Cranberry extract-based formulations for preventing bacterial biofilms.

Generating formulations for the delivery of a mixture of natural compounds extracted from natural sources is a challenge because of unknown active and inactive ingredients and possible interactions between them. As one example, natural cranberry extracts have been proposed for the prevention of biofilm formation on dental pellicle or teeth. However, such extracts may contain phenolic acids, flavonol glycosides along with other constituents like coumaroyl iridoid glycosides, flavonoids, alpha-linolenic acid, n-6 (or n-3) fatty acids, and crude fiber. Due to the presence of a variety of compounds, determining which molecules (and how many molecules) are essential for preventing biofilm growth is nontrivial to ascertain. Therefore, a formulation that could contain natural, unrefined, cranberry extract (with all its constituent compounds) at high loading would be ideal. Accordingly, we have generated several candidate formulations including poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA)-based microencapsulation of cranberry extract (CE15) as well as formulations including stearic acid along with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) or Ethyl lauroyl arginate (LAE) complexed with cranberry extracts (CE15). We found that stearic acid in combination with PVP or LAE as excipients led to higher loading of the active and inactive compounds in CE15 as compared with a PLGA microencapsulation and also sustained release of CE15 in a tunable manner. Using this method, we have been able to generate two successful formulations (one preventative based, one treatment based) that effectively inhibit biofilm growth when incubated with saliva. In addition to cranberry extract, this technique could also be a promising candidate for other natural extracts to form controlled release systems.Graphical abstract.

Organoarsenicals in Seafood: Occurrence, Dietary Exposure, Toxicity, and Risk Assessment Considerations - A Review.

Diet, especially seafood, is the main source of arsenic exposure for humans. The total arsenic content of a diet offers inadequate information for assessment of the toxicological consequences of arsenic intake, which has impeded progress in the establishment of regulatory limits for arsenic in food. Toxicity assessments are mainly based on inorganic arsenic, a well-characterized carcinogen, and arsenobetaine, the main organoarsenical in seafood. Scarcity of toxicity data for organoarsenicals, and the predominance of arsenobetaine as an organic arsenic species in seafood, has led to the assumption of their nontoxicity. Recent toxicokinetic studies show that some organoarsenicals are bioaccessible and cytotoxic with demonstrated toxicities like that of pernicious trivalent inorganic arsenic, underpinning the need for speciation analysis. The need to investigate and compare the bioavailability, metabolic transformation, and elimination from the body of organoarsenicals to the well-established physiological consequences of inorganic arsenic and arsenobetaine exposure is apparent. This review provides an overview of the occurrence and assessment of human exposure to arsenic toxicity associated with the consumption of seafood.

Validity of scaling relations in absorbing phase transitions with a conserved field.

The two scaling relations in absorbing phase transitions, nu_||=beta/theta and z=nu_||/nu_(perpendicular), are studied for a conserved lattice gas model. The critical indices calculated elaborately from the all-sample average density of active particles appear to satisfy both relations. However, the exponent nu_(perpendicular) calculated from the surviving samples does not appear to be consistent with the value in the thermodynamic limit. This is in contrast with earlier observations [M. Rossi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1803 (2000); S. Lübeck and P. C. Heger, Phys. Rev. E. 68, 056102 (2003)], in that the former scaling relation was claimed to be violated.

Absorbing phase transition in a conserved lattice gas model in one dimension.

We investigated the nonequilibrium phase transition of the conserved lattice gas model in one dimension using two update methods: i.e., the sequential update and the parallel update. We measured the critical indices of theta, beta, nu(parallel), and nu(perpendicular), and found that, for a parallel update, the exponents were delicately influenced by the hopping rule of active particles. When the hopping rule was designed to be symmetric, the results were found to be consistent with those of the sequential update. The exponents we obtained were precisely the same as the corresponding results of a recently presented lattice model of two species of particles with a conserved field in one dimension, in contrast with the authors' claim. We also found that one of the scaling relations known for absorbing phase transition is violated.

Universality split in absorbing phase transition with conserved field on fractal lattices.

The universality split in absorbing phase transition between the conserved lattice gas (CLG) model and the conserved threshold transfer process (CTTP) is investigated on a checkerboard fractal and on a Sierpinski gasket. The critical exponents theta, beta, nu||, and z, which are associated with, respectively, the density of active particles in time, the order parameter, the temporal correlation length, and the dynamics of active particles, are elaborately measured for two models on selected fractal lattices. The exponents for the CLG model are found to be distinctly different from those of the CTTP model on a checkerboard fractal, whereas the two models exhibit the same critical behavior on a Sierpinski gasket, indicating that the universality split between the two models occurs only on a checkerboard fractal. Such a universality split is attributed from the dominant hopping mechanisms caused by the intrinsic properties of the underlying fractal lattice.

Adjacent crosstalk suppression in a colorless WDM passive optical network.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel wavelength-division- multiplexed passive optical network (WDM-PON) scheme for the suppression of adjacent crosstalk arising from the wavelength misalignment in arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs) between a central office (CO) and a remote node (RN). The adjacent crosstalk suppression is achieved by allocating two different bands to adjacent channels of the AWGs by utilizing interleavers and WDM filters. The transmission performance of the proposed scheme was measured at a 155 Mb/s data stream, and error free transmission with a power penalty less than 0.7 dB was successfully achieved in case of AWG misalignment of 0.3 nm.

Absorbing phase transition in conserved lattice gas model on fractal lattices.

We study the continuous phase transition of the conserved lattice gas (CLG) model from an active phase into an absorbing phase on two fractal lattices, i.e., on a checkerboard fractal and on a Sierpinski gasket. In the CLG model, a particle is assumed to be active if any of the neighboring sites are occupied by a particle and inactive if all neighboring sites are empty. We estimate critical exponents theta, beta, nu||, and nu perpendicular, characterizing, respectively, the density of active particles in time, the order parameter, the temporal and spatial correlation lengths near the critical point, and the results are confirmed by off-critical scaling and finite size scaling. The order parameter exponent beta on a checkerboard fractal appears to lie between the one-dimensional (1D) value and two-dimensional (2D) value of the CLG model, while that on a Sierpinski gasket lies between the 1D and 2D values of the conserved threshold transfer process. Such a difference is manifested based on the intrinsic properties of the underlying fractal lattices.

Scaling of the nucleation density for pulsed layer deposition.

We discuss the logarithmic scaling of the nucleation density for pulsed laser deposition, discovered recently by Hinnemann et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 135701 (2001)] in two dimensions. The logarithmic scaling is often observed in the upper critical dimension. We find that the nucleation density in one dimension also exhibits logarithmic scaling, implying that it is not a prerequisite for the upper critical dimension. The normalized island density also scales similarly both in one and two dimensions when plotted against the normalized coverage.

Determination of the critical exponents for absorbing phase transitions in the conserved lattice gas model in three dimensions.

The critical exponents were measured for absorbing phase transitions in the conserved lattice gas (CLG) model on a simple cubic lattice. The correlation-length exponent calculated from the dynamic exponent obtained by finite-size scaling and from the mean spreading distance was consistently found to be ν(⊥)=0.631±0.02, which yields a positive specific heat exponent α=2-dν(⊥) on a pure system. The pure fixed point should, thus, be unstable if the Harris criterion established in equilibrium systems is applicable to the nonequilibrium absorbing phase transitions of the CLG model. However, this prediction is in contradiction with recent simulation results.