How to interpret the position of private sector institutions in bibliometric rankings of research institutions

This paper analyzes the positions of institutions from the private domain in bibliometric rankings of as many as 27,000 research institutions and highlights factors that are crucial for a proper interpretation of such positions. It was found that among the institutions with the largest output in terms of published research articles, private firms are underrepresented, whereas in the top quartile of institutions with the largest citation impact firms are overrepresented. A firm’s publication output is not a good indicator of its R&D investment: big firms in Pharmaceutics are both heavy investors in R&D and frequent publishers of scientific articles, whereas in Automobiles firms tend to invest heavily in R&D but their publication output is low. This is ascribed to the fact that the former need a validation of their results by the scientific community, while the latter do less so. Private institutions generating the largest citation impact tend to collaborate with the best public research institutions. This reflects the crucial importance of publicly funded research for the private sector.     

Simultaneous Use of in Silico Design and a Correlated Mutation Network as a Tool To Efficiently Guide Enzyme Engineering

In order to improve the efficiency of directed evolution experiments, in silico multiple‐substrate clustering was combined with an analysis of the variability of natural enzymes within a protein superfamily. This was applied to a Pseudomonas fluorescens esterase (PFE I) targeting the enantioselective hydrolysis of 3‐phenylbutyric acid esters. Data reported in the literature for nine substrates were used for the clustering meta‐analysis of the docking conformations in wild‐type PFE I, and this highlighted a tryptophan residue (W28) as an interesting target. Exploration of the most frequently, naturally occurring amino acids at this position suggested that the reduced flexibility observed in the case of the W28F variant leads to enhancement of the enantioselectivity. This mutant was subsequently combined with mutations identified in a library based on analysis of a correlated mutation network. By interrogation of <80 variants a mutant with 15‐fold improved enantioselectivity was found.     

Anaerobic purification of waste water from a potato-starch producing factory

The waste water of the potato-starch factory of the AVEBE in De Krim (The Netherlands) passed, during the anaerobic purification, a sedimentation pond, a first upflow reactor (in which there was practically no sludge retention) and a UASB methane reactor. The fermentation of free-amino acids and smaller peptides occurred in the sedimentation pond and first reactor. Proteins and longer peptides were degraded in the first reactor and in the methane reactor. The decrease in COD and TOC content of the waste water between influent sedimentation pond and effluent methane reactor was 83 and 71%, respectively. In the effluent of the first reactor, 60% of the inorganic sulfur was present as sulfide.     

Analysis of a parallel solution method for tridiagonal linear systems

We analyse an alternative decomposition for a tridiagonal matrix which has the property that the decomposition as well as the subsequent solution process can be done in two parallel parts. This decomposition is equivalent to the two-sided Gaussian elimination algorithm that has been discussed by Babuska. In the context of parallel computing a similar approach has been suggested by Joubert and Cloete. The computational complexity of this alternative decomposition is the same as for the standard decomposition and a remarkable aspect is that it often leads to slightly more accurate solutions than the standard process does. The algorithm can be combined with recursive doubling or cyclic reduction in order to increase the degree of parallelism and vectorizability.     

Reflection and refraction of multipole radiation by an interface

Reflection and refraction of electromagnetic multipole radiation by an interface is studied. The multipole can be electric or magnetic and is of arbitrary order (dipole, quadrupole). From the angular spectrum representation of the radiation emitted by the multipole, I have obtained the angular spectrum representations of the reflected and transmitted fields, which involve the Fresnel reflection and transmission coefficients. The intensity distribution in the far field is evaluated with the method of stationary phase. The result is very simple in appearance and can be expressed in terms of two auxiliary functions of a complex variable. By exchanging the Fresnel coefficients for s and p polarization, the result for an electric multipole can be obtained from the result for a magnetic multipole.     

Volume overload cleanup: an approach for on-line SPE-GC, GPC-GC, and GPC-SPE-GC

A new concept for cleanup, based on volume overloading of the cleanup column, has been developed for on-line coupling of gel permeation chromatography (GPC), solid-phase extraction (SPE), or both, to gas chromatography (GC). The principle is outlined and the applicability demonstrated by the determination of pesticide residues in food matrixes using integrated and automated cleanup-GC-MS. Compared to conventional approaches for on-line cleanup-GC, the new technique involves introduction of much smaller volumes (e.g., 2-20 microL) into the GC without sacrificing method LODs. The much smaller injection volumes involved greatly simplify on-line coupling, improve robustness, and increase attractiveness for implementation in routine laboratories.     

Archetype Cationic Iridium Complexes and Their Use in Solid‐State Light‐Emitting Electrochemical Cells

The archetype ionic transition‐metal complexes (iTMCs) [Ir(ppy)₂(bpy)][PF₆] and [Ir(ppy)₂(phen)][PF₆], where Hppy = 2‐phenylpyridine, bpy = 2,2′‐bipyridine, and phen = 1,10‐phenanthroline, are used as the primary active components in light‐emitting electrochemical cells (LECs). Solution and solid‐state photophysical properties are reported for both complexes and are interpreted with the help of density functional theory calculations. LEC devices based on these archetype complexes exhibit long turn‐on times (70 and 160 h, respectively) and low external quantum efficiencies (～2%) when the complex is used as a pure film. The long turn‐on times are attributed to the low mobility of the counterions. The performance of the devices dramatically improves when small amounts of ionic liquids (ILs) are added to the Ir‐iTMC: the turn‐on time improves drastically (from hours to minutes) and the device current and power efficiency increase by almost one order of magnitude. However, the improvement of the turn‐on time is unfortunately accompanied by a decrease in the stability of the device from 700 h to a few hours. After a careful study of the Ir‐iTMC:IL molar ratios, an optimum between turn‐on time and stability is found at a ratio of 4:1. The performance of the optimized devices using these rather simple complexes is among the best reported to date. This holds great promise for devices that use specially‐designed iTMCs and demonstrates the prospect for LECs as low‐cost light sources.