Optimal Control of Nonlinear Fractional-Order Systems with Multiple Time-Varying Delays

Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications - This paper considers an optimal control problem governed by nonlinear fractional-order systems with multiple time-varying delays and subject to...     

Antibacterial alkaloids from Artabotrys crassifolius Hook.f. & Thomson

Chloroform extract of bark of Artabotrys crassifolius Hook.f. & Thomson exhibited antibacterial activities against both American Type Culture Collection and clinical bacterial strains in vitro with zones of inhibition ranging from 7 to 14 mm. Further analysis of this extract yielded artabotrine, liridine, lysicamine and atherospermidine. Artabotrine displayed a broad array of antibacterial activity mostly against Gram-positive bacteria with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 1.25 μg/mL to 5 μg/mL. Of note, artabotrine, liridine and lysicamine are bactericidal against Gram-negative extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Klebsiella with MIC values equal 2.5, 2.5 and 10 μg/mL, respectively, and minimum bactericidal concentrations values equal to 2.5, 5 and 20 μg/mL.     

Synthesis,Characterization and Biological Evaluation of New 3,5-Disubstituted-Pyrazoline Derivatives as Potential Anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra Compounds

A total of fourteen pyrazoline derivatives were synthesized through cyclo-condensation reactions by chalcone derivatives with different types of semicarbazide. These compounds were characterized by IR, 1D-NMR (¹H, ¹³C and Distortionless Enhancement by Polarization Transfer - DEPT-135) and 2D-NMR (COSY, HSQC and HMBC) as well as mass spectroscopy analysis (HRMS). The synthesized compounds were tested for their antituberculosis activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra in vitro. Based on this activity, compound 4a showed the most potent inhibitory activity, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 17 μM. In addition, six other synthesized compounds, 5a and 5c–5g, exhibited moderate activity, with MIC ranges between 60 μM to 140 μM. Compound 4a showed good bactericidal activity with a minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) value of 34 μM against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra. Molecular docking studies for compound 4a on alpha-sterol demethylase was done to understand and explore ligand–receptor interactions, and to hypothesize potential refinements for the compound.     

Numerical study of steady/unsteady flow and heat transfer in porous media using a characteristics-based matrix-free implicit FV method on unstructured grids

In this study, a high-resolution characteristic-based finite-volume (FV) method on unstructured grids [Int. J. Numer. Method Eng. 50 (2001) 11; Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 21 (2000) 432] is extended by a matrix-free implicit dual-time stepping scheme for the numerical simulation of steady and unsteady flow and heat transfer with porous media. The method has been used to study the characteristics of a complex problem: flow and heat transfer in a channel with multiple discrete porous blocks, which was originally proposed by Huang and Vafai [J. Thermophys. Heat Transfer 8 (3) (1994) 563]. In addition, flow and heat transfer in a channel partially or fully filled with porous layers and containing solid protruding blocks with constant heat flux on its lower surface are also investigated in details. Hydrodynamic and heat transfer results are reported for both steady and transient flow cases. In particular, the effects of Darcy and Reynolds numbers on heat transfer augmentation and pressure loss are studied. An in-depth discussion of the formation and variation of recirculation is presented and the existence of optimum porous insert is demonstrated. At high Reynolds numbers the flow in the porous channel exhibits a cyclic characteristics although unlike the non-porous channel flow, the cyclic vortex development is only restricted to a small area behind the last solid block, while temperature changes more slowly and does not exhibit cyclic variations over a long period of time. It is shown that for all the cases studied altering some parametric values can have significant and interesting effects on both flow pattern as well as heat transfer characteristics.     

Aspects of electrical breakdown of liquid insulating material I

Summary The electrical breakdown strength of insulating oil depends on the size of foreign particles which may form bridges in a place of maximum electric stress. This theoretical relation was verified with colloid suspensions of particles of known radius. Mineral oils may deteriorate if the particles unite by the process of flocculation, the occurrence of which depends on the relative magnitudes of the attractive London-Van der Waals forces acting between the particles and the repulsive forces between their ion atmospheres. The possibility of using a mineral oil as an insulator depends on the existence of an upper limit of the size of particle complexes due to the rapid fall-off of the L.-v.d.W. forces at diameters exceeding 500 Å. The latter value of 2r corresponds to a breakdown strength of 1 kV/mm. If acids are being formed, the upper limit of 500 Å will shift towards larger values, and correspondingly the breakdown strength may drop below 1 kV/mm.     

Stability of noisy nonlinear auto-parametric systems

The purpose of this work is to examine the stationary motion and stability properties of stationary motion of two degree-of-freedom noisy auto-parametric systems We shall use analytical techniques to extend the existing results to examine such multi-dimensional nonlinear systems with noise, and in particular additive white noise. We obtain an approximation for the top Lyapunov exponent, the exponential growth rate, of the response of the so-called single-mode stationary motion. We show analytically that the top Lyapunov exponent is positive, and for small values of noise intensity ɛ and dissipation ɛ² the exponent grows in proportion with ɛ^2/3.     

Microstructural and mechanical analysis of Cu and Au interconnect on various bond pads

Effects of High Temperature Storage (HTS) and bonding toward microstructure change of intermetallic compound (IMC) at the wire bonding interface of 3 types of bond pad (Al, AlSiCu and NiPdAu) were presented in this paper. Optical and electron microscope analyses revealed that the IMC growth rate of samples under 175 and 200 °C HTS increased in the order of Al > AlSiCu > NiPdAu. Besides, higher HTS and bonding temperatures also promoted higher IMC thickness. The compositional study showed that higher HTS and bonding temperature developed rapid interdiffusion in bonding interface. In the mechanical ball shear test, a decrease of the shear force of Al and AlSiCu bond pads after 500 h HTS was believed due to poorly developed IMC at bonding interface. On the other hand, shear force degradation at 1000 h was due to excessive growth of IMC that in turn causes the formation of defects. For NiPdAu bond pad, increasing trend of shear force with HTS duration at 175 °C implied a good reliability of the Cu wire bonding. The rapid microscopic inspection on Cu wired Al bond pad under HTS 175 °C showed the IMC development from the periphery to the center of the ball bond. However, after 500 h voids started to develop until the crack was observed at 1000 h.