Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is known to be a useful material in substituting the conventional petroleum-based polymer used in packaging, due to its biodegradability and high mechanical strength. Despite the excellent properties of PLA, low flexibility has limited the application of this material. Thus, epoxidized palm olein (EPO) was incorporated into PLA at different loadings (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt%...

The optimal physical factors affecting enzyme production in an airlift fermenter have not been studied so far. Therefore, the physical parameters such as aeration rate, pH, and temperature affecting PLA-degrading enzyme production by Actinomadura keratinilytica strain T16-1 in a 3 l airlift fermenter were investigated. The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize PLA-degrading en...

nanocomposite composed of organoclay(cloisite 20a-c20a) and poly lactic acid (pla) was prepared by solvent casting method. physical, mechanical, thermal, barrier and microstructure properties of the composite were studied. x-ray diffraction (xrd) patterns and scanning electron microscopy (sem) images revealed that the diffraction peak of nanoclay shifted to lower angles and the d-spacing betwee...

Klebsiella pneumoniae is the common cause of a global emerging infectious disease, community-acquired pyogenic liver abscess (PLA). Capsular polysaccharide (CPS) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are critical for this microorganism's ability to spread through the blood and to cause sepsis. While CPS type K1 is an important virulence factor in K. pneumoniae causing PLA, the role of LPS in PLA is not ...

Oligomer Coupling Agents in Phosphate Based Glass Fibre/PLA Composites P Haque, AJ Parsons, I Ahmed, DJ Irvine, GS Walker, CD Rudd (Univ of Nottingham) Polylactic acid oligomers as coupling agents have showed potentially higher interfacial shear strength in phosphate based glass fibre/ PLA composites. To influence bonding on the glass fibre surface, the short chain PLA with different end groups...

Two types of graphene-nanoplatelets (GNP-M and GNP-C) were incorporated in PLA (poly(lactic acid)) by melt blending. Materials were biodegraded during 6 months and characterized by XRD, tensile tests, DMA and biocompatibility assays. For both fillers, low loadings (0.25 wt.%) improved mechanical properties and decreased their decay until 6 months biodegradation. PLA degradation decreased its to...

UNLABELLED Essentials Effect of plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 on plague and its Y. pestis cleavage is unknown. An intranasal mouse model of infection was used to determine the role of PAI-1 in pneumonic plague. PAI-1 is cleaved and inactivated by the Pla protease of Y. pestis in the lung airspace. PAI-1 impacts both bacterial outgrowth and the immune response to respiratory Y. pestis ...

a-Tocopherol (a-TC) and a-TC/cyclodextrin (CD)–inclusion complex (IC) incorporated electrospun poly(lactic acid) (PLA) nanofibers (NF) were developed via electrospinning (PLA/a-TC–NF and PLA/a-TC/g-CD–IC–NF). The release of a-TC into 95% ethanol (fatty food simulant) was much greater from PLA/a-TC/g-CD–IC–NF than from PLA/a-TC–NF because of the solubility increase in a-TC; this was confirmed by...

Plasticized poly(lactic acid) PLA with epoxidized vegetable oils (EVO) were prepared using a melt blending method to improve the ductility of PLA. The plasticization of the PLA with EVO lowers the Tg as well as cold-crystallization temperature. The tensile properties demonstrated that the addition of EVO to PLA led to an increase of elongation at break, but a decrease of tensile modulus. Plasti...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are ligand-activated transcription factors modulating metabolic and inflammatory responses of phagocytes to stimuli such as fatty acids and their metabolites. We studied the role of PPARs in macrophages exposed to low-density lipoprotein (LDL) modified by secretory phospholipase A(2) (PLA). METHODS AND RESULTS By analy...