Gold nanoparticle colorants as traditional ceramic glaze alternatives

Historically, Roman stained glass has been a standard for high‐temperature color stability since biblical times but was not properly characterized as emission from nanoparticle plasmon resonance until the 1990s. The methods under which it was created have been lost, but some efforts have recently been made to recreate these properties using gold nanoparticle inks on glassy surfaces. This body of work employs gold nanoparticle systems ranging from 0.015% to 0.100% (wt/wt), suspended in a clear glaze body. The glazes are fired with traditional ceramic methods—in both gas reduction and electric oxidation kilns—in which nanoparticles are retained and can be imaged via TEM. Various colors intensities are reported in addition to changes in nanoparticle size after application and firing. The nanoparticle glazes are compared to traditional red glazes, highlighting the significantly lower metal loading required (5%‐10% for traditional glazes vs 0.100% for gold (wt/wt)), therein. Finally, proof of concept is provided with a functional gold nanoparticle mug, fired in reduction, that costs roughly 0.98$ USD in gold used.     

Grid-Tied PV-BES system based on modified bat algorithm-FLC MPPT technique under uniform conditions

Neural Computing and Applications - Grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems play an important role in reducing emissions resulting from conventional fossil-fuel-based power plants. However, in...     

Evaluation of the Binding Kinetics of RHEB with mTORC1 by In-Cell and In Vitro Assays

The mammalian/mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is activated by the small G-protein, Ras homolog enriched in brain (RHEB–GTPase). On lysosome, RHEB activates mTORC1 by binding the domains of N-heat, M-heat, and the focal adhesion targeting (FAT) domain, which allosterically regulates ATP binding in the active site for further phosphorylation. The crucial role of RHEB in regulating growth and survival through mTORC1 makes it a targetable site for anti-cancer therapeutics. However, the binding kinetics of RHEB to mTORC1 is still unknown at the molecular level. Therefore, we studied the kinetics by in vitro and in-cell protein–protein interaction (PPI) assays. To this end, we used the split-luciferase system (NanoBiT^®) for in-cell studies and prepared proteins for the in vitro measurements. Consequently, we demonstrated that RHEB binds to the whole mTOR both in the presence or absence of GTPγS, with five-fold weaker affinity in the presence of GTPγS. In addition, RHEB bound to the truncated mTOR fragments of N-heat domain (∆N, aa 60–167) or M-heat domain (∆M, aa 967–1023) with the same affinity in the absence of GTP. The reconstructed binding site of RHEB, ∆N-FAT-M, however, bound to RHEB with the same affinity as ∆N-M, indicating that the FAT domain (∆FAT, aa 1240–1360) is dispensable for RHEB binding. Furthermore, RHEB bound to the truncated kinase domain (∆ATP, aa 2148–2300) with higher affinity than to ∆N-FAT-M. In conclusion, RHEB engages two different binding sites of mTOR, ∆N-FAT-M and ∆ATP, with higher affinity for ∆ATP, which likely regulates the kinase activity of mTOR through multiple different biding modes.     

Smart preserving of cultural heritage with PACT-ART

Preserving cultural heritage is one of the most intricate jobs that need to be performed with a lot of caution. Transporting artworks on the other hand, i.e., getting them out of their home museums and exposing them in uncontrollable and dynamic environments, makes preservation even harder. So far, museums try to contend against the dynamic context during transportation by employing high-class transport cases. However, no attempts are made to exploit the science of data. In this paper, we make use of the ubiquity of sensors and IoT devices, combined with advanced predictive analytics in order to manage processes based on their context and to anticipate challenging run-time violations. Our approach is tested on real datasets and transport scenarios to prove its efficiency.

     

Fate of cyanide and related compounds in aerobic microbial systems—I. Chemical reaction with substrate and physical removal

The chemical reaction of cyanide with substrate was investigated in sealed glass ampoules using glucose as substrate and inorganic buffers. The reaction was found to be pseudo-first order and pH dependent, with an optimum pH near 11.0. The cyanide-glucose reaction products were found to be biodegradable by both acclimated and unacclimated heterogeneous cultures in shake flask and BOD bottle systems.Adsorption onto microbial solids was investigated using sealed, stirred glass reactors containing bacteria and potassium cyanide in water buffered at pH 7.0 with inorganic buffers. Very little adsorption occurred on a starved non-flocculating pure culture of Bacillus megaterium, although up to 15% adsorption occurred in systems containing a stirred flocculent heterogeneous culture.Stripping was investigated from a starved heterogeneous culture in an aerated microfermenter at neutral pH. Hydrogen cyanide and carbon dioxide in the off-gas were trapped in sodium hydroxide solution, separated and analyzed. Stripping removed up to 80% of original cyanide, and tests using K¹⁴CN revealed that a small amount of cyanide had been metabolized.     

Data-driven modeling of heavy oil viscosity in the reservoir from geophysical well logs

Viscosity is the most crucial fluid property on recovery and productivity of hydrocarbon reservoirs, more particularly heavy oil reservoirs. In heavy and extra heavy oil reservoirs e.g. bitumen and tar sands more energy is required to be injected into the system in order to decrease the viscosity to make the flow easier. Therefore, attempt to develop a reliable and rapid method for accurate estimation of heavy oil viscosity is inevitable. In this study, a predictive model for estimating of heavy oil viscosity is proposed, utilizing geophysical well logs data including gamma ray, neutron porosity, density porosity, resistivity logs, spontaneous potential as well as P-wave velocity and S-wave velocity and their ratio (Vp/Vs). To this end, a supervised machine learning algorithm, namely least square support vector machine (LSSVM), has been employed for modeling, and a dataset was provided from well logs data in a Canadian heavy oil reservoir, the Athabasca North area. The results indicate that the predicted viscosity values are in agreement with the actual data with correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.84. Furthermore, the outlier detection analysis conducted shows that only one data point is out of the applicability of domain of the develop model.     

Fate of cyanide and related compounds in aerobic microbial systems—II. Microbial degradation

The chemical reaction of cyanide with substrate was investigated in sealed glass ampoules using glucose as substrate and inorganic buffers. The reaction was found to be pseudo-first order and pH dependent, with an optimum pH near 11.0. The cyanide-glucose reaction products were found to be biodegradable by both acclimated and unacclimated heterogeneous cultures in shake flask and BOD bottle systems.Adsorption onto microbial solids was investigated using sealed, stirred glass reactors containing bacteria and potassium cyanide in water buffered at pH 7.0 with inorganic buffers. Very little adsorption occurred on a starved non-flocculating pure culture of Bacillus megaterium, although up to 15% adsorption occurred in systems containing a stirred flocculent heterogeneous culture.Stripping was investigated from a starved heterogeneous culture in an aerated microfermenter at neutral pH. Hydrogen cyanide and carbon dioxide in the off-gas were trapped in sodium hydroxide solution, separated and analyzed. Stripping removed up to 80% of original cyanide, and tests using K¹⁴CN revealed that a small amount of cyanide had been metabolized.