Efficient and Stable Bifunctional Electrocatalysts Ni/NixMy (M = P,S) for Overall Water Splitting

Development of easy‐to‐make, highly active, and stable bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting is important for future renewable energy systems. Three‐dimension (3D) porous Ni/Ni₈P₃ and Ni/Ni₉S₈ electrodes are prepared by sequential treatment of commercial Ni‐foam with acid activation, followed by phosphorization or sulfurization. The resultant materials can act as self‐supported bifunctional electrocatalytic electrodes for direct water splitting with excellent activity toward oxygen evolution reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media. Stable performance can be maintained for at least 24 h, illustrating their versatile and practical nature for clean energy generation. Furthermore, an advanced water electrolyzer through exploiting Ni/Ni₈P₃ as both anode and cathode is fabricated, which requires a cell voltage of 1.61 V to deliver a 10 mA cm^?2 water splitting current density in 1.0 m KOH solution. This performance is significantly better than that of the noble metal benchmark—integrated Ni/IrO₂ and Ni/Pt–C electrodes. Therefore, these bifunctional electrodes have significant potential for realistic large‐scale production of hydrogen as a replacement clean fuel to polluting and limited fossil‐fuels.     

Novel cooling channel shapes in pressure die casting

The pressure die casting involves die designs incorporating cooling channels positioned to facilitate the controlled extraction of energy from a solidifying casting. It is now known that subcooled nucleate boiling can occur in cooling channels and this paper is concerned with novel cooling channel shapes that are optimized to promote and enhance this boiling and thus reduce casting times. Shape sensitivity analysis is applied to a boundary element model using the material derivative adjoint variable technique. Mesh node positions on the cooling channels are used as the design parameters. The sensitivities are used in a conjugate gradient non‐linear optimization routine. It is shown that with this approach cooling channels can be designed to maximize boiling heat transfer whilst at the same time allow some degree of control of spatial temperature variation over the die cavity surface. Simulation and experimental results are presented for a traditional die and an optimized die. A 60 per cent reduction in cycle time is achieved with the optimized die. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Designing long reach optical access networks

The long reach optical access concept promises to reduce the cost of a future BT network through simplification. This is achieved by extending the reach and split of today’s passive optical network systems (PONs) to 100 km and 1024 respectively, thus eliminating the need for separate backhaul equipment. Compact, low-power optical amplifiers are used at exchange locations requiring very low electrical power consumption. Ultimately this could effectively eliminate local exchange buildings and consolidate BT’s network to around a hundred metro nodes, drastically reducing operational costs. In this paper we describe research to date on the techniques to overcome physical layer impairments at costs appropriate for residential access. We also highlight from an operator’s point of view the protocol requirements of the LR-PON concept, point out the necessary changes to the GPON protocol, and describe an experiment to show its suitability to work over 100 km distances at 10 Gbit/s.     

Snowboarding injuries

Snowboarding is a popular winter sport that involves riding a single board down a ski slope or on a half-pipe snow ramp. Compared with injuries resulting from traditional alpine skiing, snowboarding injuries occur more frequently in the upper extremities and ankles and less frequently in the knees. Different types of snowboard equipment, rider stance and snowboarding activity tend to result in different types of injury. Snowboarder's ankle, a fracture of the lateral talus, must be considered in a snowboarder with a "severe ankle sprain" that has not responded to treatment. Risk of injury may be lowered by using protective equipment, such as a helmet and wrist guards.     

Tuberculosis of the larynx

Laryngeal tuberculosis was diagnosed in two men, a 73-year-old man Dutch by birth and a 40-year-old one Turkish by birth. In the former patient it was probably primary tuberculosis, in the latter secondary (he had lung tuberculosis as well). The clinical picture was highly suggestive of laryngeal carcinoma in both patients. They both recovered with chemotherapy. Laryngeal tuberculosis may mimic laryngeal carcinoma. The diagnosis is based on Ziehl-Neelsen staining, culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Because laryngeal tuberculosis is highly infectious, the patient has to be nursed in isolation and people in his or her environment have to be screened. The response of laryngeal tuberculosis to chemotherapy is good.     

A mixed disulfide bond in bacterial glutathione transferase: functional and evolutionary implications

BACKGROUND: Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are a multifunctional group of enzymes, widely distributed in aerobic organisms, that have a critical role in the cellular detoxification process. Unlike their mammalian counterparts, bacterial GSTs often catalyze quite specific reactions, suggesting that their roles in bacteria might be different. The GST from Proteus mirabilis (PmGST B1-1) is known to bind certain antibiotics tightly and reduce the antimicrobial activity of beta-lactam drugs. Hence, bacterial GSTs may play a part in bacterial resistance towards antibiotics and are the subject of intense interest. RESULTS: Here we present the structure of a bacterial GST, PmGST B1-1, which has been determined from two different crystal forms. The enzyme adopts the canonical GST fold although it shares less than 20% sequence identity with GSTs from higher organisms. The most surprising aspect of the structure is the observation that the substrate, glutathione, is covalently bound to Cys 10 of the enzyme. In addition, the highly structurally conserved N-terminal domain is found to have an additional beta strand. CONCLUSIONS: The crystal structure of PmGST B1-1 has highlighted the importance of a cysteine residue in the catalytic cycle. Sequence analyses suggest that a number of other GSTs share this property, leading us to propose a new class of GSTs - the beta class. The data suggest that the in vivo role of the beta class GSTs could be as metabolic or redox enzymes rather than conjugating enzymes. Compelling evidence is presented that the theta class of GSTs evolved from an ancestral member of the thioredoxin superfamily.     

Development of a stable episomal shuttle vector for Toxoplasma gondii

The rapid developments in the molecular genetics of Toxoplasma gondii have far reaching implications in treatment and vaccination strategies for this as well as closely related pathogens such as Plasmodium. Although stable transformation of this parasite through homologous and illegitimate genomic integration has provided many of the tools necessary for genetic analysis, subsequent manipulations of the DNA have proven laborious. This report describes the selection and subsequent characterization of a Toxoplasma sequence that permits the episomal maintenance of bacterial plasmids in this parasite. This sequence was isolated from the Toxoplasma genome through selection for episomal stability of a pUC19-based library in the absence of a selectable marker. A 500-base pair fragment was determined to possess the stabilization activity. Transformations of Toxoplasma using vectors possessing this fragment, referred to as EMS (episomal maintenance sequence), demonstrated an elevated stable transformation frequency compared with the vector alone. Mutants deficient in hypoxanthine-xanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase activity were used as a test to see if this gene could be selected from a genomic library using a vector containing the EMS. The success of this test demonstrates the utility of EMS-containing vectors in complementation strategies and the ability of such constructs bearing large fragments of the Toxoplasma genome to be maintained episomally.