Paraphimosis in a 27-year-old male after sexual intercourse – non-surgical approach useful for physicians

Paraphimosis is a rare medical condition, but a common urologic emergency that can be presented to physicians of many backgrounds. Prompt diagnosis and treatment are important, hence it should be useful for any clinician to be familiar with its proper management. Many clinic-based, non-surgical treatments are available and preventive efforts exist in order to help patients who are at high risk of the condition. The case report presents an unusual case of a healthy young adult male with paraphimosis after sexual intercourse

Motion of the hydrogen bond proton in cytosine and the transition between its normal and imino states

The potential energy surface of the H13 proton in base cytosine of the DNA molecules is calculated {\it ab initio} at the Gaussian98 MP2/6-311G(d,p) level. Two potential wells are found. One corresponds to the normal cytosine, while the other corresponds to its imino tautomer. The bindings of the proton in these wells are stable enough against the thermo-disturbance. The motions of the proton in these wells are oscillations around the nearest nitrogen atom like the pendula, and may move far away from the nitrogen atom to form the hydrogen bond with other bases. The estimated tunneling probability of the H13 proton from one well to another well shows that the life time of the proton staying in one of these wells is about 6$\times10^2$ yr. It is too long to let tautomers of cytosine be in thermodynamical equilibrium in a room temperature gas phase experiment. The biological significance of these result is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, replace the bmp files in figures 1 and 2 by corresponding eps files in tex

An innovative game-based approach for teaching urban sustainability

This paper is based on SUSTAIN, an ERASMUS+ project with an innovative perspective on urban transportation, and its target is to promote the importance of sustainability on the everyday problem of urban transportation among the students of higher education (and not only), who are the policy makers of tomorrow. In order to achieve its goals, the research team is currently developing a course that will be based on an interactive serious board game with an analytical style of education. SUSTAIN's purpose is to create a game that will allow students to learn about transportation sustainability and societal metabolism through playing. The project partners develop small and illustrative simulation models, which will make the definitions more concrete and allow students to experiment largely in a consequence-free environment. The simulation models can be used to identify scenario exemplars on how we can achieve sustainable urban transportation and consequently a balanced societal metabolism, while on the same time taking into account formal decision making processes. In this paper, we are going to explain a Stocks & Flows Diagram for the above mentioned model, with a system dynamics approac

Constant activity of glutamine synthetase after morphine administration versus proteomic results

Glutamine synthetase is a key enzyme which has a regulatory role in the brain glutamate pool. According to previously published proteomic analysis, it was shown that the expression level of this enzyme is affected by morphine administration. In our study, we examined the activity of glutamine synthetase in various structures of rat brain (cortex, striatum, hippocampus and spinal cord) that are biochemically and functionally involved in drug addiction and antinociception caused by morphine. We were not able to observe any significant changes in the enzyme activity between morphine-treated and control samples despite previously reported changes in the expression levels of this enzyme. These findings stressed the fact that changes observed in the expression of particular proteins during proteomic studies may not be correlated with its activity

Artificial Intelligence for Energy Processes and Systems: Applications and Perspectives

In recent years, artificial intelligence has become increasingly popular and is more often used by scientists and entrepreneurs. The rapid development of electronics and computer science is conducive to developing this field of science. Man needs intelligent machines to create and discover new relationships in the world, so AI is beginning to reach various areas of science, such as medicine, economics, management, and the power industry. Artificial intelligence is one of the most exciting directions in the development of computer science, which absorbs a considerable amount of human enthusiasm and the latest achievements in computer technology. This article was dedicated to the practical use of artificial neural networks. The article discusses the development of neural networks in the years 1940–2022, presenting the most important publications from these years and discussing the latest achievements in the use of artificial intelligence. One of the chapters focuses on the use of artificial intelligence in energy processes and systems. The article also discusses the possible directions for the future development of neural networks

Synthesis and characterisation of PEG-peptide surfaces for proteolytic enzyme detection

Peptide surfaces were obtained by the covalent immobilisation of fluorescently labelled pentapeptides carboxyfluorescein–glycine–arginine–methionine–leucine–glycine, either directly or through a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) linker on modified silicon wafers. Each step during the preparation of the peptide surfaces was confirmed by several surface characterisation techniques. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to determine the surface composition, the wafers philicity was measured by contact angle and atomic force microscopy was used to investigate the surface morphology. Exposure of the peptide surfaces to trypsin resulted in the release of a fluorescently labelled peptide product, which allowed the kinetics of the enzymatic reaction to be followed with the aid of fluorescence spectroscopy. The electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry analysis of the post-digestion solution confirmed that the pentapeptides attached to the solid support undergo specific trypsin hydrolysis at the C-terminus of the arginine residues. Detailed surface analyses before and after the enzyme action was performed using ToF-SIMS. Because of the limited accessibility of the short peptide directly attached to the surface, a quantitative yield of enzymatic hydrolysis was observed only in case when the peptide was bound through the PEG linker. The insertion of the PEG linker increased the number of immobilised peptides and the rate of enzymatic digestion which consequently improved the quality of the enzyme assays. The described approach may be used for different peptide sequences designed for other proteases. Figure Monitoring of trypsin hydrolysis on PEG-peptide surfac

CO₂ Capture by Virgin Ivy Plants Growing Up on the External Covers of Houses as a Rapid Complementary Route to Achieve Global GHG Reduction Targets

Global CO2 concentration level in the air is unprecedently high and should be rapidly and significantly reduced to avoid a global climate catastrophe. The work indicates the possibility of quickly lowering the impact of changes that have already happened and those we know will happen, especially in terms of the CO2 emitted and stored in the atmosphere, by implanting a virgin ivy plant on the available area of walls and roofs of the houses. The proposed concept of reducing CO2 from the atmosphere is one of the technologies with significant potential for implementation entirely and successfully. For the first time, we showed that the proposed concept allows over 3.5 billion tons of CO2 to be captured annually directly from the atmosphere, which makes even up 6.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The value constitutes enough high CO2 reduction to consider the concept as one of the applicable technologies allowing to decelerate global warming. Additional advantages of the presented concept are its global nature, it allows for the reduction of CO2 from all emission sources, regardless of its type and location on earth, and the fact that it will simultaneously lower the air temperature, contribute to oxygen production, and reduce dust in the environment

Modelling of SO2 and NOx Emissions from Coal and Biomass Combustion in Air-Firing, Oxyfuel, iG-CLC, and CLOU Conditions by Fuzzy Logic Approach

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is one of the most advanced technologies allowing for the reduction in CO2 emissions during the combustion of solid fuels. The modified method combines chemical looping with oxygen uncoupling (CLOU) and in situ gasification chemical looping combustion (iG-CLC). As a result, an innovative hybrid chemical looping combustion came into existence, making the above two technologies complementary. Since the complexity of the CLC is still not sufficiently recognized, the study of this process is of a practical significance. The paper describes the experiences in the modelling of complex geometry CLC equipment. The experimental facility consists of two reactors: an air reactor and a fuel reactor. The paper introduces the fuzzy logic (FL) method as an artificial intelligence (AI) approach for the prediction of SO2 and NOx (i.e., NO + NO2) emissions from coal and biomass combustion carried out in air-firing; oxyfuel; iG-CLC; and CLOU conditions. The developed model has been successfully validated on a 5 kWth research unit called the dual fluidized bed chemical looping combustion of solid fuels (DFB-CLC-SF)

Polymeric spatial resolution test patterns for mass spectrometry imaging using nano‐thermal analysis with atomic force microscopy

RATIONALE: As the spatial resolution of mass spectrometry imaging technologies has begun to reach into the nanometer regime, finding readily available or easily made resolution reference materials has become particularly challenging for molecular imaging purposes. This paper describes the fabrication, characterization and use of vertical line array polymeric spatial resolution test patterns for nano‐thermal analysis/atomic force microscopy/mass spectrometry chemical imaging. METHODS: Test patterns of varied line width (0.7 or 1.0 μm) and spacing (0.7 or 1.0 μm) were created in an ~1‐μm‐thick poly(methyl methacrylate) thin film using electron beam lithography. The patterns were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy topography and nano‐thermal analysis/mass spectrometry imaging. RESULTS: The efficacy of these polymeric test patterns for the advancement of chemical imaging techniques was illustrated by their use to judge the spatial resolution improvement achieved by heating the ionization interface of the current instrument platform. The spatial resolution of the mass spectral chemical images was estimated to be 1.4 μm, based on the ability to statistically distinguish 0.7‐μm‐wide lines separated by 0.7‐μm‐wide spacings in those images when the interface cross was heated to 200°C. CONCLUSIONS: This work illustrates that e‐beam lithography is a viable method to create spatial resolution test patterns in a thin film of high molecular weight polymer to allow unbiased judgment of intra‐laboratory advancement and/or inter‐laboratory comparison of instrument advances in nano‐thermal analysis/atomic force microscopy/mass spectrometry chemical imaging