Acceptable Set Research Articles

Lateral flow test versus enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to measure infliximab trough concentrations: A head-to-head comparison.

Infliximab is an antitumour necrosis factor agent used to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Measurement of infliximab trough concentrations (C-troughs) are used to optimize drug exposure and improve outcomes. Currently, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are used predominantly for this purpose. Novel lateral flow immunoassays provide a rapid result. We collected 100 paired serum samples of adolescents and young adults with IBD, who were treated with infliximab maintenance infusions. C-troughs were measured with the Quantum Blue® lateral flow test (QB) with ELISA. Results were categorized as low-range (mean C-trough ≤5 µg/mL) or high-range (>5 µg/mL). A Bland-Altman plot was created with limits of clinical acceptability set at ≤2 µg/mL for low-range and ≤40% for high-range C-troughs. A concordance matrix was created to evaluate the C-trough-based clinical scenario (whether or not to escalate infliximab) using a cutoff value of 5 µg/mL. Agreement between QB and ELISA was good (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.85). In the low-range, 90% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 79-96) of measurements were within the limits of clinical acceptability. In the high-range this was 67% (95% CI: 53-79). QB provided higher results than ELISA. The concordance matrix showed 81% agreement (95% CI: 72-88, κ: 0.62). Lateral flow- and ELISA-based infliximab C-trough measurements were in agreement. The swift establishment of infliximab C-troughs matters for patients experiencing increased disease activity. In the event of a low C-trough, prompt dose escalation can be initiated.

Fresh and Hardened Properties of Alkali-Activated POFA-GGBFS Pastes Cured in Ambient Temperature – An Initial Mix Design

Weak soils are characterised by their high compressibility and low shear strength, which requires stabilisation to improve their compaction and strength characteristics before being used for construction projects. Recent trends in soil stabilisation show an increased interest in the application of waste-derived geopolymers as low-carbon materials to address the carbon emission problem related to cement production. This paper presents the preliminary findings of using Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) and Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) binary blends as geopolymer precursor materials. These binary waste material blends were activated using alkaline solutions, namely Sodium Hydroxide (NH) and Sodium Silicate (NS), to synthesise geopolymers at ambient temperatures. Three main factors were considered for the optimisation of the geopolymer mix design, as recommended by past research: alkali equivalent (8-11.5%), activator modulus (0-0.7), and slag replacement (fixed at 30%). Alkali equivalent and activator modulus parameters were varied and tested to establish its initial and final setting times, workability and strength properties, while the slag replacement percentage was set at 30%. This study aimed to determine the most influential parameters to produce the geopolymer material with the highest compressive strength and satisfactory setting times and workability. Single-source alkali activators (NH only) used on POFA-GGBFS produced specimens with smaller flow diameters, longer initial and final setting times, and lower compressive strength than specimens activated with NH and NS. Geopolymer specimens synthesised with NH and NS produce stiffer compounds possessing higher compressive strength values and explosive-type failure modes due to their higher silica content. At ambient temperatures, TM-Mix 2 (7% alkali equivalent and 0.7 activator modulus) produced the highest compressive strength value of 67.3 MPa at 28 days curing, flow diameter of 227 mm, with the initial and final setting time of 25 minutes and 45 minutes, respectively. Consequently, the results show that the preliminary POFA-GGBFS geopolymer mix design could produce sustainably sourced geopolymer compounds with adequate strength and acceptable setting time and workability. This study is part of a current investigation to further optimise the POFA-GGBFS mix design for the purpose of weak soil stabilisation.

An Enhanced Symmetric Sand Cat Swarm Optimization with Multiple Strategies for Adaptive Infinite Impulse Response System Identification

An infinite impulse response (IIR) system might comprise a multimodal error surface and accurately discovering the appropriate filter parameters for system modeling remains complicated. The swarm intelligence algorithms facilitate the IIR filter’s parameters by exploring parameter domains and exploiting acceptable filter sets. This paper presents an enhanced symmetric sand cat swarm optimization with multiple strategies (MSSCSO) to achieve adaptive IIR system identification. The principal objective is to recognize the most appropriate regulating coefficients and to minimize the mean square error (MSE) between an unidentified system’s input and the IIR filter’s output. The MSSCSO with symmetric cooperative swarms integrates the ranking-based mutation operator, elite opposition-based learning strategy, and simplex method to capture supplementary advantages, disrupt regional extreme solutions, and identify the finest potential solutions. The MSSCSO not only receives extensive exploration and exploitation to refrain from precocious convergence and foster computational efficiency; it also endures robustness and reliability to facilitate demographic variability and elevate estimation precision. The experimental results manifest that the practicality and feasibility of the MSSCSO are superior to those of other methods in terms of convergence speed, calculation precision, detection efficiency, regulating coefficients, and MSE fitness value.

Fault signature extraction of rolling bearings under variable speed via time–frequency overlap group sparse representation

The high-fidelity extraction of the nonperiodic fault transients of rolling bearings under variable speed is of significant importance, while still a challenge for early-stage fault diagnosis of major equipment such as aero engines and wind turbines. A method termed continuous symmetric Laplace wavelet transform (CSLWT) enhanced time–frequency overlap group sparse (OGS) representation is proposed in this paper. A symmetric Laplace mother wavelet function is proposed which could satisfy the admissibility condition of wavelet decomposition and reconstruction, upon which the CSLWT is fabricated and adopted as the sparse representation dictionary to match the nonperiodic fault transients. Since the decomposition coefficients of nonperiodic fault impulses via the CSLWT exhibit group sparsity on the time–frequency plane with unknown intervals, the time–frequency OGS model is adopted and then solved for extraction of the nonperiodic fault transients. Moreover, a data driven, multi-objective optimization strategy is presented for determining the hyper-parameters of the sparse model. The correlated kurtosis of angular envelope signal (CK-AE) and harmonic-to-noise energy ratio of the order spectrum (HNR-OS) are introduced as the optimization objectives, and the Pareto front is solved based on the NSGA-II algorithm, upon which the acceptable solutions set is chosen from the Pareto front, and the proper hyper-parameters are further determined via proposed normalized solutions distance density sorting of the acceptable solutions set. The performance of the proposed method is validated via processing both simulated and experimental vibration signals, as well as compared with some tradition fault diagnosis methods.

Impedance matching in optically induced dielectrophoresis: Effect of medium conductivity on trapping force.

An impedance analysis for optically induced dielectrophoresis is presented. A circuit model is developed for this purpose. The model parameters are fully defined in terms of the geometrical and material properties of the system. It is shown that trapping force can only be generated when the material properties follow certain impedance matching conditions. The impedance match factor is introduced to succinctly quantify the phenomenon. It is used to calculate bounds on the allowed electrical conductivity of the suspension medium. Results from the proposed model are found to be in good agreement with full-wave numerical simulations. By computing the acceptable set of material parameters with little computational cost, the presented analysis can streamline ODEP system design for various applications.

The influence of different abiotic conditions on the concentrations of free and conjugated deoxynivalenol and zearalenone in stored wheat

Environmental factors influence fungal growth and mycotoxin production in stored grains. However, the concentrations of free mycotoxins and their conjugates and how they are impacted by different interacting environment conditions have not been previously examined. The objectives of this study were to examine the impact of storage conditions (0.93–0.98 aw) and temperature (20–25 °C) on (a) the concentrations of deoxynivalenol and zearalenone and their respective glucosides/conjugates and (b) the concentrations of emerging mycotoxins in both naturally contaminated and irradiated wheat grains inoculated with Fusarium graminearum. Contaminated samples were analysed for multiple mycotoxins using Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Method validation was performed according to the acceptable performance criteria set and updated by the European Commission regulations No. 2021/808/EC. As an important conjugate of deoxynivalenol, the concentrations of deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside were significantly different from its precursor deoxynivalenol at 0.93 aw (22% moisture content- MC) at 25 °C in the naturally contaminated wheat with a ratio proportion of 56:44% respectively. The high concentrations of deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside could be influenced by the wheat’s variety and/or harvested season/fungal strain type/location. Zeralenone-14-sulfate concentrations were surprisingly three times higher than Zearalenone in the naturally contaminated wheat at 0.98 aw (26% MC) at both temperatures. Emerging mycotoxins such as moniliformin increased with temperature rise with the highest concentrations at 0.95 aw and 25 °C. These findings highlight the influence and importance of storage aw x temperature conditions on the relative presence of free vs conjugated mycotoxins which can have implications for food safety.

Development of sustainable conductive cementitious composite using graphite-coated spent catalyst waste

This study presents an innovative approach to developing sustainable conductive composites by coating graphite onto the surface of spent catalyst waste through nano-surface engineering techniques. The process ensures uniform adsorption of graphite onto the surface of the spent catalyst waste particles, followed by oven treatment and milling. This results in better integrity and effective bonding, leading to the production of graphite-coated spent catalyst waste (G-SCW). Scanning electron microscopy indicates the successful coating of spent catalyst waste with graphite. The research investigates the effect of G-SCW on the cementitious properties of paste and mortar. Incorporating G-SCW results in acceptable workability and setting time, while the compressive strength increases at early and later stages, with up to 20 % G-SCW content. The addition of G-SCW in the mortar significantly reduces the electrical resistivity, resulting in a 63 % reduction in resistivity compared to the reference mix, thereby enhancing the conductivity. Hydration studies confirm the presence of pozzolanic reaction in blended paste, as evidenced by a decrease in calcium hydroxide content. The sustainability assessment indicates a substantial reduction in embodied carbon and possibly producing mortar with lower cement content. These findings suggest great potential for developing sustainable conductive mortar with G-SCW, enabling smart building construction, and supporting sensor networks for structural health monitoring.

Characterizing a learning curve for robotic-assisted bronchoscopy: Analysis of skills acquisition in a high-volume academic center

ObjectiveShape-sensing robotic-assisted bronchoscopy is an emerging technology for the sampling of pulmonary lesions. We seek to characterize the shape-sensing robotic-assisted bronchoscopy learning curve at an academic center. MethodsShape-sensing robotic-assisted bronchoscopy procedures performed by 9 proceduralists at a single institution were analyzed. Cumulative sum analyses were performed to examine diagnostic sampling and procedure time over each operator’s first 50 cases, with the acceptable yield threshold set to 73%. ResultsDuring the study period, 442 patients underwent sampling of 551 lesions. Each operator sampled 61 lesions (interquartile range, 60-63 lesions). Lesion size was 1.90 cm (interquartile range, 1.33-2.80 cm). The median procedure time for single-target cases decreased from 62 minutes during the first 10 cases to 39 minutes after case 40 (P < .001). The overall diagnostic yield was 72% (range, 58%-83%). Six of 9 operators achieved proficiency over the study period. An aggregated cumulative sum analysis of those who achieved competency demonstrated a steep improvement between lesions 1 and 21 and crossing of the competency threshold by lesion 25. Temporal analysis of yield-related lesion characteristics demonstrated that at approximately lesion 20, more challenging lesions were increasingly targeted, as evidenced by smaller target size, higher rates of unfavorable radial endobronchial ultrasound views, and a negative bronchus sign. ConclusionsSkills acquisition in shape-sensing robotic-assisted bronchoscopy is variable. Approximately half of proceduralists become facile with the technology within 25 lesions. After the initial learning phase, operators increasingly target lesions with more challenging features. Overall, these findings can inform certification and competency standards and provide new users with expectations related to performance over time.

Star-shaped acceptability indexes

We propose the star-shaped acceptability indexes as generalizations of both the approaches of Cherny and Madan (2009) and Rosazza Gianin and Sgarra (2013) in the same vein as star-shaped risk measures generalize both the classes of coherent and convex risk measures in Castagnoli et al. (2022). We characterize acceptability indexes through star-shaped risk measures and star-shaped acceptance sets as the minimum of a family of quasi-concave acceptability indexes. Further, we introduce concrete examples under our approach linked to Value at Risk, risk-adjusted reward on capital, reward-based gain-loss ratio, and monotone reward-deviation ratio.

IntEgrating Smoking Cessation treAtment into usual online Psychological care for people with common mEntal illness: Protocol for an online randomised feasibility and pilot study (ESCAPE digital)

BackgroundIn the UK, smoking prevalence in people with depression (34%) and anxiety (29%) is more than double that of the general population (13%). People who stop smoking improve their mental health with comparable effect sizes found for antidepressants. In England, online psychological therapy is a standard treatment for depression and anxiety. Online therapy is an acceptable setting for smoking cessation support; however, integrated smoking and mental health support is not available. This novel study aims to assess the acceptability and feasibility of an online smoking cessation intervention, and trial procedures, offered alongside online mental health treatment as it offers increased reach to people with common mental health difficulties who smoke. MethodsA two-armed; Intervention (Integrated SilverCloud smoking cessation support) and control group (SilverCloud usual care), pragmatic, randomised controlled feasibility trial. We aim to recruit 500 adult smokers eligible for online mental health treatment. Follow-up will be conducted at 3-months and 6-months. We will assess the acceptability and feasibility of the trial procedures (i.e., recruitment, data completeness, self-reported acceptability and satisfaction) and the intervention (i.e., self-reported quit attempt, engagement with the smoking cessation and mental health programs, smoking cessation medicine and e-cigarette use, self-reported acceptability and satisfaction) and pilot clinical outcomes (i.e., biologically validated smoking abstinence, anxiety, depression, quality of health). ConclusionIf the Trial is successful, a randomised controlled effectiveness trial will follow to examine whether integrated smoking cessation and mental health treatment increases smoking abstinence and improves depression and anxiety compared to usual care.Trial registration: ISRCTN10612149 (https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN10612149), 02/02/2023.

Influence of pollination in liquid suspension on the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Mejhoul cultivar in the Mexicali valley, Mexico

The pollination process is one of the most important contributors to a successful date production since the yield and quality of the fruit depends on its correct successful. Liquid pollination in the date palm production is a recently used technique that seeks to obtain acceptable fruit set percentages (FSP) with lower pollen consumption. In this study, during the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons, the effect of pollination with pollen grains in liquid suspension on the FSP in the date palm cultivar &amp;lsquo;Mejhoul&amp;rsquo; was evaluated in the Mexicali Valley, Mexico. The applications were in various proportions of pollen in liquid suspension (1, 2, 3 and 4 g/L), with approximately 40 mL on each inflorescence. The results revealed that the best treatment was 4 g/L with an average FSP of 67.89 and 68.69% for the years 2021 and 2022 respectively, while the control treatment obtained 54.94 and 57.75%, for the same years. Likewise, this method did not affect the physical and chemical properties and yields. Finally, this study suggests that in addition to consuming a smaller amount of pollen, this method has better pollination efficiency.

Injectable macroporous naturally-derived apatite bone cement as a potential trabecular bone substitute.

In this study, we have formulated a novel apatite bone cements derived from natural sources (i.e. eggshell and fishbone) with improved qualities that is, porosity, resorbability, biological activity, and so forth. The naturally-derived apatite bone cement (i.e. FBDEAp) was prepared by mixing hydroxyapatite (synthesized from fishbone) and tricalcium phosphate (synthesized from eggshell) as a solid phase with a liquid phase (a dilute acidic blend of cement binding accelerator and biopolymers like gelatin and chitosan) with polysorbate (as liquid porogen) to get a desired bone cement paste. The prepared cement paste sets within the clinically acceptable setting time (≤20 min), easily injectable (>85%) through hands and exhibits physiological pH stability (7.3-7.4). The pure apatite phased bone cement was confirmed by x-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses. The FBDEAp bone cement possesses acceptable compressive strength (i.e. 5-7 MPa) within trabecular bone range and is resorbable up to 28% in simulated body fluid solution within 12 weeks of incubation at physiological conditions. The FBDEAp is macroporous in nature (average pore size ~50-400 μm) with interconnected pores verified by SEM and micro-CT analyses. The FBDEAp showed significantly increased MG63 cell viability (>125% after 72 h), cell adhesion, proliferation, and key osteogenic genes expression levels (up to 5-13 folds) compared to the synthetically derived, synthetic and eggshell derived as well as synthetic and fishbone derived bone cements. Thus, we strongly believe that our prepared FBDEAp bone cement can be used as potential trabecular bone substitute in orthopedics.

Neither saintly nor psychotic: a narrative systematic review of the evolving Western perception of voice hearing.

We present a social-historical perspective on the evolution of the voice-hearing phenomenon in Western society. Based upon a systematic search from a selection of nine databases, we trace the way hearing voices has been understood throughout the ages. Originally, hearing voices was considered a gifted talent for accessing the divine, but the progressive influence of monotheistic religion gradually condemned the practice to social marginalization. Later, the medical and psychiatric professions of secular society were instrumental in attaching stigma to both voice hearers and the phenomenon itself, thereby reinforcing social exclusion. More recently, the re-integration of voice hearers into the community by health authorities in various countries appears to have provided a new, socially acceptable setting for the phenomenon.

Behavioural intervention to promote the uptake of planned care in urgent dental care attenders: a feasibility randomised controlled trial

BackgroundUrgent dental care may be the only place where many people, especially vulnerable groups, access care. This presents an opportunity for delivery of a behavioural intervention promoting planned dental visiting, which may help address one of the factors contributing to a socio-economic gradient in oral health. Although we know that cueing events such as having a cancer diagnosis may create a ‘teachable moment’ stimulating positive changes in health behaviour, we do not know whether delivering an opportunistic intervention in urgent dental care is feasible and acceptable to patients.MethodsThe feasibility study aimed to recruit 60 patients in a Dental Hospital and dental practices delivering urgent care within and outside working hours. Follow-up was by telephone, e mail and post over 4 months.ResultsAlthough the recruitment window was shortened because of COVID-19, of 47 patients assessed for eligibility, 28 were enrolled (70.1% of screened patients provided consent). A relatively high proportion were from disadvantaged backgrounds (46.4%, 13/28 receiving State benefits). Retention was 82.1% (23/28), which was also the rate of completion of the Oral Health Impact Profile co-primary outcome. The other primary outcome involved linking participant details at recruitment, with centrally-held data on services provided, with 84.6% (22/26) records partly or fully successfully matched. All intervention participants received at least some of the intervention, although we identified aspects of dental nurse training which would improve intervention fidelity.ConclusionsDespite recruitment being impacted by the pandemic, when the majority of clinical trials experienced reduced rates of recruitment, we found a high recruitment and consenting rate, even though patients were approached opportunistically to be enrolled in the trial and potentially receive an intervention. Retention rates were also high even though a relatively high proportion had a low socio-economic background. Therefore, even though patients may be in pain, and had not anticipated involvement before their urgent care visit, the study indicated that this was a feasible and acceptable setting in which to position an opportunistic intervention. This has the potential to harness the potential of the ‘teachable moment’ in people’s lives, and provide support to help address health inequalities.Trial registrationISRCTN 10,853,330 07/10/2019.

A note on the induction of comonotonic additive risk measures from acceptance sets

We demonstrate that an acceptance set generates a comonotonic additive risk measure if and only if the acceptance set and its complement are closed for convex combinations of comonotonic random variables. Furthermore, this equivalence extends to deviation measures.

ОБЗОР СОВРЕМЕННЫХ ДЕМПФИРУЮЩИХ СПЛАВОВ В КОНТЕКСТЕ ПЕРСПЕКТИВ АГРОПРОМЫШЛЕННОГО ПРИМЕНЕНИЯ

The article provides an information and analytical review of progressive scientific and technical solutions in the field of industrial use of modern damping alloys from the point of view of increasing the effectiveness of vibration control and industrial noise in the operation of machinery and equipment of the agro-industrial complex. In accordance with the generalized classification system for high-damping alloys, a comprehensive characteristic of alloys with an improved ability to dissipate (absorb) the energy of vibrations that occur in dynamically loaded parts (nodes) of agricultural machinery is presented. The main groups of damping alloys for effective vibration protection of elements of agroengineering systems have been identified by systematizing scientific and practical information about the key features of the most common alloys in science and industry with increased damping (dissipative) properties. It has been established that such iron-carbon alloys as alloyed steels and gray cast irons are among the most promising vibration- and noise-absorbing metal materials for the manufacture of agrotechnical facilities operating in the mode of cyclic and shock effects. The indicated iron-carbon alloys have demonstrated an increased ability to dissipate the energy of sound vibrations over a wide temperature range with an acceptable set of physico-mechanical, technological and operational parameters. It was found out that the mass use of non-ferrous metal alloys in the agro-industrial complex as vibration- and noise-absorbing metal materials is hindered by their high cost, as well as a rather limited combination of physico-mechanical (functional) properties, especially in the range of elevated temperatures. For this reason, it is recommended to pay attention to the study, development and modernization of special multicomponent damping coatings that can be applied to the main material of agrotechnical facilities using various technologies.

CONTROL OF SETTING TIMES OF SLAG-CONTAINING CEMENTS ACTIVATED WITH SODIUM METASILICATE

In global construction practice, theneed for high-strength concrete with intensive earlystrength gain is increasing due to increased requirements for the physical, mechanical and operationalcharacteristics of concrete and the desire to reduceconstruction time. Alkali-activated cements madeusing soluble sodium silicates are capable of rapidstrength development and high standard strength,which is due to the modifying effect of amorphoussilica present in soluble glass. However, the problem with the effective use of such cements is theshort setting time.The purpose of this work is to study the influenceof the method of introducing low-basic sodium silicate into slag-containing compositions, the composition of the compositions and the amount of modifying additive on the setting time. As a result of thework performed, a mechanism for controlling thesetting lines in the “slag + clinker + sodium metasilicate” binder system was developed.The dependence of setting times on the methodof introducing sodium metasilicate into the “slag +clinker” system, on the composition of cement andon the type and quantity of modifier additives hasbeen established. It has been shown that the introduction of sodium metasilicate to cement in theform of an aqueous solution leads to a much greaterintensification of structure-forming processes in theprocess in comparison with the option of usingmetasilicate in the form of a powder with mixingwith water. It has been established that an increasein the clinker content in the slag-clinker mixtureleads to a significant reduction in setting time.A study of the influence of the LSTM additiveshowed the possibility of effectively controlling thesetting lines, subject to an increased amount of useof these additives, namely up to 4%. As a result,technologically acceptable setting times were obtained within the range of 0–38…2–24 hours-min when using LSTM additives in an amount of 2…4%.The results of the study of the structure formation of alkali-activated slag-containing cement confirmed the above conclusions and were in goodcorrelation with the obtained physical and technological results.

Implementation of a mobile health clinic framework for Hepatitis C virus screening and treatment: a descriptive study

Although treatment for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is effective, individuals face access barriers. The utility of mobile health clinics (MHC), effective mechanisms for providing healthcare to underserved populations, is understudied for HCV-related interventions. We aimed to describe implementation of, and factors associated with, screening and treatment via MHCs. Clemson Rural Health implemented a novel MHC program to reach and treat populations at-risk for HCV with a focus on care for uninsured individuals. We examined HCV screening and treatment initiation/completion indicators between May 2021 and January2023. Among 607 individuals screened across 31 locations, 94 (15.5%) tested positive via antibody and viral load testing. Treatment initiation and completion rates were 49.6% and 86.0%, respectively. Among those screened, the majority were male (57.5%), White (61.3%; Black/Hispanic: 28.2%/7.7%), and without personal vehicle as primary transportation mode (54.4%). Injection drug use (IDU) was 27.2% and uninsured rate was 42.8%. Compared to HCV-negative, those infected included more individuals aged 30-44 (52.1% vs. 36.4%, p=0.023), male (70.2% vs. 55.2%, p=0.009), White (78.5% vs. 60.2%, p<0.0001), without personal vehicle (58.5% vs. 43.5%, p=0.028), IDU (83.7% vs. 21.0%, p<0.0001), and uninsured (61.2% vs. 48.8%, p=0.050). Uninsured rates were higher among those initiating compared to not initiating treatment (74.5% vs. 45.3%, p=0.004). The MHC framework successfully reaching its target population: at-risk individuals with access barriers to healthcare. The high HCV screening and treatment initiation/completion rates demonstrate the utility of MHCs as effective and acceptable intervention settings among historically difficult-to-treat populations. Gilead Sciences, Inc., and SC Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare.

A Design Method to Eliminate Sub Synchronous Response in Automotive Turbochargers utilizing Nonlinear Dynamics of Time Periodic Systems

The present work introduces a methodology for the dynamic design evaluation of high-speed rotors, applying nonlinear dynamics of time periodic systems. The paper focuses on the definition of design variables so as the system to avoid sub synchronous components in the response. The response of an unbalanced turbocharger rotor mounted on oil bearings with wire mesh dampers (WMDs) is evaluated with an efficient collocation method coupled to the pseudo arc length continuation to evaluate response limit cycles in the entire range of the rotating speed, which acts as bifurcation parameter. The specific system is used to demonstrate the method without loss of generality. The analytical model of the WMD component is implemented directly from the literature, while rigid rotor model and short bearing approximations are used for the rest components. Floquet theory is applied in the non-autonomous dynamic system and the stability characteristics of the response limit cycles are evaluated through Floquet multipliers, the magnitude of which act in the algorithm as stability index. A sensitivity analysis is performed at first to evaluate the correlation between WMD key design parameters and the time response of the system.A multi objective optimization method is embedded to set Floquet multipliers at specific values; in this way the response limit cycles retain stability and periodicity, avoiding any type of bifurcation which would render sub-synchronous component. Acceptable sets for design variables of journal bearings and WMDs are defined by multi-objective optimization and these are verified in efficiency by evaluating the response of the system by time integration, as a virtual experiment, for several operating conditions. The method requires severely lower computational time and capacity to render an acceptable design compared to the conventional design of experiment DoE procedure, and it is not limited on the analytical models of rotor, bearing, or other component.

Safety evaluation of the food enzyme endo-1,4-β-xylanase from the non-genetically modified Trichoderma citrinoviride strain 278.

The food enzyme endo-1,4-β-xylanase (4-β-d-xylan xylanohydrolase; EC 3.2.1.8) is produced with the non-genetically modified Trichoderma citrinoviride strain 278 by Kerry Ingredients & Flavours Ltd. The food enzyme was considered free from viable cells of the production organism. It is intended to be used in eight food manufacturing processes: processing of cereals and other grains for the production of baked products; production of cereal-based products other than baked, brewed products, starch and gluten fractions, distilled alcohol; processing of fruits and vegetables for the production of juices, wine and wine vinegar and processing of yeast and yeast products. Since residual amounts of total organic solids (TOS) are removed during two processes, dietary exposure was only calculated for the remaining six food manufacturing processes. Exposure was estimated to be up to 4.808 mg TOS/kg body weight (bw) per day in European populations. The Panel was unable to reach a conclusion on genotoxicity and systemic toxicity. A search for the similarity of the amino acid sequence of the food enzyme to known allergens was made and no match was found. The Panel considered that a risk of allergic reactions upon dietary exposure cannot be excluded (except for distilled alcohol production), but the likelihood is low. In the absence of an acceptable full set of toxicological data, the Panel was unable to complete the safety assessment of the food enzyme.