Design and simulation of sensor fusion using symbolic engines

Sensor fusion is the art of estimating accurate information from noisy multi-sensor data. Due to the complexity of stochastic sensor errors, design and testing of sensor fusion algorithms have been always challenging. Existing design approaches are mainly mission specific with fixed system models that do not verify if the filter can estimate hidden errors. To address these challenges, this paper presents a flexible design and simulation environment for sensor fusion. The environment utilizes symbolic engine as a flexible representation of system models to enable flexible and accurate generation of linearized error models. Inverse kinematic is used to generate pseudo-error-free inertial data to test the ability of the filte to estimate sensor errors. The developed environment is demonstrated on an Attitude and Heading Reference System using Extended Kalman Filter. The demonstration includes both simulation and experimental tests. The designed filter supports both loosely and tightly coupled filtering approaches.     

Thermal properties of copolymers of 2‐Acrylamido‐2‐methylpropanesulphonic acid with some vinyl monomers

2‐Acrylamido‐2‐methylpropanesulphonic acid (AMPS) was copolymerized with both acrylic acid (AA) and vinyl acetate (VA) at different compositions. The thermal behaviors of the resulted copolymers, PAMPS, PAA and PVA were studied using thermogravimetric analyses. In all cases of homopolymers and copolymers, there are two degradation stages. The observed enhancement of the thermal properties of the copolymers compared with that of PAMPS are attributed to intramolecular cyclization reactions and ring formations. The apparent activation energies of the decomposition were determined and correlated to the sequence of the thermal stabilities of the various polymers.     

Cannabis sativa CBD Extract Shows Promising Antibacterial Activity against Salmonella typhimurium and S. newington

Products derived from Cannabis sativa L. have gained increased interest and popularity. As these products become common amongst the public, the health and potential therapeutic values associated with hemp have become a premier focus of research. While the psychoactive and medicinal properties of Cannabis products have been extensively highlighted in the literature, the antibacterial properties of cannabidiol (CBD) have not been explored in depth. This research serves to examine the antibacterial potential of CBD against Salmonella newington and S. typhimurium. In this study, we observed bacterial response to CBD exposure through biological assays, bacterial kinetics, and fluorescence microscopy. Additionally, comparative studies between CBD and ampicillin were conducted against S. typhimurium and S. newington to determine comparative efficacy. Furthermore, we observed potential resistance development of our Salmonella spp. against CBD treatment.     

Spectroscopic characterization,thermogravimetry, density functional theory and biological studies of some mixed‐ligand complexes of meloxicam and 2,2′‐bipyridine with some transition metals

The mixed‐ligand Mn(II), Fe(III), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II) and Zr(IV) complexes of meloxicam (H₂mel) and 2,2′‐bipyridine (Bipy) were prepared and characterized. For all complexes, the analytical and spectroscopic results revealed that H₂mel acts in a monobasic bidentate manner through the oxygen of the amide and nitrogen of the thiazole groups, whereas Bipy coordinates through the two nitrogen atoms with slightly distorted octahedral geometry. Thermodynamic parameters (E, ΔS^*, ΔH^* and ΔG^*) were calculated using Coats–Redfern and Horowitz–Metzger methods. The geometries of H₂mel and the complexes were carefully studied using density functional theory to predict the properties of materials performed using the hybrid density functional method B3LYP. All studied complexes are soft with respect to H₂mel where η varies from 0.096 for Zn(II) complex to 0.067 for Fe(III) complex and σ varies from 10.42 to 14.93 eV, while η and σ for H₂mel are 0.14 and 7.14 eV, respectively. The antibacterial activities of the ligands and metal complexes were investigated and the data show that the complexes are active against some bacterial species compared with H₂mel.     

Dual separation mode for simultaneous determination of antihypertensive drug combinations by high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple, reproducible and efficient dual separation mode high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for simultaneous determination of antihypertensive drug combinations including; hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), valsartan (VAL), amiloride (AML) and captopril (CAP). The newly developed Platinum™ column, which provides a dual-mode separation with its polar and non-polar sites, was used for rapid separation of these co-administered drugs. Good resolution was obtained when Platinum™ column was used compared with C₁₈ column. Additionally, simple isocratic mode with mobile phase containing methanol and 0.02 mole L⁻¹ phosphate buffer adjusted to pH 3.0 (45:55, v/v) was used for separation. The flow rate was 0.5 mL min⁻¹ and effluent was monitored at 270 nm. All the investigated drugs were completely separated within less than 6 min. The linearity range obtained for the developed HPLC method was 0.5-100 μg mL⁻¹ with detection limits of 0.13-1.2 μg mL⁻¹ for all the studied drugs. The method was validated in accordance with the requirements of ICH guidelines and shown to be suitable for intended applications. The method was successfully used for determination of the studied drugs in pure form and pharmaceutical dosage forms without prior need for separation. The method is valuable for quality control laboratories for simultaneous determination of these co-administered antihypertensive drugs in binary, ternary and quaternary mixtures.     

Diethylenetriamine-functionalized chitosan magnetic nano-based particles for the sorption of rare earth metal ions [Nd(III), Dy(III) and Yb(III)]

The recovery of three rare earth (RE) metals ions [Yb(III), Dy(III) and Nd(III), belonging to heavy, mild and light REs, respectively] was investigated using hybrid chitosan-magnetic nano-based particles functionalized by diethylenetriamine (DETA). The effect of pH on sorption performance was analyzed: the optimum initial pH value was found close to 5 (equilibrium pH value close to 6.5). The nanometric size of sorbent particles (30–50 nm) minimized the contribution of resistance to intraparticle diffusion on the control of uptake kinetics, which is efficiently modeled using the pseudo-second order rate equation: under selected experimental conditions the contact time required for reaching equilibrium was less than 1 h. Sorption isotherms were efficiently modeled using the Langmuir equation: maximum sorption capacities reached about 50 mg metal g^?1, regardless of the RE. The temperature had a very limited effect on sorption capacity (in the range 300–320 K). The thermodynamic parameters were determined: the sorption was endothermic (positive values of ΔH°), spontaneous (negative values of ΔG°) and contributed to increasing the disorder of the system (positive values of ΔS°). The three REs have similar sorption properties on DETA-functionalized chitosan magnetic nano-based particles: the selective separation of these elements seems to be difficult. The sorbed metal ions can be removed from loaded sorbents using thiourea, and the sorbent can be recycled for at least five sorption/desorption cycles with a limited loss in sorption performance (by less than 6 %). The saturation magnetization was close to 20 emu g^?1; this means that nano-based superparamagnetic particles can be readily recovered by an external magnetic field, making the processing of these materials easy.     

Wavelength and temperature dependence properties of human blood-serum

For biological importance and general scientific interest, the present paper studies the physical properties dependent on wavelength and temperature, for six different samples of human blood-serum, at two different laser wavelengths (514.5 and 632.8 nm). The properties are described in terms of scalar quantities, viz. refractive index or optical permittivity, optical and dielectric dispersion. A modified and high accurate laser Mach–Zehnder interferometric technique is used for measurement of the refractive index (n) and its gradient with temperature (dn/dT). The values of n and dn/dT are applied to calculate the optical permittivity () and its gradient with temperature d/dT. The refractive properties such as the variation of n, , −dn/dT and, −d/dT as a functions of wavelengths are determined. On the other hand, the optical properties such as reflectance, transmittance and absorptance as a function of light incident angle, temperature and wavelength are studied. Additionally the following dielectric parameters are calculated: specific refractivity, specific dispersivity, polarizability per unit volume, wave impedance, volume expansion coefficient and the electric susceptibility.     

In Silico Mining of Terpenes from Red-Sea Invertebrates for SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease (Mpro) Inhibitors

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent for the COVID-19 pandemic, which generated more than 1.82 million deaths in 2020 alone, in addition to 83.8 million infections. Currently, there is no antiviral medication to treat COVID-19. In the search for drug leads, marine-derived metabolites are reported here as prospective SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors. Two hundred and twenty-seven terpene natural products isolated from the biodiverse Red-Sea ecosystem were screened for inhibitor activity against the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M^pro) using molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations combined with molecular mechanics/generalized Born surface area binding energy calculations. On the basis of in silico analyses, six terpenes demonstrated high potency as M^pro inhibitors with ΔG_binding ≤ −40.0 kcal/mol. The stability and binding affinity of the most potent metabolite, erylosides B, were compared to the human immunodeficiency virus protease inhibitor, lopinavir. Erylosides B showed greater binding affinity towards SARS-CoV-2 M^pro than lopinavir over 100 ns with ΔG_binding values of −51.9 vs. −33.6 kcal/mol, respectively. Protein–protein interactions indicate that erylosides B biochemical signaling shares gene components that mediate severe acute respiratory syndrome diseases, including the cytokine- and immune-signaling components BCL2L1, IL2, and PRKC. Pathway enrichment analysis and Boolean network modeling were performed towards a deep dissection and mining of the erylosides B target–function interactions. The current study identifies erylosides B as a promising anti-COVID-19 drug lead that warrants further in vitro and in vivo testing.