Tailoring of Surfaces with Ultrathin Layers for Controlled Binding of Biopolymers and Adhesion and Guidance of Cells

Various strategies are described for the bio-functionalization of solid substrates by design of interfacial architectures. The first approach is based on the self-assembly process of long-chain thiol molecules from solution to a (noble) metal surface. If some of these building blocks carry a binding site (ligand) for proteins (receptors, antibodies, etc.) the metal surface can be tailored for maximum specific binding while simultaneously minimizing nonspecific adsorption. The second concept is based on polymers that are covalently attached to (oxide) surfaces. The preparation of these (end-) grafted functional polymers involves either the binding of preformed macromolecules to corresponding sites at the surface of the support or the recently introduced “grafting-from” method, by which an initiator molecule is first covalently bound to the surface and then activated — either by heat or light — in the presence of suitable monomer units such that a polymer chain grows from the solid/solution interface. Finally, the functionalization of patterned surfaces by peptide chains that mimic the binding domains of cell adhesion proteins is summarized. It is demonstrated that not only the selective adhesion of neuronal cells can then be controlled, but also their development with the outgrowth of dendrites and axons.     

Engineering plastics from lignin. VI. Structure–property relationships of PEG-containing polyurethane networks

Hydroxypropyl lignin-based thermosetting polyurethanes were synthesized with excess hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and tolylene diisocyanate (TDI) by solution casting. Four polyethylene glycols (PEG) of molecular weight 400, 600, 1000, and 4000 were mixed with lignin polyol to incorporate different proportions of soft segment into the network prior to crosslinking. Neither thermal nor mechanical and limited small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis provided distinct evidence for phase separation and microstructure formation. The study examines the effect of the soft segment in relation to chain length and weight contribution on the thermal and mechanical properties of the final networks. A significant sensitivity of glass transition temperature (T_g), of swelling in DMF, and of the mechanical properties to soft segment content was observed. Some of this sensitivity must, however, be attributed to differences in crosslink density since the polyol to diisocyanate weight ratio was kept constant throughout the synthesis series. The magnitude of the change of the different properties was found to be influenced by both glycol content and glycol molecular weight. The T_g of the network decreased from 105°C to as low as 38°C (HDI), and from 158°C to 70°C (TDI), with incorporation of up to 17.8% glycol, and it was greater with lower molecular weight glycols than with higher ones at any weight fraction. Swelling in DMF increased as expected with soft segment content. Mechanical properties were affected most if HDI and lower molecular weight glycols were used. The uniformity in structure, reduction in brittleness, and considerable improvement in mechanical properties with inclusion of minor PEG contents indicates that lignin-based network polyurethanes can be synthesized with controllable performance characteristics.     

Mesh-free canonical tensor products for six-dimensional density matrix: computation of kinetic energy

The computation of a six-dimensional density matrix is the crucial step for the evaluation of kinetic energy in electronic structure calculations. For molecules with heavy nuclei, one has to consider a very refined mesh in order to deal with the nuclear cusps. This leads to high computational time and needs huge memory for the computation of the density matrix. To reduce the computational complexity and avoid discretization errors in the approximation, we use mesh-free canonical tensor products in electronic structure calculations. In this paper, we approximate the six-dimensional density matrix in an efficient way and then compute the kinetic energy. Accuracy is examined by comparing our computed kinetic energy with the exact computation of the kinetic energy.     

Analysis of dithiocarbamate fungicides. Second-derivative UV-spectroscopic determination of CS2, COS, and thiram (TMTD)

The application of second-derivative UV-spectroscopy offers a highly sensitive and selective method for the determination of CS₂ and COS, as acid hydrolysis products of dithiocarbamate und thiuram disulphide fungicides, using a methanolic amine absorption reagent (ethylenediamine, piperidine). With standard concentrations of 0.08–1.1 g CS₂/ml and 0.3 to 2.0 g COS/ml, respectively, calibration curves with good correlation coefficients (r>0.999) were obtained. In comparison to the official method of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG method S15) the proposed alternative is at least 100 times more sensitive to CS₂. Using the second derivative method it is possible not only to clearly differentiate between CS₂ and COS but also to quantify both gases without resorting to tedious background corrections as compared to the direct photometric methods. Additionally, second derivative spectroscopy allows the direct determination of thiram in the concentration range 1–10 g/ml after its extraction with chloroform. For example, thiram in water (10 g/l) and in thiram/talc standards (10 mg/g) were determined with good precision (±2.0%).

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Analytik der Dithiocarbamat-Fungicide. Bestimmung von CS₂, COS sowie Thiram (TMTD) mittels Derivativ-UV-Spektroskopie

Zusammenfassung Die Anwendung der Derivativ-UV-Spektroskopie (2. Ableitung) erlaubt eine sehr empfindliche Bestimmung von CS₂ und COS als Hydrolyseprodukte der Dithiocarbamat- und Thiuramdisulfid-Fungicide nach Absorption in einem methanolischem Amin-Reagens (Ethylendiamin, Piperidin). Mit Standard-Konzentrationen von 0,08–1,1 g CS₂/ml bzw. 0,3–2,0 g COS/ml zeigten die Eichgeraden gute Korrelationskoeffizienten (r<0,999). Im Vergleich zur DFG-Methode S15 zeichnet sich die vorgeschlagene Alternative durch eine um zwei Zehnerpotenzen höhere Empfindlichkeit bei der CS₂-Bestimmung aus. In der 2. Ableitung wird nicht nur die Unterscheidung von COS und CS₂ eindeutig, sondern auch deren Quantifizierung ohne rechnerische Untergrundkorrekturen ermöglicht. Mit Hilfe der Derivativspektroskopie konnte außerdem Thiram (TMTD) in Konzentrationen von 1–10 g/ml direkt erfaßt werden. So ließen sich nach Extraktion mit Chloroform 10 g/L Thiram in Wasser mit einer Präzision von ±2,0% direkt bestimmen oder Thiram/Talkum-Standards (10 mg/g) überprüfen.

     

Evolving Teams of Predictors with Linear Genetic Programming

This paper applies the evolution of GP teams to different classification and regression problems and compares different methods for combining the outputs of the team programs. These include hybrid approaches where (1) a neural network is used to optimize the weights of programs in a team for a common decision and (2) a realnumbered vector (the representation of evolution strategies) of weights is evolved with each term in parallel. The cooperative team approach results in an improved training and generalization performance compared to the standard GP method. The higher computational overhead of team evolution is counteracted by using a fast variant of linear GP.     

The impact of process standardization on business process outsourcing success

What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) success? This paper argues that there is a direct impact of process standardization on BPO success, due to production cost economies, and also an indirect effect via improved contractual and relational governance resulting from better monitoring opportunities and facilitated communication and coordination. This threefold impact of standardization on BPO success is empirically confirmed using data from 335 BPO ventures in 215 German banks.