Expression of a mannose/fucose membrane lectin on human dendritic cells

Dendritic cells (CD) are the most efficient antigen presenting cells for T lymphocytes. CD1a+ CD14- CD with high antigen-presenting capacities can now be obtained easily from adherent peripheral blood monocytes by culture in the presence of granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interleukin-4 (Sallusto et al., J. Exp. Med. 1994. 179: 1109). Human macrophages express a membrane lectin, or sugar-specific receptor, which specifically mediates the binding and endocytosis of mannose- and fucose-terminated glycoproteins and is involved in the phagocytosis of pathogens. A similar lectin activity was sought on cultured human DC using flow cytometry and confocal microscopy to detect binding and internalization of fluoresceinated neoglycoproteins [bovine serum albumin (BSA) substituted with sugar residues]. Several neoglycoproteins, especially alpha-L-fucosyl-, alpha-D-mannosyl-, N,N'-di-acetyl-beta-chitobiosyl- and beta-D-glucosyl-BSA, were endocytosed by cultured human CD1a+ DC as well as by CD1a- CD14- cells which were also obtained in the culture. Fuc-BSA and Man-BSA had the same number of binding sites (1.7 x 10(6)/cell) on CD1a+ DC, and bound with an affinity constant close to 10(7) 1/mol. Inhibition experiments indicated that these two neoglycoproteins bound to the same membrane lectin. CD1a+ and CD1a- cells were both labeled by an antiserum specific for the human macrophage mannose receptor. The membrane lectin specific for mannose and fucose that is evidenced in these experiments on cultured DC may be similar to the macrophage membrane lectin or may share functional and structural properties with it.     

Polyimides containing 4,4′‐bipyridinium units

New polyimides containing 4,4′‐bipyridinium units were synthesized by the reaction of bis(dichloromaleimide)arylene derivatives with 4,4′‐bipyridine in meta‐cresol. IR and ¹H‐NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis as well confirmed their structures. The polymers were characterized by viscometric measurements, softening points, and thermogravimetric data. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 2091–2100, 2004     

Data collection in global software engineering research: learning from past experience

Global Software Engineering has become a standard in today’s software industry. Research in distributed software development poses severe challenges that are due to the spatial and temporal distribution of the actors, as well as to language, intercultural and organizational aspects. These challenges occur in addition to “traditional” challenges of the domain itself in large-scale software projects, like coordination and communication issues, requirements volatily, lack of domain knowledge, among others. While several authors have reported empirical studies of global software development projects, the methodological difficulties and challenges of this type of studies have not been sufficiently discussed. In this paper, we share our experiences of collecting and analysing qualitative data in the context of Global Software Engineering projects. We discuss strategies for gaining access to field sites, building trust and documenting distributed and complex work practices in the context of several research projects we have conducted in the past 9 years. The experiences described in this paper illustrate the need to deal with fundamental problems, such as understanding local languages and different cultures, observing synchronous interaction, or dealing with barriers imposed by political conflicts between the sites. Based on our findings, we discuss some practical implications and strategies that can be used by other researchers and provide some recommendations for future research in methodological aspects of Global Software Engineering.     

Microfluidic device for continuous magnetophoretic separation of white blood cells

This paper presents a microfluidic device for magnetophoretic separation of red blood cells from blood under continuous flow. The separation method consists of continuous flow of a blood sample (diluted in PBS) through a microfluidic channel which presents on the bottom “dots” of ferromagnetic layer. By applying a magnetic field perpendicular on the flowing direction, the ferromagnetic “dots” generate a gradient of magnetic field which amplifies the magnetic force. As a result, the red blood cells are captured on the bottom of the microfluidic channel while the rest of the blood is collected at the outlet. Experimental results show that an average of 95% of red blood cells is trapped in the device.     

A Novel Class of Symmetric and Nonsymmetric Periodizing Variable Transformations for Numerical Integration

Variable transformations for numerical integration have been used for improving the accuracy of the trapezoidal rule. Specifically, one first transforms the integral via a variable transformation that maps [0,1] to itself, and then approximates the resulting transformed integral by the trapezoidal rule. In this work, we propose a new class of symmetric and nonsymmetric variable transformations which we denote , where r and s are positive scalars assigned by the user. A simple representative of this class is . We show that, in case , or but has algebraic (endpoint) singularities at x = 0 and/or x = 1, the trapezoidal rule on the transformed integral produces exceptionally high accuracies for special values of r and s. In particular, when and we employ , the error in the approximation is (i) O(h ^r ) for arbitrary r and (ii) O(h ^2r ) if r is a positive odd integer at least 3, h being the integration step. We illustrate the use of these transformations and the accompanying theory with numerical examples.      

Betulinic Acid in Complex with a Gamma-Cyclodextrin Derivative Decreases Proliferation and in Vivo Tumor Development of Non-Metastatic and Metastatic B164A5 Cells

Betulinic acid, a very promising anti-melanoma agent, has very low water solubility that causes low bioavailability. To overcome this inconvenience, a highly water-soluble cyclodextrin was used (octakis-[6-deoxy-6-(2-sulfanyl ethanesulfonic acid)]-γ-cyclodextrin). The complex was physico-chemically analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) methods and then in vitro tested for its antiproliferative activity by the MTT assay and by cell cycle analysis. Finally, the complex was tested in vivo using an animal model of murine melanoma developed in C57BL/6J mice, where it caused a reduction in tumor volume and weight. The study revealed the beneficial influence of betulinic acid inclusion into the cyclodextrin in terms of antiproliferative activity and in vivo tumor development.     

Nanofiltration membranes for ionic liquid recovery

Nanofiltration membranes have been developed by interfacial polymerization using base PES ultrafiltration membranes. By varying the concentration of the reactive monomers present as well as the reaction conditions, the structure of the polymerized barrier layer has been modified. Here, the ability to concentrate low molecular weight sugars while allowing dissolved ionic liquids in aqueous solution to be recovered in the permeate has been investigated for application in biomass hydrolysis. The results obtained here indicate that the selectivity for 1-butyl-3-methylimidazoliumchloride (BmimCl) over glucose can be as high as 36.6. The membrane permeance was 2.31 L m^?2 h^?1 bar^?1.     

Thermal management of high heat flux nanoelectronic chips

Driven by the continuing Moore’s Law evolution in chip technology, power dissipation of nanoelectronics chips could exceed 300W, with heat fluxes above 150W/cm², within the next few years, along with localized, sub-millimeter zones with heat fluxes in excess of 1kW/cm². New and novel cooling techniques, with the ability to selectively cool sub-millimeter “sun spots” while providing effective global cooling for high heat flux chips are needed. Several promising approaches, including the application of miniaturized silicon and BiTe thermoelectric coolers and direct cooling with dielectric liquids through thin film evaporation, will be described.     

Compact Numerical Quadrature Formulas for Hypersingular Integrals and Integral Equations

In the first part of this work, we derive compact numerical quadrature formulas for finite-range integrals $I[f]=\int^{b}_{a}f(x)\,dx$ , where f(x)=g(x)|x?t| ^?? , ?? being real. Depending on the value of ??, these integrals are defined either in the regular sense or in the sense of Hadamard finite part. Assuming that g??C ^??[a,b], or g??C ^??(a,b) but can have arbitrary algebraic singularities at x=a and/or x=b, and letting h=(b?a)/n, n an integer, we derive asymptotic expansions for ${T}^{*}_{n}[f]=h\sum_{1\leq j\leq n-1,\ x_{j}\neq t}f(x_{j})$ , where x _j =a+jh and t??{x ₁,??,x _n?1}. These asymptotic expansions are based on some recent generalizations of the Euler?CMaclaurin expansion due to the author (A.?Sidi, Euler?CMaclaurin expansions for integrals with arbitrary algebraic endpoint singularities, in Math. Comput., 2012), and are used to construct our quadrature formulas, whose accuracies are then increased at will by applying to them the Richardson extrapolation process. We pay particular attention to the case in which ??=?2 and f(x) is T-periodic with T=b?a and $f\in C^{\infty}(-\infty,\infty)\setminus\{t+kT\}^{\infty}_{k=-\infty}$ , which arises in the context of periodic hypersingular integral equations. For this case, we propose the remarkably simple and compact quadrature formula $\widehat{Q}_{n}[f]=h\sum^{n}_{j=1}f(t+jh-h/2)-\pi^{2} g(t)h^{-1}$ , and show that $\widehat{Q}_{n}[f]-I[f]=O(h^{\mu})$ as h??0 ???>0, and that it is exact for a class of singular integrals involving trigonometric polynomials of degree at most n. We show how $\widehat{Q}_{n}[f]$ can be used for solving hypersingular integral equations in an efficient manner. In the second part of this work, we derive the Euler?CMaclaurin expansion for integrals $I[f]=\int^{b}_{a} f(x)dx$ , where f(x)=g(x)(x?t) ^?? , with g(x) as before and ??=?1,?3,?5,??, from which suitable quadrature formulas can be obtained. We revisit the case of ??=?1, for which the known quadrature formula $\widetilde{Q}_{n}[f]=h\sum^{n}_{j=1}f(t+jh-h/2)$ satisfies $\widetilde{Q}_{n}[f]-I[f]=O(h^{\mu})$ as h??0 ???>0, when f(x) is T-periodic with T=b?a and $f\in C^{\infty}(-\infty,\infty)\setminus\{t+kT\}^{\infty}_{k=-\infty}$ . We show that this formula too is exact for a class of singular integrals involving trigonometric polynomials of degree at most n?1. We provide numerical examples involving periodic integrands that confirm the theoretical results.     

Specific interactions in ternary system quaternized polysulfone/mixed solvent

Theoretical and experimental aspects on the specific interactions developed via electrostatic interactions and hydrogen‐bonding in a ternary system formed of a proton‐donor solvent (N,N‐dimethylformamide or methanol), a proton‐acceptor solvent (water), and a quaternized polysulfone with various contents of ionic chlorine, which indicates a proton‐acceptor character, are investigated. Thus, the interactions of the ternary systems are corrected on the basis of the association phenomena defined through association constants. Numerical values for these constants were evaluated as a function of the system composition, by mathematical simulations for an accurate adjustment of preferential adsorption, determined by the Flory–Huggins–Pouchly theoretical approach applied to the experimental data. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2009. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers