Surface heterogeneity affects significantly wetting and adhesion properties. However, most of the theories and simulation methods of calculating solid-fluid interactions assume a standard thermodynamic model of the Gibbs' dividing solid-fluid interface, which is molecularly smooth. This assumption gives rise to a layering of the fluid phase near the surface that is displayed in oscillating dens...

We study the fluid inclusion of both Lennard-Jones (LJ) particles and particles with competing interaction ranges--short range attractive and long range repulsive (SALR)--in a disordered porous medium constructed as a controlled pore glass in two dimensions. With the aid of a full two-dimensional Ornstein-Zernike approach, complemented by a Replica Ornstein-Zernike integral equation, we explici...

We present a new theoretical framework for modelling the fusion process of Lennard-Jones (LJ) clusters. Starting from the initial tetrahedral cluster configuration, adding new atoms to the system and absorbing its energy at each step, we find cluster growing paths up to the cluster sizes of up to 150 atoms. We demonstrate that in this way all known global minima structures of the LJ-clusters ca...

SETTING Long transportation times of samples to culture laboratories can lead to higher contamination rates and significant loss of viability, resulting in lower culture positivity rates. Thin-layer agar (TLA) is a sensitive culture method for the isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that has been optimised with N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide (NALC-NaOH) decontaminated samples. The com...

Early diagnosis of active tuberculosis remains an elusive challenge. In addition, one third of the world's population is latently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and up to 10% of infected individuals develop tuberculosis (TB) in their lifetime. In this investigation, the incidence of urinary tuberculosis among renal patients was studied. Three hundreds urine samples were processe...

Structural studies of the major glycolipids produced by two Lactobacillus johnsonii (LJ) strains, LJ 151 isolated from intestinal tract of healthy mice and LJ 142 isolated from mice with experimentally induced inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), were performed. Two major glycolipids, GL1 and GL2, were present in lipid extracts from L. johnsonii 142 and 151 strains. Glycolipid GL1 has been identif...

A molecular-dynamics technique is utilized to calculate the melting curve of submonolayer and complete layers of krypton atoms physisorbed onto a spherical substrate. Two models of the substrate are used. In the first model the substrate is treated as a spherical continuum whose differential elements interact with krypton atoms via Lennard-Jones ~LJ! potential. Hysteresis is present in the melt...

The geometric system of deduction called N-Graphs was introduced by De Oliveira in 2001. The proofs in this system are represented by means of digraphs and, while its derivations are mostly based on Gentzen’s sequent calculus, the system gets its inspiration from geometrically based systems, such as the Kneales’ tables of development, Statman’s proofs-as-graphs, Buss’ logical flow graphs and Gi...

Resurgence of multidrug resistant tuberculosis has lead to demand for rapid susceptibility testing. Conventional methods take > 3 weeks and are tedious. Automated methods have superseded them for first line drug susceptibility testing. An attempt was made to standardize first and second line susceptibility testing using the BacT Alert 3D system (Biomerieux). And compare results with Lowenstein ...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the diagnostic validity of GeneXpert for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in pericardial and pleural effusions samples. METHODS A cross sectional study was conducted at the Mycobacteriology Laboratory, Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan. A total of 286 (158 pleural and 128 pericardial fluids) samples were received from tuberculosis (TB) susp...