In situ determination of the nanoscale chemistry and behavior of solid-liquid systems

Many fundamental questions in crystal-growth behavior remain unanswered because of the difficulties encountered in simultaneously observing phases and determining elemental concentrations and redistributions while crystals nucleate and grow at the nanoscale. We show that these obstacles can be overcome by performing energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy on partially molten Al-Si-Cu-Mg alloy particles during in situ heating in a transmission electron microscope. Using this technique, we were able to (i) determine that the aluminum and silicon concentrations change in a complementary and symmetric manner about the solid-liquid interface as a function of temperature; (ii) directly measure the solid- and liquid-phase compositions at equilibrium and in highly undercooled conditions for quantitative comparison with thermodynamic calculations of the liquidus and solidus phase boundaries; and (iii) provide direct evidence for homogeneous nucleation of the aluminum-rich solid.     

Isolation and partial characterization of bacteriophages infecting Vibrio harveyi from shrimp farm effluent water

Bacteriophage isolated from the semi-intensive culture of Pacific white leg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei infects the luminous bacteria Vibrio harveyi. Lytic activity and lytic spectrum results revealed that the isolated phage had strong lytic activity in V. harveyi, V. parahaemolyticus, and V. vulnificus. Biofilm inhibition activity was performed against different pathogenic vibrios on high-density polyethylene (HDPE) template and the result revealed that the phage effectively inhibited the biofilm formation in V. harveyi. Spectrophotometric assay performed for lytic activity of the isolated phage in V. harveyi liquid culture showed that the phage significantly decreased the V. harveyi cell densities at different time intervals (P?<?0.05). To study the stability of phage at different temperature and pH revealed that the phage withstands the temperature ranged between 40 and 70 °C and the pH of 4 and 9 at a significant level (P?<?0.001). One-step growth curve depicted that the burst size gradually increased to a significant level and reached the maximum of 90% at 180 min (P?<?0.05). This study concluded that the isolated phage had specific activity against pathogenic V. harveyi infections.