Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis transitions of partially and fully substituted cellulose fatty esters

The main transitions of cellulose fatty esters with different degrees of substitution (DSs) were investigated with dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. Two distinct main relaxations were observed in partially substituted cellulose esters (PSCEs). They were attributed to the glass‐transition temperature and to the chain local motion of the aliphatic substituents. The temperatures of both transitions decreased when DS or the number of carbon atoms (n) of the acyl substituent increased. Conversely, all the transitions of fully substituted cellulose esters occurred within a narrow temperature range, and they did not vary significantly with n. This phenomenon was explained by the formation of a crystalline phase of the fatty substituents. The presence of few residual OH groups in PSCEs was responsible for a large increase in the storage bending modulus, and it eliminated the effect of n on damping. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 281–288, 2003     

Immobilized polysiloxanes as stationary phases for high-performance liquid chromatography and solid phase extraction

Polysiloxanes immobilized onto the surfaces of porous silica particles have proven to be good stationary phases for the separation of multiresidues of pesticides and their metabolic/degradation products by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Similar materials have proven effective for pre-concentration and clean-up procedures using solid phase extraction. The present paper describes the preparation and some applications of several of these packing materials.     

Multicuts in unweighted graphs and digraphs with bounded degree and bounded tree-width

The Multicut problem can be defined as: given a graph G and a collection of pairs of distinct vertices {s_i,t_i} of G, find a minimum set of edges of G whose removal disconnects each s_i from the corresponding t_i. Multicut is known to be NP-hard and Max SNP-hard even when the input graph is restricted to being a tree. The main result of the paper is a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for Multicut in unweighted graphs with bounded degree and bounded tree-width. That is, for any ε>0, we present a polynomial-time (1+ε)-approximation algorithm. In the particular case when the input is a bounded-degree tree, we have a linear-time implementation of the algorithm. We also provide some hardness results: we prove that Multicut is still NP-hard for binary trees and that it is Max SNP-hard if we drop any of the three conditions (unweighted, bounded-degree, bounded tree-width). Finally we show that some of these results extend to the vertex version of Multicut and to a directed version of Multicut.     

Thermal analysis as a tool in the study of GMM in Angra Dos Reis region,Rio de Janeiro,Brazil

Angra dos Reis/Itaguai region of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is a very problematic area due to the instability of slope and landslides, due to geological and geomorphological conditions and to the significant and continuous human occupation over favorable areas is prone to the triggering of landslides. The samples were analyzed by thermogravimetry (TG), derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). This paper analyzes and characterizes the clay minerals and presence of water, gravitational mass movements’ sites and compares it with sites where gravitational mass movements do not occur. Indeed, this analysis also attempts to verify the presence of minerals.     

Cellulose-polyamide 66 blends. Part II: Mechanical behavior

Blends of the natural polymer cellulose with a synthetic polymer, polyamide 66, are studied in order to determine if the expected strong interaction between them, due to hydrogen bonds, could improve their mechanical properties such as strength and elongation at break. In a previous work {Part I, J. Polym. Sci. Polym. Phys., 32 , 1437 (1994)}, the preparation technique and the characterization of cellulose-polyamide 66 (PA66) blends were described in detail. Several samples in the composition range between 0 to 70 wt % of PA66 were carefully dried and examined using dynamic mechanical and tensile tests. Based on previous work a new percolation model has been developed. It takes both linear and nonlinear mechanical behaviors into account and allows for the effect of adhesion between material domains. From comparison between experimental and predicted data, it is concluded that a partial miscibility between the amorphous phases of cellulose and PA66 exists and is responsible for a strong adhesion at their interface. Solid-state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance has also been used to study these samples and supports the existence of strong interactions between both homopolymers. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Improved error estimates for mixed finite-element approximations for nonlinear parabolic equations: The discrete-time case

This article treats mixed finite-element methods for second-order quasilinear parabolic equations. A fully discrete scheme is presented and L₂-error estimates are established. The convergence of both the function value and the flux is demonstrated. In a previous paper, Part I the author introduced powerful numerical methods for dealing with parabolic problems. The technique used here is an extension of the continuous-time results for the discrete-time case. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Nanoscale organization of the pathogen receptor DC-SIGN mapped by single-molecule high-resolution fluorescence microscopy.

DC-SIGN, a C-type lectin exclusively expressed on dendritic cells (DCs), plays an important role in pathogen recognition by binding with high affinity to a large variety of microorganisms. Recent experimental evidence points to a direct relation between the function of DC-SIGN as a viral receptor and its spatial arrangement on the plasma membrane. We have investigated the nanoscale organization of fluorescently labeled DC-SIGN on intact isolated DCs by means of near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) combined with single-molecule detection. Fluorescence spots of different intensity and size have been directly visualized by optical means with a spatial resolution of less than 100 nm. Intensity- and size-distribution histograms of the DC-SIGN fluorescent spots confirm that approximately 80 % of the receptors are organized in nanosized domains randomly distributed on the cell membrane. Intensity-size correlation analysis revealed remarkable heterogeneity in the molecular packing density of the domains. Furthermore, we have mapped the intermolecular organization within a dense cluster by means of sequential NSOM imaging combined with discrete single-molecule photobleaching. In this way we have determined the spatial coordinates of 13 different individual dyes, with a localization accuracy of 6 nm. Our experimental observations are all consistent with an arrangement of DC-SIGN designed to maximize its chances of binding to a wide range of microorganisms. Our data also illustrate the potential of NSOM as an ultrasensitive, high-resolution technique to probe nanometer-scale organization of molecules on the cell membrane.