Metadichol®: A Novel Nanolipid Formulation That Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 and a Multitude of Pathological Viruses In Vitro

Increasing outbreaks of new pathogenic viruses have promoted the exploration of novel alternatives to time-consuming vaccines. Thus, it is necessary to develop a universal approach to halt the spread of new and unknown viruses as they are discovered. One such promising approach is to target lipid membranes, which are common to all viruses and bacteria. The ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has reaffirmed the importance of interactions between the virus envelope and the host cell plasma membrane as a critical mechanism of infection. Metadichol®, a nanolipid emulsion of long-chain alcohols, has been demonstrated as a strong candidate that inhibits the proliferation of SARS-CoV-2. Naturally derived substances, such as long-chain saturated lipid alcohols, reduce viral infectivity, including that of coronaviruses (such as SARS-CoV-2) by modifying their lipid-dependent attachment mechanism to human host cells. The receptor ACE2 mediates the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into the host cells, whereas the serine protease TMPRSS2 primes the viral S protein. In this study, Metadichol® was found to be 270 times more potent an inhibitor of TMPRSS2 ( E C 50 = 96 ng / mL ) than camostat mesylate ( E C 50 = 26000 ng / mL ). Additionally, it inhibits ACE with an EC50 of 71 ng/mL, but it is a very weak inhibitor of ACE2 at an EC50 of 31 μg/mL. Furthermore, the live viral assay performed in Caco-2 cells revealed that Metadichol® inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication at an EC90 of 0.16 μg/mL. Moreover, Metadichol® had an EC90 of 0.00037 μM, making it 2081 and 3371 times more potent than remdesivir ( E C 50 = 0.77 μ M ) and chloroquine ( E C 50 = 1.14 μ M ), respectively.

Removal of Inclusions from Melts

Inclusion origins and the methods for determining the content of inclusions in a melt are described. Removal of inclusions by flotation/settling is demonstrated. The method for removing inclusions from molten metals by bubbling is described in detail with attachment mechanism to bubbles. Use of microbubbles are included. Filtration capture mechanisms of inclusions, cake and deep bed mode, are derived. A model for removal of inclusions by ceramic foam filters is introduced. Re-entrainment of inclusions are examined. In addition the use of rotational and electromagnetic forces to remove inclusions is explained. The number size distribution of inclusions is taken into account, both the change in the distribution function and the growth of inclusions with time. In the end the interaction of dissolved elements and inclusions is described.

The Design Of A Quick Release Attachment Mechanism For A Hydrofoil Board

<div>The primary objective of this project was to design a quick attach and detach system for use with a surfing foilboard. Foilboards are comprised of a board, mast, and fuselage, onto which wings are attached. These components are generally held together by long bolts, which makes the overall board tedious to assemble and disassemble. Research was conducted on the general concept of attaching components rigidly as well as on the market of current foilboard quick attach mechanisms, and a series of conceptual designs were created from it. All design concepts were rated using metrics generated from both the project objectives and market research, and the top-rated concept was then drawn up in Solidworks. Several design iterations were developed in order to meet both the minimum 300g weight, tensile and compressive strength, and attachment/detachment speed requirements. The design iterations were first validated using a series of Solidworks simulation analyses. Subsequently the final design candidate was analysed using a series of ANSYS Static Structural simulations. The final design can withstand the loads and torques during regular usage as well as cases of the rider standing on the side of the mast while the board is at rest. The design can be attached or detached within one second. It can survive up to 8.769x105 cycles of maximum cyclical loading and is easy to clean.</div>

The Design Of A Quick Release Attachment Mechanism For A Hydrofoil Board

<div>The primary objective of this project was to design a quick attach and detach system for use with a surfing foilboard. Foilboards are comprised of a board, mast, and fuselage, onto which wings are attached. These components are generally held together by long bolts, which makes the overall board tedious to assemble and disassemble. Research was conducted on the general concept of attaching components rigidly as well as on the market of current foilboard quick attach mechanisms, and a series of conceptual designs were created from it. All design concepts were rated using metrics generated from both the project objectives and market research, and the top-rated concept was then drawn up in Solidworks. Several design iterations were developed in order to meet both the minimum 300g weight, tensile and compressive strength, and attachment/detachment speed requirements. The design iterations were first validated using a series of Solidworks simulation analyses. Subsequently the final design candidate was analysed using a series of ANSYS Static Structural simulations. The final design can withstand the loads and torques during regular usage as well as cases of the rider standing on the side of the mast while the board is at rest. The design can be attached or detached within one second. It can survive up to 8.769x105 cycles of maximum cyclical loading and is easy to clean.</div>

Friendship paradox in growth networks: analytical and empirical analysis

Many empirical studies have shown that in social, citation, collaboration, and other types of networks in real world, the degree of almost every node is less than the average degree of its neighbors. This imbalance is well known in sociology as the friendship paradox and states that your friends are more popular than you on average. If we introduce a value equal to the ratio of the average degree of the neighbors for a certain node to the degree of this node (which is called the ‘friendship index’, FI), then the FI value of more than 1 for most nodes indicates the presence of the friendship paradox in the network. In this paper, we study the behavior of the FI over time for networks generated by growth network models. We will focus our analysis on two models based on the use of the preferential attachment mechanism: the Barabási–Albert model and the triadic closure model. Using the mean-field approach, we obtain differential equations describing the dynamics of changes in the FI over time, and accordingly, after obtaining their solutions, we find the expected values of this index over iterations. The results show that the values of FI are decreasing over time for all nodes in both models. However, for networks constructed in accordance with the triadic closure model, this decrease occurs at a much slower rate than for the Barabási–Albert graphs. In addition, we analyze several real-world networks and show that their FI distributions follow a power law. We show that both the Barabási–Albert and the triadic closure networks exhibit the same behavior. However, for networks based on the triadic closure model, the distributions of FI are more heavy-tailed and, in this sense, are closer to the distributions for real networks.

Scale free is not rare in international trade networks

Failing to consider the strong correlations between weights and topological properties in capacity-weighted networks renders test results on the scale-free property unreliable. According to the preferential attachment mechanism, existing high-degree nodes normally attract new nodes. However, in capacity-weighted networks, the weights of existing edges increase as the network grows. We propose an optimized simplification method and apply it to international trade networks. Our study covers more than 1200 product categories annually from 1995 to 2018. We find that, on average, 38%, 38% and 69% of product networks in export, import and total trade are scale-free. Furthermore, the scale-free characteristics differ depending on the technology. Counter to expectations, the exports of high-technology products are distributed worldwide rather than concentrated in a few developed countries. Our research extends the scale-free exploration of capacity-weighted networks and demonstrates that choosing appropriate filtering methods can clarify the properties of complex networks.

Design and Experimental Research of a New Type of Asteroid Anchoring System

Asteroid detection is of great significance to the study of the formation of the solar system and the origin of life. However, there are many types of asteroids, and they are far away from the earth, and the understanding of their various characteristics is not clear, which brings huge technical challenges to the landing and attachment of star catalogs. At present, the world is mainly based on surround, overflight, and short-term contact detection, and long-term attachment detection has not yet been realized. In order to solve the long-term attachment detection requirements of asteroids, focusing on the geological characteristics of various types of stars, this paper proposes a new type of asteroid attachment mechanism based on the beetle bionic theory, which can realize intelligent and flexible attachment and has strong adaptability. Around this design, this paper analyzes the mechanism of adhesion and realizes the adaptive matching of unascertained terrain landing point adhesion. On this basis, a prototype of the asteroid landing attachment mechanism was developed and verified by experiments. The experiment proved that the mechanism has strong multiterrain matching ability and can obtain an adhesion force of not less than 36 N on ordinary concrete ground.