Analytical Engineering (United States)

The price of transportation (rate) is one of the key factors in the development of the air transportation system (ATS) of any country, in particular of the Russian Federation. In turn, the formation of the rate directly depends on the cost price of transportation and its components. Forecasting and modelling the cost prices considering the influence of external factors allows us to obtain an assessment of the potential of changing the rate, which can be used as an indicator of the direction of ATS development and adjustments to improve its efficiency. The objective of the study is to develop a model for assessment of the potential of changes in air transportation rates in the Russian Federation in the 2030–2040 period for the fleet of foreign-made mainline aircraft. The assessment of the potential for rate changes is based on changes in the most significant external components of the cost price of transportation, such as fuel cost, annual flight time, cost of maintenance and repair. The choice of components is due to their greatest exposure to the influence of long-term factors. Using mathematical modelling and economic and mathematical methods, based on statistical and forecast data, the model has been tested for an assessment of the potential change in the value and structure of direct operating costs of mainline aircraft regarding aggregated expense items. Using scenario assumptions, intervals of variation of factors affecting cost price were determined. The result of modelling the potential for change in cost and rates is demonstrated for two groups of mainline commercial aircraft: narrow-body and wide-body.

Abstract The discovery of new mineral phases capable of transporting water into the Earth’s mantle via subduction zones is essential for understanding the deep Earth water cycle and its influence on mantle dynamics. Recent experimental and computational studies have proposed that certain hydrated oxyhydroxides may remain stable under lower mantle conditions, particularly within cold subducting slabs. Here, we report on an advanced synchrotron multi-technique study on a natural complex iron oxyhydroxide mineral preserved within a super-deep diamond. This finding provides direct evidence that specific hydrous minerals survive at approximately ~ 900 to 1,250 km depths at the lower mantle. Moreover, it offers new evidence on water transport via cold subducted slabs and highlights the potential role of iron oxyhydroxides as carriers of volatiles into Earth’s deep interior.

BackgroundInhaled mineral fibers including asbestos are associated with lung cancer and pleural disease. In this study, we evaluated methodologies for mineral fiber isolation with subsequent physical and chemical characterization from pulmonary tissues of rats exposed to Libby amphibole asbestos 2007 (LA 2007) fibers via repeated nose-only inhalation. At the completion of the exposures, lungs were collected either as is or instilled with liquid agarose to produce a pulmonary cast. To extract fibers, lung tissue with and without pulmonary casts were further processed by either high temperature ashing or chemical digestion. The use of liquid agarose to produce pulmonary casts was discontinued after the first study assessment as no fibers were present in the pleural cavity for evaluation. Fibers isolated from the lungs were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) coupled with selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) for physical and chemical characterization. The bulk LA 2007 test material was also analyzed to provide comparison of fiber dimensions and chemical composition of the fibers introduced during exposure. Particular interest was focused on the comparison between high temperature ashing and chemical digestion extraction methodologies.ResultsChemical digestion of lung tissue with and without pulmonary casts resulted in fiber dimensions and chemical profiles similar to the bulk LA 2007 test chemical and exposure atmosphere. Conversely, high temperature ashing resulted in degraded fibers with chemically altered profiles.ConclusionsBased on the findings in this study, chemical digestion of lung tissue is the preferred preparation method for the isolation of inhaled mineral fibers for lung burden analysis.

Coal has been viewed as a source of energy production for decades, but recent research is uncovering some new, more sustainable roles beyond its combustion for this abundant resource. This review explores how coal can be transformed into high-performance carbon materials for use in LIBs, SIBs, KIBs, ZIBs, as well as in supercapacitors. Through controlled processes like carbonization, activation, and doping, coal can be engineered to deliver excellent conductivity, tailored porosity, and long-term cycling stability, which are the qualities essential for efficient energy storage. The type of coal used (anthracite, bituminous, or lignite) has a direct impact on the final carbon structure and overall performance. Compared to salts, biomass or polymer-derived carbons, coal-based materials offer more advantages in term of ready availability and greater potential for structural tuning and graphitization. This review also highlights recent advances in material engineering that enhance the electrochemical performance of coal-derived carbons, and it places these developments within the broader context of sustainability and circular economy principles. By changing the way we think about coal, from being mainly used as an energy source to a useful resource, this review shows how coal can be given a new purpose as a valuable material for future energy storage technologies.

Cell and gene therapy (CGT) is a field of therapeutic medicine that aims to treat, prevent, and cure diseases using engineered cells (stem cells, immune cells, and differentiated adult or fetal cells), vectors [Adeno Associated Virus (AAV), Adeno Virus (AV), Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), Baculo Virus (BV), Lenti Virus (LV), Retro Virus (RV), etc.], and other carriers [non-viral vectors, virus-like particles (VLP), Lipid Nano-Particles (LNP), etc.]. Among viral CGT vectors, adeno-associated viruses and lentiviruses (AAV and LV) are the most widely applied vector platforms. The presence of non-functional (empty or non-infectious) vectors that carry null or partial genes in the final drug product is classified as an impurity by the FDA. These impurities impair dosage accuracy and induce non-specific immunogenicity and variability in drug efficacy. These non-functional viral vectors in the drug product need to be elucidated following International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines for clinical manufacturing of the final drug product. This article showcases an ion-exchange chromatography (IEX) high-resolution method supporting ICH guidelines using commercially available AAV8 filled and empty capsids as reference standards. Our method successfully separated empty to full capsids with a resolution of 15 and sustained a linearity greater than 0.98 even under a wide range of empty or full viral particle concentrations (E+9 to E+13 vp/mL), which is an upgrade to other IEX capsid separation methods. The medium-throughput capacity and shorter sample processing time improve testing efficiency and save costs while delivering quality as value. The discussed method is a reliable and reproducible platform to precisely evaluate the presence of non-functional viral particles in AAV8 samples. Aligned with other orthogonal results, the method is a powerful tool to improve the quality of rAAV analytics.

Biomarkers serve crucial roles across diverse fields, aiding in clinical diagnostics by distinguishing between health and disease and by monitoring treatment effectiveness. Many biomarkers are proteins and, traditionally, ligand binding assays (LBAs) are used to quantify protein biomarkers but they face challenges due to inconsistent quality of antibody reagents, hindering accuracy and comparability between laboratories. Additionally, LBAs often fail to differentiate between protein isoforms, which limits their clinical relevance.Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has emerged as a robust alternative for protein biomarker analysis, offering enhanced accuracy and the ability to discern between different proteins and isoforms. Despite its potential, LC-MS/MS has its own challenges such as lower sensitivity and higher operational costs. This thesis explores the application of LC-MS/MS for protein biomarker analysis, focusing on quantifying relevant biomarker isoforms.The various chapters describe the development and use of methods for quantifying specific biomarker isoforms, notably human growth hormone (GH) and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) variants. These methods show good accuracy, precision, selectivity and stability across clinically relevant concentration ranges of the isoforms. In this way, LC-MS/MS helps to clarify the role of protein biomarker isoforms which is more difficult or impossible by using LBA. Overall, LC-MS/MS presents advantages over LBAs, particularly in discerning protein isoforms, albeit with higher costs. While LBAs remain prevalent for routine analysis, LC-MS/MS has added value for specialized investigations, to clarify ambiguous results and to offer insights into biomarker isoforms. Thus, LC-MS/MS is expected to continue its role in biomarker quantification.