Supplementary Force Research Articles

Impact of Transglutaminase-Mediated Crosslinking on the Conformational Changes in a Dual-Protein System and IgE Reactivity of Soy Protein.

Transglutaminase (TGase)-catalyzed crosslinking has gained substantial traction as a novel strategy for reducing allergenic risk in food proteins, particularly within the realm of hypoallergenic food production. This study explored the impact of TGase crosslinking on conformational changes in a binary protein system composed of soy protein isolate (SPI) and sodium caseinate (SC) at varying mass ratios (10:0, 7:3, 5:5, 3:7 (w/w)). Specifically, the immunoglobulin E (IgE) binding capacity of soy proteins within this system was examined. Prolonged TGase crosslinking (ranging from 0 h to 15 h) resulted in a gradual reduction in IgE reactivity across all SPI-SC ratios, with the order of IgE-binding capability as follows: SPI > SPI5-SC5 > SPI7-SC3 > SPI3-SC7. These alterations in protein conformation following TGase crosslinking, as demonstrated by variable intrinsic fluorescence, altered surface hydrophobicity, increased ultraviolet absorption and reduced free sulfhydryl content, were identified as the underlying causes. Additionally, ionic bonds were found to play a significant role in maintaining the structure of the dual-protein system after crosslinking, with hydrophobic forces and hydrogen bonds serving as supplementary forces. Generally, the dual-protein system may exhibit enhanced efficacy in reducing the allergenicity of soy protein.

El conde Alarcos: Honor, Excess, and the King

Abstract: The Count Alarcos plays, although tragic for the most part, do not deal with a whimsical fate or a cosmic infringement of moral law. An actantial model shows how dramatic characters like Count Alarcos and the Royal Infanta shape their own destinies by insisting on their excessive singularity. The King in these works tries to remove that excess by honorable means, which, moreover, infringe on the rights of others, creating an imbalance. Hence, supplementary forces intervene to establish an equilibrium between two contending forces: a primary claim to love and honor, which demands recognition and legitimacy, and a secondary claim to love and honor, which demands validity and continuity. If a reconciliation ensues, one has a sense of ethical tranquility; if not, death and tribulation follow.

A nonlocal energy-informed neural network for peridynamic correspondence material models

This paper presents a nonlocal energy-informed neural network to address the inherent zero-energy mode instability in peridynamic correspondence material models. Starting from the principle of virtual work, the task of solving peridynamic equilibrium equation is reformulated as a variational minimum problem of total potential energy, serving as the natural loss function for neural network. By minimizing the potential energy of the peridynamic body, the proposed neural network effectively eliminates the zero-energy modes. Importantly, this approach preserves the original peridynamic formulation without introducing a supplementary force vector state or modifying the nonlocal deformation gradient tensor. Additionally, there is no need for an artificial damping coefficient in adaptive dynamic relaxation, and the high memory consumption in implicit schemes is avoided. To improve the prediction accuracy near boundaries and to impose boundary conditions consistently with the local continuum theory, variable horizon method is introduced. Comparative studies of the proposed neural network with analytical solutions, finite element analyses or other control methods are conducted to verify the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed neural network in suppressing zero-energy mode oscillations. Furthermore, the convergence of the proposed approach and the influence of different activation functions on the prediction accuracy and convergence rate are investigated.

Surface modification of 5CrNiMo steel using scanning electron beam assisted by ultrasonic vibration

The surface modification of 5CrNiMo steel was accomplished in this work using scanning electron beam technology assisted by ultrasonic vibration (UV). Investigations were conducted into how ultrasonic vibration affected the re-melting layer's microstructure and mechanical properties. Following the application of ultrasonic vibration, the proportion of equiaxed grain in the re-melting layer increased, and the average grain size was 6.04 µm, which was roughly 23.5% smaller than that of 7.9 µm without UV. The specimen's surface micro-hardness was 776 HV, which was roughly 16.7% higher than that of 665 HV without UV. According to the findings, the surface hardness of 5CrNiMo steel may be greatly increased by using the scanning electron beam technology with ultrasonic vibration as a supplementary force.

Design of new anti-buckling fixture for cyclic tension-compression testing of sheet metal

The currently available anti-buckling fixtures for uniaxial tension-compression testing of sheet metal could not fulfill the requirements and standards. In this study, a unique system of the anti-buckling fixtures to enable getting accurate and repeatable isotropic and kinematic behavior of sheet metal was designed. The front surface of the specimen was fully supported during the initial position, tension, and compression and free from any buckling. Because using acrylic blocks, has a greater level of optical clarity, there was the possibility to measure the deformation on the front surface of the specimen using a digital image correlation system. The special pusher vice with compressed spring was attached to the fixture to avoid misalignment and calculating supplementary forces related to uniaxial direction. Furthermore, the new fixture was simple, flexible, and suitable for any universal testing machine.

Report on the AFRIMETS.M. F-S1 supplementary force comparison for 10 kN and 100 kN

Main textThis bilateral comparison of Force Standard Machines (FSM) named AFRIMETS.M. F-S1 was carried out in the force range from 1 kN to 100 kN between Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) of Germany as the pilot laboratory and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) of Kenya as the participant laboratory. KEBS had already participated in the APMP.M. F-K2 key comparison where measurements were made only at 50 kN and 100 kN force steps. Therefore, this bilateral comparison was planned to thoroughly compare the KEBS FSM and the PTB Deadweight Machines in wider force steps than those of the APMP.M. F-K2 key comparison and thus it had no corresponding key-comparisons values to be linked to at that time. PTB provided two force transducers for the supplementary comparison with 10 kN and 100 kN nominal capacities. The comparison method called "DKD" procedure was used. This procedure has already been used in several comparisons in Germany and other countries. The purpose to this comparison is to give support to the uncertainty claims for KEBS and will be used to determine the Calibration and Measurement Capability (CMC). In addition, this comparison will provide metrological proof of the application for a CMC entry in the BIPM Key Comparison Database (KCDB). This report describes the scheme and results of the comparison.To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database https://www.bipm.org/kcdb/.The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCM, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).

Thinking, feeling and coping by BoP healthcare consumers: policy-based intervention in an emerging market

ABSTRACT We examine the co-creation of value by bottom of the pyramid consumers in the health services context. Following a qualitative approach, we use the empirical context of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in India, one of the largest healthcare policy interventions in the world. Our grounded theory-based research used semi-structured interviews conducted in 28 villages across three states using a purposive sample (NRHM beneficiaries). The qualitative data were analysed utilising a discovery-oriented approach, in accordance with the value co-creation and service-dominant logic frameworks. We draw insights about the roles of individual agency, the individual’s social milieu, and supplementary forces in affecting different types of individual wellbeing. Our results help to explicate the processes of the exploitation, combination and reinforcement of resources within a co-created healthcare ecosystem, and six propositions explain value co-creation-driven health service delivery. We also discuss implications for marketers and policy implementers.

Two-body potential of Vainshtein screened theories

Adding a light scalar degree of freedom to General Relativity often induces a fifth force whose magnitude is strongly constrained by laboratory experiments and solar system tests. The Vainshtein screening mechanism ensures that the effects of this supplementary force are suppressed in dense environments. However, the field solution of theories exhibiting Vainshtein screening is only known in spherically symmetric situations. In this article we examine in different configurations the two-body potential energy of pointlike particles in a specific $P(X)$ theory with Vainshtein screening. We use ideas borrowed from the Effective One-Body approach of Buonanno and Damour in order to restrict the form of the solution. Our results indicate that, even if Vainshtein screening is also fully active in the equal-mass case, the nonlinear dependance of the two-body energy on the mass ratio implies a violation of the Equivalence Principle. We compute the contribution of this effect to the Moon orbit for generic theories equipped with Vainshtein screening.

Hobbes, Sovereignty, and Early American LiteratureFictions of Mass Democracy in Nineteenth-Century America

Hobbes, Sovereignty, and Early American LiteratureFictions of Mass Democracy in Nineteenth-Century America

Situated Practice and the Emergence of Ethical Research

This article explores the role scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a US federal science agency, played in researching and testing vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Drawing upon archival sources and oral history interview data, I challenge narratives that attribute the design of HPV vaccines to profit motive. Instead, I show that the researchers who developed the technology attempted to construct ethical approaches to vaccine development based on the values that emerged from their situated environments of technological, organizational, and institutional constraint. I argue that interpretations of “translational research” native to the NCI influenced these researchers’ efforts to design and test HPV vaccines. The organizational culture of translational research emerging in the NCI positioned intramural research as a countervailing and supplementary force to market-oriented translational research and development. Over time, NCI researchers’ conceptions of the Institute’s role allowed them to develop understandings of ethical HPV vaccine research as oriented toward addressing cervical cancer health disparities, especially in developing nations. NCI scientists’ understanding of their role in serving the public good through continued HPV vaccine innovation reflects the material and political economic environment they faced at different historical junctures that constrained the possibilities for innovation and ethical action.

Dual magnetic effects on soot production in partially premixed flames

The present paper further explores the potential of the gradient of the square of the magnetic flux density (∇(B2)) to control the soot production in flames. Experimental investigations assess for the first time the influence of ∇(B2) on the soot production in laminar axisymmetric partially premixed flames. The steady rich ethylene/oxygen flames are established in different coflowing mixtures, composed of oxygen and nitrogen, over a Santoro type burner, which is located in an electromagnet. The flame experiences different magnitudes of upward ∇(B2), ranging from 0 to 18.2 T2/m, as well as different oxygen contents of the coflow, ranging from 21% to 50% in volume, and different levels of the equivalence ratio, ranging from 5 to ∞. Soot temperature and volume fraction are mapped in the flame by a Modulated Absorption/Emission technique. Increasing the magnitude of ∇(B2) allows for the modification of soot production in the flame. A reversal of the magnetic effect compared to the non-premixed case is observed. For non-premixed flames, the upward ∇(B2) systematically leads to an increase in soot production, while this magnetic gradient can induce an overall reduction in soot production in some partially premixed flames. This original reversal is attributed to a switch of the magnetic force direction. As a result, this supplementary force can induce an increase or a decrease of the residence time in the rich region of a partially premixed flame, depending mainly on the fields of oxygen mole fraction and temperature in this region. In conjunction with more elaborated magnetic fields, these opposite trends may contribute to strategies for the control of soot production.

Cognitive model of GHEIRAT in Persian

GHEIRAT seems to be a complex emotion in Iranian men and women with a variety of contextual meanings including, jealousy, chivalry, courage, and protecting one’snâmus‘female family members’. GHEIRAT may be defined as a monitoring device or alarm system in the mind of Iranians. The cognitive linguistic analysis of the conceptual domains interacting with GHEIRAT indicates that the GHEIRAT concept operates to protect one’s values against threat, insult, and injury, provide assistance to the Other, and aid the Self in accomplishing goals as a supplementary force. Moreover, the paper comes to the conclusion that in Iranian culture, the cultural model of GHEIRAT is largely constituted by conceptual metaphors (THE OTHER IS A POTENTIAL OPPONENT, GHEIRAT IS A PHYSICAL SUPPLEMENTARY FORCE), conceptual metonymy (CAUSE FOR EFFECT) and related key concepts (ÂBERU ‘face’, NÂMUS ‘one’s female family members and the sanctity associated with them’, MAHRAMIAT ‘the legitimate physical and emotional intimacy between men and women’). Furthermore, based on Kövecses’s (2000) account of emotion concepts, it is revealed that GHEIRAT fulfills its functions indirectly through acting as a cause for other emotions and feelings such as ANGER, HATRED, JEALOUSY, and SELFLESSNESS.

HUMAN–ROBOT COLLISION AVOIDANCE USING A MODIFIED SOCIAL FORCE MODEL WITH BODY POSE AND FACE ORIENTATION

The ability of robots to understand human characteristics and make themselves socially accepted by humans are important issues if smooth collision avoidance between humans and robots is to be achieved. When discussing smooth collision avoidance, robot should understand not only physical components such as human position, but also social components such as body pose, face orientation and proxemics (personal space during motion). We integrated these components in a modified social force model (MSFM) which allows robots to predict human motion and perform smooth collision avoidance. In the modified model, short-term intended direction is described by body pose, and a supplementary force related face orientation is added for intention estimation. Face orientation is also the best indication of the direction of personal space during motion, which was verified in preliminary experiments. Our approach was implemented and tested on a real humanoid robot in a situation in which a human is confronted with the robot in an indoor environment. Experimental results showed that better human motion tracking was achieved with body pose and face orientation tracking. Being provided with the face orientation as an indication of the intended direction, and observing the laws of proxemics in a human-like manner, the robot was able to perform avoidance motions that were more human-like when compared to the original social force model (SFM) in a face-to-face confrontation.

Biomechanical Analysis of Corrective Forces in Spinal Instrumentation for Scoliosis Treatment

Computer modeling and simulations to analyze correction forces at the bone-screw interface in scoliosis instrumentation. To derive the minimum corrective forces applied on vertebrae through pedicle screws to achieve desired scoliosis corrections and evaluate the actual bone-screw forces associated with 3 types of pedicle screws (monoaxial, polyaxial, and dorsoaxial). The optimum screw pattern has not been established in the literature. The final bone-screw forces in scoliosis instrumentation consist of "true corrective forces" (i.e., the minimum forces required to achieve the desired corrections without considering adequate rod seating at all pedicle screws) and "extra forces" (EF) (i.e., supplementary forces applied to ensure proper rod seating when the attachment of some screws is not in compliance with the attachment of their neighboring screws; they have no benefit to overall corrections). METHODS.: Using patient-specific computer models, true corrective forces were estimated for 10 spinal instrumentation cases. EF were computed by simulating the instrumentations of the 10 cases using respectively monoaxial, polyaxial, and dorsoaxial screws. The average true corrective forces were 50 ± 30 N. The average bone-screw forces were 229 ± 140 N, 141 ± 99 N, and 103 ± 42 N, respectively, for monoaxial, polyaxial, and dorsoaxial screws; the averages of the EF magnitudes were 205 ± 136 N, 125 ± 93 N, and 65 ± 39 N, respectively. Bone-screw forces to achieve desired corrections can be minimized. However, EF are inevitable to secure the locking of all screws. Higher EF were associated with pedicle screws, with less degrees of freedom for connecting screw body to rod, that is, monoaxial followed by polyaxial and then by dorsoaxial screws.

Development and Testing of PFFSol1.1, a New Polarizable Atomic Force Field for Calculation of Molecular Interactions in Implicit Water Environment

A detailed calculation of protein interactions with explicitly considered water molecules takes enormous time. If water is considered implicitly (as media rather than as molecules), calculations become faster. These calculations are less precise, unless one uses voluminous computations of solvent-accessible areas. Our goal is to obtain parameters for nonbonded atom-atom interactions in implicitly considered water without computation of solvent-accessible areas. Because the "in-vacuum" interactions of atoms are obtained from experimental structures of crystals and enthalpies of their sublimation, the "in-water" interactions must be corrected using solvation free energies obtained from Henry's constants. Thus, we obtained parameters for the in-water van der Waals, electrostatic, and polarized interactions for atoms typical of protein structures. Parameters of covalent interactions were taken from the ENCAD force field and partial charges of atoms from quantum-mechanical calculations. The sought parameters of the in-water nonbonded interactions were optimized to achieve the best description of crystal structures and their sublimation and solvation at the room temperature. With the optimized parameters, the correlation between the calculated and experimental cohesion of molecules in crystals is 98.3% in the in-vacuum case (the supplementary force field PFFSubl1.1) and 95.4% the in-water case (the sought force field PFFSol1.1).

Dislocation core field. I. Modeling in anisotropic linear elasticity theory

Aside from the Volterra field, dislocations create a core field, which can be modeled in linear anisotropic elasticity theory with force and dislocation dipoles. We derive an expression of the elastic energy of a dislocation taking full account of its core field and show that no cross term exists between the Volterra and the core fields. We also obtain the contribution of the core field to the dislocation interaction energy with an external stress, thus showing that dislocation can interact with a pressure. The additional force that derives from this core-field contribution is proportional to the gradient of the applied stress. Such a supplementary force on dislocations may be important in high-stress-gradient regions, such as close to a crack tip or in a dislocation pileup.

Cancer Patients' Experience of Combined Treatment With Conventional and Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is used worldwide as a complementary and alternative medicine, but little is known about cancer patients' experience when using combination therapy of TCM and conventional medicine. The goal of this study was to understand the experiences of Taiwanese cancer patients undergoing conventional chemotherapy and using TCM at the same time. For this qualitative descriptive study, 9 cancer patients (42-63 years old) were interviewed individually and in depth using a semistructured guide. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Data were concurrently collected and analyzed using a constant comparative method to develop major themes and categories. Data analysis revealed 3 themes: (1) biomedical aspect: TCM as a supplementary force to conventional medicine, (2) psychological aspect: different beliefs about TCM create different TCM uses, and (3) social aspect: interactions among patients, physicians, and economic issues. Our study reveals that the phenomenon of using TCM is captured in a biopsychosocial model. When assessing the issue of TCM use among cancer patients, healthcare providers must take into consideration its biological, psychological, and social aspects.

The Thumb During the Crimp Grip

During rock-climbing, fingers grasp holds of various shapes with high force intensities. To ideally place the fingertips on the holds, the thumb is sometimes positioned on the nail of the index finger. This allows using the thumb as an additional actuator by exerting a supplementary force in the same direction as the index, middle, ring and little fingers. This study analysed how the forces exerted by the fingers are modified by the additional action of the thumb. The results showed that the thumb increases the resultant forces exerted on the hold. It was shown that the pathology risks of the middle, ring and little fingers were not modified in this condition. The finger force sharing was totally re-organized due to the support of the thumb. This led to the conclusion that the central nervous system organised the association of the 5 fingers. The results were discussed in regard to the established theories of the virtual fingers and the neutral line of the hand.

A two-level strategy for segmenting center of interest from pictures

Segmenting center of interests (COIs) from pictures is an important but highly challenging problem for researchers in computer vision and image processing. The capability of understanding the meanings of pictures by computers can lead to breakthroughs in a wide range of applications including Web image search and online picture-sharing communities. In this paper, a two-level strategy is presented, which consists of a rough segmentation stage and a fine segmentation stage. In the first level, a picture is partitioned into four regions by using a block clustering method based on color and texture features, and the COI within the picture is distinguished from the background according to the principles of photographic composition. This stage aims to determine the approximate region of the target. In the second level, a novel active contour model is established based on shape information and vector method, where the image energy is defined by a hue gradient and the external energy is generated from either a triangular inner force or a supplementary force. This stage tries to extract the boundary of the target accurately. Experimental results on photos downloaded from the Internet show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Lattice Boltzmann method for dynamic wetting problems

Wetting is an important phenomenon in many engineering applications. In this study, a new algorithm is presented to simulate 2D dynamic wetting phenomena using the single phase lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Basis of our method is an additional force at triple points where fluid, gas and wall intersect. This supplementary force, which is treated as a capillary force, is able to simulate the equilibrium and dynamic wetting behavior of liquids. Based on this method, droplet spreading or recoiling on a solid surface and the capillary rise with various wetting properties can be simulated successfully. The results of the simulation are compared with analytical solutions and experiments. Good agreement is achieved for dynamic as well as equilibrium situations.