Analysis for preliminary design of a class of torsionally coupled buildings with horizontal setbacks

Simplified method of analysis of a special class of torsionally coupled buildings with horizontal setbacks is developed that can be executed with a plane frame analysis by means of a personal computer. Since most buildings may not exactly satisfy all the classification criteria, it is shown that an averaging technique may be used in such cases up to a certain limit. Perturbation analysis is carried out in determining such a limit, and numerical examples are presented to validate this. As a whole, the proposed simplified analysis may be used as a convenient and offhand tool at the preliminary stage of design.     

Experimental investigation of an indirect-type solar cooker for indoor cooking based on a parabolic dish collector

In the present research article, an indirect type solar cooking system has been developed for indoor cooking. In the proposed cooking system, a cooking pot has been placed at a distance of 5 m from the parabolic dish collector, and the heat has been transmitted from the collector to the cooking pot by means of heat transfer fluid. A gear pump of 40 W and insulated pipes have been used to circulate the fluid. A number of experiments have been performed to analyze the performance of the cooking system. During the investigation, the system achieved the temperature of the heat transfer fluid up to 175°C. The time taken for cooking the rice and the black grams has been observed 21 and 68min, respectively. The average thermal efficiency of the proposed system for the entire day has been achieved at 13.11%.     

Thermal optimisation of a built-in storage solar water heater

A simple transient analysis of a built-in storage solar water heater is presented; the results obtained by the present theory are in close agreement with experimental observations as well as with predictions obtained by a more rigorous theory. The water heater consits of an insulated rectangular tank whose top surface is suitably blackened by blackboard paint and then glazed. The unit is exposed to solar radiation during sunshine hours and is covered by adequate insulation at night. The effect of insulation thicknesses (top and bottom insulation) and water mass in the tank is discussed. The importance of using a reflecting sheet instead of insulation is emphasised.     

Rational Structure-Based Design of Fluorescent Probes for Amyloid Folds

Amyloid fibrils are pathological hallmarks of various human diseases, including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or motor neurone disease), and prion diseases. Treatment of the amyloid diseases are hindered, among other factors, by timely detection and therefore, early detection of the amyloid fibrils would be beneficial for treatment against these disorders. Here, a small molecular fluorescent probe is reported that selectively recognize the fibrillar form of amyloid beta(1–42), α-synuclein, and HET-s(218–289) protein over their monomeric conformation. The rational design of the reporters relies on the well-known cross-β-sheet repetition motif, the key structural feature of amyloids.     

Microstructure and mechanical performance examination of 3D printed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene thermoplastic parts

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is a process where thermoplastic materials are heated to its melting point and then extruded, layer by layer, to create a three dimensional printed part. Printing occurs in a layered manner, which leads to creation of voids (air gaps) in the 3D printed parts. These voids act as centers for crack initiation, propagation and therefore resulting bulk mechanical properties are lower. This paper focuses on microstructural characterization and analysis of fused filament fabricated tensile test coupons made from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene polymer, at various design conditions. Comparable tensile modulus with injection molded specimens was obtained for FFF design condition that is, slice height (0.1778 mm), raster width (0.4064 mm), raster to raster air gap (−0.0015 mm), contour to raster air gap (−0.0508 mm) and raster angle (0°). Scanning electron microscope studies provided an understanding as to why FFF processed specimens yielded lower failure strain and an insight into the presence of intralayer voids in specimens having lower tensile modulus. The study confirmed that though bulk mechanicals were affected by the combined effect of inter, intra and interfacial voids, intravoids had a predominant influence.     

A Potent,Selective CBX2 Chromodomain Ligand and Its Cellular Activity During Prostate Cancer Neuroendocrine Differentiation

Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are epigenetic regulators that facilitate both embryonic development and cancer progression. PcG proteins form Polycomb repressive complexes 1 and 2 (PRC1 and PRC2). PRC2 trimethylates histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3), a histone mark recognized by the N-terminal chromodomain (ChD) of the CBX subunit of canonical PRC1. There are five PcG CBX paralogs in humans. CBX2 in particular is upregulated in a variety of cancers, particularly in advanced prostate cancers. Using CBX2 inhibitors to understand and target CBX2 in prostate cancer is highly desirable; however, high structural similarity among the CBX ChDs has been challenging for developing selective CBX ChD inhibitors. Here, we utilize selections of focused DNA encoded libraries (DELs) for the discovery of a selective CBX2 chromodomain probe, SW2_152F. SW2_152F binds to CBX2 ChD with a K_d of 80 nM and displays 24-1000-fold selectivity for CBX2 ChD over other CBX paralogs in vitro. SW2_152F is cell permeable, selectively inhibits CBX2 chromatin binding in cells, and blocks neuroendocrine differentiation of prostate cancer cell lines in response to androgen deprivation.     

AMBO: All Members-Based Optimizer for Solving Optimization Problems

There are many optimization problems in different branches of science that should be solved using an appropriate methodology. Population-based optimization algorithms are one of the most efficient approaches to solve this type of problems. In this paper, a new optimization algorithm called All Members-Based Optimizer (AMBO) is introduced to solve various optimization problems. The main idea in designing the proposed AMBO algorithm is to use more information from the population members of the algorithm instead of just a few specific members (such as best member and worst member) to update the population matrix. Therefore, in AMBO, any member of the population can play a role in updating the population matrix. The theory of AMBO is described and then mathematically modeled for implementation on optimization problems. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated on a set of twenty-three standard objective functions, which belong to three different categories: unimodal, high-dimensional multimodal, and fixed-dimensional multimodal functions. In order to analyze and compare the optimization results for the mentioned objective functions obtained by AMBO, eight other well-known algorithms have been also implemented. The optimization results demonstrate the ability of AMBO to solve various optimization problems. Also, comparison and analysis of the results show that AMBO is superior and more competitive than the other mentioned algorithms in providing suitable solution.