Phytosterols in Seaweeds: An Overview on Biosynthesis to Biomedical Applications

Seaweed extracts are considered effective therapeutic alternatives to synthetic anticancer, antioxidant, and antimicrobial agents, owing to their availability, low cost, greater efficacy, eco-friendliness, and non-toxic nature. Since the bioactive constituents of seaweed, in particular, phytosterols, possess plenty of medicinal benefits over other conventional pharmaceutical agents, they have been extensively evaluated for many years. Fortunately, recent advances in phytosterol-based research have begun to unravel the evidence concerning these important processes and to endow the field with the understanding and identification of the potential contributions of seaweed-steroidal molecules that can be used as chemotherapeutic drugs. Despite the myriad of research interests in phytosterols, there is an immense need to fill the void with an up-to-date literature survey elucidating their biosynthesis, pharmacological effects, and other biomedical applications. Hence, in the present review, we summarize studies dealing with several types of seaweed to provide a comprehensive overview of the structural determination of several phytosterol molecules, their properties, biosynthetic pathways, and mechanisms of action, along with their health benefits, which could significantly contribute to the development of novel drugs and functional foods.     

Analysis and design of single-phase power factor corrector with genetic algorithm and adaptive neuro-fuzzy-based sliding mode controller using DC–DC SEPIC

This paper proposes a methodology for single-phase power factor correction with DC–DC single-ended primary inductance converter (SEPIC) using cascade control strategy which comprises of genetic algorithm-based outer PI controller and an inner current controller which uses an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-based sliding mode controller. DC–DC SEPIC is a fourth-order converter, and in order to reduce the complexity in controller design, reduced-order model of the original higher-order system is obtained by using Type-I Hankel matrix method. The performance of the proposed system is analysed using MATLAB/Simulink-based simulation studies. In order to ensure the robustness of the proposed controller, the performance parameters such as percentage total harmonic distortion, power factor, % voltage regulation, and % efficiency are analysed. From the simulation results, it is inferred that the proposed method provides efficient tracking of output voltage and effective source current shaping for load, line, and set point variations.

     

Availability Capacity Evaluation and Reliability Assessment of Integrated Systems Using Metaheuristic Algorithm

Contemporarily, the development of distributed generations (DGs) technologies is fetching more, and their deployment in power systems is becoming broad and diverse. Consequently, several glitches are found in the recent studies due to the inappropriate/inadequate penetrations. This work aims to improve the reliable operation of the power system employing reliability indices using a metaheuristic-based algorithm before and after DGs penetration with feeder system. The assessment procedure is carried out using MATLAB software and Modified Salp Swarm Algorithm (MSSA) that helps assess the Reliability indices of the proposed integrated IEEE RTS79 system for seven different configurations. This algorithm modifies two control parameters of the actual SSA algorithm and offers a perfect balance between the exploration and exploitation. Further, the effectiveness of the proposed schemes is assessed using various reliability indices. Also, the available capacity of the extended system is computed for the best configuration of the considered system. The results confirm the level of reliable operation of the extended DGs along with the standard RTS system. Specifically, the overall reliability of the system displays superior performance when the tie lines 1 and 2 of the DG connected with buses 9 and 10, respectively. The reliability indices of this case namely SAIFI, SAIDI, CAIDI, ASAI, AUSI, EUE, and AEUE shows enhancement about 12.5%, 4.32%, 7.28%, 1.09%, 4.53%, 12.00%, and 0.19%, respectively. Also, a probability of available capacity at the low voltage bus side is accomplished a good scale about 212.07 times/year.