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Manganificent potential: A dinuclear manganese catalyst contains metal centers that are coordinated by a central phenolate, with adjoining imidazole and carboxylate groups, which are all important functionalities in the natural oxygen‐evolving center. The complex catalyzes the conversion of water to oxygen in the presence of a single‐electron oxidant [Ru(bpy)3]3+ (see picture, bpy=2,2′‐bipyridine, A=acceptor).

Surpassing nature: A hybrid catalyst in which Candida antarctica lipase B and a nanopalladium species are co‐immobilized into the compartments of mesoporous silica is presented. The metal nanoparticles and the enzyme are in close proximity to one another in the cavities of the support. The catalyst mimics a metalloenzyme and was used for dynamic kinetic resolution of a primary amine in high yield and excellent enantioselectivity.

We introduce fusion-based quantum computing (FBQC) -a model of universal quantum computation in which entangling measurements, called fusions, are performed on the qubits of small constant-sized entangled resource states. We introduce a stabilizer formalism for analyzing fault tolerance and computation in these schemes. This framework naturally captures the error structure that arises in certain physical systems for quantum computing, such as photonics. FBQC can offer significant architectural simplifications, enabling hardware made up of many identical modules, requiring an extremely low depth of operations on each physical qubit and reducing classical processing requirements. We present two pedagogical examples of fault-tolerant schemes constructed in this framework and numerically evaluate their threshold under a hardware agnostic fusion error model including both erasure and Pauli error. We also study an error model of linear optical quantum computing with probabilistic fusion and photon loss. In FBQC the non-determinism of fusion is directly dealt with by the quantum error correction protocol, along with other errors. We find that tailoring the fault-tolerance framework to the physical system allows the scheme to have a higher threshold than schemes reported in literature. We present a ballistic scheme which can tolerate a 10.4% probability of suffering photon loss in each fusion.

Human society faces a fundamental challenge as energy consumption is projected to increase due to population and economic growth as fossil fuel resources decrease. Therefore the transition to alternative and sustainable energy sources is of the utmost importance. The conversion of solar energy into chemical energy, by splitting H2O to generate molecular O2 and H2, could contribute to solving the global energy problem. Developing such a system will require the combination of several complicated processes, such as light-harvesting, charge separation, electron transfer, H2O oxidation, and reduction of the generated protons. The primary processes of charge separation and catalysis, which occur in the natural photosynthetic machinery, provide us with an excellent blueprint for the design of such systems. This Account describes our efforts to construct supramolecular assemblies capable of carrying out photoinduced electron transfer and to develop artificial water oxidation catalysts (WOCs). Early work in our group focused on linking a ruthenium chromophore to a manganese-based oxidation catalyst. When we incorporated a tyrosine unit into these supramolecular assemblies, we could observe fast intramolecular electron transfer from the manganese centers, via the tyrosine moiety, to the photooxidized ruthenium center, which clearly resembles the processes occurring in the natural system. Although we demonstrated multi-electron transfer in our artificial systems, the bottleneck proved to be the stability of the WOCs. Researchers have developed a number of WOCs, but the majority can only catalyze H2O oxidation in the presence of strong oxidants such as Ce(IV), which is difficult to generate photochemically. By contrast, illumination of ruthenium(II) photosensitizers in the presence of a sacrificial acceptor generates [Ru(bpy)3](3+)-type oxidants. Their oxidation potentials are significantly lower than that of Ce(IV), but our group recently showed that incorporating negatively charged groups into the ligand backbone could decrease the oxidation potential of the catalysts and, at the same time, decrease the potential for H2O oxidation. This permitted us to develop both ruthenium- and manganese-based WOCs that can operate under neutral conditions, driven by the mild oxidant [Ru(bpy)3](3+). Many hurdles to the development of viable systems for the production of solar fuels remain. However, the combination of important features from the natural photosynthetic machinery and novel artificial components adds insights into the complicated catalytic processes that are involved in splitting H2O.

DNA analysis of microsatellite markers has become a common tool for verifying parentage in breed registries and identifying individual animals that are linked to a database or owner. Panels of markers have been developed in canines, but their utility across and within a wide range of breeds has not been reported. The American Kennel Club (AKC) authorized a study to determine the power to exclude non-parents and identify individuals using DNA genotypes of 17 microsatellite markers in two panels. Cheek swab samples were voluntarily collected at Parent Breed Club National Specialty dog shows and 9561 samples representing 108 breeds were collected, averaging 88.5 dogs per breed. The primary panel of 10 markers exceeded 99% power of exclusion for canine parentage verification of 61% of the breeds. In combination with the secondary panel of seven markers, 100% of the tested breeds exceeded 99% power of exclusion. The minimum probability match rate of the first panel was 3.6 x 10(-5) averaged across breeds, and with the addition of the second panel, the probability match rate was 3.2 x 10(-8); thus the probability of another random, unrelated dog with the same genotype is very low. The results of this analysis indicated that, on average, the primary panel meets the AKC's needs for routine parentage testing, but that a combination of 10-15 genetic markers from the two panels could yield a universal canine panel with enhanced processing efficiency, reliability and informativeness.

The cyanobacterial neurotoxin β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is an amino acid that is putatively associated with the pathology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/Parkinsonism-dementia complex (ALS-PDC) disease. It raises serious health risk concerns since cyanobacteria are ubiquitous thus making human exposure almost inevitable. The identification and quantification of BMAA in cyanobacteria is challenging because it is present only in trace amounts and occurs alongside structurally similar compounds such as BMAA isomers. This work describes an enhanced liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry platform that can distinguish BMAA from its isomers β-amino-N-methyl-alanine, N-(2-aminoethyl) glycine (AEG), and 2,4-diaminobutyric acid, thus ensuring confident identification of BMAA. The method's sensitivity was improved fourfold by a post-column addition of acetonitrile. The instrument and method limits of detection were shown to be 4.2 fmol/injection (or 0.5 pg/one column) and 0.1 μg/g dry weight of cyanobacteria, respectively. The quantification method uses synthesized deuterated BMAA as an internal standard and exhibits good linearity, accuracy, and precision. Matrix effects were also investigated, revealing an ion enhancement of around 18 %. A lab-cultured cyanobacterial sample (Leptolyngbya PCC73110) was analyzed and shown to contain about 0.73 μg/g dry weight BMAA. The isomer AEG, whose chromatographic properties closely resemble those of BMAA, was also detected. These results highlight the importance of distinguishing BMAA from its isomers for reliable identification as well as providing a sensitive and accurate quantification method for measuring trace levels of BMAA in cyanobacterial samples.

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