Carbohydrate-based nanostructured catalysts: applications in organic transformations

The requirement of green and sustainable materials to prepare heterogeneous catalysts has intensified for practical reasons over the past few decades. Carbohydrates are possibly the most plentiful and renewable organic materials in nature with inimitable physiochemical properties, plausible low-cost and large-scale production, and sustainability features could be exploited in the generation of nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts. This review article outlines the organic transformations catalyzed by diverse carbohydrate-based nanostructured catalysts in greener and environmentally friendly processes. Selected examples are highlighted for a variety of organic reactions exploiting the proposed catalysts’ reactivity and reusability, and interactions with the intrinsic nature of the applied carbohydrate supports; advantages and speculated challenges of the introduced catalysts are deliberated as well.     

Immobilizing redox enzymes at mesoporous and nanostructured electrodes

Three key challenges are stimulating intensive research in the development of productive direct electron transfer mode enzyme electrodes: proper enzyme orientation, high enzyme loading, and full retention of enzyme activity. In this review, we summarize some significant advances that have been reported in the last years on the design of mesoporous and nanostructured electrodes as enzyme scaffolds and of innovative methodologies for wiring enzymes to electrodes. Particular attention is given to investigations on physical factors that determine a favorable enzyme immobilization, to provide rational guidelines for the design of productive enzymatic electrodes. Finally, some emerging trends focused on the spatial organization of either single enzymes or enzyme cascades are also briefly addressed.     

An accelerated minimal gradient method with momentum for strictly convex quadratic optimization

BIT Numerical Mathematics - In this article we address the problem of minimizing a strictly convex quadratic function using a novel iterative method. The new algorithm is based on the well-known...     

On the efficacy of charging a battery using a chaotic energy harvester

Nonlinear Dynamics - Introduction of stiffness nonlinearities to broaden the frequency bandwidth of vibratory energy harvesters has the adverse influence of complicating the response behavior of...     

Experimental investigation and numerical simulation of the influence of resonator-length detuning on the output power,pulse duration and spectral width of a cw mode-locked picosecond optical parametric oscillator

We report on a cw mode-locked non-critically phase matched KTP optical parametric oscillator synchronously pumped by a picosecond Ti:Sapphire laser. High average signal output power of up to 950 mW over a large tuning range has been achieved. For this OPO the influence of resonator-length detuning on the output power, pulse duration and spectral bandwidth has been investigated. The measured data are in good agreement with the results of a numerical simulation using a split-step Fourier method which considers the group-velocity mismatch, the group-velocity dispersion and the self-phase modulation. The numerical simulation also describes the measured strong pump depletion and its influence on the OPO output and efficiency.     

Surfaces of Constant Mean Curvature Bounded by Two Planar Curves

In this paper we study constant mean curvature compact surfaces with two Jordan curves in parallel planes as boundary and we investigate the point at which the surface inherits the symmetries of its boundary.     

Conceptual continuity as a mode of understanding complex systems: Applications to the dynamics sociopolitical systems

In complex biological systems, entities that are conceptually distinct but empirically related—such as sunlight and plant growth or antigene and immune response—are being explicitly linked through the identification of highly specific uninterrupted interaction sequences that take place between their macromolecular system components. These uninterrupted sequences of causation include common elements that are shared by the empirically related but conceptually distinct entities. Through the identification of specific shared elements, “conceptual continuity” is established between these entities. Examples are introduced to suggest that in sociopolitical systems, an analogous conceptual continuity can be established between distinct sociopolitical entities. The identification of specific shared elements, essential for the well being of each of the entities, can play a significant role in resolving conflicts between those separated by seemingly insurmountable obstacles such as race or religion or ideology. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 11:20–24, 2006     

Embedded eigenvalues of Sturm Liouville operators

In this work we study the behavior of embedded eigenvalues of Sturm-Liouville problems in the half axis under local perturbations. When the derivative of the spectral function is strictly positive, we prove that the embedded eigenvalues either disappear or remain fixed. In this case we show that local perturbations cannot add eigenvalues in the continuous spectrum. If the condition on the spectral function is removed then a local perturbation can add infinitely many eigenvalues.