Droplet microfluidics for high-throughput biological assays

Droplet microfluidics offers significant advantages for performing high-throughput screens and sensitive assays. Droplets allow sample volumes to be significantly reduced, leading to concomitant reductions in cost. Manipulation and measurement at kilohertz speeds enable up to 10(8) samples to be screened in one day. Compartmentalization in droplets increases assay sensitivity by increasing the effective concentration of rare species and decreasing the time required to reach detection thresholds. Droplet microfluidics combines these powerful features to enable currently inaccessible high-throughput screening applications, including single-cell and single-molecule assays.     

Sampling a terahertz dipole transition with subcycle time resolution

We present a time-resolved technique to measure optical excitation processes with a time resolution shorter than the oscillation period of the exciting light. Our terahertz (THz) experiments fully resolve the polarization dynamics of electrons in semiconductor heterostructures when they are excited by a THz pulse. The time resolution of the polarization enables us to deduce the population dynamics of the excited state, which includes the dynamics of a virtual population in the case of off-resonant excitation.     

Intersubband scattering of cold electrons in a coupled quantum well with subband spacing below

We report measurements of the intersubband scattering rate between the first and second subband in a quantum-well structure with subband spacing (11 meV) smaller than the optical phonon energy. We measure the electron population in the second subband under CW excitation by a far-infrared laser tuned to the intersubband absorption frequency. This allows us to determine the intersubband relaxation rate using detailed balance. These measurements are novel because they are performed at very low excitation densities (I10 μW/cm²). In this regime the heating of the electron gas is negligible, so that the optically excited population in the upper subband greatly exceeds any thermal population induced by laser heating. Therefore, the relaxation rate we measure is controlled by intersubband scattering rather than carrier cooling. At low temperature we obtain an intersubband lifetime of which is power independent below 10⁻¹ W/cm², and approximately temperature independent for lattice temperatures between T=10 and 2.5 K.     

Limits for queues as the waiting room grows

We study the convergence of finite-capacity open queueing systems to their infinite-capacity counterparts as the capacity increases. Convergence of the transient behavior is easily established in great generality provided that the finite-capacity system can be identified with the infinite-capacity system up to the first time that the capacity is exceeded. Convergence of steady-state distributions is more difficult; it is established here for the GI/GI/c/n model withc servers,n-c extra waiting spaces and the first-come first-served discipline, in which all arrivals finding the waiting room full are lost without affecting future arrivals, via stochastic dominance and regenerative structure.     

Wigner-Ville distribution for pulse propagation in random media: pulsed plane wave

The time-frequency Wigner-Ville distribution for a pulsed plane-wave signal propagating in a continuous random medium is found, based on the previously derived modal series expression for the two-frequency coherence function. The theory can address propagation in any homogeneous isotropic random medium, but closed-form expressions are specifically derived for a general power-law medium. Two alternative formulations are presented: a modal-wavefront approach wherein each mode is asymptotically transformed to the time domain and a collective approach wherein the mode series is summed collectively and then transformed to the time domain using pole contributions. The physical interpretation of these two different representations in the time-frequency domain as either a superposition of localized wavefronts or collective excitations is established, and their applications to the calculation of local moments are considered.     

Modal theory for the two-frequency mutual coherence function in random media: general theory and plane wave solution: I

In this paper, the modal expansion theory is presented as a new analytical approach together with the resulting new physical parameters. In particular, the features of an arbitrary power-law structure function are investigated. The exact expression for the Gaussian spectrum is rederived. An approximate analytical expression for the two-frequency coherence function evaluated at equal positions for the Kolmogorov spectrum is presented and comparison with the numerical solution in the literature exhibits a remarkable agreement. As a result of the modal decomposition, general properties for a transversally homogeneous and isotropic medium are demonstrated, such as the exponential decay of the amplitude of the solution and the linear phase behaviour at large propagation distances.     

Design,synthesis, antitubercular and antibacterial activities of pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyridine-3-carboxamide linked 2-methoxypyridine derivatives and in silico docking studies

Abstract

A novel series pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyridine-3-carboxamide linked 2-methoxypyridine derivatives have been designed, synthesized and confirmed by FT-IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ¹⁹F NMR, MS, and elemental analysis. The synthesized compounds were screened for their antitubercular activity using microplate alamar blue assay method and antibacterial activity. Among the tested compounds, 4- fluorophenyl (8m), 4- chlorophenyl (8n) and 4-methoxyphenyl (8i) showed potent anti-TB activity (3.12?µg/mL) in comparison with reference drug, Pyrazinamide ((3.12?µg/mL). In addition, all compounds were docked into DprE1 (PDB code: 4KW5) to explore their binding interactions at the active site. The compounds exhibited essential key interactions as that of reported DprE1 inhibitors and hence, the synthesized compounds may be considered as molecular scaffolds for antitubercular activity. Compounds, 4-chlorophenyl (8n) and 4-flurophenyl (8m) showed significant antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus strains. In silico prediction of toxicities, druglikeness and drug score profiles of the tested compounds are promising.     

新型BrФnsted酸性离子液体的合成与表征

制备了五种对水稳定性好、带-SO3H官能团的磺酸类BrФnsted酸离子液体,用核磁共振(NMR)、红外光谱(IR)、电喷雾质谱(ESI-MS)、热重分析(TG)等表征手段对制备的离子液体进行了表征。结果表明,制备的离子液体与预期设计的结构一致,离子液体纯度大于95%;热重分析发现离子液体具有高的热稳定性和较宽的液态范围,其分解温度均高于300℃;五种离子液体均存在四种离子存在形式,H 可以单独以离子形式存在,并不是通常所认为的仅有两种离子存在形式。另外,研究了离子液体在常用溶剂中的溶解性,发现制备的离子液体易溶于水、甲醇,不溶于乙醚、甲苯和乙酸乙酯。