Poly(2-oxazoline)s with a 2,2′-Iminodiacetate End Group Inhibit and Stabilize Laccase

Poly(2-oxazoline)s (POxs) with 2,2′-iminodiacetate (IDA) end groups were investigated as inhibitors for laccase. The polymers with the IDA end groups are reversible, competitive inhibitors for this enzyme. The IC₅₀ values were found to be in a range of 1–3 mm . Compared with IDA alone, the activity was increased by a factor of more than 30; thus indicating that attaching a polymer chain to an inhibitor can already improve the activity of the former. The enzyme activity drops to practically zero upon increasing the concentration of the most active telechelic inhibitor, IDA-PEtOx₃₀-IDA (PEtOx: poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)), from 5 to 8 mm . This unusual behavior was investigated by means of dynamic light scattering, which showed specific aggregation above 5 mm . Furthermore, the laccase could be stabilized in the presence of POx-IDA, upon addition at a concentration of 20 mm and higher. Whereas laccase becomes completely inactive at room temperature after one week, the stabilized laccase is fully active for at least a month in aqueous solution.     

Towards a cognitive foundation for knowledge representation

Abstract. Knowledge engineering, knowledge management and conceptual modelling are concerned with representing knowledge of business and organizational domains. These research areas use ontologies for knowledge representation. Ontologies are understood either in the philosophical sense as firm metaphysical commitments or in the looser sense of dictionaries or taxonomies.
This paper critically examines the understanding and use of ontologies and knowledge representation languages in information systems (IS) research and application. As ontologies are intended to be conceptualizations of a perceived reality, they should reflect the empirically observed reality. This motivates proposing psychology of language as a reference discipline for knowledge engineering and knowledge management. Natural language is argued to reflect the cognitive concepts we use to think about and perceive the world around us. These cognitive concepts are the relevant terms with which to structure and represent knowledge about the world.
Psychology of language can provide empirical justification for a particular set of concepts to represent knowledge. This paper draws on psycho-linguistic research to develop a proposal for a system of cognitive structures. This is argued to provide the relevant concepts on which to found knowledge representation schemata for knowledge engineering, knowledge management and conceptual modelling.     

List-based Data Structures for Efficient Management of Advance Reservations

Complex eScience and other sophisticated applications in the field of HPC imply new demands that queuing based resource management systems cannot meet. To guarantee Quality of Service and co-allocation in the Grid, planning based resource management systems implementing advance reservation are needed. These systems face new challenges as a planning based management system has to keep track of the jobs and reservations in the future. Additionally, during the negotiation process of incoming reservations, a good overview of the remaining, not-yet reserved capacity is needed—not only for the current allocation, but also for the whole book-ahead time. Therefore, the resource management problem becomes a two dimensional problem for advance reservations in this field. In this paper different data structures are investigated and discussed in order to fit to planning based resource management. As a result the benefits of using lists of resource allocation or free blocks are exposed. This general idea widely used to manage continuous resources is extended to cover not only the resource dimension but also the time dimension. The list of blocks approach is evaluated in a Grid level and a local resource management system for a computing cluster. The extensive simulations showed a better runtime and higher reservation success rate compared with the currently favored approach of a slotted time and the more sophisticated approach based on AVL trees.     

The next-generation business meeting: from i-lands to flexible meeting landscapes

Meetings are an important form of interaction in business settings. However, meetings are often not held in a way that makes all participants feel engaged. Meeting support systems try to overcome this obstacle by helping meeting participants in the meeting workflow. This paper takes a complementary approach by distinguishing between different perspectives of good meetings: the peopleware perspective, the generic groupware perspective, and the roomware perspective. It is argued that all these perspectives have to be considered simultaneously when heading toward an ideal meeting system design. The paper presents excerpts of a pattern language that empowers users to improve their meeting. Besides this, the pattern language can be considered as a tool for the designer. After showing, how both groups made use of the patterns, the paper finally presents LivingAgendas, a meeting support system that can accompany the meeting participant through the meeting life cycle.     

Physical Representation Learning and Parameter Identification from Video Using Differentiable Physics

International Journal of Computer Vision - Representation learning for video is increasingly gaining attention in the field of computer vision. For instance, video prediction models enable activity...     

A 64 kbit/s Videophone codec with forward analysis and control

A new combination of coding methods for a 64 kbit/s transmission system for typical videophone situations is investigated. The codec structure is based on a standard hybrid discrete cosine transform (DCT) codec with temporal prediction. The picture is divided blockwise into changed and unchanged areas. One motion vector with subpel accuracy is computed and transmitted for each block of the changed area. For the forward analysis, the prediction error is calculated in the whole picture. Only the blocks with the highest prediction errors are updated by a DCT with a perception adaptive quantization. The number of DCT update blocks depends on the remaining bits after the transmission of the overhead information. The codec is controlled by a forward analysis of the prediction error and is not based on a buffer control. The spatial resolution of the source signal is reduced in two steps to prevent a codec overload caused by too much activity between two frames.     

Rapid,Label-Free Screening of Diverse Biotransformations by Flow-Injection Mass Spectrometry

Mass spectrometry-based high-throughput screening methods combine the advantages of photometric or fluorometric assays and analytical chromatography, as they are reasonably fast (throughput ≥1 sample/min) and broadly applicable, with no need for labelled substrates or products. However, the established MS-based screening approaches require specialised and expensive hardware, which limits their broad use throughout the research community. We show that a more common instrumental platform, a single-quadrupole HPLC-MS, can be used to rapidly analyse diverse biotransformations by flow-injection mass spectrometry (FIA-MS), that is, by automated infusion of samples to the ESI-MS detector without prior chromatographic separation. Common organic buffers can be employed as internal standard for quantification, and the method provides readily validated activity and selectivity information with an analytical run time of one minute per sample. We report four application examples that cover a broad range of analyte structures and concentrations (0.1–50 mM before dilution) and diverse biocatalyst preparations (crude cell lysates and whole microbial cells). Our results establish FIA-MS as a versatile and reliable alternative to more traditional methods for screening enzymatic reactions.     

Thiol–Ene Clickable Gelatin: A Platform Bioink for Multiple 3D Biofabrication Technologies

Bioprinting can be defined as the art of combining materials and cells to fabricate designed, hierarchical 3D hybrid constructs. Suitable materials, so called bioinks, have to comply with challenging rheological processing demands and rapidly form a stable hydrogel postprinting in a cytocompatible manner. Gelatin is often adopted for this purpose, usually modified with (meth‐)acryloyl functionalities for postfabrication curing by free radical photopolymerization, resulting in a hydrogel that is cross‐linked via nondegradable polymer chains of uncontrolled length. The application of allylated gelatin (GelAGE) as a thiol–ene clickable bioink for distinct biofabrication applications is reported. Curing of this system occurs via dimerization and yields a network with flexible properties that offer a wider biofabrication window than (meth‐)acryloyl chemistry, and without additional nondegradable components. An in‐depth analysis of GelAGE synthesis is conducted, and standard UV‐initiation is further compared with a recently described visible‐light‐initiator system for GelAGE hydrogel formation. It is demonstrated that GelAGE may serve as a platform bioink for several biofabrication technologies by fabricating constructs with high shape fidelity via lithography‐based (digital light processing) 3D printing and extrusion‐based 3D bioprinting, the latter supporting long‐term viability postprinting of encapsulated chondrocytes.     

Investigation of the effects of a variation of fuel assembly position on the ex-core neutron flux detection in a PWR

This work shows the impact of potential displacements of the fuel assembly positions in the reactor core on the signal values of the ex-core instrumentation of a pressurized water reactor in order to understand in detail the impact on the calibration factor of ex-core detectors. This was done with a range of Monte Carlo calculations that simulated the detailed geometrical effect by stepwise changing of the positions of fuel assemblies for selected, conservative scenarios. First, criticality calculations were carried out for the chosen core configurations, and corresponding surface sources on the core barrel were determined. In these calculations, the distances were varied between the fuel assemblies which were in the line of sight of the ex-core instrumentation. A maximal change of the fluxes on the surface of the core barrel of 4%/mm could be calculated under conservative assumptions for the combination of displaced fuel assemblies. In addition, a dependence of this effect as a function of cycle burn-up was analyzed. In a second step, transport calculations for the ionization chambers were performed using the surface sources. An increase of the reaction rate at the chambers of up to 3%/mm has been calculated.