Nanosensors are sensing devices with at least one of their sensing dimensions being up to100 nm. In the field of nanotechnology, nanosensors are instrumental for (a) detecting physical and chemical changes, (b) monitoring biomolecules and biochemical changes in cells, and (c) measuring toxic and polluting materials presented in the industry and environment. Nanosensors can be classified according to their energy source, structure and applications. The nanostructured materials used in manufacturing of nanosensors are such as: nanoscale wires (capability of high detection sensitivity), carbon nanotubes (very high surface area and high electron conductivity), thin films, metal and metal oxides nanoparticles, polymer and biomaterials. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of all classifications of nanosensors, showing the characteristcs and functioning mechanisms among the various categories.

Keratinase are proteolytic enzymes which have gained much attention to convert keratinous wastes that cause huge environmental pollution problems. Ten microbial isolates were screened for their keratinase production. The most potent isolate produce 25.2 U/ml under static condition and was primarily identified by partial 16s rRNA gene sequence as Bacillus licheniformis ALW1. Optimization studies for the fermentation conditions increased the keratinase biosynthesis to 72.2 U/ml (2.9-fold). The crude extracellular keratinase was optimally active at pH 8.0 and temperature 65 °C with 0.7% soluble keratin as substrate. The produced B. licheniformis ALW1 keratinase exhibited a good stability over pH range from 7 to 9 and over a temperature range 50–60 °C for almost 90 min. The crude enzyme solution was able to degrade native feather up to 63% in redox free system.

This paper presents the results of experiments on plane shock waves refracting at air/SF6and He/CO2interfaces. These are called fast-slow gas combinations because the speed of sound in the incident shock gas is greater than that in the transmitting shock gas. Our work was based on a generalization of the von Neumann (1943) classification of shocks into two classes called weak and strong. We introduced two subclasses of each of these, giving in all four groups of phenomena for study. This is possibly an exhaustive list, at least for conditions where the gases are approximately perfect. We present data on all four groups and study various transition conditions both within and across the groups. Our results appear to conflict with a previously reported irregular refraction; in fact we could apparently completely suppress this wave system by attention to our gas purity and boundary conditions. In its place we found a different system which appears to be a new phenomenon. We found another new system which has the appearance of a Mach-reflexion type of refraction but with its shock dispersed into a band of wavelets. It is interesting that the wavelets remain intense enough to induce identifiable vortex sheets in the flow. Finally we found yet another refraction of the Mach-reflexion type which had no detectable vortex sheet emanating from the triple point: such a system was foreshadowed by von Neumann.

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This paper presents experimental data obtained for the refraction of a plane shock wave at a carbon dioxide–helium interface. The gases were separated initially by a delicate polymer membrane. Both regular and irregular wave systems were studied, and a feature of the latter system was the appearance of bound and free precursor shocks. Agreement between theory and experiment is good for regular systems, but for irregular ones it is sometimes necessary to take into account the effect of the membrane inertia to obtain good agreement. The basis for the analysis of irregular systems is one-dimensional piston theory and Snell's law.