Degree Of Conformity Research Articles

Unusual Aspects of Charge Regulation in Flexible Weak Polyelectrolytes.

This article reviews the state of the art of the studies on charge regulation (CR) effects in flexible weak polyelectrolytes (FWPE). The characteristic of FWPE is the strong coupling of ionization and conformational degrees of freedom. After introducing the necessary fundamental concepts, some unconventional aspects of the the physical chemistry of FWPE are discussed. These aspects are: (i) the extension of statistical mechanics techniques to include ionization equilibria and, in particular, the use of the recently proposed Site Binding-Rotational Isomeric State (SBRIS) model, which allows the calculation of ionization and conformational properties on the same foot; (ii) the recent progresses in the inclusion of proton equilibria in computer simulations; (iii) the possibility of mechanically induced CR in the stretching of FWPE; (iv) the non-trivial adsorption of FWPE on ionized surfaces with the same charge sign as the PE (the so-called "wrong side" of the isoelectric point); (v) the influence of macromolecular crowding on CR.

Evaluation of Crossing Transportation Services on Ships Operating at the Likupang Crossing Port, North Sulawesi Province

Likupang Crossing Port is located in Munte Village, North Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi. Likupang Port has three ships operating, namely KMP. Lohoraung track Likupang-BiaroTagulandang- Makalehi-Siau, KMP. Tarusi trajectories Likupang-Pananaru-Melonguane and KMP. Watunapato trajectory Likupang-Melonguane-Marampit-Miangas which is currently docking. Based on the results of observations in the field, there are some services that have not been carried out properly, so service users feel dissatisfied and uncomfortable while on the ship. The method for analyzing existing problems is the analysis of the percentage of the level of conformity of crossing transportation service standards and the analysis of Importance Performance Analysis. KMP. Lohoraung with a percentage of conformity rate of 48.58% and KMP. Tarusi with a percentage of conformity rate of 51.61%. On kmp vehicle loading service standards. Lohoraung with a percentage of conformity rate of 85.18% and KMP. Tarusi with a percentage of conformity rate of 81.48%. On the standards of service of operating KMP ships. Lohoraung and KMP. Tarusi has a degree of conformity with a percentage of 100%. Based on the results of the analysis, conclusions were obtained, namely the attributes that are in quadrant I, based on the results of research on important service attributes and received the highest assessment of their importance. Attributes that are in quadrant I include, in KMP. Lohoraung facilities for damaged lifeboats, medical rooms that are not used as they function, unavailability of medical devices (stretchers, wheelchairs, oxygen cylinders), toilets that still merge each gender, no prayer rooms and at KMP. There are leaky lifeboats, toilets still joined by each gender, nursing rooms that are not used as they function, lighting that does not comply with the rules.

Prediction of Electronic Properties of Radical-Containing Polymers at Coarse-Grained Resolutions

The properties of soft electronic materials depend on the coupling of electronic and conformational degrees of freedom over a wide range of spatiotemporal scales. The description of such properties requires multiscale approaches capable of, at the same time, accessing electronic properties and sampling the conformational space of soft materials. This could in principle be realized by connecting the coarse-grained (CG) methodologies required for adequate conformational sampling to conformationally averaged electronic property distributions via backmapping to atomistic-resolution level models and repeated quantum-chemical calculations. Computational demands of such approaches, however, have hindered their application in high-throughput computer-aided soft materials discovery. Here, we present a method that, combining machine learning and CG techniques, can replace traditional backmapping-based approaches without sacrificing accuracy. We illustrate the method for an emerging class of soft electronic materials, namely, nonconjugated, radical-containing polymers, promising materials for all-organic energy storage. Supervised machine learning models are trained to learn the dependence of electronic properties on polymer conformation at CG resolutions. We then parametrize CG models that retain electronic structure information, simulate CG condensed phases, and predict the electronic properties of such phases solely from the CG degrees of freedom. We validate our method by comparing it against a full backmapping-based approach and find good agreement between both methods. This work demonstrates the potential of the proposed method to accelerate multiscale workflows and provides a framework for the development of CG models that retain electronic structure information.

Investigation on Pivot Rolling Motion Effect on the Behavior of Rocker Back Tilting Pad Journal Bearings

The rolling motion of the pads with rocker back (RB) and ball and socket pivots is normally neglected in common software programs for the study of the rotor dynamic behavior of tilting pad journal bearings (TPJB). In other words, the theoretical contact point of the pivot is considered fixed. The aim of this work is to provide a novel way to implement in commercial software the effect of the variation of the circumferential coordinate of the theoretical contact point due to the pad rolling motion in RB TPJB. This is done by introducing an equivalent pivot rotational stiffness evaluated with an analytically derived formula, validated through finite element analysis. Such a stiffness is a function of the pad load and the radii of the contact pair, increasing with the load, the radii, and the degree of conformity of the contact. The static and dynamic characteristics of a five pad RB TPJB are then evaluated with a commercial software with and without the rotational stiffness contribution for two different pivot geometries. Non-negligible differences were found, particularly regarding the cross-coupled dynamic coefficients that show the higher sensitivity to the rotational stiffness. The inclusion of a pivot rotational stiffness among the data of commercial software for simulation of RB TPJB could contribute to fill the gap between numerical and experimental results.

TRAINING OF FUTURE EDUCATORS TO WORK WITH PARENTS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE AREA OF PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION AND FAMILY

The main goal of this research was to determine whether and to what extent educational programs and curriculums for preschool education develop competences in students that are needed for establishing partnership with parents. The basic research technique is the analysis of syllabus documentation. The analysis was created for the preschool education educational programs in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (University in Tuzla, University in Zenica, University in Bihac, University in Sarajevo), and it showed that there are differences between institutions in the aspect of presence of study courses that prepare future educators for the work with parents. The results of the research have shown that there are differences in relation to the examined units of analysis and that the degree of conformity of syllabus contents for the course subject Family Pedagogy and Partnerships with parents varies in relation to the examined areas.

Examining the Degree of Conformity of media formats and artistic aspects of Roshd Nojavan Magazine with the Needs of Students

Examining the Degree of Conformity of media formats and artistic aspects of Roshd Nojavan Magazine with the Needs of Students

Conformational degrees of freedom and stability of splay-bend ordering in the limit of a very strong planar anchoring.

We study the self-organization in a monolayer (a two-dimensional system) of flexible planar trimer particles. The molecules are made up of two mesogenic units linked by a spacer, all of which are modeled as hard needles of the same length. Each molecule can dynamically adopt two conformational states: an achiral bent-shaped (cis-) and a chiral zigzag (trans-) one. Using constant pressure Monte Carlo simulations and Onsager-type density functional theory (DFT), we show that the system consisting of these molecules exhibits a rich spectrum of liquid crystalline phases. The most interesting observation is the identification of stable smectic splay-bend (S_{SB}) and chiral smectic-A (S_{A}^{*}) phases. The S_{SB} phase is also stable in the limit, where only cis- conformers are allowed. The second phase that occupies a considerable portion of the phase diagram is S_{A}^{*} with chiral layers, where the chirality of the neighboring layers is of opposite sign. The study of the average fractions of the trans- and cis- conformers in various phases shows that while in the isotropic phase all fractions are equally populated, the S_{A}^{*} phase is dominated by chiral conformers (zigzag), but the achiral conformers win in the smectic splay-bend phase. To clarify the possibility of stabilization of the nematic splay-bend (N_{SB}) phase for trimers, the free energy of the N_{SB} and S_{SB} phases is calculated within DFT for the cis- conformers, for densities where simulations show stable S_{SB}. It turns out that the N_{SB} phase is unstable away from the phase transition to the nematic phase, and its free energy is always higher than that of S_{SB}, down to the transition to the nematic phase, although the difference in free energies becomes extremely small when approaching the transition.

Social conformity is associated with inter-trial electroencephalogram variability.

Human society encompasses diverse social influences, and people experience events differently and may behave differently under such influence, including in forming an impression of others. However, little is known about the underlying neural relevance of individual differences in following others' opinions or social norms. In the present study, we designed a series of tasks centered on social influence to investigate the underlying relevance between an individual's degree of social conformity and their neural variability. We found that individual differences under the social influence are associated with the amount of inter-trial electroencephalogram (EEG) variability over multiple stages in a conformity task (making face judgments and receiving social influence). This association was robust in the alpha band over the frontal and occipital electrodes for negative social influence. We also found that inter-trial EEG variability is a very stable, participant-driven internal state measurement and could be interpreted as mindset instability. Overall, these findings support the hypothesis that higher inter-trial EEG variability may be related to higher mindset instability, which makes participants more vulnerable to exposed external social influence. The present study provides a novel approach that considers the stability of one's endogenous neural signal during tasks and links it to human social behaviors.

IDP-PGFE: an interpretable disruption predictor based on physics-guided feature extraction

Disruption prediction has made rapid progress in recent years, especially in machine learning (ML)-based methods. If a disruption prediction model can be interpreted, it can tell why certain samples are classified as disruption precursors. This allows us to tell the types of incoming disruption for disruption avoidance and gives us insight into the mechanism of disruption. This paper presents a disruption predictor called interpretable disruption predictor based on physics-guided feature extraction (IDP-PGFE) and its results on J-TEXT experiment data. The prediction performance of IDP-PGFE with physics-guided features is effectively improved (true positive rate = 97.27%, false positive rate = 5.45%, area under the ROC curve = 0.98) compared to the models with raw signal input. The validity of the interpretation results is ensured by the high performance of the model. The interpretability study using an attribution technique provides an understanding of J-TEXT disruption and conforms to our prior comprehension of disruption. Furthermore, IDP-PGFE gives a possible mean on inferring the underlying cause of the disruption and how interventions affect the disruption process in J-TEXT. The interpretation results and the experimental phenomenon have a high degree of conformity. The interpretation results also gives a possible experimental analysis direction that the resonant magnetic perturbations delays the density limit disruption by affecting both the MHD instabilities and the radiation profile. PGFE could also reduce the data requirement of IDP-PGFE to 10% of the training data required to train a model on raw signals. This made it possible to be transferred to the next-generation tokamaks, which cannot provide large amounts of data. Therefore, IDP-PGFE is an effective approach to exploring disruption mechanisms and transferring disruption prediction models to future tokamaks.

Abstract Number ‐ 71: Management of Delayed Carotid Stent Fracture with an Overlapping Open Cell Design Stent: Case Report

Introduction Stent fracture after carotid angioplasty and stenting is rare. Risk factors include presence of angulation, calcification, and restenosis increasing the risk of stent fracture. Although literature indicates that not all carotid stent fractures are associated with adverse outcomes, there is limited details on successful endovascular management of this entity. We describe a unique case of carotid stent fracture with symptomatic restenosis treated with an overlapping open cell stent with no residual stenosis and resolution of symptomology. Methods Case Report. Results A 79‐year‐old man with medical history of right sided symptomatic carotid artery stenosis which had been previously treated with endarterectomy and subsequently carotid stenting after a follow up carotid ultrasound demonstrated recurrence of severe right internal carotid artery (RICA) stenosis. Approximately 2 years after this index procedure, the patient returned with acute onset of left‐hand numbness. Cerebral angiography was performed that demonstrated 85% stenosis with a fractured carotid stent at segment of stenosis (Figure 1A, B). Furthermore, the lesion was found to be heavily calcified. This was determined to be the primary contributing factor in resultant artery wall stress, which over time led to carotid stent fracture. Angioplasty with placement of a new open cell stent and distal embolic protective device was performed successfully. The open cell stent was chosen for this approach as closed cell stents have been associated with an increased odds of in‐hospital stroke/death for carotid lesions, attributable to the lower degree of conformability with closed cell stents. After our stent placement, there was no significant residual stenosis visualized (Figure 1C, D). The patient’s symptoms resolved without any subsequent complaints on follow‐up visit. Conclusions While carotid stent fractures are a rare occurrence, we report a case of symptomatic carotid artery restenosis with a fractured stent due to significant lesion calcification and wall stress. This case was successfully treated with angioplasty and new open cell stent placement due to its potential advantages over closed cell stents in carotid artery lesions. Current literature indicates that carotid stent fractures have a low prevalence. However, there is a paucity of studies on the mechanism of stent fracture as well as optimal management of these fractured stents, suggesting a need for further study and characterization.

External Factors Affecting the Pheromone Monitoring of the Spongy Moth

The method of pheromone monitoring in the pest density management system has gained wide popularity due to its relative simplicity. The aim of the study was to analyze the degree of conformity between the results of pheromone monitoring and population density dynamics of the spongy moth (Lymantria dispar (L.)), as well as external factors affecting the results of pheromone monitoring. The pheromone monitoring was carried out in the area of the Trans-Ural moth population in the Sverdlovsk region, in two areas – the one with a high population density and periodic outbreaks and other one with a very low density and no periodic outbreaks over the last 10 years. Simultaneously with the pheromone monitoring, population density was monitored based on autumn counts of egg masses. The results of long-term pheromone monitoring of the spongy moth allow us to come to the following conclusions. The catching capacity of traps is mainly influenced by weather conditions, including air temperature and the stability of air currents during the males’ flight. The masses’ density and the reproduction rate of the spongy moth population can influence the results of pheromone monitoring, but they are not the decisive factors. It is possible to make predictions of changes in the population density of this species only with detailed pheromone monitoring with accurate recording of main males’ flight period, using correction factors that take into account weather conditions. However, the authors doubt the economic feasibility of this kind of measures for the purpose of assessing the pest’s population’s density and monitoring its dynamics.

On Substantive Changes to Contracts Under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

First of all, it is important to clarify the premise that the most fundamental basis for the sale and purchase of goods between the international community and countries is in fact the contract for the sale and purchase of goods concluded between the buyer and the seller, and that this contract is the basis for the clarification of their rights and obligations between the parties and for the act of performance. The contract shall be formed on the basis of the act of offer and promise between the parties, so that the validity of the offer and promise has a direct influence on the formal formation of the contract and the subsequent act of sale and purchase of goods. National laws differ as to whether a promise must be identical to an offer. For example, in the common law system there is the well-known “mirror image principle”, which requires a high degree of conformity. Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), however, provides for this in three main clauses. [i]Even though national laws and international treaties such as the CISG contain specific provisions on offers, promises and material changes to contracts, there is still much uncertainty in practice. This essay will extend the discussion of material change in contracts through a specific international trade case and will focus on the CISG provisions on material change in contracts and their content. Chapter 3 will provide reflections on material change based on the first two papers.

Revealing the Key Packing Features Determining the Stability of Peptide Bilayer Membrane.

Short surfactant-like amphiphilic peptide, A3K, resembling a surfactant with a hydrophobic tail (A3) and a polar headgroup (K), is experimentally determined to form a membrane. Although the peptides are known to exist as β-strands, the exact packing architecture stabilizing the membrane is unknown. Earlier simulation studies have reported successful packing configurations through trial and error. In this work, we present a systematic protocol to identify the best peptide configurations for different packing patterns. The influence of stacking peptides in square and hexagonal packing geometry with the neighboring peptides in parallel and antiparallel orientations was explored. The best peptide configurations were determined from the free energy of bringing 2-4 peptides together as a bundle that can be stacked into a membrane. The stability of the assembled bilayer membrane was further investigated through molecular dynamics simulation. The role of peptide tilting, interpeptide distance, the nature and the extent of interactions, and the conformational degrees of freedom on the stability of the membrane is discussed. The consistency with the experimental findings suggests hexagonal antiparallel as the most relevant molecular architecture.

Thermal Titration Molecular Dynamics (TTMD): Not Your Usual Post-Docking Refinement.

Molecular docking is one of the most widely used computational approaches in the field of rational drug design, thanks to its favorable balance between the rapidity of execution and the accuracy of provided results. Although very efficient in exploring the conformational degrees of freedom available to the ligand, docking programs can sometimes suffer from inaccurate scoring and ranking of generated poses. To address this issue, several post-docking filters and refinement protocols have been proposed throughout the years, including pharmacophore models and molecular dynamics simulations. In this work, we present the first application of Thermal Titration Molecular Dynamics (TTMD), a recently developed method for the qualitative estimation of protein-ligand unbinding kinetics, to the refinement of docking results. TTMD evaluates the conservation of the native binding mode throughout a series of molecular dynamics simulations performed at progressively increasing temperatures with a scoring function based on protein-ligand interaction fingerprints. The protocol was successfully applied to retrieve the native-like binding pose among a set of decoy poses of drug-like ligands generated on four different pharmaceutically relevant biological targets, including casein kinase 1δ, casein kinase 2, pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 2, and SARS-CoV-2 main protease.

Stability and structural evolution of double-stranded DNA molecules under high pressures: A molecular dynamics study

Conformational changes and stability of interacting double-stranded DNA chains under high hydrostatic pressure in biological systems are striking topics of importance to study several biomolecular phenomena. For example, to unravel the physiological conditions at which life might occur and to ensure the right functionality of the biochemical processes into the cell under extreme thermodynamic conditions. Furthermore, such processes could shed light on the physicochemical properties of the DNA under high confinement and how, through different mechanisms, a virus releases its genome in order to infect a cell and, therefore, to promote the process of viral replication. To achieve a few steps toward this direction, we propose an all-atomistic molecular dynamics approach in the NPT isothermal-isobaric ensemble to account for how the interplay of DNA—DNA interaction, hydrogen bonding, and the hydrostatic pressure modifies both the DNA conformational degrees of freedom and the spatial organization of the DNA chains in the available volume. We consider two interacting double-stranded DNA chains immersed in an explicit aqueous solution, i.e., water and ions. Our preliminary results highlight the role of hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions between DNA strands to avoid denaturation and, therefore, to provide mechanical stability for the DNA molecules. However, the structural evolution, whose kinetics depends on the relaxation of the stresses induced by the pressure, indicates that almost in all pressure conditions, the equilibrium configuration corresponds to an alignment of the two double-stranded DNA molecules along their main axis of symmetry; the rearrangement between the two approaching DNA dodecamers does not always correspond to complementary base pairs and becomes a function of the thermodynamic conditions.

A New Method for the Determination of Total Content of Vitamin C, Ascorbic and Dehydroascorbic Acid, in Food Products with the Voltammetric Technique with the Use of Tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine as a Reducing Reagent

The objective of the study was to develop a new method for the determination of the total content of vitamin C and dehydroascorbic acid in food, based on the technique of differential pulse voltammetry with the use of a boron-doped diamond electrode modified with mercury film. A comparison was made between the results obtained with the developed method and a proposed reference method based on high-performance liquid chromatography with spectrophotometric detection. The reduction of dehydroascorbic acid was performed with the use of tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine. The interference caused by the presence of tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine during the voltammetric determination of ascorbic acid was effectively eliminated through a reaction with N-ethylmaleimide. The conducted validation of the voltammetric method indicated that correct results of analysis of the total content of vitamin C and ascorbic acid were obtained. Analysis of the content of dehydroascorbic acid was imprecise due to the application of the differential method. The results of the analyses and the determined validation parameters of the developed method are characterised by a high degree of conformance with the results obtained with the chromatographic reference method, which indicates the equivalence of the two methods.

Getting the ROC into Sync

Judging the conformity of binary events in macroeconomics and finance has often been done with indices that measure synchronization. In recent years, the use of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve has become popular for this task. This article shows that the ROC and synchronization approaches are closely related, and each can be derived from a decision-making framework. Furthermore, the resulting global measures of the degree of conformity can be identified and estimated using the standard method of moments estimators. The impact of serial dependence in the underlying series upon inferences can therefore be allowed for. Such serial correlation is common in macroeconomic and financial data.

Historical Reality - Specificity, Format and Essence

Reproducing the past as a story constitutes a form of human awareness of the specifics of one’s own existence. Being is multifaceted, and the story-narrative about its properties and qualities is an integral part of its development. The variety of life forms actualizes various aspects of the experience of social interaction and objectively determines its reproduction. The historical narrative is the result of the conscious actualization by the subject of certain moments of existence. The specificity of the organization of the past as history, the degree of conformity of the parameters of the event and the forms of their identification, the level of correlation of sign-symbolic and essential-semantic structures of reflecting social evolution, the effectiveness of methodological procedures for their development inevitably actualizes issues of the ontological status of historical reality.

Examining the Degree of Conformity of media formats and artistic aspects of Roshd Nojavan Magazine with the Needs of Students

Background and Aim: This research aimed to investigate the degree of adaptation of media formats and artistic aspects of Roshd Nojavan magazine to the media needs and interests of first-year high school students. Methods: This study is exploratory research in which a qualitative method (content analysis) and a survey (survey of students) were used. The sample in the qualitative part included nine issues of Roshd Nojavan Magazine published during the three years of 2020, 2021, and 2022, and the quantitative was 708 high school students. The research tools were content Checklist forms and semi-structured questionnaires. The reliability of the checklist forms and the questionnaire were 0.8 and 0.7 respectively. To analyze the data, coding of the texts with an inductive approach was used in the qualitative part, and descriptive statistics, one-sample chi-square test, and the Freidman test were used in the quantitative part. Results: In general, the results show that in terms of media formats, the magazine, in the formats of articles, entertainment, humor, and comic strips and headlines were completely in accord with the needs of students, in the formats of reports and notes, there was relative compliance, but in the format of interviews, the performance of the magazine was weak far from students’ expectation. Conclusion: From the artistic and aesthetic aspects of the magazine, the three indicators: letter size, the visualization of the magazine, and the color of the photos, do not fully comply with the needs and interests of the students, and adaptation of the students' need with the size of the photos is average.

HIGHER EDUCATION QUALITY ASSURANCE: CONTEMPORARY TENDENCIES

The article deals with the quality of higher education in the context of global trends in higher education development, taking into account global and international influences that encourage discussion of the problem of higher education quality assurance. The concept of quality has been considered and the lack of consensus regarding its conceptualization and evaluation has been stated. The higher education quality has been considered from a pedagogical point of view – as a systematic methodological category reflecting the degree of conformity of the result to the goal set, as well as the correspondence of the product to the consumers’ requirements and as a set of its characteristics determining the degree of suitability of the product for its intended use. It has been noted that the concept of quality and its indicators are debatable due to the presence of a range of stakeholders – persons interested in higher education. The difference in the value of higher education quality for each of the interested parties has been determined by the presence of their own interests and their own vision of quality. Globalization, the massification of higher education and the ICT revolution have been stressed in the article as factors that have radically changed the higher education environment, creating new challenges for governments, higher education institutions and other stakeholders. Higher education quality assurance has been defined as a global problem, and the growing attention to this problem has been noted in connection with the rapid development of higher education and the increase in the cost of educational services for the state and the public. Recent trends in higher education have been reviewed and their advantages and disadvantages have been noted.