Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

About: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is a education organization based out in Troy, New York, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Terahertz radiation & Population. The organization has 19024 authors who have published 39922 publications receiving 1414699 citations. The organization is also known as: RPI & Rensselaer Institute.

Antifouling coatings: recent developments in the design of surfaces that prevent fouling by proteins, bacteria, and marine organisms.

Abstract: The major strategies for designing surfaces that prevent fouling due to proteins, bacteria, and marine organisms are reviewed. Biofouling is of great concern in numerous applications ranging from biosensors to biomedical implants and devices, and from food packaging to industrial and marine equipment. The two major approaches to combat surface fouling are based on either preventing biofoulants from attaching or degrading them. One of the key strategies for imparting adhesion resistance involves the functionalization of surfaces with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) or oligo(ethylene glycol). Several alternatives to PEG-based coatings have also been designed over the past decade. While protein-resistant coatings may also resist bacterial attachment and subsequent biofilm formation, in order to overcome the fouling-mediated risk of bacterial infection it is highly desirable to design coatings that are bactericidal. Traditional techniques involve the design of coatings that release biocidal agents, including antibiotics, quaternary ammonium salts (QAS), and silver, into the surrounding aqueous environment. However, the emergence of antibiotic- and silver-resistant pathogenic strains has necessitated the development of alternative strategies. Therefore, other techniques based on the use of polycations, enzymes, nanomaterials, and photoactive agents are being investigated. With regard to marine antifouling coatings, restrictions on the use of biocide-releasing coatings have made the generation of nontoxic antifouling surfaces more important. While considerable progress has been made in the design of antifouling coatings, ongoing research in this area should result in the development of even better antifouling materials in the future.

Observation of Electron-Antineutrino Disappearance at Daya Bay

Abstract: The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has measured a nonzero value for the neutrino mixing angle θ13 with a significance of 5.2 standard deviations. Antineutrinos from six 2.9 GW_(th) reactors were detected in six antineutrino detectors deployed in two near (flux-weighted baseline 470 m and 576 m) and one far (1648 m) underground experimental halls. With a 43 000 ton–GW_(th)–day live-time exposure in 55 days, 10 416 (80 376) electron-antineutrino candidates were detected at the far hall (near halls). The ratio of the observed to expected number of antineutrinos at the far hall is R=0.940± 0.011(stat.)±0.004(syst.). A rate-only analysis finds sin^22θ_(13)=0.092±0.016(stat.)±0.005(syst.) in a three-neutrino framework.

Industrial biocatalysis today and tomorrow

Abstract: The use of biocatalysis for industrial synthetic chemistry is on the verge of significant growth. Biocatalytic processes can now be carried out in organic solvents as well as aqueous environments, so that apolar organic compounds as well as water-soluble compounds can be modified selectively and efficiently with enzymes and biocatalytically active cells. As the use of biocatalysis for industrial chemical synthesis becomes easier, several chemical companies have begun to increase significantly the number and sophistication of the biocatalytic processes used in their synthesis operations.

Modelling disease outbreaks in realistic urban social networks.

Abstract: Here we present a highly resolved agent-based simulation tool (EpiSims), which combines realistic estimates of population mobility,based on census and land-use data, with parameterized models for simulating the progress of a disease within a host and of transmission between hosts10. The simulation generates a largescale,dynamic contact graph that replaces the differential equations of the classic approach. EpiSims is based on the Transportation Analysis and Simulation System (TRANSIMS) developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which produces estimates of social networks based on the assumption that the transportation infrastructure constrains people’s choices about where and when to perform activities11. TRANSIMS creates a synthetic population endowed with demographics such as age and income, consistent with joint distributions in census data. It then estimates positions and activities of all travellers on a second-by-second basis. For more information on TRANSIMS and its availability, see Supplementary Information. The resulting social network is the best extant estimate of the physical contact patterns among large groups of people—alternative methodologies are limited to physical contacts among hundreds of people or non-physical contacts (such as e-mail or citations) among large groups.