Quantification of Structural Integrity and Stability Using Nanograms of Protein by Flow-Induced Dispersion Analysis

In the development of therapeutic proteins, analytical assessment of structural stability and integrity constitutes an important activity, as protein stability and integrity influence drug efficacy, and ultimately patient safety. Existing analytical methodologies solely rely on relative changes in optical properties such as fluorescence or scattering upon thermal or chemical perturbation. Here, we present an absolute analytical method for assessing protein stability, structure, and unfolding utilizing Taylor dispersion analysis (TDA) and LED-UV fluorescence detection. The developed TDA method measures the change in size (hydrodynamic radius) and intrinsic fluorescence of a protein during in-line denaturation with guanidinium hydrochloride (GuHCl). The conformational stability of the therapeutic antibody adalimumab and human serum albumin were characterized as a function of pH. The simple workflow and low sample consumption (40 ng protein per data point) of the methodology make it ideal for assessing protein characteristics related to stability in early drug development or when having a scarce amount of sample available.     

Effect of Initial Frequency Chirp on Supercontinuum Generation in Dispersion-flattened Fibers

. Supercontinuum generation in dispersion-flattened fibers is studied theoretically. It is found that the flat spectral width of the supercontinuum generation in normal dispersion-flattened fiber can be increased from 66 nm to over 100 nm when the absolute value of the initial frequency chirps is increased from zero to 10. It is further found that initial frequency chirps are adverse to flat and wideband supercontinuum generation in anomalous dispersion-flattened fiber, and when the absolute value of the frequency chirps is increased to a certain degree, supercontinuum spectrum even can not be achieved.     

On the development of a triple‐preserving Maxwell's equations solver in non‐staggered grids

We present in this paper a finite difference solver for Maxwell's equations in non‐staggered grids. The scheme formulated in time domain theoretically preserves the properties of zero‐divergence, symplecticity, and dispersion relation. The mathematically inherent Hamiltonian can be also retained all the time. Moreover, both spatial and temporal terms are approximated to yield the equal fourth‐order spatial and temporal accuracies. Through the computational exercises, modified equation analysis and Fourier analysis, it can be clearly demonstrated that the proposed triple‐preserving solver is computationally accurate and efficient for use to predict the Maxwell's solutions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pulse broadening factor as a criterion to assess nonlinear penalty of 40-Gbit/s RZ-DQPSK signals in dynamic transparent optical networks

The real-time scheduling and routing in dynamic transparent optical networks requires fast and accurate evaluation of transmission penalty caused by nonlinear kerr effects with different dispersion maps. However, the conventional method using nonlinear phase shift can only be applied to assess the nonlinear penalty with optimized dispersion maps. In this paper, we introduce pulse broadening factor into the approach and propose a novel method to accurately evaluate nonlinear penalty and numerically investigate the feasibility of our novel method in 40-Gb/s Return-to-Zero Differential Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (RZ-DQPSK) systems. Simulation results show that our approach can achieve good evaluation performance even with non-optimized dispersion maps.     

Flattened chromatic dispersion in square photonic crystal fibers with low confinement losses

This research presents a simple index-guiding square photonic crystal fibers (SPCFs) that has a silica core surrounded by air hole with two different diameters. It is demonstrated that the designed two-different-size hole-arrayed index-guiding SPCFs has a ultra-flattened chromatic dispersion of 0 ± 0.9 ps/(nm·km) in a wavelength range of 1.34 to 1.61 μm and low confinement loss of less than 10⁻⁷ dB/m in a wavelength range of 1.2 to 1.7 μm. It has also been shown that the proposed SPCFs show reasonable dispersion tolerance.     

Charge transport and contact resistance in coplanar devices based on colloidal polyaniline dispersion

The charge transport properties of thin films prepared from colloidal dispersion of polyaniline stabilized by poly(N‐vinylpyrrolidone) (PANI/PVP) have been investigated. The electrical characterization of coplanar device comprising of gold electrodes and PANI/PVP film deposited by spin coating served to gain insights into the contact and bulk resistance. The films prepared from PANI/PVP colloidal dispersion show high stability over a large temperature range. Temperature dependent measurements in the range from 90 to 350 K reveal that the charge transport can be described by a three‐dimensional variable‐range hopping mechanism as the dominant mode in the films. The stability of the films cast from dispersion within a large temperature range opens the possibility of the application as a polymer semiconductor layer in sensors and charge‐transport interlayer in organic solar cells. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016 , 54, 1710–1716     

Position calculation of the frequency band gap in the finite photonic crystal with multiple alternations using boundary element method

In this paper, the wave transmission from finite photonic crystals with multiple alternations is investigated using boundary element method (BEM). Since that, in these structures the alternation is not in all directions of space; the investigations of the frequency band gap with desired accuracy are not practical by analytical methods. Also, the frequency dispersion of dielectric rods is an effective parameter in photonic crystals, which this effect in our calculations has been considered. Due to the high capabilities of the BEM, the transmitted wave spectrum in the photonic crystal is calculated by changing the geometrical and optical parameters of the photonic crystal and applying more alternation in its structure and the position and width of the frequency band gap is investigated. Then, it is assumed that the photonic crystal with an arbitrary angle is rotated around the axis which is perpendicular on the crystal cross section and then, it is irradiated with a plan wave. The band gap of the photonic crystals with the desired structure, desired rotation angle and multiple alternations have been solved. Very low information volume, high speed and accuracy during the calculation and useable for any desired structures are the characteristics of this method.     

Near-field-smoothing of periodic chirped pulse with applied angular dispersion

Periodic chirped pulse (PCP) with applied angular dispersion has been approved to be an efficient beam smoothing method in inertial confinement fusion. In this paper, the propagation characteristics of dispersed PCP in near field is analyzed theoretically and calculated numerically, and the results indict dispersed PCP is a motion beam, which can be applied to improve beam uniformity in near field. An experiment is carried out to validate the near-field-intensity smoothing effect of PCP.     

An efficient numerical method for the resolution of the Kirchhoff‐Love dynamic plate equation

We solve numerically the Kirchhoff‐Love dynamic plate equation for an anisotropic heterogeneous material using a spectral method. A mixed velocity‐moment formulation is proposed for the space approximation allowing the use of classical Lagrange finite elements. The benefit of using high order elements is shown through a numerical dispersion analysis. The system resulting from this spatial discretization is solved analytically. Hence this method is particularly efficient for long duration experiments. This time evolution method is compared with explicit and implicit finite differences schemes in terms of accuracy and computation time. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2005     

The effect of functionalization on structure and electrical conductivity of multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Nanosized powders of Ti-Nb oxide core-shell nanocrystals with atomic ratios of Nb/Ti = 0.11, 0.25, and 0.38 have been prepared by two preparation routes. The first route was co-precipitation, followed by␣annealing, using NbCl₅ as a source of Nb. The second route was coating of pure TiO₂ nanocrystals by Nb-isopropoxide in liquid medium, followed by impregnation of the Nb into the nanoparticles by annealing. Both methods yielded anatase nanocrystals with a Nb-rich shell and a core, which had much lower Nb loadings. The anatase structure solid solution (with Nb incorporated) was stable under annealing up to 760°C. The particle size remained within the nanometric scale (<50 nm) under heat-treatment up to 760°C. It has been shown that the fabricated powders can be redispersed in aqueous media by simple ultrasound treatment, resulting in nanosized dispersions. Using a variety of analytical techniques, including depth profiling of single nanocrystallites by AES combined with sputtering by Ar ions, the mechanism of the core-shell structure creation was studied. It is proposed that the formation of the core-shell structure is governed by solubility limitations in the co-precipitation route and by solubility and diffusion limitations in the coating-incorporation route.