The as-designed heaters proved to be excellent candidates for employment in window defrosters, as they satisfy the essential prerequisites such as lower sheet resistance, high transparency, mechanical robustness and good stability to tensile strain.

This study identifies a new fungal strain, Lentinus sp., that can produce extracellular forms of laccases with an activity of approximately 58 300 U/L. A purified laccase (designated lcc3) was identified by LC-ESI MS/MS as an N-linkage glycosylated protein. The isolated lcc3 cDNA is composed of 1563 bp encoding for a polypeptide of 521 amino acid residues with 4 putative Cu binding regions. Kinetic analyses revealed that the specific activity, k(cat), K(m), and k(cat)/K(m) of lcc3 at pH 2.5 and 70 °C with 2,2'-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) used as a substrate was 2047 U mg(-1), 2017 s(-1), 8.4 μM, and 240 s(-1) μM(-1), respectively. Lcc3 is stable at pH 6.0-10.0 and has a midpoint temperature (T(m)) of 77.1 °C. We observed 97% decolorization efficiency on Acid Blue 80, 88% on RBBR, and 61% on Acid Red 37 by lcc3. Structural modeling analysis showed that five, four, and three hydrogen bonds can be formed between Acid Blue 80 and Arg(178), Arg(182), or Asn(358); between RBBR and His(132), Ser(134), or Asp(482); and between Acid Red 37 and Arg(178), respectively. Notably, Lentinus lcc3 efficiently reversed the toxicity of anthraquinone and azo dyes on rice seed germination and decolorized industrial textile effluent, suggesting the enzyme may be valuable for bioremediation.

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Non-destructive testing (NDT) methods are important alternatives when destructive tests are not feasible to examine the in situ concrete properties without damaging the structure. The rebound hammer test and the ultrasonic pulse velocity test are two popular NDT methods to examine the properties of concrete. The rebound of the hammer depends on the hardness of the test specimen and ultrasonic pulse travelling speed is related to density, uniformity, and homogeneity of the specimen. Both of these two methods have been adopted to estimate the concrete compressive strength. Statistical analysis has been implemented to establish the relationship between hammer rebound values/ultrasonic pulse velocities and concrete compressive strength. However, the estimated results can be unreliable. As a result, this research proposes an Artificial Intelligence model using support vector machines (SVMs) for the estimation. Data from 95 cylinder concrete samples are collected to develop and validate the model. The results show that combined NDT methods (also known as SonReb method) yield better estimations than single NDT methods. The results also show that the SVMs model is more accurate than the statistical regression model.

A series of copolyesters, poly(butylene adipate-co-butylene itaconate) (PBABI), was synthesized using melt polycondensation from adipic acid (AA), itaconic acid (IA), 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BDO), and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). 1H-NMR, FT-IR, GPC, DSC, TGA, DMA, XRD, Shore D, and tensile test were used to systematically characterize the structural and composition/physical properties of the copolyesters. It was found that the melting point (Tm) and crystallization temperature (Tc) of the copolyesters were, respectively, between 21.1 to 57.5 °C and −6.7 to 29.5 °C. The glass transition (Tg) and the initial thermal decomposition (Td-5%) temperatures of the PBABI copolyesters were observed to be between −53.6 to −55.8 °C and 313.6 and 342.1 °C at varying ratios of butylene adipate (BA) and butylene itaconate (IA), respectively. The XRD feature peak was identified at the 2θ values of 21.61°, 22.31°, and 23.96° for the crystal lattice of (110), (020), and (021), respectively. Interestingly, Shore D at various IA ratios had high values (between 51.3 to 62), which indicated that the PBABI had soft plastic properties. The Young’s modulus and elongation at break, at different IA concentrations, were measured to be at 0.77–128.65 MPa and 71.04–531.76%, respectively, which could be attributed to a close and compact three-dimensional network structure formed by EDTA as a crosslinking agent. There was a significant bell-shaped trend in a BA/BI ratio of 8/2, at different EDTA concentrations—the ∆Hm increased while the EDTA concentration increased from 0.001 to 0.05 mole% and then decreased at an EDTA ratio of 0.2 mole%. Since the PBABI copolymers have applications in the textile industry, these polymers have been adopted to reinforce 3D air-permeable polyester-based smart textile. This kind of composite not only possesses the advantage of lower weight and breathable properties for textiles, but also offers customizable, strong levels of hardness, after UV curing of the PBABI copolyesters, making its potential in vitro orthopedic support as the “plaster of the future”.

Three methods are reported for the generation of the heretofore unreported l-(dialkylamino)isobenzofurans. These are (1) metal-catalyzed decomposition of an o-(diazomethyl)benzamide (9 to 3), (2) fluoride-induced a elimination of an o-[bromo(trimethylsilyl)methyl]benzamide (48 to 3), and (3) deprotonation of a cyclic imidate salt (51 to 3). The first two reactions are consistent with the intermediacy of a carbene. The precursors for all three approaches can be synthesized from tertiary benzamides by ortho-lithiation strategies. Reaction of the transient l-(dialkylamino)isobenzofurans with dieneophiles in a x4s + cycloaddition is the key step in a one-pot sequence that provides annelation of an aromatic ring by a 2,3-substituted l-(dialkylamino)-4-hydroxycyclohex-l-ene ring. The sequence of formation of the 1-(dialkylamino)isobenzofuran, regio-and stereospecific cycloaddition, ring opening, and proton transfer, is illustrated by the preparations of 15-23, 32, and 33 from IVJV-diisopropylbenzamides. The ring annelation is extended to naphthalene and pyridine rings to provide 40, 41, and 44, respectively. Transformations of annelated products to higher and lower oxidation states are reported.Use of the powerful x4s + x* 2s cycloaddition for annelation of aromatic rings often is achieved by intramolecular reaction of a transient o-xylylene with an olefin.1 Intermolecular uses of this approach suffer from limited availability and high reactivity of the x4 partner. One strategy for extending this methodology is to generate a reactive but relatively stable derivative of the penultimate aromatic component.Isobenzofurans (1) are well-known derivatives of o-xylylenes; indeed, 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran ( 2) is a stable readily available compound which is nonetheless among the most reactive dienes.2 Substitution of an electron-