A note on the justification of the eddy current model in electrodynamics

The issue of justifying the eddy current approximation of Maxwell's equations is reconsidered in the time‐dependent setting. Convergence of the solution operators is shown in the sense of strong operator limits.     

PSAQ™ standards for accurate MS–based quantification of proteins: from the concept to biomedical applications

Absolute protein quantification, i.e. determining protein concentrations in biological samples, is essential to our understanding of biological and physiopathological phenomena. Protein quantification methods based on the use of antibodies are very effective and widely used. However, over the last ten years, absolute protein quantification by mass spectrometry has attracted considerable interest, particularly for the study of systems biology and as part of biomarker development. This interest is mainly linked to the high multiplexing capacity of MS analysis, and to the availability of stable‐isotope‐labelled standards for quantification. This article describes the details of how to produce, control the quality and use a specific type of standard: Protein Standard Absolute Quantification (PSAQ?) standards. These standards are whole isotopically labelled proteins, analogues of the proteins to be assayed. PSAQ standards can be added early during sample treatment, thus they can correct for protein losses during sample prefractionation and for incomplete sample digestion. Because of this, quantification of target proteins is very accurate and precise using these standards. To illustrate the advantages of the PSAQ method, and to contribute to the increase in its use, selected applications in the biomedical field are detailed here. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extrusion Based 3D Printing of Sustainable Biocomposites from Biocarbon and Poly(trimethylene terephthalate)

Three-dimensional (3D) printing manufactures intricate computer aided designs without time and resource spent for mold creation. The rapid growth of this industry has led to its extensive use in the automotive, biomedical, and electrical industries. In this work, biobased poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) blends were combined with pyrolyzed biomass to create sustainable and novel printing materials. The Miscanthus biocarbon (BC), generated from pyrolysis at 650 °C, was combined with an optimized PTT blend at 5 and 10 wt % to generate filaments for extrusion 3D printing. Samples were printed and analyzed according to their thermal, mechanical, and morphological properties. Although there were no significant differences seen in the mechanical properties between the two BC composites, the optimal quantity of BC was 5 wt % based upon dimensional stability, ease of printing, and surface finish. These printable materials show great promise for implementation into customizable, non-structural components in the electrical and automotive industries.     

Capturing Ridge Functions in High Dimensions from Point Queries

Constructing a good approximation to a function of many variables suffers from the “curse of dimensionality”. Namely, functions on ℝ ^N with smoothness of order s can in general be captured with accuracy at most O(n ^−s/N ) using linear spaces or nonlinear manifolds of dimension n. If N is large and s is not, then n has to be chosen inordinately large for good accuracy. The large value of N often precludes reasonable numerical procedures. On the other hand, there is the common belief that real world problems in high dimensions have as their solution, functions which are more amenable to numerical recovery. This has led to the introduction of models for these functions that do not depend on smoothness alone but also involve some form of variable reduction. In these models it is assumed that, although the function depends on N variables, only a small number of them are significant. Another variant of this principle is that the function lives on a low dimensional manifold. Since the dominant variables (respectively the manifold) are unknown, this leads to new problems of how to organize point queries to capture such functions. The present paper studies where to query the values of a ridge function f(x)=g(a⋅x) when both a∈ℝ ^N and g∈C[0,1] are unknown. We establish estimates on how well f can be approximated using these point queries under the assumptions that g∈C ^s [0,1]. We also study the role of sparsity or compressibility of a in such query problems.     

6,6′-Dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine-4-ester: A pivotal synthon for building tethered bipyridine ligands

We describe an efficient and scalable synthesis of 4-carbomethoxy-6,6′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine starting from easily available substituted 2-halopyridines and based on the application of modified Negishi cross-coupling conditions. This compound is a versatile starting material for the synthesis of 4-functionalized 2,2′-bipyridines bearing halide, alcohol, amine, and other functionalities, suitable for conjugation to biological material (2a-c, 3a-g). The utility of this compound in the construction of more complex architectures was further demonstrated by the synthesis of two bifunctional lanthanide chelators; an open chain ligand based on one 2,2′-bipyridine unit and a cryptand based on three 2,2′-bipyridine units [N₂(bpy)₃COOMe]. In the field of luminophoric biolabels, the photophysical properties of the corresponding Eu(III) cryptate are reported.     

Deep inelastic electron scattering on light nuclei

Czechoslovak Journal of Physics -