Numerical simulation of non-rigid landslide into reservoir with erodible sediment bed using SPH method

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - Landslide phenomenon in accumulated erodible bed sediments in a reservoir is one of the issues in hydraulic and sedimentation sciences that has...     

Intracellular Ionic Strength Sensing Using NanoLuc

Intracellular ionic strength regulates myriad cellular processes that are fundamental to cellular survival and proliferation, including protein activity, aggregation, phase separation, and cell volume. It could be altered by changes in the activity of cellular signaling pathways, such as those that impact the activity of membrane-localized ion channels or by alterations in the microenvironmental osmolarity. Therefore, there is a demand for the development of sensitive tools for real-time monitoring of intracellular ionic strength. Here, we developed a bioluminescence-based intracellular ionic strength sensing strategy using the Nano Luciferase (NanoLuc) protein that has gained tremendous utility due to its high, long-lived bioluminescence output and thermal stability. Biochemical experiments using a recombinantly purified protein showed that NanoLuc bioluminescence is dependent on the ionic strength of the reaction buffer for a wide range of ionic strength conditions. Importantly, the decrease in the NanoLuc activity observed at higher ionic strengths could be reversed by decreasing the ionic strength of the reaction, thus making it suitable for sensing intracellular ionic strength alterations. Finally, we used an mNeonGreen–NanoLuc fusion protein to successfully monitor ionic strength alterations in a ratiometric manner through independent fluorescence and bioluminescence measurements in cell lysates and live cells. We envisage that the biosensing strategy developed here for detecting alterations in intracellular ionic strength will be applicable in a wide range of experiments, including high throughput cellular signaling, ion channel functional genomics, and drug discovery.     

Ethanol purification using polyamide‐carbon nanotube composite membranes

This work presents synthesis and characterization of polyamide‐carbon nanotube (CNT) composite membranes for purification of ethanol. The solution‐casting method was applied for preparation of nanocomposite membranes. The nanocomposite membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy to ensure the fine dispersion of nanoparticles in polymer matrix. The effect of CNT loading on membrane performance was investigated. The separation performance of synthesized membranes was evaluated in separation of ethanol from ethanol/water mixture using pervaporation. Effect of feed temperature and feed concentration on separation of ethanol was investigated. The results showed that increasing temperature increases flux of ethanol through the membrane, but decreases separation factor. The results also confirmed that the best separation performance can be obtained at CNT loading of 0.5 wt%. Furthermore, a mathematical model was developed to simulate the separation process. The model was based on solving the continuity equation for ethanol in the feed side and membrane. The simulation results were compared with the experimental data and were in good agreement. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:961–968, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Improvement in accuracy of the measurements of residual stresses due to circumferential welds in thin-walled pipe using Rayleigh wave method

To achieve an acceptable safety in many industrial applications such as nuclear power plants and power generation, it is extremely important to gain an understanding of the magnitudes and distributions of the residual stresses in a pipe formed by joining two sections with a girth butt weld. Most of the methods for high-accuracy measurement of residual stress are destructive. These destructive measurement methods cannot be applied to engineering systems and structures during actual operation. In this paper, we present a method based on the measurement of ultrasonic Rayleigh wave velocity variations versus the stress state for nondestructive evaluation of residual stress in dissimilar pipe welded joint. We show some residual stress profile obtained by this method. These are then compared with other profiles determined using a semi-destructive technique (hole-drilling) that makes it possible to check our results. According to the results, we also present a new method for adjusting the ultrasonic measurements to improve the agreement with the results obtained from other techniques.     

A two-parameter lifetime distribution with decreasing failure rate

In this paper, a new two-parameter lifetime distribution with decreasing failure rate is introduced. Various properties of the proposed distribution are discussed. The estimation of the parameters attained by the EM algorithm and their asymptotic variances and covariances are obtained. In order to assess the accuracy of the approximation of variances and covariances of the maximum likelihood estimators, simulation studies are performed and experimental results are illustrated based on real data sets.     

Influence of garlic on serum cholesterol,serum triglycerides,serum total lipids and serum glucose in human subjects

Human subjects were used for a garlic experiment. The subjects were given a fat-rich diet for 7 days and on the 8th day the fasting blood was analyzed for serum cholesterol, serum triglycerides, serum total lipids and serum glucose. The human subjects were then given a fat-rich diet with 40 g of garlic for 7 days and on the 15th day the fasting blood was analyzed for the above investigations. On a fat-rich diet the serum cholesterol, serum triglycerides and serum total lipids were significantly increased as compared to normally fed diet. When 40 g of garlic was substituted in fat-rich diet for 7 days, the garlic significantly reduced the serum cholesterol and serum triglycerides.     

Regioselective Palladium(0)‐Catalyzed Cross‐Coupling Reactions and Metal‐Halide Exchange Reactions of Tetrabromothiophene: Optimization,Scope and Limitations

The Suzuki reaction of tetrabromothiophene with arylboronic acids provides a regioselective approach to various 5‐aryl‐2,3,4‐tribromothiophenes, symmetrical 2,5‐diaryl‐3,4‐dibromothiophenes, and tetraarylthiophenes. Unsymmetrical 2,5‐diaryl‐3,4‐dibromothiophenes are prepared by Suzuki reaction of 5‐aryl‐2,3,4‐tribromothiophenes. Tetraarylthiophenes containing two different types of aryl groups are obtained by Suzuki reactions of 2,5‐diaryl‐3,4‐dibromothiophenes. During the optimization of the conditions of each individual reaction, the solvent, the catalyst and the temperature play an important role. In several cases, classical conditions [use of tetrakis(triphenylphosphane)palladium(0), Pd(PPh₃)₄, as the catalyst] gave excellent yields. The yields of those transformations which failed or proceeded sluggishly could be significantly improved by application of a new biarylmonophosphine ligand developed by Buchwald and co‐workers. Regioselective metal‐halide exchange reactions of tetrabromothiophene provide a convenient approach to various 2,5‐disubstituted 3,4‐dibromothiophenes. 5‐Alkyl‐2‐trimethylsilyl‐3,4‐dibromothiophenes could be prepared in one pot by sequential addition of trimethylchlorosilane and alkyl bromides. The reaction of tetrabromothiophene with methyl chloroformate and subsequent Suzuki reactions afforded 3,4‐diaryl‐2,5‐bis(methoxycarbonyl)thiophenes.     

A New Class of Topp–Leone Power Series Distributions with Reliability Application

Okasha et al. (J Failure Anal Prevention, 2017. doi: 10.1007/s11668-017-0263-x) introduced the novel Topp–Leone geometric distribution. Here, we introduce a class of distributions containing [32]’s distribution as a particular case. The class of distributions contains several important distributions, including the Topp–Leone geometric, Topp–Leone Poisson, Topp–Leone logarithmic, Topp–Leone binomial and Topp–Leone negative binomial distributions. We derive comprehensive mathematical properties of the class. We obtain closed form expressions for the density function, cumulative distribution function, survival and hazard rate functions, moments, mean residual lifetime, mean past lifetime, order statistics and moments of order statistics. The class is shown to be more flexible by reanalyzing the real data set in [32].