Correction to: Investigating Energy Flow in Water-Energy Storage for Hydropower Generation in Water Distribution Systems

Water Resources Management - The original version of this article unfortunately contains mistake introduced during the publishing process. The author name “M. Fayzul” should be deleted...     

Pharmacophore and docking-based combined in-silico study of KDR inhibitors

The growth and metastasis of solid tumors is dependent on angiogenesis. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its cell surface receptor in human KDR (kinase domain containing receptor or VEGFR-2) have particular interest because of their importance in angiogenesis. The development of novel inhibitors of VEGFR-2 would be helpful to check the growth of tumors. Quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) analyses used to understand the structural factors affecting inhibitory potency of thiazole-substituted pyrazolone derivatives. Several pharmacophore-based models indicated the importance of steric, hydrophobic and hydrogen bond acceptor groups to inhibitory activity. The comparative molecular field analyses (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analyses (CoMSIA) based 3D-QSAR models were derived using pharmacophore-based alignment. Both CoMFA (q² = 0.70, r² = 0.97 and ) and CoMSIA (q² = 0.54, r² = 0.82 and ) gave reasonable results. The molecular docking (receptor-guided technique) with a recently reported receptor structure (PDB = 1YWN) were performed. The docked alignment was subsequently used for 3D-QSAR (CoMFA; q² = 0.56, r² = 0.97, , CoMSIA; q² = 0.58 r² = 0.91, ). The overall both studies were indicated, steric, electrostatic and hydrogen bond acceptor effects contribute to the inhibitory activity. CoMFA and CoMSIA models suggested that a positive bulk with hydrophobic effect is desirable around position 4 and 5 and hydrogen bond acceptor groups around pyrazolones ring will be helpful.     

A linear model of elasto-plastic and adhesive contact deformation

Rigorous non-linear models of elasto-plastic contact deformation are time-consuming in numerical calculations for the distinct element method (DEM) and quite often unnecessary to represent the actual contact deformation of common particulate systems. In this work a simple linear elasto-plastic and adhesive contact model for spherical particles is proposed. Plastic deformation of contacts during loading and elastic unloading, accompanied by adhesion are considered, for which the pull-off force increases with plastic deformation. Considering the collision of a spherical cohesive body with a rigid flat target, the critical sticking velocity and coefficient of restitution in the proposed model are found to be very similar to those of Thornton and Ning’s model. Sensitivity analyses of the model parameters such as plastic, elastic, plastic-adhesive stiffnesses and pull-off force on work of compaction are carried out. It is found that by increasing the ratio of elastic to plastic stiffness, the plastic component of the total work increases and the elastic component decreases. By increasing the interface energy, the plastic work increases, but the elastic work does not change. The model can be used to efficiently represent the force-displacement of a wide range of particles, thus enabling fast numerical simulations of particle assemblies by the DEM.     

Graphene oxide reinforced polyvinyl alcohol/polyethylene glycol blend composites as high-performance dielectric material

Novel flexible dielectric composites composed of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and graphene oxide (GO) with high dielectric constant and low dielectric loss have been developed using facile and eco-friendly colloidal processing technique. The structure and morphology of the PVA/PEG/GO composites were evaluated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy (UV-vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The dielectric behavior of PVA/PEG/GO composites was investigated in the wide range of frequencies from 50 Hz to 20 MHz and temperature in the range 40 to 150 °C using impedance spectroscopy. The dielectric constant for PVA and PVA/PEG (50/50) blend film was found to be 10.71 (50 Hz, 150 °C) and 31.22 (50 Hz, 150 °C), respectively. The dielectric constant for PVA/PEG/GO composite with 3 wt% GO was found to be 644.39 (50 Hz, 150 °C) which is 60 times greater than the dielectric constant of PVA and 20 times greater than the dielectric constant of PVA/PEG (50/50) blend film. The PVA/PEG/GO composites not only show high dielectric constant but also show low dielectric loss which is highly attractive for practical applications. These findings underline the possibilities of using PVA/PEG/GO composites as a flexible dielectric material for high-performance energy storage applications such as embedded capacitors.     

DOE applied to multi-response optimisation study on performance,combustion and emission characteristics of a VCR diesel engine

There are various parameters which may influence the IC engine performance. The trial and error method is a technique used to identify the best parameters. However, this method demands extensive experimental work and results in a great waste of time and resources. Thus, the design of experiments (DOEs) developed by Taguchi is employed. The multi-responses which need to be maximised are brake thermal efficiency, mechanical efficiency, cylinder pressure and cumulative heat release rate, whereas the responses which are to be minimised are specific fuel consumption, oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide. In the present study, an optimised DOE(L9) orthogonal array based on the Taguchi statistical method was formulated and a series of experiments were conducted under controlled supervision by considering three different injection operating pressures (IOPs) (200, 220 and 240 bar) and three different compression ratios (CRs) (16.5, 17.5 and 18.5). The main objective of this paper is to find the best suited IOP and CR values which obtain higher performance, better combustion and lower emissions.     

Strategies to Develop Warm Solutions for Real-Time Pump Scheduling for Water Distribution Systems

An optimal pump operation schedule that maintains satisfactory hydraulics conditions can generally reduce energy consumptions compared to the traditional trial and error based pump operation schedule. Linking an evolutionary based optimization algorithm with a hydraulic simulation model has gained attention for obtaining the optimal schedule. However, this technique requires significant computation time and thus has difficulty in real-time implementation. This paper presents several tactics to generate warm solutions that can be used in the initial population of the evolutionary algorithms to reduce the computation times. Strategies to generate warm solutions include the use of linear programming, surrogate model known as machine learning or meta-model, and historical pump schedule for similar demand pattern. Providing warm solutions from approximate methods or previous day’s results to stochastic search methods can improve solution convergence and offers significant computation time benefits. Results obtained from different strategies are compared.     

Synthesis and nuclear magnetic resonance properties of all geometrical isomers of conjugated linoleic acids

Pure geometric isomers of conjugated linoleic acid were prepared from castor oil as the primary starting material. Methyl octadeca-9Z, 11E-dienoate (2) and methyl octadeca-9Z, 11Z-dienoate (4) were obtained by zinc reduction of methyl santalbate (1, methyl octadec-11E-en-9-ynoate) and methyl octadec-11 Z-en-9-ynoate (3), respectively, as the key intermediates. Methyl octadeca-9E, 11E-dienoate (8) and methyl octadeca-9E, 11Z-dienoate (9) were prepared by demesylation of the mesyloxy derivative of methyl ricinelaidate (6, methyl 12-hydroxy-octadec-9 E-enoate). A study of the nuclear magnetic resonance spectral properties was carried out and the shifts of the olefinic carbon atoms of 18:2(9Z, 11E) (2) and 18:2(9E, 11Z) (9) were readily identified by a combination of incredible natural abundance double quantum transfer experiment, heteronuclear multiple bond correlation, and ¹H−¹³C correlation spectroscopy correlation techniques. Doubts remain in the absolute identification of the individual olefinic carbon atoms of the 18:2(9Z, 11Z) (4) and 18:2(9E, 11E) (8), except the fact that the shifts of the “inner” (C-10 and C-11) and “outer” (C-9 and C-12) positioned olefinic carbon atoms of the conjugated diene system are distinguishable.     

Wheat gluten: high molecular weight glutenin subunits--structure, genetics, and relation to dough elasticity

ABSTRACT:  Gluten proteins, representing the major protein fraction of the starchy endosperm, are predominantly responsible for the unique position of wheat amongst cereals. These form a continuous proteinaceous matrix in the cells of the mature dry grain and form a continuous viscoelastic network during the mixing process of dough development. These viscoelastic properties underline the utilization of wheat to prepare bread and other wheat flour based foodstuffs. One group of gluten proteins is glutenin, which consists of high molecular weight (HMW) and low molecular weight (LMW) subunits. The HMW glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) are particularly important for determining dough elasticity. The common wheat possesses 3 to 5 HMW subunits encoded at the Glu-1 loci on the long arms of group 1 chromosomes (1A, 1B, and 1D). The presence of certain HMW subunits is positively correlated with good bread-making quality. Glutamine-rich repetitive sequences that comprise the central part of the HMW subunits are actually responsible for the elastic properties due to extensive arrays of interchain hydrogen bonds. Genetic engineering can be used to manipulate the amount and composition of the HMW subunits, leading to either increased dough strength or more drastic changes in gluten structure and properties.     

Physiological and Nutraceutical Perspectives of Fructan

Functional and nutraceutical foods have captured the global market owing to trends and perceptions of consumers on the natural products and diet-health linkages. Health promoting potential of such foods has been attributed to the presence of essential bioactive moieties. Wheat, being staple food in many parts of the world, gained substantial attention of researchers particularly for the extraction of various functional components. Among these, fructan oligosaccharides in nature bestow quality of baked products and provide protection against various physiological disorders. Addition of fructan in various baked products enhances softness and color, especially in bread, and also imparts textural improvement. Moreover, fructans boost mineral absorption, hypocholesterolemic, and hypoglycemic perspectives, bifidogenic nature and controlling cancer insurgence. The benefits allied with fructan are mainly dose and time dependent. In this context, its industrial applications for vulnerable groups are increasing worldwide.