Many protein bioconjugation strategies focus on the modification of lysine residues owing to the nucleophilicity of their amine side-chain, the generally high abundance of lysine residues on a protein's surface and the ability to form robustly stable amide-based bioconjugates. However, the plethora of solvent accessible lysine residues, which often have similar reactivity, is a key inherent issue when searching for regioselectivity and/or controlled loading of an entity. A relevant example is the modification of antibodies and/or antibody fragments, whose conjugates offer potential for a wide variety of applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report on stable, long-term operation of a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) amplifying 15 ns pulses at 1029.5 nm wavelength to 10 J energy at 100 Hz pulse rate, corresponding to 1 kW average power, with 25.4% optical-to-optical efficiency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the magnetic and ferroelectric ordering of magnetoelectric multiferroic materials at the nanoscale necessitates a versatile imaging method with high spatial resolution. Here, soft X-ray ptychography is employed to simultaneously image the ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic domains in an 80 nm thin freestanding film of the room-temperature multiferroic BiFeO (BFO). The antiferromagnetic spin cycloid of period 64 nm is resolved by reconstructing the corresponding resonant elastic X-ray scattering in real space and visualized together with mosaic-like ferroelectric domains in a linear dichroic contrast image at the Fe L edge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntiferromagnets hosting real-space topological textures are promising platforms to model fundamental ultrafast phenomena and explore spintronics. However, they have only been epitaxially fabricated on specific symmetry-matched substrates, thereby preserving their intrinsic magneto-crystalline order. This curtails their integration with dissimilar supports, restricting the scope of fundamental and applied investigations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHybrid pixel detectors have become indispensable at synchrotron and X-ray free-electron laser facilities thanks to their large dynamic range, high frame rate, low noise, and large area. However, at energies below 3 keV, the detector performance is often limited because of the poor quantum efficiency of the sensor and the difficulty in achieving single-photon resolution due to the low signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper, we address the quantum efficiency of silicon sensors by refining the design of the entrance window, mainly by passivating the silicon surface and optimizing the dopant profile of the n region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To report participants' experiences of trial processes and use of the Neurofenix platform for home-based rehabilitation following stroke. The platform, consisting of the NeuroBall device and Neurofenix app, is a non-immersive virtual reality tool to facilitate upper limb rehabilitation following stroke. The platform has recently been evaluated and demonstrated to be safe and effective through a non-randomised feasibility trial (RHOMBUS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report on efficient and stable, type-I phase-matched second harmonic conversion of a nanosecond high-energy, diode-pumped, Yb:YAG laser. With a frequency-doubling crystal in an enclosed, temperature controller with optical windows, 0.5% energy stability was achieved for approximately half an hour.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThiol-reactive Michael acceptors are commonly used for the formation of chemically cross-linked hydrogels. In this paper, we address the drawbacks of many Michael acceptors by introducing pyridazinediones as new cross-linking agents. Through the use of pyridazinediones and their mono- or dibrominated analogues, we show that the mechanical strength, swelling ratio, and rate of gelation can all be controlled in a pH-sensitive manner.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne central question for cell and developmental biologists is defining how epithelial cells can change shape and move during embryonic development without tearing tissues apart. This requires robust yet dynamic connections of cells to one another, via the cell-cell adherens junction, and of junctions to the actin and myosin cytoskeleton, which generates force. The last decade revealed that these connections involve a multivalent network of proteins, rather than a simple linear pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new approach to generation of a burst of high-energy green pulses by placing a high-energy multi-slab Yb:YAG DPSSL amplifier and SHG crystal inside a regenerative cavity is presented. In a proof-of-concept test, stable generation of a burst of six green (515 nm) pulses, each 10 ns in duration and separated by 29.4 ns (34 MHz), with 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne central question for cell and developmental biologists is defining how epithelial cells can change shape and move during embryonic development without tearing tissues apart. This requires robust yet dynamic connections of cells to one another, via the cell-cell adherens junction, and of junctions to the actin and myosin cytoskeleton, which generates force. The last decade revealed that these connections involve a multivalent network of proteins, rather than a simple linear pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn overview of the effect of a magnetic field gradient on fluids with linear magnetic susceptibilities is given. It is shown that two commonly encountered expressions, the magnetic field gradient force and the concentration gradient force for paramagnetic species in solution are equivalent for incompressible fluids. The magnetic field gradient and concentration gradient forces are approximations of the Kelvin force and Korteweg-Helmholtz force densities, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResidential biomass combustion is a source of carbonaceous aerosol. Inefficient combustion, particularly of solid fuels produces large quantities of black and brown carbon (BC and BrC). These particle types are important as they have noted effects on climate forcing and human health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the current work, we provide measurements of size-resolved particle number concentration (PNC), particle mass concentration (PMC), lung-deposited surface area (LDSA), and black carbon (BC) concentration for three biomass fired hydronic heaters during operation in four different combustion conditions. The appliances include one woodchip-fueled hydronic heater and two outdoor cordwood-fueled hydronic heaters. The operating conditions included startup, low output, high output, and burnout.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study investigated how heat demand and fuel loading affect the emissions from outdoor wood-fired hydronic heaters by testing two such appliances using an integrated-duty cycle test method. This test included transient operating conditions, such as cold and hot-starts and modulation between 15 and 100% of maximum rated output. Emission values indicate transient operating conditions produce higher emissions than steady state operation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe use of wood as a fuel for home heating is a concern from an environmental health and safety perspective as biomass combustion appliances emit high concentrations of particulate matter. Wood burning significantly contributes to wintertime particulate matter concentrations in many states in the northern United States. Of particular concern are outdoor wood-fired hydronic heaters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Upper limb (UL) rehabilitation is most effective early after stroke, with higher doses leading to improved outcomes. For the stroke survivor, the repetition may be monotonous. For clinicians, providing a clinically meaningful level of input can be challenging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To investigate the safety, feasibility and acceptability of the Neurofenix platform for home-based rehabilitation of the upper limb (UL).
Design: A non-randomised intervention design with a parallel process evaluation.
Setting: Participants' homes, South-East England.
We report a dehydroboration process that can be coupled with chain-walking hydroboration to create a one-pot, contra-thermodynamic, short- or long-range isomerization of internal olefins to terminal olefins. This dehydroboration occurs by a sequence comprising activation with a nucleophile, iodination, and base-promoted elimination. The isomerization proceeds at room temperature without the need for a fluoride base, and the substrate scope of this isomerization is expanded over those of previous isomerizations we have reported with silanes.
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