Preparation of palladated porous nitrogen-doped carbon using halloysite as porogen: disclosing its utility as a hydrogenation catalyst

In this article, halloysite nanoclay (Hal) was used as porogen for the synthesis of nitrogen doped porous carbon material with high specific surface area and pore volume. To this purpose, polymerization of melamine and terephthalaldehyde (MT) was performed in the presence of amine-functionalized carbon coated Hal (Hal@Glu-2N) that was prepared from hydrothermal treatment of Hal and glucose. Then, the prepared nanocomposite was palladated and carbonized to afford Pd@Hal@C. To further improve the textural properties of the nanocomposite, and introduce more pores in its structure, Hal nanotubes were etched. The characterization of the resulting compound, Pd@C, and comparing it with Pd@Hal@C, showed that etching of Hal significantly increased the specific surface area and pore volume in Pd@C. Pd@C was successfully used as a heterogeneous catalyst for promoting hydrogenation of nitroarens in aqueous media using hydrogen with atmospheric pressure as a reducing agent. The comparison of the structural features and catalytic activity of the catalyst with some control catalysts, including, Pd@Hal, Pd@Hal@Glu, Pd@Hal@Glu-MT and Pd@Hal@C confirmed that nitrogen groups in C could improve the Pd anchoring and suppress its leaching, while etching of Hal and introduction of more pores could enhance the catalytic activity through facilitating the mass transfer

Brillouin light scattering studies of aqueous E. coli cell lysate: Viscoelastic properties of a multimacromolecular solution

Brillouin spectroscopy was used to probe the viscoelastic properties of E. coli bacterial cell lysate in aqueous solution at GHz-frequencies over the range -5.0 $^\circ$C $\leq T \leq$ 50.0 $^\circ$C. This work offers a first temperature dependent study on cell lysate by Brillouin light scattering. A single peak was observed in the spectra and attributed to a longitudinal acoustic mode of the solution. The speed of sound, bulk modulus, apparent viscosity and hypersound attenuation were extracted from the frequency shift and FWHM of the spectral peak. This study demonstrate that the behavior of complex multimacromolecular solutions, as shown by \textit{E. coli} lysate, can exhibit viscoelastic properties closely akin to those observed in simple binary aqueous protein solutions. Furthermore, our findings show that by analyzing the raw spectral signature of the Brillouin spectra, it may be possible to identify protein denaturation

Screening and comparative characterization of microorganisms from Iranian soil samples showing ω-transaminase activity toward a plethora of substrates

In this study, soil microorganisms from Iran were screened for ω-transaminase (ω-TA) activity based on growth on minimal media containing (rac)-α-methylbenzylamine (rac-α-MBA) as a sole nitrogen source. Then, for the selection of strains with high enzyme activity, a colorimetric o-xylylendiamine assay was conducted. The most promising strains were identified by 16S rDNA sequencing. Five microorganisms showing high ω-TA activity were subjected to determine optimal conditions for ω-TA activity, including pH, temperature, co-solvent, and the specificity of the ω-TA toward different amine donors and acceptors. Among the five screened microorganisms, Bacillus halotolerans turned out to be the most promising strain: Its cell-free extract showed a highly versatile amino donor spectrum toward aliphatic, aromatic chiral amines and a broad range of pH activity. Transaminase activity also exhibited excellent solvent tolerance, with maximum turnover in the presence of 30% (v/v) DMS

Towards a Wearable Wheelchair Monitor: Classification of push style based on inertial sensors at multiple upper limb locations

Measuring manual wheelchair activity by using wearable sensors is becoming increasingly common for rehabilitation and monitoring purposes. Until recently most research has focused on the identification of activities of daily living or on counting the number of strokes. However, how a person pushes their wheelchair - their stroke pattern - is an important descriptor of the wheelchair user's quality of movement. This paper evaluates the capability of inertial sensors located at different upper limb locations plus the wheel of the wheelchair, to classify two types of stroke pattern for manual wheelchairs: semicircle and arc. Data was collected using bespoke inertial sensors with a wheelchair fixed to a treadmill. Classification was completed with a linear SVM algorithm, and classification performance was computed for each sensor location in the upper limb, and then in combination with wheel sensor. For single sensors, forearm location had the highest accuracy (96%) followed by hand (93%) and arm (90%). For combined sensor location with wheel, best accuracy came in combination with forearm. These results set the direction towards a wearable wheelchair monitor that can measure the quality as well as the quantity of movement and which offers multiple on-body locations for increased usability

Street Rehab: Linking Accessibility and Rehabilitation

As part of the Accessible Routes from Crowdsourced Cloud Services project (ARCCS) we conducted a series of experiments using the ARCCS sensor to identify push style of wheelchair users. The aim of ARCCS is to make use of a set of well-calibrated sensors to establish a processing chain that then provides ground truth of known accuracy about location, the nature of the environment, and physiological effort. In this paper we focus on two classification problems 1) The push style employed by people as they push themselves and 2) Whether the person is being pushed by an attendant or pushing themselves (independent of push style). Solving the first enables us to develop a level of granularity to pushing classification which transcends rehabilitation and accessibility. The first problem was solved using a wrist-mounted ARCCS sensor, and the second using a wheel-mounted ARCCS sensor. Push styles were classified between semi-circular and arc styles in both indoor and outdoor environments with a high-decrees of precision and recall (>95%). The ARCCS sensor also proved capable of discerning attendant from self-propulsion with near perfect accuracy and recall, without the need for a body-worn sensor

Price dispersion: the case of pasta

Scopo della ricerca è indagare la possibilità di utilizzare scanner data sugli acquisti di pasta per costruire indici dei prezzi spaziali bilaterali e multilaterali utilizzando un approccio binario nella loro costruzione.The aim of our research is to explore the possibility of utilizing scanner data on pasta purchases to build bilateral and multilateral spatial price indexes, taking a binary approach in the latter.1 Pasta plays a major role in the Italian diet. Historically, pasta consumption was mainly concentrated in the Southern regions of the country but today pasta is perhaps the product most representative of the eating habits of the Italians. The range of pasta producers runs from firms of longstanding tradition (some of them mainly directed towards local markets, such as Mastromauro in Puglia) to well known international brands (such as Barilla and De Cecco). The marked increase in pasta prices over the last two years has aroused great interest, but with little focus on spatial price diversity. This study stems from the availability of an extremely detailed panel dataset (Nielsen data) on values and quantities of pasta purchased. This data was produced by the use of bar-code scanning at retail outlets and thus includes information which provides weights at an elementary level. The use of scanner data to construct price indexes is not new in literature and there is a widespread consensus on the advantages of this approach in achieving more representative indexes. Average prices (unit values) show a marked spatial price variability: even when only considering the five bestselling products, regional prices vary greatly. The paper is set out as follows: Sect. 2 provides a description of the pasta scanner dataset and briefly looks for price variability; in Sect. 3 the requirements of comparability and representativity in the case of pasta are discussed; Sect. 4 deals with the methods and formulas chosen to obtain indexes for the regional comparisons of prices; Sect. 5 shows empirical results; in Sect. 6 a brief conclusion and suggestions for future work are given

The Specificity of the FOXL2 c.402C>G Somatic Mutation: A Survey of Solid Tumors

A somatic mutation in the FOXL2 gene is reported to be present in almost all (97%; 86/89) morphologically defined, adult-type, granulosa-cell tumors (A-GCTs). This FOXL2 c.402C>G mutation changes a highly conserved cysteine residue to a tryptophan (p.C134W). It was also found in a minority of other ovarian malignant stromal tumors, but not in benign ovarian stromal tumors or unrelated ovarian tumors or breast cancers.Herein we studied other cancers and cell lines for the presence of this mutation. We screened DNA from 752 tumors of epithelial and mesenchymal origin and 28 ovarian cancer cell lines and 52 other cancer cell lines of varied origin. We found the FOXL2 c.402C>G mutation in an unreported A-GCT case and the A-GCT-derived cell line KGN. All other tumors and cell lines analyzed were mutation negative.In addition to proving that the KGN cell line is a useful model to study A-GCTs, these data show that the c.402C>G mutation in FOXL2 is not commonly found in a wide variety of other cancers and therefore it is likely pathognomonic for A-GCTs and closely related tumors

The Socio-economic Impacts of Social Media Privacy and Security Challenges

© 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. Privacy and Security are two major challenges faced by users on social media today. These challenges are experienced in diverse ways and forms by different types of users across the web. While technological solutions are usually implemented to address them, the effects have proven to be limited so far. Despite continuous deployment of technological solutions, the need to evaluate socio-economic impacts of these challenges have also become more imperative. Hence, this paper provides a critical review and analysis of socio-economic impacts of these social media challenges. The research findings reveal significant levels of negative socio-economic impacts and provides an evaluation framework towards defining the scope, thereby identifying appropriate measures for both addressing the challenges and curbing the socio-economic impacts. The findings also demonstrate the need for solutions beyond the use of technology, to employing and deploying solutions from social sciences which deals with behavioral issues and how to address them