The 2nd Alpine Winter Conference on Medicinal and Synthetic Chemistry

The second biannual Alpine Winter Conference on Medicinal and Synthetic Chemistry (short: Alpine Winter Conference) took place January 19–23, 2020, in St. Anton in western Austria. There were roughly 180 attendees from around the globe, making this mid-sized conference particularly conducive to networking and exchanging ideas over the course of four and a half days. This report summarizes the key events and presentations given by researchers working in both industry and academia.     

Fingerprinting soot (towards source identification): Physical structure and chemical composition

Soot is a highly variable material. Physically the nanostructure can range from amorphous to graphitic to fullerenic. Chemically nearly any element may be included, while the surface functional groups are predominantly oxygen-based. Presented here are HRTEM image analysis results of the physical nanostructure and XPS analysis of the surface chemical composition of soot collected from plant and industrial scale oil-fired boilers, a diesel engine, jet engine and a wildfire. Physically soots from these emission source classes may be differentiated on the basis of carbon lamella length, mean separation and tortuosity. Chemically these soots may also be distinguished by elemental composition and surface functional groups. Together, this suite of parameters can be used to differentiate natural from anthropogenic soots.     

Can Agents Influence Property Perceptions Through Their Appearance and Use of Pathos?

This study takes 1594 potential homebuyers on a Web-based audio/visual tour of a typically priced home in their area. Using a voice-altering software as well as before and after extreme makeover photos, we are able to isolate the effect of real estate agent characteristics—attractiveness, gender, and pathos—on their ability to change the opinions of potential homebuyers. We find that attractive female agents who employ pathos are significantly able to alter the impression of the property in the minds of respondents. Furthermore, agents using pathos are not viewed as less trustworthy than agents not using pathos.     

Glycerol Esters from Real Waste Cooking Oil Using a Robust Solid Acid Catalyst

Notwithstanding the food-for-fuel debate, turning waste cooking oil and fat (WCO) into a valuable product is a classic example of green chemistry. We demonstrate that sulfated zirconia and lanthanum-supported sulfated zirconia are good catalysts for the esterification of WCO free fatty acids (FFAs) with glycerol, giving high-value monoglycerides. Various catalysts were first screened using palmitic acid as a model FFA. Subsequently, six 10-kg batches of actual WCO were collected from commercial cookeries over a period of 28 weeks, pre-treated in a purpose-built decanter and esterified with industrial grade glycerol using heterogeneous catalysis. Good yield and turnovers were obtained. The pre-treatment stage and the catalytic esterification experiments are described and discussed.

     

Novel and Annotated Long Noncoding RNAs Associated with Ischemia in the Human Heart

Background: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. We aimed to identify novel lncRNAs associated with the early response to ischemia in the heart. Methods and Results: RNA sequencing data gathered from 81 paired left ventricle samples from patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass was collected before and after a period of ischemia. Novel lncRNAs were validated with Oxford Nanopore Technologies long-read sequencing. Gene modules associated with an early ischemic response were identified and the subcellular location of selected lncRNAs was determined with RNAscope. A total of 2446 mRNAs, 270 annotated lncRNAs and one novel lncRNA differed in response to ischemia (adjusted p < 0.001, absolute fold change >1.2). The novel lncRNA belonged to a gene module of highly correlated genes that also included 39 annotated lncRNAs. This module associated with ischemia (Pearson correlation coefficient = −0.69, p = 1 × 10⁻²³) and activation of cell death pathways (p < 6 × 10⁻⁹). A further nine novel cardiac lncRNAs were identified, of which, one overlapped five cis-eQTL eSNPs for the gene RWD Domain-Containing Sumoylation Enhancer (RWDD3) and was itself correlated with RWDD3 expression (Pearson correlation coefficient −0.2, p = 0.002). Conclusion: We have identified 10 novel lncRNAs, one of which was associated with myocardial ischemia and may have potential as a novel therapeutic target or early marker for myocardial dysfunction.     

Reinventing refills: guidelines for design

This paper draws on the findings of a Department for Environment and Rural Affairs funded collaborative research project run by the Loughborough Design School in collaboration with Boots Alliance GmbH and presents guidelines for design teams regarding the design of successful, sustainable, refillable packaging. The study focused on “body wash” products in the area of personal care. A broad range of qualitative methods were used to create a background framework, develop design concepts, and test the viability of the design solutions. Two concepts were turned into high‐fidelity prototypes and tested in multi‐activity user focus groups. The prototypes were also evaluated from an environmental perspective using the Eco Indicator 99. Discussion is focused around general findings regarding refillable packing and also on specific findings related to “concentrates mixed in the parent pack.” The findings from this study have dramatically increased levels of understanding about the potential implications of refillable packaging and how it might be successfully used by business. A range of guidelines for the design of refills have been identified, which help to build a clearer picture of the requirements of successful refillable packaging design. Additionally, a much more detailed understanding of consumer perceptions, business challenges/opportunities, and environmental savings associated with “concentrated refills that are mixed in the parent pack,” has been identified. It has been seen that to be successful refills must perform for the consumer, the environment, and business, and although this may sound unsurprising, it is challenging to achieve. It means they must offer good quality; be very easy to use and appropriately delivered; be clearly communicated; be offered through a brand consumers like; and represent good value, whilst radically reducing the amount of packaging manufactured and distributed. Incorporating carefully considered consumer and environmental needs into the brief is critical to the successful development of refillable packaging.     

A cooperative control model for multiagent-based material handling systems

This paper presents an Artificial Immune System (AIS)-based model for cooperative control of multiagent systems. This cooperative control model describes collective behaviors of autonomous agents, known as the AIS agents that are exemplified by the regulated activities performed by individual agents under the computation paradigm of Artificial Immune System. The regulations and emergence of agent behaviors are derived from the immune threshold measures that determine those activities performed by the AIS agents at an individual level. These threshold measures together with the collective behavioral model defined the cooperative control of the AIS-based control framework under which AIS agents behave and act strategically according to the changing environment. The cooperative control model is presented under the three domains, namely exploration, achievement and cooperation domains where AIS agents operate. In this research, we implemented the proposed cooperative control model with a case study of automated material handling with a group of AIS agents that cooperate to achieve the defined tasks.     

Boundary factors and contextual contingencies: configuring electronic templates for healthcare professionals

In this paper, we propose an approach to balance the legitimate and yet conflicting perspectives between standardization and reconfiguration embedded within hospital information systems (HIS) design activities. We report on an action research study of the customization process of an electronic triage and tracking system that was reconfigured to be used in eight Canadian emergency departments. We argue that during HIS design activities, it is essential for both practitioners and system designers to articulate and identify which aspects can be standardized without constraining important local flexibility and which aspects require local reconfiguration to function in a particular work context. To identify these differences, we suggest an analytical distinction between boundary factors and contextual contingencies, which can be used in a design and reconfiguration process. We argue that the process of designing shared electronic templates should be perceived as a common design process, where multiple stakeholders articulate, identify, and negotiate boundary factors and contextual contingencies. Boundary factors are then represented within the shared electronic system, whereas contextual contingencies form the basis for constructing localized versions of the shared application. All local versions include both boundary factors and the reconfigured contextual contingencies.     

Recovery of 3D animal motions using cameras and mirrors

We present a system that tracks an articulated body performing 3D movement with occlusions using a combination of cameras and mirrors. By integrating cameras and mirrors we get a simultaneous coverage of almost every point on the target and avoid occlusions. The suggested setup is much simpler and easier to handle compared to the equivalent, camera-based setup. Our tracking algorithm is model-based, and errors in the model are treated using the bundle adjustment procedure. In order to deal with the problem of feature visibility, each feature is set to be valid or invalid based on the model and on its expected appearance; this ensures that the system always tracks a set of distinguishable features. The proposed algorithm was able to track targets in 3D using the Gauss–Newton method to minimize geometric errors. We tested our setup by tracking the chameleon’s eyes. Tracking the eyes of a chameleon can be considered as the estimation of the 3D pose of an articulated body, where the head of the chameleon is considered as a rigid body, and each of the two eyes has additional two degrees of freedom. The algorithm proposed can be easily expanded to cope with more complex objects.