Autonomously Sensing Hydrogels for the Rapid and Selective Detection of Pathogenic Bacteria

The development of a versatile approach for the rapid and sensitive detection of relevant pathogenic bacteria and autonomous signaling of the detection events in reporter hydrogel film coatings is reported. Exploiting chitosan hydrogel films equipped with chromogenic or fluorogenic reporter moieties, the presence of the Gram‐negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the Gram‐positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is sensed within 1 h by detecting the characteristic enzymes α‐glucosidase and elastase with limits of detection (LOD) <45 × 10⁻⁹m and <20 × 10⁻⁹m , respectively, for this observation time. The values for the LOD are two to three orders of magnitude smaller than the concentrations of the enzymes detected in the corresponding bacterial supernatants. The results show that the covalently conjugated reporter moieties are exclusively and efficiently reacted by the associated enzyme, allowing in principle for discrimination among different types of bacteria. Since high enzyme concentrations are a result of proliferating bacteria, e.g., in wounds or food, and since the selectivity of the reporting function is easily adapted to bacteria of choice, these reporter hydrogels comprise an interesting platform for the rapid detection of bacteria.

     

Dapholidins A – C,New Isomeric Biisoflavonoids From Daphne oleoides

Three new isomeric biisoflavonoids, dapholidins A–C ( 1 – 3 , resp.), have been isolated from the AcOEt‐soluble fraction of the MeOH‐soluble extract of the roots of Daphne oleoides, along with the known compounds daphwazirin ( 4 ), daphnetin 8‐O‐β‐D ‐glucopyranoside ( 5 ), daphnin ( 6 ), daphneticin 4″‐O‐β‐D ‐glucopyranoside ( 7 ), and 6,7‐dihydroxy‐3‐methoxy‐8‐[2‐oxo‐2H‐1‐benzopyran‐7‐(O‐β‐D ‐glucopyranosyl)‐8‐yl]‐2H‐1‐benzopyran‐2‐one ( 8 ). The structures of the new compounds were determined by spectroscopic analyses, including 1D‐ and 2D‐NMR.     

Efficient Synthesis of Urea Derivatives via a Sequential One-Pot Nucleophilic Addition/Ugi Five-Component Reaction Under Solvent-Free Conditions

Urea polyfunctional derivatives were successfully synthesized via a one-pot, five-component nucleophilic addition/Ugi reaction sequence. Simplicity, solvent-free conditions, and good yields of products are advantages of this method.     

Cobalt Single‐Atom Catalysts with High Stability for Selective Dehydrogenation of Formic Acid

Metal–organic framework (MOF)‐derived Co‐N‐C catalysts with isolated single cobalt atoms have been synthesized and compared with cobalt nanoparticles for formic acid dehydrogenation. The atomically dispersed Co‐N‐C catalyst achieves superior activity, better acid resistance, and improved long‐term stability compared with nanoparticles synthesized by a similar route. High‐angle annular dark‐field–scanning transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance, and X‐ray absorption fine structure characterizations reveal the formation of Co^IIN_x centers as active sites. The optimal low‐cost catalyst is a promising candidate for liquid H₂ generation.     

Simple Electrochemical Characterization of ortho‐Carborane and some of its exo‐Skeletal Derivatives

Electrochemical behaviour of 12 icosahedral carboranes – ortho‐, meta‐ and para‐carborane with different exo‐skeletal substituents was investigated. The study was done using phosphate buffers, in some cases with 20 % and 30 % dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) addition to increase the solubility of studied compounds. Commercial glassy carbon electrode or home‐made screen printed electrodes were used. Distinct electrochemical responses were observed only for the ortho‐carborane and its exo‐skeletal derivatives. The study of different exo‐skeletal substituents on the electrochemical behaviour of the carboranes is crucial for the intended use of these compounds as electrochemical labels of biomolecules.     

Enhanced electrochemical performance of LSCF cathode through selection of optimum fabrication parameters

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of three key fabrication parameters (thickness, solid content, and sintering temperature) on the...     

Unexpected products from the reaction of chalcones with cyanoguanidine

A new series of unexpected dihydrochalcones DHCs attached with cyanoiminopyrimidine moiety in addition to expected cyanoaminopyrimidines CAMPs were synthesized by efficient and facile method via reaction of cyanoguanidine with chalcone derivatives in the presence of EtONa.     

An off-line NMPC strategy for continuous-time nonlinear systems using an extended modal series method

This paper presents a new off-line nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) approach for continuous-time affine-input nonlinear systems. In this approach, the NMPC-related nonlinear two-point boundary value problem derived from the Pontryagin’s maximum principle is solved by the extended modal series method. The resulting suboptimal control law explicitly depends on the initial conditions and is updated by replacing the initial conditions with the new state measurements in future sampling instants. Therefore, there is no need to repeat the recursive online optimization process in each sampling instant. Since the applicability of NMPC is generally restricted by computational burden of the online optimization, we propose an NMPC scheme, which not only reduces the online computational burden significantly, but also can be applied to fast dynamic systems with short prediction horizons. An efficient algorithm is presented which approximates the order of the modal series such that feasibility of the optimization problem is guaranteed. Closed-loop stability of the proposed NMPC approach is shown using the off-line terminal region calculations suggested in quasi-infinite horizon NMPC scheme. The applicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach are illustrated by two numerical examples.     

Homotopy simulation of nanofluid dynamics from a non-linearly stretching isothermal permeable sheet with transpiration

In this article we derive semi-analytical/numerical solutions for transport phenomena (momentum, heat and mass transfer) in a nanofluid regime adjacent to a nonlinearly porous stretching sheet by means of the Homotopy analysis method (HAM). The governing equations are reduced to a nonlinear, coupled, non-similar, ordinary differential equation system via appropriate similarity transformations. This system is solved under physically realistic boundary conditions to compute stream function, velocity, temperature and concentration function distributions. The results of the present study are compared with numerical quadrature solutions employing a shooting technique with excellent correlation. Furthermore the current HAM solutions demonstrate very good correlation with the non-transpiring finite element solutions of Rana and Bhargava (Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simul. 17:212–226, 2012). The influence of stretching parameter, transpiration (wall suction/injection) Prandtl number, Brownian motion parameter, thermophoresis parameter and Lewis number on velocity, temperature and concentration functions is illustrated graphically. Transpiration is shown to exert a substantial influence on flow characteristics. Applications of the study include industrial nanotechnological fabrication processes.