiarities in the “cultural trade”: therefore we first work out which ones of the world countries are the “top exporters” of these categories of products and then we compute an indicator of the Italian goods’ quality relative to each of these competitors. Not surprisingly, we find that the most important bilateral IIT intensities in cultural products are observed in Europe. However the presence of developing countries is not unimportant. This can be explained partly to as a consequence of the increasing level of trade integration among some Asian countries and as a consequence of an increasing despecialization of firstly industrialized countries in the production and trading of these products. Finally, with reference to the relative quality of Italian cultural products compared with that of the other top-exporters in these sectors, we find that Italian

  8. Co-fermentation of cellobiose and xylose by mixed culture of recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae and kinetic modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yingying; Wu, Ying; Zhu, Baotong; Zhang, Guanyu; Wei, Na

    2018-01-01

    Efficient conversion of cellulosic sugars in cellulosic hydrolysates is important for economically viable production of biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass, but the goal remains a critical challenge. The present study reports a new approach for simultaneous fermentation of cellobiose and xylose by using the co-culture consisting of recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae specialist strains. The co-culture system can provide competitive advantage of modularity compared to the single culture system and can be tuned to deal with fluctuations in feedstock composition to achieve robust and cost-effective biofuel production. This study characterized fermentation kinetics of the recombinant cellobiose-consuming S. cerevisiae strain EJ2, xylose-consuming S. cerevisiae strain SR8, and their co-culture. The motivation for kinetic modeling was to provide guidance and prediction of using the co-culture system for simultaneous fermentation of mixed sugars with adjustable biomass of each specialist strain under different substrate concentrations. The kinetic model for the co-culture system was developed based on the pure culture models and incorporated the effects of product inhibition, initial substrate concentration and inoculum size. The model simulations were validated by results from independent fermentation experiments under different substrate conditions, and good agreement was found between model predictions and experimental data from batch fermentation of cellobiose, xylose and their mixtures. Additionally, with the guidance of model prediction, simultaneous co-fermentation of 60 g/L cellobiose and 20 g/L xylose was achieved with the initial cell densities of 0.45 g dry cell weight /L for EJ2 and 0.9 g dry cell weight /L SR8. The results demonstrated that the kinetic modeling could be used to guide the design and optimization of yeast co-culture conditions for achieving simultaneous fermentation of cellobiose and xylose with improved ethanol productivity, which is

  9. Triple co-culture cell model as an in vitro model for oral particulate vaccine systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Line Hagner; De Rossi, C.; Lehr, C-M.

    ; this was not observed with ovalbumin and blank solution. An example of the results is shown in Figure 2 for IL-17A. An established co-culture of Caco-2, THP-1 and MUTZ-3 cells showed promise as an in vitro model for testing of oral vaccine formulations. Mobility of co-culture immune cells as well as cytokine production......A triple co-culture cell model of Caco-2 cells, dendritic cells and macrophages (Figure 1) has previously been developed for studying intestinal permeability in a state of inflammation [1],[2]. The aim of this study was to investigate the applicability of this cell model for testing...... the model antigen ovalbumin was spray dried to obtain a particulate vaccine model system for testing in the cell model. The precursors were shown to form cubosomes when dispersed in aqueous medium, and was therefore used as the vaccine formulation for testing on the co-cultures. After 11 days, the TEER...

  10. The Impact of Traditional Culture on Farmers’ Moral Hazard Behavior in Crop Production: Evidence from China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liguo Zhang

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available To obtain higher yields, farmers may excessively use pesticides when they grow crops (like rice, vegetables, or fruit, causing moral hazard behavior. This paper examines how Chinese farmers’ moral hazard behavior in crop production is influenced by their traditional culture. A semi-parametric logistic model is used to investigate the impact of Chinese traditional culture on farmers’ moral hazard behavior. The results reveal that Chinese traditional culture has a positive effect on ameliorating the farmers’ excessive use of pesticides in crop production, which leads to a moral hazard in agro-product safety. Specifically, when we control for extraneous variables, the probability of moral hazard decreases by 15% if farmers consider their traditional culture in their production decisions. Moreover, the probability of moral hazard decreases by 17% if farmers consider the traditional culture as a powerful restraint regarding the use of pesticides. Our analysis provides some supportive evidence on the effect of Chinese traditional culture on mitigating farmers’ excessive use of pesticides.

  11. Medium optimization for protopectinase production by batch culture of

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Medium optimization for protopectinase production by batch culture of. C Fan, Z Liu, L Yao. Abstract. Optimization of medium compositions for protopectinase production by Aspergillus terreus in submerged culture was carried out. The medium components having significant effect on protopectinase production were reported ...

  12. A 100-Year Review: Yogurt and other cultured dairy products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aryana, Kayanush J; Olson, Douglas W

    2017-12-01

    The history of the last 100 years of the science and technology of yogurt, sour cream, cultured butter, cultured buttermilk, kefir, and acidophilus milk has been one of continuous development and improvement. Yogurt leads the cultured dairy product category in terms of volume of production in the United States and recent research activity. Legal definitions of yogurt, sour cream and acidified sour cream, and cultured milk, including cultured buttermilk, are presented in the United States Code of Federal Regulations and summarized here. A tremendous amount of research has been done on traditional and novel ingredients, starter cultures and probiotics, mix processing, packaging, chemical aspects, physical and sensory properties, microstructure, specialized products, composition, quality and safety of yogurt and various manufacturing methods, addition of flavorings, viscosity measurements, and probiotic use for sour cream. Over time, there have arisen alternative manufacturing methods, flavor problems, addition of flavorings, and use of probiotics for cultured buttermilk. Many health benefits are provided by yogurt and other cultured dairy products. One hundred years of testing and development have led to wider uses of cultured dairy products and new processing methods for enhanced shelf life and safety. Future research directions will likely include investigating the effects of probiotic dairy products on gut microbiota and overall health. Copyright © 2017 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Culturicon model: A new model for cultural-based emoticon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zukhi, Mohd Zhafri Bin Mohd; Hussain, Azham

    2017-10-01

    Emoticons are popular among distributed collective interaction user in expressing their emotion, gestures and actions. Emoticons have been proved to be able to avoid misunderstanding of the message, attention saving and improved the communications among different native speakers. However, beside the benefits that emoticons can provide, the study regarding emoticons in cultural perspective is still lacking. As emoticons are crucial in global communication, culture should be one of the extensively research aspect in distributed collective interaction. Therefore, this study attempt to explore and develop model for cultural-based emoticon. Three cultural models that have been used in Human-Computer Interaction were studied which are the Hall Culture Model, Trompenaars and Hampden Culture Model and Hofstede Culture Model. The dimensions from these three models will be used in developing the proposed cultural-based emoticon model.

  14. Integrated Safety Culture Model and Application

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    汪磊; 孙瑞山; 刘汉辉

    2009-01-01

    A new safety culture model is constructed and is applied to analyze the correlations between safety culture and SMS. On the basis of previous typical definitions, models and theories of safety culture, an in-depth analysis on safety culture's structure, composing elements and their correlations was conducted. A new definition of safety culture was proposed from the perspective of sub-cuhure. 7 types of safety sub-culture, which are safety priority culture, standardizing culture, flexible culture, learning culture, teamwork culture, reporting culture and justice culture were defined later. Then integrated safety culture model (ISCM) was put forward based on the definition. The model divided safety culture into intrinsic latency level and extrinsic indication level and explained the potential relationship between safety sub-culture and all safety culture dimensions. Finally in the analyzing of safety culture and SMS, it concluded that positive safety culture is the basis of im-plementing SMS effectively and an advanced SMS will improve safety culture from all around.

  15. Production of carbon 14-labeled fumonisin in liquid culture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blackwell, B.A.; Miller, J.D.; Savard, M.E.

    1994-01-01

    Currently, fumonisin B 1 is obtained primarily by using solid culture methods. Although fumonisin B 1 concentrations obtained in solid culture are typically quite high, subsequent extraction and purification present problems. In addition, current methods utilize complex media which makes analysis of biosynthetic pathways and control mechanisms difficult. Liquid culture methods of production could eliminate many problems associated with production in solid culture. However, in the past, concentrations obtained in liquid culture have been relatively low. In this work, factors affecting the production of fumonisin B 1 from a shake flask scale of 100 ml to a fermenter scale of 100 liters were examined. Best results were obtained by using a fed batch method that is nitrogen limited, with pH control. With this method, concentrations in excess of 1000 ppm can be obtained. (author)

  16. Triple co-culture cell model as an in vitro model for oral particulate vaccine systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Line Hagner; De Rossi, C.; Lehr, C.-M.

    the immunostimulatory ability of particulate vaccine formulations designed for oral delivery. Levels of cytokine production in response to vaccine administration were measured following particulate vaccine administration, as an indication of dendritic cell and macrophage activation. Precursors of cubosomes containing......; this was not observed with ovalbumin and blank solution. An example of the results is shown in Figure 2 for IL-17A. An established co-culture of Caco-2, THP-1 and MUTZ-3 cells showed promise as an in vitro model for testing of oral vaccine formulations. Mobility of co-culture immune cells as well as cytokine production...... with particle formulations. This was not the case when incubating with ovalbumin solution or blank. The ELISA screening assay showed production of a wide range of cytokines following culture incubation with cubosomes (with and without ovalbumin) and LPS solutions, indicative of a stimulatory effect...

  17. Production of carbon 14-labeled fumonisin in liquid culture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Blackwell, B. A.; Miller, J. D.; Savard, M. E.

    1994-03-15

    Currently, fumonisin B{sub 1} is obtained primarily by using solid culture methods. Although fumonisin B{sub 1} concentrations obtained in solid culture are typically quite high, subsequent extraction and purification present problems. In addition, current methods utilize complex media which makes analysis of biosynthetic pathways and control mechanisms difficult. Liquid culture methods of production could eliminate many problems associated with production in solid culture. However, in the past, concentrations obtained in liquid culture have been relatively low. In this work, factors affecting the production of fumonisin B{sub 1} from a shake flask scale of 100 ml to a fermenter scale of 100 liters were examined. Best results were obtained by using a fed batch method that is nitrogen limited, with pH control. With this method, concentrations in excess of 1000 ppm can be obtained. (author)

  18. Production and quality of kefir cultured butter

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yaşar Karaca

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Cream is the main raw material for the butter production and reflects its properties into butter quality. Maturation of cream with appropriate starter culture is important for butter quality, sensory properties and shelf life of the end product. Kefir grains contain important probiotics for healthy nutrition including lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, and yeasts in high numbers. The aim of this research was to determine the properties of butter produced using natural kefir culture during a 21-day cold storage. Determination of microbial, chemical and sensory properties of butter samples was carried out. Control sample (KOTE had 6.64 log CFU g-1 Lactococcus spp. while kefir cultured butter samples had 8.58 log CFU g-1. Kefir cultured butter contained 5.24 log CFU g-1 L. acidophilus at Day 1, while control samples did not have L. acidophilus. Acetaldehyde content of kefir cultured butter was significantly higher from the uncultured butter. According to sensory evaluation performed by 12 panelists, KKTE samples had better sensory properties than those observed in the KOTE samples.

  19. [Safety culture: definition, models and design].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pfaff, Holger; Hammer, Antje; Ernstmann, Nicole; Kowalski, Christoph; Ommen, Oliver

    2009-01-01

    Safety culture is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Safety culture of a healthcare organization is high if it has a common stock in knowledge, values and symbols in regard to patients' safety. The article intends to define safety culture in the first step and, in the second step, demonstrate the effects of safety culture. We present the model of safety behaviour and show how safety culture can affect behaviour and produce safe behaviour. In the third step we will look at the causes of safety culture and present the safety-culture-model. The main hypothesis of this model is that the safety culture of a healthcare organization strongly depends on its communication culture and its social capital. Finally, we will investigate how the safety culture of a healthcare organization can be improved. Based on the safety culture model six measures to improve safety culture will be presented.

  20. Culture, Product Advertising, and Advertising Agency Operations ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Culture, Product Advertising, and Advertising Agency Operations. ... As a means of telling the market about a new product, advertising persuades and reminds the audience of their continuous support of the ... AJOL African Journals Online.

  1. Yield improvement strategies for the production of secondary metabolites in plant tissue culture: silymarin from Silybum marianum tissue culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    AbouZid, S

    2014-01-01

    Plant cell culture can be a potential source for the production of important secondary metabolites. This technology bears many advantages over conventional agricultural methods. The main problem to arrive at a cost-effective process is the low productivity. This is mainly due to lack of differentiation in the cultured cells. Many approaches have been used to maximise the yield of secondary metabolites produced by cultured plant cells. Among these approaches: choosing a plant with a high biosynthetic capacity, obtaining efficient cell line for growth and production of metabolite of interest, manipulating culture conditions, elicitation, metabolic engineering and organ culture. This article gives an overview of the various approaches used to maximise the production of pharmaceutically important secondary metabolites in plant cell cultures. Examples of using these different approaches are shown for the production of silymarin from Silybum marianum tissue culture.

  2. The Use of Starter Cultures in Traditional Meat Products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta Laranjo

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Starter cultures could play an essential role in the manufacture of traditional cured meat products. In order to achieve objectives related to meat products’ quality and safety improvement, the selection of particular strains constituting a starter culture should be carried out in the context of its application, since its functionality will depend on the type of sausage and process conditions. Also, strain selection should comply with particular requirements to warrant safety. The aim of the current review is to update the knowledge on the use of starter cultures in traditional meat products, with focus on dry-fermented products. In this manuscript, we will try to give answers to some relevant questions: Which starter cultures are used and why? Why are LAB used? What are their role and their specific mode of action? Which other groups of microorganisms (bacteria and fungi are used as starter cultures and how do they act? A particular revision of omics approach regarding starter cultures is made since the use of these techniques allows rapid screening of promising wild strains with desirable functional characteristics, enabling the development of starter cultures better adapted to the meat matrix.

  3. Modeling of growth and laccase production by Pycnoporus sanguineus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saat, Muhammad Naziz; Annuar, Mohamad Suffian Mohamad; Alias, Zazali; Chuan, Ling Tau; Chisti, Yusuf

    2014-05-01

    Production of extracellular laccase by the white-rot fungus Pycnoporus sanguineus was examined in batch submerged cultures in shake flasks, baffled shake flasks and a stirred tank bioreactor. The biomass growth in the various culture systems closely followed a logistic growth model. The production of laccase followed a Luedeking-Piret model. A modified Luedeking-Piret model incorporating logistic growth effectively described the consumption of glucose. Biomass productivity, enzyme productivity and substrate consumption were enhanced in baffled shake flasks relative to the cases for the conventional shake flasks. This was associated with improved oxygen transfer in the presence of the baffles. The best results were obtained in the stirred tank bioreactor. At 28 °C, pH 4.5, an agitation speed of 600 rpm and a dissolved oxygen concentration of ~25 % of air saturation, the laccase productivity in the bioreactor exceeded 19 U L(-1 )days(-1), or 1.5-fold better than the best case for the baffled shake flask. The final concentration of the enzyme was about 325 U L(-1).

  4. Organizational culture modeling

    OpenAIRE

    Valentina Mihaela GHINEA; Constantin BRĂTIANU

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual analysis of organizational culture modeling in the framework of system dynamics. Tom Peters and Robert Waterman demonstrated through their seminal research that organizational culture constitutes one of the most important key success factors in any company trying to achieve excellence in its business. Organizational culture is a strong nonlinear integrator of the organizational intellectual capital acting especially on the emotional knowled...

  5. Establishment of a new model for culturing rabbit osteoblasts in vitro

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cao Xianying; Yin Meizhen; Zhang Lina; Li Shipu; Cao Yang

    2006-01-01

    To establish an experimental model for culturing rabbit osteoblasts in vitro, the osteoblasts were isolated from the calvarial bone of a 15-day old rabbit using a method of culturing the bone pieces in a medium after they had been digested by an enzyme for 15 min. The acquired cells were assayed by cell morphology, alkaline phosphatase activity and production of a mineralized matrix. The results showed that the cells had the morphologic characteristics and some biological behaviours of osteoblasts. Based on the primary isolation of osteoblasts from bone and combining digestion with explants, a novel model for culturing rabbit osteoblasts in vitro was established, which is easy, efficient and effective. This model can be used in many studies of osteogenesis mechanisms and bone replacement materials. (communication)

  6. Bacterial cellulose production by Gluconacetobacter xylinus by employing alternative culture media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jozala, Angela Faustino; Pértile, Renata Aparecida Nedel; dos Santos, Carolina Alves; de Carvalho Santos-Ebinuma, Valéria; Seckler, Marcelo Martins; Gama, Francisco Miguel; Pessoa, Adalberto

    2015-02-01

    Bacterial cellulose (BC) is used in different fields as a biological material due to its unique properties. Despite there being many BC applications, there still remain many problems associated with bioprocess technology, such as increasing productivity and decreasing production cost. New technologies that use waste from the food industry as raw materials for culture media promote economic advantages because they reduce environmental pollution and stimulate new research for science sustainability. For this reason, BC production requires optimized conditions to increase its application. The main objective of this study was to evaluate BC production by Gluconacetobacter xylinus using industry waste, namely, rotten fruits and milk whey, as culture media. Furthermore, the structure of BC produced at different conditions was also determined. The culture media employed in this study were composed of rotten fruit collected from the disposal of free markets, milk whey from a local industrial disposal, and their combination, and Hestrin and Schramm media was used as standard culture media. Although all culture media studied produced BC, the highest BC yield-60 mg/mL-was achieved with the rotten fruit culture. Thus, the results showed that rotten fruit can be used for BC production. This culture media can be considered as a profitable alternative to generate high-value products. In addition, it combines environmental concern with sustainable processes that can promote also the reduction of production cost.

  7. Recombinant Protein Production and Insect Cell Culture and Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spaulding, Glenn F. (Inventor); Goodwin, Thomas J. (Inventor); OConnor, Kim C. (Inventor); Francis, Karen M. (Inventor); Andrews, Angela D. (Inventor); Prewett, Tracey L. (Inventor)

    1997-01-01

    A process has been developed for recombinant production of selected polypeptides using transformed insect cells cultured in a horizontally rotating culture vessel modulated to create low shear conditions. A metabolically transformed insect cell line is produced using the culture procedure regardless of genetic transformation. The recombinant polypeptide can be produced by an alternative process using virtually infected or stably transformed insect cells containing a gene encoding the described polypeptide. The insect cells can also be a host for viral production.

  8. A carbon dioxide stripping model for mammalian cell culture in manufacturing scale bioreactors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xing, Zizhuo; Lewis, Amanda M; Borys, Michael C; Li, Zheng Jian

    2017-06-01

    Control of carbon dioxide within the optimum range is important in mammalian bioprocesses at the manufacturing scale in order to ensure robust cell growth, high protein yields, and consistent quality attributes. The majority of bioprocess development work is done in laboratory bioreactors, in which carbon dioxide levels are more easily controlled. Some challenges in carbon dioxide control can present themselves when cell culture processes are scaled up, because carbon dioxide accumulation is a common feature due to longer gas-residence time of mammalian cell culture in large scale bioreactors. A carbon dioxide stripping model can be used to better understand and optimize parameters that are critical to cell culture processes at the manufacturing scale. The prevailing carbon dioxide stripping models in literature depend on mass transfer coefficients and were applicable to cell culture processes with low cell density or at stationary/cell death phase. However, it was reported that gas bubbles are saturated with carbon dioxide before leaving the culture, which makes carbon dioxide stripping no longer depend on a mass transfer coefficient in the new generation cell culture processes characterized by longer exponential growth phase, higher peak viable cell densities, and higher specific production rate. Here, we present a new carbon dioxide stripping model for manufacturing scale bioreactors, which is independent of carbon dioxide mass transfer coefficient, but takes into account the gas-residence time and gas CO 2 saturation time. The model was verified by CHO cell culture processes with different peak viable cell densities (7 to 12 × 10 6  cells mL -1 ) for two products in 5,000-L and 25,000-L bioreactors. The model was also applied to a next generation cell culture process to optimize cell culture conditions and reduce carbon dioxide levels at manufacturing scale. The model provides a useful tool to understand and better control cell culture carbon dioxide

  9. Mixed Cultures Fermentation for the Production of Poly-ß-hydroxybutyrate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Shalin

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Poly-ß-hydroxybutyrate (PHB is a biodegradable intracellular microbial product produced by many bacteria and it is comparable to some of the petrochemical derived thermoplastics such as polypropylene. One of the main barriers for the commercial exploitation is the high cost of the substrate for the production of biopolymer. The utilization of mixed microbial cultures facilitates the use of complex substrates thereby reducing the cost of PHB production. In the present study, mixed culture systems were evaluated for PHB production. Bacillus firmus NII 0830 was used for the production of PHB since it accumulates a large amount of PHB and a second organism Lactobacillus delbrueckii NII 0925 was used to provide lactic acid. FTIR and 1H NMR analyses revealed that the PHB extracted from pure culture and mixed culture showed exact match to that of standard PHB. Biodegradation studies of the PHB blends showed 87% degradation. It was also found that a consortium of organisms degraded the films faster than a single organism.

  10. Enhanced kefiran production by mixed culture of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheirsilp, Benjamas; Shimizu, Hiroshi; Shioya, Suteaki

    2003-01-09

    In a batch mixed culture of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which could assimilate lactic acid, cell growth and kefiran production rates of L. kefiranofaciens significantly increased, compared with those in pure cultures. The kefiran production rate was 36 mg l(-1) h(-1) in the mixed culture under the anaerobic condition, which was greater than that in the pure culture (24 mg l(-1) h(-1)). Under the aerobic condition, a more intensive interaction between these two strains was observed and higher kefiran production rate (44 mg l(-1) h(-1)) was obtained compared with that under the anaerobic condition. Kefiran production was further enhanced by an addition of fresh medium in the fed-batch mixed culture. In the fed-batch mixed culture, a final kefiran concentration of 5.41 g l(-1) was achieved at 87 h, thereby attaining the highest productivity at 62 mg l(-1) h(-1). Simulation study considered the reduction of lactic acid in pure culture was performed to estimate the additional effect of coculture with S. cerevisiae. Slightly higher cell growth and kefiran production rates in the mixed culture than those expected from pure culture by simulation were observed. These results suggest that coculture of L. kefiranofaciens and S. cerevisiae not only reduces the lactic acid concentration by consumption but also stimulates cell growth and kefiran production of L. kefiranofaciens.

  11. Mixed Culture PHA Production With Alternating Feedstocks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Oliveira, C.S.S.; Duque, A.F.; Carvalho, Gilda

    Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics that can be obtained from industrial wastes/by-products using mixed microbial cultures (MMC). MMC PHA production is commonly carried out in a 3-stage process consisting of an acidogenic stage, a PHA producing cultu...

  12. New Product Development, R&D, and Culture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brem, Alexander; Kürzdörfer, Tamara

    2016-01-01

    Recent developments in the global economy indicate that new product development (NPD) activities are not limited to any single country; rather, they have spread across nations and cultures. This study aims to increase the understanding of NPD through an intercultural analysis by comparing...... innovation processes in Germany and China. Our study relates NPD and Hofstede's cultural dimensions by identifying culture-based patterns of similarities and differences between German and Chinese practices related to strategic, organisational, and operational factors. The research subjects are five...... international companies with research and development sites of the same business section in Germany and China. The findings reveal both culture-dependent and culture-independent factors. Most of the strategic and organisational factors in the two countries are relatively similar because of site...

  13. Optimization of culture media for lipid production by Nannochloropsis oculata for Biodiesel production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Malakootian

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Background: This study quantified the effect of four popular culture media in a biodiesel production study on the qualitative and quantitative lipid content, dry biomass, and lipid productivity of Nannochloropsis oculata. Methods: Culture of microalgae was done separately in Walne, F/2, Sato, and TMRL media. In the logarithmic and stationary growth phases, biomass production and lipid accumulation of microalgae were measured and the constituents were identified by gas chromatography. Results: N. oculata exhibited the highest rate of cell growth and biomass productivity of 0.2616 day-1 and 2.652 gl-1 in the Walne medium. The highest level of biomass conversion into lipids in TMRL medium revealed a cell dry weight of 37.22%. Walne medium proved to have the most efficient lipid productivity which was 0.1057 gl-1 day-1. The highest amount of triacylglycerol (TAG was obtained in Sato medium in the stationary growth phase and was 75.25% of the fatty acids. Conclusion: The present study provides a practical benchmark, which allows the introduction of Walne as a suitable culture medium for N. oculata in biodiesel studies.

  14. Progress toward forecasting product quality and quantity of mammalian cell culture processes by performance-based modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidberger, Timo; Posch, Christoph; Sasse, Alexandra; Gülch, Carina; Huber, Robert

    2015-01-01

    The production of biopharmaceuticals requires highly sophisticated, complex cell based processes. Once a process has been developed, acceptable ranges for various control parameters are typically defined based on process characterization studies often comprising several dozens of small scale bioreactor cultivations. A lot of data is generated during these studies and usually only the information needed to define acceptable ranges is processed in more detail. Making use of the wealth of information contained in such data sets, we present here a methodology that uses performance data (such as metabolite profiles) to forecast the product quality and quantity of mammalian cell culture processes based on a toolbox of advanced statistical methods. With this performance based modeling (PBM) the final product concentration and 12 quality attributes (QAs) for two different biopharmaceutical products were predicted in daily intervals throughout the main stage process. The best forecast was achieved for product concentration in a very early phase of the process. Furthermore, some glycan isoforms were predicted with good accuracy several days before the bioreactor was harvested. Overall, PBM clearly demonstrated its capability of early process endpoint prediction by only using commonly available data, even though it was not possible to predict all QAs with the desired accuracy. Knowing the product quality prior to the harvest allows the manufacturer to take counter measures in case the forecasted quality or quantity deviates from what is expected. This would be a big step towards real-time release, an important element of the FDA's PAT initiative. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

  15. A Configuration Model of Organizational Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Dauber

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The article proposes a configuration model of organizational culture, which explores dynamic relationships between organizational culture, strategy, structure, and operations of an organization (internal environment and maps interactions with the external environment (task and legitimization environment. A major feature of the configuration model constitutes its well-defined processes, which connect the elements of the model systematically to each other, such as single- and double-loop learning, operationalization of strategies, legitimization management, and so on. The model is grounded in a large review of literature in different research areas and builds on widely recognized models in the field of organization and culture theory. It constitutes a response to the call for new models, which are able to explain and facilitate the exploration of the empirical complexity that organizations face today. The configuration model of organizational culture is of particular interest to scholars who investigate into cultural phenomena and change over time.

  16. The influence of socio-cultural background and product value in usability testing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sonderegger, Andreas; Sauer, Juergen

    2013-05-01

    This article examines the influence of socio-cultural background and product value on different outcomes of usability tests. A study was conducted in two different socio-cultural regions, Switzerland and East Germany, which differed in a number of aspects (e.g. economic power, price sensitivity and culture). Product value (high vs. low) was varied by manipulating the price of the product. Sixty-four test participants were asked to carry out five typical user tasks in the context of coffee machine usage, measuring performance, perceived usability, and emotion. The results showed that in Switzerland, high-value products were rated higher in usability than low-value products whereas in East Germany, high-value products were evaluated lower in usability. A similar interaction effect of socio-cultural background and product value was observed for user emotion. Implications are that the outcomes of usability tests do not allow for a simple transfer across cultures and that the mediating influence of perceived product value needs to be taken into consideration. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

  17. Production of alpha-amylase in batch and chemostat culture by bacillus stearothermophilus

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Davis, P E; Cohen, D L; Whitaker, A

    1980-01-01

    The production of alpha-amylase by a strain of B.stearothermophilus isolated from leaf litter was investigated in a tryptone-maltose medium at 55 degrees in batch and chemostat culture. Amylase production was growth-limited and restricted to the exponential phase in batch culture. The enzyme yield was reduced by 40% when the culture pH was maintained at pH 7.2. Amylase production in chemostat culture was influenced by the growth rate throughout the dilution rate range used.

  18. A Dynamic Model of Cultural Reproduction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jæger, Mads Meier; Breen, Richard

    2016-01-01

    The authors draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural reproduction to develop a formal model of the pathways through which cultural capital acts to enhance children’s educational and socioeconomic success. The authors’ approach brings conceptual and empirical clarity to an important area...... of study. Their model describes how parents transmit cultural capital to their children and how children convert cultural capital into educational success. It also provides a behavioral framework for interpreting parental investments in cultural capital. The authors review results from existing empirical...... research on the role of cultural capital in education to demonstrate the usefulness of their model for interpretative purposes, and they use National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979—Children and Young Adults survey data to test some of its implications....

  19. Model-aided optimization of delta-endotoxin-formation in continuous culture systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schulz, V; Schorcht, R; Ignatenko, Yu N; Sakharova, Z V; Khovrychev, M P

    1985-01-01

    A mathematical model of growth, sporulation and delta-endotoxin-formation of bac. thuringiensis is given. The results of model-aided optimization of steady-state continuous culture systems indicate that the productivity in the one-stage system is 1.9% higher and in the two-stage system is 18.5% higher than in the batch process.

  20. A Proposed Model for Assessing Organisational Culture Towards Achieving Business Objectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hafez Salleh

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Most of the traditional business performances measures are based on productivity and process criteria, which mainly focus on method of investment appraisal such as payback method, return on investment (ROI, cost-benefits analysis (CBA, net present value (NPV, internal rate of return (IRR. However, the measurement scales of business performance are not limited to those measures. One element that has strong correlation to the business performances is ‘organisational culture’. Many studies proved that one of the significant criteria for achieving desired business objectives is the right organisational culture within workplace. Basically, the measurement of organisational culture is reflecting on two distinct elements: organisational culture and business objectives. In broader perspective, an organisation is considered effective if it meets its business objectives. This paper aims to present and discuss the preliminary culture model to indicate the culture performance within organisational. The model has been developed through literature review, expert opinion and experience which is anticipated of being able to potentially measure the culture capability of organisations across industries to “successfully achieve business objectives”. The model is composed of six progressive stages of maturity that an organisation can achieve its culture performance. For each maturity stage, the model describes a set of characteristics that must be in place for the company to achieve each stage. The validity of the proposed model will be tested by a few case studies. The idea is to provide managers with a qualitative measurement tools to enable them to identify where culture improvements are required within their organisations and to indicate their readiness for achieving business objectives.

  1. From Product Models to Product State Models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Michael Holm

    1999-01-01

    A well-known technology designed to handle product data is Product Models. Product Models are in their current form not able to handle all types of product state information. Hence, the concept of a Product State Model (PSM) is proposed. The PSM and in particular how to model a PSM is the Research...

  2. Interactions between Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in mixed culture for kefiran production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheirsilp, Benjamas; Shoji, Hirofumi; Shimizu, Hiroshi; Shioya, Suteaki

    2003-01-01

    Since a positive effect on the growth and kefiran production of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens was observed in a mixed culture with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the elucidation of the interactions between L. kefiranofaciens and S. cerevisiae may lead to higher productivity. Hence, the microbial interaction of each strain was investigated. Apart from the positive effect of a reduction in the amount of lactic acid by S. cerevisiae, a positive effect of S. cerevisiae on the growth and kefiran production of L. kefiranofaciens in a mixed culture was observed. Various experiments were carried out to study this effect. In this study, the observed increase in capsular kefiran in a mixed culture with inactivated S. cerevisiae correlated well to that in an anaerobic mixed culture. Differences in capsular kefiran production were observed for different initial S. cerevisiae concentrations under anaerobic conditions. From these fermentation results, it was concluded that the physical contact with S. cerevisiae mainly enhanced the capsular kefiran production of L. kefiranofaciens in a mixed culture. Therefore, in an anaerobic mixed culture, this direct contact resulted in higher capsular kefiran production than that in pure culture.

  3. EFFECTIVE FACTORS AND MODEL SYSTEMS IN THE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION OF NISIN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ömer ŞİMŞEK

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Nisin is the first bacteriocin identified in Lactococcus lactis and belongs to type 1 lanthibiotic group. High nisin production in cultured media is related with the composition of fermentation medium, pH, produced nisin concentration and most importantly growth amount of cell. For industrial purpose, batch, fed-batch and continue fermentation systems were developed by regarding these factors. Maintaining efficient production of nisin having important potential at preservation of foods is important for both industrial production and using as starter culture. In this review the fermentation factors at nisin production were outlined and constructed model systems were compared.

  4. Benchmarking of commercially available CHO cell culture media for antibody production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reinhart, David; Damjanovic, Lukas; Kaisermayer, Christian; Kunert, Renate

    2015-06-01

    In this study, eight commercially available, chemically defined Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell culture media from different vendors were evaluated in batch culture using an IgG-producing CHO DG44 cell line as a model. Medium adaptation revealed that the occurrence of even small aggregates might be a good indicator of cell growth performance in subsequent high cell density cultures. Batch experiments confirmed that the culture medium has a significant impact on bioprocess performance, but high amino acid concentrations alone were not sufficient to ensure superior cell growth and high antibody production. However, some key amino acids that were limiting in most media could be identified. Unbalanced glucose and amino acids led to high cell-specific lactate and ammonium production rates. In some media, persistently high glucose concentrations probably induced the suppression of respiration and oxidative phosphorylation, known as Crabtree effect, which resulted in high cell-specific glycolysis rates along with a continuous and high lactate production. In additional experiments, two of the eight basal media were supplemented with feeds from two different manufacturers in six combinations, in order to understand the combined impact of media and feeds on cell metabolism in a CHO fed-batch process. Cell growth, nutrient consumption and metabolite production rates, antibody production, and IgG quality were evaluated in detail. Concentrated feed supplements boosted cell concentrations almost threefold and antibody titers up to sevenfold. Depending on the fed-batch strategy, fourfold higher peak cell concentrations and eightfold increased IgG titers (up to 5.8 g/L) were achieved. The glycolytic flux was remarkably similar among the fed-batches; however, substantially different specific lactate production rates were observed in the different media and feed combinations. Further analysis revealed that in addition to the feed additives, the basal medium can make a considerable

  5. Ultrametric distribution of culture vectors in an extended Axelrod model of cultural dissemination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stivala, Alex; Robins, Garry; Kashima, Yoshihisa; Kirley, Michael

    2014-05-01

    The Axelrod model of cultural diffusion is an apparently simple model that is capable of complex behaviour. A recent work used a real-world dataset of opinions as initial conditions, demonstrating the effects of the ultrametric distribution of empirical opinion vectors in promoting cultural diversity in the model. Here we quantify the degree of ultrametricity of the initial culture vectors and investigate the effect of varying degrees of ultrametricity on the absorbing state of both a simple and extended model. Unlike the simple model, ultrametricity alone is not sufficient to sustain long-term diversity in the extended Axelrod model; rather, the initial conditions must also have sufficiently large variance in intervector distances. Further, we find that a scheme for evolving synthetic opinion vectors from cultural ``prototypes'' shows the same behaviour as real opinion data in maintaining cultural diversity in the extended model; whereas neutral evolution of cultural vectors does not.

  6. Organizational culture diagnosis - a new model

    OpenAIRE

    Ph. D. Ionuţ Constantin; Ph. D. Doru Curteanu

    2010-01-01

    Organizational culture is a key source of competitive advantage. There is a demonstrated relation between organizational culture and organizational performance. This paper reviews previous research in the field and introduce a new model for understanding , diagnosing and changing organizational culture. The main advantage of the new model is based on regarding culture as the management and work practices that are either hindering or helping an organization's bottom line performance.

  7. Culture-independent discovery of natural products from soil metagenomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katz, Micah; Hover, Bradley M; Brady, Sean F

    2016-03-01

    Bacterial natural products have proven to be invaluable starting points in the development of many currently used therapeutic agents. Unfortunately, traditional culture-based methods for natural product discovery have been deemphasized by pharmaceutical companies due in large part to high rediscovery rates. Culture-independent, or "metagenomic," methods, which rely on the heterologous expression of DNA extracted directly from environmental samples (eDNA), have the potential to provide access to metabolites encoded by a large fraction of the earth's microbial biosynthetic diversity. As soil is both ubiquitous and rich in bacterial diversity, it is an appealing starting point for culture-independent natural product discovery efforts. This review provides an overview of the history of soil metagenome-driven natural product discovery studies and elaborates on the recent development of new tools for sequence-based, high-throughput profiling of environmental samples used in discovering novel natural product biosynthetic gene clusters. We conclude with several examples of these new tools being employed to facilitate the recovery of novel secondary metabolite encoding gene clusters from soil metagenomes and the subsequent heterologous expression of these clusters to produce bioactive small molecules.

  8. Improved Cell Culture Method for Growing Contracting Skeletal Muscle Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marquette, Michele L.; Sognier, Marguerite A.

    2013-01-01

    An improved method for culturing immature muscle cells (myoblasts) into a mature skeletal muscle overcomes some of the notable limitations of prior culture methods. The development of the method is a major advance in tissue engineering in that, for the first time, a cell-based model spontaneously fuses and differentiates into masses of highly aligned, contracting myotubes. This method enables (1) the construction of improved two-dimensional (monolayer) skeletal muscle test beds; (2) development of contracting three-dimensional tissue models; and (3) improved transplantable tissues for biomedical and regenerative medicine applications. With adaptation, this method also offers potential application for production of other tissue types (i.e., bone and cardiac) from corresponding precursor cells.

  9. Cultural Resource Predictive Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-10-01

    CR cultural resource CRM cultural resource management CRPM Cultural Resource Predictive Modeling DoD Department of Defense ESTCP Environmental...resource management ( CRM ) legal obligations under NEPA and the NHPA, military installations need to demonstrate that CRM decisions are based on objective...maxim “one size does not fit all,” and demonstrate that DoD installations have many different CRM needs that can and should be met through a variety

  10. Socio-cultural sustainability of pig production: Citizen perceptions in the Netherlands and Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Boogaard, B.K.; boekhorst, L.J.S.; Oosting, S.J.

    2011-01-01

    positive and six negative aspects on the farms for which they had to write a motivation. The qualitative analysis resulted in seven socio-cultural themes (SCT) of pig production namely: 1) meat production, 2) farm activities, 3) farm income, 4) animals, 5) housing system, 6) environment and nature, and 7......Many sustainability studies of animal production consider three pillars: the economic, environmental and socio-cultural. Farmers and animal scientists tend to put most emphasis on the economic and environmental pillar and largely ignore the socio-cultural pillar. Socio-cultural sustainability...... to gain further insights into socio-cultural sustainability of pig production. Many citizens may not know what contemporary pig production actually entails. To give people a real life experience with pig production, we conducted farm visits with citizen panels with 18 respondents in the Netherlands and 8...

  11. Organizational culture diagnosis - a new model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ph. D. Ionuţ Constantin

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Organizational culture is a key source of competitive advantage. There is a demonstrated relation between organizational culture and organizational performance. This paper reviews previous research in the field and introduce a new model for understanding, diagnosing and changing organizational culture. The main advantage of the new model is based on regarding culture as the management and work practices that are either hindering or helping an organization's bottom line performance.

  12. Modeling culture in intelligent virtual agents

    OpenAIRE

    Mascarenhas, S.; Degens, N.; Paiva, A.; Prada, R.; Hofstede, G.J.; Beulens, A.J.M.; Aylett, R.

    2016-01-01

    This work addresses the challenge of creating virtual agents that are able to portray culturally appropriate behavior when interacting with other agents or humans. Because culture influences how people perceive their social reality it is important to have agent models that explicitly consider social elements, such as existing relational factors. We addressed this necessity by integrating culture into a novel model for simulating human social behavior. With this model, we operationalized a par...

  13. Meat products and consumption culture in the East.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nam, Ki-Chang; Jo, Cheorun; Lee, Mooha

    2010-09-01

    Food consumption is a basic activity necessary for survival of the human race and evolved as an integral part of mankind's existence. This not only includes food consumption habits and styles but also food preparation methods, tool development for raw materials, harvesting and preservation as well as preparation of food dishes which are influenced by geographical localization, climatic conditions and abundance of the fauna and flora. Food preparation, trade and consumption have become leading factors shaping human behavior and developing a way of doing things that created tradition which has been passed from generation to generation making it unique for almost every human niche in the surface of the globe. Therefore, the success in understanding the culture of other countries or ethnic groups lies in understanding their rituals in food consumption customs. Meat consumption culture in the East has not been well developed by its characteristic environment, religion, history, and main food staples. However, recently, the amount of meat production and consumption of the Eastern countries has grown rapidly by the globalization of food industry and rapid economic growth of the countries. This manuscript introduces meat-based products and consumption culture in Asian countries. However, because the environments and cultures within Asia are too diverse to cover all food cultures, this manuscript focused mainly on three northeast Asian countries including China, Japan, and Korea (Republic of) and some southeast Asian countries including Vietnam and Thailand, which have similar environments and cultural interactions historically but retain their own characteristic food culture.

  14. Quantitative intracellular flux modeling and applications in biotherapeutic development and production using CHO cell cultures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Zhuangrong; Lee, Dong-Yup; Yoon, Seongkyu

    2017-12-01

    Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells have been widely used for producing many recombinant therapeutic proteins. Constraint-based modeling, such as flux balance analysis (FBA) and metabolic flux analysis (MFA), has been developing rapidly for the quantification of intracellular metabolic flux distribution at a systematic level. Such methods would produce detailed maps of flows through metabolic networks, which contribute significantly to better understanding of metabolism in cells. Although these approaches have been extensively established in microbial systems, their application to mammalian cells is sparse. This review brings together the recent development of constraint-based models and their applications in CHO cells. The further development of constraint-based modeling approaches driven by multi-omics datasets is discussed, and a framework of potential modeling application in cell culture engineering is proposed. Improved cell culture system understanding will enable robust developments in cell line and bioprocess engineering thus accelerating consistent process quality control in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  15. Modeling of Fusarium redolens Dzf2 mycelial growth kinetics and optimal fed-batch fermentation for beauvericin production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Li-Jian; Liu, Yuan-Shuai; Zhou, Li-Gang; Wu, Jian-Yong

    2011-09-01

    Beauvericin (BEA) is a cyclic hexadepsipeptide mycotoxin with notable phytotoxic and insecticidal activities. Fusarium redolens Dzf2 is a highly BEA-producing fungus isolated from a medicinal plant. The aim of the current study was to develop a simple and valid kinetic model for F. redolens Dzf2 mycelial growth and the optimal fed-batch operation for efficient BEA production. A modified Monod model with substrate (glucose) and product (BEA) inhibition was constructed based on the culture characteristics of F. redolens Dzf2 mycelia in a liquid medium. Model parameters were derived by simulation of the experimental data from batch culture. The model fitted closely with the experimental data over 20-50 g l(-1) glucose concentration range in batch fermentation. The kinetic model together with the stoichiometric relationships for biomass, substrate and product was applied to predict the optimal feeding scheme for fed-batch fermentation, leading to 54% higher BEA yield (299 mg l(-1)) than in the batch culture (194 mg l(-1)). The modified Monod model incorporating substrate and product inhibition was proven adequate for describing the growth kinetics of F. redolens Dzf2 mycelial culture at suitable but not excessive initial glucose levels in batch and fed-batch cultures.

  16. Improving lactate metabolism in an intensified CHO culture process: productivity and product quality considerations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Sen; Hoshan, Linda; Chen, Hao

    2016-11-01

    In this study, we discussed the development and optimization of an intensified CHO culture process, highlighting medium and control strategies to improve lactate metabolism. A few strategies, including supplementing glucose with other sugars (fructose, maltose, and galactose), controlling glucose level at Productivity and product quality attributes differences between batch, fed-batch, and concentrated fed-batch cultures were discussed. The importance of process and cell metabolism understanding when adapting the existing process to a new operational mode was demonstrated in the study.

  17. A Cross-Cultural Multi-agent Model of Opportunism in Trade

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofstede, Gert Jan; Jonker, Catholijn M.; Verwaart, Tim

    According to transaction cost economics, contracts are always incomplete and offer opportunities to defect. Some level of trust is a sine qua non for trade. If the seller is better informed about product quality than the buyer, the buyer has to rely on information the seller provides or has to check the information by testing the product or tracing the supply chain processes, thus incurring extra transaction cost. An opportunistic seller who assumes the buyer to trust, may deliver a lower quality product than agreed upon. In human decisions to deceive and to show trust or distrust, issues like mutual expectations, shame, self-esteem, personality, and reputation are involved. These factors depend in part on traders' cultural background. This paper proposes an agent model of deceit and trust and describes a multi-agent simulation where trading agents are differentiated according to Hofstede's dimensions of national culture. Simulations of USA and Dutch trading situations are compared.

  18. Biotechnological production of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals in plant cell and organ cultures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hidalgo, Diego; Sanchez, Raul; Lalaleo, Liliana; Bonfill, Mercedes; Corchete, Purificacion; Palazon, Javier

    2018-03-09

    Plant biofactories are biotechnological platforms based on plant cell and organ cultures used for the production of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, although to date only a few of these systems have successfully been implemented at an industrial level. Metabolic engineering is possibly the most straightforward strategy to boost pharmaceutical production in plant biofactories, but social opposition to the use of GMOs means empirical approaches are still being used. Plant secondary metabolism involves thousands of different enzymes, some of which catalyze specific reactions, giving one product from a particular substrate, whereas others can yield multiple products from the same substrate. This trait opens plant cell biofactories to new applications, in which the natural metabolic machinery of plants can be harnessed for the bioconversion of phytochemicals or even the production of new bioactive compounds. Synthetic biological pipelines involving the bioconversion of natural substrates into products with a high market value may be established by the heterologous expression of target metabolic genes in model plants. To summarize the state of the art of plant biofactories and their applications for the pipeline production of cosme-, pharma- and biopharmaceuticals. In order to demonstrate the great potential of plant biofactories for multiple applications in the biotechnological production of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, this review broadly covers the following: plant biofactories based on cell and hairy root cultures; secondary metabolite production; biotransformation reactions; metabolic engineering tools applied in plant biofactories; and biopharmaceutical production. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

  19. Effects of culture conditions on acetic acid production by bacteria ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    SARAH

    2015-11-30

    Nov 30, 2015 ... acid under certain culture conditions similar to cocoa fermentation stress. However ... Keywords: Acetic acid bacteria, acetic acid production, Cocoa fermentation, culture conditions ..... American Society Microbiology Press, pp.

  20. Cultural Aspects when Implementing Lean Production and Lean Product Development – Experiences from a Swedish Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Promporn Wangwacharakul

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Lean principles and methods, originating in a Japanese cultural context, have spread to a large number of companies throughout the world. The aim of this case study research is to identify and compare national cultural aspects that influence Lean Production and Lean Product Development implementation in Swedish companies. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and an industrial workshop with Swedish Lean practitioners. The study shows that some sub-areas in Lean, such as value definition, control systems, leadership, team development, knowledge management, and strategies, are highly dependent on contextual factors related to human, cultural and organizational aspects. These are related to the national culture and should be considered to a higher extent for successful sustainable implementation of Lean in different cultural contexts. As for implementing Lean in Sweden, national cultural characteristics, such as individualism, autonomy and supportive management style fit well with Lean thinking.

  1. National Culture, Creativity, and Productivity: What's the Relationship with Student Achievement?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Zheng; Xu, Xianxuan; Grant, Leslie W.; Stronge, James H.; Ward, Thomas J.

    2016-01-01

    Using Hofstede's culture dimensions and World Values Survey (WVS) dimensions, the study uses a series of multiple regressions to explore the relationship among national culture, creativity as measured by patents, economic productivity as measured by gross domestic product per capita, and student achievement as measured by Trends in International…

  2. Lactic acid production from submerged fermentation of broken rice using undefined mixed culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nunes, Luiza Varela; de Barros Correa, Fabiane Fernanda; de Oliva Neto, Pedro; Mayer, Cassia Roberta Malacrida; Escaramboni, Bruna; Campioni, Tania Sila; de Barros, Natan Roberto; Herculano, Rondinelli Donizetti; Fernández Núñez, Eutimio Gustavo

    2017-04-01

    The present work aimed to characterize and optimize the submerged fermentation of broken rice for lactic acid (LA) production using undefined mixed culture from dewatered activated sludge. A microorganism with amylolytic activity, which also produces LA, Lactobacillus amylovorus, was used as a control to assess the extent of mixed culture on LA yield. Three level full factorial designs were performed to optimize and define the influence of fermentation temperature (20-50 °C), gelatinization time (30-60 min) and broken rice concentration in culture medium (40-80 g L -1 ) on LA production in pure and undefined mixed culture. LA production in mixed culture (9.76 g L -1 ) increased in sixfold respect to pure culture in optimal assessed experimental conditions. The optimal conditions for maximizing LA yield in mixed culture bioprocess were 31 °C temperature, 45 min gelatinization time and 79 g L -1 broken rice concentration in culture medium. This study demonstrated the positive effect of undefined mixed culture from dewatered activated sludge to produce LA from culture medium formulated with broken rice. In addition, this work establishes the basis for an efficient and low-cost bioprocess to manufacture LA from this booming agro-industrial by-product.

  3. Modeling of nitrous oxide production by autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria with multiple production pathways.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ni, Bing-Jie; Peng, Lai; Law, Yingyu; Guo, Jianhua; Yuan, Zhiguo

    2014-04-01

    Autotrophic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) have been recognized as a major contributor to N2O production in wastewater treatment systems. However, so far N2O models have been proposed based on a single N2O production pathway by AOB, and there is still a lack of effective approach for the integration of these models. In this work, an integrated mathematical model that considers multiple production pathways is developed to describe N2O production by AOB. The pathways considered include the nitrifier denitrification pathway (N2O as the final product of AOB denitrification with NO2(-) as the terminal electron acceptor) and the hydroxylamine (NH2OH) pathway (N2O as a byproduct of incomplete oxidation of NH2OH to NO2(-)). In this model, the oxidation and reduction processes are modeled separately, with intracellular electron carriers introduced to link the two types of processes. The model is calibrated and validated using experimental data obtained with two independent nitrifying cultures. The model satisfactorily describes the N2O data from both systems. The model also predicts shifts of the dominating pathway at various dissolved oxygen (DO) and nitrite levels, consistent with previous hypotheses. This unified model is expected to enhance our ability to predict N2O production by AOB in wastewater treatment systems under varying operational conditions.

  4. Fed-batch CHO cell culture for lab-scale antibody production

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fan, Yuzhou; Ley, Daniel; Andersen, Mikael Rørdam

    2017-01-01

    Fed-batch culture is the most commonly used upstream process in industry today for recombinant monoclonal antibody production using Chinese hamster ovary cells. Developing and optimizing this process in the lab is crucial for establishing process knowledge, which enable rapid and predictable tech......-transfer to manufacturing scale. In this chapter, we will describe stepwise how to carry out fed-batch CHO cell culture for lab-scale antibody production....

  5. Co-culture of chondrons and mesenchymal stromal cells reduces the loss of collagen VI and improves extracellular matrix production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Owida, H A; De Las Heras Ruiz, T; Dhillon, A; Yang, Y; Kuiper, N J

    2017-12-01

    Adult articular chondrocytes are surrounded by a pericellular matrix (PCM) to form a chondron. The PCM is rich in hyaluronan, proteoglycans, and collagen II, and it is the exclusive location of collagen VI in articular cartilage. Collagen VI anchors the chondrocyte to the PCM. It has been suggested that co-culture of chondrons with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) might enhance extracellular matrix (ECM) production. This co-culture study investigates whether MSCs help to preserve the PCM and increase ECM production. Primary bovine chondrons or chondrocytes or rat MSCs were cultured alone to establish a baseline level for ECM production. A xenogeneic co-culture monolayer model using rat MSCs (20, 50, and 80%) was established. PCM maintenance and ECM production were assessed by biochemical assays, immunofluorescence, and histological staining. Co-culture of MSCs with chondrons enhanced ECM matrix production, as compared to chondrocyte or chondron only cultures. The ratio 50:50 co-culture of MSCs and chondrons resulted in the highest increase in GAG production (18.5 ± 0.54 pg/cell at day 1 and 11 ± 0.38 pg/cell at day 7 in 50:50 co-culture versus 16.8 ± 0.61 pg/cell at day 1 and 10 ± 0.45 pg/cell at day 7 in chondron monoculture). The co-culture of MSCs with chondrons appeared to decelerate the loss of the PCM as determined by collagen VI expression, whilst the expression of high-temperature requirement serine protease A1 (HtrA1) demonstrated an inverse relationship to that of the collagen VI. Together, this implies that MSCs directly or indirectly inhibited HtrA1 activity and the co-culture of MSCs with chondrons enhanced ECM synthesis and the preservation of the PCM.

  6. Norepinephrine stimulates progesterone production in highly estrogenic bovine granulosa cells cultured under serum-free, chemically defined conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piccinato, Carla A; Montrezor, Luis H; Collares, Cristhianna A V; Vireque, Alessandra A; Rosa e Silva, Alzira A M

    2012-11-22

    Since noradrenergic innervation was described in the ovarian follicle, the actions of the intraovarian catecholaminergic system have been the focus of a variety of studies. We aimed to determine the gonadotropin-independent effects of the catecholamine norepinephrine (NE) in the steroid hormone profile of a serum-free granulosa cell (GC) culture system in the context of follicular development and dominance. Primary bovine GCs were cultivated in a serum-free, chemically defined culture system supplemented with 0.1% polyvinyl alcohol. The culture features were assessed by hormone measurements and ultrastructural characteristics of GCs. GCs produced increasing amounts of estradiol and pregnenolone for 144h and maintained ultrastructural features of healthy steroidogenic cells. Progesterone production was also detected, although it significantly increased only after 96h of culture. There was a highly significant positive correlation between estradiol and pregnenolone production in high E2-producing cultures. The effects of NE were further evaluated in a dose-response study. The highest tested concentration of NE (10 (-7) M) resulted in a significant increase in progesterone production, but not in estradiol or pregnenolone production. The specificity of NE effects on progesterone production was further investigated by incubating GCs with propranolol (10 (-8) M), a non-selective beta-adrenergic antagonist. The present culture system represents a robust model to study the impact of intrafollicular factors, such as catecholamines, in ovarian steroidogenesis and follicular development. The results of noradrenergic effects in the steroidogenesis of GC have implications on physiological follicular fate and on certain pathological ovarian conditions such as cyst formation and anovulation.

  7. Antimicrobial susceptibility of starter culture bacteria used in Norwegian dairy products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katla, A K; Kruse, H; Johnsen, G; Herikstad, H

    2001-07-20

    Commercial starter culture bacteria are widely used in the production of dairy products and could represent a potential source for spread of genes encoding resistance to antimicrobial agents. To learn more about the antimicrobial susceptibility of starter culture bacteria used in Norwegian dairy products, a total of 189 isolates of lactic acid bacteria were examined for susceptibility to ampicillin, penicillin G, cephalothin, vancomycin, bacitracin, gentamicin, streptomycin, erythromycin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, quinupristin/dalfopristin, ciprofloxacin, trimethoprim and sulphadiazine using Etest for MIC determination. Most of the isolates (140) originated from 39 dairy products (yoghurt, sour cream, fermented milk and cheese), while 49 were isolated directly from nine commercial cultures. The bacteria belonged to the genera Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Leuconostoc and Streptococcus. Only one of the 189 isolates was classified as resistant to an antimicrobial agent included in the study. This isolate, a lactobacillus, was classified as high level resistant to streptomycin. The remaining isolates were not classified as resistant to the antimicrobial agents included other than to those they are known to have a natural reduced susceptibility to. Thus, starter culture bacteria in Norwegian dairy products do not seem to represent a source for spread of genes encoding resistance to antimicrobial agents.

  8. Evaluation of conidia production and mycelial growth in solid culture ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    FATIMAYALBERTO

    2012-10-02

    Oct 2, 2012 ... liquid culture media of different species of ..... Jackson MA, McGuire MR, Lacey LA, Wraight SP (1997). Liquid culture ... fermentation and the substrate in the production of Trichoderma ... Conidiation induction in Penicillium.

  9. Selection of dairy culture and changes of Podravec cheese acidity during production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Slavko Kirin

    2002-06-01

    Full Text Available The selection and characteristics of dairy culture play a basic role in all types of cheese production process. The most important characteristic is acidification ability i.e. lactic acid formation, which regulates manufacturing and maturing conditions of cheese, thus affecting its organoleptic characteristics as well. In this work the results on control of acidity increase in Podravec cheeseproduction are presented. In the production process, a technical culture as well as identical frozen and concentrated culture, with and without auxiliary Streptococcus thermophilus for direct milk inoculation, were used. It was established that the acidity, expressed as pH value, is more intensively developed in cheeses produced with culture for direct inoculation. This was especially evident in the first phases of production i.e. before cheese salting. During salting the acidity of cheeses, in both cases, was almoust identical. Cheeses produced with identical frozen culture and auxiliary Streptococcus thermophilus culture had more pronounced acidity before salting and lower after salting in comparison with cheeses with the mentioned two cultures. Organoleptic and other characteristics of mature cheeses were identical.

  10. Adolescents Family Models : A Cross-Cultural Study

    OpenAIRE

    Mayer, Boris

    2009-01-01

    This study explores and compares the family models of adolescents across ten cultures using a typological and multilevel approach. Thereby, it aims to empirically contribute to Kagitcibasi s (2007) theory of family change. This theory postulates the existence of three ideal-typical family models across cultures: a family model of independence prevailing in Western societies, a family model of (total) interdependence prevailing in non-industrialized agrarian cultures, and as a synthesis of the...

  11. A Conceptual Culture Model for Design Science Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Richter

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of design science research (DSR in information systems is the user-centred creation of IT-artifacts with regard to specific social environments. For culture research in the field, which is necessary for a proper localization of IT-artifacts, models and research approaches from social sciences usually are adopted. Descriptive dimension-based culture models most commonly are applied for this purpose, which assume culture being a national phenomenon and tend to reduce it to basic values. Such models are useful for investigations in behavioural culture research because it aims to isolate, describe and explain culture-specific attitudes and characteristics within a selected society. In contrast, with the necessity to deduce concrete decisions for artifact-design, research results from DSR need to go beyond this aim. As hypothesis, this contribution generally questions the applicability of such generic culture dimensions’ models for DSR and focuses on their theoretical foundation, which goes back to Hofstede’s conceptual Onion Model of Culture. The herein applied literature-based analysis confirms the hypothesis. Consequently, an alternative conceptual culture model is being introduced and discussed as theoretical foundation for culture research in DSR.

  12. Political Culture and Covalent Bonding. A Conceptual Model of Political Culture Change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Camelia Florela Voinea

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Our class of models aims at explaining the dynamics of political attitude change by means of the dynamic changes in values, beliefs, norms and knowledge with which it is associated. The model constructs a political culture perspective over the relationship between macro and micro levels of a society and polity. The model defines the bonding mechanism as a basic mechanism of the political culture change by taking inspiration from the valence bonding theory in Chemistry, which has inspired the elaboration of the mechanisms and processes underlying the political culture emergence and the political culture control over the relationship between macro-level political entities and the micro-level individual agents. The model introduces operational definitions of the individual agent in political culture terms. The simulation model is used for the study of emergent political culture change phenomena based on individual interactions (emergent or upward causation as well as the ways in which the macro entities and emergent phenomena influence in turn the behaviors of individual agents (downward causation. The model is used in the ongoing research concerning the quality of democracy and political participation of the citizens in the Eastern European societies after the Fall of Berlin Wall. It is particularly aimed at explaining the long-term effect of the communist legacy and of the communist polity concept and organization onto the political mentalities and behaviors of the citizens with respect to democratic institutions and political power. The model has major implications in political socialization, political involvement, political behavior, corruption and polity modeling.

  13. Safety Cultural Competency Modeling in Nuclear Organizations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Sa Kil; Oh, Yeon Ju; Luo, Meiling; Lee, Yong Hee [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-05-15

    The nuclear safety cultural competency model should be supplemented through a bottom-up approach such as behavioral event interview. The developed model, however, is meaningful for determining what should be dealt for enhancing safety cultural competency of nuclear organizations. The more details of the developing process, results, and applications will be introduced later. Organizational culture include safety culture in terms of its organizational characteristics.

  14. Production of immunoglobulins in gingival tissue explant cultures from juvenile periodontitis patients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hall, E.R.; Falkler, W.A. Jr.; Suzuki, J.B.

    1990-01-01

    B lymphocytes and plasma cells are histologically observed in granulomatous periodontal tissues of juvenile periodontitis (JP) patients. Local immune processes may participate in protective or immunopathologic roles in the pathogenesis of this disease. An in vitro explant culture system was utilized to demonstrate the production of immunoglobulins by diseased JP tissues. Immunodiffusion studies using goat anti-human gamma, alpha, or mu chain serum revealed IgG to be the major immunoglobulin present in 92% of the day 1 supernatant fluids (SF) of the 47 JP gingival tissue explant cultures. IgA was present in 15% of the SF; however, no IgM was detected. Staph Protein A isolated 14C-labeled IgG from the SF, when allowed to react with goat anti-human gamma chain serum, formed lines of precipitation. Positive autoradiographs confirmed the biosynthesis of IgG by the explant cultures. The in vitro gingival tissue explant culture system described provides a useful model for the study of localized immunoglobulins produced by diseased tissues of JP patients

  15. Production of immunoglobulins in gingival tissue explant cultures from juvenile periodontitis patients

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hall, E.R.; Falkler, W.A. Jr.; Suzuki, J.B. (Univ. of Maryland Dental School, Baltimore (USA))

    1990-10-01

    B lymphocytes and plasma cells are histologically observed in granulomatous periodontal tissues of juvenile periodontitis (JP) patients. Local immune processes may participate in protective or immunopathologic roles in the pathogenesis of this disease. An in vitro explant culture system was utilized to demonstrate the production of immunoglobulins by diseased JP tissues. Immunodiffusion studies using goat anti-human gamma, alpha, or mu chain serum revealed IgG to be the major immunoglobulin present in 92% of the day 1 supernatant fluids (SF) of the 47 JP gingival tissue explant cultures. IgA was present in 15% of the SF; however, no IgM was detected. Staph Protein A isolated 14C-labeled IgG from the SF, when allowed to react with goat anti-human gamma chain serum, formed lines of precipitation. Positive autoradiographs confirmed the biosynthesis of IgG by the explant cultures. The in vitro gingival tissue explant culture system described provides a useful model for the study of localized immunoglobulins produced by diseased tissues of JP patients.

  16. Urban and Rural High School Students' Perspectives of Productive Peer Culture for Mathematics Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grant, Melva R.

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine students' perspectives about productive peer culture (PPC) in general and for mathematics learning. The urban and rural high school students in this study have participated for at least one year in either an Algebra Project Cohort Model (APCM) for daily mathematics instruction and/or worked as mathematics…

  17. Examining the sources of variability in cell culture media used for biopharmaceutical production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGillicuddy, Nicola; Floris, Patrick; Albrecht, Simone; Bones, Jonathan

    2018-01-01

    Raw materials, in particular cell culture media, represent a significant source of variability to biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes that can detrimentally affect cellular growth, viability and specific productivity or alter the quality profile of the expressed therapeutic protein. The continual expansion of the biopharmaceutical industry is creating an increasing demand on the production and supply chain consistency for cell culture media, especially as companies embrace intensive continuous processing. Here, we provide a historical perspective regarding the transition from serum containing to serum-free media, the development of chemically-defined cell culture media for biopharmaceutical production using industrial scale bioprocesses and review production mechanisms for liquid and powder culture media. An overview and critique of analytical approaches used for the characterisation of cell culture media and the identification of root causes of variability are also provided, including in-depth liquid phase separations, mass spectrometry and spectroscopic methods.

  18. Modeling human disease using organotypic cultures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schweiger, Pawel J; Jensen, Kim B

    2016-01-01

    animal models and in vitro cell culture systems. However, it has been exceedingly difficult to model disease at the tissue level. Since recently, the gap between cell line studies and in vivo modeling has been narrowing thanks to progress in biomaterials and stem cell research. Development of reliable 3D...... culture systems has enabled a rapid expansion of sophisticated in vitro models. Here we focus on some of the latest advances and future perspectives in 3D organoids for human disease modeling....

  19. Language, culture and approaches to studying: towards a more comprehensive 3P Model; a cross-cultural study of the 3P Model in university students

    OpenAIRE

    Thong, Matthew Keen Shui

    2017-01-01

    Background: Language and culture are constructs that are difficult to quantify and measure; moreover, their effects on the process of learning and academic achievement can be difficult to determine. This thesis examined their effects using the theoretical framework of the Presage-Process-Product (3P) Model. The 3P Model allows the effects of various ‘presage’ factors on the ‘product’ of academic achievement to be mediated by the ‘process’ of approaches to learning. Aims: This thesis aime...

  20. Production of nattokinase by batch and fed-batch culture of Bacillus subtilis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, Young-Han; Song, Jae Yong; Kim, Kyung Mi; Kim, Mi Kyoung; Lee, In Young; Kim, Sang Bum; Kim, Hyeon Shup; Han, Nam Soo; Lee, Bong Hee; Kim, Beom Soo

    2010-09-30

    Nattokinase was produced by batch and fed-batch culture of Bacillus subtilis in flask and fermentor. Effect of supplementing complex media (peptone, yeast extract, or tryptone) was investigated on the production of nattokinase. In flask culture, the highest cell growth and nattokinase activity were obtained with 50 g/L of peptone supplementation. In this condition, nattokinase activity was 630 unit/ml at 12 h. In batch culture of B. subtilis in fermentor, the highest nattokinase activity of 3400 unit/ml was obtained at 10h with 50 g/L of peptone supplementation. From the batch kinetics data, it was shown that nattokinase production was growth-associated and culture should be harvested before stationary phase for maximum nattokinase production. In fed-batch culture of B. subtilis using pH-stat feeding strategy, cell growth (optical density monitored at 600 nm) increased to ca. 100 at 22 h, which was 2.5 times higher than that in batch culture. The highest nattokinase activity was 7100 unit/ml at 19 h, which was also 2.1 times higher than that in batch culture. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Effects of Selected Physicochemical Parameters on Zerumbone Production of Zingiber zerumbet Smith Cell Suspension Culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jalil, Mahanom; Annuar, Mohamad Suffian Mohamad; Tan, Boon Chin; Khalid, Norzulaani

    2015-01-01

    Zingiber zerumbet Smith is an important herb that contains bioactive phytomedicinal compound, zerumbone. To enhance cell growth and production of this useful compound, we investigated the growth conditions of cell suspension culture. Embryogenic callus generated from shoot bud was used to initiate cell suspension culture. The highest specific growth rate of cells was recorded when it was cultured in liquid Murashige and Skoog basal medium containing 3% sucrose with pH 5.7 and incubated under continuous shaking condition of 70 rpm for 16 h light and 8 h dark cycle at 24°C. Our results also revealed that the type of carbohydrate substrate, light regime, agitation speed, and incubation temperature could affect the production of zerumbone. Although the zerumbone produced in this study was not abundant compared to rhizome of Z. zerumbet, the possibility of producing zerumbone during early stage could serve as a model for subsequent improvement.

  2. Effects of Selected Physicochemical Parameters on Zerumbone Production of Zingiber zerumbet Smith Cell Suspension Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahanom Jalil

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Zingiber zerumbet Smith is an important herb that contains bioactive phytomedicinal compound, zerumbone. To enhance cell growth and production of this useful compound, we investigated the growth conditions of cell suspension culture. Embryogenic callus generated from shoot bud was used to initiate cell suspension culture. The highest specific growth rate of cells was recorded when it was cultured in liquid Murashige and Skoog basal medium containing 3% sucrose with pH 5.7 and incubated under continuous shaking condition of 70 rpm for 16 h light and 8 h dark cycle at 24°C. Our results also revealed that the type of carbohydrate substrate, light regime, agitation speed, and incubation temperature could affect the production of zerumbone. Although the zerumbone produced in this study was not abundant compared to rhizome of Z. zerumbet, the possibility of producing zerumbone during early stage could serve as a model for subsequent improvement.

  3. What is culture in «cultural economy»? Defining culture to create measurable models in cultural economy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aníbal Monasterio Astobiza

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The idea of culture is somewhat vague and ambiguous for the formal goals of economics. The aim of this paper is to define the notion of culture better so as to help build economic explanations based on culture and therefore to measure its impact in every activity or beliefs associated with culture. To define culture according to the canonical evolutionary definition, it is any kind of ritualised behaviour that becomes meaningful for a group and that remains more or less constant and is transmitted down through the generations. Economic institutions are founded, implicitly or explicitly, on a worldview of how humans function; culture is an essential part of understanding us as humans, making it necessary to describe what we understand by culture correctly. In this paper we review the literature on evolutionary anthropology and psychology dealing with the concept of culture to warn that economic modelling ignores intangible benefits of culture rendering economics unable to measure certain cultural items in the digital consumer society.

  4. Cell culture media impact on drug product solution stability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Purdie, Jennifer L; Kowle, Ronald L; Langland, Amie L; Patel, Chetan N; Ouyang, Anli; Olson, Donald J

    2016-07-08

    To enable subcutaneous administration of monoclonal antibodies, drug product solutions are often needed at high concentrations. A significant risk associated with high drug product concentrations is an increase in aggregate level over the shelf-life dating period. While much work has been done to understand the impact of drug product formulation on aggregation, there is limited understanding of the link between cell culture process conditions and soluble aggregate growth in drug product. During cell culture process development, soluble aggregates are often measured at harvest using cell-free material purified by Protein A chromatography. In the work reported here, cell culture media components were evaluated with respect to their impact on aggregate levels in high concentration solution drug product during accelerated stability studies. Two components, cysteine and ferric ammonium citrate, were found to impact aggregate growth rates in our current media (version 1) leading to the development of new chemically defined media and concentrated feed formulations. The new version of media and associated concentrated feeds (version 2) were evaluated across four cell lines producing recombinant IgG4 monoclonal antibodies and a bispecific antibody. In all four cell lines, the version 2 media reduced aggregate growth over the course of a 12 week accelerated stability study compared with the version 1 media, although the degree to which aggregate growth decreased was cell line dependent. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:998-1008, 2016. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

  5. Investigation of biomass concentration, lipid production, and cellulose content in Chlorella vulgaris cultures using response surface methodology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aguirre, Ana-Maria; Bassi, Amarjeet

    2013-08-01

    The microalgae Chlorella vulgaris produce lipids that after extraction from cells can be converted into biodiesel. However, these lipids cannot be efficiently extracted from cells due to the presence of the microalgae cell wall, which acts as a barrier for lipid removal when traditional extraction methods are employed. Therefore, a microalgae system with high lipid productivity and thinner cell walls could be more suitable for lipid production from microalgae. This study addresses the effect of culture conditions, specifically carbon dioxide and sodium nitrate concentrations, on biomass concentration and the ratio of lipid productivity/cellulose content. Optimization of culture conditions was done by response surface methodology. The empirical model for biomass concentration (R(2)  = 96.0%) led to a predicted maximum of 1123.2 mg dw L(-1) when carbon dioxide and sodium nitrate concentrations were 2.33% (v/v) and 5.77 mM, respectively. For lipid productivity/cellulose content ratio (R(2)  = 95.2%) the maximum predicted value was 0.46 (mg lipid L(-1)  day(-1) )(mg cellulose mg biomass(-1) )(-1) when carbon dioxide concentration was 4.02% (v/v) and sodium nitrate concentration was 3.21 mM. A common optimum point for both variables (biomass concentration and lipid productivity/cellulose content ratio) was also found, predicting a biomass concentration of 1119.7 mg dw L(-1) and lipid productivity/cellulose content ratio of 0.44 (mg lipid L(-1)  day(-1) )(mg cellulose mg biomass(-1) )(-1) for culture conditions of 3.77% (v/v) carbon dioxide and 4.01 mM sodium nitrate. The models were experimentally validated and results supported their accuracy. This study shows that it is possible to improve lipid productivity/cellulose content by manipulation of culture conditions, which may be applicable to any scale of bioreactors. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. A Socio-Cultural Model Based on Empirical Data of Cultural and Social Relationship

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lipi, Afia Akhter; Nakano, Yukiko; Rehm, Matthias

    2010-01-01

    The goal of this paper is to integrate culture and social relationship as a computational term in an embodied conversational agent system by employing empirical and theoretical approach. We propose a parameter-based model that predicts nonverbal expressions appropriate for specific cultures...... in different social relationship. So, first, we introduce the theories of social and cultural characteristics. Then, we did corpus analysis of human interaction of two cultures in two different social situations and extracted empirical data and finally, by integrating socio-cultural characteristics...... with empirical data, we establish a parameterized network model that generates culture specific non-verbal expressions in different social relationships....

  7. The model for estimation production cost of embroidery handicraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nofierni; Sriwana, IK; Septriani, Y.

    2017-12-01

    Embroidery industry is one of type of micro industry that produce embroidery handicraft. These industries are emerging in some rural areas of Indonesia. Embroidery clothing are produce such as scarves and clothes that show cultural value of certain region. The owner of an enterprise must calculate the cost of production before making a decision on how many products are received from the customer. A calculation approach to production cost analysis is needed to consider the feasibility of each order coming. This study is proposed to design the expert system (ES) in order to improve production management in the embroidery industry. The model will design used Fuzzy inference system as a model to estimate production cost. Research conducted based on survey and knowledge acquisitions from stakeholder of supply chain embroidery handicraft industry at Bukittinggi, West Sumatera, Indonesia. This paper will use fuzzy input where the quality, the complexity of the design and the working hours required and the result of the model are useful to manage production cost on embroidery production.

  8. Promoting Cultural Relativism in Counselors through the Cultural De-Centering Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    McAuliffe, Garrett J.; Milliken, Tammi F.

    2009-01-01

    Counselors who are culturally encapsulated are likely to create client mistrust and to misinterpret clients' cultural norms. This article presents the Cultural De-Centering Model (CDCM) as a constructive-developmental method for helping future counselors to be less ethnocentric in their work. The goal of the CDCM is to increase counselors'…

  9. Selection of culture medium and conditions for the production of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    oyaide

    2013-05-15

    May 15, 2013 ... improving the productivity and economical benefits in livestock production ... was to improve the yeast biomass production measured as dry cell ... the total livestock population in India was 1708 Million ... Media for culture maintenance and optimization .... which is very economical and efficient source for the.

  10. Analysis of organizational culture with social network models

    OpenAIRE

    Titov, S.

    2015-01-01

    Organizational culture is nowadays an object of numerous scientific papers. However, only marginal part of existing research attempts to use the formal models of organizational cultures. The lack of organizational culture models significantly limits the further research in this area and restricts the application of the theory to practice of organizational culture change projects. The article consists of general views on potential application of network models and social network analysis to th...

  11. Use of bacterial co-cultures for the efficient production of chemicals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, J Andrew; Wang, Xin

    2017-12-02

    The microbial production of chemicals has traditionally relied on a single engineered microbe to enable the complete bioconversion of substrate to final product. Recently, a growing fraction of research has transitioned towards employing a modular co-culture engineering strategy using multiple microbes growing together to facilitate a divide-and-conquer approach for chemical biosynthesis. Here, we review key success stories that leverage the unique advantages of co-culture engineering, while also addressing the critical concerns that will limit the wide-spread implementation of this technology. Future studies that address the need to monitor and control the population dynamics of each strain module, while maintaining robust flux routes towards a wide range of desired products will lead the efforts to realize the true potential of co-culture engineering. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Characterization and Application of Autochthonous Starter Cultures for Fresh Cheese Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreja Leboš Pavunc

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The use of commercial starter cultures in fresh cheese production from pasteurized milk results in the loss of typical characteristics of artisan fresh cheese due to the replacement of complex native microbiota with a defined starter culture. Hence, the aim of this research is to isolate and characterize dominant lactic acid bacteria (LAB in artisan fresh cheese and to evaluate their capacity as autochthonous starter cultures for fresh cheese production. Fifteen most prevalent Gram-positive, catalase-negative and asporogenous bacterial strains were selected for a more detailed characterization. Eleven lactic acid bacterial strains were determined to be homofermentative cocci and four heterofermentative lactobacilli. Further phenotypic and genotypic analyses revealed that those were two different LAB strains with high acidifying and proteolytic activity, identified as Lactobacillus fermentum A8 and Enterococcus faecium A7. These two autochthonous strains, alone or in combination with commercial starter, were used to produce different types of fresh cheese, which were evaluated by a panel. Conventional culturing, isolation, identification and PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE procedures, applied to the total fresh cheese DNA extracts, were employed to define and monitor the viability of the introduced LAB strains and their effect on the final product characteristics. Production of fresh cheese using a combination of commercial starter culture and selected autochthonous strains resulted in improved sensorial properties, which were more similar to the ones of spontaneously fermented fresh cheese than to those of cheese produced with only starter culture or selected strains. After 10 days of storage, that cheese retained the best sensorial properties in comparison with all other types of cheese. The presence of inoculated autochthonous and starter cultures and their identification was demonstrated by DGGE analysis. The obtained

  13. Communication and Cultural Memory in Contemporary Tourism Media Products: Culture-specific and Cross-cultural Perspectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksandra Salamurović

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Communication practices which are a part of the contemporary media-culture are intrinsically tied to the processes of (recreating collective identities. One of the possible strategies in the frame of the mediated communication practice is to connect traditional ele-ments of cultural memory with new ones, which are declared as preferable and acceptable. In that way the collective identity remains, on the one hand, “homoge-neous”, offering stability to the members of communica-tion community, on the other hand, it is subject to change and dynamics, always “ready” to be reshaped in order to achieve wider acceptance. The tourism media products, especially tourism promotion videos, are the best examples for this mediated communication prac-tice. The visual images, combined with text messages, i.e. slogans, are not only some of the most important narrative mechanisms in the presentation of certain tourist destination, they are also the key elements of the mediated collective cultural memory and identity of the respective country presented in the tourism promotion videos. The main goal of this article is to examine the represen-tation and composition forms of some of the tourism promotion videos both from the Balkan countries as well as from other regions worldwide related especially to the elements of the cultural memory in order to de-fine culture-specific and cross-cultural strategies rele-vant to the creation of the collective identity. The analy-sis is based on the Critical Discourse Analysis, respec-tively the analytical framework of the “Grammar of Vis-ual Design” by Kress/van Leeuwen.

  14. Relationship between Language Learners’ Attitudes toward Cultural Instruction and Pragmatic Comprehension and Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vahid Rafieyan

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Development of target language pragmatic competence in language learners requires not only provision of cultural features of target language community in language classes but also language learner’s willingness to learn and use those cultural features. To investigate the relationship between language learners’ attitudes toward cultural instruction and their gains in comprehension and production aspects of pragmatic competence, the current study was conducted on 50 undergraduate Japanese students of English education at a university in Japan. The adapted version of the attitude questionnaire developed by Albirini (2009 was used to measure language learners’ attitudes toward cultural instruction. A 24-item pragmatic comprehension test developed by Taguchi (2007, 2008 was used to measure language learners’ pragmatic comprehension ability. Finally, a 32-item discourse completion task developed by Bardovi-Harlig (2009 was used to measure language learners’ pragmatic production ability. The analysis of Pearson product–moment correlation coefficient (r revealed a strong positive relationship between attitude toward cultural instruction and pragmatic comprehension ability as well as attitude toward cultural instruction and pragmatic production ability. The pedagogical implications of the findings suggested incorporation of interesting cultural features of the target language community in language classes and presenting them in interesting ways to attract language learners’ attention and interest. Keywords: Attitude, Cultural Instruction, Pragmatic Comprehension, Pragmatic Production

  15. Laboratory scale photobioreactor for high production of microalgae Rhodomonas salina used as food for intensive copepod cultures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thuy, Minh Vu Thi; Jepsen, Per Meyer; Hansen, Benni Winding

    Introduction Microalgae are essential feeds for many cultured molluscs, larvae of marine fishes, crustaceans as well as other important live feeds including rotifers, Artemia and copepods (Muller-Feuga, 2000). Microalgae are grown either in open culture systems (ponds) or closed systems (photobio......Introduction Microalgae are essential feeds for many cultured molluscs, larvae of marine fishes, crustaceans as well as other important live feeds including rotifers, Artemia and copepods (Muller-Feuga, 2000). Microalgae are grown either in open culture systems (ponds) or closed systems...... for copepods (Støttrup and Jensen, 1990; Zhang et al., 2013). Despite the benefit of using R. salina in cultivation of copepods, to our knowledge, there is no report on the production of this microalga at industrial scale to supply sufficient food for mass production of copepods. We intend to conduct the basic...... was cultivated continuously at temperature of 20ºC and salinity of 30ppt in two tubular PBRs with addition of CO2. The experiment was run two times and each PBR in 18 - 30 days. Periodically, the algae were sampled for analyzing the growth, biochemical composition and production. An exponential light model...

  16. Metabolic and Kinetic analyses of influenza production in perfusion HEK293 cell culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lohr Verena

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Cell culture-based production of influenza vaccine remains an attractive alternative to egg-based production. Short response time and high production yields are the key success factors for the broader adoption of cell culture technology for industrial manufacturing of pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccines. Recently, HEK293SF cells have been successfully used to produce influenza viruses, achieving hemagglutinin (HA and infectious viral particle (IVP titers in the highest ranges reported to date. In the same study, it was suggested that beyond 4 × 106 cells/mL, viral production was limited by a lack of nutrients or an accumulation of toxic products. Results To further improve viral titers at high cell densities, perfusion culture mode was evaluated. Productivities of both perfusion and batch culture modes were compared at an infection cell density of 6 × 106 cells/mL. The metabolism, including glycolysis, glutaminolysis and amino acids utilization as well as physiological indicators such as viability and apoptosis were extensively documented for the two modes of culture before and after viral infection to identify potential metabolic limitations. A 3 L bioreactor with a perfusion rate of 0.5 vol/day allowed us to reach maximal titers of 3.3 × 1011 IVP/mL and 4.0 logHA units/mL, corresponding to a total production of 1.0 × 1015 IVP and 7.8 logHA units after 3 days post-infection. Overall, perfusion mode titers were higher by almost one order of magnitude over the batch culture mode of production. This improvement was associated with an activation of the cell metabolism as seen by a 1.5-fold and 4-fold higher consumption rates of glucose and glutamine respectively. A shift in the viral production kinetics was also observed leading to an accumulation of more viable cells with a higher specific production and causing an increase in the total volumetric production of infectious influenza particles. Conclusions These results

  17. Immunoglobulin production in human mixed lymphocyte cultures: implications for co-cultures of cells from patients and healthy donors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruemke, H.C.; Terpstra, F.G.; Huis, B.; Out, T.A.; Zeijlemaker, W.P.

    1982-01-01

    When human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) are cultured in the presence of irradiated allogeneic lymphocytes, the resulting mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) leads to the secretion into the supernatant of substantial amounts of IgM and IgG, derived from nonirradiated responder B lymphocytes. Our data indicate that stimulation to Ig production by responder B cells may result from different types of of interactions. First, B cells and monocytes among the irradiated stimulator cells activate T responder B cells to produce Ig; second, ''responder'' B cells activate irradiated ''stimulator'' T cells, leading to a ''helper'' signal, back to the responder B cells and leading to Ig production. The latter system is radiosensitive, because allogeneic T cells, irradiated at a dose of 4000 rad or more, failed to induce Ig production by responder B cells. In some combinations of human allogeneic lymphocytes, the co-culture of the cells leads to inhibition of Ig production, both in the presence and in the absence of PWM. Thus, co-culture of allogeneic cells may cause ''positive'' as well as ''negative'' allogeneic effects. The implications of these findings for the interpretation of co-cultures that are aimed at establishing defects in lymphocytes from patients with, for example, immunodeficiencies, who fail to produce Ig in the presence of PWM are discussed

  18. Computational Modeling of Culture's Consequences

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hofstede, G.J.; Jonker, C.M.; Verwaart, T.

    2010-01-01

    This paper presents an approach to formalize the influence of culture on the decision functions of agents in social simulations. The key components are (a) a definition of the domain of study in the form of a decision model, (b) knowledge acquisition based on a dimensional theory of culture,

  19. Modeling of Pharmaceutical Biotransformation by Enriched Nitrifying Culture under Different Metabolic Conditions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Xu, Yifeng; Chen, Xueming; Yuan, Zhiguo

    2018-01-01

    Pharmaceutical removal could be significantly enhanced through cometabolism during nitrification processes. To date, pharmaceutical biotransformation models have not considered the formation of transformation products associated with the metabolic type of microorganisms. Here we report a comprehe......Pharmaceutical removal could be significantly enhanced through cometabolism during nitrification processes. To date, pharmaceutical biotransformation models have not considered the formation of transformation products associated with the metabolic type of microorganisms. Here we report...... a comprehensive model to describe and evaluate the biodegradation of pharmaceuticals and the formation of their biotransformation products by enriched nitrifying cultures. The biotransformation of parent compounds was linked to the microbial processes via cometabolism induced by ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AOB......) growth, metabolism by AOB, cometabolism by heterotrophs (HET) growth, and metabolism by HET in the model framework. The model was calibrated and validated using experimental data from pharmaceutical biodegradation experiments at realistic levels, taking two pharmaceuticals as examples, i.e., atenolol...

  20. Culturally and economically important nontimber forest products of northern Maine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michelle J. Baumflek; Marla R. Emery; Clare. Ginger

    2010-01-01

    Nontimber forest products (NTFPs) gathered for food, medicine, craft, spiritual, aesthetic, and utilitarian purposes make substantial contributions to the economic viability and cultural vitality of communities. In the St. John River watershed of northern Maine, people identifying with cultural groups including Acadian, Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Scotch-Irish, and Swedish...

  1. Modelling the evolution and diversity of cumulative culture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Enquist, Magnus; Ghirlanda, Stefano; Eriksson, Kimmo

    2011-01-01

    Previous work on mathematical models of cultural evolution has mainly focused on the diffusion of simple cultural elements. However, a characteristic feature of human cultural evolution is the seemingly limitless appearance of new and increasingly complex cultural elements. Here, we develop a general modelling framework to study such cumulative processes, in which we assume that the appearance and disappearance of cultural elements are stochastic events that depend on the current state of culture. Five scenarios are explored: evolution of independent cultural elements, stepwise modification of elements, differentiation or combination of elements and systems of cultural elements. As one application of our framework, we study the evolution of cultural diversity (in time as well as between groups). PMID:21199845

  2. Optimization to the Culture Conditions for Phellinus Production with Regression Analysis and Gene-Set Based Genetic Algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Zhongwei; Xin, Yuezhen; Wang, Xun; Sun, Beibei; Xia, Shengyu; Li, Hui

    2016-01-01

    Phellinus is a kind of fungus and is known as one of the elemental components in drugs to avoid cancers. With the purpose of finding optimized culture conditions for Phellinus production in the laboratory, plenty of experiments focusing on single factor were operated and large scale of experimental data were generated. In this work, we use the data collected from experiments for regression analysis, and then a mathematical model of predicting Phellinus production is achieved. Subsequently, a gene-set based genetic algorithm is developed to optimize the values of parameters involved in culture conditions, including inoculum size, PH value, initial liquid volume, temperature, seed age, fermentation time, and rotation speed. These optimized values of the parameters have accordance with biological experimental results, which indicate that our method has a good predictability for culture conditions optimization. PMID:27610365

  3. INTEGRATED DATA CAPTURING REQUIREMENTS FOR 3D SEMANTIC MODELLING OF CULTURAL HERITAGE: THE INCEPTION PROTOCOL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Di Giulio

    2017-02-01

    In order to face these challenges and to start solving the issue of the large amount of captured data and time-consuming processes in the production of 3D digital models, an Optimized Data Acquisition Protocol (DAP has been set up. The purpose is to guide the processes of digitization of cultural heritage, respecting needs, requirements and specificities of cultural assets.

  4. Trabalho imaterial, produção cultural colaborativa e economia da dádiva | Immaterial labour, collaborative cultural production and the economy of the gift

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Clóvis Ricardo Montenegro de Lima

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Resumo Neste artigo discutem-se as relações entre trabalho imaterial, produção cultural colaborativa e  economia da dádiva na sociedade atual. O intelecto geral é relacionado com a inteligência coletiva das redes digitais. A produção colaborativa emerge como forma privilegiada do fazer artístico e cultural. Esta produção pode contribuir para promoção e preservação da diversidade cultural. A produção cultural colaborativa evidencia pluralismo econômico. A generalização do trabalho imaterial produz bens comuns. O comum cria a versão pós-industrial e de alta tecnologia da economia da dádiva Conclui-se que a cultura colaborativa tem grande potencial para promover diversidade cultural e economia da generosidade. Palavras-chave trabalho imaterial; produção colaborativa; cultura; economia da dádiva; produção cultural colaborativa. Abstract This article discusses the relationship between immaterial labor, collaborative cultural production and gift economy in society today. The general intellect is related to the collective intelligence of digital networks. The collaborative production emerges as the preferred way to artistic and cultural. This production may contribute to promotion and preservation of cultural diversity. The collaborative cultural production highlights pluralism economics. The spread of immaterial labor produces common assets. The common creates a post-industrial and high-tech version of the gift economy. It is concluded that the collaborative culture has great potential to promote cultural diversity and economy of generosity. Keywords immaterial labor; collaborative production; culture; gift economy; collaborative cultural production.

  5. Increasing the production of desulfurizing biocatalysts by means of fed - batch culture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Berdugo, C I; Mena, J A; Acero, J R; Mogollon, L

    2001-01-01

    Over the past years, environmental regulations have driven a lot of effort for the development of new technologies for the upgrading of fossil fuels. Biotechnology offers an alternative way to process fossil fuels by means of a biodesulfurization technology where the production of the biocatalyst is one of the key topics. Traditionally, the production is carried out in batch culture where the maximum cellular concentration is restricted by inherent limitations of the culture type and the microorganism growth rate. This work addresses the production of two desulfurizing microorganisms: Rhodococcus erythropolis IGTS8 and gordona rubropertinctus ICP172 using fed-batch culture. Fed-batch cultures were conducted in a 12 L fermentor using ICP 4 medium containing glucose and DMSO as carbon and sulfur sources. As a result, cell concentration was increased 1.5 and 3 times with fed-batch cultures using constant and exponential flow respectively, achieving a maximum cell concentration of 7.3 g DCW/L of biocatalyst igts8 and 12.85 gGDCW/L of the new biocatalyst ICP172. Both biocatalysts presented biodesulfurization activity in a spiked matrix DBT/HXD and in diesel matrix with the detection of 2-HBP which is the end-product of DBT degradation pathway

  6. Effect of Cultured Celery Juice, Temperature, and Product Composition on the Inhibition of Proteolytic Clostridium botulinum Toxin Production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Golden, Max C; Wanless, Brandon J; David, Jairus R D; Kottapalli, Bala; Lineback, D Scott; Talley, Ryan J; Glass, Kathleen A

    2017-08-01

    Clostridium botulinum may be of concern in prepared refrigerated meals, for which strict cold chain management cannot be guaranteed. This study evaluated the effect of temperature, product composition, and cultured celery juice powder (CCJP) as a source of nitrite on the inhibition of botulinum toxin formation in two experimental (meat- and vegetable-based) prepared meals. Data obtained from the challenge study were compared with a published mathematical model to determine whether the model is fail-safe with regard to the tested meals. Treatments were inoculated with proteolytic C. botulinum, vacuum packaged, cooked at 90°C for 10 min, and assayed for botulinum toxin at appropriate intervals in samples stored at 10, 15, or 20°C for up to 8 weeks. None of the treatments stored at 10°C for 8 weeks supported toxin production by proteolytic C. botulinum. The addition of CCJP delayed toxin production by 1 and 3 weeks in cauliflower potatoes and in Dijon pork, respectively, stored at 15°C. Toxin production was delayed by 1 week at 20°C when CCJP was added to the cauliflower potatoes. This study found that the predictive model was fail-safe but was overly conservative for the experimental meals described. Finally, this study confirms that product composition, the addition of nitrite via CCJP, storage time, and temperature play important roles in the inhibition of toxin formation by proteolytic C. botulinum.

  7. Protection of Geographical Indication and Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Chinese Food Product Resources

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    SUN Zhi-guo; WANG Shu-ting; XIONG Wan-zhen; HUANG Li-min

    2012-01-01

    The geographical Indications intellectual property and intangible cultural heritage are the general focus of attention of the world today. In the Chinese food product resources, there are 44 kinds of national geographical indication products, 41 national geographical indication trademarks, 9 kinds of national and 212 kinds of provincial-level intangible cultural heritage. This article introduces the geographical indication protection and geographical indication trademark registration of the Chinese food products, the protection of intangible cultural heritage of traditional craftsmanship; discusses the countermeasures for the protection of geographical indication intellectual property and intangible cultural heritage; finally puts forth several recommendations.

  8. Norepinephrine stimulates progesterone production in highly estrogenic bovine granulosa cells cultured under serum-free, chemically defined conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piccinato Carla A

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Since noradrenergic innervation was described in the ovarian follicle, the actions of the intraovarian catecholaminergic system have been the focus of a variety of studies. We aimed to determine the gonadotropin-independent effects of the catecholamine norepinephrine (NE in the steroid hormone profile of a serum-free granulosa cell (GC culture system in the context of follicular development and dominance. Methods Primary bovine GCs were cultivated in a serum-free, chemically defined culture system supplemented with 0.1% polyvinyl alcohol. The culture features were assessed by hormone measurements and ultrastructural characteristics of GCs. Results GCs produced increasing amounts of estradiol and pregnenolone for 144h and maintained ultrastructural features of healthy steroidogenic cells. Progesterone production was also detected, although it significantly increased only after 96h of culture. There was a highly significant positive correlation between estradiol and pregnenolone production in high E2-producing cultures. The effects of NE were further evaluated in a dose–response study. The highest tested concentration of NE (10 (−7 M resulted in a significant increase in progesterone production, but not in estradiol or pregnenolone production. The specificity of NE effects on progesterone productio n was further investigated by incubating GCs with propranolol (10 (−8 M, a non-selective beta-adrenergic antagonist. Conclusions The present culture system represents a robust model to study the impact of intrafollicular factors, such as catecholamines, in ovarian steroidogenesis and follicular development. The results of noradrenergic effects in the steroidogenesis of GC have implications on physiological follicular fate and on certain pathological ovarian conditions such as cyst formation and anovulation.

  9. Cultural Effects of Trade Liberalization

    OpenAIRE

    Steven M. Suranovic; Robert Winthrop

    2005-01-01

    We incorporate culture into a standard trade model in two distinct ways. In the ¡°cultural affinity from work¡± model, workers receive a non- pecuniary cultural benefit from work in a particular industry. In the ¡°cultural externality¡± model, consumers of a product receive utility from other consumer¡¯s consumption of a domestic good. We show that resistance to change due to cultural concerns can reduce the national benefits from trade liberalization. Complete movements to free trade will ha...

  10. A 3D human neural cell culture system for modeling Alzheimer’s disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Young Hye; Choi, Se Hoon; D’Avanzo, Carla; Hebisch, Matthias; Sliwinski, Christopher; Bylykbashi, Enjana; Washicosky, Kevin J.; Klee, Justin B.; Brüstle, Oliver; Tanzi, Rudolph E.; Kim, Doo Yeon

    2015-01-01

    Stem cell technologies have facilitated the development of human cellular disease models that can be used to study pathogenesis and test therapeutic candidates. These models hold promise for complex neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) because existing animal models have been unable to fully recapitulate all aspects of pathology. We recently reported the characterization of a novel three-dimensional (3D) culture system that exhibits key events in AD pathogenesis, including extracellular aggregation of β-amyloid and accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau. Here we provide instructions for the generation and analysis of 3D human neural cell cultures, including the production of genetically modified human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) with familial AD mutations, the differentiation of the hNPCs in a 3D matrix, and the analysis of AD pathogenesis. The 3D culture generation takes 1–2 days. The aggregation of β-amyloid is observed after 6-weeks of differentiation followed by robust tau pathology after 10–14 weeks. PMID:26068894

  11. Protein hydrolysate from canned sardine and brewing by-products improves TNF-α-induced inflammation in an intestinal-endothelial co-culture cell model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vieira, Elsa F; Van Camp, John; Ferreira, Isabel M P L V O; Grootaert, Charlotte

    2017-07-17

    The anti-inflammatory activity of sardine protein hydrolysates (SPH) obtained by hydrolysis with proteases from brewing yeast surplus was ascertained. For this purpose, a digested and desalted SPH fraction with molecular weight lower than 10 kDa was investigated using an endothelial cell line (EA.hy926) as such and in a co-culture model with an intestinal cell line (Caco-2). Effects of SPH <10 kDa on nitric oxide (NO) production, reactive oxygen species (ROS) inhibition and secretion of monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), chemokine IL-8 (IL-8) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) were evaluated in TNF-α-treated and untreated cells. Upon TNF-α treatment, levels of NO, MCP-1, VEGF, IL-8, ICAM-1 and endothelial ROS were significantly increased in both mono- and co-culture models. Treatment with SPH <10 kDa (2.0 mg peptides/mL) significantly decreased all the inflammation markers when compared to TNF-α-treated control. This protective effect was more pronounced in the co-culture model, suggesting that SPH <10 kDa Caco-2 cells metabolites produced in the course of intestinal absorption may provide a more relevant protective effect against endothelial dysfunction. Additionally, indirect cross-talk between two cell types was established, suggesting that SPH <10 kDa may also bind to receptors on the Caco-2 cells, thereby triggering a pathway to secrete the pro-inflammatory compounds. Overall, these in vitro screening results, in which intestinal digestion, absorption and endothelial bioactivity are simulated, show the potential of SPH to be used as a functional food with anti-inflammatory properties.

  12. Hydrogen peroxide production is affected by oxygen levels in mammalian cell culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maddalena, Lucas A; Selim, Shehab M; Fonseca, Joao; Messner, Holt; McGowan, Shannon; Stuart, Jeffrey A

    2017-11-04

    Although oxygen levels in the extracellular space of most mammalian tissues are just a few percent, under standard cell culture conditions they are not regulated and are often substantially higher. Some cellular sources of reactive oxygen species, like NADPH oxidase 4, are sensitive to oxygen levels in the range between 'normal' physiological (typically 1-5%) and standard cell culture (up to 18%). Hydrogen peroxide in particular participates in signal transduction pathways via protein redox modifications, so the potential increase in its production under standard cell culture conditions is important to understand. We measured the rates of cellular hydrogen peroxide production in some common cell lines, including C2C12, PC-3, HeLa, SH-SY5Y, MCF-7, and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) maintained at 18% or 5% oxygen. In all instances the rate of hydrogen peroxide production by these cells was significantly greater at 18% oxygen than at 5%. The increase in hydrogen peroxide production at higher oxygen levels was either abolished or substantially reduced by treatment with GKT 137831, a selective inhibitor of NADPH oxidase subunits 1 and 4. These data indicate that oxygen levels experienced by cells in culture influence hydrogen peroxide production via NADPH oxidase 1/4, highlighting the importance of regulating oxygen levels in culture near physiological values. However, we measured pericellular oxygen levels adjacent to cell monolayers under a variety of conditions and with different cell lines and found that, particularly when growing at 5% incubator oxygen levels, pericellular oxygen was often lower and variable. Together, these observations indicate the importance, and difficulty, of regulating oxygen levels experienced by cells in culture. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Algal recycling enhances algal productivity and settleability in Pediastrum boryanum pure cultures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jason B K; Craggs, Rupert J; Shilton, Andy N

    2015-12-15

    Recycling a portion of gravity harvested algae (i.e. algae and associated bacteria biomass) has been shown to improve both algal biomass productivity and harvest efficiency by maintaining the dominance of a rapidly-settleable colonial alga, Pediastrum boryanum in both pilot-scale wastewater treatment High Rate Algal Ponds (HRAP) and outdoor mesocosms. While algal recycling did not change the relative proportions of algae and bacteria in the HRAP culture, the contribution of the wastewater bacteria to the improved algal biomass productivity and settleability with the recycling was not certain and still required investigation. P. boryanum was therefore isolated from the HRAP and grown in pure culture on synthetic wastewater growth media under laboratory conditions. The influence of recycling on the productivity and settleability of the pure P. boryanum culture was then determined without wastewater bacteria present. Six 1 L P. boryanum cultures were grown over 30 days in a laboratory growth chamber simulating New Zealand summer conditions either with (Pr) or without (Pc) recycling of 10% of gravity harvested algae. The cultures with recycling (Pr) had higher algal productivity than the controls (Pc) when the cultures were operated at both 4 and 3 d hydraulic retention times by 11% and 38% respectively. Furthermore, algal recycling also improved 1 h settleability from ∼60% to ∼85% by increasing the average P. boryanum colony size due to the extended mean cell residence time and promoted formation of large algal bio-flocs (>500 μm diameter). These results demonstrate that the presence of wastewater bacteria was not necessary to improve algal productivity and settleability with algal recycling. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Telling or selling? Experiencing South African cultural heritage tourism products

    OpenAIRE

    Ivanovic, Milena; Saayman, Melville

    2013-01-01

    With the advent of the experience economy the unique experiential value of cultural heritage products comes to the forefront of cultural tourism development and is the main value proposition for emerging destinations, including South Africa. As South Africa’s democracy divedends had paid out by 1998, South African Tourism was left with an array of dormant cultural heritage resources (still) unable to turn them into meaningful tourist experiences. The reason is lack of understanding of tourist...

  15. Resveratrol production in hairy root culture of peanut, Arachis ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    STORAGESEVER

    2008-10-20

    Oct 20, 2008 ... hypogaea L.) hairy roots and also showed varying effects on the growth and resveratrol production in hairy root cultures. ... (7.6 g/l) and resveratrol production (1.5 mg/g) in hairy root of peanut. Our results demonstrate that the .... and proliferation of human retinal pigment epithelial cells via extracellular ...

  16. Cultural models, socialization goals, and parenting ethnotheories: A multicultural analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Keller, H; Lamm, B; Abels, M; Yovsi, R; Borke, J; Jensen, H; Papaligoura, Z; Holub, C; Lo, W; Tomiyama, AJ; Su, Y; Wang, Y; Chaudhary, N

    2006-01-01

    This study conceptualizes a cultural model of parenting. It is argued that cultural models are expressed in the degree of familism, which informs socialization goals that are embodied in parenting ethnotheories. Three cultural models were differentiated a priori: independent, interdependent, and autonomous-related. Samples were recruited that were expected to represent these cultural models: German, Euro-American, and Greek middle-class women representing the independent cultural model; Camer...

  17. β-Carotene from Yeasts Enhances Laccase Production of Pleurotus eryngii var. ferulae in Co-culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Chaolin; Zhao, Liting; Wang, Feng; Lu, Jian; Ding, Zhongyang; Shi, Guiyang

    2017-01-01

    Laccase is widely used in several industrial applications and co-culture is a common method for enhancing laccase production in submerged fermentation. In this study, the co-culture of four yeasts with Pleurotus eryngii var. ferulae was found to enhance laccase production. An analysis of sterilization temperatures and extraction conditions revealed that the stimulatory compound in yeasts was temperature-sensitive, and that it was fat-soluble. An LC-MS analysis revealed that the possible stimulatory compound for laccase production in the four yeast extracts was β-carotene. Moreover, the addition of 4 mg β-carotene to 150 mL of P. eryngii var. ferulae culture broth improved laccase production by 2.2-fold compared with the control (i.e., a monoculture), and was similar to laccase production in co-culture. In addition, the enhanced laccase production was accompanied by an increase of lac gene transcription, which was 6.2-time higher than the control on the fifth day. Therefore, it was concluded that β-carotene from the co-cultured yeasts enhanced laccase production in P. eryngii var. ferulae , and strains that produce β-carotene could be selected to enhance fungal laccase production in a co-culture. Alternatively, β-carotene or crude extracts of β-carotene could be used to induce high laccase production in large scale.

  18. STARTER CULTURES COMPOSITIONS WITH PROBIOTICS FOR FERMENTED MILK PRODUCTS AND COSMETICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Tkachenko

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The expediency of optimization of starter cultures composition of mixed cultures Lactococcus sp. and mixed cultures Bifidobacterium bifidum BB 01 + Bifidobacterium longum BL 01 + Bifidobacterium breve BR 01 for the manufacture of fermented milk products and cosmetics for teenagers and people under the age of 40-45 years with probiotics has been substantiated.The value of titratable acidity, number of viable cells of bifidobacteria has been determined, as well as the most probable number of lactobacterium in fermented probiotic clots obtained with different ratios of mixed cultures Lactococcus sp. and mixed cultures of Bifidobacterium sp. in starter cultures compositions (the initial concentration of the mixed cultures (MC Lactococcus sp. and MC Bifidobacterium sp. varied within the range of 1×105 – 1×106 CFU/cm3 of the inoculated milk, enriched with fructose as a growth factor of bifidobacteria. The high content of probiotics and the lowest values of titratable acidity are typical of the fermented milk clots obtained using starter cultures composition with a ratio of MC Lactococcus sp. : MC Bifidobacterium sp. 1 : 10. The maximum number of lactococci viable cells is observed in clots obtained using starter cultures composition with the initial ratio of MC Lactococcus sp. : MC Bifidobacterium sp. 10 : 1. The optimum ratio of MC Lactococcus sp. and MC Bifidobacterium sp. – 1 : 10 has been established (initial concentration of the cultures at inoculation – 1×105 and 1×106 CFU/cm3, respectively for the production of fermented milk products and cosmetics with probiotics, where the maximum value of the quality aggregated factor – 7, 12 is noted.It is shown that a fermented probiotic milk clots obtained using starter cultures composition with an optimum ratio of cultures of lacto- and bifidobacteria (1 : 10 have good sensory characteristics, contain a high number of viable cells of bifidobacteria and lactobacteria – (9,15±0,14×109 and

  19. Modeling European ruminant production systems: facing the challenges of climate change

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kipling, Richard Philip; Bannink, Andre; Bellocchi, Gianni

    2016-01-01

    Ruminant production systems are important producers of food, support rural communities and culture, and help to maintain a range of ecosystem services including the sequestering of carbon in grassland soils. However, these systems also contribute significantly to climate change through greenhouse...... gas (GHG) emissions, while intensification of production has driven biodiversity and nutrient loss, and soil degradation. Modeling can offer insights into the complexity underlying the relationships between climate change, management and policy choices, food production, and the maintenance...... of ecosystem services. This paper 1) provides an overview of how ruminant systems modeling supports the efforts of stakeholders and policymakers to predict, mitigate and adapt to climate change and 2) provides ideas for enhancing modeling to fulfil this role. Many grassland models can predict plant growth...

  20. Two-stage heterotrophic and phototrophic culture strategy for algal biomass and lipid production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Yubin; Chi, Zhanyou; Lucker, Ben; Chen, Shulin

    2012-01-01

    A two-stage heterotrophic and phototrophic culture strategy for algal biomass and lipid production was studied, wherein high density heterotrophic cultures of Chlorellasorokiniana serve as seed for subsequent phototrophic growth. The data showed growth rate, cell density and productivity of heterotrophic C.sorokiniana were 3.0, 3.3 and 7.4 times higher than phototrophic counterpart, respectively. Hetero- and phototrophic algal seeds had similar biomass/lipid production and fatty acid profile when inoculated into phototrophic culture system. To expand the application, food waste and wastewater were tested as feedstock for heterotrophic growth, and supported cell growth successfully. These results demonstrated the advantages of using heterotrophic algae cells as seeds for open algae culture system. Additionally, high inoculation rate of heterotrophic algal seed can be utilized as an effective method for contamination control. This two-stage heterotrophic phototrophic process is promising to provide a more efficient way for large scale production of algal biomass and biofuels. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Culture in Transition: A learning model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Baca, Susan

    2010-01-01

    of organizational transition, and 3) demonstrating the efficacy of the model by using it to explain empirical research findings. It is argued that learning new cultural currency involves the use of active intelligence to locate and answer relevant questions, and further that this process requires the interplay......This paper addresses the problem of resistance to attempted changes in organizational culture, particularly those involving diversity, by 1) identifying precisely what is meant by organizational as opposed to societal culture, 2) developing a theoretical model of learning useful in contexts...... is useful for both management and labor in regulating transition processes, thus making a contribution to industrial relations....

  2. Mathematical model of cellular kinetics in long term marrow culture with specific application to the effect of ionizing radiation on the hematopoietic microenvironment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Janssen, W.E.

    1984-01-01

    In recent years, an in vitro system for the culturing of hematopoietic stem cells and precursor cells over extended time periods has been developed. It has been clearly demonstrated that these cultures are supporting ongoing hematopoiesis, which makes them an ideal model system for investigating questions relating to both normal and abnormal hematopoiesis. The most easily measured aspect of this culture system is its ongoing production of hematopoietic cells which are recoverable at weekly culture feedings. The current study develops a mathematical model of the production of cells in these cultures and then applies that model in the form of a computer simulation to several experimental protocols, particularly those involving the exposure of the culture system to ionizing radiation. Extensive experimental testing is described, which verifies the validity of the mathematical description presented, and further supports the hypothesis of a radiation insensitive hematopoietic microenvironment

  3. A Culture-Sensitive Agent in Kirman's Ant Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Shu-Heng; Liou, Wen-Ching; Chen, Ting-Yu

    The global financial crisis brought a serious collapse involving a "systemic" meltdown. Internet technology and globalization have increased the chances for interaction between countries and people. The global economy has become more complex than ever before. Mark Buchanan [12] indicated that agent-based computer models will prevent another financial crisis and has been particularly influential in contributing insights. There are two reasons why culture-sensitive agent on the financial market has become so important. Therefore, the aim of this article is to establish a culture-sensitive agent and forecast the process of change regarding herding behavior in the financial market. We based our study on the Kirman's Ant Model[4,5] and Hofstede's Natational Culture[11] to establish our culture-sensitive agent based model. Kirman's Ant Model is quite famous and describes financial market herding behavior from the expectations of the future of financial investors. Hofstede's cultural consequence used the staff of IBM in 72 different countries to understand the cultural difference. As a result, this paper focuses on one of the five dimensions of culture from Hofstede: individualism versus collectivism and creates a culture-sensitive agent and predicts the process of change regarding herding behavior in the financial market. To conclude, this study will be of importance in explaining the herding behavior with cultural factors, as well as in providing researchers with a clearer understanding of how herding beliefs of people about different cultures relate to their finance market strategies.

  4. Additions of precursors and elicitors improve geranylgeraniol production in Croton stellatopilosus callus cultures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juraithip Wungsintaweekul

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Strategies for enhancing GGOH production in Croton stellatopilosus callus culture included additions of precursors (sodium acetate-NA, sodium pyruvate-NP, mevalonic acid lactone-MVA and elicitors (methyl jasmonate-MJ, acetylsalicylic acid-ASA, yeast extract-YE. Treated cells were evaluated for their GGOH contents by GC-FID and compared with the nontreated cells as controls. Additions of NA (25 mg/L, NP (50 mg/L and MVA (100 mg/L resulted in an enhancement of GGOH productivity to 0.61 mg/g DW, 0.52 mg/g DW and 0.70 mg/g DW, respectively, compared to the control culture (0.29 mg/g DW. Callus cultures elicited with MJ at 30 mg/L for 24 h stimulated GGOH production to 0.35 mg/g DW compared to the control culture (0.07 mg/g DW. Cells also responded to ASA (20 mg/L, 2 days and YE (0.25 g/L, 4 days and produced GGOH contents of 0.46 mg/g DW and 1.37 mg/g DW, respectively. This study has shown that isoprenoid precursors and conventional elicitors enhanced GGOH production in the C. stellatopilosus callus culture.

  5. Political Culture and Covalent Bonding. A Conceptual Model of Political Culture Change

    OpenAIRE

    Camelia Florela Voinea

    2015-01-01

    Our class of models aims at explaining the dynamics of political attitude change by means of the dynamic changes in values, beliefs, norms and knowledge with which it is associated. The model constructs a political culture perspective over the relationship between macro and micro levels of a society and polity. The model defines the bonding mechanism as a basic mechanism of the political culture change by taking inspiration from the valence bonding theory in Chemistry, which has inspired the ...

  6. Screening of penicillium species and optimisation of culture conditions for the production of ergot alkaloids using surface culture fermentation process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shahid, M.G.

    2015-01-01

    Abstract. The present study deals with the screening of fungal species and suitable fermentation medium for the production of ergot alkaloids. Various species of genus Penicillium were grown on different fermentation media by employing surface culture fermentation technique to achieve the most suitable medium and the best Penicillium sp. The results showed that medium M5 gave maximum yield with Penicillium commune. Different culture conditions such as effect of different carbon and nitrogen sources, their concentration levels, different pH values and sizes of inoculum on the production of ergot alkaloids were also studied to improve the yield. Maximum production of ergot alkaloids (4.32 mg/L) was achieved with 15 mL spore suspension at pH 5 in fermentation medium containing 35% (w/v) sucrose. All these results indicate that culture conditions are very much crucial to improve the yield of ergot alkaloids produced by Penicillium commune through surface culture process. (author)

  7. A systems biology approach to investigate the effect of pH-induced gene regulation on solvent production by Clostridium acetobutylicum in continuous culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bahl Hubert

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Clostridium acetobutylicum is an anaerobic bacterium which is known for its solvent-producing capabilities, namely regarding the bulk chemicals acetone and butanol, the latter being a highly efficient biofuel. For butanol production by C. acetobutylicum to be optimized and exploited on an industrial scale, the effect of pH-induced gene regulation on solvent production by C. acetobutylicum in continuous culture must be understood as fully as possible. Results We present an ordinary differential equation model combining the metabolic network governing solvent production with regulation at the genetic level of the enzymes required for this process. Parameterizing the model with experimental data from continuous culture, we demonstrate the influence of pH upon fermentation products: at high pH (pH 5.7 acids are the dominant product while at low pH (pH 4.5 this switches to solvents. Through steady-state analyses of the model we focus our investigations on how alteration in gene expression of C. acetobutylicum could be exploited to increase butanol yield in a continuous culture fermentation. Conclusions Incorporating gene regulation into the model of solvent production by C. acetobutylicum enables an accurate representation of the pH-induced switch to solvent production to be obtained and theoretical investigations of possible synthetic-biology approaches to be pursued. Steady-state analyses suggest that, to increase butanol yield, alterations in the expression of single solvent-associated genes are insufficient; a more complex approach targeting two or more genes is required.

  8. “Beyond stereotypes”: representations of a foreign culture in film students’ productions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Hyde-Clarke

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Growing concerns about the continued use of cultural stereotypes in media production, and the subsequent decrease in diversity, resulted in the launch of a student film production programme between three tertiary institutions in South Africa and Finland during the first half of 2006. The aim of the programme was to encourage students to produce films about a foreign culture that moved “beyond stereotypes” and reflected a greater understanding of that society. This article examines the production process, participants’ experience and analyses the final products that were produced in the nine weeks the students spent in Helsinki, Finland. To what extent can media productions, such as film, be devoid of stereotypes?

  9. Change in enzyme production by gradually drying culture substrate during solid-state fermentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ito, Kazunari; Gomi, Katsuya; Kariyama, Masahiro; Miyake, Tsuyoshi

    2015-06-01

    The influence of drying the culture substrate during solid-state fermentation on enzyme production was investigated using a non-airflow box. The drying caused a significant increase in enzyme production, while the mycelium content decreased slightly. This suggests that changes in the water content in the substrate during culture affect enzyme production in fungi. Copyright © 2014 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Use of disposable reactors to generate inoculum cultures for E. coli production fermentations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahajan, Ekta; Matthews, Timothy; Hamilton, Ryan; Laird, Michael W

    2010-01-01

    Disposable technology is being used more each year in the biotechnology industry. Disposable bioreactors allow one to avoid expenses associated with cleaning, assembly and operations, as well as equipment validation. The WAVE bioreactor is well established for Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) production, however, it has not yet been thoroughly tested for E. coli production because of the high oxygen demand and temperature maintenance requirements of that platform. The objective of this study is to establish a robust process to generate inoculum for E. coli production fermentations in a WAVE bioreactor. We opted not to evaluate the WAVE system for production cultures because of the high cell densities required in our current E. coli production processes. Instead, the WAVE bioreactor 20/50 system was evaluated at laboratory scale (10-L) to generate inoculum with target optical densities (OD(550)) of 15 within 7-9 h (pre-established target for stainless steel fermentors). The maximum settings for rock rate (40 rpm) and angle (10.5) were used to maximize mass transfer. The gas feed was also supplemented with additional oxygen to meet the high respiratory demand of the culture. The results showed that the growth profiles for the inoculum cultures were similar to those obtained from conventional stainless steel fermentors. These inoculum cultures were subsequently inoculated into 10-L working volume stainless steel fermentors to evaluate the inocula performance of two different production systems during recombinant protein production. The results of these production cultures using WAVE inocula showed that the growth and recombinant protein production was comparable to the control data set. Furthermore, an economic analysis showed that the WAVE system would require less capital investment for installation and operating expenses would be less than traditional stainless steel systems. (c) 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers

  11. Optimization of Large-Scale Culture Conditions for the Production of Cordycepin with Cordyceps militaris by Liquid Static Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chao Kang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Cordycepin is one of the most important bioactive compounds produced by species of Cordyceps sensu lato, but it is hard to produce large amounts of this substance in industrial production. In this work, single factor design, Plackett-Burman design, and central composite design were employed to establish the key factors and identify optimal culture conditions which improved cordycepin production. Using these culture conditions, a maximum production of cordycepin was 2008.48 mg/L for 700 mL working volume in the 1000 mL glass jars and total content of cordycepin reached 1405.94 mg/bottle. This method provides an effective way for increasing the cordycepin production at a large scale. The strategies used in this study could have a wide application in other fermentation processes.

  12. A multilevel model of organizational health culture and the effectiveness of health promotion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Yea-Wen; Lin, Yueh-Ysen

    2014-01-01

    Organizational health culture is a health-oriented core characteristic of the organization that is shared by all members. It is effective in regulating health-related behavior for employees and could therefore influence the effectiveness of health promotion efforts among organizations and employees. This study applied a multilevel analysis to verify the effects of organizational health culture on the organizational and individual effectiveness of health promotion. At the organizational level, we investigated the effect of organizational health culture on the organizational effectiveness of health promotion. At the individual level, we adopted a cross-level analysis to determine if organizational health culture affects employee effectiveness through the mediating effect of employee health behavior. The study setting consisted of the workplaces of various enterprises. We selected 54 enterprises in Taiwan and surveyed 20 full-time employees from each organization, for a total sample of 1011 employees. We developed the Organizational Health Culture Scale to measure employee perceptions and aggregated the individual data to formulate organization-level data. Organizational effectiveness of health promotion included four dimensions: planning effectiveness, production, outcome, and quality, which were measured by scale or objective indicators. The Health Promotion Lifestyle Scale was adopted for the measurement of health behavior. Employee effectiveness was measured subjectively in three dimensions: self-evaluated performance, altruism, and happiness. Following the calculation of descriptive statistics, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to test the multilevel hypotheses. Organizational health culture had a significant effect on the planning effectiveness (β = .356, p production (β = .359, p promotion. In addition, results of cross-level moderating effect analysis by HLM demonstrated that the effects of organizational health culture on three dimensions of

  13. Royal Jelly Prevents Osteoporosis in Rats: Beneficial Effects in Ovariectomy Model and in Bone Tissue Culture Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saburo Hidaka

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Royal jelly (RJ has been used worldwide for many years as medical products, health foods and cosmetics. Since RJ contains testosterone and has steroid hormone-type activities, we hypothesized that it may have beneficial effects on osteoporosis. We used both an ovariectomized rat model and a tissue culture model. Rats were divided into eight groups as follows: sham-operated (Sham, ovariectomized (OVX, OVX given 0.5% (w/w raw RJ, OVX given 2.0% (w/w RJ, OVX given 0.5% (w/w protease-treated RJ (pRJ, OVX given 2.0% (w/w pRJ, OVX given 17β-estradiol and OVX given its vehicle, respectively. The Ovariectomy decreased tibial bone mineral density (BMD by 24%. Administration of 17β-estradiol to OVX rats recovered the tibial BMD decrease by 100%. Administration of 2.0% (w/w RJ and 0.5–2.0% (w/w pRJ to OVX rats recovered it by 85% or more. These results indicate that both RJ and pRJ are almost as effective as 17β-estradiol in preventing the development of bone loss induced by ovariectomy in rats. In tissue culture models, both RJ and pRJ increased calcium contents in femoral-diaphyseal and femoral-metaphyseal tissue cultures obtained from normal male rats. However, in a mouse marrow culture model, they neither inhibited the parathyroid hormone (PTH-induced calcium loss nor affected the formation of osteoclast-like cells induced by PTH in mouse marrow culture system. Therefore, our results suggest that both RJ and pRJ may prevent osteoporosis by enhancing intestinal calcium absorption, but not by directly antagonizing the action of PTH.

  14. Image, Precariousness and the Logic of Cultural Production in Hong Kong

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carolyn Cartier

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Interpretations of culture in Hong Kong have tended to portray the city in terms of the vanishing present, in some combination of the instant, fleeting and disappearing. This article redresses such language of lack to consider instead how the idea of precariousness in the realm of the cultural has been less a condition of cultural production than a cultural strategy. Street art, including alternative performance art and political graffiti, has made the city itself the site of roving cultural production: walls, street surfaces and passageways accommodate forms of expression that the city’s cultural institutions have only more recently and uneasily embraced. In these different modes of time-space, contemporary alternative art occupies transitory territory and locates its ‘precariousness’ in lack of definitive status and uncertain future – mimetic conditions of defining culture in Hong Kong society itself. Its measures, by contrast, emerge in Jacques Rancière’s distribution of the sensible: the ways in which they render what is visible, knowable and ultimately sayable. As objects generating negotiation, such contemporary cultural projects anticipate instabilities of the present, identify hegemonic political economic logics and seek modes of resistance. Within these perspectives, this discussion juxtaposes two simultaneous events: the exhibit ‘Memories of King Kowloon’ on the historic graffiti of Tsang Tsou-choi, and the stenciled graffiti of Ai Weiwei in public space during April and May 2011.

  15. Modeling Nitrous Oxide Production during Biological Nitrogen Removal via Nitrification and Denitrification: Extensions to the General ASM Models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ni, Bing-Jie; Ruscalleda, Maël; Pellicer i Nàcher, Carles

    2011-01-01

    on N2O production from four different mixed culture nitrification and denitrification reactor study reports. Modeling results confirm that hydroxylamine oxidation by ammonium oxidizers (AOB) occurs 10 times slower when NO2– participates as final electron acceptor compared to the oxic pathway. Among......Nitrous oxide (N2O) can be formed during biological nitrogen (N) removal processes. In this work, a mathematical model is developed that describes N2O production and consumption during activated sludge nitrification and denitrification. The well-known ASM process models are extended to capture N2O...

  16. Co-culture of microalgae, cyanobacteria, and macromycetes for exopolysaccharides production: process preliminary optimization and partial characterization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angelis, S; Novak, A C; Sydney, E B; Soccol, V T; Carvalho, J C; Pandey, A; Noseda, M D; Tholozan, J L; Lorquin, J; Soccol, C R

    2012-07-01

    In this study, the biomass and exopolysaccharides (EPS) production in co-cultures of microalgae/cyanobacteria and macromycetes was evaluated as a technology for producing new polysaccharides for medical and/or industrial application. Based on biomass and EPS productivity of monocultures, two algae and two fungi were selected and cultured in different co-culture arrangements. The hydrosoluble EPS fractions from mono- and co-cultures were characterized by ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and compared. It was found that co-cultures resulted in the production of an EPS different from those produced by monocultures, showing fungal predominance with microalgal/cyanobacterial traces. Co-cultures conditions were screened (temperature, agitation speed, fungal and microalgae inoculation rate, initial pH, illumination rate, and glucose concentration) in order to achieve maximum biomass and EPS production, resulting in an increase of 33 and 61% in exopolysaccharides and biomass productions, respectively (patent pending).

  17. Modeling culture in intelligent virtual agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mascarenhas, S.; Degens, N.; Paiva, A.; Prada, R.; Hofstede, G.J.; Beulens, A.J.M.; Aylett, R.

    2016-01-01

    This work addresses the challenge of creating virtual agents that are able to portray culturally appropriate behavior when interacting with other agents or humans. Because culture influences how people perceive their social reality it is important to have agent models that explicitly consider social

  18. Using Web-Based Knowledge Extraction Techniques to Support Cultural Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smart, Paul R.; Sieck, Winston R.; Shadbolt, Nigel R.

    The World Wide Web is a potentially valuable source of information about the cognitive characteristics of cultural groups. However, attempts to use the Web in the context of cultural modeling activities are hampered by the large-scale nature of the Web and the current dominance of natural language formats. In this paper, we outline an approach to support the exploitation of the Web for cultural modeling activities. The approach begins with the development of qualitative cultural models (which describe the beliefs, concepts and values of cultural groups), and these models are subsequently used to develop an ontology-based information extraction capability. Our approach represents an attempt to combine conventional approaches to information extraction with epidemiological perspectives of culture and network-based approaches to cultural analysis. The approach can be used, we suggest, to support the development of models providing a better understanding of the cognitive characteristics of particular cultural groups.

  19. A Culture-Behavior-Brain Loop Model of Human Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Shihui; Ma, Yina

    2015-11-01

    Increasing evidence suggests that cultural influences on brain activity are associated with multiple cognitive and affective processes. These findings prompt an integrative framework to account for dynamic interactions between culture, behavior, and the brain. We put forward a culture-behavior-brain (CBB) loop model of human development that proposes that culture shapes the brain by contextualizing behavior, and the brain fits and modifies culture via behavioral influences. Genes provide a fundamental basis for, and interact with, the CBB loop at both individual and population levels. The CBB loop model advances our understanding of the dynamic relationships between culture, behavior, and the brain, which are crucial for human phylogeny and ontogeny. Future brain changes due to cultural influences are discussed based on the CBB loop model. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Modeling the genealogy of a cultural trait.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aguilar, Elliot; Ghirlanda, Stefano

    2015-05-01

    The mathematical study of genealogies has yielded important insights in population biology, such as the ability to estimate the time to the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of a sample of genetic sequences or of a group of individuals. Here we introduce a model of cultural genealogies that is a step toward answering similar questions for cultural traits. In our model individuals can inherit from a variable, potentially large number of ancestors, rather than from a fixed, small number of ancestors (one or two) as is typical of genetic evolution. We first show that, given a sample of individuals, a cultural common ancestor does not necessarily exist. We then introduce a related concept: the most recent unique ancestor (MRUA), i.e., the most recent single individual who is the earliest cultural ancestor of the sample. We show that, under neutral evolution, the time to the MRUA can be staggeringly larger than the time to MRCA in a single ancestor model, except when the average number of learning opportunities per individuals is small. Our results point out that the properties of cultural genealogies may be very different from those of genetic genealogies, with potential implications for reconstructing the histories of cultural traits. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Screening of culture condition for xylanase production by ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study demonstrated not only the importance of the nature of the substrate in obtaining a system resistant to catabolic repression, but also the importance of the culture conditions for biosynthesis of this enzyme. T. viride showed a high potential for xylanase production under the conditions presented in these assays.

  2. Cultural consultation as a model for training multidisciplinary mental healthcare professionals in cultural competence skills: preliminary results.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Owiti, J A; Ajaz, A; Ascoli, M; de Jongh, B; Palinski, A; Bhui, K S

    2014-01-01

    Lack of cultural competence in care contributes to poor experiences and outcomes from care for migrants and racial and ethnic minorities. As a result, health and social care organizations currently promote cultural competence of their workforce as a means of addressing persistent poor experiences and outcomes. At present, there are unsystematic and diverse ways of promoting cultural competence, and their impact on clinician skills and patient outcomes is unknown. We developed and implemented an innovative model, cultural consultation service (CCS), to promote cultural competence of clinicians and directly improve on patient experiences and outcomes from care. CCS model is an adaptation of the McGill model, which uses ethnographic methodology and medical anthropological knowledge. The method and approach not only contributes both to a broader conceptual and dynamic understanding of culture, but also to learning of cultural competence skills by healthcare professionals. The CCS model demonstrates that multidisciplinary workforce can acquire cultural competence skills better through the clinical encounter, as this promotes integration of learning into day-to-day practice. Results indicate that clinicians developed a broader and patient-centred understanding of culture, and gained skills in narrative-based assessment method, management of complexity of care, competing assumptions and expectations, and clinical cultural formulation. Cultural competence is defined as a set of skills, attitudes and practices that enable the healthcare professionals to deliver high-quality interventions to patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. Improving on the cultural competence skills of the workforce has been promoted as a way of reducing ethnic and racial inequalities in service outcomes. Currently, diverse models for training in cultural competence exist, mostly with no evidence of effect. We established an innovative narrative-based cultural consultation service in an inner

  3. Dynamic flux balance modeling of microbial co-cultures for efficient batch fermentation of glucose and xylose mixtures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanly, Timothy J; Henson, Michael A

    2011-02-01

    Sequential uptake of pentose and hexose sugars that compose lignocellulosic biomass limits the ability of pure microbial cultures to efficiently produce value-added bioproducts. In this work, we used dynamic flux balance modeling to examine the capability of mixed cultures of substrate-selective microbes to improve the utilization of glucose/xylose mixtures and to convert these mixed substrates into products. Co-culture simulations of Escherichia coli strains ALS1008 and ZSC113, engineered for glucose and xylose only uptake respectively, indicated that improvements in batch substrate consumption observed in previous experimental studies resulted primarily from an increase in ZSC113 xylose uptake relative to wild-type E. coli. The E. coli strain ZSC113 engineered for the elimination of glucose uptake was computationally co-cultured with wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which can only metabolize glucose, to determine if the co-culture was capable of enhanced ethanol production compared to pure cultures of wild-type E. coli and the S. cerevisiae strain RWB218 engineered for combined glucose and xylose uptake. Under the simplifying assumption that both microbes grow optimally under common environmental conditions, optimization of the strain inoculum and the aerobic to anaerobic switching time produced an almost twofold increase in ethanol productivity over the pure cultures. To examine the effect of reduced strain growth rates at non-optimal pH and temperature values, a break even analysis was performed to determine possible reductions in individual strain substrate uptake rates that resulted in the same predicted ethanol productivity as the best pure culture. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Boosting dark fermentation with co-cultures of extreme thermophiles for biohythane production from garden waste.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abreu, Angela A; Tavares, Fábio; Alves, Maria Madalena; Pereira, Maria Alcina

    2016-11-01

    Proof of principle of biohythane and potential energy production from garden waste (GW) is demonstrated in this study in a two-step process coupling dark fermentation and anaerobic digestion. The synergistic effect of using co-cultures of extreme thermophiles to intensify biohydrogen dark fermentation is demonstrated using xylose, cellobiose and GW. Co-culture of Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus and Thermotoga maritima showed higher hydrogen production yields from xylose (2.7±0.1molmol(-1) total sugar) and cellobiose (4.8±0.3molmol(-1) total sugar) compared to individual cultures. Co-culture of extreme thermophiles C. saccharolyticus and Caldicellulosiruptor bescii increased synergistically the hydrogen production yield from GW (98.3±6.9Lkg(-1) (VS)) compared to individual cultures and co-culture of T. maritima and C. saccharolyticus. The biochemical methane potential of the fermentation end-products was 322±10Lkg(-1) (CODt). Biohythane, a biogas enriched with 15% hydrogen could be obtained from GW, yielding a potential energy generation of 22.2MJkg(-1) (VS). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Crowdfunding and Cultural Industry: The new relations between production and consumption based on the culture of participation and collective funding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vanessa Amália Dalpizol Valiati

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available The configuration of a new standard of consumption and cultural production based on the participation of consumers through the Internet has become a feature of modern society (Jenkins, 2009; Shirky, 2011. Based on this premise, we intend to analyze the process of crowd funding, in which a mass of staff is united in the realization of cultural projects and to create a unique product, under the bias of the culturological theory. This work is also raising questions as to the timeliness of the concept of cultural industry in the face of new practices allowed by digital networks and a potential democratization, focusing the brazilian website Catarse.

  6. Macroscopic Dynamic Modeling of Sequential Batch Cultures of Hybridoma Cells: An Experimental Validation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laurent Dewasme

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Hybridoma cells are commonly grown for the production of monoclonal antibodies (MAb. For monitoring and control purposes of the bioreactors, dynamic models of the cultures are required. However these models are difficult to infer from the usually limited amount of available experimental data and do not focus on target protein production optimization. This paper explores an experimental case study where hybridoma cells are grown in a sequential batch reactor. The simplest macroscopic reaction scheme translating the data is first derived using a maximum likelihood principal component analysis. Subsequently, nonlinear least-squares estimation is used to determine the kinetic laws. The resulting dynamic model reproduces quite satisfactorily the experimental data, as evidenced in direct and cross-validation tests. Furthermore, model predictions can also be used to predict optimal medium renewal time and composition.

  7. Research on evaluation of enterprise project culture based on Denison model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yucheng Zeng

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to build enterprise project culture evaluation model and search for the best evaluation method for Chinese enterprise project culture on the basis of studying and drawing lessons from enterprise culture evaluation theory and method at home and abroad. Design/methodology/approach: Referring to the Denison enterprise culture evaluation model, this paper optimizes it according to the difference of enterprise project culture, designs the enterprise project culture evaluation model and proves the practicability of the model through empirical. Finding: This paper finds that it`s more applicable to use the Denison model for enterprise project culture evaluation through the comparative analysis of domestic and foreign enterprise culture evaluation theory and method, the systematic project culture management framework of Chinese enterprises has not yet formed through empirical research, and four factors in enterprise project culture have important influence on project operation performance improvement. Research limitations/implications: The research on evaluation of enterprise project culture based on Denison model is a preliminary attempt, the design of evaluation index system, evaluation model and scale structure also need to be improved, but the thinking of this paper in this field provides a valuable reference for future research. Practical Implications: This paper provides the support of theory and practice for evaluating the present situation of enterprise project culture construction and analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of project culture, which contributes to the "dialectical therapy" of enterprise project management, enterprise management and enterprise project culture construction. Originality/value: The main contribution of this paper is the introduction of Denison enterprise culture model. Combining with the actual situation of enterprises, this paper also builds the evaluation model for

  8. Brain Aggregates: An Effective In Vitro Cell Culture System Modeling Neurodegenerative Diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahn, Misol; Kalume, Franck; Pitstick, Rose; Oehler, Abby; Carlson, George; DeArmond, Stephen J

    2016-03-01

    Drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases is particularly challenging because of the discrepancies in drug effects between in vitro and in vivo studies. These discrepancies occur in part because current cell culture systems used for drug screening have many limitations. First, few cell culture systems accurately model human aging or neurodegenerative diseases. Second, drug efficacy may differ between dividing and stationary cells, the latter resembling nondividing neurons in the CNS. Brain aggregates (BrnAggs) derived from embryonic day 15 gestation mouse embryos may represent neuropathogenic processes in prion disease and reflect in vivo drug efficacy. Here, we report a new method for the production of BrnAggs suitable for drug screening and suggest that BrnAggs can model additional neurological diseases such as tauopathies. We also report a functional assay with BrnAggs by measuring electrophysiological activities. Our data suggest that BrnAggs could serve as an effective in vitro cell culture system for drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases. © 2016 American Association of Neuropathologists, Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Enhancement of Diosgenin Production in Plantlet and Cell Cultures ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Enhancement of Diosgenin Production in Plantlet and Cell Cultures of Dioscorea zingiberensis by Palmarumycin C13 from the Endophytic fungus, Berkleasmium sp. Dzf12. Y Mou, K Zhou, D Xu, R Yu, J Li, C Yin, L Zhou ...

  10. Animal cell cultures: recent achievements and perspectives in the production of biopharmaceuticals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Michael

    2005-08-01

    There has been a rapid increase in the number and demand for approved biopharmaceuticals produced from animal cell culture processes over the last few years. In part, this has been due to the efficacy of several humanized monoclonal antibodies that are required at large doses for therapeutic use. There have also been several identifiable advances in animal cell technology that has enabled efficient biomanufacture of these products. Gene vector systems allow high specific protein expression and some minimize the undesirable process of gene silencing that may occur in prolonged culture. Characterization of cellular metabolism and physiology has enabled the design of fed-batch and perfusion bioreactor processes that has allowed a significant improvement in product yield, some of which are now approaching 5 g/L. Many of these processes are now being designed in serum-free and animal-component-free media to ensure that products are not contaminated with the adventitious agents found in bovine serum. There are several areas that can be identified that could lead to further improvement in cell culture systems. This includes the down-regulation of apoptosis to enable prolonged cell survival under potentially adverse conditions. The characterization of the critical parameters of glycosylation should enable process control to reduce the heterogeneity of glycoforms so that production processes are consistent. Further improvement may also be made by the identification of glycoforms with enhanced biological activity to enhance clinical efficacy. The ability to produce the ever-increasing number of biopharmaceuticals by animal cell culture is dependent on sufficient bioreactor capacity in the industry. A recent shortfall in available worldwide culture capacity has encouraged commercial activity in contract manufacturing operations. However, some analysts indicate that this still may not be enough and that future manufacturing demand may exceed production capacity as the number

  11. Production of Gouda cheese and Camembert with probiotic cultures: the suitability of some commercial probiotic cultures to be implemented in cheese.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van de Casteele, S; Ruyssen, T; Vanheuverzwijn, T; Van Assche, P

    2003-01-01

    The behaviour of 10 probiotic cultures (L. acidophilus, Bifidobacterium sp., L. rhamnosus and L. paracasei) was examined during the production and ripening of Gouda cheese and Camembert. The overall objective of this research project was to obtain a product (cheese) containing at least 10(7) probiotic cfu/g. In general 10(6) cfu of a probiotic culture must be implemented per ml cheese milk, together with the cheesestarter, to reach this objective. L. paracasei sp. have the ability to grow more than 2 log units during cheese ripening. A lower inoculation value can be considered for these cultures.

  12. Application of a quality by design approach to the cell culture process of monoclonal antibody production, resulting in the establishment of a design space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagashima, Hiroaki; Watari, Akiko; Shinoda, Yasuharu; Okamoto, Hiroshi; Takuma, Shinya

    2013-12-01

    This case study describes the application of Quality by Design elements to the process of culturing Chinese hamster ovary cells in the production of a monoclonal antibody. All steps in the cell culture process and all process parameters in each step were identified by using a cause-and-effect diagram. Prospective risk assessment using failure mode and effects analysis identified the following four potential critical process parameters in the production culture step: initial viable cell density, culture duration, pH, and temperature. These parameters and lot-to-lot variability in raw material were then evaluated by process characterization utilizing a design of experiments approach consisting of a face-centered central composite design integrated with a full factorial design. Process characterization was conducted using a scaled down model that had been qualified by comparison with large-scale production data. Multivariate regression analysis was used to establish statistical prediction models for performance indicators and quality attributes; with these, we constructed contour plots and conducted Monte Carlo simulation to clarify the design space. The statistical analyses, especially for raw materials, identified set point values, which were most robust with respect to the lot-to-lot variability of raw materials while keeping the product quality within the acceptance criteria. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association.

  13. Sorghum bagasse as substrate for cellulase production by submerged and solid-state cultures of Trichoderma

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teodor Vintilă

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Sweet sorghum bagasse was used as cellulosic substrate in submerged and solid-state cultures of Trichoderma for cellulase production. Submerged liquid cultures (SLC were obtained by inoculation of Mandels media containing 1% cellulose with spores suspension of Trichoderma. Solid-state cultures (SSC were carried out in Erlenmayer flasks, where the substrate was distributed 1 cm layers. Comparing the yields of cellulases produced by Trichoderma strains in the systems applied in this study, using as substrate sorghum bagasse, we found the solid-state cultures as the system to produce the highest cellulase yields. The local strain of T. viride CMIT3.5. express high productivity in SSC system in laboratory conditions. The cellulolytic enzymes have maximum activity at 50oC, pH 4,8. The results recommend solid-state cultures of Trichoderma on sorghum bagasse as systems for producing cellulolytic products with higher activity than submerged cultures of Trichoderma on the same substrate.

  14. Colour bio-factories: Towards scale-up production of anthocyanins in plant cell cultures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Appelhagen, Ingo; Wulff-Vester, Anders Keim; Wendell, Micael; Hvoslef-Eide, Anne-Kathrine; Russell, Julia; Oertel, Anne; Martens, Stefan; Mock, Hans-Peter; Martin, Cathie; Matros, Andrea

    2018-06-08

    Anthocyanins are widely distributed, glycosylated, water-soluble plant pigments, which give many fruits and flowers their red, purple or blue colouration. Their beneficial effects in a dietary context have encouraged increasing use of anthocyanins as natural colourants in the food and cosmetic industries. However, the limited availability and diversity of anthocyanins commercially have initiated searches for alternative sources of these natural colourants. In plants, high-level production of secondary metabolites, such as anthocyanins, can be achieved by engineering of regulatory genes as well as genes encoding biosynthetic enzymes. We have used tobacco lines which constitutively produce high levels of cyanidin 3-O-rutinoside, delphinidin 3-O-rutinoside or a novel anthocyanin, acylated cyanidin 3-O-(coumaroyl) rutinoside to generate cell suspension cultures. The cell lines are stable in their production rates and superior to conventional plant cell cultures. Scale-up of anthocyanin production in small scale fermenters has been demonstrated. The cell cultures have also proven to be a suitable system for production of 13 C-labelled anthocyanins. Our method for anthocyanin production is transferable to other plant species, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, demonstrating the potential of this approach for making a wide range of highly-decorated anthocyanins. The tobacco cell cultures represent a customisable and sustainable alternative to conventional anthocyanin production platforms and have considerable potential for use in industrial and medical applications of anthocyanins. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Continuum-level modelling of cellular adhesion and matrix production in aggregates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geris, Liesbet; Ashbourn, Joanna M A; Clarke, Tim

    2011-05-01

    Key regulators in tissue-engineering processes such as cell culture and cellular organisation are the cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. As mathematical models are increasingly applied to investigate biological phenomena in the biomedical field, it is important, for some applications, that these models incorporate an adequate description of cell adhesion. This study describes the development of a continuum model that represents a cell-in-gel culture system used in bone-tissue engineering, namely that of a cell aggregate embedded in a hydrogel. Cell adhesion is modelled through the use of non-local (integral) terms in the partial differential equations. The simulation results demonstrate that the effects of cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion are particularly important for the survival and growth of the cell population and the production of extracellular matrix by the cells, concurring with experimental observations in the literature.

  16. Safety sans Frontières: An International Safety Culture Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reader, Tom W; Noort, Mark C; Shorrock, Steven; Kirwan, Barry

    2015-05-01

    The management of safety culture in international and culturally diverse organizations is a concern for many high-risk industries. Yet, research has primarily developed models of safety culture within Western countries, and there is a need to extend investigations of safety culture to global environments. We examined (i) whether safety culture can be reliably measured within a single industry operating across different cultural environments, and (ii) if there is an association between safety culture and national culture. The psychometric properties of a safety culture model developed for the air traffic management (ATM) industry were examined in 17 European countries from four culturally distinct regions of Europe (North, East, South, West). Participants were ATM operational staff (n = 5,176) and management staff (n = 1,230). Through employing multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, good psychometric properties of the model were established. This demonstrates, for the first time, that when safety culture models are tailored to a specific industry, they can operate consistently across national boundaries and occupational groups. Additionally, safety culture scores at both regional and national levels were associated with country-level data on Hofstede's five national culture dimensions (collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation). MANOVAs indicated safety culture to be most positive in Northern Europe, less so in Western and Eastern Europe, and least positive in Southern Europe. This indicates that national cultural traits may influence the development of organizational safety culture, with significant implications for safety culture theory and practice. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

  17. Comparative life cycle assessment and financial analysis of mixed culture polyhydroxyalkanoate production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gurieff, Nicholas; Lant, Paul

    2007-12-01

    A life cycle assessment and financial analysis of mixed culture PHA (PHA(MC)) and biogas production was undertaken based on treating an industrial wastewater. Internal rate of return (IRR) and non-renewable CO(2)eq emissions were used to quantify financial viability and environmental impact. PHA(MC) was preferable to biogas production for treating the specified industrial effluent. PHA(MC) was also financially attractive in comparison to pure culture PHA production. Both PHA production processes had similar environmental impacts that were significantly lower than HDPE production. A large potential for optimisation exists for the PHA(MC) process as financial and environmental costs were primarily due to energy use for downstream processing. Under the conditions used in this work PHA(MC) was shown to be a viable biopolymer production process and an effective industrial wastewater treatment technology. This is the first study of its kind and provides valuable insight into the PHA(MC) process.

  18. Passion fruit by-product and fructooligosaccharides stimulate the growth and folate production by starter and probiotic cultures in fermented soymilk.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albuquerque, Marcela Albuquerque Cavalcanti; Bedani, Raquel; LeBlanc, Jean Guy; Saad, Susana Marta Isay

    2017-11-16

    Two starter cultures (Streptococcus (St.) thermophilus ST-M6 and TA-40) and five probiotic strains (St. thermophilus TH-4, Lactobacillus (Lb.) acidophilus LA-5, Lb. rhamnosus LGG, Lb. fermentum PCC, and Lb. reuteri RC-14) were used to ferment different soymilk formulations supplemented with passion fruit by-product and/or fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) with the aim of increasing folate concentrations. Growth and folate production of individual strains were evaluated and the results used to select co-cultures. Both St. thermophilus ST-M6 and TH-4 were the best folate producers and were able to increase the folate content of all soymilk formulations when used alone or in co-culture with lactobacilli strains, especially in the presence of both passion fruit by-product and FOS. Thus, passion fruit by-product and FOS could be used as dietary ingredients to stimulate the folate production by selected bacterial strains during the fermentation of soymilk. It was also shown that vitamin production by microorganisms is strain-dependent and may also be influenced by nutritional and environmental conditions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Flavonoid Production, Growth and Differentiation of Stelechocarpus burahol (Bl.) Hook. F. and Th. Cell Suspension Culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aini Habibah, Noor; Moeljopawiro, Sukarti; Dewi, Kumala; Indrianto, Ari

    2017-01-01

    Stelechocarpus burahol is a plant containing flavonoid compounds that have the potential for use as an antihyperuricemic for gout medication. This study was performed to assess flavonoid production, growth and cell differentiation of S. burahol in cell suspension culture. Mesocarp was planted in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 7.5 mg L-1 picloram for the induction of callus. Non-embryonic callus obtained was used in the formation of cell suspension cultures. Growth of cells was determined by fresh and dry weights. During the culturing, the fresh weight, dry weight and flavonoid content were determined as a result of culture status. The growth of the S. burahol cell suspension was slow, the stationary phase occurred at 30 days. The production of flavonoids was not in line with the growth of cells and the maximum production occurred on the 15th day of the log phase. The globular-shaped cells dominated the cell suspension culture at all ages. Fluorescein diacetate (FDA) staining of cells derived from cell cultures aged for 36 days showed that some cells were still viable. The results show that flavonoid production, growth and cell differentiation of a S. burahol cell suspension culture differed according to the culture age.

  20. The Cultural of Production and Career in the Danish film Industry

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mathieu, Chris

    This chapter explores some of the central cultural tenets of career and film making among elite members of the Danish film industry, or what is less than elegantly and somewhat grammatically incorrectly referred to as ‘the cultural of production and career’ in the title of this chapter....... The theoretical reasons for this formulation is to train focus on the ideational dimensions of culture in the Danish film industry, especially as refracted through reflections on work and career by film workers. In this sense the approach, though less inclusive and ambitious, resembles Caldwell’s interest...

  1. Enhanced production of L-DOPA in cell cultures of Mucuna pruriens L. and Mucuna prurita H.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raghavendra, S; Kumar, V; Ramesh, C K; Khan, M H Moinuddin

    2012-01-01

    A comparative study on the production of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) was carried out in cell cultures of two Mucuna species by elicitor treatment and precursor feeding. The influence of elicitors and the precursor molecule on L-DOPA production, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and tyrosinase activities was also studied. Callus cultures were initiated in Mucuna pruriens L. and Mucuna prurita H. on MS medium supplemented with BAP and IAA at different concentrations. Suspension cultures were established in MS liquid medium supplemented with BAP, IAA, the elicitors methyl jasmonate, chitin and pectin or the precursor L-tyrosine at different concentrations for L-DOPA production. Compared to the controls, several-fold increases in L-DOPA concentration were observed in elicitor-treated and precursor-fed suspension cultures of both plant species. L-DOPA concentrations were comparatively higher in precursor-fed cultures than those receiving elicitor treatments. A parallel increase in tyrosinase and PPO levels was also observed. Loss of cell viability was observed at high concentrations of elicitor-treated cultures, whereas L-tyrosine did not cause any cell death. Compared to elicitor treatments, precursor feeding resulted in higher concentrations of L-DOPA production and tyrosinase activity. The efficacy of L-DOPA production was found to be higher for suspension cultures of M. pruriens compared to M. prurita in all treatments.

  2. Product quality considerations for mammalian cell culture process development and manufacturing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gramer, Michael J

    2014-01-01

    The manufacturing of a biologic drug from mammalian cells results in not a single substance, but an array of product isoforms, also known as variants. These isoforms arise due to intracellular or extracellular events as a result of biological or chemical modification. The most common examples related to biomanufacturing include amino acid modifications (glycosylation, isomerization, oxidation, adduct formation, pyroglutamate formation, phosphorylation, sulfation, amidation), amino acid sequence variants (genetic mutations, amino acid misincorporation, N- and C-terminal heterogeneity, clipping), and higher-order structure modifications (misfolding, aggregation, disulfide pairing). Process-related impurities (HCP, DNA, media components, viral particles) are also important quality attributes related to product safety. The observed ranges associated with each quality attribute define the product quality profile. A biologic drug must have a correct and consistent quality profile throughout clinical development and scale-up to commercial production to ensure product safety and efficacy. In general, the upstream process (cell culture) defines the quality of product-related substances, whereas the downstream process (purification) defines the residual level of process- and product-related impurities. The purpose of this chapter is to review the impact of the cell culture process on product quality. Emphasis is placed on studies with industrial significance and where the direct mechanism of product quality impact was determined. Where possible, recommendations for maintaining consistent or improved quality are provided.

  3. Production of betalaines by Myrtillocactus cell cultures. Passage from heterotrophic state to autotrophic state with Asparagus cell cultures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bulard, C; Mary, J; Chaumont, D; Gudin, C

    1982-11-01

    Myrtillocactus tissue cultures are grown from the epicotyl of young plantlets. With an appropriate growing medium it is possible, after transfer of fragments of these cultures to a liquid environment, to obtain dissociation and proliferation of cells. The production of betalaic pigments is induced in solid surroundings by adjustement of the growing medium composition and can be maintained in a liquid environment. The multiplication of pigmented cells in suspension may thus be obtained. The conversion of Asparagus cell suspensions from the heterotrophic state (use of lactose as source of carbon) to the autotrophic state (carbon supplied by CO/sub 2/) is obtained by a gradual reduction in the sugar concentration of the medium combined with a rise in the CO/sub 2/ content of the gas mixture atmosphere injected into the cultivator. The passage to the autotrophic state of a Myrtillocactus suspension would enable the production conditions of a metabolite (Betalaine) to be studied by micro-algae culture techniques.

  4. [Effective productions of plant secondary metabolites having antitumor activity by plant cell and tissue cultures].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taniguchi, Shoko

    2005-06-01

    Methods for the effective production of plant secondary metabolites with antitumor activity using plant cell and tissue cultures were developed. The factors in tannin productivity were investigated using culture strains producing different types of hydrolyzable tannins, i.e., gallotannins (mixture of galloylglucoses), ellagi-, and dehydroellagitannins. Production of ellagi- and dehydroellagitannins was affected by the concentrations and ratio of nitrogen sources in the medium. The formation of oligomeric ellagitannins in shoots of Oenothera tetraptera was correlated with the differentiation of tissues. Cultured cells of Eriobotrya japonica producing ursane- and oleanane-type triterpenes with antitumor activities were also established.

  5. Linking culture, organizational, learning orientation and product innovation performance: the case of Ethiopian manufacturing firms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beyene, K. T.

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Using formal survey data from textile and leather product manufacturing firms in Ethiopia, we investigate how the current national cultural setup (power distance, collectivism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance is affecting organizational learning, orientation and product innovation performance. Further, we assess the moderating role of sector and ownership structure on the interrelationship. The result demonstrates that the current national culture setup is negatively affecting the learning and innovation activities of the firms in the country. It also shows that while sector type is neutral, ownership type significantly affects the interrelationship among culture, learning orientation and product innovation performance.

  6. Looks of Love and Loathing: Cultural Models of Vision and Emotion in Ancient Greek Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Douglas L. Cairns

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper considers the intersection of cultural models of emotion, specifically love and envy, with folk and scientific models of vision in Greek antiquity. Though the role of the eyes in the expression of these emotions can intersect with widespread beliefs in vision as a 'haptic', material process, analogous to touch, none the less the emotional concepts resist absorption into a single over-arching theory of the physical effects of seeing and being seen. The specific cultural models of vision ('active', 'passive', and 'interactive' are enlisted in support of cultural models of emotion where they fit, modified where they fit less well, and ignored when they do not fit at all.

  7. Enhanced hydrogen and 1,3-propanediol production from glycerol by fermentation using mixed cultures

    KAUST Repository

    Selembo, Priscilla A.

    2009-12-15

    The conversion of glycerol into high value products, such as hydrogen gas and 1,3-propanediol (PD), was examined using anaerobic fermentation with heat-treated mixed cultures. Glycerol fermentation produced 0.28 mol-H 2/mol-glycerol (72 mL-H2/g-COD) and 0.69 mol-PD/mol-glycerol. Glucose fermentation using the same mixed cultures produced more hydrogen gas (1.06 mol-H2/mol-glucose) but no PD. Changing the source of inoculum affected gas production likely due to prior acclimation of bacteria to this type of substrate. Fermentation of the glycerol produced from biodiesel fuel production (70% glycerol content) produced 0.31 mol-H 2/mol-glycerol (43 mL H2/g-COD) and 0.59 mol-PD/mol-glycerol. These are the highest yields yet reported for both hydrogen and 1,3-propanediol production from pure glycerol and the glycerol byproduct from biodiesel fuel production by fermentation using mixed cultures. These results demonstrate that production of biodiesel can be combined with production of hydrogen and 1,3-propanediol for maximum utilization of resources and minimization of waste. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. Reconstructing marginality: a new model of cultural diversity in nursing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Southwick, Margaret; Polaschek, Nick

    2014-05-01

    This article presents a new model of cultural diversity in nursing that critically reconstructs the concept of marginality that underpins other models. Rather than viewing the marginal as "other," marginality is redefined as the space in between the dominant cultural reality and the cultural realities of minority groups located within a society. Members of a minority cultural group who become skilled in the difficult process of negotiating this in-between space open the possibility of transformation within nursing education and practice. This model has been applied in a study of the experience of nursing students of Pacific ethnicity in New Zealand. Subsequently, an undergraduate Pacific nursing program was developed, with greatly increased success rates in registration of Pacific nurses. This model of cultural diversity can also be used to understand nursing practice involving people from minority cultures or other socially excluded categories. Copyright 2014, SLACK Incorporated.

  9. Culture Compound Effects on the Production of Hyaluronidase Enzyme through Bacillus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Soleimani Darjagh M

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Background and Objectives: Today, hyaluronidase enzyme has a wide application in medicine, pharmaceutics, histoegineering, oncology and ophthalmology. Its therapeutical significance is based upon the breakage of hyaluronan, resulting in increasing the level of membranous permeability, decreasing viscosity index and facilitating the spread of injected liquids. In fact, hyaluronidase causes a huge increase in the absorption of some injected drugs like antibiotics improving the efficiency of any local anesthetics. Today, producing this kind of enzyme through microorganisms has attracted considerableattention. Considering that BHI broth culture is an expensive medium and cannot be used as an economical medium for industrial production of the enzyme, designing a synthetic culture medium has been considered in order to keep its production within the limit of BHI (7.4unit/ml in an economical manner.Methods: The isolate G8 (obtained from the soil of Behesht Zahra district in Tehran was used as a nativestrain and producer of the enzyme .G8 is a kind of aerobic soporiferous bacillus.In addition mall compounds contained in the culture were recognized and their concentrations were measured through Taguchi design method. The amount of produced enzyme was measured by carbazole method.Results: According to Taguchi design method, culture medium containing fructose (5g/l yeast extract (15g/l, ammonium chloride (10g/l with a rotational speed (250rpm was condition to produce the enzyme through G8. The amount of produced enzyme was very significant in such condition (8.04unit/ml.Conclusion: The obtained results from the study can be used to design any suitable industrial culture media and to determine the best physicochemical condition (aeration for economical production of hyaluronidase through G8.

  10. Systematic model for lean product development implementation in an automotive related company

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Osezua Aikhuele

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Lean product development is a major innovative business strategy that employs sets of practices to achieve an efficient, innovative and a sustainable product development. Despite the many benefits and high hopes in the lean strategy, many companies are still struggling, and unable to either achieve or sustain substantial positive results with their lean implementation efforts. However, as the first step towards addressing this issue, this paper seeks to propose a systematic model that considers the administrative and implementation limitations of lean thinking practices in the product development process. The model which is based on the integration of fuzzy Shannon’s entropy and Modified Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (M-TOPSIS model for the lean product development practices implementation with respective to different criteria including management and leadership, financial capabilities, skills and expertise and organization culture, provides a guide or roadmap for product development managers on the lean implementation route.

  11. Effect of culture density on biomass production and light utilization efficiency of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Straka, Levi; Rittmann, Bruce E

    2018-02-01

    The viability of large-scale microalgae cultivation depends on providing optimal growth conditions, for which a key operational parameter is culture density. Using Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, we conducted a series of fixed-density, steady-state experiments and one batch-growth experiment to investigate the role of culture density on biomass production and light utilization efficiency. In all cases, the fixed-density, steady-state experiments and batch-growth experiment showed good agreement. The highest biomass production rates (260 mg L -1  d -1 ) and efficiency for converting light energy to biomass (0.80 μg (μmol photons) -1 ) occurred together at a culture density near 760 mg L -1 , which approximately corresponded to the lowest culture density where almost all incident light was absorbed. The ratio of OD 680 /OD 735 increased with culture density up to the point of maximum productivity, where it plateaued (at a value of 2.4) for higher culture densities. This change in OD 680 /OD 735 indicates a photoacclimation effect that depended on culture density. Very high culture densities led to a sharp decline in efficiency of biomass production per photons absorbed, likely due to a combination of increased decay relative to growth, metabolic changes due to cell-cell interactions, and photodamage due to mixing between regions with high light intensity and zero light intensity. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  12. Production of nattokinase by high cell density fed-batch culture of Bacillus subtilis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwon, Eun-Yeong; Kim, Kyung Mi; Kim, Mi Kyoung; Lee, In Young; Kim, Beom Soo

    2011-09-01

    Bacillus subtilis was cultivated to high cell density for nattokinase production by pH-stat fed-batch culture. A concentrated mixture solution of glucose and peptone was automatically added by acid-supplying pump when culture pH rose above high limit. Effect of the ratio of glucose to peptone in feeding solution was investigated on cell growth and nattokinase production by changing the ratio from 0.2 to 5 g glucose/g peptone. The highest cell concentration was 77 g/L when the ratio was 0.2 g glucose/g peptone. Cell concentration decreased with increasing the ratio of glucose to peptone in feeding solution, while the optimum condition existed for nattokinase production. The highest nattokinase activity was 14,500 unit/mL at a ratio of 0.33 g glucose/g peptone, which was 4.3 times higher than that in batch culture.

  13. Secretory production of cell wall components by Saccharomyces cerevisiae protoplasts in static liquid culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aoyagi, Hideki; Ishizaka, Mikiko; Tanaka, Hideo

    2012-04-01

    When protoplasts of Saccharomyces cerevisiae T7 and IFO 0309 are cultured in a static liquid culture at 2.5 × 10(6) protoplasts/ml, cell wall regeneration does not occur and cell wall components (CWC) are released into the culture broth. By using a specialized fluorometer, the concentrations of CWC could be measured on the basis of the fluorescence intensity of the CWC after staining with Fluostain I. The inoculum concentration, pH, and osmotic pressure of the medium were important factors for the production of CWC in culture. Under optimal culture conditions, S. cerevisiae T7 protoplasts produced 0.91 mg/ml CWC after 24 h. The CWC induced the tumor necrosis factor-α production about 1.3 times higher than that of the commercially available β-1,3/1,6-glucan from baker's yeast cells.

  14. Communicative Modelling of Cultural Transmission and Evolution Through a Holographic Cognition Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ambjörn Naeve

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available This article presents communicative ways to model the transmission and evolution of the processes and artefacts of a culture as the result of ongoing interactions between its members - both at the tacit and the explicit level. The purpose is not to model the entire cultural process, but to provide semantically rich “conceptual placeholders” for modelling any cultural activity that is considered important enough within a certain context. The general purpose of communicative modelling is to create models that improve the quality of communication between people. In order to capture the subjective aspects of Gregory Bateson’s definition of information as “a difference that makes a difference,” the article introduces a Holographic Cognition Model that uses optical holography as an analogy for human cognition, with the object beam of holography corresponding to the first difference (the situation that the cognitive agent encounters, and the reference beam of holography corresponding to the subjective experiences and biases that the agent brings to the situation, and which makes the second difference (the interference/interpretation pattern unique for each agent. By combining the HCM with a semantically rich and recursive form of process modelling, based on the SECI-theory of knowledge creation, we arrive at way to model the cultural transmission and evolution process that is consistent with the Unified Theory of Information (the Triple-C model with its emphasis on intra-, inter- and supra-actions.

  15. Application of the NDHA model to describe N2O dynamics in activated sludge mixed culture biomass

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Domingo-Felez, Carlos; Smets, Barth F.

    A pseudo-mechanistic model describing three biological nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N2O) production pathways was calibrated for an activated sludge mixed culture biomass treating municipal wastewater with laboratory-scale experiments. The model (NDHA) comprehensively describes N2O produci...

  16. The Culture-Work-Health Model and Work Stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peterson, Michael; Wilson, John F.

    2002-01-01

    Examines the role of organizational culture in the etiology of workplace stress through the framework of the Culture-Work- Health model. A review of relevant business and health literature indicates that culture is an important component of work stress and may be a key to creating effective organizational stress interventions. (SM)

  17. The Propositional vs. Hermeneutic Models of Cross-Cultural ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    What the authors attempts to address in this paper is a Kantian question: not whether, but how is cross-cultural understanding possible? And specifically, what is a more effective approach for cross-cultural understanding? The answer lies in an analysis of two different models of cross-cultural understanding, that is, ...

  18. Hydrogen production by the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima Part II: modeling and experimental approaches for hydrogen production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auria, Richard; Boileau, Céline; Davidson, Sylvain; Casalot, Laurence; Christen, Pierre; Liebgott, Pierre Pol; Combet-Blanc, Yannick

    2016-01-01

    Thermotoga maritima is a hyperthermophilic bacterium known to produce hydrogen from a large variety of substrates. The aim of the present study is to propose a mathematical model incorporating kinetics of growth, consumption of substrates, product formations, and inhibition by hydrogen in order to predict hydrogen production depending on defined culture conditions. Our mathematical model, incorporating data concerning growth, substrates, and products, was developed to predict hydrogen production from batch fermentations of the hyperthermophilic bacterium, T. maritima . It includes the inhibition by hydrogen and the liquid-to-gas mass transfer of H 2 , CO 2 , and H 2 S. Most kinetic parameters of the model were obtained from batch experiments without any fitting. The mathematical model is adequate for glucose, yeast extract, and thiosulfate concentrations ranging from 2.5 to 20 mmol/L, 0.2-0.5 g/L, or 0.01-0.06 mmol/L, respectively, corresponding to one of these compounds being the growth-limiting factor of T. maritima . When glucose, yeast extract, and thiosulfate concentrations are all higher than these ranges, the model overestimates all the variables. In the window of the model validity, predictions of the model show that the combination of both variables (increase in limiting factor concentration and in inlet gas stream) leads up to a twofold increase of the maximum H 2 -specific productivity with the lowest inhibition. A mathematical model predicting H 2 production in T. maritima was successfully designed and confirmed in this study. However, it shows the limit of validity of such mathematical models. Their limit of applicability must take into account the range of validity in which the parameters were established.

  19. A parametric study ot protease production in batch and fed-batch cultures of Bacillus firmus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moon, S H; Parulekar, S J

    1991-03-05

    Proteolytic enzymes produced by Bacillus species find a wide variety of applications in brewing, detergent, food, and leather industries. Owing to significant differences normally observed in culture conditions promoting cell growth and those promoting production of metabolites such as enzymes, for increased efficacy of bioreactor operations it is essential to identify these sets of conditions (including medium formulation). This study is focused on formulation of a semidefined medium that substantially enhances synthesis and secretion of an alkaline protease in batch cultures of Bacillus firmus NRS 783, a known superior producer of this enzyme. The series of experiments conducted to identify culture conditions that lead to improved protease production also enables investigation of the regulatory effects of important culture parameters including pH, dissolved oxygen, and concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous sources and yeast extract in the medium on cell growth, synthesis and secretion of protease, and production of two major nonbiomass products, viz., acetic acid and ethanol. Cell growth and formation of the three nonbiomass products are hampered significantly under nitrogen, phosphorous, or oxygen limitation, with the cells being unable to grow in an oxygen-free environment. Improvement in protease production is achieved with respect to each culture parameter, leading in the process to 80% enhancement in protease activity over that attained using media reported in the literature. Results of a few fed-batch experiments with constant feed rate, conducted to examine possible enhancement in protease production and to further investigate repression of protease synthesis by excess of the principal carbon and nitrogen sources, are also discussed. The detailed investigation of stimulatory and repressory effects of simple and complex nutrients on protease production and metabolism of Bacillus firmus conducted in this study will provide useful guidelines for design

  20. DETECTION OF BIOFILM PRODUCTION IN BLOOD CULTURE ISOLATES OF STAPHYLOCOCCI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gupta Puja, Gupta Pratima, Mittal Garima, Agarwal RK, Goyal Rohit

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Biofilm producing bacteria which are inherently resistant to antibiotics and disinfectants are widely associated with implant associated infections. Staphylococcus is the most commonly associated pathogens with bloodstream infection. Aims: The current study was conducted to detect biofilm production in Staphylococci isolated from blood culture specimens. Materials and Methods: 70 clinically significant staphylococcal isolates from blood culture were screened for biofilm production by Tissue culture plate (TCP method, Tube method (TM and Congo red agar (CRA method and their antibiotic susceptibility profile was studied. Results: 59 out of 70 staphylococcal isolates were positive by TCP, out of these 21.4% staphylococci were high biofilm producers, 62.8% staphylococci were moderate biofilm producers and 15.8% were non-biofilm producers. Maximum resistance was observed in biofilm producers to cotrimoxazole (74.5% and erythromycin (62.7% and none were resistant to vancomycin and linezolid. Out of total 59 biofilm producers, 20.3 % (12 were methicillin resistant and all these were S. aureus isolates. 19% (1 out of total 11 biofilm non-producers were methicillin resistant. Conclusion: Biofilm production was seen to be a major virulence factor in most of the staphylococcal isolates obtained from patients with signs and symptoms of septicaemia. S. aureus was found to be the major pathogen and timely detection of biofilm producing phenotype should be carried out using a simple and reproducible method, TCP which is both qualitative and quantitative.

  1. Cellular Microenvironment Dictates Androgen Production by Murine Fetal Leydig Cells in Primary Culture1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carney, Colleen M.; Muszynski, Jessica L.; Strotman, Lindsay N.; Lewis, Samantha R.; O'Connell, Rachel L.; Beebe, David J.; Theberge, Ashleigh B.; Jorgensen, Joan S.

    2014-01-01

    ABSTRACT Despite the fact that fetal Leydig cells are recognized as the primary source of androgens in male embryos, the mechanisms by which steroidogenesis occurs within the developing testis remain unclear. A genetic approach was used to visualize and isolate fetal Leydig cells from remaining cells within developing mouse testes. Cyp11a1-Cre mice were bred to mT/mG dual reporter mice to target membrane-tagged enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) within steroidogenic cells, whereas other cells expressed membrane-tagged tandem-dimer tomato red. Fetal Leydig cell identity was validated using double-labeled immunohistochemistry against GFP and the steroidogenic enzyme 3beta-HSD, and cells were successfully isolated as indicated by qPCR results from sorted cell populations. Because fetal Leydig cells must collaborate with neighboring cells to synthesize testosterone, we hypothesized that the fetal Leydig cell microenvironment defined their capacity for androgen production. Microfluidic culture devices were used to measure androstenedione and testosterone production of fetal Leydig cells that were cultured in cell-cell contact within a mixed population, were isolated but remained in medium contact via compartmentalized co-culture with other testicular cells, or were isolated and cultured alone. Results showed that fetal Leydig cells maintained their identity and steroidogenic activity for 3–5 days in primary culture. Microenvironment dictated proficiency of testosterone production. As expected, fetal Leydig cells produced androstenedione but not testosterone when cultured in isolation. More testosterone accumulated in medium from mixed cultures than from compartmentalized co-cultures initially; however, co-cultures maintained testosterone synthesis for a longer time. These data suggest that a combination of cell-cell contact and soluble factors constitute the ideal microenvironment for fetal Leydig cell activity in primary culture. PMID:25143354

  2. Early Reminiscing in Cultural Contexts: Cultural Models, Maternal Reminiscing Styles, and Children's Memories

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schroder, Lisa; Keller, Heidi; Kartner, Joscha; Kleis, Astrid; Abels, Monika; Yovsi, Relindis D.; Chaudhary, Nandita; Jensen, Henning; Papaligoura, Zaira

    2013-01-01

    The present study examined conversations of 164 mothers from seven different cultural contexts when reminiscing with their 3-year-old children. We chose samples based on their sociodemographic profiles, which represented three different cultural models: (1) autonomy (urban middle-class families from Western societies), (2) relatedness (rural…

  3. Microbial culture selection for bio-hydrogen production from waste ground wheat by dark fermentation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Argun, Hidayet; Kargi, Fikret; Kapdan, Ilgi K. [Department of Environmental Engineering, Dokuz Eylul University, Buca, Izmir (Turkey)

    2009-03-15

    Hydrogen formation performances of different anaerobic bacteria were investigated in batch dark fermentation of waste wheat powder solution (WPS). Serum bottles containing wheat powder were inoculated with pure cultures of Clostridium acetobutylicum (CAB), Clostridium butyricum (CB), Enterobacter aerogenes (EA), heat-treated anaerobic sludge (ANS) and a mixture of those cultures (MIX). Cumulative hydrogen formation (CHF), hydrogen yield (HY) and specific hydrogen production rate (SHPR) were determined for every culture. The heat-treated anaerobic sludge was found to be the most effective culture with a cumulative hydrogen formation of 560 ml, hydrogen yield of 223 ml H{sub 2} g{sup -1} starch and a specific hydrogen production rate of 32.1 ml H{sub 2} g{sup -1} h{sup -1}. (author)

  4. Kinetic modeling of sporulation and product formation in stationary phase by Bacillus coagulans RK-02 vis-à-vis other Bacilli.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Das, Subhasish; Sen, Ramkrishna

    2011-10-01

    A logistic kinetic model was derived and validated to characterize the dynamics of a sporogenous bacterium in stationary phase with respect to sporulation and product formation. The kinetic constants as determined using this model are particularly important for describing intrinsic properties of a sporogenous bacterial culture in stationary phase. Non-linear curve fitting of the experimental data into the mathematical model showed very good correlation with the predicted values for sporulation and lipase production by Bacillus coagulans RK-02 culture in minimal media. Model fitting of literature data of sporulation and product (protease and amylase) formation in the stationary phase by some other Bacilli and comparison of the results of model fitting with those of Bacillus coagulans helped validate the significance and robustness of the developed kinetic model. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Altered TNF-Alpha, Glucose, Insulin and Amino Acids in Islets Langerhans Cultured in a Microgravity Model System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tobin, Brian W.; Leeper-Woodford, Sandra K.; Hashemi, Brian B.; Smith, Scott M.; Sams, Clarence F.

    2001-01-01

    The present studies were designed to determine effects of a microgravity model system upon lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) activity and indices of insulin and fuel homeostasis of pancreatic islets of Langerhans. Islets (1726+/-1 17,150 u IEU) from Wistar Furth rats were treated as: 1) HARV (High Aspect Ratio Vessel cell culture) , 2) HARV plus LPS, 3) static culture, 4) static culture plus LPS. TNF-alpha (L929 cytotoxicity assay) was significantly increased in LPS-induced HARV and static cultures, yet the increase was more pronounced in the static culture group (palpha production of pancreatic islets of Langerhans, favoring a lesser TNF activity in the HARV. These alterations in fuel homeostasis may be promulgated by gravity averaged cell culture methods or by three dimensional cell assembly.

  6. Analysis of enzyme production by submerged culture of Aspergillus oryzae using whole barley.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masuda, Susumu; Kikuchi, Kaori; Matsumoto, Yuko; Sugimoto, Toshikazu; Shoji, Hiroshi; Tanabe, Masayuki

    2009-10-01

    We have reported on high enzyme production by submerged culture of Aspergillus kawachii using barley with the husk (whole barley). To elucidate the mechanism underlying this high enzyme production, we performed a detailed analysis. Aspergillus oryzae RIB40 was submerged-cultured using whole barley and milled whole barley. Enzyme production was analyzed in terms of changes in medium components and gene expression levels. When whole barley was used, high production of glucoamylase and alpha-amylase and high gene expression levels of these enzymes were observed. Low ammonium concentrations were maintained with nitrate ion uptake continuing into the late stage using whole barley. These findings suggest that the sustainability of nitrogen metabolism is related to high enzyme production, and that a mechanism other than that associated with the conventional amylase expression system is involved in this relationship.

  7. 9-methoxycanthin-6-one production in elicited hairy roots culture of Eurycoma longifolia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdullah, Nazirah; Ismail, Ismanizan; Hassan, Nor Hasnida; Basherudin, Norlia

    2016-11-01

    Eurycoma longifolia (Tongkat Ali) is a highly sought after medicinal plant in Malaysia. Propagation of E. longifolia through tissue culture has been reported in order to cater the industry demands for planting and raw materials as well as for conservation purposes. E. longifolia hairy roots culture has been developed using Agrobacterium rhizogenes for the production of Tongkat Ali phytochemicals. Effects of three elicitors; methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid, and yeast extract at different concentrations were evaluated on the production of 9-methoxycanthin-6-one in E. longifolia hairy roots. The cultures were elicited at early exponential growth phase, followed by extraction of 9-methoxycanthin-6-one using methanol and HPLC analysis. Elicitation with methyl jasmonate at all concentrations increased 9-methoxycanthin-6-one up to 1-3 fold and treatment with (0.1 mM) was most efficient in enhancing 9-methoxycanthin-6-one production up to 3.902 mg/g dry weight after 7 days (168 hours) elicitation.

  8. A two level mutation-selection model of cultural evolution and diversity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salazar-Ciudad, Isaac

    2010-11-21

    Cultural evolution is a complex process that can happen at several levels. At the level of individuals in a population, each human bears a set of cultural traits that he or she can transmit to its offspring (vertical transmission) or to other members of his or her society (horizontal transmission). The relative frequency of a cultural trait in a population or society can thus increase or decrease with the relative reproductive success of its bearers (individual's level) or the relative success of transmission (called the idea's level). This article presents a mathematical model on the interplay between these two levels. The first aim of this article is to explore when cultural evolution is driven by the idea's level, when it is driven by the individual's level and when it is driven by both. These three possibilities are explored in relation to (a) the amount of interchange of cultural traits between individuals, (b) the selective pressure acting on individuals, (c) the rate of production of new cultural traits, (d) the individual's capacity to remember cultural traits and to the population size. The aim is to explore the conditions in which cultural evolution does not lead to a better adaptation of individuals to the environment. This is to contrast the spread of fitness-enhancing ideas, which make individual bearers better adapted to the environment, to the spread of "selfish" ideas, which spread well simply because they are easy to remember but do not help their individual bearers (and may even hurt them). At the same time this article explores in which conditions the adaptation of individuals is maximal. The second aim is to explore how these factors affect cultural diversity, or the amount of different cultural traits in a population. This study suggests that a larger interchange of cultural traits between populations could lead to cultural evolution not improving the adaptation of individuals to their environment and to a decrease of cultural diversity

  9. Modelling Product Families for Product Configuration Systems with Product Variant Master

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mortensen, Niels Henrik; Hvam, Lars; Haug, Anders

    2010-01-01

    This article presents an evaluation of applying a suggested method for modelling product families for product configuration based on theory for modelling mechanical products,systems theory and object-oriented modelling. The modelling technique includes a so-called product variant master and CRC-cards...... the three views. Modelling of characteristics of the product variants in a product family Modelling of constraints between parts in the product family Visualisation of the entire product family on a poster e.g. 1x2 meters The product variant master and CRC-cards are means to bridge the gap between domain...... experts and IT-developers, thus making it possible for the domain experts (e.g. engineers from product development) to express their knowledge in a form that is understandable both for the domain experts and the IT-developers. The product variant master and CRC-cards have currently been tested and further...

  10. Product and Process, Literacy and Orality: An Essay on Composition and Culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Killingsworth, M. Jimmie

    1993-01-01

    Argues that two oppositions (product versus process, literacy versus orality) bear a special relationship to one another resembling a ratio. Relates product and literacy to centralized authority, and relates process and orality to open-minded exchange, thus evoking the central dilemma of modern culture. (HB)

  11. Production of secondary metabolites trimethyl xanthina by Camellia sinensis L suspension culture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sutini, Sodiq, Mochamad; Muslihatin, Wirdhatul; Indra, Mochamad Rasjad

    2017-06-01

    Bioactive trimethyl xanthina can be obtained from the plant Camellia sinensis L. To obtain bioactive plant of which there are several hurdles for instance to wait up to five years to be harvested, also it needs land at a certain height from the sea level. Therefore, the production of secondary metabolites trimethyl xanthina need to be developed with suspense culture techniques. The purpose of this study obtained the production of bioactive trimethyl xanthina way culturally suspense in large scale with a relatively short time, potentially as anti-oxidants. Research methods include: (1) initiation of callus from pieces of leaves, shoots the youngest of the plant Camellia sinensis L in the media MS with the optimization of the addition of growth regulators, (2) the subculture of callus on media and plant growth regulator that is equal to the stage of initiation, (3) initiation of suspension culture using explants of callus Camellia sinensis L, (4) Analysis of secondary metabolites trimethyl xanthina growth in suspension culture, (5) the isolation and identification of trimethyl xanthina qualitatively and quantitatively using thin layer chromatography/high performance chromatography column. The results of the study suspension cultures containing bioactive trimethyl xanthina candidates that can be used as an antioxidant.

  12. LIPID PRODUCTION BY DUNALIELLA SALINA IN BATCH CULTURE: EFFECTS OF NITROGEN LIMITATION AND LIGHT INTENSITY

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Weldy, C.S.; Huesemann, M.

    2007-01-01

    Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations are increasing and may cause unknown deleterious environmental effects if left unchecked. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted in its latest report a 2°C to 4°C increase in global temperatures even with the strictest CO2 mitigation practices. Global warming can be attributed in large part to the burning of carbon-based fossil fuels, as the concentration of atmospheric CO2 is directly related to the burning of fossil fuels. Biofuels which do not add CO2 to the atmosphere are presently generated primarily from terrestrial plants, i.e., ethanol from corn grain and biodiesel from soybean oil. The production of biofuels from terrestrial plants is severely limited by the availability of fertile land. Lipid production from microalgae and its corresponding biodiesel production have been studied since the late 1970s but large scale production has remained economically infeasible due to the large costs of sterile growing conditions required for many algal species. This study focuses on the potential of the halophilic microalgae species Dunaliella salina as a source of lipids and subsequent biodiesel production. The lipid production rates under high light and low light as well as nitrogen suffi cient and nitrogen defi cient culture conditions were compared for D. salina cultured in replicate photobioreactors. The results show (a) cellular lipid content ranging from 16 to 44% (wt), (b) a maximum culture lipid concentration of 450mg lipid/L, and (c) a maximum integrated lipid production rate of 46mg lipid/L culture*day. The high amount of lipids produced suggests that D. salina, which can be mass-cultured in non-sterile outdoor ponds, has strong potential to be an economically valuable source for renewable oil and biodiesel production.

  13. Two stage heterotrophy/photoinduction culture of Scenedesmus incrassatulus: potential for lutein production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flórez-Miranda, Liliana; Cañizares-Villanueva, Rosa Olivia; Melchy-Antonio, Orlando; Martínez-Jerónimo, Fernando; Flores-Ortíz, Cesar Mateo

    2017-11-20

    A biomass production process including two stages, heterotrophy/photoinduction (TSHP), was developed to improve biomass and lutein production by the green microalgae Scenedesmus incrassatulus. To determine the effects of different nitrogen sources (yeast extract and urea) and temperature in the heterotrophic stage, experiments using shake flask cultures with glucose as the carbon source were carried out. The highest biomass productivity and specific pigment concentrations were reached using urea+vitamins (U+V) at 30°C. The first stage of the TSHP process was done in a 6L bioreactor, and the inductions in a 3L airlift photobioreactor. At the end of the heterotrophic stage, S. incrassatulus achieved the maximal biomass concentration, increasing from 7.22gL -1 to 17.98gL -1 with an increase in initial glucose concentration from 10.6gL -1 to 30.3gL -1 . However, the higher initial glucose concentration resulted in a lower specific growth rate (μ) and lower cell yield (Y x/s ), possibly due to substrate inhibition. After 24h of photoinduction, lutein content in S. incrassatulus biomass was 7 times higher than that obtained at the end of heterotrophic cultivation, and the lutein productivity was 1.6 times higher compared with autotrophic culture of this microalga. Hence, the two-stage heterotrophy/photoinduction culture is an effective strategy for high cell density and lutein production in S. incrassatulus. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  14. Resveratrol production in hairy root culture of peanut, Arachis ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Five different strains of Agrobacterium rhizogenes differed in their ability to induce peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) hairy roots and also showed varying effects on the growth and resveratrol production in hairy root cultures. A. rhizogenes R1601 is the most effective strain for the induction (75.8%), growth (7.6 g/l) and ...

  15. A 3D Sphere Culture System Containing Functional Polymers for Large-Scale Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomomi G. Otsuji

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Utilizing human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs in cell-based therapy and drug discovery requires large-scale cell production. However, scaling up conventional adherent cultures presents challenges of maintaining a uniform high quality at low cost. In this regard, suspension cultures are a viable alternative, because they are scalable and do not require adhesion surfaces. 3D culture systems such as bioreactors can be exploited for large-scale production. However, the limitations of current suspension culture methods include spontaneous fusion between cell aggregates and suboptimal passaging methods by dissociation and reaggregation. 3D culture systems that dynamically stir carrier beads or cell aggregates should be refined to reduce shearing forces that damage hPSCs. Here, we report a simple 3D sphere culture system that incorporates mechanical passaging and functional polymers. This setup resolves major problems associated with suspension culture methods and dynamic stirring systems and may be optimal for applications involving large-scale hPSC production.

  16. Effects of polyurethane matrices on fungal tannase and gallic acid production under solid state culture

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2007-01-01

    The influence of the physical structure of polyurethane matrix as a support in a solid state culture in tannase production and gallic acid accumulation by Aspergillus niger Aa-20 was evaluated. Three different polyurethane matrices were used as the support: continuous, semi-discontinuous and discontinuous. The highest tannase production at 2479.59 U/L during the first 12 h of culture was obtained using the discontinuous matrix. The gallic acid was accumulated at 7.64 g/L at the discontinuous matrix. The results show that the discontinuous matrix of polyurethane is better for tannase production and gallic acid accumulation in a solid state culture bioprocess than the continuous and semi-discontinuous matrices.

  17. Cultural perspectives on children's tadpole drawings: at the interface between representation and production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gernhardt, Ariane; Rübeling, Hartmut; Keller, Heidi

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated tadpole self-drawings from 183 three- to six-year-old children living in seven cultural groups, representing three ecosocial contexts. Based on assumed general production principles, the influence of cultural norms and values upon specific characteristics of the tadpole drawings was examined. The results demonstrated that children from all cultural groups realized the body-proportion effect in the self-drawings, indicating universal production principles. However, children differed in single drawing characteristics, depending on the specific ecosocial context. Children from Western and non-Western urban educated contexts drew themselves rather tall, with many facial features, and preferred smiling facial expressions, while children from rural traditional contexts depicted themselves significantly smaller, with less facial details, and neutral facial expressions.

  18. Investigations of the efficiency of enzyme production technologies using modelling tools

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Albæk, Mads Orla; Gernaey, Krist; Hansen, Morten Skov

    Growing markets and new innovative applications of industrial enzymes leads to increased interest in efficient production of these products. Most industrial enzymes are currently produced in traditional stirred tank reactors in submerged fed batch culture. The limiting parameter in such processes...... fermentations of the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei in 550litre pilot scale stirred tank reactors for a range of process conditions. Based on the experimental data a process model has been created, which satisfactory simulates the effect of the changing process conditions: Aeration rate, agitation speed...

  19. Cultural perceptions and the productive roles of rural Pakistani women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ibraz, T S

    1992-01-01

    The roles of rural Pakistani women in agricultural production are described with numerous examples from a village study by Anwar and Bilquees, and the author's research in a Punjabi village (Rajpur) to show cultural perceptions of women and their work, and the nature of productive activities inside the house and outside on the farm. The cultural perceptions are related to the image of women as dependent/private wives and mothers. A broad definition of production is used to include activities, such as churning milk which generates income and saves expenditures and making butter which fulfills household needs and is sold in the market for cash. Rajpur is a village engaged in social change. Men seek work outside the villages, and women take on work previously assumed by men. Women contribute considerably to the year-round production and processing of major crops. The productive labor of women by major crop type and activity type are described and charted. Tending livestock is performed exclusively by men. Handicraft activity at home reduces expenditure for buying these items in the local markets. Most women were unaware of the savings and "indirect" income their work contributed to the household. Work for wages is viewed as men's work. Women's mobility beyond the fields and home is still limited; market activity must be conducted with a male present and women do not earn cash. The division of labor is conceived by men for women because of women's cultural identity. Women are perceived as "chase daughters/sisters, fertile wives, and nurturing mothers." There are punishments or social rewards for proper behavior. Women in their private domain are expected to "look good within the house," which is viewed as a feminine world. The outside world is masculine. Women are also seen as lacking reasoning ability and their motherhood roles limit their capability to cope with external affairs. There is great value attached to the invisibility of women physically, socially, and

  20. VISION: A Model of Culture for Counselors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baber, W. Lorenzo; Garrett, Michael T.; Holcomb-McCoy, Cheryl

    1997-01-01

    Culture as a group phenomenon versus the need of counselors to work with the individual is addressed. The VISION model of culture, which accounts for within-group and between-group differences, the disappearance of groups, and the emergence of new ones, is presented. Two examples of multicultural interventions are reported. (Author/EMK)

  1. Hairy-root organ cultures for the production of human acetylcholinesterase

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mor Tsafrir S

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Human cholinesterases can be used as a bioscavenger of organophosphate toxins used as pesticides and chemical warfare nerve agents. The practicality of this approach depends on the availability of the human enzymes, but because of inherent supply and regulatory constraints, a suitable production system is yet to be identified. Results As a promising alternative, we report the creation of "hairy root" organ cultures derived via Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation from human acetylcholinesterase-expressing transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Acetylcholinesterase-expressing hairy root cultures had a slower growth rate, reached to the stationary phase faster and grew to lower maximal densities as compared to wild type control cultures. Acetylcholinesterase accumulated to levels of up to 3.3% of total soluble protein, ~3 fold higher than the expression level observed in the parental plant. The enzyme was purified to electrophoretic homogeneity. Enzymatic properties were nearly identical to those of the transgenic plant-derived enzyme as well as to those of mammalian cell culture derived enzyme. Pharmacokinetic properties of the hairy-root culture derived enzyme demonstrated a biphasic clearing profile. We demonstrate that master banking of plant material is possible by storage at 4°C for up to 5 months. Conclusion Our results support the feasibility of using plant organ cultures as a successful alternative to traditional transgenic plant and mammalian cell culture technologies.

  2. Screening and selection of Lactobacillus strains for use as adjunct cultures in production of semi-hard cheese.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antonsson, Martin; Ardö, Ylva; Nilsson, Bengt Frans; Molin, Göran

    2002-08-01

    Thirty-three Lactobacillus strains were tested as adjuncts in a cheese model system. Eighteen strains originated from cheese (nine Lactobacillus spp. and nine Lb. paracasei/casei) and 15 from human intestinal mucosa (11 Lb. rhamnosus; three Lb. paracasei; one Lb. plantarum). Model cheeses weighing 120 g were made of cheese grains from full-scale production of washed curd semi-hard cheese (Herrgård). The model system was reproducible and similar to full-scale production with respect to moisture, salt content, pH and microbial flora. The model cheeses were sampled for aerobic and anaerobic plate count and viable counts of Lactobacillus and Lactococcus. The presence of adjuncts in the model cheeses was confirmed by typing isolates with Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD). The sensory properties of model cheeses were described. In a first trial 23 of the 33 adjuncts were re-isolated from the corresponding model cheeses after 9 or 13 weeks. Adjuncts of Lb. paracasei were re-isolated more frequently than adjuncts of Lb. rhamnosus. Nine strains were selected, on the basis of their ability to grow and be a dominating part of the microflora of model cheese with interesting sensory properties. These strains were further studied together with two commercial cultures. The sensory influences on model cheeses of six of the adjuncts were confirmed, and flavour scores were in the range of 2.9-7.1 for model cheeses with different adjuncts while the control had a flavour score of 5.6 (0-10 scale). Survival and growth of seven out of the nine strains correlated with the results of the first trial. Growth and influence on flavour of four adjunct cultures were confirmed in experimental cheese manufactured in a 400-1 open vat.

  3. Organic Production Business Model and the Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ekaterina ARABSKA

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR considering competitiveness and sustainability issues in contemporary globalizing world is closely linked to organic production being a production system applying holistic approaches in the overall management and production activities and assurance of the highest degree of conformability to sustainable use and preservation of resources. The paper examines the organic production as a business model corresponding to the spheres of CSR regarding society, environment, human capital and work conditions, knowledge and education. The focus in on sustainable business practices in organic production assessed in the study from the point of view of management, environment, human resources, public relations and business environment considered in five dimensions: economic, social, environmental, cultural and accountability.

  4. Immunoglobulin production induced in vitro by glucocorticoid hormones: T cell-dependent stimulation of immunoglobulin production without B cell proliferation in cultures of human peripheral blood lymphocytes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grayson, J.; Dooley, N.J.; Koski, I.R.; Blaese, R.M.

    1981-01-01

    The direct effects of steroid hormones on the production of immunoglobulins and DNA synthesis by human T and B lymphocytes was evaluated in cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. As detected by a reverse hemolytic plaque assay, the addition of 0.1 mM to 10 nM hydrocortisone to lymphocytes in culture in the absence of other stimulants or mitogens, resulted in the dramatic induction of immunoglobulin production with responses comparable to those seen in similar cultures stimulated with pokeweed mitogen. Steroid-stimulated immunoglobulin production was first seen after 48 h and peaked at 8-10 d of culture. The production of IgG, IgA, and IgM was induced following incubation with steroid. Glucocorticoids, but not estrogens or androgens, were capable of mediating this effect, and only compounds with affinity for the glucocorticoid receptor were active. The induction of immunoglobulin production was dependent on both T cells and monocytes; cultures depleted of either cell type did not produce immunoglobulin when stimulated with glucocorticoid hormones. Proliferation of B cells or T cells could not be detected by [/sup 3/H]thymidine incorporation or total cell recovery from steroid-stimulated cultures, even though such cultures demonstrated marked increases in immunoglobulin production. The mechanism responsible for this functional maturation of B cells to become high rate immunoglobulin producing cells is as yet undefined, although it appears to involve more than merely steroid mediated inactivation of suppressor T cells

  5. Biomass and protein production of Chlorella vulgarisBeyerinck (Chlorellales : Chlorellaceae via the design of selective culture media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ángel Darío González-Delgado

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, it has become more frequent the use of alternative culture media that use phosphorus and nitrogen sources as well as microelements, instead of using the more traditional ones. Therefore, in this study two mixotrophic culture media were designed with different sodium nitrate, potassium phosphate and sodium acetate/ammonium carbonate concentrations as carbon source, to evaluate the biomass and protein production of the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris Beyerinck. A Pareto diagram and a response surface plot were generated in order to know the significant influence that the study variables have on protein production. The results showed that higher biomass production (3.72 g/L for the culture with acetate and 2.17 g/L for the one with carbonate are directly related to sodium nitrate (1.96 mM and potassium phosphate (2.11 mM. In addition, the maximum protein values obtained were 60% and 34% for acetate and carbonate cultures, respectively, both with 2.94 mM of sodium nitrate. Finally, the Pareto diagram showed that for the culture based on acetate there was no significant variables that influenced protein production; whereas the culture with carbonate, sodium nitrate and potassium phosphate influenced significantly the production of this metabolite.

  6. Growth evaluation of Lentinula edodes in solid medium cultures for mycelium production as inoculum

    OpenAIRE

    Villegas E Valeska; Pérez Ana Milena; Arredondo Clara

    2007-01-01

    Shitake (Lentinula edodes) Pegler jumbo strain growth was evaluated in different solid mediums and growth substrates for spawn production. Mycelium growth was tested in three culture mediums (MYA, OMYA, PDYA) at two pHs (5, 5.5), using two eucalyptus sawdust percentages (0.3%, 0.2%). Analysing variance revealed significant differences in culture medium (P0.05). The liquid inoculation technique was used for evaluating mushroom spawn production using five different combinations of eucalyptus sa...

  7. Mechanistic modeling of sulfur-deprived photosynthesis and hydrogen production in suspensions of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, C R; Bees, M A

    2014-02-01

    The ability of unicellular green algal species such as Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to produce hydrogen gas via iron-hydrogenase is well known. However, the oxygen-sensitive hydrogenase is closely linked to the photosynthetic chain in such a way that hydrogen and oxygen production need to be separated temporally for sustained photo-production. Under illumination, sulfur-deprivation has been shown to accommodate the production of hydrogen gas by partially-deactivating O2 evolution activity, leading to anaerobiosis in a sealed culture. As these facets are coupled, and the system complex, mathematical approaches potentially are of significant value since they may reveal improved or even optimal schemes for maximizing hydrogen production. Here, a mechanistic model of the system is constructed from consideration of the essential pathways and processes. The role of sulfur in photosynthesis (via PSII) and the storage and catabolism of endogenous substrate, and thus growth and decay of culture density, are explicitly modeled in order to describe and explore the complex interactions that lead to H2 production during sulfur-deprivation. As far as possible, functional forms and parameter values are determined or estimated from experimental data. The model is compared with published experimental studies and, encouragingly, qualitative agreement for trends in hydrogen yield and initiation time are found. It is then employed to probe optimal external sulfur and illumination conditions for hydrogen production, which are found to differ depending on whether a maximum yield of gas or initial production rate is required. The model constitutes a powerful theoretical tool for investigating novel sulfur cycling regimes that may ultimately be used to improve the commercial viability of hydrogen gas production from microorganisms. © 2013 The Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. Optimizing a culture medium for biomass and phenolic compounds production using Ganoderma lucidum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Andrés Zárate-Chaves

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The present work was aimed at optimizing a culture medium for biomass production and phenolic compounds by using Ganoderma lucidum. The culture was optimized in two stages; a Plackett-Burman design was used in the first one for identifying key components in the medium and a central composite design was used in the second one for optimizing their concentration. Both responses (biomass and phenolic compounds were simultaneously optimized by the latter methodology regarding desirability, and the optimal concentrations obtained were 50.00 g/L sucrose, 13.29 g/L yeast extract and 2.99 g/L olive oil. Maximum biomass production identified in these optimal conditions was 9.5 g/L and that for phenolic compounds was 0.0452 g/L, this being 100% better than that obtained in the media usually used in the laboratory. Similar patterns regarding chemical characterization and biological activity towards Aspergillus sp., from both fruiting body and mycelium-derived secondary metabolites and extracts obtained in the proposed medium were observed. It was shown that such statistical methodologies are useful for optimizing fermentation and, in the specific case of G. lucidum, optimizing processes for its production and its metabolites in submerged culture as an alternative to traditional culture.

  9. Influence of temperature and nutrient content on lipid production in freshwater microalgae cultures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    JULIANA E. BOHNENBERGER

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The production of biomass by microalgae is considered a clean alternative compared to other plant crops that require large areas for cultivation and that generate environmental impacts. This study evaluated the influence of temperature and nutrients on lipid contents of cultured species of freshwater microalgae, with a view toward using these lipids for biodiesel production. Two strains of Monoraphidium contortum, a culture containing Chlorella vulgaris and Desmodesmus quadricauda and another strain of Microcystis aeruginosa were maintained in the laboratory for six days, in five culture media: modified ASM-1 (control, with high concentrations of phosphate and nitrate; phosphorus-deficient; non-limiting phosphate; nitrogen-deficient; and non-limiting nitrate. The cultures were then exposed to temperatures of 13°C, 25°C (control and 37°C for eight days (n=3. Lipids were extracted by the cold-solvent (methanol and chloroform method. On average, the highest total lipid yields were observed when the strains were maintained at 13°C and in the non-limiting nitrate medium. The lipid percentage varied depending on the concentration of algal biomass. This study showed that manipulation of controlling factors can increase the lipid concentration, optimizing the total production in order to use this raw material for biodiesel.

  10. Emotions in “the world”: cultural practices, products, and meanings of anger and shame in two individualist cultures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boiger, Michael; Deyne, Simon De; Mesquita, Batja

    2013-01-01

    Three studies tested the idea that people’s cultural worlds are structured in ways that promote and highlight emotions and emotional responses that are beneficial in achieving central goals in their culture. Based on the idea that U.S. Americans strive for competitive individualism, while (Dutch-speaking) Belgians favor a more egalitarian variant of individualism, we predicted that anger and shame, as well as their associated responses, would be beneficial to different extents in these two cultural contexts. A questionnaire study found that cultural practices promote beneficial emotions (anger in the United States, shame in Belgium) and avoid harmful emotions (shame in the United States): emotional interactions were perceived to occur more or less frequently to the extent that they elicited culturally beneficial or harmful emotions. Similarly, a cultural product analysis showed that popular children’s books from the United States and Belgium tend to portray culturally beneficial emotions more than culturally harmful emotions. Finally, a word-association study of the shared cultural meanings surrounding anger and shame provided commensurate evidence at the level of the associated response. In each language network, anger and shame were imbued with meanings that reflected the cultural significance of the emotion: while culturally consistent emotions carried relatively stronger connotations of emotional yielding (e.g., giving in to anger and aggressing against the offender in the United States), culturally inconsistent emotions carried relatively stronger connotations of emotional containment (e.g., a stronger emphasis on suppressing or transforming shame in the United States). PMID:24367340

  11. Water velocity in commercial RAS culture tanks for Atlantic salmon smolt production

    Science.gov (United States)

    An optimal flow domain in culture tanks is vital for fish growth and welfare. This paper presents empirical data on rotational velocity and water quality in circular and octagonal tanks at two large commercial smolt production sites, with an approximate production rate of 1000 and 1300 ton smolt ann...

  12. Application of Tissue Culture and Transformation Techniques in Model Species Brachypodium distachyon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sogutmaz Ozdemir, Bahar; Budak, Hikmet

    2018-01-01

    Brachypodium distachyon has recently emerged as a model plant species for the grass family (Poaceae) that includes major cereal crops and forage grasses. One of the important traits of a model species is its capacity to be transformed and ease of growing both in tissue culture and in greenhouse conditions. Hence, plant transformation technology is crucial for improvements in agricultural studies, both for the study of new genes and in the production of new transgenic plant species. In this chapter, we review an efficient tissue culture and two different transformation systems for Brachypodium using most commonly preferred gene transfer techniques in plant species, microprojectile bombardment method (biolistics) and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.In plant transformation studies, frequently used explant materials are immature embryos due to their higher transformation efficiencies and regeneration capacity. However, mature embryos are available throughout the year in contrast to immature embryos. We explain a tissue culture protocol for Brachypodium using mature embryos with the selected inbred lines from our collection. Embryogenic calluses obtained from mature embryos are used to transform Brachypodium with both plant transformation techniques that are revised according to previously studied protocols applied in the grasses, such as applying vacuum infiltration, different wounding effects, modification in inoculation and cocultivation steps or optimization of bombardment parameters.

  13. Enhancement of Shikonin Production in Suspension Cultures of Lithospermum erythrorhizon Cells by Gamma-irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baek, Myung Hwa; Chung, Byung Yeoup; Kim, Jae Sung; An, Beyoung Chul; Lee, Young Bok

    2005-01-01

    The shikonin and several derivatives produced by the roots of Boraginacae family plants are purple compounds that have been used in several parts of the World as antimicrobial and antitumor agents in human pharmaceuticals. Shikonin has been reported as the most successful specimen of the mass production of plant secondary metabolites by cell suspension culture. Numerous studies have elucidated the regulation of production of these compounds in cell suspension cultures. It has known that ultrasonic and gamma irradiation can enhance the production of secondary metabolites. Thus, in present study, we investigate the effects of gamma-irradiation on the shikonin production and the key enzymes in the shikonin biosynthetic pathway of L. erythrorhizon cells

  14. Phototrophic hydrogen production from glucose by pure and co-cultures of Clostridium butyricum and Rhodobacter sphaeroides

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fang, Herbert H.P.; Zhu, Heguang; Zhang, Tong [Centre for Environmental Engineering Research, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong (China)

    2006-12-15

    Phototrophic hydrogen production from glucose by pure and co-cultures of Clostridium butyricum and Rhodobacter sphaeroides was studied in batch experiments. Results showed that in all batches hydrogen was produced after a lag phase of about 10h; pure culture of R. sphaeroides produced hydrogen at rates substantially lower than C. butyricum. In co-culture systems, R. sphaeroides even with cell populations 5.9 times higher still could not compete with C. butyricum for glucose. In co-culture systems, R. sphaeroides syntrophically interacted with C. butyricum, using the acetate and butyrate produced by the latter as substrate for hydrogen production. Hydrogen production was ceased in all batches when the pH was lowered to the level of pH 6.5, resulting from the accumulation of fatty acids. It was also demonstrated in this study that fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was an effective means for the quantification of the relative abundance of individual bacteria in a co-culture system. (author)

  15. Bags versus flasks: a comparison of cell culture systems for the production of dendritic cell-based immunotherapies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fekete, Natalie; Béland, Ariane V; Campbell, Katie; Clark, Sarah L; Hoesli, Corinne A

    2018-04-19

    In recent years, cell-based therapies targeting the immune system have emerged as promising strategies for cancer treatment. This review summarizes manufacturing challenges related to production of antigen presenting cells as a patient-tailored cancer therapy. Understanding cell-material interactions is essential because in vitro cell culture manipulations to obtain mature antigen-producing cells can significantly alter their in vivo performance. Traditional antigen-producing cell culture protocols often rely on cell adhesion to surface-treated hydrophilic polystyrene flasks. More recent commercial and investigational cancer immunotherapy products were manufactured using suspension cell culture in closed hydrophobic fluoropolymer bags. The shift to closed cell culture systems can decrease risks of contamination by individual operators, as well as facilitate scale-up and automation. Selecting closed cell culture bags over traditional open culture systems entails different handling procedures and processing controls, which can affect product quality. Changes in culture vessels also entail changes in vessel materials and geometry, which may alter the cell microenvironment and resulting cell fate decisions. Strategically designed culture systems will pave the way for the generation of more sophisticated and highly potent cell-based cancer vaccines. As an increasing number of cell-based therapies enter the clinic, the selection of appropriate cell culture vessels and materials becomes a critical consideration that can impact the therapeutic efficacy of the product, and hence clinical outcomes and patient quality of life. © 2018 The Authors Transfusion published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of AABB.

  16. Improvement of Xylanase Production by Cochliobolus sativus in Submerged Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasser Bakri

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available The xylanase production by a new Cochliobolus sativus Cs5 strain was improved under submerged fermentation. The xylanase was induced by xylan and repressed by glucose, sucrose, maltose, xylose, starch and cellulose. Highest enzyme production (98.25 IU/mL was recorded when wheat straw (4 % by mass per volume was used as a carbon source after 120 h of incubation. NaNO3 increased xylanase production 5.4-fold as compared to the control. Optimum initial pH was found to be 4.5 to 5. The C. sativus Cs5 strain grown under submerged culture in a simple medium proved to be a promising microorganism for xylanase production.

  17. Jasmonic and salicylic acids enhanced phytochemical production and biological activities in cell suspension cultures of spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Ill-Min; Rekha, Kaliyaperumal; Rajakumar, Govindasamy; Thiruvengadam, Muthu

    2017-03-01

    In vitro cell suspension culture was established for the production of commercially valuable phytochemicals in Momordica dioica. The influence of elicitors in jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA) increased their effect on phytochemical production and biomass accumulation in M. dioica. The results indicate that compared with non-elicited cultures, JA- and SA-elicited cell suspension cultures had significantly enhanced phenolic, flavonoid, and carotenoid production, as well as antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antiproliferative activities. Furthermore, elicited cultures produced 22 phenolic compounds, such as flavonols, hydroxycinnamic acids, and hydroxybenzoic acids. Greater biomass production, phytochemical accumulation, and biological activity occurred in JA- than in SA-elicited cell cultures. This study is the first to successfully establish M. dioica cell suspension cultures for the production of phenolic compounds and carotenoids, as well as for biomass accumulation.

  18. Retinoid production using metabolically engineered Escherichia coli with a two-phase culture system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jang, Hui-Jeong; Yoon, Sang-Hwal; Ryu, Hee-Kyung; Kim, Jung-Hun; Wang, Chong-Long; Kim, Jae-Yean; Oh, Deok-Kun; Kim, Seon-Won

    2011-07-29

    Retinoids are lipophilic isoprenoids composed of a cyclic group and a linear chain with a hydrophilic end group. These compounds include retinol, retinal, retinoic acid, retinyl esters, and various derivatives of these structures. Retinoids are used as cosmetic agents and effective pharmaceuticals for skin diseases. Retinal, an immediate precursor of retinoids, is derived by β-carotene 15,15'-mono(di)oxygenase (BCM(D)O) from β-carotene, which is synthesized from the isoprenoid building blocks isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP). Retinoids are chemically unstable and biologically degraded via retinoic acid. Although extensive studies have been performed on the microbial production of carotenoids, retinoid production using microbial metabolic engineering has not been reported. Here, we report retinoid production using engineered Escherichia coli that express exogenous BCM(D)O and the mevalonate (MVA) pathway for the building blocks synthesis in combination with a two-phase culture system using a dodecane overlay. Among the BCM(D)O tested in E. coli, the synthetic retinoid synthesis protein (SR), based on bacteriorhodopsin-related protein-like homolog (Blh) of the uncultured marine bacteria 66A03, showed the highest β-carotene cleavage activity with no residual intracellular β-carotene. By introducing the exogenous MVA pathway, 8.7 mg/L of retinal was produced, which is 4-fold higher production than that of augmenting the MEP pathway (dxs overexpression). There was a large gap between retinal production and β-carotene consumption using the exogenous MVA pathway; therefore, the retinal derivatives were analyzed. The derivatives, except for retinoic acid, that formed were identified, and the levels of retinal, retinol, and retinyl acetate were measured. Amounts as high as 95 mg/L retinoids were obtained from engineered E. coli DH5α harboring the synthetic SR gene and the exogenous MVA pathway in addition to dxs overexpression, which

  19. Promoting collaboration and cultural competence for physician assistant and physical therapist students: a cross-cultural decentralized interprofessional education model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kathleen De Oliveira

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: As the United States health care model progresses towards medical teams and the country’s population continues to diversify, the need for health professional education programs to develop and implement culturally specific interprofessional education (IPE becomes increasingly imperative. A wide range of models exists for delivering and implementing IPE in health education, but none have included the cultural components that are vital in educating the health professional. Methods: A cross-cultural decentralized IPE model for physician assistant (PA and physical therapy (PT students was developed. This three-part IPE series was created using an established cultural curricular model and began with the exploration of self, continued with the examination of various dimensions of culture, and concluded with the exploration of the intersection between health and culture. We assessed student satisfaction of the IPE experiences and students’ engagement and attitudes towards IPE using a three-item open-ended questionnaire administered after each cross-cultural activity and the Interprofessional Education Series Survey (IESS upon the completion of the series. Results: IESS responses showed that PA and PT students reported benefits in interprofessional collaboration and cultural awareness and expressed overall satisfaction with the series. Qualitative analysis revealed growth in student response depth consistent with the scaffolded focus of each IPE module in the series. Conclusion: The trends in this three-part series suggest that institutions looking to develop culturally inclusive IPE educational initiatives may have success through a decentralized model mirroring the effective cultural progression focused on addressing exploration of self, examination of various dimensions of culture, and exploration of the intersection between health and culture.

  20. Culture medium for amylase production by toxigenic fungi

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Figueira Edson Luiz Zangrando

    2000-01-01

    Full Text Available Mycelial growth and amylase production by a mycotoxigenic strain of Fusarium moniliforme and Aspergillus flavus were evaluated in a culture medium containing starch, glycerol, wheat bran or corn. With emphasis on corn, different fractions composed by germ, degermed seed, starch, milky stage corn and the respective starch or supernatant fraction were analyzed for F. moniliforme growth . The medium composed of milky stage corn supernatant promoted the best mycelial growth (p<0.05, and it was used to prepare amylase production medium in the next step. The medium composed with 2% ground corn in milky stage corn supernatant (350g of milky stage corn blended with 250mL water and centrifuged promoted the highest amylase production, which was at the 10th day of fermentation, both for F. moniliforme (42.32U/mL and A. flavus (4,745.54U/mL.

  1. Culture Compound Effects on the Production of Hyaluronidase Enzyme through Bacillus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F Zohrab

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available

    Background and Objectives: Today, hyaluronidase enzyme has a wide application in medicine, pharmaceutics, histoegineering,  oncology and ophthalmology. Its therapeutical significance is based upon the breakage of hyaluronan, resulting in increasing the level of membranous permeability, decreasing viscosity index and facilitating the spread of injected liquids. In fact, hyaluronidase causes a huge increase in the absorption of some injected drugs like antibiotics improving the efficiency of any local anesthetics. Today, producing this kind of enzyme through microorganisms has attracted considerableattention. Considering that BHI broth culture is an expensive medium and cannot be used as an economical medium for industrial production of the enzyme, designing a synthetic culture medium has been considered in order to keep its production within the limit of BHI (7.4unit/ml in an economical manner.

     

    Methods: The isolate G8 (obtained from the soil of Behesht Zahra district in Tehran was used as a nativestrain and producer of the enzyme .G8 is a kind of aerobic soporiferous bacillus.In addition mall compounds contained in the culture were recognized and their concentrations were measured through Taguchi design method. The amount of produced enzyme was measured by carbazole method.

     

    Results: According to Taguchi design method, culture medium containing fructose (5g/l yeast extract (15g/l, ammonium chloride (10g/l with a rotational speed (250rpm was condition to produce the enzyme through G8. The amount of produced enzyme was very significant in such condition (8.04unit/ml.

     

    Conclusion: The obtained results from the study can be used to design any suitable industrial culture media and to determine the best physicochemical condition (aeration for economical

  2. Enhanced Production of Anthraquinones and Phenolic Compounds and Biological Activities in the Cell Suspension Cultures of Polygonum multiflorum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muthu Thiruvengadam

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Anthraquinones (AQs and phenolic compounds are important phytochemicals that are biosynthesized in cell suspension cultures of Polygonum multiflorum. We wanted to optimize the effects of plant growth regulators (PGRs, media, sucrose, l-glutamine, jasmonic acid (JA, and salicylic acid (SA for the production of phytochemicals and biomass accumulation in a cell suspension culture of P. multiflorum. The medium containing Murashige and Skoog (MS salts and 4% sucrose supplemented with 1 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 0.5 mg/L thidiazuron, and 100 µM l-glutamine at 28 days of cell suspension culture was suitable for biomass accumulation and AQ production. Maximum biomass accumulation (12.5 and 12.35 g fresh mass (FM; 3 and 2.93 g dry mass (DM and AQ production (emodin 295.20 and 282 mg/g DM; physcion 421.55 and 410.25 mg/g DM were observed using 100 µM JA and SA, respectively. JA- and SA-elicited cell cultures showed several-fold higher biomass accumulation and AQ production than the control cell cultures. Furthermore, the cell suspension cultures effectively produced 23 phenolic compounds, such as flavonols and hydroxycinnamic and hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives. PGR-, JA-, and SA-elicited cell cultures produced a higher amount of AQs and phenolic compounds. Because of these metabolic changes, the antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities were high in the PGR-, JA-, and SA-elicited cell cultures. The results showed that the elicitors (JA and SA induced the enhancement of biomass accumulation and phytochemical (AQs and phenolic compounds production as well as biological activities in the cell suspension cultures of P. multiflorum. This optimized protocol can be developed for large-scale biomass accumulation and production of phytochemicals (AQs and phenolic compounds from cell suspension cultures, and the phytochemicals can be used for various biological activities.

  3. Enhanced Production of Anthraquinones and Phenolic Compounds and Biological Activities in the Cell Suspension Cultures of Polygonum multiflorum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thiruvengadam, Muthu; Rekha, Kaliyaperumal; Rajakumar, Govindasamy; Lee, Taek-Jun; Kim, Seung-Hyun; Chung, Ill-Min

    2016-01-01

    Anthraquinones (AQs) and phenolic compounds are important phytochemicals that are biosynthesized in cell suspension cultures of Polygonum multiflorum. We wanted to optimize the effects of plant growth regulators (PGRs), media, sucrose, l-glutamine, jasmonic acid (JA), and salicylic acid (SA) for the production of phytochemicals and biomass accumulation in a cell suspension culture of P. multiflorum. The medium containing Murashige and Skoog (MS) salts and 4% sucrose supplemented with 1 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 0.5 mg/L thidiazuron, and 100 µM l-glutamine at 28 days of cell suspension culture was suitable for biomass accumulation and AQ production. Maximum biomass accumulation (12.5 and 12.35 g fresh mass (FM); 3 and 2.93 g dry mass (DM)) and AQ production (emodin 295.20 and 282 mg/g DM; physcion 421.55 and 410.25 mg/g DM) were observed using 100 µM JA and SA, respectively. JA- and SA-elicited cell cultures showed several-fold higher biomass accumulation and AQ production than the control cell cultures. Furthermore, the cell suspension cultures effectively produced 23 phenolic compounds, such as flavonols and hydroxycinnamic and hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives. PGR-, JA-, and SA-elicited cell cultures produced a higher amount of AQs and phenolic compounds. Because of these metabolic changes, the antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities were high in the PGR-, JA-, and SA-elicited cell cultures. The results showed that the elicitors (JA and SA) induced the enhancement of biomass accumulation and phytochemical (AQs and phenolic compounds) production as well as biological activities in the cell suspension cultures of P. multiflorum. This optimized protocol can be developed for large-scale biomass accumulation and production of phytochemicals (AQs and phenolic compounds) from cell suspension cultures, and the phytochemicals can be used for various biological activities. PMID:27854330

  4. Micropropagation and hairy root culture of Ophiorrhiza alata Craib for camptothecin production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ya-ut, Pornwilai; Chareonsap, Piyarat; Sukrong, Suchada

    2011-12-01

    An efficient system was developed for the in vitro micropropagation and hairy root culture of Ophiorrhiza alata Craib for camptothecin (CPT) production. Shoot multiplication on leaf and node explants from germinated seeds of O. alata was successful on half-strength Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with varying amounts of kinetin and α-naphthaleneacetic acid. Node explants grown in vitro were successfully infected by Agrobacterium rhizogenes TISTR 1450 for the establishment of hairy root culture. The amount of CPT in various parts of O. alata was analyzed by HPLC. The accumulation of CPT in transformed hairy roots was twice that in soil-grown plants (785 ± 52 and 388 ± 32 μg/g dry wt, respectively). In the presence of a polystyrene resin (Diaion HP-20) that absorbed CPT, the CPT content in the culture media increased sevenfold compared with controls (1,036 and 151 μg per 250 ml medium, respectively). These results enable the feasible production of CPT of O. alata by means of a cell culture strategy. These measures can help safeguard the plant from extinction. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

  5. Using Cultural Modeling to Inform a NEDSS-Compatible System Functionality Evaluation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Olympia; Torres-Urquidy, Miguel

    2013-01-01

    Objective The culture by which public health professionals work defines their organizational objectives, expectations, policies, and values. These aspects of culture are often intangible and difficult to qualify. The introduction of an information system could further complicate the culture of a jurisdiction if the intangibles of a culture are not clearly understood. This report describes how cultural modeling can be used to capture intangible elements or factors that may affect NEDSS-compatible (NC) system functionalities within the culture of public health jurisdictions. Introduction The National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS) comprises many activities including collaborations, processes, standards, and systems which support gathering data from US states and territories. As part of NNDSS, the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS) provides the standards, tools, and resources to support reporting public health jurisdictions (jurisdictions). The NEDSS Base System (NBS) is a CDC-developed, software application available to jurisdictions to collect, manage, analyze and report national notifiable disease (NND) data. An evaluation of NEDSS with the objective of identifying the functionalities of NC systems and the impact of these features on the user’s culture is underway. Methods We used cultural models to capture additional NC system functionality gaps within the culture of the user. Cultural modeling is a process of graphically depicting people and organizations referred to as influencers and the intangible factors that affect the user’s operations or work as influences. Influencers are denoted as bubbles while influences are depicted as arrows penetrating the bubbles. In the cultural model, influence can be seen by the size and proximity (or lack of) in the model. We restricted the models to secondary data sources and interviews of CDC programs (data users) and public health jurisdictions (data reporters). Results Three cultural

  6. Combining microbial cultures for efficient production of electricity from butyrate in a microbial electrochemical cell

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miceli, Joseph F.; Garcia-Peña, Ines; Parameswaran, Prathap; Torres, César I.; Krajmalnik-Brown, Rosa

    2014-01-01

    Butyrate is an important product of anaerobic fermentation; however, it is not directly used by characterized strains of the highly efficient anode respiring bacteria (ARB) Geobacter sulfurreducens in microbial electrochemical cells. By combining a butyrate-oxidizing community with a Geobacter rich culture, we generated a microbial community which outperformed many naturally derived communities found in the literature for current production from butyrate and rivaled the highest performing natural cultures in terms of current density (~11 A/m2) and Coulombic efficiency (~70%). Microbial community analyses support the shift in the microbial community from one lacking efficient ARB in the marine hydrothermal vent community to a community consisting of ~80% Geobacter in the anode biofilm. This demonstrates the successful production and adaptation of a novel microbial culture for generating electrical current from butyrate with high current density and high Coulombic efficiency, by combining two mixed micro bial cultures containing complementing biochemical pathways. PMID:25048958

  7. The Cultural Analysis of Soft Systems Methodology and the Configuration Model of Organizational Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jürgen Staadt

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Organizations that find themselves within a problematic situation connected with cultural issues such as politics and power require adaptable research and corresponding modeling approaches so as to grasp the arrangements of that situation and their impact on the organizational development. This article originates from an insider-ethnographic intervention into the problematic situation of the leading public housing provider in Luxembourg. Its aim is to describe how the more action-oriented cultural analysis of soft systems methodology and the theory-driven configuration model of organizational culture are mutually beneficial rather than contradictory. The data collected between 2007 and 2013 were analyzed manually as well as by means of ATLAS.ti. Results demonstrate that the cultural analysis enables an in-depth understanding of the power-laden environment within the organization bringing about the so-called “socio-political system” and that the configuration model makes it possible to depict the influence of that system on the whole organization. The overall research approach thus contributes toward a better understanding of the influence and the impact of oppressive social environments and evolving power relations on the development of an organization.

  8. Use of whey lactose from dairy industry for economical kefiran production by Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens in mixed cultures with yeasts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheirsilp, Benjamas; Radchabut, Sirilaor

    2011-10-01

    To evaluate the feasibility of producing kefiran industrially, whey lactose, a by-product from dairy industry, was used as a low cost carbon source. Because the accumulation of lactic acid as a by-product of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens inhibited cell growth and kefiran production, the kefir grain derived and non-derived yeasts were screened for their abilities to reduce lactic acid and promote kefiran production in a mixed culture. Six species of yeasts were examined: Torulaspora delbrueckii IFO 1626; Saccharomyces cerevisiae IFO 0216; Debaryomyces hansenii TISTR 5155; Saccharomyces exiguus TISTR 5081; Zygosaccharomyces rouxii TISTR 5044; and Saccharomyces carlsbergensis TISTR 5018. The mixed culture of L. kefiranofaciens with S. cerevisiae IFO 0216 enhanced the kefiran production best from 568 mg/L in the pure culture up to 807 and 938 mg/L in the mixed cultures under anaerobic and microaerobic conditions, respectively. The optimal conditions for kefiran production by the mixed culture were: whey lactose 4%; yeast extract 4%; initial pH of 5.5; and initial amounts of L. kefiranofaciens and S. cerevisiae IFO 0216 of 2.1×10(7) and 4.0×10(6)CFU/mL, respectively. Scaling up the mixed culture in a 2L bioreactor with dissolved oxygen control at 5% and pH control at 5.5 gave the maximum kefiran production of 2,580 mg/L in batch culture and 3,250 mg/L in fed-batch culture. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. The Use of Lactic Acid Bacteria Starter Culture in the Production of Nunu, a Spontaneously Fermented Milk Product in Ghana

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fortune Akabanda

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Nunu, a spontaneously fermented yoghurt-like product, is produced and consumed in parts of West Africa. A total of 373 predominant lactic acid bacteria (LAB previously isolated and identified from Nunu product were assessed in vitro for their technological properties (acidification, exopolysaccharides production, lipolysis, proteolysis and antimicrobial activities. Following the determination of technological properties, Lactobacillus fermentum 22-16, Lactobacillus plantarum 8-2, Lactobacillus helveticus 22-7, and Leuconostoc mesenteroides 14-11 were used as single and combined starter cultures for Nunu fermentation. Starter culture fermented Nunu samples were assessed for amino acids profile and rate of acidification and were subsequently evaluated for consumer acceptability. For acidification properties, 82%, 59%, 34%, and 20% of strains belonging to Lactobacillus helveticus, L. plantarum, L. fermentum, and Leu. mesenteriodes, respectively, demonstrated fast acidification properties. High proteolytic activity (>100 to 150 μg/mL was observed for 50% Leu. mesenteroides, 40% L. fermentum, 41% L. helveticus, 27% L. plantarum, and 10% Ent. faecium species. In starter culture fermented Nunu samples, all amino acids determined were detected in Nunu fermented with single starters of L. plantarum and L. helveticus and combined starter of L. fermntum and L. helveticus. Consumer sensory analysis showed varying degrees of acceptability for Nunu fermented with the different starter cultures.

  10. Nuclear security culture: a generic model for universal application

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khripunov, I.

    2005-01-01

    Full text: Nuclear security culture found its way into professional parlance several years ago, but still lacks an agreed-upon definition and description. The February 2005 U.S.-Russian Joint Statement, issued at the presidential summit meeting in Bratislava, referred specifically to security culture, focusing renewed attention on the concept. Numerous speakers at the March 2005 International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) international conference on nuclear security referred to security culture, but their visions and interpretations were often at odds with one another. Clearly, there is a need for a generic model of nuclear security culture with universal applicability. Internationally acceptable standards in this area would be invaluable for evaluation, comparison, cooperation, and assistance. They would also help international bodies better manage their relations with the nuclear sectors in various countries. This paper will develop such a model. It will use the IAEA definition of nuclear security, and then apply Edgar Schein's model of organizational culture to security culture at a generic nuclear facility. A cultural approach to physical protection involves determining what attitudes and beliefs need to be established in an organization, how these attitudes and beliefs manifest themselves in the behavior of assigned personnel, and how desirable attitudes and beliefs can be transcribed into formal working methods to produce good outcomes, i.e., effective protection. The security-culture mechanism I will propose is broken into four major units: facility leadership, proactive policies and procedures, personnel performance, and learning and professional improvement. The paper will amplify on the specific traits characteristic of each of these units. Security culture is not a panacea. In a time of mounting terrorist threats, it should nonetheless be looked upon as a necessary organizational tool that enhances the skills of nuclear personnel and ensures that

  11. Contexts in tourism and leisure studies : a cross-cultural contribution to the production of knowledge

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Platenkamp, V.

    2007-01-01

    In this PhD an attempt has been made to deliver a cross-cultural contribution to the production of knowledge in tourism and leisure studies. The necessity of this attempt originates in: thegrowing cultural complexity in a globalising world. From a cross-cultural

  12. Factors affecting performance and productivity of nurses: professional attitude, organisational justice, organisational culture and mobbing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terzioglu, Fusun; Temel, Safiye; Uslu Sahan, Fatma

    2016-09-01

    To identify relationships among variables affecting nurses' performance and productivity, namely professional attitudes, organisational culture, organisational justice and exposure to mobbing. The determination of the factors affecting performance and productivity is important for providing efficient nursing services. These factors have been investigated in the literature independently, but the relationship among them has not been clearly identified. This cross-sectional questionnaire study included 772 nurses working in a University Hospital accredited by Joint Commission International. The professional attitude score of the nurses was high (4.35 ± 0.63). However, their organisational justice (2.22 ± 1.26) and organisational culture (2.47 ± 0.71) scores were low. Nurses were subjected to mobbing at a high level (0.82 ± 0.78). As the organisational justice increased, the organisational culture increased and the mobbing decreased. As the organisation culture decreased, the mobbing increased. There was a positive correlation between organisation culture and organisational justice of the nurses and a negative correlation with mobbing. The results of the study are essential for improving nurses' performance and productivity. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. A Language for Modeling Cultural Norms, Biases and Stereotypes for Human Behavior Models

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Solomon, Steven; van Lent, Michael; Core, Mark; Carpenter, Paul; Rosenberg, Milton

    2008-01-01

    .... The Culturally-Affected Behavior project seeks to define a language for encoding ethnographic data in order to capture cultural knowledge and use that knowledge to affect human behavior models...

  14. Extending product modeling methods for integrated product development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bonev, Martin; Wörösch, Michael; Hauksdóttir, Dagný

    2013-01-01

    Despite great efforts within the modeling domain, the majority of methods often address the uncommon design situation of an original product development. However, studies illustrate that development tasks are predominantly related to redesigning, improving, and extending already existing products...... and PVM methods, in a presented Product Requirement Development model some of the individual drawbacks of each method could be overcome. Based on the UML standard, the model enables the representation of complex hierarchical relationships in a generic product model. At the same time it uses matrix....... Updated design requirements have then to be made explicit and mapped against the existing product architecture. In this paper, existing methods are adapted and extended through linking updated requirements to suitable product models. By combining several established modeling techniques, such as the DSM...

  15. Glycerol production by Oenococcus oeni during sequential and simultaneous cultures with wine yeast strains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ale, Cesar E; Farías, Marta E; Strasser de Saad, Ana M; Pasteris, Sergio E

    2014-07-01

    Growth and fermentation patterns of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Kloeckera apiculata, and Oenococcus oeni strains cultured in grape juice medium were studied. In pure, sequential and simultaneous cultures, the strains reached the stationary growth phase between 2 and 3 days. Pure and mixed K. apiculata and S. cerevisiae cultures used mainly glucose, producing ethanol, organic acids, and 4.0 and 0.1 mM glycerol, respectively. In sequential cultures, O. oeni achieved about 1 log unit at 3 days using mainly fructose and L-malic acid. Highest sugars consumption was detected in K. apiculata supernatants, lactic acid being the major end-product. 8.0 mM glycerol was found in 6-day culture supernatants. In simultaneous cultures, total sugars and L-malic acid were used at 3 days and 98% of ethanol and glycerol were detected. This study represents the first report of the population dynamics and metabolic behavior of yeasts and O. oeni in sequential and simultaneous cultures and contributes to the selection of indigenous strains to design starter cultures for winemaking, also considering the inclusion of K. apiculata. The sequential inoculation of yeasts and O. oeni would enhance glycerol production, which confers desirable organoleptic characteristics to wines, while organic acids levels would not affect their sensory profile. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  16. Corporate Culture and Productive Restructuring in Brazilian industry: The Lupo Case S / A

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helena Carvalho de Lorenzo

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Founded in 1921, the company currently known as Lupo S/A is one of the most ancient textile and clothing industries in Brazil. In this article we aim to describe the general lines of the trajectory of this family company, currently producing socks, nightwear and sports articles. The focus of this paper is on the analysis of some strategies used by the company along its formation and development process, and, particularly, the way these strategies made possible the productive restructuring associated to the overcoming of the strong crisis which began in the end of the 80's and early 90's, contributing to its recent consolidation in the clothing industry. The leading hypothesis of the study is that pioneering connected to a strong organizational culture that has been formed and constructed since its foundation and that was reestablished in a more recent management were the factors which were responsible for the advances able to generate an innovation environment in products as well as in processes and management. The theoretical reflection selected to subsidize the cognitive construction of the study of the company is based on the historical approach of the development of the textile industry in Brazil and in studies about the importance of the action of the entrepreneur, in the role of the organizational culture and LORENZO, H.C. & CAÍRES, A.C.R. of innovation to choose strategies in companies. The research involved the analysis of documents and data of the company, as well as interviews with directors and employees. The results show a traditional company model, but also show the presence of a very advanced entrepreneurial dynamic. Modern world – known as a fordist industrial model – could already be noticed in the company when this production pattern was not clearly defined yet in the Brazilian industry. Nowadays, the company faces the challenge of globalization and the open competition in the international market which brings the rivalry

  17. Quality by control: Towards model predictive control of mammalian cell culture bioprocesses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sommeregger, Wolfgang; Sissolak, Bernhard; Kandra, Kulwant; von Stosch, Moritz; Mayer, Martin; Striedner, Gerald

    2017-07-01

    The industrial production of complex biopharmaceuticals using recombinant mammalian cell lines is still mainly built on a quality by testing approach, which is represented by fixed process conditions and extensive testing of the end-product. In 2004 the FDA launched the process analytical technology initiative, aiming to guide the industry towards advanced process monitoring and better understanding of how critical process parameters affect the critical quality attributes. Implementation of process analytical technology into the bio-production process enables moving from the quality by testing to a more flexible quality by design approach. The application of advanced sensor systems in combination with mathematical modelling techniques offers enhanced process understanding, allows on-line prediction of critical quality attributes and subsequently real-time product quality control. In this review opportunities and unsolved issues on the road to a successful quality by design and dynamic control implementation are discussed. A major focus is directed on the preconditions for the application of model predictive control for mammalian cell culture bioprocesses. Design of experiments providing information about the process dynamics upon parameter change, dynamic process models, on-line process state predictions and powerful software environments seem to be a prerequisite for quality by control realization. © 2017 The Authors. Biotechnology Journal published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  18. From Myths to Models: The (Re)Production of World Culture in Comparative Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silova, Iveta; Brehm, William C.

    2015-01-01

    This article traces the emergence of the world culture theory in comparative education using critical discourse analysis. By chronicling the emergence and expansion of world culture theory over the past four decades, we highlight the (unintended) limitations and exclusive regimes of thought that have resulted. We argue that the theory's…

  19. Culture, Interface Design, and Design Methods for Mobile Devices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Kun-Pyo

    Aesthetic differences and similarities among cultures are obviously one of the very important issues in cultural design. However, ever since products became knowledge-supporting tools, the visible elements of products have become more universal so that the invisible parts of products such as interface and interaction are getting more important. Therefore, the cultural design should be extended to the invisible elements of culture like people's conceptual models beyond material and phenomenal culture. This chapter aims to explain how we address the invisible cultural elements in interface design and design methods by exploring the users' cognitive styles and communication patterns in different cultures. Regarding cultural interface design, we examined users' conceptual models while interacting with mobile phone and website interfaces, and observed cultural difference in performing tasks and viewing patterns, which appeared to agree with cultural cognitive styles known as Holistic thoughts vs. Analytic thoughts. Regarding design methods for culture, we explored how to localize design methods such as focus group interview and generative session for specific cultural groups, and the results of comparative experiments revealed cultural difference on participants' behaviors and performance in each design method and led us to suggest how to conduct them in East Asian culture. Mobile Observation Analyzer and Wi-Pro, user research tools we invented to capture user behaviors and needs especially in their mobile context, were also introduced.

  20. Can protoplast production from in vitro cultured shoots of Tanacetum vary during the season?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. KESKITALO

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Two different experiments were carried out to study the production of protoplasts and the variation of protoplast yield from in vitro cultured shoot tips of tansy (Tanacetum vulgare L. and pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium (Trevir. Schiltz-Bip. In the first experiment, light had more pronouced effect for tansy than for pyrethrum. When the donor tissues of tansy were cultured under high light intensity the leaves contained anthocyanin and became brown during enzyme maceration. In contrast, donor tissues cultured under low light intensity produced leaves without anthocyanin. Depending on the light intensity of donor tissues, on average 5.8 - 6.8 x 106 and 3.4 - 4.3 x 106 protoplasts were isolated from one gram of mesophyll leaves of tansy and pyrethrum, respectively. In the second experiment, the production of protoplasts from tansy and pyrethrum varied seasonally. The most successful season for the production of protoplasts from in vitro cultured shoot tips was between December and April, when also the highest number of protoplasts could be isolated. It was not possible to state whether Tanacetum species have rhythms, which could cause physiological or chemical changes for the in vitro grown shoot tips. However, some external or internal, possible seasonal-dependent stimuli may have caused variation in the number of protoplasts isolated from tansy and pyrethrum and favoured protoplast production during winter and spring.

  1. Improvement of acid protease production by a mixed culture of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The synthesis of acid protease by Aspergillus oryzae AS3042 was enhanced significantly with the mixed culture of Aspergillus niger SL-09 using solid-state fermentation technique. The influence of carbon sources, nitrogen sources and the addition of phytic acid on acid protease production were investigated. The enzyme ...

  2. A cultural model of household energy consumption

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lutzenhiser, Loren

    1992-01-01

    In this paper, we consider the development of demand-side research, from an early interest in conservation behavior to a later focus on physical, economic, psychological and social models of energy consumption. Unfortunately, none of these models account satisfactorily for measured energy consumption in the residential sector. Growing interest in the end-uses of energy (e.g. in support of load forecasting, demand-side management and least-cost utility planning), increasing international studies of energy use, and continuing work in the energy and lifestyles research tradition now support an emerging cultural perspective on household energy use. The ecological foundations of the cultural model and its applications in energy research are discussed, along with some of the analytic consequences of this approach. (author)

  3. An extensive case study of hairy-root cultures for enhanced secondary-metabolite production through metabolic-pathway engineering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehrotra, Shakti; Rahman, Laiq Ur; Kukreja, Arun Kumar

    2010-08-23

    An intrinsic improvement is taking place in the methodologies for the development of culture systems with first-rate production of plant-based molecules. The blending of HR (hairy root) cultures with ME (metabolic engineering) approaches offers new insights into, and possibilities for, improving the system productivity for known and/or novel high-value plant-derived active compounds. The introduction and expression of foreign genes in plants results in improvement of cellular activities by manipulating enzymatic, regulatory and transport function of the cell. The rational amendments in the rate-limiting steps of a biosynthetic pathway as well as inactivating the inefficient pathway(s) for by-product formation can be accomplished either through single-step engineering or through the multi-step engineering. The hierarchical control of any metabolic process can lead the engineer to apply the ME ideas and principles to any of the strata, including transcriptional, moving on to translational and enzymatic activity. The HR culture systems offer a remarkable potential for commercial production of a number of low-volume, but high-value, secondary metabolites. Taking HR as a model system, in the present review, we discuss engineering principles and perceptions to exploit secondary-metabolite pathways for the production of important bioactive compounds. We also talk about requisites and possible challenges that occur during ME, with emphasis on examples of various HR systems. Furthermore, it also highlights the utilization of global information obtained from '-omic' platforms in order to explore pathway architecture, structural and functional aspects of important enzymes and genes that can support the design of sets of engineering, resulting in the generation of wide-ranging views of DNA sequence-to-metabolite passageway networking and their control to obtain desired results.

  4. Social Importance Dynamics: A Model for Culturally-Adaptive Agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mascarenhas, S.; Prada, R.; Paiva, A.; Hofstede, G.J.

    2013-01-01

    The unwritten rules of human cultures greatly affect social behaviour and as such should be considered in the development of socially intelligent agents. So far, there has been a large focus on modeling cultural aspects related to non-verbal behaviour such as gaze or body posture. However, culture

  5. National culture and business model change: a framework for successful expansions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalby, J.; Nielsen, L.S.; Lueg, Rainer

    2014-01-01

    Dalby, J., Nielsen, Lueg, R., L. S., Pedersen, L., Tomoni, A. C. 2014. National culture and business model change: a framework for successful expansions. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 22(4): 379-498.......Dalby, J., Nielsen, Lueg, R., L. S., Pedersen, L., Tomoni, A. C. 2014. National culture and business model change: a framework for successful expansions. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 22(4): 379-498....

  6. Promoting collaboration and cultural competence for physician assistant and physical therapist students: A cross-cultural decentralized interprofessional education (IPE) model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliveira, Kathleen De; North, Sara; Beck, Barbra; Hopp, Jane

    2015-01-01

    As the United States health care model progresses towards medical teams and the country's population continues to diversify, the need for health professional education programs to develop and implement culturally specific interprofessional education (IPE) becomes increasingly imperative. A wide range of models exists for delivering and implementing IPE in health education, but none have included the cultural components that are vital in educating the health professional. A cross-cultural decentralized IPE model for physician assistant (PA) and physical therapy (PT) students was developed. This three-part IPE series was created using an established cultural curricular model and began with the exploration of self, continued with the examination of various dimensions of culture, and concluded with the exploration of the intersection between health and culture. We assessed student satisfaction of the IPE experiences and students' engagement and attitudes towards IPE using a three-item open-ended questionnaire administered after each cross-cultural activity and the Interprofessional Education Series Survey (IESS) upon the completion of the series. IESS responses showed that PA and PT students reported benefits in interprofessional collaboration and cultural awareness and expressed overall satisfaction with the series. Qualitative analysis revealed growth in student response depth consistent with the scaffolded focus of each IPE module in the series. The trends in this three-part series suggest that institutions looking to develop culturally inclusive IPE educational initiatives may have success through a decentralized model mirroring the effective cultural progression focused on addressing exploration of self, examination of various dimensions of culture, and exploration of the intersection between health and culture.

  7. The popularity of domestic cultural products: cross-national differences and the relation to globalization

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bekhuis, H.

    2013-01-01

    This dissertation addressed the popularity of domestic cultural consumption. It aimed at describing and explaining the extent to which the popularity of domestic cultural consumption differs between countries and over time. We studied the popularity of domestic versus foreign film productions, the

  8. Effect of noradrenaline on production of methoxyindoles by rat pineal gland in organ culture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morton, D.J.

    1987-01-01

    This report examined the effect of noradrenaline on production of methoxyindoles by the pineal gland in organ culture. Pineal glands were incubated in pairs in 95μl culture medium containing 5-hydroxy [2- 14 C]tryptamine creatinine sulphate (0,1 mM) and noradrenaline (NA) (0,5-100 μM). The results indicated that noradrenaline appeared to have a characteristic action on pineal metabolism. An increase in production of both N-acetylserotonin and melatonin by the pineal after noradrenaline treatment was observed. The overall production of methoxyindoles followed a very similar trend to that of N-acetylserotonin and melatonin, which suggests some degree of noradrenergic control over HIOMT levels

  9. Applications of Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling to Cross-Cultural Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheung, Mike W.-L.; Au, Kevin

    2005-01-01

    Multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) has been proposed as an extension to structural equation modeling for analyzing data with nested structure. We have begun to see a few applications in cross-cultural research in which MSEM fits well as the statistical model. However, given that cross-cultural studies can only afford collecting data…

  10. Selective advantage of tolerant cultural traits in the Axelrod-Schelling model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gracia-Lázaro, C.; Floría, L. M.; Moreno, Y.

    2011-05-01

    The Axelrod-Schelling model incorporates into the original Axelrod’s model of cultural dissemination the possibility that cultural agents placed in culturally dissimilar environments move to other places, the strength of this mobility being controlled by an intolerance parameter. By allowing heterogeneity in the intolerance of cultural agents, and considering it as a cultural feature, i.e., susceptible of cultural transmission (thus breaking the original symmetry of Axelrod-Schelling dynamics), we address here the question of whether tolerant or intolerant traits are more likely to become dominant in the long-term cultural dynamics. Our results show that tolerant traits possess a clear selective advantage in the framework of the Axelrod-Schelling model. We show that the reason for this selective advantage is the development, as time evolves, of a positive correlation between the number of neighbors that an agent has in its environment and its tolerant character.

  11. Optimization of flask culture medium and conditions for hyaluronic acid production by a streptococcus equisimilis mutant nc2168

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yong-Hao Chen

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available A mutant designated NC2168, which was selected from wild-type Streptococcus equisimilis CVCC55116by ultraviolet ray combined with60Co-γ ray treatment and does not produce streptolysin, was employed to produce hyaluronic acid (HA. In order to increase the output of HA in a flask, the culture medium and conditions for NC2168 were optimized in this study. The influence of culture medium ingredients including carbon sources, nitrogen sources and metal ions on HA production was evaluated using factional factorial design. The mathematical model, which represented the effect of each medium component and their interaction on the yield of HA, was established by the quadratic rotary combination design and response surface method. The model estimated that, a maximal yield of HA could be obtained when the concentrations of yeast extract, peptone, glucose, and MgSO4 were set at 3 g/100 mL, 2 g/100 mL, 0.5 g/100 mL and 0.15 g/100 mL, respectively. Compared with the values obtained by other runs in the experimental design, the optimized medium resulted in a remarkable increase in the output of HA and the maximum of the predicted HA production was 174.76 mg/L. The model developed was accurate and reliable for predicting the production of HA by NC2168.Cultivation conditions were optimized by an orthogonal experimental design and the optimal conditions were as follows: temperature 33ºC, pH 7.8, agitation speed 200 rpm, medium volume 20 mL.

  12. Enhanced Mulberroside A Production from Cell Suspension and Root Cultures of Morus alba Using Elicitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Komaikul, Jukrapun; Kitisripanya, Tharita; Tanaka, Hiroyuki; Sritularak, Boonchoo; Putalun, Waraporn

    2015-07-01

    Morus alba L. has been used in Asian traditional medicine as an anti-inflammatory, anti-asthmatic, anthelmintic and as a whitening agent in cosmetic products. Mulberroside A is the major active compound from M. alba root bark. In this study, cell suspension and root cultures of M. alba were established, and the effect of the elicitors on the enhancement of mulberroside A production in M. alba was investigated. The cell suspension and root cultures of M. alba were exposed to elicitors and then mulberroside A contents were determined by an indirect competitive ELISA method. High levels of mulberroside A were obtained by addition of 100 and 200 μM salicylic acid with 24 h exposure time in cell suspension cultures (37.9 ± 1.5 and 34.0 ± 4.7 mg/g dry wt., respectively). Furthermore, addition of yeast extract at 2 mg/mL with 24 h exposure time can significantly increase mulberroside A contents from both cell suspension (3.2-fold) and root cultures (6.6-fold). Mulberroside A contents from both cell suspension and root cultures after treatment with elicitors are similar or higher than those found in the intact root and root bark of several years old M. alba. These results indicate that mulberry tissue cultures using the elicitation method are interesting alternative sources for mulberroside A production.

  13. Expected job creation across the cultural industries : a sectoral division and its implications for cultural policy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haans, Richard F.J.; van Witteloostuijn, Arjen

    2018-01-01

    The cultural industries have come to the forefront as the potential job creators of the future. However, building on the concentric circles model and production system view of the cultural industries, we pose that many young and small organizations in the industries lack the motivation, ability, and

  14. Expected job creation across the cultural industries : A sectoral division and its implications for cultural policy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haans, Richard; van Witteloostuijn, Arjen

    The cultural industries have come to the forefront as the potential job creators of the future. However, building on the concentric circles model and production system view of the cultural industries, we pose that many young and small organizations in the industries lack the motivation, ability, and

  15. Dietary risk ranking for residual antibiotics in cultured aquatic products around Tai Lake, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Chao; Li, Le; Zhang, Cong; Qiu, Liping; Fan, Limin; Wu, Wei; Meng, Shunlong; Hu, Gengdong; Chen, Jiazhang; Liu, Ying; Mao, Aimin

    2017-10-01

    Antibiotics are widely used in aquaculture and therefore may be present as a dietary risk in cultured aquatic products. Using the Tai Lake Basin as a study area, we assessed the presence of 15 antibiotics in 5 widely cultured aquatic species using a newly developed dietary risk ranking approach. By assigning scores to each factor involved in the ranking matrices, the scores of dietary risks per antibiotic and per aquatic species were calculated. The results indicated that fluoroquinolone antibiotics posed the highest dietary risk in all aquatic species. Then, the total scores per aquatic species were summed by all 15 antibiotic scores of antibiotics, it was found that Crab (Eriocheir sinensis) had the highest dietary risks. Finally, the most concerned antibiotic category and aquatic species were selected. This study highlighted the importance of dietary risk ranking in the production and consumption of cultured aquatic products around Tai Lake. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Data to Decisions: Creating a Culture of Model-Driven Drug Discovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Frank K; Kopti, Farida; Chang, Charlie Zhenyu; Johnson, Scott A; Glick, Meir; Waller, Chris L

    2017-09-01

    Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA, is undergoing a transformation in the way that it prosecutes R&D programs. Through the adoption of a "model-driven" culture, enhanced R&D productivity is anticipated, both in the form of decreased attrition at each stage of the process and by providing a rational framework for understanding and learning from the data generated along the way. This new approach focuses on the concept of a "Design Cycle" that makes use of all the data possible, internally and externally, to drive decision-making. These data can take the form of bioactivity, 3D structures, genomics, pathway, PK/PD, safety data, etc. Synthesis of high-quality data into models utilizing both well-established and cutting-edge methods has been shown to yield high confidence predictions to prioritize decision-making and efficiently reposition resources within R&D. The goal is to design an adaptive research operating plan that uses both modeled data and experiments, rather than just testing, to drive project decision-making. To support this emerging culture, an ambitious information management (IT) program has been initiated to implement a harmonized platform to facilitate the construction of cross-domain workflows to enable data-driven decision-making and the construction and validation of predictive models. These goals are achieved through depositing model-ready data, agile persona-driven access to data, a unified cross-domain predictive model lifecycle management platform, and support for flexible scientist-developed workflows that simplify data manipulation and consume model services. The end-to-end nature of the platform, in turn, not only supports but also drives the culture change by enabling scientists to apply predictive sciences throughout their work and over the lifetime of a project. This shift in mindset for both scientists and IT was driven by an early impactful demonstration of the potential benefits of the platform, in which expert-level early discovery

  17. Kinetic Study of Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol Fermentation in Continuous Culture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buehler, Edward A.; Mesbah, Ali

    2016-01-01

    Acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation by clostridia has shown promise for industrial-scale production of biobutanol. However, the continuous ABE fermentation suffers from low product yield, titer, and productivity. Systems analysis of the continuous ABE fermentation will offer insights into its metabolic pathway as well as into optimal fermentation design and operation. For the ABE fermentation in continuous Clostridium acetobutylicum culture, this paper presents a kinetic model that includes the effects of key metabolic intermediates and enzymes as well as culture pH, product inhibition, and glucose inhibition. The kinetic model is used for elucidating the behavior of the ABE fermentation under the conditions that are most relevant to continuous cultures. To this end, dynamic sensitivity analysis is performed to systematically investigate the effects of culture conditions, reaction kinetics, and enzymes on the dynamics of the ABE production pathway. The analysis provides guidance for future metabolic engineering and fermentation optimization studies. PMID:27486663

  18. X-ray-induced production of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) by mouse spleen cells in culture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Onoda, M.; Shinoda, M.; Tsuneoka, K.; Shikita, M.

    1980-01-01

    Spleen cells were collected from normal mice and cultured in a medium containing 20% calf serum. Addition of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the culture significantly increased the production of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and a maximum induction was attained in 5 days. Irradiation of the spleen cells with 300 to 3000 R x rays also enhanced the production of GM-CSF, but there was a latent period of about 5 days before the factor appeared in the culture medium. The observed difference between LPS and x rays in the timing of inducing GM-CSF production in the spleen cell culture was consistent with the difference observed in animals. These results suggest that different mechanisms of GM-CSF production operate in the spleen in response to either LPS or x rays

  19. Cultural perspectives on children’s tadpole drawings: at the interface between representation and production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ariane eGernhardt

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated tadpole self-drawings from 183 three-to-six years old children living in seven cultural groups, representing three ecosocial contexts. Based on assumed general production principles, the influence of cultural norms and values upon specific characteristics of the tadpole drawings was examined. The results demonstrated that children from all cultural groups realized the body-proportion effect in the self-drawings, indicating universal production principles. However, children differed in single drawing characteristics, depending on the specific ecosocial context. Children from Western and non-Western urban middle-class contexts drew themselves rather tall, with many facial features, and preferred smiling facial expressions, while children from rural traditional contexts depicted themselves significantly smaller, with less facial details, and neutral facial expressions.

  20. Cultural perspectives on children’s tadpole drawings: at the interface between representation and production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gernhardt, Ariane; Rübeling, Hartmut; Keller, Heidi

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated tadpole self-drawings from 183 three- to six-year-old children living in seven cultural groups, representing three ecosocial contexts. Based on assumed general production principles, the influence of cultural norms and values upon specific characteristics of the tadpole drawings was examined. The results demonstrated that children from all cultural groups realized the body-proportion effect in the self-drawings, indicating universal production principles. However, children differed in single drawing characteristics, depending on the specific ecosocial context. Children from Western and non-Western urban educated contexts drew themselves rather tall, with many facial features, and preferred smiling facial expressions, while children from rural traditional contexts depicted themselves significantly smaller, with less facial details, and neutral facial expressions. PMID:26136707

  1. Human, Social, Cultural Behavior (HSCB) Modeling Workshop I: Characterizing the Capability Needs for HSCB Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-07-01

    The expectations correspond to different roles individuals perform SocialConstructionis Social constructionism is a school of thought Peter L...HUMAN, SOCIAL , CULTURAL BEHAVIOR (HSCB) MODELING WORKSHOP I: CHARACTERIZING THE CAPABILITY NEEDS FOR HSCB MODELING FINAL REPORT... Social , Cultural Behavior (HSCB) Modeling Workshop I: Characterizing the Capability Needs for HSCB Modeling 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c

  2. Climate-simulated raceway pond culturing: quantifying the maximum achievable annual biomass productivity of Chlorella sorokiniana in the contiguous USA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Huesemann, M.; Chavis, A.; Edmundson, S.; Rye, D.; Hobbs, S.; Sun, N.; Wigmosta, M.

    2017-09-13

    Chlorella sorokiniana (DOE 1412) emerged as one of the most promising microalgae strains from the NAABB consortium project, with a remarkable doubling time under optimal conditions of 2.57 hr-1. However, its maximum achievable annual biomass productivity in outdoor ponds in the contiguous United States remained unknown. In order to address this knowledge gap, this alga was cultured in indoor LED-lighted and temperature-controlled raceways in nutrient replete freshwater (BG-11) medium at pH 7 under conditions simulating the daily sunlight intensity and water temperature fluctuations during three seasons in Southern Florida, an optimal outdoor pond culture location for this organism identified by biomass growth modeling. Prior strain characterization indicated that the average maximum specific growth rate (µmax) at 36 ºC declined continuously with pH, with µmax corresponding to 5.92, 5.83, 4.89, and 4.21 day-1 at pH 6, 7, 8, and 9, respectively. In addition, the maximum specific growth rate declined nearly linearly with increasing salinity until no growth was observed above 35 g/L NaCl. In the climate-simulated culturing studies, the volumetric ash-free dry weight-based biomass productivities during the linear growth phase were 57, 69, and 97 mg/L-day for 30-year average light and temperature simulations for January (winter), March (spring), and July (summer), respectively, which corresponds to average areal productivities of 11.6, 14.1, and 19.9 g/m2-day at a constant pond depth of 20.5 cm. The photosynthetic efficiencies (PAR) in the three climate-simulated pond culturing experiments ranged from 4.1 to 5.1%. The annual biomass productivity was estimated as ca. 15 g/m2-day, nearly double the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 2015 State of Technology annual cultivation productivity of 8.5 g/m2-day, but this is still significantly below the projected 2022 target of ca. 25 g/m2-day (U.S. DOE, 2016) for economic microalgal biofuel production, indicating the need for

  3. Sustainable crop models for fruit, vegetable and flower quality productions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Inglese Paolo

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable development is a paradigm that has evolved over the time, since the ideas of socially acceptable and compatible development, on which it was originally based, are now supported by the more recent notions of ecological equilibria and production process economy, both of which need to be also preserved. Environmental and health safety, rational use of the natural resources and technological tools, upkeep of high social growth rates and respect of a social equity are the basis of the sustainability for any production process, including the agriculture. The new globalization framework has penalized small farms and, at the same time, has put serious constraints to the development of stronger economic systems (medium/large farms, as well. As consequence, the EU has outlined several strategic programs to support small agricultural systems in marginal areas by: 1 strengthening all the quality- related aspects of agricultural production, including nutritional and cultural traits associated to local, typical and in some cases to neglected crops; 2 improving traditional cultural practices by adapting the cropping cycles and fomenting new partnerships between the different parts of the production chain, as for example; promotion of small horticultural chains. Specific political actions for the horticultural production sector have also been developed. Some of these policies are specifically addressed to preserve the biodiversity and to create quality labels certifying typical and/or organic products. All of these are possible strategies that may counteract and cope with the globalization process and increase the competitiveness of many production systems especially those performed by local and small entrepreneurs. New sustainable development models are required by both the market and the implicit requirements of the production system, inside a context on which Europe must face with new emerging economies with lower production costs, by increasing

  4. Culture conditions for the production of a tannase of Aspergillus ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This fungus produced tannase in a fermentation medium M containing tannic acid as the only carbon source. Time course of enzyme synthesis by the fungus showed that the enzyme production followed logarithmic growth phase with maximum enzyme yield being obtained after 6 days corresponding to the culture pH of 3.8.

  5. Culture in the mind's mirror: how anthropology and neuroscience can inform a model of the neural substrate for cultural imitative learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Losin, Elizabeth A Reynolds; Dapretto, Mirella; Iacoboni, Marco

    2009-01-01

    Cultural neuroscience, the study of how cultural experience shapes the brain, is an emerging subdiscipline in the neurosciences. Yet, a foundational question to the study of culture and the brain remains neglected by neuroscientific inquiry: "How does cultural information get into the brain in the first place?" Fortunately, the tools needed to explore the neural architecture of cultural learning - anthropological theories and cognitive neuroscience methodologies - already exist; they are merely separated by disciplinary boundaries. Here we review anthropological theories of cultural learning derived from fieldwork and modeling; since cultural learning theory suggests that sophisticated imitation abilities are at the core of human cultural learning, we focus our review on cultural imitative learning. Accordingly we proceed to discuss the neural underpinnings of imitation and other mechanisms important for cultural learning: learning biases, mental state attribution, and reinforcement learning. Using cultural neuroscience theory and cognitive neuroscience research as our guides, we then propose a preliminary model of the neural architecture of cultural learning. Finally, we discuss future studies needed to test this model and fully explore and explain the neural underpinnings of cultural imitative learning.

  6. THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE CULTURE ON PRODUCTIVITY OF FIRMS IN GHANA: A CASE OF VODAFONE GHANA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Godson Ahiabor

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available It is believed that many of the problems confronting leaders can be traced to their inability to analyze and evaluate organizational cultures. Thus, many leaders, when trying to implement new strategies or a strategic plan leading to a new vision, will discover that their strategies will fail if they are inconsistent with the organization's culture. Organizational culture does not only affect the manner in which managers manage and consequently shape employee behavior, but also the total output and the way it provides services to its customers. Corporate culture or organizational culture is the behavior of humans within an organization and the meaning that people attach to those behaviors. Culture includes the organization's vision, values, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions, beliefs, and habits. In addition, different individuals bring to the workplace their own uniqueness, knowledge, and ethnic culture. Corporate culture covers moral, social, and behavioral norms of one’s organization based on the values, beliefs, attitudes, and priorities of its members. The researcher can say that corporate culture does have a positive impact on the productivity of any organisation, and with Vodafone, it does increase its productivity.

  7. Viability of Staphylococcus xylosus isolated from artisanal sausages for application as starter cultures in meat products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fiorentini, Angela Maria; Sawitzki, Maristela Cortez; Bertol, Teresinha Marisa; Sant'anna, Ernani S

    2009-01-01

    Viability of Staphylococcus xylosus isolated from artisanal sausages for application as starter cultures in meat products Viability of Staphylococcus xylosus strains AD1 and U5 isolated from natural fermented sausages was investigated as starter cultures in fermented sausages produced in the South Region of Brazil. The study demonstrated that the Staphylococcus xylosus strains AD1 and U5 showed significant growth during fermentation, stability over freeze-dried process, negative reaction for staphylococcal enterotoxins and viability for using as a single-strain culture or associated with lactic acid bacteria for production of fermented sausages.

  8. Product Knowledge Modelling and Management

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhang, Y.; MacCallum, K. J.; Duffy, Alex

    1996-01-01

    function-oriented design. Both Specific Product Knowledge and Product Domain Knowledge are modelled at two levels, a meta-model and an information-level.Following that, a computer-based scheme to manage the proposed product lknowledge models within a dynamically changing environment is presented.......The term, Product Knowledge is used to refer to two related but distinct concepts; the knowledge of a specific product (Specific Product Knowledge) and the knowledge of a product domain (Product Domain Knowledge). Modelling and managing Product Knowlege is an essential part of carrying out design.......A scheme is presented in this paper to model, i.e. classify, structure and formalise the product knowledge for the purpose of supporting function-oriented design. The product design specification and four types of required attributes of a specific product have been identified to form the Specific Product...

  9. Cultural-Based Development in the USA

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tubadji, A.; Osoba, B.J.; Nijkamp, P.

    2015-01-01

    This paper explores the link between culture and regional development in USA counties by explicitly including an arts variable in an attitudes-driven culture-based development (CBD) production function. The main aims of the research are (1) to revisit the standard CBD model in order to examine

  10. Effect of the double mutant e//e w//w and the culture medium on the productivity of Drosophila melanogaster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francisco Mora

    2000-01-01

    Full Text Available We investigated the effect of two culture media on the productivity of the double mutant ebony-white (e//e w//w of Drosophila melanogaster, aimed at improving the conditions for maintenance of Drosophila’s collection, Departamento de Biología, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The results indicate that the productivity is affected by the culture medium, being the maize culture medium more productive than the wheat one; it was also shown that the productivity depends both, on the crosses type that is realize and on the mutant. The “+//+ +//+ x e//e w/ cross is more productive than its reciprocal cross, where the position of the ebony allele is the most important factor. With respect to the white allele, when carried by males it does not have effect on the productivity. In addition, we detected a negative effect of wheat culture medium on females +//e +//w.

  11. Production of cellulases by fungal cultures isolated from forest litter soil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Sri Lakshmi

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The aims of this study were the isolation and screening of fungal cultures from forest litter soil for cellulases production. In the present study, four fungal cultures were isolated and identified. Among these fungal cultures, three belonged to the genus Aspergillus and one belonged to the genus Pencillium. These fungal cultures were tested to find their ability to produce cellulases, that catalyze the degradation of cellulose, which is a linear polymer made of glucose subunits linked by beta-1, 4 glycosidic bonds. The fungal isolate 3 (Aspergillus sp. was noticed to show maximum zone of hydrolysis of carboxy-methyl cellulose and produce higher titers of cellulases including exoglucanase, endoglucanase and beta -D-glucosidase. The activities of the cellulases were determined by Filter paper assay (FPA, Carboxy-methly cellulase assay (CMCase and beta -D-glucosidase assay respectively. The total soluble sugar and extracellular protein contents of the fungal filtrates were also determined.

  12. Immobilized anaerobic fermentation for bio-fuel production by Clostridium co-culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Lei; Tschirner, Ulrike

    2014-08-01

    Clostridium thermocellum/Clostridium thermolacticum co-culture fermentation has been shown to be a promising way of producing ethanol from several carbohydrates. In this research, immobilization techniques using sodium alginate and alkali pretreatment were successfully applied on this co-culture to improve the bio-ethanol fermentation performance during consolidated bio-processing (CBP). The ethanol yield obtained increased by over 60 % (as a percentage of the theoretical maximum) as compared to free cell fermentation. For cellobiose under optimized conditions, the ethanol yields were approaching about 85 % of the theoretical efficiency. To examine the feasibility of this immobilization co-culture on lignocellulosic biomass conversion, untreated and pretreated aspen biomasses were also used for fermentation experiments. The immobilized co-culture shows clear benefits in bio-ethanol production in the CBP process using pretreated aspen. With a 3-h, 9 % NaOH pretreatment, the aspen powder fermentation yields approached 78 % of the maximum theoretical efficiency, which is almost twice the yield of the untreated aspen fermentation.

  13. Optimization of a pH-shift control strategy for producing monoclonal antibodies in Chinese hamster ovary cell cultures using a pH-dependent dynamic model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hogiri, Tomoharu; Tamashima, Hiroshi; Nishizawa, Akitoshi; Okamoto, Masahiro

    2018-02-01

    To optimize monoclonal antibody (mAb) production in Chinese hamster ovary cell cultures, culture pH should be temporally controlled with high resolution. In this study, we propose a new pH-dependent dynamic model represented by simultaneous differential equations including a minimum of six system component, depending on pH value. All kinetic parameters in the dynamic model were estimated using an evolutionary numerical optimization (real-coded genetic algorithm) method based on experimental time-course data obtained at different pH values ranging from 6.6 to 7.2. We determined an optimal pH-shift schedule theoretically. We validated this optimal pH-shift schedule experimentally and mAb production increased by approximately 40% with this schedule. Throughout this study, it was suggested that the culture pH-shift optimization strategy using a pH-dependent dynamic model is suitable to optimize any pH-shift schedule for CHO cell lines used in mAb production projects. Copyright © 2017 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. The culture of Chlorella vulgaris in a recycled supernatant: Effects on biomass production and medium quality

    KAUST Repository

    Hadj-Romdhane, F.; Zheng, Xing; Jaouen, Pascal; Pruvost, Jé ré my; Grizeau, Dominique; Croue, Jean-Philippe; Bourseau, Patrick

    2013-01-01

    Reusing supernatant of microalgae culture medium can have inhibitory or toxic effects on the biomass production because of the release of organic metabolites by cells in the culture medium during their growth. This work investigated the impact of Chlorella vulgaris medium recycling on culture productivity, cells quality and accumulation of excreted metabolites in the culture medium. No significant impact on the C. vulgaris growth was observed after 63days of recycling, the productivity remained stable at around 0.55kgm-3day-1. Organic matters accumulated in supernatant were identified as biopolymers (BP) poor in nitrogen and with a size above 40kDa (probably polysaccharides), and small organic molecules (SOM) richer in nitrogen with a molecular size ranging from 1 to 3kDa. The concentration of biopolymers in the supernatant increased till to a maximum and then decreased, possibly consumed by bacteria, whereas small organic compounds accumulated in the medium. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

  15. The culture of Chlorella vulgaris in a recycled supernatant: Effects on biomass production and medium quality

    KAUST Repository

    Hadj-Romdhane, F.

    2013-03-01

    Reusing supernatant of microalgae culture medium can have inhibitory or toxic effects on the biomass production because of the release of organic metabolites by cells in the culture medium during their growth. This work investigated the impact of Chlorella vulgaris medium recycling on culture productivity, cells quality and accumulation of excreted metabolites in the culture medium. No significant impact on the C. vulgaris growth was observed after 63days of recycling, the productivity remained stable at around 0.55kgm-3day-1. Organic matters accumulated in supernatant were identified as biopolymers (BP) poor in nitrogen and with a size above 40kDa (probably polysaccharides), and small organic molecules (SOM) richer in nitrogen with a molecular size ranging from 1 to 3kDa. The concentration of biopolymers in the supernatant increased till to a maximum and then decreased, possibly consumed by bacteria, whereas small organic compounds accumulated in the medium. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

  16. Temperature dependence of bioelectrochemical CO2 conversion and methane production with a mixed-culture biocathode.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Hou-Yun; Bao, Bai-Ling; Liu, Jing; Qin, Yuan; Wang, Yi-Ran; Su, Kui-Zu; Han, Jun-Cheng; Mu, Yang

    2018-02-01

    This study evaluated the effect of temperature on methane production by CO 2 reduction during microbial electrosynthesis (MES) with a mixed-culture biocathode. Reactor performance, in terms of the amount and rate of methane production, current density, and coulombic efficiency, was compared at different temperatures. The microbial properties of the biocathode at each temperature were also analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that the optimum temperature for methane production from CO 2 reduction in MES with a mixed-culture cathode was 50°C, with the highest amount and rate of methane production of 2.06±0.13mmol and 0.094±0.01mmolh -1 , respectively. In the mixed-culture biocathode MES, the coulombic efficiency of methane formation was within a range of 19.15±2.31% to 73.94±2.18% due to by-product formation at the cathode, including volatile fatty acids and hydrogen. Microbial analysis demonstrated that temperature had an impact on the diversity of microbial communities in the biofilm that formed on the MES cathode. Specifically, the hydrogenotrophic methanogen Methanobacterium became the predominant archaea for methane production from CO 2 reduction, while the abundance of the aceticlastic methanogen Methanosaeta decreased with increased temperature. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  17. Of Models and Meanings: Cultural Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Todd A. Crane

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Modeling has emerged as a key technology in analysis of social-ecological systems. However, the tendency for modeling to focus on the mechanistic materiality of biophysical systems obscures the diversity of performative social behaviors and normative cultural positions of actors within the modeled system. The fact that changes in the biophysical system can be culturally constructed in different ways means that the perception and pursuit of adaptive pathways can be highly variable. Furthermore, the adoption of biophysically resilient livelihoods can occur under conditions that are subjectively experienced as the radical transformation of cultural systems. The objectives of this work are to: (1 highlight the importance of understanding the place of culture within social-ecological systems, (2 explore the tensions between empirical and normative positions in the analysis of social-ecological resilience, and (3 suggest how empirical modeling of social-ecological systems can synergistically interact with normative aspects of livelihoods and lifeways.

  18. Modelling and optimization of environmental conditions for kefiran production by Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheirsilp, B; Shimizu, H; Shioya, S

    2001-12-01

    A mathematical model for kefiran production by Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens was established, in which the effects of pH, substrate and product on cell growth, exopolysaccharide formation and substrate assimilation were considered. The model gave a good representation both of the formation of exopolysaccharides (which are not only attached to cells but also released into the medium) and of the time courses of the production of galactose and glucose in the medium (which are produced and consumed by the cells). Since pH and both lactose and lactic acid concentrations differently affected production and growth activity, the model included the effects of pH and the concentrations of lactose and lactic acid. Based on the mathematical model, an optimal pH profile for the maximum production of kefiran in batch culture was obtained. In this study, a simplified optimization method was developed, in which the optimal pH profile was determined at a particular final fermentation time. This was based on the principle that, at a certain time, switching from the maximum specific growth rate to the critical one (which yields the maximum specific production rate) results in maximum production. Maximum kefiran production was obtained, which was 20% higher than that obtained in the constant-pH control fermentation. A genetic algorithm (GA) was also applied to obtain the optimal pH profile; and it was found that practically the same solution was obtained using the GA.

  19. Automated culture of aquatic model organisms: shrimp larvae husbandry for the needs of research and aquaculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mutalipassi, M; Di Natale, M; Mazzella, V; Zupo, V

    2018-01-01

    Modern research makes frequent use of animal models, that is, organisms raised and bred experimentally in order to help the understanding of biological and chemical processes affecting organisms or whole environments. The development of flexible, reprogrammable and modular systems that may help the automatic production of 'not-easy-to-keep' species is important for scientific purposes and for such aquaculture needs as the production of alive foods, the culture of small larvae and the test of new culture procedures. For this reason, we planned and built a programmable experimental system adaptable to the culture of various aquatic organisms, at different developmental stages. The system is based on culture cylinders contained into operational tanks connected to water conditioning tanks. A programmable central processor unit controls the operations, that is, water changes, temperature, light irradiance, the opening and closure of valves for the discharge of unused foods, water circulation and filtration and disinfection systems, according to the information received by various probes. Various devices may be set to modify water circulation and water changes to fulfil the needs of given organisms, to avoid damage of delicate structures, improve feeding performances and reduce the risk of movements over the water surface. The results obtained indicate that the system is effective in the production of shrimp larvae, being able to produce Hippolyte inermis post-larvae with low mortality as compared with the standard operation procedures followed by human operators. Therefore, the patented prototype described in the present study is a possible solution to automate and simplify the rearing of small invertebrates in the laboratory and in production plants.

  20. Cultured rat and purified human Pneumocystis carinii stimulate intra- but not extracellular free radical production in human neutrophils

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, T; Aliouat, E M; Lundgren, B

    1998-01-01

    The production of free radicals in human neutrophils was studied in both Pneumocystis carinii derived from cultures of L2 rat lung epithelial-like cells and Pneumocystis carinii purified from human lung. Using the cytochrome C technique, which selectively measured extracellular superoxide...... generation, hardly any free radical production was observed after stimulation with cultured rat-derived P. carinii. A chemiluminescence technique, which separately measured intra- and extracellular free radical production, was subsequently employed to differentiate the free radical generation....... It was established that 1) P. carinii stimulated intra- but not extracellular free radical production in human neutrophils, 2) opsonized cultured rat-derived P. carinii stimulated human neutrophils to a strong intracellular response of superoxide production, and 3) opsonized P. carinii, purified from human lung also...

  1. A fast and systematic procedure to develop dynamic models of bioprocesses: application to microalgae cultures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Mailier

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to report on the development of a procedure for inferring black-box, yet biologically interpretable, dynamic models of bioprocesses based on sets of measurements of a few external components (biomass, substrates, and products of interest. The procedure has three main steps: (a the determination of the number of macroscopic biological reactions linking the measured components; (b the estimation of a first reaction scheme, which has interesting mathematical properties, but might lack a biological interpretation; and (c the "projection" (or transformation of this reaction scheme onto a biologically-consistent scheme. The advantage of the method is that it allows the fast prototyping of models for the culture of microorganisms that are not well documented. The good performance of the third step of the method is demonstrated by application to an example of microalgal culture.

  2. Residential segregation and cultural dissemination: An Axelrod-Schelling model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gracia-Lázaro, C.; Lafuerza, L. F.; Floría, L. M.; Moreno, Y.

    2009-10-01

    In the Axelrod’s model of cultural dissemination, we consider the mobility of cultural agents through the introduction of a density of empty sites and the possibility that agents in a dissimilar neighborhood can move to them if their mean cultural similarity with the neighborhood is below some threshold. While for low values of the density of empty sites, the mobility enhances the convergence to a global culture, for high enough values of it, the dynamics can lead to the coexistence of disconnected domains of different cultures. In this regime, the increase in initial cultural diversity paradoxically increases the convergence to a dominant culture. Further increase in diversity leads to the fragmentation of the dominant culture into domains, forever changing in shape and number, as an effect of the never ending eroding activity of cultural minorities.

  3. Long-term culture of organotypic multicellular glioma spheroids: a good culture model for studying gliomas

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kaaijk, P.; Troost, D.; Das, P. K.; Leenstra, S.; Bosch, D. A.

    1995-01-01

    Gliomas, as well as other solid tumours, contain tumour stroma composed of connective tissue, macrophages, capillaries and other non-cellular constituents. Therefore, a homogeneous culture of tumour cells alone, as is often used as a culture model for gliomas, is not ideal to study all aspects of

  4. Establishment and characterization of a differentiated epithelial cell culture model derived from the porcine cervix uteri.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miessen, Katrin; Einspanier, Ralf; Schoen, Jennifer

    2012-03-19

    Cervical uterine epithelial cells maintain a physiological and pathogen-free milieu in the female mammalian reproductive tract and are involved in sperm-epithelium interaction. Easily accessible, differentiated model systems of the cervical epithelium are not yet available to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms within these highly specialized cells. Therefore, the aim of the study was to establish a cell culture of the porcine cervical epithelium representing in vivo-like properties of the tissue. We tested different isolation methods and culture conditions and validated purity of the cultured cells by immunohistochemistry against keratins. We could reproducibly culture pure epithelial cells from cervical tissue explants. Based on a morphology score and the WST-1 Proliferation Assay, we optimized the growth medium composition. Primary porcine cervical cells performed best in conditioned Ham's F-12, containing 10% FCS, EGF and insulin. After cultivation in an air-liquid interface for three weeks, the cells showed a discontinuously multilayered phenotype. Finally, differentiation was validated via immunohistochemistry against beta catenin. Mucopolysaccharide production could be shown via alcian blue staining. We provide the first suitable protocol to establish a differentiated porcine epithelial model of the cervix uteri, based on easily accessible cells using slaughterhouse material.

  5. Motivation and justification: a dual-process model of culture in action.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaisey, Stephen

    2009-05-01

    This article presents a new model of culture in action. Although most sociologists who study culture emphasize its role in post hoc sense making, sociologists of religion and social psychologists tend to focus on the role beliefs play in motivation. The dual-process model integrates justificatory and motivational approaches by distinguishing between "discursive" and "practical" modes of culture and cognition. The author uses panel data from the National Study of Youth and Religion to illustrate the model's usefulness. Consistent with its predictions, he finds that though respondents cannot articulate clear principles of moral judgment, their choice from a list of moral-cultural scripts strongly predicts later behavior.

  6. AccessCulture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Valtysson, Bjarki

    of the European Union, and how its cultural policy responds to the changes that the digital paradigm has brought upon the field. The self-publishing features of various Web 2.0 platforms, along with the interactive and distributional potentials that the Internet offers, have given rise to what is referred to here...... in cultural production and consumption. The first part of this works looks at how these changes respond to the field of cultural policy, as well as suggesting a possible culturepolitical reaction in a model which I refer to as access culture. In terms of theoretical approach, the notion of digital cultural...... of YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Flickr, along with lesser known platforms such as the animated short film Elephants Dream, the BBC's Creative Archive, various Internet artworks and the Internet Archive. I furthermore introduce the copyright system Creative Commons in order to suggest legal, widely...

  7. Application of 3d Model of Cultural Relics in Virtual Restoration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, S.; Hou, M.; Hu, Y.; Zhao, Q.

    2018-04-01

    In the traditional cultural relics splicing process, in order to identify the correct spatial location of the cultural relics debris, experts need to manually splice the existing debris. The repeated contact between debris can easily cause secondary damage to the cultural relics. In this paper, the application process of 3D model of cultural relic in virtual restoration is put forward, and the relevant processes and ideas are verified with the example of Terracotta Warriors data. Through the combination of traditional cultural relics restoration methods and computer virtual reality technology, virtual restoration of high-precision 3D models of cultural relics can provide a scientific reference for virtual restoration, avoiding the secondary damage to the cultural relics caused by improper restoration. The efficiency and safety of the preservation and restoration of cultural relics have been improved.

  8. APPLICATION OF 3D MODEL OF CULTURAL RELICS IN VIRTUAL RESTORATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Zhao

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available In the traditional cultural relics splicing process, in order to identify the correct spatial location of the cultural relics debris, experts need to manually splice the existing debris. The repeated contact between debris can easily cause secondary damage to the cultural relics. In this paper, the application process of 3D model of cultural relic in virtual restoration is put forward, and the relevant processes and ideas are verified with the example of Terracotta Warriors data. Through the combination of traditional cultural relics restoration methods and computer virtual reality technology, virtual restoration of high-precision 3D models of cultural relics can provide a scientific reference for virtual restoration, avoiding the secondary damage to the cultural relics caused by improper restoration. The efficiency and safety of the preservation and restoration of cultural relics have been improved.

  9. Exploring plant tissue culture in Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal: in vitro propagation and secondary metabolite production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shasmita; Rai, Manoj K; Naik, Soumendra K

    2017-12-26

    Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal (family: Solanaceae), commonly known as "Indian Ginseng", is a medicinally and industrially important plant of the Indian subcontinent and other warmer parts of the world. The plant has multi-use medicinal potential and has been listed among 36 important cultivated medicinal plants of India that are in high demand for trade due to its pharmaceutical uses. The medicinal importance of this plant is mainly due to the presence of different types of steroidal lactones- withanolides in the roots and leaves. Owing to low seed viability and poor germination, the conventional propagation of W. somnifera falls short to cater its commercial demands particularly for secondary metabolite production. Therefore, there is a great need to develop different biotechnological approaches through tissue and organ culture for seasonal independent production of plants in large scale which will provide sufficient raw materials of uniform quality for pharmaceutical purposes. During past years, a number of in vitro plant regeneration protocols via organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis and in vitro conservation through synthetic seed based encapsulation technology have been developed for W. somnifera. Several attempts have also been made to standardize the protocol of secondary metabolite production via tissue/organ cultures, cell suspension cultures, and Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformed hairy root cultures. Employment of plant tissue culture based techniques would provide means for rapid propagation and conservation of this plant species and also provide scope for enhanced production of different bioactive secondary metabolites. The present review provides a comprehensive report on research activities conducted in the area of tissue culture and secondary metabolite production in W. somnifera during the past years. It also discusses the unexplored areas which might be taken into consideration for future research so that the medicinal properties and

  10. A Growing Disconnection From Nature Is Evident in Cultural Products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kesebir, Selin; Kesebir, Pelin

    2017-03-01

    Human connection with nature is widely believed to be in decline even though empirical evidence is scarce on the magnitude and historical pattern of the change. Studying works of popular culture in English throughout the 20th century and later, we have documented a cultural shift away from nature that begins in the 1950s. Since then, references to nature have been decreasing steadily in fiction books, song lyrics, and film storylines, whereas references to the human-made environment have not. The observed temporal pattern is consistent with the explanatory role of increased virtual and indoors recreation options (e.g., television, video games) in the disconnect from nature, and it is inconsistent with a pure urbanization account. These findings are cause for concern, not only because they imply foregone physical and psychological benefits from engagement with nature, but also because cultural products are agents of socialization that can evoke curiosity, respect, and concern for the natural world.

  11. Pre-irradiation of tissue culture flasks leads to diminished stem and progenitor cell production in long-term bone marrow cultures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rooney, P.; Wright, E.G.

    1993-01-01

    Empty plastic tissue culture flasks were exposed to X-irradiation doses of 0.3-10.0 Gy, prior to the establishment of long-term bone marrow cultures. During the course of a 10 week culture period, all irradiated plastic flasks exhibited a dramatic decrease in the number of both haemopoietic stem cells and myeloid progenitor cells, in the non-adherent layer, when compared with controls. This decrease was not due to a decrease in the number of non-adherent cells produced. Histological examination of non-adherent cells showed an increase in mature granulocytic cells with few blast cells. Morphologically, the adherent layers of irradiated flasks demonstrated a delay in appearance or absence of fat cell production. X-irradiation of glass tissue culture flasks had no deleterious effect. (author)

  12. A model for optimizing the production of pharmaceutical products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nevena Gospodinova

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The problem associated with the optimal production planning is especially relevant in modern industrial enterprises. The most commonly used optimality criteria in this context are: maximizing the total profit; minimizing the cost per unit of production; maximizing the capacity utilization; minimizing the total production costs. This article aims to explore the possibility for optimizing the production of pharmaceutical products through the construction of a mathematical model that can be viewed in two ways – as a single-product model and a multi-product model. As an optimality criterion it is set the minimization of the cost per unit of production for a given planning period. The author proposes an analytical method for solving the nonlinear optimization problem. An optimal production plan of Tylosin tartrate is found using the single-product model.

  13. Integration of Latino/a cultural values into palliative health care: a culture centered model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adames, Hector Y; Chavez-Dueñas, Nayeli Y; Fuentes, Milton A; Salas, Silvia P; Perez-Chavez, Jessica G

    2014-04-01

    Culture helps us grapple with, understand, and navigate the dying process. Although often overlooked, cultural values play a critical and influential role in palliative care. The purpose of the present study was two-fold: one, to review whether Latino/a cultural values have been integrated into the palliative care literature for Latinos/as; two, identify publications that provide recommendations on how palliative care providers can integrate Latino/a cultural values into the end-of-life care. A comprehensive systematic review on the area of Latino/a cultural values in palliative care was conducted via an electronic literature search of publications between 1930-2013. Five articles were identified for reviewing, discussing, or mentioning Latino/a cultural values and palliative care. Only one article specifically addressed Latino/a cultural values in palliative care. The four remaining articles discuss or mention cultural values; however, the cultural values were not the main focus of each article's thesis. The results of the current study highlight the lack of literature specifically addressing the importance of integrating Latino/a cultural values into the delivery of palliative care. As a result, this article introduces the Culture-Centered Palliative Care Model (CCPC). The article defines five key traditional Latino/a cultural values (i.e., familismo, personalismo, respeto, confianza, and dignidad), discusses the influence of each value on palliative health care, and ends with practical recommendations for service providers. Special attention is given to the stages of acculturation and ethnic identity.

  14. Amino acid and glucose metabolism in fed-batch CHO cell culture affects antibody production and glycosylation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Yuzhou; Jimenez Del Val, Ioscani; Müller, Christian; Wagtberg Sen, Jette; Rasmussen, Søren Kofoed; Kontoravdi, Cleo; Weilguny, Dietmar; Andersen, Mikael Rørdam

    2015-03-01

    Fed-batch Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell culture is the most commonly used process for IgG production in the biopharmaceutical industry. Amino acid and glucose consumption, cell growth, metabolism, antibody titer, and N-glycosylation patterns are always the major concerns during upstream process optimization, especially media optimization. Gaining knowledge on their interrelations could provide insight for obtaining higher immunoglobulin G (IgG) titer and better controlling glycosylation-related product quality. In this work, different fed-batch processes with two chemically defined proprietary media and feeds were studied using two IgG-producing cell lines. Our results indicate that the balance of glucose and amino acid concentration in the culture is important for cell growth, IgG titer and N-glycosylation. Accordingly, the ideal fate of glucose and amino acids in the culture could be mainly towards energy and recombinant product, respectively. Accumulation of by-products such as NH4(+) and lactate as a consequence of unbalanced nutrient supply to cell activities inhibits cell growth. The levels of Leu and Arg in the culture, which relate to cell growth and IgG productivity, need to be well controlled. Amino acids with the highest consumption rates correlate with the most abundant amino acids present in the produced IgG, and thus require sufficient availability during culture. Case-by-case analysis is necessary for understanding the effect of media and process optimization on glycosylation. We found that in certain cases the presence of Man5 glycan can be linked to limitation of UDP-GlcNAc biosynthesis as a result of insufficient extracellular Gln. However, under different culture conditions, high Man5 levels can also result from low α-1,3-mannosyl-glycoprotein 2-β-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase (GnTI) and UDP-GlcNAc transporter activities, which may be attributed to high level of NH4+ in the cell culture. Furthermore, galactosylation of the mAb Fc glycans

  15. Product Platform Modeling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Rasmus

    for customisation of products. In many companies these changes in the business environment have created a controversy between the need for a wide variety of products offered to the marketplace and a desire to reduce variation within the company in order to increase efficiency. Many companies use the concept...... other. These groups can be varied and combined to form different product variants without increasing the internal variety in the company. Based on the Theory of Domains, the concept of encapsulation in the organ domain is introduced, and organs are formulated as platform elements. Included......This PhD thesis has the title Product Platform Modelling. The thesis is about product platforms and visual product platform modelling. Product platforms have gained an increasing attention in industry and academia in the past decade. The reasons are many, yet the increasing globalisation...

  16. Kota Bharu Islamic City – The Concept of a New Cultural Tourism Product

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohd Nasir M.R.

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This study introduces the concept of the Kota Bharu Islamic city in the eyes of tourists, with focus on recent trends affecting Malay cultural landscape and urban planning issues in Kelantan. The aims of this study are to introduce the concept of the Kota Bharu Islamic City as the new cultural tourism product in Malaysia as well as to enhance the reputation of the concept at the highest peak and Malay community development in Malaysia by using multiple methods including literature review, site observation and document analysis. The Kelantan Malay heritage should be highlighted as a main consideration in the future planning to avoid further damage or loss of valuable heritage. Finally, a regional vernacular tradition should be set as the focal point in making of the Islamic City of Kota Bharu without mimicking from other Islamic countries and subsequently the concept of the Kota Bharu Islamic City to be promoted as a new cultural tourism product in Malaysia will be successful.

  17. High Triterpenic Acids Production in Callus Cultures from Fruit Pulp of Two Apple Varieties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verardo, Giancarlo; Gorassini, Andrea; Ricci, Donata; Fraternale, Daniele

    2017-01-01

    Very rarely fruit pulp has been used in in vitro culture to produce secondary metabolites useful in promoting health. The aims of this work were the study of the best conditions to obtain the callus cultures from the pulp of two varieties of apples, Golden Delicious (GD) and "Mela Rosa Marchigiana" (MRM), and the quali-quantitative analysis of secondary metabolites produced by the two in vitro callus cultures. Callus was induced on both Murashige and Skoog and Gamborg B5 media containing various combinations of supplements. To achieve the maximum recovery of secondary metabolites produced, preliminary extraction tests were carried out on GD apple culture using two different organic solvents (MeOH and EtOAc). The quali-quantitative analysis of the methanolic extract of both cultures was carried out by ESI-MS n and GC-MS techniques. The GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of triterpenic acids, in particular, oleanolic, ursolic, maslinic, pomolic, tormentic, corosolic and annurcoic acid along with a phytosterol, β-sitosterol. In addition, GD callus culture produced phloridzin, absent in the MRM culture. In this last culture, however, the total amount of secondary metabolites was markedly higher. The in vivo production of these bioactive compounds were also quantified in the GD and MRM apple pulps. Apple pulps produced higher amounts of triterpenic acids in vitro than in vivo. The present work can be considered a method to amplify the production of important secondary metabolites which exert beneficial effects on human health. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  18. Morpho-molecular identification of a novel aspergillus spp. and its cultural optimization for lipases production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iftikhar, T.; Niaz, M.; Haider, M.Z.; Sidra, A.

    2014-01-01

    Different lipid rich products were used to obtain oil degrading fungal isolates. The isolates were codified for referral to our culture bank and compared for their lipolytic potential. Amongst the isolates, MBL-1412 isolated from the cooked sliced cicer arietinum (Channa Daal) was found to be a potent hyper-producer and was optimized for lipase production under solid state fermentation. Initial systematic treatment based upon micrometric data and consultation with the standard monographs and fungus ended up with its identification as Aspergillus sp. The identification confirmed that the fungus belongs to genus Aspergillus, by DNA barcoding marker like 18S RNA gene sequence.Later, the sequence was registered with accession no. KM924434 in the public nucleotide library (genbank) of NCBI. Fungal culture was maintained on 2% potato dextrose agar (PDA) during the study. Diverse substrates of agricultural byproducts under varied incubation temperature, time interval, inoculum level and different pH of diluent were used as parameters of optimization for hyper-production of lipases. Different carbon and nitrogen sources as additives of culture medium were applied for enhancement of lipase production. Almond meal (10g) with inoculum level at 1.5 mL after 48 h of time course at 50 degree C and 6 pH were selected to be the best eco-cultural conditions for optimal lipases production by Aspergillus sp. MBL-1412. Supplementary additives of nitrogen and carbon sources to the basal substrate improved lipases production appreciably. Ammonium chloride (1%) as inorganic nitrogen source, nutrient broth (0.8%) as organic nitrogen source and starch (0.8%) as carbon source were found as best media additives for enhanced extracellular lipases yield. (author)

  19. Production of bio-based materials using photobioreactors with binary cultures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beliaev, Alex S; Pinchuk, Grigoriy E; Hill, Eric A; Fredrickson, Jim K

    2013-08-27

    A method, device and system for producing preselected products, (either finished products or preselected intermediary products) from biobased precursors or CO.sub.2 and/or bicarbonate. The principal features of the present invention include a method wherein a binary culture is incubated with a biobased precursor in a closed system to transform at least a portion of the biobased precursor to a preselected product. The present invention provides a method of cultivation that does not need sparging of a closed bioreactor to remove or add a gaseous byproduct or nutrient from a liquid medium. This improvement leads to significant savings in energy consumption and allows for the design of photobioreactors of any desired shape. The present invention also allows for the use of a variety of types of waste materials to be used as the organic starting material.

  20. MODELLING CONSUMERS' DEMAND FOR ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTS: THE SWEDISH EXPERIENCE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuchehr Irandoust

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper attempts to examine a few factors characterizing consumer preferences and behavior towards organic food products in the south of Sweden using a proportional odds model which captures the natural ordering of dependent variables and any inherent nonlinearities. The findings show that consumer's choice for organic food depends on perceived benefits of organic food (environment, health, and quality and consumer's perception and attitudes towards labelling system, message framing, and local origin. In addition, high willingness to pay and income level will increase the probability to buy organic food, while the cultural differences and socio-demographic characteristics have no effect on consumer behaviour and attitudes towards organic food products. Policy implications are offered.

  1. Innovation in Sustainable Products: Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Bi-National Teams

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cleber José Cunha Dutra

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Innovation has been required as a vital asset for organizational survival in many areas, especially in the sustainability organizational field of concerns. Changes in Brazilian consumers’ consumption are perceived from the growing demand for environmentally-friendly products and services which are pressuring companies to achieve environmental efficiency. Tools like Cleaner Production, Sustainable Supply-Chain Management, and Ecodesign are essential to help firms achieve this goal. However, these tools require integration between different functions in a company, demanding that members with different expertise work together as a team. Based on a long tradition of collaboration, Germany is a potential partner for Brazil, combining expertise in the development of innovations aimed at more sustainable products. In today’s global environment, transnational teams should become the most effective teams in an organization but, because of the potential for miscommunication and conflict, the management of these teams needs special attention. Cultural differences between German and Brazilian members of work teams represent risks/advantages for the management of process of innovative products development. The paper draws on previously reviewed studies to ground an analysis of cultural dimensions and national characters, within Brazilian-German teams. In essence, this study is an essay with the main aim to open perspectives for further research and to support organizations in their sustainable management practices.

  2. Whole‐cell Escherichia coli lactate biosensor for monitoring mammalian cell cultures during biopharmaceutical production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goers, Lisa; Ainsworth, Catherine; Goey, Cher Hui; Kontoravdi, Cleo; Freemont, Paul S.

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT Many high‐value added recombinant proteins, such as therapeutic glycoproteins, are produced using mammalian cell cultures. In order to optimize the productivity of these cultures it is important to monitor cellular metabolism, for example the utilization of nutrients and the accumulation of metabolic waste products. One metabolic waste product of interest is lactic acid (lactate), overaccumulation of which can decrease cellular growth and protein production. Current methods for the detection of lactate are limited in terms of cost, sensitivity, and robustness. Therefore, we developed a whole‐cell Escherichia coli lactate biosensor based on the lldPRD operon and successfully used it to monitor lactate concentration in mammalian cell cultures. Using real samples and analytical validation we demonstrate that our biosensor can be used for absolute quantification of metabolites in complex samples with high accuracy, sensitivity, and robustness. Importantly, our whole‐cell biosensor was able to detect lactate at concentrations more than two orders of magnitude lower than the industry standard method, making it useful for monitoring lactate concentrations in early phase culture. Given the importance of lactate in a variety of both industrial and clinical contexts we anticipate that our whole‐cell biosensor can be used to address a range of interesting biological questions. It also serves as a blueprint for how to capitalize on the wealth of genetic operons for metabolite sensing available in nature for the development of other whole‐cell biosensors. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 1290–1300. © 2017 The Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:28112405

  3. Synchronized mammalian cell culture: part II--population ensemble modeling and analysis for development of reproducible processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jandt, Uwe; Barradas, Oscar Platas; Pörtner, Ralf; Zeng, An-Ping

    2015-01-01

    The consideration of inherent population inhomogeneities of mammalian cell cultures becomes increasingly important for systems biology study and for developing more stable and efficient processes. However, variations of cellular properties belonging to different sub-populations and their potential effects on cellular physiology and kinetics of culture productivity under bioproduction conditions have not yet been much in the focus of research. Culture heterogeneity is strongly determined by the advance of the cell cycle. The assignment of cell-cycle specific cellular variations to large-scale process conditions can be optimally determined based on the combination of (partially) synchronized cultivation under otherwise physiological conditions and subsequent population-resolved model adaptation. The first step has been achieved using the physical selection method of countercurrent flow centrifugal elutriation, recently established in our group for different mammalian cell lines which is presented in Part I of this paper series. In this second part, we demonstrate the successful adaptation and application of a cell-cycle dependent population balance ensemble model to describe and understand synchronized bioreactor cultivations performed with two model mammalian cell lines, AGE1.HNAAT and CHO-K1. Numerical adaptation of the model to experimental data allows for detection of phase-specific parameters and for determination of significant variations between different phases and different cell lines. It shows that special care must be taken with regard to the sampling frequency in such oscillation cultures to minimize phase shift (jitter) artifacts. Based on predictions of long-term oscillation behavior of a culture depending on its start conditions, optimal elutriation setup trade-offs between high cell yields and high synchronization efficiency are proposed. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

  4. Application of Safety Maturity Model and 4P-4C Model in Safety Culture Assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, K. S.; Lee, Y. E.; Ha, J. T.; Chang, H. S.; Kam, S. C.

    2010-01-01

    Korean government and utility have made efforts to enhance the nuclear safety culture and the development of quantitative index of safety culture was promoted for past several years. Quantitative index of safety culture and the past efforts to understand safety culture need insight into the concept of culture. This paper aims to apply new method of measuring nuclear safety culture through the review of approaches of evaluating safety culture in non-nuclear industries. Scoring table has been developed based on new models and example of result of interviews evaluating the nuclear safety culture is also shown

  5. Cultural evolution as a nonstationary stochastic process

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nicholson, Arwen; Sibani, Paolo

    2016-01-01

    We present an individual based model of cultural evolution, where interacting agents are coded by binary strings standing for strategies for action, blueprints for products or attitudes and beliefs. The model is patterned on an established model of biological evolution, the Tangled Nature Model...... (TNM), where a “tangle” of interactions between agents determines their reproductive success. In addition, our agents also have the ability to copy part of each other's strategy, a feature inspired by the Axelrod model of cultural diversity. Unlike the latter, but similarly to the TNM, the model...

  6. A co-cultured skin model based on cell support membranes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dai, N.-T.; Yeh, M.-K.; Liu, Demeral David; Adams, E.F.; Chiang, C.-H.; Yen, C.-Y.; Shih, C.-M.; Sytwu, H.-K.; Chen, Tim-Mo; Wang, H.-J.; Williamson, M.R.; Coombes, A.G.A.

    2005-01-01

    Tissue engineering of skin based on collagen: PCL biocomposites using a designed co-culture system is reported. The collagen: PCL biocomposites having collagen: PCL (w/w) ratios of 1:4, 1:8, and 1:20 have been proven to be biocompatible materials to support both adult normal human epidermal Keratinocyte (NHEK) and mouse 3T3 fibroblast growth in cell culture, respectively, by Dai, Coombes, et al. in 2004. Films of collagen: PCL biocomposites were prepared using non-crosslinking method by impregnation of lyophilized collagen mats with PCL/dichloromethane solutions followed by solvent evaporation. To mimic the dermal/epidermal structure of skin, the 1:20 collagen: PCL biocomposites were selected for a feasibility study of a designed co-culture technique that would subsequently be used for preparing fibroblast/biocomposite/keratinocyte skin models. A 55.3% increase in cell number was measured in the designed co-culture system when fibroblasts were seeded on both sides of a biocomposite film compared with cell culture on one surface of the biocomposite in the feasibility study. The co-culture of human keratinocytes and 3T3 fibroblasts on each side of the membrane was therefore studied using the same co-culture system by growing keratinocytes on the top surface of membrane for 3 days and 3T3 fibroblasts underneath the membrane for 6 days. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and immunohistochemistry assay revealed good cell attachment and proliferation of both human keratinocytes and 3T3 fibroblasts with these two types of cells isolated well on each side of the membrane. Using a modified co-culture technique, a co-cultured skin model presenting a confluent epidermal sheet on one side of the biocomposite film and fibroblasts populated on the other side of the film was developed successfully in co-culture system for 28 days under investigations by SEM and immunohistochemistry assay. Thus, the design of a co-culture system based on 1:20 (w/w) collagen: PCL biocomposite

  7. Power-law approach to modeling biological systems. II. Application to ethanol production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Voit, E O; Savageau, M A

    1982-01-01

    The use of the power-law formalism is illustrated by modeling yeast ethanol production in batch culture at high cell densities. Parameter values are estimated from experimental data. The results suggest that ethanol killing of viable cells and lysis of nonviable cells are major determinants of system behavior, whereas catabolism of ethanol and inhibition of cell growth by ethanol appear to be insignificant under these experimental conditions.

  8. Xylanase production by a newly isolated Aspergillus niger SS7 in submerged culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bakri, Yasser; Al-Jazairi, Manal; Al-Kayat, Ghassan

    2008-01-01

    Xylanase production by a newly isolated Aspergillus niger SS7 was studied in submerged culture. The optimum initial pH for xylanase production was found to be 7.0. Different agricultural and industrial wastes were evaluated for their ability to induce xylanase production by this isolate. The best xylanase production (293.82 IU/ml) was recorded at 3% (w/v) corn cob hulls after 120 h of incubation. The Aspergillus niger SS7 isolate grown in a simple medium, proved to be a promising microorganism for xylanase production.

  9. Growth evaluation of Lentinula edodes in solid medium cultures for mycelium production as inoculum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valeska Villegas E

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available Shitake (Lentinula edodes Pegler jumbo strain growth was evaluated in different solid mediums and growth substrates for spawn production. Mycelium growth was tested in three culture mediums (MYA, OMYA, PDYA at two pHs (5, 5.5, using two eucalyptus sawdust percentages (0.3%, 0.2%. Analysing variance revealed significant differences in culture medium (P0.05. The liquid inoculation technique was used for evaluating mushroom spawn production using five different combinations of eucalyptus sawdust and wheat grain, finding significant differences between treatments, the best combination for shiitake growth being 80% wheat grain and 20% eucalyptus sawdust.

  10. Hybrid Modeling and Optimization of Yogurt Starter Culture Continuous Fermentation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silviya Popova

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available The present paper presents a hybrid model of yogurt starter mixed culture fermentation. The main nonlinearities within a classical structure of continuous process model are replaced by neural networks. The new hybrid model accounts for the dependence of the two microorganisms' kinetics from the on-line measured characteristics of the culture medium - pH. Then the model was used further for calculation of the optimal time profile of pH. The obtained results are with agreement with the experimental once.

  11. Effect of changing temperature on anaerobic hydrogen production and microbial community composition in an open-mixed culture bioreactor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Karadag, Dogan; Puhakka, Jaakko A. [Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere (Finland)

    2010-10-15

    The temperature effect (37-65 C) on H{sub 2} production from glucose in an open-mixed culture bioreactor using an enrichment culture from a hot spring was studied. The dynamics of microbial communities was investigated by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). At 45 and 60 C the H{sub 2} production was the highest i.e. 1.71 and 0.85 mol H{sub 2}/mol glucose, respectively. No H{sub 2} was produced at temperatures 50 and 55 C. At 37-45 C, H{sub 2} production was produced by butyrate type fermentation while fermentation mechanism changed to ethanol type at 60 C. Clostridium species were dominant at 37-45 C while at 50-55 C and 60 C the culture was dominated by Bacillus coagulans and Thermoanaerobacterium, respectively. In the presence of B. Coagulans the metabolism was directed to lactate production. The results show that the mixed culture had two optima for H{sub 2} production and that the microbial communities and metabolic patterns promptly changed according to changing temperatures. (author)

  12. Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis in vitro embryo production in two different defined culture media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. Gasparrini

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available In vitro embryo production (IVEP is largely applied world wide to animal breeding. One of the principal steps of the IVEP is represented by embryo culture (Khurana and Niemann., 2000. In the past, embryos were grown in co-culture systems with other cells such as oviductal epithelial cells, cumulus cells, Buffalo rat liver (BRL and VERO cells (Duszewska et al., 2000. These cells are able to supply the nutrients for embryo development by their replication and metabolism. Nevertheless, the metabolic activity of these cells is also responsible of an early lowering of pH in the culture medium: that needs to be changed every two days. Furthermore, with this culture system it is impossible to standardize all the procedure: in fact the result is dependent from several variables, as the quality of the cells and their concentration in co-culture. The use of defined culture media is necessary to acquire a better comprehension of metabolism and biochemical requirements for IVEP........

  13. National Culture and Business Model Change - A Framework for Successful Expansions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stenskov, Lea Houmark; Lueg, Rainer

    2014-01-01

    This paper proposes a conceptual framework to analyse how a company’s business model needs to be adjusted if it is expanded into another cultural context. For this, we use the example of changes in the business model of a Danish ITcompany opening a new office in the U.S. Using a single case study......, we integrate the concepts of business models (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2005) and national culture (Hofstede, 1980). Our findings explain why and how adjustments in the business model are necessary regarding the company’s communication, team composition, and customer involvement in projects....... As to implications, we construct a matrix combining business models and national culture that other multinational companies can use to achieve better understanding of their business model in different national contexts....

  14. Critical elements of culturally competent communication in the medical encounter: a review and model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teal, Cayla R; Street, Richard L

    2009-02-01

    Increasing the cultural competence of physicians is one means of responding to demographic changes in the USA, as well as reducing health disparities. However, in spite of the development and implementation of cultural competence training programs, little is known about the ways cultural competence manifests itself in medical encounters. This paper will present a model of culturally competent communication that offers a framework of studying cultural competence 'in action.' First, we describe four critical elements of culturally competent communication in the medical encounter--communication repertoire, situational awareness, adaptability, and knowledge about core cultural issues. We present a model of culturally competent physician communication that integrates existing frameworks for cultural competence in patient care with models of effective patient-centered communication. The culturally competent communication model includes five communication skills that are depicted as elements of a set in which acquisition of more skills corresponds to increasing complexity and culturally competent communication. The culturally competent communication model utilizes each of the four critical elements to fully develop each skill and apply increasingly sophisticated, contextually appropriate communication behaviors to engage with culturally different patients in complex interactions. It is designed to foster maximum physician sensitivity to cultural variation in patients as the foundation of physician-communication competence in interacting with patients.

  15. Predictive modeling in Clostridium acetobutylicum fermentations employing Raman spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis for real-time culture monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zu, Theresah N. K.; Liu, Sanchao; Germane, Katherine L.; Servinsky, Matthew D.; Gerlach, Elliot S.; Mackie, David M.; Sund, Christian J.

    2016-05-01

    The coupling of optical fibers with Raman instrumentation has proven to be effective for real-time monitoring of chemical reactions and fermentations when combined with multivariate statistical data analysis. Raman spectroscopy is relatively fast, with little interference from the water peak present in fermentation media. Medical research has explored this technique for analysis of mammalian cultures for potential diagnosis of some cancers. Other organisms studied via this route include Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and some Bacillus sp., though very little work has been performed on Clostridium acetobutylicum cultures. C. acetobutylicum is a gram-positive anaerobic bacterium, which is highly sought after due to its ability to use a broad spectrum of substrates and produce useful byproducts through the well-known Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation. In this work, real-time Raman data was acquired from C. acetobutylicum cultures grown on glucose. Samples were collected concurrently for comparative off-line product analysis. Partial-least squares (PLS) models were built both for agitated cultures and for static cultures from both datasets. Media components and metabolites monitored include glucose, butyric acid, acetic acid, and butanol. Models were cross-validated with independent datasets. Experiments with agitation were more favorable for modeling with goodness of fit (QY) values of 0.99 and goodness of prediction (Q2Y) values of 0.98. Static experiments did not model as well as agitated experiments. Raman results showed the static experiments were chaotic, especially during and shortly after manual sampling.

  16. Iconic Native Culture Cues Inhibit Second Language Production in a Non-immigrant Population: Evidence from Bengali-English Bilinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roychoudhuri, Kesaban S; Prasad, Seema G; Mishra, Ramesh K

    2016-01-01

    We examined if iconic pictures belonging to one's native culture interfere with second language production in bilinguals in an object naming task. Bengali-English bilinguals named pictures in both L1 and L2 against iconic cultural images representing Bengali culture or neutral images. Participants named in both "Blocked" and "Mixed" language conditions. In both conditions, participants were significantly slower in naming in English when the background was an iconic Bengali culture picture than a neutral image. These data suggest that native language culture cues lead to activation of the L1 lexicon that competed against L2 words creating an interference. These results provide further support to earlier observations where such culture related interference has been observed in bilingual language production. We discuss the results in the context of cultural influence on the psycholinguistic processes in bilingual object naming.

  17. Managing satisfaction in cultural events: Exploring the role of core and peripheral product

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuel Cuadrado-García

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper measures satisfaction with a cultural event following an innovative approach by differentiating between the art form itself (core product and the main attributes connected with it (augmented product. 122 individuals (out of 820 visitors were interviewed on their overall satisfaction and on different aspects of their visiting experience. Multivariate techniques such as ANOVA, principal component factor analysis and regression were performed to analyse the data. Results show the importance of both the core and the peripheral product in measuring satisfaction with a cultural event, thereby highlighting their importance for product management in the arts. The small sample, the specificity of the data and the bias of the distribution have prevented further multivariate analysis. A future area of research is on antecedents to customer satisfaction in the arts field. The contribution of peripheral elements to satisfaction should not be underestimated. Despite artists’ freedom to produce the work of art, a series of peripheral elements should be designed along with the other variables of the marketing mix in order to adapt and differentiate the artistic production to the target audience. This paper contributes a different perspective to measuring satisfaction in the arts context while considering the role of the core product and its peripherals.

  18. Optimization of culture condition for ACEI and GABA production by lactic acid bacteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tung, Yi-Ting; Lee, Bao-Hong; Liu, Chin-Feng; Pan, Tzu-Ming

    2011-01-01

    Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) are compounds which can influence hypertension. The goal of this study is to optimize the culture condition for GABA and ACEI production by Lactobacillus plantarum NTU 102 fermented skim milk. In this study, we used 3-factor-3-level Box-Behnken design combining with response surface methodology, where the 3 factors represent the concentration of skim milk, the concentration of monosodium glutamate, and culture temperature. Best conditions for GABA and ACEI production differed. The results indicated that L. plantarum NTU 102 produced the highest combined levels of GABA and ACEI at 37 °C, in milk having 8% to 12% nonfat solids supplemented with 0.6% to 1% MSG. Agitation of the medium during fermentation had no effect on GABA or ACEI production but extended incubation (up to 6 d) increases levels of the bioactive compounds. L. plantarum NTU 102 fermented products may be a potential functional food source for regulating hypertension. © 2011 Institute of Food Technologists®

  19. Production of hemicellulose-degrading enzymes by Bacillus macerans in anaerobic culture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Williams, A.G.; Withers, S.E.

    1985-09-01

    The cell-associated and exocellular hemicellulolytic polysaccharide depolymerase and glycoside hydrolase activity of Bacillus macerans NCDO 1764 was monitored over a range of anaerobic growth conditions in batch and continuous culture. The enzymes were detectable throughout the complete growth cycle in batch culture reaching and maintaining maximum levels in the stationary phase. In continuous culture enzyme activity was largely independent of growth rate (D=0.025-0.1 h/sup -1/) although the activity was reduced at higher dilution rates (0.125-0.15 h/sup -1/). Although activity was detectable over a wide pH range (pH 5.5-7.5) it was pH dependent, and maximum activities of both the cell-associated and exocellular enzymes were measured in cultures maintained at pH 6.5-7.0 +- 0.1. The principal metabolites formed anaerobically from xylose by B. macerans in batch and continuous culture were acetic acid, formic acid and ethanol which represented 95-99% of the products formed. Smaller amounts of acetone, D,L-lactic acid and succinic acid were formed together with traces of butyric acid (<5 nmol/ml) and isovaleric acid (<25 nmol/ml). The proportions of the metabolites produced varied with growth conditions and were influenced by the pH of the culture and the rate and stage of growth of the microorganism.

  20. Development of a definition, classification system, and model for cultural geology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitchell, Lloyd W., III

    The concept for this study is based upon a personal interest by the author, an American Indian, in promoting cultural perspectives in undergraduate college teaching and learning environments. Most academicians recognize that merged fields can enhance undergraduate curricula. However, conflict may occur when instructors attempt to merge social science fields such as history or philosophy with geoscience fields such as mining and geomorphology. For example, ideologies of Earth structures derived from scientific methodologies may conflict with historical and spiritual understandings of Earth structures held by American Indians. Specifically, this study addresses the problem of how to combine cultural studies with the geosciences into a new merged academic discipline called cultural geology. This study further attempts to develop the merged field of cultural geology using an approach consisting of three research foci: a definition, a classification system, and a model. Literature reviews were conducted for all three foci. Additionally, to better understand merged fields, a literature review was conducted specifically for academic fields that merged social and physical sciences. Methodologies concentrated on the three research foci: definition, classification system, and model. The definition was derived via a two-step process. The first step, developing keyword hierarchical ranking structures, was followed by creating and analyzing semantic word meaning lists. The classification system was developed by reviewing 102 classification systems and incorporating selected components into a system framework. The cultural geology model was created also utilizing a two-step process. A literature review of scientific models was conducted. Then, the definition and classification system were incorporated into a model felt to reflect the realm of cultural geology. A course syllabus was then developed that incorporated the resulting definition, classification system, and model. This

  1. Cultural values and cross-cultural video consumption on YouTube

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macy, Michael

    2017-01-01

    Video-sharing social media like YouTube provide access to diverse cultural products from all over the world, making it possible to test theories that the Web facilitates global cultural convergence. Drawing on a daily listing of YouTube’s most popular videos across 58 countries, we investigate the consumption of popular videos in countries that differ in cultural values, language, gross domestic product, and Internet penetration rate. Although online social media facilitate global access to cultural products, we find this technological capability does not result in universal cultural convergence. Instead, consumption of popular videos in culturally different countries appears to be constrained by cultural values. Cross-cultural convergence is more advanced in cosmopolitan countries with cultural values that favor individualism and power inequality. PMID:28531228

  2. Cultural values and cross-cultural video consumption on YouTube.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Minsu; Park, Jaram; Baek, Young Min; Macy, Michael

    2017-01-01

    Video-sharing social media like YouTube provide access to diverse cultural products from all over the world, making it possible to test theories that the Web facilitates global cultural convergence. Drawing on a daily listing of YouTube's most popular videos across 58 countries, we investigate the consumption of popular videos in countries that differ in cultural values, language, gross domestic product, and Internet penetration rate. Although online social media facilitate global access to cultural products, we find this technological capability does not result in universal cultural convergence. Instead, consumption of popular videos in culturally different countries appears to be constrained by cultural values. Cross-cultural convergence is more advanced in cosmopolitan countries with cultural values that favor individualism and power inequality.

  3. Cultural values and cross-cultural video consumption on YouTube.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Minsu Park

    Full Text Available Video-sharing social media like YouTube provide access to diverse cultural products from all over the world, making it possible to test theories that the Web facilitates global cultural convergence. Drawing on a daily listing of YouTube's most popular videos across 58 countries, we investigate the consumption of popular videos in countries that differ in cultural values, language, gross domestic product, and Internet penetration rate. Although online social media facilitate global access to cultural products, we find this technological capability does not result in universal cultural convergence. Instead, consumption of popular videos in culturally different countries appears to be constrained by cultural values. Cross-cultural convergence is more advanced in cosmopolitan countries with cultural values that favor individualism and power inequality.

  4. Enteric methane production and ruminal fermentation from forage brassica diets fed in continuous culture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brassicas provide forage for livestock during the late fall when traditional perennial cool-season forages are not productive. However, little research exists on ruminal fermentation and methane(CH4) production of brassicas fed as forage. A continuous culture fermentor system was used to assess nutr...

  5. Cell-free DNA in a three-dimensional spheroid cell culture model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aucamp, Janine; Calitz, Carlemi; Bronkhorst, Abel J.

    2017-01-01

    Background Investigating the biological functions of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is limited by the interference of vast numbers of putative sources and causes of DNA release into circulation. Utilization of three-dimensional (3D) spheroid cell cultures, models with characteristics closer to the in vivo...... cultures can serve as effective, simplified in vivo-simulating “closed-circuit” models since putative sources of cfDNA are limited to only the targeted cells. In addition, cfDNA can also serve as an alternative or auxiliary marker for tracking spheroid growth, development and culture stability. Biological...... significance 3D cell cultures can be used to translate “closed-circuit” in vitro model research into data that is relevant for in vivo studies and clinical applications. In turn, the utilization of cfDNA during 3D culture research can optimize sample collection without affecting the stability of the growth...

  6. Mechanism for multiplicity of steady states with distinct cell concentration in continuous culture of mammalian cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yongky, Andrew; Lee, Jongchan; Le, Tung; Mulukutla, Bhanu Chandra; Daoutidis, Prodromos; Hu, Wei-Shou

    2015-07-01

    Continuous culture for the production of biopharmaceutical proteins offers the possibility of steady state operations and thus more consistent product quality and increased productivity. Under some conditions, multiplicity of steady states has been observed in continuous cultures of mammalian cells, wherein with the same dilution rate and feed nutrient composition, steady states with very different cell and product concentrations may be reached. At those different steady states, cells may exhibit a high glycolysis flux with high lactate production and low cell concentration, or a low glycolysis flux with low lactate and high cell concentration. These different steady states, with different cell concentration, also have different productivity. Developing a mechanistic understanding of the occurrence of steady state multiplicity and devising a strategy to steer the culture toward the desired steady state is critical. We establish a multi-scale kinetic model that integrates a mechanistic intracellular metabolic model and cell growth model in a continuous bioreactor. We show that steady state multiplicity exists in a range of dilution rate in continuous culture as a result of the bistable behavior in glycolysis. The insights from the model were used to devise strategies to guide the culture to the desired steady state in the multiple steady state region. The model provides a guideline principle in the design of continuous culture processes of mammalian cells. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  7. Bio hydrogen production from cassava starch by anaerobic mixed cultures: Multivariate statistical modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tien, Hai Minh; Le, Kien Anh; Le, Phung Thi Kim

    2017-09-01

    Bio hydrogen is a sustainable energy resource due to its potentially higher efficiency of conversion to usable power, high energy efficiency and non-polluting nature resource. In this work, the experiments have been carried out to indicate the possibility of generating bio hydrogen as well as identifying effective factors and the optimum conditions from cassava starch. Experimental design was used to investigate the effect of operating temperature (37-43 °C), pH (6-7), and inoculums ratio (6-10 %) to the yield hydrogen production, the COD reduction and the ratio of volume of hydrogen production to COD reduction. The statistical analysis of the experiment indicated that the significant effects for the fermentation yield were the main effect of temperature, pH and inoculums ratio. The interaction effects between them seem not significant. The central composite design showed that the polynomial regression models were in good agreement with the experimental results. This result will be applied to enhance the process of cassava starch processing wastewater treatment.

  8. EFFECT OF AUXIN AND CYTOKININ ON VINCRISTINE PRODUCTION BY CALLUS CULTURES OF CATHARANTHUS ROSEUS L. (APOCYNACEAE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chinnamadasamy Kalidass

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available Callus cultures of Catharanthus roseus L. were established to verify whether they produce vincristine as the intact plant. Different growth regulator combinations were applied to Murashige and Skoog (MS medium to influence the level of production of vincristine. The effects of various combinations (0.5 µM to 3.0 µM of auxin and cytokinin on the growth and accumulation of vincristine were investigated. MS medium supplemented with 2,4-Dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D 1.0 µM and 6-furfurylaminopurine (Kinetin 1.0 µM was used to support the growth of callus cultures and the maximum amount of dry biomass (598.04 mg was produced after seven weeks of culture. High performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC analysis of methanol extracts from callus cultures of C. roseus revealed that the cultures produced vincristine. The concentrations of the growth regulators alpha-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA and kinetin played a critical role in the production of vincristine.

  9. Inhibition of Citrinin Production in Penicillium citrinum Cultures by Neem [Azadirachta indica A. Juss (Meliaceae

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Kemmelmeier

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available The efficacy of different concentrations of aqueous neem leaf extract (3.12 to 50 mg/mL on growth and citrinin production in three isolates of Penicillium citrinum was investigated under laboratory conditions. Mycotoxin production by the isolates was suppressed, depending on the concentration of the plant extract added to culture media at the time of spore inoculation. Citrinin production in fungal mycelia grown for 21 days in culture media containing 3.12 mg/mL of the aqueous extract of neem leaf was inhibited by approximately 80% in three isolates of P. citrinum. High-performance liquid chromatography was performed to confirm the spectrophotometric results. Vegetative growth was assessed, but neem extract failed to inhibit it. Neem leaf extract showed inhibition of toxin production without retardation in fungal mycelia growth.

  10. Express your social self: cultural differences in choice of brand-name versus generic products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Heejung S; Drolet, Aimee

    2009-12-01

    This research examined cultural differences in the patterns of choices that reflect more social characteristics of a chooser (e.g., social status). Four studies examined the cultural difference in individuals' tendency to choose brand-name products (i.e., high-status options) over generic products (i.e., low-status options) and the underlying reasons for these differences. Compared to European Americans, Asian Americans consistently chose brand-name products. This difference was driven by Asian Americans' greater social status concerns. Self-consciousness was more strongly associated with the brand-name choices of Asian Americans (vs. European Americans), and experimentally induced social status led Asian Americans (vs. European Americans) to make more choices concordant with self-perception. These findings highlight the importance of considering external and social motivations underlying the choice-making process.

  11. CRC-cards for Product Modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hvam, Lars; Riis, Jesper; Hansen, Benjamin Loer

    2003-01-01

    , transportation, service and decommissioning. A main challenge when building product models is to collect and document the product related data, information and knowledge in a structured way. CRC cards are index cards (or computerized versions of these) which are used to record proposed classes, the behavior......This paper describes the CRC (class, responsibility, collaboration) modelling process for building product models. A product model is normally represented in an IT system which contains data, information and knowledge on industrial products and their life cycle properties e.g. manufacturing...... of the classes, their responsibilities, and their relationship to other classes (collaboration). CRC modelling gives an effective, low-tech method for domain-experts, programmers and users to work closely together to identify, structure, understand and document a product model. CRC cards were originally...

  12. Word-of-Mouth of Cultural Products through Institutional Social Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eun Ea Lee

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Recently, a number of cultural institutions such as museums, galleries, art auctions, events, and performance centers have been utilizing social network sites (SNS for promoting and marketing their culture, art content, and events. The online social space is appropriate for cultural products to be viral, since users of SNS mainly share personal interest and spread hedonic consumption with close friends and acquaintances. If viral content drives strong emotions such as joy, arousal, pleasure, sorrow, or horror, it will be transmitted to more people, and rapidly. This study investigates how a certain type of motivation for using a social network service such as Facebook influences trust in art and culture exhibition information providers and the content of the information itself. Results show that people who have an informational motivation for using social media expressed a higher degree of trust in exhibition information provided by institutions such as museums. On the contrary, those who have relational motivation for using social media credited acquaintances such as friends, families, and colleagues more. Trust in the information provider resulted in trust in the content itself, and hence, increased the possibility of word-of-mouth for the corresponding information. An empirical survey was implemented, using followers of the Facebook page of a national museum and users who clicked “Like” on postings of exhibitions. Finally, the potential applications of the result for promotion and marketing of exhibitions of art and culture for public will be discussed.

  13. A Framework for Integrating Cultural Factors in Military Modeling and Simulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    2006-01-01

    Symbolic Interactionism : Perspective and Method. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall. Bonner, J. T. (1980). The Evolution of Culture in...cultural factors. The framework includes the impacts of cultural perception of information-such as interpretation of signs, signals and symbols . This...for Cultural Factors in Organizational Model .................... 23 5.3 Signs, Signals, and Symbols : The Impacts on the Cultural Perception of

  14. Cross-Cultural Impression Management: A Cultural Knowledge Audit Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spong, Abigail; Kamau, Caroline

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: Many people moving into a new culture for work or study do so without prior cross-cultural training, yet successful cultural adaptation has important ramifications. The purpose of this paper is to focus on cross-cultural impression management as an element of cultural adaptation. Does cultural adaptation begin by paying strong attention…

  15. Enhanced production of vanillin flavour metabolites by precursor feeding in cell suspension cultures of Decalepis hamiltonii Wight & Arn., in shake flask culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matam, Pradeep; Parvatam, Giridhar; Shetty, Nandini P

    2017-12-01

    The flavour rich tuberous roots of Decalepis hamiltonii are known for its edible and medicinal use and have become endangered due to commercial over-exploitation. Besides 2-Hydroxy-4-methoxy benzaldehyde (2H4MB), other flavour metabolites in tuberous roots include vanillin, 4-Methoxy Cinnamic acid derivatives, aromatic alcohols etc. So far, there are no reports on the pathway of 2H4MB biosynthesis nor there is an organized work on biotransformation using normal and cell suspension cultures for obtaining these metabolites using precursors. The main aim of the study is to develop a method for enhanced production of flavour attributing metabolites through ferulic acid (FA) feeding to the D. hamiltonii callus culture medium. Biomass of D. hamiltonii cell suspension cultures was maximum (200.38 ± 1.56 g/l) by 4th week. Maximum production of 2H4MB was recorded on 4th week (0.08 ± 0.01 mg/100 g dry weight) as quantified by HPLC. Addition of 0.1-1.5 mM ferulic acid as precursor in the culture medium showed significant ( p  vanillin, 2H4MB, vanillic acid, ferulic acid were of 0.1 ± 0.02 mg/100 g, 0.44 ± 0.01 mg/100 g, 0.52 ± 0.04 mg/100 g, 0.18 ± 0.02 mg/100 g DW respectively in 4 weeks of cultured cells supplemented with 1 mM ferulic acid as a precursor. The results indicate that, substantial increase in the levels of flavour metabolites in D. hamiltonii callus suspension culture was achieved. This would be having implications in biosynthesis of respective vanilla flavour attributing metabolites at very high levels for their large scale production.

  16. Product and Process Modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cameron, Ian T.; Gani, Rafiqul

    . These approaches are put into the context of life cycle modelling, where multiscale and multiform modelling is increasingly prevalent in the 21st century. The book commences with a discussion of modern product and process modelling theory and practice followed by a series of case studies drawn from a variety......This book covers the area of product and process modelling via a case study approach. It addresses a wide range of modelling applications with emphasis on modelling methodology and the subsequent in-depth analysis of mathematical models to gain insight via structural aspects of the models...... to biotechnology applications, food, polymer and human health application areas. The book highlights to important nature of modern product and process modelling in the decision making processes across the life cycle. As such it provides an important resource for students, researchers and industrial practitioners....

  17. Whole-cell Escherichia coli lactate biosensor for monitoring mammalian cell cultures during biopharmaceutical production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goers, Lisa; Ainsworth, Catherine; Goey, Cher Hui; Kontoravdi, Cleo; Freemont, Paul S; Polizzi, Karen M

    2017-06-01

    Many high-value added recombinant proteins, such as therapeutic glycoproteins, are produced using mammalian cell cultures. In order to optimize the productivity of these cultures it is important to monitor cellular metabolism, for example the utilization of nutrients and the accumulation of metabolic waste products. One metabolic waste product of interest is lactic acid (lactate), overaccumulation of which can decrease cellular growth and protein production. Current methods for the detection of lactate are limited in terms of cost, sensitivity, and robustness. Therefore, we developed a whole-cell Escherichia coli lactate biosensor based on the lldPRD operon and successfully used it to monitor lactate concentration in mammalian cell cultures. Using real samples and analytical validation we demonstrate that our biosensor can be used for absolute quantification of metabolites in complex samples with high accuracy, sensitivity, and robustness. Importantly, our whole-cell biosensor was able to detect lactate at concentrations more than two orders of magnitude lower than the industry standard method, making it useful for monitoring lactate concentrations in early phase culture. Given the importance of lactate in a variety of both industrial and clinical contexts we anticipate that our whole-cell biosensor can be used to address a range of interesting biological questions. It also serves as a blueprint for how to capitalize on the wealth of genetic operons for metabolite sensing available in nature for the development of other whole-cell biosensors. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 1290-1300. © 2017 The Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 The Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  18. Italian industrial districts: A model of success or a weak productive system?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniele Schilirò

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available The present contribution focuses on two issues. The first one concerns the characteristics of industrial districts and the increasing weight of these districts in the Italian system of production. The second issue is about the competitiveness of the Italian industrial districts, if they represent a model of success or rather a weak system of production. Thus, the transformation of the industrial districts is examined and the strengths and weaknesses are highlighted. One argument that comes out of this investigation is that industrial districts are strongly influenced by institutions, territory, and also by the social and cultural environment. The second argument regards the competitiveness of this Italian industrial development model, based on SMEs, which is founded on the specialization of productions, on innovation and internationalization. The paper argues that this model, which represents the ``Made in Italy'', is still a strong and dynamic system which has shown good performances and it represents a paradigm of lasting competitiveness, even if it is restrained by many external chronic constraints.

  19. Optimization of culture conditions for gamma-aminobutyric acid production in fermented adzuki bean milk

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hung Yi Song

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA, a nonprotein amino acid, is widely distributed in nature and fulfills several physiological functions. In this study, various lactic acid strains commonly used to produce fermented milk products were inoculated into adzuki bean milk for producing GABA. The high GABA producing strain was selected in further experiment to improve the GABA production utilizing culture medium optimization. The results demonstrated that adzuki bean milk inoculated with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG increased GABA content from 0.05 mg/mL to 0.44 mg/mL after 36 hours of fermentation, which showed the greatest elevation in this study. Furthermore, the optimal cultural condition to adzuki bean milk inoculated with L. rhamnosus GG to improve the GABA content was performed using response surface methodology. The results showed that GABA content was dependent on the addition of galactose, monosodium glutamate, and pyridoxine with which the increasing ratios of GABA were 23–38%, 24–68%, and 8–36%, respectively. The optimal culture condition for GABA production of adzuki bean milk was found at the content of 1.44% galactose, 2.27% monosodium glutamate, and 0.20% pyridoxine. Under the optimal cultural condition, the amount of GABA produced in the fermented adzuki bean milk was 1.12 mg/mL, which was 22.4-fold higher than that of the unfermented adzuki bean milk (0.05 mg/100 mL. The results suggested that the optimized cultural condition of adzuki bean milk inoculated with L. rhamnosus GG can increase GABA content for consumers as a daily supplement as suggested.

  20. Development of Model for Teaching Cultural and Ethnic Awareness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, Dorothy Z.

    1991-01-01

    A model for teaching cultural awareness includes three environments that affect an entity such as a family: (1) macroenvironment (cultural, political, and economic systems); (2) intermediate environment (motivation, needs, values, roles, and resources); and (3) microenvironment--the means by which goals are achieved (structure, communication,…

  1. Cultured bovine granulosa cells rapidly lose important features of their identity and functionality but partially recover under long-term culture conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yenuganti, Vengala Rao; Vanselow, Jens

    2017-05-01

    Cell culture models are essential for the detailed study of molecular processes. We analyze the dynamics of changes in a culture model of bovine granulosa cells. The cells were cultured for up to 8 days and analyzed for steroid production and gene expression. According to the expression of the marker genes CDH1, CDH2 and VIM, the cells maintained their mesenchymal character throughout the time of culture. In contrast, the levels of functionally important transcripts and of estradiol and progesterone production were rapidly down-regulated but showed a substantial up-regulation from day 4. FOXL2, a marker for granulosa cell identity, was also rapidly down-regulated after plating but completely recovered towards the end of culture. In contrast, expression of the Sertoli cell marker SOX9 and the lesion/inflammation marker PTGS2 increased during the first 2 days after plating but gradually decreased later on. We conclude that only long-term culture conditions (>4 days) allow the cells to recover from plating stress and to re-acquire characteristic granulosa cell features.

  2. Alignment of Product Models and Product State Models - Integration of the Product Lifecycle Phases

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Michael Holm; Kirkby, Lars Phillip; Vesterager, Johan

    1999-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to discuss the integration of the Product Model (PM) and the Product State Model (PCM). Focus is on information exchange from the PSM to the PM within the manufacturing of a single ship. The paper distinguishes between information and knowledge integration. The paper ...... provides some overall strategies for integrating PM and PSM. The context of this discussion is a development project at Odense Steel Shipyard....

  3. On the Intentionality of Cultural Products: Representations of Black History As Psychological Affordances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salter, Phia S.; Adams, Glenn

    2016-01-01

    A cultural-psychological analysis emphasizes the intentionality of everyday worlds: the idea that material products not only bear psychological traces of culturally constituted beliefs and desires, but also subsequently afford and promote culturally consistent understandings and actions. We applied this conceptual framework of mutual constitution in a research project using quantitative and qualitative approaches to understand the dynamic resonance between sociocultural variance in Black History Month (BHM) representations and the reproduction of racial inequality in the U.S. In studies 1 and 2, we considered whether mainstream BHM artifacts reflect the preferences and understandings of White Americans (i.e., psychological constitution of cultural worlds). Consistent with the psychological constitution hypothesis, White American participants reported more positive affect, better recognition, and greater liking for BHM representations from the schools where White Americans were the majority than BHM representations from the schools where Black students and other students of color were the majority. Moreover, as an indication of the identity relevance of BHM representations, White identification was more positively associated with judgments of positive affect and preference in response to BHM representations from White schools than BHM representations from the schools where Black students were in the majority. In studies 3 and 4, we considered whether BHM representations from different settings differentially afford support or opposition to anti-racism policies (i.e., cultural constitution of psychological experience). In support of the cultural constitution hypothesis, BHM representations typical of schools where Black students were in the majority were more effective at promoting support for anti-racism policies compared to BHM representations typical of predominately White schools and a control condition. This effect was mediated by the effect of (different) BHM

  4. On the Intentionality of Cultural Products: Representations of Black History as Psychological Affordances

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Phia S. Salter

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available A cultural-psychological analysis emphasizes the intentionality of everyday worlds: the idea that material products not only bear psychological traces of culturally constituted beliefs and desires, but also subsequently afford and promote culturally consistent understandings and actions. We applied this conceptual framework of mutual constitution in a research project using quantitative and qualitative approaches to understand the dynamic resonance between sociocultural variance in Black History Month (BHM representations and the reproduction of racial inequality in the U.S. In studies 1 and 2, we considered whether mainstream BHM artifacts reflect the preferences and understandings of White Americans (i.e., psychological constitution of cultural worlds. Consistent with the psychological constitution hypothesis, White American participants reported more positive affect, better recognition, and greater liking for BHM representations from the schools where White Americans were the majority than BHM representations from the schools where Black students and other students of color were the majority. Moreover, as an indication of the identity relevance of BHM representations, White identification was more positively associated with judgments of positive affect and preference in response to BHM representations from White schools than BHM representations from the schools where Black students were in the majority. In studies 3 and 4, we considered whether BHM representations from different settings differentially afford support or opposition to anti-racism policies (i.e., cultural constitution of psychological experience. In support of the cultural constitution hypothesis, BHM representations typical of schools where Black students were in the majority were more effective at promoting support for anti-racism policies compared to BHM representations typical of predominately White schools and a control condition. This effect was mediated by the effect of

  5. Establishment and characterization of a differentiated epithelial cell culture model derived from the porcine cervix uteri

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miessen Katrin

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Cervical uterine epithelial cells maintain a physiological and pathogen-free milieu in the female mammalian reproductive tract and are involved in sperm-epithelium interaction. Easily accessible, differentiated model systems of the cervical epithelium are not yet available to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms within these highly specialized cells. Therefore, the aim of the study was to establish a cell culture of the porcine cervical epithelium representing in vivo-like properties of the tissue. Results We tested different isolation methods and culture conditions and validated purity of the cultured cells by immunohistochemistry against keratins. We could reproducibly culture pure epithelial cells from cervical tissue explants. Based on a morphology score and the WST-1 Proliferation Assay, we optimized the growth medium composition. Primary porcine cervical cells performed best in conditioned Ham's F-12, containing 10% FCS, EGF and insulin. After cultivation in an air-liquid interface for three weeks, the cells showed a discontinuously multilayered phenotype. Finally, differentiation was validated via immunohistochemistry against beta catenin. Mucopolysaccharide production could be shown via alcian blue staining. Conclusions We provide the first suitable protocol to establish a differentiated porcine epithelial model of the cervix uteri, based on easily accessible cells using slaughterhouse material.

  6. Biomass production of pleurotus sajor-caju by submerged culture fermentation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kausar, T.; Nasreen, Z.; Nadeem, M.; Baig, S.

    2006-01-01

    The effect of different carbon sources, namely, sawdust and powder of agro wastes (as such, or water soluble extracts), and inorganic/natural nitrogen sources on the biomass production of Pleurotus sajor-caju by submerged culture fermentation was studied. Supplementation of the fermentation medium with 2% molasses, 2% wheat spike powder, extract of 2% wheat spike powder, and com gluten meal resulted in 12.85, 10.85, 12.35 and 13.92 g/sub l/ biomass production of P. sajor-caju, respectively. The fungal hyphae biomass contained 8.28% moisture, 21.18% crude protein, 1.55% fat, 3.59% ash, 2.32% crude fibre, and 63.48% nitrogen-free extract. (author)

  7. How Culture Influences Consumer Loyalty towards Cosmetic Products--A Comparison of UK and Taiwanese consumers

    OpenAIRE

    Chen, Hsin-Ping

    2007-01-01

    Culture is one of the most important factors affecting the marketing department to shape their strategy. This is particularly true when facing global marketing. This project is aimed at examining how the culture influences brand loyalty towards cosmetic products by comparing consumer behaviours of UK and Taiwanese consumers. Semi-structured interviews are conducted in order to collect data. By applying a qualitative approach, this project provides an insight of the cultural factors infl...

  8. Production of D-xylanases by thermophilic fungi using different methods of culture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grajek, W

    1986-01-01

    Seven thermophilic strains of fungi were examined for their ability to produce D-xylanase in liquid and solid-state fermentations. It was confirmed that the best producers of xylanase, among microorganisms used, were H. lanuginosa and S. thermophile in liquid fermentation, and T. aurantiacus and H. lanuginosa in solid-state fermentations. The higher productivity of xylanase, namely 18,72 IU/ml, was obtained in liquid culture of H. lanuginosa. The pH and temperature optima of enzymes from liquid and solid-state cultures of fungi used were also presented.

  9. Production of Monascus pigments as extracellular crystals by cell suspension culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Fengling; Liu, Lujie; Huang, Yaolin; Zhang, Xuehong; Wang, Zhilong

    2018-01-01

    It is generally accepted that Monascus pigments are predominantly cell-bound, including both intracellular and surface-bound pigments. This long-term misconception was corrected in the present work. Production of extracellular crystal pigments by submerged culture of Monascus sp. was confirmed by microscopic observation and collection of Monascus pigments from extracellular broth by direct membrane filtration. Following up the new fact, the bioactivity of mycelia as whole-cell biocatalyst for biosynthesis and biodegradation of Monascus pigments had been detailedly examined in both an aqueous solution and a nonionic surfactant micelle aqueous solution. Based on those experimental results, cell suspension culture in an aqueous medium was developed as a novel strategy for accumulation of high concentration of Monascus pigments. Thus, glucose feeding during submerged culture in the aqueous medium was carried out successfully and high orange Monascus pigments concentration of near 4 g/L was achieved.

  10. CULTURE AS A CREATIVE BASE OF EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Z. Goncharov

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper denotes the vital need for the human-centered projects of education updates and develops the idea of the culture adequacy raised by Y. V. Larin in «Education in search of the adequacy principle». The author regards culture as a creative basis for upbringing the young generation and provides the detailed analysis of its semantic content; in his opinion, culture contains neither the value neutral nor destructive connotations. The world of culture incorporates the model samples of human subjectivity, based on the main criterion of perfection. By transmitting the model samples of cultural heritage to a student, a teacher develops the general cultural qualities of an individual, professional and citizen. Consequently, the author proves that socio-economic and political problems, including the renovation of social institutions and production spheres, can be solved by cultivating and developing the human universality and integrity of productive and creative forces. Additionally, the paper highlights the impossibility of separate fostering of the general cultural and professional qualities in educational process. In conclusion, the author emphasizes the negative consequences of implementing the Bologna process in Russian education; the criticism mainly concerns the adoption of inferior samples and standards of the western education.

  11. Inferring cultural models from corpus data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Kim Ebensgaard

    2015-01-01

    on three instantiations of the construction – namely, [too young to V], [too proud to V], and [too macho to V] – to see whether there are patterns in their ranges of coattracted verbs that are indicative of force-dynamic relations in cultural models of age, pride, and machismo respectively....

  12. Organizational models as configurations of structure, culture, leadership, control, and change strategy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janićijević Nebojša

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Starting from the axioms of consistency, stability, contingency, and configuration, research on organizational structure, culture, control, leadership, and change management strategy has shown that their typical configurations, or models, can be differentiated according to the same two criteria: distribution of power and dominant organizational dimension. On the one hand there are models of structure, culture, control, leadership, and change management strategy that are based on an unequal, or authoritarian, distribution of power within organizations, while on the other hand there are models that are based on democratic, or equal, distribution of power. Also, on the one hand there are models of structure, culture, control, leadership, and change strategy that are based on work structure and tasks, while on the other hand there are models of these organizational components that are based on social structure, people, and their relationships. Harmonization of typical configurations of organizational structure, culture, control, leadership, and change strategy occurs due to the harmonization of the differentiation criteria. Based on this harmonization, four organizational models have been identified as typical configurations of structure, culture, control, leadership, and change strategy: the autocratic, bureaucratic, innovative, and task models. Each of these models is effective in a different environmental contingency.

  13. Proactive Modeling of Market, Product and Production Architectures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mortensen, Niels Henrik; Hansen, Christian Lindschou; Hvam, Lars

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents an operational model that allows description of market, products and production architectures. The main feature of this model is the ability to describe both structural and functional aspect of architectures. The structural aspect is an answer to the question: What constitutes...... the architecture, e.g. standard designs, design units and interfaces? The functional aspect is an answer to the question: What is the behaviour or the architecture, what is it able to do, i.e. which products at which performance levels can be derived from the architecture? Among the most important benefits...... of this model is the explicit ability to describe what the architecture is prepared for, and what it is not prepared for - concerning development of future derivative products. The model has been applied in a large scale global product development project. Among the most important benefits is contribution to...

  14. A Model of Instruction for Integrating Culture and Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Papalia, Anthony

    An integrated model of instruction in language and culture uses a sequential method of discovering sensation, perception, concept, and principle to develop self-analysis skills in students. When planning activities for learning a language and developing cultural understanding, teachers might follow a sequence such as the following: introduce…

  15. Evaluation of the Influence of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Nutrients in the Culture and Production ofbiosurfactants by MicroalgaSpirulina

    OpenAIRE

    Lisiane Fernandes De Carvalho; Mariana Souza De Oliveira

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this study was to verify the influence of phosphorus and nitrogen nutrients in the culture and production of biosurfactants by Spirulina platensis LEB 52,Spirulina platensisParacas and Spirulina sp. LEB 18. For this, experiments were performed using Full Factorial Design 22 to evaluate the influence of phosphorus and nitrogen nutrients on the maximum biomass concentration and maximum productivity in the cultures, as well as in production biosurfactant by extracts...

  16. Cytocompatibility of calcium silicate-based sealers in a three-dimensional cell culture model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    da Silva, Emmanuel João Nogueira Leal; Zaia, Alexandre A; Peters, Ove A

    2017-06-01

    The aim of the present study was to evaluate cytotoxic effects and cytokine production of calcium silicate-based sealers (EndoSeal, EndoSequence BC Sealer, and MTA Fillapex) using an in vitro root canal filling model and three-dimensional (3D) cell culture. AH Plus as a reference was compared to contemporary calcium silicate cements regarding cell viability and cytokine production. Root canals of 30 human maxillary incisors were prepared using a single-file reciprocating technique. The samples were randomly distributed and canals filled with either AH Plus, EndoSeal, EndoSequence BC Sealer, and MTA Fillapex (n = 6). In the negative control group, the root canal remained unfilled. Sealers were placed into the canals along with a gutta-percha cone placed to working length. Balb/c 3T3 fibroblasts, cultured in a type I collagen 3D scaffold, were exposed to filling material and the respective root apex for 24 h. Cytocompatibility of the materials was evaluated using the methyl-thiazoldiphenyl-tetrazolium (MTT) assay. The production of IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 was analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). One-way analysis of variance was performed, and when the F-ratios were significant, data were compared by Duncan's multiple-range test. The alpha-type error was set at 0.05. EndoSeal, Endosequence BC Sealer and AH Plus showed cell viability that was similar to the negative control group (P > 0.05), while MTA Fillapex sealer was cytotoxic (P culture, AH Plus, EndoSeal, and EndoSequence BC Sealer were cytocompatible. These results may suggest that AH Plus, EndoSeal and EndoSequence BC Sealer may achieve better biological response when compared to MTA Fillapex.

  17. Impulsive control of a continuous-culture and flocculation harvest chemostat model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Tongqian; Ma, Wanbiao; Meng, Xinzhu

    2017-12-01

    In this paper, a new mathematical model describing the process of continuous culture and harvest of microalgaes is proposed. By inputting medium and flocculant at two different fixed moments periodically, continuous culture and harvest of microalgaes is implemented. The mathematical analysis is conducted and the whole dynamics of model is investigated by using theory of impulsive differential equations. We find that the model has a microalgaes-extinction periodic solution and it is globally asymptotically stable when some certain threshold value is less than the unit. And the model is permanent when some certain threshold value is larger than the unit. Then, according to the threshold, the control strategies of continuous culture and harvest of microalgaes are discussed. The results show that continuous culture and harvest of microalgaes can be archived by adjusting suitable input time, input amount of medium or flocculant. Finally, some numerical simulations are carried out to verify the control strategy.

  18. Production of microbial biomass protein by sequential culture fermentation of Arachniotus sp., and Candida utilis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahmed, S.; Ahmad, F.; Hashmi, A.S.

    2010-01-01

    Sequential culture fermentation by Arachniotus sp. at 35 deg. C for 72 h and followed by Candida utilis fermentation at 35 deg. C for 72 h more resulted in higher production of microbial biomass protein. 6% (w/v) corn stover, 0.0075% CaCl/sub 2/.2H/sub 2/O, 0.005% MgSO/sub 4/.7H/sub 2/O, 0.01% KH/sub 2/PO/sub 4/, C:N ratio of 30:1 and 1% molasses gave higher microbial biomass protein production by the sequential culture fermentation of Arachniotus sp., and C. utilis. The mixed microbial biomass protein produced in the 75-L fermentor contained 16.41%, 23.51%, 10.9%, 12.11% and 0.12% true protein, crude protein, crude fiber, ash and RNA content, respectively. The amino acid profile of final mixed microbial biomass protein showed that it was enriched with essential amino acids. Thus, the potential utilization of corn stover can minimize the cost for growth of these microorganisms and enhance microbial biomass protein production by sequential culture fermentation. (author)

  19. A pilot-scale study of biohydrogen production from distillery effluent using defined bacterial co-culture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vatsala, T.M.; Raj, S. Mohan; Manimaran, A. (Shri AMM Murugappa Chettiar Research Centre, Photosynthesis and Energy Division, Tharamani, Chennai, India, 600)

    2008-10-15

    We evaluated the feasibility of improving the scale of hydrogen (H{sub 2}) production from sugar cane distillery effluent using co-cultures of Citrobacter freundii 01, Enterobacter aerogenes E10 and Rhodopseudomonas palustris P2 at 100 m{sup 3} scale. The culture conditions at 100 ml and 2 L scales were optimized in minimal medium and we observed that the co-culture of the above three strains enhanced H{sub 2} productivity significantly. Results at the 100 m{sup 3} scale revealed a maximum of 21.38 kg of H{sub 2}, corresponding to 10692.6 mol, which was obtained through batch method at 40 h from reducing sugar (3862.3 mol) as glucose. The average yield of H{sub 2} was 2.76 mol mol{sup -1} glucose, and the rate of H{sub 2} production was estimated as 0.53 kg/100 m{sup 3}/h. Our results demonstrate the utility of distillery effluent as a source of clean alternative energy and provide insights into treatment for industrial exploitation. (author)

  20. LEXICAL MEANING AND CULTURAL ADAPTATION ON THE PRODUCT OF NESTLE DANCOW

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I Gusti Agung Istri Aryani

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Commonly, an amazing and attractive advertisement intends to hypnotize their target consumer in seeing, reading, or even hearing the ads continually. Besides, the power of persuading and motivating in messages from the way of informing product benefit could also give impact to buyer in deciding to buy the product. This research discusses the contexts of advertising found on packages of two Nestle products, especially Nestle Dancow Actigo and Nestle Dancow Enrich. These products were analyzed based on pictures or symbols and text found on packages. It is aimed at finding out the context of discourse advertising on those packages. Data were collected from analysis of text, including pictures or symbols and additional questionnaires distributed to 50 respondents located at Denpasar and Gianyar. Urban society were used to evaluate concerning on their understanding of English even though Indonesian language mostly applied on packages of products. Method used in analyzing data is descriptive qualitative and quantitative with simple statistics and explanation. It showed that connotation and denotation meanings highlighted lexical items and its cultural adaptation using process of copy adaptation to fit the culture of their targeted consumers. Means found 6 words or phrases of English from 10 of them on packages understood by 50 respondents as of: 35 for Full Cream as highest score and 16 respondents for FortiGro as the lowest score. In addition, brand name, symbol and images showed producer seemed to have close relationship with consumer and able to attract target   consumer attention as majority of findings. It can be concluded that ads on packages of Nestle Dancow had succeeded to be understood by the society through the messages implied.

  1. Effect of cultural conditions on antrodin C production by basidiomycete Antrodia camphorata in solid-state fermentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Yongjun; Wang, Yuanlong; Zhang, Bobo; Xu, Ganrong; Ai, Lianzhong

    2014-01-01

    Antrodia camphorata is a medicinal fungus and antrodin C is one of the main bioactive components of A. camphorata in the submerged fermentation (SmF). To optimize the culture conditions, the factors influencing the production of antrodin C by A. camphorata under solid-state fermentation (SSF) were investigated in this study. Different solid substrates and external nitrogen sources were tested for their efficiency in producing antrodin C. The response surface methodology was applied to evaluate the influence of several variables, namely, the concentrations of soybean meal, initial moisture content, and inoculum density on antrodin C production in solid-state fermentation. The experimental results show that the optimum fermentation medium for antrodin C production by A. camphorata was composed of 0.578 g soybean meal, 0.05 g Na2 HPO4 , 0.05 g MgSO4 for 100 g rice, with 51.83% initial moisture content, 22 day culture time, 28 °C culture temperature, and 35.54% inoculum density. At optimized conditions, 6,617.36 ± 92.71 mg kg(-1) yield of antrodin C was achieved. Solid-state fermentation is one good cultural method to improve the production of antrodin C by A. camphorata. © 2014 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  2. Role of Cultural Inspiration with Different Types in Cultural Product Design Activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Shi-Jian; Dong, Ye-Nan

    2017-01-01

    Inspiration plays an important role in the design activities and design education. This paper describes "ancient cultural artefacts" as "cultural inspiration," consisting of two types called "cultural-pictorial inspiration" (CPI) and "cultural-textual inspiration" (CTI). This study aims to test the important…

  3. Production of isoflavones, daidzein and genistein in callus cultures of Pueraria candollei Wall. ex Benth. var. mirifica

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanha Panichajakul

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available Callus cultures of Pueraria candollei var. mirifica were first established from various parts of explants with the objective of isoflavones, daidzein and genistein production. The cultures were studied on their growth and isoflavone production by various combinations of growth regulators, auxins and cytokinins at 25±2ºC. Daidzein and genistein accumulated in the cells were determined. The results revealed that callus of P. candollei var. mirifica was capable of producing high level of both isoflavones consistently. The culture temperature played an important role in the growth and isoflavone production. Over twofold of growth and threefold of isoflavone production were demonstrated at 32±2ºC. The callus established from the stems in MS medium supplemented with 4.5 µM 2,4-D and 0.46 µM kinetin produced the highest yield of daidzein (5.12 mg/g, DW and genistein (2.77 mg/g, DW, which was remarkably higher than the intact plants.

  4. Production of red pigments by Monascus ruber in culture media containing corn steep liquor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. S. Hamano

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available The production of red pigments by Monascus ruber was evaluated utilizing complex culture media composed of glucose or sucrose (10 g/L, corn steep liquor (5 or 10 g/L and monosodium glutamate (0, 5.0, 7.6, 11.4 or 15.2 g/L. Medium containing 10 g/L glucose, 5 g/L corn steep liquor and 7.6 g/L monosodium glutamate resulted the highest values of extracellular red pigment absorbance (20.7 U and productivity (0.35 U/h. This medium also produced better results than using semi-synthetic medium with analytical grade reagents (12.4 U and 0.21 U/h. The cell growth was similar in both media (X @ 6.5 g/L, indicating that the capacity of the cells to produce red pigments was higher in complex culture media. In addition, in the complex culture medium, less of the intracellular red pigments accumulated than in semi-synthetic medium (9.1% and 30%, respectively.

  5. Product models for the Construction industry

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Lars Schiøtt

    1996-01-01

    Different types of product models for the building sector was elaborated and grouped. Some discussion on the different models was given. The "definition" of Product models was given.......Different types of product models for the building sector was elaborated and grouped. Some discussion on the different models was given. The "definition" of Product models was given....

  6. Being in-between: A model of cultural identity negotiation for emerging adult immigrants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Julie A; Kassan, Anusha

    2018-03-01

    This qualitative study explored the cultural identity negotiation of young adult immigrants. Using a grounded theory research design, 10 semistructured interviews were conducted with emerging adult immigrants (EAI), ages 19-27. Results yielded a substantive model of cultural identity negotiation (MCIN) for EAI and posited that One's Motivation and Sense of Agency to Negotiate Cultural Identity is at the core of how participants navigate their cultural identities. This model included 6 major categories: (a) Family Cultural Rigidity ; (b) Connections Specific to Canada ; (c) Connection to a Same Cultured Community ; (d) Sense of Permanency ; (e) Desire to Preserve Culture of Origin ; (f) Desire to Fit in to Canadian Culture , as well as 2 overarching factors ( Dimension of Time and Dimension of Age ), which were found to be influential on participants' cultural identity negotiation. The model also included the identification of 4 approaches to cultural identity negotiation: (a) Blended; (b) Dual; (c) Disconnected; and (d) Intermediate. The MCIN for EAI is discussed in terms of the current literature on cultural identity formation as well as implications for counseling psychology training and practice. Recommendations for further research are also suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  7. Culture-Laden Imports: International Market Entry and Cultural Taboos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brice William David

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This empirical study investigates American market responses to a Spanish product that is strongly culture-laden and may violate cultural taboos. Surveys were conducted in two contrasting US universities in Arkansas and California. Contrasting student majors were also chosen: Art and Business. The product is a life-sized baby doll, designed to be breast-fed rather than bottle-fed, which highlights the benefits and normality of breast-feeding babies. Although this product is popular in its original European market, US media accounts suggested strongly negative morality-based American reactions. This study found a strong overall non-acceptance of this product in all groups, but with significant differences between groups. Results quantify the market reaction and illuminate its cultural basis by comparing responses between two culturally different regions, two contrasting college majors, different genders, and different ethnicities. In doing so, this study helps to break new ground in the international marketing of culture-laden products.

  8. The Effect of Cultural Orientation on Persuasion.

    OpenAIRE

    Aaker, Jennifer L; Maheswaran, Durairaj

    1997-01-01

    The objective of this research is to assess the cross-cultural generalizability of persuasion effects predicted by dual process models. In two experiments, the impact of motivation, congruity of persuasive communication and the diagnosticity of heuristic cues on the processing strategies and product evaluations of members of a collectivist culture were compared with findings documented in past research in individualist cultures. This research supports the view that perceptual differences in c...

  9. EFFECT OF TREATED DOMESTIC WASTEWATER USED AS CULTURE MEDIUM ON THE GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVITY OF Chlamydomonas sp. STRAIN ISOLATED FROM LANDFILL LEACHATE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fábio de Farias Neves

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Microalgae have been culturing to fix carbon and produce biofuels from the biomass. However, it is important to develop low cost strategies for microalgae production in orther to make it a viable alternative of renewable energy. The present research studied the effect of treated wastewater used as an alternative culture medium for growth and productivity of a Chlamydomonas sp. strain isolated from landfills leachate of a treatment pond located in Southern Brazil. Three culture media were evaluated, the control consisted of synthetic TAP medium, other, consisting of 50% TAP medium and 50% wastewater, and another consisting of 100% wastewater. The growth parameters do not have significant difference among the three culture media. Also, productivity do not have significant difference among the cultures with TAP medium and with 100% wastewater, resulting in dry weight values of 1,4±0,14g/L and 1,3±0,19g/L respectively. The culture with 50% TAP medium and 50% wastewater showed the highest productivity, showing an average dry weight value of 1,7±0,07g/L. The results indicate that treated wastewater can be used as an alternative culture medium for Chlamydomonas sp. strain without negative effects on growth and productivity, and possible leading to a decrease in production costs.

  10. Biohydrogen production from rotten orange with immobilized mixed culture: Effect of immobilization media for various composition of substrates

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Damayanti, Astrilia, E-mail: liasholehasd@gmail.com [Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Semarang State University, E1 Building, 2nd floor, Kampus Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang 50229 (Indonesia); Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, Jl. Grafika No. 2, Kampus UGM, Yogyakarta 55281 (Indonesia); Sarto,; Syamsiah, Siti; Sediawan, Wahyudi B. [Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, Jl. Grafika No. 2, Kampus UGM, Yogyakarta 55281 (Indonesia)

    2015-12-29

    Enriched–immobilized mixed culture was utilized to produce biohydrogen in mesophilic condition under anaerobic condition using rotten orange as substrate. The process was conducted in batch reactors for 100 hours. Microbial cultures from three different sources were subject to a series of enrichment and immobilized in two different types of media, i.e. calcium alginate (CA, 2%) and mixture of alginate and activated carbon (CAC, 1:1). The performance of immobilized culture in each media was tested for biohydrogen production using four different substrate compositions, namely orange meat (OM), orange meat added with peel (OMP), orange meat added with limonene (OML), and mixture of orange meat and peel added with limonene (OMPL). The results show that, with immobilized culture in CA, the variation of substrate composition gave significant effect on the production of biohydrogen. The highest production of biohydrogen was detected for substrate containing only orange meet, i.e. 2.5%, which was about 3-5 times higher than biohydrogen production from other compositions of substrate. The use of immobilized culture in CAC in general has increased the hydrogen production by 2-7 times depending on the composition of substrate, i.e. 5.4%, 4.8%, 5.1%, and 4.4% for OM, OMP, OML, and OMPL, respectively. The addition of activated carbon has eliminated the effect of inhibitory compounds in the substrate. The major soluble metabolites were acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid.

  11. Biohydrogen production from rotten orange with immobilized mixed culture: Effect of immobilization media for various composition of substrates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Damayanti, Astrilia; Sarto, Syamsiah, Siti; Sediawan, Wahyudi B.

    2015-12-01

    Enriched-immobilized mixed culture was utilized to produce biohydrogen in mesophilic condition under anaerobic condition using rotten orange as substrate. The process was conducted in batch reactors for 100 hours. Microbial cultures from three different sources were subject to a series of enrichment and immobilized in two different types of media, i.e. calcium alginate (CA, 2%) and mixture of alginate and activated carbon (CAC, 1:1). The performance of immobilized culture in each media was tested for biohydrogen production using four different substrate compositions, namely orange meat (OM), orange meat added with peel (OMP), orange meat added with limonene (OML), and mixture of orange meat and peel added with limonene (OMPL). The results show that, with immobilized culture in CA, the variation of substrate composition gave significant effect on the production of biohydrogen. The highest production of biohydrogen was detected for substrate containing only orange meet, i.e. 2.5%, which was about 3-5 times higher than biohydrogen production from other compositions of substrate. The use of immobilized culture in CAC in general has increased the hydrogen production by 2-7 times depending on the composition of substrate, i.e. 5.4%, 4.8%, 5.1%, and 4.4% for OM, OMP, OML, and OMPL, respectively. The addition of activated carbon has eliminated the effect of inhibitory compounds in the substrate. The major soluble metabolites were acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid.

  12. Biohydrogen production from rotten orange with immobilized mixed culture: Effect of immobilization media for various composition of substrates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Damayanti, Astrilia; Sarto,; Syamsiah, Siti; Sediawan, Wahyudi B.

    2015-01-01

    Enriched–immobilized mixed culture was utilized to produce biohydrogen in mesophilic condition under anaerobic condition using rotten orange as substrate. The process was conducted in batch reactors for 100 hours. Microbial cultures from three different sources were subject to a series of enrichment and immobilized in two different types of media, i.e. calcium alginate (CA, 2%) and mixture of alginate and activated carbon (CAC, 1:1). The performance of immobilized culture in each media was tested for biohydrogen production using four different substrate compositions, namely orange meat (OM), orange meat added with peel (OMP), orange meat added with limonene (OML), and mixture of orange meat and peel added with limonene (OMPL). The results show that, with immobilized culture in CA, the variation of substrate composition gave significant effect on the production of biohydrogen. The highest production of biohydrogen was detected for substrate containing only orange meet, i.e. 2.5%, which was about 3-5 times higher than biohydrogen production from other compositions of substrate. The use of immobilized culture in CAC in general has increased the hydrogen production by 2-7 times depending on the composition of substrate, i.e. 5.4%, 4.8%, 5.1%, and 4.4% for OM, OMP, OML, and OMPL, respectively. The addition of activated carbon has eliminated the effect of inhibitory compounds in the substrate. The major soluble metabolites were acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid

  13. A procedure for Building Product Models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hvam, Lars

    1999-01-01

    , easily adaptable concepts and methods from data modeling (object oriented analysis) and domain modeling (product modeling). The concepts are general and can be used for modeling all types of specifications in the different phases in the product life cycle. The modeling techniques presented have been......The application of product modeling in manufacturing companies raises the important question of how to model product knowledge in a comprehensible and efficient way. An important challenge is to qualify engineers to model and specify IT-systems (product models) to support their specification...... activities. A basic assumption is that engineers have to take the responsability for building product models to be used in their domain. To do that they must be able to carry out the modeling task on their own without any need for support from computer science experts. This paper presents a set of simple...

  14. Skin Color, Cultural Capital, and Beauty Products: An Investigation of the Use of Skin Fairness Products in Mumbai, India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shroff, Hemal; Diedrichs, Phillippa C; Craddock, Nadia

    2017-01-01

    The use of skin fairness products that frequently contain toxic ingredients is associated with significant adverse health side effects. Due to the high prevalence of use in Asian and African countries, skin fairness product use is recognized as a growing public health concern. The multi-million-dollar skin fairness product industry has also been criticized for perpetuating racism and social inequalities by reinforcing beliefs about the benefits of skin fairness for cultural capital. No quantitative studies have assessed people's beliefs about fairness and reasons for using or not using these products in India, one of the largest global markets for skin fairness products. The current study explored skin fairness product use among 1,992 women and men aged 16-60 years in the city of Mumbai, India using a self-report questionnaire. A total of 37.6% of the sample reported currently using skin fairness products, with women being two times more likely to use these products. Among current users, 17% reported past experiences of adverse side effects, and "Media/TV/Adverts" were the most common prompts for using fairness products, followed by "Friends" and "Family." Men were significantly more likely than women to endorse beliefs about fairness being more attractive and were more likely to perceive family and peers as viewing fairness as beneficial for cultural capital. There were no differences between women and men currently using products in their desire to look as fair as media celebrities. Among non-users, women were significantly more likely than men to report concerns about product efficacy and side effects as reasons for non-use, while men were significantly more likely to report socioeconomic reasons for non-use. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of growing public health concerns about the use of fairness products, and potential for advocacy and public health interventions to address the use of skin fairness products.

  15. Stochastic modeling of oligodendrocyte generation in cell culture: model validation with time-lapse data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Noble Mark

    2006-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The purpose of this paper is two-fold. The first objective is to validate the assumptions behind a stochastic model developed earlier by these authors to describe oligodendrocyte generation in cell culture. The second is to generate time-lapse data that may help biomathematicians to build stochastic models of cell proliferation and differentiation under other experimental scenarios. Results Using time-lapse video recording it is possible to follow the individual evolutions of different cells within each clone. This experimental technique is very laborious and cannot replace model-based quantitative inference from clonal data. However, it is unrivalled in validating the structure of a stochastic model intended to describe cell proliferation and differentiation at the clonal level. In this paper, such data are reported and analyzed for oligodendrocyte precursor cells cultured in vitro. Conclusion The results strongly support the validity of the most basic assumptions underpinning the previously proposed model of oligodendrocyte development in cell culture. However, there are some discrepancies; the most important is that the contribution of progenitor cell death to cell kinetics in this experimental system has been underestimated.

  16. Production of bacterial cellulose using different carbon sources and culture media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammadkazemi, Faranak; Azin, Mehrdad; Ashori, Alireza

    2015-03-06

    In this work, the effects of carbon sources and culture media on the production and structural properties of bacterial cellulose (BC) have been studied. BC nanofibers were synthesized using Gluconacetobacter xylinus strain PTCC 1734. Media used were Hestrin-Schramm (H), Yamanaka (Y), and Zhou (Z). Five different carbon sources, namely date syrup, glucose, mannitol, sucrose, and food-grade sucrose were used in these media. All the produced BC pellicles were characterized in terms of dry weight production, biomass yield, thermal stability, crystallinity and morphology by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The obtained results showed that mannitol lead to the highest yield, followed by sucrose. The highest production efficiency of mannitol might be due to the nitrogen source, which plays an important role. The maximum improvement on the thermal stability of the composites was achieved when mannitol was used in H medium. In addition, the crystallinity was higher in BC formed in H medium compared to other media. FE-SEM micrographs illustrated that the BC pellicles, synthesized in the culture media H and Z, were stable, unlike those in medium Y that were unstable. The micrographs of BC produced in media containing mannitol and sucrose provided evidence of the strong interfacial adhesion between the BC fibers without noticeable aggregates. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Cultural tourism and tourism cultures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ooi, Can-Seng

    Presenting a comprehensive and dynamic understanding of cultural tourism, this volume examines cultural mediators and how they help tourists appreciate foreign cultures. It also shows how tourism experiences are strategically crafted by mediators, the complexity of the mediation process, and how...... various products are mediated differently. A number of different products are investigated, including destination brand identities, "living" cultures and everyday life, art and history. The author illustrates his arguments by comparing the tourism strategies of Copenhagen and Singapore, and demonstrates...... how tourism is an agent for social change. The author also offers an original and refreshing way of understanding tourist behaviour through the concept of the "versatile tourist". The book's empirical cases and dialogic framework provide new and deep insights into tourism activities. In his...

  18. A study on the assessment of safety culture impacts on risk of nuclear power plants using common uncertainty source model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Yong Suk; Bang, Young Suk; Chung, Chang Hyun; Jeong, Ji Hwan

    2004-01-01

    Since International Safety Advisory Group (INSAG) introduced term 'safety culture', it has been widely recognized that safety culture has an important role in safety of nuclear power plants. Research on the safety culture can be divided in the following two parts. 1) Assessment of safety culture (by interview, questionnaire, etc.) 2) Assessment of link between safety culture and safety of nuclear power plants. There is a substantial body of literature that addresses the first part, but there is much less work that addresses the second part. To address the second part, most work focused on the development of model incorporating safety culture into Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA). One of the most advanced methodology in the area of incorporating safety culture quantitatively into PSA is System Dynamics (SD) model developed by Kwak et al. It can show interactions among various factors which affect employees' productivity and job quality. Also various situations in nuclear power plant can be simulated and time-dependent risk can be recalculated with this model. But this model does not consider minimal cut set (MCS) dependency and uncertainty of risk. Another well-known methodology is Work Process Analysis Model (WPAM) developed by Davoudian. It considers MCS dependency by modifying conditional probability values using SLI methodology. But we found that the modified conditional probability values in WPAM are somewhat artificial and have no sound basis. WPAM tend to overestimate conditional probability of hardware failure, because it uses SLI methodology which is normally used in Human Reliability Analysis (HRA). WPAM also does not consider uncertainty of risk. In this study, we proposed methodology to incorporate safety culture into PSA quantitatively that can deal with MCS dependency and uncertainty of risk by applying the Common Uncertainty Source (CUS) model developed by Zhang. CUS is uncertainty source that is common to basic events, and this can be physical

  19. European food cultures in a macro and micro perspective: Implications for the marketing of Asian food products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Askegaard, Søren; Ludvigsen, Hanne H.

    This article origines as part of a Danish national food research program: Market-based Process and Product Innovation in the Food Sector (MAPP), presenting some of the results of a project concerning the cultural dimension of food consumption. Two questions of importance to Asian (with special...... attention to South East Asian) food producers and marketers are explored. First: To which extent can Asian food manufacturers consider Europe one single market? And second: Do change processes in the European food cultures faclitate adoption of more Asian food products in the coming years? Of course...... homogenoues export markets but ingeneral confirms the heterogeneity of the European fo cultures. Since these data did not contain specific information about our second question, the inclusion of Asian food products in European diets, we have investigated certain food consumption trends from a micro...

  20. Lipid production from tapioca wastewater by culture of Scenedesmus sp. with simultaneous BOD, COD and nitrogen removal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romaidi; Hasanudin, Muhammad; Kholifah, Khusnul; Maulidiyah, Alik; Putro, Sapto P.; Kikuchi, Akira; Sakaguchi, Toshifumi

    2018-05-01

    The use of microalgae to produce biodiesel or possibly remove nutrients from industrial wastewater has gained important attention during recent years due to their photosynthetic rate and its versatile nature to grow in various wastewater systems. In this study, a microalgae, Scenedesmus sp., was cultured to enhance the lipid production and nutrients removal from tapioca wastewater sample. To assess lipid production, Scenedesmus sp. was cultured in different concentration of tapioca wastewater sample (from 0 to 100 %), and nutrient removal including BOD, COD, NH4, NO2, NO3 level by Scenedesmus sp. was assessed in 100% of tapioca wastewater culture. After 8 days of culture, it was found out that 50% of tapioca wastewater sample resulted in highest concentration of lipid content than that of the other concentrations. The level of environment indicator as nutrient removal such as BOD, COD, NH4, NO2, NO3 were also decreased up to 74%, 72%, 95%, 91%, and 91%, respectively. The pH condition changed from initial condition acidic (pH: 4) to neutral or basic condition (pH: 7-8) as recommended in wastewater treatment system. This research provided a novel approach and achieved efficient simultaneous lipid production and nutrients removal from tapioca wastewater sample by Scenedesmus’s culture system.

  1. Bioeconomic of profit maximization of red tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) culture using polynomial growth model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wijayanto, D.; Kurohman, F.; Nugroho, RA

    2018-03-01

    The research purpose was to develop a model bioeconomic of profit maximization that can be applied to red tilapia culture. The development of fish growth model used polynomial growth function. Profit maximization process used the first derivative of profit equation to time of culture equal to zero. This research has also developed the equations to estimate the culture time to reach the target size of the fish harvest. The research proved that this research model could be applied in the red tilapia culture. In the case of this study, red tilapia culture can achieve the maximum profit at 584 days and the profit of Rp. 28,605,731 per culture cycle. If used size target of 250 g, the culture of red tilapia need 82 days of culture time.

  2. The Role of Cultural Compatibility in Effective Management The Application of Cultural Four-dimensional Model in Transnational Corporations

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    成哲

    2015-01-01

    Cross-cultural management is often regarded as a discipline of international management focusing on cultural encounters between the organization and the nation-state, and providing tools to tackle cultural difl'erences seen as sources of conflict, friction or misunderstanding. Based on Greet Hofstede' s Cultural Model, this paper attempts to shed some light on effective corporation management through cultural analysis of the difl'erences between China and western countries. The paper puts more emphasis on the impact of cultural compatibility on effective corporation man- agement through the case study of China, Japan, Germany and America. The author argues that managers and employ- ees involved in companies with diverse cultural backgrounds should be integrated and developed into a specific local context through interlocking their cultural identifications and the organizational practices.

  3. Madrasah Culture Based Transformational Leadership Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nur Khoiri

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Leadership is the ability to influence, direct behavior, and have a particular expertise in the field of the group who want to achieve the goals. A dynamic organization requires transformational leadership model. A school principal as a leader at school aims to actualize good learning leadership. Leadership learning focuses on learning which components include curriculum, teaching and learning process, assessment, teacher assessment and development, good service in learning, and developing a learning community in schools based on organizational culture as value, assumption, belief evolved from the roots of member thought of the organization and believed by all members of the organization and implemented in everyday life that could give meaning Keywords: leadership, transformational leadership, headmaster, instructional leadership, organizational culture.

  4. Photoautotrophic production of polyhydroxyalkanoates in a synthetic mixed culture of Synechococcus elongatus cscB and Pseudomonas putida cscAB.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Löwe, Hannes; Hobmeier, Karina; Moos, Manuel; Kremling, Andreas; Pflüger-Grau, Katharina

    2017-01-01

    One of the major challenges for the present and future generations is to find suitable substitutes for the fossil resources we rely on today. Cyanobacterial carbohydrates have been discussed as an emerging renewable feedstock in industrial biotechnology for the production of fuels and chemicals, showing promising production rates when compared to crop-based feedstock. However, intrinsic capacities of cyanobacteria to produce biotechnological compounds are limited and yields are low. Here, we present an approach to circumvent these problems by employing a synthetic bacterial co-culture for the carbon-neutral production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from CO 2 . The co-culture consists of two bio - modules : Bio - module I , in which the cyanobacterial strain Synechococcus elongatus cscB fixes CO 2 , converts it to sucrose, and exports it into the culture supernatant; and bio - module II , where this sugar serves as C-source for Pseudomonas putida cscAB and is converted to PHAs that are accumulated in the cytoplasm. By applying a nitrogen-limited process, we achieved a maximal PHA production rate of 23.8 mg/(L day) and a maximal titer of 156 mg/L. We will discuss the present shortcomings of the process and show the potential for future improvement. These results demonstrate the feasibility of mixed cultures of S. elongatus cscB and P. putida cscAB for PHA production, making room for the cornucopia of possible products that are described for P. putida . The construction of more efficient sucrose-utilizing P. putida phenotypes and the optimization of process conditions will increase yields and productivities and eventually close the gap in the contemporary process. In the long term, the co-culture may serve as a platform process, in which P. putida is used as a chassis for the implementation of synthetic metabolic pathways for biotechnological production of value-added products.

  5. Modeling nitrous oxide production during biological nitrogen removal via nitrification and denitrification: extensions to the general ASM models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ni, Bing-Jie; Ruscalleda, Maël; Pellicer-Nàcher, Carles; Smets, Barth F

    2011-09-15

    Nitrous oxide (N(2)O) can be formed during biological nitrogen (N) removal processes. In this work, a mathematical model is developed that describes N(2)O production and consumption during activated sludge nitrification and denitrification. The well-known ASM process models are extended to capture N(2)O dynamics during both nitrification and denitrification in biological N removal. Six additional processes and three additional reactants, all involved in known biochemical reactions, have been added. The validity and applicability of the model is demonstrated by comparing simulations with experimental data on N(2)O production from four different mixed culture nitrification and denitrification reactor study reports. Modeling results confirm that hydroxylamine oxidation by ammonium oxidizers (AOB) occurs 10 times slower when NO(2)(-) participates as final electron acceptor compared to the oxic pathway. Among the four denitrification steps, the last one (N(2)O reduction to N(2)) seems to be inhibited first when O(2) is present. Overall, N(2)O production can account for 0.1-25% of the consumed N in different nitrification and denitrification systems, which can be well simulated by the proposed model. In conclusion, we provide a modeling structure, which adequately captures N(2)O dynamics in autotrophic nitrification and heterotrophic denitrification driven biological N removal processes and which can form the basis for ongoing refinements.

  6. Emergent Processes of Language Acquisition: Japanese Language Leaning and the Consumption of Japanese Cultural Products in Thailand

    OpenAIRE

    Toyoshima, Noboru

    2013-01-01

    Motivation for learning a second language varies among individuals: some people enjoy the process of learning languages, while others learn a second language for practical reasons. Previous fieldwork research in Thailand has shown that many consumers of Japanese cultural products are also learners of the Japanese language. This suggests that Japanese cultural products motivate consumers to start studying Japanese and to continue learning it. In this study, two hypotheses will be posed in orde...

  7. Beyond the 'east-west' dichotomy: Global variation in cultural models of selfhood.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vignoles, Vivian L; Owe, Ellinor; Becker, Maja; Smith, Peter B; Easterbrook, Matthew J; Brown, Rupert; González, Roberto; Didier, Nicolas; Carrasco, Diego; Cadena, Maria Paz; Lay, Siugmin; Schwartz, Seth J; Des Rosiers, Sabrina E; Villamar, Juan A; Gavreliuc, Alin; Zinkeng, Martina; Kreuzbauer, Robert; Baguma, Peter; Martin, Mariana; Tatarko, Alexander; Herman, Ginette; de Sauvage, Isabelle; Courtois, Marie; Garðarsdóttir, Ragna B; Harb, Charles; Schweiger Gallo, Inge; Prieto Gil, Paula; Lorente Clemares, Raquel; Campara, Gabriella; Nizharadze, George; Macapagal, Ma Elizabeth J; Jalal, Baland; Bourguignon, David; Zhang, Jianxin; Lv, Shaobo; Chybicka, Aneta; Yuki, Masaki; Zhang, Xiao; Espinosa, Agustín; Valk, Aune; Abuhamdeh, Sami; Amponsah, Benjamin; Özgen, Emre; Güner, E Ülkü; Yamakoğlu, Nil; Chobthamkit, Phatthanakit; Pyszczynski, Tom; Kesebir, Pelin; Vargas Trujillo, Elvia; Balanta, Paola; Cendales Ayala, Boris; Koller, Silvia H; Jaafar, Jas Laile; Gausel, Nicolay; Fischer, Ronald; Milfont, Taciano L; Kusdil, Ersin; Çağlar, Selinay; Aldhafri, Said; Ferreira, M Cristina; Mekonnen, Kassahun Habtamu; Wang, Qian; Fülöp, Márta; Torres, Ana; Camino, Leoncio; Lemos, Flávia Cristina Silveira; Fritsche, Immo; Möller, Bettina; Regalia, Camillo; Manzi, Claudia; Brambilla, Maria; Bond, Michael Harris

    2016-08-01

    Markus and Kitayama's (1991) theory of independent and interdependent self-construals had a major influence on social, personality, and developmental psychology by highlighting the role of culture in psychological processes. However, research has relied excessively on contrasts between North American and East Asian samples, and commonly used self-report measures of independence and interdependence frequently fail to show predicted cultural differences. We revisited the conceptualization and measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals in 2 large-scale multinational surveys, using improved methods for cross-cultural research. We developed (Study 1: N = 2924 students in 16 nations) and validated across cultures (Study 2: N = 7279 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations) a new 7-dimensional model of self-reported ways of being independent or interdependent. Patterns of global variation support some of Markus and Kitayama's predictions, but a simple contrast between independence and interdependence does not adequately capture the diverse models of selfhood that prevail in different world regions. Cultural groups emphasize different ways of being both independent and interdependent, depending on individualism-collectivism, national socioeconomic development, and religious heritage. Our 7-dimensional model will allow future researchers to test more accurately the implications of cultural models of selfhood for psychological processes in diverse ecocultural contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  8. Lipid production by pure and mixed cultures of Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa isolated in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reyna-Martínez, Raúl; Gomez-Flores, Ricardo; López-Chuken, Ulrico J; González-González, Rosario; Fernández-Delgadillo, Sergio; Balderas-Rentería, Isaias

    2015-01-01

    Given the well-known environmental drawbacks of using fossil fuels, advances in the field of alternative energy have become a worldwide technological priority. Special interest has been focused on the production of biodiesel obtained from oleaginous microorganisms. In the present research, lipid production by two species, microalgae Chlorella pyrenoidosa and yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa was assessed, independently and in mixed culture to evaluate a possible synergy. Fatty acid analysis was performed by gas chromatography. Among pure and mixed cultures of both strains and several culturing conditions, the highest biomass and lipid productivity was obtained by C. pyrenoidosa (8.05 and 1.62 g/L, respectively). The results of this study showed that both strains used are in fact oleaginous strains as they were found to reach up to 20 % of lipids, in addition, lipids in both pure and mixed cultures were mainly of triglycerides (>90 %), composed of fatty acid chains between 16 and 18 carbons.

  9. Enhanced production of azadirachtin by hairy root cultures of Azadirachta indica A. Juss by elicitation and media optimization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Satdive, Ramesh K; Fulzele, Devanand P; Eapen, Susan

    2007-02-01

    Azadirachtin is one of the most potent biopesticides so far developed from a plant sources. Influence of different culture media and elicitation on growth and production of azadirachtin by hairy root cultures of Azadirachta indica was studied. Out of the three media tested, namely Ohyama and Nitsch, Gamborg's and Murashige and Skoog's basal media, hairy roots cultured on Ohyama and Nitsch's basal medium produced maximum yield of azadirachtin (0.0166% dry weight, DW). Addition of biotic elicitor enhanced the production of azadirachtin by approximately 5-fold (0.074% DW), while signal compounds such as jasmonic acid and salicylic acid showed a approximately 6 (0.095% DW) and approximately 9-fold (0.14% DW) enhancement, respectively, in the production of azadirachtin as compared to control cultures on Ohyama and Nitsch medium. Extracts from hairy roots were found to be superior to those from the leaves for antifeedant activity against the larvae of Spodoptera litura.

  10. THE APPLICATION OF TRANSCULTURAL NURSING MODEL IN PERSPECTIVE OF MADURA CULTURE IMPROVING BREASTFEEDING MOTHER’S BEHAVIOR IN JEMBER

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Awatiful Azza

    2017-08-01

    Method: This research was conducted in Public Health Centre of Pakusari Suboh Jember. The data were collected using questionnaires, and focus group discuss. The research design was question-experimental research of post test design with control by using Paired Samples Test analysis. In addition, the researchers also performed a qualitative analysis to explore the Maduranese culture. The samples were breastfeeding mothers who had infants aged 1-6 months and 50 samples were then divided into two, i.e., treatment and control groups. Also, another data source were health professionals. Result: The result showed that the maternal age range between 15-34 years with an average age of 27 years. Besides, the average of the respondents’ education background was that 60% of them did not pass elementary school, both in treatment group and control group. The results of the analysis on cultural modifications was p-value of 0.001, which means that there is the effects of applying transcultural nursing model in improving milk production. Conclusion and recomendation : An application of cultural modifications that is able to increase milk production. Therefore, it needs a good cooperation for all the components of society in supporting breastfeeding mothers by modifying less the local culture that becomes  favorable for health.

  11. Individual and culture-level components of survey response styles: A multi-level analysis using cultural models of selfhood.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Peter B; Vignoles, Vivian L; Becker, Maja; Owe, Ellinor; Easterbrook, Matthew J; Brown, Rupert; Bourguignon, David; Garðarsdóttir, Ragna B; Kreuzbauer, Robert; Cendales Ayala, Boris; Yuki, Masaki; Zhang, Jianxin; Lv, Shaobo; Chobthamkit, Phatthanakit; Jaafar, Jas Laile; Fischer, Ronald; Milfont, Taciano L; Gavreliuc, Alin; Baguma, Peter; Bond, Michael Harris; Martin, Mariana; Gausel, Nicolay; Schwartz, Seth J; Des Rosiers, Sabrina E; Tatarko, Alexander; González, Roberto; Didier, Nicolas; Carrasco, Diego; Lay, Siugmin; Nizharadze, George; Torres, Ana; Camino, Leoncio; Abuhamdeh, Sami; Macapagal, Ma Elizabeth J; Koller, Silvia H; Herman, Ginette; Courtois, Marie; Fritsche, Immo; Espinosa, Agustín; Villamar, Juan A; Regalia, Camillo; Manzi, Claudia; Brambilla, Maria; Zinkeng, Martina; Jalal, Baland; Kusdil, Ersin; Amponsah, Benjamin; Çağlar, Selinay; Mekonnen, Kassahun Habtamu; Möller, Bettina; Zhang, Xiao; Schweiger Gallo, Inge; Prieto Gil, Paula; Lorente Clemares, Raquel; Campara, Gabriella; Aldhafri, Said; Fülöp, Márta; Pyszczynski, Tom; Kesebir, Pelin; Harb, Charles

    2016-12-01

    Variations in acquiescence and extremity pose substantial threats to the validity of cross-cultural research that relies on survey methods. Individual and cultural correlates of response styles when using 2 contrasting types of response mode were investigated, drawing on data from 55 cultural groups across 33 nations. Using 7 dimensions of self-other relatedness that have often been confounded within the broader distinction between independence and interdependence, our analysis yields more specific understandings of both individual- and culture-level variations in response style. When using a Likert-scale response format, acquiescence is strongest among individuals seeing themselves as similar to others, and where cultural models of selfhood favour harmony, similarity with others and receptiveness to influence. However, when using Schwartz's (2007) portrait-comparison response procedure, acquiescence is strongest among individuals seeing themselves as self-reliant but also connected to others, and where cultural models of selfhood favour self-reliance and self-consistency. Extreme responding varies less between the two types of response modes, and is most prevalent among individuals seeing themselves as self-reliant, and in cultures favouring self-reliance. As both types of response mode elicit distinctive styles of response, it remains important to estimate and control for style effects to ensure valid comparisons. © 2016 International Union of Psychological Science.

  12. 3D Organotypic Culture Model to Study Components of ERK Signaling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chioni, Athina-Myrto; Bajwa, Rabia Tayba; Grose, Richard

    2017-01-01

    Organotypic models are 3D in vitro representations of an in vivo environment. Their complexity can range from an epidermal replica to the establishment of a cancer microenvironment. These models have been used for many years, in an attempt to mimic the structure and function of cells and tissues found inside the body. Methods for developing 3D organotypic models differ according to the tissue of interest and the experimental design. For example, cultures may be grown submerged in culture medium and or at an air-liquid interface. Our group is focusing on an air-liquid interface 3D organotypic model. These cultures are grown on a nylon membrane-covered metal grid with the cells embedded in a Collagen-Matrigel gel. This allows cells to grow in an air-liquid interface to enable diffusion and nourishment from the medium below. Subsequently, the organotypic cultures can be used for immunohistochemical staining of various components of ERK signaling, which is a key player in mediating communication between cells and their microenvironment.

  13. Cultural Models of Teaching and Learning in Math and Science: Exploring the Intersections of Culture, Cognition, and Pedagogical Situations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferrare, Joseph J.; Hora, Matthew T.

    2014-01-01

    While researchers have examined how disciplinary and departmental cultures influence instructional practices in higher education, there has yet to be an examination of this relationship at the embodied level of culture. In this article we utilize cultural models theory to examine the theories of student learning and teaching practice espoused and…

  14. Modelling Bourdieu: An extension of the Axelrod cultural diffusion model

    OpenAIRE

    Trigg, Andrew B.; Bertie, Andrew J.; Himmelweit, Susan F.

    2008-01-01

    The contribution to the social theory of consumption of the late Pierre Bourdieu has been widely recognized, but not fully absorbed by the economics discipline. To address this lacuna, an agent-based model of Bourdieu's social theory is developed by extending Axelrod's cultural diffusion model. Bourdieu's theory is decomposed into two components: a capital effect on social interaction and an innovation effect. Whereas simulations of the capital effect are found to have a key role in the repro...

  15. Development of the KINS Safety Culture Maturity Model for Self and Independent Assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sheen, C.; Choi, Y.S.

    2016-01-01

    Safety culture of an organization is cultivated and affected not only by societal and regulatory environment of the organization, but by its philosophies, policies, events and activities experienced in the process of accomplishing its mission. The safety culture would be continuously changed by the interactions between its members along with time as an organic entity. In order to perform a systematic self- or independent assessment of safety culture, a safety culture assessment model (SCAM) properly reflecting cultural characteristics should be necessary. In addition, a SCAM should be helpful not only to establish correct directions, goals, and strategies for safety culture development, but should anticipating obstacles against safety culture development in the implementation process derived from the assessment. In practical terms, a SCAM should be useful for deriving effective guidelines and implementing of corrective action programs for the evaluated organization. Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) performed a research project for six years to develop a SCAM satisfying the above prerequisites for self- and independent assessment. The KINS SCAM was developed based on the five stage safety culture maturity model proposed by Professor Patrick Hudson and was modified into four stages to reflect existing safety culture assessment experiences at Korean nuclear power plants. In order to define the change mechanism of safety culture for development and reversion, the change model proposed by Prochaska and DiClemente was introduced into KINS SCAM and developed into the Spiral Change Model.

  16. Innovation Production Models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tamam N. Guseinova

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The article is dedicated to the study of the models of production of innovations at enterprise and state levels. The shift towards a new technology wave induces a change in systems of division of labour as well as establishment of new forms of cooperation that are reflected both in theory and practice of innovation policy and management. Within the scope of the research question we have studied different generation of innovation process, starting with simple linear models - "technology push" and "market pull" - and ending with a complex integrated model of open innovations. There are two organizational models of innovation production at the enterprise level: start-ups in the early stages of their development and ambidextrous organizations. The former are prone to linear models of innovation process, while the latter create innovation within more sophisticated inclusive processes. Companies that effectuate reciprocal ambidexterity stand out from all the rest, since together with start-ups, research and development centres, elements of innovation infrastructure and other economic agents operating in the same value chain they constitute the core of most advanced forms of national innovation systems, namely Triple Helix and Quadruple Helix systems. National innovation systems - models of innovation production at the state level - evolve into systems with a more profound division of labour that enable "line production" of innovations. These tendencies are closely related to the advent and development of the concept of serial entrepreneurship that transforms entrepreneurship into a new type of profession. International experience proves this concept to be efficient in various parts of the world. Nevertheless, the use of above mentioned models and concepts in national innovation system should be justified by socioeconomic conditions of economic regions, since they determine the efficiency of implementation of certain innovation processes and

  17. Immunomodulatory and Growth-Promoting Potential of Lowcost Probiotic Product in Penaeus Monodon Culture System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chandran Manohar Navin

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The capability of a low-cost probiotic product was evaluated in Penaeus monodon reared under an outdoor culture system for a period of 90 days. The low-cost probiotic product was formulated by mixing the broth culture of Bacillus cereus along with commercial chalk powder in 1:1 ratio. The prepared probiotic product as a powdered supplement was incorporated along with the shrimp diet at various concentrations (1 to 5%. The viability of B. cereus in the experimental diet was tested once in 30 days up to 90 days during the experimentation. After 90 days of feeding experiments, the growth performance of shrimp was determined with a maximum production of 11.98 ± 0.367 g, SGR of 5.030 ± 0.171% and FCE of 86.63 ± 1.300% in P. monodon fed D4 diet (4% probiotic supplement. The immunological parameters determined at the end of the culture experiment showed variation among diets. The total haemocyte count (273.66 ± 3.09 x 105 cells/ml, phenoloxidase activity (0.132 ± 0.007 OD and respiratory burst activity (0.291 ± 0.020 O.D were high in P. monodon fed D4 diet. Similar effects were observed for plasma protein concentration (68.00 ± 1.41 mg/ ml, lysozyme activity (0.483 ± 0.014 U/ml and bactericidal activity (81.0 ± 1.33% in shrimp fed D4 diet. The results of the present investigation conclude that the probiotic product at a concentration of 4% was effective in elevating the growth and immune performances in shrimp P. monodon.

  18. Amino acid and glucose metabolism in fed-batch CHO cell culture affects antibody production and glycosylation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fan, Yuzhou; Jimenez Del Val, Ioscani; Müller, Christian

    2015-01-01

    optimization, especially media optimization. Gaining knowledge on their interrelations could provide insight for obtaining higher immunoglobulin G (IgG) titer and better controlling glycosylationrelated product quality. In this work, different fed-batch processes with two chemically defined proprietary media......Fed-batch Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell culture is the most commonly used process for IgG production in the biopharmaceutical industry. Amino acid and glucose consumption, cell growth, metabolism, antibody titer, and N-glycosylation patterns are always the major concerns during upstream process...... and glutamine concentrations and uptake rates were positively correlated with intracellular UDP-Gal availability. All these findings are important for optimization of fed-batch culture for improving IgG production and directing glycosylation quality....

  19. Dissemination of Cultural Norms and Values: Agent-Based Modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Denis Andreevich Degterev

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This article shows how agent-based modeling allows us to explore the mechanisms of the dissemination of cultural norms and values both within one country and in the whole world. In recent years, this type of simulation is particularly prevalent in the analysis of international relations, becoming more popular than the system dynamics and discrete event simulation. The use of agent-based modeling in the analysis of international relations is connected with the agent-structure problem in international relations. Structure and agents act as interdependent and dynamically changing in the process of interaction between entities. Agent-structure interaction could be modeled by means of the theory of complex adaptive systems with the use of agent-based modeling techniques. One of the first examples of the use of agent-based modeling in political science is a model of racial segregation T. Shellinga. On the basis of this model, the author shows how the change in behavioral patterns at micro-level impacts on the macro-level. Patterns are changing due to the dynamics of cultural norms and values, formed by mass-media and other social institutes. The author shows the main areas of modern application of agent-based modeling in international studies including the analysis of ethnic conflicts, the formation of international coalitions. Particular attention is paid to Robert Axelrod approach based on the use of genetic algorithms to the spread of cultural norms and values. Agent-based modeling shows how to how to create such conditions that the norms that originally are not shared by a significant part of the population, eventually spread everywhere. Practical application of these algorithms is shown by the author of the article on the example of the situation in Ukraine in 2015-2016. The article also reveals the mechanisms of international spread of cultural norms and values. The main think-tanks using agent-based modeling in international studies are

  20. Axelrod Model of Social Influence with Cultural Hybridization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radillo-Díaz, Alejandro; Pérez, Luis A.; Del Castillo-Mussot, Marcelo

    2012-10-01

    Since cultural interactions between a pair of social agents involve changes in both individuals, we present simulations of a new model based on Axelrod's homogenization mechanism that includes hybridization or mixture of the agents' features. In this new hybridization model, once a cultural feature of a pair of agents has been chosen for the interaction, the average of the values for this feature is reassigned as the new value for both agents after interaction. Moreover, a parameter representing social tolerance is implemented in order to quantify whether agents are similar enough to engage in interaction, as well as to determine whether they belong to the same cluster of similar agents after the system has reached the frozen state. The transitions from a homogeneous state to a fragmented one decrease in abruptness as tolerance is increased. Additionally, the entropy associated to the system presents a maximum within the transition, the width of which increases as tolerance does. Moreover, a plateau was found inside the transition for a low-tolerance system of agents with only two cultural features.

  1. Chitosan (middle-viscous as an effective elicitor for silymarin production in Silybum marianum hairy root cultures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. Hasanloo

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Elicitation with middle-viscous chitosan (30 mg/50 mL significantly stimulated silymarin synthesis in Silybum marianum hairy root cultures. The root cultures established by infection with Agrobacterium rhizogenes AR15834 showed a potential for production of silymarin. Elicitation with medium molecular weight of chitosan (0, 5, 10, 20, and 30 mg/50 mL was used in order to improve silymarin production. Total silymarin increased about 5.26-fold after 96 h of treatment with 30 mg/50 mL chitosan. Dry weight of the hairy roots reached the highest point (0.530 and 0.535 g after 96 h in presence of 20 and 30 mg/50 mL chitosan, respectively. Five different flavonolignans were isolated; taxifolin, silychristin, silydianin, silybin and isosilybin 0.133, 0.200, 0.120, 0.041 and 0.056 mg/g dry weight, respectively. 30 days old hairy roots were treated by 30 mg/50 mL chitosan in different times (12, 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 h. The amount of silymarin accumulation significantly increased (0.705 mg/gDW in hairy roots after 96 h treatment. These observations suggested that the medium molecular weight of chitosan could be elicited by S. marianum hairy root cultures that lead to the higher production of silymarin. These results correlated with the culture time, and the biosynthesis which reached to a maximum of 0.705 mg/gDW by 96 h after culture. (2.9-fold higher than the control.

  2. Reliability-Based and Cost-Oriented Product Optimization Integrating Fuzzy Reasoning Petri Nets, Interval Expert Evaluation and Cultural-Based DMOPSO Using Crowding Distance Sorting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhaoxi Hong

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available In reliability-based and cost-oriented product optimization, the target product reliability is apportioned to subsystems or components to achieve the maximum reliability and minimum cost. Main challenges to conducting such optimization design lie in how to simultaneously consider subsystem division, uncertain evaluation provided by experts for essential factors, and dynamic propagation of product failure. To overcome these problems, a reliability-based and cost-oriented product optimization method integrating fuzzy reasoning Petri net (FRPN, interval expert evaluation and cultural-based dynamic multi-objective particle swarm optimization (DMOPSO using crowding distance sorting is proposed in this paper. Subsystem division is performed based on failure decoupling, and then subsystem weights are calculated with FRPN reflecting dynamic and uncertain failure propagation, as well as interval expert evaluation considering six essential factors. A mathematical model of reliability-based and cost-oriented product optimization is established, and the cultural-based DMOPSO with crowding distance sorting is utilized to obtain the optimized design scheme. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed method are demonstrated by the numerical example of the optimization design for a computer numerically controlled (CNC machine tool.

  3. Three-dimensional hydrogel cell culture systems for modeling neural tissue

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frampton, John

    Two-dimensional (2-D) neural cell culture systems have served as physiological models for understanding the cellular and molecular events that underlie responses to physical and chemical stimuli, control sensory and motor function, and lead to the development of neurological diseases. However, the development of three-dimensional (3-D) cell culture systems will be essential for the advancement of experimental research in a variety of fields including tissue engineering, chemical transport and delivery, cell growth, and cell-cell communication. In 3-D cell culture, cells are provided with an environment similar to tissue, in which they are surrounded on all sides by other cells, structural molecules and adhesion ligands. Cells grown in 3-D culture systems display morphologies and functions more similar to those observed in vivo, and can be cultured in such a way as to recapitulate the structural organization and biological properties of tissue. This thesis describes a hydrogel-based culture system, capable of supporting the growth and function of several neural cell types in 3-D. Alginate hydrogels were characterized in terms of their biomechanical and biochemical properties and were functionalized by covalent attachment of whole proteins and peptide epitopes. Methods were developed for rapid cross-linking of alginate hydrogels, thus permitting the incorporation of cells into 3-D scaffolds without adversely affecting cell viability or function. A variety of neural cell types were tested including astrocytes, microglia, and neurons. Cells remained viable and functional for longer than two weeks in culture and displayed process outgrowth in 3-D. Cell constructs were created that varied in cell density, type and organization, providing experimental flexibility for studying cell interactions and behavior. In one set of experiments, 3-D glial-endothelial cell co-cultures were used to model blood-brain barrier (BBB) structure and function. This co-culture system was

  4. Motivation for choice and healthiness perception of calorie-reduced dairy products. a cross-cultural study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johansen, Susanne Bølling; Næs, Tormod; Hersleth, Margrethe

    2011-02-01

    Understanding consumers' motives for selecting calorie-reduced dairy products are important to provide targeted communication to different consumer segments. The aim of this study was to identify motives for consumption of calorie-reduced dairy products among young consumers, and to identify how these consumers perceive the healthiness of such products compared to other food products. Consumers, aged 18-30 years, from Norway (n=118), Denmark (n=125), and California (n=127) participated in this cross-cultural study. The respondents sorted 24 statements referring to motives for choosing calorie-reduced yoghurt and cheese. The study also assessed the aspect of perceived healthiness of these products in comparison with a selection of other food products using a two-step ranking procedure. The data were analysed using chi-square analysis, Friedman's test and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results show that fat content, healthiness and taste were the most important motivators for choice of the calorie-reduced dairy products. In all three countries salmon was perceived as the healthiest among the products presented. The calorie-reduced dairy products were ranked as relatively healthy, with yoghurt ranked as healthier than cheese. Although cross-cultural differences existed in motives for choice and perceived healthiness of the products, the similarities between the countries were evident in this study. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Engineer medium and feed for modulating N-glycosylation of recombinant protein production in CHO cell culture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fan, Yuzhou; Kildegaard, Helene Faustrup; Andersen, Mikael Rørdam

    2017-01-01

    Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells have become the primary expression system for the production of complex recombinant proteins due to their long-term success in industrial scale production and generating appropriate protein N-glycans similar to that of humans. Control and optimization of protein N......-glycosylation is crucial, as the structure of N-glycans can largely influence both biological and physicochemical properties of recombinant proteins. Protein N-glycosylation in CHO cell culture can be controlled and tuned by engineering medium, feed, culture process, as well as genetic elements of the cell...

  6. Bioprocess intensification of antibiotic production by Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) in micro-porous culture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ndlovu, T.M., E-mail: tm.ndlovu@nutriss.com [NUTRISS Limited, INEX, Herschel Annex, Kings Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU (United Kingdom); Ward, A.C. [School of Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU (United Kingdom); Department of Microbiology, Chung-Ang University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea 156-756 (Korea, Republic of); Glassey, J. [School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU (United Kingdom); Eskildsen, J. [NUTRISS Limited, INEX, Herschel Annex, Kings Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU (United Kingdom); Akay, G. [School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU (United Kingdom)

    2015-04-01

    A novel functionalized micro-porous matrix was developed with well-controlled physicochemical proprieties such as pore size and surface chemistry. The matrix was used as a solid support in the growth of “Streptomyces coelicolor” A3(2) to enhance the production of antibiotics. The results shown support a higher production of prodigiosin and actinorhodin with overall production increase of 2–5 and 6–17, respectively, compared to conventional submerged liquid culture, offering a potential improvement in volumetric productivity. Scanning Electron Microscopy was used to evaluate pore size as well as bacterial adhesion, penetration, proliferation and migration within the micro-porous matrix. - Highlights: • Preparation of novel micro-porous matrix with different physiochemical proprieties • S. coelicolor A3(2) was cultured in those micro-porous and antibiotics was enhanced. • Matrix pore sizes and surface chemistry influenced bacterial signalling. • Bacterial signalling has a profound effect in the overproduction of Prodigiosin and actinorhodin. • Prodigiosin and actinorhodin production within micro-porous was 5–17 times higher compared with liquid growth.

  7. Bioprocess intensification of antibiotic production by Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) in micro-porous culture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ndlovu, T.M.; Ward, A.C.; Glassey, J.; Eskildsen, J.; Akay, G.

    2015-01-01

    A novel functionalized micro-porous matrix was developed with well-controlled physicochemical proprieties such as pore size and surface chemistry. The matrix was used as a solid support in the growth of “Streptomyces coelicolor” A3(2) to enhance the production of antibiotics. The results shown support a higher production of prodigiosin and actinorhodin with overall production increase of 2–5 and 6–17, respectively, compared to conventional submerged liquid culture, offering a potential improvement in volumetric productivity. Scanning Electron Microscopy was used to evaluate pore size as well as bacterial adhesion, penetration, proliferation and migration within the micro-porous matrix. - Highlights: • Preparation of novel micro-porous matrix with different physiochemical proprieties • S. coelicolor A3(2) was cultured in those micro-porous and antibiotics was enhanced. • Matrix pore sizes and surface chemistry influenced bacterial signalling. • Bacterial signalling has a profound effect in the overproduction of Prodigiosin and actinorhodin. • Prodigiosin and actinorhodin production within micro-porous was 5–17 times higher compared with liquid growth

  8. Evaluating four mathematical models for nitrous oxide production by autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ni, Bing-Jie; Yuan, Zhiguo; Chandran, Kartik; Vanrolleghem, Peter A; Murthy, Sudhir

    2013-01-01

    There is increasing evidence showing that ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) are major contributors to N(2)O emissions from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Although the fundamental metabolic pathways for N(2)O production by AOB are now coming to light, the mechanisms responsible for N(2)O production by AOB in WWTP are not fully understood. Mathematical modeling provides a means for testing hypotheses related to mechanisms and triggers for N(2)O emissions in WWTP, and can then also become a tool to support the development of mitigation strategies. This study examined the ability of four mathematical model structures to describe two distinct mechanisms of N(2)O production by AOB. The production mechanisms evaluated are (1) N(2)O as the final product of nitrifier denitrification with NO(2)- as the terminal electron acceptor and (2) N(2)O as a byproduct of incomplete oxidation of hydroxylamine (NH(2)OH) to NO(2)-. The four models were compared based on their ability to predict N(2)O dynamics observed in three mixed culture studies. Short-term batch experimental data were employed to examine model assumptions related to the effects of (1) NH4+ concentration variations, (2) dissolved oxygen (DO) variations, (3) NO(2)- accumulations and (4) NH(2OH as an externally provided substrate. The modeling results demonstrate that all these models can generally describe the NH4+, NO(2)-, and NO(3)- data. However, none of these models were able to reproduce all measured N(2)O data. The results suggest that both the denitrification and NH(2)OH pathways may be involved in N(2)O production and could be kinetically linked by a competition for intracellular reducing equivalents. A unified model capturing both mechanisms and their potential interactions needs to be developed with consideration of physiological complexity. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  9. Framing the impact of culture on health: a systematic review of the PEN-3 cultural model and its application in public health research and interventions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iwelunmor, Juliet; Newsome, Valerie; Airhihenbuwa, Collins O

    2014-02-01

    This paper reviews available studies that applied the PEN-3 cultural model to address the impact of culture on health behaviors. We search electronic databases and conducted a thematic analysis of empirical studies that applied the PEN-3 cultural model to address the impact of culture on health behaviors. Studies were mapped to describe their methods, target population and the health behaviors or health outcomes studied. Forty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. The studies reviewed used the PEN-3 model as a theoretical framework to centralize culture in the study of health behaviors and to integrate culturally relevant factors in the development of interventions. The model was also used as an analysis tool, to sift through text and data in order to separate, define and delineate emerging themes. PEN-3 model was also significant with exploring not only how cultural context shapes health beliefs and practices, but also how family systems play a critical role in enabling or nurturing positive health behaviors and health outcomes. Finally, the studies reviewed highlighted the utility of the model with examining cultural practices that are critical to positive health behaviors, unique practices that have a neutral impact on health and the negative factors that are likely to have an adverse influence on health. The limitations of model and the role for future studies are discussed relative to the importance of using PEN-3 cultural model to explore the influence of culture in promoting positive health behaviors, eliminating health disparities and designing and implementing sustainable public health interventions.

  10. Filamentous fungi and media for cellulase production in solid state cultures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kilikian, B.V.; Afonso, L.C.; Souza, T.F.C.; Ferreira, R.G.; Pinheiro, I.R.

    2014-01-01

    Cellulase production was evaluated in two reference strains (T. reesei Rut-C30 and T. reesei QM9414), two strains isolated from a sugarcane cultivation area (Trichoderma sp. IPT778 and T. harzianum rifai IPT821) and one strain isolated in a program for biodiversity preservation in São Paulo state (Myceliophthora thermophila M77). Solid state cultures were performed using sugarcane bagasse (C), wheat bran (W) and/or soybean bran (S). The highest FPA was 10.6 U/gdm for M77 in SC (10:90) at 80% moisture, which was 4.4 times higher than production in pure W. C was a strong inducer of cellulase production, given that the production level of 6.1 U/gdm in WC (40:60) was 2.5 times higher than in pure W for strain M77; T. reesei Rut-C30 did not respond as strongly with about 1.6-fold surplus production. S advantageously replaced W, as the surplus production on SC (20:80) was 2.3 times relative to WC (20:80) for M77. PMID:24948946

  11. Exploitation of sweet sorghum biomass for biofuel production using mixed acidogenic and methanogenic cultures and pure cultures of ruminococcus albus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ntaikou, I.; Antonopoulou, G.; Marazioti, C.; Lyberatos, G.

    2008-01-01

    Full text: The present study focuses on the exploitation of sweet sorghum biomass for gas biofuel production in continuous and batch systems. Sweet sorghum is an annual C 4 plant of tropical origin, well-adapted to sub-tropical and temperate regions and highly productive in biomass. It is rich in readily fermentable sugars and thus it can be considered as an excellent raw material for biohydrogen production from many different fermentative microorganisms. Extraction of free sugars from the sorghum stalks was achieved using water at 30 degrees centigrade. After the extraction process a liquid fraction (sorghum extract), rich in sucrose, and a solid fraction (sorghum cellulosic-hemicellulosic residues or sorghum bagasse), containing the cellulose and hemicelluloses, were obtained. A two-step continuous process was developed for the biological hydrogen production and the subsequent production of biogas from sweet sorghum extract. In the first reactor sugars were fermented to hydrogen, volatile fatty acids and alcohols b mixed acidogenic culture derived from the indigenous microfauna of sweet sorghum. The hydrogen producing reactor was operated at five different hydraulic retention times (HRT), i.e 24h, 12h, 8h, 6h and 4h. The HRT of 12h proved to be the most effective leading to the production 10.4 L H 2 /kg sweet sorghum biomass. Subsequently, the effluent was fed to the methanogenic reactor, where all the residual organic compounds were digested by an acclimated methanogenic culture derived from activated sludge. The operation of the methanogenic reactor was studied at three different HRTs, i.e 20d, 15d and 10d with the latter being the most prosing leading to the production 35.2 L CH 4 /kg sweet sorghum biomass. Both continuous and batch cultures were used for the investigation of hydrogen production from sweet sorghum biomass using Ruminococcus albus. R. albus is an important, fibrolytic bacterium of the rumen that can hydrolyse both cellulose and hemicellulose

  12. Effects of interleukin-8 on estradiol and progesterone production by bovine granulosa cells from large follicles and progesterone production by luteinizing granulosa cells in culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shimizu, Takashi; Kaji, Ayami; Murayama, Chiaki; Magata, Fumie; Shirasuna, Koumei; Wakamiya, Kaori; Okuda, Kiyoshi; Miyamoto, Akio

    2012-01-01

    Interleukin 8 (IL-8) is a chemoattractant involved in the recruitment and activation of neutrophils and is associated with the ovulate process. We examined the possible role of IL-8 in steroid production by bovine granulosa cells before and after ovulation. The concentration of IL-8 in the follicular fluid of estrogen-active dominant (EAD) and pre-ovulatory follicles (POF) was higher than that of small follicles (SF). CXCR1 mRNA expression was higher in the granulosa cells of EAD and POF than that of SF. In contrast, CXCR2 mRNA expression was lower in granulosa cells of EAD and POF than in SF. IL-8 inhibited estradiol (E2) production in follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)-treated granulosa cells at 48 h of culture. IL-8 also suppressed CYP19A1 mRNA expression in FSH-treated granulosa cells. IL-8 stimulated progesterone (P4) production in luteinizing hormone (LH)-treated granulosa cells at 48 h of culture. Although IL-8 did not alter the expression of genes associated with P4 production, it induced StAR protein expression in LH-treated granulosa cells. The expression of CXCR1 mRNA in corpus luteum (CL) did not change during the luteal phase. In contrast, the expression of CXCR2 mRNA in middle CL was significantly higher than in early and regression CL during the luteal phase. In luteinizing granulosa cells, an in vitro model of granulosa cell luteinization, CXCR2 mRNA expression was downregulated, whereas CXCR1 mRNA expression was unchanged. IL-8 also stimulated P4 production in luteinizing granulosa cells. These data provide evidence that IL-8 functions not only as a chemokine, but also act as a regulator of steroid synthesis in granulosa cells to promote luteinization after ovulation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Structural Equation Modeling of Cultural Competence of Nurses Caring for Foreign Patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahn, Jung-Won

    2017-03-01

    This study aimed to construct and test a hypothetical model including factors related to the cultural competence of nurses caring for foreign patients. The transcultural nursing immersion experience model and anxiety/uncertainty management theory were used to verify the paths between the variables. The exogenous variables were multicultural experience, ethnocentric attitude, and organizational cultural competence support. The endogenous variables were intercultural anxiety, intercultural uncertainty, coping strategy, and cultural competence. Participants were 275 nurses working in general hospitals in Seoul and Kyung-Gi Do, Korea. Each nurse in this study had experience of caring for over 10 foreign patients. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS statistical software with the added AMOS module. The overall fitness indices of the hypothetical model were a good fit. Multicultural experience, ethnocentric attitude, organizational cultural competence support, and intercultural uncertainty were found to have a direct and indirect effect on the cultural competence of nurses while coping strategy only had a direct effect. Intercultural anxiety did not have a significant effect on cultural competence. This model explained 59.1% of the variance in the nurses' cultural competence when caring for foreign patients. Nurses' cultural competence can be developed by offering multicultural nursing education, increasing direct/indirect multicultural experience, and sharing problem-solving experience to promote the coping ability of nurses. Organizational support can be achieved by preparing relevant personnel and resources. Subsequently, the quality of nursing care for foreign patients' will be ultimately improved. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  14. Effect of sucrose and methyl jasmonate on biomass and anthocyanin production in cell suspension culture of Melastoma malabathricum (Melastomaceae

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Koay Suan See

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Melastoma malabathricum, belongs to the Melastomaceae family, is an important medicinal plant widely distributed from Madagascar to Australia, that is used in traditional remedies for the treatment of variousailments. Besides its medicinal properties, it has been identified as a potential source of anthocyanin production.The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of sucrose and methyl jasmonate and feeding time oncell biomass yield and anthocyanin production in cell suspension culture of M. malabathricum. Addition of differentconcentrations of sucrose into the cell culture of M. malabathricum influenced cell biomass and pigment accumulation. The addition of methyl jasmonate was found to have no effect on cell biomass but the presence of higher amount (12.5-50mg/L had caused a reduction in anthocyanin production and accumulation. MS medium supplemented with 30g/L sucrose and 3.5 mg/L of MeJA added on cero day and 3rd day produced high fresh cell mass at the end of nine days of culture but did not support the production of anthocyanins. However, cells cultured in the medium supplemented with 45g/L sucrose without MeJA showed the highest pigment content (0.69±0.22Cv/g-FCM. The cells cultured in MS medium supplemented with 30 g/L sucrose with 3.5mg/L MeJA added on the 3rd and 6th day of culture, showed the lowest pigment content (0.37-0.40Cv/g-FCM. This study indicated that MeJA was not necessary but sucrose was needed for the enhancement of cell growth and anthocyanin production in M. malabathricum cell cultures. Rev. Biol. Trop. 59 (2: 597-606. Epub 2011 June 01.

  15. Identification and Antimicrobial Resistance of Bacteria Isolated from Probiotic Products Used in Shrimp Culture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Noor Uddin, Gazi Md; Larsen, Marianne Halberg; Christensen, Henrik

    2015-01-01

    Probiotics are increasingly used in aquaculture to control diseases and improve feed digestion and pond water quality; however, little is known about the antimicrobial resistance properties of such probiotic bacteria and to what extent they may contribute to the development of bacterial resistance...... in aquaculture ponds. Concerns have been raised that the declared information on probiotic product labels are incorrect and information on bacterial composition are often missing. We therefore evaluated seven probiotics commonly used in Vietnamese shrimp culture for their bacterial species content, phenotypic....... used to identify resistance genes and genetic elements associated with horizontal gene transfer. Thirteen bacterial species declared on the probiotic products could not be identified and 11 non-declared Bacillus spp. were identified. Although our culture-based isolation and identification may have...

  16. Oil-free culture system for in vitro bovine embryo production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paulo B.D. Gonçalves

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available The use of oil to avoid water evaporation from cell culture has several disadvantages, amongst which there is the migration of compounds from media to oil and from oil to media. The aim of this study was to evaluate the osmolality of a culture system using four-well plates with water in the central hole as an alternative to in vitro bovine embryo production (IVP. In addition, the osmolality changes of the oocyte washing medium were assessed in 35mm dishes with or without 2 mL of silicon oil overlay. Osmolality of oocyte washing medium changed a great deal over time after 60 minutes on a 39°C heated plate (291 mOsm kg-1, which was not detected when the medium was overlaid with silicon oil (280 mOsm kg-1; P0.05. Blastocyst rates were higher when embryos were cultured in presence of water or oil (29.7 and 29.9% for water and 33% in oil conventional microdrop system, except in the group that oocytes were washed in hyperosmotic washing medium (15.1%; P<0.05. Groups cultured in absence of water in the central hole had lower blastocyst rates (P<0.05 independently of exposure (15.5% or not (16.2 and 16.8% to hyperosmotic washing medium. In conclusion, four-well plates with water in the central hole can be an alternative to replace oil overlay for bovine IVP, maintaining stable osmolality and embryo development rates.

  17. Social Skills Difficulty: Model of Culture Shock for International Graduate Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chapdelaine, Raquel Faria; Alexitch, Louise R.

    2004-01-01

    This study expanded and tested Furnham and Bochner's (1982) model of culture shock, employing a sample of 156 male international students in a Canadian university. Path analysis was used to assess the effects of cultural differences, size of co-national group, family status, cross-cultural experience, and social interaction with hosts on culture…

  18. European oil product supply modelling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saint-Antonin, V.

    1998-01-01

    Over the last few years, trends in European oil product consumption (in terms of level as structure and quality) has important implications of the refining industry. In this context, the purpose of this thesis consists in building a mathematical programming model applied to the European refineries in order to determine oil product supply prices, European refining industry investments and oil product exchanges of the European Union. The first part presents the reason for our choice for a long-term aggregate multi-refineries linear programming model, based on European refineries characteristics and the objectives of our model. Its dual properties are studied in detail and we focus particularly on the European exchange modelling. In the second part, an analysis of the European refining trends leads us to identify parameters and variables of the model that are essential to the aggregate representation of the European oil product supply. The third part is devoted to the use of this model, regarding two scenarios of increasingly stringent specifications for gasoline and diesel oil. Our interest for these products is due to their important share of the European oil product consumption and the not insignificant responsibility of the transport sector for atmospheric pollution. Finally, in order to have the use of an overall picture of the European refining industry, we build a regression model summarizing, though a few equations, the main relations between the major endogenous and exogenous variables o the LP model. Based on pseudo-data, this kind of model provides a simple and robust representation of the oil product supply. But a more specialized analysis of the refining industry operations, turning on a technical assessment of processing units, is reliant on the use of an optimization model such as the model we have built. (author)

  19. Rethinking Latin American Communicology in the Age of Nomad Culture: Transnational Consumption and Cultural Hybridizations

    OpenAIRE

    Retis, Jéssica; Caballero, Francisco Sierra

    2011-01-01

    Using the theory of migratory networks and the legacy of the critical theory of the developmentalist models, this article puts forward a critical approach of the deficiencies of certain cultural consumption analyses in Latin America. It aims to develop an understanding of the production of high culture and distribution and reception processes in the transversal logic behind the constitution of migrating multitudes and their appropriation of the media content of global society. This work analy...

  20. Xylitol production in immobilized cultures: a recent review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez-Bibbins, Belinda; Torrado-Agrasar, Ana; Salgado, José Manuel; Mussatto, Solange I; Domínguez, José Manuel

    2016-08-01

    Xylitol is a pentahydroxy sugar alcohol coming from xylose with many applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries as a low caloric sweetener suitable for diabetics and as an active ingredient in several biomedical applications. The microbial bioproduction of xylitol from natural xylose coming from lignocellulosic materials appears a sustainable and a promising alternative to chemical synthesis, which works at stronger reaction conditions and generates undesirable co-products which must be removed. There are several reviews that study the metabolic pathways in wild and transformed xylitol producing yeasts and the culture conditions that enhance xylitol accumulation, which are mainly related to the need of microaerobiose for the best producing wild yeasts. Nevertheless, there are relatively few studies focusing on the engineering aspects related to scalable systems and bioreactors that could result in a final industrial stage. This review explores recent advances on xylitol production using immobilized systems, which have been proposed to facilitate the reuse of the biocatalyst for extended periods and the main types of bioreactors available assayed for this purpose.

  1. Spray-dried adjunct cultures of autochthonous non-starter lactic acid bacteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peralta, Guillermo H; Bergamini, Carina V; Audero, Gabriela; Páez, Roxana; Wolf, I Verónica; Perotti, M Cristina; Hynes, Erica R

    2017-08-16

    Spray-drying of lactic cultures provides direct-to-vat starters, which facilitate their commercialization and use. However, this process may alter the metabolic activity and deteriorate technological features. In this work, we assessed the influence of spray-drying on the survival and aroma production of two strains of mesophilic lactobacilli: Lactobacillus paracasei 90 and Lactobacillus plantarum 91, which have already been characterized as good adjunct cultures. The spray-drying was carried out using a laboratory scale spray and the dried cultures were monitored during the storage for the survival rate. The dried cultures were applied to two cheese models: sterile cheese extract and miniature soft cheese. The influence on the carbohydrate metabolism and the production of organic acids and volatile compounds was determined. Both strains retained high levels of viable counts in the powder after drying and during the storage at 5°C for twelve months. In addition, they also remained at high level in both cheese models during incubation or ripening. Similar profiles of carbohydrate fermentation and bioformation of volatile compounds were observed in the cheese extracts for each of the strains when tested as both fresh and dried cultures. In addition, the ability of Lb. paracasei 90 to increase the production of acetoin and diacetyl remarkably in cheese models was also confirmed for the spray-dried culture. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Good Cell Culture Practice for stem cells and stem-cell-derived models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pamies, David; Bal-Price, Anna; Simeonov, Anton; Tagle, Danilo; Allen, Dave; Gerhold, David; Yin, Dezhong; Pistollato, Francesca; Inutsuka, Takashi; Sullivan, Kristie; Stacey, Glyn; Salem, Harry; Leist, Marcel; Daneshian, Mardas; Vemuri, Mohan C; McFarland, Richard; Coecke, Sandra; Fitzpatrick, Suzanne C; Lakshmipathy, Uma; Mack, Amanda; Wang, Wen Bo; Yamazaki, Daiju; Sekino, Yuko; Kanda, Yasunari; Smirnova, Lena; Hartung, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    The first guidance on Good Cell Culture Practice (GCCP) dates back to 2005. This document expands this to include aspects of quality assurance for in vitro cell culture focusing on the increasingly diverse cell types and culture formats used in research, product development, testing and manufacture of biotechnology products and cell-based medicines. It provides a set of basic principles of best practice that can be used in training new personnel, reviewing and improving local procedures, and helping to assure standard practices and conditions for the comparison of data between laboratories and experimentation performed at different times. This includes recommendations for the documentation and reporting of culture conditions. It is intended as guidance to facilitate the generation of reliable data from cell culture systems, and is not intended to conflict with local or higher level legislation or regulatory requirements. It may not be possible to meet all recommendations in this guidance for practical, legal or other reasons. However, when it is necessary to divert from the principles of GCCP, the risk of decreasing the quality of work and the safety of laboratory staff should be addressed and any conclusions or alternative approaches justified. This workshop report is considered a first step toward a revised GCCP 2.0.

  3. Creating a Culture by Governance: Issues in Managing Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ma. Victoria T. Herrera

    2001-12-01

    Full Text Available The management of culture involves a network of agencies, institutions and entities both from the public and private sectors. This is part of a collective process by which objects acwuire cultural significance. We create images of our nations, tell stories, and construct experiences for other people through exhibitions, festivals and other cultural activities. Our role is never neutral and it is important to recognize this power and the implications of our actions.In the Philippines, government has taken an active role in the production and management of culture. In spite of the relatively small percentage of funding spent on culture and the arts, it has extended support through various institutions and agencies that, at present, comprise a complex network. Through their respective programs, government has defined paths of cultural production-- from the larger policy framework for organizations to specific commemorative programs. Given this range of involvement, how has the state empowered people and organizations shape culture? What strategies has it taken to extend to support the production and distribution of culture?This paper focuses on two case studies that represent strategies the state has taken in cultural management. At a macro level, the changes the Cultural Center of the Philippines underwent reflect shifting policies and priorities. As products of changing political administrations, this institution went through a re-orientation of its mission. This came with an abrupt expansion in scale but without the necessary resources to support the CCP's new programs. At a micro level, the second evaluates the refurbished Rizal Shrine, Fort Santiago, one of the major projects of the now defunct National Centennial Commission. This underscores the need for a more transparent decision-making process, prioritizing the interest of the museum's public and not just that of the specialists who control the production of knowledge.

  4. A procedure for building product models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hvam, Lars; Riis, Jesper; Malis, Martin

    2001-01-01

    This article presents a procedure for building product models to support the specification processes dealing with sales, design of product variants and production preparation. The procedure includes, as the first phase, an analysis and redesign of the business processes, which are to be supported...... with product models. The next phase includes an analysis of the product assortment, and the set up of a so-called product master. Finally the product model is designed and implemented using object oriented modelling. The procedure is developed in order to ensure that the product models constructed are fit...... for the business processes they support, and properly structured and documented, in order to facilitate that the systems can be maintained continually and further developed. The research has been carried out at the Centre for Industrialisation of Engineering, Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Technical...

  5. Biorelevant media resistant co-culture model mimicking permeability of human intestine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antoine, Delphine; Pellequer, Yann; Tempesta, Camille; Lorscheidt, Stefan; Kettel, Bernadette; Tamaddon, Lana; Jannin, Vincent; Demarne, Frédéric; Lamprecht, Alf; Béduneau, Arnaud

    2015-03-15

    Cell culture models are currently used to predict absorption pattern of new compounds and formulations in the human gastro-intestinal tract (GIT). One major drawback is the lack of relevant apical incubation fluids allowing mimicking luminal conditions in the GIT. Here, we suggest a culture model compatible with biorelevant media, namely Fasted State Simulated Intestinal Fluid (FaSSIF) and Fed State Simulated Intestinal Fluid (FeSSIF). Co-culture was set up from Caco-2 and mucus-secreting HT29-MTX cells using an original seeding procedure. Viability and cytotoxicity assays were performed following incubation of FeSSIF and FaSSIF with co-culture. Influence of biorelevant fluids on paracellular permeability or transporter proteins were also evaluated. Results were compared with Caco-2 and HT29-MTX monocultures. While Caco-2 viability was strongly affected with FeSSIF, no toxic effect was detected for the co-cultures in terms of viability and lactate dehydrogenase release. The addition of FeSSIF to the basolateral compartment of the co-culture induced cytotoxic effects which suggested the apical mucus barrier being cell protective. In contrast to FeSSIF, FaSSIF induced a slight increase of the paracellular transport and both tested media inhibited partially the P-gp-mediated efflux in the co-culture. Additionally, the absorptive transport of propranolol hydrochloride, a lipophilic β-blocker, was strongly affected by biorelevant fluids. This study demonstrated the compatibility of the Caco-2/HT29-MTX model with some of the current biorelevant media. Combining biorelevant intestinal fluids with features such as mucus secretion, adjustable paracellular and P-gp mediated transports, is a step forward to more realistic in-vitro models of the human intestine. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  6. Exploring the selective lactic acid production from food waste in uncontrolled pH mixed culture fermentations using different reactor configurations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonk, Fabian; Bastidas-Oyanedel, Juan-Rodrigo; Yousef, Ahmed F; Schmidt, Jens Ejbye

    2017-08-01

    Carboxylic acid production from food waste by mixed culture fermentation is an important future waste management option. Obstacles for its implementation are the need of pH control, and a broad fermentation product spectrum leading to increased product separation costs. To overcome these obstacles, the selective production of lactic acid (LA) from model food waste by uncontrolled pH fermentation was tested using different reactor configurations. Batch experiments, semi-continuously fed reactors and a percolation system reached LA concentrations of 32, 16 and 15gCOD LA /L, respectively, with selectivities of 93%, 84% and 75% on COD base, respectively. The semi-continuous reactor was dominated by Lactobacillales. Our techno-economic analysis suggests that LA production from food waste can be economically feasible, with LA recovery and low yields remaining as major obstacles. To solve both problems, we successfully applied in-situ product extraction using activated carbon. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Parent Management Training-Oregon Model (PMTO™) in Mexico City: Integrating Cultural Adaptation Activities in an Implementation Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baumann, Ana A; Domenech Rodríguez, Melanie M; Amador, Nancy G; Forgatch, Marion S; Parra-Cardona, J Rubén

    2014-03-01

    This article describes the process of cultural adaptation at the start of the implementation of the Parent Management Training intervention-Oregon model (PMTO) in Mexico City. The implementation process was guided by the model, and the cultural adaptation of PMTO was theoretically guided by the cultural adaptation process (CAP) model. During the process of the adaptation, we uncovered the potential for the CAP to be embedded in the implementation process, taking into account broader training and economic challenges and opportunities. We discuss how cultural adaptation and implementation processes are inextricably linked and iterative and how maintaining a collaborative relationship with the treatment developer has guided our work and has helped expand our research efforts, and how building human capital to implement PMTO in Mexico supported the implementation efforts of PMTO in other places in the United States.

  8. Network model of project "Lean Production"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khisamova, E. D.

    2018-05-01

    Economical production implies primarily new approaches to culture of management and organization of production and offers a set of tools and techniques that allows reducing losses significantly and making the process cheaper and faster. Economical production tools are simple solutions that allow one to see opportunities for improvement of all aspects of the business, to reduce losses significantly, to constantly improve the whole spectrum of business processes, to increase significantly the transparency and manageability of the organization, to take advantage of the potential of each employee of the company, to increase competitiveness, and to obtain significant economic benefits without making large financial expenditures. Each of economical production tools solves a specific part of the problems, and only application of their combination will allow one to solve the problem or minimize it to acceptable values. The research of the governance process project "Lean Production" permitted studying the methods and tools of lean production and developing measures for their improvement.

  9. Floating rice-culture system for nutrient remediation and feed production in a eutrophic lake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srivastava, Ankita; Chun, Seong-Jun; Ko, So-Ra; Kim, Junhwan; Ahn, Chi-Yong; Oh, Hee-Mock

    2017-12-01

    The increased inputs of nutrients have been demonstrated to be a major contributing factor to the eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs which can lead to the production of harmful algal/cyanobacterial blooms and deleteriously affect the aesthetics of water-bodies. Floating plant-culture systems have been widely used for the ecological remediation of eutrophic water in a cost-effective manner. We investigated the applicability of Korean japonica rice variety 'Nampyeong' in a floating-culture system in a eutrophic lake for nutrient uptake and biomass production. Chemical and organic compound compositions were analyzed two times during the growth stages of the rice plant: 98 DAT (days after transplanting) and 165 DAT. Total nitrogen and phosphorus contributed around 1.36 and 0.15 (% dry weight), respectively, in rice plant components at 165 DAT. Crude protein, lipids, fiber and ash were 4.35, 1.91, 23.66 and 5.55 (% dry weight), respectively. In addition, microcystin levels in the rice plant components ranged from 0.0008 to 0.002 μg/g and did not exceed the recommended tolerable limits. These results suggested that the developed floating rice-culture system showed a good potential as a holistic management approach in terms of nutrient reduction, rice production for further use as feed and for bloom control. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Biotechnological production of caffeic acid derivatives from cell and organ cultures of Echinacea species.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murthy, Hosakatte Niranjana; Kim, Yun-Soo; Park, So-Young; Paek, Kee-Yoeup

    2014-09-01

    Caffeic acid derivatives (CADs) are a group of bioactive compounds which are produced in Echinacea species especially Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea angustifolia, and Echinacea pallida. Echinacea is a popular herbal medicine used in the treatment of common cold and it is also a prominent dietary supplement used throughout the world. Caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid (5-O-caffeoylquinic acid), caftaric acid (2-O-caffeoyltartaric acid), cichoric acid (2, 3-O-dicaffeoyltartaric acid), cynarin, and echinacoside are some of the important CADs which have varied pharmacological activities. The concentrations of these bioactive compounds are species specific and also they vary considerably with the cultivated Echinacea species due to geographical location, stage of development, time of harvest, and growth conditions. Due to these reasons, plant cell and organ cultures have become attractive alternative for the production of biomass and caffeic acid derivatives. Adventitious and hairy roots have been induced in E. pupurea and E. angustifolia, and suspension cultures have been established from flask to bioreactor scale for the production of biomass and CADs. Tremendous progress has been made in this area; various bioprocess methods and strategies have been developed for constant high-quality productivity of biomass and secondary products. This review is aimed to discuss biotechnological methods and approaches employed for the sustainable production of CADs.

  11. Cultural Identity and Knowledge Creation in Cosmopolitan Cities

    OpenAIRE

    Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano; Giovanni Prarolo

    2009-01-01

    We study how the city system is affected by the possibility for the members of the same cultural diaspora to interact across different cities. In so doing, we propose a simple two- city model with two mobile cultural groups. A localized externality fosters the productivity of individuals when groups interact in a city. At the same time, such interaction dilutes cultural identities and reduces the consumption of culture-specific goods and services. We show that the two groups segregate in diff...

  12. Building research capacity and productivity among advanced practice nurses: an evaluation of the Community of Practice model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gullick, Janice G; West, Sandra H

    2016-03-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate Wenger's Community of Practice as a framework for building research capacity and productivity. While research productivity is an expected domain in influential models of advanced nursing practice, internationally it remains largely unmet. Establishment of nursing research capacity precedes productivity and consequently, there is a strong imperative to identify successful capacity-building models for nursing-focussed research in busy clinical environments. Prospective, longitudinal, qualitative descriptive design was used in this study. Bruyn's participant observation framed evaluation of a Community of Practice comprising 25 advanced practice nurses. Data from focus groups, education evaluations, blog/email transcripts and field observations, collected between 2007 and 2014, were analysed using a qualitative descriptive method. The Community of Practice model invited differing levels of participation, allowed for evolution of the research community and created a rhythm of research-related interactions and enduring research relationships. Participants described the value of research for their patients and families and the significance of the developing research culture in providing richness to their practice and visibility of their work to multidisciplinary colleagues. Extensive examples of research dissemination and enrolment in doctoral programmes further confirmed this value. A Community of Practice framework is a powerful model enabling research capacity and productivity evidenced by publication. In developing a solid foundation for a nursing research culture, it should be recognized that research skills, confidence and growth develop over an extended period of time and success depends on skilled coordination and leadership. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. Decision-Making Theories and Models: A Discussion of Rational and Psychological Decision-Making Theories and Models: The Search for a Cultural-Ethical Decision-Making Model

    OpenAIRE

    Oliveira, Arnaldo

    2007-01-01

    This paper examines rational and psychological decision-making models. Descriptive and normative methodologies such as attribution theory, schema theory, prospect theory, ambiguity model, game theory, and expected utility theory are discussed. The definition of culture is reviewed, and the relationship between culture and decision making is also highlighted as many organizations use a cultural-ethical decision-making model.

  14. Production of L-lactic acid from Cassava peel wastes using single and mixed cultures of Rhizopus oligosporus and Lactobacillus plantarum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nwokoro Ogbonnaya

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Production of L-lactic acid using cultures of Rhizopus oligosporus and Lactobacillus plantarum was investigated. Cassava peels were hydrolyzed by boiling for 1 h in either NaOH or HCl solutions followed by neutralization to a pH of 6.2. Reducing sugar produced from the hydrolysates increased with increasing concentrations of alkali or acid. Samples hydrolyzed with HCl produced a maximum reducing sugar concentration of 402 mg/g substrate while alkali hydrolyzed samples produced a maximum reducing sugar concentration of 213 mg/g substrate. Hydrolysates were amended with 0.5% ammonium sulphate solution and inoculated with either single or mixed cultures of Rhizopus oligosporus and Lactobacillus plantarum and incubated for 48 h for lactic acid production. The best lactic acid production of 50.2 g/100g substrate was observed in a mixed culture fermentation of acid hydrolyzed peels. Mixed culture fermentation of alkali hydrolyzed peels produced a maximum lactic acid concentration of 36.4 g/100g substrate. Un hydrolyzed cassava peels inoculated with a mixed culture of the microorganisms produced only 4.6 g/100g substrate. This work reports an efficient use of cassava peels for bio-product formation through microbial fermentation.

  15. The Leadership Style Model That Builds Work Behavior Through Organizational Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arasy Alimudin

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The changes in organizational culture and work behavior is an important process for companies to survive in competition. And a change of leadership that is part of the change will pose challenges and reactions to the interests of its human resources. The research approach used quantitative research and included explanatory research to explain the causal relationship among variables through hypothesis testing with partial least squares path modeling (PLS-SEM analysis technique. The results showed the influence of leadership style on positive work behavior but not significant. Reward and punishment no significant effect on work behavior. The organizational culture had a positive and significant effect on work behavior. The leadership style had a positive and significant effect on organizational culture. The reward and punishment had positive and significant effect on organizational culture. The findings of this study showed that participative leadership style model using reward and punishment mechanism could improve work behavior and organizational culture.

  16. Direct Succinic Acid Production from Minimally Pretreated Biomass Using Sequential Solid-State and Slurry Fermentation with Mixed Fungal Cultures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jerico Alcantara

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Conventional bio-based succinic acid production involves anaerobic bacterial fermentation of pure sugars. This study explored a new route for directly producing succinic acid from minimally-pretreated lignocellulosic biomass via a consolidated bioprocessing technology employing a mixed lignocellulolytic and acidogenic fungal co-culture. The process involved a solid-state pre-fermentation stage followed by a two-phase slurry fermentation stage. During the solid-state pre-fermentation stage, Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma reesei were co-cultured in a nitrogen-rich substrate (e.g., soybean hull to induce cellulolytic enzyme activity. The ligninolytic fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium was grown separately on carbon-rich birch wood chips to induce ligninolytic enzymes, rendering the biomass more susceptible to cellulase attack. The solid-state pre-cultures were then combined in a slurry fermentation culture to achieve simultaneous enzymatic cellulolysis and succinic acid production. This approach generated succinic acid at maximum titers of 32.43 g/L after 72 h of batch slurry fermentation (~10 g/L production, and 61.12 g/L after 36 h of addition of fresh birch wood chips at the onset of the slurry fermentation stage (~26 g/L production. Based on this result, this approach is a promising alternative to current bacterial succinic acid production due to its minimal substrate pretreatment requirements, which could reduce production costs.

  17. Creating a successful cultural product: Interview with Raju Hirani

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Ramachandran

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available In seeking to track the elusive causes of the success of cultural goods, where creativity is the key to competitive advantage and managers have to balance the creative, market and organisational dimensions, J. Ramachandran and Sourav Mukherjee spoke to Raju Hirani, the director of three blockbuster Hindi movies, to understand the personal journey of this maker of ‘entertainment products’, and how he juggles the challenges of following his creative urges, co-ordinating a film production team consisting of people with varied skills and differing aesthetic values, and the business aspects of budgeting and estimating returns in an uncertain market.

  18. The mass media destabilizes the cultural homogenous regime in Axelrod's model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peres, Lucas R.; Fontanari, José F.

    2010-02-01

    An important feature of Axelrod's model for culture dissemination or social influence is the emergence of many multicultural absorbing states, despite the fact that the local rules that specify the agents interactions are explicitly designed to decrease the cultural differences between agents. Here we re-examine the problem of introducing an external, global interaction—the mass media—in the rules of Axelrod's model: in addition to their nearest neighbors, each agent has a certain probability p to interact with a virtual neighbor whose cultural features are fixed from the outset. Most surprisingly, this apparently homogenizing effect actually increases the cultural diversity of the population. We show that, contrary to previous claims in the literature, even a vanishingly small value of p is sufficient to destabilize the homogeneous regime for very large lattice sizes.

  19. The mass media destabilizes the cultural homogenous regime in Axelrod's model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peres, Lucas R; Fontanari, Jose F

    2010-01-01

    An important feature of Axelrod's model for culture dissemination or social influence is the emergence of many multicultural absorbing states, despite the fact that the local rules that specify the agents interactions are explicitly designed to decrease the cultural differences between agents. Here we re-examine the problem of introducing an external, global interaction-the mass media-in the rules of Axelrod's model: in addition to their nearest neighbors, each agent has a certain probability p to interact with a virtual neighbor whose cultural features are fixed from the outset. Most surprisingly, this apparently homogenizing effect actually increases the cultural diversity of the population. We show that, contrary to previous claims in the literature, even a vanishingly small value of p is sufficient to destabilize the homogeneous regime for very large lattice sizes.

  20. The Development of a Model of Culturally Responsive Science and Mathematics Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernandez, Cecilia M.; Morales, Amanda R.; Shroyer, M. Gail

    2013-01-01

    This qualitative theoretical study was conducted in response to the current need for an inclusive and comprehensive model to guide the preparation and assessment of teacher candidates for culturally responsive teaching. The process of developing a model of culturally responsive teaching involved three steps: a comprehensive review of the…

  1. The Effect of Primary Cancer Cell Culture Models on the Results of Drug Chemosensitivity Assays: The Application of Perfusion Microbioreactor System as Cell Culture Vessel

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yi-Dao; Huang, Shiang-Fu; Wang, Hung-Ming

    2015-01-01

    To precisely and faithfully perform cell-based drug chemosensitivity assays, a well-defined and biologically relevant culture condition is required. For the former, a perfusion microbioreactor system capable of providing a stable culture condition was adopted. For the latter, however, little is known about the impact of culture models on the physiology and chemosensitivity assay results of primary oral cavity cancer cells. To address the issues, experiments were performed. Results showed that minor environmental pH change could significantly affect the metabolic activity of cells, demonstrating the importance of stable culture condition for such assays. Moreover, the culture models could also significantly influence the metabolic activity and proliferation of cells. Furthermore, the choice of culture models might lead to different outcomes of chemosensitivity assays. Compared with the similar test based on tumor-level assays, the spheroid model could overestimate the drug resistance of cells to cisplatin, whereas the 2D and 3D culture models might overestimate the chemosensitivity of cells to such anticancer drug. In this study, the 3D culture models with same cell density as that in tumor samples showed comparable chemosensitivity assay results as the tumor-level assays. Overall, this study has provided some fundamental information for establishing a precise and faithful drug chemosensitivity assay. PMID:25654105

  2. A managerial approach to NASA's cultural changes open-system model

    OpenAIRE

    Long, Nicholas.

    2007-01-01

    This project describes NASA's culture during two important time periods (1958-1972) and (1996-2004) and explains its relative fit with its system components-task, people, resources, and structure. The open-system model is used to explain how system components affect culture and how culture affects them. During the first period (1958- 1972), NASA was established and it landed the first man on the moon, a remarkable accomplishment given the advances in science and technology required to com...

  3. Optimization of adventitious root culture for production of biomass and secondary metabolites in Prunella vulgaris L.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fazal, Hina; Abbasi, Bilal Haider; Ahmad, Nisar

    2014-11-01

    Adventitious root cultures of Prunella vulgaris L. were established in shaking flask system for the production of biomass and secondary metabolites. Adventitious root cultures were induced from callus cultures obtained from leaf explants on solid Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing combination of 6-benzyladenine (BA; 1.0 mg l(-1)) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA; 1.5 mg l(-1)). Thereafter, 0.49 g inoculum was transferred to liquid MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of NAA (0.5-2.0 mg l(-1)). Growth kinetics of adventitious roots was recorded with an interval of 7 days for 49 days period. Highest biomass accumulation (2.13 g/l) was observed in liquid medium containing 1.0 mg l(-1) NAA after 21 days of inoculation. However, other concentrations of NAA also showed similar accumulation pattern but the biomass gradually decreases after 49 days of inoculation. Adventitious roots were collected and dried for investigation of total phenolics (TP), total flavonoids (TF), and antioxidant activities. Higher TPC (0.995 GAE mg/g-DRB) and TFC (6.615 RE mg/g-DRB) were observed in 0.5 mg l(-1) NAA treated cultures. In contrast, higher antioxidant activity (83.53 %) was observed 1.5 mg l(-1) NAA treated cultures. These results are helpful in up scaling of root cultures into bioreactor for secondary metabolites production.

  4. Evaluation of Culture Conditions for Tannase Production by Aspergillus niger GH1

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mario Cruz-Hernández

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Extra- and intracellular tannase production by Aspergillus niger GH1 has been evaluated using submerged (SmF and solid-state fermentation (SSF at different temperatures (30, 40 and 50 °C. Effects of initial substrate (tannic acid concentration, incubation time and temperature on tannase production in SSF have been studied. A. niger GH1 produced the highest tannase level (2291 U/L in SSF at 30 °C during the first 20 h of culture at tannic acid concentration of 50 g/L, and under these conditions enzyme production was entirely extracellular. The decline in tannase activity after 20 h of incubation was associated with a concomitant increase in protease activity.

  5. From cultural traditions to cumulative culture: parameterizing the differences between human and nonhuman culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kempe, Marius; Lycett, Stephen J; Mesoudi, Alex

    2014-10-21

    Diverse species exhibit cultural traditions, i.e. population-specific profiles of socially learned traits, from songbird dialects to primate tool-use behaviours. However, only humans appear to possess cumulative culture, in which cultural traits increase in complexity over successive generations. Theoretically, it is currently unclear what factors give rise to these phenomena, and consequently why cultural traditions are found in several species but cumulative culture in only one. Here, we address this by constructing and analysing cultural evolutionary models of both phenomena that replicate empirically attestable levels of cultural variation and complexity in chimpanzees and humans. In our model of cultural traditions (Model 1), we find that realistic cultural variation between populations can be maintained even when individuals in different populations invent the same traits and migration between populations is frequent, and under a range of levels of social learning accuracy. This lends support to claims that putative cultural traditions are indeed cultural (rather than genetic) in origin, and suggests that cultural traditions should be widespread in species capable of social learning. Our model of cumulative culture (Model 2) indicates that both the accuracy of social learning and the number of cultural demonstrators interact to determine the complexity of a trait that can be maintained in a population. Combining these models (Model 3) creates two qualitatively distinct regimes in which there are either a few, simple traits, or many, complex traits. We suggest that these regimes correspond to nonhuman and human cultures, respectively. The rarity of cumulative culture in nature may result from this interaction between social learning accuracy and number of demonstrators. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Production, secretion, and stability of human secreted alkaline phosphatase in tobacco NT1 cell suspension cultures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becerra-Arteaga, Alejandro; Mason, Hugh S; Shuler, Michael L

    2006-01-01

    Tobacco NT1 cell suspension cultures secreting active human secreted alkaline phosphatase (SEAP) were generated for the first time as a model system to study recombinant protein production, secretion, and stability in plant cell cultures. The SEAP gene encodes a secreted form of the human placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP). During batch culture, the highest level of active SEAP in the culture medium (0.4 U/mL, corresponding to approximately 27 mg/L) was observed at the end of the exponential growth phase. Although the level of active SEAP decreased during the stationary phase, the activity loss did not appear to be due to SEAP degradation (based on Western blots) but due to SEAP denaturation. The protein-stabilizing agents polyvinylpirrolidone (PVP) and bacitracin were added extracellularly to test for their ability to reduce the loss of SEAP activity during the stationary phase. Bacitracin (100 mg/L) was the most effective treatment at sustaining activity levels for up to 17 days post-subculture. Commercially available human placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP) was used to probe the mechanism of SEAP deactivation. Experiments with PLAP in sterile and conditioned medium corroborated the denaturation of SEAP by factors generated by cell growth and not due to simple proteolysis. We also show for the first time that the factors promoting activity loss are heat labile at 95 degrees C but not at 70 degrees C, and they are not inactivated after a 5 day incubation period under normal culture conditions (27 degrees C). In addition, there were no significant changes in pH or redox potential when comparing sterile and cell-free conditioned medium during PLAP incubation, indicating that these factors were unimportant.

  7. ECONOMIC IMPACT OF CULTURAL TOURISM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zrinka Zadel

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The subject of analysis in the paper is economic impact of cultural tourism and identification of the main factors which directly affect cultural tourism revenues. Most countries do not have a statistical system of monitoring and analysing individual factors of cultural tourism such as the number of arrivals of cultural tourists and consumption of cultural tourists. Therefore, it is hard to assess the economic impact of cultural tourism. In cultural tourism, cultural assets are prepared and placed on the tourist market, i.e. cultural resources are transformed into cultural tourism products. The main objective is fulfilling tourists' needs, and achieving positive effects which includes economic effects. Identification of the economic impact of cultural tourism is important because cultural resources have an inestimable value for the local community. Tourism valorisation should be used in order to achieve the necessary maximum effects with minimum negative impacts which tourism may leave on cultural resources. The objective of the paper is to identify the economic contribution of cultural tourism in the Republic of Croatia and to propose a model of identification of economic impact of cultural tourism.

  8. Ammonium carboxylate production from sugarcane trash using long-term air-lime pretreatment followed by mixed-culture fermentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nachiappan, Balasubramaniyan; Fu, Zhihong; Holtzapple, Mark T

    2011-03-01

    Sugarcane trash (ST) was converted to ammonium carboxylates using a novel bioprocessing strategy known as long-term air-lime pretreatment/mixed-culture fermentation. At mild conditions (50°C, 5 weeks, 1-atm air, and excess lime loading of 0.4 g Ca(OH)(2)/(g dry biomass)), air-lime pretreatment of ST had moderate delignification (64.4%) with little loss in polysaccharides. Without employing detoxification, sterility, expensive nutrients, or costly enzymes, the feedstock (80% treated ST/20% chicken manure) was fermented to primarily ammonium acetate (>75%) and butyrate by a mixed culture of marine microorganisms at 55°C. In the best four-stage countercurrent fermentation, the product yield was 0.36 g total acids/(g VS fed) and the substrate conversion was 64%. Model predictions indicate both high acid concentrations (>47.5 g/L) and high substrate conversions (>70%) are possible at industrial scale. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Consolidated bioprocessing for butyric acid production from rice straw with undefined mixed culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Binling Ai

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable source with great potential for biofuels and bioproducts. However, the cost of cellulolytic enzymes limits the utilization of the low-cost bioresource. This study aimed to develop a consolidated bioprocessing without the need of supplementary cellulase for butyric acid production from lignocellulosic biomass. A stirred-tank reactor with a working volume of 21 L was constructed and operated in batch and semi-continuous fermentation modes with a cellulolytic butyrate-producing microbial community. The semi-continuous fermentation with intermittent discharging of the culture broth and replenishment with fresh medium achieved the highest butyric acid productivity of 2.69 g/(L•d. In semi-continuous operation mode, the butyric acid and total carboxylic acid concentrations of 16.2 and 28.9 g/L, respectively, were achieved. Over the 21-day fermentation period, their cumulative yields reached 1189 and 2048 g, respectively, corresponding to 41% and 74% of the maximum theoretical yields based on the amount of NaOH pretreated rice straw fed in. This study demonstrated that an undefined mixed culture-based consolidated bioprocessing for butyric acid production can completely eliminate the cost of supplementary cellulolytic enzymes.

  10. Consolidated Bioprocessing for Butyric Acid Production from Rice Straw with Undefined Mixed Culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ai, Binling; Chi, Xue; Meng, Jia; Sheng, Zhanwu; Zheng, Lili; Zheng, Xiaoyan; Li, Jianzheng

    2016-01-01

    Lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable source with great potential for biofuels and bioproducts. However, the cost of cellulolytic enzymes limits the utilization of the low-cost bioresource. This study aimed to develop a consolidated bioprocessing without the need of supplementary cellulase for butyric acid production from lignocellulosic biomass. A stirred-tank reactor with a working volume of 21 L was constructed and operated in batch and semi-continuous fermentation modes with a cellulolytic butyrate-producing microbial community. The semi-continuous fermentation with intermittent discharging of the culture broth and replenishment with fresh medium achieved the highest butyric acid productivity of 2.69 g/(L· d). In semi-continuous operation mode, the butyric acid and total carboxylic acid concentrations of 16.2 and 28.9 g/L, respectively, were achieved. Over the 21-day fermentation period, their cumulative yields reached 1189 and 2048 g, respectively, corresponding to 41 and 74% of the maximum theoretical yields based on the amount of NaOH pretreated rice straw fed in. This study demonstrated that an undefined mixed culture-based consolidated bioprocessing for butyric acid production can completely eliminate the cost of supplementary cellulolytic enzymes.

  11. Modeling Novo Nordisk Production Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Miller, Thomas Dedenroth

    1997-01-01

    This report describes attributes of models and systems, and how models can be used for description of production systems. There are special attention on the 'Theory of Domains'.......This report describes attributes of models and systems, and how models can be used for description of production systems. There are special attention on the 'Theory of Domains'....

  12. Mathematical modelling of tissue formation in chondrocyte filter cultures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catt, C J; Schuurman, W; Sengers, B G; van Weeren, P R; Dhert, W J A; Please, C P; Malda, J

    2011-12-17

    In the field of cartilage tissue engineering, filter cultures are a frequently used three-dimensional differentiation model. However, understanding of the governing processes of in vitro growth and development of tissue in these models is limited. Therefore, this study aimed to further characterise these processes by means of an approach combining both experimental and applied mathematical methods. A mathematical model was constructed, consisting of partial differential equations predicting the distribution of cells and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), as well as the overall thickness of the tissue. Experimental data was collected to allow comparison with the predictions of the simulation and refinement of the initial models. Healthy mature equine chondrocytes were expanded and subsequently seeded on collagen-coated filters and cultured for up to 7 weeks. Resulting samples were characterised biochemically, as well as histologically. The simulations showed a good representation of the experimentally obtained cell and matrix distribution within the cultures. The mathematical results indicate that the experimental GAG and cell distribution is critically dependent on the rate at which the cell differentiation process takes place, which has important implications for interpreting experimental results. This study demonstrates that large regions of the tissue are inactive in terms of proliferation and growth of the layer. In particular, this would imply that higher seeding densities will not significantly affect the growth rate. A simple mathematical model was developed to predict the observed experimental data and enable interpretation of the principal underlying mechanisms controlling growth-related changes in tissue composition.

  13. Attempt to develop taste bud models in three-dimensional culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nishiyama, Miyako; Yuki, Saori; Fukano, Chiharu; Sako, Hideyuki; Miyamoto, Takenori; Tomooka, Yasuhiro

    2011-09-01

    Taste buds are the end organs of taste located in the gustatory papillae, which occur on the surface of the oral cavity. The goal of the present study was to establish a culture model mimicking the lingual taste bud of the mouse. To this end, three cell lines were employed: taste bud-derived cell lines (TBD cell lines), a lingual epithelial cell-derived cell line (20A cell line), and a mesenchymal cell-derived cell line (TMD cell line). TBD cells embedded in collagen gel formed three-dimensional clusters, which had an internal cavity equipped with a tight junction-like structure, a microvilluslike structure, and a laminin-positive layer surrounding the cluster. The cells with this epitheliumlike morphology expressed marker proteins of taste cells: gustducin and NCAM. TBD cells formed a monolayer on collagen gel when they were co-cultured with TMD cells. TBD, 20A, and TMD cell lines were maintained in a triple cell co-culture, in which TBD cells were pre-seeded as aggregates or in suspension on the collagen gel containing TMD cells, and 20A cells were laid over the TBD cells. TBD cells in the triple cell co-culture expressed NCAM. This result suggests that co-cultured TBD cells exhibited a characteristic of Type III taste cells. The culture model would be useful to study morphogenesis and functions of the gustatory organ.

  14. Effects of medium components and culture conditions on mycelial biomass and the production of bioactive ingredients in submerged culture of Xylaria nigripes (Ascomycetes), a Chinese medicinal fungus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jian-Zhi; Lo, Hui-Chen; Lin, Fang-Yi; Chang, Shih-Liang; Hsieh, Changwei; Liang, Zeng-Chin; Ho, Wai-Jane; Hsu, Tai-Hao

    2014-01-01

    The optimal culture conditions were investigated to maximize the production of mycelial biomass and bioactive ingredients in submerged cultivation of Xylaria nigripes, a Chinese medicinal fungus. The one-factor-at-a-time method was used to explore the effects of medium components, including carbon, nitrogen, mineral sources, and initial pH of the medium and environmental factors, such as culture temperature and rotation speed, on mycelial growth and production of bioactive ingredients. The results indicated that the optimal culture temperature and rotation speed were 25°C and 100 rpm in a medium with 20 g fructose, 6 g yeast extract, and 2 g magnesiun sulfate heptahydrate as carbon, nitrogen, and mineral sources, respectively, in 1 L distilled water with an initial medium pH of 5.5. With optimal medium components and conditions of cultivation, the maximal production of mycelial biomass was 6.64 ± 0.88 g/L, with maximal production of bioactive ingredients such as extracellular polysaccharides (2.36 ± 0.18 mg/mL), intracellular polysaccharides (2.38 ± 0.07 mg/g), adenosine (43.27 ± 2.37 mg/g), total polyphenols (36.57 ± 1.36 mg/g), and triterpenoids (31.29 ± 1.17 mg/g) in a shake flask culture. These results suggest that different bioactive ingredients including intracellular polysaccharides, adenosine, total polyphenols and triterpenoids in mycelia and extracellular polysaccharides in broth can be obtained from one simple medium for submerged cultivation of X. nigripes.

  15. Application of Models of Corporate Cultures at Tourism Enterprises

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danko Nataliya I.

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The significance and peculiarities of the formation of corporate culture for the employees working at enterprises of the tourist business are analyzed. Particular importance is given to the cultures that enable creating a team for the effective operation of the enterprise. There identified several types of cultures that have appropriate characteristics for their introduction into the work of tourist enterprises. Each model has its own minuses and pluses, knowing which it’s possible not to adhere to only one culture, but, on the contrary, having analyzed all the components, to implement the measures necessary to solve individual problems of a certain company. In the tourist market there exist many diverse enterprises, for management of which it is necessary to determine their individual path of development.

  16. Indigestible dextrin is an excellent inducer for α-amylase, α-glucosidase and glucoamylase production in a submerged culture of Aspergillus oryzae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sugimoto, Toshikazu; Shoji, Hiroshi

    2012-02-01

    α-Amylase activities of Aspergillus oryzae grown on dextrin or indigestible dextrin were 7·8 and 27·7 U ml(-1), respectively. Glucoamylase activities of the cultures grown on dextrin or indigestible dextrin were 5·4 and 301 mU ml(-1), respectively. The specific glucoamylase production rate in indigestible dextrin batch culture reached 1·35 U g DW(-1) h(-1). In contrast, biomass concentration of A. oryzae in indigestible dextrin culture was 35% of that in dextrin culture. Thus, the culture method using indigestible dextrin has the potential to improve amylolytic enzyme production and fungal fermentation broth rheology.

  17. A thiopurine drug inhibits West Nile virus production in cell culture, but not in mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Pei-Yin; Keating, Julie A; Hoover, Spencer; Striker, Rob; Bernard, Kristen A

    2011-01-01

    Many viruses within the Flavivirus genus cause significant disease in humans; however, effective antivirals against these viruses are not currently available. We have previously shown that a thiopurine drug, 6-methylmercaptopurine riboside (6MMPr), inhibits replication of distantly related viruses within the Flaviviridae family in cell culture, including bovine viral diarrhea virus and hepatitis C virus replicon. Here we further examined the potential antiviral effect of 6MMPr on several diverse flaviviruses. In cell culture, 6MMPr inhibited virus production of yellow fever virus, dengue virus-2 (DENV-2) and West Nile virus (WNV) in a dose-dependent manner, and DENV-2 was significantly more sensitive to 6MMPr treatment than WNV. We then explored the use of 6MMPr as an antiviral against WNV in an immunocompetent mouse model. Once a day treatment of mice with 0.5 mg 6MMPr was just below the toxic dose in our mouse model, and this dose was used in subsequent studies. Mice were treated with 6MMPr immediately after subcutaneous inoculation with WNV for eight consecutive days. Treatment with 6MMPr exacerbated weight loss in WNV-inoculated mice and did not significantly affect mortality. We hypothesized that 6MMPr has low bioavailability in the central nervous system (CNS) and examined the effect of pre-treatment with 6MMPr on viral loads in the periphery and CNS. Pre-treatment with 6MMPr had no significant effect on viremia or viral titers in the periphery, but resulted in significantly higher viral loads in the brain, suggesting that the effect of 6MMPr is tissue-dependent. In conclusion, despite being a potent inhibitor of flaviviruses in cell culture, 6MMPr was not effective against West Nile disease in mice; however, further studies are warranted to reduce the toxicity and/or improve the bioavailability of this potential antiviral drug.

  18. A thiopurine drug inhibits West Nile virus production in cell culture, but not in mice.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pei-Yin Lim

    Full Text Available Many viruses within the Flavivirus genus cause significant disease in humans; however, effective antivirals against these viruses are not currently available. We have previously shown that a thiopurine drug, 6-methylmercaptopurine riboside (6MMPr, inhibits replication of distantly related viruses within the Flaviviridae family in cell culture, including bovine viral diarrhea virus and hepatitis C virus replicon. Here we further examined the potential antiviral effect of 6MMPr on several diverse flaviviruses. In cell culture, 6MMPr inhibited virus production of yellow fever virus, dengue virus-2 (DENV-2 and West Nile virus (WNV in a dose-dependent manner, and DENV-2 was significantly more sensitive to 6MMPr treatment than WNV. We then explored the use of 6MMPr as an antiviral against WNV in an immunocompetent mouse model. Once a day treatment of mice with 0.5 mg 6MMPr was just below the toxic dose in our mouse model, and this dose was used in subsequent studies. Mice were treated with 6MMPr immediately after subcutaneous inoculation with WNV for eight consecutive days. Treatment with 6MMPr exacerbated weight loss in WNV-inoculated mice and did not significantly affect mortality. We hypothesized that 6MMPr has low bioavailability in the central nervous system (CNS and examined the effect of pre-treatment with 6MMPr on viral loads in the periphery and CNS. Pre-treatment with 6MMPr had no significant effect on viremia or viral titers in the periphery, but resulted in significantly higher viral loads in the brain, suggesting that the effect of 6MMPr is tissue-dependent. In conclusion, despite being a potent inhibitor of flaviviruses in cell culture, 6MMPr was not effective against West Nile disease in mice; however, further studies are warranted to reduce the toxicity and/or improve the bioavailability of this potential antiviral drug.

  19. The Cultural Mind: Environmental Decision Making and Cultural Modeling within and across Populations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atran, Scott; Medin, Douglas L.; Ross, Norbert O.

    2005-01-01

    This article describes cross-cultural research on the relation between how people conceptualize nature and how they act in it. Mental models of nature differ dramatically among populations living in the same area and engaged in similar activities. This has novel implications for environmental decision making and management, including commons…

  20. Maori Cultural Efficacy and Subjective Wellbeing: A Psychological Model and Research Agenda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houkamau, Carla A.; Sibley, Chris G.

    2011-01-01

    Maori, the indigenous peoples of New Zealand, experience a range of negative outcomes. Psychological models and interventions aiming to improve outcomes for Maori tend to be founded on a "culture-as-cure" model. This view promotes cultural efficacy as a critical resilience factor that should improve outcomes for Maori. This is a founding…

  1. A Parameter-based Model for Generating Culturally Adaptive Nonverbal Behaviors in Embodied Conversational Agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lipi, Afia Akhter; Nakano, Yukiko; Rehm, Matthias

    2009-01-01

    The goal of this paper is to integrate culture as a computational term in embodied conversational agents by employing an empirical data-driven approach as well as a theoretical model-driven approach. We propose a parameter-based model that predicts nonverbal expressions appropriate for specific...... cultures. First, we introduce the Hofstede theory to describe socio-cultural characteristics of each country. Then, based on the previous studies in cultural differences of nonverbal behaviors, we propose expressive parameters to characterize nonverbal behaviors. Finally, by integrating socio-cultural...

  2. Metabolism of pharmaceutical and personal care products by carrot cell cultures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, Xiaoqin; Fu, Qiuguo; Gan, Jay

    2016-01-01

    With the increasing use of treated wastewater and biosolids in agriculture, residues of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in these reused resources may contaminate food produce via plant uptake, constituting a route for human exposure. Although various PPCPs have been reported to be taken up by plants in laboratories or under field conditions, at present little information is available on their metabolism in plants. In this study, we applied carrot cell cultures to investigate the plant metabolism of PPCPs. Five phase I metabolites of carbamazepine were identified and the potential metabolism pathways of carbamazepine were proposed. We also used the carrot cell cultures as a rapid screening tool to initially assess the metabolism potentials of 18 PPCPs. Eleven PPCPs, including acetaminophen, caffeine, meprobamate, primidone, atenolol, trimethoprim, DEET, carbamazepine, dilantin, diazepam, and triclocarban, were found to be recalcitrant to metabolism. The other 7 PPCPs, including triclosan, naproxen, diclofenac, ibuprofen, gemfibrozil, sulfamethoxazole, and atorvastatin, displayed rapid metabolism, with 0.4–47.3% remaining in the culture at the end of the experiment. Further investigation using glycosidase hydrolysis showed that 1.3–20.6% of initially spiked naproxen, diclofenac, ibuprofen, and gemfibrozil were transformed into glycoside conjugates. Results from this study showed that plant cell cultures may be a useful tool for initially exploring the potential metabolites of PPCPs in plants as well as for rapidly screening the metabolism potentials of a variety of PPCPs or other emerging contaminants, and therefore may be used for prioritizing compounds for further comprehensive evaluations. - Highlights: • Five phase I metabolites of carbamazepine were identified in carrot cell cultures. • The metabolism potentials of 18 PPCPs were evaluated using carrot cell cultures. • Four PPCPs may partially form glycoside conjugates as phase II

  3. Cultural Consumption of the Overseas Chinese Garden in the Process of Cross-cultural Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhai, L.

    2015-08-01

    When referring to the tangible cultural heritage, people tend to concern more about the conservation and research of the entity of the tangible heritage than the cross-cultural communication of the cultural heritage which is also one of the most important components of the preservation of the cultural heritage. As an exotic new born of the cultural heritage, the entity born from the cross-cultural communication inherits the properties of the cultural heritage on the one hand, and on the other hand generates diversities as a result of the differences based on social, cultural and environment. And the business model is one of the most important reasons for the production of diversities. There's no doubt that a good form of business model makes great significance to the cross-cultural communication. Therefore, the study of the business model of cultural heritage in the process of cross-cultural communication will not only contributes to the deeper understanding towards the phenomenon of the cultural heritage's cross-cultural communication, but also leads to the introspection to the tangible cultural heritage itself. In this way, a new kind of conservative notion could take form, and the goal of protecting cultural heritage could be achieved. Thus the Chinese Garden is a typical representation of the cultural heritage which makes great sense in the cross-cultural communication. As a kind of tangible cultural heritage, the Chinese gardens are well preserved in different regions in China. While the spirits of the Chinese garden carry forward through the construction of the Chinese gardens abroad during the cross-cultural communication. As a new kind of form of the cross-cultural communication of the cultural heritage, on the one hand, the Chinese gardens overseas built ever since China's Reform and Opening express creatively of the materialist and the spirituality of the traditional Chinese Garden, and on the other hand, those Chinese gardens overseas face all kinds of

  4. Product Family Modelling for Manufacturing Planning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, Kaj Asbjørn; Petersen, Thomas Ditlev; Nielsen, Kjeld

    2011-01-01

    To enable product configuration of a product family, it is important to develop a model of the selected product family. From such a model, an often performed practice is to make a product configurator from which customers can specify individual products from the family. To get further utilisation...

  5. "Violent Intent Modeling: Incorporating Cultural Knowledge into the Analytical Process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sanfilippo, Antonio P.; Nibbs, Faith G.

    2007-08-24

    While culture has a significant effect on the appropriate interpretation of textual data, the incorporation of cultural considerations into data transformations has not been systematic. Recognizing that the successful prevention of terrorist activities could hinge on the knowledge of the subcultures, Anthropologist and DHS intern Faith Nibbs has been addressing the need to incorporate cultural knowledge into the analytical process. In this Brown Bag she will present how cultural ideology is being used to understand how the rhetoric of group leaders influences the likelihood of their constituents to engage in violent or radicalized behavior, and how violent intent modeling can benefit from understanding that process.

  6. A Simplified Model of Glycoprotein Production within Cell Culture

    OpenAIRE

    Lambert, A. B.; Smith, F. T.; Velayudhan, A.

    2017-01-01

    Complex biological products, such as those used to treat various forms of cancer, are typically produced by mammalian cells in bioreactors. The most important class of such biological medicines is proteins. These typically bind to sugars (glycans) in a process known as glycosylation, creating glycoproteins, which are more stable and effective medicines. The glycans are large polymers that are formed by a long sequence of enzyme catalysed reactions. This sequence is not always completed, thus ...

  7. Of Models and Meanings: Cultural Resilience in Social–Ecological Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Crane, T.A.

    2010-01-01

    Modeling has emerged as a key technology in analysis of social–ecological systems. However, the tendency for modeling to focus on the mechanistic materiality of biophysical systems obscures the diversity of performative social behaviors and normative cultural positions of actors within the modeled

  8. Productive homologous and non-homologous recombination of hepatitis C virus in cell culture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Scheel, Troels K H; Galli, Andrea; Li, Yi-Ping

    2013-01-01

    . In addition, recombination is an important regulatory mechanism of cytopathogenicity for the related pestiviruses. Here we describe recombination of HCV RNA in cell culture leading to production of infectious virus. Initially, hepatoma cells were co-transfected with a replicating JFH1ΔE1E2 genome (genotype 2a......) lacking functional envelope genes and strain J6 (2a), which has functional envelope genes but does not replicate in culture. After an initial decrease in the number of HCV positive cells, infection spread after 13-36 days. Sequencing of recovered viruses revealed non-homologous recombinants with J6...

  9. A non-equilibrium neutral model for analysing cultural change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kandler, Anne; Shennan, Stephen

    2013-08-07

    Neutral evolution is a frequently used model to analyse changes in frequencies of cultural variants over time. Variants are chosen to be copied according to their relative frequency and new variants are introduced by a process of random mutation. Here we present a non-equilibrium neutral model which accounts for temporally varying population sizes and mutation rates and makes it possible to analyse the cultural system under consideration at any point in time. This framework gives an indication whether observed changes in the frequency distributions of a set of cultural variants between two time points are consistent with the random copying hypothesis. We find that the likelihood of the existence of the observed assemblage at the end of the considered time period (expressed by the probability of the observed number of cultural variants present in the population during the whole period under neutral evolution) is a powerful indicator of departures from neutrality. Further, we study the effects of frequency-dependent selection on the evolutionary trajectories and present a case study of change in the decoration of pottery in early Neolithic Central Europe. Based on the framework developed we show that neutral evolution is not an adequate description of the observed changes in frequency. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Modelling production system architectures in the early phases of product development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Guðlaugsson, Tómas Vignir; Ravn, Poul Martin; Mortensen, Niels Henrik

    2016-01-01

    are needed and appropriate to enable determination of obtainable product quality. In order to meet this challenge, it is suggested that a visual modelling framework be adopted that clarifies which product and production features are known at a specific time of the project and which features will be worked...... on – leading to an improved basis for prioritizing activities in the project. Requirements for the contents of the framework are presented, and literature on production and system models is reviewed. The production system architecture modelling framework is founded on methods and approaches in literature......This article suggests a framework for modelling a production system architecture in the early phases of product development.The challenge in these phases is that the products to be produced are not completely defined and yet decisions need to be made early in the process on what investments...

  11. Benzoic Acid Production with Respect to Starter Culture and Incubation Temperature during Yogurt Fermentation using Response Surface Methodology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Hyung-Seok; Lee, Na-Kyoung; Jeon, Hye-Lin; Eom, Su Jin; Yoo, Mi-Young; Lim, Sang-Dong; Paik, Hyun-Dong

    2016-01-01

    Benzoic acid is occasionally used as a raw material supplement in food products and is sometimes generated during the fermentation process. In this study, the production of naturally occurring yogurt preservatives was investigated for various starter cultures and incubation temperatures, and considered food regulations. Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus paracasei, Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus plantarum, Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium lactis, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium infantis, and Bifidobacterium breve were used as yogurt starter cultures in commercial starters. Among these strains, L. rhamnosus and L. paracasei showed the highest production of benzoic acid. Therefore, the use of L. rhamnosus, L. paracasei, S. thermophilus, and different incubation temperatures were examined to optimize benzoic acid production. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on a central composite design was performed for various incubation temperatures (35-44℃) and starter culture inoculum ratios (0-0.04%) in a commercial range of dairy fermentation processes. The optimum conditions were 0.04% L. rhamnosus, 0.01% L. paracasei, 0.02% S. thermophilus, and 38.12℃, and the predicted and estimated concentrations of benzoic acid were 13.31 and 13.94 mg/kg, respectively. These conditions maximized naturally occurring benzoic acid production during the yogurt fermentation process, and the observed production levels satisfied regulatory guidelines for benzoic acid in dairy products.

  12. D Cultural Heritage Documentation: a Comparison Between Different Photogrammetric Software and Their Products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gagliolo, S.; Ausonio, E.; Federici, B.; Ferrando, I.; Passoni, D.; Sguerso, D.

    2018-05-01

    The conservation of Cultural Heritage depends on the availability of means and resources and, consequently, on the possibility to make effective operations of data acquisition. In facts, on the one hand the creation of data repositories allows the description of the present state-of-art, in order to preserve the testimonial value and to permit the fruition. On the other hand, data acquisition grants a metrical knowledge, which is particularly useful for a direct restoration of the surveyed objects, through the analysis of their 3D digital models. In the last decades, the continuous increase and improvement of 3D survey techniques and of tools for the geometric and digital data management have represented a great support to the development of documentary activities. In particular, Photogrammetry is a survey technique highly appropriate in the creation of data repositories in the field of Cultural Heritage, thanks to its advantages of cheapness, flexibility, speed, and the opportunity to ensure the operators' safety in hazardous areas too. In order to obtain a complete documentation, the high precision of the on-site operations must be coupled with an effective post-processing phase. Hence, a comparison among some of the photogrammetric software currently available was performed by the authors, with a particular attention to the workflow completeness and the final products quality.

  13. Development of a cultural heritage object BIM model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braila, Natalya; Vakhrusheva, Svetlana; Martynenko, Elena; Kisel, Tatyana

    2017-10-01

    The BIM technology during her creation has been aimed, first of all, at design and construction branch, but its application in the field of studying and operation of architectural heritage can essentially change and transfer this kind of activity to new qualitative level. The question of effective introduction of BIM technologies at the solution of administrative questions of operation and development of monuments of architecture is considered in article. Creation of the information model of the building object of cultural heritage including a full complex of information on an object is offered: historical and archival, legal, technical, administrative, etc. The 3D model of an object of cultural heritage with color marking of elements on degree of wear and a first priority of carrying out repair will become one of components of model. This model will allow to estimate visually technical condition of the building in general and to gain general idea about scales of necessary repair and construction actions that promotes improvement of quality of operation of an object, and also simplifies and accelerates processing of information and in need of a memorial building assessment as subject to investment.

  14. Sustainable tourism and harmonious culture: a case study of cultic model at village tourism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Astawa, I. P.; Triyuni, N. N.; Santosa, I. D. M. C.

    2018-01-01

    The research aims to analyze an event model of Culture and Tourism International Camp (Cultic) from two aspects, harmonious culture and sustainable tourism. Currently, Indonesian government promotes village tourism by involving more villagers to achieve village independence in its development. The program has faced various obstacles, such as the eroded local cultures due to the development of a massive and money-oriented tourism with less attention on the environmental damage. One of the offered programs is a green tourism model for an event named Culture and Tourism International Camps - Cultic. The research is conducted in several stages. The first stage is the development of model based on the theoretical study. The second stage is the implementation of the model with 85 participants. The third stage is the evaluation of the model through harmonious culture and sustainable tourism approaches. The data is collected through a direct observation and a questionnaire. The result of qualitative analysis indicates that the developed event model supports the harmonious culture, especially the natural environment. Whereas, the result of quantitative analysis indicates that the participants enjoy the activities, such as green food, material natural, waste management, and ecosystem. Another finding is that the community strongly supports the concept of sustainable tourism.

  15. The use of date waste for lactic acid production by a fed-batch culture using Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nancib, Aicha; Nancib, Nabil; Boubendir, Abdelhafid; Boudrant, Joseph

    2015-01-01

    The production of lactic acid from date juice by Lactobacillus caseisubsp. rhamnosus in batch and fed-batch cultures has been investigated. The fed-batch culture system gave better results for lactic acid production and volumetric productivity. The aim of this work is to determine the effects of the feeding rate and the concentration of the feeding medium containing date juice glucose on the cell growth, the consumption of glucose and the lactic acid production by Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus in fed-batch cultures. For this study, two concentrations of the feeding medium (62 and 100 g/L of date juice glucose) were tested at different feeding rates (18, 22, 33, 75 and 150 mL/h). The highest volumetric productivity (1.3 g/L.h) and lactic acid yield (1.7 g/g) were obtained at a feeding rate of 33 mL/h and a date juice glucose concentration of 62 g/L in the feeding medium. As a result, most of the date juice glucose was completely utilised (residual glucose 1 g/L), and a maximum lactic acid production level (89.2 g/L) was obtained.

  16. Comparative Analysis of Culture Conditions for the Optimization of Carotenoid Production in Several Strains of the Picoeukaryote Ostreococcus

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jean-Baptiste Guyon

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Microalgae are promising sources for the sustainable production of compounds of interest for biotechnologies. Compared to higher plants, microalgae have a faster growth rate and can be grown in industrial photobioreactors. The microalgae biomass contains specific metabolites of high added value for biotechnology such as lipids, polysaccharides or carotenoid pigments. Studying carotenogenesis is important for deciphering the mechanisms of adaptation to stress tolerance as well as for biotechnological production. In recent years, the picoeukaryote Ostreococcus tauri has emerged as a model organism thanks to the development of powerful genetic tools. Several strains of Ostreococcus isolated from different environments have been characterized with respect to light response or iron requirement. We have compared the carotenoid contents and growth rates of strains of Ostreococcus (OTTH595, RCC802 and RCC809 under a wide range of light, salinity and temperature conditions. Carotenoid profiles and productivities varied in a strain-specific and stress-dependent manner. Our results also illustrate that phylogenetically related microalgal strains originating from different ecological niches present specific interests for the production of specific molecules under controlled culture conditions.

  17. CULTURE AS A CREATIVE BASE OF EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Z. Goncharov

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper denotes the vital need for the human-centered pro jects of education updates and develops the idea of the culture adequacy raised by Y. V. Larin in «Education in search of the adequacy principle». The author regards culture as a creative basis for upbringing the young generation, and provides the detailed analysis of its semantic content; in his opinion, culture contains neither value neutral nor destructive connotations. The world of culture incorporates the model samples of human subjectivity, based on the main criterion of perfection. By revealing the model samples of cultural heritage to students, a teacher develops their general cultural competences and the related individual, professional and civic qualities. Consequently, the author argues that socio-economic and political problems, including the renovation of social institutions and industrial spheres, can be solved by cultivating and developing the universality and integrity of productive and creative human forces. Additionally, the paper proves the impossibility of separate development of the general cultural and professional competences in educational process. 

  18. A Cross Cultural Model for FlexibleMotivation in Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gratiela Dana BOCA

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The importance of world business has created a demand for managers sophisticated in global management skills and working with people from other countries. Organizational behavior from different countries and cultures compares organizational behavior across countries and cultures and seeks to understand how to improve the interaction of co workers, manager’s executives, client’s suppliers and alliance partners from around the world. The economic world shows us that all the elements that we consider static have a pulsation around an equilibrium position. The present study concerning the organization’s culture the motivational factors of the employees an outlet in this field. The flexibility in a global economy is an important element on which people can communicate and the manager can exercise his leading task thus is an imperfect world that imposed the necessity of adaptation to a cross cultural model.

  19. Patterns and peculiarities of romatic attachment in adults from 62 cultural regions. Are "Model of Self" and "Model of Other" pancultural constructs?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Schmitt

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available As a part of the International Sexuality Description Project, a total of 17,804 participants from 62 cultural regions completed the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ, a self-report measure of adult romantic attachment. Correlational analyses within each culture suggested that the “Model of Self” and “Model of Other” scales of the RQ were psychometrically valid within the most cultures. Contrary to expectations, the Model of Self and Model of Other dimensions of the RQ did not underlie the four category model of attachment in the same way across all cultures. Analyses of specific attachment styles revealed that Secure romantic attachment was normative in 79% of cultures, and Preoccupied romantic attachment was particularly prevalent in East Asian cultures. Finally, the romantic attachment profiles of individual nations were correlated with sociocultural indicators in ways that supported evolutionary theories of romantic attachment and basic human mating strategies. 

  20. Production of cellulolytic enzymes by fungal cultures. [Aspergillus, Trichoderma, Chaetomium, Stachybotrys, and Hypocrea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pyc, R; Fiechter, A. Galas, E.

    1977-01-01

    Twelve fungal cultures belonging to the genera of Aspergillus, Trichoderma, Chaetomium, Stachybotrys, and Hypocrea were screened for the production of cellulolytic activity. All twelve were found to degrade xylan, avicel, and carboxymethylcellulose. More cellulolytic activity was obtained with shaken cultures than with still cultures and the addition of citrate-phosphate buffer to the media greatly depressed the levels of cellulolytic activity. Varying the composition of the mineral salts in the medium had no effect on the cellulolytic activity. The growth of Aspergillus wentii under controlled conditions in a bioreactor showed that the cellulolytic activity was not affected by the aeration rate or the type of stirrer. The rate of stirring, however, did effect the cellulolytic activity, as at lower stirring speeds considerable wall growth occurred which resulted in low levels of cellulolytic activity. Culture supernatant from Aspergillus wentii was found to hydrolyze from 30-32% of Solka-Floc and from 2-10% of corn cobs, wheat straw, and newsprint. The extensive hydrolysis of Solka-Floc indicates that with suitable treated cellulosic wastes and appropriate enzymes, appreciable amounts of sugars could be obtained.