Two-Particle Circular Billiards Versus Randomly Perturbed One-Particle Circular Billiards

We study a two-particle circular billiard containing two finite-size circular particles that collide elastically with the billiard boundary and with each other. Such a two-particle circular billiard provides a clean example of an "intermittent" system. This billiard system behaves chaotically, but the time scale on which chaos manifests can become arbitrarily long as the sizes of the confined particles become smaller. The finite-time dynamics of this system depends on the relative frequencies of (chaotic) particle-particle collisions versus (integrable) particle-boundary collisions, and investigating these dynamics is computationally intensive because of the long time scales involved. To help improve understanding of such two-particle dynamics, we compare the results of diagnostics used to measure chaotic dynamics for a two-particle circular billiard with those computed for two types of one-particle circular billiards in which a confined particle undergoes random perturbations. Importantly, such one-particle approximations are much less computationally demanding than the original two-particle system, and we expect them to yield reasonable estimates of the extent of chaotic behavior in the two-particle system when the sizes of confined particles are small. Our computations of recurrence-rate coefficients, finite-time Lyapunov exponents, and autocorrelation coefficients support this hypothesis and suggest that studying randomly perturbed one-particle billiards has the potential to yield insights into the aggregate properties of two-particle billiards, which are difficult to investigate directly without enormous computation times (especially when the sizes of the confined particles are small).Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures (some with multiple parts); published in Chao

Determination of nickel, cobalt and chromium in a soda-lime glass by using LIBS based on pulses IR laser

This work presents a study of the applicability of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), based on Infrared Transversally Excited Atmospheric CO2 pulsed laser (TEA CO2), to determine nickel, cobalt, and chromium in a window glass samples. Estimated limits of detection (LODs) for Ni, Co, and Cr, were 2.1, 3.2, and 0.4 ppm, respectively. In addition, two main plasma parameters, electron number density and temperature, were determined to characterize the laser-induced plasma. The electron number density (Ne) was determined from the measured Stark width of the Al I 396.15 nm line, and the intensity ratio of two atomic iron lines (342.71 nm and 344.06 nm) was used to determine the excitation temperature (Texc). The obtained values were Ne= 8.3·1016 cm-3 and Texc= 7700 K.The book of abstracts available at: [http://www.socphyschemserb.org/media/physical-chemistry-2022/abstracts.pdf

THE INFLUENCE OF THE BERRY SIZE ON THE SKIN ANTHOCYANINS CONTENT OF SOME BLACK WINE VARIETIES

The influence of the berry size on the skin anthocyanins content of the black wine grape varieties Cabernet sauvignon (clone 169), Merlot (clone 348) and Pinot noir (clone 115) was studied. Research was conducted in vineyard of Experimental estate “Radmilovac” and  in the laboratory of  Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade. The aim of the research was the determination of an anthocyanin of malvidin-3-glucoside on the berry skin. For all three varieties, berries were separated into three categories: small, medium and large. Based on the results, the goal was to compare the berry skin anthocyanin content of different sizes of berries. Determination of fertility coefficients, yield indicators, analysis of the composition and structure of clusters and berries and the content of sugars and total acids were performed regularly. The obtained results on the content anthocyanin of malvidin-3-glucoside were expressed in mg/g skin fresh weight. Varieties Cabernet sauvignon and Pinot noir had an expected result, meaning that the highest anthocyanin content was recorded in the smallest berries (diameter < 7.5 mm). For the Merlot variety, the highest anthocyanin content was observed in the medium berries (diameter 7.6 – 10 mm). The lowest anthocyanin content in varieties Cabernet sauvignon and Merlot was obtained in the largest berries (diameter > 10.1 mm), which was the expected result, while in the Pinot noir variety the lowest anthocyanin content was registered in the medium category (diameter 7.6 – 10 mm). Variety Cabernet sauvignon (clone 169) showed the highest anthocyanins content (average 6.871 mg/g fresh skin weigh), followed by Merlot variety, clone 348 (average 4.61 mg/g fresh skin weigh), whereas the lowest anthocyanin content was observed in Pinot noir, clone 115 (average 4.05 mg/g fresh skin weigh)

Energy Scenarios for South Eastern Europe: A close look into the Western Balkans

"The Energy Scenarios for South East Europe" thematic seminar took place on the 15th of December 2015 in Vienna, Austria. The workshop was organized by Institute of Energy and Transport of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC-IET), hosted by the Energy Community Secretariat (ECS) and sponsored by the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG-NEAR) in the framework of the Travel Accommodation and Conference facility for Western Balkans and Turkey, a programme of dissemination activities organised by the Commission in the EU or the beneficiary country in connection with the enlargement process and the pre-accession strategy. The aim of the workshop was to bring together representatives from think tanks, scientific institutes, the academia and the private sector with government officials, the national statistical agencies and the local TSO representatives from the Western Balkan region to exchange views on potential energy technology deployment scenarios that could facilitate a low carbon development pathway for the enlargement countries, but also exchange on the methodologies utilized and identify challenges as well as potential pitfalls in this process. The workshop included three sessions of specific thematic focus. The first session provided the "regional picture" with forecasts on the development of the energy and power systems in the western Balkans. The second session discussed case studies on low carbon development trajectories for specific countries in the region; and the third session explored the role of particular technologies in this context. This report comprises of long abstracts from the workshop presentations and closes with a chapter on conclusions and recommendations that resulted from the discussion sessions

Antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer activity of the lichens Cladonia furcata, Lecanora atra and Lecanora muralis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study is to investigate in vitro antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer activity of the acetone extracts of the lichens <it>Cladonia furcata, Lecanora atra </it>and <it>Lecanora muralis</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Antioxidant activity was evaluated by five separate methods: free radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, reducing power, determination of total phenolic compounds and determination of total flavonoid content. The antimicrobial activity was estimated by determination of the minimal inhibitory concentration by the broth microdilution method against six species of bacteria and ten species of fungi. Anticancer activity was tested against FemX (human melanoma) and LS174 (human colon carcinoma) cell lines using MTT method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the lichens tested, <it>Lecanora atra </it>had largest free radical scavenging activity (94.7% inhibition), which was greater than the standard antioxidants. Moreover, the tested extracts had effective reducing power and superoxide anion radical scavenging. The strong relationships between total phenolic and flavonoid contents and the antioxidant effect of tested extracts were observed. Extract of <it>Cladonia furcata </it>was the most active antimicrobial agent with minimum inhibitory concentration values ranging from 0.78 to 25 mg/mL. All extracts were found to be strong anticancer activity toward both cell lines with IC₅₀values ranging from 8.51 to 40.22 μg/mL.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The present study shows that tested lichen extracts demonstrated a strong antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer effects. That suggest that lichens may be used as as possible natural antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer agents to control various human, animal and plant diseases.</p

Applying advanced data analytics and machine learning to enhance the safety control of dams

The protection of critical engineering infrastructures is vital to today’s so- ciety, not only to ensure the maintenance of their services (e.g., water supply, energy production, transport), but also to avoid large-scale disasters. Therefore, technical and financial efforts are being continuously made to improve the safety control of large civil engineering structures like dams, bridges and nuclear facilities. This con- trol is based on the measurement of physical quantities that characterize the struc- tural behavior, such as displacements, strains and stresses. The analysis of monitor- ing data and its evaluation against physical and mathematical models is the strongest tool to assess the safety of the structural behavior. Commonly, dam specialists use multiple linear regression models to analyze the dam response, which is a well- known approach among dam engineers since the 1950s decade. Nowadays, the data acquisition paradigm is changing from a manual process, where measurements were taken with low frequency (e.g., on a weekly basis), to a fully automated process that allows much higher frequencies. This new paradigm escalates the potential of data analytics on top of monitoring data, but, on the other hand, increases data quality issues related to anomalies in the acquisition process. This chapter presents the full data lifecycle in the safety control of large-scale civil engineering infrastructures (focused on dams), from the data acquisition process, data processing and storage, data quality and outlier detection, and data analysis. A strong focus is made on the use of machine learning techniques for data analysis, where the common multiple linear regression analysis is compared with deep learning strategies, namely recur- rent neural networks. Demonstration scenarios are presented based on data obtained from monitoring systems of concrete dams under operation in Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Liver phospholipids fatty acids composition in response to different types of diets in rats of both sexes

Background: Dietary intake influence changes in fatty acids (FA) profiles in liver which plays a central role in fatty acid metabolism, triacylglycerol synthesis and energy homeostasis. We investigated the effects of 4-weeks treatment with milk-and fish-based diet, on plasma biochemical parameters and FA composition of liver phospholipids (PL) in rats of both sexes. Methods: Adult, 4 months old, Wistar rats of both sexes, were fed with different types of diets: standard, milk-based and fish-based, during 4 weeks. Analytical characterization of different foods was done. Biochemical parameters in plasma were determined. Fatty acid composition was analyzed by gas-chromatography. Statistical significance of FA levels was tested with two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the sex of animals and treatment (type of diet) as factors on logarithmic or trigonometric transformed data. Results: Our results showed that both, milk-and fish-based diet, changed the composition and ratio of rat liver phospholipids FA, in gender-specific manner. Initially present sex differences appear to be dietary modulated. Although, applied diets changed the ratio of total saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and effects were gender specific. Milk-based diet lowered SFA and elevated MUFA in males and increased PUFA in females vs. standard diet. The same diet decreased n-3, increased n-6 and n-6/n-3 ratio in males. Fish-based diet increased n-3, decreased n-6 and n-6/n-3 ratio vs. standard and milk-based diet in females. However, the ratio of individual FA in liver PL was also dietary-influenced, but with gender specific manner. While in females fish-based diet decreased AA (arachidonic acid) increased level of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), DPA (docosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), the same diet elevated only DHA levels in males. Conclusion: Gender related variations in FA composition of rat liver PL were observed, and results have shown that those initial differences could be significantly modulated by the type of diet. Furthermore, the modulatory effects of milk-and fish-based diets on liver phospholipids FA profiles appeared to be sex-specific

14 Examples of How LLMs Can Transform Materials Science and Chemistry: A Reflection on a Large Language Model Hackathon

Chemistry and materials science are complex. Recently, there have been great successes in addressing this complexity using data-driven or computational techniques. Yet, the necessity of input structured in very specific forms and the fact that there is an ever-growing number of tools creates usability and accessibility challenges. Coupled with the reality that much data in these disciplines is unstructured, the effectiveness of these tools is limited. Motivated by recent works that indicated that large language models (LLMs) might help address some of these issues, we organized a hackathon event on the applications of LLMs in chemistry, materials science, and beyond. This article chronicles the projects built as part of this hackathon. Participants employed LLMs for various applications, including predicting properties of molecules and materials, designing novel interfaces for tools, extracting knowledge from unstructured data, and developing new educational applications. The diverse topics and the fact that working prototypes could be generated in less than two days highlight that LLMs will profoundly impact the future of our fields. The rich collection of ideas and projects also indicates that the applications of LLMs are not limited to materials science and chemistry but offer potential benefits to a wide range of scientific disciplines

Drugs with the highest drug expenditure in the Republic of Serbia

Introduction: The policy concerning drugs represents a concentrated effort to achieve better health outcomes for all, with a particular focus on people's access to and rational use of medications. On the basis of pharmacoeconomic analyses, it is possible to modify established prescribing habits, it is possible to influence the creation of guidelines, development strategy and long-term health care planning. Aim: The aim of the work was to determine drugs with the highest expenditure in the Republic of Serbia, and to compare the results obtained in three consecutive years 2016, 2017 and 2018. Also, to analyze which are the most expensive medications listed in the National Register of Medications and what is the trend of changing them. Material and methods: The drug expenditure was monitored using the ATC/DDD methodology. It implies the classification of medications according to the internationally accepted ATC classification of drugs, while DDD, i.e. defined daily dose, is used as a statistical unit for consumption monitoring. The number of DDD/1,000 inhabitants per day provides an insight into how many inhabitants (out of 1,000 of them) used the observed medication and were exposed to its effects during one day. Results: The trend of expenditure of these medications was growing exponentially from 2016 to 2018. The most expensive medications per box are from group J - anti-infective drugs for systemic use and L - antineoplastics and immunomodulators, but their expenditure in the Republic of Serbia is very low. The drugs with the highest price per 1 DDD are: enzymes imiglucerase, laronidase and the biological medication basiliximab in all three years, but considering the indications and rare prescribing, the total cost for these drugs is not high. The largest funds in the Republic of Serbia for the mentioned period were spent on drugs such as: acetylsalicylic acid, paracetamol in combinations, trastuzumab, pantoprazole, amlodipine and rosuvastatin. Comparing the spending on L group of drugs in 2017 compared to 2016, there was a significant increase. Conclusion: The medications with the highest expenditure in the Republic of Serbia are used very little compared to countries with good pharmacotherapy practice. The most expensive drugs are those that are used for special and rare indications, and large amounts of money are not allocated for them as for some cheaper, but more frequently prescribed drugs