A magnifying fiber element with an array of sub-wavelength Ge/ZnSe pixel waveguides for infrared imaging Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 021108 (2012) Embedded calibration system for the DIII-D Langmuir probe analog fiber optic links Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 10D710 (2012) Analytical analysis of modulation instability in fiber optics AIP Advances 2, 022168 (2012) Atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier microplasmas inside hollow-core optical fibers

An assay recapitulating the 3′ processing activity of HIV-1 integrase (IN) was used to screen the Boehringer Ingelheim compound collection. Hit-to-lead and lead optimization beginning with compound 1 established the importance of the C3 and C4 substituent to antiviral potency against viruses with different aa124/ aa125 variants of IN. The importance of the C7 position on the serum shifted potency was established. Introduction of a quinoline substituent at the C4 position provided a balance of potency and metabolic stability. Combination of these findings ultimately led to the discovery of compound 26 (BI 224436), the first NCINI to advance into a phase Ia clinical trial.

Aryl-substituted five-membered heteroaromatics have attracted great interest over the past years due to their presence in a large number of pharmaceuticals and natural products. Recently, an advance in the preparation of these scaffolds was achieved by employing a C-H functionalization strategy. This method allows easy access to these biaryl motifs by precluding the necessity of preparing specific coupling partners, although poor regioselectivity is sometimes observed when more than one reactive C-H is present on the substrate. In an effort to circumvent this liability, we envisioned the use of a carboxylic acid moiety as a blocking group that could be later functionalized or removed. Remarkably, the coupling was found to occur exclusively at the position previously occupied by the acid, even in the presence of a reactive C-H group. This selective transformation was also found to proceed with other heteroaromatic carboxylic acids, allowing for the preparation of a variety of aryl-substituted heteroaromatics that would be difficult to obtain via other methods.

The importance of rare‐earth elements (REEs) in the global economy is booming as they are used in numerous advanced technologies. Industrially, the extraction and purification of REEs involve multiple liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) steps as they exhibit very similar complexation properties with most common ligands. In order to substantially improve this process and provide a greener alternative to LLE, functional porous hybrid materials, demonstrating enhanced selectivity towards heavier REEs compared to commercially‐available products, are proposed. In addition, because of the grafting procedure used in the synthesis, the proposed materials demonstrate a higher degree of reusability, increasing their marketable potential.

Potential consequences of radiological/nuclear events on the population and the environment have led the scientific community to rethink its approach toward a monitoring based on radiochemical separation. In this context, there is a great need to design radioanalytical systems for quickly evaluating environmental impacts in case of incidents and nuclear events. Phosphonate-functionalized large pore three-dimensional (3-D) cubic (KIT-6) and two-dimensional (2-D) hexagonal (SBA-15) silicas have been studied as highly efficient uranium extracting adsorbents in acidic media. In both cases, functionalization was performed by grafting (2-diethylphosphatoethyl) triethoxysilane (DPTS) on the mesopore surface of the silica supports. Particular attention was given to comparison of different pore sizes and pore structures and impact on radionuclide extraction, principally through uranium adsorption isotherms and sorption kinetics studies. All hybrid materials demonstrated very fast adsorption kinetics, reaching equilibrium in less than 60 s. Calculated parameters from the Langmuir model revealed a clearly superior performance of the 3-D cubic KIT-6-based sorbents compared to other equivalents, especially for uranium equilibrium concentrations below 50 mg L −1 . Furthermore, a superior maximum adsorption capacity in the range of 54−56 mg of U per gram of sorbent was observed for which it represents almost a 3-fold increase compared to the capacity of commercially available products. High extraction efficiency is demonstrated through dynamic extraction experiments using less than 25 mg of functionalized mesoporous resin analogue. Importantly, the possibility of reusing regenerated mesoporous sorbents is established over several cycles with no loss in uranium extraction capacity suggesting adequate chemical and structural stability of the new sorbent materials.