Chemical constituents of Blumea balsamifera of Indonesia and their protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B inhibitory activity

A methanol extract of the leaves of Blumea balsamifera (L.) DC. (Asteraceae) afforded a new guaian-type sesquiterpene, epiblumeaene K (1), together with four known guaian-type sesquiterpenes (2-5), three known sesquiterpenes (6-8), and nine known flavonoids (9-17) by a combination of chromatography and preparative TLC techniques. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic methods and comparison with the literature data. Among the isolated compounds, a known sesquiterpene, beta-caryophyllene 8R,9R-oxide (6), exhibited a significant PTP1B inhibitory activity in a dose-dependent manner, with an IC50 value of 25.8 microM (5.62 microg/mL).     

Enzymatic Preparation of Bioactive Peptides Exhibiting ACE Inhibitory Activity from Soybean and Velvet Bean: A Systematic Review

The Angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) is a peptidase with a significant role in the regulation of blood pressure. Within this work, a systematic review on the enzymatic preparation of Angiotensin-I-Converting Enzyme inhibitory (ACEi) peptides is presented. The systematic review is conducted by following PRISMA guidelines. Soybeans and velvet beans are known to have high protein contents that make them suitable as sources of parent proteins for the production of ACEi peptides. Endopeptidase is commonly used in the preparation of soybean-based ACEi peptides, whereas for velvet bean, a combination of both endo- and exopeptidase is frequently used. Soybean glycinin is the preferred substrate for the preparation of ACEi peptides. It contains proline as one of its major amino acids, which exhibits a potent significance in inhibiting ACE. The best enzymatic treatments for producing ACEi peptides from soybean are as follows: proteolytic activity by Protease P (Amano-P from Aspergillus sp.), a temperature of 37 °C, a reaction time of 18 h, pH 8.2, and an E/S ratio of 2%. On the other hand, the best enzymatic conditions for producing peptide hydrolysates with high ACEi activity are through sequential hydrolytic activity by the combination of pepsin-pancreatic, an E/S ratio for each enzyme is 10%, the temperature and reaction time for each proteolysis are 37 °C and 0.74 h, respectively, pH for pepsin is 2.0, whereas for pancreatin it is 7.0. As an underutilized pulse, the studies on the enzymatic hydrolysis of velvet bean proteins in producing ACEi peptides are limited. Conclusively, the activity of soybean-based ACEi peptides is found to depend on their molecular sizes, the amino acid residues, and positions. Hydrophobic amino acids with nonpolar side chains, positively charged, branched, and cyclic or aromatic residues are generally preferred for ACEi peptides.     

Multifractal scaling of crack images from pyroligneous acid dried sludge

Tannery effluent (sludge, wastewater) is treated by natural way. The waste sludge has been taken for two treatment process. The alkali chemicals are neutralized by pyroligneous acid which is obtained by pyrolysis process of wood. This sludge is sent out for drying. The dried sludge contains some crack pattern formation. Photographs were used to record two sludge cracking surfaces. Experiment has been performed to study the fracture pattern formation in thin film sludge. We studied changes of crack surface of a sludge by image analysis and also assessed applicability of fractal scaling to crack surfaces. The calculated crack surface dimension shows that the fracture surface exhibit fractal structure. Image size was 256 × 256 pixels. MFA (multifractal analysis) was carried out to the method of moments, i.e., the probability distribution was estimated for moments ranging from ?150 < q < 150 and the generalized dimension were calculated from the log/log slope of the probability distribution for the respective moments over box sizes. Generalized dimension D(q) were attained for this box size range, which are capable of characterizing heterogeneous spatial crack structure. Multifractal spectra analyzed two fracture surface of the image and results were indicated that the width of spectra increases due to pyroligneous acid. Multifractal method is sensitive enough to measure the fracture distribution and can be seen as a different approach for changing research of crack images of manure sludge drying.     

Parallel computation of a highly nonlinear Boussinesq equation model through domain decomposition

Implementations of the Boussinesq wave model to calculate free surface wave evolution in large basins are, in general, computationally very expensive, requiring huge amounts of CPU time and memory. For large scale problems, it is either not affordable or practical to run on a single PC. To facilitate such extensive computations, a parallel Boussinesq wave model is developed using the domain decomposition technique in conjunction with the message passing interface (MPI). The published and well‐tested numerical scheme used by the serial model, a high‐order finite difference method, is identical to that employed in the parallel model. Parallelization of the tridiagonal matrix systems included in the serial scheme is the most challenging aspect of the work, and is accomplished using a parallel matrix solver combined with an efficient data transfer scheme. Numerical tests on a distributed‐memory super‐computer show that the performance of the current parallel model in simulating wave evolution is very satisfactory. A linear speedup is gained as the number of processors increases. These tests showed that the CPU time efficiency of the model is about 75–90%. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Systematic microstructural development with thermal diffusivity behaviour from nanometric to micronic grains of strontium titanate

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Strontium titanate is a promising candidate for applications in thermoelectric, thermal management applications, and modern electronic devices because...     

Multi‐scale simulation with a hybrid Boussinesq‐RANS hydrodynamic model

A hybrid wave model is developed for simulation of water wave propagation from deep water to shoreline. The constituent wave models are the irrotational, 1‐D horizontal Boussinesq and 2‐D vertical Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS). The models are two‐way coupled, and the interface is placed at a location where turbulence is relatively small. Boundary conditions on the interfacing side of each model are provided by its counterpart model through data exchange. Prior to the exchange, a data transformation step is carried out due to the differences in physical variables and approximations employed in both models. The hybrid model is tested for both accuracy and speedup performance. Tests consisting of idealized solitary and standing wave motions and wave overtopping of nearshore structures show that: (1) the simulation results of the current hybrid model compare well with the idealized data, experimental data, and pure RANS model results and (2) the hybrid model saves computational time by a factor proportional to the reduction in the size of the RANS model domain. Finally, a large‐scale tsunami simulation is provided for a numerical setup that is practically unapproachable using RANS model alone; not only does the hybrid model offer more rapid simulation of relatively small‐scale problems, it provides an opportunity to examine very large total domains with the fine resolution typical of RANS simulations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.