Critical Composition Research Articles

Defining critical quality attributes and composition parameters for burn wound dressings: Antibiotic-anesthetic films as a model

The management of wounds primarily revolves around pain relief, effective infection control and the promotion of tissue regeneration to prevent complications like chronic skin wounds. While polymeric bioactive films are innovative alternatives to conventional wound dressings, there exists a dearth of guidance regarding their quality control. This underscores the imperative need to establish precise critical quality attributes, a task undertaken within this study using an antibiotic-anesthetic film as a model. The aim was to establish the influence of critical composition and process parameters and optimize the formula.First, the quality target product profile was defined, and critical quality attributes were identified. Our material selection included ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (an antimicrobial), lidocaine hydrochloride (an anesthetic), as well as excipients, such as sodium alginate, sodium hyaluronate, carbomer and glycerol. The critical components were identified through a risk assessment matrix, and their influence on film composition was determined by experimental verification using Design-Expert® software. A full factorial design was employed to assess the effects of sodium hyaluronate, carbomer and glycerol (as independent variables) on transparency, homogeneity, folding capacity and handling. Following this, an optimized formulation was achieved and subjected to further characterization.These optimized antibiotic-anesthetic films exhibited uniform micro-distribution of components, ensuring dosage uniformity. Both ciprofloxacin hydrochloride and lidocaine hydrochloride displayed sustained release profiles, suggesting potential therapeutic benefits for skin wounds. Furthermore, the resistance and elongation properties were similar to those of human skin.Utilizing a QbD approach, we successfully developed an optimized antibiotic-anesthetic film that adhered to the essential critical quality attributes. This films exhibits potential utility as a wound dressing. The findings presented in this study establish a fundamental framework for delineating the critical quality attributes of dressing films and refining their formulation to optimize wound treatment.

Lessons from long‐term research: Diptera species turnover and dominance shifts with respect to climate‐driven changes

Abstract The diverse pressures of climate change have influenced many habitats, especially freshwater ones, due to their greater sensitivity to stressors. Aquatic Diptera make up more than 50% off all aquatic insect species described, which makes them an ideal group to monitor changing climate as their diverse assemblages can reflect functions within the entire community. The aim of this research was to identify variations in the aquatic dipteran community during a 15‐year period at a tufa barrier in a karst barrage lake system and to determine the environmental factors that have the highest influence on this community. We analysed monthly data collected between 2007 and 2021, when we collected adult specimens using 6 pyramid‐type emergence traps. In total, 167 taxa from 13 different families were gathered. NMDS based on Bray–Curtis similarity analysis amongst assemblages revealed the segregation of samples based on different current velocities and substrates, indicating the importance of microhabitats in dipteran community structuring. Dipteran taxa indicative of specific 5‐year time periods within the research were identified and were associated with changes in environmental conditions especially discharge. The threshold indicator taxa analysis revealed specific species' responses to changing discharge rates. The study shows that discharge rate, not water temperature, is the critical factor shaping dipteran composition, whether by removing or adding taxa to the community. Species turnover showed an overall decrease in species numbers, that is, species richness, throughout the research period. We conclude that changes in the dipteran community, because of the vast functional traits, niches, adaptations and species diversity of the group, are not visible when analysing just the diversity indices. When determining environmental influence on the community in long‐term research, they should be combined with other data such as the overall abundance, the total number of species, as well as the species turnover.

An AIMD investigation on the structural properties of Fe-SiO2 melt for converting SiO2 inclusions into the reinforcing particles in Fe matrix

It is essential to understand the structural properties of Fe-SiO2 melt for converting SiO2 inclusions into the reinforcing particles in Fe matrix by liquid metallurgical synthesis. In this work, the structural behaviors of Si and O in Fe27SiO2, Fe24(SiO2)2, Fe21(SiO2)3, and Fe18(SiO2)4 melts at 2800 K and the formation of SiOn clusters in Fe24(SiO2)2 melt (20 at.% SiO2) from 2800 K to 2000 K are investigated by ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations. According to the pseudo-binary mixing enthalpies, partial pair correlation functions, and chemical short-range order, the critical composition range for the formation of SiOn clusters in Fe-SiO2 melt at 2800 K is from 20 at.% SiO2 to 30 at.% SiO2, and the critical temperature range in the quenching process of Fe24(SiO2)2 melt is from 2600 K to 2400 K. By further analyzing the distribution of partial coordination numbers and bond angles, the quenching process of Fe24(SiO2)2 melt from 2800 K to 2000 K can be divided into three stages: the homogenous Fe-SiO2 melt from 2800 K to 2600 K, the dispersive formation of SiOn clusters containing a considerable number of SiO4 tetrahedrons from 2600 K to 2200 K, the gathering of SiOn clusters contributed by the connection of SiO4 tetrahedrons in the pattern of OSi2 from 2200 K to 2000 K.

Identifying Quinones in Complex Aqueous Environmental Media (Biochar Extracts) through Tagging with Cysteine and Cysteine-Contained Peptides and High Resolution Mass Spectrometry Analysis.

Quinones are among the most important components in natural organic matter (NOM) for redox reactions; however, no quinones in complex environmental media have been identified. To aid the identification of quinone-containing molecules in ultracomplex environmental samples, we developed a chemical tagging method that makes use of a Michael addition reaction between quinones and thiols (-SH) in cysteine (Cys) and cysteine-contained peptides (CCP). After the tagging, candidates of quinones in representative aqueous environmental samples (water extractions of biochar) were identified through high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analysis. The MS and UV spectra analysis showed rapid reactions between Cys/CCP and model quinones with β-carbon from the same benzene ring available for Michael addition. The tagging efficiency was not influenced by other co-occurring nonquinone representative compounds, including caffeic acid, cinnamic acid, and coumaric acid. Cys and CCP were used to tag quinones in water extractions of biochars, and possible candidates of quinones (20 and 53 based on tagging with Cys and CCP, respectively) were identified based on the HRMS features for products of reactions with Cys/CCP. This study has successfully demonstrated that such a Michael addition reaction can be used to tag quinones in complex environmental media and potentially determine their identities. The method will enable an in-depth understanding of the redox chemistry of NOM and its critical chemical compositions and structures.

Antimony composition impact on band alignment in InAs/GaAsSb quantum dots

We present a theoretical study of the electronic and excitonic states in InAs/GaAsSb quantum dots. We first center our study on the dependence of the antimony composition in the positioning of conduction- and valence-band alignments in InAs/GaAsSb/GaAs heterostructures. We predict a transition from type I to type II quantum dots at critical composition xc=0.128, which describes well the experimental trend. We discuss the influence of the quantum dot size and antimony composition on the spatial distributions of carriers and the exciton binding energy. We find that the ground state exciton binding energy is always significantly smaller ≃4meV for type II than for corresponding type I quantum dots ≃14meV. Finally, we also predict the excitonic radiative lifetime and find 1 ns for type I and 10 ns for type II quantum dots, in agreement with the existing experimental literature.

Study on the antibacterial activity of Litsea essential oil nanoemulsion and its effect on the storage quality of duck meat

The purpose of the study was to solve the volatility, thermal sensitivity, and poor water solubility of Litsea essential oil (LEO). This study investigated the emulsification effects of Litsea essential oil nanoemulsion (LEON) from surfactants, cosurfactants, HLB levels, etc. by the Shah method. The storage stability of LEON was evaluated by particle size, Zeta potential, centrifugal transmittance, and aroma components. The antibacterial effects were investigated by bacteriostatic circle, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), etc. Finally, the LEON was applied to duck meat. The study showed that the Zeta potential, centrifugal transmittance and particle size of LEON had low volatility. The LEO critical compositions were d-limonene and citral before and after encapsulation. LEON had a good antibacterial effect on Staphylococcus aureus, and the bacteria’s action mechanism destroyed the cell wall. LEON could improve the storage quality of duck meat. It is significant for expanding the application of Litsea essential oil.

On exploiting nonparametric kernel-based probabilistic machine learning over the large compositional space of high entropy alloys for optimal nanoscale ballistics

The large compositional space of high entropy alloys (HEA) often presents significant challenges in comprehensively deducing the critical influence of atomic composition on their mechanical responses. We propose an efficient nonparametric kernel-based probabilistic computational mapping to obtain the optimal composition of HEAs under ballistic conditions by exploiting the emerging capabilities of machine learning (ML) coupled with molecular-level simulations. Compared to conventional ML models, the present Gaussian approach is a Bayesian paradigm that can have several advantages, including small training datasets concerning computationally intensive simulations and the ability to provide uncertainty measurements of molecular dynamics simulations therein. The data-driven analysis reveals that a lower concentration of Ni with a higher concentration of Al leads to higher dissipation of kinetic energy and lower residual velocity, but with higher penetration depth of the projectile. To deal with such conflicting computationally intensive functional objectives, the ML-based simulation framework is further extended in conjunction with multi-objective genetic algorithm for identifying the critical elemental compositions to enhance kinetic energy dissipation with minimal penetration depth and residual velocity of the projectile simultaneously. The computational framework proposed here is generic in nature, and it can be extended to other HEAs with a range of non-aligned multi-physical property demands.

Thermo-osmosis of a near-critical binary fluid mixture: A general formulation and universal flow direction.

We consider a binary fluid mixture, which lies in the one-phase region near the demixing critical point, and study its transport through a capillary tube linking two large reservoirs. We assume that short-range interactions cause preferential adsorption of one component onto the tube's wall. The adsorption layer can become much thicker than the molecular size, which enables us to apply hydrodynamics based on a coarse-grained free-energy functional. For transport processes induced by gradients of the pressure, composition, and temperature along a cylindrical tube, we obtain the formulas of the Onsager coefficients to extend our previous results on isothermal transport, assuming the critical composition in the middle of each reservoir in the reference equilibrium state. Among the processes, we focus on thermo-osmosis-mass flow due to a temperature gradient. We explicitly derive a formula for the thermal force density, which is nonvanishing in the adsorption layer and causes thermo-osmosis. This formula for a near-critical binary fluid mixture is an extension of the conventional formula for a one-component fluid, expressed in terms of local excess enthalpy. We predict that the direction of thermo-osmotic flow of a mixture near the upper (lower) consolute point is the same as (opposite to) that of the temperature gradient, irrespective of which component is adsorbed on the wall. Our procedure would also be applied to dynamics of a soft material, whose mesoscopic inhomogeneity can be described by a coarse-grained free-energy functional.

Oxidative corrosion resistance of a CrxFeyNi1-x-y composition spread alloy film (CSAF) in dry air

Composition Spread Alloy Films (CSAFs) were used to study the resistance to oxidative corrosion of CrxFeyNi1-x-y alloys in dry air and determine the critical Cr composition, xCr∗, necessary to prevent bulk oxidation. CrxFeyNi1-x-y CSAFs were made using physical vapor deposition (PVD) and then oxidized in dry air between 100 – 500 °C for periods of 1 h. A sharp passivation boundary was observed at 300 °C separating alloys showing evidence of heavy oxidation from Cr-rich alloys that were passivated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) depth profiling was used to measure the extent of oxidation and penetration depth of the oxide layer on either side of the passivation boundary. XPS measurements confirmed the presence of a critical Cr composition, xCr∗, ranging from 18 to 26 at.%. For alloys with xCr≥xCr∗, a sufficiently thick passivating layer of oxidized Cr, Cr(ox), had formed on the top surface preventing the oxidative corrosion of either Fe or Ni. On the other hand, when xCr<xCr∗, bulk oxidation was observed, with appreciable Fe(ox) and/or Ni(ox) measured on the surface and often penetrating through the entire alloy film thickness. The trajectory of xCr∗ plotted within CrxFeyNi1-x-y composition space supports the trend towards using higher Cr-content stainless steel grades in harsh oxidative environments.

Critical complex network structures in animal gastrointestinal tract microbiomes

BackgroundLiving things from microbes to their hosts (plants, animals and humans) interact with each other, and their relationships may be described with complex network models. The present study focuses on the critical network structures, specifically the core/periphery nodes and backbones (paths of high-salience skeletons) in animal gastrointestinal microbiomes (AGMs) networks. The core/periphery network (CPN) mirrors nearly ubiquitous nestedness in ecological communities, particularly dividing the network as densely interconnected core-species and periphery-species that only sparsely linked to the core. Complementarily, the high-salience skeleton network (HSN) mirrors the pervasive asymmetrical species interactions (strictly microbial species correlations), particularly forming heterogenous pathways in AGM networks with both “backbones” and “rural roads” (regular or weak links). While the cores and backbones can act as critical functional structures, the periphery nodes and weak links may stabilize network functionalities through redundancy.ResultsHere, we build and analyze 36 pairs of CPN/HSN for the AGMs based on 4903 gastrointestinal-microbiome samples containing 473,359 microbial species collected from 318 animal species covering all vertebrate and four major invertebrate classes. The network analyses were performed at host species, order, class, phylum, kingdom scales and diet types with selected and comparative taxon pairs. Besides diet types, the influence of host phylogeny, measured with phylogenetic (evolutionary) timeline or “age”, were integrated into the analyses. For example, it was found that the evolutionary trends of three primary microbial phyla (Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes/Proteobacteria) and their pairwise abundance-ratios in animals do not mirror the patterns in modern humans phylogenetically, although they are consistent in terms of diet types.ConclusionsOverall, the critical network structures of AGMs are qualitatively and structurally similar to those of the human gut microbiomes. Nevertheless, it appears that the critical composition (the three phyla of Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria) in human gut microbiomes has broken the evolutionary trend from animals to humans, possibly attributable to the Anthropocene epoch and reflecting the far-reaching influences of agriculture and industrial revolution on the human gut microbiomes. The influences may have led to the deviations between modern humans and our hunter-gather ancestors and animals.

Fully coupled discrete element method for graded particles transport in pipes

Hydraulic conveying of graded particles is much more complex than that of uniform particles but is not fully understood. A fully coupled computational fluid dynamics–discrete element method model is established for the hydraulic conveying of graded particles, which integrally considers the particle–fluid and particle–particle interactions and turbulence modulation from particles. The proposed model accounts for the stochastic motion of particles by the discrete random walk method and applies the diffusion averaging algorithm to obtain particle concentration in arbitrary cells for smooth and cell-independent data fields on unfavorable cells (fluid cell size ≤ particle size). The particle–fluid drag force is applied to slurry flows through densely packed particle beds due to the consideration of porosity modification. The proposed model well performs in simulating the hydraulic conveying of dense graded particles. Dynamics in slurry mixtures of bi-disperse particles are investigated regarding different particle size compositions. The results show obvious stratification between coarse and fine particles, e.g., fine particles settling at the pipe bottom elevate the coarse particles and form a “lubrication layer” with high velocity. The torque caused by particle–particle/wall contact is greater than the torque caused by the fluid. The pipe cross section is divided into four regions according to the particle angular velocity. The effect of particle concentration on liquid motion is small because the difference in local particle concentration is relatively small, but the maximum pressure drop corresponds to a critical particle size composition.

Abundance of Low-Energy Oxygen Vacancy Pairs Dictates the Catalytic Performance of Cerium-Stabilized Zirconia.

Cerium-stabilized zirconia (Ce1-xZrxOy, CZO) is renowned for its superior oxygen storage capacity (OSC), a key property long believed to be beneficial to catalytic oxidation reactions. However, 50% Ce-containing CZO recorded with the highest OSC has disappointingly poor performance in catalytic oxidation reactions compared to those with higher Ce contents but lower OSC ability. Here, we employ global neural network (G-NN)-based potential energy surface exploration methods to establish the first ternary phase diagram for bulk structures of CZO, which identifies three critical compositions of CZO, namely, 50, 60, and 80% Ce-containing CZO that are thermodynamically stable under typical synthetic conditions. 50% Ce-containing CZO, although having the highest OSC, exhibits the lowest O vacancy (Ov) diffusion rate. By contrast, 60% Ce-containing CZO, despite lower OSC (33.3% OSC compared to that of 50% Ce-containing CZO), reaches the highest Ov diffusion ability and thus offers the highest CO oxidation catalytic performance. The physical origin of the high performance of 60% Ce-containing CZO is the abundance of energetically favorable Ov pairs along the ⟨110⟩ direction, which reduces the energy barrier of Ov diffusion in the bulk and promotes O2 activation on the surface. Our results clarify the long-standing puzzles on CZO and point out that 60% Ce-containing CZO is the most desirable composition for typical CZO applications.

Malt Quality Characteristics of Selected Maize Varieties

In tropical and sub-tropical regions, the cultivation of barley is generally very limited and far less viable for brewing. This study was intended to investigate the potential of released maize varieties for malt purpose. Seventeen released maize varieties were collected from Bako, Ambo and Melkassa Agricultural Research Centers. The varieties were investigated for the most critical chemical compositions, germination test and malt quality. AMH-851 variety had the highest crude protein and ash contents. The highest moisture absorption (49.2%) and germination energy (82%) was noticed in MK-1 maize variety. Insignificant variation and less malting loss (0.7g) was noticed for MK-141 and BH-661 varieties. A significant increment in protein content was observed in maize malt compared to the un-malted grain. AMH-851had the highest (13.8%) and MK-2 showed the lowest (11.2%) malt protein content and the highest kolbach index. In its coarse and fine extract contents, BH-661 (69.93%) and BH-540 (69.29%) varieties had the highest and did not show a significant variation. A range of 6.8 to 29.07 wk enzymatic activity was observed among the selected maize malt with the highest for AMH-851 followed by BH-547 and the lowest for Limu variety. It was noticed that maize grains grown in intermediate agro-ecology could be used as potential malt for brewing purpose.

Solvent selective gelation of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide: structure, phase evolution and thermal characteristics.

We report herein the gelation behaviour of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), a cationic surfactant, in a variety of solvent compositions. A turbid gel of CTAB in a binary solvent mixture at a critical composition was observed to be 1 : 3 v/v toluene : water. The molecular structure of the as-formed gel was investigated by X-ray diffraction and microscopic techniques, namely, optical and polarizing microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The phase evolution has been studied using UV-visible transmittance measurements and the thermal characteristics of the gel by differential scanning calorimetry measurements. SAXS studies, in conjunction with molecular modelling, revealed the gel to assemble as lamellae with high interdigitation of bilayer assembly of CTAB molecules with predominant non-covalent interactions, where the gel lamellae were inferred from the interplanar spacings. Rheological studies revealed the viscoelastic nature of the CTAB gels. The ability to form a gel has been evaluated in several polar solvents, such as methanol and chloroform, and non-polar solvents, such as toluene and carbon tetrachloride.

Abstract 3205: MicroRNA-peptide polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticle-hydrogel composite attenuates mesothelioma growth

Abstract Diffuse pleural mesothelioma (DPM) is a biologically unusual, aggressive asbestos-associated cancer affecting the entire pleura surface. DPM defies current standard multimodal therapies due to intrinsic chemoresistance and inability to achieve negative-margin resection of complex surface anatomy. Hence, current non-specific drug regimens ultimately fail because the biology of this tumor is poorly understood and even if surgically resected, tumor inevitably recurs from residual microscopic tumor foci. These various clinical challenges led us to develop a therapeutic platform delivering microRNA (miRNA), a novel anti-cancer agent therapeutic regimen, with the goal of eradicating residual microscopic tumor foci thereby improving the efficacy of multimodal therapy. We engineered a peptide-based biodegradable hydrogel that can be injected or sprayed directly to coat anatomic surfaces (surface-fill hydrogel; SFH), functioning as a therapeutic depot. Properties of SFH allow us to specify critical composition parameters such as biopersistence time, therapeutic payload, cell-specific targeting etc. In the first step of SFH formulation, miRNA complexed with different amphiphilic cationic peptides varying in length (19-26 amino acids) and amines (9-17), to form stable nanoparticles. Flash nanocomplexation (FNC) were used to produce highly scalable and kinetically controlled assembly of miRNA-peptide polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) nanoparticles (NPs), which utilizes a confined impinging jet (CIJ) mixer to achieve turbulent micromixing of the NPs components, yielding highly uniform and stable NPs. Next, NPs were encapsulated into another peptide hydrogel, formed via self-assembly of amphiphilic cationic peptide HLT2, thus forming a surface-fill hydrogel NPs composite. The SFH-NPs composite was not toxic to DPM cells and demonstrated efficient release of miRNA-peptide NPs from the SFH matrix in-vitro. The uptake of FAM-labeled miRNA-peptide NPs was confirmed by flowcytometry. Biodistribution analysis of NPs in mice bearing luciferase-positive DPM xenografts treated locally with Cy3-miRNA-SFH composite showed that Cy3-miRNA was concentrated in tumor cells but not in other organs. Furthermore, miR-215 exhibiting potent anti-tumor activity in DPM was used to study the therapeutic efficacy of SFH miRNA-nanoparticle composites. Subcutaneous DPM xenografts treated locally with miR-215 SFH composite shrank tumor significantly. Thus, delivery of specific miRNA-peptide PEC nanoparticles via SFH therapeutic platform in preclinical models of DPM displayed potent anti-cancer effects. Together, this new generation microRNA-peptide polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticles-SFH composite is a very promising delivery platform that could be extended for a diverse array of locoregional therapies. Citation Format: Anand Singh, Anderson Caleb, Joel P. Schneider, Chuong D. Hoang. MicroRNA-peptide polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticle-hydrogel composite attenuates mesothelioma growth [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 3205.

Natural regeneration or tree planting in a tropical forest‐to‐pasture damaged area: which is more efficacious for soil ecosystem recovery?

This study assessed whether a natural regeneration or active tree‐planting reforestation strategy better restored the C and N‐cycle processes and associated microbiota within soils after 18 years in a Premontane Wet Life zone site in Monteverde, Costa Rica, compared to adjacent old secondary forest and pasture soils (both &gt;60 years). Our findings apply to small‐scale restoration sites (&lt;0.5 ha plots) commonly used in Monteverde. Both restoration strategies showed recovering soil C and N‐cycle processes with similar levels of TN, NH4+, NO3−, Biomass‐C, and efficiency of organic C use. Both strategies appeared to positively influence the recovery of the levels and community compositional stability of the Actinobacterial, Acidobacterial, N‐fixing (N‐Fixer) bacterial, ammonium‐oxidizing bacterial, and complex organic C‐degrading fungal communities. The main differences between the two strategies were that the tree‐planted and pasture soils had similar compositions of the Actinobacterial, N‐Fixer, and Fungal complex organic C degrader, while the natural regeneration and pasture soils had similar compositions of these groups and the Acidobacteria. However, the community compositions of all five microbial groups were different between restored forest and the old secondary forest soils. These results suggest that while the soil ecosystems from both reforestation strategies are recovering, after 18 years, there is still more recovery to occur. Lastly, possible indicators of post‐restoration soil ecosystem enhancement included increasing constancy of critical microbial group composition, efficiency of organic C conversion to biomass, Biomass‐C, NH4+, NO3−, and levels of Acidothermus, Acidobacteria subgroups 2, 3, and 5, Archaeorhizomyces, Anaeromyxobacter, Bradyrhizobium, Nitrosomonas, Flavobacterium, and Nitrospira.

Unlocking the Secrets of Liquid-Liquid Interfaces and Phase Equilibria: Exploring the Interplay of Critical Composition, Interfacial Tension, and Mutual Solubility.

This study reveals pivotal insight into liquid-liquid interfaces by demonstrating that the interface composition mirrors that at the critical point. This revelation leads to the formulation of a novel liquid-liquid distribution law and thermodynamic inequality, establishing a direct connection between mutual solubility values and critical compositions. While particularly accurate for regular solutions, the findings exhibit substantial reliability in nonregular systems, supported by experimental data on binary and ternary mixtures. Importantly, the study illustrates that, with known critical compositions, interfacial tension data alone are sufficient for calculating mutual solubilities, providing a practical alternative for assessing molecular solubility. The paper further showcases the versatility of the simple bottle-testing (cloud-testing) method, effectively serving as both a tensiometer and a mutual-solubility meter. This method utilizes established critical composition data to predict the compositions and interfacial tension of coexisting phases concurrently, offering a cost-effective alternative to complex analytical techniques. As a notable outcome, given critical compositions, basic laboratory equipment such as a beaker and a syringe can equivalently function as both a tensiometer and a mutual solubility detector (e.g., GC). The paper also discusses the application of this method in understanding the liquid-liquid phase behavior in biological systems, exemplified by biomolecular condensates or Lewy bodies.

Dynamic DNA Methylation Regulates Season-Dependent Secondary Metabolism in the New Shoots of Tea Plants.

Plant secondary metabolites are critical quality-conferring compositions of plant-derived beverages, medicines, and industrial materials. The accumulations of secondary metabolites are highly variable among seasons; however, the underlying regulatory mechanism remains unclear, especially in epigenetic regulation. Here, we used tea plants to explore an important epigenetic mark DNA methylation (5mC)-mediated regulation of plant secondary metabolism in different seasons. Multiple omics analyses were performed on spring and summer new shoots. The results showed that flavonoids and theanine metabolism dominated in the metabolic response to seasons in the new shoots. In summer new shoots, the genes encoding DNA methyltransferases and demethylases were up-regulated, and the global CG and CHG methylation reduced and CHH methylation increased. 5mC methylation in promoter and gene body regions influenced the seasonal response of gene expression; the amplitude of 5mC methylation was highly correlated with that of gene transcriptions. These differentially methylated genes included those encoding enzymes and transcription factors which play important roles in flavonoid and theanine metabolic pathways. The regulatory role of 5mC methylation was further verified by applying a DNA methylation inhibitor. These findings highlight that dynamic DNA methylation plays an important role in seasonal-dependent secondary metabolism and provide new insights for improving tea quality.

Ion-acoustic solitons oblique collisions in a magnetized ultra-relativistic degenerate plasma at critical compositions and nonzero temperatures

The mechanism of ion-acoustic (IA) soliton oblique collisions is examined at nonzero temperatures and critical compositions in a magnetized ultra-relativistic degenerate plasma using the extended Poincaré–Lighthill–Kuo (EPLK) method. Two conditions, referred to as the generic and critical cases, are obtained. Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equations that govern the excitation of IA solitons and their phase shifts have been derived for the generic case. At a critical composition, modified KdV (mKdV) equations describe the nonlinear propagation of IA solitons, and thus the corresponding phase shifts are deduced. Furthermore, for an in-depth investigation, we examined the collision of two IA solitons of the same polarity and opposite polarities arising from oblique collisions at discrete times. In these two situations, the phase shifts of IA solitons due to the oblique collisions increase with an increase in the collision angle. The phase shift curve reaches its maximum value at the perpendicular collision. This work may aid in interpreting the features of IA solitons in a degenerate plasma, such as white dwarfs, that support soliton propagation.

ELEŞTİREL MÜZİK ANLAYIŞINDA YARATICILIK: ALEXANDER SCHUBERT’İN MÜZİK PRATİĞİ

This research aims to investigate the possibility of a critical music language in contemporary art music scenes through the concept of creativity. Under the light of related literature review, attention will be particularly focused on the diverse creative experiences of Alexander Schubert who managed to transgress normative standards and find his critical voice. By doing that, the paper aims to reveal the epistemological challenges inside academia in which it claims the necessity of an embodied and relational perspective that operates beyond binary oppositions. There has been a rising academic interest in creativity since the 1950s, predominately in sociology, psychology, and education. In the interest of “objective” evidence, cognitive sciences attempted to define and assess creativity by measuring the innovative processes of human minds. In the domain of music research, it has been mostly addressed in fields outside of composition, often connected with music psychology. Yet, the approaches in psychology mostly focused on the measurement of creativity rather than the creative acts of the individuals-failing to report the real-world experience of people-. So, this paper plans to pull this issue to composition and contemporary art music. With the introduction that induces a debate about the definitions and historical roots of creativity, the chronological development of the concept and its interrelations will be discussed. Its expansion from cognitive sciences to humanities and music will be briefly exemplified. After that, its connection with critical composition will be exhibited by the practice of Alexander Schubert, a prominent 21st-century composer and multi-media artist. Readings from cognitive sciences, musi- cology, critical studies, and sound studies will establish a historical gaze and pursuit of a contemporary epistemology that may incorporate a more extensive description and investigation of creativity.