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The Mediterranean diet is characterized by an adequate consumption of fruit and vegetables, fish, cereals, olive oil, and moderate consumption on meat and dairy products. The olive oil is an excellent source of oleic acid that has multiple beneficial effects on human health. The level of oleic acid in plasma phospholipids reflects its dietary intake and endogenous metabolism. In some diseases the level of OA is altered independently on its intake. Currently, cardiovascular diseases and cancer are the most common causes of death worldwide. This chapter evaluates status of OA in Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean region and impact of the Mediterranean diet and oleic acid on cardiovascular disease and cancer.

To grow microorganisms successfully, whether the desired product is a metabolic intermediate or the cells themselves, the necessary nutrients required for growth and maintenance need to be provided in sufficient quantities. Without these, the microorganism would be unable to synthesise the macromolecules for reproduction and maintenance of cellular structure or for fuel storage. Nor would they be able to carry out respiratory, fermentative or photosynthetic pathways to provide energy. An appropriate nutrient medium then, together with suitable environmental conditions of, for example, pH, temperature and oxygen availability, are the process conditions which define the minimum requirement for all bioprocesses. Bioprocesses, in addition, are designated according to the strategy under which they operate. The simplest and most widely used operational bioprocess strategy is batch culture ( Section 7.2 ). Other strategies, namely continuous culture ( Section 7.3 ) and fed-batch culture ( Section 7.4 ) are also extensively used and are preferred under certain specific instances. The development of the appropriate process strategy and the formulation of optimal process conditions are singly and together essential for the maximisation of the potential of the biocatalyst for product formation. This responsibility sits largely on the shoulders of the Bioprocess Engineer. Chapter 7 begins with a discussion of suitable process conditions for microbial culture, specifically appropriate nutrient medium formulation and an analysis of the effects of environmental conditions, such as pH and temperature, on cell growth ( Section 7.1 ). The supply of adequate oxygen for aerobic respiration is dealt with in a separate chapter ( Chapter 8 ). Following this, the kinetic bases for cell growth and substrate utilisation during batch culture are elucidated and expressed mathematically. These mathematical expressions are then applied to continuous and fed-batch systems in the development of the appropriate mathematical design equations for these process strategies.

Recent advances in techniques that allow sensitive and specific measurement of S-nitrosothiols (RSNOs) have provided evidence for a role for these compounds in various aspects of nitric oxide (NO) biology. The most widely used approach is to couple reaction chemistry that selectively reduces RSNOs by one electron to produce NO, with the sensitive detection of the latter under anaerobic conditions using ozone based chemiluminescence in NO analyzers. Herein, we report a novel reaction that is readily adaptable for commercial NO analyzers that utilizes hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a gas that can reduce RSNO to NO and, analogous to NO, is produced by endogenous metabolism and has effects on diverse biological functions. We discuss factors that affect H2S based methods for RSNO measurement and discuss the potential of H2S as an experimental tool to measure RSNO.

Publisher Summary The factors influencing the microcalorimetric behavior of microorganisms in complex systems are well understood. Heat production is closely related to catabolic activity; anabolic processes usually make a very small contribution to the overall pattern of heat production, so that there seems little possibility that the techniques currently available will be of general use in the study of anabolic processes. The kinetic definition of rates of heat production is the simplest at the lower levels of activity, endogenous metabolism, and catabolism by non-proliferating cells, where both the concentration of organisms and the rate of heat production may remain constant for long periods. At the highest level of catabolic activity during exponential growth, the situation is more complex, though the kinetic expression for growth is simple, and the catabolic activity of unit mass of cells remains constant. However, in addition to the record of heat production, a measure of the increasing mass of microbial cells is necessary to describe the system fully. If the record of heat production can be interpreted in conjunction with thermodynamic data and chemical information, the method can be used to give quite detailed interpretations of questions, such as the correlation of observations with postulated reaction mechanisms, presence of side reactions, and accumulation of reserve materials.