On the colour reactions of potato glycoalkaloids in strong acids in the presence of paraformaldehyde

The colour reaction of potato glycoalkaloids, containing solanidine as steroid, with strong acids and paraformaldehyde was examined to elucidate the kinetics and mutual relationship of the ‘Clarke’ and ‘Marquis’ reactions. It was found that the influence of time of addition of paraformaldehyde was the major factor in deciding the type of colour changes encountered. This factor and the specific absorption kinetics have important consequences for the use of these types of colour reactions as a quantitative assay. According to the structural similarity of the steroidal part of potato glycoalkaloids and cholesterol, colour reactions of both have been compared, indicating that both steroids react in strong acids in the presence of an oxidator, provided that the more lipophilic character of cholesterol is taken into account. Therefore a similar mechanism of a serial oxidation of carbonium ions as in the case of cholesterol, is suggested as the basis for these specific colour reactions of potato glycoalkaloids.     

Misleading the Colorado potato beetle with an odor blend

Walking tracks of Colorado potato beetles,Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say, were recorded on a locomotion-compensator in response to wind, odors of host plantsSolanum tuberosum L. and nonhost plantsLycopersicon hirsutum f.glabratum C.H. Mull, and to mixtures of these plant species. Host-plant odor induced positive anemotactic responses in starved females, whereas odor of the nonhostL. hirsutum was neither repellent nor attractive. The attractiveness of host-plant odor, however, was neutralized in the odor blend of plant species. Masking the attractive host-plant odor will hinder the beetle's searching for host-plant patches, and this principle may be exploited in pest control by mixed cropping.The locomotion-compensator was constructed with financial support from the Foundation for Fundamental Biological Research (BION), which is subsidized by the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO), grant 14-02-02. The first author was supported by a grant from the French Ministry of Industry and Research.     

Olfactory coding in the perception of semiochemicals

Information processing in the olfactory pathway underlying the perception of semiochemicals by insects is discussed. Both the chemical message for mates and the message for food consist of blends of chemicals. Olfactory receptors in an insect species are tuned to the detection of those compounds which comprise such chemical messages for that species. The classification of receptors as specialists or generalists coincides with two concepts of information processing, i.e., labeled lines and across-fiber patterns, respectively. The olfactory code coming from antennal receptors inPieris brassicae larvae is a combination of labeled lines and across-fiber patterning. When antennae of adult Colorado potato beetles,Leptinotarsa decemlineata, are stimulated by binary mixtures of leaf odor components, the pattern of neural activities in the olfactory receptors shows some separation into two channels, quantitative versus qualitative detection. The separation is complete in the antennal lobe of this beetle.Presented at the Symposium on Insect Chemical Communications: Unifying Concepts. ACS 194th National Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, August 31, 1987.     

Spin effects in magnetoresistance induced in an <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-In<Subscript>x</Subscript>Ga<Subscript>1−<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>As/GaAs double quantum well by a parallel magnetic field

Magnetoresistance in n-In_xGa_1?xAs/GaAs (x ≈ 0.18) heterostructures with double quantum wells (DQWs) was studied in the magnetic field parallel to the DQW layer. Specific features of the magnetoresistance, related to the passing of the tunnel gap edges across the Fermi level, are revealed and studied. Agreement between the calculated and experimental positions of the observed features is obtained when the spin splitting of the energy spectrum is taken into account. Earlier, similar features were observed in the magnetoresistance of n-GaAs/Al_xGa_1?xAs DQW heterostructures, but the spin effects did not manifest themselves.     

PREHEP: human error probability based process unit selection

The paper describes a methodology to use human error probabilities (HEPs) as a basis for selecting functional process units in the design phase. The method helps us to understand the influence of human error (HE) on functional robustness of the units in earlier design phases, e.g., at the functional analysis level. This methodology can be used to detect the need for human operator support. The method consists of several steps. First alternative configurations of functional process units with different complexities are developed. For each configuration, a fault tree is developed to find the initiating events (failures of equipment) which lead to a chosen top event. This top event is an undesired event such as an overflowing tank. The initiating events are used to create event trees (ET) with special emphasis on operator actions, such as monitoring the process and fault diagnosis. A diagnosis diagram is used to simulate the fault diagnosis process and to identify the initiating failures. The probability of a top event due to human error can then be found by using existing HEP-data and by normalizing the failure probabilities of the equipment. The methodology is demonstrated for two examples of functional process units, each with two levels of complexity     

Light Emission in the Unipolar Regime of Ambipolar Organic Field‐Effect Transistors

Light emission from ambipolar organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) is often observed when they are operated in the unipolar regime. This is unexpected, the light emission should be completely suppressed, because in the unipolar regime only one type of charge carrier is accumulated. Here, an electroluminescent diketopyrrolopyrrole copolymer is investigated. Local potential measurements by scanning Kelvin probe microscopy reveal a recombination position that is unstable in time due to the presence of injection barriers. The electroluminescence and electrical transport have been numerically analyzed. It is shown that the counterintuitive unipolar light emission is quantitatively explained by injection of minority carriers into deep tail states of the semiconductor. The density of the injected minority carriers is small. Hence they are relatively immobile and they recombine close the contact with accumulated majority carriers. The unipolar light output is characterized by a constant efficiency independent of gate bias. It is argued that light emission from OFETs predominantly originates from the unipolar regime when the charge transport is injection limited.     

Copper@ZIF-8 Core-Shell Nanowires for Reusable Antimicrobial Face Masks

SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses spread via aerosols generated by infected people. Face masks can limit transmission. However, widespread use of disposable masks consumes tremendous resources and generates waste. Here, a novel material for treating blown polypropylene filtration media used in medical-grade masks to impart antimicrobial activity is reported. To produce thin copper@ZIF-8 core-shell nanowires (Cu@ZIF-8 NWs), Cu NWs are stabilized using a pluronic F-127 block copolymer, followed by growth of ZIF-8 to obtain uniform core-shell structures. The Cu@ZIF-8 NWs are applied to filtration media by dip coating. Aerosol filtration efficiency decreases upon exposure to ethanol (solvent for dip-coating), but increases with addition of Cu@ZIF-8 NWs. Cu@ZIF-8 NWs shows enhanced antibacterial activity, compared to Cu NWs or ZIF-8 alone, against Streptococcus mutans and Escherichia coli. Antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 is assayed using virus-infected Vero E6 cells, demonstrating 55% inhibition of virus replication after 48 h by 1 µg of Cu@ZIF-8 NWs per well. Cu@ZIF-8 NWs’ cytotoxicity is tested against four cell lines, and their effect on inflammatory response in A549 cells is examined, demonstrating good biocompatibility. This low-cost, scalable synthesis and straightforward deposition of Cu@ZIF-8 NWs onto filter media has great potential to reduce disease transmission, resource consumption, and environmental impact of waste.     

17.9% Metal‐wrap‐through mc‐Si cells resulting in module efficiency of 17.0%

We obtained 17.9% cell efficiency on thin and large mc‐Si REC wafers using ECN's metal‐wrap‐through (MWT) concept. Optimization of several cell processing steps led to an increase of more than 2% absolute in cell efficiency. With these cells 36‐cell modules were manufactured at 100% yield in our industry scale module pilot line. The highest module efficiency obtained (as independently confirmed by JRC‐ESTI) was 17%. In this module the average cell efficiency was 17.8%; this shows a small difference between cell and module efficiency. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.