Small-scale effect on the vibration of thin nanoplates subjected to a moving nanoparticle via nonlocal continuum theory

The vibration of elastic thin nanoplates traversed by a moving nanoparticle involving Coulomb friction is investigated using the nonlocal continuum theory of Eringen. The eigen function technique and the Laplace transform method are employed to solve the governing equations of the nanoplate. The explicit expressions of the in-plane and transverse displacements are obtained when the moving nanoparticle traverses the nanoplate on an arbitrary straight line. In a special case, the obtained results are also compared with those of other researchers and a reasonably good agreement is achieved. The effects of small-scale parameters and velocity of the moving nanoparticle on the dynamic response as well as the dynamic amplitude factors (DAFs) of the in-plane and transverse displacements are then explored in some detail. The results indicate that the magnitude of DAF of the transverse displacement of the nanoplate (i.e., DAF_w) increases with the first small-scale effect parameter, irrespective of the values of the second small-scale effect parameter and the velocity of the moving nanoparticle. As the first small-scale effect parameter grows, the maximum values of DAF_w as a function of the moving nanoparticle velocity increase and generally occur in the lower levels of the moving nanoparticle velocity.     

Investigating the interactions of the first 17 amino acid residues of Huntingtin with lipid vesicles using mass spectrometry and molecular dynamics

The first 17 amino acid residues of Huntingtin protein (Nt17 of htt) are thought to play an important role in the protein's function; Nt17 is one of two membrane binding domains in htt. In this study the binding ability of Nt17 peptide with vesicles comprised of two subclasses of phospholipids is studied using electrospray ionization ‐ mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Overall, the peptide is shown to have a greater propensity to interact with vesicles of phosphatidylcholine (PC) rather than phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) lipids. Mass spectra show an increase in lipid‐bound peptide adducts where the ordering of the number of such specie is 1,2‐dioleoyl‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phosphocholine (DOPC) > 1‐palmitoyl‐2‐oleoyl‐glycero‐3‐phosphocholine (POPC) > 1‐palmitoyl‐2‐oleoyl‐sn‐glycero‐3 phosphoethanolamine (POPE). MD simulations suggest that the compactness of the bilayer plays a role in governing peptide interactions. The peptide shows greater disruption of the DOPC bilayer order at the surface and interacts with the hydrophobic tails of lipid molecules via hydrophobic residues. Conversely, the POPE vesicle remains ordered and lipids display transient interactions with the peptide through the formation of hydrogen bonds with hydrophilic residues. The POPC system displays intermediate behavior with regard to the degree of peptide‐membrane interaction. Finally, the simulations suggest a helix stabilizing effect resulting from the interactions between hydrophobic residues and the lipid tails of the DOPC bilayer.     

Structural paradigms in macropolyhedral boranes

Macropolyhedral borane clusters are concave polyhedra constituting fused convex simple polyhedra. They are formally obtained by condensation of simple polyhedral boranes under elimination of between one and four BH(3) or isoelectronic units. The number of eliminated vertexes from simple polyhedra equals the number of shared vertexes in macropolyhedral boranes. For each of the eight classes with general formulae ranging from B(n)H(n-4) to B(n)H(n+10), more than one structure type is possible, differing in the number of shared vertexes and in the types of the two combined cluster fragments. However, only one type of "potential structures" is represented by experimentally known examples and is found to be favored by theoretical calculations. A sophisticated system exists among the favored macropolyhedral borane structures. For each class of macropolyhedral boranes, the number of skeletal electron pairs is directly related to the general formula, the number of shared vertexes and the type of fused cluster fragments. In order to predict the distribution of vertexes among the fused fragments, we propose the concept of preferred fragments. Preferred fragments are those usually present in the thermodynamically most stable structure of a given class of macropolyhedral boranes and are also frequently observed in the experimentally known structures. This allows us to completely predict the cluster framework of the thermodynamically most stable macropolyhedral borane isomers.     

Investigation of turbulent flow past a flagged short finite circular cylinder

This study was conducted to investigate the flow structures of turbulent flow passing over a short finite cylinder in which a rigid flag is attached to the rear of the cylinder, in wake region. The length-to-diameter ratio of the cylinder was chosen to be L/D = 2, whereas the rigid flag had a width-to-diameter ratio of W/D = 1.5. Wall-adapted large-eddy simulation (LES-WALE) was used to resolve unsteady turbulent flow structures. The far field Reynolds number based on cylinder diameter was chosen to be 20,000. The results were compared with the regular case wherein no flag was attached to the cylinder. Results revealed that the flow pattern behind the cylinder with flag was totally different in comparison with the regular case one. However, top free end of the cylinder was not influenced by the flag in contrast with the wake region. At far downstream from the cylinder, most of the flow structures in both cases appeared the same. The horseshoe vortices in both cases appeared to be an unsteady phenomenon, with slightly different patterns. Moreover, in the case of flag attachment, the pressure coefficient was smaller than that of with no flag. Finally, it was shown that the main and secondary Strouhal numbers locations were different in both cases.     

UV-assisted synthesis of reduced graphene oxide–ZnO nanorod composites immobilized on Zn foil with enhanced photocatalytic performance

Research on Chemical Intermediates - ZnO nanorods were hydrothermally grown on Zn foil in an alkaline solution and the immobilized nanorods were subsequently hybridized with reduced graphene oxide...     

A modified algorithm to improve security and performance of AODV protocol against black hole attack

Ad Hoc network is a temporal network which is managed by autonomous nodes which have the ability to communicate with each other without having fixed network infrastructure or any central base station. Due to some reasons such as dynamic changes of the network topology, trusting the nodes to each other, lack of fixed substructure for the analysis of nodes’ behaviours and loss of specific offensive lines, this type of networks is not supportive against malicious nodes’ attacks. One of these attacks is black hole attack. In this attack, the malicious nodes absorb data packets and destroy them. Thus, it is essential to present an algorithm against the black hole attacks. This article suggests a new algorithm which enhances the security of AODV routing protocol to encounter the black hole attacks. This algorithm tries to identify malicious nodes according to nodes’ behaviours in an Ad Hoc network and delete them from routing. The suggested algorithm is simulated by NS2. The simulation results show some improvements in end-to-end delay and packet delivery rate in the suggested algorithm.     

Measurement of the thermal conductivity of MWCNT-CuO/water hybrid nanofluid using artificial neural networks (ANNs)

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this paper, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are developed to predict the thermal conductivity ( $$k_{\text{nf}}$$ ) of multi-walled carbon...     

From Oncogenic Signaling Pathways to Single-Cell Sequencing of Immune Cells: Changing the Landscape of Cancer Immunotherapy

Over the past decade, there have been remarkable advances in understanding the signaling pathways involved in cancer development. It is well-established that cancer is caused by the dysregulation of cellular pathways involved in proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, cell metabolism, migration, cell polarity, and differentiation. Besides, growing evidence indicates that extracellular matrix signaling, cell surface proteoglycans, and angiogenesis can contribute to cancer development. Given the genetic instability and vast intra-tumoral heterogeneity revealed by the single-cell sequencing of tumoral cells, the current approaches cannot eliminate the mutating cancer cells. Besides, the polyclonal expansion of tumor-infiltrated lymphocytes in response to tumoral neoantigens cannot elicit anti-tumoral immune responses due to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Nevertheless, the data from the single-cell sequencing of immune cells can provide valuable insights regarding the expression of inhibitory immune checkpoints/related signaling factors in immune cells, which can be used to select immune checkpoint inhibitors and adjust their dosage. Indeed, the integration of the data obtained from the single-cell sequencing of immune cells with immune checkpoint inhibitors can increase the response rate of immune checkpoint inhibitors, decrease the immune-related adverse events, and facilitate tumoral cell elimination. This study aims to review key pathways involved in tumor development and shed light on single-cell sequencing. It also intends to address the shortcomings of immune checkpoint inhibitors, i.e., their varied response rates among cancer patients and increased risk of autoimmunity development, via applying the data from the single-cell sequencing of immune cells.     

Phase diagrams for the system water/butyric acid/propylene carbonate at <Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis> = 293.2–313.2 K and <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> = 101.3 kPa

Phase diagrams for the system water/butyric acid/propylene carbonate were plotted at T = 293.2, 303.2, 313.2 K and p = 101.3 kPa. Acidimetric titration and refractive index methods were used to determine tie-line data. Solubility data revealed that the studied system exhibits type-1 behavior of liquid–liquid equilibrium. The experimental data were regressed and acceptably correlated using the UNIQUAC and NRTL models. As a result, propylene carbonate is a suitable separating agent for aqueous mixture of butyric acid.