Relaxation Lax-Friedrichs sweeping scheme for static Hamilton-Jacobi equations

This paper presents a relaxation Lax-Friedrichs sweeping scheme to approximate viscosity solutions of static Hamilton Jacobi equations in any number of spatial dimensions. It is a generalization of the scheme proposed in Kao et al. (J Comput Phys 196:367–391, 2004). Numerical examples suggest that the relaxation Lax-Friedrichs sweeping scheme has smaller number of iterations than the original Lax-Friedrichs sweeping scheme when the relaxation factor ω is slightly larger than one. And first order convergence is also demonstrated by numerical results. A theoretical analysis for our scheme in a special case is given.     

Encapsulation of nanocrystals with responsive gels for spatial optical identification

A tripeptide (β-AspFF) gelator was designed and synthesised using solid-phase peptide synthesis. The as-prepared gelator formed a stable and clear multi-responsive gel in toluene solution. Encapsulating the quantum dots with β-AspFF effectively increased stability and antioxidisation ability which are beneficial for optical identification.     

Carbon nitride with encapsulated nickel for semi-hydrogenation of acetylene: pyridinic nitrogen is responsible for hydrogen dissociative adsorption

A new mechanism of catalyst has been demonstrated in this article. With the interaction between carbon nitride (CN) and encapsulated nickel, the CN in the catalyst has been endowed with new active sites for the adsorption and activation of hydrogen while nickel itself is physically isolated from the contact with reactive molecules. For the selective hydrogenation of acetylene in large amount of ethylene, the catalyst shows excellent ethylene selectivity than the nickel catalyst itself, which is almost totally unselective. Meanwhile, the CN itself is inactive for the reaction. The results of characterization demonstrate that pyridinic nitrogen doped in the carbon matrix should be the active sites for hydrogen dissociative adsorption. The theoretical calculations further confirm the results and provide with the detail in the electron transfer between nickel and CN in the catalyst. The current results supply a new concept for design of high performance catalyst.     

Synthesis of a macrocycle based on Linked Amino Acid Mimetics (LAAM)

We report the synthesis of a macrocycle utilizing a novel framework of standard amino acids in combination with subunits that we have named as Linked Amino Acid Mimetics (LAAMs). Macrocycles based on the LAAM concept provide both a peptide targeting region and two independently variable functional regions. In the prototype structure, the commonly known Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence was used for the targeting region. The functional regions contain a phenyl group, and the linkage was formed via a Ring-Closing Metathesis (RCM) reaction.     

Voltammetric determination of tumor necrosis factor-α based on the use of an aptamer and magnetic nanoparticles loaded with gold nanoparticles

Microchimica Acta - The authors are presenting an electrochemical aptasensor for tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) detection that is aided by the use of magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) and two...