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Rumor has it that all technologies needed to build energy islands are ready. Wind turbines are spinning in many large offshore parks, while combinations of sand and concrete have given birth to several entirely new islands. However, not all rumors are true. Not only has the Danish parliament mandated the largest ever infrastructure project in the history of our country. The first Danish artificial island built for energy production will also become the world’s largest renewable energy project. On top of the technical and logistical challenges associated with building something of an unprecedented scale and nature come new concerns. The energy islands are an extreme version of the power system we know today, and therefore represent a Mars mission for the energy system. More than once have large infrastructure projects been plagued by delays and significant additional costs. Often such problems have been rooted in overly optimistic planning, limited knowledge regarding the complexity and interdependencies involved, and not giving enough attention to the development phase relative to the construction phase. For many reasons, it is highly desirable for the energy island projects to perform well. Therefore, we have teamed up to map the key challenges and suggest R&D initiatives to address them. Importantly, these initiatives are not intended as an inserted step before construction. Given the urgency in green transition and ending the reliance on fossil fuels, research and construction must be conducted in parallel. A solid foundation for energy islands On the following pages we invite you to delve into the complexity of constructing and operating offshore hubs for renewable energy. As you will hopefully agree, we are by no means saying that it cannot be done. It can. But only if decisions are based on a solid foundation of knowledge.

Pneumococcal capsules are important in pneumococcal pathogenesis and vaccine development. Though conjugate vaccines have brought about a significant reduction in invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) caused by vaccine serotypes, the relative serotype prevalence has shifted with dramatic emergence of serotype 24F in some countries. Herein, we describe fourteen isolates (thirteen IPD and one non-IPD) expressing a new capsule type, 24C, which resembles 24F but has a novel serological profile. We also describe the antigenic, biochemical, and genetic bases of 24F and 24C and the related serotypes 24A and 24B. Structural studies show that 24B, 24C, and 24F have identical polysaccharide backbones [β-Ribf-(1→4)-α-Rhap-(1→3)-β-GlcpNAc-(1→4)-β-Rhap-(1→4)-β-Glcp] but with different side chains: 24F has arabinitol-phosphate, and 24B has ribitol-phosphate. 24C has a mixture of 24F and 24B repeating units, with ratio of ribitol to arabinitol being strain-dependent. In contrast, 24A capsule has a backbone without β-Ribf but with arabinitol-phosphate and phosphocholine side chains. These structures indicate that factor-sera 24d and 24e respectively recognize arabinitol and ribitol, which explains the serology of serogroup 24, including those of 24C. The structures can be genetically described by the bi-specificity of wcxG, capable of transferring arabinitol or ribitol when arabinitol is limiting. Arabinitol is likely not produced in 24B but is produced in reduced amounts in 24C due to various mutations in abpA or abpB genes. Our findings demonstrate how pneumococci modulate their capsule structure and immunologic properties with small genetic changes, thereby evading host immune responses. Our findings also suggest a potential for new capsule types within serogroup 24.

β-N-Acetylhexosaminidases are glycoside hydrolases (GHs) acting on N-acetylated carbohydrates and glycoproteins with the release of N-acetylhexosamines. Members of the family GH20 have been reported to catalyze the transfer of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) to an acceptor, i.e., the reverse of hydrolysis, thus representing an alternative to chemical oligosaccharide synthesis. Two putative GH20 β-N-acetylhexosaminidases, PhNah20A and PhNah20B, encoded by the marine bacterium Paraglaciecola hydrolytica S66T, are distantly related to previously characterized enzymes. Remarkably, PhNah20A was located by phylogenetic analysis outside clusters of other studied β-N-acetylhexosaminidases, in a unique position between bacterial and eukaryotic enzymes. We successfully produced recombinant PhNah20A showing optimum activity at pH 6.0 and 50 °C, hydrolysis of GlcNAc β-1,4 and β-1,3 linkages in chitobiose (GlcNAc)2 and GlcNAc-1,3-β-Gal-1,4-β-Glc (LNT2), a human milk oligosaccharide core structure. The kinetic parameters of PhNah20A for p-nitrophenyl-GlcNAc and p-nitrophenyl-GalNAc were highly similar: kcat/KM being 341 and 344 mM-1 s-1, respectively. PhNah20A was unstable in dilute solution, but retained full activity in the presence of 0.5% bovine serum albumin (BSA). PhNah20A catalyzed the formation of LNT2, the non-reducing trisaccharide β-Gal-1,4-β-Glc-1,1-β-GlcNAc, and in low amounts the β-1,2- or β-1,3-linked trisaccharide β-Gal-1,4(β-GlcNAc)-1,x-Glc by a transglycosylation of lactose using 2-methyl-(1,2-dideoxy-α-d-glucopyrano)-oxazoline (NAG-oxazoline) as the donor. PhNah20A is the first characterized member of a distinct subgroup within GH20 β-N-acetylhexosaminidases.

The transglycosylation abilities of β-galactosidases were investigated using hyperpolarized [U-13C,U-2H]glucose as an acceptor and o-nitrophenyl β-galactopyranoside as a donor. Several products were readily observable, and at least in the case when O3 acted as an acceptor, the enzymes showed a clear selectivity toward the β-anomer of glucose. Additionally, it was possible to determine the relative hydrolysis rates of the formed transglycosylation products, providing information on the selectivity as well. Using this method, the transglycosylation abilities of the enzymes could be studied at a very high temporal resolution as well as with high sensitivity, and due to the relative ease of the setup, this method could be more generally applied to investigate glycosidases.

Atmospheric hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of wheat straw fast pyrolysis vapors was studied as a promising route for the production of renewable liquid transportation fuels. The performance of TiO2-supported Pt (0.5 wt%) and MoO3 (10 wt%) catalysts was compared to an industrial Mo-based catalyst using a bench scale reactor operated at atmospheric pressure and up to high biomass-to-catalyst ratios (B:C). Mass and energy balances were complemented by detailed bio-oil characterization including advanced methods such as GC×GC-ToF/MS or -FID and 13C NMR. At 50 vol% H2, all three HDO catalysts effectively reduced the oxygen content of the bio-oils to ∼7–12 wt% (dry basis) compared to a non-catalytic reference (23 wt% O). MoO3/TiO2 was least efficient in conversion of acids (TAN = 28 mg per KOH), while Pt/TiO2 and MoO3/Al2O3 obtained oils with TAN ∼ 13 mg KOH/g (non-catalytic = 66 mg KOH/g). Compared to the TiO2-supported catalysts, the industrial Mo/Al2O3 catalyst produced higher yields of coke at the expense of condensed bio-oil. MoO3/TiO2 performed similar to Pt/TiO2 in terms of deoxygenation and energy recovery of condensed bio-oil, and by increasing the H2 concentration to 90 vol% the energy recovery of bio-oil increased to 39 and 42% at 8 and 10 wt% O (d.b.), respectively. Pt/TiO2 showed the highest selectivity to aliphatics and the lowest coke yields, e.g. the coke yield at B:C ∼ 8 was only 0.6 wt% of fed biomass. This study demonstrates that by using low-pressures of hydrogen and appropriate HDO catalysts, the quality of bio-oil can be improved without severely compromising its quantity (carbon yield) as observed under catalytic fast pyrolysis conditions.

Steam treated HZSM-5 with different Si/Al ratios were tested as catalysts for the upgrading of wheat straw pyrolysis vapors and their performance was compared to hierarchical counterparts, which were prepared by desilication followed by acid washing. Pyrolysis vapors were generated in an ablative system, hot gas filtered, and upgraded in an ex-situ catalyst bed to remove oxygen functionalities and reduce the oils' total acid number (TAN). Besides elemental analysis and TAN, the collected liquids were analyzed for water, chemical composition by gas chromatography mass spectrometry with flame ionization detection (GC–MS/FID), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and selectively by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), 13C NMR, and two-dimensional heteronuclear single-quantum correlation (2D HSQC) NMR. Hierarchical and conventional catalysts were analyzed with X-ray fluorescence (XRF), ammonia temperature-programmed desorption (NH3-TPD) and ethylamine TPD, N2 and Ar-physisorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to investigate changes induced by the desilication process. In addition, samples were analyzed after several reaction and regeneration cycles to investigate catalyst stability. The hierarchical samples showed an increased coking propensity compared to their parent version. The introduction of mesopores after desilication of HZSM-5 with molar Si/Al ratios of 29 and 39 lead to prolonged activity in deoxygenation and improved carbon recovery in the collected oil fractions compared to the parent counterparts. The results indicate that mild deoxygenation may be a viable way of pretreating pyrolysis oil before co-processing with fossil oil in refineries.

HZSM-5 extrudates, its two constituents (HZSM-5 zeolite and alumina binder), and SiC for reference were tested after steam treatment for the upgrading of wheat straw fast pyrolysis (FP) vapors from an ablative bench scale system. In addition, mesoporosity was added to the HZSM-5 crystals of the zeolite/Al2O3 extrudates by desilication, which decreased the microporous volume and led to enhanced weak acidity and less strong acidity compared to the parent extrudates. For increasing biomass-to-catalyst ratios (w/w, B:C), oils were collected and analyzed for elemental composition, total acid number (TAN), moisture, molecular weight, evaporation characteristics, and chemical composition by gas chromatography mass spectrometry with flame ionization detection (GC-MS/FID), 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), 13C NMR, and two-dimensional heteronuclear single-quantum correlation (2D HSQC) NMR. Compared to Al2O3, catalysts containing HZSM-5 promoted aromatization and limited the coke formation due to its shape selective micropores. Nevertheless, Al2O3 was effective in deoxygenation. At B:C ~7, 23 wt-% carbon/25 % energy recovery in the oil fraction was obtained while reducing the oxygen content by 45 % relative to a thermal reference oil fraction obtained over a SiC bed. As such, Al2O3 offers certain benefits compared to HZSM-5 based catalysts due to its lower cost and better hydrothermal stability with respect to acidity. At a catalyst temperature of 500 °C, the introduction of mesopores to HZSM-5 extrudates led to higher energy recovery as oil compared to the parent HZSM-5 extrudates. At B:C = 6.3, 23 wt-% carbon/26% energy recovery in the oil phase was achieved while removing 45% of the oxygen functionalities relative to the thermal reference bio-oil. Compared to deep deoxygenation for direct hydrocarbon production, mild deoxygenation improved the energy recoveries of the oil fractions a

The hydrogenation of alkynes and alkenes using a Shrock-Osborn catalysts was followed in-situ with dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (dDNP) NMR. Natural abundance and 13C labeled dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate was hyperpolarized prior to hydrogenation using (1,4-bis{diphenylphosphino}butane)(2,5-norbornadiene) rhodium(I) perchlorate, [Rh(NBD)(DPPB)]ClO4. The increased signal-to-noise ratio of dDNP compared to conventional 13C NMR allowed real-time detection of substrate and products as well as the modeling of the hydrogenation kinetics. The build-up of an intermediate was observed during interruption in hydrogen flow, substantiating the current view of the reaction mechanism. Selective inversion of the carbonyl NMR signal of the substrate was applied to demonstrate unequivocally that the new peak appearing in the spectrum originates from a reaction intermediate. The scope of the dDNP method for following reaction dynamics in real time was further demonstrated by substrate competition experiments.

In this work, we provide detailed information on the change in product distribution and bio-oil quality during extended feeding of biomass derived fast pyrolysis vapors over ZSM-5. The effect of catalyst deactivation by coking on the resulting oil product characteristics was clarified in order to determine when the vapor upgrading should be stopped and the regeneration initiated. Obtaining a stable catalyticfast pyrolysis (CFP) oil while maintaining good energy recovery is important within the context of potential coprocessing of these oils with petroleum feedstocks via fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) or hydrotreatmentof the whole CFP oil. Wheat straw derived fast pyrolysis vapors were upgraded in an ex-situ fixed bed reactor containing a steamed ZSM-5 catalyst at 500 °C. Oils were collected bothfor runs starting the upgrading over a fresh (or regenerated) catalyst and for runs which were continued over an increasingly coked zeolite. The oils were characterized for water content, elemental analysis, total acid number (TAN), chemical composition by gas chromatography mass spectrometry with flame ionization detection (GC-MS/FID), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), evaporation characteristics by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), 13C NMR, and two-dimensional heteronuclear single-quantum correlation (2D HSQC) NMR. With increasing biomass-to-catalyst mass ratio (B:C), the yield of deoxygenated hydrocarbons decreased, accompanied by a breakthrough of primary pyrolysis vapors leading to an increasing organic liquid yield. The oxygen content of the condensed, phase separated oil fraction increased and the molar O/C ratio of 0.05 and TAN of6 mg KOH/g for oil collected during B:C = 0–1.1 increased to O/C = 0.18 and TAN = 14 mg KOH/g for oil collected during B:C = 3.6–6.2. Oil produced at 90% reduced catalyst amount and B:C = 0–6.5 and 0–12.9 increased the carbon recovery into the oil product to 23% and 27%, respective

The rapid development of wearable electronics has increasingly demanded high-performance flexible power-supply devices for enhancing portability and durability. Flexible solid-state supercapacitors (FSSSCs) could have potential to fulfill this demand, but engineering electrode materials is still a challenging issue. Herein, we demonstrate optimal structuring nitrogen-doped hybrid-dimensional nanocarbons (N-RGO-CNT-CBNP) for high-performance FSSSCs. Three types of representative nanocarbons including reduced graphene oxide nanosheets, carbon nanotubes and carbon black nanoparticles are explored as building blocks to construct N-RGO-CNT-CBNP synergistically via facile and low-cost solution processing. With melamine as both a structure-directing agent and a highly effective nitrogen source, a highly-porous threedimensional hierarchical structure and a high nitrogen doping level of 13.8 at.% are simultaneously achieved. Such a nanostructured material is employed to fabricate sandwich-structured papers (N-RGO-CNT-CBNP-Ps) with high flexibility, conductivity and mechanical strength. The resulting N-RGO-CNT-CBNP-Ps possess an ultrahigh areal specific capacitance (935 mF cm-2 at 1 mA cm-2), as well as remarkable rate capability (e.g. 580 mF cm-2 at 100 mA cm-2) and cyclic stability (e.g. 91.6% retention after even 40,000 cycles at 50 mA cm-2). An N-RGO-CNT-CBNP-P based FSSSC displays both high energy density and power density, while satisfying operational reliability/durability requirements. The results indicate that the NRGO-CNT-CBNP-P based FSSSCs hold promise towards their practical applications for wearable electronics.

Lignosulfonate was subjected to a reductive catalytic degradation in ethanol medium at 310 °C in the presence of alumina supported NiMo catalysts and H2. The liquid and solid products were analyzed with size exclusion chromatography (SEC), gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC–MS), two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC), heteronuclear single quantum coherence nuclear magnetic resonance (HSQC NMR) and elemental analysis. The highest oil yield and the lowest char yield obtained was 88 and 15 wt %, respectively. The liquefied species were mainly dimers and oligomers with minor yields of monomers. The catalyst was important for stabilization of reactive intermediates either by hydrogenation or coupling with ethanol. Simultaneous deoxygenation and desulfurization reactions took place in the presence of the catalyst; the oxygen and sulfur content in the oil fraction obtained after 4 h reaction time were 11.2 and 0.1 wt %, indicating considerable deoxygenation and desulfurization compared to the lignosulfonate feedstock (O, 30.8 wt %; S, 3.1 wt %). The effect of the reaction parameters such as temperature, reaction time and catalyst mass was studied. It was observed that by increasing the temperature from 260 to 310 °C the degradation increased, however, the SEC analysis showed that the degradation progressed only to a certain size range dimers to oligomers in the reaction temperatures studied. Investigating the effect of reaction time of 1, 2, 3, and 4 h indicated that degradation, deoxygenation, desulfurization and alkylation reactions progressed over time. The reusability of the catalyst without any pretreatment was confirmed by an almost constant oil yield in three repeated experiments with the same catalyst batch. The results show that alumina supported NiMo catalysts are very promising catalysts for conversion of lignosulfonate to liquid products.

Dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) NMR can be used to increase the sensitivity of 13CNMR signal by up to four orders of magnitude. This allows for real time monitoring of reactionsand observation of intermediates. The biggest drawback of the method is the loss of polarizationwith T1 relaxation, but even with this limitation, it is possible to obtain detailed reaction parametersin less than one minute. The enzyme investigated was β-galactosidase from E. coli (E.C. 3.2.1.23). It is well described and the mechanism is generally accepted to be a double displacement with a covalently bound intermediate, however, this evidence is based on mutant of X-ray crystallography and simulations. As the natural substrate lactose does not have any quaternary carbon with long T1, the unnatural substrate o-nitrophenyl β-D-galactopyranoside was used (figure 1) as the quaternarypositions have T1 relaxations of ca. 15 s instead of <2 s. The DNP NMR monitoring of the hydrolysis of this substrate can be seen in figure 2, and another use of this substrate is for optimizing the conditions for a labelled substrate (figure 1), which would further increase the signal and allow monitoring of the carbohydrate instead of the aglycon. This is, however, not commercially available and had to be synthesized from doubly labelled galactose.

Inonotus obliquus (Chaga) – a white rot fungus found on birch trees in the northern hemisphere –has been used in traditional medicine in Europe and Asia for centuries. Native peoples have made use of Chaga by brewing it as a tea to treat gastro-intestinal problems, to heal wounds and even to treat cancer. The last few decades, studies have found Chaga to contain biologically active substances such as polysaccharides, triterpenoids, polyphenols and melanin. In vivo effects such as tumor growth inhibition have been observed in mice receiving various Chaga extracts. The main hypothesis behind the tumor inhibiting effect is two-fold: i) fungal polysaccharides may inhibit tumor growth indirectly by activating certain immune cells such as macrophages and ii) triterpenoids and other steroids from Chaga may give a direct cytotoxic effect against cancer cells. While triterpenoids from Chaga have been extensively characterized, detailed analysis of the polysaccharides is lacking. The present work has aimed to isolate and characterize the polysaccharides in Chaga, by e.g. column chromatography (ionexchange/gel filtration), GC-MS, SEC-MALLS and extensive NMR analysis. The water-soluble polysaccharides were found to be complex hetero-polysaccharides, with a structure dominated by(1→3/1→6)-β-glucan and (1→6)-α-galactan, with β-xylose, α-mannose and α-galacturonic acidpresent in significant amounts. 3-O-methyl α-galactose was reported in Chaga for the first time. The polysaccharide fractions obtained were screened in in vitro bioassays for their potential as immunomodulators. Several fractions showed promising results by activating murine bonemarrow derived macrophages to inhibit the growth of Lewis lung carcinoma cells in vitro. Theresults suggest further studies to be conducted on immune cell activation and in vivo tumor growth inhibition.

Lack of access to certain types of oligosaccharides is a severe bottleneck for advances inglycosciences. The transglycosylation activity of retaining glycoside hydrolases (GH) has been used to provide oligosaccharides. The main drawbacks of those enzymes are the competing hydrolysis reaction and the fact that the products are also substrates, thus needing a kinetic control of the reaction. Several approaches have been developed to overcome these, including mechanism modifications (e.g. glycosynthases, chemical rescue), functional screening and data mining to find natural transglycosidases, directed evolution and targeted mutagenesis. Here we focused on N-acetyl hexosaminidases from family GH20 that catalyse removal or additionof GlcNAc and GalNAc. Despite sharing a substrate-assisted mechanism with GH85, for which several glycosynthases have been created, no successful GH20 glycosynthase has been reported. Thus, we turned to discovery and characterization of new GH20s and performing a systematic mutagenesis study. Several new GH20s of bacterial origin were isolated and described by functional screening and data mining, including transglycosidases able to synthesize lacto-N-triose, a valuableoligosaccharide, as well as genuine hydrolases. Mutational analysis of all residues within the catalytic domain which were unchanged in >99% of 371 aligned GH20 sequences was pursued. Indeed, it has been shown that targeting conserved residues increases the likelihood of finding advantageous mutations. Furthermore, it allows for transfer of successful mutations to other GH20s to find new efficient transglycosidases. Notably, even though most conserved residues occur within the first and second shell of substrateinteraction, 9 residues inside the (β/α)8 barrel pointing toward the active site are also conserved. To the best of our knowledge, such residues were not studied, although one of them mutated by directed evolution of a GH29 enzyme improved the transglycosylat

Flexible supercapacitors have shown great potential to fulfill the increasing demand on wearable, miniature, lightweight, thin and highly efficient power supply systems for advanced portable electronics. Owing to its superior supercapacitive performances as well as high chemical stability and excellent mechanical flexibility, graphene {GR} based flexible supercapacitors have received much research attention in recent years. However, GR-based supercapacitors often suffer from GR restacking leading to capacitance attenuation. Therefore, some macromolecules, polymers and zero-dimensional/one-dimensional {00/10) nanomaterials have been tested as spacers to prevent GR sheets {GRSs) from restacking for constructing three-dimensional {30) porous electrodes. Besides, heteroatom doping of GRSs could further improve their specific capacitance by introducing pseudocapacitive characteristics and increasing hydrophilicity. In this work, a facile approach is developed to prepare nitrogen-doped carbon based flexible and free-standing paper electrodes {N3CPs) built from three types of representative carbon materials in different dimensions {OD: carbon black nanoparticles (CBNPs); 10: carbon nanotubes {CNTs); 20: GRSs) with melamine as the nitrogen doping source. The N3CP electrode has demonstrated several advantages, such as enhanced porosity, improved electrical conductivity and high nitrogen doping level. Electrochemical tests have shown that thanks to the synergistic effects of hybrid-dimensional optimized carbon materials, 30 hierarchical porous nanostructure and effective nitrogen doping, a N3CP based flexible supercapacitor has shown the combined advantages of high capacitance, high rate capability and long cycling life {>20,000 cycles). The results hold promising prospects towards practical applications of such flexible supercapacitors in portable electronics.

Blooms of the microalga Prymnesium parvum cause devastating fish kills worldwide, which are suspected to be caused by the supersized ladder-frame polyether toxins prymnesin-1 and -2. These toxins have, however, only been detected from P. parvum in rare cases since they were originally described two decades ago. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of a novel B-type prymnesin, based on extensive analysis of 2D- and 3D-NMR data of natural as well as 90% 13C enriched material. B-type prymnesins lack a complete 1,6-dioxadecalin core unit, which is replaced by a short acyclic C2 linkage compared to the structure of the original prymnesins. Comparison of the bioactivity of prymnesin-2 with prymnesin-B1 in an RTgill-W1 cell line assay identified both compounds as toxic in the low nanomolar range. Chemical investigations by liquid chromatography highresolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) of 10 strains of P. parvum collected worldwide showed that only one strain produced the original prymnesin-1 and -2, whereas four strains produced the novel B-type prymnesin. In total 13 further prymnesin analogues differing in their core backbone and chlorination and glycosylation patterns could be tentatively detected by LC-MS/HRMS, including a likely C-type prymnesin in five strains. Altogether, our work indicates that evolution of prymnesins has yielded a diverse family of fish-killing toxins that occurs around the globe and has significant ecological and economic impact., Blooms of the microalga Prymnesium parvum cause devastating fish kills worldwide, which are suspected to be caused by the supersized ladder-frame polyether toxins prymnesin-1 and -2. These toxins have, however, only been detected from P. parvum in rare cases since they were originally described two decades ago. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of a novel B-type prymnesin, based on extensive analysis of 2D- and 3D-NMR data of natural as well as 90% 13C enriched material. B-type prymnesins lack a complete 1,6-dioxadecalin core unit, which is replaced by a short acyclic C2 linkage compared to the structure of the original prymnesins. Comparison of the bioactivity of prymnesin-2 with prymnesin-B1 in an RTgill-W1 cell line assay identified both compounds as toxic in the low nanomolar range. Chemical investigations by liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) of 10 strains of P. parvum collected worldwide showed that only one strain produced the original prymnesin-1 and -2, whereas four strains produced the novel B-type prymnesin. In total 13 further prymnesin analogues differing in their core backbone and chlorination and glycosylation patterns could be tentatively detected by LC-MS/HRMS, including a likely C-type prymnesin in five strains. Altogether, our work indicates that evolution of prymnesins has yielded a diverse family of fish-killing toxins that occurs around the globe and has significant ecological and economic impact.

For food oral processing, any specific component in the food products and its structural changes in varying environment can give crucial influence on the sensory acceptance of the products. The objective of this research was to investigate the inter-action between beta-Lactoglobulin (BLG), the major whey protein, and bovine submaxillary mucin (BSM), a (model) major salivary component, when mixed (1:1) at different pHs (pH 3.0, 5.0 and 7.4) in order to broaden our understanding of food oral processing on the molecular level. High and low field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Circular Dichroism (CD) techniques were employed to study the structural changes. A Mini-Traction Machine (MTM) was then employed to investigate the friction and lubrication properties of the proteins at a compliant interface, as a mimic of oral processing of dairy products.

Analytical platforms for the fast detection, identification and quantification of circulating drugs with a narrow therapeutic range are vital in clinical pharmacology. As a result of low drug concentrations, analytical tools need to provide high sensitivity and specificity. Dynamic nuclear polarization‐NMR (DNP‐NMR) in the form of the hyperpolarization–dissolution method should afford the sensitivity and spectral resolution for the direct detection and quantification of numerous isotopically labeled circulating drugs and their metabolites in single liquid‐state NMR transients. This study explores the capability of quantitative in vitro DNP‐NMR to assay drug metabolites in blood plasma. The lower limit of detection for the anti‐epileptic drug 13C‐carbamazepine and its pharmacologically active metabolite 13C‐carbamazepine‐10,11‐epoxide is 0.08 µg/mL in rabbit blood plasma analyzed by single‐scan 13C DNP‐NMR. An internal standard is used for the accurate quantification of drug and metabolite. Comparison of quantitative DNP‐NMR data with an established analytical method (liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry) yields a Pearson correlation coefficient r of 0.99. Notably, all DNP‐NMR determinations were performed without analyte derivatization or sample purification other than plasma protein precipitation. Quantitative DNP‐NMR is an emerging methodology which requires little sample preparation and yields quantitative data with high sensitivity for therapeutic drug monitoring. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keyword: Blood plasma,DNP-NMR,Carbamazepine,Drug metabolism,C NMR,Therapeutic drug monitoring

Six new meroterpenoid compounds, hesseltins B–G, were isolated from Penicillium species along with the previously described hesseltin A. A further 14 compounds, which turned out to be photoisomers, were detected during purification and were subsequently isolated. The structures of these analogues were elucidated by comparison of their NMR spectral data with that of hesseltin A. None of the new hesseltins showed antiviral activity in a Herpes simplex virus type 2 assay.

NMR artifact purging: Modern NMR experiments depend on efficient coherence transfer pathways for their sensitivity and on suppression of undesired pathways leading to artifacts for their spectral clarity. A novel robust adiabatic element suppresses hard-to-get-at artifacts.