Decolorization and mineralization of commercial reactive dyes under solar light assisted photo-Fenton conditions

The degradation of different commercial reactive dyes: a monoreactive dye (Procion Red H-E7B), an hetero-bireactive dye (Red Cibacron FN-R) and a Standard Trichromatic System, by using solar light assisted Fenton and photo-Fenton reaction is investigated. The reaction efficiencies have been compared with the ones obtained for the same system in the dark or under the assistance of an artificial light source. The use of solar light is clearly beneficial for the removal of color, aromatic compounds (UV₂₅₄), total organic carbon (TOC), and the increase of the BOD₅/COD ratio. The possibility of a combined advanced oxidation process (AOP)/biological treatment based on the use of sunlight is suggested.     

Development of CdTe thin films on flexible substrates—a review

In the recent years there has been an increased interest in photovoltaic structures on lightweight flexible substrates. Photovoltaic structures on lightweight substrates have several advantages over the heavy glass-based structures in both terrestrial and space applications. CdTe is one of the leading candidates for the solar cells due to its optimum band gap and the variety of film preparation methods. The development of CdTe thin films on flexible substrates is discussed. The film growth and characterization are reviewed.     

Electrochemical detection of quorum sensing signaling molecules by dual signal confirmation at microelectrode arrays

n-Acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs) are produced by gram-negative bacteria to regulate gene expression in a cell density dependent manner. For instance, expression of virulence factors by pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa is induced only when a threshold concentration of AHLs is reached, which indicates that the bacterial population is big enough to promote infection. In this study, the indicator strain Agrobacterium tumefaciens NTL4 (pZLR4), which carries a β-galactosidase (β-gal) reporter gene under the control of a quorum sensing promoter, was used to develop an electrochemical biosensor to detect AHLs using the model n-(3-oxo)-dodecanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (oxo-C12-HSL), an AHL previously detected in cystic fibrosis patients infected with P. aeruginosa. The substrate 4-aminophenyl β-D-galactopyranoside was used to detect β-gal activity by cyclic voltammetry. Furthermore, simultaneous monitoring of substrate consumption and p-aminophenol production by β-gal allowed on-chip result verification by dual-signal confirmation. The sensor exhibited high reproducibility and accurately detected oxo-C12-HSL in a low picomolar to low nanomolar range in spiked liquid cultures and artificial saliva, as well as AHLs naturally released by P. aeruginosa in culture supernatants. Moreover, detection took just 2 h, required no sample pretreatment or preconcentration steps, and was easier and faster than traditional methods.     

Radical photopolymerization reactions under air upon lamp and diode laser exposure: The input of the organosilane radical chemistry

A new concept based on the conversion of the peroxyl radicals generated under air (ROO) with the concomitant formation of new initiating radicals to overcome the oxygen inhibition in particular free radical photopolymerization reactions (low intensity, low viscosity, relatively low film thickness) is proposed. This is achieved using organosilanes and the specific input of this new radical chemistry to various Type I or Type II photoinitiating systems (PI). Through many selected examples corresponding to a broad choice of experimental conditions—lamps (UV or visible lights) and laser diodes, the outstanding performance of a lot of organosilanes containing photoinitiating systems is disclosed.     

Rational Design of Resorcylic Acid Lactone Analogues as Covalent MNK1/2 Kinase Inhibitors by Tuning the Reactivity of an Enamide Michael Acceptor

Recent biological and computational advances in drug design have led to renewed interest in targeted covalent inhibition as an efficient and practical approach for the development of new drugs. As part of our continuing efforts in the exploration of the therapeutic potential of resorcylic acid lactones (RALs), we report herein the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of conveniently accessible RAL enamide analogues as novel covalent inhibitors of MAP kinase interacting kinases (MNKs). In this study, we have successfully demonstrated that the covalent binding ability of RAL enamides can be tuned by attaching an electron‐withdrawing motif, such as an acyl group, to enhance its reactivity toward the cysteine residues at the MNK1/2 binding sites. We have also shown that ¹H NMR spectroscopy is a convenient and effective tool for screening the covalent binding activities of enamides using cysteamine as a mimic of the key cysteine residue in the enzyme, whereas mass spectrometric analysis confirms covalent modification of the kinases. Preliminary optimization of the initial hit led to the discovery of enamides with low micromolar activity in MNK assays. Cancer cell line assays have identified RAL enamides that inhibit the growth of cancer cells with similar potency to the natural product L‐783 ,277.     

Definition of standards-based building blocks for multimedia content management

The emergence of new ways of rendering multimedia content from a multiplicity of devices like tablets, smartphones, consoles or smart TVs, opens a complete set of new opportunities for multimedia services providers. It is important that the development of those disruptive services is done in an interoperable way. Existing service-oriented middleware platforms and recently developed standards devoted to the definition and implementation of complex multimedia services may speed up its development. In this context, the identification of different content management scenarios including the high-level functionalities they require is an important aspect to be able to implement services in a flexible and interoperable way. Use of standards and standards-based architectures will be a key aspect to combine services offered by different providers. In this paper, we propose the definition of standards-based building blocks based on the high-level functionalities required by content management and distribution scenarios. This will facilitate provision of complex new services specially focused, but not limited to, the management and distribution of multimedia content.     

Social choice rules driven by propositional logic

Several rules for social choice are examined from a unifying point of view that looks at them as procedures for revising a system of degrees of belief in accordance with certain specified logical constraints. Belief is here a social attribute, its degrees being measured by the fraction of people who share a given opinion. Different known rules and some new ones are obtained depending on which particular constraints are assumed. These constraints allow to model different notions of choiceness. In particular, we give a new method to deal with approval-disapproval-preferential voting.     

Multiple objective branch and bound for mixed 0-1 linear programming: Corrections and improvements for the biobjective case

This work addresses the correction and improvement of Mavrotas and Diakoulaki's branch and bound algorithm for mixed 0-1 multiple objective linear programs. We first elaborate the issues encountered by the original algorithm and then propose a corrected version for the biobjective case using an exact representation of the nondominated set associated with an appropriate update procedure. Then we introduce several improvements using better bound sets and branching strategies and finally present some experiments to study the effectiveness of our propositions.