A Multi-Objective Optimization for Supply Chain Network Using the Bees Algorithm

A supply chain is a complex network which involves the products, services and information flows between suppliers and customers. A typical supply chain is composed of different levels, hence, there is a need to optimize the supply chain by finding the optimum configuration of the network in order to get a good compromise between the multi-objectives such as cost minimization and lead-time minimization. There are several multi-objective optimization methods which have been applied to find the optimum solutions set based on the Pareto front line. In this study, a swarm-based optimization method, namely, the bees algorithm is proposed in dealing with the multi-objective supply chain model to find the optimum configuration of a given supply chain problem which minimizes the total cost and the total lead-time. The supply chain problem utilized in this study is taken from literature and several experiments have been conducted in order to show the performance of the proposed model; in addition, the results have been compared to those achieved by the ant colony optimization method. The results show that the proposed bees algorithm is able to achieve better Pareto solutions for the supply chain problem

Anti-inflammatory and immune-modulatory impacts of berberine on activation of autoreactive T cells in autoimmune inflammation

Autoreactive inflammatory CD4+ T cells, such as T helper (Th)1 and Th17 subtypes, have been found to associate with the pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders. On the other hand, CD4+ Foxp3+ T regulatory (Treg) cells are crucial for the immune tolerance and have a critical role in the suppression of the excessive immune and inflammatory response promoted by these Th cells. In contrast, dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages are immune cells that through their inflammatory functions promote autoreactive T-cell responses in autoimmune conditions. In recent years, there has been increasing attention to exploring effective immunomodulatory or anti-inflammatory agents from the herbal collection of traditional medicine. Berberine, an isoquinoline alkaloid, is one of the main active ingredients extracted from medicinal herbs and has been shown to exert various biological and pharmacological effects that are suggested to be mainly attributed to its anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. Several lines of experimental study have recently investigated the therapeutic potential of berberine for treating autoimmune conditions in animal models of human autoimmune diseases. Here, we aimed to seek mechanisms underlying immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects of berberine on autoreactive inflammatory responses in autoimmune conditions. Reported data reveal that berberine can directly suppress functions and differentiation of pro-inflammatory Th1 and Th17 cells, and indirectly decrease Th cell-mediated inflammation through modulating or suppressing other cells assisting autoreactive inflammation, such as Tregs, DCs and macrophages. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Lt

Antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of sulfated polysaccharides from five different edible seaweeds

In recent times, there has been a growing interest in the exploration of antioxidants and global trend toward the usage of seaweeds in the food industries. The low molecular weight up to 14 kDa sulfated polysaccharides of seaweeds (Portieria hornemannii, Spyridia hypnoides, Asparagopsis taxiformis, Centroceras clavulatum and Padina pavonica) were evaluated for in vitro antioxidant activities and cytotoxic assay using HeLa cell line and also characterized by FTIR. The high yield (7.74% alga dry wt.) of sulfated polysaccharide was observed in P. hornemannii followed by S. hypnoides (0.69%), C. clavulaum (0.55%) and A. taxiformis (0.17%). In the brown seaweed P. pavonica, the sulfated polysaccharide yield was 2.07%. High amount of sulfate was recorded in the polysaccharide of A. taxiformis followed by C. clavulaum, P. pavonica, S. hypnoides and P. hornemannii as indicative for bioactivity. The FTIR spectroscopic analysis supports the sulfated polysaccharides of S. hypnoides, C. clavulatum and A. taxiformis are similar to agar polymer whereas the spectral characteristics of P. hornemannii have similarities to carrageenan. The higher DPPH activity and reducing power were recorded in the polysaccharide of brown seaweed P. pavonica than the red seaweeds as follows: DPPH activities: S. hypnoides > A. taxiformis > C. clavulatum > P. hornimanii; Reducing power: A. taxiformis > P. hornimanii > S. hypnoides > C. clavulatum. The polysaccharide fractions contain up to 14 kDa from red seaweeds P. hornemannii and S. hypnoides followed by brown seaweed P. pavonica exhibit cytotoxic activity in HeLa cancer cell line (and are similar to structural properties of carrageenan extracted from P. hornemannii). The low molecular weight agar like polymer of S. hypnoides and alginate like brown seaweed P. pavonica showing better in vitro antioxidant activities that are capable of exhibiting cytotoxicity against HeLa cell line can be taken up further in-depth investigation for nutraceutical study.University of Algarve: DL 57/2016info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Semi-deterministic Wear Model Considering the Effect of Zinc Dialkyl Dithiophosphate Tribofilm

Tribochemistry plays a very important role in the behaviour of systems in tribologically loaded contacts under boundary lubrication conditions. Previous works have mainly reported contact mechanics simulations for capturing the boundary lubrication regime, but the real mechanism in which tribofilms reduce wear is still unclear. In this paper, the wear prediction capabilities of a recently published mechanochemical simulation approach (Ghanbarzadeh et al. in Tribol Int, 2014) are tested. The wear model, which involves a time- and spatially dependent coefficient of wear, was tested for two additive concentrations and three temperatures at different times, and the predictions are validated against experimental results. The experiments were conducted using a mini-traction machine in a sliding/rolling condition, and the spacer layer interferometry method was used to measure the tribofilm thickness. Wear measurements have been taken using a white-light interferometry. Good agreement is seen between simulation and experiment in terms of tribofilm thickness and wear depth predictions

Preparation and Study of Physical Properties of Starch-CMC Biodegradable Composite Film Containing Montmorillonite Nanoparticles

Novel citric acid modified starch-carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) -montmorillonite (MMT) bionanocomposite films were prepared by casting method and the effect of MMT on the structural and physical properties of the starch-CMC biocomposites was studied. X-ray diffraction test showed thatstrong polar interactions between the hydroxyl groups present in the starch and CMC chains and in the silicate layers led to intercalation of biopolymer chains into MMT layers galleries. The water vapor permeability decreased from 2.44 to 1.13×10-7 g/mhPa as the MMT percentage increased from0 to 7%. At the level of 7% MMT, the composite films showed the highest ultimate tensile strength (27.55 MPa) and lowest strain-to-break (18.25%). The DSC tests showed that, the temperature position of the melting peak increased from 221.5°C to 243.0°C as MMT content increased from 1 to 7%, but the glass transition decreased and gradually disappeared

Influence of β-cyclodextrin and Sodium Chloride Addition to Oil on Shrinkage Kinetics during Frying of Potato Strips

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of process conditions and β-cyclodextrin and sodium chloride addition to oil on shrinkage kinetics during deep-fat frying of potato strips. β-cyclodextrin was added to oil at 0.3 and 0.6 g/l and sodium chloride was added at 1 and 3%. Then, potato strips were cut into 1.2×1.2×4 cm3 pieces and fried at 150, 170 and 190˚C for 90, 180, 270 and 360 seconds. The results showed that by increasing process temperature from 150 to 190˚C, shrinkage of fried potato strips is increased. Moreover, increasing process time during deep-fat frying led to increasing of this parameter. Also, by increasing process temperature and time, shrinkage was increased. In additioin, sodium chloride and β-cyclodextrin treatments in both concentrations, separately and simultaneously, decreased the shrinkage, compared to the control samples, from 0.314 to 0.278 (11.46%) on average. Due to the lack of suitable experimental models in the literature for shrinkage modeling during deep-fat frying, a number of experimental models were proposed to model the parameter. The average correlation coefficient between the experimental results with the results of the models was high. Application of additives that affect the surface tension such as β-cyclodextrin and sodium chloride can be considered as a promising strategy to improve the qualitative and quantitative properties of fried products, including reducing the samples shrinkage rate

Reactivity of diorganotin(IV) dichlorides towards N, P, and O donor ligands: Crystal structure of [SnMe2Cl2(phendione)].

The reactions of diorganotin(IV) dichlorides SnR2Cl2 (R = Me, n-Bu) with a series of ligands having N, P, or O donor atoms have been investigated. The reaction of SnR2Cl2 (R = Me, n-Bu) with the bidentate chelating pyridyl ligands of phendione (1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione) and ndppz (11-nitrodipyrido[3,2-a:2′,3′-c]phenazine) affords new hexa-coordinated 1:1 adducts with general formula SnR2Cl2L (R = Me, n-Bu; L = phendione, ndppz). On the other hand, SnMe2Cl2 reacted with xantphos [9,9-dimethyl-4,5-bis(diphenylphosphino)xanthene] to yield the hexa-coordinated 1:2 adduct [SnMe2Cl2(xantphos)2] in the solid state. However, it dissociates in solution to give the penta-coordinated 1:1 complex [SnMe2Cl2(xantphos)]. Notably, the analogous n-Bu derivative does not react, even under forcing conditions. Finally, the tin(IV) compounds SnR2Cl2 (R = Me, n-Bu) react with dppap [2-(diphenylphosphinoamino)pyridine] to give the penta-coordinated 1:1 adducts [SnR2Cl2(dppap)] (R = Me, n-Bu). The resulting complexes have been characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The X-ray crystal structure determination of [SnMe2Cl2(phendione)] reveals that the compound crystallized with two independent molecules in the asymmetric unit with a trans-[SnMe2] configuration

Polysaccharide extracted from Althaea officinalis L. root: New studies of structural, rheological and antioxidant properties

A water-soluble acidic polysaccharide (AOP-2) from Althaea officinalis L. root was isolated by water extraction and purified by ion exchange chromatography (Cellulose DEAE-52) and gel filtration (Sephadex G-200). The structure characteristics of AOP-2 was determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrum and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC_MS). The results indicated that the AOP-2 was an acidic hetropolysaccharide with the molecular weight of 639.27 kDa. The AOP-2 composed of 51% galacturonic acid, 32.56% rhamnose, 12.73% glucose and 3.71% galactose. It could be found that the main backbone chain of AOP-2 consisted of →3)-α-D-GalpA-(1→, →3)-α-D-Rhap-(1→ and→3,4)-β-D-Galp-(1→ with branches of →4)-α-D-Rhap-(1→, →4)-α-D-Glcp-(1→ and α-D-Rhap-(1 →. Thermal analysis revealed that the AOP-2 had high thermal stability and according to the results obtained from XRD analysis, it had a semi-crystalline structure. The results of Steady-shear flow and dynamical viscoelasticity showed that AOP-2 solutions exhibited shear-thinning behavior with high viscosity and a weak gel-like behavior at concentrations above 1% in linear viscoelastic region. In addition, it showed relatively high antioxidant property