Assembly and Characterizations of Bifunctional Fluorescent and Magnetic Microneedles With One Decade Length Tunability

This report presents the fabrication of bifunctional magnetic and fluorescent microneedles (µNDs) made of a ternary mixture of magnetic nanoparticles (NPs), quantum dots (QDs), and polyelectrolyte. The assembly relies on the electrostatic complexation of negatively charged NPs with positively charged polymer strands and is controlled by the charge ratio between the nanoparticle building blocks and the polymer mortar. The resulting 1D objects can be actuated using an external magnetic field and can be imaged using fluorescence microscopy, thanks to the fluorescent and superparamagnetic properties inherited from their NP constituents. Using a combination of core and surface characterizations and a state‐of‐the‐art image analysis algorithm, the dependence of the brightness and length on the ternary composition is thoroughly investigated. In particular, statistics on hundreds of µNDs with a range of compositions show that the µNDs have a log‐lormal length distribution and that their mean length can be robustly tuned in the 5–50 µm range to match the relevant length scales of various applications in micromixing, bioassays or biomechanics.     

Layered Simple Hydroxides Functionalized by Fluorene‐Phosphonic Acids: Synthesis,Interface Theoretical Insights,and Magnetoelectric Effect

Copper‐ and cobalt‐based layered simple hydroxides (LSH) are successfully functionalized by a series of fluorene mono‐ and diphosphonic acids, using anionic exchange reactions and a preintercalation strategy. The lateral functionalization of the fluorene moieties has only little impact on the overall structure of the obtained layered hybrid materials but it influences the organization of the molecules within the interlamellar spacing. For bulky fluorene (9,9‐dioctyl derivative), luminescence is preserved when inserted into copper and cobalt hydroxydes, whereas it is completely quenched for the other fluorenes. Detailed characterization of the internal structure and chemical bonding properties for copper‐ and cobalt‐based hybrids is performed via ancillary experimental techniques. For the copper‐based LSH class, for which more elusive findings are found, first‐principles molecular dynamics simulations unravel the fundamental stabilizing role of the H‐bonding network promoted within the local environments of the fluorene mono‐ and diphosphonic acids. The cobalt series of compounds constitute a new class of hybrid magnets, with ordering temperatures ranging from 11.8 to 17.8 K and show a clear magnetoelectric effect. This effect appears above a threshold magnetic field, which is null below the magnetic ordering temperature, and it persists in the paramagnetic regime till about 110 K.     

Design and Synthesis of Galactosylated Bifurcated Ligands with Nanomolar Affinity for Lectin LecA from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Lectin A (LecA) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an established virulence factor. Glycoclusters that target LecA and are able to compete with human glycoconjugates present on epithelial cells are promising candidates to treat P. aeruginosa infection. A family of 32 glycodendrimers of generation 0 and 1 based on a bifurcated bis‐galactoside motif have been designed to interact with LecA. The influences both of the central multivalent core and of the aglycon of these glycodendrimers on their affinity toward LecA have been evaluated by use of a microarray technique, both qualitatively for rapid screening of the binding properties and also quantitatively (K_d). This has led to high‐affinity LecA ligands with K_d values in the low nanomolar range (K_d=22 nm for the best one).     

Reviews

READING LANDSCAPE; COUNTRY-CITY-CAPITAL, Simon Pugh, ed., Manchester : Manchester University Press, 1990, pp. 245, £35.00 HB, £9.95 PB, ISBN 0-7190-2979-1, 0-7190-3189-3.

ENVISIONING INFORMATION

by Edward R. Tufte, Cheshire, Connecticut, The Graphics Press, 1990, £30.00.

THE MAKING OF THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE, Michael P. Conzen, ed., Boston and London: Unwin Hyman, 1990. pp. xvi + 434. ISBN 0-04-917010-4. £14.95 PB.

THE EFFECTS OF THE GREAT STORM: REPORT OF A TECHNICAL COORDINATION COMMITTEE AND THE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE, London: HMSO, 1988, 43pp, £5.00, P.B., ISBN 011 752144 2.

THE 1987 STORM: IMPACTS AND RESPONSES, A. J. Grayson (ed.), London: HMSO, 1989, 46pp, £4.00, P.B., ISBN 011 752144 2.

VIEWS OF AMERICAN LANDSCAPES, edited by Mick Gidley and Robert Lawson-Peebles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, £27.50; $39.50, H.B., 228pp.

TAMING THE FLOOD: A HISTORY AND NATURAL HISTORY OF RIVERS AND WETLANDS by Jeremy Purseglove, Oxford: Oxford University Press in association with Channel 4, 1989, 291pp, ISBN 0 19 286091 7, £9.95, P.B.

THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE GARDEN FROM THE CONVENTIONS OF PLANTING, DESIGN, AND ORNAMENT TO THE GRAND GARDENS OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY CENTRAL ITALY, Claudia Lazzaro with photographs by Ralph Lieberman, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1990, pp. i-ix + 342, £45.00, $65.00, ISBN 0-300-4765-7.

LANDSCAPE OR LAND?, poems for Devon, Mark Beeson and Christopher Southgate, Wheal Press, Devon, ISBN 0-9511588-1-3.     

超大跨度桥一概念、材料和方案

对于200m到1000m大跨度桥,设计者可以在不同的方案中进行选择:梁、架、拱、斜拉索和悬索，然而，对于超大跨度即超过1000m的桥梁则需应用预应力技术，此时供选择的方案为斜拉索和悬索,若超过斜拉索所及的跨的限度,那悬索桥方案就是唯一的选择了。本文的双索概念对主跨为3000m甚至更长的桥梁提供另一种新选择，并简述在超大跨度桥梁设计中的一些方面，如弹性稳定性、抗风和抗震性能等。     

Can changing the timing of outdoor air intake reduce indoor concentrations of traffic‐related pollutants in schools?

Traffic emissions have been associated with a wide range of adverse health effects. Many schools are situated close to major roads, and as children spend much of their day in school, methods to reduce traffic‐related air pollutant concentrations in the school environment are warranted. One promising method to reduce pollutant concentrations in schools is to alter the timing of the ventilation so that high ventilation time periods do not correspond to rush hour traffic. Health Canada, in collaboration with the Ottawa‐Carleton District School Board, tested the effect of this action by collecting traffic‐related air pollution data from four schools in Ottawa, Canada, during October and November 2013. A baseline and intervention period was assessed in each school. There were statistically significant (P < 0.05) reductions in concentrations of most of the pollutants measured at the two late‐start (9 AM start) schools, after adjusting for outdoor concentrations and the absolute indoor–outdoor temperature difference. The intervention at the early‐start (8 AM start) schools did not have significant reductions in pollutant concentrations. Based on these findings, changing the timing of the ventilation may be a cost‐effective mechanism of reducing traffic‐related pollutants in late‐start schools located near major roads.     

Spatial statistical analysis and geographic information systems

In this paper, we discuss a number of general issues that pertain to the interface between GIS and spatial analysis. In particular, we focus on the various paradigms for spatial data analysis that follow from the existence of this interface. We outline a series of questions that need to be confronted in the analysis of spatial data, and the extent to which a GIS can facilitate their resolution. We also review a number of exploratory and confirmatory techniques that we feel should form the core of a spatial analysis module for a GIS.     

An equation by any other name is still the same: on spatial econometrics and spatial statistics

Statistics is a branch of mathematics concerned with the collection, quantification, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of real-world data, and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters with these data. Spatial statistics is a subset of statistics that is concerned with handling the special problems associated with geographically distributed data, which include spatial point patterns, regional and lattice measurement aggregations, irregularly spaced site-specific measurements on a surface, and image analysis. Meanwhile, econometrics is concerned with the application of statistical methods to the study of economic data and problems. When coining the term spatial econometrics in 1979, Paelinck and Klaassen characterized it as a subset of econometrics that is concerned with the role of spatial dependence in regional economic model response and explanatory variables, asymmetries in spatial relationships, the specification of geographic structure governing spatial interactions, and the explicit modeling of space. We outline and discuss principal similarities (e.g., testing for the presence of spatial autocorrelation) and differences (e.g., map generalization) between spatial statistics and spatial econometrics. In doing so, our goal is to help clarify past, present, and future relationships between these two subfields.     

Interet et difficultes de l'etude des nappes phreatiques en milieu urbain

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - De nombreux exemples témoignent de la nécessité qu'il y a à connaître et, si possible, à prévoir...