Turbulent flow in a ribbed channel: Flow structures in the vicinity of a rib

PIV measurements are performed in a channel with periodic ribs on one wall. The emphasis of this study is to investigate the flow structures in the vicinity of a rib in terms of mean velocities, Reynolds stresses, probability density functions (PDF), and two-point correlations. The PDF distribution of u′ is bimodal in the separated shear layer downstream of the rib. The maximum Reynolds shear stresses occur at the leading edge of the rib. Based on quadrant analysis, it is found that ejection motions make a dominant contribution to the Reynolds shear stress in this region. Moreover, topology-based visualization is applied to the separation bubble upstream of the rib. Salient critical points and limit cycles are extracted, which gives clues to the physical processes occurring in the flow.     

Mechanism of the glutathione transferase-catalyzed conversion of antitumor 2-crotonyloxymethyl-2-cycloalkenones to GSH adducts

Human glutathione (GSH) transferase (hGSTP1-1) processes with similar kinetic efficiencies the antitumor agents 2-crotonyloxymethyl-2-cyclohexenone (COMC-6), 2-crotonyloxymethyl-2-cycloheptenone (COMC-7), and 2-crotonyloxymethyl-2-cyclopentenone (COMC-5) to 2-glutathionylmethyl-2-cyclohexenone, 2-glutathionylmethyl-3-glutathionyl-2-cycloheptenone, and 2-glutathionylmethyl-2-cyclopentenone, respectively. This process likely involves initial enzyme-catalyzed Michael addition of GSH to the COMC derivative to give a glutathionylated enol(ate), which undergoes nonstereospecific ketonization, either while bound to the active site or free in solution, to a glutathionylated exocyclic enone. Free in solution, GSH reacts at the exomethylene carbon of the exocyclic enone, displacing the first GSH to give the final product. This mechanism is supported by the observation of multiphasic kinetics in the presence of high concentrations of hGSTP1-1 and the ability to trap kinetically competent exocyclic enones in aqueous acid using COMC-6 and COMC-7 as substrates. That the exocyclic enone is formed by nonstereospecific ketonization of an enol(ate) species is indicated by the observation that COMC-6 (chirally labeled with deuterium at the exomethylene carbon) gives stereorandomly labeled exocyclic enone. The isozymes hGSTP1-1, hGSTA1-1, hGSTA4-4, and hGSTM2-2 catalyze the conversion of COMC-6 to final product with similar efficiencies (K(m) = 0.08-0.34 mM, k(cat) = 1.5-6.1 s(-)(1)); no activity was detected with the rat rGSTT2-2 isozyme. Molecular docking studies indicate that in hGSTP1-1, the hydroxyl group of Tyr108 might serve as a general acid catalyst during substrate turnover. The possible significance of these observations with respect to the metabolism of COMC derivatives in multidrug resistant tumors is discussed.     

Photoinitiated carbonylation with [(11)C]carbon monoxide using amines and alkyl iodides

Photoinitiated radical carbonylation with [(11)C]carbon monoxide at low concentration was employed in syntheses of carbonyl-(11)C-labeled amides using alkyl iodides and amines as precursors. Eleven (11)C-amides were synthesized in up to 74% decay-corrected radiochemical yields with reaction times of 400 s and with up to 95% conversion of carbon monoxide. Starting with 26.3 GBq of [(11)C]carbon monoxide, 10.6 GBq of 1-cyclohexane [(11)C]carbonyl-4-phenyl-piperazine (15) was obtained within 35 min from the end of bombardment (33 microA) and with a specific radioactivity of 192 GBq/micromol at the same time point. The influence of solvents was investigated. The described procedure extends the range of accessible labeling methods. The method may also be useful for preparation of (13)C- and (14)C-substituted compounds.     

A high-resolution FT-IR study of the fundamental bands nu7, nu8, and nu18 of ethene secondary ozonide

Ozonization reaction of ethene in neat film at 77 K was performed. Separation of ethene secondary ozonide from the other products of the reaction was performed by continuous pumping of the reactor. Only the products, which evaporated from the walls of the reactor at 185 K, were transferred to the gas cell. The high-resolution infrared absorption spectrum of gaseous ethene secondary ozonide (C(2)H(4)O(3)) in a static gas long-path absorption cell has been recorded in the 900-1100 cm(-1) spectral region at 185 K. The spectral resolution was 0.003 cm(-1). Analyses of the nu(7)(A) band at 1037.0 cm(-1), the nu(8)(A) band at 956.1 cm(-1), and the nu(18)(B) band at 1082.1 cm(-1) have been performed using the Watson Hamiltonian model (A, reduction; III(r), representation). A set of ground-state rotational and quartic centrifugal distortion constants have been obtained, and upper state spectroscopic constants have been determined for the bands investigated. A local resonance observed in nu(18) is explained as c-Coriolis interaction with nu(10) + nu(11).     

Membrane characterization and solute diffusion in porous composite nanocellulose membranes for hemodialysis

The membrane and solute diffusion properties of Cladophora cellulose and polypyrrole (PPy) functionalized Cladophora cellulose were analyzed to investigate the feasibility of using electroactive membranes in hemodialysis. The membranes were characterized with scanning electron microscopy, ζ-potentiometry, He-pycnometry, N₂ gas adsorption, and Hg porosimetry. The diffusion properties across the studied membranes for three model uremic toxins, i.e. creatinine, vitamin B12 and bovine serum albumin, were also analyzed. The characterization work revealed that the studied membranes present an open structure of weakly negatively charged nanofibers with an average pore size of 21 and 53 nm for pristine cellulose and PPy-Cladophora cellulose, respectively. The results showed that the diffusion of uremic toxins across the PPy-Cladophora cellulose membrane was faster than through pure cellulose membrane, which was related to the higher porosity and larger average pore size of the former. Since it was found that the average pore size of the membranes was larger than the hydrodynamic radius of the studied model solutes, it was concluded that these types of membranes are favorable to expand the Mw spectrum of uremic toxins to also include conditions associated with accumulation of large pathologic proteins during hemodialysis. The large average pore size of the composite membrane could also be exploited to ensure high-fluxes of solutes through the membrane while simultaneously extracting ions by an externally applied electric current.     

Effect of various surfactants on stability and thermophysical properties of nanofluids

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The effect of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the viscosity of a nanofluid is experimentally investigated from 278 to 313 K...     

Khachiyan's linear programming algorithm

L. G. Khachiyan's polynomial time algorithm for determining whether a system of linear inequalities is satisfiable is presented together with a proof of its validity. The algorithm can be used to solve linear programs in polynomial time.     

Constructive cooperative coevolution for large-scale global optimisation

This paper presents the Constructive Cooperative Coevolutionary (\(\mathrm {C}^3\)) algorithm, applied to continuous large-scale global optimisation problems. The novelty of \(\mathrm {C}^3\) is that it utilises a multi-start architecture and incorporates the Cooperative Coevolutionary algorithm. The considered optimisation problem is decomposed into subproblems. An embedded optimisation algorithm optimises the subproblems separately while exchanging information to co-adapt the solutions for the subproblems. Further, \(\mathrm {C}^3\) includes a novel constructive heuristic that generates different feasible solutions for the entire problem and thereby expedites the search. In this work, two different versions of \(\mathrm {C}^3\) are evaluated on high-dimensional benchmark problems, including the CEC’2013 test suite for large-scale global optimisation. \(\mathrm {C}^3\) is compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms, which shows that \(\mathrm {C}^3\) is among the most competitive algorithms. \(\mathrm {C}^3\) outperforms the other algorithms for most partially separable functions and overlapping functions. This shows that \(\mathrm {C}^3\) is an effective algorithm for large-scale global optimisation. This paper demonstrates the enhanced performance by using constructive heuristics for generating initial feasible solutions for Cooperative Coevolutionary algorithms in a multi-start framework.