Process Monitoring of Moisture Content and Mass Transfer Rate in a Fluidised Bed with a Low Cost Inline MEMS NIR Sensor

Purpose The current trend for continuous drug product manufacturing requires new, affordable process analytical techniques (PAT) to ensure control of processing. This work evaluates whether property models based on spectral data from recent Fabry–Pérot Interferometer based NIR sensors can generate a high-resolution moisture signal suitable for process control. Methods Spectral data and offline moisture content were recorded for 14 fluid bed dryer batches of pharmaceutical granules. A PLS moisture model was constructed resulting in a high resolution moisture signal, used to demonstrate (i) endpoint determination and (ii) evaluation of mass transfer performance. Results The sensors appear robust with respect to vibration and ambient temperature changes, and the accuracy of water content predictions (±13 % ) is similar to those reported for high specification NIR sensors. Fusion of temperature and moisture content signal allowed monitoring of water transport rates in the fluidised bed and highlighted the importance water transport within the solid phase at low moisture levels. The NIR data was also successfully used with PCA-based MSPC models for endpoint detection. Conclusions The spectral quality of the small form factor NIR sensor and its robustness is clearly sufficient for the construction and application of PLS models as well as PCA-based MSPC moisture models. The resulting high resolution moisture content signal was successfully used for endpoint detection and monitoring the mass transfer rate

A Three-Site Mechanism for Agonist/Antagonist Selective Binding to Vasopressin Receptors

Molecular-dynamics simulations with metadynamics enhanced sampling reveal three distinct binding sites for arginine vasopressin (AVP) within its V2 -receptor (V2 R). Two of these, the vestibule and intermediate sites, block (antagonize) the receptor, and the third is the orthosteric activation (agonist) site. The contacts found for the orthosteric site satisfy all the requirements deduced from mutagenesis experiments. Metadynamics simulations for V2 R and its V1a R-analog give an excellent correlation with experimental binding free energies by assuming that the most stable binding site in the simulations corresponds to the experimental binding free energy in each case. The resulting three-site mechanism separates agonists from antagonists and explains subtype selectivity

Analysis of cold formed structural rack columns.

Este trabalho avalia a ocorr?ncia do modo de associado a flambagem local em pilares curtos constitu?das por perfis formados a frio tipo rack. Estes pilares possuem perfura??es para facilitar a montagem, e este trabalho considera a influ?ncia das mesmas no comportamento e no esfor?o resistente destes perfis estruturais. Os estudos foram realizados por an?lises num?ricas e experimentais, cujos resultados apresentaram boa correla??o e indicaram que as perfura??es n?o afetaram significativamente a carga cr?tica e a capacidade resistente dos pilares, apesar de influenciarem significativamente o comportamento dos mesmos, alterando o n?mero de meias ondas formadas. Observou-se ainda consider?vel influ?ncia das imperfei??es geom?tricas no comportamento da estrutura, indicando a necessidade de sua inclus?o nas an?lises num?ricas.This work presents an evaluation of local buckling in cold formed rack stub columns. These columns have perforations along their length to make assemblage easier, and this research investigates their influence in these structures behavior and resistance. Experimental end numerical analysis were carried out and their results showed good agreement and indicated that perforations in columns don't reduce significantly their buckling load and strength, but affect their buckling modes by changing the number of half waves formed in the columns . It was also observed a considerable influence of geometrical imperfections, indicating the need of their inclusion in the numerical analysis

Conservation of marizeiro Geoffroea spinosa Jacq. seeds using different packagings and environments

O marizeiro ( Geoffroea spinosa Jacq.) \ue9 uma esp\ue9cie florestal importante, sobretudo por ser adaptada \ue0s condi\ue7\uf5es de matas ciliares do semi-\ue1rido e ecossistemas associados, ocorrendo em vastas \ue1reas do Nordeste brasileiro e no vale do rio S\ue3o Francisco, sempre restrita a ambientes sazonalmente inundados. Este trabalho teve como objetivos avaliar o efeito de diferentes tipos de embalagens e do per\uedodo de armazenamento sobre o processo germinativo e o vigor de sementes de Geoffroea spinosa Jacq. acondicionadas tamb\ue9m em diferentes ambientes. O experimento foi instalado no Laborat\uf3rio de Ecologia Vegetal do CCA/UFPB, seguindo um delineamento inteiramente casualizado. As sementes foram distribu\ueddas em dois ambientes (condi\ue7\uf5es naturais, no laborat\uf3rio e c\ue2mara fria), acondicionadas em dois tipos de embalagens (sacos de papel e sacos pl\ue1sticos) durante cinco per\uedodos de armazenamento: 0, 15, 30, 60 e 90 dias. Foram avaliados o teor de \ue1gua, o \uedndice de velocidade de emerg\ueancia, a massa seca e o comprimento de pl\ue2ntulas. Os dados foram submetidos \ue0 an\ue1lise de regress\ue3o polinomial. Na embalagem pl\ue1stica e no ambiente de c\ue2mara fria, houve menor redu\ue7\ue3o da viabilidade e do vigor ao longo do armazenamento. As sementes acondicionadas em sacos de papel e armazenadas em ambiente de laborat\uf3rio perderam rapidamente a viabilidade e o vigor a partir dos 30 dias de armazenamento.Geoffroea spinosa Jacq., commonly known as marizeiro in Brazil, is an important tree species, mainly because it is adapted to riparian forest conditions in semi-arid and associated ecosystems. The species occur in large areas of northeastern Brazil and in the S\ue3o Francisco river valley, always restricted to seasonally flooded environments. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different types of packaging and storage periods, as well the influence of environments on the process of seed germination and vigor of Geoffroea spinosa. The experiment was carried out at the Laboratory of Plant Ecology - CCA/UFPB, following a completely randomized design. The seeds were distributed among two environments (natural conditions in the laboratory and cold room), packed in two types of packaging (paper bags and plastic bags) for five periods of storage: 0; 15; 30; 60 and 90 days. Water content, the emergence velocity index, dry weight and length of seedlings were evaluated. The data were submitted to a polynomial regression analysis. In plastic packaging and the environment of the cold room there was less reduction of viability and vigor during storage. Seeds packed in paper bags and stored in a laboratory rapidly lost viability and vigor, after 30 days of storage

Numerical analysis of truss systems with stiffened flattened end-bars.

Circular hollow sections are usually used in long-span roof truss systems. One of the typology for connecting elements in such structures involves the flattening of bar ends. This article presents the numerical analysis of a plane truss composed of circular hollow sections, in which diagonal bars have flattened ends. In this sense, a new flattening typology called stiffened flattening is proposed, characterized by a non-flat geometry, with the creation of stiffeners in the lateral edges of the diagonal flattened ends. The diagonal connecting system with the chord members uses connecting plates. The plates are welded to the chords and the diagonals are connected to latter through a single bolt. The numerical analysis using finite elements method was developed in two stages through ANSYS software with the Parametric Design Language (APDL), in which parameters such as geometry, materials, element types, boundary conditions and loads are specified. A non-linear analysis was performed using shell elements on the chords, diagonals, plates and welds, and contact elements between the diagonals with stiffened flattened ends and the connecting plates. Initially, a numerical study of the connecting node and the stiffened flattened end was performed, and the results directed the modeling of the plane truss. The numerical results were calibrated with the experimental truss results in full scale. The numerical result of the plane truss was also compared to a theoretical study, considering the axial load eccentricity applied in the diagonal with stiffened flattened ends. The study was based on the consideration of combined effects of axial force and bending moment provided by the Brazilian standard ABNT NBR 8800:2008. The final results indicate that the numerical model proposed is efficient and has good correlation with the experimental and theoretical results