THE INTERACTION BETWEEN LAMBDA PHAGE AND ITS BACTERIAL HOST

Our interest in the adsorption of lambda phages onto bacterial cells was triggered by the controversial results Schwartz obtained in the 70's (Schwartz 1976). Lambda phages bind to specific receptors, named LamB, on the cell's surface during the infection process. Phage adsorption onto the cell wall is a diffusion-limited process. One of the controversies is the rate of adsorption, which in some cases appears to exceed the theoretical limit imposed by the physical law of random diffusion. We revisited this problem by carrying out experiments along with new theoretical analyses. Our measurements show that the population of unbound phages decreases with time in a double-exponential fashion. Using fluorescence microscopy we quantified the number of receptors per cell. This dissertation describes the adsorption of lambda phages onto their host cells and a kinetics model, which allows the calculation of adsorption, desorption, and irreversible binding rates from a single measurement. The long-term interaction between lambda phage and its bacterial host in a co-habitual environment is approached as well. A complex mathematical model describing the dynamics of the two populations (bacteria and phages) is presented along with experimental results. Surprising phenomena of bacterial persistence against phage infection are also reported

Fault Detection in Three-phase Induction Motor based on Data Acquisition and ANN based Data Processing

The main objective of this paper is to investigate how a failure in the functioning of a normal electrical system represented by a three-phase asynchronous motor will modify the voltages and currents present in the system and if it is possible to design a system that is able to automatically detect the fault, based on the use of modern data acquisition system and powerful computer processing capabilities. The detection of faulty signals is realised using Feedforward Artificial Neural Networks

Ultrasonographic assessment of the cutaneous changes induced by topical flavonoid therapy

Ultrasonography allows the quantification of dermal density and echogenicity changes during the physiological senescence process. Some active ingredients are able to slow down the tissular degeneration and disorganization process. The purpose of this study was to assess the cutaneous changes induced by the topical use of products containing Viniferol® as active ingredient, using high-frequency ultrasound. The study was performed over 12 weeks and included 80 healthy Caucasian female subjects, aged 22–75 years, divided into two groups: the study group and the control group. The product was applied according to a predetermined protocol. The measurements performed for each subject were: the thickness of the epidermis and dermis (mm), the number of low, medium, and high echogenic pixels, and the number of low echogenic pixels in the upper dermis/number of low echogenic pixels in the lower dermis. All the parameters showed a significant improvement. Ultrasound measurements showed an increase of the mean thickness of the epidermis (P < 0.0001) and dermis (P < 0.0001) following the application of the Viniferol product as compared to the control group. The changes in the dermal echogenicity confirm the efficacy and direct action of Viniferol upon the cutaneous fibroblasts. No side effects related to the treatment were recorded. The study proves the efficacy of this active ingredient in the cutaneous senescence process as well, as the fact that anti-aging prophylaxis should be initiated in the 20–40 year critical age group. This interval involves specific changes in dermal echogenicity that quantify intense molecular, biochemical and structural changes, being thus mostly and highly responsive to the anti-aging therapy

Analysis of Barriers to the Development of Industrial Internet of Things Technology and Ways to Overcome Them

The development of the digital economy requires the compilation of a roadmap for the development of all the end-to-end technologies included in the cluster of technologies that need to be developed to a new level. At the first stage, anticipating decisions on state financing of this cluster, a list of critical end-to-end technologies is compiled. The second step is the preparation of roadmaps for each of the selected critical technologies. As a rule, many experts are involved in drawing up roadmaps, including foreign experts. As a rule, the team of such experts is headed by an organization that has received instructions to develop a roadmap on a competitive basis. Of course, not all the wishes of all experts are taken into account by such an organization; therefore, there may be alternative opinions and alternative roadmaps, or additions to the developed roadmaps. If the roadmap developed by the governing organization is approved, alternative documents are only of perhaps scientific interest. If the roadmap developed by the core team of experts is not approved due to its insufficient completeness, the decision seems to be postponed, and the specified roadmap should be corrected by adding information from alternative documents, which, of course, should be done taking into account the opinion of all experts in the field. Since the approved roadmap for the "Industrial Internet of Things" direction does not yet exist, the authors consider it useful to present their position on this issue

Laplace inversions applied to multi–component T 2 – T 2 exchange experiments

Two-dimensional (2D) T2-T2 molecular exchange NMR experiments with a period of magnetization storage between the two T2 relaxation encoding periods are presented. The two-dimensional time map was inverted using a fast Laplace algorithm to obtain the T2–T2 exchange map. T2–MZ(store)–T2 2D 1H NMR spectra recorded at high and low homogeneous magnetic fields of water and oil in sand, air bubbles in water and foams, exchange of liquid / foam and liquid / saturated vapours of chloroform are presented. Uni– and bi–directional exchange was observed for bubbles in water, superficial liquid shell, and foam