Immobilization of functional light antenna structures derived from the filamentous green bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus

The integration of highly efficient, natural photosynthetic light antenna structures into engineered systems while their biophotonic capabilities are maintained has been an elusive goal in the design of biohybrid photonic devices. In this study, we report a novel technique to covalently immobilize nanoscaled bacterial light antenna structures known as chlorosomes from Chloroflexus aurantiacus on both conductive and nonconductive glass while their energy transducing functionality was maintained. Chlorosomes without their reaction centers (RCs) were covalently immobilized on 3-aminoproyltriethoxysilane (APTES) treated surfaces using a glutaraldehyde linker. AFM techniques verified that the chlorosomes maintained their native ellipsoidal ultrastructure upon immobilization. Results from absorbance and fluorescence spectral analysis (where the Stokes shift to 808/810 nm was observed upon 470 nm blue light excitation) in conjunction with confocal microscopy confirm that the functional integrity of immobilized chlorosomes was also preserved. In addition, experiments with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) suggested that the presence of chlorosomes in the electrical double layer of the electrode enhanced the electron transfer capacity of the electrochemical cell. Further, chronoamperometric studies suggested that the reduced form of the Bchl- c pigments found within the chlorosome modulate the conduction properties of the electrochemical cell, where the oxidized form of Bchl- c pigments impeded any current transduction at a bias of 0.4 V within the electrochemical cell. The results therefore demonstrate that the intact chlorosomes can be successfully immobilized while their biophotonic transduction capabilities are preserved through the immobilization process. These findings indicate that it is feasible to design biophotonic devices incorporating fully functional light antenna structures, which may offer significant performance enhancements to current silicon-based photonic devices for diverse technological applications ranging from CCD devices used in retinal implants to terrestrial and space fuel cell applications.     

Performance of slotted pores in particle manufacture using rotating membrane emulsification

This paper addresses the use of different slotted pores in rotating membrane emulsification technology.Pores of square and rectangular shapes were studied to understand the effect of aspect ratio (1-3.5) and their orientation on oil droplet formation.Increasing the membrane rotation speed decreased the droplet size,and the oil droplets produced were more uniform using slotted pores as compared to circular geometry.At a given rotation speed,the droplet size was mainly determined by the pore size and the fluid velocity of oil through the pore (pore fluid velocity).The ratio of droplet diameter to the equivalent diameter of the slotted pore increased with the pore fluid velocity.At a given pore fluid velocity and rotation speed,pore orientation significantly influences the droplet formation rate: horizontally disposed pores (with their longer side perpendicular to the membrane axis) generate droplets at double the rate of vertically disposed pores.This work indicates practical benefits in the use of slotted membranes over conventional methods.     

On Combinatorial Structures Kept Fixed by the Action of a Given Permutation

Let β be a given permutation of [n]={1,2,...,n} of type (β₁, β₂,...,β_n) (i.e., β has β₁ cycles of length i; ∑iβ₁ = n. We find (in terms of the β₁'s and bijectively) the number of endofunctions, permutations, cyclic permutations, derangements, fixed point free involutions, assemblies of octopuses, octopuses, idempotent endofunctions, rooted trees (i.e. contractions), forests of rooted trees, trees, vertebrates, relations (digraphs), symmetric relations (simple graphs), partitions, and connected endofunctions on [n], kept fixed by the natural action (byconjugation) of β. This approach leads to algorithms generating these structures.     

Predicting thermal conductivity of liquid suspensions of nanoparticles (nanofluids) based on rheology

A methodology is proposed for predicting the effective thermal conductivity of dilute suspensions of nanoparticles (nanofluids) based on rheology.The methodology uses the rheological data to infer microstructures of nanoparticles quantitatively,which is then incorporated into the conventional Hamilton-Crosser equation to predict the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids.The methodology is experimentally validated using four types of nanofluids made of titania nanoparticles and titanate nanotubes dispersed in water and ethylene glycol.And the modified Hamilton-Crosser equation successfully predicted the effective thermal conductivity of the nanofluids.     

Hypergeometrics and the cost structure of quadtrees

Several characteristic parameters of randomly grown quadtrees of any dimension are analyzed. Additive parameters have expectations whose generating functions are expressible in terms of generalized hypergeometric functions. A complex asymptotic process based on singularity analysis and integral representations akin to Mellin transforms leads to explicit values for various structure constants related to path length, retrieval costs, and storage occupation.     

Une combinatoire sous-jacente au théorème des fonctions implicites

Using his theory of combinatorial species, [3.], 1–82 a combinatorial form of the classical multidimensional implicit function theorem. His theorem asserts the existence and (strong) unicity of species satisgying systems of combinatorial equations of a very general type. We present an explicit construction of these species by using a suitable combinatorial version of the Lie Series in the sense of [1. and 2.]. The approach constitutes a generalization of the method of “éclosions” (bloomings) which was used by the author in (J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 39, No. 1 (1985), 52–82), to study multidimensional power series reversion. Remarks concerning the applicability of the method to solve certain combinatorial differential equations are also made at the end of the work.     

Nanoporous metal organic framework materials for hydrogen storage

Hydrogen is expected to play an important role in future transportation as a promising alternative clean energy source to carbon-based fuels.One of the key challenges to commercialize hydrogen energy is to develop appropriate onboard hydrogen storage systems,capable of charging and discharging large quantities of hydrogen with fast enough kinetics to meet commercial requirements.Metal organic framework (MOF) is a new type of inorganic and organic hybrid nanoporous particulate materials.Its diverse networks can enhance hydrogen storage through tuning the structure and property of MOFs.The MOF materials so far developed adsorb hydrogen through weak disperston interactions,which allow significant quantity of hydrogen to be stored at cryogenic temperatures with fast kinetics.Novel MOFs are being developed to strengthen the interactions between hydrogen and MOFs in order to store hydrogen under ambient conditions.This review surveys the development of such candidate materials,their performance and future research needs.