Rapid Determination of Phenolic Compounds in Water Samples: Development of a Paper‐based Nanobiosensor Modified with Functionalized Silica Nanoparticles and Potato Tissue

In this study, we present a fast, simple, low‐cost and disposable method for determination of phenolic content in water samples, using a paper based polyphenol oxidase biosensor. The propylamine functionalized silica nanoparticles was dropped onto a paper sheet. After drying at room temperature, the potato tissue extract including polyphenol oxidase was immobilized on the paper via physical and chemical adsorption. The modified paper was placed on the top of the graphite screen printed electrode. To construct of an electrochemical nanobiosensor, the electrochemical behavior of the modified electrode in different steps was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy methods. After being optimized the effective parameters, the changes in the biosensor electrochemical response vs. to the different concentrations of the substrate (phenol solution) were monitored by differential pulse voltammetry and amperometry methods. The linear relationships for phenol detection were obtained in the concentration ranges of 0.01–160 μM and 0.1–300 μM with a detection limit of 0.007 μM and 0.042 μM with DPV and amperometry methods, respectively. This method was successfully used in the voltammetric determination of the phenol content in the real samples, like the river water and the wastewater of wood factory.     

Quantum conductance investigation on carbon nanotube–based antibiotic sensor

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Nanostructured carbon material (NSCM) based chemiresistive sensors are popular for sensing different analytes because of their high sensitivity, low cost,...     

Elongated Bacterial Pili as a Versatile Alignment Medium for NMR Spectroscopy

In NMR spectroscopy, residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) have emerged as one of the most exquisite probes of biological structure and dynamics. The measurement of RDCs relies on the partial alignment of the molecule of interest, for example by using a liquid crystal as a solvent. Here, we establish bacterial type 1 pili as an alternative liquid-crystalline alignment medium for the measurement of RDCs. To achieve alignment at pilus concentrations that allow for efficient NMR sample preparation, we elongated wild-type pili by recombinant overproduction of the main structural pilus subunit. Building on the extraordinary stability of type 1 pili against spontaneous dissociation and unfolding, we show that the medium is compatible with challenging experimental conditions such as high temperature, the presence of detergents, organic solvents or very acidic pH, setting it apart from most established alignment media. Using human ubiquitin, HIV-1 TAR RNA and camphor as spectroscopic probes, we demonstrate the applicability of the medium for the determination of RDCs of proteins, nucleic acids and small molecules. Our results show that type 1 pili represent a very useful alternative to existing alignment media and may readily assist the characterization of molecular structure and dynamics by NMR.     

Operational Matrix of Fractional Integration Based on the Shifted Second Kind Chebyshev Polynomials for Solving Fractional Differential Equations

This paper is devoted to studying a computational method for solving multi-term differential equations based on new operational matrix of shifted second kind Chebyshev polynomials. The properties of the operational matrix of fractional integration are exploited to reduce the main problem to an algebraic equation. We present an upper bound for the error in our estimation that leads to achieve the convergence rate of O(M ^−κ). Numerical experiments are reported to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of the proposed method.

     

Succinimidinium N-sulfonic acid hydrogen sulfate as an efficient ionic liquid catalyst for the synthesis of 5-arylmethylene-pyrimidine-2,4,6-trione and pyrano[2,3-d]pyrimidinone derivatives

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Succinimidinium N-sulfonic acid hydrogen sulfate ([SuSA-H]HSO4) as a new ionic liquid is prepared and characterized using a variety of techniques, including...     

Silica-bonded S-sulfonic acid as a recyclable catalyst for chemoselective synthesis of 1,1-diacetates

A simple and efficient procedure for the preparation of silica-bonded S-sulfonic acid (SBSSA) by reaction of 3-mercaptopropylsilica (MPS) and chlorosulfonic acid in chloroform is described. This solid acid is employed as a recyclable catalyst for the synthesis of 1,1-diacetates from aromatic aldehydes and acetic anhydride under mild and solvent-free conditions at room temperature.     

C-20 ketone reduction of hydrocortisone by rice field microalga <Emphasis Type="Italic">Chlorella vulgaris</Emphasis> MCCS 013

A unicellular microalga, Chlorella vulgaris, was isolated from rice field and applied in the biotransformation experiment of hydrocortisone (1). This strain has not been previously tested for hydrocortisone bioconversion. Fermentation was carried out in BG-11 medium supplemented with 0.05% substrate at 25°C for 14 days incubation. The products obtained were chromatographically purified followed by their characterization using spectroscopic methods. 11β,17α,20β,21-Tetrahydroxypregn-4-en-3-one (2), 11β,17β-dihydroxyandrost-4-en-3-one (3), and 11β-hydroxyandrost-4-ene-3,17-dione (4) were the main bioproducts in the hydrocortisone bioconversion. Bioreaction characteristics observed were 20-ketone reduction for accumulation of compound 2 and side chain degradation of the substrate to prepare compounds 3 and 4. Time course study showed the accumulation of the product 2 from the second day of the fermentation and 3 as well as 4 from the third day. All the metabolites reached their maximum concentration in seven days. Microalgal 18S rRNA gene was also amplified by PCR. PCR products were sequenced to confirm their authenticity as 18S rRNA gene of microalgae. The result of PCR blasted with other sequenced microalgae in NCBI showed 100% homology to the 18S small subunit rRNA of six strains of Chlorella vulgaris.     

Topological phases in Bi/Sb planar and buckled honeycomb monolayers

We investigate topological phases in two-dimensional Bi/Sb honeycomb crystals considering planar and buckled structures, both freestanding and deposited on a substrate. We use the multi-orbital tight-binding model and compare results with density functional theory calculations. We distinguish topological phases by calculating topological invariants, analyzing edge states properties of systems in a ribbon geometry and studying their entanglement spectra. We show that coupling to the substrate induces transition to the $Z_2$ topological insulator phase. It is observed that topological crystalline insulator (TCI) phase, found in planar crystals, exhibits an additional pair of edge states in both energy spectrum and entanglement spectrum. Transport calculations for TCI phase suggest robust quantized conductance even in the presence of crystal symmetry-breaking disorder.     

Scheduling tasks with exponential duration on unrelated parallel machines

This paper introduces a stochastic scheduling problem. In this problem a directed acyclic graphs (DAG) represents the precedence relations among $m$ tasks that $n$ workers are scheduled to execute. The question is to find a schedule $\Sigma$ such that if tasks are assigned to workers according to $\Sigma$, the expected time needed to execute all the tasks is minimized. The time needed to execute task $t$ by worker $w$ is a random variable expressed by a negative exponential distribution with parameter ${\lambda }_{wt}$ and each task can be executed by more than one worker at a time. In this paper, we will prove that the problem in its general form is NP-hard, but when the DAG width is constant, we will show that the optimum schedules can be found in polynomial time.     

Effect of relative humidity on current–voltage characteristics of an electrostatic precipitator

This paper aims at characterizing the behavior of dc corona discharge in wire-to-plane electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) as influenced by the relative humidity (RH) of the inlet air. The current–voltage characteristics and time evolution of the current are analyzed. Experimental results show that discharge current is strongly affected by the RH level of the inlet air. For instance, the time-averaged current is lower at higher RH for a given voltage, except when RH = 99%. Time evolution of the discharge current is affected by the humidity especially in the case of negative corona.