Zeolite membranes for hydrogen production from natural gas: state of the art

Journal of Porous Materials - Currently, hydrogen is produced industrially by processes requiring high energy consumption, especially by cracking fossil fuels and by splitting water. In recent...     

Evaluation of Polymeric Matrix Loaded with Melatonin for Wound Dressing

The development of scaffolds mimicking the extracellular matrix containing bioactive substances has great potential in tissue engineering and wound healing applications. This study investigates melatonin—a methoxyindole present in almost all biological systems. Melatonin is a bioregulator in terms of its potential clinical importance for future therapies of cutaneous diseases. Mammalian skin is not only a prominent melatonin target, but also produces and rapidly metabolizes the multifunctional methoxyindole to biologically active metabolites. In our methodology, chitosan/collagen (CTS/Coll)-contained biomaterials are blended with melatonin at different doses to fabricate biomimetic hybrid scaffolds. We use rat tail tendon- and Salmo salar fish skin-derived collagens to assess biophysical and cellular properties by (i) Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy—attenuated total reflectance (FTIR–ATR), (ii) thermogravimetric analysis (TG), (iii) scanning electron microscope (SEM), and (iv) proliferation ratio of cutaneous cells in vitro. Our results indicate that melatonin itself does not negatively affect biophysical properties of melatonin-immobilized hybrid scaffolds, but it induces a pronounced elevation of cell viability within human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK), dermal fibroblasts (NHDF), and reference melanoma cells. These results demonstrate that this indoleamine accelerates re-epithelialization. This delivery is a promising technique for additional explorations in future dermatotherapy and protective skin medicine.     

Probing a Device's Active Atoms

Materials science and device studies have, when implemented jointly as “operando” studies, better revealed the causal link between the properties of the device's materials and its operation, with applications ranging from gas sensing to information and energy technologies. Here, as a further step that maximizes this causal link, the paper focuses on the electronic properties of those atoms that drive a device's operation by using it to read out the materials property. It is demonstrated how this method can reveal insight into the operation of a macroscale, industrial‐grade microelectronic device on the atomic level. A magnetic tunnel junction's (MTJ's) current, which involves charge transport across different atomic species and interfaces, is measured while these atoms absorb soft X‐rays with synchrotron‐grade brilliance. X‐ray absorption is found to affect magnetotransport when the photon energy and linear polarization are tuned to excite Fe? O bonds parallel to the MTJ's interfaces. This explicit link between the device's spintronic performance and these Fe? O bonds, although predicted, challenges conventional wisdom on their detrimental spintronic impact. The technique opens interdisciplinary possibilities to directly probe the role of different atomic species on device operation, and shall considerably simplify the materials science iterations within device research.     

Visualization of large data sets with the Active Data Repository

We implement ray-casting-based volume rendering and isosurface rendering methods using the Active Data Repository (ADR) for visualizing out-of-core data sets. We have developed the ADR object-oriented framework to provide support for applications that employ range queries with user-defined mapping and aggregation operations on large-scale multidimensional data. ADR targets distributed-memory parallel machines with one or more disks attached to each node. It is designed as a set of modular services implemented in C++, which can be customized for application-specific processing. The ADR runtime system supports common operations such as memory management, data retrieval, and scheduling of processing across a parallel machine     

Pose estimation through cue integration: a neuroscience-inspired approach

The aim of this paper is to improve the skills of robotic systems in their interaction with nearby objects. The basic idea is to enhance visual estimation of objects in the world through the merging of different visual estimators of the same stimuli. A neuroscience-inspired model of stereoptic and perspective orientation estimators, merged according to different criteria, is implemented on a robotic setup and tested in different conditions. Experimental results suggest that the integration of multiple monocular and binocular cues can make robot sensory systems more reliable and versatile. The same results, compared with simulations and data from human studies, show that the model is able to reproduce some well-recognized neuropsychological effects.     

Synthesis of Novel Pyrido[1,2-c]pyrimidine Derivatives with 6-Fluoro-3-(4-piperidynyl)-1,2-benzisoxazole Moiety as Potential SSRI and 5-HT1A Receptor Ligands

Two series of novel 4-aryl-2H-pyrido[1,2-c]pyrimidine (6a–i) and 4-aryl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydropyrido[1,2-c]pyrimidine (7a–i) derivatives were synthesized. The chemical structures of the new compounds were confirmed by ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and ESI-HRMS spectrometry. The affinities of all compounds for the 5-HT_1A receptor and serotonin transporter protein (SERT) were determined by in vitro radioligand binding assays. The test compounds demonstrated very high binding affinities for the 5-HT_1A receptor of all derivatives in the series (6a–i and 7a–i) and generally low binding affinities for the SERT protein, with the exception of compounds 6a and 7g. Extended affinity tests for the receptors D₂, 5-HT_2A, 5-HT₆ and 5-HT₇ were conducted with regard to selected compounds (6a, 7g, 6d and 7i). All four compounds demonstrated very high affinities for the D₂ and 5-HT_2A receptors. Compounds 6a and 7g also had high affinities for 5-HT₇, while 6d and 7i held moderate affinities for this receptor. Compounds 6a and 7g were also tested in vivo to identify their functional activity profiles with regard to the 5-HT_1A receptor, with 6a demonstrating the activity profile of a presynaptic agonist. Metabolic stability tests were also conducted for 6a and 6d.     

Cellular Chaperone Function of Intrinsically Disordered Dehydrin ERD14

Disordered plant chaperones play key roles in helping plants survive in harsh conditions, and they are indispensable for seeds to remain viable. Aside from well-known and thoroughly characterized globular chaperone proteins, there are a number of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) that can also serve as highly effective protecting agents in the cells. One of the largest groups of disordered chaperones is the group of dehydrins, proteins that are expressed at high levels under different abiotic stress conditions, such as drought, high temperature, or osmotic stress. Dehydrins are characterized by the presence of different conserved sequence motifs that also serve as the basis for their categorization. Despite their accepted importance, the exact role and relevance of the conserved regions have not yet been formally addressed. Here, we explored the involvement of each conserved segment in the protective function of the intrinsically disordered stress protein (IDSP) A. thaliana’s Early Response to Dehydration (ERD14). We show that segments that are directly involved in partner binding, and others that are not, are equally necessary for proper function and that cellular protection emerges from the balanced interplay of different regions of ERD14.     

Optimizing the execution of multiple data analysis queries on parallel and distributed environments

We investigate techniques for efficiently executing multiquery workloads from data and computation-intensive applications in parallel and/or distributed computing environments. In this context, we describe a database optimization framework that supports data and computation reuse, query scheduling, and active semantic caching to speed up the evaluation of multiquery workloads. Its most striking feature is the ability of optimizing the execution of queries in the presence of application-specific constructs by employing a customizable data and computation reuse model. Furthermore, we discuss how the proposed optimization model is flexible enough to work efficiently irrespective of the parallel/distributed environment underneath. In order to evaluate the proposed optimization techniques, we present experimental evidence using real data analysis applications. For this purpose, a common implementation for the queries under study was provided according to the database optimization framework and deployed on top of three distinct experimental configurations: a shared memory multiprocessor, a cluster of workstations, and a distributed computational Grid-like environment.     

Bifunctional N-Oxides of Alkyldiamidoamines

A homologous series of new surface-active 1,1-bis{[3-(N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl]-amido}alkane-di-N-oxides were synthesized in the reaction of an appropriate diethyl 2-alkylmalonate with N,N-dimethylethylenediamine followed by oxidation with an aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide. The adsorption isotherms of their aqueous solutions were measured and evaluated to obtain adsorption parameters: critical micelle concentration (CMC), surface excess concentration (Γ_CMC), equilibrium surface tension at the CMC (γ _CMC), cross-sectional area of the adsorbed surfactant molecule (A _CMC), standard free energies of adsorption and micellization

High Sensitive Method for Determination of the Toxic Bisphenol A in Food/Beverage Packaging and Thermal Paper Using Glassy Carbon Electrode Modified with Carbon Black Nanoparticles

A voltammetric method for fast and high sensitive determination of Bisphenol A (BPA) using glassy carbon electrode (GC) modified with carbon black nanoparticles (CB) was developed. Cyclic voltammetry study in the 0.1 M phosphates of pH = 7.0 gave single anodic peak at 578 mV. Adsorption-controlled oxidation of BPA was found to be irreversible with the participation of two electrons and two protons. The proposed CB/GC electrode significantly improved the oxidation peak current of BPA compared to the bare electrode. Under the optimum conditions, calibration curve was linear in the concentration of BPA from 0.01 to 3 × 10^?6 mol L^?1 with the detection limit of 3.4 × 10^?9 mol L^?1. Moreover, the proposed method was successfully validated by studying the recovery of BPA in commonly available samples: thermal paper (receipt, ticket) and food/beverages packaging. This paper introduces carbon black as a new, perspective material for electrode modification used in voltammetry.