Micro-fabricated metal nozzle plates used for water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsification

In this paper the fabrication and use of micro-structured metal nozzle plates as emulsification devices is investigated and discussed. These structured metal nozzle plates were fabricated via two distinct routes. Laser ablation, performed with a femtosecond laser, was used to drill micrometer-sized holes into stainless steel and aluminum foils. Also a conventional steel mesh with an average pore size of 2.4 μm fabricated by weaving and roll compaction of micrometer-sized steel wires was investigated. The perforated metal nozzle plates were used for oil-in-water and after hydrophobization with alkylchlorosilanes for water-in-oil emulsification as well. In both cases, two types of drop formation processes were observed. The first one is the shear-induced drop formation well known for cross-flow membrane emulsification. The second is the spontaneous drop formation known from microchannel emulsification.     

An Adaptive Wavelet Method for Solving High-Dimensional Elliptic PDEs

Adaptive tensor product wavelet methods are applied for solving Poisson’s equation, as well as anisotropic generalizations, in high space dimensions. It will be demonstrated that the resulting approximations converge in energy norm with the same rate as the best approximations from the span of the best N tensor product wavelets, where moreover the constant factor that we may lose is independent of the space dimension n. The cost of producing these approximations will be proportional to their length with a constant factor that may grow with n, but only linearly.     

Improving sample representativeness in environmental studies: a major component for the uncertainty budget

For environmental quality assessment, INAA has been applied for determining chemical elements in small (200 mg) and large (200 g) samples of leaves from 200 trees. By applying the Ingamells’ constant, the expected percent standard deviation was estimated in 0.9–2.2% for 200 mg samples. Otherwise, for composite samples (200 g), expected standard deviation varied from 0.5 to 10% in spite of analytical uncertainties ranging from 2 to 30%. Results thereby suggested the expression of the degree of representativeness as a source of uncertainty, contributing for increasing of the reliability of environmental studies mainly in the case of composite samples.     

A microfluidic membrane chip for in situ fouling characterization

A new method for non-invasive in situ monitoring of a microfiltration process is described. In microfiltration systems, local information on the deposition characteristics can be used to determine the cake behavior during a filtration run. Typically, non-invasive methods of fouling study are restricted to specialized membranes, or require highly complex systems. This study employs the use of synthetic embedded channel membranes, with channels separated by a porous structure (active membrane). The characteristics of the active membrane have been analyzed. Deposition on the membrane surface can be observed and monitored optically across the width of the feed channel. This can be used to observe the liquid hydrodynamics in the channel as well as the local cake properties in time. In dead end filtration, it has been observed that with 6 μm particles, the cake initially deposits towards the end of the membrane. However, as filtration continues, the deposition changes with more local deposition towards the channel entrance, leading to a more homogeneous cake layer.     

Reversible coordinative chain transfer polymerization of styrene by rare earth borohydrides,chlorides/dialkylmagnesium systems

The ability of various rare earth borohydride and chloride complexes/n‐butylethylmagnesium systems to operate styrene chain transfer polymerization in mild conditions has been assessed. Thirteen precatalysts have been considered: the rare earth trisborohydrides Ln(BH₄)₃(THF)_x (x = 3, Ln = Nd (1), La (2), Sm (3), x = 2, Ln = Y (4), Sc (5)), the rare earth chlorides LnCl₃(THF)_x (x = 3, Ln = Nd (6), La (7), Sm (8), Y (9), x = 2, Ln = Sc (10)), the mixed La(BH₄)₂Cl(THF)_2.6 (11) and the half‐lanthanidocenes Cp*Ln(BH₄)₂(THF)₂ (Ln = Nd (12), La (13)). Six systems were found to be active precatalysts for the polymerization of styrene. 1 , 2 , and 11 led to an efficient transmetalation of the growing polystyrene chain with the simultaneous occurrence of βH elimination, whereas 7 , 12 , and 13 led to catalyzed chain growth behavior. It is noteworthy that the catalyzed chain growth obtained with 12 and 13 occurs with significant stereoselectivity. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 802–814, 2010     

New Epoxy‐Substituted Nitrogenous Bisabolene‐Type Sesquiterpenes from a Hainan Sponge Axinyssa sp.

Two new uncommon epoxy‐substituted nitrogenous bisabolene‐type sesquiterpenes, 3‐formamido‐7,8‐epoxy‐α‐bisabolane ( 4 ), 3‐isocyano‐7,8‐epoxy‐α‐bisabolane ( 5 ), together with three known related sesquiterpenes, 1 – 3 , were isolated from the Hainan sponge Axinyssa sp. Their structures were determined on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analyses and by comparison of their NMR data with those of structurally related compounds.     

The kalimantacin/batumin biosynthesis operon encodes a self-resistance isoform of the FabI bacterial target

BatG is a trans-2-enoyl-ACP reductase, encoded in?the kalimantacin/batumin (kal/bat) biosynthesis operon. It is not essential for the production of the kal/bat secondary metabolite. Instead, BatG is an isoform of FabI, conferring full resistance to target bacteria. It also complements FabI in its role in fatty acid biosynthesis. The identification of FabI as the antibacterial target is important to assess clinical potential of the kalimantacin/batumin antibiotics against Staphylococcus aureus.     

Capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry of intact basic proteins using Polybrene-dextran sulfate-Polybrene-coated capillaries: System optimization and performance

A capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) method using sheath liquid electrospray ionization interfacing was studied and optimized for the analysis of intact basic proteins. To prevent protein adsorption, capillaries with a noncovalent positively charged coating were utilized. Capillaries were coated by subsequent rinsing with solutions of Polybrene, dextran sulfate and Polybrene. The coating proved to be fully compatible with MS detection, causing no background signals and ionization suppression. The composition of the sheath liquid and BGE was optimized using the model proteins α-chymotrypsinogen A, ribonuclease A, lysozyme and cytochrome c. A sheath liquid of isopropanol-water-acetic acid (75:25:0.1, v/v/v) at 2 μL min⁻¹ resulted in optimal signal intensities for most proteins, but caused dissociation of the heme group of cytochrome c. Optimum protein responses were obtained with a BGE of 50 mM acetic acid (pH 3.0), which allowed a baseline separation of the test protein mixture. Several minor impurities present in the mixture could be detected and provisionally identified using accurate mass and a protein modification database. The selectivity of the CE-MS system was investigated by the analysis of acetylated lysozyme. Eight highly related species, identified as non-acetylated lysozyme and lysozyme acetylated in various degrees, could be distinguished. The CE-MS system showed good reproducibility yielding interday (three weeks period) RSDs for migration time and peak area within 2% and 10%, respectively. With the CE-MS system, determination coefficients (R²) for protein concentration and peak area were higher than 0.996, whereas detection limits were between 11 and 19 nM.     

Fluorescence monitoring of microchip capillary electrophoresis separation with monolithically integrated waveguides

Using femtosecond laser writing, optical waveguides were monolithically integrated into a commercial microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device, with the waveguides intersecting a microfluidic channel. Continuous-wave laser excitation through these optical waveguides confines the excitation window to a width of 12 microm, enabling high-resolution monitoring of the passage of different types of fluorescent analytes when migrating and being separated in the microfluidic channel by microchip capillary electrophoresis. Furthermore, we demonstrate on-chip-integrated waveguide excitation and detection of a biologically relevant species, fluorescently labeled DNA molecules, during microchip capillary electrophoresis. Well-controlled plug formation as required for on-chip integrated capillary electrophoresis separation of DNA molecules, and the combination of waveguide excitation and a low limit of detection, will enable monitoring of extremely small quantities with high spatial resolution.