Multiphase Flow Regime Characterization and Liquid Flow Measurement Using Low-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Multiphase flow metering with operationally robust, low-cost real-time systems that provide accuracy across a broad range of produced volumes and fluid properties, is a requirement across a range of process industries, particularly those concerning petroleum. Especially the wide variety of multiphase flow profiles that can be encountered in the field provides challenges in terms of metering accuracy. Recently, low-field magnetic resonance (MR) measurement technology has been introduced as a feasible solution for the petroleum industry. In this work, we study two phase air-water horizontal flows using MR technology. We show that low-field MR technology applied to multiphase flow has the capability to measure the instantaneous liquid holdup and liquid flow velocity using a constant gradient low flip angle CPMG (LFA-CPMG) pulse sequence. LFA-CPMG allows representative sampling of the correlations between liquid holdup and liquid flow velocity, which allows multiphase flow profiles to be characterized. Flow measurements based on this method allow liquid flow rate determination with an accuracy that is independent of the multiphase flow profile observed in horizontal pipe flow for a wide dynamic range in terms of the average gas and liquid flow rates.     

Dual gold nanoparticle lateflow immunoassay for sensitive detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7

Two patterns of signal amplification lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), which used anti-mouse secondary antibody-linked gold nanoparticle (AuNP) for dual AuNP-LFIA were developed. Escherichia coli O157:H7 was selected as the model analyte. In the signal amplification direct LFIA method, anti-mouse secondary antibody-linked AuNP (anti-mouse-Ab-AuNP) was mixed with sample solution in an ELISA well, after which it was added to LFIA, which already contained anti-E. coli O157:H7 monoclonal antibody-AuNP (anti-E. coli O157:H7-mAb-AuNP) dispersed in the conjugate pad. Polyclonal antibody was the test line, and anti-mouse secondary antibody was the control line in nitrocellulose (NC) membrane. In the signal amplification indirect LFIA method, anti-mouse-Ab-AuNP was mixed with sample solution and anti-E. coli O157:H7-mAb-AuNP complex in ELISA well, creating a dual AuNP complex. This complex was added to LFIA, which had a polyclonal antibody as the test line and secondary antibody as the control line in NC membrane. The detection sensitivity of both LFIAs improved 100-fold and reached 1.14 × 10³ CFU mL⁻¹. The 28 nm and 45 nm AuNPs were demonstrated to be the optimal dual AuNP pairs. Signal amplification LFIA was perfectly applied to the detection of milk samples with E. coli O157:H7 via naked eye observation.     

Strand displacement amplification for ultrasensitive detection of human pluripotent stem cells

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), such as embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), provide a powerful model system for studies of cellular identity and early mammalian development, which hold great promise for regenerative medicine. It is necessary to develop a convenient method to discriminate hPSCs from other cells in clinics and basic research. Herein, a simple and reliable biosensor for stem cell detection was established. In this biosensor system, stage-specific embryonic antigen-3 (SSEA-3) and stage-specific embryonic antigen-4 (SSEA-4) were used to mark human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). Antibody specific for SSEA-3 was coated onto magnetic beads for hPSCs enrichment, and antibody specific for SSEA-4 was conjugated with carboxyl-modified tDNA sequence which was used as template for strand displacement amplification (SDA). The amplified single strand DNA (ssDNA) was detected with a lateral flow biosensor (LFB). This biosensor is capable of detecting a minimum of 19 human embryonic stem cells by a strip reader and 100 human embryonic stem cells by the naked eye within 80 min. This approach has also shown excellent specificity to distinguish hPSCs from other types of cells, showing that it is promising for specific and handy detection of human pluripotent stem cells.     

Rapid and sensitive lateral flow immunoassay method for determining alpha fetoprotein in serum using europium (III) chelate microparticles-based lateral flow test strips

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), a primary marker for many diseases including various cancers, is important in clinical tumor diagnosis and antenatal screening. Most immunoassays provide high sensitivity and accuracy for determining AFP, but they are expensive, often complex, time-consuming procedures. A simple and rapid point-of-care system that integrates Eu (III) chelate microparticles with lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) has been developed to determine AFP in serum with an assay time of 15 min. The approach is based on a sandwich immunoassay performed on lateral flow test strips. A fluorescence strip reader was used to measure the fluorescence peak heights of the test line (H_T) and the control line (H_C); the H_T/H_C ratio was used for quantitation. The Eu (III) chelate microparticles-based LFIA assay exhibited a wide linear range (1.0–1000 IU mL⁻¹) for AFP with a low limit of detection (0.1 IU mL⁻¹) based on 5ul of serum. Satisfactory specificity and accuracy were demonstrated and the intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation (CV) for AFP were both <10%. Furthermore, in the analysis of human serum samples, excellent correlation (n = 284, r = 0.9860, p < 0.0001) was obtained between the proposed method and a commercially available CLIA kit. Results indicated that the Eu (III) chelate microparticles-based LFIA system provided a rapid, sensitive and reliable method for determining AFP in serum, indicating that it would be suitable for development in point-of-care testing.     

Solubility,volumetric properties and viscosity of the sustainable systems of liquid poly(ethylene glycol) 200 with imidazolium- and phosphonium-based ionic liquids: Cation and anion effects

In this work, solubility, volumetric and viscosity behavior were studied for the systems containing the environmentally acceptable compounds: liquid poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG200) and three ionic liquids: 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide ([C₄mim][dca]), trihexyltetradecyl phosphonium dicyanamide ([P_6,6,6,14][dca]) and 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis{(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl}amide ([C₆mim][NTf₂]). The studies were performed in a temperature range (288.15 to 328.15) K and at a pressure of 0.1 MPa. For the only system that evidenced limited miscibility, namely (PEG200 + [P_6,6,6,14][dca]), the temperature-composition phase diagram at 0.1 MPa was determined, mapping the existing one- and two-phase regions. In the homogeneous region of this diagram, densities and viscosities were measured and the excess molar volumes, as well as deviations in viscosity were calculated. For the other two systems, as they are always homogeneous in the temperature ranges of the present work, these measurements and calculations were performed in the full range of compositions. The molecular interactions in the studied systems were scrutinized using the obtained excess molar volumes, deviations of viscosity, as well as Kamlet–Taft parameters of PEG200 and the ionic liquids. In addition, the excess molar Gibbs free energies of activation of viscous flow and the related enthalpies and entropies were calculated and introduced to take into consideration the differences in size of the molecules.     

流动注射-分光光度法测定天然产物对酪氨酸酶活性的影响

建立了一种快速、灵敏且高精度的流动注射-分光光度法用于研究天然产物对酪氨酸酶活性的影响。此方法基于一定介质条件下L-3,4-二羟基苯丙氨酸(L-DOPA)在酪氨酸酶的作用下,发生氧化生成棕褐色多巴醌,其最大吸收峰位于475 nm处,而酪氨酸酶抑制剂能降低酶促反应速度,减少多巴醌形成的量,从而降低475 nm下的吸光度值,形成倒峰。在优化实验条件下,半抑制浓度的曲酸抑制酪氨酸酶活性测定相对标准偏差(n=10)为0.036%,与分光光度法和酶标仪微量法相比,精密度提高了10倍以上。咖啡酸对酪氨酸酶有较强的激活作用,对二酚酶相对激活率达到50%时的浓度(IC50)为0.170 mmol/L;薰衣草花水相提取物具有较强的抑制活性,其IC50值为0.96 mg/m L。与分光光度法及酶标仪微量法相比,流动注射-分光光度法精密度高,重复性好,适用于天然产物对酪氨酸酶活性影响的测定。     

A Three‐Minute Synthesis and Purification of Ibuprofen: Pushing the Limits of Continuous‐Flow Processing

In a total residence time of three minutes, ibuprofen was assembled from its elementary building blocks with an average yield of above 90 % for each step. A scale‐up of this five‐stage process (3 bond‐forming steps, one work‐up, and one in‐line liquid–liquid separation) provided ibuprofen at a rate of 8.09 g h^?1 (equivalent to 70.8 kg y^?1) using a system with an overall footprint of half the size of a standard laboratory fume hood. Aside from the high throughput, several other aspects of this synthesis expand the capabilities of continuous‐flow processing, including a Friedel–Crafts acylation run under neat conditions and promoted by AlCl₃, an exothermic in‐line quench of high concentrations of precipitation‐prone AlCl₃, liquid–liquid separations run at or above 200 psi to provide solvent‐free product, and the use of highly aggressive oxidants, such as iodine monochloride. The use of simple, inexpensive, and readily available reagents thus affords a practical synthesis of this important generic pharmaceutical.     

Rapid and Efficient Copper‐Catalyzed Finkelstein Reaction of (Hetero)Aromatics under Continuous‐Flow Conditions

A general, rapid, and efficient method for the copper‐catalyzed Finkelstein reaction of (hetero)aromatics has been developed using continuous flow to generate a variety of aryl iodides. The described method can tolerate a broad spectrum of functional groups, including N‐H and O‐H groups. Additionally, in lieu of isolation, the aryl iodide solutions were used in two distinct multistep continuous‐flow processes (amidation and Mg–I exchange/nucleophilic addition) to demonstrate the flexibility of this method.     

Effects of GC temperature and carrier gas flow rate on on‐line oxygen isotope measurement as studied by on‐column CO injection

Although deemed important to δ¹⁸O measurement by on‐line high‐temperature conversion techniques, how the GC conditions affect δ¹⁸O measurement is rarely examined adequately. We therefore directly injected different volumes of CO or CO–N₂ mix onto the GC column by a six‐port valve and examined the CO yield, CO peak shape, CO–N₂ separation, and δ¹⁸O value under different GC temperatures and carrier gas flow rates. The results show the CO peak area decreases when the carrier gas flow rate increases. The GC temperature has no effect on peak area. The peak width increases with the increase of CO injection volume but decreases with the increase of GC temperature and carrier gas flow rate. The peak intensity increases with the increase of GC temperature and CO injection volume but decreases with the increase of carrier gas flow rate. The peak separation time between N₂ and CO decreases with an increase of GC temperature and carrier gas flow rate. δ¹⁸O value decreases with the increase of CO injection volume (when half m/z 28 intensity is <3 V) and GC temperature but is insensitive to carrier gas flow rate. On average, the δ¹⁸O value of the injected CO is about 1‰ higher than that of identical reference CO. The δ¹⁸O distribution pattern of the injected CO is probably a combined result of ion source nonlinearity and preferential loss of C¹⁶O or oxygen isotopic exchange between zeolite and CO. For practical application, a lower carrier gas flow rate is therefore recommended as it has the combined advantages of higher CO yield, better N₂–CO separation, lower He consumption, and insignificant effect on δ¹⁸O value, while a higher‐than‐60 °C GC temperature and a larger‐than‐100 µl CO volume is also recommended. When no N₂ peak is expected, a higher GC temperature is recommended, and vice versa. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Radical Compatibility with Nonaqueous Electrolytes and Its Impact on an All‐Organic Redox Flow Battery

Nonaqueous redox flow batteries hold the promise of achieving higher energy density because of the broader voltage window than aqueous systems, but their current performance is limited by low redox material concentration, cell efficiency, cycling stability, and current density. We report a new nonaqueous all‐organic flow battery based on high concentrations of redox materials, which shows significant, comprehensive improvement in flow battery performance. A mechanistic electron spin resonance study reveals that the choice of supporting electrolytes greatly affects the chemical stability of the charged radical species especially the negative side radical anion, which dominates the cycling stability of these flow cells. This finding not only increases our fundamental understanding of performance degradation in flow batteries using radical‐based redox species, but also offers insights toward rational electrolyte optimization for improving the cycling stability of these flow batteries.