Microencapsulation of Essential Oils within Alginate: Formulation and <i>in Vitro</i>Evaluation of Antifungal Activity

Essential oils (EOs) are the volatile lipophilic components extracted from plants. Many EOs have demonstrated strong antimicrobial properties when tested in in vitro experiments. The commercial applications of these EOs require a suitable formulation constituted by biodegradable compounds that protect them from degradation and evaporation at the same time that allows for a sustained release. The objective of this study was therefore to reduce the rate of evaporation of the oil via microencapsulation. Alginate microspheres (AMSs) were prepared using emulsion extrusion method. The AMSs were hardened with a cross-linking agent, calcium chloride. The effects of the three variables: alginate concentration (0.5% - 8%), the amount of cross-linking agent (0.125% - 2%) and time of cross-linking (5 - 30 min.) on loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency (EE, %) were studied. The effect of the amount of cross-linker was significant on loading capacity (%) and EE (%). The AMSs under the optimized conditions provided loading capacity of 22% - 24% and EE of 90% - 94% based on type of EO. The antifungal activity of vapors of microencapsulated and non-microencapsulated oils were evaluated against two of pathogenic fungi species for stored grains: Aspergillus niger and Fusarium verticillioides. The optimized MSs were observed to have a sustained in vitro release profile (50% of the antifungal activity was maintained at the 8th day of the study). In conclusion, encapsulation in Ca-alginate microspheres may effectively reduce the evaporation rate of essential oils, thus?increase the potential antifungal activity.

Influence of Phase Behavior and Miscibility on Mechanical, Thermal and Micro-Structure of Soluble Starch-Gelatin Thermoplastic Biodegradable Blend Films

Polymer blends of cold water soluble starches (amylose or amylopectin soluble starch) with gelatin were prepared using solvent casting method. The solid state miscibility and polymer-polymer interactions between the constituent polymers were studied by fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorirmetry (DSC), light optical microscopy (OP) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), whereas the thermal stability of the blends was studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Furthermore, tensile and water vapor barrier properties of the blends were assessed. The obtained results exhibited that gelatin was more miscible with amylose soluble starch than with amylopectin soluble starch. Moreover, enhancing mechanical and water barrier properties of amylose soluble starch/gelatin blends were more pronounced than those of amylopectin soluble starch/gelatin blends. Generally, tensile strength (TS) and Elongation percentage (E) of the blend films were found to be gradually increased with increasing the proportion of gelatin. Nevertheless, increasing starch proportion was in favor of decreasing water vapor permeability (WVP). At equal proportions of starch and gelatin (1:1), TS was raised up to 8.69 MPa for amylose soluble starch/gelatin blend films while it raised up to 4.96 MPa for amylopectin soluble starch/gelatin blend films, and so on E was increased to its maximum by ~179.6% for soluble amylose starch/gelatin blends while it was increased to ~114.5% for amylopectin soluble starch/gelatin blends. On the other hand, WVP was significantly decreased to be 6.46 and 12.09 g·mm/m2·day·kPa for blends of amylose and amylopectin soluble?starches, respectively.

Numerical Investigation of the Geometric Phase and Entropy Squeezing for a Two-Level System in the Presence of Decoherence Terms

In this paper, we have presented the numerical investigation of the geometric phase and field entropy squeezing for a two-level system interacting with coherent field under decoherence effect during the time evolution. The effects of the initial state setting and atomic dissipation damping parameter on the evolution of the geometric phase and entropy squeezing have been examined. We have reported some new results related to the periodicity and regularity of geometric phase and entropy squeezing.

Photoluminescence Emission Control of Porous Silicon

This paper reports the feasibility of synthesis and characterization of nano-porous silicon (NPS) powder and (Nickel/nano-porous silicon, Ni/NPS) nano-composite prepared using dual techniques (alkaline chemical etching process and ultra-sonication technique). The structural and the optical properties of the fabricated structures are inspected using X-ray Diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer, Raman Spec-troscopy, and Fluorescence Spectrophotometer Photoluminescence. All the results have agreed that NPS is one of the most suitable materials used as active material in the LED fabrication;by changing the main factors in the preparation process, so the different physical and chemical properties are obtained. NPS produces two emission regions that correspond to orange-red and dark red;on the other hand, (Ni/NPS) produce the yellow emission. So, the photoluminescence emission is controllable by adjusting the preparation conditions. The optical data recorded here are useful for the production of the nanoscale optical devices.

Simulations of a Novel All-Optical Flip-Flop Based on a Nonlinear DFB Laser Cavity Using GPGPU Computing

A new all-optical flip-flop based on a nonlinear Distributed feedback (DFB) structure is proposed. The device does not require a holding beam. A nonlinear part of the grating is detuned from the remaining part of the grating and has negative nonlinear coefficient. Optical gain is provided by an injected electrical current into an active layer. In the OFF state, due to the detuned section, no laser light is generated in the device. An injected optical pulse reduces the detuning of the nonlinear section, and the optical feedback provided by the DFB structure generates a laser light in the structure that sustains the change in the detuned section. The device is switched “OFF” by detuning another section of the grating by a Reset pulse. The Reset pulse reduces the refractive index of that section by the generation of electron-hole pairs. The Reset pulse wavelength is adjusted such that the optical gain provided by the active layer at that wavelength is zero. The Reset pulse is prevented from reaching the nonlinear detuned section by introducing an optical absorber in the laser cavity to attenuate the pulse. The device is simulated in time domain using General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPGPU) computing. Set-Reset operations are in nanosecond time scale.

Numerical Simulation of an All Optical Flip-Flop Based on a Nonlinear Distributed Bragg Reflector Laser Structure

A new design for an all optical flip flop is introduced. It is based on a nonlinear Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) semiconductor laser structure. The device does not require a holding beam. An optical gain medium confined between 2 Bragg reflectors forms the device. One of the Bragg reflectors is detuned from the other by making its average refractive index slightly higher, and it has a negative nonlinear coefficient that is due to direct absorption at Urbach tail. At low light intensity in the structure, the detuned Bragg reflector does not provide optical feedback to start a laser mode. An optical pulse injected to the structure reduces the detuning of the nonlinear Bragg reflector and a laser mode builds up. The device is reset by detuning the second Bragg reflector optically by an optical pulse that generates electron-hole pairs by direct absorption. A mathematical model of the device is introduced. The model is solved numerically in time domain using a general purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) to increase accuracy and to reduce the computation time. The switching dynamics of the device are in nanosecond time scale. The device could be used for all optical data packet switching/routing.

Photocatalytic parameters and kinetic study for degradation of dichlorophenol-indophenol (DCPIP) dye using highly active mesoporous TiO_2 nanoparticles

Highly active mesoporous TiO_2 of about 6 nm crystal size and 280.7 m^2/g specific surface areas has been successfully synthesized via controlled hydrolysis of titanium butoxide at acidic medium. It was characterized by means of XRD（X-ray diffraction）, SEM（scanning electron microscopy）, TEM（transmission electron microscopy）, FT-IR（Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy）, TGA（thermogravimetric analysis）, DSC（differential scanning calorimetry） and BET（Brunauer–Emmett–Teller） surface area. The degradation of dichlorophenol-indophenol（DCPIP） under ultraviolet（UV） light was studied to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of samples. The effects of different parameters and kinetics were investigated. Accordingly, a complete degradation of DCPIP dye was achieved by applying the optimal operational conditions of 1 g/L of catalyst, 10 mg/L of DCPIP, pH of 3 and the temperature at 25 ± 3°C after 3 min under UV irradiation. Meanwhile, the Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetic model described the variations in pure photocatalytic branch in consistent with a first order power law model.The results proved that the prepared TiO_2 nanoparticle has a photocatalytic activity significantly better than Degussa P-25.

An Improved Design for an All-Optical Flip-Flop Based on a Nonlinear 3-Sections DFB Laser Cavity

A new all optical flip-flop based on a 3-sections nonlinear semiconductor DFB laser structure is proposed and simulated. The operation of the device does not require a holding beam. Electrical current injection into an active layer provides optical gain to the laser mode. The wave-guiding layer consists of a linear grating section centered between 2 detuned nonlinear grating sections. The average refractive index in the nonlinear sections is slightly higher than the refractive index of the middle section. A negative nonlinear refractive index coefficient exists along the nonlinear sections. In the “OFF” state, the DFB structure does not provide enough optical feedback to lase due to the detuned sections. At high light intensity in structure, “ON” state, detuning decreases and the DFB structure allows for a laser mode that sustains the decrease in detuning to exist. The nonlinearity is provided by direct photon absorption at the Urbach tail. Numerical simulations using GPGPU computing show nanoseconds transition times between “OFF” and “ON” states.