Effect of mitigation on the catastrophic failure of storage tanks

This work investigates the effect of incorporating mitigation techniques on the catastrophic collapse of above-ground storage tanks in terms of dynamic pressures and overtopping fractions using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Catastrophic Overtopping Alleviation of Storage Tanks (COAST) and Mitigation of Tank Instantaneous Failure (MOTIF) protection measures are implemented. COAST is a deflector fitted to the top of the bund wall that is a structure surrounding a storage tank and MOTIF is a baffle fitted inside the storage tank. An optimisation study has been conducted to select the optimum mitigation technique and the optimum inclination angle of COAST. Subsequently, the effect of incorporating mitigation techniques using different capacities and shapes of bund wall is investigated along with the effect of using various heights of the fluid within the tank. Results show that COAST alone is more effective than combining the two mitigation techniques and the optimum inclination angle giving the lowest dynamic pressures and overtopping fractions is 80°. COAST significantly reduces the overtopping fractions ranging between 93% and 98% for the various capacities investigated. The highest reduction corresponds to a bund wall capacity of 200% of the capacity of the tank. The effect of COAST in reducing the overtopping fractions is more significant for circular shapes than square, rectangular, and triangular walls. Regarding the height of the fluid, COAST is more effective for tall tanks compared to middle and squat tanks

Health promoting potential of herbal teas and tinctures from Artemisia campestris subsp maritima: from traditional remedies to prospective products

This work explored the biotechnological potential of the medicinal halophyte Artemisia campestris subsp. maritima (dune wormwood) as a source of health promoting commodities. For that purpose, infusions, decoctions and tinctures were prepared from roots and aerial-organs and evaluated for in vitro antioxidant, anti-diabetic and tyrosinase-inhibitory potential, and also for polyphenolic and mineral contents and toxicity. The dune wormwood extracts had high polyphenolic content and several phenolics were identified by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array-mass-spectrometry (UHPLC-PDA-MS). The main compounds were quinic, chlorogenic and caffeic acids, coumarin sulfates and dicaffeoylquinic acids; several of the identified phytoconstituents are here firstly reported in this A. campestris subspecies. Results obtained with this plant's extracts point to nutritional applications as mineral supplementary source, safe for human consumption, as suggested by the moderate to low toxicity of the extracts towards mammalian cell lines. The dune wormwood extracts had in general high antioxidant activity and also the capacity to inhibit a-glucosidase and tyrosinase. In summary, dune wormwood extracts are a significant source of polyphenolic and mineral constituents, antioxidants and a-glucosidase and tyrosinase inhibitors, and thus, relevant for different commercial segments like the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and/or food industries.FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology [CCMAR/Multi/04326/2013]; Portuguese National Budget; FCT [IF/00049/2012, SFRH/BD/94407/2013]; Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) [12M8315N]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Crystal structure of tarocystatin–papain complex: implications for the inhibition property of group-2 phytocystatins

Tarocystatin (CeCPI) from taro (Colocasia esculenta cv. Kaohsiung no. 1), a group-2 phytocystatin, shares a conserved N-terminal cystatin domain (NtD) with other phytocystatins but contains a C-terminal cystatin-like extension (CtE). The structure of the tarocystatin–papain complex and the domain interaction between NtD and CtE in tarocystatin have not been determined. We resolved the crystal structure of the phytocystatin–papain complex at resolution 2.03 Å. Surprisingly, the structure of the NtD–papain complex in a stoichiometry of 1:1 could be built, with no CtE observed. Only two remnant residues of CtE could be built in the structure of the CtE–papain complex. Therefore, CtE is easily digested by papain. To further characterize the interaction between NtD and CtE, three segments of tarocystatin, including the full-length (FL), NtD and CtE, were used to analyze the domain–domain interaction and the inhibition ability. The results from glutaraldehyde cross-linking and yeast two-hybrid assay indicated the existence of an intrinsic flexibility in the region linking NtD and CtE for most tarocystatin molecules. In the inhibition activity assay, the glutathione-S-transferase (GST)-fused FL showed the highest inhibition ability without residual peptidase activity, and GST-NtD and FL showed almost the same inhibition ability, which was higher than with NtD alone. On the basis of the structures, the linker flexibility and inhibition activity of tarocystatins, we propose that the overhangs from the cystatin domain may enhance the inhibition ability of the cystatin domain against papain

Pharm Biol

Frankenia pulverulenta L. (Frankeniaceae) is a medicinal species with carminative, analgesic and antiviral properties. However, phytochemical investigations, antioxidant and neuroprotective capacities of this plant remain unclear. This work assesses the phenolic composition of F. pulverulenta shoot and root and evaluates their antioxidant and neuroprotective capacities. Successive fractionation of F. pulverulenta shoot and root using 6 solvents were used. Antioxidant capacity of these fractions was assessed through four in vitro tests (DPPH, ABTS, Fe-chelating activity and ORAC). Phenolic identification, purification as well as neuroprotective activity of ethyl acetate (EtOAc) fraction and purified molecules were assessed. Among the tested fractions, EtOAc shoot and root fractions possessed considerable phenolic contents (383 and 374 mg GAE/g E, respectively) because of their important ORAC (821 and 1054 mg of TE/g E), DPPH (586 and 750 mg of TE/g) and ABTS (1453 and 1319 mg of TE/g) results. Moreover, gallic acid, quercetin, quercetin galloyl glucoside, trigalloyl hexoside, procyanidin dimers and sulfated flavonoids were identified by LC-DAD-ESI-MS for the first time in this species. The relevant cytoprotective capacity (at 300 μg/mL) against β-amyloid peptide induced toxicity in PC12 cells of EtOAc fractions were corroborated with the chemical composition. In addition, purified molecules were tested for their ORAC and neuroprotective activity. Quercetin showed the best ORAC value (33.55 mmol TE/g polyphenols); nevertheless, procyanidin dimer exhibited an exceptionally efficient neuroprotective activity (100% of viability at 50 μg/mL). These findings suggest that this halophyte is a promising source of antioxidant and neuroprotective molecules for pharmaceutical purposes

Boosting Holistic Ontology Matching : an Extended Linear Approach and its Evaluation on Graph Clique-based Relaxed Reference Alignments

International audienceOntology matching is the process of finding correspondences between entities from different ontologies. Whereas the field has fully developed in the last decades, most existing approaches are still limited to pairwise matching. However, in complex domains where several ontologies describing different but related aspects of the domain have to be linked together, matching multiple ontologies simultaneously, known as holistic matching, is required. In the absence of benchmarks dedicated to holistic matching evaluation, this paper presents a methodology for constructing pseudo-holistic reference alignments from available pairwise ones. We discuss the problem of relaxing graph cliques representing these alignments involving a different number of ontologies. We argue that fostering the development of holistic matching approaches depends on the availability of such data sets. We run our experiments on the OAEI Conference data set