Guidelines for the rail grade selection

Over the years the rail steel manufacturing process and quality of material produced have improved significantly through alloy design and/or head treatment procedure. The objective of this paper is to give the recommendations for the application of the available rail steel grades in accordance with the accessible investigations. The main source are the results of the Innotrack project in correlation with Euronorm prEN 13674-1. The conclusion for the Serbian Railway is made

Antimicrobial activity of essential oils against Listeria monocytogenes

Food poisoning caused by Listeria monocytogenes leads to a 30% rate of mortality among patients. The application of essential oils (EOs) to food products is a suitable strategy to control pathogens and to extend their shelf life by reducing microbial levels. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial potential of essential oils (EOs) against L. monocytogenes. The EOs used in this study were caraway (Carum carvi), cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), dill (Anethum graveolens), clove (Syzygium aromaticum), mentha (Menthae piperitae aetheroleum), red thyme (Thymus vulgaris), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), common sage (Salvia officinalis), clary sage (Salvia sclarea) and summer savory (Satureja hortensis). The minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of EOs were determined using the broth microdilution method. According to the MIC values, all essential oils were effective in the inhibition of L. monocytogenes strains, with MICs varying from 256 μg/ml to 4096 μg/ml. The results showed that cinnamon EO had the highest antimicrobial activity, while dill and mentha EOs were the least effective against the L. monocytogenes. In addition, two different procedures were carried out to test the effect of antibiotics gentamycin and streptomycin against the L. monocytogenes strains, the broth microdilution method and the MIC Test Strip. Our results indicated that the reference strain L. monocytogenes ATCC 19111 was much more sensitive to antibiotics than L. monocytogenes strains isolated from meat, highlighting that gentamycin was the more effective in comparison to streptomycin

GASP XXVII: Gas-phase metallicity scaling relations in disk galaxies with and without ram-pressure stripping

Exploiting the data from the GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies with MUSE (GASP) survey, we study the gas-phase metallicity scaling relations of a sample of 29 cluster galaxies undergoing ram-pressure stripping and of a reference sample of (16 cluster and 16 field) galaxies with no significant signs of gas disturbance. We adopt the PYQZ code to infer the mean gas metallicity at the effective radius and achieve a well-defined mass-metallicity relation (MZR) in the stellar mass range $10^{9.25}\le M_\star \le 10^{11.5}\,{\rm M_\odot}$ with a scatter of 0.12 dex. At any given mass, reference cluster and stripping galaxies have similar metallicities, while the field galaxies with $M_\star < 10^{10.25}\,{\rm M_\odot}$ show on average lower gas metallicity than galaxies in clusters. Our results indicate that at the effective radius the chemical properties of the stripping galaxies are independent of the ram-pressure stripping mechanism. Nonetheless, at the lowest masses we detect 4 stripping galaxies well above the common MZR that suggest a more complex scenario. Overall, we find signs of an anti-correlation between the metallicity and both the star formation rate and the galaxy size, in agreement with previous studies. No significant trends are instead found with the halo mass, clustercentric distance and local galaxy density in clusters. In conclusion, we advise a more detailed analysis of the spatially resolved gas metallicity maps of the galaxies, able to highlight effects of gas redistribution inside the disk due to the ram-pressure stripping.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ, 24 pages, 21 figures, 2 table

Fizičke karakteristike i nutritivni kvalitet odabranih genotipova kukuruza iz srbije različitih u tvrdoći i boji zrna

Physical quality traits (1000-kernel weight, density, milling response and soft endosperm portion), basic chemical (starch, protein, oil, cellulose and ash) and amino acids composition of ten ZP maize genotypes differing in kernel hardness and colour were studied. The objectives of this study were to characterize differences in ZP maize genotypes regarding to various physical traits and nutritional quality parameters such as basic chemical and amino acid composition and the data was correlated to find the interrelationship between these parameters. Kernel physical traits and chemical composition significantly varied among tested genotypes. A significant negative correlation was found between protein content and portion of soft endosperm as well as a significant positive correlation between protein content and two physical traits, milling response and density. Protein content showed a non-significant negative correlation with starch content. The results showed that the protein content exhibited negative correlation with lysine as well as positive correlation with methionine. It has not been observed a significant improvement in the amino acid composition regarding the specialty genotypes such as the selected white and red kernels and popping maize genotypes. The information presented in this study could be useful for the utilization improvement of maize kernel and the development of maize-based ingredients to prepare nutritious feed and food products.Ispitivane su fizičke karakteristike zrna (apsolutna masa ili masa 1000 zrna, gustina, otpornost na mlevenje i udeo meke frakcije endosperma), osnovni hemijski sastav (sadržaj skroba, proteina, ulja, celuloze i pepela) i sastav aminokiselina kod 10 genotipova kukuruza različitih po tvrdoći i boji zrna. Ciljevi ovog rada bili su da se izvrši karakterizacija ZP genotipova kukuruza u odnosu na različite fizičke osobine i nutritivne parametre kvaliteta kao što su osnovni hemijski i aminokiselinski sastav, i podaci potom korelacionom analizom obrade u cilju utvrđivanja međuodnosa ovih parametara kvaliteta. Fizičke osobine zrna i hemijski sastav značajno su varirali između ispitivanih genotipova. Utvrđena je značajna negativna korelacija između sadržaja proteina i udela meke frakcije endosperma kao i značajne pozitivne korelacije između sadržaja proteina i dve fizičke osobine, otpornost na mlevenje i gustina zrna. Sadržaj proteina pokazao je negativnu korelaciju sa sadržajem skroba. Rezultati su pokazali da sadržaj proteina u zrnu ima negativnu korelaciju sa sadržajem lizina, kao i pozitivnu korelaciju sa sadržajem metionina. Nije utvrđeno značajno poboljšanje sastava aminokiselina kod genotipova specifičnih svojstava, kao što su genotipovi belog i crvenog zrna, i genotipovi kukuruza kokičara. Informacije predstavljene u ovom radu mogu biti korisne za poboljšanje upotrebne vrednosti zrna kukuruza i razvoj komponenata na bazi kukuruza za hranu za životinje i prehrambene proizvode

Ultraviolet imaging observations of three jellyfish galaxies: Star formation suppression in the centre and ongoing star formation in stripped tails

Spiral galaxies undergo strong ram-pressure effects when they fall into the galaxy cluster potential. As a consequence, their gas is stripped to form extended tails within which star formation can happen, giving them the typical jellyfish appearance. The ultraviolet imaging observations of jellyfish galaxies provide an opportunity to understand ongoing star formation in the stripped tails. We report the ultraviolet observations of the jellyfish galaxies JW39, JO60, JO194 and compare with observations in optical continuum and $\mathrm{H}{\alpha}$. We detect knots of star formation in the disk and tails of the galaxies and find that their UV and H$\alpha$ flux are well correlated. The optical emission line ratio maps of these galaxies are used to identify for every region the emission mechanism, due to either star formation, LINER or a mix of the two phenomena. The star-forming regions in the emission line maps match very well with the regions having significant UV flux. The central regions of two galaxies (JW39, JO194) show a reduction in UV flux which coincides with composite or LINER regions in the emission line maps. The galaxies studied here demonstrate significant star formation in the stripped tails, suppressed star formation in the central regions and present a possible case of accelerated quenching happening in jellyfish galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Metabolic Syndrome X – High Risk Factor for Acute Myocardial Infarction and Its Complications

Metabolic Syndrome X is a clinical entity which comprises the following factors: diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, high levels of triglyceride and/or low levels of HDL cholesterol, central obesity and microalbuminuria (by WHO criteria). The first goal of this study was to determine the frequency of the Metabolic Syndrome X (MSX) in patients with acute myocardial infarction compared with the general population. The second goal of the study was to examine the frequency of heart failure and reinfarction rate in the patients with myocardial infarction, with and without MSX. Furthermore, the relationship between gender and MSX was analyzed. A total of 101 patients with acute myocardial infarction took part in randomized trial (32 women and 69 men). MSX and all of its components were diagnosed according to WHO criteria. To determine statistical significance of our results, we used 2 test and t-test for independent samples. From 101 patient 48 had MSX (47.52%), while in the general population incidence of MSX is 3–4%. The reinfarction and the heart failure rate were significantly higher in the group of patients with MSX (p = 0.0067 and p = 0.0217, respectively ). To conclude, the results of the present study confirm that MSX is a high risk factor for myocardial infarction and its complications