Materials based on maize biopolymers: Effect of flour components on mechanical and thermal behavior

The present study describes the effects of glycerol, relative humidity (RH) and the minor components of corn flour on mechanical and thermal properties of native flour, defatted flour, and starch‐based materials. The kinetic of retrogradation for these different materials were dissimilar. For all samples, strain at break shows a maximum value as a function of RH followed by a decrease, explained by the appearance of water and glycerol clusters. Starch controls the mechanical properties of corn flour‐based material and their variations with temperature and humidity. Lipid and protein have negative effect on mechanical properties of thermoplastic flour toward starch but they did not have a plasticizing effect on the physicochemical behavior of the matrix. T_gs decreased as a result of water content increase.     

Berries anthocyanins as potential SARS-CoV–2 inhibitors targeting the viral attachment and replication; molecular docking simulation

The viral respiratory disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), has turned into a global health concern. Till now, there is no drug or vaccine has yet been specifically approved for SARS-CoV-2. One of the urgent solutions against the recent COVID-19 disease is the use of dietary molecules, which can be found abundantly in functional food. In the current study, we have conducted a molecular docking approach for eighteen dietary molecules belong to the subclass of anthocyanins, as potential inhibitors of the main protease and spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2. Both selected targets, playing a vital role in attachment and replication of the virus. The results indicated that cyanidin-3-arabinoside exhibited the lowest binding energy and located onto the pocket through a sufficient number of hydrogen bonds with the main protease virus. However, pelargonidin-3-glucoside and pelargonidin 3-rhamnoside display significant binding energy with the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2. All compounds mentioned above shown high drug-likeness and fulfils the Lipinski’s rule of five, as well as confer favorable toxicity parameters, in addition to ADME values. Considering the obtained results, regular consumption of berry fruits, which are rich in anthocyanin compounds, should be supportive to inhibit viral infectious by reducing of propagation and pathogenicity of SARS-CoV–2.     

Work-conserving dynamic time-division multiplexing for multi-criticality systems

Real-Time Systems - Multi-core architectures pose many challenges in real-time systems, which arise from contention between concurrent accesses to shared memory. Among the available memory...     

Stepanov-Like Pseudo Almost Periodic Solution of Quaternion-Valued for Fuzzy Recurrent Neural Networks with Mixed Delays

Neural Processing Letters - Real-valued neural networks or complex-valued neural networks are sometimes inappropriate for some engineering and research problems for instance where the data is...     

Stability analysis of delayed fuzzy Cohen-Grossberg neural networks with discontinuous activations

In this article, we investigate the dynamical behavior of a class of delayed fuzzy Cohen-Grossberg neural networks (FCGNNs) with discontinuous activation functions subject to time delays and fuzzy terms. By using the inequality analysis technique and the M-matrix theory, sufficient and proper conditions are given in order to establish the existence, convergence, and global exponential stability of equilibrium point of the system. In particular, we discuss the impact of discontinuous neuron activations on the existence and exponential stability of equilibrium point for FCGNNs. Two numerical examples are provided to substantiate the theoretical results.     

Interaction of tunnel linings and soft ground

Although soil-lining interaction is highly dependent on the tunnelling technology used, most of the available design methods for tunnel linings fail to take into consideration this important factor. During tunnel excavation, the in-situ stresses are significantly altered, depending on the tunnelling technique as well as the configuration of the tunnel and the characteristics of the soil deposits. The reduced radial stresses are the starting point of the soil-lining interaction at lining activation. This paper presents a method of lining design that considers the details of the excavation procedure and lining installation. Interaction between the tunnel lining and the ground is analysed in two stages—excavation and interaction. The excavation stage is responsible for determining the pre-lining soil deformations and the reduced in-situ stresses. The interaction stage models the soil-lining system together. Soil continuum, tunnel lining, and the interface between them are idealized in the whole system using nonlinear finite-element techniques. The deformations of the soil-lining system, as well as the lining internal forces, and equilibrium soil pressures are determined. Finally, results of the proposed analytical method as well as commonly used procedures are compared with field measurements compiled during the construction of two tunnels in which a precast segmental lining and rib and lagging lining were used.     

Acoustically generated flows in microchannel flexural plate wave sensors: Effects of compressibility

Acoustically generated flowfields in flexural plate wave sensors filled with a Newtonian liquid (water) are considered. A computational model based on compressible flow is developed for the sensor with a moving wall for pumping and mixing applications in microchannels. For the compressible flow formulation, an isothermal equation of state for water is employed. The velocity and pressure profiles for different parameters including flexural wall frequency, channel height, amplitude of the wave and wave length are investigated for four microchannel height/length geometries. It is found that the flowfield becomes pseudo-steady after sufficient number of flexural cycles. Both instantaneous and time averaged results show that an evanescent wave is generated in the microchannel. The predicted flows generated by the FPWs are compared with results available in the literature. The proposed device can be exploited to integrate micropumps with complex microfluidic chips improving the portability of micro-total-analysis systems.     

Neutral dyeing of wool and wool/polyester blend fabrics using sulphatoethylsulphone reactive‐disperse dyes

Two models of temporarily anionic sulphatoethylsulphone reactive disperse dyes were applied to wool, polyester and wool/polyester blend fabrics at different dyeing pH. Maximum exhaustion values and colour yield were observed at pH 7. The results showed that reactive disperse dyes containing bis‐sulphatoethylsulphone reactive groups were more convenient for neutral dyeing of wool and wool/polyester blend fabrics if compared with a dye containing a mono‐sulphatoethylsulphone group. Excellent to very good wet fastness properties on all dyed fabrics were achieved.     

Characterization of composite materials based on LDPE loaded with agricultural tunisian waste

This study investigated the use of an available agricultural Tunisian vine stem waste as a filler material. Composites of green materials were prepared using vine stems as filler and low density polyethylene (LDPE) as a matrix. A series of composite films was prepared by different loadings of the vine stem waste with 10–50% of the filler in 10% intervals. The ensuing materials were characterized by several techniques. The morphology of the composites was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermal and mechanical properties were studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), respectively. The results indicated that vine‐stem based particles enhanced the thermo‐mechanical properties of the thermoplastic matrix and demonstrated that this available lignocellulosic biomass of vine stems can be considered to be a promising filler material. However, the obtained result of water absorption indicated that the maximum limit of the filler content should not exceed 30% of vine stems. POLYM. COMPOS., 36:817–824, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers