The main goal of this work is design and synthesis of novel composite hydrogel-based core-shell microparticles and their application for fabrication of coatings, which provide the “inverse-switching” behaviour to the surface, namely, to become more hydrophobic in water environment. Since contact angle of heterogeneous surfaces is dependent on the nature and ratio of surface components, an increase of amount of more hydrophobic component on the surface will cause the reducing of surface wettability. It was suggested that core-shell particles having water-swellable hydrogel core and hydrophobic, but permeable for water shell when deposited on the hydrophilic substrate should increase the total amount of hydrophobic component on the surface when the cores of particles will swell in water. During the work different approaches to obtain freely dispersed and surface-immobilized core-shell particles with required structure were developed. Obtained particles were applied for preparation of coatings with ability to display “inverse-switching” behaviour. It was demonstrated that properly designed and properly prepared core-shell particles could be successfully used for creation of smart adaptive coatings having the ability to alter the surface properties upon changing of the environment.

Polyketides are natural products with complex chemical structures and immense pharmaceutical potential that are synthesized via secondary metabolic pathways. The in-vitro synthesis of these molecules requires high supply of building blocks such as acetyl Co-enzyme A, and cofactors (adenosine triphosphate (ATP). These precursor and cofactor are synthesized from respective soluble enzymes. Owing to the expensive nature of the enzymes, it is important to immobilize enzymes to improve the process economics by enabling multiple uses of catalyst and improving overall productivity and robustness. The polymer-based particles of nano and submicron size have become attractive material for their role in the life sciences. With the advances in synthetic protocols of the microgels and commercial availability of many of the monomers, it is feasible to tune the properties of the particles as per the process requirement. The core shell microgel with functional shell allows high loading of ligands onto the microgel particles due to increased availability of functional group on the outer surface. The aim of the thesis thus was to study biochemical reactions on the smart microgels support using single (acetyl CoA synthetase (Acs)) and dual (pyruvate kinase (Pk) and L-lactic dehydrogenase (Ldh)) enzyme/s systems. The study indicated that the enzyme immobilization significantly depends on the enzyme, conjugation strategy and the support. The covalent immobilization provides rigidity to the enzyme structure as in case of Acs immobilized on PNIPAm-AEMA microgels but at the same time leads to loss in enzyme activity. Whereas, in the case of covalent immobilization of Ldh on microgel showed improved in enzyme activity. On the other hand adsorption of the enzyme via ionic interaction provide better kinetic profile of enzymes hence the membrane reactor was prepared using PNIPAm-PEI conjugates for acetyl CoA synthesis. The better outcome of work with PNIPAm-PEI resulted in its further evaluation for dual enzyme system. This work is unique in the view that the immobilization strategies were well adapted to immobilize single and dual enzymes to achieve stable bioconjugates for their respective applications in precursor biosynthesis (Acetyl Co enzyme A) and co-factor dependent processes (ACoA and ATP). The positive end results of microgels as the support (particles in solution and as the thin film (membrane)) opens further prospective to explore these systems for other precursor biomolecule production.

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Das Auftreten von Braunwasser in Trinkwasserverteilungsnetzen ist eine Beeinträchtigung der Trinkwasserqualität, die durch mobilisierte partikuläre Ablagerungen verursacht wird. Die Partikel gelangen durch verschiedene Prozesse, wie z. B. der Korrosion metallischer Leitungen und den Eintrag am Wasserwerk, kontinuierlich in sehr geringen Massenströmen in das Rohrnetz. Durch die Akkumulation der Partikel an Rohroberflächen können sich Ablagerungsmengen bilden, die bei ansteigenden Strömungsgeschwindigkeiten resuspendiert werden und zu unerwünschten Braunwassererscheinungen führen. Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die experimentelle Untersuchung des Transportes von Partikeln, die für Trinkwassernetze typisch sind, in Rohrströmungen. Es werden Einflussfaktoren identifiziert, die für den Partikeltransport von Bedeutung sind. Ein neu entwickeltes dynamisches Modell beschreibt den Transport von Partikeln und die Ablagerungsbildung in Rohrströmungen und vermaschten Rohrnetzen. Das Modell wurde in einer Anwendersoftware implementiert und an einem Trinkwasserverteilungsnetz für das Nachvollziehen der beobachteten Ablagerungsbildung eingesetzt. Im Vergleich zu bestehenden dynamischen Modellen werden partikelbezogene Prozesse unter Berücksichtigung der für trinkwasserbürtige Partikel und Ablagerungen typischen Eigenschaften mathematisch genauer beschrieben. Stationäre und dynamische Ereignisse bezüglich Wasserqualität und Ablagerungsbildung können jetzt durch die Berücksichtung zahlreicher zeitabhängiger Einflussfaktoren nachvollzogen werden. / The occurrence of discoloured water in drinking water distribution systems is a disturbance of the water quality, which is induced by mobilised particulate deposits. Different processes result in the continuous entry of small mass flow rates of particles into the piping, for instance the corrosion of metallic pipes as well as the entry at the water works outlet. By the accumulation of these particles, significant amounts of deposits can be formed and at higher flow rates be resuspended, which leads to unwanted events with discoloured water. This study examines the experimental investigation of the transport of particles, which are typical for drinking water distribution systems, in pipe flow. Influencing factors are identified, which are of importance for the particle transport. With a newly developed model, the transport of particles and the deposit formation in pipe flow and in piping is described. The model is implemented into a software application and deployed at a drinking water distribution system to understand the observed deposit formation. In comparison with existent dynamic water quality models, particle-related processes are described mathematically in more details, under consideration of characteristics typical for particles and deposits in drinking water distribution systems. Hence, observed steady-state and dynamic events can be followed using several influencing time-dependent factors.

This project highlights various methods used to detect the elongated elemental particle neutrino. It is especially focused on the IceCube observatory, which uses Cherenkov light to detect these particles. Neutrino is an importnant building block in astrophysics and particle physics research as this particle can travel from great distances in time and space without interacting with matter. This means that high-energy neutrinos that are detected can orginate from strong explosions from outer space, even from explosions billion years ago, like Big Bang. This means that these particles carry a huge amount of information about the universe. The project also contains an experiment whose purpose is to demonstrate that with simple materials it is possible to detect particles that are not otherwise visible to the naked eye.

Background The foamy virus (FV) replication cycle displays several unique features, which set them apart from orthoretroviruses. First, like other B/D type orthoretroviruses, FV capsids preassemble at the centrosome, but more similar to hepadnaviruses, FV budding is strictly dependent on cognate viral glycoprotein coexpression. Second, the unusually broad host range of FV is thought to be due to use of a very common entry receptor present on host cell plasma membranes, because all cell lines tested in vitro so far are permissive. Results In order to take advantage of modern fluorescent microscopy techniques to study FV replication, we have created FV Gag proteins bearing a variety of protein tags and evaluated these for their ability to support various steps of FV replication. Addition of even small N-terminal HA-tags to FV Gag severely impaired FV particle release. For example, release was completely abrogated by an N-terminal autofluorescent protein (AFP) fusion, despite apparently normal intracellular capsid assembly. In contrast, C-terminal Gag-tags had only minor effects on particle assembly, egress and particle morphogenesis. The infectivity of C-terminal capsid-tagged FV vector particles was reduced up to 100-fold in comparison to wild type; however, infectivity was rescued by coexpression of wild type Gag and assembly of mixed particles. Specific dose-dependent binding of fluorescent FV particles to target cells was demonstrated in an Env-dependent manner, but not binding to target cell-extracted- or synthetic- lipids. Screening of target cells of various origins resulted in the identification of two cell lines, a human erythroid precursor- and a zebrafish- cell line, resistant to FV Env-mediated FV- and HIV-vector transduction. Conclusions We have established functional, autofluorescent foamy viral particles as a valuable new tool to study FV - host cell interactions using modern fluorescent imaging techniques. Furthermore, we succeeded for the first time in identifying two cell lines resistant to Prototype Foamy Virus Env-mediated gene transfer. Interestingly, both cell lines still displayed FV Env-dependent attachment of fluorescent retroviral particles, implying a post-binding block potentially due to lack of putative FV entry cofactors. These cell lines might ultimately lead to the identification of the currently unknown ubiquitous cellular entry receptor(s) of FVs.

The exploitation of colloidal building blocks with morphological and functional anisotropy facilitates the generation of complex structures with unique properties, which are not exhibited by isotropic particle assemblies. Herein, we demonstrate an easy and scalable bottom-up approach for the programmed assembly of hairy oppositely charged homogeneously decorated and Janus particles based on electrostatic interactions mediated by polyelectrolytes grafted onto their surface. Two different assembly routes are proposed depending on the target structures: raspberry-like/half-raspberry-like or dumbbell-like micro-clusters. Ultimately, stable symmetric and asymmetric microstructures could be obtained in a well-controlled manner for the homogeneous–homogeneous and homogeneous–Janus particle assemblies, respectively. The spatially separated functionalities of the asymmetric Janus particle-based micro-clusters allow their further assembly into complex hierarchical constructs, which may potentially lead to the design of materials with tailored plasmonics and optical properties.

Verweilzeitverteilungen werden zur Charakterisierung verfahrenstechnischer und speziell reaktionstechnischer Prozesse herangezogen. In dispersen Systemen existiert für jede Phase eine Verweilzeitverteilung, die sich stark voneinander unterscheiden können. Verweilzeitverteilungen werden häufig auf der Basis des Dispersionsmodells oder mittels einer Rührkesselkaskade beschrieben, wobei die Anpassung nicht immer gut ist. Deshalb werden zunächst halbempirische Gleichungen vorgestellt, die mittels charakteristischen Parametern (mittlere, minimale, maximale Verweilzeit; Exponent) eine flexible Nachbildung erlauben. Die Brauchbarkeit dieser Gleichungen wird für fluide und disperse Phase anhand der Nachrechnung veröffentlichter Verweilzeitverteilungskurven in unterschiedlichen Apparaten nachgewiesen, wobei auch ein Vergleich mit den Ergebnissen anderer Modelle erfolgt. Unter der Annahme einer stationären Sinkgeschwindigkeit gelingt für stark vereinfachte Fälle die Ableitung analytischer Ausdrücke für die Verweilzeitverteilung der dispersen Phase. Realere Fälle werden mit dem stochastischen Modell ZEMP (Zellenmodell mit Platzerwechselwahrscheinlichkeit), das um die Einbeziehung der Relativgeschwindigkeit der Partikeln erweitert wurde, erfasst. Dadurch wird es möglich, den Einfluss des Dispersionskoeffizienten, der Zugabeart, des Geschwindigkeitsprofils und des Vorliegens von Eigenschaftsverteilungen auf die Verweilzeitverteilung separat auszuweisen. Für das sich entwickelnde Geschwindigkeitsprofil des laminar durchströmten Rohrs und Kanals werden Gleichungen aufgestellt, in die die Werte von Literaturen eingingen. Damit wird der Einfluss der Einlaufstrecke auf die sich ausbildende Verweilzeitverteilung ermittelt.