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Design of a Shape-Memory-Alloy-Based Carangiform Robotic Fishtail with Improved Forward Thrust
PublicationShape memory alloys (SMAs) have become the most common choice for the development of mini- and micro-type soft bio-inspired robots due to their high power-to-weight ratio, ability to be installed and operated in limited space, silent and vibration-free operation, biocompatibility, and corrosion resistance properties. Moreover, SMA spring-type actuators are used for developing different continuum robots, exhibiting high degrees...
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Endothelial dysfunction due to eNOS uncoupling: molecular mechanisms as potential therapeutic targets
PublicationNitric oxide (NO) is one of the most important molecules released by endothelial cells, and its antiatherogenic properties support cardiovascular homeostasis. Diminished NO bioavailability is a common hallmark of endothelial dysfunction underlying the patho‑ genesis of the cardiovascular disease. Vascular NO is synthesized by endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) from the substrate L‑arginine (L‑Arg), with tetrahydrobiopterin...
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Modeling lignin extraction with ionic liquids using machine learning approach
PublicationLignin, next to cellulose, is the second most common natural biopolymer on Earth, containing a third of the organic carbon in the biosphere. For many years, lignin was perceived as waste when obtaining cellulose and hemicellulose and used as a biofuel for the production of bioenergy. However, recently, lignin has been considered a renewable raw material for the production of chemicals and materials to replace petrochemical resources....
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Evaluation of citric acid corrosion inhibition efficiency and passivation kinetics for aluminium alloys in alkaline media by means of dynamic impedance monitoring
PublicationA novel approach is proposed for constructing the adsorption isotherm in corrosion studies, based on a well-known interaction between citric acid and aluminium in alkaline electrolytes. Our approach utilizes the instantaneous impedance measurements via Dynamic Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy in galvanostatic mode (g-DEIS). Unlike other common tools, g-DEIS delivers exact information about the concentration required for full...
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Model of an Integration Bus of Data and Ontologies of Smart Cities Processes
PublicationThis paper presents a model of an integration bus used in the design of Smart Cities system architectures. The model of such a bus becomes necessary when designing high-level architectures, within which the silo processes of the organization should be seen from the perspective of its ontology. For such a bus to be used by any city, a generic solution was proposed which can be implemented as a whole or in part depending on the requirements...
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Noise and Rolling Resistance Properties of Various Types of Winter Tyres Compared to Normal Car Tyres
PublicationTo cope with winter weather conditions, potentially including snow and ice, it is common to use winter tyres, or ”all-seasons” tyres assumed to be safe both in summer and winter. In some northern countries, winter tyres are mandatory. Traditionally, it has been assumed that winter tyres are noisier than normal tyres (here called summer tyres) and winter tyres equipped with studs are assumed to be very noisy.This paper presents...
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Biological and mechanical properties of bone cement with nanoparticles - in vivo and in vitro research
PublicationDespite antibiotics preventive treatment, before and after an implant implementation, risk of infection are real. These infections at the implant surface develop in a few months after applying them into the body. To prevent the development of bacteria and to reduce the risk of infection, implants coated with nanoparticles come into use. The Mechanical Department of the Technical University of Gdańsk carried out a research with...
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HIERARCHICAL CYCLES IN MODERN POWER SYSTEMS – EXERGY ANALYSIS UNDER PART LOADS
PublicationThe aim of the paper is to investigate thermodynamic efficiency of advanced hierarchic power cyclesunder partial loads by using of exergy analyze. Advanced hierarchical power systems arecomposed of few energy conversion cycles, most common are steam and gas cycles in various configurations, but they may contain fuel cells, ORC, lithium bromide absorption chillers and others. Moreover hierarchical cycles can be powered by several...
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Ciliated protozoa in the impact zone of the Uzhgorod treatment plant
PublicationThis paper presents the results of studies on the Uzh River (Ukraine, Zakarpattia Oblast) near the effluent point of a sewage treatment plant in Uzhgorod. The samples were taken at various sites of the treatment plant along the stages of purification process, as well as in the river, at a number of different points above and below the wastewater discharge. At each of these objects, the temperature...
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Bacterial Community Structures in Freshwater Polar Environments of Svalbard
PublicationTwo thirds of Svalbard archipelago islands in the High Arctic are permanently covered with glacial ice and snow. Polar bacterial communities in the southern part of Svalbard were characterized using an amplicon sequencing approach. A total of 52,928 pyrosequencing reads were analyzed in order to reveal bacterial community structures in stream and lake surface water samples from the Fuglebekken and Revvatnet...
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Peripheral industrial NUTS 3 sub-regions in the European Union – identification and typology
PublicationA common phenomenon of development is the big difference in its levels, especially between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. Non-metropolitan areas are also very different. In some of them, industry plays a big role. European Union’s NUTS 3 non-metropolitan low developed sub-regions, whose gross domestic product per capita in 2011 was below 75% of the EU average, were the subject of research. It is based on the data and...
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Communication: Inside the water wheel: Intrinsic differences between hydrated tetraphenylphosphonium and tetraphenylborate ions
PublicationTetraphenylphosphonium tetraphenylborate (TPTB) is a common reference electrolyte in physical chemistry of solutions allowing for a convenient partitioning of thermodynamic properties into single-ion contributions. Here, we compute on the basis of ab initio molecular dynamics simulations the infrared (IR) spectra for hydrated constituent ions of the TPTB assumption. Using spectral decomposition techniques, we extract important...
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SORPTION OF SELECTED CHLORINATED SOLVENTS ON PLANT DEBRIS COLLECTED IN A CITY PARK
PublicationDebris from deciduous trees in the form of park green waste was investigated as a potential biosorbent for the removal of chlorinated solvents from water. The sorption properties of beech leaves and cupules, oak leaves and acorns, birch leaves and lime leaves (all tree species common for a moderate climate) in a non-modified form were investigated with regard to the removal of perchloroethylene, 1,1,2-trichloroethane and 1,1,1,2-tetrachlorothane....
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Regulated Assembly of LPS, Its Structural Alterations and Cellular Response to LPS Defects
PublicationDistinguishing feature of the outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria is its asymmetry due to the presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the outer leaflet of the OM and phospholipids in the inner leaflet. Recent studies have revealed the existence of regulatory controls that ensure a balanced biosynthesis of LPS and phospholipids, both of which are essential for bacterial viability. LPS provides the essential permeability...
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Lignin-based carbon fibers for renewable and multifunctional lithium-ion battery electrodes
PublicationLignin-based carbon fibers (LCFs) from the renewable resource softwood kraft lignin were synthesized via oxidative thermostabilization of pure melt-spun lignin and carbonization at different temperatures from 1000°C to 1700°C. The resulting LCFs were characterized by tensile testing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and confocal Raman spectroscopy. The microstructure is mainly amorphous carbon with some...
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The impact of interactions between polyphenolic antioxidants on the redox-related chemical and biological properties of their mixtures – the extension of food synergy concept.
PublicationThe results of studies indicate that chemopreventive efficiency of isolated phytochemicals is lower than that of polyphenol-rich foods. This discrepancy has been ascribed to the food synergy concept that assumes additive or even synergistic influence of different food ingredients on human health. The results presented in the dissertation made it possible to propose an alternative and innovative explanation of these observations. The...
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Utilizing Genome-Wide mRNA Profiling to Identify the Cytotoxic Chemotherapeutic Mechanism of Triazoloacridone C-1305 as Direct Microtubule Stabilization
PublicationRational drug design and in vitro pharmacology profiling constitute the gold standard in drug development pipelines. Problems arise, however, because this process is often dicult due to limited information regarding the complete identification of a molecule’s biological activities. The increasing aordability of genome-wide next-generation technologies now provides an excellent opportunity to understand a compound’s diverse eects...
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Tetrahydroquinolinone derivatives exert antiproliferative effect on lung cancer cells through apoptosis induction
PublicationThe anticancer properties of quinolones is a topic of interest among researchers in the scientific world. Because these compounds do not cause side effects, unlike the commonly used cytostatics, they are considered a promising source of new anticancer drugs. In this work, we designed a brief synthetic pathway and obtained a series of novel 8-phenyltetrahydroquinolinone derivatives functionalized with benzyl-type moieties at position...
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Growth inhibition of cultured cancer cells by Ribes nigrum leaf extract
PublicationThe present article includes data on the possible selective cytotoxic effect of extract of Ribes nigrum L. growing at high Armenian landscape. For this purpose, different non-cancer (microglial BV-2 wild type (Wt), acyl-CoA oxidase 1 (ACOX1) deficient (Acox1-/-) and cancer (human colon adenocarcinoma HT29 and human breast cancer MCF7) cell lines were applied. R. nigrum leaf ethanol extract showed a growth inhibition effect towards...
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Price bubbles in commodity market – A single time series and panel data analysis
PublicationThis paper examines thirty-five commodities, grouped into three market sectors (energy, metals, agriculture & livestock) in terms of the occurrence of price bubbles. The study was based on monthly data for each commodity separately and, in a panel approach, for selected sectors and for all commodities combined. The GSADF test and its version for panel data – panel GSADF – were used to identify bubbles. The beginning and end of...
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Encapsulation of an anticancer drug Isatin inside a host nano-vehicle SWCNT: a molecular dynamics simulation
PublicationThe use of carbon nanotubes as anticancer drug delivery cargo systems is a promising modality as they are able to perforate cellular membranes and transport the carried therapeutic molecules into the cellular components. Our work describes the encapsulation process of a common anticancer drug, Isatin (1H-indole-2,3-dione) as a guest molecule, in a capped single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) host with chirality of (10,10). The...
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Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) based wastewater treatment - unexpected nitration side reactions - a serious environmental issue: A review
PublicationChemical compounds containing nitro group (nitro-products) are a one of toxic by-products, that can be formed during wastewater treatment processes. In case of presence of nitrite or nitrate ions, the formation of nitro-products during advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) is very common. It is caused by the reactive nitrogen species (RNs) such as nitrate radical (NO3•), nitrite radical (NO2•), nitrogen oxide radical (NO•) and peroxynirite...
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Checkpoints that regulate balanced biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharide and its essentiality in Escherichia coli
PublicationThe outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, is essential for their viability. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) constitutes the major component of OM, providing the permeability barrier, and a tight balance exists between LPS and phospholipids amounts as both of these essential components use a common metabolic precursor. Hence, checkpoints are in place, right from the regulation of the first committed step...
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Marine traffic risk modelling – an innovative approach and a case study
PublicationThis paper presents a model to analyse the risk of two common marine accidents: collision and grounding. Attention is focused on oil tankers since they pose the highest environmental risks. A case study in selected areas of the Gulf of Finland in ice-free conditions is presented. The model utilizes a formula for risk calculation that considers both the probability of an unwanted event and its consequences. The model can be decomposed...
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Catalytic Mechanism of Non-Target DNA Cleavage in CRISPR-Cas9 Revealed by Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics
PublicationCRISPR-Cas9 is a cutting-edge genome editing technology, which uses the endonuclease Cas9 to introduce mutations at desired sites of the genome. This revolutionary tool is promising to treat a myriad of human genetic diseases. Nevertheless, the molecular basis of DNA cleavage, which is a fundamental step for genome editing, has not been established. Here, quantum–classical molecular dynamics (MD) and free energy methods are used...
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The impact of freeze-thaw processes on a cliff recession rate in the face of temperate zone climate change
PublicationFreeze-thaw action is a common type of geomorphological processes eroding cliff faces in the temperate climate zone. In our previous study, we assessed the geomorphological effects of freeze-thaw fluctuations occurring within the cliff of Jeziorsko Reservoir (central Poland). Based on those findings, we have now determined the number of freeze-thaw cycles to assess their historical impact on the studied cliff. We have also traced...
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Latest Achievements in Concrete Structures Three-Dimensional Printing
PublicationWe can hear about three-dimensional printed concrete structures for several years, up to date solutions in this technology allow entire printing settlements of tiny concrete houses. Due to technical limitations, these houses are still small and not very durable, but undoubtedly, this technology is developing. Home printed in three-dimensional technology can be an alternative to modular container buildings implemented in areas affected...
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Pyrolysis of Pruning Residues from Various Types of Orchards and Pretreatment for Energetic Use of Biochar
PublicationThe routine pruning and cutting of fruit trees provides a considerable amount of biowaste each year. This lignocellulosic biomass, mainly in the form of branches, trunks, rootstocks, and leaves, is a potential high-quality fuel, yet often is treated as waste. The results of a feasibility study on biochar production by pyrolysis of residues from orchard pruning were presented. Three types of biomass waste were selected as raw materials...
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Development of Intelligent Road Signs with V2X Interface for Adaptive Traffic Controlling
PublicationThe objective of this paper is to present a practical project of intelligent road signs, under which a series of new products for the regulation of traffic is being created. The engineering part of the project, described in this paper, was preceded by a series of experimental studies, the results of which were described in another paper accepted for publication at the MTS-ITS conference 2019, entitled "Comparative study on the effectiveness...
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Assessment of Electronic Sensing Techniques for the Rapid Identification of Alveolar Echinococcosis through Exhaled Breath Analysis
PublicationHere we present a proof-of-concept study showing the potential of a chemical gas sensors system to identify the patients with alveolar echinococcosis disease through exhaled breath analysis. The sensors system employed comprised an array of three commercial gas sensors and a custom gas sensor based on WO3 nanowires doped with gold nanoparticles, optimized for the measurement of common breath volatile organic compounds. The measurement...
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PREDICTION OF SHIP MOTIONS IN IRREGULAR WAVES BASED ON RESPONSE AMPLITUDE OPERATORS EVALUATED EXPERIMENTALLY IN NOISE WAVES
PublicationThe most common methods for predicting ship roll motions in a specified sea state are direct measurements of motions in a representative irregular wave realisation (time domain) or calculations of motions from response amplitude operators (RAOs) in the frequency domain. The result of the first method is valid only for the tested sea state, whilst the second method is more flexible but less accurate. RAO-based predictions are calculated...
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Electrochemistry from first-principles in the grand canonical ensemble
PublicationProgress in electrochemical technologies, such as automotive batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells, depends greatly on developing improved charged interfaces between electrodes and electrolytes. The rational development of such interfaces can benefit from the atomistic understanding of the materials involved by first-principles quantum mechanical simulations with Density Functional Theory (DFT). However, such simulations are...
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The community involvement of courts: an action research study in the context of the Polish justice system
PublicationPurpose – As a rule, common courts are hermetic organizations, separated from their stakeholders by procedures based on legal provisions. For these reasons, they are often perceived as unreliable and non-transparent, and as such, they do not inspire trust among stakeholders. The authors posit that the court’s community involvement may lead to the increased accountability and legitimacy of courts, which should in turn result in...
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Comparative Study of the Mechanical Behaviour of Bitumen- and Cement-Dominated Mixtures with Reclaimed Asphalt
PublicationThe bitumen emulsion-based recycling is a commonly used maintenance treatment in the rehabilitation of low-and medium-volume roads in Europe. Nevertheless, the wide range of climatic conditions across the continent resulted in the variety of mixture concepts and the requirements being adopted for various local conditions. In this regard, the most commonly used parameter to distinguish between the main mixture concepts is bitumen...
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Exploring DAD and ADD Methods for Dealing with Urban Heat Island Effect
PublicationThe Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect in the context of climate change and temperature fluctuations is an increasing challenge for contemporary cities. Numerous activities focus on mitigation and adaptation to the UHI effect using both appropriately selected design strategies and technological solutions. However, not all of these technologies support the postulates of ecological and low-carbon cities. Their design, implementation,...
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The significance of institutions' potential to increase Youth civic participation – case study of the South Baltic Youth Core Groups Network Project
PublicationYoung people are a very important group of modern societies, they will replace the currently ruling generation and will shape our common future. Due to that, young people have become the relevant target of national and international policy and science researches. Youth civic participation is a key aspect of the development of a society and should be shaped by effective youth policy at the national and international levels. This...
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Biological and mechanical properties of bone cement with nanoarticles - in vitro and in vivo research
PublicationDespite antibiotic preventive treatment both before and after implant implementation, the risks of infection are real. These infections develop at the implant surface a few months after inserting them into the body. To prevent the development of bacteria and reduce the risk of infection, implants coated with nanoparticles are used. The Mechanical Department of the Technical University of Gdansk carries out research into using bone...
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Characterization of Defects Inside the Cable Dielectric With Partial Discharge Modeling
PublicationThe continuous monitoring of power system devices is an important step toward keeping such capital assets safe. Partial discharge (PD)-based measurement tools provide a reliable and accurate condition assessment of power system insulations. It is very common that voids or cavities exist in every solid dielectric insulation medium. In this article, different voids are modeled and analyzed using an advanced finite element (FE)-based...
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Bitumen Aging—Laboratory Simulation Methods Used in Practice and Selected Directions of Research on New Methods
PublicationChanges in the properties of bitumen binders that occur as a result of aging have a huge impact on the durability of products produced from them. In particular, asphalt pavements, which constitute the most common use of petroleum bitumen, are susceptible to damage resulting from the increasing stiffness of the bitumen during its life cycle. Increased stiffness of asphalt pavements reduces the pavement resistance to low-temperature...
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What do hashtags afford in digital fashion communication? An exploratory study on Gucci-related hashtags on Twitter and Instagram.
PublicationBeing enmeshed in a digital environment, we daily produce internet-mediated texts – encompassing several different semiotic codes – accessible on a global scale. Posts on different networks usually contain hashtags, which can be understood as affordances or behavior opportunities. These affordances allow specific actions both from the part of the writer and the reader. They can also be “behavior triggers,” which invite certain...
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Tacit knowledge acquisition & sharing, and its influence on innovations: A Polish/US cross-country study
PublicationThis study measures the relationship between tacit knowledge sharing and innovation in the Polish (n=350) and US (n=379) IT industries. Conceptually, the study identifies the potential sources of tacit knowledge development by individuals. That is, the study examines how “learning by doing” and “learning by interaction” lead to a willingness to share knowledge and, as a consequence, to support process and product/service innovation....
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Regenerative Drug Discovery Using Ear Pinna Punch Wound Model in Mice
PublicationThe ear pinna is a complex tissue consisting of the dermis, cartilage, muscles, vessels, and nerves. Ear pinna healing is a model of regeneration in mammals. In some mammals, including rabbits, punch wounds in the ear pinna close spontaneously; in common-use laboratory mice, they remain for life. Agents inducing ear pinna healing are potential regenerative drugs. We tested the effects of selected bioactive agents on 2 mm ear pinna...
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Smart Virtual Product Development (SVPD) System to Support Product Inspection Planning in Industry 4.0
PublicationThis paper presents the idea of supporting product inspection planning process during the early stages of product life cycle for the experts working on product development. Aim of this research is to assist a collaborative product development process by using Smart Virtual Product Development (SVPD) system, which is based on Set of Experience Knowledge Structure (SOEKS) and Decisional DNA (DDNA). The proposed system is developed...
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On the internal efficiency of a turbine stage: classical and CFD definitions
PublicationAlmost entire fleet of steam turbines in Poland was designed between 1950 – 1980 with the use of the so-called zero dimensional (0D) calculation tools. For several years, design and modernization of the turbines occur in assistance with the state of the art methods that describe working fluid flow field based on 3D models and CFD codes. This cooperation between 0D and 3D codes requires exchange of overall, integral information...
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Fatigue and Professional Burnout in Police Officers and Firefighters
PublicationExcessive demands, work overload and the working time arrangements are an important cause of burnout and fatigue in employees. Specific working time arrangements are characteristic of the internal security services, such as police officers and firefighters. This applies to both the ordering of day and night shifts and the length of shifts. Depletion of personal resources is a common component for acute fatigue and burnout. However,...
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From evil demiurge to caring hero: Images of geneticists in the movies
PublicationAlthough images of science and scientists depicted in popular culture have been criticized as an exaggeration and fear mongering, the cinema is an important resource that influences individuals’ beliefs about science. Because popular depictions of science play a crucial role in constructing the public’s ‘scientific imaginary’ they constitute an inherent dimension of the social understanding of science and are as important for...
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Capillary gas chromatography using a -cyclodextrin forenantiomeric separation of methylamphetamine, its precursors andchloro intermediates after optimization of the derivatization reaction
PublicationtThe enantiomeric ratio of methylamphetamine (MAMP) is closely related to the optical activity of precur-sors and reagents used for the synthesis and this knowledge can provide useful information concerningthe origins and synthetic methods used for illicit manufacture. The information can be utilized for reg-ulation of the precursors and investigation of the manufacturing sources but this requires analyticalprocedures to determine...
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Comprehensive methodology for Staphylococcus aureus lipidomics by liquid chromatography and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry
PublicationStaphylococcus aureus is a common pathogen known to cause relatively minor infections as well as severe disorders in humans. Although there is fair amount of published data concerning various aspects of its biology, epidemiology, genetics, etc., there is still a scarce amount of data presenting reliable and thorough investigations regarding high-throughput analysis of total S. aureus lipid content. Therefore, the aim of this study...
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Just Let Me Think: Designing Against Acquired Illiteracy.
PublicationThis article concerns the relatively new problem of illiteracy relating to persons previously being literate, which is caused by too intensive using of so-called digital media (TV, computers, tablets, smartphones, e-book readers, portable media players, etc.). The problem has been observed for several years mainly in countries with high economic and technological development. The widespread use of digital media and the ease of...
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The impact of sediment, fresh and marine water on the concentration of chemical elements in water of the ice-covered lagoon
PublicationThe common use of chemical elements by man has been contributing to their extraction for centuries. As a consequence, they have been directly or indirectly introduced into the biogeochemical cycle. In the framework of many conventions, mining and processing of elements are currently subject to many restrictions. However, their large load that has already been deposited in the soil and bottom sediments can be remobilised and...