In situ electron-beam polymerization stabilized quantum dot micelles

A polymerizable amphiphile polymer containing PEG was synthesized and used to encapsulate quantum dots in micelles. The quantum dot micelles were then polymerized using a "clean" electron beam process that did not require any post-irradiation purification. Fluorescence spectroscopy revealed that the polymerized micelles provided an organic coating that preserved the quantum dot fluorescence better than nonpolymerized micelles, even under harsh conditions.     

N,N-Diethanolaminomethyl Polystyrene: An Efficient Solid Support to Immobilize Boronic Acids

The key to the efficiency of N,N-diethanolaminomethyl polystyrene (DEAM-PS), the first solid support capable of coupling to boronic acids, is the formation of a stable, resin-bound boronic ester ate adduct (see scheme). With this resin it is now possible to efficiently immobilize a wide variety of boronic acids including functionalized ones that can be derivatized by solid-phase combinatorial synthesis.     

Controlled Release of a Micelle Payload via Sequential Enzymatic and Bioorthogonal Reactions in Living Systems

A bioorthogonal approach is explored to release the content of nanoparticles on demand. Exploiting our recently described click‐and‐release technology, we developed a new generation of cleavable micelles able to disassemble through a sequential enzymatic and bioorthogonal activation process. Proof‐of‐concept experiments showed that this new approach could be successfully used to deliver the substances encapsulated into micelles in living cells as well as in mice by two complementary targeted strategies.     

Size effect of gold nanoparticles supported on carbon nanotube as catalysts in selected organic reactions

Carbon nanotube-supported gold nanoparticles of different sizes (diameter of 3 or 20 nm) were evaluated as catalysts in four selected organic transformations. The nanohybrids were shown to efficiently catalyze the investigated reactions, regardless of the size of the supported gold nanoparticles. However, some differences were observed as regards turnover frequency values although size effect turned out to be less significant when only gold surface atoms were considered.     

Investigation of the quantitative properties of the quadrupole orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometer with electrospray ionisation using 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine

This paper describes the investigation of the potential of a quadrupole orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometer (Q-TOF) equipped with an atmospheric pressure ionisation interface for quantitative measurements of small molecules separated by reversed phase liquid chromatography. To this end, the detection limits and linear dynamic range in particular were studied in an LC/MS/MS experiment using 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine standards and 3,4-methylenedioxyethylamphetamine for internal standardisation. In a second phase, the experiment was repeated with real biological extracts (whole blood, serum, and vitreous humour). A calibration for 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and its metabolite 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine was prepared in each of these matrices again using 3,4-methylenedioxyethylamphetamine as internal standard. The resulting quantitative data were compared with those obtained by liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection for the same extracts. The Q-TOF results revealed excellent sensitivity and a linear dynamic range of nearly four decades (2-10 000 pg on-column, r(2) = 0.9998, 1/x weighting). Furthermore, all the calibration curves prepared in biological material were superimposable, LC/MS/MS and LC-fluorescence, and the quantitative results for actual samples compared very favourably. It was concluded that the Q-TOF achieves a linear dynamic range for quantitative LC/MS/MS work exceeding that of fluorescence detection and at much better absolute sensitivity. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pareto memetic algorithm for multiple objective optimization with an industrial application

Multiple objective combinatorial optimization problems are difficult to solve and often, exact algorithms are unable to produce optimal solutions. The development of multiple objective heuristics was inspired by the need to quickly produce acceptable solutions. In this paper, we present a new multiple objective Pareto memetic algorithm called PMS^MO. The PMS^MO algorithm incorporates an enhanced fine-grained fitness assignment, a double level archiving process and a local search procedure to improve performance. The performance of PMS^MO is benchmarked against state-of-the-art algorithms using 0–1 multi-dimensional multiple objective knapsack problem from the literature and an industrial scheduling problem from the aluminum industry.