In a recent article, Edwards et al. evaluated three biprobes to detect mutations in rifampin-resistant isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (1). The authors claimed that their approach allowed the detection of all mutations in the 46 isolates studied. We read their paper with interest, because we have used LightCycler PCR to detect resistance to rifampin and isoniazid in M. tuberculosis (3). ...

We theoretically predict a new phenomenon, namely, that a solid-solid phase transformation (PT) with a large transformation strain can occur via internal stress-induced virtual melting along the interface at temperatures significantly (more than 100 K) below the melting temperature. We show that the energy of elastic stresses, induced by transformation strain, increases the driving force for me...

Comment on " Vortex Liquid Crystal in Anisotropic Type II Superconductors " Recently Carlson et al. [1] tried to compose the H − T phase diagram of anisotropic superconductors based on the Lindemann criterion for melting of flux-line lattice. It is worthy to notice that the issue itself is interesting. However, their conclusion on the existence of a smectic vortex phase is unphysical for the fo...

Powder-based electron beam additive manufacturing (EBAM) has gained increased usage in different industries. Process monitoring such as temperatures may offer important information. However, temperature measurements in EBAM are challenging because of high temperature ranges, extreme gradients and fast transient response. In this study, temperature measurements during the EBAM process, in partic...

How does DNA melt in columnar aggregate relative to its melting in diluted solution? Is the melting temperature increased or decreased with the aggregate density? Have DNA-DNA interactions, predominantly of electrostatic nature, an effect on the character of the melting transition? In attempt to answer these questions, we have incorporated the theory of electrostatic interactions between DNA du...

Differential magneto-optical imaging of the vortex-lattice-melting process in Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8) crystals reveals unexpected effects of quenched disorder on the broadening of the first-order phase transition. The melting patterns show that the disorder-induced melting landscape T(m)(H,r) is not fixed, but rather changes dramatically with varying field and temperature along the melting line. ...

The Wang-Landau Monte Carlo approach is applied to the coil-globule and melting transitions of off-lattice flexible homopolymers. The solid-liquid melting point and coil-globule transition temperatures are identified by their respective peaks in the heat capacity as a function of temperature. The melting and theta points are well separated, indicating that the coil-globule transition occurs sep...

To investigate the effect of adsorbates on structural transitions in small palladium aggregates, we have performed molecular dynamics simulations of cluster “melting” in presence of atomic hydrogen. Intriguing questions are how the exposure to hydrogen modifies the metal-metal interaction, and whether hydrogen could lower the onset of melting. Various structural and caloric methods were used to...

The irradiation of polymeric materials has received much attention because it can produce diverse changes in chemical structure and physical properties. Thus, studying the chemical and structural changes of polymers is important in practice to achieve optimal conditions for the modification of polymers. The effect of gamma irradiation on the crystalline structure of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (P...

In this work, the thermal environment inside the furnace of a dynamic mechanical analyser was investigated by putting a standard sample in distinct positions inside the furnace. Penetration experiments were carried out in order to compare the measured melting temperature of the sample with the theoretical melting temperature. The thermal gradients were investigated for three distinct modes: com...