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Of the many problems facing mankind, those concerning the availability and distribution of energy will ultimately be the most important. As fossil fuels become depleted, we will turn more and more to alternative sources and eventually depend upon energy technologies based on solar energy and perhaps fusion. Moreover, an important standard of living in undeveloped nations will require an abundant, inexpensive, and decentralized energy source, solar energy seems ideally suited for this application. It is the thesis of this paper that electrochemical methods will be useful in the conversion of solar energy to electricity or useful chemical products. Indeed, photoelectrochemical cells utilizing semiconductor materials have demonstrated the highest efficiencies in systems for the sustained conversion of solar energy to useful chemicals.

The projected growth rates of mobile communication products has created some very enticing large volume markets for integrated circuit manufacturers. At the same time advancements in semiconductor techniques have allowed communication system designers to design products more suited to these larger volume markets. Both integrated circuit and communication system manufacturers recognize this and are working together to design more highly integrated, smaller, lower cost, and low power products. This paper will concentrate on these markets, advancements, and integrated circuit solutions and what can be expected in the future.

In 1971, Elber reported the discovery of a crack closure phenomenon that occurs with fatigue. He noted that closure of the crack planes near the crack tip can occur while the applied stress is still tensile [1]. The existence of a closure stress opens the way of defining an effective stress intensity factor, Keff, given by, $$ {K_{{eff}}} = \left( {\sigma - {\sigma_{{closure}}}} \right){\left( {\pi a} \right)^{{1/2}}} $$ where σ is the applied tensile stress, σclosure is the crack closure stress, and a is the crack half length. The stress intensity factor is useful in correlating fatigue crack propagation data, especially after overloads [2]. The precision of Keff depends upon how well one can determine σclosure However it is difficult to experimentally determine σclosure, since conventional crack opening determination is imprecise. The purpose of this paper is to present an ultrasonic technique that shows promise as a means to accurately determine when the crack is open.

This paper chronicles the emergence and promotion of a commercial Internet environment for women, fuelled by the entry of large corporate interests. While not surprising that women as a market would be targeted by commercial interests, the tension between e-commerce applications directed towards women as consumers, versus the usage of the Internet as a locus for citizenoriented activities, provides a useful example of a salient issue the Internet faces as digital capitalism continues unheeded.

Spectral flow cytometry is a new technology that enables measurements of fluorescent spectra and light scattering properties in diverse cellular populations with high precision. Modern instruments allow simultaneous determination of up to 40+ fluorescent dyes with heavily overlapping emission spectra, discrimination of autofluorescent signals in the stained specimens, and detailed analysis of diverse autofluorescence of different cells—from mammalian to chlorophyll-containing cells like cyanobacteria. In this paper, we review the history, compare modern conventional and spectral flow cytometers, and discuss several applications of spectral flow cytometry.

Most of the papers presented at this symposium deal with advanced packaging designs and techniques. This paper, however, will attempt to describe some of the best regressive thinking of packaging design, which we choose to term “illogical packaging design.” Illogical design is not a concept; rather, it may be termed a lack of concept. Occasionally, illogical design is accidental rather than premeditated. The illogic of design stems from many sources and takes many forms. It is our aim to bring to your attention some of the bad design habits existing in industry today. By describing them, the job of eliminating these bad design habits and features should be somewhat easier.

Since the concept of laser-plasma acceleration was introduced in 1979,1 laser technology has rapidly progressed to an extent2,3 that these accelerators have been demonstrated in many laboratories throughout the world. There is significant interest in these accelerators because of the incredible accelerating gradients of plasma waves, which have been measured to be four orders of magnitudes greater than conventional technologies (E≥ 200 GV/m).4 One of the many applications these accelerators may have is the ability to create extremely short pulses of x-ray radiation on a small scale, table-top synchrotrons, that are synchronized with the laser. We have created a low-emittance beam of relativistic electrons (e < 1 π mm mrad) with over 1 nC of total charge in a picosecond bunch.5.6 Our most recent work has shown that we can accelerate electrons beyond the previous limit of natural diffraction, and therefore more fully exploit the incredible accelerating fields. In this paper, we will review the current state of our experimental self-modulated laser-plasma accelerator.

The advent of cisplatin was a breakthrough in the chemotherapy of certain cancers. Its success, in spite of adverse effects such as nephrotoxicity, nausea and vomiting, ototoxicity and myelosuppression, attests to its efficacy1. Still, the cost of treatment, in terms of patient quality of life, underscores the need for an efficacious drug with milder side effects. Carboplatin is an example of an agent specifically developed to reduce side effects while retaining the antitumor activity of cisplatin2. Its tremendous success, following its introduction in Europe and the US, attests to the importance of addressing patient quality of life. Although, oral chemotherapeutic agents are not presently a significant factor in cancer treatment, a properly designed agent could offer significant advantages in terms of a patients’ comfort and convenience, and anticipates the possibility of outpatient chemotherapy. At Johnson Matthey, in conjunction with the Institute of Cancer Research and Bristol-Myers Squibb, a portion of our platinum antitumor drug discovery program is devoted to the design and development of an orally active platinum antitumor drug. This paper describes the synthesis, reactions, and a few of the biological properties of a new class of antitumor agents that possess many characteristics required of an orally active antitumor agent.

The paper will deal with the two most important challenges facing education today: the increasing globalisation and permeation of ICT of our society. To meet these two challenges eighteen Ministries of Education in Europe joined forces in 1997 to create a common Internet platform, called the European Schoolnet. The objectives were to find synergies between national initiatives, to promote the use of ICT in education and to facilitate co-operation between schools in Europe.

The design and development of the detectors for the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory (SSCL) will be facilitated by a central system to track and store the design documents and drawings. Collaborators and SSCL personnel need a single system that they can access from a terminal on their desks and use to locate and view the latest version of a document. The SSCL Physics Research Division has developed a prototype system to track documents and drawings and to make them accessible via local and wide-area networks. The prototype is being used to refine the requirements and to develop the procedures for a larger system that will be acquired later. The format for storing documents is a major challenge because there is no interoperable standard. This paper discusses the system requirements and architecture, and presents results of research on standards for storing documents.

In this paper I shall attempt to assess whether or not the accumulation of certain amino acids and their N-methylated derivatives, particularly glycinebetaine, is a specific adaption related to enhanced salt tolerance in, at least, some halophytic species. As a result I shall neglect other extremely important aspects of salt tolerance and toxicity but these have been considered elsewhere (Wyn Jones, 1980; Wyn Jones et al, 1979).

In the past 10 years the interior point methods (IPM) for linear programming have gained extraordinary interest as an alternative to the sparse simplex based methods. This has initiated a fruitful competition between the two types of algorithms which has led to very efficient implementations on both sides. The significant difference between interior point and simplex based methods is reflected not only in the theoretical background but also in the practical implementation. In this paper we give an overview of the most important characteristics of advanced implementations of interior point methods. First, we present the infeasible-primal-dual algorithm which is widely considered the most efficient general purpose IPM. Our discussion includes various algorithmic enhancements of the basic algorithm. The only shortcoming of the “traditional” infeasible-primal-dual algorithm is to detect a possible primal or dual infeasibility of the linear program. We discuss how this problem can be solved with the homogeneous and self-dual model.

It is the purpose of this paper to show the extent of liquid oxygen boil-off in a typical rocket test facility such as the Edwards Rocket Base, and to explain the measures that can be utilized to prevent the boil-off without interfering with the development of the test rocket.

This paper is concerned with electrical noise which introduces errors into piezoelectric vibration transducers. While some of the included calculation is specific to a piezoelectric accelerometer/charge amplifier combination, the description of sources of noise and how to reduce noise pick-up is applicable to a wide range of measurement situations using electrical transmission of the transducer output signal. (Eds.)

The cell membrane is a formidable barrier to macromolecules, and one that is circumvented only by the phenomenon of endocytosis. Even then the endocytosed material is segregated in a membrane-bounded vesicle and does not have access to the general cytoplasm. Its ability to influence intracellular events depends on the routing of the vesicle (to the lysosome or elsewhere), the effects of the intravesicular and intralysosomal environments, and the permeability properties of the vesicle and lysosome membranes. My remit is to review the current understanding of this area of cell biology, which is pivotal for attempts to target drugs with synthetic systems. Because of the focus of this symposium, I omit consideration of some related issues, such as the biogenesis of lysosomal enzymes (but see references 1 and 2 for reviews). The area remaining is however both extensive and active and, to avoid an unwieldy bibliography, I cite review articles where available plus some selected recent primary research papers.

In the modern business environment, the capability of an enterprise to generate value from its business knowledge influences in an increasingly important way its competitiveness. Towards this direction, knowledge-based systems can be a very effective tool for enhancing the productivity of knowledge workers by providing them with advanced knowledge processing capabilities. In this paper we describe such a system which utilizes organizational and domain knowledge in order to support consultants in the process of evaluating calls for tender.

The opportunities for multicomponent models have increased recently because of the development of new methodologies including dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), total body electrical conductivity, neutron activation analysis and bioelectric impedance along with the traditional measures of body water, potassium and density. The need for valid multicomponent body composition approaches has arisen because of the failure of the two-component model, i.e., fat and fat-free body (FFB), to yield accurate estimates of body composition both within and among various populations. Without valid two-component approaches, the field of body composition has lacked a criterion method by which to validate new body composition methods. With the development of valid and precise multicomponent approaches, reference fat-free body compositions can be established for various populations, changes in body composition with growth and aging can be more accurately assessed, and the effect of dietary and exercise programs can be quantified on various body components. The pitfalls of various multicomponent body composition approaches now in use arise from theoretical, methodological and statistical considerations. It is the purpose of this paper to review present limitations in various multicomponent body composition approaches and to develop a set of guidelines to foster valid multicomponent systems.

The scope of this paper is restricted to a discussion of nuclear phenomena, a subject in which interest began at the turn of the century, and which has developed with the improvement of the microscope.

The principle mechanism of laminar natural convection in rectangular enclosures has been investigated by several scientists. But nearly all papers published are dealing with Newtonian fluids and constant physical properties. Regarding technical fluids however the influence of non-Newtonian fluid behaviour and variable properties is of more interest.

Adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP) is the primary energy carrier in all living organisms, and its detection in living cells represents a well-established approach. ATP-driven bioluminescence (BL) relying on the D-luciferin-luciferase reaction is a bioanalytical tool widely employed for monitoring hygiene and microbial contamination of foods.Here, we report a straightforward method for ATP BL detection using an ATP sensing paper fabricated with an alternative freeze-dry procedure. The assay can be easily implemented in laboratories equipped with (i) freeze-drying, wax printing, and 3D printing technologies and (ii) instrumentation for BL detection such as benchtop luminometers and portable light detectors including a smartphone camera without the need for additional equipment., Elisa Michelini acknowledges support by MIUR and Prima (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) with FEDKITO project. ICN2 is funded by CERCA programme, Generalitat de Catalunya. Grant SEV-2017-0706 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.

The efficiency of genomic selection strongly depends on the prediction accuracy of the genetic merit of candidates. Numerous papers have shown that the composition of the calibration set is a key contributor to prediction accuracy. A poorly defined calibration set can result in low accuracies, whereas an optimized one can considerably increase accuracy compared to random sampling, for a same size. Alternatively, optimizing the calibration set can be a way of decreasing the costs of phenotyping by enabling similar levels of accuracy compared to random sampling but with fewer phenotypic units. We present here the different factors that have to be considered when designing a calibration set, and review the different criteria proposed in the literature. We classified these criteria into two groups: model-free criteria based on relatedness, and criteria derived from the linear mixed model. We introduce criteria targeting specific prediction objectives including the prediction of highly diverse panels, biparental families, or hybrids. We also review different ways of updating the calibration set, and different procedures for optimizing phenotyping experimental designs.

During budding yeast mitosis, duplicated chromosomes are aligned at the center of the metaphase mitotic spindle, and the centromeres are stretched by forces generated within the mitotic spindle. In response to these stretching forces, mechanical tension builds up in the centromeric chromatin. The magnitude of this tension is detected by the cell to signal the attachment configuration of the sister chromosomes: a high tension signal would indicate that sister chromosomes are properly attached to opposite spindle poles, while a low tension signal could indicate the lack of a bipolar attachment. A low tension signal drives the cell to correct improper attachments in metaphase, thus preventing potential errors in anaphase chromosome segregation. In this paper, we describe a microscopy-based method to directly measure the magnitude of centromere tension in budding yeast metaphase spindles. The advantage of this method is that quantitative tension estimates are obtained without perturbing spindle and/or chromosome structure, and as cells progress normally through mitosis.

International audience; Colloidal gels are formed through the aggregation of attractive particles, whose size ranges from 10 nm to a few micrometers, suspended in a liquid. Such gels are ubiquitous in everyday life applications, from food products to paints or construction materials, in particular thanks to their ability to easily “yield”, i.e., to turn from a solid to a liquid under the application of a weak external load. Understanding and controlling the mechanical response of colloidal gels is therefore of prime importance. Depending on the details of the system, however, the resulting gel networks present different microstructural organizations that may lead to widely different mechanical responses. This raises important challenges in fully characterizing yielding and in uncovering the mechanisms of nonlinear response in colloidal gels. In this paper, we distinguish between two classes of colloidal gels showing respectively reversible yielding, where the gel network reforms upon load release, and irreversible yielding, where the network is fully destroyed through fractures and phase separation. This broad, empirical distinction is achieved through rheology and local experiments at a mesoscopic scale, intermediate between the network characteristic size and the sample size. We further discuss how the observables derived from creep and fatigue experiments may be modeled to predict yielding and highlight open questions and future research directions in the domain.

The period from about 1965 to 1975 saw the very rapid commercial introduction of several innovative cryogenic thermometers. The driving force was the need for convenient, accurate temperature sensing for the burgeoning laboratory, electronics, space and commercial markets that were gaining momentum in that time period. This paper considers only commercially available temperature sensors. A more comprehensive review of the dozens of existing cryogenic temperature sensors and measurement techniques has been written by Rubin, Brandt and Sample covering work through 1981 [1].

Microarrays are broadly used in the omic investigation and have several areas of applications in biology and medicine, providing a significant amount of data for a single experiment. Different kinds of microarrays are available, identifiable by characteristics such as the type of probes, the surface used as support, and the method used for the target detection. To better deal with microarray datasets, the development of microarray data analysis protocols simple to use as well as able to produce accurate reports, and comprehensible results arise. The object of this paper is to provide a general protocol showing how to choose the best software tool to analyze microarray data, allowing to efficiently figure out genomic/pharmacogenomic biomarkers.

In this paper, we describe the application of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to characterize process of formation and properties of solid-supported tethered bilayer membranes on solid conducting substrates. Along with the description of experimental procedures to prepare substrates and self-assembly of phospholipid bilayers onto gold-coated glass slides, we describe the detailed protocols of EIS measurements. We demonstrate the utility of EIS in the evaluation of the properties of both molecular anchor layers used to immobilize tBLMs as well as characterization of tBLMs. We show that the EIS methodology extends the applicability of this technique well beyond the mere evaluation of electric parameters. Specifically, we demonstrate how by using EIS one may evaluate both density and size of water-filled defects (ion-channels) in tBLMs, to determine the structural mode (homogeneous, heterogeneous, or clustered) of distribution of defects in tBLMs. Our methodology can be applied in both basic protein membrane interaction studies, as well as in the development of precision biosensoric systems with tBLMs as a sensing element.

This method originated due to the need to quickly and sensitively detect Avocado sunblotch viroid (ASBVd) in nursery and field trees in California. Optimum sampling protocols were developed for leaf collection from different sized trees based on size and branching as well as for fruit. An ethanol containing buffered extract from 1 g of ground leaf tissue was used as the source of RNA. The extract was absorbed onto small pieces (disks) of Whatman No. 1 filter paper which were then washed and dried. RNA was eluted from the filter paper using sterile water and used as a template in a standard single-tube RT-PCR reaction. The RNA adsorbed on the filter paper disks was quite stable, and the disks could be stored for over 1 year and shipped worldwide at ambient temperature with no noticeable decline in the quality or quantity of the resulting RT-PCR products. The filter paper capture method was expanded to the detection of other viroids including Potato spindle tuber viroid, Peach latent mosaic viroid, and Chrysanthemum stunt viroid and was tested with some viruses as well with minor modifications of the standard protocol.

A wireless wearable sensor on a paper substrate was used to continuously monitor respiratory behavior that can extract and deliver clinically relevant respiratory parameters to a smartphone. Intended to be placed horizontally at the midpoint of the costal margin and the xiphoid process as determined through anatomical analysis and experimental test, the wearable sensor is compact at only 40 × 35 × 6 mm3 in size and 6.5 g weight including a 2.7 g lithium battery. The wearable sensor, consisting of an ultrasound emitter, an ultrasound receiver, wireless transmission system, and associated data acquisition, measures the linear change in circumference at the attachment location by recording and analyzing the changes in ultrasound pressure as the distance between the emitter and the receiver changes. Changes in ultrasound pressure corresponding to linear strain are converted to temporal lung volume data and are wirelessly transmitted to an associated custom-designed smartphone app. Processing the received data, the mobile app is able to display the temporal volume trace and the flow rate vs. volume loop graphs, which are standard plots used to analyze respiration. From the plots, the app is able to extract and display clinically relevant respiration parameters, including forced expiratory volume delivered in the first second of expiration (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC). The sensor was evaluated with eight volunteers, showing a mean difference of the FEV1/FVC ratio as bounded by 0.00-4.25% when compared to the industry-standard spirometer results. By enabling continuous tracking of respiratory behavioral parameters, the wireless wearable sensor helps monitor the progression of chronic respiratory illnesses, including providing warnings to asthma patients and caregivers to pursue necessary medical assistance.

A powerful method for examining genetic fitness and function on a large scale is to couple saturating transposon mutagenesis with high-throughput sequencing (TnSeq). By mapping where transposon insertions can be tolerated in a genome, it is possible to analyze the fitness of every gene in a genome simultaneously under a given growth condition. While this technique can describe genes as essential or nonessential under those growth conditions, sufficient mutagenesis and sequencing depth can provide more subtle differences in fitness. In this paper, TnSeq was used to analyze gene fitness of two Alphaproteobacteria from different environments: the freshwater oligotroph Brevundimonas subvibrioides (Caulobacterales) and the soil plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Rhizobiales) for the purpose of comparing conservation of gene function.

In this paper we present some results concerning the calculation of the cross-sections of inelastic electron — atom collisions in the semiclassical approximation. We start with the formulas of the first order perturbation theory of quantum mechanics, but our aim will be not to calculate the corresponding matrix elements as exactly as possible, but rather to trace the transition from quantum to purely classical description of the collision process. So we use semiclassical wave functions for atomic electrons, stationary phase method for evaluation of integrals and so on.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the technique of scanning photoacoustic microscopy (SPAM) for the detection of fatigue cracks in metal alloys, and to describe an experimental arrangement for SPAM measurements on the inner surface of a cylindrical bolt hole. The experimental technique is based upon the physical mechanism of thermal wave imaging and has been described in detail at previous1, 2 Reviews of Progress in Quantitative NDE and elsewhere.3 In this paper we will also present some results of theoretical calculations for thermal wave scattering from closed, slanted cracks which intersect the surface of an opaque solid, and compare these results with our experimental data.

This chapter focuses on health-care applications of DEA. The paper begins with a brief history of health applications and discusses some of the models and the motivation behind the applications. Using DEA to develop quality frontiers in health services is offered as a new and promising direction. The paper concludes with an eight-step application procedure and list of do’s and don’ts when applying DEA to health services.

Tsuno has been developed to retrieve the relational database created by Adbis which was developed for supporting the construction of scientific database systems at the Computer Center, Kyushu University. Tsuno is an interactive retrieval system having the inference facilities based on Horn set refutation procedures and is now used as the query system for two databases. This paper describes the implementation of Tsuno.

Had a snapshot of the history of color cinematography been taken in the early days of the 1950s, it would have shown that Ansco Color, a negative-positive color system brought to market by General Aniline and Film, was one of the two product lines on track to end the supremacy of Technicolor. The company that became Ansco Photo Products, Inc., was founded in 1842 as E. Anthony & Company. After a merger with the camera maker Scovill Manufacturing, it became the Anthony & Scovill Company (hence Ansco) on December 23, 1901. Ansco was located in Binghamton, New York, where Anthony had been manufacturing photographic printmaking paper (Hannavy 2008). After Hannibal Goodwin’s death in a traffic accident in 1900, Ansco acquired his USP 610,861, Photographic Pellicle and Process of Producing Same, granted September 13, 1898, describing the manufacture of cellulose nitrate base. In 1905 Ansco prevailed against Eastman Kodak in an infringement suit based on its ownership of Goodwin’s patent, as described in Chap. 8 (Brayer 2011). Events in Germany were to have a major impact on Ansco’s corporate fate after it was absorbed into Agfa, or Aktiengesellschaft fur Anilinfabrikation (Aniline Manufacturing Corporation), founded in Berlin in 1867 as a dye manufacturer. Agfa began making photographic products in 1898 and in 1925 became part of the conglomerate IG Farben, or Interessens-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG (Amalgamated Color Company Corp.), in a consolidation that involved several other German chemical companies.

Worldwide demand for ethanol alternative fuel has been emerging day by day owing to the rapid population growth and industrialization. Culturing microalgae as an alternative feedstock is anticipated to be a potentially significant approach for sustainable bioethanol biofuel production. Microalgae are abundant in nature, which grow at faster rates with a capability of storing high lipid and starch/cellulose contents inside their cells. This process offers several environmental advantages, including the effective utilization of land, good CO2 sequestration without entering into "food against fuel" dispute. This chapter focuses on the methods and processes used for the production of bioethanol biofuels from algae. Thus, it also covers significant achievements in the research and developments on algae bioethanol production, mainly including pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation of algae biomass. The processes of producing biodiesel, biogas, and hydrogen have also been discussed.

Qualitative identification of gas chromatograph. (G.C.) fractions has created problems for the organic chemist. One of these concerns the Limit of detection for any given compound which can be achieved with a method designed to trap a G.C. peak for further analysis. This paper presents the limits of detection found attainable in the qualitative analysis of specific organic compounds. These limits were established by utilizing an activated charcoal capillary to trap the G.C. fraction prior to introduction into a Bendix Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer via the hot filament probe.

Bioreactors are manufactured apparatuses that allow the generation of a specific environment for the highly controlled cultivation of living cells. Originally used for microbial production systems, they have found widespread applications in fields as diverse as vaccine production, plant cell cultivation, and the growth of human brain organoids and exist in equally diverse designs (Chu and Robinson, Curr Opin Biotechnol 12(2):180-187, 2001; Qian et al., Nat Protoc 13:565-580, 2018). Manufacturing of biologics is currently mostly performed using a stirred tank bioreactor and CHO host cells and represents the most "classical" bioreactor production process. In this chapter, we will therefore use the cultivation of suspension Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells for recombinant protein production in a stirred tank bioreactor as an example. However, general guidelines provided in this chapter are transferable to different bioreactor types and host cells (Li et al., MAbs 2(5):466-479, 2010).The preparation and operation of a bioreactor (also referred to as upstream process in a biotechnological/industrial setting) is comprised of three main steps: expansion (generation of biomass), production (batch, fed-batch, or continuous process), and harvest. The expansion of cells can last from few days to weeks depending on the number of cells at the start, the cellular doubling time, and the required biomass to inoculate the production bioreactor. The production phase lasts a few weeks and is a highly sensitive phase as the concentration of different chemicals and physical parameters need to be tightly controlled. Finally, the harvest will allow the separation of the product of interest from large particles and then the desired material (cell culture supernatant or cells) is transferred to the downstream process.The raw materials used during the upstream phase (all three steps) need to be aligned with the final purpose of the manufactured product, as the presence of residual impurities may have an impact on suitability of the final product for a desired purpose.

There are three essential steps involved in bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks. They are pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation process. Among them, biomass pretreatment is an expensive and energy-intensive process used to remove the lignin and make the feedstock amenable for bioethanol production. The hydrodynamic cavitation can also be used for biomass pretreatment process. In order to improve the effectiveness of biomass pretreatment, a combination of any two methods of physical, chemical, and biological pretreatment can be used. A combination of the hydrodynamic cavitation pretreatment of biomass with the chemical or biochemical catalyst can be performed better than the individual pretreatment method. In this chapter, a protocol is describes the biomass pretreatment via a combined hydrodynamic cavitation with biocatalyst process.

The rather general title of this paper hides the results of some experiments which have been performed at our laboratory during the last two years. I will describe measurements of the lateral conductivity of a lamellar lipid-water system and relate these results to Raman spectroscopic studies on the same system. Furthermore I will discuss inelastic light scattering experiments on mono-molecular lipid films on water. All these experiments appear to yield new information on biologically interesting properties of lipid-water systems.

DQAsomes (dequalinium-based liposome-like vesicles) are the prototype for all mitochondria-targeted vesicular pharmaceutical nanocarrier systems. First described in 1998 in a paper which has been cited as of May 2020 over 150 times, DQAsomes have been successfully explored for the delivery of DNA and low-molecular weight molecules to mitochondria within living mammalian cells. Moreover, they also appear to have triggered the design and development of a large variety of similar mitochondria-targeted nanocarriers . Potential areas of application of DQAsomes and of related mitochondria-targeted pharmaceutical nanocarriers involve mitochondrial gene therapy , antioxidant and updated therapy as well as apoptosis-based anticancer chemotherapy. Here, detailed protocols for the preparation, characterization, and application of DQAsomes are given and most recent developments involving the design and use of DQAsome-related particles are highlighted and discussed.

Reduction of fossil fuels at an alarming rate has attracted increasing attention to blending biofuels worldwide. India's energy demand is expected to grow at an annual rate of 4-5 times over the next couple of decades. With self-sufficiency levels in crude oil becoming a distant dream, there is growing interest to look out for alternative fuels and the biofuels are an important option for policy makers in India. In this context, this paper reviews the experiences in India in the last two decades with respect to biofuel cultivation and its impact on land use, environment, and the livelihoods of rural communities. The objective of this paper is to assess the economics of biofuel production using Sorghum and Pearl millet feedstocks in India using a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach. Baseline study was conducted during the year 2013 in the Madhya Pradesh state of India covering five districts and 333 sample farmers to understand the farmers perception about the various issues related to the production of biofuels using Indian staple food crops Sorghum and Pearl millet. Empirical data from the multi-locational trials conducted during the years 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 in farmers' fields was used to conduct the LCA analysis. Sorghum and Pearl millet feedstocks which are rain-fed crops are considered for bioethanol production with different pretreatment methods. Net Energy Ratio (NER), Net Energy Balance (NEB), Net Carbon Balance (NCB), and % Carbon reduction were some of the key parameters used for analysis and the results are evaluated based on the environmental impacts through the Life Cycle Assessment at 5% blending. Findings reveal that, dilute alkali pretreatment process is most energy intensive due to consumption of alkali consumption. Whereas dilute acid pretreatment has higher conversion efficiency than the other pretreatment processes which is due to higher glucan and xylan conversion efficiencies.The study concludes that Sorghum feedstock is more energy intensive than Pearl millet feedstock due to higher water requirement and yield. Biofuels, either conventional or advanced, should not been couraged without a comprehensive outlook on the overall impact that will ultimately have on the society, environment, or on the countries' energy security. Efforts should be made toward encouragement of research and development in the field as well as in formulating a comprehensive and effective biofuel policy for India.

An early example of the working relationship between the electrical transmission of images and silver halide photography or phototelegraphy was the Kopiertelegraph (from the German Kopagraphegrafen for copying telegraphy), the invention of engineer Gustav Grzanna, born in Breslau. In 1901 Grzanna presented his fernschreiber (teleprinter) that used a scanning stylet at the transmitter to send an electrical signal via telegraph lines. At the receiver the image was written by a mirror galvanometer, a small mirror on a magnet held within the field produced by two electromagnetics, one for X and the other for Y translation. Light projected onto the mirror was reflected to scan and expose photographic paper (Huurdeman 2003). The Grzanna Kopiertelegraph Company of Dresden went out of business in 1905, unable to compete with the Telautograph of German physicist Arthur Korn that was introduced in 1902, as noted in Chap. 75 (Suplee et al. 1906, p. 1105). Korn’s rotating scanning drum was a precursor of the photographic facsimile machines used by organizations like newspapers and police departments for many years.