TY - JOUR A1 - Rau, Christoph A1 - Alexopoulos, Spiros A1 - Breitbach, Gerd A1 - Hoffschmidt, Bernhard A1 - Latzke, Markus A1 - Sattler, Johannes, Christoph T1 - Transient simulation of a solar-hybrid tower power plant with open volumetric receiver at the location Barstow JF - Energy procedia : proceedings of the SolarPACES 2013 International Conference N2 - In this work the transient simulations of four hybrid solar tower power plant concepts with open-volumetric receiver technology for a location in Barstow-Daggett, USA, are presented. The open-volumetric receiver uses ambient air as heat transfer fluid and the hybridization is realized with a gas turbine. The Rankine cycle is heated by solar-heated air and/or by the gas turbine's flue gases. The plant can be operated in solar-only, hybrid parallel or combined cycle-only mode as well as in any intermediate load levels where the solar portion can vary between 0 to 100%. The simulated plant is based on the configuration of a solar-hybrid power tower project, which is in planning for a site in Northern Algeria. The meteorological data for Barstow-Daggett was taken from the software meteonorm. The solar power tower simulation tool has been developed in the simulation environment MATLAB/Simulink and is validated. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2014.03.157 SN - 1876-6102 VL - 49 SP - 1481 EP - 1490 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinze, Daniel A1 - Mang, Thomas A1 - Peter, Karin A1 - Möller, Martin A1 - Weichold, Oliver T1 - Synthesis of low molecular weight poly(vinyl acetate) and its application as plasticizer JF - Journal of applied polymer science N2 - Poly(vinyl acetate), PVAc, with a degree of polymerization Xn = 10 was prepared by chain-transfer radical polymerization using carbon tetrachloride and used as oligomeric plasticizer for commercial PVAc. However, the chlorinated chain ends cause a low thermal stability requiring mild Cl/H substitution. The product exhibits high thermal stability and excellent melt-compounding properties. Blends of oligomeric and commercial PVAc show single glass transition temperatures which decrease with higher oligomer content and exhibit small negative deviations from Fox' linear additivity rule. This indicates plasticization and miscibility being mainly due to entropic effects. Injection-moulded thick specimens show ductile behaviour at oligomer contents >10 wt %, while sheets with a thickness of 0.2–0.5 mm appear flexible already at 7.5 wt %. The oxygen permeability coefficients are an order of magnitude lower than those of low-density polyethylene. Due to the sum of their properties, the plasticized sheets present a promising alternative in the preparation of barrier materials. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/app.40226 SN - 1097-4628 (E-Journal); 0021-8995 (Print) VL - 131 IS - 9 SP - Article No. 40226 PB - Wiley CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, Ren-Qi A1 - Druckenmüller, Katharina A1 - Elbers, Gereon A1 - Guenther, Klaus A1 - Croué, Jean-Philippe T1 - Analysis of aquatic-phase natural organic matter by optimized LDI-MS method JF - Journal of mass spectrometry N2 - The composition and physiochemical properties of aquatic-phase natural organic matter (NOM) are most important problems for both environmental studies and water industry. Laser desorption/ionization (LDI) mass spectrometry facilitated successful examinations of NOM, as humic and fulvic acids in NOM are readily ionized by the nitrogen laser. In this study, hydrophobic NOMs (HPO NOMs) from river, reservoir and waste water were characterized by this technique. The effect of analytical variables like concentration, solvent composition and laser energy was investigated. The exact masses of small molecular NOM moieties in the range of 200–1200 m/z were determined in reflectron mode. In addition, spectra of post-source-decay experiments in this range showed that some compounds from different natural NOMs had the same fragmental ions. In the large mass range of 1200–15 000 Da, macromolecules and their aggregates were found in HPO NOMs from natural waters. Highly humic HPO exhibited mass peaks larger than 8000 Da. On the other hand, the waste water and reservoir water mainly had relatively smaller molecules of about 2000 Da. The LDI-MS measurements indicated that highly humic river waters were able to form large aggregates and membrane foulants, while the HPO NOMs from waste water and reservoir water were unlikely to form large aggregates. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/jms.3321 SN - 1096-9888 VL - 49 IS - 2 SP - 154 EP - 160 PB - Wiley CY - Bognor Regis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schroeter, Rebecca A1 - Hoffmann, Tamara A1 - Voigt, Birgit A1 - Meyer, Hanna A1 - Bleisteiner, Monika A1 - Muntel, Jan A1 - Jürgen, Britta A1 - Albrecht, Dirk A1 - Becher, Dörte A1 - Lalk, Michael A1 - Evers, Stefan A1 - Bongaerts, Johannes A1 - Maurer, Karl-Heinz A1 - Putzer, Harald A1 - Hecker, Michael A1 - Schweder, Thomas A1 - Bremer, Erhard T1 - Stress responses of the industrial workhorse Bacillus licheniformis to osmotic challenges JF - PLoS ONE N2 - The Gram-positive endospore-forming bacterium Bacillus licheniformis can be found widely in nature and it is exploited in industrial processes for the manufacturing of antibiotics, specialty chemicals, and enzymes. Both in its varied natural habitats and in industrial settings, B. licheniformis cells will be exposed to increases in the external osmolarity, conditions that trigger water efflux, impair turgor, cause the cessation of growth, and negatively affect the productivity of cell factories in biotechnological processes. We have taken here both systems-wide and targeted physiological approaches to unravel the core of the osmostress responses of B. licheniformis. Cells were suddenly subjected to an osmotic upshift of considerable magnitude (with 1 M NaCl), and their transcriptional profile was then recorded in a time-resolved fashion on a genome-wide scale. A bioinformatics cluster analysis was used to group the osmotically up-regulated genes into categories that are functionally associated with the synthesis and import of osmostress-relieving compounds (compatible solutes), the SigB-controlled general stress response, and genes whose functional annotation suggests that salt stress triggers secondary oxidative stress responses in B. licheniformis. The data set focusing on the transcriptional profile of B. licheniformis was enriched by proteomics aimed at identifying those proteins that were accumulated by the cells through increased biosynthesis in response to osmotic stress. Furthermore, these global approaches were augmented by a set of experiments that addressed the synthesis of the compatible solutes proline and glycine betaine and assessed the growth-enhancing effects of various osmoprotectants. Combined, our data provide a blueprint of the cellular adjustment processes of B. licheniformis to both sudden and sustained osmotic stress. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080956 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 8 IS - 11 PB - PLOS CY - San Francisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Arinkin, Vladimir A1 - Digel, Ilya A1 - Porst, Dariusz A1 - Temiz Artmann, Aysegül A1 - Artmann, Gerhard T1 - Phenotyping date palm varieties via leaflet cross-sectional imaging and artificial neural network application JF - BMC bioinformatics N2 - Background True date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.) are impressive trees and have served as an indispensable source of food for mankind in tropical and subtropical countries for centuries. The aim of this study is to differentiate date palm tree varieties by analysing leaflet cross sections with technical/optical methods and artificial neural networks (ANN). Results Fluorescence microscopy images of leaflet cross sections have been taken from a set of five date palm tree cultivars (Hewlat al Jouf, Khlas, Nabot Soltan, Shishi, Um Raheem). After features extraction from images, the obtained data have been fed in a multilayer perceptron ANN with backpropagation learning algorithm. Conclusions Overall, an accurate result in prediction and differentiation of date palm tree cultivars was achieved with average prediction in tenfold cross-validation is 89.1% and reached 100% in one of the best ANN. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-15-55 SN - 1471-2105 VL - 15 IS - 55 SP - 1 EP - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sawada, Kazuaki A1 - Nakazawa, Hirokazu A1 - Takenaga, Shoko A1 - Hizawa, Takeshi A1 - Futagawa, Masato A1 - Dasai, Fumihiro A1 - Sakurai, Takashi A1 - Okumura, Koichi A1 - Hattori, Toshiaki A1 - Ishida, Makoto T1 - Multimodal bioimage sensor JF - IEICE transactions on fundamentals of electronics, communidations and computer sciences N2 - To visualize the biochemical distribution two-dimensionally, we invented a solid-state-type ion image sensor that indicates the chemical activity of solutions and cells. The device, which consists of a CCD array covered with a functionalized membrane to detect charge accumulation, is highly sensitive to changes in the concentration and two-dimensional distribution of ions and biomaterials. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1587/transfun.E97.A.726 SN - 0916-8508 (Print) ; 1745-1337 (Online) VL - E97-A (2014) IS - 3 SP - 726 EP - 733 PB - IEICE CY - Tokyo ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Leinhos, Marcel A1 - Schusser, Sebastian A1 - Bäcker, Matthias A1 - Poghossian, Arshak A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Micromachined multi-parameter sensor chip for the control of polymer-degradation medium JF - Physica Status Solidi (A) : special issue on engineering and functional interfaces N2 - It is well known that the degradation environment can strongly influence the biodegradability and kinetics of biodegradation processes of polymers. Therefore, besides the monitoring of the degradation process, it is also necessary to control the medium in which the degradation takes place. In this work, a micromachined multi-parameter sensor chip for the control of the polymer-degradation medium has been developed. The chip combines a capacitive field-effect pH sensor, a four-electrode electrolyte-conductivity sensor and a thin-film Pt-temperature sensor. The results of characterization of individual sensors are presented. In addition, the multi-parameter sensor chip together with an impedimetric polymer-degradation sensor was simultaneously characterized in degradation solutions with different pH and electrolyte conductivity. The obtained results demonstrate the feasibility of the multi-parameter sensor chip for the control of the polymer-degradation medium. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.201330364 SN - 1521-396X (E-Journal); 1862-6319 (E-Journal); 0031-8965 (Print); 1862-6300 (Print) VL - 211 IS - 6 SP - 1346 EP - 1351 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heine, A. A1 - Herrmann, G. A1 - Selmer, Thorsten A1 - Terwesten, F. A1 - Buckel, W. A1 - Reuter, K. T1 - High resolution crystal structure of clostridium propionicum β-Alanyl-CoA:Ammonia Lyase, a new member of the "Hot Dog Fold" protein superfamily JF - Proteins N2 - Clostridium propionicum is the only organism known to ferment β-alanine, a constituent of coenzyme A (CoA) and the phosphopantetheinyl prosthetic group of holo-acyl carrier protein. The first step in the fermentation is a CoA-transfer to β-alanine. Subsequently, the resulting β-alanyl-CoA is deaminated by the enzyme β-alanyl-CoA:ammonia lyase (Acl) to reversibly form ammonia and acrylyl-CoA. We have determined the crystal structure of Acl in its apo-form at a resolution of 0.97 Å as well as in complex with CoA at a resolution of 1.59 Å. The structures reveal that the enyzme belongs to a superfamily of proteins exhibiting a so called “hot dog fold” which is characterized by a five-stranded antiparallel β-sheet with a long α-helix packed against it. The functional unit of all “hot dog fold” proteins is a homodimer containing two equivalent substrate binding sites which are established by the dimer interface. In the case of Acl, three functional dimers combine to a homohexamer strongly resembling the homohexamer formed by YciA-like acyl-CoA thioesterases. Here, we propose an enzymatic mechanism based on the crystal structure of the Acl·CoA complex and molecular docking. Proteins 2014; 82:2041–2053. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/prot.24557 SN - 1097-0134 (E-Journal); 0887-3585 (Print) VL - 82 IS - 9 SP - 2041 EP - 2053 PB - Wiley-Liss CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Huck, Christina A1 - Poghossian, Arshak A1 - Kerroumi, Iman A1 - Schusser, Sebastian A1 - Bäcker, Matthias A1 - Zander, Willi A1 - Schubert, Jürgen A1 - Buniatyan, Vahe V. A1 - Martirosyan, Norayr W. A1 - Wagner, Patrick A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Multiparameter sensor chip with Barium Strontium Titanate as multipurpose material JF - Electroanalysis N2 - It is well known that biochemical and biotechnological processes are strongly dependent and affected by a variety of physico-chemical parameters such as pH value, temperature, pressure and electrolyte conductivity. Therefore, these quantities have to be monitored or controlled in order to guarantee a stable process operation, optimization and high yield. In this work, a sensor chip for the multiparameter detection of three physico-chemical parameters such as electrolyte conductivity, pH and temperature is realized using barium strontium titanate (BST) as multipurpose material. The chip integrates a capacitively coupled four-electrode electrolyte-conductivity sensor, a capacitive field-effect pH sensor and a thin-film Pt-temperature sensor. Due to the multifunctional properties of BST, it is utilized as final outermost coating layer of the processed sensor chip and serves as passivation and protection layer as well as pH-sensitive transducer material at the same time. The results of testing of the individual sensors of the developed multiparameter sensor chip are presented. In addition, a quasi-simultaneous multiparameter characterization of the sensor chip in buffer solutions with different pH value and electrolyte conductivity is performed. To study the sensor behavior and the suitability of BST as multifunctional material under harsh environmental conditions, the sensor chip was exemplarily tested in a biogas digestate. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/elan.201400076 SN - 1521-4109 (E-Journal); 1040-0397 (Print) VL - 26 IS - 5 SP - 980 EP - 987 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bäcker, Matthias A1 - Kramer, F. A1 - Huck, Christina A1 - Poghossian, Arshak A1 - Bratov, A. A1 - Abramova, N. A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Planar and 3D interdigitated electrodes for biosensing applications: The impact of a dielectric barrier on the sensor properties JF - Physica Status Solidi (A) - Applications and Materials Science N2 - Planar and three-dimensional (3D) interdigitated electrodes (IDE) with electrode digits separated by an insulating barrier of different heights were electrochemically characterized and compared in terms of their sensing properties. Due to the impact of the surface resistance, both types of IDE structures display a non-linear behavior in low-ionic strength solutions. The experimental data were fitted to an electrical equivalent circuit and interpreted taking into account the surface-charge-governed properties. The effect of a charged polyelectrolyte layer electrostatically assembled onto the sensor surface on the surface resistance in solutions with different KCl concentration is studied. In case of the same electrode footprint, 3D-IDEs show a larger cell constant and a higher sensitivity to molecular adsorption than that of planar IDEs. The obtained results demonstrate the potential of 3D-IDEs as a new transducer structure for a direct label-free sensing of charged molecules. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.201330416 SN - 1521-396X (E-Journal); 1862-6319 (E-Journal); 0031-8965 (Print); 1862-6300 (Print) VL - 211 IS - 6 SP - 1357 EP - 1363 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER -