Modified Form Research Articles

The Golgi method. A historical through contemporary view.

Knowledge regarding the biology of the nervous system and its functions has gone through various theoretical, methodological, and interpretative stages throughout history, depending largely on technical advances that have allowed us not only to approach old questions from new perspectives but also to address new ones. One advance that constituted a watershed in the history of neuroscience was the appearance of a chrome-silver staining technique called the Golgi method that allowed the complete, three-dimensional observation of nerve cells. Discovered by Camilo Golgi and, later, modified significantly and employed by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Golgi's method was crucial in demonstrating the veracity of the Neuronal Theory over the earlier Reticular Theory, and in revealing numerous findings related to the human brain and those of many other animal species, which continue to be analyzed today. Despite a period of scientific recession in the first half of the 20th century, the use of the Golgi method prevailed and even expanded in the second half of that century and into the 21st, as researchers continued to use it in its original or modified form and in combination with emerging methodologies. Currently, there are no signs of any decline in its use.

A Review of Chitosan as a Coagulant of Health-Related Microorganisms in Water and Wastewater

The coagulation and flocculation properties of chitosan, an organic biopolymer derived from chitin, have been researched as an alternative to synthetic polymers and inorganic metal salt coagulants currently used in water and wastewater treatment. In an effort to encourage further research into the practical uses of chitosan as green chemistry in water and wastewater treatment and to promote the efficacious removal of microbial contaminants in drinking and wastewater, we have summarized the current state of research pertaining to the treatment of microorganisms in water and wastewater. A search of PubMed revealed 720 possible titles and abstracts, of which 44 full-text articles were identified as matching the eligibility criteria for inclusion in this systematic review. Results are presented based on the type of water matrix treated (i.e., drinking water, wastewater, and recreational waters) and a summary table providing details on the types and forms of chitosan utilized and the treatment mechanisms and processes described in the study. We find chitosan to be an effective coagulant, flocculant, and adsorbent for removing microbes from water and wastewater; some modified forms of chitosan can inactivate microbes and achieve disinfection, such as those containing metals like silver and antimicrobial chemicals like quaternary ammonium compounds or other strong oxidants, and use with filtration or electrochemical processes can achieve extensive reductions in microbes to meet performance targets of the World Health Organization.

Automating COVID-19 epidemiological situation reports based on multiple data sources, the Netherlands, 2020 to 2023

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands developed a pipeline of scripts to automate and streamline the production of epidemiological situation reports (epi‑sitrep). The pipeline was developed for the Automation of Data Import, Summarization, and Communication (hereafter called the A-DISC pipeline). ObjectiveThis paper describes the A-DISC pipeline and provides a customizable scripts template that may be useful for other countries wanting to automate their infectious disease surveillance processes. MethodsThe A-DISC pipeline was developed using the open-source statistical software R. It is organized in four modules: Prepare, Process data, Produce report, and Communicate. The Prepare scripts set the working environment (e.g., load packages). The (data-specific) Process data scripts import, validate, verify, transform, save, analyze, and summarize data as tables and figures and store these data summaries. The Produce report scripts gather summaries from multiple data sources and integrate them into a RMarkdown document – the epi‑sitrep. The Communicate scripts send e-mails to stakeholders with the epi‑sitrep. ResultsAs of March 2023, up to ten data sources were automatically summarized into tables and figures by A-DISC. These data summaries were featured in routine extensive COVID-19 epi‑sitreps, shared as open data, plotted on RIVM's website, sent to stakeholders and submitted to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control via the European Surveillance System -TESSy [38]. DiscussionIn the face of an unprecedented high number of cases being reported during the COVID-19 pandemic, the A-DISC pipeline was essential to produce frequent and comprehensive epi‑sitreps. A-DISC's modular and intuitive structure allowed for the integration of data sources of varying complexities, encouraged collaboration among people with various R-scripting capabilities, and improved data lineage. The A-DISC pipeline remains under active development and is currently being used in modified form for the automatization and professionalization of various other disease surveillance processes at the RIVM, with high acceptance from the participant epidemiologists. ConclusionThe A-DISC pipeline is an open-source, robust, and customizable tool for automating epi‑sitreps based on multiple data sources.

Enhancement of lactate fraction in poly(lactate-co-3-hydroxybutyrate) biosynthesized by metabolically engineered E. coli

Poly(lactate-co-3-hydroxybutyrate) [P(LA-co-3HB)] is a high-molecular-weight biomaterial with excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this study, the properties of P(LA-co-3HB) were examined and found to be affected by its lactate fraction. The efficiency of lactyl-CoA biosynthesis from intracellular lactate significantly affected the microbial synthesis of P(LA-co-3HB). Two CoA transferases from Anaerotignum lactatifermentans and Bacillota bacterium were selected for use in copolymer biosynthesis from 11 candidates. We found that cotAl enhanced the lactate fraction by 31.56% compared to that of the frequently used modified form of propionyl-CoA transferase from Anaerotignum propionicum. In addition, utilizing xylose as a favorable carbon source and blocking the lactate degradation pathway further enhanced the lactate fraction to 30.42 mol% and 52.84 mol%, respectively. Furthermore, when a 5 L bioreactor was used for fermentation utilizing xylose as a carbon source, the engineered strain produced 60.60 wt% P(46.40 mol% LA-co-3HB), which was similar to the results of our flask experiments. Our results indicate that the application of new CoA transferases has great potential for the biosynthesis of other lactate-based copolymers.Graphical

Reactions of citrinin with amino compounds modelling thermal food processing.

Citrinin (CIT) is a nephrotoxic mycotoxin, produced by several species of Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Monascus. The foodstuffs most frequently contaminated with CIT include cereals, cereal products, and red yeast rice. Studies on the occurrence of CIT in food have shown that the CIT concentrations in processed cereal-based products are generally lower than in unprocessed industry cereal samples. One possible explanation is the reaction of CIT with major food components such as carbohydrates or proteins to form modified CIT. Such modified forms of CIT are then hidden from conventional analyses, but it is possible that they are converted back into the parent mycotoxin during digestion. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate reactions of CIT with food matrix during thermal processes and to gain a deeper understanding of the degradation of CIT during food processing. In this study, we could demonstrate that CIT reacts with amino compounds such as proteins, under typical food processing conditions, leading to modified forms of CIT.

Box-Behnken Design for Mitigation of Cadmium Bivalent Ions from Aqueous Medium.

Statistical analysis is essential for minimizing the time, cost, and number of experiments needed to get the maximum output. In this work, the removal of cadmium bivalent (Cd (II)) ions was optimized using Box-Behnken design methodology. The effects of pH, concentration, time, and temperature were investigated for the removal of cadmium. Maximum removal (85.70 %) was achieved at pH of 5.34, initial Cd(II) ions concentration 46.61,contact time 166.09 (min), and at 59.40 °C temperature on Punica Granatum carpellary membrane powder (PGCMP) and 88.61 % removal was achieved on its modified forms (MPGCMP) at pH of 5.79, initial Cd(II) ions concentration 65.70,contact time 178.96, and at 59.91 °C temperature. The model was validated by analyzing variance (ANOVA). The practical data was well fitted to the quadratic model. PGCMP and MPGCMP were found to be naturally occurring, environmentally friendly adsorbents for the mitigation of Cd (II) ions as well as other toxic heavy metals from drinkable or wastewater.

Parallel inertial forward–backward splitting methods for solving variational inequality problems with variational inclusion constraints

The inertial forward–backward splitting algorithm can be considered as a modified form of the forward–backward algorithm for variational inequality problems with monotone and Lipschitz continuous cost mappings. By using parallel and inertial techniques and the forward–backward splitting algorithm, in this paper, we propose a new parallel inertial forward–backward splitting algorithm for solving variational inequality problems, where the constraints are the intersection of common solution sets of a finite family of variational inclusion problems. Then, strong convergence of proposed iteration sequences is showed under standard assumptions imposed on cost mappings in a real Hilbert space. Finally, some numerical experiments demonstrate the reliability and benefits of the proposed algorithm.

Vibration based dual-criteria damage detection method using deep neural networks in highway bridges with steel girders

This article introduces a new method for assessing the damage in steel girders of highway bridges using deep neural networks. The method uses modified forms of modal strain energy damage index and modal flexibility damage index to train the neural network and prevent unsafe decisions. The neural network is trained using damage indexes achieved from numerical simulations of the bridge with different damage scenarios. Three types of neural networks, including convolutional neural network (CNN), Long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network, and conventional artificial neural network (ANN) are compared to achieve the best performance. The proposed method overcomes previous detection problems such as false-positive indications, limited damage locations, and scenarios, and insufficient accuracy in cases with multiple damage scenarios. The results show that the proposed method and CNN can accurately identify unspecified damage locations and severity in multi-span highway bridges. The new training method of the CNN deep neural network systems overcomes some shortcomings in ANN, such as being time-consuming, having a low convergence rate, and experiencing data overfitting. Additionally, the CNN training scheme can limit the need for massive amounts of input data and increase the speed and accuracy of network training, especially in multiple damage scenarios.

Entropy of strongly coupled Yukawa fluids.

The entropy of strongly coupled Yukawa fluids is discussed from several perspectives. First, it is demonstrated that a vibrational paradigm of atomic dynamics in dense fluids can be used to obtain a simple and accurate estimate of the entropy without any adjustable parameters. Second, it is explained why a quasiuniversal value of the excess entropy of simple fluids at the freezing point should be expected, and it is demonstrated that a remaining very weak dependence of the freezing point entropy on the screening parameter in the Yukawa fluid can be described by a simple linear function. Third, a scaling of the excess entropy with the freezing temperature is examined, a modified form of the Rosenfeld-Tarazona scaling is put forward, and some consequences are briefly discussed. Fourth, the location of the Frenkel line on the phase diagram of Yukawa systems is discussed in terms of the excess entropy and compared with some predictions made in the literature. Fifth, the excess entropy scaling of the transport coefficients (self-diffusion, viscosity, and thermal conductivity) is reexamined using the contemporary datasets for the transport properties of Yukawa fluids. The results could be of particular interest in the context of complex (dusty) plasmas, colloidal suspensions, electrolytes, and other related systems with soft pairwise interactions.

Baseboll för anarkister

The aim of this article is to examine the emergence and establishment of the ball game ‘brännboll’ (lit. burnball) in Sweden. In doing so, it contributes to the knowledge of how sports have spread historically and how they have changed when established in new places. First of all, the existence of the concept of brännboll throughout history is examined. Although it can be traced back to the 17th century, the game we now commonly call brännboll is a modified form of the English game of rounders that was introduced to Sweden at the end of the 19th century. Unlike the closely related game of baseball, brännboll never developed into a modern sport with standardised rules, organisations and bureaucracy. This is seen in the study as a consequence of the fact that brännboll gained a foothold in the ‘play movement’ rather than in the modern sports movement, and that physical education was considered more important in brännboll than performance and results. As a result of this process of pedagogisation, the game developed into a simplified, stripped-down and more static game compared to its English predecessor.

Модификации немецкой пословицы “Not macht erfinderisch” в экономическом медиадискурсе Германии

The aim of the study is to identify modifications of the German proverb “Not macht erfinderisch” (lit. “Need makes one inventive”) in economic media discourse. The scientific novelty of the study lies in constructing models of modification of the analyzed paroemia. For the first time, the functioning of the proverbial saying in the traditional and in a modified form in the economic journalistic discourse of Germany is considered. The analysis of the corpus of traditional and authorial forms of the proverb reveals variants that do not affect the meaning of the proverb and transformations that partially or completely change its meaning. As a result of the study, it was found that the frequency of occasional modifications of proverbs in the research material is 1.5 times higher than the use of the proverb in the traditional form. The proposed list of paroemias in a modified form will demonstrate the features of the use of the proverb in the modern journalistic discourse on economic topics, reveal and predict its modification potential based on the identified models.

Core allocation to minimize total flow time in a multicore system in the presence of a processing time constraint

Data centers are a vital and fundamental infrastructure component of the cloud. The requirement to execute a large number of demanding jobs places a premium on processing capacity. Parallelizing jobs to run on multiple cores reduces execution time. However, there is a decreasing marginal benefit to using more cores, with the speedup function quantifying the achievable gains. A critical performance metric is flow time. Previous results in the literature derived closed-form expressions for the optimal allocation of cores to minimize total flow time for a power-law speedup function if all jobs are present at time 0. However, this work did not place a constraint on the makespan. For many diverse applications, fast response times are essential, and latency targets are specified to avoid adverse impacts on user experience. This paper is the first to determine the optimal core allocations for a multicore system to minimize total flow time in the presence of a completion deadline (where all jobs have the same deadline). The allocation problem is formulated as a nonlinear optimization program that is solved using the Lagrange multiplier technique. Closed-form expressions are derived for the optimal core allocations, total flow time, and makespan, which can be fitted to a specified deadline by adjusting the value of a single Lagrange multiplier. Compared to the unconstrained problem, the shortest job first property for optimal allocation is maintained; however, a number of other properties require revising and other properties are only retained in a modified form (such as the scale-free and size-dependence properties). It is found that with a completion deadline the optimal solution may contain groups of simultaneous completions. In general, all possible patterns of single- and group-completion need to be considered, producing an exponential search space. However, the paper determines analytically that the optimal completion pattern consists of a sequence of single completions followed by a single group of simultaneous completions at the end, which reduces the search space dimension to being linear. The paper validates the Lagrange multiplier approach by verifying constraint qualifications.

A Comprehensive Survey and Literature Review on TOPSIS

Multi-criteria decision making is a complex process that involves considering various criteria or factors when making a decision. Over the past few decades, several researchers have developed different methods to tackle this problem. This method offers manifold advantages, however, it faces several limits leading to the development of different modified forms. This paper provides a comprehensive review on the TOPSIS concept to help the researchers gain an overview in different aspects of TOPSIS. The literature review presented in this paper offers a comprehensive survey of the TOPSIS method, providing researchers with an overview of the various aspects of the method, its strengths and limitations, and its various applications. The results of the literature review also are provided based on the application, methodology, and reasons to use TOPSIS method.

The outer-membrane componentof the multi-drug efflux system –a structural analysis based onhydrophobicity distribution

The structure of a multi-drug efflux system (specifically the outer membrane part) is the focus of our analysis. The role of electrostatic interactions in the efflux process is well understood. The distribution of hydrophobicity in the periplasmic and membrane domains plays a significant role in both stabilisation within the membrane and in tunnel formation, which facilitates the transport of antibiotics. The analysis presented in this paper reveals the specificity of hydrophobicity distribution in relation to biological activity, as well as a possible mechanism for the folding process of proteins involved in multi-drug efflux. Our analysis is made possible by the application of the fuzzy oil drop model in its modified form (FOD-M).

Capsize criteria in beam seas: Melnikov analysis vs. safe basin erosion

We study the problem of capsizing of a rolling ship in harmonic and random beam seas, by means of the Melnikov method and safe basin calculations. In the random excitation case, we consider an integro-differential Cummins-type model equation that takes into account the hydrodynamic memory. The non-linear restoring moment is modeled by a high-order polynomial and the Melnikov criteria are evaluated numerically. We also examine a variant of the classical Melnikov method in which the damping terms are incorporated into the unperturbed system and the perturbation takes a modified form. We compare the theoretical predictions with direct (Monte-Carlo) simulations of the safe basins for two existing ships. In the random excitation case, we quantify the erosion by means of a mean integrity index. For weak damping, the classical and modified Melnikov curves coincide and are in good agreement with the onset of the safe basin erosion. As damping increases the Melnikov curves become less and less conservative with respect to the onset of erosion. Finally, the potential of the Melnikov method to provide a ship classification tool is discussed.

Lignocellulosic Biomass‐Derived Graphene: Fabrication, Challenges and Its Potential for Hydrogen Storage Application

ABSTRACTThis review explores the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) waste in the fabrication of graphene and its applications in hydrogen storage. Several LCB wastes, such as rice straws, coconut shells, wheat straws, and sugarcane bagasse, along with the methodology used and the characteristics of the final graphene, have been discussed in detail. It was found that the coconut shells produced crumpled multilayered graphene, rice husks (RHs) provided a mix of graphene layers and amorphous carbon, wheat straw yielded few‐layered graphene, and sugarcane bagasse contributed to different graphene‐like materials. This review has also focused on the various synthesis processes, such as carbonization, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), chemical activation, pyrolysis, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and Hummers' method for graphene fabrication from LCB waste, along with their advantages and disadvantages, for a better understanding. Various results have been discussed exploring the use of lignocellulosic biomass‐derived graphene (LCB‐G) and its various modified forms for hydrogen storage applications. Various challenges in graphene fabrication from LCB, such as low yield, product quality, scalability, use of expensive synthesis methods, and toxic chemicals, along with some potential solutions, have been mentioned. Finally, the review concludes with insights into the future of LCB‐G and its role in hydrogen storage while identifying some gaps, such as scalability and product quality, for further research and development.

Improved discrete unified gas-kinetic scheme for interface capturing.

In this paper, we extend the improved discrete unified gas-kinetic scheme (DUGKS) from solving the hydrodynamic equationsto addressing the phase field equations, building upon our prior work [Wang et al., Phys. Fluids 35, 017106 (2023)10.1063/5.0128912]. The conservative Allen-Cahn equationand its modified form are presented first, followed by the construction of two improved DUGKS methods for interface capturing, based on the corresponding kinetic equations. The improved DUGKS for interface capturing utilizes the node distribution function instead of the interface center distribution function for evaluating the interface flux. The improved DUGKS enhances the numerical stability of the original DUGKS, and the good stability allows the calculations to be performed using large time steps, reducing the cumulative error from which more accurate predictions can be obtained. To verify the validity of the scheme, a series of numerical experiments were further carried out, including the diagonal translation, Zalesak's disk rotation, reversed single vortex, and deformation field. The comparison with the benchmark data shows that the improved DUGKS can simply and effectively capture the sharp interface and complex deformation interface of the two-phase flow interface.

Bile salt integrated cerasomes: A potential nanocarrier for enhancement of the oral bioavailability of idarubicin hydrochloride

Cerasomes are a modified form of liposomes containing both inorganic and organic parts and due to their strong polyorganosiloxane surface have remarkably high morphological stability and provide easier functionalization compared with conventional liposomes. To investigate the potential of these nanocarriers for oral delivery, bile salt integrated cerasomes (named bilocerasomes) encapsulating idarubicin hydrochloride (IDA) were prepared and characterized. The optimum formulation showed excellent stability in the simulated gastrointestinal fluids as well as under storage conditions. The oral pharmacokinetics of the IDA solution, empty nanocarrier + drug solution, and IDA-loaded bilocerasome were evaluated. The nanoformulation significantly increased the area under the drug concentration–time curve and the mean residence time (∼14.3- and 9-fold, respectively). The results obtained from cell uptake and chylomicron flow blocking approach revealed that bilocerasomes are absorbed into the intestinal cells via a clathrin/caveolin-independent endocytosis pathway and transported to the systemic circulation extensively via the intestinal lymphatic vessels. Considering the high stability of the prepared bilocerasome, noticeable participation of lymphatic transport in its systemic absorption and marked enhancement in the oral absorption of IDA, bilocerasomes can be introduced as a capable carrier for improving the oral bioavailability of drugs, particularly those that hepatic first-pass metabolism seriously limits their oral absorption.

Special MCP-N thermoluminescent detectors (TLD) with better angular dependence

One of the basic parameters in the use of thermoluminescent detectors is the angular characteristics, i.e. receiving different signals depending on the angle of radiation exposure. The TLD detector is typically installed in a slide/badge and here the angular characteristics may have an influence, adding non-uniform coverage of the detectors with filters for the correct determination of the dose as a function of energy, because the energy characteristics are usually not flat.As part of the work, special MCP-N (LiF:Mg, Cu, P) detectors of various shapes were prepared to improve the angular characteristics. The detectors were round pellets with the same circular shape with a diameter of 4.5 mm, and a modified form inside (large and small drilled holes) or a modified surface (cavity or hemisphere). For comparison, standard MCP-N type detectors were used. Detectors in special boxes were exposed to X-rays with an energy of 80 keV. The radiation beam was formed by a medical X-ray apparatus adapted for experiments at the Warsaw University of Technology in Warsaw. Exposures were made for angles of 0, 30, 45, 50, and 90° for a dose of 1.5 mGy.Results show that it is possible to improve the angular characteristics for detectors with modified shapes. Better angular characteristics will allow for more accurate measurements, in particular in comparison tests, for accreditation and other calibrations. Especially improved angular dependence detectors could be useful for H*(10) environmental measurements.

Vibration control of structure using active tuned mass damper: A new control algorithm

This paper investigates the vibration behavior of a 10-story benchmark building controlled with an active tuned mass damper (ATMD) under earthquake loads. An ATMD, typically installed on the top floor, is a modified form of a tuned mass damper (TMD) that includes a mass, spring, damper, and an actuator enhancing system performance and structural damping. The force and movement direction of the ATMD are controlled by a processor and actuator. In the ATMD system, control algorithms determine the magnitude and direction of the applied force. This research introduces a new control algorithm based on the structure’s dynamic response and ATMD stiffness. To evaluate the performance of this algorithm, linear–quadratic regulator (LQR) and fuzzy logic controller (FLC) algorithms were designed and presented for comparison. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm outperformed the other algorithms, reducing the structure’s displacement and acceleration responses by an average of 40% and 28.16%, respectively, compared to the uncontrolled state.