Spectrophotometric and voltammetric characterization of a novel selective electroactive chemosensor for Mg2+

A novel azocalix[4]arene derivative, 5,11,17,23-tetrakis[(acetophenone)azo]-25,26,27,28-tetrahydroxycalix[4]arene (APC4), containing acetophenone azo groups at the upper rim was synthesized as a chemosensor. Its binding and sensing properties with alkali and alkaline earth metal ions (Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Rb⁺, Cs⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Sr²⁺, Ba²⁺) were investigated by UV-vis spectrophotometric and voltammetric techniques. The stoichiometric ratio and the association constant were determined spectrophotometrically as 1:1 and (1.94±0.31)×10⁵ L mol^?1 for the complex between Mg²⁺ and the chemosensor, respectively. Moreover, it was shown that the interaction between Mg²⁺ and the APC4 occurred by means of the phenol groups at the lower rim by voltammetric methods. The results of spectrophotometric and voltammetric experiments showed that the chromogenic chemosensor has high selectivity towards Mg²⁺ among the other used metal ions, especially the interfering Ca²⁺ ion.      

Enzyme‐Catalyzed Crosslinking in a Partly Frozen State: A New Way to Produce Supermacroporous Protein Structures

In this study a new way to produce supermacroporous protein structures was investigated. Enzyme‐mediated crosslinking of gelatin or casein was performed in a partly frozen state, which yielded stable, protein‐based cryogels. The reaction kinetics for the formation of cryogels were found to be fairly slow, most likely due to the low temperature (?12 °C) used or due to an increased viscosity owing to the cryo‐concentration taking place. The produced cryogels were characterized with regards to their physical properties and in vitro degradation. Furthermore, cryogels produced from gelatin and casein were evaluated as potential scaffolds by fibroblast cultivation to confirm their in vitro biocompatibility. Gelatin‐ and casein‐based scaffolds both supported cell proliferation and migration through the scaffold.

     

Optimization of Multilevel Investments Using Dynamic Programming Based on Fuzzy Cash Flows

Dynamic programming is applicable to any situation where items from several groups must be combined to form an entity, such as a composite investment or a transportation route connecting several districts. The most desirable entity is constructed in stages by forming sub-entities of progressively larger size. At each stage of the development, the sub-entities that are candidates for inclusion in the most desirable entity are retained, and all other sub-entities are discarded. In deterministic dynamic programming, a specification of the current state and current decision is enough to tell us with certainty the new state and costs during the current stage. In many practical problems, these factors may not be known with certainty, even if the current state and decision are known. In this paper, the dynamic programming is applied to the situation where each investment in the set has the following characteristics: the amount to be invested has several possible values, and the rate of return varies with the amount invested. Each sum that may be invested represents a distinct level of investment, and the investment therefore has multiple levels. A fuzzy present worth based dynamic programming approach is used. A numeric example for a multilevel investment with fuzzy geometric cash flows is given. A computer software named FUZDYN is developed for various problems such as alternatives having different lives, different uniform cash flows, and different ranking methods.     

Sequential tracking of a hidden Markov chain using point process observations

We study finite horizon optimal switching problems for hidden Markov chain models with point process observations. The controller possesses a finite range of strategies and attempts to track the state of the unobserved state variable using Bayesian updates over the discrete observations. Such a model has applications in economic policy making, staffing under variable demand levels and generalized Poisson disorder problems. We show regularity of the value function and explicitly characterize an optimal strategy. We also provide an efficient numerical scheme and illustrate our results with several computational examples.     

Determination of 5‐Aminosalicylic Acid by Catalase‐Peroxidase Based Biosensor

5‐Aminosalicylic acid is an antiinflammatory drug used to treat inflammation of the digestive tract (Crohn's disease) and mild to moderate ulcerative‐colitis. 5‐Aminosalicylic acid is a bowel‐specific aminosalicylate drug. It was developed an amperometric biosensor for determination of 5‐aminosalicylic acid concentration and measurement technique is based on substrate‐competition. The biosensor is more suitable especially for routine 5‐aminosalicylic acid analysis because it is simple to construct and sensitive, specific and does not require any expensive apparatus. This enzyme based biosensor was made with a couple of enzymes which uses the same substrate. The electrode was developed to determine measurement conditions and also characterized.     

A bio-imprinted ascorbate oxidase biosensor

Interest in bio-imprinting techniques has increased because it allows some stability characteristics of enzymes to be improved. In this study, we developed a simple way to improve the thermal and pH stabilities of ascorbate oxidase biosensor. The membrane of a Clark oxygen electrode was coated by a bioactive layer containing ascorbate oxidase and gelatin cross-linked by glutaraldehyde. Citrate was used to imprint the ascorbate oxidase molecularly. The optimum temperature and pH of both unmodified and citrate modified biosensors were investigated, by comparing their resulting stability. Also, calibration graphs and operational stabilities were compared with each other. The results showed that this simple way should be used to improve the stabilities of a biosensor.     

Forming and scheduling jobs with capacitated containers in semiconductor manufacturing: Single machine problem

We study a scheduling problem motivated by the challenges observed in the newest semiconductor manufacturing wafer fabrication facilities. As wafers are larger and heavier in these wafer fabs, it is becoming more common to use specialized material handling containers that carry multiple orders coming from different customers and to schedule the containers as jobs in the fab. The system performance is a function of the completion times of orders, which ultimately depend on both (1) how the orders are assigned to such containers (“job formation”), and (2) how the containers are scheduled in the fab (“job scheduling”). The overall problem is to find the best way to form and schedule the jobs subject to complicating constraints, including the restrictions on the number of containers that can be used at one time and on the number of wafers the containers can carry. We focus on the single machine job formation and scheduling problem with the total completion time objective. We show that this problem is quite different from conventional parallel and serial batching scenarios and prove that the uncapacitated special case is polynomially solvable and the capacitated case is strongly NP-hard. We use a dynamic programming algorithm to solve the uncapacitated problem, which not only provides tight lower bounds for the capacitated problem, but also becomes a basis for a heuristic approach for the capacitated problem. The computational results show that this approach is very effective, leading to small optimality gaps that get even smaller as the problems become larger.     

Complexity and exact algorithms for vertex multicut in interval and bounded treewidth graphs

Multicut is a fundamental network communication and connectivity problem. It is defined as: given an undirected graph and a collection of pairs of terminal vertices, find a minimum set of edges or vertices whose removal disconnects each pair. We mainly focus on the case of removing vertices, where we distinguish between allowing or disallowing the removal of terminal vertices. Complementing and refining previous results from the literature, we provide several NP-completeness and (fixed-parameter) tractability results for restricted classes of graphs such as trees, interval graphs, and graphs of bounded treewidth.