Preparation and physicochemical study of jute and glass composites of epoxy resin of (2E, 6E)-bis(4-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclohexanone

Polymer Bulletin - Jute and glass composites of epoxy resin of (2E, 6E)-bis(4-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclohexanone (EBHBC) were prepared by compressing molding technique using three different hardeners...     

Role of chain symmetry and hydrogen bonding in segmented copolymers with monodisperse hard segments

Thermoplastic segmented polyurethane and polyurea copolymers whose monodisperse hard segments are based on only a single diisocyanate molecule are discussed. The solid-state structure-property behavior of these materials demonstrates that a proper selection of the level of symmetry and/or cohesiveness of the hard microdomains may allow elimination of the traditional requirement of chain extension to obtain melt processable segmented urethanes, and more specifically, urea copolymers with useful structural properties.     

The Michigan benchmark: towards XML query performance diagnostics

We propose a micro-benchmark for XML data management to aid engineers in designing improved XML processing engines. This benchmark is inherently different from application-level benchmarks, which are designed to help users choose between alternative products. We primarily attempt to capture the rich variety of data structures and distributions possible in XML, and to isolate their effects, without imitating any particular application. The benchmark specifies a single data set against which carefully specified queries can be used to evaluate system performance for XML data with various characteristics.     

Synthesis,characterization, and swelling behavior of superabsorbent hydrogel from sodium salt of partially carboxymethylated tamarind kernel powder‐g‐PAN

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)‐grafted sodium salt of partially carboxymethylated tamarind kernel powder (Na‐PCMTKP‐g‐PAN, %G = 413.76 and %GE = 96.48) was prepared using the established optimal reaction conditions for ceric‐initiated graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile onto Na‐PCMTKP (DS = 0.15) in a homogeneous medium. The graft copolymer was hydrolyzed by 0.7N KOH solution at 90–95°C to yield the superabsorbent hydrogel H‐Na‐PCMTKP‐g‐PAN. The nitrile groups of Na‐PCMTKP‐g‐PAN were completely converted into a mixture of hydrophilic carboxamide and carboxylate groups during alkaline hydrolysis, followed by in situ crosslinking of the grafted PAN chains. The products were characterized spectroscopically and morphologically. The swelling behavior of the unreported superabsorbent hydrogel, H‐Na‐PCMTKP‐g‐PAN, was studied by carrying out its absorbency measurements in low‐conductivity water, 0.15M salt (NaCl, CaCl₂, and AlCl₃) solutions, and simulated urine (SU) at different timings. The swelling behavior of the hydrogel in different swelling media followed the second‐order kinetics. The values of the various swelling characteristics were reported. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Practical methods for constructing suffix trees

Sequence datasets are ubiquitous in modern life-science applications, and querying sequences is a common and critical operation in many of these applications. The suffix tree is a versatile data structure that can be used to evaluate a wide variety of queries on sequence datasets, including evaluating exact and approximate string matches, and finding repeat patterns. However, methods for constructing suffix trees are often very time-consuming, especially for suffix trees that are large and do not fit in the available main memory. Even when the suffix tree fits in memory, it turns out that the processor cache behavior of theoretically optimal suffix tree construction methods is poor, resulting in poor performance. Currently, there are a large number of algorithms for constructing suffix trees, but the practical tradeoffs in using these algorithms for different scenarios are not well characterized. In this paper, we explore suffix tree construction algorithms over a wide spectrum of data sources and sizes. First, we show that on modern processors, a cache-efficient algorithm with O(n²) worst-case complexity outperforms popular linear time algorithms like Ukkonen and McCreight, even for in-memory construction. For larger datasets, the disk I/O requirement quickly becomes the bottleneck in each algorithm's performance. To address this problem, we describe two approaches. First, we present a buffer management strategy for the O(n²) algorithm. The resulting new algorithm, which we call “Top Down Disk-based” (TDD), scales to sizes much larger than have been previously described in literature. This approach far outperforms the best known disk-based construction methods. Second, we present a new disk-based suffix tree construction algorithm that is based on a sort-merge paradigm, and show that for constructing very large suffix trees with very little resources, this algorithm is more efficient than TDD.     

Dear Readers

Introduction

Dear Readers     

Niobium(V) oxide (Nb2O5): application to phosphoproteomics

Proteomics-based analysis of signaling cascades relies on a growing suite of affinity resins and methods aimed at efficient enrichment of phosphorylated peptides from complex biological mixtures. Given the heterogeneity of phosphopeptides and the overlap in chemical properties between phospho- and unmodified peptides, it is likely that the use of multiple resins will provide the best combination of specificity, yield, and coverage for large-scale proteomics studies. Recently titanium and zirconium dioxides have been used successfully for enrichment of phosphopeptides. Here we report the first demonstration that niobium pentoxide (Nb 2O 5) provides for efficient enrichment and recovery ( approximately 50-100%) of phosphopeptides from simple mixtures and facilitates identification of several hundred putative sites of phosphorylation from cell lysate. Comparison of phosphorylated peptides identified from Nb 2O 5 and TiO 2 with sequences in the PhosphoELM database suggests a useful degree of divergence in the selectivity of these metal oxide resins. Collectively our data indicate that Nb 2O 5 provides efficient enrichment for phosphopeptides and offers a complementary approach for large-scale phosphoproteomics studies.     

Influence of system variables on the morphological and dynamic mechanical behavior of polydimethylsiloxane based segmented polyurethane and polyurea copolymers: a comparative perspective

The effect of the variables of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) soft segment (SS) length, hard segment (HS) type and content as well as choice of chain extender (its MW and symmetry) on the morphology of segmented polyurethane and polyurea copolymers was investigated. The methods of dynamic mechanic analysis, small angle X-ray scattering, atomic force microscopy, and mechanical testing were used in this analysis. Average PDMS MW of 900, 2500 or 7000 g/mol were utilized and the hard segment content ranged from 16 to 50 wt%. HMDI was used as the diisocyanate. All copolymers were synthesized via the prepolymer method. The PDMS MW had a marked effect on the morphology of the materials. Copolymers with PDMS MW of 2500 and 7000 g/mol were clearly found to be well microphase separated relative to those containing the 900 g/mol PDMS SS. The polyurea sample with a PDMS MW of 7000 and HS content of 25 wt% exhibited a remarkable service temperature window (for rubber-like behavior) of ca. 230 °C (from −55 to 175 °C) whereas it was ca. 200 °C wide (from −55 to 145 °C) for the equivalent polyurethane sample. In general, the degree of microphase separation was found to be greater in the polyurea samples due to their more cohesive bidentate hydrogen bonding.