Bioprocess Control (Sweden)

The hierarchical micronano structured surface plays asignificantrole in influencing cell behavior, making it a critical feature forbiomaterials. Increased surface roughness, such as that achieved withwax-impregnated cotton fabrics, mimics the 3D native environment offibroblasts, offering a novel approach for cell-based diagnostics.Traditional biopsy methods are often time-consuming and complex. Toaddress this, we developed a novel point-of-care diagnostic platformutilizing wax-impregnated cotton fabrics with varying melting points,resulting in a rough hierarchical surface conducive to cell attachment.The platform’s performance was evaluated based on physicalproperties (surface characteristics and adhesion), cell growth profiles,attachment morphology, and cell staining ability using trichrome stain.Immunofluorescent and FESEM imaging indicated that the hierarchicalroughness promoted cell growth and differentiation, enabling clearvisualization of healthy and unhealthy cells under reflective modemicroscopy. These findings underscore the potential of wax-impregnatedcotton fabrics in biomedical applications, particularly in designingplatforms for cell-material interfaces. Our point-of-care diagnosticmethod leverages hierarchical structures on wax-impregnated cottonfabrics, achieved by using waxes with varying melting points. Duringthe cooling process, sedimentation of low-viscosity wax onto the cotton’shierarchical structure resulted in a rough surface. This micronanohierarchical roughness facilitated cell attachment, with performanceevaluated through (a) physical properties, including surface roughness(Ra, 2300–30 nm) and surface adhesionstickiness (0.54–1.0 nN); (b) cell growth profiles and attachmentmorphology; and (c) cell staining ability using trichrome stain. Variationsin surface topography and stickiness were found to influence celladhesion and alter the actin cytoskeleton, mimicking a 3D native environment.To test the platform, Human Skin Fibroblast (HSF1184) and Breast Cancer(MCF-7) cell lines were used as biopsy models. Immunofluorescent andFESEM imaging confirmed that the hierarchical rough surface promotedcell growth and enabled efficient visualization of color intensities,aiding differentiation between healthy and unhealthy cells via reflectivemode microscopy. These results provide valuable insights for the designand engineering of advanced platforms for cell-material interfacesin biomedical applications.

Centella asiatica, commonly known as Pegaga, is renowned in Malaysia for its abundant bioactive compound content, making it a highly valued herb.These bioactive compounds, including phenolics, antioxidants, and triterpenes, possess pharmacological activities that are beneficial for health.To optimise the properties of these bioactive compounds, Pegaga Kampung, a superior variety of C. asiatica in Malaysia, was cultivated in 14 different formulations of fortified media.The fortified media were formulated by incorporating various ratios of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) biocompost, oil palm kernel shell (OPKS) biochar, organic fertiliser, inorganic fertiliser and soils.Our findings showed that fortified media with a high biocompost ratio of 25:75 (soil:biocompost) and enriched with inorganic fertiliser had a 33% enhanced total phenolic content (TPC).The combination of soil, biocompost and biochar at a ratio of 50:25:25, enriched with organic fertiliser, was found to increase the TPC by 30% and the antioxidant properties by 16% compared to cultivation in soil alone (control).This suggested that the use of fortified media containing OPEFB biocompost and OPKS biochar, along with organic or inorganic fertilisers, significantly improves the bioactive compound characteristics of C. asiatica.

For reducing information exchange in distributed control of multiagent systems, we propose a norm-free and adaptive event-triggering rule, which is decentralized and predicated on the solution-predictor curve method. Here, the decentralized feature implies that the proposed event-triggering rule depends on own error signals of an agent. Moreover, the norm-free feature implies that the left side of the proposed event-triggering rule inequality does not depend on distances such as absolute values of error signals to yield better agent-to-agent information exchange reduction. To achieve decentralized and norm-free features at the same time, an adaptive term is also utilized in the event-triggering rule for each agent in order to estimate unknown variable unavailable to an agent. The proposed event-triggering rule works both for the sampled data exchange case as well as for the data exchange case predicated on the solution-predictor curve method. In contrast to standard sampled data exchange, the solution-predictor curve method has the ability to further reduce agent-to-agent information exchange, where each agent stores this curve and exchanges its parameters when an event occurs in a distributed manner for approximating the solution trajectory of each agent.

A novel fermentation process was developed in which renewable electricity is indirectly used as a fermentation substrate, synergistically decreasing both the consumption of sugar as a first generation carbon source and emission of the greenhouse gas CO2. To achieve this, a glucose-based process is co-fed with formic acid, which can be generated by capturing CO2 from fermentation offgas followed by electrochemical reduction with renewable electricity. This ‘closed carbon loop’ concept is demonstrated by a case study in which co-feeding formic acid is shown to significantly increase the yield of biomass on glucose of the industrially relevant yeast species Yarrowia lipolytica. First, the optimal feed ratio of formic acid to glucose is established using chemostat cultivations. Subsequently, guided by a dynamic fermentation process model, a fed-batch protocol is developed and demonstrated on laboratory scale. Finally, the developed fed-batch process is proven to be scalable to pilot scale. An extension of this proven concept to also recycle the O2 that is co-generated with the formic acid to the fermentation process for intensification purposes, and a potential further application of the concept to anaerobic fermentations are discussed.

Abstract The nuclear magnetic resonance extracted data (NMReDATA) format has been proposed as a way to store, exchange, and disseminate nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data and physical and chemical metadata of chemical compounds. In this paper, we report on analytical workflows that take advantage of the uniform and standardized NMReDATA format. We also give access to a repository of sample data, which can serve for validating software packages that encode or decode files in NMReDATA format.

Phytosterols are among the bioactive compounds naturally present in vegetable oils and their by-products or derivatives.A phytosterol resource (PSR), solid by-product from the extraction of vitamin E in palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), contains 2%-4% (w/w) total sterols.Therefore, the extraction of phytosterols from the PSR in a mini-pilot scale involving multistage extraction processes was developed to recover the valuable minor component.The multistage extraction and purification processes comprised of solid-liquid extraction (SLE) with hexane at 35°C in 1 hr, saponification reaction at the reflux temperature of 80°C for 1 hr, liquidliquid extraction (LLE) with hexane and water, and crystallisation and vacuum filtration at -5°C for 20 hr.On average, gas chromatographic (GC) analysis showed the phytosterols recovered from the extraction and purification process had more than 80% purity.The recovery of total sterols from the PSR was 84% composed of β-sitosterol (21%-22%), campesterol (13%-20%) and stigmasterol (59%-64%).This extraction process is technically feasible to extract and produce crude phytosterols from a PFAD by-product.

Abstract A series of manganese oxide catalysts were synthesised in the presence of various precipitants using hydrothermal approach. The manganese oxide synthesised (MnOx−A−U) using manganese acetate tetrahydrate and urea as precursor and precipitant, respectively, was found to be composed of heterostructures of manganese, that is, MnCO3, ϵ‐MnO2 and Mn2O3, and their presence were confirmed by XRD, FTIR and XPS analyses. The catalytic activity of MnOx−A−U towards selective oxidation of HMF to DFF in ethanol afforded 92.0 % conversion along with 88.0 % DFF yield at 120 °C, 30 bar O2, after 4 h of reaction time. Performing HMF oxidation under N2 atmosphere with MnOx−A−U yielded only 15.0 % DFF, revealing that lattice oxygen played a crucial role in the oxidation process, which was confirmed by subjecting the spent catalyst to XPS analysis. Based on the results obtained from XPS analysis, it was speculated that ϵ‐MnO2 and MnCO3 could be the active species which could selectively catalyse the reaction. The MnOx−A−U catalyst was able to recycle for at least three runs with a small loss of activity due to ϵ‐MnO2 content decreased.

First-principles calculations were carried out to explore the surface energies and electronic properties of α-Fe2O3 surface slabs. Further, to enhance the photocatalytic activity of Fe2O3, an alternative effective strategy was to examine Fe2O3-based heterostructures.

Levulinic acid (LA) and formic acid (FA) are concurrently derivable from biomass sugars, and recognized as sustainable feedstock for producing biofuels and chemicals. Herein, a benign and eco-frien...