Tunable colors and conductivity by electroless growth of Cu/Cu2O particles on sol-gel modified cellulose

Nano Research - Development of colored surfaces by formation of nano-structured aggregates is a widely used strategy in nature to color lightweight structures (e.g. butterflies) without the use of...     

Lignin from Annual Plants as Raw Material Source for Flavors and Basic Chemicals

The enzymatic conversion of lignins, possibly in combination with electrochemical oxidation, makes aromatics such as syringol, guaiacol, vanillin and catechol available in the qualities required by the fragrance industry. The lignins were obtained by soda digestion from wheat straw and Miscanthus, characterized and then converted with laccases. The overall yield amounted up to 9 wt % with a product spectrum confined to four substances. Catechol was the major product, with a fraction of ≈75 %. It can easily be isolated by extraction with acetone.     

Tetrahydroindoles as Multipurpose Screening Compounds and Novel Sirtuin Inhibitors

Indoles are privileged structures in medicinal and bioorganic chemistry that are particularly well suited to serve as platforms for diversity. Among many other therapeutic areas, the indole scaffold has been used to design aromatic compounds useful to interfere with enzymes engaged in the regulation of substrate acylation status, such as sirtuins. However, the planarity of the indole ring is not necessarily optimal for all target enzymes, especially when functionalization with aromatic side chains is required. Replacement of flat scaffolds by nonplanar molecular cores dominated by sp³ hybridization is a common strategy to avoid the disadvantages associated with poor solubility and high promiscuity, while covering less-well-explored areas of chemical space. Thus, we synthesized fragment-like tetrahydroindoles suitable for fragment-based drug discovery as well as a well-characterized small library intended as multipurpose screening compounds. For proof of principle, these compounds were screened against sirtuins 1–3, enzymes known to be addressable by indoles. We found that 2,6,6-trimethyl-4-oxo-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-indole-3-carboxamides are potent and selective SIRT2 inhibitors. Compound 16 t displayed an IC₅₀ value of 0.98 μm and could serve as exquisite starting point for hit-to-lead profiling.     

Technology-transfer analysis of the materials research program “Matfo”

The commercial success of the German Federal Ministry's materials research program “Mafto” (1985–1994) was recently evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the direct-funding model in supporting innovative industrial research. Based on the results of a questionnaire, where a 97% return rate was achieved, it was found that the results obtained in 27% of the projects have already been commercialized to some degree, for 26% of the projects a commercialization of the results is planned but has not yet taken place, and for 54% of the projects no commercialization is planned. This study included only projects where at least four years had elapsed since project completion. The reasons why scientifically and technically successfully projects were not commercialized were also surveyed.     

The microscopy cell (MicCell), a versatile modular flowthrough system for cell biology, biomaterial research, and nanotechnology

We describe a novel microfluidic perfusion system for high-resolution microscopes. Its modular design allows pre-coating of the coverslip surface with reagents, biomolecules, or cells. A poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) layer is cast in a special molding station, using masters made by photolithography and dry etching of silicon or by photoresist patterning on glass or silicon. This channel system can be reused while the coverslip is exchanged between experiments. As normal fluidic connectors are used, the link to external, computer-programmable syringe pumps is standardized and various fluidic channel networks can be used in the same setup. The system can house hydrogel microvalves and microelectrodes close to the imaging area to control the influx of reaction partners. We present a range of applications, including single-molecule analysis by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), manipulation of single molecules for nanostructuring by hydrodynamic flow fields or the action of motor proteins, generation of concentration gradients, trapping and stretching of live cells using optical fibers precisely mounted in the PDMS layer, and the integration of microelectrodes for actuation and sensing.     

Decision support for AIDS control programmes in Eastern Africa

The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) constitutes the worst hazard to health care systems in Eastern Africa. Misallocation of scarce resources of AIDS Control Programmes will unavoidably lead to additional infections and casualties. The following paper discusses a system dynamics model which allows to assess the impact of different interventions on a pattern population in Eastern Africa. It becomes obvious that short- and long-term consequences of these programmes differ significantly. The optimal allocation of resources, therefore, is highly complex and calls for decision support systems to sustain AIDS control programmes.     

Associated ulcerative colitis, sclerosing cholangitis, and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

We report two young men with clinical and laboratory evidence of macroscopic ulcerative colitis, sclerosing cholangitis, and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The first patient presented at age 15 with vomiting, abdominal pain, weight loss, and abnormal liver function test results. Liver biopsy and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) demonstrated sclerosing cholangitis. Colonoscopy with biopsy revealed ulcerative colitis which responded to sulfasalazine. Diabetes occurred at age 18 and insulin therapy was begun. The second patient was 19 at presentation with diarrhea, hematochezia, and weight loss. Proctosigmoidoscopy revealed ulcerative colitis, and sulfasalazine led to clinical remission. Three months later he developed diabetes requiring insulin therapy. At age 28, he developed elevated alkaline phosphatase, and ERCP revealed sclerosing cholangitis. At age 37 he expired from adenocarcinoma that metastasized to the liver. Literature review revealed only one possible case report of this association with microscopic asymptomatic ulcerative colitis in that patient. Statistical analysis suggests that this association is real rather than a chance occurrence. An autoimmune process may be involved and a specific histocompatibility locus antigen (HLA) type may exert a regulatory influence.     

Lightweight coarse-grained coordination: a scalable system-level approach

In this paper, our solution to the problem of modelling functionally complex communication systems at the application level, based on lightweight coordination, is extended to seamlessly capture system-level testing as well. This extension could be realized simply by self-application: the bulk of the work for integrating system-level testing into our development environment, the ABC, concerned domain modelling, which can be done using the ABC. Therefore, the extension of the ABC to cover system-level testing was merely an application development on the basis of the ABC, illustrated here in the domain of Computer Telephony Integration. Here the adoption of a coarse-grained approach to test design, which is central to the scalability of the overall testing environment, is the enabling aspect for system-level test automation. Together with our lightweight coordination approach this induces an understandable modelling paradigm of system-wide test cases that is adequate for the needs and requirements of industrial test engineers. In particular, it enables test engineers to graphically design complex test cases that, in addition, can even be automatically checked for their intended purposes via model checking.     

Process development and accurate low‐cost characterization for OLED sealants by using a calcium test

Abstract— A calcium measurement setup was built for testing encapsulation especially for OLED applications. This setup is able to measure both reflective and transmissive cells. For the characterization of sealants, a method to compare them with other sealing products will be described. This includes the use of spacers, a homogeneous surface energy, and the geometry of the sealant line. The effects of different geometries will be discussed. The setup was designed to achieve good accuracy at a very reasonable component cost, which will allow other facilities to replicate this setup. Therefore, the construction plan as well as the list of components can be downloaded from our website (Ref. 3).     

Aggregation dynamics of particles in a microchannel due to an applied magnetic field

Functionalized magnetic microspheres have promising applications in different microfluidic devices including MEMS-scale biosensors. These particles exhibit magnetic field-induced aggregation, which can be harnessed to achieve several practical tasks in microfluidic devices. For this, the particle aggregation needs to be well characterized. Herein, a numerical simulation and experimental validation of particle-chaining is presented. Simulations show that the particle aggregation time scales linearly with a group parameter. The predicted growth of one- two- and three-particle chains with time shows a similar trend as that found in the experiments. The results of the study could help predicting the performance of magnetic aggregate-based lab-on-a-chip devices.