Conductance of the single-electron transistor: A comparison of experimental data with Monte Carlo calculations

We report on experimental results for the conductance of metallic single-electron transistors as a function of temperature, gate voltage and dimensionless conductance. In contrast to previous experiments our transistor layout allows for a direct measurement of the parallel conductance and no ad hoc assumptions on the symmetry of the transistors are necessary. Thus we can make a comparison between our data and theoretical predictions without any adjustable parameter. Even for rather weakly conducting transistors significant deviations from the perturbative results are noted. On the other hand, path integral Monte Carlo calculations show remarkable agreement with experiments for the whole range of temperatures and conductances.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, revtex4, corrected typos, submitted to PR

Fractionation of eucalyptus globulus wood by glycerol-water pretreatment: optimization and modeling

A glycerol-organosolv process can be a good alternative for Eucalyptus wood fractionation into its main compounds, improving the enzymatic saccharification of the cellulose. A study of process variables - glycerol−water percent content, temperature, and process time - was carried out using a Box-Behnken experimental design. The cellulose obtained from pretreated solids was recovered almost quantitatively, leading to a solid with a high percentage of cellulose (77 g/100 g of pretreated solid), low lignin content (9 g/100 g of pretreated solid), and 18% of residual hemicellulose in the solid at 200 °C, 56% of glycerol−water and 69 min. The enzymatic saccharification was enhanced achieving 98% cellulose-to-glucose conversion (under conditions: liquid to solid ratio 20 g/g and enzyme loading 20 FPU/g of solid). This study contributes to the improvement of biomass fractionation by exploring an eco-friendly treatment which allows for almost complete wood fractionation into constituents and high levels of glucose recovery available for subsequent yeast fermentation to bioethanol.The authors A. Romani and F. B. Pereira thank to the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for their fellowships (grant number: SFRH/BPD/77995/2011 and SFRH/BD/64776/2009, respectively)

Synthesis of quaternary aryl phosphonium salts: photoredox-mediated phosphine arylation

We report a synthesis method for the construction of quaternary aryl phoshonium salts at ambient temperature. The regiospecific reaction invovles the coupling of phosphines with aryl radicals derived from diaryliodonium salts under photoredox conditions

Review on catalytic cleavage of C-C inter-unit linkages in lignin model compounds: Towards lignin depolymerisation

Lignin depolymerisation has received considerable attention recently due to the pressing need to find sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel feedstock to produce chemicals and fuels. Two types of interunit linkages (C–C and C–O linkages) link several aromatic units in the structure of lignin. Between these two inter-unit linkages, the bond energies of C–C linkages are higher than that of C–O linkages, making them harder to break. However, for an efficient lignin depolymerisation, both types of inter-unit linkages have to be broken. This is more relevant because of the fact that many delignification processes tend to result in the formation of additional C–C inter-unit bonds. Here we review the strategies reported for the cleavage of C–C inter-unit linkages in lignin model compounds and lignin. Although a number of articles are available on the cleavage of C–O inter-unit linkages, reports on the selective cleavage of C–C inter-unit linkages are relatively less. Oxidative cleavage, hydrogenolysis, two-step redox-neutral process, microwave assisted cleavage, biocatalytic and photocatalytic methods have been reported for the breaking of C–C inter-unit linkages in lignin. Here we review all these methods in detail, focused only on the breaking of C–C linkages. The objective of this review is to motivate researchers to design new strategies to break this strong C–C inter-unit bonds to valorise lignins, technical lignins in particular

Seven Paradoxes of Business Process Management in a Hyper-Connected World

Abstract Business Process Management is a boundary-spanning discipline that aligns operational capabilities and technology to design and manage business processes. The Digital Transformation has enabled human actors, information systems, and smart products to interact with each other via multiple digital channels. The emergence of this hyper-connected world greatly leverages the prospects of business processes – but also boosts their complexity to a new level. We need to discuss how the BPM discipline can find new ways for identifying, analyzing, designing, implementing, executing, and monitoring business processes. In this research note, selected transformative trends are explored and their impact on current theories and IT artifacts in the BPM discipline is discussed to stimulate transformative thinking and prospective research in this field

Populist Mobilization: A New Theoretical Approach to Populism*

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112280/1/j.1467-9558.2011.01388.x.pd

The establishment of a marine focused biorefinery for bioethanol production using seawater and a novel marine yeast strain

Current technologies for bioethanol production rely on the use of freshwater for preparing the fermentation media and use yeasts of a terrestrial origin. Life cycle assessment has suggested that between 1,388 to 9,812 litres of freshwater are consumed for every litre of bioethanol produced. Hence, bioethanol is considered a product with a high-water footprint. This paper investigated the use of seawater-based media and a novel marine yeast strain ‘Saccharomyces cerevisiae AZ65’ to reduce the water footprint of bioethanol. Results revealed that S. cerevisiae AZ65 had a significantly higher osmotic tolerance when compared with the terrestrial reference strain. Using 15-L bioreactors, S. cerevisiae AZ65 produced 93.50 g/L ethanol with a yield of 83.33% (of the theoretical yield) and a maximum productivity of 2.49 g/L/h when using seawater-YPD media. This approach was successfully applied using an industrial fermentation substrate (sugarcane molasses). S. cerevisiae AZ65 produced 52.23 g/L ethanol using molasses media prepared in seawater with a yield of 73.80% (of the theoretical yield) and a maximum productivity of 1.43 g/L/h. These results demonstrated that seawater can substitute freshwater for bioethanol production without compromising production efficiency. Results also revealed that marine yeast is a potential candidate for use in the bioethanol industry especially when using seawater or high salt based fermentation media