Modeling the properties of carbon nanotubes for sensor-based devices

We acknowledge funding from the European Community through NoE Nanoquanta (NMP4-CT-2004-500198), SANES (NMP4-T-2006-017310), DNA-NANODEVICES (IST-2006-029192) and NANO-ERA Chemistry projects, UPV/EHU (SGIker Arina) and the Basque Governement.Peer reviewe

Formation of Nano-Bio-Complex as Nanomaterials Dispersed in a Biological Solution for Understanding Nanobiological Interactions

Information on how cells interface with nanomaterials in biological environments has important implications for the practice of nanomedicine and safety consideration of nanomaterials. However, our current understanding of nanobiological interactions is still very limited. Here, we report the direct observation of nanomaterial bio-complex formation (other than protein corona) from nanomaterials dispersed in biologically relevant solutions. We observed highly selective binding of the components of cell culture medium and phosphate buffered saline to ZnO and CuO nanoparticles, independent of protein molecules. Our discoveries may provide new insights into the understanding of how cells interact with nanomaterials

Semantic decoupling: reducing the impact of requirement changes

The continuous stream of requirements changes that often takes place during software development and can create major problems in the development process. This paper defines a concept we call semantic coupling that can be used during all the phases of a system specification and design to reduce the impact of changing requirements. Within the general framework of the intent specifications, traceability matrices representing the mappings between different abstraction levels are used to evaluate the sensitivity of a given design to requirement changes. The practicality of using the approach on real software is demonstrated using the specification of the control software for a NASA robot designed to service the heat-resistant tiles on the Space Shuttle