Persistent organic pollutants in Croatian breast milk: An overview of pollutant levels and infant health risk assessment from 1976 to the present.

This review article summarizes our research of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in human milk from Croatian mothers over the last few decades. Our studies make up the bulk of all POPs research in human milk in Croatia and show a state-of-the art in the research area. The first investigations were made in 1970's.

Perspectives on adaptive dynamical systems.

Adaptivity is a dynamical feature that is omnipresent in nature, socio-economics, and technology. For example, adaptive couplings appear in various real-world systems, such as the power grid, social, and neural networks, and they form the backbone of closed-loop control strategies and machine learning algorithms. In this article, we provide an interdisciplinary perspective on adaptive systems.

Spin-to-Charge Conversion in All-Oxide LaSrMnO/SrIrO Heterostructures.

Spin injection and spin-charge conversion processes in all-oxide LaSrMnO/SrIrO (LSMO/SIO) heterostructures with different SIO layer thickness and interfacial features have been studied. Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) technique has been used to generate pure spin currents by spin pumping (SP) in ferromagnetic (FM) half-metallic LSMO. The change of the resonance linewidth in bare LSMO layers and LSMO/SIO heterostructures suggests a successful spin injection into the SIO layers.

Non-destructive techniques for the determination of magnetic particle and element contents in grapevine leaves and soil as an eco-sustainable tool for environmental pollution assessment in the agricultural areas.

The concentration of magnetic particulate matter (PM) on the leaf surface (an indicator of current pollution) and topsoil (an indicator of magnetic PMs which have geogenic natural signal or historical pollution origin) was assessed in agricultural areas (conventional and organic vineyards). The main aim of this study was to explore whether magnetic parameters such as saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) and mass-specific magnetic susceptibility (χ) can be a proxy for magnetic particulate matter (PM) pollution and associated potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in agricultural areas. Besides, wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (WD-XRF) was investigated as a screening method for total PTE content in soil and leaf samples.

Interactions of ultrashort laser pulses with hemoglobin: Photophysical aspects and potential applications.

Hemoglobin (Hb), a life-sustaining and highly abundant erythrocyte protein, is not readily fluorescent. A few studies have already reported Two-Photon Excited Fluorescence (TPEF) of Hb, however, the mechanisms through which Hb becomes fluorescent upon interaction with ultrashort laser pulses are not completely understood. Here, we characterized photophysically this interaction on Hb thin film and erythrocytes using fluorescence spectroscopy upon single-photon/two-photon absorption, and UV-VIS single-photon absorption spectroscopy.

Direct Probing of Water Adsorption on Liquid-Phase Exfoliated WS Films Formed by the Langmuir-Schaefer Technique.

Tungsten disulfide, a transition metal dichalcogenide, has numerous applications as active components in gas- and chemical-sensing devices, photovoltaic sources, photocatalyst substrates, etc. In such devices, the presence of water in the sensing environment is a factor whose role has not been well-understood. To address this problem, the probing of HO molecule adsorption on WS films supported on solid substrates has been performed in a near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) setup.

Potential of Coupling Metaheuristics-Optimized-XGBoost and SHAP in Revealing PAHs Environmental Fate.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) refer to a group of several hundred compounds, among which 16 are identified as priority pollutants, due to their adverse health effects, frequency of occurrence, and potential for human exposure. This study is focused on benzo(a)pyrene, being considered an indicator of exposure to a PAH carcinogenic mixture. For this purpose, we have applied the XGBoost model to a two-year database of pollutant concentrations and meteorological parameters, with the aim to identify the factors which were mostly associated with the observed benzo(a)pyrene concentrations and to describe types of environments that supported the interactions between benzo(a)pyrene and other polluting species.

Photoacoustic Characterization of TiO Thin-Films Deposited on Silicon Substrate Using Neural Networks.

In this paper, the possibility of determining the thermal, elastic and geometric characteristics of a thin TiO film deposited on a silicon substrate, with a thickness of 30 μm, in the frequency range of 20 to 20 kHz with neural networks were analysed. For this purpose, the geometric (thickness), thermal (thermal diffusivity, coefficient of linear expansion) and electronic parameters of substrates were known and constant in the two-layer model, while the following nano-layer thin-film parameters were changed: thickness, expansion and thermal diffusivity. Predictions of these three parameters of the thin-film were analysed separately with three neural networks.

A large-scale machine learning study of sociodemographic factors contributing to COVID-19 severity.

Understanding sociodemographic factors behind COVID-19 severity relates to significant methodological difficulties, such as differences in testing policies and epidemics phase, as well as a large number of predictors that can potentially contribute to severity. To account for these difficulties, we assemble 115 predictors for more than 3,000 US counties and employ a well-defined COVID-19 severity measure derived from epidemiological dynamics modeling. We then use a number of advanced feature selection techniques from machine learning to determine which of these predictors significantly impact the disease severity.

Collective Activity Bursting in a Population of Excitable Units Adaptively Coupled to a Pool of Resources.

We study the collective dynamics in a population of excitable units (neurons) adaptively interacting with a pool of resources. The resource pool is influenced by the average activity of the population, whereas the feedback from the resources to the population is comprised of components acting homogeneously or inhomogeneously on individual units of the population. Moreover, the resource pool dynamics is assumed to be slow and has an oscillatory degree of freedom.

Antibiotic-induced degradation of antitoxin enhances the transcription of acetyltransferase-type toxin-antitoxin operon.

Background: Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules respond to various stressful conditions. The Gcn5-related N-acetyltransferase-type toxin (GNAT) protein encoded by the GNAT-RHH TA locus is involved in the antibiotic tolerance of Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Objectives: To investigate the transcriptional mechanism of the GNAT-RHH operon kacAT under antibiotic stress.

Fermionic-propagator and alternating-basis quantum Monte Carlo methods for correlated electrons on a lattice.

Ultracold-atom simulations of the Hubbard model provide insights into the character of charge and spin correlations in and out of equilibrium. The corresponding numerical simulations, on the other hand, remain a significant challenge. We build on recent progress in the quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation of electrons in continuous space and apply similar ideas to the square-lattice Hubbard model.

Photocatalytic Activity of the VO Catalyst toward Selected Pharmaceuticals and Their Mixture: Influence of the Molecular Structure on the Efficiency of the Process.

Due to the inability of conventional wastewater treatment procedures to remove organic pharmaceutical pollutants, active pharmaceutical components remain in wastewater and even reach tap water. In terms of pharmaceutical pollutants, the scientific community focuses on β-blockers due to their extensive (over)usage and moderately high solubility. In this study, the photocatalytic activity of V2O5 was investigated through the degradation of nadolol (NAD), pindolol (PIN), metoprolol (MET), and their mixture under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation in water.

Isolation of Garlic Bioactives by Pressurized Liquid and Subcritical Water Extraction.

Garlic ( L.) is widely used in various food products and traditional medicine. Besides unique taste and flavour, it is well known for its chemical profile and bioactive potential.

Prediction of airborne pollen and sub-pollen particles for thunderstorm asthma outbreaks assessment.

When exposed to convective thunderstorm conditions, pollen grains can rupture and release large numbers of allergenic sub-pollen particles (SPPs). These sub-pollen particles easily enter deep into human lungs, causing an asthmatic response named thunderstorm asthma (TA). Up to now, efforts to numerically predict the airborne SPP process and to forecast the occurrence of TAs are unsatisfactory.

X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Study of Thickness Effects on the Structural and Magnetic Properties of PrNiMnO Double Perovskite Thin Films.

In this work, we report a systematic study of the influence of film thickness on the structural and magnetic properties of epitaxial thin films of PrNiMnO (PNMO) double perovskite grown on top of two different (001)-SrTiO and (001)-LaAlO substrates by RF magnetron sputtering. A strong dependence of the structural and magnetic properties on the film thickness is found. The ferromagnetic transition temperature () and saturation magnetization (s) are found to decrease when reducing the film thickness.

Charge Transport inside TiO Memristors Prepared via FEBID.

We fabricated memristive devices using focused electron beam-induced deposition (FEBID) as a direct-writing technique employing a Pt/TiO/Pt sandwich layer device configuration. Pinching in the measured current-voltage characteristics (), the characteristic fingerprint of memristive behavior was clearly observed. The temperature dependence was measured for both high and low resistive states in the range from 290 K down to about 2 K, showing a stretched exponential behavior characteristic of Mott-type variable-range hopping.

Spectroscopic signature of ZnO NP-induced cell death modalities assessed by non-negative PCA.

Selective cytotoxicity of ZnO nanoparticles among different cell types and cancer and non-cancerous cells has been demonstrated earlier. In the view of anticancer potential of ZnO nanoparticles and their presence in numerous industrial products, it is of great importance to carefully evaluate their effects and mechanisms of action in both cancerous and healthy cells. In this paper, the effects of ZnO nanoparticles on cancerous HeLa and non-cancerous MRC-5 cells are investigated by studying the changes in the vibrational properties of the cells using Raman spectroscopy.

Label-free third harmonic generation imaging and quantification of lipid droplets in live filamentous fungi.

We report the utilization of Third-Harmonic Generation microscopy for label-free live cell imaging of lipid droplets in the hypha of filamentous fungus Phycomyces blakesleeanus. THG microscopy images showed bright spherical features dispersed throughout the hypha cytoplasm in control conditions and a transient increase in the number of bright features after complete nitrogen starvation. Colocalization analysis of THG and lipid-counterstained images disclosed that the cytoplasmic particles were lipid droplets.

Enhancing Electron Correlation at a 3d Ferromagnetic Surface.

Spin-resolved momentum microscopy and theoretical calculations are combined beyond the one-electron approximation to unveil the spin-dependent electronic structure of the interface formed between iron (Fe) and an ordered oxygen (O) atomic layer, and an adsorbate-induced enhancement of electronic correlations is found. It is demonstrated that this enhancement is responsible for a drastic narrowing of the Fe d-bands close to the Fermi energy (E ) and a reduction of the exchange splitting, which is not accounted for in the Stoner picture of ferromagnetism. In addition, correlation leads to a significant spin-dependent broadening of the electronic bands at higher binding energies and their merging with satellite features, which are manifestations of a pure many-electron behavior.

Analyzing the GHSI puzzle of whether highly developed countries fared worse in COVID-19.

Global Health Security Index (GHSI) categories are formulated to assess the capacity of world countries to deal with infectious disease risks. Thus, higher values of these indices were expected to translate to lower COVID-19 severity. However, it turned out to be the opposite, surprisingly suggesting that higher estimated country preparedness to epidemics may lead to higher disease mortality.

Understanding risk factors of a new variant outburst through global analysis of Omicron transmissibility.

The emergence of a new virus variant is generally recognized by its usually sudden and rapid spread (outburst) in a certain world region. Due to the near-exponential rate of initial expansion, the new strain may not be detected at its true geographical origin but in the area with the most favorable conditions leading to the fastest exponential growth. Therefore, it is crucial to understand better the factors that promote such outbursts, which we address in the example of analyzing global Omicron transmissibility during its global emergence/outburst in November 2021-February 2022.

Patched patterns and emergence of chaotic interfaces in arrays of nonlocally coupled excitable systems.

We disclose a new class of patterns, called patched patterns, in arrays of non-locally coupled excitable units with attractive and repulsive interactions. The self-organization process involves the formation of two types of patches, majority and minority ones, characterized by uniform average spiking frequencies. Patched patterns may be temporally periodic, quasiperiodic, or chaotic, whereby chaotic patterns may further develop interfaces comprised of units with average frequencies in between those of majority and minority patches.

Spectral Functions of the Holstein Polaron: Exact and Approximate Solutions.

It is generally accepted that the dynamical mean field theory gives a good solution of the Holstein model, but only in dimensions greater than two. Here, we show that this theory, which becomes exact in the weak coupling and in the atomic limit, provides an excellent, numerically cheap, approximate solution for the spectral function of the Holstein model in the whole range of parameters, even in one dimension. To establish this, we make a detailed comparison with the spectral functions that we obtain using the newly developed momentum-space numerically exact hierarchical equations of motion method, which yields electronic correlation functions directly in real time.

Optimization of the Growth Process of Double Perovskite PrNiMnO Epitaxial Thin Films by RF Sputtering.

Epitaxial thin films of PrNiMnO (PNMO) double perovskite were grown on (001)-oriented SrTiO substrates by RF magnetron sputtering. The influence of the growth parameters (oxygen pressure, substrate temperature, and annealing treatments) on the structural, magnetic and transport properties, and stoichiometry of the films was thoroughly investigated. It is found that high-quality epitaxial, insulating, and ferromagnetic PNMO thin films can only be obtained in a narrow deposition parameter window.