The effect of solution variables on the solution of cellulose in dimethyl sulfoxide

Through the study of the effects of concentration, temperature, and molar ration (of paraformaldehyde to cellulose) on solution viscosity and per cent transmittance (at 530 nm), it has been demonstrated that cellulose solutions in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) are readily produced. By heating 1, 2, and 50 to 100 parts by weight of cellulose, paraformaldehyde, and DMSO, respectively, extremely viscose cellulose solutions and gels were prepared. Solutions with concentrations as high as 10% were prepared. However, the optimum conditions to effect complete cellulose solution in DMSO at 75°C were found to be 0.5% cellulose and 0.8 and 1.0% paraformaldehyde. This corresponds to a paraformaldehyde-to-cellulose molar ratio of about 10:1.     

Microemulsions with excellent water solubilizing capacity at high hydrocarbon levels with quaternary ammonium salts as surfactants

In W/O microemulsions prepared by adding dry surfactant to a mixture of 85% heptane or toluene and 15% pentanol, then titrating with water, systems using quaternary ammonium salts have been shown to be capable of solubilizing much larger amounts of water than systems using the anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate. In homologous series in the range C₁₂ to C₁₆ it would appear that, with one exception, longer chain length quaternary salts are more effective at solubilizing water than are shorter chain length compounds. With quaternary salts of equal chain length, pyridinium salts are more effective at solubilizing water at high surfactant concentrations than are corresponding trimethyl salts.     

Changes in the size and docosahexaenoic acid content of adipocytes during chick embryo development

The development of adipose tissue in the chick embryo was investigated using two groups of fertile eggs which differed by 1.7-fold in their initial yolk lipid levels. The triacylglycerol content of the subcutaneous adipose depot in both groups increased dramatically from day 12 of the 21-day embryonic period, attaining a maximal value just prior to hatching. During this period, the amount of triacylglycerol deposited in the adipose tissue was very highly correlated with the amount of lipid transferred from the yolk. The triacylglycerol content of the depot was also dependent on the initial yolk lipid content. During the hatching period, the amount of adipose triacylglycerol remained approximately constant in the group with the higher initial yolk lipid content but, in the case of the group with the lower initial yolk lipid levels, decreased by approximately 25%. The size distribution of adipocytes isolated from the tissue was determined by computerized image analysis microscopy. The mean adipocyte diameter increased from approximately 6 to 35 μm between days 12 and 19, irrespective of the initial yolk content, although development within the eggs with the lower initial yolk content resulted in a decrease in cell size over the hatching period. Both the triacylglycerol and phospholipid fractions of the isolated adipocytes contained substantial proportions (approximately 6%, w/w) of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) at days 12 and 14, and lower levels of this fatty acid at the later stages. The amount (mg/depot) of DHA in adipose triacylglycerol decreased dramatically over the hatching period. The amount (mg/brain) of DHA in brain phospholipid increased by more than 5-fold between day 12 of development and hatching. A possible explanation for the data may be that DHA is preferentially mobilized from adipose tissue in order to deliver the fatty acid to the developing neural tissues in a form suitable for uptake.     

Dynamic mechanical analysis of polymers in the liquid state: Use of a perforated shim stock support

This report summarizes some initial results on the use of a perforated brass shim stock support to extend the useful range of dynamic mechanical testing well over 100 degrees above the traditional limiting polymer softening points of T_g or T_m. Weak secondary relaxations were observed above T_g in both polyisobutylene (PIB) and polystyrene (PS) homopolymer, copolymer, and blend systems and above T_m in gutta percha (trans-polyisoprene). The DuPont 981 Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA)–990 Thermal Analyzer system was used to characterize these weak liquid state processes. The DMA instrument deforms the specimen in flexure, thus minimizing the shear component present in some other techniques. Specimen-coating weights are typically in the range 20–40 mg. The perforations are particularly useful for polymers having low inherent adhesion to metals or systems which are very brittle in the glassy state, e.g., low MW PS's and many methacrylates.     

ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR PEELING USING BEAM-ON-FOUNDATION MODEL AND COHESIVE ZONE

When fibrillation occurs during peeling, the normal stress in the adhesive may gradually reduce to zero at the peel front. The shear stress also reduces to zero. Classical beam-spring (or beam-on-elastic-foundation) models do not yield solutions that have these properties. With the use of a beam-on-foundation model combined with a cohesive zone in the neighborhood of the peel front, these properties can be satisfied. In order to obtain analytical solutions, peel tests are considered in which the backing has a small slope and is linearly elastic in the adhered region, and the traction law is assumed to be piecewise linear. Cases are considered with only normal stresses in the adhesive (mode I), only shear stresses (mode II), and both stresses coupled (mixed-mode behavior). Analytical solutions are obtained for displacements of the backing, forces in the backing, and stresses between the adhesive and the backing.     

Thermomechanical analysis of Tg and T > Tg transitions in polystyrene

Phenomenological softening points were measured on a series of 13 anionic, nearly monodisperse, atactic polystyrenes using a DuPont 943 thermomechanical analyzer (TMA) in a penetration mode. Although TMA cannot identify the nature of the “transition” observed as such, the results obtained support the evidence for the T_g, T_ll, and T′_ll transition in polystyrene discussed in recent literature. T_g and T_ll were found to vary with molecular weight in a systematic manner, while T′_ll could only be observed at very high molecular weight. The technique appears to be quite useful in offering rapid and reproducible information on the various transitions in the liquid state of polystyrene.     

Molecular modeling of antibody-antigen complexes between the Brucella abortus O-chain polysaccharide and a specific monoclonal antibody

A molecular model of the binding site of an anti-carbohydrateantibody (YsT9.1) has been developed using computer-assistedmodeling techniques and molecular dynamics calculations. Sequencehomologies among YsT9.1 and the Fv regions of McPC603, J539and human Bence-Jones protein REI, all of which have solvedcrystal structures, provided the basis for the modeling. Thegroove-type combining site model had a topography which wascomplementary to low energy confonners of the polysaccharide,a Brucella O-antigen, and the site could be almost completelyfilled by a pentasaccharide epitope in either of two dockingmodes. Putative interactions between this epitope and the antibodyare consistent with the known structural requirements for bindingand lead to the design of oligosaccharide inhibitors that probethe veracity of the modeled docked complex. Ultimately boththe Fv model and the docked complex will be compared with independentcrystal structures of YsT9.1 Fab with and without pentasaccharideinhibitor, currently at the stage of refinement.     

Resampling imbalanced data to detect fake reviews using machine learning classifiers and textual-based features

Fraudulent online sellers often collude with reviewers to garner fake reviews for their products. This act undermines the trust of buyers in product reviews, and potentially reduces the effectiveness of online markets. Being able to accurately detect fake reviews is, therefore, critical. In this study, we investigate several preprocessing and textual-based featuring methods along with machine learning classifiers, including single and ensemble models, to build a fake review detection system. Given the nature of product review data, where the number of fake reviews is far less than that of genuine reviews, we look into the results of each class in detail in addition to the overall results. We recognise from our preliminary analysis that, owing to imbalanced data, there is a high imbalance between the accuracies for different classes (e.g., 1.3% for the fake review class and 99.7% for the genuine review class), despite the overall accuracy looking promising (around 89.7%). We propose two dynamic random sampling techniques that are possible for textual-based featuring methods to solve this class imbalance problem. Our results indicate that both sampling techniques can improve the accuracy of the fake review class—for balanced datasets, the accuracies can be improved to a maximum of 84.5% and 75.6% for random under and over-sampling, respectively. However, the accuracies for genuine reviews decrease to 75% and 58.8% for random under and over-sampling, respectively. We also discover that, for smaller datasets, the Adaptive Boosting ensemble model outperforms other single classifiers; whereas, for larger datasets, the performance improvement from ensemble models is insignificant compared to the best results obtained by single classifiers.

     

Ethereum smart contract security research: survey and future research opportunities

Blockchain has recently emerged as a research trend, with potential applications in a broad range of industries and context. One particular successful Blockchain technology is smart contract, which is widely used in commercial settings (e.g., high value financial transactions). This, however, has security implications due to the potential to financially benefit froma security incident (e.g., identification and exploitation of a vulnerability in the smart contract or its implementation). Among, Ethereum is the most active and arresting. Hence, in this paper, we systematically review existing research efforts on Ethereum smart contract security, published between 2015 and 2019. Specifically, we focus on how smart contracts can be maliciously exploited and targeted, such as security issues of contract program model, vulnerabilities in the program and safety consideration introduced by program execution environment. We also identify potential research opportunities and future research agenda.