Conformation and activity of mannose- and N-acetylgalactosamine-specific lectins from Vicia villosa seeds

The conformation of two Vicia villosa lectins specific for mannose and N-acetylgalactosamine, respectively, was studied by circular dichroism. Both showed a broad negative CD band around 220 nm and a positive one above 190 nm. CD data analysis indicated that they were rich in beta-sheet. However, they differed in conformational stability against extreme pH, at elevated temperature, and in guanidine hydrochloride and sodium dodecyl sulfate solutions. The unusual feature was that the conformation of N-acetylgalactosamine-specific lectin was virtually unaltered in 6 M guanidine hydrochloride and 7.5 mM surfactant.     

Morphological and kinetics study of PEO/PVC blends

The kinetics of spherulite radial growth and the morphology of the compatible system PEO/PVC have been studied by optical microscopy. The usual spherulite radial growth behaviour has been found for compatible blends with PEO content higher than 70%. For lower composition, distortion of the usual spherulite morphology has been observed; the anomalies have been attributed to partial miscibility of the components.     

Network intrusion and fault detection: a statistical anomaly approach

With the advent and explosive growth of the global Internet and electronic commerce environments, adaptive/automatic network/service intrusion and anomaly detection in wide area data networks and e-commerce infrastructures is fast gaining critical research and practical importance. We present and demonstrate the use of a general-purpose hierarchical multitier multiwindow statistical anomaly detection technology and system that operates automatically, adaptively, and proactively, and can be applied to various networking technologies, including both wired and wireless ad hoc networks. Our method uses statistical models and multivariate classifiers to detect anomalous network conditions. Some numerical results are also presented that demonstrate that our proposed methodology can reliably detect attacks with traffic anomaly intensity as low as 3-5 percent of the typical background traffic intensity, thus promising to generate an effective early warning.     

Optical dot gain on newsprint determined with the Lund nuclear microprobe

A technique for measuring optical dot gain, i.e. the relative difference between the actual screen dot and the optically perceived one, is presented. By combining measurements from the non-optical nuclear microprobe with data from image analyzing technique the optical dot gain can be determined. The procedure to reach pixel by pixel correlation on a micrometer scale is discussed. In the newsprint sample studied in this investigation a typical optical dot gain between 15 and 20% was deduced. The variation in the optical dot gain was correlated with other characteristic parameters of the print and newsprint and especially a positive correlation to the mass density of the newsprint was observed.     

Electrochromic properties of tungsten-molybdenum oxide electrodes

Tungsten oxide and molybdenum doped tungsten oxide electrochromic films have been electrochemically prepared from a metal peroxide bath and experimentally tested. They were characterized by electrical and optical methods, using cyclic voltammograms and calculating the charge capacity as a function of the number of deposition cycles.The color of the electrochromic WO₃ film is strongly altered by doping it with molybdenum. Electrochromic W---Mo oxide films were fabricated by adding different percentages of molybdenum to tungsten oxide, ranging from 0.5% to 7% weight of deposition solution. Normal optical transmittance was also measured and evidence is given of different behavior if the switching for oxidation and reduction cycle, so that coloration occurs in a shorter time than the bleaching. The time constant of the process tends to increase as a function of the molybdenum oxide doping concentration.     

Analysis of a multiple-cell direct-sequence CDMA cellular mobileradio system

The performance of a multiple-cell direct-sequence code division multiple-access cellular radio system is evaluated. Approximate expressions are obtained for the area-averaged bit error probability and the area-averaged outage probability for both the uplink and downlink channels. The analysis accounts for the effects of path loss, multipath fading, multiple-access interference, and background noise. Two types of differentially coherent receivers are considered: a multipath rejection receiver and a RAKE receiver with predetection selective combining. Macroscopic base station diversity techniques and uplink and downlink power control are also topics of discussion     

An incomplete gauge formulation for 3D nodal finite-elementmagnetostatics

A method for imposing the gauge condition on the 3-D magnetic vector potential magnetostatic field computation using nodal finite elements is presented. In this method, the gauge A.w=0 is applied in the part of the problem that is not situated in the neighborhood of the materials interfaces that are tangential to w . This results in a formulation which maintains the discontinuous properties of the magnetic induction tangential components, reduces the number of unknowns, and improves the system matrix conditioning. The proposed formulation is compared with the Coulomb-gauge and ungauged formulations, showing that it results in better precision and worse conditioning than the Coulomb-gauge and has the same precision with a better conditioning than the ungauged formulation     

Preparation of Poly(D,L-Lactide/Glycolide) Nanoparticles of Controlled Particle Size Distribution: Application of Experimental Designs

This study investigates the use of the solvent evaporation method for preparing acid and glycolic acid-based copolymer nanoparticles. Initially, appropriate technological and formulation factors for elaboration of polymeric particles were selected by screening. Most favourable results were obtained using polyvinyl alcohol as a dispersing agent and a high pressure homogenizer to reduce the droplet size of the emulsion initially formed. On the basis of the conclusion thus drawn, a composite rotational experimental design was employed to evaluate the joint influence of three formulation variables (phase volume ratio of the emulsion formed, polymer concentration and homogenization pressure) on the micromeritic properties of the suspension finally obtained (mean particle size, coefficient of variation and polydispersity of the particle size distribution). Analysis of variance corresponding to the experimental design, showed a significant influence of the volume phase ratio and the polymer concentration on the mean particle size and the coefficient of variation, whereas the polydispersity is also affected by the homogenization pressure. Considering this information, a 3² experimental factorial design was then selected to investigate the possible interaction between the phase volume ratio and the concentration of polyvinyl alcohol in the aqueous phase. Analysis of variance and subsequent sequencial regression analysis evidenced last hypothesis providing the way to determine the experimental conditions required to achieve a specific particle size distribution.