Research trends in gender differences in higher education and science: a co-word analysis

The aim of this study is to map and analyze the structure and evolution of the scientific literature on gender differences in higher education and science, focusing on factors related to differences between 1991 and 2012. Co-word analysis was applied to identify the main concepts addressed in this research field. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to cluster the keywords and a strategic diagram was created to analyze trends. The data set comprised a corpus containing 652 articles and reviews published between 1991 and 2012, extracted from the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database. In order to see how the results changed over time, documents were grouped into three different periods: 1991–2001, 2002–2007, and 2008–2012. The results showed that the number of themes has increased significantly over the years and that gender differences in higher education and science have been considered by specific research disciplines, suggesting important research-field-specific variations. Overall, the study helps to identify the major research topics in this domain, as well as highlighting issues to be addressed or strengthened in further work.     

Optimization of Improvable Flows by combining BAT Analysis and process simulation

This paper proposes a methodology to improve the sustainability of industrial processes combining two tools: BAT Analysis and process simulation. Both tools are jointly applied to identify the IF of the analyzed process, so that the most appropriate candidate techniques from an inventory can be selected. The selected alternatives are tested in different scenarios that are evaluated using simulation, which would determine the configuration that best improves the sustainability of the process. The combination of both tools in an integrated methodology will help decision makers to select the most sustainable configuration for a given process. The methodology is validated in a case study: a hydrogen production plant. After analysing several scenarios where different candidate techniques are implemented, results show that the IF identified can be highly improved when the appropriate combination of BAT is applied.     

Intelligent micellar polymeric nanocarriers for therapeutics and diagnosis

Polymeric micelles can be designed and synthesized to bear polymeric blocks with different hydrophilicities; this triggers their self‐assembly into micellar aggregates similar to those generated with traditional surfactants. The basic structure consists of a hydrophobic core, capable of containing guest substances, and a hydrophilic shell, which stabilizes the payload and protects it from external degradation or prevents its quick elimination from the body. The accumulation of block copolymer micelles (BCMs) in a target cell or tissue can be accomplished by two main mechanisms, passive and active targeting; this allows the payload release at the site of action when desired. Hence, in this general overview, we pay special attention to newly developed single‐stimulus‐ and multi‐stimuli‐responsive delivery systems capable of disassembling and reassembling (in some cases) as a response to changes in their physicochemical properties. Also, special interest is also devoted to multifunctional BCMs incorporating multiple therapeutic agents and/or multiple imaging contrast agents, which can be considered the new generation (third generation) of drug‐delivery systems, that is, nanotheranostic platforms. Finally, a summary of BCM‐based drug‐delivery systems currently under clinical trials is given. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42650.     

Voltammetric sensing of tryptophan in dark chocolate bars,skimmed milk and urine samples in the presence of dopamine and caffeine

Journal of Applied Electrochemistry - The present work reports the development of screen-printed electrode (SPE) using flexible polyester sheets modified with nanodiamond (ND), Au nanoparticles...     

Antifungal activity of films and solutions based on chitosan against typical seed fungi

The use of eco-freindly polymers as antimicrobial materials is in growth due to the need to reduce the negative impact of conventional treatments on the environment and the human health. The purpose of the present study was to assess the antifungal properties of films and solutions based on chitosan with different molecular weight at different concentrations. Surfactants were added to the formulation to assess their impact on treatment efficiency. The antifungal activity was conducted against tree fungi, Aspergillus niger, Alternaria alternata and Rhizopus oryzae. Results indicated important and significant differences of the antifungal activity between chitosan based solutions and chitosan based films. Furthermore, the antifungal activity of the different treatment depended on the type of fungus treated. Thus, chitosan film treatments were significantly more effective on A. niger than solution treatments. On the other hand, solution treatments resulted in higher radial inhibition when applied against A. alternata or R. oryzae. The highest radial inhibition was observed against A. alternata (97%) using a chitosan solution. The influence of the other parameters (concentration, molecular weight and surfactant type) on treatment efficiency was not as important and their significance depended on treatment type and fungus nature.     

Wave interactions and wave-structure scattering in nonlinear patterned waveguides

The nonlinear interactions between discrete optical solitons that propagate in different regimes of diffraction, and the nonlinear scattering of dispersive waves by local optical potentials, were studied experimentally. It is well known in electromagnetism that when linear coherent waves meet they interfere without interactions. Linear waves also scatter through local optical structures without exchanging any power with guided and anti-guided modes of these structures. When a focusing Kerr nonlinearity is present, linearly inhibited phenomena, which break these rules, are shown to exist. Our studies were performed with Silica glass and semiconductor AlGaAs nonlinear planar modulated waveguides, excited by ultra-short pulses in the near infrared spectral regime.     

Liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry in tandem mode applied for the identification of wine markers in residues from ancient Egyptian vessels

Presented in this paper is a new method for the identification of tartaric acid as a wine marker in archaeological residues from Egyptian vessels using liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry in tandem mode (LC/MS/MS). Owing to the special characteristics of these samples, such as the dryness and the small quantity available for analysis, it was necessary to have a very sensitive and highly specific analytical method to detect tartaric acid at trace levels in the residues. Furthermore, an alkaline fusion was carried out to identify syringic acid derived from malvidin as a red wine marker, in a deposit residue from a wine jar found at the tomb of king Tutankhamun. Malvidin-3-glucoside, the main anthocyanin that gives young wines their red color, polymerizes with aging into more stable pigments. However, the presence of malvidin in ancient residues can be proved by alkaline fusion of the residue to release syringic acid from the pigment, which has been identified, here for the first time, by using the LC/MS/MS method revealing the red grape origin of an ancient Egyptian wine residue.     

Occurrence of salmonellae in retail chicken carcasses and their products in Spain

This study examined the incidence of Salmonella in Spanish poultry products. Samples included chicken carcasses, chicken parts (wings, legs and giblets-livers and hearts) and processed chicken products (red sausages, white sausages and hamburgers). The average detection rate was 49%, with the highest (55%) in chicken carcasses (skin) and the lowest (20%) in hamburgers. The chicken carcasses purchased in supermarkets were more contaminated (75%) than those from poulterers shops (25%). Salmonella Enteritidis, S. Poona, S. Paratyphi B and S. Worthington were isolated in 34.3%, 11.4%, 2.8% and 1.4% of the samples, respectively. One (1.4%) red sausage sample harboured two serotypes (S. Enteritidis and S. Worthington). This fact emphasizes the usefulness of subtyping several Salmonella isolates from the same sample in epidemiological studies.     

The Servet 3.0 benchmark suite: Characterization of network performance degradation

Servet is a suite of benchmarks focused on extracting a set of parameters with high influence on the overall performance of multicore clusters. These parameters can be used to optimize the performance of parallel applications by adapting part of their behavior to the characteristics of the machine. Up to now the tool considered network bandwidth as constant and independent of the communication pattern. Nevertheless, the inter-node communication bandwidth decreases on modern large supercomputers depending on the number of cores per node that simultaneously access the network and on the distance between the communicating nodes. This paper describes two new benchmarks that improve Servet by characterizing the network performance degradation depending on these factors. This work also shows the experimental results of these benchmarks on a Cray XE6 supercomputer and some examples of how real parallel codes can be optimized by using the information about network degradation.