The effect of environmental remediation on the cesium-137 levels in white-tailed deer.

Due to activities involving nuclear energy research during the latter half of the 1900 s, environmental contamination in the form of elevated cesium-137 levels was observed within the Brookhaven National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy facility. Between the years 2000 and 2005, the laboratory carried out a major soil cleanup effort to remove cesium-137 from contaminated sites. In this study, we examine the effectiveness of the cleanup effort by comparing the levels of cesium-137 in the meat of white-tailed deer found within and around the laboratory. Results suggest that the cleanup was effective, with mean concentration of cesium-137 in the meat from within the laboratory decreasing from 2.04 Bq/g prior to 1.22 Bq/g after cleanup. At the current level, the consumption of deer would not pose any human health hazard. Nevertheless, statistically higher levels of cesium-137 were detected in the deer within the laboratory as opposed to levels found in deer 1 mi beyond the laboratory site.

Antibacterial activity of polymer coated cerium oxide nanoparticles.

Cerium oxide nanoparticles have found numerous applications in the biomedical industry due to their strong antioxidant properties. In the current study, we report the influence of nine different physical and chemical parameters: pH, aeration and, concentrations of MgSO(4), CaCl(2), KCl, natural organic matter, fructose, nanoparticles and Escherichia coli, on the antibacterial activity of dextran coated cerium oxide nanoparticles. A least-squares quadratic regression model was developed to understand the collective influence of the tested parameters on the anti-bacterial activity and subsequently a computer-based, interactive visualization tool was developed. The visualization allows us to elucidate the effect of each of the parameters in combination with other parameters, on the antibacterial activity of nanoparticles. The results indicate that the toxicity of CeO(2) NPs depend on the physical and chemical environment; and in a majority of the possible combinations of the nine parameters, non-lethal to the bacteria. In fact, the cerium oxide nanoparticles can decrease the anti-bacterial activity exerted by magnesium and potassium salts.

Optimization of the fermentation media for sophorolipid production from Candida bombicola ATCC 22214 using a simplex centroid design.

This article describes the use of a simplex centroid mixture experimental design to optimize the fermentation medium in the production of sophorolipids (SLs) using Candida bombicola. In the first stage, 16 media ingredients were screened for the ones that have the most positive influence on the SL production. The sixteen ingredients that were chosen are five different carbohydrates (fructose, glucose, glycerol, lactose, and sucrose), five different nitrogen sources (malt extract, peptone extract, soytone, urea, and yeast extract), two lipid sources (mineral oil and oleic acid), two phosphorus sources (K(2)HPO(4) and KH(2)PO(4)), MgSO(4), and CaCl(2). Multiple regression analysis and centroid effect analysis were carried out to find the sugar, lipid, nitrogen source, phosphorus source, and metals having the most positive influence. Sucrose, malt extract, oleic acid, K(2)HPO(4), and CaCl(2) were selected for the second stage of experiments. An augmented simplex centroid design for five ingredients requiring 16 experiments was used for the optimization stage. This produced a quadratic model developed to help understand the interaction amongst the ingredients and find the optimal media concentrations. In addition, the top three results from the optimization experiments were used to obtain constraints that identify an optimal region. The model together with the optimal region constraints predicts the maximum production of SLs when the fermentation media is composed of sucrose, 125 g/L; malt extract, 25 g/L; oleic acid, 166.67 g/L; K(2)HPO(4), 1.5 g/L; and CaCl(2), 2.5 g/L. The optimal media was validated experimentally and a yield of 177 g/L was obtained.

Mixture design as a first step for optimization of fermentation medium for cutinase production from Colletotrichum lindemuthianum.

Cutinase enzymes from fungi have found diverse applications in industry. However, most of the available literature on cutinase production is related to the cultivation of genetically engineered bacteria or yeast cells. In the present study, we use mixture design experiments to evaluate the influence of six nutrient elements on production of cutinase from the fungus Colletotrichum lindemuthianum. The nutritional elements were starch, glucose, ammonium sulfate, yeast extract, magnesium sulfate, and potassium phosphate. In the experimental design, we imposed the constraints that exactly one factor must be omitted in each set of experiments and no factor can account for more than one third of the mixture. Thirty different sets of experiments were designed. Results obtained showed that while starch is found to have negative influence on the production of the enzyme, yeast extract and potassium phosphate have a strong positive influence. Magnesium sulfate, ammonium sulfate, and glucose have low positive influence on the enzyme production. Contour plots have also been created to obtain information concerning the interaction effects of the media components on enzyme production.