Hacking nature: genetic tools for reprograming enzymes

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Carol J Hartley ◽  
Matthew Wilding ◽  
Colin Scott

Enzymes have many modern industrial applications, from biomass decomposition in the production of biofuels to highly stereospecific biotransformations in pharmaceutical manufacture. The capacity to find or engineer enzymes with activities pertinent to specific applications has been essential for the growth of a multibillion dollar enzyme industry. Over the course of the past 50–60 years our capacity to address this issue has become increasingly sophisticated, supported by innumerable advances, from early discoveries such as the co-linearity of DNA and protein sequence1 to modern computational technologies for enzyme design. The design of enzyme function is an exciting nexus of fundamental biochemical understanding and applied engineering. Herein, we will cover some of the methods used in discovery and design, including some ‘next generation’ tools.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minsu Kang ◽  
Kahyun Sun ◽  
Minho Seong ◽  
Insol Hwang ◽  
Hyejin Jang ◽  
...  

Bioinspired adhesives that emulate the unique dry and wet adhesion mechanisms of living systems have been actively explored over the past two decades. Synthetic bioinspired adhesives that have recently been developed exhibit versatile smart adhesion capabilities, including controllable adhesion strength, active adhesion control, no residue remaining on the surface, and robust and reversible adhesion to diverse dry and wet surfaces. Owing to these advantages, bioinspired adhesives have been applied to various engineering domains. This review summarizes recent efforts that have been undertaken in the application of synthetic dry and wet adhesives, mainly focusing on grippers, robots, and wearable sensors. Moreover, future directions and challenges toward the next generation of bioinspired adhesives for advanced industrial applications are described.



Gold Bulletin ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Paidari ◽  
Salam Adnan Ibrahim

AbstractIn the past few decades, there have been remarkable advances in our knowledge of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and synthesizing methods. AuNPs have become increasingly important in biomedical and industrial applications. As a newly implemented method, AuNPs are being used in nanopackaging industries for their therapeutic and antibacterial characteristics as well as their inert and nontoxic nature. As with other NPs, AuNPs have privileges and disadvantages when utilized in the food sector, yet a significant body of research has shown that, due to the specific nontoxic characteristics, AuNPs could be used to address other NP flaws. In this mini review, we present synthesizing methods, food industry applications, and mechanisms of action of gold nanoparticles. Regarding the investigations, gold nanoparticles can play a major role to reduce microbial load in foodstuff and therefore can be implemented in food packaging as an effective approach.



2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giyaullah Habibullah ◽  
Jitka Viktorova ◽  
Tomas Ruml

AbstractNoble metals have played an integral part in human history for centuries; however, their integration with recent advances in nanotechnology and material sciences have provided new research opportunities in both academia and industry, which has resulted in a new array of advanced applications, including medical ones. Noble metal nanoparticles (NMNPs) have been of great importance in the field of biomedicine over the past few decades due to their importance in personalized healthcare and diagnostics. In particular, platinum, gold and silver nanoparticles have achieved the most dominant spot in the list, thanks to a very diverse range of industrial applications, including biomedical ones such as antimicrobial and antiviral agents, diagnostics, drug carriers and imaging probes. In particular, their superior resistance to extreme conditions of corrosion and oxidation is highly appreciated. Notably, in the past two decades there has been a tremendous advancement in the development of new strategies of more cost-effective and robust NMNP synthesis methods that provide materials with highly tunable physicochemical, optical and thermal properties, and biochemical functionalities. As a result, new advanced hybrid NMNPs with polymer, graphene, carbon nanotubes, quantum dots and core–shell systems have been developed with even more enhanced physicochemical characteristics that has led to exceptional diagnostic and therapeutic applications. In this review, we aim to summarize current advances in the synthesis of NMNPs (Au, Ag and Pt).



Author(s):  
Paul J. Stoller ◽  
Anthony LoRe ◽  
William Crellin ◽  
Robert Hauser

This paper discusses one of the key lessons learned from administering the first generation of service agreements for public owners of waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities over the past 22 years and how those experiences were incorporated into a new service agreement for the operation and maintenance of Pinellas County’s 24 year old, 3,000 tpd WTE Facility to better protect the county’s interests. Additionally, a major issue raised by the operating companies during the competitive procurement process for continue operation of the facility is discussed and how that concern was addressed in the new service agreement is also presented. Capitalized words or terms used in this paper are defined within the new service agreement.



Author(s):  
Halima Kadirova ◽  

This scientific article highlights the place and role of the Karakalpak ethnic culture in the development and preservation of the identity of the people. The authors analyze the culture and life of the modern Karakalpak family, which inherits to the next generation the traditional way of life associated with national holidays and traditions, dastans performed by Karakalpak bakhshi (singers), legends and legends of the past, told by the older generation. The article argues that social changes in the global space contribute to the emergence of certain changes in the content of cultural identity, language, art, spiritual categories, which are elements of the basis of the national identity of each nation and various ethno-regional units, which further strengthens the study of this issue under the influence of the process of globalization.



2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-52
Author(s):  
Tracy Aleong ◽  
Kit Fai Pun

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology transmits data wirelessly and falls under the broad classification of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC). The advances in RFID technology continue to be accepted worldwide for various tracking and monitoring type applications. This paper reviews the principle of RFID system operation using an extensive search of relevant articles from technology management and related journals, over the past two decades. It explores 1) the RFID tags operating in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) band, 2) analyses some of the major advancements of this technology in the field of sensor tagging solutions in the past two decades, and 3) discusses industry-based applications utilising UHF RFID sensor tagging solutions for process measurement data acquisition. The main challenges identified are privacy and security concerns on their applications in industry. The paper contributes to amalgamating a list of UHF RFID industry-based applications. It is expected that the findings from this review exercise would shed light on critical areas of the UHF RFID Technology.



Author(s):  
Shuyao Zhou ◽  
Tianqian Zhu ◽  
Kanle Shi ◽  
Yazi Li ◽  
Wen Zheng ◽  
...  

AbstractLight fields are vector functions that map the geometry of light rays to the corresponding plenoptic attributes. They describe the holographic information of scenes by representing the amount of light flowing in every direction through every point in space. The physical concept of light fields was first proposed in 1936, and light fields are becoming increasingly important in the field of computer graphics, especially with the fast growth of computing capacity as well as network bandwidth. In this article, light field imaging is reviewed from the following aspects with an emphasis on the achievements of the past five years: (1) depth estimation, (2) content editing, (3) image quality, (4) scene reconstruction and view synthesis, and (5) industrial products because the technologies of lights fields also intersect with industrial applications. State-of-the-art research has focused on light field acquisition, manipulation, and display. In addition, the research has extended from the laboratory to industry. According to these achievements and challenges, in the near future, the applications of light fields could offer more portability, accessibility, compatibility, and ability to visualize the world.



2014 ◽  
pp. 8-20
Author(s):  
Kurosh Madani

In a large number of real world dilemmas and related applications the modeling of complex behavior is the central point. Over the past decades, new approaches based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have been proposed to solve problems related to optimization, modeling, decision making, classification, data mining or nonlinear functions (behavior) approximation. Inspired from biological nervous systems and brain structure, Artificial Neural Networks could be seen as information processing systems, which allow elaboration of many original techniques covering a large field of applications. Among their most appealing properties, one can quote their learning and generalization capabilities. The main goal of this paper is to present, through some of main ANN models and based techniques, their real application capability in real world industrial dilemmas. Several examples through industrial and real world applications have been presented and discussed.



2011 ◽  
pp. 283-296
Author(s):  
Ted Goranson

Enterprise integration has, in the past, focused on strategies for complete harmonization of various dimensions using collected technologies and techniques. The virtual enterprise case presents us, almost by definition, with cases where preharmonized infrastructure is neither feasible nor desirable. Through international workshops, the community has identified a next-generation strategy for how to measure the imperfections in integration that will be encountered. Presumably, a new class of tools and strategies will emerge. The idea is still very early in its life. This chapter presents a snapshot of early conclusions. One proposal of a strategy is outlined.



Author(s):  
David Damrosch

This chapter recounts how René Étiemble became a fierce advocate for translation. It analyzes Étiemble's exuberant linguistic range in many of his works, such as Essais de littérature (vraiment) générale in “Sur quelques adaptations et imitations de haiku” where he quotes poems in Japanese, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Croatian, German, and modern Greek. It also highlights the importance of translation for the next generation of comparatists in Étiemble's edgy survey titled Comparaison n'est pas raison. The chapter explores the quality of literary translation that has steadily grown during the past several decades. It also addresses crucial and highly problematic questions of language with the rise of global English that leaves many literary scholars too comfortably ensconced within the imperium of English.



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