P-score: a reputation bibliographic index that complements citation counts

Scientometrics - The notions of reputation and popularity in academia are critical for taking decisions on research grants, faculty position tenure, and research excellence awards. These notions...     

The formation of country wineries networks for internationalization: an analysis of two new world wines regions

The objective of this study is to understand the characteristics of winemakers' networks and their effect on the internationalization process of the wine industry. Case studies in two emerging wine export countries were developed and analyzed. The Brazilian network, Integrated Sector Project Wines from Brazil, and the Uruguayan network, Wines of Uruguay, were both analyzed. The purpose of these networks is to promote those countries' wineries in international markets and to develop a common organizational structure shared by all the network members; however, local influences, such as market size and antecedent characteristics, result in different network roles. In each case, the network acts as an aggregate in the internationalization process of affiliate companies and assists in establishing the image of each country as a wine producer. The formation of a winemakers' network has a positive effect on the internationalization of the winemaking industry. Moreover, public policies to support internationalization demonstrate to improve the international competitiveness of wine companies. This study improves the understanding of the benefits winemakers' networks provide New World wines and the impact those networks have on the internationalization process. The results provide insights for advancing winemakers' internationalization strategy and the industrial policies affecting wine.     

Total Mercury, Inorganic Mercury and Methyl Mercury Determination in Red Wine

This study deals with the development of a method for total Hg, inorganic Hg and methylmercury (MeHg) determination in red wine by using flow injection-cold vapour generation–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (FI-CVG-ICP-MS) and gas chromatography-ICP-MS (GC-ICP-MS). For Hg speciation analysis, a derivatization step was carried out using a 1% (m/v) sodium tetraphenylborate (NaBPh₄) solution, followed by extraction of Hg species and their quantification by GC-ICP-MS. The main parameters evaluated were the make-up gas flow rate, volume of the NaBPh₄ solution, time for derivatization reaction/analyte extraction and solvent used for Hg species extraction. Accuracy was evaluated by analyte recovery, whereas recoveries ranged from 99% to 104% for Hg(II) and MeHg. The limits of detection (LODs) for Hg(II) and MeHg were 0.77 and 0.80 μg L⁻¹, respectively. Wine from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay were analysed. The wine samples were also acid digested for total Hg determination by FI-CVG-ICP-MS. The LOD of the method used for total Hg determination was 0.01 μg L⁻¹. The concentrations of Hg species in red wine measured by GC-ICP-MS were lower than the respective LODs. Only total Hg was detected in the analysed samples, where the highest concentration of Hg found was 0.55 ± 0.02 μg L⁻¹.     

Genetic targeting of individual cells with a voltage-sensitive dye through enzymatic activation of membrane binding

Optical recording of the electrical activity of individual neurons in culture or in a tissue requires cell-selective staining with a fluorescent voltage-sensitive dye. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we implement a novel approach to genetically targeted staining. The method relies on a water-soluble precursor dye and an overexpressed cell-surface enzyme that transforms the precursor into a hydrophobic dye that binds to the targeted cell. We fused an alkaline phosphatase to a specifically designed general-purpose membrane anchor, and the fusion protein was expressed on the surface of HEK293 cells, as was corroborated by immuno- and histochemical staining. We next synthesised an amphiphilic hemicyanine dye containing two enzymatically cleavable phosphate groups at its hydrocarbon tails. When the phosphate groups were removed, the binding to membranes was enhanced by a factor of a thousand, as shown by titration with lipid vesicles. We observed selective staining of enzymatically active cells by fluorescence microscopy in a mixed population of phosphatase-transfected and untransfected HEK293 cells. The critical parameters of enzyme-induced cell-selective staining were elucidated by a simple kinetic model to guide further developments of the method.     

Optical influence of ship wakes

The optical variations observed within ship wakes are largely due to the generation of copious amounts of air bubbles in the upper ocean, a fraction of which accumulate as foam at the surface, where they release scavenged surfactants. Field experiments were conducted to test previous theoretical predictions of the variations in optical properties that result from bubble injection in the surface ocean. Variations in remote-sensing reflectance and size distribution of bubbles within the ship-wake zone were determined in three different optical water types: the clear equatorial Pacific Ocean, moderately turbid coastal waters, and very turbid coastal waters, the latter two of which were offshore of New Jersey. Bubbles introduced by moving vessels increased the backscattering in all cases, which in turn enhanced the reflectance over the entire visible and infrared wave bands. The elevated reflectance had different spectral characteristics in the three locations. The color of ship wakes appears greener in the open ocean, whereas little change in color was observed in near-coastal turbid waters, consistent with predictions. Colorless themselves, bubbles increase the reflected radiance and change the color of the ocean in a way that depends on the spectral backscattering and absorption of the undisturbed background waters. For remote observation from aircraft or satellite, the foam and added surfactants further enhance the reflectance to a degree dependent on the illumination and the viewing geometry.     

Infiltration of Immune Competent Cells into Primary Tumors and Their Surrounding Connective Tissues in Xenograft and Syngeneic Mouse Models

To fight cancer more efficiently with cell-based immunotherapy, more information about the cells of the immune system and their interaction with cancer cells in vivo is needed. Therefore paraffin wax embedded primary breast cancers from the syngeneic mouse WAP-T model and from xenografted tumors of breast, colon, melanoma, ovarian, neuroblastoma, pancreatic, prostate, and small cell lung cancer were investigated for the infiltration of immunocompetent cells by immunohistochemistry using antibodies against leukocyte markers. The following markers were used: CD45 as a pan-leukocyte marker, BSA-I as a dendritic cell marker, CD11b as an NK cell marker, and CD68 as a marker for macrophages. The labeled immune cells were attributed to the following locations: adjacent adipose tissue, tumor capsule, intra-tumoral septae, and cancer cells directly. In xenograft tumors, the highest score of CD45 and CD11b positive, NK, and dendritic cells were found in the adjacent adipose tissue, followed by lesser infiltration directly located at the cancer cells themselves. The detected numbers of CD45 positive cells differed between the tumor entities: few infiltrating cells in breast cancer, small cell lung cancer, neuroblastoma, a moderate infiltration in colon cancer, melanoma and ovarian cancer, strongest infiltration in prostate and pancreatic cancer. In the syngeneic tumors, the highest score of CD45 and CD11b positive, NK and dendritic cells were observed in the tumor capsule, followed by a lesser infiltration of the cancer tissue. Our findings argue for paying more attention to investigate how immune-competent cells can reach the tumor cells directly.     

A Broader Context for Land Use and Travel Behavior,and a Research Agenda

Problem: Planning studies of land use and travel behavior focus on regression analysis of travel as a function of traveler demographics and land use near study subjects’ residences. Methodological debates have tended to focus almost exclusively on the possibility that persons choose their residence based on how they wish to travel. This longer view steps back from the confines of the regression-based literature to explain the historical roots, methods, and results of the literature, and to assess how the land use–travel literature must be transformed to be more relevant to planning.

Purpose: There are many summaries and meta-analyses of the impact of land use on travel. The goal here is not to understand how we might better specify a regression or summarize the results of past studies, but rather to explain how a literature that has become fundamental to planning scholarship is failing to be sufficiently planning focused. At the same time, this longer view describes how the literature can be transformed to address the planning challenges of today and tomorrow.

Methods: This longer view summarizes over 100 articles, covering transportation methods from the dawn of the interstate highway era to topics that include program evaluation, land development, and cognitive aspects of travel behavior. The primary focus is on the land use and travel literature, but the review and analysis is broad ranging and places the literature and its challenges within the broader context of recent developments in the social sciences, planning, policy, and electronic data collection.

Results and conclusions: This longer view elucidates three research frontiers that will be necessary to move the land use–travel literature forward. First, behavioral models of land use and travel must expand to consider how land is developed, how places are planned, and how cities are built. Second, the land use–travel literature should build a robust retrospective program evaluation tradition, which is currently almost completely absent in a scholarly field dominated by cross-sectional hypothesis tests and forecasting models. Third, economic social welfare analysis must be carefully researched, including questions of preferences for neighborhood types and whether such preferences are fixed or malleable.

Takeaway for practice: Planning is about city building, and the literature and practice on land use and travel behavior should adapt to better support city building. This requires both a serious commitment to social science research and planning's characteristically broad view of context, problem, and place. In an era of climate change, and amidst debates about sustainability, the land use–travel literature must more aggressively examine the process of plans and place making, evaluate the increasingly innovative transportation policies being implemented at the local level, and develop methods that allow more informed discussion about the costs and benefits of transportation policies.

Research support: None.     

Development of calibration models for estimation of monomer concentration by Raman spectroscopy during emulsion polymerization: Facing the medium heterogeneity

This work compares different calibration models for the estimation of monomer concentrations by Raman spectroscopy during semicontinuous emulsion copolymerization reactions. The limitations of these models are discussed in terms of a complex reaction, namely the copolymerization of vinyl acetate and butyl acrylate, whose monomers present overlapping Raman spectra, especially the C=C stretching band. Additionally, the copolymerization was monitored in a spectroscopic setup arranged for fast spectral acquisition, which resulted in a low signal‐to‐noise ratio. These realistic conditions for in‐line monitoring of emulsion copolymerization, i.e., considerable noise level in the spectra and medium heterogeneity, are discussed in the context of different approaches for adjusting the calibration model and the ensuing model limitations. It was verified that combining data obtained during reactions with synthetic samples is interesting from the statistical point of view, since in this way it is possible to produce data sets with a wide range of variation, allowing the accurate estimation of statistical parameters. These parameters are of major importance for process variables and product property estimations, especially if they are to be used for process control and decision making purposes. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 1136–1150, 2004     

Dimensions of coupling in middleware

It is well accepted that different types of distributed architectures require different degrees of coupling. For example, in client‐server and three‐tier architectures, application components are generally tightly coupled, both with one another and with the underlying middleware. Meanwhile, in off‐line transaction processing, grid computing and mobile applications, the degree of coupling between application components and with the underlying middleware needs to be minimized. Terms such as ‘synchronous’, ‘asynchronous’, ‘blocking’, ‘non‐blocking’, ‘directed’, and ‘non‐directed’ are often used to refer to the degree of coupling required by an architecture or provided by a middleware. However, these terms are used with various connotations. Although various informal definitions have been provided, there is a lack of an overarching formal framework to unambiguously communicate architectural requirements with respect to (de‐)coupling. This article addresses this gap by: (i) formally defining three dimensions of (de‐)coupling; (ii) relating these dimensions to existing middleware; and (iii) proposing notational elements to represent various coupling integration patterns. This article also discusses a prototype that demonstrates the feasibility of its implementation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.