Production of cellulases from Aspergillus niger NS-2 in solid state fermentation on agricultural and kitchen waste residues

Various agricultural and kitchen waste residues were assessed for their ability to support the production of a complete cellulase system by Aspergillus niger NS-2 in solid state fermentation. Untreated as well as acid and base-pretreated substrates including corn cobs, carrot peelings, composite, grass, leaves, orange peelings, pineapple peelings, potato peelings, rice husk, sugarcane bagasse, saw dust, wheat bran, wheat straw, simply moistened with water, were found to be well suited for the organism's growth, producing good amounts of cellulases after 96 h without the supplementation of additional nutritional sources. Yields of cellulases were higher in alkali treated substrates as compared to acid treated and untreated substrates except in wheat bran. Of all the substrates tested, wheat bran appeared to be the best suited substrate producing appreciable yields of CMCase, FPase and β-glucosidase at the levels of 310, 17 and 33 U/g dry substrate respectively. An evaluation of various environmental parameters demonstrated that appreciable levels of cellulases could be produced over a wide range of temperatures (20-50 °C) and pH levels (3.0-8.0) with a 1:1.5 to 1:1.75 substrate to moisture ratio.     

Correlation of edge truncation with antibacterial activity of plate-like anisotropic silver nanoparticles

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The effect of silver nanoparticle anisotropy on the antibacterial properties has been studied against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus,...     

Divestment discourse: war,justice, morality and money

The fossil fuel divestment movement has been a vibrant novel development in climate change politics in recent years, particularly in North America. Here, the character of the discourse used to promote divestment as a strategy is explored. The divestment discourse is shown to rest on four overlapping narratives, those of war and enemies, morality, economics and justice. All four are clearly discernible in statements from movement activists, in coverage of divestment campaigns by major news sources and in the movement’s aims, objectives and strategies covered in alternative media. The war narrative, with the formulation of fossil fuel companies as enemies to be overcome to ensure survival, is the dominant narrative. By polarising climate action and identifying an antagonist against which to mobilise, divestment discourse has articulated climate change as an explicitly political phenomenon, in contrast to the primarily consensus and collaboration-based approaches that have predominated in climate politics.