Impedimetric DNA E-biosensor for multiplexed sensing of Escherichia coli and its virulent f17 strains

Microchimica Acta - This review (with 106 references) summarizes the latest progress in the synthesis, properties and biomedical applications of gold nanotubes (AuNTs). Following an introduction...     

Local improvement in planar facility location using vehicle routing

In physical distribution the location of depots and vehicle routes are interdependent problems, but they are usually treated independently. Location-routing is the study of solving locational problems such that routing considerations are taken into account. We present an iterative heuristic for the location-routing problem on the plane. For each depot the Weber problem is solved using the end-points of the routes found previously as input nodes to the Weiszfeld procedure. Although the improvements found are usually small they show that it pays not to ignore the routing aspects when solving continuous location problems. Possible research avenues in continuous location-routing will also be suggested.     

Influence of pi-stacking on the redox properties of oligothiophenes: (alpha-alkyloligo-thienyl)para[2.2]cyclophanes

[structure: see text] Oligothienyl-substituted paracyclophanes bearing alpha-thienyl substituents, which block polymerization at these sites, undergo oxidation to form stable radical cations and dications. Splitting of the first voltammetric oxidation wave of stacked dimers into two single-electron processes corresponding to formation of the stacked mono(radical cation) and the stacked bis(radical cation) illustrates the influence of pi-stacking on the behavior of conjugated chains, which serve as models for stacked polarons in conjugated polymers.     

Measurement experimental set-up for thermal characterization of low thickness polymers

The characterization of the thermal properties of polymers represents a fundamental step in improving materials for energy harvesting processes. Thermal conductivity, for example, is measured by measuring heat flux and temperature difference. This study seeks to design and fabricate an experimental set-up to measure the thermal conductivity of low-thickness polymers at room temperature. It is unique in that it is an affordable and lightweight instrument developed using electrical resistance as a heater and a limited number of components. Error analysis and reproducibility analysis were carried out for the thermal conductivity. The instrument was found to be reliable in making thermal conductivity measurements with an average of ±7%.     

Coherent soliton pattern formation in a fiber laser

We report the observation of bound states of 350 pulses in a ring fiber laser mode locked by nonlinear rotation of the polarization. The phenomenon is described theoretically using a multiscale approach to the gain dynamics; the fast evolution of a small excess of gain is responsible for the stabilization of a periodic pattern, while the slow evolution of the mean value of gain explains the finite length of the quasiperiodic soliton train.     

The location of protection devices on electrical tree networks: a heuristic approach

The problem of determining the number of protection devices and their locations on an electrical tree network with subtrees dependency is investigated. The aim is to reduce the amount of inconvenience caused to customers that are affected by any given fault on the network. A constructive heuristic and an appropriate implementation of tabu search are proposed and compared against a method currently used by the electrical supply companies. Computational tests are performed on randomly generated electrical tree networks varying in size and branch complexity. Both the proposed methods outperformed the one used in practice. In particular our tabu search implementation was found to produce the best results without taking an excessive amount of computational time.