Stability of a general adaptive immunity virus dynamics model with multistages of infected cells and two routes of infection

This paper studies an (n+4)-dimensional nonlinear virus dynamics model that characterizes the interactions of the viruses, susceptible host cells, n-stages of infected cells, B cells and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) cells. Both viral and cellular infections have been incorporated into the model. The infected-susceptible and virus-susceptible infection rates as well as the generation and removal rates of all compartments are described by general nonlinear functions. Five threshold parameters are computed, which insure the existence of the equilibria of the model under consideration. A set of conditions on the general functions has been established, which is sufficient to investigate the global dynamics of the model. The global asymptotic stability of all equilibria is proven by utilizing Lyapunov function and LaSalle's invariance principle. The theoretical results are illustrated by numerical simulations of the model with specific forms of the general functions.     

SYNTHESES A L'AIDE D'HETEROCUMULENES. 6. CYCLOADDITION DIPOLAIRE-1,3 ENTRE LA DIPHENYLNITRILIMINE ET LES ISOCYANATES D'AROXYSULFONYLE ET DE TRICHLORO-2,2,2-ETHOXYSULFONYLE

Abstract

In accordance with a [2 + 3] cycloaddition, aroxy and 2,2,2-tri-chloroethoxysulfonyl isocyanates react with diphenylnitrilimine, to furnish, in high yield, the corresponding 1,3,4-oxadiazolines and 1,2,4-triazolines. The latter are formed too by a direct addition of α-chlorobenzylidene-phenylhydrazine to these heterocumulenes, followed by a dehydrohalogenation of the intermediates.

La cycloaddition [2 + 3] des isocyanates d'aroxy et de trichloro-2,2,2-éthoxysulfonyle sur la diphénylnitrilimine, fournit les oxadiazolines-1,3,4 et les triazolines-1,2,4 correspondants avec de hauts rendements. Ces měmes hétérocycles sont obtenus par une voie différente: addition directe de l'α-chlorobenzylidène-phénylhydrazine sur ces hétérocumulènes, suivie d'une déhydrohalogénation des intermédiaires ainsi formés dans la première étape de la réaction.     

Promoting Effect of Soluble Polysaccharides Extracted from Ulva spp. on Zea mays L. Growth

Seaweeds can play a vital role in plant growth promotion. Two concentrations (5 and 10 mg/mL) of soluble polysaccharides extracted from the green macroalgae Ulva fasciata and Ulva lactuca were tested on Zea mays L. The carbohydrate and protein contents, and antioxidant activities (phenols, ascorbic, peroxidase, and catalase) were measured, as well as the protein banding patterns. The soluble polysaccharides at 5 mg/mL had the greatest effect on the base of all of the parameters. The highest effects of soluble polysaccharides on the Zea mays were 38.453, 96.76, 4, 835, 1.658, 7.462, and 38615.19, mg/mL for carbohydrates, proteins, phenol, µg ascorbic/mL, mg peroxidase/g dry tissue, and units/g tissue of catalase, respectively. The total number of protein bands (as determined by SDS PAGE) was not changed, but the density of the bands was correlated to the treatments. The highest band density and promoting effect were correlated to 5 mg/mL soluble polysaccharide treatments extracted from Ulva fasciata in Zea mays, which can be used as a biofertilizer.     

Efficient <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candida rugosa</Emphasis> lipase immobilization on Maghnite clay and application for the production of (<Emphasis Type="Italic">1R</Emphasis>)-(−)-Menthyl acetate

This work focused on the identification of natural, economical, and efficient supports for immobilization of Candida rugosa lipase (CRL) to catalyze the resolution of (±)-menthol. To this purpose, CRL has been immobilized on natural montmorillonite from Algeria (Maghnite-H), ion-exchange resins (Amberjet^®1200-H and Amberjet^®4200-Cl), and diatomaceous earth (Celite^®545). After a preliminary screening of supports, the immobilization of CRL led to a markedly improved enantioselectivity. Excellent enantioselectivity (E ≥ 134) was achieved by the four supported lipases (E = 68 for free enzyme). Compared to the three other supports tested, higher enantioselectivity was observed with Maghnite-H used as immobilization matrix. In this work, the effects of solvent, reaction time, and temperature, on the conversion as well as on enantioselectivity were investigated. The maximum of conversion (% C = 43%) with high enantiomeric excess of products (eep > 99) was obtained when the reaction is catalyzed by CRL immobilized on Maghnite-H at 30 °C for 24 h, and using toluene as selected solvent. Immobilized CRL on Maghnite-H exhibited good thermostability over a wide temperature range (30–90 °C) compared to the free one. These results suggest that CRL immobilized on Maghnite-H has good potential as biocatalyst for the production of (1R)-(?)-menthyl acetate.     

A Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for the Redundancy Allocation Problem

The Redundancy Allocation Problem generally involves the selection of components with multiple choices and redundancy levels that produce maximum system reliability given various system level constraints as cost and weight. In this paper we investigate the series–parallel redundant reliability problems, when a mixing of components was considered. In this type of problem both the number of redundancy components and the corresponding component reliability in each subsystem are to be decided simultaneously so as to maximise the reliability of system. A hybrid algorithm is based on particle swarm optimization and local search algorithm. In addition, we propose an adaptive penalty function which encourages our algorithm to explore within the feasible region and near feasible region, and discourage search beyond that threshold. The effectiveness of our proposed hybrid PSO algorithm is proved on numerous variations of three different problems and compared to Tabu Search and Multiple Weighted Objectives solutions.     

Structural diversity of homobinuclear transition metal complexes of the phenazine ligand: theoretical investigation

DFT/BP86 calculations have been carried out on a series of hypothetical binuclear compounds of general formula (L₃M)₂(C₁₂N₂H₈) (M?=?Sc–Ni, L₃?=?(CO)₃, (PH₃)₃ and Cp^?, and C₁₂N₂H₈?=?phenazine ligand-denoted Phn). The various structures with syn and anti configurations have been investigated, in order to determine the phenazine’s coordination to first-row transition metals of various spin states with syn and anti conformations. The lowest energy structures depend on the nature of the metal, the spin state, and the molecular symmetry. This study has shown that the electronic communication between the metal centers depends on their oxidation state and the attached ligands. The tricarbonyl and the triphosphine ligands gave rise to comparable results in terms of stability order of isomers, metal-metal bond distances, and the coordination modes. Metal-metal multiple bonding has been evidenced for Sc, Ti, and V complexes to compensate the electronic deficiency. The Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni-rich metals prefer the anti conformation due to the enhancement of the metal valence electron count. The spin density values calculated for the triplet and quintet spin structures point out that the unpaired electrons are localized generally on the metal centers. The Wiberg bond indices are used to evaluate the metal-metal bonding. Furthermore, calculations using the BP86-D functional which take into account the attractive part of the van der Waals type interaction potential between atoms and molecules that are not directly connected to each other gave comparable results to those obtained by BP86 functional in terms of coordination modes, HOMO-LUMO gaps, metal-metal bond orders, and the stability order between isomers, but with slight deviation of M–C, M–N, and M–M bond distances not exceeding 3%.     

The Kinematics and the Full Minimal Dynamic Model of a 6-DOF Parallel Robot Manipulator

In this paper we present a particular architecture of parallel robots which has six-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) with only three limbs. The particular properties of the geometric and kinematic models with respect to that of a classical parallel robot are presented. We show that inverse problems have an analytical solution. However, to solve the direct problems, an efficient numerical procedure which needs to inverse only a 3 × 3 passive Jacobian matrix is proposed. In a second step, dynamic equations are derived using the Lagrangian formalism where the joint variables are passive and active joint coordinates. Based on the geometrical properties of the robot, the equations of motion are derived in terms of only nine coordinates related by three kinematic constraints instead of 18 joint coordinates. The computational cost of the dynamic model obtained is reduced by using a minimum set of base inertial parameters.     

Naturally Available Flavonoid Aglycones as Potential Antiviral Drug Candidates against SARS-CoV-2

Flavonoids are important secondary plant metabolites that have been studied for a long time for their therapeutic potential in inflammatory diseases because of their cytokine-modulatory effects. Five flavonoid aglycones were isolated and identified from the hydrolyzed aqueous methanol extracts of Anastatica hierochuntica L., Citrus reticulata Blanco, and Kickxia aegyptiaca (L.) Nabelek. They were identified as taxifolin (1), pectolinarigenin (2), tangeretin (3), gardenin B (4), and hispidulin (5). These structures were elucidated based on chromatographic and spectral analysis. In this study, molecular docking studies were carried out for the isolated and identified compounds against SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) compared to the co-crystallized inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro (α-ketoamide inhibitor (KI), IC₅₀ = 66.72 µg/mL) as a reference standard. Moreover, in vitro screening against SARS-CoV-2 was evaluated. Compounds 2 and 3 showed the highest virus inhibition with IC₅₀ 12.4 and 2.5 µg/mL, respectively. Our findings recommend further advanced in vitro and in vivo studies of the examined isolated flavonoids, especially pectolinarigenin (2), tangeretin (3), and gardenin B (4), either alone or in combination with each other to identify a promising lead to target SARS-CoV-2 effectively. This is the first report of the activity of these compounds against SARS-CoV-2.     

Addition of various unsaturated alcohols to sulfonylisocyanate derivatives: Synthesis of new unsaturated N-sulfonyl carbamates

The synthesis of new unsaturated N-sulfonylcarbamates by the addition of unsaturated alcohols to aroxy(alkoxy)sulfonylisocyanates is reported. The reaction is carried out at room temperature in the presence or absence of solvent, depending on the nature of the starting alcohol. The products were obtained in good yields and characterized with IR, ¹H, and ¹³C NMR and HRMS analyses.