Stochastic nuclear outages semidefinite relaxations

This paper deals with stochastic scheduling of nuclear power plant outages. Focusing on the main constraints of the problem, we propose a stochastic formulation with a discrete distribution for random variables, that leads to a mixed 0/1 quadratically constrained quadratic program. Then we investigate semidefinite relaxations for solving this hard problem. Numerical results on several instances of the problem show the efficiency of this approach, i.e., the gap between the optimal solution and the continuous relaxation is on average equal to 53.35 % whereas the semidefinite relaxation yields an average gap of 2.76 %. A feasible solution is then obtained with a randomized rounding procedure.     

Optimizing the EDFA gain for WDM lightwave system with temperature dependency

The gain-flattened erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is a key device for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) modern optical network systems. A flat spectral gain EDFA has been achieved by controlling the doped fiber length and the pump power. The purpose of this paper is to study the variation of gain flattening over the temperature range from ?20 to +60 °C. The results obtained here indicate that gain flatness increases as temperature increases.     

Effect of CeO2-doping on surface and catalytic properties of CuO-ZnO system

The effect of doping CuO-ZnO system with CeO₂ on its surface and catalytic properties was investigated using nitrogen adsorption at −196 °C, EDX technique and catalysis of CO oxidation by O₂ at 100-200 °C. Pure mixed solids were prepared by thermal decomposition of copper/zinc mixed hydroxides at 400 °C. The doped solids were obtained by impregnating a known mass of mixed hydroxides with calculated amount of cerium ammonium nitrate followed by drying then calcination at 400 °C. The dopant concentration was 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5 mol% CeO₂. The results revealed that CeO₂-doping modified the surface atomic Cu/Zn ratio of the system investigated and changed the crystallite size of both CuO and ZnO phases. The increase of the amount of dopant added changed the major phase present. This treatment decreased the specific surface area of doped solids. The doping process modified also the catalytic activity in a manner dependent on both mode of preparation and dopant concentration. However, CeO₂-doping did not modify the mechanism of the catalytic reaction but changed the concentration of catalytically active sites involved in the catalyzed reactions.     

Antiviral Efficacy of Selected Natural Phytochemicals against SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein Using Structure-Based Drug Designing

SARS-CoV-2 is a highly virulent coronavirus that first surfaced in late 2019 and has since created a pandemic of the acute respiratory sickness known as “coronavirus disease 2019” (COVID-19), posing a threat to human health and public safety. S-RBD is a coronaviral protein that is essential for a coronavirus (CoV) to bind and penetrate into host cells. As a result, it has become a popular pharmacological target. The goal of this study was to find potential candidates for anti-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) drugs by targeting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) S-RBD with novel bioactive compounds and molecular interaction studies of 15,000 phytochemicals belonging to different flavonoid subgroups. A spike protein crystal structure attached to the ACE2 structure was obtained from the PDB database. A library of 15,000 phytochemicals was made by collecting compounds from different databases, such as the Zinc-database, PubChem-database, and MPD3-database. This library was docked against a receptor binding domain of a spike glycoprotein through the Molecular Operating Environment (MOE). The top drug candidates Phylloflavan, Milk thistle, Ilexin B and Isosilybin B, after virtual screening, were selected on the basis of the least binding score. Phylloflavan ranked as the top compound because of its least binding affinity score of −14.09 kcal/mol. In silico studies showed that all those compounds showed good activity and could be used as an immunological response with no bioavailability issues. Absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and a toxicological analysis were conducted through SwissADME. Stability and effectiveness of the docked complexes were elucidated by performing the 100 ns molecular dynamic simulation through the Desmond package.     

Dystrophin Protein Quantification as a Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Diagnostic Biomarker in Dried Blood Spots Using Multiple Reaction Monitoring Tandem Mass Spectrometry: A Preliminary Study

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive disorder characterized by progressive muscle loss, leading to difficulties in movement. Mutations in the DMD gene that code for the protein dystrophin are responsible for the development of DMD disorder, where the synthesis of this protein is completely halted. Therefore, circulating dystrophin protein could be a promising biomarker of DMD disease. Current methods for diagnosing DMD have sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility limitations. Herein, a quantitative liquid chromatography–tandem spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) technique in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode was designed and validated for accurate dystrophin protein measurement in a dried blood spot (DBS). The method was successfully validated on the basis of international guidelines regarding calibration curves, precision, and accuracy. In addition, patients and healthy controls were used to test the amount of dystrophin protein circulating in DBS samples as a potential biomarker for DMD disorders. DMD patients were found to have considerably lower levels than controls. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report dystrophin levels in DBS through LC–MS/MS as a diagnostic marker for DMD to the proposed MRM method, providing a highly specific and sensitive approach to dystrophin quantification in a DBS that can be applied in DMD screening.     

Studies with polyfunctionally substituted heteroaromatics: New routes for the synthesis of polyfunctionally substituted pyridines and 1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyridines

The 1-substituted ethylidenemalononitriles 1a–c condensed with triethyl orthoformate in refluxing acetic anhydride to yield the dienes 2a–c . On the other hand, a mixture of N,N-dimethylformamide and triethyl orthoformate condensed with 1a–d to yield the N,N-dimethylaminopentadienonitriles 2d–g . The pentadienonitriles 2d–g were also formed from the reaction of 1a–d with dimethylformamide dimethylacetal in refluxing acetic acid. When compounds 1a–c were treated with dimethylformamide dimethylacetal in refluxing p-xylene, a mixture of 3 , 4 and 2e–g was formed. The reaction of 2a , b with hydrazine hydrate afforded the N-amino-2-iminopyridines 5a , b . These were converted into the triazolo[1,5-a]pyridines 8a–d on treatment with benzoyl chloride and with dimethylformamide dimethylacetal. On the other hand, the reaction of 2c with hydrazine hydrate afforded the pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine 7c . Treatment of 2a , c or 2e , g with cyanoethanoic hydrazide afforded the N-(cyanoacetamido)pyridines 9a , b . The dienes 2d , f , g afforded the pyridones 11a–c on treatment with acetic acid and hydrochloric acid mixture. Compounds 11b , c were also formed on treatment of 2b , c with acetic acid hydrochloric acid mixture. The reaction of 2d , g with ethanolic sodium ethoxide gave the ethoxypyridines 13a , b .     

Functionally substituted alkylbenzotriazoles: Reactivity of alkylbenzotriazoles toward electrophilic and nucleophilic reagents

The reactivity of benzotriazolylacetone toward a variety of carbon and nitrogen electrophiles is reported. Several novel azolylbenzotriazoles as well as benzotriazolyl‐cinnolines have been synthesized. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 13:141–145, 2002; Published online in Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hc.10009