An Organic Soluble Lipase for Water-Free Synthesis of Biodiesel

Lipase AK was modified with short alkyl chains to form a highly organic soluble enzyme and was used to catalyze the synthesis of biodiesel from soybean oil in organic media. The effects of several key factors including water content, temperature, and solvent were examined for the solubilized enzyme in comparison with several other commercially available lipases. Whereas native lipases showed no activity in the absence of water, the organic soluble lipase demonstrated reaction rates of up to 33 g-product/g-enzyme h. The biocatalyst remains soluble in the biodiesel product, and therefore, there is no need to be removed because it is expected to be burned along with the diesel in combustion engines. This provides a promising one-pot mix-and-use strategy for biodiesel production.     

An iterated-tabu-search heuristic for a variant of the partial set covering problem

In this paper, we propose a heuristic algorithm to solve a new variant of the partial set covering problem. In this variant, each element $e_i$ has a gain $g_i$ (i.e., a positive profit), each set $s_j$ has a cost $c_j$ (i.e., a negative profit), and each set $s_j$ is part of a unique group $G_k$ that has a fixed cost $f_k$ (i.e., a negative profit). The objective is to maximize profit and it is not necessary to cover all of the elements. We present an industrial application of the model and propose a hybrid heuristic algorithm to solve it; the proposed algorithm is an iterated-local-search algorithm that uses two levels of perturbations and a tabu-search heuristic. Whereas the first level of perturbation diversifies the search around the current local optimum, the second level of perturbation performs long jumps in the search space to help escape from local optima with large basins of attraction. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on thirty real-world problems and compared to a memetic algorithm. Computational results show that most of the solutions found by ITS are either optimal or very close to optimality.     

Maximum distance separable codes over {\mathbb{Z}_4} and {\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_4}

Known upper bounds on the minimum distance of codes over rings are applied to the case of ${\mathbb Z_{2}\mathbb Z_{4}}$ -additive codes, that is subgroups of ${\mathbb Z_{2}^{\alpha}\mathbb Z_{4}^{\beta}}$ . Two kinds of maximum distance separable codes are studied. We determine all possible parameters of these codes and characterize the codes in certain cases. The main results are also valid when ?? = 0, namely for quaternary linear codes.     

Fluorescent one-dimensional nanostructures from a group of uniform materials based on organic salts

Herein we report the synthesis of a fluorescent organic salt through anion exchange and the subsequent fabrication of 1D-nanostructures via a facile templating method.     

A modified fractional least mean square algorithm for chaotic and nonstationary time series prediction

A method of modifying the architecture of fractional least mean square （FLMS） algorithm is presented to work with nonlinear time series prediction. Here we incorporate an adjustable gain parameter in the weight adaptation equation of the original FLMS algorithm and absorb the gamma function in the fractional step size parameter. This approach provides an interesting achievement in the performance of the filter in terms of handling the nonlinear problems with less computational burden by avoiding the evaluation of complex gamma function. We call this new algorithm as the modified fractional least mean square （MFLMS） algorithm. The predictive performance for the nonlinear Mackey glass chaotic time series is observed and evaluated using the classical LMS, FLMS, kernel LMS, and proposed MFLMS adaptive filters. The simulation results for the time series with and without noise confirm the superiority and improvement in the prediction capability of the proposed MFLMS predictor over its counterparts.     

A general,flexible, ring closing metathesis (RCM) based strategy for accessing the fused furo[3,2-b]furanone moiety present in diverse bioactive natural products

A simple and straightforward methodology of general utility to construct sterically encumbered furo[3,2-b]furanone scaffolds present in a diverse range of bioactive natural products is delineated. The methodology emanates from readily available Morita–Baylis–Hillman adducts and employs sequential ring closing metathesis and oxy-Michael addition cascade as the key steps.     

KHSO4 · H2O/SiO2‐Catalyzed,One‐Pot,Solvent‐Free Synthesis of Pyrazolines,Tetrahydrocarbozoles and Indoles using Microwave Irradiation

A new high‐yielding, operationally simple, solvent‐free, and mild method for preparation of pyrazolines, tetrahydrocarbazoles, and indoles has been developed using KHSO₄ · H₂O impregnated on SiO₂. The reactions have been probed under microwave irradiation (MWI), and ultrasonic and thermal conditions, employing different solid supports. The data revealed that KHSO₄ · H₂O impregnated on SiO₂ under MWI provides the best yields in a shorter time under solvent‐free reaction conditions.     

Simple flat Leavitt path algebras are von Neumann regular

For a unital ring, it is an open question whether flatness of simple modules implies all modules are flat and thus the ring is von Neumann regular. The question was raised by Ramamurthi over 40?years ago who called such rings SF-rings (i.e. simple modules are flat). In this note we show that an SF Steinberg algebra of an ample Hausdorff groupoid, graded by an ordered group, has an aperiodic unit space. For graph groupoids, this implies that the graphs are acyclic. Combining with the Abrams–Rangaswamy Theorem, it follows that SF Leavitt path algebras are regular, answering Ramamurthi’s question in positive for the class of Leavitt path algebras.     

Adsorption and conformation behavior of biotinylated fibronectin on streptavidin-modified TiO(X) surfaces studied by SPR and AFM

It is well-known that protein-modified implant surfaces such as TiO(2) show a higher bioconductivity. Fibronectin is a glycoprotein from the extracellular matrix (ECM) with a major role in cell adhesion. It can be applied on titanium oxide surfaces to accelerate implant integration. Not only the surface concentration but also the presentation of the protein plays an important role for the cellular response. We were able to show that TiO(X) surfaces modified with biotinylated fibronectin adsorbed on a streptavidin-silane self-assembly multilayer system are more effective regarding osteoblast adhesion than surfaces modified with nonspecifically bound fibronectin. The adsorption and conformation behavior of biotinylated and nonbiotinylated (native) fibronectin was studied by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Imaging of the protein modification revealed that fibronectin adopts different conformations on nonmodified compared to streptavidin-modified TiO(X) surfaces. This conformational change of biotinylated fibronectin on the streptavidin monolayer delivers a fibronectin structure similar to the conformation inside the ECM and therefore explains the higher cell affinity for these surfaces.