A new wave of innovations in psychology: High intellectual and creative educational multimedia technologies.

This article describes high intellectual and creative educational multimedia technologies (HICEMTs), which will constitute one of the innovative breakthroughs in science and technology of the 21st century and will lead to a new wave of innovations in psychology. HICEMTs appear at the intersection of many subdisciplines of psychology (including general, cognitive, developmental, educational, personality, media, cyber, and applied), education, and multimedia. The general and specific nature of HICEMTs is considered. The importance of HICEMTs is discussed from technological, economic, societal, educational, and psychological perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural Effects in Determining Silicon Concentration in Al - Si Alloys by X-Ray Fluorescence and Mass Spectrometry

The paper discusses how the structure of aluminum alloys affects the determination of silicon by x-ray fluorescence and glow-discharge mass spectrometry. As the silicon microcrystals enlarge, there tends to be an exaggeration of its content. The kinetics of the silicon-ion concentration change in the glow-discharge plasma show that cathode sputtering causes reconstruction of the surface layer. The processes are different for a binary alloy (with 3% silicon) as against multicomponent alloys. A method is proposed for diminishing the structural effect, which is based on preliminary treatment of the surface with microsecond pulse discharges, which results in a microcrystalline surface layer of thickness 20–50 µm. This suppresses the structural effects and provides reliable data on the silicon content.__________Translated from Poroshkovaya Metallurgiya, Nos. 3–4(442), pp. 106–112, March–April, 2005.     

Pushing the Limits of Medical Management in HCM: A Review of Current Pharmacological Therapy Options

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common monogenic cardiac disease with a highly variable phenotypic expression, ranging from asymptomatic to drug refractory heart failure (HF) presentation. Pharmacological therapy is the first line of treatment, but options are currently limited to nonspecific medication like betablockers or calcium channel inhibitors, with frequent suboptimal results. While being the gold standard practice for the management of drug refractory HCM patients, septal reduction therapy (SRT) remains an invasive procedure with associated surgical risks and it requires the expertise of the operating centre, thus limiting its accessibility. It is therefore with high interest that researchers look for pharmacological alternatives that could provide higher rates of success. With new data gathering these past years as well as the development of a new drug class showing promising results, this review provides an up-to-date focused synthesis of existing medical treatment options and future directions for HCM pharmacological treatment.     

Mechanochemical Nitration of Aromatic Compounds

Nitration of organic compounds is necessary to produce many energetic materials, such as TNT and nitrocellulose. The conventional nitration process uses a mixture of concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids as nitrating agents and multiple solvents. The chemicals are corrosive and require special handling and disposal procedures. In this study, aromatic nitration has been achieved using solvent-free mechanochemical processing of environmentally benign precursors. Mononitrotoluene was synthesized by milling toluene with sodium nitrate and molybdenum trioxide as a Lewis acid catalyst. Several parameters affecting the desired product yield were identified and varied. A number of byproducts, i.e., dimers of toluene were also produced, but the selectivity was observed to increase with increasing mononitrotoluene yield. Both absolute mononitrotoluene yields and selectivity of its production increased with the increase in the energy transferred to the material from the milling tools.     

Structure-Activity Relationship Modeling and Experimental Validation of the Imidazolium and Pyridinium Based Ionic Liquids as Potential Antibacterials of MDR Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus aureus

Online Chemical Modeling Environment (OCHEM) was used for QSAR analysis of a set of ionic liquids (ILs) tested against multi-drug resistant (MDR) clinical isolate Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus aureus strains. The predictive accuracy of regression models has coefficient of determination q² = 0.66 − 0.79 with cross-validation and independent test sets. The models were used to screen a virtual chemical library of ILs, which was designed with targeted activity against MDR Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus aureus strains. Seven most promising ILs were selected, synthesized, and tested. Three ILs showed high activity against both these MDR clinical isolates.     

Characterization of spatial patterns of dental restorative nanocomposites

The aim of this study was to provide important insights into the effects of four different dental polishing protocols (one single‐step and one multi‐step either followed or not by diamond paste polishing) on the 3D surface morphology of two representative dental resin‐based nanocomposites (a nanofilled and a nanohybrid composite) by means of digital image analysis and processing techniques. The 3D surface morphology was investigated by atomic force microscopy. Segmentation, statistics of height distributions (described by statistical parameters, according to ISO 25178‐2: 2012) and Minkowski functionals were applied to the images to characterize the spatial patterns of analyzed samples at micrometer scale. The nanofilled composite had significantly lower values of height parameters in comparison with nanohybrid one. Multi‐step polishing protocol generated a statistically significant smoother finish for both tested materials, than one‐step polishing protocol, even when it was followed by diamond paste polishing. Diamond paste polishing generated a statistically significant smoother surface of tested samples. This suite of surface analysis tools is important in the research and manufacture of these dental resin‐based nanocomposites, where material surfaces have a key role in the functionality of objects.     

Metabolomics as a Tool to Elucidate the Sensory,Nutritional and Safety Quality of Wheat Bread—A Review

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the most extensively cultivated and used staple crops in human nutrition, while wheat bread is annually consumed in more than nine billion kilograms over the world. Consumers’ purchase decisions on wheat bread are largely influenced by its nutritional and sensorial characteristics. In the last decades, metabolomics is considered an effective tool for elucidating the information on metabolites; however, the deep investigations on metabolites still remain a difficult and longtime action. This review gives emphasis on the achievements in wheat bread metabolomics by highlighting targeted and untargeted analyses used in this field. The metabolomics approaches are discussed in terms of quality, processing and safety of wheat and bread, while the molecular mechanisms involved in the sensorial and nutritional characteristics of wheat bread are pointed out. These aspects are of crucial importance in the context of new consumers’ demands on healthy bakery products rich in bioactive compounds but, equally, with good sensorial acceptance. Moreover, metabolomics is a potential tool for assessing the changes in nutrient composition from breeding to processing, while monitoring and understanding the transformations of metabolites with bioactive properties, as well as the formation of compounds like toxins during wheat storage.