Incompletely Reasoned \u3cem\u3eSex\u3c/em\u3e: A Review of Posner\u27s Somewhat Misleading Guide to the Economic Analysis of Sex and Family Law

A Review of Sex and Reason by Richard A. Posne

Modified vitamin B12 derivatives with a peptide backbone for biomimetic studies and medicinal application

This short review highlights the author’s group research on modified vitamin B[Formula: see text] derivatives with a peptide backbone as (1) inhibitors of B[Formula: see text]-dependent enzymes and as (2) models of cofactor B[Formula: see text]-protein complexes

Detection of glyphosate with a copper(ii)-pyrocatechol violet based GlyPKit

This paper describes the development of a test kit for the selective detection of glyphosate (GlyP). A copper(II)-pyrocatechol violet complex was selected by a screening approach from a pool of 96 combinations of metal ions and commercially available indicators and subsequently incorporated as a detection zone into a hydrophobic C18 solid support. With this kit, detection of 20 μM GlyP in tap water by the “naked eye” is possible and quantifications by smartphone analysis with a limit of detection as low as 2.66 μM (450 μg L−1) have been demonstrated in a proof-of-principle study

Quantifying cyanide in water and foodstuff using corrin-based CyanoKit technologies and a smartphone

This paper describes the detection of endogenous cyanide using corrin-based CyanoKit technologies in combination with a smartphone readout device. When applied to the detection of cyanide in water, this method demonstrates high repeatability and discriminative power with a limit of blank of 0.074 ppm and an instrument limit of detection of 0.13 ppm. Quantification of endogenous cyanide in cassava and bitter almond extracts with the smartphone readout is in excellent agreement with independent analyses using traditional spectrophotometric detection. The prototype system objectively detects levels of cyanide with a high granularity at the point-of-need and does not depend on large, heavy and expensive instrumentation. The methodology has the potential to be easily adopted in resource limited situations and low-income countries

Contactless electromagnetic measuring system using conventional calibration algorithms to determine scattering parameters

In this paper, a contactless measuring system for the determination of the S-parameters of planar circuits is presented. With a contactless measuring system it is possible to characterise a device-under-test (DUT) embedded in a planar circuit environment without cutting the planar transmission lines connecting the DUT. The technique utilizes four identical capacitive probes in conjunction with a vector network analyser (VNA). For the usage of electromagnetic probes compared to other coupling techniques like the electro-optic probing, there is no need for expensive and complex equipment in addition to the typical equipment of a common microwave laboratory. The S-parameters are determined accurately using conventional calibration methods. A simple analytical model for the representation of the basic characteristics is developed. Furthermore, the influences on the S-parameters as a result of a variation in the coupling are presented. With the knowledge of the system characteristics, an accurate contactless measurement system is set up. The comparison between conventional and contactless measurements in a frequency range of 1-20 GHz shows a very good agreement with a phase error smaller than 1°

Functionalisation of vitamin B12 derivatives with a cobalt β-phenyl ligand boosters antimetabolite activity in bacteria

This study describes the syntheses of four singly- and two doubly-modified vitamin B12 derivatives for generating antimetabolites of Lactobacillus delbrueckii (L. delbrueckii). The two most potent antagonists, a Coβ-phenyl-cobalamin-c,8-lactam and a 10-bromo-Coβ-phenylcobalamin combine a c-lactam or 10-bromo modification at the “eastern” site of the corrin ring with an artificial organometallic phenyl group instead of a cyano ligand at the β-site of the cobalt center. These two doubly-modified B12 antagonists (10 nM) inhibit fully B12-dependent (0.1 nM) growth of L. delbrueckii. In contrast to potent 10-bromo-Coβ-phenylcobalamin, single modified 10-bromo-Coβ-cyanocobalamin lacking the artificial organometallic phenyl ligand does not show any inhibitory effect. These results suggest, that the organometallic β-phenyl ligand at the Co center ultimately steers the metabolic effect of the 10-bromo-analogue

Determination of the input impedance of RFID transponder antennas with novel measurement procedure using a modified on-wafer-prober

This paper shows a new method to determine the input impedance of RFID transponder antennas with a combination of on-wafer-prober and network analyzer. It is shown that the results are in a good agreement with FEM simulations (HFSS) for a large part of the examined antenna structures

Modifizierte Peptidnucleinsäuren für die sequenzselektive DNA-Spaltung und DNA-Nachweis

Es wurden Metallkomplex-Konjugate von Peptidnucleinsäuren (PNAs) synthetisiert und in zwei Projekten angewendet: als “künstliche Restriktionsenzyme“ für die sequenzselektive Spaltung von Einzelstrang-DNA sowie als Komponenten einer DNA-templatvermittelten Metallkatalyse. Im ersten Projekt konnte durch MALDI-TOF MS und HPLC der Zr(IV)-Komplex des Tris(hydroxymethyl)-aminomethan-PNA-Konjugats (Zr(IV)-15) als aktivste Spezies zur Spaltung komplementärer DNA identifiziert werden. Die Spaltung der Ziel-DNA erfolgte sequenzselektiv zu 91% (nach 164 Stunden) in unmittelbarer Nachbarschaft des Metallkomplexes. Konjugate einer Cu(II)-Pyridylpyrazol-modifizierten PNA (Cu(II)-31) wurden für die DNA-templatvermittelte Spaltung estermodifizierter PNAs eingesetzt. Als Substrat-PNAs wurden die PNA-Ester-Konjugate 16 und 17 synthetisiert, in denen die Cu(II)-Ankergruppe (Chinolin-N) in die Alkohol-PNA-Komponente integriert ist. Es kann im Grunde mit beliebigen Carbonsäuren kombiniert werden. Die Spaltreaktionen wurden durch eine Kombination aus MALDI-TOF MS- und HPLC-Analyse untersucht. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Reaktion durch das DNA-Templat etwa 100-fach beschleunigt wird. Des weiteren wurden nach 10 Stunden 12 Turnover bei einem 100-fachen Substratüberschuss erzielt