Ionically conducting and environmentally safe gum Arabic as a high-performance gel-like electrolyte for solid-state supercapacitors

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The development of innovative gel electrolyte is nowadays considered one of the most important features for the realization of high-safety and...     

Investigation on the pre-compensation and post-compensation cascaded multi-channel-chirped fiber Bragg gratings for a repeaterless transmission system

We experimentally designed dispersion-managed repeaterless transmission systems with a pre-compensation and post-compensation technique using multi-channel-chirped fiber Bragg gratings. The repeaterless transmission link supports a single channel(1548.51 nm) with a 10 Gbps repeaterless transmission system over 300 km standard single-mode fiber(SSMF). In the system design, two distributed Raman amplifiers(DRAs) were used to improve the signal level propagated along the 300 km SSMF. The co-propagating DRA provided 15 dB on–off gain and the counter-propagating produced 32 dB on–off gain at the signal wavelength. The experiment results show that the post-compensation configuration achieves an optimal performance with a bit error rate at 1 × 10~(-9).     

Structural and functional analysis of a novel psychrophilic β-mannanase from Glaciozyma antarctica PI12

The structure of a novel psychrophilic β-mannanase enzyme from Glaciozyma antarctica PI12 yeast has been modelled and analysed in detail. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to model a psychrophilic β-mannanase from yeast. To this end, a 3D structure of the enzyme was first predicted using a threading method because of the low sequence identity (<30 %) using MODELLER9v12 and simulated using GROMACS at varying low temperatures for structure refinement. Comparisons with mesophilic and thermophilic mannanases revealed that the psychrophilic mannanase contains longer loops and shorter helices, increases in the number of aromatic and hydrophobic residues, reductions in the number of hydrogen bonds and salt bridges and numerous amino acid substitutions on the surface that increased the flexibility and its efficiency for catalytic reactions at low temperatures.     

The influence of PEEK as a pore former on the microstructure of brush-painted LSCF cathodes

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - At lower operation temperature of intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFC), polarization resistance was recognized as a limiting step...     

A validated LC‐MS/MS assay for simultaneous quantification of methotrexate and tofacitinib in rat plasma: application to a pharmacokinetic study

A highly sensitive, specific and rapid LC‐ESI‐MS/MS method has been developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of methotrexate (MTX) and tofacitinib (TFB) in rat plasma (50 μL) using phenacetin as an internal standard (IS), as per the US Food and Drug Administration guidelines. After a solid‐phase extraction procedure, the separation of the analytes and IS was performed on a Chromolith RP_18e column using an isocratic mobile phase of 5 m m ammonium acetate (pH 5.0) and acetonitrile at a ratio of 25:75 (v/v) using flow‐gradient with a total run time of 3.5 min. The detection was performed in multiple reaction monitoring mode, using the transitions of m/z 455.2 → 308.3, m/z 313.2 → 149.2 and m/z 180.3 → 110.2 for MTX, TFB and IS, respectively. The calibration curves were linear over the range of 0.49–91.0 and 0.40–74.4 ng/mL for MTX and TFB, respectively. The intra‐ and interday accuracy and precision values for MTX and TFB were <15% at low quality control (QC), medium QC and high QC and <20% at lower limit of quantification. The validated assay was applied to derive the pharmacokinetic parameters for MTX and TFB post‐dosing of MTX and TFB orally and intravenously to rats. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characterisation and performance of three promising heterogeneous catalysts in transesterification of palm oil

In this work, the performance of three heterogeneous catalysts, namely potassium hydroxide/γ-alumina, bulk calcium oxide, and nano-calcium oxide, in comparison with the homogeneous potassium hydroxide was studied in the transesterification of palm oil to produce methyl esters and glycerol. The physical and chemical properties of the heterogeneous catalysts were thoroughly characterised and determined using a number of analytical methods to assess their catalytic activities prior to transesterification. The reaction products were analysed using liquid chromatography and their properties were quantified based on the American Society of Testing and Materials and United State Pharmacopoeia standard methods. At the 65°C reaction temperature, the oil-to-methanol mole ratio of 1: 15, 2.5 h of the reaction time, and catalyst (φ _r = 1: 40), potassium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide/γ-alumina, nano-calcium oxide, and bulk calcium oxide gave methyl ester yields of 97 %, 96 %, 94 %, and 90 %, respectively. The impregnation of γ-alumina with potassium hydroxide displayed a catalytic performance comparable with the performance of potassium hydroxide where the former could be physically separated via filtration resulting in a relatively greater purity of products. Other advantages included the longer reusability of the catalyst and more active sites with lower by-product formation.