Advances in Applying Computer-Aided Drug Design for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Huntington’s disease are incurable and affect millions of people worldwide. The development of treatments for this unmet clinical need is a major global research challenge. Computer-aided drug design (CADD) methods minimize the huge number of ligands that could be screened in biological assays, reducing the cost, time, and effort required to develop new drugs. In this review, we provide an introduction to CADD and examine the progress in applying CADD and other molecular docking studies to NDs. We provide an updated overview of potential therapeutic targets for various NDs and discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of these tools.     

Analysis of the flow field,thermal performance,and heat transfer augmentation in circular tube using different dimple geometrical configurations with internal twisted-tape insert

In this study, a numerical investigation for the fluid flow field analysis using different configuration dimple parameters in conjunction with an internal type insert in pipe is carried out. The effects of the dimple diameters with a center twisted tape on the flow pattern, pressure drop, friction factor, and heat transfer characteristics are investigated. The influence of the latter device on heat performance and thermal-hydraulic performance evaluation factor (PEF) were carried out in a pipe for fully developed flow with range for fully developed flow with range of Reynolds number (Re) of 1573 and 23 592. Experiments with numerical models are performed using different dimpled dimeters by inserting twisted tapes. The outcomes observe that the qualitative analysis for flow fields such as static pressure, dynamic pressure, velocity magnitude, wall shear stress, and turbulent kinetic energy as well as the quantities analysis for pressure drop, heat transfer coefficient friction factor, and Nu number in dimpled pipe fitted with twisted tape are greater than plain pipe. This is because using these devices cause more secondary flow, swirl flow, and flow mixing that lead to higher turbulence, which, in turn, enhance the overall heat transfer. The results indicated that the lower and higher values of thermal PEF are about 0.78 and 1.6, respectively, at the dimple dimmers of 1 mm.     

Identification of Proteins of Altered Abundance in Oil Palm Infected with Ganoderma boninense

Basal stem rot is a common disease that affects oil palm, causing loss of yield and finally killing the trees. The disease, caused by fungus Ganoderma boninense, devastates thousands of hectares of oil palm plantings in Southeast Asia every year. In the present study, root proteins of healthy oil palm seedlings, and those infected with G. boninense, were analyzed by 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). When the 2-DE profiles were analyzed for proteins, which exhibit consistent significant change of abundance upon infection with G. boninense, 21 passed our screening criteria. Subsequent analyses by mass spectrometry and database search identified caffeoyl-CoA O-methyltransferase, caffeic acid O-methyltransferase, enolase, fructokinase, cysteine synthase, malate dehydrogenase, and ATP synthase as among proteins of which abundances were markedly altered.     

Investigation of thermal flow structure and performance heat transfer in three-dimensional circular pipe using twisted tape based on Taguchi method analysis

In the current investigation, the twisted tape inserts are considered as the augmentation thermal technique, the influence of a variety of twisted tape configurations on pressure drop characteristics, temperature differences, thermal performance of fluid flow structure, heat transfer improvement, and friction factor are numerically evaluated. The changed geometrical parameters employed for this study comprise twisted tape width, twisted tape thickness, number of turns, and inward thickness are the input parameters. Design of experiments method is applied to analyze the influence of latter various types of geometrical parameters on hydraulic thermofluid pattern and heat transfer improvement in the twisted tube heat exchanger as the output variables. For the experimental design optimization Taguchi analysis is based on investigate of alterations and performs the orthogonal arrays (OA). Moreover, the OA L16 is chosen as the plan of experimental study. It is found the best design of twisted tape in this study by using computational fluid dynamics numerical methodology complained with Taguchi method the enhancement in heat transfer and hence the overall performance evaluation factor is higher than 1.2.     

Characterization of internal thermohydraulic flow and heat transfer improvement in a three-dimensional circular corrugated tube surfaces based on numerical simulation and design of experiment

To meet the requirements of development in heat exchangers design, the effect of different tubes geometrical parameters on its flow field analysis and thermal heat transfer performance are investigated in the current research work. The hydraulic thermal fluid coupling with computational simulations is applied. The numerical results are solving used flow transport and heat transfer equations, then these results are validated with available experimental data. The behavior of hydraulic and thermal flow in the corrugated tube is discussed with different geometrical parameters' position and shape. Turbulent flow in the tube is calculated in three-dimensional numerical simulations with optimization of a multiobjective algorithm are analyzed. The influences of various design parameters, for instance, the number of corrugated rings around the tube, distance between each corrugated ring, the diameter of the ring, and pitch of ring are investigated firstly in the flow field and then optimized by using the design of experiment (DOE). The influence of flow structural modifications such as static pressure, dynamic pressure, and pressure drop is taken into consideration as analyzed performance parameters. The DOE method is investigated based on implements and variances the L16 orthogonal arrays are chosen as the experimental strategy. Furthermore, the optimization results found that the maximum value of pressure difference was for corrugated diameter. The numerical method using DOE has enhanced heat transfer rate as compared to the smooth pipe. Moreover, the minimum T_out is for Case 11 (296.49°C) and the maximum T_out is for (303.10°C) hence the value of Nu number for both cases is 32.9 and 42, respectively. That means using this type of passive device can improve the heat transfer in the pipe. The outcomes illustrate that the performance evaluation factor (PEF) ratio of the corrugated pipe with different geometrical configurations is changed and increased as the corrugated pipe geometrically changed and the value of PEF is more than 1.3.     

Passive cooling techniques through reflective and radiative roofs in tropical houses in Southeast Asia: A literture review

Cooling is one of the major concerns in building tropical houses. This problem is exacerbated by the heat gain of the roof, which constitutes 70% of the total heat gain. The passive cooling technique is one of the innovative practices and technologies that provide buildings with comfortable conditions through natural means. Reflective and radiative processes are the methods used to decrease heat gain by facilitating the elimination of excess heat in a building's interior to maintain a comfortable environment. Given that the potential of these techniques vary from region to region, their application in the tropics should be examined. Exploring these approaches in detail allows us to rethink how to effectively adapt these techniques to overcome the build-up of heat in modern tropical houses in Southeast Asia. This study reviews the physical characteristics of these approaches to guide architects and building designers. Results indicate a great reduction in operational cost. However, the significant differences in the performance of colour and material properties should be considered, given that the selected approach strongly affects the required thermal conditions of a building.     

A comparative study between unvented and vented attics powered by the hybrid turbine ventilator in Malaysian houses

Vented attic is a design technique that provides a better solution to reduce solar heat gains trapped in a roof attic. However, its application in the tropical climate is very rare if not, ignored, especially in Malaysian houses. This paper seeks to identify, and compare the performance of attic ventilation by a single hybrid turbine ventilator for a specific volume under both unvented and vented conditions. The study was done in an actual roof attic (10 m³) located in Universiti Sains Malaysia. The results indicate that the reduction of the attic air temperature was 6.4°C, while stabilising the level of relative humidity to about 40–50% which is higher than that for an unvented attic by 10%. Furthermore, the findings reveal that by incorporating a 50 W poly-crystalline solar panel with a turbine ventilator of Ø 45 cm, the peak value of the attic air velocity had exceeded 1.3 m/s when the solar radiation was observed to be around 800 W/m².     

Flow felid and heat transfer enhancement investigations by using a combination of corrugated tubes with a twisted tape within 3D circular tube based on different dimple configurations

Different dimple geometrical configurations with a combination of corrugated tubes and twisted tape are numerically investigated. Water is used as a working fluid for constant heat flux heat transfer conditions at the pipe wall. The dimensionless diameter of the dimples (d/D) used in this study is 0.09, 0.18, 0.27, and 0.36. However, the corrugation configuration diameter is 1 mm. The numerical simulations are carried out at the Reynolds number in the range of 1500–14,000. The outcomes reveal that the friction factor (f) and Nu number are augmented as the dimple diameter increases. The Nu number ratio of 1.25 is found for a dimple pipe tube with a diameter of 4 mm. The numerical outcome presented more mixing, secondary, and vortex produced in the main flow direction and near the pipe wall to the rotating flow induced by twisted tape. Moreover, mixed, secondary vortices and rotational flow originate behind and near the dimple, twisted tape, and corrugation surfaces. These rotational and vortices can promote mixing in flow between the thermal boundary layer and velocity boundary flow layer. So, increase the heat transfer enhancement. The improved pipes with different dimple diameters produce a maximum performance evaluation factor of is more than 1.25.     

Study the influence of concavity shapes on augmentation of heat-transfer performance,pressure field,and fluid pattern in three-dimensional pipe

In this current study, the heat-transfer augmentation mechanism and pressure drop with flow field structures over different dimple arrays in turbulent flow of three-dimensional circular tube are investigated based on computational fluid dynamics numerical methods using the standard k − e turbulent model. The water is the working fluid over the range of Reynolds numbers from 1500 to 24,000, with three different tubes dimpling arrangements are analyzed. The numerical simulation results are validated through available experimental data, and they show good agreement results between them. The numerical analysis results showed that the flow fields are symmetric within the middle cross-sectional direction in the pipe with and without dimples. Also, the flow near or close to the dimples is chaotic and including small vortexes and eddies. The results found that the temperature difference in the dimple tube with 2 mm diameter at low flow range 0.56 L/min was higher than that of smooth pipe, dimple tube 0.75 and 1.5 mm by 26.8%, 10.57%, and 3.68%, respectively. It can be concluded that using dimples in heat-exchanger tubes can provide rates of heat transfer that is higher than that without dimpled tubes at the same operating conditions. Hence, this is an important enhancement in process industries for the energy conversion applications.