Evolution and stability of 2-mercaptobenzimidazole inhibitor film upon Al alloy 6061

Journal of Applied Electrochemistry - Organic corrosion inhibitors have become competent alternatives to hazardous chrome conversion coatings due to their rapid adsorption over metal surfaces in...     

Microscopic Methods for Identification of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria from Various Habitats

This paper is devoted to microscopic methods for the identification of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). In this context, it describes various habitats, morphology and techniques used for the detection and identification of this very heterogeneous group of anaerobic microorganisms. SRB are present in almost every habitat on Earth, including freshwater and marine water, soils, sediments or animals. In the oil, water and gas industries, they can cause considerable economic losses due to their hydrogen sulfide production; in periodontal lesions and the colon of humans, they can cause health complications. Although the role of these bacteria in inflammatory bowel diseases is not entirely known yet, their presence is increased in patients and produced hydrogen sulfide has a cytotoxic effect. For these reasons, methods for the detection of these microorganisms were described. Apart from selected molecular techniques, including metagenomics, fluorescence microscopy was one of the applied methods. Especially fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in various modifications was described. This method enables visual identification of SRB, determining their abundance and spatial distribution in environmental biofilms and gut samples.     

Towards artificial intelligence at scale in the chemical industry

In the Industry 4.0 era, the chemical industry is embracing broad adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) methods. This article provides a holistic view of how the industry is transforming digitally towards AI at scale. First, a historical perspective on how the industry used AI to aid humans in better decision-making is shown. Then state-of-the-art AI research addressing industrial needs on reliability and safety, process optimization, supply chain, material discovery, and reaction engineering is highlighted. Finally, a vision of the plant of the future is illustrated with critical components of AI-ready culture, model life cycle management, and renewed role of humans in chemical manufacturing.     

Multiple Chemical Features Impact Biological Performance Diversity of a Highly Active Natural Product-Inspired Library

A systematic, diversity-oriented synthesis approach was employed to access a natural product-inspired flavonoid library with diverse chemical features, including chemical properties, scaffold, stereochemistry, and appendages. Using Cell Painting, the effects of these diversity elements were evaluated, and multiple chemical features that predict biological performance diversity were identified. Scaffold identity appears to be the dominant predictor of performance diversity, but stereochemistry and appendages also contribute to a lesser degree. In addition, the diversity of chemical properties contributed to performance diversity, and the driving chemical property was dependent on the scaffold. These results highlight the importance of key chemical features that may inform the creation of small-molecule, performance-diverse libraries to improve the efficiency and success of high-throughput screening campaigns.     

Gastric Adenocarcinomas and Signet-Ring Cell Carcinoma: Unraveling Gastric Cancer Complexity through Microbiome Analysis—Deepening Heterogeneity for a Personalized Therapy

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most prevalent cancer worldwide and the third leading cause of global cancer mortality. With the advances of the omic studies, a heterogeneous GC landscape has been revealed, with significant molecular diversity. Given the multifaceted nature of GC, identification of different patient subsets with prognostic and/or predictive outcomes is a key aspect to allow tailoring of specific treatments. Recently, the involvement of the microbiota in gastric carcinogenesis has been described. To deepen this aspect, we compared microbiota composition in signet-ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) and adenocarcinoma (ADC), two distinct GC subtypes. To this purpose, 10 ADC and 10 SRCC and their paired non-tumor (PNT) counterparts were evaluated for microbiota composition through 16S rRNA analysis. Weighted and unweighted UniFrac and Bray–Curtis dissimilarity showed significant community-level separation between ADC and SRCC. Through the LEfSe (linear discriminant analysis coupled with effect size) tool, we identified potential microbial biomarkers associated with GC subtypes. In particular, SRCCs were significantly enriched in the phyla Fusobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Patescibacteria, whereas in the ADC type, Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria phyla were found. Overall, our data add new insights into GC heterogeneity and may contribute to deepening the GC classification.     

Commentary to: An exact schedulability test for fixed-priority preemptive mixed-criticality real-time systems

Real-Time Systems - In this paper we point to some errors in recent paper by Asyaban et al. in which they devise an exact schedulability test. These errors are critical for the correct operation of...     

Magnetocaloric and magneto-transport properties of Gd10Co20Si70 alloy

We report the results of magnetic, thermodynamic, transport and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) studies of newly synthesized Gd_(10)Co_(20)Si_(70) alloy. These measurements confirm an antiferromagnetic transition at T_N=9 K. Both MCE and magnetoresistance (MR) show quadratic dependence on the applied magnetic field, indicating the presence of spin fluctuations in the alloy. The maximum values of the magnetic entropy change determined from the isothermal magnetization data for magnetic field change of 7 and9 T are found to be 10.5 and 15.6 J/kg·K, respectively. As a consequence of the spin fluctuations effect, the MCE peaks are pulled towards high temperature side as asymmetrically broadened peak. The MR attains a large positive value of 73%at 2 K in 8 T. The large MR and reversible MCE make this alloy an attractive multifunctional magnetic material.     

Investigation the correlation between chemical structure and swelling,thermal and flocculation properties of carboxymethylcellulose hydrogels

Hydrophilic polymer networks (hydrogels) based on sodium carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC) and polycarboxylic acids (oxalic, succinic, citric and adipic) as cross-linking agents are synthesized by esterification reaction; one series of NaCMC hydrogels cross-linked with citric acid is prepared with acrylamide and acrylic acid (Aam/Aac) copolymers using the design of semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (semi-IPN), in order to increase their potential application for flocculation purposes. The Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) of hydrogels confirms the esterification reaction between NaCMC and cross-linking agents. Results of swelling measurements show that citric acid in the amount of 15 wt% gives the hydrogels with the best absorption capacity. The results of Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) show no significant difference in thermal properties of neat and semi-interpenetrating NaCMC hydrogels. The amorphous nature of hydrogels is confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The results of flocculation study show that combination of NaCMC network and Aam/Aac copolymer with initial mass ratio of 10/90 creates a theoretical platform for the production of flocculant which could show high efficacy in purifying of water dominated by positively charged particles.