菲律賓

The emergence of antibacterial resistance has necessitated the development of alternative treatments, such as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). AMPs are part of the innate immune systems of various organisms such as Momordica charantia L., a known medicinal plant in Southeast Asia. In this study, potential novel AMPs from M. charantia were derived in silico to provide prospective antibiotic alternatives using promising plant-based peptides. M. charantia protein sequences that were 500 amino acids long were digested using proteolytic enzymes, resulting in 3,621 peptides. Each resulting sequence was characterized as either AMP or Non-AMP using four statistical analysis tools, and those identified as AMPs were analyzed. This led to 102 AMPs, 53 of which were unregistered on the Data Repository for Antimicrobial Peptides, indicating that they have yet to be derived from other species. Six of the eight studied physicochemical properties show strong correlations with each other, suggesting that subsequent AMP design studies may focus on these six properties. As such, M. charantia may be a rich source of potential AMPs and, thereby, alternative antibiotics. The in vitro examination of these novel AMPs is also recommended to further understand their potential as alternative antibiotics sourced from locally available plants.

Wind energy is one of the most promising and rapidly growing sources of renewable energy, although maximizing its efficiency while minimizing noise remains a challenge and limits its widespread adoption. The emergence of toroidal propellers, which have gained popularity for producing comparable thrust levels to traditional drone propellers while producing less noise, could mitigate this. This study aimed to develop a small-scale toroidal HAWT and compare its power and noise output to a conventional rotor design under similar wind velocity conditions. 15-centimeter diameter models of the toroidal and conventional rotors were created in Fusion 360 and simulated using Ansys Fluent to identify the significant aerodynamic characteristics that positively affect the blades’ power coefficient. The toroidal design with the greatest simulated power output at low tip speed ratios (TSRs) was then 3D printed and physically tested in a wind tunnel against the control rotor. The experimental results confirmed that the toroidal design had greater power coefficients at lower TSRs compared to the control rotor. The toroidal rotor started operating at a wind velocity of 3 m/s compared to the control rotor’s 6 m/s, which indicates superior start-up characteristics. While the toroidal rotor produced half the power output of the control at the highest tested wind speed of 7 m/s, it emitted 18 decibels less noise and showed a reduction in discernible noise between frequencies of two to five kilohertz. The results from this study show its potential in low-noise wind turbines within low-wind velocity environments.

One of the main factors that contribute to fire incidents and the excessive heat people feel during a heat wave is the building materials used, and one such material that possesses durable and heat-resistant properties is sandwich panels. A possible structure that can be used to model sandwich panels is honeycomb structures; however, further research has yet to be conducted on its applications as a heat-resistant urban construction material. This study aims to design a three-dimensional model of a honeycomb sandwich panel and simulate its performance under different thermal and structural stressors. A 3D model of the honeycomb sandwich panel was generated using Autodesk Fusion 360. Then, multiple versions of the panel were generated with varying heat-resistant core materials—namely, aluminum, nickel, nickel-copper alloy 400, and copper—along with polystyrene as the core material for the control model. The following properties of every panel were assessed using finite element analysis (FEA): static deformation, stress distribution, strain distribution, total heat flux, and thermal gradient. Results showed that when subjected to varying structural loads (2 kN, 5 kN, 7 kN), the nickel-core panel demonstrated the best results in terms of static deformation and strain distribution due to its relatively lower deformation and elongation values, respectively. Meanwhile, under the same structural loads, the aluminum-core panel performed better than other core materials in terms of stress distribution due to it having the relatively highest difference between its simulated von Mises stress and its yield strength. The honeycomb sandwich panels have also shown to possess heat-resistivity when subjected to a thermal load of 90°C, with polystyrene being the most promising material overall in terms of heat-resistance due to its relatively lower heat flux and thermal gradient. The results from this study would contribute to future research on honeycomb sandwich panels and may be used in real-life applications.

Infections by the Dengue virus (DENV) cause a disease amonghumansreferred to as Dengue fever, which causes thousands of fatalities globally. There is no existing treatment as of yet that successfully targets DENV. Among the factors thatdeterminetheentry of the virus and severity of the disease is the envelope(E) protein of DENV. This study aimed to examine forty antiviral phytochemicals enumeratedinpaststudiesaspossibleinhibitorstotheEprotein of DENV to provide candidates to aid in drug discovery against DENV. The phytochemicals were screened for their likelihood of inhibition of the E protein using AutoDock Suite and LigPlot+. Seven phytochemicals produced favorable binding affinities to the E protein, which are based on the interactions between the phytochemicals and amino acidsintheactivesiteoftheEprotein.Lipinski’s rule of 5 was then used to screen the seven phytochemicals for oral bioavailability. Glabridin has a binding affinity of -7.6 kcal/mol and was predicted to be orally bioavailable. This phytochemical interacts with amino acids in the E protein active site through hydrogen bonds to Asn355, andPhe337, as well as ten hydrophobic interactions. These interactions ensure that glabridin is able to specifically target and fit intotheactivesiteoftheEprotein, preventing its binding to the host cell and activating its viral proliferation. Glabridin is known to be found in the roots of licorice plants, providing anatural source for a possible cure for Dengue fever.

Calcineurin (CN) activation is a main cause of cancerous tumor formation, one of the leading causes of death globally. Cyclosporine-A (CsA) is a commercially available oral drug that inhibits CN activation; however, low bioavailability limits its use. Nine patented CsA conjugates are potential alternatives to CsA as they have improved cytotoxicities and bioavailabilities but unknown CN-binding affinity. This study aimed to identify the CNinhibition strength and bioavailability of CsA conjugates in silico drug-likeness evaluation via modified Lipinski’s Rule of Five was done on CsA, voclosporin, and CsA conjugates to test bioavailability. The binding affinities of bioavailable compounds were computed via docking to CN in five trials, and the binding affinities were compared. The Water-soluble, RVal, IIA, Alpha, and MeBmt 2 conjugates showed improved bioavailabilities compared to CsA as they passed the drug-likeness screening. After five trials of computational docking to CN, the IIA and RVal conjugates showed improved binding affinities at -15.8 kcal/mol and -15.2 kcal/mol, respectively, compared to CsA at -14.3 kcal/mol. Notably, IIA also showed an improved binding affinity compared to voclosporin at -15.5 kcal/mol. These results suggest that CsA conjugates may be better oral chemotherapeutic drugs than CsA.