			Home About us Contact

Increasing Sensitivity (increasing + sensitivity)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Polymers and Materials Science	33%

Selected Abstracts

[Ru(bpy)2(dcbpy)NHS] Labeling/Aptamer-Based Biosensor for the Detection of Lysozyme by Increasing Sensitivity with Gold Nanoparticle Amplification

CHEMISTRY - AN ASIAN JOURNAL, Issue 11 2008
Jianguo Bai
Abstract A novel [Ru(bpy)2(dcbpy)NHS] labeling/aptamer-based biosensor combined with gold nanoparticle amplification for the determination of lysozyme with an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) method is presented. In this work, an aptamer, an ECL probe, gold nanoparticle amplification, and competition assay are the main protocols employed in ECL detection. With all the protocols used, an original biosensor coupled with an aptamer and [Ru(bpy)2(dcbpy)NHS] has been prepared. Its high selectivity and sensitivity are the main advantages over other traditional [Ru(bpy)3]2+ biosensors. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterization illustrate that this biosensor is fabricated successfully. Finally, the biosensor was applied to a displacement assay in different concentrations of lysozyme solution, and an ultrasensitive ECL signal was obtained. The ECL intensity decreased proportionally to the lysozyme concentration over the range 1.0×10,13,1.0×10,8,mol,L,1 with a detection limit of 1.0×10,13,mol,L,1. This strategy for the aptasensor opens a rapid, selective, and sensitive route for the detection of lysozyme and potentially other proteins. [source]

Optimal foraging online: Increasing sensitivity to delay

PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 9 2003
Diane F. DiClemente
This experiment is a replication and extension of the Rajala and Hantula (2000) study of sensitivity to feedback delay while shopping in a simulated Internet mall. The experiment consisted of three conditions: One group had an ascending clock placed on the computer screen to cue the passage of time, another group had a descending clock placed on the computer screen, and as a control and replication condition, another group had no clock on the computer screen. Participants were more sensitive to the delays in the various stores in the cybermall when an ascending clock was present on the screen. A hyperbolic discount function fit best described the number of entries into each store, amount of time spent in each store, and relative number of purchases in each store. A customer-satisfaction survey showed decreasing positive attitudes toward the stores as a function of delay. These results have implications both in terms of foraging theory applied to human behavior, as well as for the practice of online marketing. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Mean stress effects in stress-life fatigue and the Walker equation

FATIGUE & FRACTURE OF ENGINEERING MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES, Issue 3 2009
N. E. DOWLING
ABSTRACT Mean stress effects in finite-life fatigue are studied for a number of sets of experimental data for steels, aluminium alloys and one titanium alloy. Specifically, the agreement with these data is examined for the Goodman, Morrow, Smith,Watson,Topper and Walker equations. The Goodman relationship is found to be highly inaccurate. Reasonable accuracy is provided by the Morrow and by the Smith,Watson,Topper equations. But the Morrow method should not be used for aluminium alloys unless the true fracture strength is employed, instead of the more usual use of the stress-life intercept constant. The Walker equation with its adjustable fitting parameter , gives superior results. For steels, , is found to correlate with the ultimate tensile strength, and a linear relationship permits , to be estimated for cases where non-zero mean stress data are not available. Relatively high-strength aluminium alloys have ,, 0.5, which corresponds with the SWT method, but higher values of , apply for relatively low-strength aluminium alloys. For both steels and aluminium alloys, there is a trend of decreasing , with increasing strength, indicating an increasing sensitivity to mean stress. [source]

Analysis of gene expression profiles in human HL-60 cell exposed to cantharidin using cDNA microarray

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 2 2004
Jun-Ping Zhang
Abstract Cantharidin is a natural toxin that has antitumor properties and causes leukocytosis as well as increasing sensitivity of tumor cells resistant to other chemotherapeutic agents. There is limited information, however, on the molecular pharmacological mechanisms of cantharidin on human cancer cells. We have used cDNA microarrays to identify gene expression changes in HL-60 promyeloid leukemia cells exposed to cantharidin. Cantharidin-treated cells not only decreased expression of genes coding for proteins involved in DNA replication (e.g., DNA polymerase delta), DNA repair (e.g., FANCG, ERCC), energy metabolism (e.g., isocitrate dehydrogenase alpha, ADP/ATP translocase), but also decreased expression of genes coding for proteins that have oncogenic activity (e.g., c-myc, GTPase) or show tumor-specific expression (e.g., phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase). In contrast, these treated cells overexpressed several genes that encode intracellular and secreted growth-inhibitory proteins (e.g., BTG2, MCP-3) as well as proapoptotic genes (e.g., ATL-derived PMA-responsive peptide). Our findings suggest that alterations in specific genes functionally related to cell proliferation or apoptosis may be responsible for cantharidin-mediated cytotoxicity. We also found that exposure of HL-60 cells to cantharidin resulted in the decreased expression of multidrug resistance-associated protein genes (e.g., ABCA3, MOAT-B), suggesting that cantharidin may be used as an oncotherapy sensitizer, and the increased expression of genes in modulating cytokine production and inflammatory response (e.g., NFIL-3, N-formylpeptide receptor), which may partly explain the stimulating effects on leukocytosis. Our data provide new insight into the molecular mechanisms of cantharidin. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Xanthene dye functionalized norbornenes for the use in ring opening metathesis polymerization

JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE (IN TWO SECTIONS), Issue 7 2007
Martina Sandholzer
Abstract A convenient synthetic route towards polymerizable fluorescein, dicholorofluorescein, and eosin dyes is presented. Polymerizability was provided by linking 2-norbornene carboxylic acid, 11-bromo-undecyl ester to the dye's carboxylate functionality. Although the monomers bearing dichlorofluorescein and eosin were obtained in high yield, the related fluorescein bearing monomer could only be obtained in low yield. In the latter case, concurring etherification and esterification led to a product mixture of the desired carboxy modified monomer and a double substituted by-product. The dye-monomers were used successfully for the preparation of statistical copolymers with endo,exo -2,3-norbornene dicarboxylic acid dimethylester by ROMP. Absorption and luminescence characteristics and, in particular, the acid/base sensitive behavior of the parent dyes were preserved in the monomers and copolymers. The absorption and emission maxima in THF solution and in the solid state were red shifted in comparison to the aqueous samples of the parent dyes. Dye-copolymers exhibited good film forming properties. Solid state luminescence studies of the copolymers revealed an increasing sensitivity towards NEt3 vapor in the order fluorescein < dichlorofluorescein < eosin bearing copolymer. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 1336,1348, 2007 [source]

Preface: phys. stat. sol. (b) 245/3

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (B) BASIC SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 3 2008
Christopher W. Smith
This is the third Special Issue of physica status solidi (b) focusing on materials with a negative Poisson's ratio or other ,anomalous' physical properties. This issue contains selected papers from the First International Conference on Auxetics and Anomalous Systems held at the University of Exeter, UK, on 4,6 September 2006. Around 50 participants from all over the world as well as from a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines contributed to what was a highly successful conference. This conference follows in the footsteps of two previous workshops held at the Mathematical Research and Conference Centre in B,dlewo near Pozna,, Poland, in 2004 and 2005 [1, 2]. The papers selected for this issue publish recent results obtained for ,anomalous systems' in experiment, theory and computer simulations. In the following we summarize very briefly their contents. Alderson and Coenen compare the performance of auxetic composites to similar systems with conventional positive Poisson's ratios. They find that there are indeed differences which appear to arise from the change of the overall Poisson's ratio of the composite, some beneficial like a rise in impact tolerance at low impact rates, and others deleterious such as the reduced tolerance at higher impact rates. This is one of the first investigations of possible applications for auxetic materials. The two papers by Gaspar and Koenders both examine the effects of disorder upon anomalous properties, especially negative Poisson's ratio. In the first one Gaspar demonstrates how a mean strain estimate fails to predict negative values of Poisson's ratio because of an inability to account for local fluctuations in elastic properties. For instance it is shown that the volume fraction of auxetic regions in an globally auxetic material (measured experimentally) are smaller than a mean strain homogenisation would require. Koenders and Gaspar explore the elastic properties, and especially Poisson's ratio, of a heterogeneous 2D network of bending beams. They predict auxetic behaviour arising from localised disorder in the packing, and therefore effective locally aggregated elastic properties of the beams. In the three articles by Gatt et al. and Grima et al. models based on simple geometry are used to explain the behaviour of seemingly disparate systems, i.e. 2D honeycombs systems and zeolite SiO2 networks. Two papers concerning honeycombs demonstrate relationships between elastic properties and structure and the bounds for auxetic behaviour. The paper concerning the zeolite Natrolite uses numerical force field based energy minimisation methods to simulate the response of this particular zeolite to applied forces and then simplifies the predicted properties even further by considering structural units as rigid 2D polyhedra linked by flexible hinges. In a similar vein, though using a different approach and concerning a very different form of matter, Heyes shows how the heterogeneity in an assembly of particles in a liquid can affect the elastic properties of a liquid and notably the infinite frequency Poisson's ratio. Heyes uses the Molecular Dynamics approach to simulate a Lennard,Jones fluid under various pressures, notably comparing behaviour under positive and negative pressures. In their first paper Jasiukiewicz and co-authors derive elastic constants of 2D crystals for all four classes of 2D crystalline solids: hexagonal (isotropic), quadratic, rectangular, and oblique systems. In their second paper they demonstrate conditions required for auxetic behaviour of 2D crystals. Auxetic solids are further divided into those with some negative Poisson's ratios (auxetic), all negative Poisson's ratios (completely auxetic) and no negative Poisson's ratios (non-auxetic). Lakes and Wojciechowski consider counterintuitive properties of matter, like negative compressibility, negative Poisson's ratio, negative thermal expansion, negative specific heat, and negative pressure. They present and interpret experimental observations of negative bulk modulus in pre-strained foams. They propose also a constrained microscopic model which exhibits negative compressibility. Finally, they solve a very simple thermodynamic model with negative thermal expansion. Martin et al. take a long stride toward a real world application of auxetic materials with a wide ranging study starting with numerical modelling of a wingbox section to experimental testing in a wind tunnel. They show that an auxetic core in a wing box section can allow a passive aero-elastic response which can be tailored by careful design of the core so that camber, and thus drag, is reduced with increasing airspeed but without sacrificing structural integrity. Miller et al. consider another anomalous physical property, negative thermal expansivity, and its application in the form of particulate composites for amelioration of stresses arising from thermal mismatch. They show via experiments that particles with a negative coefficient of thermal expansion may be used as a composite reinforcer to reduce overall thermal expansion and behave according to the standard volume fraction based models. Narojczyk and Wojciechowski examine the effects of disorder upon the bulk elastic properties of 3D fcc soft sphere systems in terms of particle size. Systems, such as colloids, can be thought of in such terms. The study shows that higher order moments of probability distribution do not influence the bulk elastic properties much, but that lower moments such as the standard deviation of particle size influence the elastic properties greatly. The "hardness" of the particle interaction potential is also important in this context. In general, it is shown that the effect of increasing polydispersity is to increase the Poisson's ratio, except the [110] [10] directions. Scarpa and Malischewsky in their paper on Rayleigh waves in auxetic materials show how the Rayleigh wave speed is affected by the Poisson's ratio. The behaviour is complex and depends upon the homogeneity within the material, for instance slowing with decreasing Poisson's ratio in isotropic solids, but showing the reverse trend and increased sensitivity to Poisson's ratio in laminate composites. Scarpa et al. explore the buckling behaviour of auxetic tubes via three types of model, a simple beam mechanics and Eulerian buckling model, a 3D linear elastic FE model and a bespoke non-linear continuum model. The more sophisticated models provide increasing insight into the buckling behaviour though the simple beam model predicts reasonably well in the pre-buckling linear region. Some unexpected and interesting behaviour is predicted by the continuum model as the Poisson's ratio approaches the isotropic limit of ,1, including increasing sensitivity to Poisson's ratio and rapid mode jumping between integer wave numbers. The paper by Shilko et al. presents an analysis of a particular kind of friction joint, a double lap joint, and explores the effects of altering the elastic properties of one component, in particular it's Poisson's ratio. The manuscript introduces the evolution of smart materials from monolithic materials, and the classification of composites exhibiting negative Poisson's ratios. The paper then presents the case of a double lap joint and performs a sensitivity type study, via a 2D FE model, of the effects of changing the elastic properties and degree of anisotropy of one section of the model on various parameters defining the limits of functionality of the joint. The main finding is that an enhanced shear modulus, via a negative Poisson's ratio, can endow such a friction joint with superior performance. Manufacturing of auxetic materials on a commercial scale has proved to be the largest obstacle to their fuller exploitation. The paper by Simkins et al. explores one route for post processing of auxetic polymers fibres produced by a conventional melt extrusion route. Simkins et al. showed that a post process thermal annealing treatment, with carefully optimised parameters, was able to even out otherwise inhomogenous auxetic properties, and moreover improve other elastic and fracture properties often sacrificed for auxetic behaviour. We gratefully acknowledge the support given by the sponsors of the conference, namely the EPSRC of the UK and Auxetic Technologies Ltd. (UK). We also thank the Scientific Committee, the Organising Committee, and all the participants of the conference. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]