Peptidic Ligands to Control the Three‐Dimensional Self‐Assembly of Quantum Rods in Aqueous Media

The use of peptidic ligands is validated as a generic chemical platform allowing one to finely control the organization in solid phase of semiconductor nanorods originally dispersed in an aqueous media. An original method to generate, on a macroscopic scale and with the desired geometry, three‐dimensional supracrystals composed of quantum rods is introduced. In a first step, nanorods are transferred in an aqueous phase thanks to the substitution of the original capping layer by peptidic ligands. Infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy data prove that the exchange is complete; fluorescence spectroscopy demonstrates that the emitter optical properties are not significantly altered; electrophoresis and dynamic light scattering experiments assess the good colloidal stability of the resulting aqueous suspension. In a second step, water evaporation in a microstructured environment yields superstructures with a chosen geometry and in which nanorods obey a smectic B arrangement, as shown by electron microscopy. Incidentally, bulk drying in a capillary tube generates a similar local order, as evidenced by small angle X‐ray scattering.     

Development of a Novel High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography–Based Method for the Simultaneous Quantification of Clinically Relevant Lipids from Cells and Tissue Extracts

Lipids such as cholesterol, triacylglycerols, and fatty acids play important roles in the regulation of cellular metabolism and cellular signaling pathways and, as a consequence, in the development of various diseases. It is therefore important to understand how their metabolism is regulated to better define the components involved in the development of various human diseases. In the present work, we describe the development and validation of a high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method allowing the separation and quantification of free cholesterol, cholesteryl esters, nonesterified fatty acids, and triacylglycerols. This method will be of interest as the quantification of these lipids in one single assay is difficult to perform.     

Activation level in boron-doped thin germanium-on-insulator (GeOI): Extraction method and impact of mobility

We hereby present a non-destructive method for extracting the activation level on boron-doped germanium-on-insulator (GeOI) wafers, with a discussion on the impact of the hole mobility model. This method combines Monte Carlo boron profile simulations with optical Ge layer thickness T_Ge and electrical sheet resistance R_sh measurements. As B atoms are known not to diffuse in Ge for the usual activation temperatures (<800 °C), we can assume that the as-implanted dopant profile remains unchanged after annealing (no modelling of boron diffusion required). We highlight that the knowledge of the hole mobility dependence on activated impurities concentration in Ge is of paramount importance. Several experimental and theoretical models are available in the literature. After relative validity assessments, all of them have been implemented for extraction and unfortunately yield different values scattered over nearly one decade. Still, the lower-bound concentration 2.7×10¹⁹ cm⁻³ is in the range of the state-of-the-art values for B-implanted crystalline Ge and has proven suitable for functional GeOI pMOSFET demonstration.     

RAFT controlled synthesis of six-armed biodegradable star polymeric architectures via a ‘core-first’ methodology

Six-armed biodegradable star polymers made from polystyrene (polySt), poly(polyethylene glycol) acrylate (polyPEG-A) and the block copolymer, polySt-b-polyPEG-A were synthesized using a ‘core-first’ methodology via RAFT polymerization. Disulfide linkages between the core and the arms conferred biodegradability on the stars. The star architectures were found to degrade rapidly on treatment with DL-dithiothreitol (DTT) and degrade more slowly in the presence of glutathione (GSH), the most abundant intracellular thiol tethered peptide. These star polymers were well characterized using gel permeation chromatography (GPC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy (ESI-MS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS).     

Release of Volatile Aldehydes by the Brown Algal Kelp Laminaria digitata in Response to Both Biotic and Abiotic Stress

With a little kelp from my friends : In response to biotic and abiotic stress, the brown algal kelp Laminaria digitata releases volatile fatty acid aldehydes under laboratory conditions and in its natural environment (red). In response to 4‐HHE treatment, L. digitata releases (13S)‐HOTrE (green). These results support the hypothesis that these compounds may mediate kelp responses to stress.

     

Liveness Checking as Safety Checking

Temporal logic is widely used for specifying hardware and software systems. Typically two types of properties are distinguished, safety and liveness properties. While safety can easily be checked by reachability analysis, and many efficient checkers for safety properties exist, more sophisticated algorithms have always been considered to be necessary for checking liveness. In this paper we describe an efficient translation of liveness checking problems into safety checking problems. A counter example is detected by saving a previously visited state in an additional state recording component and checking a loop closing condition. The approach handles fairness and thus extends to full LTL.     

Acid and enzymic hydrolysis of Kappa carrageenan

Summary This paper describes the acid and enzymic hydrolysis of Kappa carrageenan and the gel permeation chromatography of the charged oligosaccharides.     

ORCA-FMS: a dynamic architecture for the optimized and reactive control of flexible manufacturing scheduling

Reactive and effective hybrid manufacturing control architectures, combining hierarchy and heterarchy adapted to the current constraints of the industrial market and its environment were created. In this article, a new generic hybrid control architecture called ORCA (dynamic Architecture for an Optimized and Reactive Control) is first proposed. This hybrid architecture is able to dynamically and partially switch between a hierarchical predictive architecture and a heterarchical reactive architecture, if an event forbidding the planned behavior to be followed occurs. In this article, this architecture was applied to a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) problem and denoted ORCA-FMS. ORCA-FMS was tested on an existing manufacturing cell with simulations and real experiments to prove the applicability and the effectiveness of this kind of hybrid architecture in an industrial environment.