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Background: The trough concentration (Cmin) of Imatinib (IM) is closely related to the treatment outcomes and adverse reactions of patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). However, the drug plasma level has great inter- and intra-individual variability, and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is highly recommended. Objective: To develop a novel, simple, and economical two-dimensional liquid chromatography method with the ultraviolet detector (2D-LC-UV) for simultaneous determination of IM and its major active metabolite, N-desmethyl imatinib (NDIM) in human plasma, and then apply the method for TDM of the drug. Methods: The sample was processed by simple protein precipitation. Two target analytes were separated on the one-dimension column, captured on the middle column, and then transferred to the two-dimension column for further analysis. The detection was performed at 264 nm. The column temperature was maintained at 40˚C and the injection volume was 500 μL. Totally 32 plasma samples were obtained from patients with GIST who were receiving IM. Results: IM and NDIM were separated well from other impurities and the entire analytical time for each run was 12.0 min. The calibration curves had good linearity in the range of 33.5-2678.4 ng/mL for IM, and 20.0-1600.0 ng/mL for NDIM, respectively. The extraction efficiency was more than 95%. The acceptable accuracy, precision, recovery and stability were also obtained. The Cmin of the drug in patients was measured with the validated method. Conclusion: The novel 2D-LC-UV method is simple, stable, highly automated and independent of specialized technicians, which greatly increases the real-time capability of routine TDM for IM in hospital.

With hydrophobic associating polymer (BCG-1) and anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) solution as the object, this work studies the different polymer concentration and surfactant concentration on the influence law of fluid properties and examines the sand sedimentation rate and the correlation of fluid properties. After the liquid was tested by electron microscope and rheometer, it was found that the interaction between the surfactant and the polymer is with phases, which provided different angles for revealing the change rule of the deposition rate of sand. When the concentration of SDBS solution is in the second phase (0.05–0.2%), although the system property changes slightly and the microscopic morphology does not change greatly, the deposition rate of sand still decreases significantly. Relaxation time spectrometry explains that the reduction in the sedimentation rate of the sand is caused by the shift of the polymer chain motion mode, whereas the phase angle can clearly manifest this change, and the phase angle is highly correlated with the deposition rate of sand.

Background: There is no worldwide recognized reference internal quality control method for Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) of voriconazole (VCZ) by Liquid Chromatography (LC). In this study, we aimed to develop an internal quality control method for TDM of VCZ, evaluate it by the Westgard multi-rule theory, and guarantee the analytical quality of the assays. Methods: The plasma concentration of VCZ was detected by two-dimensional liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection (2D-LC-UV) method. The internal quality control results accompanying with TDM of VCZ in our laboratory from July 2019 to January 2020 were collected and retrospectively studied. The Levey-Jennings quality chart and Z-score quality chart were drawn and Westgard multirules of 12s13s22sR4s/41s/10xwere applied to assess the suitable quality control method for TDM of VCZ. Results: The 2D-LC-UV method was well suited to monitor the plasma concentration of VCZ and increase the real-time capability of TDM for VCZ. Combined with Westgard multi-rules, the quality control charts of Levery-Jennings and Z-score both can timely discover and judge the systematic errors and random errors for the internal quality control results. 86 batches of quality control products were assessed and 7 times warnings and 6 times out of control were detected. Conclusion: The Westgard multi-rules, with high efficacy in determining detection errors, has important application value in the internal quality control for TDM of VCZ. The developed quality control method can improve the accuracy and reliability for VCZ measurement by the 2D-LC-UV method and further promote the clinical rational use of the drug.

A kind of JDL-1 thickener for betaine hydrophobic association polymer was prepared by aqueous solution polymerization of mixed micelles, AM, AA, AMPS and DM16 were used as raw materials, which was synthesized by redox initiator system. Friction tester and high-temperature rheometer were used to evaluate the resistance reduction and temperature and shear resistance of the thickener. The results show that the viscosity average molecular weight of the polymer prepared with AM, AA, AMPS and DM16 mass ratio of 70∶20∶5∶5 was higher than 12 million, and the dissolution time of the polymer was less than 3 min. When the surfactant is used for physical cross-linking, the apparent viscosity of the cross-linked fracturing fluid is larger than that of 60 mPa·s at 90 °C, 170 s-1 sheared 1 h; when metal cross-linking agent is used for coordination cross-linking, the apparent viscosity is larger than that of 80 mPa·s at 120 °C, 170 s-1 sheared 1 h. The drag reduction rate was 73%, the anti-swelling rate was higher than70%, and the damage rate was less than10%. The field trial was successful and confirmed the multifunctional effect of betaine-type hydrophobic associating polymer.

Background: Antidepressants and antipsychotics are widely prescribed drugs for the treatment of mental diseases. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is recommended for patients taking these drugs to ensure pharmaceutical efficacy, medication compliance and prevent toxicity. Objective: An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/tandem-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/ MS) method was developed for simultaneous determination of two Antidepressants-Fluoxetine (FLU) and Escitalopram (ESC), and two antipsychotics-risperidone (RIS) and aripiprazole (ARI), in human plasma. Methods: The sample was processed by simple protein precipitation and the targeted analytes were separated on a C18 column by gradient elution with a mobile phase containing 0.1% formic acid (v/v) and acetonitrile. All the analytes were qualitative and quantitative measured by electrospray ionization source with Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) in positive ion mode. A total of 56 plasma samples were obtained from out- or in-patients who were taking the cited four drugs for further analysis. Results: The calibration curves for FLU, ESC, RIS and ARI were linear in the range of 45-1800, 4-320, 2-200 and 50-1800 ng/mL, respectively. The entire analytical time for the analytes was 7.0 min for each run and the extraction efficiency was more than 90%. The sample was stable within various storage conditions. The trough concentrations in patients were measured with the validated method. Conclusion: The developed method was successfully used for simultaneous determination of FLU, ESC, RIS and ARI in the plasma of the patients, which provides effective technical support for routine TDM of these four drugs and is of great clinic value for individual therapy.

The problem of water breakthrough in horizontal wells is serious, so it is urgent to use sustained release tracers predict and monitor the time and position of horizontal wells. In this paper, the physically bonded epoxy resin-based slow-release tracer and the chemically bonded isocyanate-linked sustained release tracer were prepared using sulfosalicylic acid as the core material. The release and key characteristics of the two sustained-release tracers at different temperatures and salinities were discussed by observing the morphological changes and release curves. The results showed that both the sustained release rate and cumulative release were positively correlated with temperature and salinity, and the epoxy resin-based sustained release tracer had obvious burst release phenomenon due to physical blending. Isocyanate-linked slow-release tracers greatly reduce burst release. The cumulative release of the isocyanate-linked slow-release tracer at 85 °C is about 1%, while the cumulative release of the epoxy resin-based slow-release tracer is about 3%. Obviously, the chemical combination is better than the physical combination. At the same time, the possible controlled release mechanism was confirmed, and the controlled release mechanism of the epoxy resin sustained-release tracer was mainly tracer diffusion. The controlled release mechanism of the isocyanate slow-release tracer is the synergistic effect of polymer degradation and tracer diffusion, and its explanation is helpful for the sustained release tracer system required for horizontal well effect monitoring.

Sensors with multifunctions have attracted great attention for their extensive application value, among which humidity sensing and pressure sensing are necessary to electronics undoubtedly because of the complex physical environment we live in. Inspired by the structure of skin, in this article, we design a new method to combine wrinkle structure with porous sponge structure and achieve a novel, flexible, compressible, and bifunctional sensor based on carbon nanotube–polydimethylsiloxane (CNT–PDMS) with functions of humidity sensing and pressure sensing. The performance of the humidity sensing part can be controlled by the ultraviolet and ozone (UVO) treatment time and CNT concentration, while the sensitivity of the pressure sensing part can be controlled by the CNT concentration and grinding time of sugar granules. The bifunctional sensor can easily sense approaching and touching of a hand, which shows great potential of alarming and protecting some electronics. Moreover, the bifunctional sensor can also be used in detecting human joint motions and breath conditions as a wearable and flexible health monitor.

The paper is devoted to the study of rational proper holomorphic maps from the unit ball Bnto the unit ball BN. We classify these maps with both the geometric rank and the degeneracy rank less than or equal to two.

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) harvesting living environmental energy has been demonstrated to be a potential energy source for internet of things, for its unique properties, such as high-output performance, clean, sustainability, low-cost etc., which have resulted in an explosive growth of related research in the past several years. However, due to the unique features of electrical output signals of TENGs like the pulsed output with random amplitude and frequency, ultra-high voltages and impedance, the electrical power generated by TENGs is hard to be delivered to the load efficiently or stored directly by the classical power management methods. Meanwhile, the mechanical energy from the environment is time dependent, unstable and sometime unpredictable, but the power required to drive electronics is regulated with a fixed input voltage and power. So it is important to store the generated energy in a battery or capacitor, so that it can be used to power a device sustainably. Fortunately, both the power management and energy storage for TENG have obtained significantly progress recently. Here, this paper reviews the progress made in power management and storage, including theoretical development, charge boosting, buck converting, energy storage, and the new enabled applications, aiming at building a self-charging power unit (SCPU) that can be a standard power package for sustainable operation of an electronic device. Finally, we will give an outlook for future development of applying SCPU for internet of things.

Human skin is the largest organ, which covers the human body and provides us the mechanical stimuli to help us interact with the outer environment. Inspired from the properties of human skin, imitating of the complicated human sensation using stretchable electronic devices becomes one of the most exciting research fields due to its vast potential application fields like wearable electronics, healthcare monitoring and artificial intelligence. To mimic real human skin, the huge sensor network is required to attach the body, where it seems critical to guarantee the energy supply at the same time. Nowadays, the emerging triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), which can transduce the mechanical energy into the electrical energy based on the contact electrification and electrostatic induction, provides an attractive solution for the energy problem to work as the self-powered sensor. The self-powered sensor can generate electrical signal by itself, responsing to the stimulation from the environment without further energy supply devices. With four fundamental working modes and three main detection modes, TENG could develop versatile configurations to realize the various kinds of sensation. The mechanical compliance and stretchability together with the electrical conductance can be fulfilled beneficial from the advancement of material and micro/nano fabrication technology. In this way, the TENG based self-powered electronic skins (e-skins) have been developed with rational design to accomplish multifunctions of sensing including the pressure, position, strain, sliding and so on. It is expected that the self-powered e-skin will continue its fast development and make more progress to make the e-skin come into human life in the near future.

The rapid advancements of lightweight, customized electronics have imposed a significant challenge on sustainable and maintenance-free micro-energy systems. For the sake of solving the limited power supply and low integration, it seems urgent to develop the flexible energy devices through structure design and performance optimization. Here, a high-efficiency self-charging smart bracelet is proposed by seamlessly combining flexible freestanding triboelectric nanogenerator, power management module with stretchable double-sided micro-supercapacitors. For energy-generating component, the FPCB-based freestanding triboelectric nanogenerator and power management module are adopted with excellent output performance, which obtains peak voltage of 305 V, and maximum power efficiency of 69.3%. Additionally, the double-sided micro-supercapacitors based on CNT-PDMS elastomer are designed to work stably and reliably as the stretchable energy-storing component, the capacitance of which maintains more than 96.87% even under 20% stretching strain. During human normal motions, this smart bracelet could be utilized for scavenging random motion movements and then simultaneously storing in the energy storage device through the high-efficiency power management module to develop a self-powered system for portable devices. As an effective and efficient power supply solution, this proposed self-charging smart bracelet demonstrates admirable potential to power a temperature-humidity meter or pedometer, which owns huge potentials in micro-energy wearable electronics and lays the solid foundation on the smart appliance.

Portable and wearable sensors have attracted considerable attention, which could perceive and respond to ambient stimuli accurately. For the sake of solving the limited power supply and low integration, it is critical to develop and combine functional electronics with flexible energy devices. In this work, we designed an all-in-one sensing patch integrated with piezoresistance sensor and micro-supercapacitor with the porous CNT-PDMS elastomer. Taking the advantage of porous structure with piezoresistivity and elastomer with electrochemical performance, the piezoresistance sensor shows high sensitivity (0.51 kPa−1) and wide detection range as functional fraction, and micro-supercapacitor maintains excellent areal capacitance and cycling stability after 6000 cycles as energy storage fraction, respectively. Assembled with piezoresistance sensor and micro-supercapacitor, the sensing patch could be easily attached on the epidermal skin for joint and muscle monitor with the corresponding resistance response. With high sensitivity and mechanical robustness, such sensing patch could be further utilized as a 3D touch in user identification and safety communication through feature parameter extraction and signal decoding. After packaged into the sensing patch matrix, it could be achieved for static pressure sensing and dynamic tactile trajectory. Therefore, the all-in-one sensing patch shows feasibility in real-time pressure recognition and human-machine interfaces.

TGF-β has been demonstrated to promote tumor metastasis, and the regulatory mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we report the role of USP2a in promoting metastasis by facilitating TGF-β-triggered signaling. USP2a interacts with TGFBR1 and TGFBR2 upon TGF-β stimulation and removes K33-linked polyubiquitin chains from Lys502 of TGFBR1, promoting the recruitment of SMAD2/3. Simultaneously, TGFBR2 phosphorylates Ser207/Ser225 of USP2a, leading to the disassociation of SMAD2/3 from TGFBR1. The phosphorylation of USP2a and SMAD2 is positively correlated in human tumor biopsies, and USP2a is hyper-phosphorylated in lung adenocarcinomas with lymph node invasion. Depletion or pharmacologic inhibition of USP2a dampens TGF-β-triggered signaling and metastasis. Our findings have characterized an essential role of USP2a as a potential target for treatment of metastatic cancers.

This paper presents a digitalized self-powered triboelectric strain gauge (DSSG) for the first time. Different from conventional resistive or capacitive analogue strain responsive mechanisms, adopting the output of grated triboelectrication as sensing signal for static and dynamic strain measurement allows for digitalized strain measurement with excellent accuracy, sensitivity and linearity. Instead of analyzing voltage/current value of sliding-mode triboelectric nanogenerator (S-TENG) to evaluate strain, the DSSG exploits a grated triboelectric electrode to generate periodical output signals when the designed elastomer has relative movement with the grated electrode. A promoted real-time analysis system (RAS) enables the analysis and display of the digitalized signals. Benefiting from the micro-manufacturing techniques of grated electrode, DSSG reaches a remarkable gauge factor as high as 130 with optimized design of geometrical parameters. The results of static strain measurement prove the feasibility of using such DSSG as a self-powered transducer of tensile forces, with a minimum resolution for tensile force detection of 120 mN per cycle. At the same time, dynamic strain sensing assisted by signal processing system provides possibility of using such DSSG for real-time elbow joint motion detection and posture analysis, thereby indicating its great potentials for human-machine interface, prosthetic, and biomechanical applications.

Fingertip is the region with the largest density of mechanoreceptors in human body. Inspired by its complicated anatomical structure, we design a fingertip-like electronic skin (e-skin) that can simultaneously detect the movements from lateral and vertical directions. The device includes three parts that correspond to fingerprint, epidermis and dermis of the human being, respectively. The fabricated double spiral carbon nanotube-polydimethylsiloxane (CNT-PDMS) electrodes and substrate mimic the structure of fingerprint and epidermis, respectively. Based on triboelectrification effect, the double spiral CNT-PDMS electrodes can generate alternating voltage with different frequencies when sliding across different rough surfaces, which behaves like fast adapting (FA) in real skin. Porous CNT-PDMS is used for detecting pressure, mimicking the function of slow adapting (SA) and the structure of dermis. A cost efficient way to fabricated porous CNT-PDMS is adopted and it can modulate the porosity and resistance at the same time, which provides a way to modulate its sensitivity. With the help of both sliding sensing and pressure sensing, this device can execute many complicated tasks such as differentiating roughness of surfaces and holding-releasing execution, which greatly expands the application fields of e-skin.

With the rapid development of wearable electronics like artificial e-skins and smart patch, harvesting biomechanical energy and realizing self-powered sensing are of essential importance for achieving sustainable and efficient function of the system. Here we report a flexible hybrid device that can be conformally attached on soft surface like human skin to harvest diversity touch energies based on electrospun nanofiber mat. Facilitated by the working mechanisms of triboeletric and piezoelectric, the device can generate maximum peak power up to 84μW/cm2and 0.11μW/cm2for the TENG and PENG part when stimulated by a compressive stress, which can enhance the energy harvesting efficiency and expand its application areas. By virtue of the high sensitivity of the piezoelectric nanomaterial, the device can also be attached on different parts of body for real-time monitoring the human physiological signals such as respiratory information and radial artery pulse, which shows potential value in self-powered e-skins and healthcare monitoring systems.

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has emerging as an important approach for energy harvesting. However, low charging efficiency as well as low power conversion efficiency have restricted its practical application for powering traditional electronics. Here we propose a power management (PM) strategy by extracting maximum energy from TENG and transferring the energy to storage unit employing optimized Inductor-Capacitor (LC) oscillating. PM module using this strategy designed shown universality and high-efficiency for different modes TENG. Over 2600 times improvement in stored energy than standard circuit was achieved, and more than 72% alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) power transfer efficiency was obtained for different modes TENGs. The regulated and managed output shown the ability as a power source for the continuously working of commercial electronics, such as LED bulbs, calculators and pedometers. Our work provides an effective, universal and practical strategy for efficiently power management of TENG from theoretical derivation and experimental validation, which is promising to serve as a standard PM module for TENG as well as to guide its design.

The progress of smart skin technology presents unprecedented opportunities for artificial intelligence. Resolution enhancement and energy conservation are critical to improve the perception and standby time of robots. Here, we present a self-powered analogue smart skin for detecting contact location and velocity of the object, based on a single-electrode contact electrification effect and planar electrostatic induction. Using an analogue localizing method, the resolution of this two-dimensional smart skin can be achieved at 1.9 mm with only four terminals, which notably decreases the terminal number of smart skins. The sensitivity of this smart skin is remarkable, which can even perceive the perturbation of a honey bee. Meanwhile, benefiting from the triboelectric mechanism, extra power supply is unnecessary for this smart skin. Therefore, it solves the problems of batteries and connecting wires for smart skins. With microstructured poly(dimethylsiloxane) films and silver nanowire electrodes, it can be covered on the skin with transparency, flexibility, and high sensitivity.

This research is aimed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of a piezoelectric thinfilm (PETF) based, implantable and self-powered monitor for blood pressure (BP) through theoretical, in vitroand in vivostudies. A 3-dimensional simulation model revealed that both the stresses of aorta wall and the generated electric potential by device were proportional to systolic BP. With an in vitrotesting system, an excellent linearity (R2>0.99) was achieved between the peak output voltage of device and flow pressure, with a high-sensitivity of 173mV/mmHg which is significantly higher than reported results. A maximum instantaneous power of 2.3μW was reached in vitro, indicating a robust self-powered capability. Excellent stability of the device was also achieved for more than 50,000 operating cycles. In vivoexperiment was carried out in adult Yorkshire porcine. A favorable linearity (R2=0.971) with a sensitivity of 14.32mV/mmHg was obtained, and the device output a maximal instantaneous power of 40nW in vivo. Based on these characteristics of the device, we established an implantable, self-powered and visualized blood pressure monitoring system for in vitroand in vivodemonstration. A hypertension status could be alarmed visually in real-time using this system, without a built-in battery. Integrated with a coupling function of energy harvesting and biomedical sensing, this new technique shows a promising perspective in the field of the implantable healthcare monitoring.

We consider a computational method for the interior transmission eigenvalue problem that arises in acoustic and electromagnetic scattering. The transmission eigenvalues contain useful information about some physical properties, such as the index of refraction. Instead of the existence and estimation of the spectral property of the transmission eigenvalues, we focus on the numerical calculation, especially for spherically stratified media in R^3. Due to the nonlinearity and the special structure of the interior transmission eigenvalue problem, there are not many numerical methods to date. First, we reduce the problem into a second-order ordinary differential equation. Then, we apply the Hermite finite element to the weak formulation of the equation. With proper rewriting of the matrix-vector form, we change the original nonlinear eigenvalue problem into a quadratic eigenvalue problem, which can be written as a linear system and solved by the eigs function in MATLAB. This numerical method is fast, effective, and can calculate as many transmission eigenvalues as needed at a time.

Recently, triboelectric generator (TEG) has attracted a lot of attention due to its high output voltage and low-cost fabrication rocess. Here, a novel cubic TEG box is designed, which has separated electrodes on different surfaces. Thanks to the specially designed structure, it can scavenge vibration energy from all directions. Firstly the device is investigated through finite element method (FEM) simulation. Then the device is evaluated by experiments. The measuremental results show that this device can generate an amount of 25 nC charge during once shake by charging a 10 nF capacitor. Besides, an output voltage about 100 V is obtained, which is able to directly light up several light-emitting diodes (LEDs) simultaneously. At last, the device is utilized as a self-powered orientation sensor, which shows explicit directivity. This work extends the applications of TEG for ambient vibration energy harvesting techniques and the self-powered orientation sensor.

This research is aimed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of generating electric power utilizing the pulsating energy of ascending aorta with a flexible and implantable piezoelectric generator (PG) through in vitro and in vivo studies. In the in vitro study, the max output voltage (Vmax), current (Imax) and power (Pmax) of the PG were 10.3V, 400nA and 681nW respectively. The quantity of electric charging by one pulse was about 7–9nC. Factors affecting its output performance were investigated with single variable experiments. We further implanted the PG to wrap around the ascending aorta of a porcine to investigate the output performance in vivo. The Vmax and Imax of the implanted PG were 1.5V and 300nA under the heart rate of 120bpm and the blood pressure of 160/105mmHg. The instantaneous output power was 30nW with a long-lasting duration of 700ms and 77.8% duty ratio. The implanted PG could charge for a 1μF capacitor to 1.0V within 40s.

Harnessing the biotechnological potential of the large number of proteins available in sequence databases requires scalable methods for functional characterization. Here we propose a workflow to address this challenge by combining phylogenomic guided DNA synthesis with high-throughput mass spectrometry and apply it to the systematic characterization of GH1 β-glucosidases, a family of enzymes necessary for biomass hydrolysis, an important step in the conversion of lignocellulosic feedstocks to fuels and chemicals. We synthesized and expressed 175 GH1s, selected from over 2000 candidate sequences to cover maximum sequence diversity. These enzymes were functionally characterized over a range of temperatures and pHs using nanostructure-initiator mass spectrometry (NIMS), generating over 10,000 data points. When combined with HPLC-based sugar profiling, we observed GH1 enzymes active over a broad temperature range and toward many different β-linked disaccharides. For some GH1s we also observed activity toward laminarin, a more complex oligosaccharide present as a major component of macroalgae. An area of particular interest was the identification of GH1 enzymes compatible with the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([C2mim][OAc]), a next-generation biomass pretreatment technology. We thus searched for GH1 enzymes active at 70 °C and 20% (v/v) [C2mim][OAc] over the course of a 24-h saccharification reaction. Using our unbiased approach, we identified multiple enzymes of different phylogentic origin with such activities. Our approach of characterizing sequence diversity through targeted gene synthesis coupled to high-throughput screening technologies is a broadly applicable paradigm for a wide range of biological problems.

Glycoside hydrolases (GHs) are critical to cycling of plant biomass in the environment, digestion of complex polysaccharides by the human gut microbiome, and industrial activities such as deployment of cellulosic biofuels. High-throughput sequencing methods show tremendous sequence diversity among GHs, yet relatively few examples from the over 150,000 unique domain arrangements containing GHs have been functionally characterized. Here, we show how cell-free expression, bioconjugate chemistry, and surface-based mass spectrometry can be used to study glycoside hydrolase reactions with plant biomass. Detection of soluble products is achieved by coupling a unique chemical probe to the reducing end of oligosaccharides in a stable oxime linkage, while the use of 13C-labeled monosaccharide standards (xylose and glucose) allows quantitation of the derivatized glycans. We apply this oxime-based nanostructure-initiator mass spectrometry (NIMS) method to characterize the functional diversity of GHs secreted by Clostridium thermocellum, a model cellulolytic organism. New reaction specificities are identified, and differences in rates and yields of individual enzymes are demonstrated in reactions with biomass substrates. Numerical analyses of time series data suggests that synergistic combinations of mono- and multifunctional GHs can decrease the complexity of enzymes needed for the hydrolysis of plant biomass during the production of biofuels.

The relationship between CR submanifolds in a sphere and their Gauss maps are investigated. Let Vbe the image of a sphere by a rational holomorphic map Fwith degree two in another sphere. It is show that the Gauss map of Vis degenerate if and only if Fis linear fractional.

Enzymes are essential to innumerable vital processes in all fields of life. Additionally, enzymatic activities are utilized in a multitude of biological, medical, and technical applications. Using cellulases and other glycoside hydrolases for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuel has become an active area of research for applied enzymology. Development of high‐throughput, high‐specificity enzyme assays for glycoside hydrolases is critical to identify, characterize, and optimize such activities for efficient biomass degradation. Here, we present a detailed protocol describing our recently reported nanostructure‐initiator mass spectrometry (NIMS)‐based technique for the rapid analysis of glycoside hydrolase activities. NIMS enzyme activity (Nimzyme) assays can be used to characterize already known, or identify novel glycoside hydrolases. Importantly, several enzymatic activities can be tested in parallel in a multiplexed arrangement and under a broad range of assay conditions. Curr. Protoc. Chem. Biol. 4:123‐142 © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Conductive polyaniline nanowires in emeraldine form can be deposited by potentiodynamic electropolymerization from a reverse hexagonal liquid crystalline phase where one-dimensional (1D) aqueous channels can serve as space-confined reactors. Polyaniline nanowire bundles with single-wire diameter of 50–70 nm and length of several microns were obtained from surfactant sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT) reverse hexagonal liquid crystalline phase. Impedance measurement suggests improved ordering of the reverse hexagonal liquid crystal under external electric field during the electropolymerization process. This enhanced ordering appears essential for the nanowire growth. The nanowires obtained can be easily collected by a simple washing process.

A new class of inorganic corrosion-resistant coating, zeolite coating, was prepared on aluminum alloys and shown to be highly corrosion resistant even in strong acid and pitting aggressive media. The coating also has good adhesion, wear- resistance, and paint compatibility. The in situ crystallization coating deposition process is clean and can coat surfaces of complex shapes and in confined space. Therefore, it can potentially serve as an environmentally friendly, alternative corrosion-resistant coating for aluminum alloys. The coating also appears to be generally applicable to other metals, including steel. (c) 2001 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.

A general reaction model for styrene hydrogenation in the CTAB/l-hexanol(l-pentanol or l-butanol)/water reversed micellar solutions was proposed to interpret the catalytic behavior of monodisperse nickel boride particles prepared in situ. Based on this model, the effect of reversed micellar components on hydrogenation activity of the catalyst has been discussed in detail. It is worth noticing that, in the three reversed micellar systems, adding ethanol into the reversed micellar solutions will result in the change of catalyst's activity in the different ways, i.e. decrease for the reversed micellar solution with the low CTAB concentration (6 wt%) and increase for those with the high CTAB content (23 wt % or 38 wt%). The result is attributed to the combined