Scalar conservation laws with moving constraints arising in traffic flow modeling: An existence result

We consider a strongly coupled PDE–ODE system that describes the influence of a slow and large vehicle on road traffic. The model consists of a scalar conservation law accounting for the main traffic evolution, while the trajectory of the slower vehicle is given by an ODE depending on the downstream traffic density. The moving constraint is expressed by an inequality on the flux, which models the bottleneck created in the road by the presence of the slower vehicle. We prove the existence of solutions to the Cauchy problem for initial data of bounded variation.     

Nuclear magnetic resonance of benzobisheterocyclic compounds

The nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of forty-nine benzobisheterocyclic compounds, containing various heterocycles, were determined. The observed spectral data made possible the elucidation of the structure and also clarified the influences of the heterocyclic substituents and of heterocyclic rings on chemical shift values of the aromatic protons.     

Seasonal and biological variations of Epidendrum mosenii: quantification of 24-methylenecycloartanol using gas chromatography

Epidendrum mosenii is a Brazilian medicinal plant, traditionally used to treat infective and dolorous processes. The present article reports a comparative study of the chemical and pharmacological aspects of different parts and seasons of this plant. The results demonstrate that 24-methylenecycloartanol (1), one of the main active principles present in this plant, is located practically in all the parts and during all seasons, but it is much more concentrated in the stems when collected in spring and summer. The pharmacological results indicate that dichloromethane extracts collected in spring and summer were the most active when evaluated against the writhing test in mice, being several times more potent than some reference drugs used as comparison. Together, the results strongly suggest that the antinociceptive effect of E. mosenii is related, at least in part, to the presence of compound 1, and this finding could be useful for quality control of phytopreparations based on this plant.     

Traffic flow optimization on roundabouts

The aim of this article is to propose an optimization strategy for traffic flowon roundabouts using amacroscopic approach. The roundabout is modeled as a sequence of 2 × 2 junctions with one main lane and secondary incoming and outgoing roads. We consider two cost functionals: the total travel time and the total waiting time, which give an estimate of the time spent by drivers on the network section. These cost functionals areminimized with respect to the right ofway parameter of the incoming roads. For each cost functional, the analytical expression is given for each junction. We then solve numerically the optimization problem and show some numerical results. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Antioxidant capacity of flavonoids and a new arylphenol of the resinous exudate from Heliotropium sinuatum

From the resinous exudate of Heliotropium sinuatum (family Boraginaceae), a new compound: 4-(3',5'-dihydroxynonadecyl)phenol 1, together with eight previously described flavonoids, were isolated and their antioxidant activities were assessed by quenching measurements with ABTS and DPPH cation radicals.     

Synthesis and molecular modelling studies of resorcin[4]arene-capped porphyrins

Three new resorcin[4]arene-capped porphyrins (3, 5 and 7) different in the porphyrin skeleton, in the linking arms and in the cavity dimensions, have been synthesised. Molecular modelling calculations explored the conformations and the cavity size of the three compounds and showed that their hydrophobic pockets can accommodate one molecule of water or methane (3 and 5), or benzene (7) without any distortion. Notably, the capped porphyrin 5 was able to inhibit the oxidation of Co(II) to Co(III), whereas compound 7 did it only partially.     

Preconditioned iterative methods for coupled discretizations of fluid flow problems

Computational fluid dynamics, where simulations require largecomputation times, is one of the areas of application of highperformance computing. Schemes such as the SIMPLE (semi-implicitmethod for pressure-linked equations) algorithm are often usedto solve the discrete Navier-Stokes equations. Generally theseschemes take a short time per iteration but require a largenumber of iterations. For simple geometries (or coarser grids)the overall CPU time is small. However, for finer grids or morecomplex geometries the increase in the number of iterationsmay be a drawback and the decoupling of the differential equationsinvolved implies a slow convergence of rotationally dominatedproblems that can be very time consuming for realistic applications.So we analyze here another approach, DIRECTO, that solves theequations in a coupled way. With recent advances in hardwaretechnology and software design, it became possible to solvecoupled Navier-Stokes systems, which are more robust but implyincreasing computational requirements (both in terms of memoryand CPU time). Two approaches are described here (band blockLU factorization and preconditioned GMRES) for the linear solverrequired by the DIRECTO algorithm that solves the fluid flowequations as a coupled system. Comparisons of the effectivenessof incomplete factorization preconditioners applied to the GMRES(generalized minimum residual) method are shown. Some numericalresults are presented showing that it is possible to minimizeconsiderably the CPU time of the coupled approach so that itcan be faster than the decoupled one.