Effect of physico‐chemical properties of tropical starches and hydrocolloids on rice gels texture and noodles water retention ability

The links between the physico‐chemical properties of rice flour (RF), cassava (CS), sago (SS), canna (CaS), sweet potato (SPS), and mung bean (MS) starches, and the gelling properties of rice flour blends with these starches in different proportions (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% pure starches) and with xanthan (XG) and carrageenan (CG) gums were studied. Water retention ability of starches and hydrocolloids blends in noodle systems during drying at 40°C was also investigated. The mean granule diameter and AM content values of RF, CS, SPS, SS, CaS, and MS were in the range of 12.8–41.0 µm and 21.9–39.4%, respectively. Thermal properties showed significant differences (p < 0.05) between the starches in terms of gelatinization temperature and enthalpy, as well as retrogradation tendency. Different starches produced gels with a wide range of textural properties. Results confirmed the role of AM content in determining the gel strength, and indicated a possible role of retrogradation in increasing the dissipation of mechanical energy during compression and relaxation tests, which can have an effect on mouth feel. Blends of RF with other starches and hydrocolloids generally improved the characteristics of RF‐based gels, by increasing gel strength. In particular, the use of MS markedly increased the strength of RF‐based gels. Addition of hydrocolloids significantly reduced the drying rate of noodles, although overall water retention ability was reduced only to a limited extent. This may be used to produce starch‐based products, especially noodles, in a range of desired characteristics.     

Synthesis of Dihydrobenzofuro[3,2-b]chromenes as Potential 3CLpro Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2: A Molecular Docking and Molecular Dynamics Study

The recent emergence of pandemic of coronavirus (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has raised significant global health concerns. More importantly, there is no specific therapeutics currently available to combat against this deadly infection. The enzyme 3-chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease (3CLpro) is known to be essential for viral life cycle as it controls the coronavirus replication. 3CLpro could be a potential drug target as established before in the case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). In the current study, we wanted to explore the potential of fused flavonoids as 3CLpro inhibitors. Fused flavonoids (5a,10a-dihydro-11H-benzofuro[3,2-b]chromene) are unexplored for their potential bioactivities due to their low natural occurrences. Their synthetic congeners are also rare due to unavailability of general synthetic methodology. Here we designed a simple strategy to synthesize 5a,10a-dihydro-11H-benzofuro[3,2-b]chromene skeleton and it's four novel derivatives. Our structural bioinformatics study clearly shows excellent potential of the synthesized compounds in comparison to experimentally validated inhibitor N3. Moreover, in-silico ADMET study displays excellent druggability and extremely low level of toxicity of the synthesized molecules. Further, for better understanding, the molecular dynamic approach was implemented to study the change in dynamicity after the compounds bind to the protein. A detailed investigation through clustering analysis and distance calculation gave us sound comprehensive data about their molecular interaction. In summary, we anticipate that the currently synthesized molecules could not only be a potential set of inhibitors against 3CLpro but also the insights acquired from the current study would be instrumental in further developing novel natural flavonoid based anti-COVID therapeutic spectrums.     

Scaling the SIESTA magnetohydrodynamics equilibrium code

We report the results of a scaling effort that increases both the speed and resolution of the SIESTA magnetohydrodynamics equilibrium code. SIESTA is capable of computing three‐dimensional plasma equilibria with magnetic islands at high spatial resolutions for toroidally confined plasmas. Starting with a small‐scale parallel implementation, we identified scale‐dependent bottlenecks of the code and developed scalable alternatives for each performance‐significant functionality, cumulatively improving both its runtime speed (on the same number of processors) and its scalability (across larger number of processors) by an order of magnitude. The net outcome is an improvement in speed by over 10‐fold, utilizing a few thousand processors, enabling SIESTA to simulate high spatial‐resolution scenarios in under an hour for the first time. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Skin-Inspired Nanofluid-Filled Surfaces with Tunable Icephobic,Photothermal, and Energy Absorption Properties

Ice buildup can significantly and negatively impact system performance in various industrial sectors, and has remained a persistent challenge for decades. Many compliant materials exhibit excellent de-icing performance but are easily eroded by impacts from supercooled water droplets, sand, dust, and debris. A composite panel inspired by animal skin, consisting of a facesheet protecting a nanofluid layer beneath, which exhibits durable anti-icing and tunable photothermal properties is proposed. The viscous liquid layer beneath the facesheet increases flexural rigidity, preventing large deflections and increasing deformation resistance, which alters ice's adhesion to the surface. The non-uniform fluid pressure exerted by the viscous nanofluid-filled composite panels facilitates ice detachment, resulting in ice adhesion strengths as low as τ_ice ≈ 10 kPa. Further, by altering the fluid properties, different additional functionalities can be endowed to the system. Incorporating fumed silica in a fluid-filled composite panel results in rheopectic behavior, and this doubles their impact resistance when the shear thickening properties are properly tuned. Additionally, the combination of a transparent facesheet and a solar light absorbent nanofluid allows for tunable photothermal properties, further enhancing the anti-icing performance of the system. This durable and tunable nanofluid-filled composite panel shows great promise as a multifunctional de-icing material.     

Impact of process variation on the RF and stability performance of SiGe source-based epitaxial layer TFET

Journal of Computational Electronics - In this study, the RF and stability aspects of SiGe source-based epitaxial layer tunnel field-effect transistor (SiGe source ETLTFET) are explored by...     

A Universal Strategy of Perovskite Ink - Substrate Interaction to Overcome the Poor Wettability of a Self-Assembled Monolayer for Reproducible Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cells employing [4-(3,6-dimethyl-9H-carbazol-9-yl)butyl]phosphonic acid (Me-4PACz) self-assembled monolayer as the hole transport layer have been reported to demonstrate a high device efficiency. However, the poor perovskite wetting on Me-4PACz caused by poor perovskite ink interaction with the underlying Me-4PACz presents significant challenges for fabricating efficient perovskite devices. A triple co-solvent system comprising dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) is employed to improve the perovskite ink - Me-4PACz coated substrate interaction and obtain a uniform perovskite layer. In comparison to DMF- and DMSO-based inks, the inclusion of NMP shows considerably higher binding energies of the perovskite ink with Me-4PACz as revealed by density-functional theory calculations. With the optimized triple co-solvent ratio, the perovskite devices deliver high power conversion efficiencies of >20%, 19.5%, and ≈18.5% for active areas of 0.16, 0.72, and 1.08 cm², respectively. Importantly, this perovskite ink–substrate interaction approach is universal and helps in obtaining a uniform layer and high photovoltaic device performance for other perovskite compositions such as MAPbI₃, FA_1−xMA_xPbI_3–yBr_y, and MA-free FA_1−xCs_xPbI_3–yBr_y.     

Controlling Protein Enrichment in Lipid Sponge Phase Droplets using SNAP-Tag Bioconjugation

All cells use organized lipid compartments to facilitate specific biological functions. Membrane-bound organelles create defined spatial environments that favor unique chemical reactions while isolating incompatible biological processes. Despite the fundamental role of cellular organelles, there is a scarcity of methods for preparing functional artificial lipid-based compartments. Here, we demonstrate a robust bioconjugation system for sequestering proteins into zwitterionic lipid sponge phase droplets. Incorporation of benzylguanine (BG)-modified phospholipids that form stable covalent linkages with an O⁶-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (SNAP-tag) fusion protein enables programmable control of protein capture. We show that this methodology can be used to anchor hydrophilic proteins at the lipid-aqueous interface, concentrating them within an accessible but protected chemical environment. SNAP-tag technology enables the integration of proteins that regulate complex biological functions in lipid sponge phase droplets, and should facilitate the development of advanced lipid-based artificial organelles.     

Deep Insight into the Noise Behavior of SiGe Source Based Epitaxial Layer Tunnel Field Effect Transistor

Silicon - A detailed simulation-based investigation on the noise behavior of SiGe source-based Epitaxial layer Tunnel field effect transistor (SiGe source ETLTFET) and Silicon Synthetic Electric...     

Air Oxidation of Benzene to Biphenyl – A Dual Catalytic Approach

Facile oxidative homocoupling of benzenes to the respective biphenyls is effected under moderate conditions, using air or oxygen in the presence of catalytic PdCl₂ and AcOH/AcONa as solvent. The fast regeneration of the active Pd ²⁺ species is accomplished by combining several oxygen‐binding catalysts, such as Zr(IV), Mn(II), and Co(II) acetates. In this way, it is possible to increase the content of active oxygen in solution so that the rate of catalyst regeneration is faster than the rate of aggregation of the „spent catalyst”︁, Pd(0), to palladium black. The effects of various process parameters are studied and some mechanistic implications are discussed.     

Bed expansion of binary mixtures of irregular particles in solid–liquid fluidization: Experimental,empirical correlation,and GA-ANN modelling

Expansion behaviour for a bed of binary mixture of the irregularly shaped particle in Newtonian liquid was measured in two different circular columns. Variations in the physical parameters on the expansion behaviour have been reported. Bed expansion increases with an increase in liquid velocity and a decrease in particle diameter. Static bed height and expansion of the bed are low for higher diameter columns. An empirical correlation has been developed for predicting the ratio of bed height at the fluidized condition to the initial bed height as a function of the physical and dynamic variables related to the system for the binary particle mixtures. The correlation coefficient and variance of the estimate are 0.9299 and 0.0013, respectively, which is acceptable statistical accuracy. A hybrid of the genetic algorithm and neural network modelling for the prediction of the same has also been attempted where the input parameters are optimized using the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. With a relative error of 1.46%, the genetic algorithm performed well. So, the modelling has successfully predicted the bed height ratio at fluidized conditions to the initial bed height.