Renewable fuels for sustainable electricity production

Scientists involved in the National Research Programme's joint project "Reduction and Reuse of CO2: Renewable Fuels for Electricity Production" joint project in Switzerland are testing innovative ways to reutilise waste resources of carbon dioxide, harness energy from the sun and produce electricity with zero carbon emissions. Dr Andre Heel is the leader of the joint project NRP70 that is developing more sustainable solutions for electricity and heat production

New Thinking in Punt Morphology

This note is to reflect the thoughts, practical work and hopes of two workers in the Netherlands who are angaged in this branch of science, Dr. B.M.Moeliono of the Botanical laboratory at Groningen, and myself at the Rijskherbarium at laide

Flame spray synthesis and characterisation of stabilised ZrO2 and CeO2 electrolyte nanopowders for SOFC applications at intermediate temperatures

Zirconia (Y0.16Zr0.84O2, Sc0.2Zr0.8O2 and Sc0.2Ce0.01Zr0.79O2) and ceria (Gd0.2Ce0.8O2) based electrolyte materials are synthesised at production rates up to 260g h−1 by a liquid-fed one-step flame spray synthesis from water-based solutions, or cost-effective rare earth nitrates with a high water content. It was found that this one-step synthesis, based on an acetylene-supported flame is able to produce phase pure and highly crystalline, nanoscale electrolyte materials. The as-synthesised powders show a cubic lattice structure independent of production rates. Specific surface areas of the powders were adjusted between 20 and 60m2 g−2, where the latter is an upper limit for the further processing of the powders in terms of screen printing. The influence of process parameters on morphology, particle size, composition, crystallinity, lattice parameter, shrinkage behaviour and coefficient of thermal expansion of the as-synthesised powders were systematically investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and dilatometry. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was applied at temperatures between 300°C and 900°C and confirmed the high quality and the competitive electrochemical behaviour of the produced powder

A cost estimation for CO2 reduction and reuse by methanation from cement industry sources in Switzerland

The Swiss government has signed the Paris Climate Agreement and various measures need to be implemented in order to reach the target of a 50% reduction in CO2 emissions in Switzerland by 2030 compared with the value for 1990. Considering the fact that the production of cement in Switzerland accounts around 2.5 million ton for CO2 emissions of which corresponds to roughly 7% of the country’s total CO2 emissions, the following article examines how this amount could be put to meaningful use in order to create a new value-added chain through CO2 methanation, and thus reduce the consumption and import of fossil fuels in Switzerland. With power-to-gas technology, this CO2, along with regenerative hydrogen from photovoltaics, can be converted into methane, which can then be fed into the existing natural-gas grid. This economic case study shows a cost prediction for conversion of all the CO2 from the cement industry into methane by using the technologies available today in order to replacing fossil methane imports

A Structural Model of the Cytochrome c Reductase/Oxidase Supercomplex from Yeast Mitochondria

Mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes are arranged in supercomplexes within the inner membrane. Interaction of cytochrome c reductase (complex III) and cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV) was investigated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Projection maps at 15 Å resolution of supercomplexes III2 + IV1 and III2 + IV2 were obtained by electron microscopy. Based on a comparison of our maps with atomic x-ray structures for complexes III and IV we present a pseudo-atomic model of their precise interaction. Two complex IV monomers are specifically attached to dimeric complex III with their convex sides. The opposite sides, which represent the complex IV dimer interface in the x-ray structure, are open for complex IV-complex IV interactions. This could lead to oligomerization of III2 + IV2 supercomplexes, but this was not detected. Instead, binding of cytochrome c to the supercomplexes was revealed. It was calculated that cytochrome c has to move less than 40 Å at the surface of the supercomplex for electron transport between complex III2 and complex IV. Hence, the prime function of the supercomplex III2 + IV2 is proposed to be a scaffold for effective electron transport between complexes III and IV.

Maritime cognitive workload assessment

The human factor plays the key role for safety in many industrial and civil every-day operations in our technologized world. Human failure is more likely to cause accidents than technical failure, e.g. in the challenging job of tugboat captains. Here, cognitive workload is crucial, as its excess is a main cause of dangerous situations and accidents while being highly participant and situation dependent. However, knowing the captain’s level of workload can help to improve man-machine interaction. The main contributions of this paper is a successful workload indication and a transfer of cognitive workload knowledge from laboratory to realistic settings

Specificity and Application of the Lantibiotic Protease NisP

Lantibiotics are ribosomally produced and posttranslationally modified peptides containing several lanthionine residues. They exhibit substantial antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria, including relevant pathogens. The production of the model lantibiotic nisin minimally requires the expression of the modification and export machinery. The last step during nisin maturation is the cleavage of the leader peptide. This liberates the active compound and is catalyzed by the cell wall-anchored protease NisP. Here, we report the production and purification of a soluble variant of NisP. This has enabled us to study its specificity and test its suitability for biotechnological applications. The ability of soluble NisP to cleave leaders from various substrates was tested with two sets of nisin variants. The first set was designed to investigate the influence of amino acid variations in the leader peptide or variations around the cleavage site. The second set was designed to study the influence of the lanthionine ring topology on the proteolytic efficiency. We show that the substrate promiscuity is higher than has previously been suggested. Our results demonstrate the importance of the arginine residue at the end of the leader peptide and the importance of lanthionine rings in the substrate for specific cleavage. Collectively, these data indicate that NisP is a suitable protease for the activation of diverse heterologously expressed lantibiotics, which is required to release active antimicrobial compounds

Structural Adaptability Facilitates Histidine Heme Ligation in a Cytochrome P450

Almost all known members of the cytochrome P450 (CYP) superfamily conserve a key cysteine residue that coordinates the heme iron. Although mutation of this residue abolishes monooxygenase activity, recent work has shown that mutation to either serine or histidine unlocks non-natural carbene- and nitrene-transfer activities. Here we present the first crystal structure of a histidine-ligated P450. The T213A/C317H variant of the thermostable CYP119 from Sulfolobus acidocaldarius maintains heme iron coordination through the introduced ligand, an interaction that is accompanied by large changes in the overall protein structure. We also find that the axial cysteine C317 may be substituted with any other amino acid without abrogating folding and heme cofactor incorporation. Several of the axial mutants display unusual spectral features, suggesting that they have active sites with unique steric and electronic properties. These novel, highly stable enzyme active sites will be fruitful starting points for investigations of non-natural P450 catalysis and mechanisms

A Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Scans Identifies IL18RAP, PTPN2, TAGAP, and PUS10 As Shared Risk Loci for Crohn's Disease and Celiac Disease

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