Glyconanoparticle-DNA interactions: an atomic force microscopy study.

Glyconanoparticles which present carbohydrate and amino groups motifs at their surface were produced. These particles were highly stable and soluble in aqueous solutions. The presence of the carbohydrate groups also allowed the inclusion of more strongly binding groups, without affecting solubility. The binding of a model DNA, plasmid by these nanoparticles was studied by atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and gel electrophoresis. Significant differences between the nanoparticles based on their affinities for the DNA were found, with implications for their potential use as nonviral gene delivery agents.     

Standardizing formats of corporate source data

This paper describe an approach for improving the data quality of corporate sources when databases are used for bibliometric purposes. Research management relies on bibliographic databases and citation index systems as analytical tools, yet the raw resources for bibliometric studies are plagued by a lack of consistency in fied formatting for institution data. The present contribution puts forth a Natural Language Processing (NLP)-oriented method for the identification of the structures guiding corporate data and their mapping into a standardized format. The proposed unification process is based on the definition of address patterns and the ensuing application of Enhanced Finite-State Transducers (E-FST). Our procedure was tested on address formats downloaded from the INSPEC, MEDLINE and CAB Abstracts. The results demonstrate the helpfulness of the method as long as close control of errors is exercised as far as the formats to be unified. The computational efficacy of the model is noteworthy, due to the fact that it is firmly guided by the definition of data in the application domain.     

Metric analysis of the information visibility and diffusion about the European Higher Education Area on Spanish University websites

The purpose of the study proposed in this paper is to evaluate the Spanish public university websites dedicated to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). To do so, the quality of these resources has been analysed in the light of data provided by a series of indicators grouped in seven criteria, most of which were used to determine what information is made available and in what way. The criteria used in our analysis are: visibility, authority, updatedness, accesibility, correctness and completeness, quality assessment and navigability. All in all, the results allow us to carry out an overall diagnosis of the situation and also provide us with information about the situation at each university, thus revealing their main strengths, namely authority and navegability, and also their chief shortcomings: updatedness, accessibility and quality assessment. In this way it is possible to detect the best practices in each of the aspects evaluated so that they can serve as an example and guide for universities with greater deficiencies and thus help them to improve their EHEA websites.     

Low temperature and strain rate dependence of fracture stress and fracture toughness on thin Fe40Ni40B20 amorphous ribbon

The fracture stress and the critical stress intensity factor of the Fe₄₀Ni₄₀B₂₀ amorphous metallic ribbons 20 μm thick were measured in the temperature range 4.2–300 K and at deformation rates from 3.3×10⁻⁶ to 1.25×10⁻³ m⁻¹ with the aim to obtain more information on the condition for the onset and development of the inhomogeneous plastic deformation and fracture.     

Soluble and conductive polypyrrole copolymers containing silicone tegomers

Soluble and processable conductive copolymers of silicone tegomers and pyrrole were developed. This was easily accomplished by the oxidative polymerization of pyrrole monomer by Ce(IV) salt in the presence of silicone tegomers with hydroxyl chain ends. The resulting copolymers were soluble in dimethylformamide. The products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, ¹H‐NMR, and four‐point probe conductivity, and their surface properties were investigated with contact‐angle measurements. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 2896–2901, 2003     

Efficient and accurate approach for powder compaction problems

 In this paper, a new approach for powder cold compaction simulations is presented. A density-dependent plastic model within the framework of finite strain multiplicative hyperelastoplasticity is used to describe the highly nonlinear material behaviour; the Coulomb dry friction model is used to capture friction effects at die-powder contact; and an Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) formulation is used to avoid the (usual) excessive distortion of Lagrangian meshes caused by large mass fluxes. Several representative examples, involving structured and unstructured meshes are simulated. The results obtained agree with the experimental data and other numerical results reported in the literature. It is shown that, contrary to other Lagrangian and adaptive h-remeshing approaches recently reported for this type of problems, the present approach verifies the mass conservation principle with very low relative errors (less than 1% in all ALE examples and exactly in the pure Lagrangian examples). Moreover, thanks to the use of an ALE formulation and in contrast with other simulations, the presented density distributions do not present spurious oscillations. Received: 20 March 2002 / Accepted: 15 October 2002 The partial financial support of the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (grant number DPI 2001-2204) is gratefully acknowledged.     

Microstructural and textural characterization of a hot-rolled IF steel

The present paper reports the experimental results on the microstructural and textural characterization of a hot-rolled IF steel. The IF steel was hot-rolled in multiple passes in the austenitic field (1,070 °C) followed by air-cooling. SEM, TEM, and LOM were used to image the microstructure of the material. The global texture was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The mesotexture of selected regions was investigated by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Results show the presence of a diffuse (nearly random) and weak texture in the hot-band that consists of recrystallized polygonal grains and subgrains. The fraction of boundaries with misorientations comprised in the interval 2° ≤ ψ < 15° was found to be lower than 5%. It can be concluded that these low angle boundaries and the presence of subgrains can be associated to the existence of a few areas softened by recovery during or after hot rolling in austenitic field.     

Synthesis and characterization of poly(N-propionyl)iminoethylene

Summary The cationic polymerization of 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline using CH₃I as initiator at different monomer/initiator ratios, temperatures, solvents and times of polymerization was carried out. The effect of these variables on the polymerization yield and viscosity of the polymers was studied. The poly(N-propionyl)iminoethylene was hydrolyzed in acid medium obtaining a linear poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI). All the polymers were characterized by elemental analysis, IR,¹H NMR, and¹³C NMR spectroscopy.