Hydration of Kr(aq) in dilute and concentrated solutions

Molecular dynamics simulations of water with both multi-Kr and single Kr atomic solutes are carried out to implement quasi-chemical theory evaluation of the hydration free energy of Kr(aq). This approach obtains free energy differences reflecting Kr-Kr interactions at higher concentrations. Those differences are negative changes in hydration free energies with increasing concentrations at constant pressure. The changes are due to a slight reduction of packing contributions in the higher concentration case. The observed Kr-Kr distributions, analyzed with the extrapolation procedure of Kr\"{u}ger, \emph{et al.}, yield a modestly attractive osmotic second virial coefficient, $B_2\approx -60~\mathrm{cm}^3$/mol. The thermodynamic analysis interconnecting these two approaches shows that they are closely consistent with each other, providing support for both.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. Revision follows the extrapolation procedure of Refs. 33 and 34 which works nicely. The thermodynamic results are now clearly consistent. The $k \rightarrow 0$ extrapolation of the Fourier transform was not was satisfactor

Graphical representation of an error occuring in linear system solution

U članku se razmatra problem pogreške u rješenju sustava linearnih jednadžbi koja nastaje zbog promjene desne strane sustava. Za ilustraciju tog problema koriste se mogućnosti programskog paketa Mathematica.The paper considers the problem of an error in solving a linear system, which occurs due to a change of the system right-hand side. This problem is graphically illustrated by the Mathematica software package

Compendium of NASA Langley reports on hypersonic aerodynamics

Reference is made to papers published by the Langley Research Center in various areas of hypersonic aerodynamics for the period 1950 to 1986. The research work was performed either in-house by the Center staff or by other personnel supported entirely or in part by grants or contracts. Abstracts have been included with the references when available. The references are listed chronologically and are grouped under the following general headings: (1) Aerodynamic Measurements - Single Shapes; (2) Aerodynamic Measurements - Configurations; (3) Aero-Heating; (4) Configuration Studies; (5) Propulsion Integration Experiment; (6) Propulsion Integration - Study; (7) Analysis Methods; (8) Test Techniques; and (9) Airframe Active Cooling Systems

Novel paradigm for immunotherapy of breast cancer by engaging prophylactic immunity against hepatitis B

Background Immunotherapy of patients suffering from the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpressing (HER-2+) breast cancers with the anti-HER-2 antibodies results in increase of the patients’ overall survival. However, no prophylactic vaccine is available against HER-2+ breast cancers. Although, prophylactic vaccine for human hepatitis B virus (HBV) is very effective. Specific aim The specific aim of this work was to design, synthesize, and test bio-molecules which would engage prophylactic immunity against hepatitis B virus towards killing breast cancers cells. Methods and Results By biomolecular engineering, we have created a novel family of biomolecules: antibody (anti-HER-2) × vaccine (HBsAg) engineered constructs (AVEC: anti-HER-2 × HBsAg). These biomolecules were utilized for redirecting, accelerating, and amplifying of the vaccination-induced, prophylactic immunity originally targeted against HBV as therapeutic immunity, newly targeted against HER-2+ breast cancers. Treatment of the HER-2+ breast cancer cells with AVEC: anti-HER-2 × HBsAg in blood of the patients, vaccinated with HBsAg, rapidly increased efficacy of killing of HER-2+ breast cancer cells over that attained with the naked anti-HER-2 antibodies. Conclusion Novel antibody-vaccine engineered constructs (AVEC) facilitate redirecting, accelerating, and amplifying of prophylactic, HBV vaccination-induced immunity as immunotherapy (RAAVIIT) of HER-2+ breast cancer. We currently streamline this novel therapeutic paradigm into clinical trials of breast and other cancers

Hybridizing two-step growth mixture model and exploratory factor analysis to examine heterogeneity in nonlinear trajectories

Empirical researchers are usually interested in investigating the impacts of baseline covariates have when uncovering sample heterogeneity and separating samples into more homogeneous groups. However, a considerable number of studies in the structural equation modeling (SEM) framework usually start with vague hypotheses in terms of heterogeneity and possible reasons. It suggests that (1) the determination and specification of a proper model with covariates is not straightforward, and (2) the exploration process may be computational intensive given that a model in the SEM framework is usually complicated and the pool of candidate covariates is usually huge in the psychological and educational domain where the SEM framework is widely employed. Following \citet{Bakk2017two}, this article presents a two-step growth mixture model (GMM) that examines the relationship between latent classes of nonlinear trajectories and baseline characteristics. Our simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed model is capable of clustering the nonlinear change patterns, and estimating the parameters of interest unbiasedly, precisely, as well as exhibiting appropriate confidence interval coverage. Considering the pool of candidate covariates is usually huge and highly correlated, this study also proposes implementing exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to reduce the dimension of covariate space. We illustrate how to use the hybrid method, the two-step GMM and EFA, to efficiently explore the heterogeneity of nonlinear trajectories of longitudinal mathematics achievement data.Comment: Draft version 1.6, 08/08/2020. This paper has not been peer reviewed. Please do not copy or cite without author's permissio

Suitability of viscosity measurement methods for liquid food variety and applicability in food industry - A review.

Although there are several approaches to measure viscosity of liquid foods in the literature, the successful selected technique depends on the specific product and the functional characteristics that need to be analyzed. Accordingly, it is not an easy task for food technologists to determine the suitable approach to be used. Therefore briefing the existing methods, working principles, advantages, limitations and their successful applications for well known published articles, may enable the researchers to choose the optimum approach. The intensive review revealed that the most commonly used viscosity measurement devices are capillary flow viscometers, orifice type viscometers, falling ball viscometers, and rotational viscometers. Glass capillary viscometers are widely used for measuring low to medium viscosity of Newtonian fluids. In order to measure the viscosity of difficult fluids like those having large particles non-conventional geometries such as mixer viscometry method is used. Tube viscometer method which might be considered as a wide-bore capillary viscometer with a special capability to handle suspensions is currently used to determine rheological behaviour of a product after a thermal treatment. Scraped surface heat exchangers (SSHE) are widely used in food industry for thermal treatment of very viscous food products. Mass detecting capillary viscometer is a new technique to measure the viscosity of milk and soymilk products. In order to measure the viscosity of food stabilizers coaxial viscometers are recommended. Also, possibly the best known of the orifice viscometers in the food industry is the dipping-type Zahn viscometer. Finally, it could be inferred that the viscosity ought to be independent on the instrument, so different instruments will yield the same results, but this is a theoretical concept and different instruments rarely yield identical results

Harnessing Information Technology to Inform Patients Facing Routine Decisions: Cancer Screening as a Test Case

PURPOSE Technology could transform routine decision making by anticipating patients’ information needs, assessing where patients are with decisions and preferences, personalizing educational experiences, facilitating patient-clinician information exchange, and supporting follow-up. This study evaluated whether patients and clinicians will use such a decision module and its impact on care, using 3 cancer screening decisions as test cases. METHODS Twelve practices with 55,453 patients using a patient portal participated in this prospective observational cohort study. Participation was open to patients who might face a cancer screening decision: women aged 40 to 49 who had not had a mammogram in 2 years, men aged 55 to 69 who had not had a prostate-specific antigen test in 2 years, and adults aged 50 to 74 overdue for colorectal cancer screening. Data sources included module responses, electronic health record data, and a postencounter survey. RESULTS In 1 year, one-fifth of the portal users (11,458 patients) faced a potential cancer screening decision. Among these patients, 20.6% started and 7.9% completed the decision module. Fully 47.2% of module completers shared responses with their clinician. After their next office visit, 57.8% of those surveyed thought their clinician had seen their responses, and many reported the module made their appointment more productive (40.7%), helped engage them in the decision (47.7%), broadened their knowledge (48.1%), and improved communication (37.5%). CONCLUSIONS Many patients face decisions that can be anticipated and proactively facilitated through technology. Although use of technology has the potential to make visits more efficient and effective, cultural, workflow, and technical changes are needed before it could be widely disseminated

Assessing biofilm formation by Listeria monocytogenes

Listeria monocytogenes(L. monocytogenes) is a serious food-borne pathogen for immunocompromised individuals. L. monocytogenes is capable of producing biofilm on the surface of food processing lines and instruments. The biofilm transfers contamination to food products and impose risk to public health. Transfers contamination to food products, and impose risk hazard to public health. The aim of this study was to investigate biofilm producing ability of L. monocytogenes isolates. Microtitre assay was used to measure the amount of biofilm production by ten L. monocytogenes isolates from minced chicken / meat, sausages and burgers. Results showed that all 10 L. monocytogenes isolates were able to form biofilm after 24 h at 20 ̊C on polystyrene surface (the common surface in food industries). Some strains were capable of forming biofilm more than the others. All strains showed a slight raise in the quantities of attached cells over 48 and 72 h. L. monocytogenes strains isolated from minced chicken, minced meat and burgers were better biofilm-producers comparing to the strains isolated from sausages