In Vitro Influence of ZnO,CrZnO, RuZnO,and BaZnO Nanomaterials on Bacterial Growth

In this work, ZnO, CrZnO, RuZnO, and BaZnO nanomaterials were synthesized and characterized in order to study their antibacterial activity. The agar well diffusion, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) assays were used to determine the antibacterial activity of the fabricated nanomaterials against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Escherichia coli ATCC35218, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 7000603, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 278533. The well-diffusion test revealed significant antibacterial activity against all investigated bacteria when compared to vancomycin at a concentration of 1 mg/mL. The most susceptible bacteria to BaZnO, RuZnO, and CrZnO were Staphylococcus aureus (15.5 ± 0.5 mm), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19.2 ± 0.5 mm), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19.7 ± 0.5), respectively. The MIC values indicated that they were in the range of 0.02 to 0.2 mg/mL. The MBC values showed that the tested bacteria’s growth could be inhibited at concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 2.0 mg/mL. According to the MBC/MIC ratio, BaZnO, RuZnO, and CrZnO exhibit bacteriostatic effects and may target bacterial protein synthesis based on the results of the tolerance test. This study shows the efficacy of the above-mentioned nanoparticles on bacterial growth. Further biotechnological and toxicological studies on the nanoparticles fabricated here are recommended to benefit from these findings.     

Improvement on the performance N-(3-methoxypropyl)acrylamide polymer-gel dosimeter by the addition of inorganic salt for application in radiotherapy dosimetry

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The effect of lithium chloride (LiCl) on the dose–response performance of the N-(3-methoxypropyl)acrylamide polymer-gel dosimeter (NMPAGAT)...     

An Insight into the Anti-Angiogenic and Anti-Metastatic Effects of Oridonin: Current Knowledge and Future Potential

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with a mortality rate of more than 9 million deaths reported in 2018. Conventional anti-cancer therapy can greatly improve survival however treatment resistance is still a major problem especially in metastatic disease. Targeted anti-cancer therapy is increasingly used with conventional therapy to improve patients’ outcomes in advanced and metastatic tumors. However, due to the complexity of cancer biology and metastasis, it is urgent to develop new agents and evaluate the anti-cancer efficacy of available treatments. Many phytochemicals from medicinal plants have been reported to possess anti-cancer properties. One such compound is known as oridonin, a bioactive component of Rabdosia rubescens. Several studies have demonstrated that oridonin inhibits angiogenesis in various types of cancer, including breast, pancreatic, lung, colon and skin cancer. Oridonin’s anti-cancer effects are mediated through the modulation of several signaling pathways which include upregulation of oncogenes and pro-angiogenic growth factors. Furthermore, oridonin also inhibits cell migration, invasion and metastasis via suppressing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and blocking downstream signaling targets in the cancer metastasis process. This review summarizes the recent applications of oridonin as an anti-angiogenic and anti-metastatic drug both in vitro and in vivo, and its potential mechanisms of action.     

The role of convective heat transfer coefficient in CuO nanoparticles-PCM cooling ability in heat sinks with insulated side walls: comparison with the air cooled one

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this study, the effectiveness of the heat sink with an insulated wall equipped with nano-PCM and air-cooled one was compared. Heat sink...     

Proper Generalized Decomposition (PGD) for the numerical simulation of polycrystalline aggregates under cyclic loading

The numerical modelling of the behaviour of materials at the microstructural scale has been greatly developed over the last two decades. Unfortunately, conventional resolution methods cannot simulate polycrystalline aggregates beyond tens of loading cycles, and they do not remain quantitative due to the plasticity behaviour. This work presents the development of a numerical solver for the resolution of the Finite Element modelling of polycrystalline aggregates subjected to cyclic mechanical loading. The method is based on two concepts. The first one consists in maintaining a constant stiffness matrix. The second uses a time/space model reduction method. In order to analyse the applicability and the performance of the use of a space–time separated representation, the simulations are carried out on a three-dimensional polycrystalline aggregate under cyclic loading. Different numbers of elements per grain and two time increments per cycle are investigated. The results show a significant CPU time saving while maintaining good precision. Moreover, increasing the number of elements and the number of time increments per cycle, the model reduction method is faster than the standard solver.     

Two-machine flowshop scheduling problem with coupled-operations

This paper addresses a generalization of the coupled-operations scheduling problem in the context of a flow shop environment. We consider the two-machine scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing the makespan. Each job consists of a coupled-operation to be processed first on the first machine and a single operation to be then processed on the second machine. A coupled-operation contains two operations separated by an exact time delay. The single operation can start on the second machine only when the coupled-operation on the first machine is completed. We prove the NP-completeness of two restricted versions of the general problem, whereas we also exhibit several other well solvable cases.

     

Theoretical and numerical study of Couette-Taylor flow with an axial flow using lattice Boltzmann method

In this study, the numerical models for swirling flows developed by Li et al and Zhou for lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) are chosen. These models were firstly validated using the Couette-Taylor flow between two concentric cylinders simulations. Numerical results showed the efficiency of the Zhou's model. Numerical simulation results using LBM are in good agreement for the steady and unsteady regimes compared to the literature review. In a second step, the Zhou model was then adopted to our study to determine the Couette-Taylor instabilities with an axial flow. Two protocols are tested. The first one (direct protocol) starts with an azimuthal flow without any axial flow (Re = 0). Once the regime is established, an axial flow is then superposed to the Couette-Taylor flow (with a sudden or a progressive manner). The second protocol (inverse protocol) starts with an axial flow at a given Reynolds number (Poiseuille flow). Once the regime is established, an azimuthal flow is the executed (with a sudden or a progressive manner). The effect of various parameters controlling the physical situation is also discussed. The increase of the azimuthal velocity mainly led to the emergence and development of Taylor vortices. Its influence decreases when the axial Reynolds number increases. The relevant result for this study is the change of the critical axial Reynolds number Re_c (total disappearance of instabilities) with both protocols and both manners.     

Covalent and electrostatic incorporation of amines into hypercrosslinked polymers for increased CO2 selectivity

Two methods of incorporating functional groups rich in nitrogen into low cost microporous hypercrosslinked polymers (HCPs) have been evaluated and the effects on the carbon dioxide CO₂/N₂ IAST selectivity were measured. Electrostatic incorporation of an ammonium salt into a sulfonic acid-containing HCP polymer afforded a static CO₂ uptake of 2.5 mmol g⁻¹ with a CO₂/N₂ IAST selectivity of 42:1 at 1 bar and 298 K. Using column breakthrough measurements with a 15:85 CO₂/N₂ mixture at 298 K and 1 bar, a selectivity of 17:1 was obtained. However, varying the counterion resulted in polymers with lower CO₂/N₂ selectivity values. Decoration of the parent polymer with CO₂-philic imidazole followed by electrostatic ammonium salt incorporation blocked some of the micropores reducing the selectivity which re-emphasizes the role and importance of pore width for CO₂/N₂ selectivity. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018 , 56, 2513–2521     

Quantum computing methods for electronic states of the water molecule

ABSTRACT

We compare recently proposed methods to compute the electronic state energies of the water molecule on a quantum computer. The methods include the phase estimation algorithm based on Trotter decomposition, the phase estimation algorithm based on the direct implementation of the Hamiltonian, direct measurement based on the implementation of the Hamiltonian and a specific variational quantum eigensolver, Pairwise VQE. After deriving the Hamiltonian using STO-3G basis, we first explain how each method works and then compare the simulation results in terms of gate complexity and the number of measurements for the ground state of the water molecule with different O–H bond lengths. Moreover, we present the analytical analyses of the error and the gate-complexity for each method. While the required number of qubits for each method is almost the same, the number of gates and the error vary a lot. In conclusion, among methods based on the phase estimation algorithm, the second-order direct method provides the most efficient circuit implementations in terms of the gate complexity. Moreover, Pairwise VQE serves the most practical method for near-term applications on the current available quantum computers. Finally the possibility of extending the calculation to excited states and resonances is discussed.