Packaging Steps Research Articles

Single-Step Extrusion Process for Formulation Development of Self-Emulsifying Granules for Oral Delivery of a BCS Class IV Drug.

This study aimed to develop and optimize formulations containinga BCS Class IV drug by improving its solubility and permeability. Herein development of self-emulsifying solid lipid matrices was investigated as carrier systems for a BCS Class IV model drug. Self-emulsifying drug delivery systems (SEDDS) have been extensively investigated for formulating drugs with poor water solubility. However, manufacturing SEDDS is challenging. These systems usually have low drug-loading capacities, and the incorporated drugs tend to recrystallize during storage, which severely impacts the storage stability in vitro and performance in vivo. Moreover, they require greater amounts (>80%) of lipid carriers, cosolvents, surfactants, and other excipients to keep them from recrystallizing. This in turn is again challenging for high-dose drugs as it affects the size of the final drug product (tablets and capsules). Also, the final liquid nature of the formulation affects the handling and processability of the formulation, which poses challenges during the manufacturing and packaging steps. In this work, we have studied the feasibility of a single-step extrusion process to formulate and optimize solid self-emulsifying granules with a relatively higher drug loading of Ritonavir (RTV), a BCS Class IV drug. Further, we have compared the performance of using these granules as the feedstock for direct powder extrusion-based 3D printing as opposed to the use of physical blends. The stability and solubility-permeability advantage of these granules was also evaluated where SEDDS showed about 27 and 20 fold increase in apparent solublity and permeability compared to bulk drug, respectively. Combining the capabilities of HME to form drug-loaded homogeneous granules as a continuous process along with application of direct printing extruiosn (DPE) 3D printing improves the drug delivery prospects for such candidates.

Use of an eco‐friendly preservation technology as a strategy to increase the microbiological shelf‐life of a novel ready‐to‐eat salad containing vegetable by‐products

AbstractThe objective of this investigation was to evaluate different UV‐C irradiation doses in a novel ready‐to‐eat vegetable product containing vegetable by‐products (red beet leaves) and determine the microbiological shelf‐life and quality indicators during refrigerated storage (5 ± 1°C). During processing, no chemical disinfection was carried out and after the packaging step, 3 doses of UV‐C irradiation were applied (CTRL: 0 kJ/m2, L: 1 kJ/m2, M: 4 kJ/m2, and H: 7 kJ/m2) on the vegetable product studied (50% Creola purple lettuce, 25% beet leaves, and 25% arugula). It was observed that the intermediate dose (M) was the most suitable treatment since it could increase in six times its microbiological shelf‐life. Additionally, M was the one that showed the lowest loss of total polyphenols and the one that best maintained the antioxidant capacity (DPPH), probably attributed to the decrease in the activity of deterioration enzyme, PPO and higher ascorbic acid content at day 4. When evaluating % CO2/O2 on headspace of bags, UV‐C treatments reached earlier the dynamic equilibrium. Finally, all UV‐C irradiation treatments were successful against the simulated contamination. In that way, significant reductions of L. innocua and E. coli were found, with differences from up to 2 log cycles during storage. Finally, it can be concluded that UV‐C treatment can increase the microbiological shelf‐life of the novel ready‐to‐eat vegetable product, with quality indicators stabilization.Practical applicationsReady‐to‐eat salads present a short shelf‐life, which hinders their commercialization. As preservation technologies are required, UV‐C irradiation is an eco‐friendly alternative for its preservation as it has the potential to replace traditional disinfection treatments by reducing the water footprint of the total process. Therefore, since the UV‐C treatment is applied in the last step of the process (after packaging the product), microbiological contamination occurring in this type of vegetable products during processing is minimized. However, additional investigation is necessary to assess its suitability for a novel ready‐to‐eat salad containing horticultural by‐products.

HIV-1 RNA genome packaging: it's G-rated.

A member of the Retroviridae, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), uses the RNA genome packaged into nascent virions to transfer genetic information to its progeny. The genome packaging step is a highly regulated and extremely efficient process as a vast majority of virus particles contain two copies of full-length unspliced HIV-1 RNA that form a dimer. Thus, during virus assembly HIV-1 can identify and selectively encapsidate HIV-1 unspliced RNA from an abundant pool of cellular RNAs and various spliced HIV-1 RNAs. Several "G" features facilitate the packaging of a dimeric RNA genome. The viral polyprotein Gag orchestrates virus assembly and mediates RNA genome packaging. During this process, Gag preferentially binds unpaired guanosines within the highly structured 5' untranslated region (UTR) of HIV-1 RNA. In addition, the HIV-1 unspliced RNA provides a scaffold that promotes Gag:Gag interactions and virus assembly, thereby ensuring its packaging. Intriguingly, recent studies have shown that the use of different guanosines at the junction of U3 and R as transcription start sites results in HIV-1 unspliced RNA species with 99.9% identical sequences but dramatically distinct 5' UTR conformations. Consequently, one species of unspliced RNA is preferentially packaged over other nearly identical RNAs. These studies reveal how conformations affect the functions of HIV-1 RNA elements and the complex regulation of HIV-1 replication. In this review, we summarize cis- and trans-acting elements critical for HIV-1 RNA packaging, locations of Gag:RNA interactions that mediate genome encapsidation, and the effects of transcription start sites on the structure and packaging of HIV-1 RNA.

Pareto-based design of experiments for identifying and comparing optimum sealing parameters of heat sealing applications in packaging machines

Sealing is one of the most important process steps in industrial packaging, because the sealed seam is the most sensitive section of a package in terms of quality. For this reason, a major focus in flexible packaging is the sealing process, and among this, heat sealing is the most frequently used technology. In detail, applications of heat sealing processes are confronted with four conflicting objectives: increasing seam quality, reducing dwell time, reducing sealing temperature, and increasing process robustness towards varying conditions. Typical problems, such as identification of the optimum process parameters or selection of the most appropriate packaging film, are subject to these conflicting objectives. This paper presents a recently published design of experiments for characterizing and comparing heat sealing properties of packaging films based on a multi-objective optimization algorithm. The approach provides easy-to-read charts showing all optimum sealing parameters with regard to the four essential objectives of heat sealing: seam quality, dwell time, sealing temperature, and process robustness. Three case studies show exemplary applications of the new approach: 1) analyzing transport damages of beverage powder packages; 2) identifying and comparing optimum sealing parameter of a standard, mono-material, and fiber based packaging film regarding tightness and visual properties of the produced sachets; and 3) analyzing the effect of additional aluminum layers on sealing characteristics regarding hot-tack.The new design of experiments may provide the basis of a standard test method for the identification of optimal sealing parameters in the heat sealing processes.

Prototype Sistem Monitoring Intensitas Cahaya pada Budidaya Tanaman Cabai Rawit dengan Konsep Smart Farming Berbasis Internet Of Things (IOT)

Light intensity is an important factor to consider as best as possible to support plant fertility and health, especially in cayenne pepper plants. One of the innovations that can be applied to assist the management and maintenance of plants in Greenouse is agricultural technology based on the Internet of Things (IoT) or called smart sarming. In the use of Smart farming technology, the process of Monitoring crop needs is carried out by sensors and microcontrollers so that farmers can monitor all data in real time. This final project aims to describe the implementation of a light intensity Monitoring system in an IoT-based Greenhouse and produce a light intensity Monitoring tool in a Greenhouse using an LDR sensor so that farmers can know that the plants are getting an adequate supply of light. The smart farming system is designed using the MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport) protocol as the center for transferring and receiving data from sensors to Monitoring applications. The stages of implementing system into the Greenhouse include: (1) installation of sensors and microcontrollers on the Prototype Greenhouse for cayenne pepper cultivation; (2) design and decision-making to be carried out by the system; (3) create web and android applications as a place for Monitoring data by end users. The results show that the light intensity Monitoring system in cayenne pepper cultivation is based on the Internet Of Things (IoT), include: first, the manufacture of a system Monitoring tool whose light intensity is carried out in 4 steps, namely determining the components, assembling of components into a series of Monitoring systems, programming toolkits and application software, and packaging step. And the second, the implementation of the light intensity Monitoring system in cayenne pepper cultivation includes the system trial stage which produces an average value of 2676 LUX or 62.43% on sensor readings 12 times over a period of 3 minutes it is still at the optimal level for the growth of cayenne pepper plants with a minimum intensity value of 2528 or 50%. The output value calibration results on the Monitoring application with the LUX Meter application show the same and accurate value. So, it can be concluded that the IoT-based light intensity Monitoring system can run well and can be implemented for Greenhouse farming of cayenne pepper.

Fine structural aspects on the web glue production in the golden orb-web spider Trichonephila clavata

ABSTRACT The water-soluble glue substance of the capture threads in Trichonephila clavata is solely produced from two pairs of aggregate silk glands. During the web glue production, secretory vesicles were synthesized via the extensive rough endoplasmic reticulum of epithelial cells. Unlike the clearly described fibrous web production in spiders, the process of aqueous web glue production appears to involve either a condensing or a packaging step by the Golgi complex. In particular, the fine structure of secretory vesicles varies from cell to cell and may represent the secretory cycle. The electron-dense multivesicular bodies were clearly visible as discrete droplets, and the mature secretory product in the glandular epithelium appeared as a spherical vacuole grown by fusion with surrounding small vesicles. Our fine structural observation reveals that the secretion occurs when the release of secreted material involves the loss of part of the cytoplasm. The bleb along the luminal surface of the secretory cells and membrane-bound extracellular vesicles which pinched off from the cell suggests that the secretory product is released by the mechanism of apocrine secretion.

Examining the Invariance of a Measurement Model by Using the Covariance Structure Approach

The primary aim of the present study is to examine the measurement invariance of the structural equating model constructed on the numerical and verbal abilities test for sixth grade students across gender, amount of weekly pocket money and students’ perceptions of the sufficiency of their pocket money. The secondary aim is to illustrate the use of the IBM AMOS-24 software package step by step with examples to address invariance using the covariance structural analysis approach. The research data were collected from 2304 sixth grade students enrolled in public schools within the Keçiören and Pursaklar suburbs in Ankara. The covariance structures analysis approach was employed during the examination of the measurement model invariance. The study revealed that invariance was achieved in terms of configural, measurement (in both measurement weights and measurement residuals) and structural invariance with respect to all subgroups.

(Invited, Digital Presentation) Advanced Methodology for Assessing Chip Package Interaction Induced Stress Effects on Chip Performance and Reliability

In IC industry, the use of multiple die stack packaging has emerged to meet the increasing demand in miniaturization and improved functionality of mobile devices. During chip operation, transistor power dissipation raises temperature unevenly across a die. The generated thermal hotspots negatively impact reliability and degrade performance. In mechanical aspects, dies become thinner, and bumps and pitch become smaller, which makes heat dissipation more difficult, and lead to increase in mechanical stress. Such stress may cause carrier mobility degradation for transistors and could lead to parametric circuit failure. In the back-end-of-line (BEoL) interconnects, the employed ultra-low k materials prone to damage interconnects when mechanical stress is present, due to its brittle nature and poor adhesion to the barrier materials. These stresses originated at the die packaging step due to thermal mismatch between die and package materials, which is termed as chip package interaction (CPI). We call mechanical CPI (mCPI) when such stress affects reliability of the whole chip, i.e., BEoL, RDL (redistribution layer), bump, or TSVs (through silicon vias). When such stress affects device performance, we call electrical CPI (eCPI).To analyze CPI effects on a feature scale, i.e., in transistor channel or in the individual metal line or ILD (inter layer dielectric) /IMD (inter metal dielectric) gap, an analysis tool must generate accurate feature-scale stress variation across a die. Finite element analysis (FEA) is widely used for analyzing CPI induced problems. However, the traditional FEA cannot effectively handle feature-scale geometries due to huge memory consumption, and instead, treats a die as a uniform material block. Therefore, this approach cannot describe stress distribution caused by local non-uniformity of metal line distribution and fail to provide the needed accuracy for feature-scale analysis. [1]Here, we present an advanced physics-based EDA tool that overcomes the above-mentioned problems by introducing the novel methodology of extracting effective anisotropic thermal-mechanical properties (EMP), as well as employing FEA-based multi-scale simulation procedure. Prior to running FEA, the tool extracts EMP that accurately represent non-uniformities at different scales within a simulation domain. Here, each metal layer in a die is considered a binary system that consists of metal inclusions embedded in an insulator matrix. By dividing the die area into bins, metal density dependent effective properties for each bin are calculated according to theory of anisotropic composite materials. Anisotropy of properties can be obtained by taking routing direction of metal lines into account [2, 3]. EMP can adjust to multi-scale by varying bin size as shown in Fig.1. Here, Young’s modulus is extracted globally with coarse grid, and on sub-modeling region with very fine grid, which shows the corresponding property variation with much finer scale. Since EMP constructs no actual geometrical objects, the methodology can efficiently handle feature-scale objects on a large layout region. When a user selects a circuit block, or a region to be analyzed in detail, the automated tool flow enables two step stress simulation procedure, which is schematically shown in Fig. 2. First, the global-scale stress simulation is performed with coarse both the simulation mesh and EMP bin and extracts the boundary displacements for the circuit block. These boundary displacements are employed in the sub-modeling, with employed fine mesh and EMP bin.Figure 3 demonstrates the importance of EMP for accurate resolution of stress field. The 2D color maps show the x-component of stress distributions in a circuit block as a result of sub-modeling. Here, die BEoL is represented by EMP in (a), while in (b), the entire die including BEoL is represented by silicon, which is employed in traditional FEA. The stress pattern due to interconnect layout details are visible only when EMP is employed. The difference is even more pronounced when 1D stress profile is compared.By back annotating the obtained stress components in a SPICE netlist, the tool enables a user to perform accurate circuit simulation with accounted CPI effects. In eCPI analysis, the tool has been validated by employing measurements of different types of devices [4].The additional tool capabilities that will be presented are mCPI analysis and thermomechanical stress analysis during chip operating conditions.[1] R. Radojcic, More-than-Moore 2.5D and 3D SiP Integration, Springer, 2017.[2] V. Sukharev et al. J. Electron Test, vol. 28, pp. 63-72, 2012[3] V. Sukharev et al., Proc. Int. 3D Systems Integration Conference, 2019[4]. A. Kteyan, et al. Proc. ISPD 2022 Figure 1

Wafer-level calibration of large-scale integrated optical phased arrays.

We present the wafer-level characterization of a 256-channel optical phased array operating at 1550 nm, allowing the sequential testing of different OPA circuits without any packaging steps. Using this, we establish that due to random fabrication variations, nominally identical circuits must be individually calibrated. With this constraint in mind, we present methods that significantly reduce the time needed to calibrate each OPA circuit. In particular, we show that for an OPA of this scale, a genetic optimization algorithm is already >3x faster than a simple hill climbing algorithm. Furthermore, we describe how the phase modulators within the OPA may be individually characterized 'in-situ' and how this information can be used to configure the OPA to emit at any arbitrary angle following a single, initial calibration step.

Deep learning for the quality control of thermoforming food packages

Quality control is a key process designed to ensure that only products satisfying the defined quality requirements reach the end consumer or the next step in a production line. In the food industry, in the packaging step, there are many products that are still evaluated by human operators. To automate the process and improve efficiency and effectiveness, computer vision and artificial intelligence techniques can be applied. This automation is challenging since specific strategies designed according to the application scenario are required. Focusing on the quality control of the sealing and closure of matrix-shaped thermoforming food packages, the aim of the article is to propose a deep-learning-based solution designed to automatically perform the quality control while satisfying production cadence and ensuring 100% inline inspection of the products. Particularly, the designed computer vision system and the image-based criteria defined to determine when a product has to be accepted or rejected are presented. In addition, the vision control software is described with special emphasis on the different convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures that have been considered (ResNet18, ResNet50, Vgg19 and DenseNet161, non-pre-trained and pre-trained on ImageNet) and on the specifically designed dataset. To test the solution, different experiments are carried out in the laboratory and also in a real scenario, concluding that the proposed CNN-based approach improves the efficiency and security of the quality control process. Optimal results are obtained with the pre-trained DenseNet161, achieving false positive rates that range from 0.03 to 0.30% and false negative rates that range from 0 to 0.07%, with a rejection rate between 0.64 and 5.09% of production, and being able to detect at least 99.93% of the sealing defects that occur in any production. The modular design of our solution as well as the provided description allow it to adapt to similar scenarios and to new deep-learning models to prevent the arrival of faulty products to end consumers by removing them from the automated production line.

Development of craft Beer with pecan shell aqueous extract [(Carya illinoensis) (Wangenh) C. Koch

Different ingredients and adjuncts have been used in the production of craft beer aiming to add new characteristics to the final product. In turn, the pecan nut has recognized antioxidant properties and, therefore, the extract of its shell was added in the beer production process with the main objective of increasing the beer antioxidant capacity. The all-grain method was used to produce the beverage and, on the packaging step, pecan nutshell extract was added at three different concentrations. The samples underwent antioxidant, physicochemical, and sensorial analysis. Data were submitted to analysis of variance (ANOVA). The use of pecan nutshell extract as an ingredient in beer processing has proved to be a viable alternative due to satisfactory results in sensory evaluation, with good acceptability of the consumers, maintaining physicochemical characteristics similar to the standard beer produced without the extract. However, the addition of the extract did not increase the antioxidant capacity in craft beer. Even though the antioxidant power of produced beer wasn´t increased in this experiment, still pecan nutshell could be a good resource of antioxidants to whom drink beer, and your low price in the market make it viable to beer industry.

Changes of Soybean Protein during Tofu Processing.

Tofu has a long history of use and is rich in high-quality plant protein; however, its production process is relatively complicated. The tofu production process includes soybean pretreatment, soaking, grinding, boiling, pulping, pressing, and packing. Every step in this process has an impact on the soy protein and, ultimately, affects the quality of the tofu. Furthermore, soy protein gel is the basis for the formation of soy curd. This review summarizes the series of changes in the composition and structure of soy protein that occur during the processing of tofu (specifically, during the pressing, preservation, and packaging steps) and the effects of soybean varieties, storage conditions, soybean milk pretreatment, and coagulant types on the structure of soybean protein and the quality of tofu. Finally, we highlight the advantages and limitations of current research and provide directions for future research in tofu production. This review is aimed at providing a reference for research into and improvement of the production of tofu.

A 96% Alumina based Packaging System for 500°C Test of SiC Integrated Circuits

Abstract Along with the development of silicon carbide (SiC) sensors and electronic devices for operation at 500°C, compatible packaging technologies are needed for long term high temperature test and deployment of these sensors and electronic devices. 96% Al2O3 ceramic is a good electrically insulating material with acceptable dielectric constant and low dielectric loss over wide temperature and frequency ranges. This paper presents a packaging system for low power integrated circuits including a prototype 8-I/O chip-level package and printed circuit board (PCB) based on 96% Al2O3 ceramic substrates and Au thick-film metallization for 500°C applications. The details related to designs of packages and PCBs, packaging materials, and specific packaging step recipes including wire - bonding and die-attach, are presented. Some test results of this prototype packaging approach applied to SiC integrated circuits at 500°C are reviewed.

Containerization in ATLAS Software Development and Data Production

The ATLAS experiment’s software production and distribution on the grid benefits from a semi-automated infrastructure that provides up-to-date information about software usability and availability through the CVMFS distribution service for all relevant systems. The software development process uses a Continuous Integration pipeline involving testing, validation, packaging and installation steps. For opportunistic sites that can not access CVMFS, containerized releases are needed. These standalone containers are currently created manually to support Monte-Carlo data production at such sites. In this paper we will describe an automated procedure for the containerization of ATLAS software releases in the existing software development infrastructure, its motivation, integration and testing in the distributed computing system.

Suitability of lactic acid bacteria and deriving antibacterial preparations to enhance shelf-life and consumer safety of emulsion type sausages

Ready-to-eat (RTE) sliced emulsion type sausages are sensitive to recontamination with Listeria (L.) monocytogenes during processing and packaging steps. Since Listeria spp. are able to grow on those products under cold storage conditions, taking steps to reduce the recontamination risk and implementing antibacterial hurdles contribute to consumer safety and increase the product quality. With this study data about the suitability of culture broth, cell-free supernatant (CFS) or concentrated bacteriocin preparations (CFSconc) of bacteriocin-producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) obtained from fermented sausages from Germany as protective culture or antibacterial additive were provided. In different challenge tests, the potential of selected LAB or their preparations were investigated for their potential to reduce growth of L. monocytogenes and/or Brochothrix (B.) thermosphacta on sliced RTE emulsion type sausages under modified atmosphere or vacuum during refrigerated storage for a 21-day period. Applied LAB culture broth and CFS could not reduce the growth of L. monocytogenes or B. thermosphacta. On the other hand, samples treated with CFSconc obtained from Pediococcus spp. strains showed a significant inhibition (p < 0.05) of more than 1.5 log10 of the applied L. monocytogenes strains during the storage period. The growth of B. thermosphacta could not be influenced. Thereby, the need for concentrating preparations was shown to be important to obtain a suitable antibacterial preparation that would contribute to consumer safety and food quality when applied as a protective additive.

Efficient method for targeted gene disruption by homologous recombination in Mycobacterium avium subspecie paratuberculosis

Targeted gene disruption by homologous recombination, has been widely used in mycobacterium species to understand the genetic basis of virulence and persistence in the host and to develop efficacious potential live vaccines. However, in slow growing pathogenic mycobacteria as Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis (MAP), these methods have been inefficient, in part due to the low frequency of legitimate homologous recombination. Another feature of mycobacteria is the low efficiency of transformation; therefore, some years ago, a phage-mediated transduction process was developed to introduce DNA into mycobacteria. This strategy is very efficient, due to the high rate of infection of the phage. This report describes a genetic method for the generation of targeted deletion mutations in MAP by allelic exchange using in vitro-generated specialized transducing mycobacteriophages, which does not require the critical packaging step and that could also be applied to other mycobacteria. We provide a detailed gene deletion methodology and demonstrate the use of this genetic system by deleting the mce4 operon of MAP. Finally, our results showed that the deletion of mce4 in MAP induces triacylglycerol accumulation; alter morphology and aggregation in liquid culture.

Role of Hepatitis B virus capsid phosphorylation in nucleocapsid disassembly and covalently closed circular DNA formation.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) delivers a partially double-stranded, relaxed circular (RC) DNA genome in complete virions to the host cell nucleus for conversion to the covalently closed circular (CCC) DNA, which establishes and sustains viral infection. An overlength pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) is then transcribed from CCC DNA and packaged into immature nucleocapsids (NCs) by the viral core (HBc) protein. pgRNA is reverse transcribed to produce RC DNA in mature NCs, which are then enveloped and secreted as complete virions, or delivered to the nucleus to replenish the nuclear CCC DNA pool. RC DNA, whether originating from extracellular virions or intracellular mature NCs, must be released upon NC disassembly (uncoating) for CCC DNA formation. HBc is known to undergo dynamic phosphorylation and dephosphorylation at its C-terminal domain (CTD) to facilitate pgRNA packaging and reverse transcription. Here, two putative phosphorylation sites in the HBc N-terminal domain (NTD), S44 and S49, were targeted for genetic and biochemical analysis to assess their potential roles in viral replication. The NTD mutant that mimics the non-phosphorylated state (N2A) was competent in all steps of viral replication tested from capsid assembly, pgRNA packaging, reverse transcription, to virion secretion, except for a decrease in CCC DNA formation. On the other hand, the phosphor-mimetic mutant N2E showed a defect in the early step of pgRNA packaging but enhanced the late step of mature NC uncoating and consequently, increased CCC DNA formation. N2E also enhanced phosphorylation in CTD and possibly elsewhere in HBc. Furthermore, inhibition of the cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), which is packaged into viral capsids, could block CCC DNA formation. These results prompted us to propose a model whereby rephosphorylation of HBc at both NTD and CTD by the packaged CDK2, following CTD dephosphorylation during NC maturation, facilitates uncoating and CCC DNA formation by destabilizing mature NCs.

Biodiversity of Photobacterium spp. Isolated From Meats.

Photobacteria are common psychrophilic bacteria found in marine environments. Recently, several studies revealed high numbers of Photobacterium (P.) spp. on packaged fresh meat. Their occurrence appears relevant for the spoilage of meat, since species of the genus are already known as potent fish spoilage organisms. Here we report on distribution, biodiversity, and specific traits of P. carnosum (n = 31), P. phosphoreum (n = 24), and P. iliopiscarium (n = 3) strains from different foods. Biodiversity was assessed by genomic fingerprinting, diversity index analysis, growth dynamics, comparison of metabolic activities, and antibiotic resistance. We observed a ubiquitous occurrence of the species on all common meats independent of packaging conditions and producer, suggesting contamination during an established processing or packaging step. Regarding biodiversity, the three species differed clearly in their growth properties and metabolic characteristics, with P. phosphoreum growing the fastest and showing the strongest alkalization of the media. On strain level we also recorded variations in enzymatic reactions, acid production, and antibiotic resistances not restricted to specific meat types. This depicts high biodiversity on species and strain level on each contaminated meat sample. Our analysis showed that meat-borne strains of P. phosphoreum and P. iliopiscarium clearly differ from their type strains from a marine habitat. Additionally, we report for the first time isolation of P. carnosum strains from packaged fish, which in contrast showed comparable phenotypic properties to meat-borne strains. This hints at different initial origins of P. phosphoreum/P. iliopiscarium (marine background) and P. carnosum (no demonstrated marine background) contaminations on fish and meat, respectively.

NMR Mapping of Disordered Segments from a Viral Scaffolding Protein Enclosed in a 23 MDa Procapsid

Scaffolding proteins (SPs) are required for the capsid shell assembly of many tailed double-stranded DNA bacteriophages, some archaeal viruses, herpesviruses, and adenoviruses. Despite their importance, only one high-resolution structure is available for SPs within procapsids. Here, we use the inherent size limit of NMR to identify mobile segments of the 303-residue phage P22 SP free in solution and when incorporated into a ∼23 MDa procapsid complex. Free SP gives NMR signals from its acidic N-terminus (residues 1–40) and basic C-terminus (residues 264–303), whereas NMR signals from the middle segment (residues 41–263) are missing because of intermediate conformational exchange on the NMR chemical shift timescale. When SP is incorporated into P22 procapsids, NMR signals from the C-terminal helix-turn-helix domain disappear because of binding to the procapsid interior. Signals from the N-terminal domain persist, indicating that this segment retains flexibility when bound to procapsids. The unstructured character of the N-terminus, coupled with its high content of negative charges, is likely important for dissociation and release of SP during the double-stranded DNA genome packaging step accompanying phage maturation.

Development and Modeling of a Wafer-Level BCB Packaging Method for Capacitive RF MEMS Switches

This paper presents a novel wafer-level packaging method for shunt, capacitive RF MEMS switches using BCB as the adhesive interlayer. Fabrication and electrical characteristics of the proposed package were initially evaluated for 50 Ω CPW lines. Microwave measurements of these packaged test structures were fitted to a circuit model, which was later employed to optimize the package for RF MEMS switches. The proposed packaging method was next successfully integrated with an in-house RF MEMS fabrication process. Mechanical and microwave characteristics of these switches were investigated prior to and following the packaging process. Measured shear strength for five packaged switches averages to 18.3 MPa. MEMS bridges deflect by 71 nm on the average due to the packaging step. C-V measurements show 4.2 V average increase in pull-in voltages. Millimeter-wave measurements confirm the negligible effect of package on switch performance. Measured upstate return and insertion losses at 35 GHz read 28 and 0.4 dB, respectively. The downstate isolation attains 35 dB at 35 GHz for most of the packaged switches. Lifetime measurements of a packaged switch demonstrate 10.2 billion cycles without failure.