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Rad se bavi razvojem pojma elementa od antičkih vremena (Empedoklo, Aristotel) preko razdoblja alkemije i rane kemije (Paracelsus, Petar Bono, Boyle) te početaka moderne kemije (Lavoisier, Mendeljejev) do suvremenih shvaćanja utemeljenih na atomskoj teoriji. Pokazuje se da pojam elementa ima dva značenja, elementarne (jednostavne) tvari i elementa u užem smislu; dok se prvi pojam razvijao prateći napredak metoda kemijske analize, za razumijevanje drugog pojma, pojma elementa, bilo je nužno steći dublji uvid u narav kemijskih promjena.

The aim of this work was to develop three artificial intelligence-based methods to model the ternary adsorption of heavy metal ions {Pb2+, Hg2+, Cd2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Ni2+, Cr4+} on different adsorbates {activated carbon, chitosan, Danish peat, Heilongjiang peat, carbon sunflower head, and carbon sunflower stem). Results show that support vector regression (SVR) performed slightly better, more accurate, stable, and more rapid than least-square support vector regression (LS-SVR) and artificial neural networks (ANN). The SVR model is highly recommended for estimating the ternary adsorption kinetics of a multicomponent system.

Polyketides and non-ribosomal peptides represent a large class of structurally diverse natural products much studied over recent years because the enzymes that synthesise them, the modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) and the non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs), share striking architectural similarities that can be exploited to generate "un-natural" natural products. PKS and NRPS proteins are multifunctional, composed of a co-linear arrangement of discrete protein domains representing each enzymic activity needed for chain elongation using either carboxylic acid or amino acid building blocks. Each domain is housed within larger modules which form the complex. Polyketide and peptide antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, cytostatics, immunosuppressants, antihypertensives, antidiabetics, antimalarials and anticholesterolemics are in clinical use. Of commercial importance are also polyketide and peptide antiparasitics, coccidiostatics,animal growth promoters and natural insecticides.Polyketides are assembled through serial condensations of activated coenzyme-A thioester monomers derived from simple organic acids such as acetate, propionate and butyrate. The choice of organic acid allows the introduction of different chiral centres into the polyketide backbone. The active sites required for condensation include an acyltransferase (AT), an acyl carrier protein (ACP) and a ß-ketoacylsynthase (KS). Each condensation results in a ß-keto group that undergoes all, some or none of a series of processing steps. Active sites that perform these reactions are contained within the following domains; ketoreductase (KR), dehydratase (DH) and an enoylreductase (ER). The absence of any ß-keto processing results in the incorporation of a ketone group into the growing polyketide chain, a KR alone gives rise to a hydroxyl moiety, a KR and DH produce an alkene, while the combination of KR, DH and ER domains lead to complete reduction to an alkane. Most often, the last module contains the thioesterase domain (TE) responsible for the release of linear polyketide chain from the enzyme and final cyclisation. After assembly, the polyketide backbone typically undergoes post-PKS modifications such as hydroxylation(s), methylation(s) and glycosylation(s) to give the final active compound.Non-ribosomal peptides are assembled by the so-called "multiple carrier thio-template mechanism". Three domains are necessary for an elongation module: an adenylation (A) domain that selects the substrate amino acid, analogous to a polyketide AT domain, and activates it as an amino acyl adenylate; a peptidyl carrier protein (PCP) that binds the co-factor 4-phosphopantetheine to which the activated amino acid is covalently attached, analogous to the ACP of a PKS; and a condensation (C) domain that catalyzes peptide bond formation, again analogous to the KS in modular PKSs. The NRPSs also contain a (Te) domain located at the C-terminal of the protein which is essential for release of linear, cyclic or branched cyclic peptides. Auxiliary activities can further enlarge the structural diversity of the peptide especially common are epimerization domains (Epim) that convert the thioester-bound amino acid from an L- to D- configuration.There has been a lot of interest in the last few years in generating new compounds for the production of novel drugs by manipulating the programming of such clusters in vitro (e.g. the idea of combinatorial biosynthesis). However, an important barrier to the progress is the fact that most changes made by in vitro methods result in very low yields or no detectable product. A possible solution to the yield problem would be the generation of novel clusters by homologous recombination in vivo, because this would favour more closely related sequences and should reduce problems caused by non-functional incompatible junctions.The Unified Modeling Language (UML) was used to define the platform independent integral generic program packages, CompGen and ClustScan, which are under development to model these processes in silico. The heart of CompGen is a specially structured database, based on BioSQL v1.29, which connects the biosynthetic order of synthase/synthetase enzymes to the sequences of the component polypeptides. The additional linkage to the gene sequences allows the integration of DNA sequence with product structure. The database contains sequences of the well-characterised PKS/NRPS clusters, and non-annotated sequenced clusters whose structure and functionis yet unknown, to act as building blocks for the production of novel products. It is easy to add custom sequences to the database and to annotate them by the use of propriety protein profiles designed by Pfam database and HMMER. One function of the program is the ability to generate virtual recombinants between clusters. This can be done using a recombination model (with optional parameters) to predict sites for homologous recombination or by user defined recombination sites (e.g. to model in vitro genetic manipulation such as module replacement). The program predicts the linear polyketide structure of the resulting "un-natural" natural products with a chemical description using isomeric SMILES. Molecular modelling of the subsequent spontaneous cyclisation process produces structures for a virtual compound database for further molecular modelling studies using PASS and CDD technology. An optional "reverse genetics" module analyses a given chemical structure to see if it could be produced by a novel PKS/NRPS synthesis cluster and suggests the DNA sequence of a suitable cluster based on building blocks derived from clusters contained in the database.Overall, the CompGen allows in silico generation of the database of novel "un-natural" natural chemical compounds that can be used for in silico screening using PASS or CDD technology. The other integral generic program package, ClustScan, will recognise and annotate new gene clusters from microbial genome sequencing projects or in metagenomes of soil and/or marine microorganisms.

Radikale, kemijske vrste s nesparenim elektronima, obično se smatra vrlo nestablinima, tako da ih se može pripraviti samo pod posebnim uvjetima i proučavati samo pomoću posebnih, vrlo skupih, instrumenata. Također ih se smatra štetnima te neprimjerenima za pokuse u školi. Ipak, radikali imaju ključnu ulogu u biološkim sustavima. Zahvaljujući nesparenim elektronima, obično su živo obojani, tako da se njihovo nastajanje često može opaziti golim okom. Ovdje je opisano nekoliko jednostavnih reakcijâ s biološki najvažnijim radikalom, semikinonom. Lako ih je izvesti u školskom laboratoriju uporabom male količine jeftinih i bezopasnih tvari. Jednostavnim promatranjem tih reakcijâ dade se naučiti mnogo toga o kemiji (slobodnih) radikala.

U ovom radu istražen je utjecaj obrade plamenom polipropilena (PP) i termoplastičnih poliolefina s talkom i čađom (TPO) na površinska svojstva i adheziju nanesenog premaza u uvjetima industrijskog procesa robotskog bojenja. Obrada plamenom provedena je na dvije udaljenosti plamena od površine (7,5 cm i 12,5 cm) pri konstantnom protoku zraka i metana te brzini kretanja plamenika. Toplinska postojanost netretiranih uzoraka ispitana je primjenom termogravimetrijske analize (TGA). Promjena toplinskih svojstava prije i nakon obrade plamenom praćena je primjenom diferencijalne pretražne kalorimetrije (DSC). Metodom kontaktnog kuta određena je površinska energija uzoraka prije obrade plamenom te 1 h i 24 h nakon obrade plamenom. Promjene uzrokovane obradom plamenom istražene su ATR – FTIR analizom, a morfološke promjene pretražnim elektronskim mikroskopom (SEM). Nakon nanošenja temeljnog sloja, sloja boje i sloja laka na površinu obrađenih uzoraka određena je adhezija standardnim metodama ISO 2409 i ISO 16925/D25 2018-B. Rezultati su pokazali da TPO uzorci koji sadrže punilo talk i čađu imaju bolju toplinsku postojanost u odnosu na PP. Obrada plamenom utječe na promjenu površinskih karakteristika uzoraka, povećanje slobodne površinske energije i na izgled/strukturu površine. ATR – FTIR analizom utvrđeno je postojanje polarnih skupina na površini nakon obrade plamenom. Svi obojeni uzorci prema zahtjevima normi zadovoljavaju uvjete izvrsne adhezije na međupovršini supstrat/premaz.

The teaching of the periodic system in the historical context has an advantage because students in this way comprehend more easily the basic chemical concepts, such as relative atomic mass, proton number, chemical element, elementary substance, equivalent and molar mass. The story of the periodic system also shows the following: (1) Before a key scientific discovery there is a long period of data collection and systematization, (2) Theories in chemistry must be based on experimental results and methods, (3) The advancement of science is also determined by the development of concepts, and (4) Scientific theories usually do not contradict but support each other. Therefore, the historical periodic system (based on relative atomic mass) is not obsolete, but complementary to the modern.

The region of Médéa (Algeria) located in an agricultural site requires a large amount of drinking water. For this purpose, the water analyses in question are imperative. To examine the evolution of the drinking water quality in this region, firstly, an experimental protocol was done in order to obtain a dataset by taking into account several physicochemical parameters. Secondly, the obtained data set was divided into two parts to form the artificial neural network, where 70 % of the data set was used for training, and the remaining 30 % was also divided into two equal parts: one for testing and the other for validation of the model. The intelligent model obtained was evaluated as a function of the correlation coefficient nearest to 1 and lowest mean square error (RMSE). A set of 84 data points were used in this study. Eighteen parameters in the input layer, five neurons in the hidden layer, and one parameter in the output layer were used for the ANN modelling. Levenberg Marquardt learning (LM) algorithm, logarithmic sigmoid, and linear transfer function were used, respectively, for the hidden and the output layers. The results obtained during the present study showed a correlation coefficient of <i>R</i> = 0.99276 with root mean square error RMSE = 11.52613 mg dm<sup>–3</sup>. These results show that obtained ANN model gave far better and more significant results. It is obviously more accurate since its relative error is small with a correlation coefficient close to unity. Finally, it can be concluded that obtained model can effectively predict the rate of soluble bicarbonate in drinking water in the Médéa region.