Enzymes immobilized on montmorillonite: comparison of performance in batch and packed-bed reactors

Summary The enzymes a-amylase, invertase and glucoamylase were immobilized on acid activated montmorillonite using two techniques, viz. adsorption and covalent binding, and their activities were tested in a batch and packed-bed reactor and were compared. The packed-bed reactor showed an improved performance for all immobilized enzymes, which was attributed to lowering of diffusional restrictions to mass transfer. Lower activity in case of batch reactor for immobilized invertase was due to a combined effect of loss of native conformation of enzyme on account of immobilization and mass transfer resistances due to improper diffusion of substrate to the active site of enzyme. For immobilized glucoamylase, the packed-bed reactor demonstrated exceptionally high activity that was very close to the free enzyme. Covalently bound glucoamylase showed higher activity than the free enzyme.     

On finding the nucleolus of an n-person cooperative game

Kohlberg (1972) has shown how the nucleolus for ann-person game with side-payments may be found by solving a single minimization LP in case the imputation space is a polytope. However the coefficients in the LP have a very wide range even for problems with 3 or 4 players. Therefore the method is computationally viable only for small problems on machines with finite precision. Maschler et al. (1979) find the nucleolus by solving a sequence of minimization LPs with constraint coefficients of either –1, 0 or 1. However the number of LPs to be solved is o(4 ⁿ ). In this paper, we show how to find the nucleolus by solving a sequence of o(2 ⁿ ) LPs whose constraint coefficients are –1, 0 or 1.     

Electrooxidation of carbo/thiocarbohydrazide and their hydrazone derivatives at a glassy carbon electrode

Electrochemical oxidation of thio/carbohydrazide and their hydrazone derivatives Benzaldehyde thiocarbohydrazone [BTCH] diacetylene thiocarbohydrazone [DATCH] have been studied in Brit-ton Robinson buffer in aqueous and nonaqueous media at a glassy carbon electrode. The effects of pH, sweep rate, concentration, temperature and surfactants have been studied. The complex bis (carbo/thiocabohydrazide) Zn(II) chloride was also subjected to voltammetric analysis in order to understand the reactivity both in free and metal bound states. The reaction conditions were optimized for the determination of above compounds in micrograms quantities by differential pulse voltammetry, analytical utility of this investigation is also highlighted.     

Inequivalent quantizations for non-linear σ model

We compute the homotopy groups ₀ and ₁ of the classical configuration space of anO(3) invariant field theory on ×, where is a compact two dimensional manifold for arbitrary genusg and- denotes the time coordinate. We also present the finite dimensional, unitary, irreducible, inequivalent representations of the appropriate fundamental groups and comment on some of their implications.     

Preparation and properties of novel polyhydrazides

A new class of polyhydrazides having aromatic as well as aliphatic units has been synthesized by low-temperature solution polycondensation from equimolar amounts of diacid chloride and dihydrazides in HMPT as solvent. These polyhydrazides have poor solubilities and their intrisnsic viscosities ranged from 0.2 to 0.6 dl/g. X-ray diffractograms of these polyhydrazides show that the polymers having terephthalic acid dihydrazide unit were more crystalline and all the polymers have densities in the range of 1.2-1.8 g/cm³. Thermogravimetric analysis of these polyhydrazides showed initial weight losses commencing at 220–300°C in both air and nitrogen.     

Synthesis and properties of novel poly(N-oxyimide)s

Novel poly(N-oxyimide)s (PNOI) were synthesized by the room temperature polycondensation of N,N′-dihydroxypyromellitimide (I) with dichloro compounds in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) in the presence of triethylamine both as base as well as catalyst. The dichloro compounds used were 1,4-bis(chloromethyl)-2,5-dimethylbenzene (II), 1,5-bis(chloromethyl)-2,4-dimethylbenzene (III), 1,4-bis(chloromethyl)-2,5-dimethoxybenzene (IV) and 1,4-dichlorobut-2-yne (V). Polymer synthesis, characterization, and properties such as density, viscosity, solubility, crystallinity, and thermal stability were described. Two model compounds, viz. (i) MNOI-1 from N-hydroxyphthalimide and a dichloro compound (III), (ii) MNOI-2 from I and benzyl chloride were also synthesized to confirm the formation of polymers. The polymers thus obtained had high intrinsic viscosities in the range 1.09–1.18 dl/g. The thermal decomposition of the polymers started around 260°C with 20–25% decomposition and about 50% weight loss was observed at 400°C.     

Measuring the work of adhesion between a soft confined film and a flexible plate

We present a theoretical and experimental study of a method for the determination of the adhesion strength between a thin elastomeric film bonded to a rigid substrate and a flexible plate in a geometry common in the peel test. In particular, we characterize the work of adhesion in terms of the length of an equilibrium crack, generated by a spacer of known thickness wedged between the flexible plate and adhesive film, and the elastic and geometric properties of the film and the plate. We treat both the limit of perfect bonding and that of perfect slippage at the interface of the adhesive film and the flexible plate. A series of experiments allow us to verify the theory quantitatively and thus validate our method, which ought to be of value in many technological situations.