University of Wollongong 7 articles published in JoVE Environment A Novel Method for the Pentosan Analysis Present in Jute Biomass and Its Conversion into Sugar Monomers Using Acidic Ionic Liquid Babasaheb M. Matsagar1, Shahriar A. Hossain2,3, Tofazzal Islam4, Yusuke Yamauchi2,3,5,6, Kevin C.-W. Wu1 1Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, 2International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 3Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, 4Department of Biotechnology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, 5School of Chemical Engineering & Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), University of Queensland, 6Department of Plant and Environmental New Resources, Kyung Hee University We present a protocol for the synthesis of C5 sugars (xylose and arabinose) from a renewable non-edible lignocellulosic biomass (i.e., jute) with the presence of Brønsted acidic ionic liquids (BAILs) as the catalyst in water. The BAILs catalyst exhibited better catalytic performance than conventional mineral acid catalysts (H2SO4 and HCl). Chemistry Chemical Synthesis of Porous Barium Titanate Thin Film and Thermal Stabilization of Ferroelectric Phase by Porosity-Induced Strain Norihiro Suzuki1,2, Minoru Osada3, Motasim Billah3,4, Yoshio Bando3,4, Yusuke Yamauchi5,6, Shahriar A. Hossain3,4 1Research Institute for Science and Technology (RIST), Tokyo University of Science (TUS), 2International Center for Young Scientists (ICYS), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 3International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 4Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, 5School of Chemical Engineering, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), University of Queensland, 6Department of Plant & Environmental New Resources, Kyung Hee University Here, we present a protocol for the synthesis of porous barium titanate (BaTiO3) thin film by a surfactant-assisted sol-gel method, in which self-assembled amphipathic surfactant micelles are used as an organic template. Neuroscience High-resolution In Vivo Manual Segmentation Protocol for Human Hippocampal Subfields Using 3T Magnetic Resonance Imaging Julie Winterburn1,2, Jens C. Pruessner3, Chavez Sofia4,5, Mark M. Schira6,7, Nancy J. Lobaugh4,8, Aristotle N. Voineskos5,9, M. Mallar Chakravarty1,2 1Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 2Computational Brain Anatomy Laboratory, Douglas Institute, McGill University, 3McGill Centre for Studies in Aging, McGill University, 4MRI Unit, Research Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 5Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, 6School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, 7Neuroscience Research Australia, 8Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, 9Kimel Family Translational Imaging Genetics Research Laboratory, Research Imaging Centre, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health The goal of this manuscript is to study the hippocampus and hippocampal subfields using MRI. The manuscript describes a protocol for segmenting the hippocampus and five hippocampal substructures: cornu ammonis (CA) 1, CA2/CA3, CA4/dentate gyrus, strata radiatum/lacunosum/moleculare, and subiculum. Neuroscience Assessment of Neuromuscular Function Using Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation Vianney Rozand1, Sidney Grosprêtre1, Paul J. Stapley2, Romuald Lepers1 1INSERM U1093, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Univ. Bourgogne Franche–Comté, 2Neural Control of Movement Laboratory, School of Medicine, Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong We present a protocol to assess changes in neuromuscular function. Percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation is a non-invasive method that evokes muscular responses. Electrophysiological and mechanical properties of these responses permit the evaluation of neuromuscular function from brain to muscle (supra-spinal, spinal and peripheral levels). Engineering In Situ Neutron Powder Diffraction Using Custom-made Lithium-ion Batteries William R. Brant1, Siegbert Schmid1, Guodong Du2, Helen E. A. Brand3, Wei Kong Pang2,4,5, Vanessa K. Peterson4, Zaiping Guo2,5, Neeraj Sharma6 1School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, 2Institute for Superconducting & Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, 3Australian Synchrotron, 4Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, 5School of Mechanical, Materials, and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong, 6School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales We describe the design and construction of an electrochemical cell for the examination of electrode materials using in situ neutron powder diffraction (NPD). We briefly comment on alternate in situ NPD cell designs and discuss methods for the analysis of the corresponding in situ NPD data produced using this cell. Engineering Integrating a Triplet-triplet Annihilation Up-conversion System to Enhance Dye-sensitized Solar Cell Response to Sub-bandgap Light Andrew Nattestad1, Yuen Yap Cheng2, Rowan W. MacQueen2, Gordon G. Wallace1, Timothy W. Schmidt3 1ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), The University of Wollongong, 2School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, 3School of Chemistry, The University of New South Wales An integrated device, incorporating a dye-sensitized solar cell and triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion unit was produced, affording enhanced light harvesting, from a wider section of the solar spectrum. Under modest irradiation levels a significantly enhanced response to low energy photons was demonstrated, yielding a record figure of merit for dye-sensitized solar cells. Neuroscience A Method for Systematic Electrochemical and Electrophysiological Evaluation of Neural Recording Electrodes Alexander R. Harris1,3, Simeon J. Morgan1,3, Gordon G. Wallace3, Antonio G. Paolini1,3,4 1School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, 2Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, University of Wollongong, 3ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, 4Health Innovations Research Institute, College of Science, Engineering, and Health, RMIT University Different electrode coatings affect neural recording performance through changes to electrochemical, chemical and mechanical properties. Comparison of electrodes in vitro is relatively simple, however comparison of in vivo response is typically complicated by variations in electrode/neuron distance and between animals. This article provides a robust method to compare neural recording electrodes.