Production and Characterization of a Novel Laccase with Cold Adaptation and High Thermal Stability from an Isolated Fungus

A new white-rot fungus SYBC-L1, which could produce an extracellular laccase, was isolated from a decayed Elaeocarpus sylvestris. The strain was identified as Pycnoporus sp. SYBC-L1 according to the morphological characteristics and ribosomal ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 RNA genomic sequence analysis. The highest laccase activity of 24.1 U ml⁻¹, which was approximately 40-fold than that in basal medium, was achieved in optimal culture medium in submerged fermentation. The laccase produced by Pycnoporus sp. SYBC-L1 was not only a cold adaptation enzyme with a relative catalytic activity of 30.2% at 0°C but also a high thermostable enzyme. The half-lives at 60, 70 and 80°C were 85.5, 37.2, and 2.6 h, respectively. The laccase could effectively decolorize weak acid blue AS and diamond black PV up to 88% and 74.7%, respectively, within 2 h in the absence of any redox mediators. The results suggested Pycnoporus sp. SYBC-L1 was a potential candidate for laccase production and industrial application.     

Analysis of hybrid donor layer in organic solar cells based on SubPc and rubrene

In this paper, photovoltaic characteristics of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/SubPc:Rubrene (mixed ratio R by weight)/C₆₀/Bphen/Ag organic solar cells (OSCs) are analyzed in detail. The intrinsic properties of a SubPc:rubrene doped layer on device performance were discussed based on theoretical analysis of the experimental OSCs. The ratio R was 0, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75,1, respectively. The results showed that when R was 0.75 performing the best, which owned the highest short circuit current (J _sc ) 6.61 mA/cm² and highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) 2.44%, the FF was 41% and the open circuit current (V _oc ) was 0.905 V. The suitable HOMO level, absorption capacity, carrier transport ability and exciton diffusion length (L _D ) of organic material are very important for the performance of the device.     

A disposable poly(methylmethacrylate)-based microfluidic module for protein identification by nanoelectrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry.

The design, fabrication, and analytical use of a poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA)-based microfluidic module for nanoelectrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (nano-ESI-MS/MS) were described. The microfluidic module can be mass-produced at low costs and used as a disposable device to generate nano-ESI-MS/MS signals for protein identification from low amounts of protein samples. Compared with commercially available nanospray capillary tips, the module gave comparable signal quality and also offered advantages in convenience and easiness of operation, permitting repeated usage, and disposability.     

The Evolution of MEMS Displays

Due to the advancement of microoptoelectromechanical systems and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technologies, novel display architectures have emerged. One of the most successful and well-known examples is the Digital Micromirror Device from Texas Instruments, a 2-D array of bistable MEMS mirrors, which function as spatial light modulators for the projection display. This concept of employing an array of modulators is also seen in the grating light valve and the interferometric modulator display, where the modulation mechanism is based on optical diffraction and interference, respectively. Along with this trend comes the laser scanning display, which requires a single scanning device with a large scan angle and a high scan frequency. A special example in this category is the retinal scanning display, which is a head-up wearable module that laser-scans the image directly onto the retina. MEMS technologies are also found in other display-related research, such as stereoscopic (3-D) displays and plastic thin-film displays.     

Improvements on the third generation of electron momentum spectrometer

The significant modifications to our recently constructed electron momentum spectrometer have been implemented. Compared with our previous report, the energy and the angle resolutions are significantly improved and reach △E = 0.45 eV, △θ = ±0.53° and △φ = ±0.84°, respectively. Moreover, the details of data reduction and the relation between azimuthal angle range and the sensitivity are discussed.     

Impulsive control of nonlinear systems with time-varying delays

A whole impulsive control scheme of nonlinear systems with time-varying delays, which is an extension for impulsive control of nonlinear systems without time delay, is presented in this paper. Utilizing the Lyapunov functions and the impulsive-type comparison principles, we establish a series of different conditions under which impulsively controlled nonlinear systems with time-varying delays are asymptotically stable. Then we estimate upper bounds of impulse interval and time-varying delays for asymptotically stable control. Finally a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the method.     

Scheme for implementing quantum dense coding with four-particle decoherence-free states in an ion trap

This paper proposes an experimentally feasible scheme for implementing quantum dense coding of trapped-ion system in decoherence-free states. As the phase changes due to time evolution of components with different eigenenergies of quantum superposition are completely frozen, quantum dense coding based on this model would be perfect. The scheme is insensitive to heating of vibrational mode and Bell states can be exactly distinguished via detecting the ionic state.     

Exponential stability of Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems with impulsive effects and small delays

This paper deals with the exponential stability of impulsive Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems with delay. Impulsive control and delayed fuzzy control are applied to the system, and the criterion on exponential stability expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities （LMIs） is presented.     

Multiferroic behaviour of epitaxial NiFe2O4--BaTiO3 heterostructures

Multiferroic NiFe2O4 （NFO）-BaTiO3 （BTO） bilayered thin films are epitaxially grown on （001） Nb-doped SrTiO3 （STO） substrates by pulsed-laser deposition （PLD）. Different growth sequences of NFO and BTO on the substrate yield two kinds of epitaxial heterostructures with （001）-orientation, i.e. （001）-NFO/（001）-BTO/substrate and （001）- BTO/（001）-NFO/substrate. Microstructure studies from x-ray diffraction （XRD） and electron microscopies show differences between these two heterostructures, which result in different multiferroic behaviours. The heterostructured composite films exhibit good coexistence of both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties, in particular, obvious magnetoelectric （ME） effect on coupling response.