Synthesis of conductive adhesives based on epoxy resin and polyaniline.DBSA using the in situ polymerization and physical mixing procedures

Electrically conductive adhesives based on epoxy-anhydride system containing polyaniline (PAni) doped with dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA) have been successfully developed and characterized. The blends were prepared by physical mixing and by in situ polymerization of aniline within epoxy matrix. The in situ polymerization procedure contributes for the formation of a conducting pathway with lower amount of PAni.DBSA. A conductivity as low as 10^?3 S cm^?1 with 12 wt% of PAni and excellent adhesion properties were achieved with these systems. The microstructure of the conductive adhesives was studied by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In the case of blends prepared by in situ polymerization, PAni.DBSA is dispersed within the epoxy matrix in the form of microtubules. Dielectrical properties as a function of frequency and temperature have also indicated a great interaction between polyaniline and epoxy matrix by in situ polymerization procedure.     

Internet Predictions

More than a dozen leading experts give their opinions on where the Internet is headed and where it will be in the next decade in terms of technology, policy, and applications. They cover topics ranging from the Internet of Things to climate change to the digital storage of the future.     

Clinical events in coronary patients who report low distress: Adverse effect of repressive coping.

Objective: Coronary artery disease (CAD) patients who report low distress are considered to be at low psychological risk for clinical events. However, patients with a repressive coping style may fail to detect and report signals of emotional distress. The authors hypothesized that repressive CAD patients are at risk for clinical events, despite low self-rated distress. Design: This was a prospective 5- to 10-year follow-up study, with a mean follow-up of 6.6 years. At baseline, 731 CAD patients filled out Trait-Anxiety (distress), Marlowe-Crowne (defensiveness), and Type D scales; 159 patients were classified as "repressive," 360 as "nonrepressive," and 212 as "Type D." Main Outcome Measures: The primary endpoint was a composite of total mortality or myocardial infarction (MI); the secondary endpoint was cardiac mortality/MI. Results: No patients were lost to follow-up; 91 patients had a clinical event (including 35 cardiac death and 32 MI). Repressive patients reported low levels of anxiety, anger and depression at baseline, but were at increased risk for death/MI (21/159 = 13%) compared with nonrepressive patients (22/360 = 6%), p = .009. Poor systolic function, poor exercise tolerance, 3-vessel disease, index MI and Type-D personality--but not depression, anxiety or anger--also independently predicted clinical events. After controlling for these variables, repressive patients still had a twofold increased risk of death/MI, OR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.10-4.08, p = .025). These findings were replicated for cardiac mortality/MI. Conclusion: CAD patients who use a repressive coping style are at increased risk for clinical events, despite their claims of low emotional distress. This phenomenon may cause an underestimation of the effect of stress on the heart. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rapid Diminution in the Level and Activity of DNA-Dependent Protein Kinase in Cancer Cells by a Reactive Nitro-Benzoxadiazole Compound

The expression and activity of DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) is related to DNA repair status in the response of cells to exogenous and endogenous factors. Recent studies indicate that Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is involved in modulating DNA-PK. It has been shown that a compound 4-nitro-7-[(1-oxidopyridin-2-yl)sulfanyl]-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (NSC), bearing a nitro-benzoxadiazole (NBD) scaffold, enhances tyrosine phosphorylation of EGFR and triggers downstream signaling pathways. Here, we studied the behavior of DNA-PK and other DNA repair proteins in prostate cancer cells exposed to compound NSC. We showed that both the expression and activity of DNA-PKcs (catalytic subunit of DNA-PK) rapidly decreased upon exposure of cells to the compound. The decline in DNA-PKcs was associated with enhanced protein ubiquitination, indicating the activation of cellular proteasome. However, pretreatment of cells with thioglycerol abolished the action of compound NSC and restored the level of DNA-PKcs. Moreover, the decreased level of DNA-PKcs was associated with the production of intracellular hydrogen peroxide by stable dimeric forms of Cu/Zn SOD1 induced by NSC. Our findings indicate that reactive oxygen species and electrophilic intermediates, generated and accumulated during the redox transformation of NBD compounds, are primarily responsible for the rapid modulation of DNA-PKcs functions in cancer cells.     

Hydrolysis degree,peptide profile and phenylalanine removal from whey protein concentrate hydrolysates obtained by various proteases

The action of various proteases was tested for preparing whey protein concentrate (WPC) hydrolysates with high degree of hydrolysis (DH), appropriate peptide profiles and reduced phenylalanine (Phe) content. The peptide profile analysis included the fractionation of hydrolysates by size‐exclusion HPLC. The rapid correct fraction area method was used to quantify the components of the chromatographic fractions. Activated carbon (AC) was used to remove Phe, and its efficiency was evaluated by measuring the amount of Phe by second‐derivative spectrophotometry. The results showed that the DH of WPC hydrolysates increased and that the protease from Aspergillus oryzae yielded the highest DH value. This protease also produced the best peptide profile, that is, the highest di‐ and tripeptide content (16.14%), the highest amounts of free amino acids (18.43%) and the lowest amount of large peptides (18.76%). The proteases from both A. oryzae and Bacillus subtilis produced the highest Phe removals (79.0 and 77.8%, respectively).     

Distribution of fungi and aflatoxins in a stored peanut variety

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the mycoflora and occurrence of aflatoxins in stored peanut samples (hulls and kernels) from Tupã, State of São Paulo, Brazil. The samples were analyzed monthly over a period of one year. The results showed a predominance of Fusarium spp. (67.7% in hulls and 25.8% in kernels) and Aspergillus spp. (10.3% in hulls and 21.8% in kernels), and the presence of five other genera. The growth of Aspergillus flavus was mainly influenced by temperature and relative humidity. Analysis of hulls showed that 6.7% of the samples were contaminated with AFB₁ (mean levels = 15–23.9 μg/kg) and AFB₂ (mean levels = 3.3–5.6 μg/kg); in kernels, 33.3% of the samples were contaminated with AFB₁ (mean levels = 7.0–116 μg/kg) and 28.3% were contaminated with AFB₂ (mean levels = 3.3–45.5 μg/kg). Analysis of the toxigenic potential revealed that 93.8% of the A. flavus strains isolated were producers of AFB₁ and AFB₂.     

Hydrogen permeation through internally oxidized Pd alloys

Hydrogen diffusivity and solubility were determined by electrochemical hydrogen permeation tests in samples of Pd_0.97 Al_0.03 and Pd_0.97 Ce_0.03 in the as received and internally oxidized conditions. Internal oxidization caused the appearance of nanosized oxide precipitates in the Pd matrix. The shape and size of precipitates and also the coherence between the precipitates and the matrix were observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Electrochemical hydrogen permeation tests revealed that the presence of oxides increases the apparent hydrogen solubility, S _app, but decreases the hydrogen diffusivity, D _app. The values of D _app were 2.0 × 10⁻¹¹ m² s⁻¹ for vacuum heat treated Pd_0.97 Al_0.03 alloy and 4.0 × 10⁻¹² m² s⁻¹ for internally oxidized Pd_0.97 Al_0.03 alloy. However, the concentration of trapped hydrogen was 49 mol H.m⁻³ for the Pd_0.97 Al_0.03 alloy in the vacuum heat treated condition and 403 mol H.m⁻³ for the Pd_0.97 Al_0.03 alloy in the internally oxidized condition. Both heat treatments were performed at 1073 K for 24 h. The influence of the nature, size and distribution of the precipitates on the hydrogen permeation parameters are discussed in this paper.     

Information Retrieval and Categorisation using a Cell Assembly Network

Simulated networks of spiking leaky integrators are used to categorise and for Information Retrieval (IR). Neurons in the network are sparsely connected, learn using Hebbian learning rules, and are simulated in discrete time steps. Our earlier work has used these models to simulate human concept formation and usage, but we were interested in the models applicability to real world problems, so we have done experiments on categorisation and IR. The results of the system show that congresspeople are correctly categorised 89% of the time. The IR systems have 40% average precision on the Time collection, and 28% on the Cranfield 1,400. All scores are comparable to the state of the art results on these tasks.     

Electrochemical and photoelectrochemical investigation of new carboxylatobipyridine(bis-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) complexes for dye-sensitized TiO2 electrodes

Methods for the preparation and purification of new carboxylated 2,2′-bipyridine ligands, two of which contain the new anchoring functionality malonate, and a reliable method for the synthesis of the corresponding [Ru(bpy)₂(L)](PF₆)₂ complexes are described. Their suitability for fundamental studies of the processes in wet solar cell applications has been investigated. All complexes show stable voltammograms in acetonitrile solution and although the complexes were obtained as lithium carboxylate salts, they were soluble in non-polar organic solvents such as dichloromethane, which allowed for good reproducibility in the dye-coating step.The electrochemical and photoelectrochemical properties of dye–TiO₂ systems are discussed. The photoelectrochemical properties in monochromatic and white light are related to the attaching group that is varied in the series of complexes: A formally non-conjugated malonate group as anchoring group generally gives similar results to that of a conjugated carboxylic group, the second carboxylate compensating the absence of conjugation. Also, the complexes with malonate as attaching group are more efficient than a complex with a non-conjugated carboxylic group, especially in the red part of the action spectrum.The redox behavior of the adsorbed complexes is reversible at negative potentials and quasi-reversible at positive potentials. The latter feature is especially interesting since it is possible to electrochemically oxidize the surface-attached ruthenium complexes even at potentials in the mid-bandgap region of the metal oxide film.