Bistabiles Magneto-Formgedächtnis-Mikroventil

Bistable actuators only consume energy during the switching process. This characteristic renders these kind of actuators extremely interesting for applications in the field of microfluidics. This work presents a novel principle of bistable actuation, which combines an antagonistic shape memory alloy (SMA) actuation mechanism with magnetostatic latching. A bistable microvalve, using this principle is demonstrated

Investigating AHL-lipid bilayer interactions using nonlinear optical spectroscopy

Acylated homoserine lactones (AHLs) play an important role in bacterial infection and biofilm formation and also allow communication between microorganisms and their eukaryotic host cells (Inter-kingdom signaling). The detailed mechanism of these interactions is yet unknown. To mimic interactions between AHLs and cell membranes, the incorporation of AHLs with different chain lengths in supported lipid bi- layers (SLBs) was studied using vibrational sum-frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy. Deuterium- labelled AHLs were synthesized to prevent the overlap of spectroscopic bands allowing the detailed analysis of the interaction. Three AHLs of different chain length were investigated and their orienta- tion within the lipid bilayer was determined. Moreover, the development of AHL-related SFG signals over 5 h was studied providing evidence that AHLs can cross the bilayer in a flip-flop process. However, the determined half life of this process is of the order of days indicating that it is not relevant for the signaling in bacterial biofilms. Furthermore, to relate structural changes with terminal groups and chain lengths, differently ter- minated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) were studied with SFG spectroscopy in air and in situ. Pyridine-terminated SAMs present a different behavior upon electrochemical desorption depending on an odd or even numbered aliphatic chain. Using SFG spectroscopy it was determined that even numbered pyridine-terminated self-assembled monolayers retain their structure, whereas odd numbered monolayers lose their conformation upon desorption. Furthermore, nonlinear third-order effects were observed with this experimental setup and could be readily explained with theoretical predictions

Applications of stable water and carbon isotopes in watershed research: Weathering, carbon cycling, and water balances

Research on rivers has traditionally involved concentration and flux measurements to better understand weathering, transport and cycling of materials from land to ocean. As a relatively new tool, stable isotope measurements complement this type of research by providing an extra label to characterize origin of the transportedmaterial, its transfer mechanisms, and natural versus anthropogenic influences. These new stable isotope techniques are scalable across a wide range of geographic and temporal scales. This review focuses on three aspects of hydrological and geochemical river research that are of prime importance to the policy issues of climate change and include utilization of stable water and carbon isotopes: (i) silicate and carbonate weathering in river basins, (ii) the riverine carbon and oxygen cycles, and (iii) water balances at the catchment scale. Most studies at watershed scales currently focus on water and carbon balances but future applications hold promise to integrate sediment fluxes and turnover, ground and surface water interactions, as well as the understanding of contaminant sources and their effects in river systems

Lead-supported germanium nanowire growth

The Pb-assisted growth of Ge nanowires (NWs) has been investigated under high and low pressure conditions via thermal decomposition of diphenylgermane. Highly crystalline Ge NWs were obtained and Pb was established as a viable growth promoter with the Pb particle being in the solid and liquid state

A disulfide bridge in the calcium binding site of a polyester hydrolase increases its thermal stability and activity against polyethylene terephthalate

Elevated reaction temperatures are crucial for the efficient enzymatic degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). A disulfide bridge was introduced to the polyester hydrolase TfCut2 to substitute its calcium binding site. The melting point of the resulting variant increased to 94.7°C (wild-type TfCut2: 69.8 °C) and its half-inactivation temperature to 84.6 °C (TfCut2: 67.3 °C). The variant D204C-E253C-D174R obtained by introducing further mutations at vicinal residues showed a temperature optimum between 75 and 80 °C compared to 65 and 70 °C of the wild-type enzyme. The variant caused a weight loss of PET films of 25.0 +/- 0.8% (TfCut2: 0.3 +/-0.1%) at 70 °C after a reaction time of 48 h. The results demonstrate that a highly efficient and calcium-independent thermostable polyester hydrolase can be obtained by replacing its calcium binding site with a disulfide bridge