The pulsating flow is one of the techniques which can enhance heat transfer, therefore leading to energy saving in tubular heat exchangers. This paper investigates the heat transfer and flow characteristics in a two-dimensional in-line tube bundle with the pulsating flow by a numerical method using the Ansys Fluent. Numerical simulation is performed for Reynolds number Re = 500 with different frequencies and amplitude of pulsation. Heat transfer enhancement was estimated from the central tube of the tube bundle. Pulsation velocity had an asymmetrical character with a reciprocating flow. The technique developed by the authors to obtain asymmetric pulsations was used. This technique allows simulating an asymmetric flow in heat exchangers equipped with a pulsation generation system. Increase in both the amplitude and the frequency of the pulsations has a significant effect on heat transfer enhancement. Heat transfer enhancement is mainly observed in the front and back of the cylinder. At a steady flow in these areas, heat transfer is minimal due to the weak circulation of the flow. The increase in heat transfer in the front and back of the cylinder is associated with increased velocity and additional flow mixing in these areas.

The effect of the communication channel size on the transport and subsequent detection of chemical messengers is investigated on millimetric and micrometric channels. The transport of the information carriers, being characterized by an advective and a diffusive contribution, was simulated by varying the flow velocity and the diffusion coefficient. Then, to evaluate the information quality, the Intersymbol Interference (ISI) between two consecutive signals at a specific release delay was estimated. This allowed us to verify that operating under micrometric channel conditions has a larger flow velocity range to obtain completely separated successive signals and smaller release delays can be used between signals. The theoretical results were confirmed by developing a prototype molecular communication platform operating under microfluidic conditions, which enables communication through fluorescent nanoparticles, namely Carbon Quantum Dots (CQDs).

Pertussis is a vaccine-preventable disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. Over the past years, the incidence and mortality of pertussis increased significantly. A possible cause is the switch from whole cell to acellular pertussis vaccines, although other factors may also contribute. To develop future vaccines and improve current vaccination strategies, it is critical to understand factors influencing the generation of immunological memory. We applied high-dimensional flow cytometry to investigate changes in B cells in individuals of different ages and distinct priming backgrounds upon administration of an acellular pertussis booster vaccine. These findings were correlated to vaccine-specific plasma cells and serum Ig levels. Expansion and maturation of plasma cells 7 days post-vaccination was the most prominent cellular change in all age groups, and was most pronounced for more mature IgG1+ plasma cells. Cellular responses were stronger in individuals primed with whole cell vaccine than in individuals primed with acellular vaccine. Moreover, IgG1+ plasma cell expansion weakly correlated with Prn- and PT- specific serum IgG levels. Our study points at plasma cells as a potential early cellular marker of an immune response and contributes to understanding differences in immune responses between age groups and priming backgrounds.

Current, application-driven trends towards larger-scale integration (LSI) of microfluidic systems for comprehensive assay automation and multiplexing pose significant technological and economical challenges to developers. By virtue of their intrinsic capability for powerful sample preparation, centrifugal systems have attracted significant interest in academia and business since the early 1990s. This review models common, rotationally controlled valving schemes at the heart of such “Lab-on-a-Disc” (LoaD) platforms to predict critical spin rates and reliability of flow control mainly based on geometries, location and liquid volumes to be processed, and their experimental tolerances. In absence of larger-scale manufacturing facilities during product development, the method presented here facilitates the provision of efficient simulation tools for virtual prototyping and characterization to greatly expedite design optimization according to key performance metrics. This virtual in silico approach thus significantly accelerates, de-risks and lowers costs along the critical advancement from idea, fluidic testing, bioanalytical validation and scale-up to commercial mass manufacture.

In this paper, a multi-operator differential evolution algorithm (MODE) is proposed to solve the Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problem and is called MODE-OPF. The MODE-OPF utilizes the strengths of more than one differential evolution (DE) operator in a single algorithmic framework. Additionally, an adaptive method (AM) is proposed to update the number of solutions evolved by each DE operator based on both the diversity of population and quality of solutions. This adaptive method has the ability to maintain diversity at the early stages of the optimization process and boost convergence at the later ones. The performance of the proposed MODE-OPF is tested by solving OPF problems for both small and large IEEE bus systems (i.e., IEEE-30 and IEEE-118) while considering the intermittent solar and wind power generation. To prove the suitability of this proposed algorithm, its performance has been compared against several state-of-the-art optimization algorithms, where MODE-OPF outperforms other algorithms in all experimental results and thereby improving a network's performance with lower cost. MODE-OPF decreases the total generation cost up to 24.08%, the real power loss up to 6.80% and the total generation cost with emission up to 8.56%.

Selection of appropriate friction factors is paramount for accurate prediction of key flow characteristics in gas–liquid two-phase flows. In this work, experimental investigation of vertical air and oil (with viscosities up to 200 mPa s) flow in a 0.060-m ID pipe is reported. Superficial air and oil velocity ranges utilized are from 22.37 to 59.06 m/s and 0.05 to 0.16 m/s respectively. The influence of estimation of interfacial friction factor on accurate determination of film thickness, void fraction and pressure gradient was investigated using a two-fluid model. The results indicated that the two-fluid model is capable of accurately predicting flow characteristics. Further, it reveals that the best performing correlations are the Belt et al. and Ambrosini et al. correlations.

Turbulent flow is the first and fundamental physical phenomena to evaluate when optimising cost and reducing emissions from an Anode Baking Furnace (ABF). Gas flow patterns, velocity field, pressure drop, shear stress, and turbulent dissipation rate variables are the main operational parameters to be optimised, considering a specific geometry. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) allows simulating physical phenomena using numerical methods with computer resources. In particular, the finite element method is one of the most used methods to solve the flow equations. This method requires a discretisation of the geometry of the ABF, called mesh. Hence, mesh is the main input to the finite element method. A suitable mesh for applying a discretisation method determines whether the problem can be simulated or not. Generating an appropriate mesh remains a challenge to perform accurate simulations. In this work, a comparison between meshes generated using two mesh generation tools is presented. Results of different study cases are included.

The flow behavior of the administrated fluid matrices demands careful assessments for stability as consumed by individuals with dysphagia. In the present study, we incorporate tapioca starch (TS), hydroxypropyl distarch phosphate (HDP), and xanthan gum (XG) as thickeners into different nectars (300±20 mPa.s) undergoing thermal processing and evaluated their stability. The thickened nectars presented better water holding and oil binding capacities at 25 ℃ than 4 ℃, and the nectars with TS provided the best results for both capacities as well as the highest solubility index and swelling power (p<0.05). All prepared nectars appeared to be shear-thinning fluids with yield stress closely fitting the power law and Casson models. XG-contained nectars presented a higher yield stress and consistency index. Matrices thickened by HDP exhibited a higher viscoelastic property compared to those thickened by TS during thermal processing. TS nectars presented viscous behavior, whereas HDP and XG nectars presented elastic behavior at 80 ℃ processing. The 3-min thermal processing HDP-nectars remained stable and met dysphagia-friendly requirements under 4 ℃ storage for 28 days regardless of the types of fluid bases (distilled water, sport drink, or orange juice). The employed thickeners present adequate physicochemical properties to be potentially utilized for producing dysphagia-friendly formulations.

Nanoparticles have been proposed for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The research has demonstrated marvelous effort to understand the mechanisms of nanoparticles-EOR. Nevertheless, gaps still exist in terms of understanding the improved fluids and fluid-rock interactions by nanoparticles, which are the key driving forces for oil mobilization. This paper investigates four types of polymer-coated silica nanoparticles as additives for water flooding oil recovery in water-wet reservoirs. A series of flooding experiments were performed with nanoparticles at 0.1 wt.% in seawater at ambient conditions. The dynamics of fluids, fluid-rock interface interactions and fluid flow behavior were characterized in order to understand oil recovery mechanisms of nanoparticles. Experimental results showed an increase in oil recovery up to 14.8%-point with nanofluid injection compared to an average of 40% of the original oil in place (OOIP) obtained from control water flood test. Moreover, the nanoparticles mobilized residual oil and incremented oil recovery up to 9.2% of the OOIP. Displacement studies show that no single mechanism could account for the EOR effect with the application of nanoparticles. Instead, the mobilization of oil seemed to occur through a combination of reduced oil/water IFT, change in the rock surface roughness and wettability to more water-wet, and microscopic flow diversion due to clogging of the pores.

The search for lower cost materials that reduce pressure drop in fluid transport systems in oil and gas industries to conserve pumping energy is of paramount importance. Polymers are known to reduce pressure drop in pipeline oil-water flows in a process referred to as drag reduction (DR). The effect of partially hydrolysed polyacrylamide, polyethylene oxide, aloe vera mucilage and their mixtures as drag reducing polymers (DRPs) on pressure gradient (pressure drop; Δp) in pipeline oil-water flows was studied. The experiment was carried out in flow rig with 0.02-m diameter straight unplasticised polyvinylchloride (uPVC) pipe, two centrifugal pumps, control valves and two storage tanks. Tap water (ρ = 997 Kg/m³ and µ = 0.89 cP) and diesel (ρ = 832 Kg/m³ and µ = 1.66 cP) were used as the test fluid at ambient condition. The polymer mixture total concentration (MTC) of 30 and 400 ppm at different mixing proportion, mixture Reynolds number (Re_mix) and oil input volume were investigated. The results show increase in pressure gradient with increase in oil input volume in both single-phase water flow and oil-water flow before adding drag reducing polymers (DRPs). But Δp decreased after adding DRPs with increase in Reynolds number (Re) or Re_mix and decrease in the oil-phase Re, vice versa. The results further showed higher reduction in pressure drop by the polymer mixture than in each of the polymer used at the same conditions. The rigidness of the biopolymer was improved by adding synthetic polymers which result to increase in DR efficiency.The search for lower cost materials that reduce pressure drop in fluid transport systems in oil and gas industries to conserve pumping energy is of paramount importance. Polymers are known to reduce pressure drop in pipeline oil-water flows in a process referred to as drag reduction (DR). The effect of partially hydrolysed polyacrylamide, polyethylene oxide, aloe vera mucilage and their mixtures as drag reducing polymers (DRPs) on pressure gradient (pressure drop; Δp) in pipeline oil-water flows was studied. The experiment was carried out in flow rig with 0.02-m diameter straight unplasticised polyvinylchloride (uPVC) pipe, two centrifugal pumps, control valves and two storage tanks. Tap water (ρ = 997 Kg/m³ and µ = 0.89 cP) and diesel (ρ = 832 Kg/m³ and µ = 1.66 cP) were used as the test fluid at ambient condition. The polymer mixture total concentration (MTC) of 30 and 400 ppm at different mixing proportion, mixture Reynolds number (Re_mix) and oil input volume were investigated. The results show increase in pressure gradient with increase in oil input volume in both single-phase water flow and oil-water flow before adding drag reducing polymers (DRPs). But Δp decreased after adding DRPs with increase in Reynolds number (Re) or Re_mix and decrease in the oil-phase Re, vice versa. The results further showed higher reduction in pressure drop by the polymer mixture than in each of the polymer used at the same conditions. The rigidness of the biopolymer was improved by adding synthetic polymers which result to increase in DR efficiency.

Influence of core flow inlet swirl angle on aerodynamic performances of an exhaust nozzle with scarfed lobed mixer was studied by the validated computational approach. The computational simulation was conducted by resolving the steady form of discretized three-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the shear stress transport k-Ω turbulence model. Simulation results depict that swirling motions have ignorable influence on the flow field of the top part in the cross sections slightly downstream of the lobed trailing edge. Besides, for the flow field downstream of the L/D=0.1 cross section, the swirling motions are suggested to cause the clockwise stream-wise vortex to stretch into several smaller-scale vortexes. When the case with a bigger swirling angle is investigated, the induced smaller-scale vortexes are more strengthened by the swirling motions. Concerning the 15° swirling case, the loss caused by the destroyed vortex pattern and the benefit induced by the improved smaller-scale vortexes almost counteract with each other with respect to the thermal mixing efficiency. In the last studied cross section as compared with the baseline case, the case with a maximum swirling angle of 30° has increased 6.94% for the thermal mixing efficiency and decreased 0.42% for the total pressure recovery coefficient.

The recycling, incineration, and final disposal rate of municipal solid waste (MSW) are calculated based on the total amount of waste input to each facility in many countries. These statistic data have serious limitation in setting the national goal and policy for effective waste management because it is not considering the amount of foreign objectives in the process of each life-cycle stage. This case study is to estimate the actual rates of recycling, incineration, and final disposal by material flow analysis (MFA) after the collection of MSW in Korea. The actual rates of recycling, incineration and final disposal for MSW in 2016 were 49.9%, 32.9% and 23.1% respectively, indicating that the recycling rate was lower by 10.1%, while the incineration and final disposal rates were raised by 7.6% and 8.4% respectively, compared with the statistics for current MSW. In addition, the changed actual rates of recycling, incineration treatment, and final landfill, and variation of waste treatment charge according to treated amounts per treatment method was analyzed. This results of this study will contribute to establish national level of plan on effective waste management.

This article attempts to formulate a mathematical model for a potential explanation regarding the unavoidable impact of a rigid body's peculiar shape on the seamless flow over it. The solid body completely immersed in a Newtonian fluid and respectively has a relative open circuit flow on it will typically experience various observable phenomena like flow separation, flow transition, down-wash, stalling at the higher angle of attack, stalling velocity and how cambered airfoil can typically generate lift at a zero incidence angle. This article respectively represents an understanding of the laminar flow over a rigid body's external surface with due respect to its distinctive shape and size. This working paper formulates a more realistic and simplified mathematical model for open circuit laminar flow over a body, based on the historical data of aerodynamics and theoretical mechanics. This is intended to properly estimate forces on the continuous surface of the body in a laminar flow, to properly explain, understand and predict mentioned phenomena. Most of all the mechanism of streamline formation and its deformation with due regards to flow, shape and size of the body in an open-circuit laminar are formulated mathematically to enhance better design theory which can reduce experimentation while designing a streamlined body.

In order to perceive the behavior presented by the multiphase chemical reactors, the ant colony optimization algorithm was combined with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data. This intelligent algorithm creates a probabilistic technique for computing flow and it can predict various levels of three-dimensional bubble column reactor (BCR). This artificial ant algorithm is mimicking real ant behavior. This method can anticipate the flow characteristics in the reactor using almost 30 % of the whole data in the domain. Following discovering the suitable parameters, the method is used for predicting the points not being simulated with CFD, which represent mesh refinement of Ant colony method. In addition, it is possible to anticipate the bubble-column reactors in the absence of numerical results or training of exact values of evaluated data. The major benefits include reduced computational costs and time savings. The results show a great agreement between ant colony prediction and CFD outputs in different sections of the BCR. The combination of ant colony system and neural network framework can provide the smart structure to estimate biological and nature physics base phenomena. The ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO) framework based on ant behavior can solve all local mathematical answers throughout 3D bubble column reactor. The integration of all local answers can provide the overall solution in the reactor for different characteristics. This new overview of modelling can illustrate new sight into biological behavior in nature.

Acquisition of real-time hydraulic data is an essential component for flood forecasting. However, we frequently face difficulties in obtaining discharge data using classical contact methods during high magnitude floods and for systems experiencing rapid hydro-geomorphological adjustment. Therefore, we developed low-cost, non-contact sensors and platforms that are designed to overcome these difficulties. These advances enable flood flow properties to be monitored at multiple locations across a river catchment, at low-cost, and communicated in near real-time by using an image velocimetry method. This is an optics-based approach for stream flow measurement using commercially available near-infrared digital cameras to acquire video footage in full HD (30fps). Video footage is then subjected to optical flow tracking techniques based on cross-correlation, and feature-based tracking, enabling the displacement rates of detected features (for example natural foam, seeds, woody debris, and turbulent structures) to be computed. This manual provides step by step guidance to install an image-based gauging station. It contains the list of necessary components, the calibration process of a new camera and the assembly procedure of the system.

Tissue engineering is an emerging field of research due to its growing impact on the regeneration of tissue injured from damage and organ failure. Small hydrogel microspheres containing regenerative cells and stimulators can be used as building blocks to regenerate tissue by injecting them into damaged areas; a microneedle is used to minimize the incision and any associated infections. To address the need for production of a large number of microspheres for use in tissue engineering, we developed a 3D coaxial multi-nozzle flow-focusing device fabricated via a simple 3D-printing method that demonstrates a high rate of microsphere production per nozzle. This device has six coaxial microscale nozzles that produce hydrogel microspheres. Two individual parts—the inlet and nozzle—can be made separately by a 3D printer and bonded together using uncured photo-curable resin as glue. The dimensions of the microspheres are between 100 μm and 1200 μm. They are produced by adjusting the flow rate ratio between the dispersed and continuous media. A flow rate ratio of 180 demonstrated the highest microsphere production rate of 2.12e+5 microspheres per sec (0.25 mL/min). This microsphere production rate per nozzle is four times higher than that of currently available devices.

In this paper, an analytical investigation of the combined effect of through flow and magnetic field on the convective instability in an electrically conducting fluid layer, bounded in a Hele-Shaw cell is presented within the context of linear stability theory. The Galarkin method is utilized to solve the eigenvalue problem. The outcome of the important parameters on the stability of the system is examined analytically as well as graphically. It is observed that the through flow and magnetic field have both stabilizing effects, while the Hele-Shaw number has destabilizing effect on the stability of system. It is also found that the oscillatory mode of convection possible only when the magnetic Prandtl number takes the values less than unity.

A new formulation for a proposed solution to the 3D Navier-Stokes Equations in cylindrical co-ordinates coupled to the continuity and level set convection equation is presented in terms of an additive solution of the three principle directions in the radial, azimuthal and z directions of flow and a connection between the level set function and composite velocity vector for the additive solution is shown. For the case of a vertical tube configuration with small inclination angle, results are obtained for the level set function defining the interface in both the radial and azimuthal directions. It is found that the curvature dependent part of the problem alone induces sinusoidal azimuthal interfacial waves wheras when the curvature together with the equation for the composite velocity is considered oscillating radial interfacial waves occur. The implications of two extremes indicate the importance of looking at the full equations including curvature.

Social media and other web 2.0 tools have provided users the platform to interact and also disclose personal information not only with their friends and acquaintances, but also with relative strangers with unprecedented ease. This has enhanced the ability of people to share more about themselves, their families, and their friends through a variety of media including text, photo, and video, thus developing and sustaining social and business relationships. The purpose of the paper is to identify the factors that predict self-disclosure on social networking sites within the Ghanaian context. Data was collected from 452 students in three leading universities in Ghana and analyzed with Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling. Results from the study revealed that all variables in the proposed model with the exception of interaction and perceived control were significant predictors of self-disclosure with privacy risk being the most significant predictor. In all, the model accounted for 54.6 percent of the variance in self disclosure. The implications and limitations of the current study are discussed and directions for future research proposed.

During speciation-with-gene-flow, a transition from single-locus to multi-locus processes can occur, as strong coupling of multiple loci creates a barrier to gene flow. Testing predictions about such transitions with empirical data requires building upon past theoretical work and the continued development of quantitative approaches. We simulated genomes under different evolutionary scenarios of gene flow and divergent selection, extending previous work with the additions of neutral sites and coupling statistics, allowing us to investigate if and how selected and neutral sites differ in the conditions they require for transitions during speciation. As the per-locus strength of selection grew and/or migration decreased, it became easier for selected sites to show divergence – and thus to rise in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with each other as a statistical consequence – farther in advance of the conditions under which neutral sites could diverge. Indeed, even very low rates of gene flow were sufficient to prevent differentiation at neutral sites. However, once strong enough, coupling among selected sites eventually reduced gene flow at neutral sites as well. To explore whether similar transitions might be detectable in empirical data, we used published genome resequencing data from three taxa of Heliconius butterflies. We found that allele-frequency outliers and F ST outliers exhibited stronger patterns of LD than the genomic background, as expected. The statistical characteristics of LD – likely indicative of the strength of coupling of barrier loci – varied between chromosomes and taxonomic comparisons. Broad qualitative agreement between the patterns we observed in the empirical data and our simulations suggests that selection drives rapid genome-wide transitions to multi-locus coupling, illustrating how divergence and gene flow interact along the speciation continuum.

This paper proposes a method based on genetic algorithm (GA) for the security-constrained optimal dispatch of integrated natural gas and electricity networks, considering operating scenarios in both energy systems. The mathematical formulation of the optimization problem consists of a multi-objective function which aims to minimize both cost of thermal generation (diesel and natural gas) as well as the production and transportation of natural gas. The joint gas-electricity system is modeled by two separate groups of nonlinear equation, which are solved by the combination of Newton's method with the GA. The applicability of the proposed method is tested in the Belgian gas network integrated with the IEEE 14-bus test system and a 15-node natural gas network integrated with the IEEE 118-bus test system. The results demonstrate that the proposed method provides efficient and secure solutions for different operating scenarios in both energy systems.

This paper proposes a Mixed Integer Conic Programming (MICP) model for community microgrids considering the network operational constraints and building thermal dynamics. The proposed multi-objective optimization model optimizes not only the operating cost, including fuel cost, purchasing cost, battery degradation cost, voluntary load shedding cost and the cost associated with customer discomfort due to room temperature deviation from the set point, but also several performance indices, including voltage deviation, network power loss and power factor at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC). In particular, the detailed thermal dynamic model of buildings is integrated into the distribution optimal power flow (D-OPF) model for the optimal operation. The heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems can be scheduled intelligently to reduce the electricity cost while maintaining the indoor temperature in the comfort range set by customers. Numerical simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed model and significant savings in electricity cost with network operational constraints satisfied.

In thermal power plants equipped with air-cooled condensers, axial cooling fans operate under the influence of ambient flow fields. Under inlet cross-flow conditions, the resultant asymmetric flow field is known to introduce additional harmonic forces to the fan blades. This effect has previously been studied only numerically or using blade mounted strain gauges. For this study, Laser Scanning Vibrometry was used to assess fan blade vibration under inlet cross-flow conditions in an adapted fan test rig inside a wind tunnel test section. Two co-rotating laser beams scanned a low pressure axial fan, resulting in spectral, phase resolved surface vibration patterns of the fan blades. Two distinct operating points were examined, with and without inlet cross-flow influence. While almost identical fan vibration patterns were found for both reference operating points, overall blade vibration increased by 100% at low fan flow rate due to cross-flow, and by 20% at high fan flow rate. While numerically predicted natural frequency modes could be confirmed from experimental data as minor peaks in the vibration amplitude spectrum, they were not excited significantly by cross-flow. Instead, primarily higher rotation rate harmonics were amplified, i.a. a synchronous blade tip flapping was strongly excited at the blade pass frequency.

Nanopowders are continuously under investigation as they open new perspectives in numerous fields. There are two main challenges to stimulate their development: sufficient low-cost high throughput synthesis methods leading to a production with well-defined and reproducible properties, and for ceramics, conservation of their nanostructure after sintering. In this context, this paper presents the synthesis of a pure nanosized powder of ZnO (dv₅₀ ~ 60 nm, easily redispersable) by using a continuous Segmented Flow Tubular Reactor (SFTR), which has previously shown its versatility and its robustness, ensuring a high powder quality and reproducibility over time. A higher scale of production can be achieved based on a “scale-out” concept by replicating the tubular reactors. The sinterability of ZnO nanopowders synthesized by the SFTR was studied, by natural sintering at 900 °C and 1100 °C, and Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) at 900 °C. The performances of the synthesized nanopowder were compared to a commercial ZnO nanopowder of high quality. The samples obtained from the synthesized nanopowder could not be densified at low temperature by traditional sintering, whereas SPS led to a fully dense material after only 5 minutes at 900 °C, while limiting the grain growth and thus leading to a nanostructured material.

In the past few years, micromodels have become a useful tool for visualizing flow phenomena in porous media with pore structures, e.g., the multifluid dynamics in soils or rocks with fractures in natural geomaterials. Micromodels fabricated using glass or silicon substrates incur high material cost; in particular, the microfabrication-facility cost for making a glass or silicon-based micromold is usually high. This may be an obstacle for researchers investigating the two-phase-flow behavior of porous media. A rigid thermoplastic material is a preferable polymer material for microfluidic models because of its high resistance to infiltration and deformation. In this study, cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) was selected as the substrate for the micromodel because of its excellent chemical, optical, and mechanical properties. A delicate micromodel with a complex pore geometry that represents a two-dimensional (2D) cross-section profile of a fractured rock in a natural oil or groundwater reservoir was developed for two-phase-flow experiments. Using an optical visualization system, we visualized the flow behavior in the micromodel during the processes of imbibition and drainage. The results show that the flow resistance in the main channel (fracture) with a large radius was higher than that in the surrounding area with small pore channels when the injection or extraction rates were low. When we increased the flow rates, the extraction efficiency of the water and oil in the mainstream channel (fracture) did not increase monotonically because of the complex two-phase-flow dynamics. These findings provide a new mechanism of residual trapping in porous media.

The most important plastic resins used for wire coating are Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Nylon, Polysulfone and Low-high density polyethylene (LDPE / HDPE). In this article,the coating process is performed using elastic-viscous fluid as a coating material for wire coating in a pressure type coating die. The elastic-viscous fluid is electrically conducted in the presence of an applied magnetic field. The governing non-linear equations are modeled and then solved analytically by utilizing an Adomian decomposition method (ADM). The convergence of the series solution is established. The results are also verified by Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method (OHAM). The effect of different emerging parameters such as non-Newtonian parameters α and β, magnetic parameter M and the Brinkman number Br on solutions (velocity and temperature profiles) are discussed through several graphs. Additionally, the current result also compares with the published work already available in the literature.

With the increasing concern of environment, the energy-efficiency scheduling of manufacturing industry is becoming urgent and popular. In turning processes, both spindle speed and processing time can affect the final energy consumption and thus the spindle speed and scheduling scheme need to be optimized simultaneously. Since the turning workshop can be regarded as the flexible flow shop, this paper formulates a mixed integer linear programming model for energy-efficient scheduling of flexible flow shop. Accordingly, a new decoding method is developed by considering of the optimization of spindle speed and scheduling scheme simultaneously, and an estimation of distribution algorithm adopting the new decoding method is proposed to solve large-size problems. The parameters of this algorithm are determined by statistical technique with a simplified practical case. In order to validate the proposed method, a case from practical factories is studied, in which the makespan can be shortened by 25.22%, and the consumed energy can be saved by 5.48%. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mathematical model and algorithm.

Neonatal rats that receive sucrose during a critical postnatal period (CP, days 12 to 28) develop hypertension by the time they reach adulthood. Changes during this period could contribute to inflammation and be associated with variations in the vascular smooth muscle (VSMC) phenotype. We studied changes in inflammatory pathways that could underlie the expressions of the secretory phenotype in the VSMC in the thoracic aorta of rats that received sucrose during CP. We analyzed histological changes in the aorta and expressions of the COX-2, TLR4, iNOS, eNOS, MMP-2, -9, β-, α-actin, and TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β expressions, and fatty acids by gas chromatography. The aortic wall presented disorganization, decellularization, wavy elastic fibers and increase in the lumen area. The COX-2, TLR4 expressions, TNF-α and IL-6 were increased, but iNOS, MMP-2 and -9 tended to increase and eNOS and arachidonic acid tended to decrease, con increase in oleic acid in CP in comparison with control group. There is a transient hypertension at the end of the CP that is accompanied by an inflammation and a change in the phenotype of VSMC to the secretory phenotype. The inflammatory changes could act as epigenetic signals to determine the hypertension development during adulthood.

Severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) is mainly caused by viral pathogens, with a high prevalence in high-risk populations such as infants and older adults. Co-infections by different viruses are frequent and, in some cases, associated with severe disease outcomes. Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to identify respiratory viruses circulating in Barranquilla during the COVID-19 pandemic peaks and estimate the prevalence of viral co-infections in samples from individuals with different degrees of respiratory infection. Methods: Between August and October 2021, 101 samples were collected from individuals with influenza-like illness (ILI) by the District Health Laboratory of Barranquilla and four local health care institutions and analyzed at Universidad Simón Bolívar. Eighteen respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, were analyzed via qRT-PCR using nasal swabs or nasopharyngeal aspirate samples. Results: Of the 101 study individuals, 56 were male and 45 were female (55.5% and 44.5%, respectively); 25.7% of individuals were infected with at least one of the evaluated viruses. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human rhinovirus (HRV) were the two most frequently detected viruses (30.7% and 15.4% of total positives, respectively). Co-infections with two or more respiratory viruses accounted for 42% of the total positive cases. Conclusion: Our findings indicate the presence of different respiratory viruses in swab or nasopharyngeal aspirate samples from individuals with ILI, including coinfection. These results reveal the circulation of several respiratory viruses in the city of Barranquilla, confirming their importance as potential causes of SARI in Colombia and the need for their active surveillance.

Recently, we published that the monoclonal antibody (D12 mAb) recognizes gp63 of L. mexicana, it is responsible for COX activity. This D12 mAb exhibited cross-reactivity with Trypanosoma cruzi, Entamoeba histolytica, Acanthamoeba castellanii, and Naegleria fowleri. COX activity assays performed in these parasites suggested the potential presence of such enzymatic activity. In our investigation, we confirmed that wild-type recombinant gp63 exhibits COX-like activity, in contrast to a mutated recombinant gp63 variant. Consequently, our objective was to identify sequences orthologous to gp63 and subsequently analyze the binding of arachidonic acid (AA) to the putative active sites of these proteins. Given the absence of a crystallized structure for this protein in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), it was imperative to first obtain a three-dimensional structure by homology modeling, using leishmanolysin (PDB ID: LML1) as a template in the Swiss model. Database. The results obtained through molecular docking simulations revealed the primary interactions of AA close to the Zinc atom present in the catalytic site of gp63-like molecules of several parasites, predominantly mediated by hydrogen bonds with HIS264, HIS268 and HIS334. Furthermore, COX activity was evaluated in commensal species such as E. dispar and during the encystment process of E. invadens.

Ribotoxin-like proteins (RL-Ps) are specific ribonucleases found in mushrooms that are able to cleave a single phosphodiester bond located in the Sarcin-Ricin Loop (SRL) of the large rRNA. The cleaved SRL interacts differently with some ribosomal proteins (P-stalk). This action blocks protein synthesis because the damaged ribosomes are unable to interact with elongation factors. Here, the amino acid sequence of eryngitin 3 and 4, RL-Ps isolated from Pleurotus eryngii fruiting bodies, was determined to: i) obtain structural information on this specific ribonuclease family from edible mushrooms; and ii) explore the structural determinants which justify their different biological and antipathogenic activities. Indeed, eryngitin 3 (exhibited higher toxicity with respect to eryngitin 4 against tumoral cell lines and model fungi. Structurally, eryngitin 3 and 4 consist of 132 amino acids, most of them identical and exhibit a single free cysteinyl residue. The amino acidic differences between the two toxins are: i) an additional phenylalanyl residue at the N-terminus of eryngitin 3, not retrieved in eryngitin 4; and ii) an additional arginyl residue at C-terminus of eryngitin 4, not retrieved in eryngitin 3. The 3D-models of eryngitins show slight differences at the N- and C-terminal regions. In particular, the positive electrostatic surface at C-terminal of eryngitin 4 is due to the additional arginyl residue not retrieved in eryngitin 3. This additional positive charge could interfere with the binding to the SRL (substrate) or with some ribosomal proteins (P-stalk structure), during substrate recognition.

Arf-like protein 2 (ARL2) is a ubiquitously expressed small GTPase with multiple functions. In cell culture, ARL2 participates with tubulin cofactor D (TBCD) in the neogenesis of tubulin αβ-heterodimers, the building blocks of microtubules. To evaluate this function in retina, we conditionally deleted ARL2 in mouse retina at two distinct stages, either during embryonic development (retArl2-/-) or after ciliogenesis specifically in rods (rodArl2-/-). retArl2-/- retina sections displayed distorted nuclear layers and a disrupted microtubule cytoskeleton (MTC) as early as postnatal day 6 (P6). Rod and cone outer segments (OS) did not form. By contrast, rod ARL2 knockouts were stable at postnatal day 35 and revealed normal ERG responses. Cytoplasmic dynein is reduced in retArl2-/- inner segments (IS), suggesting that dynein may be unstable in the absence of a normal MTC. We investigated microtubular stability in the absence of either ARL2 (retARL2-/-) or DYNC1H1 (retDync1h1-/-), the dynein heavy chain, and found that both the retArl2-/- and retDync1h1-/- retinas exhibited reduced microtubules and nuclear layer distortion. The results suggest that ARL2 and dynein depend on each other to generate a functional MTC during early photoreceptor development.

Brevibacillus laterosporus (Bl) is a Gram-positive and spore-forming bacterium belonging to the Brevibacillus brevis phylogenetic cluster. Globally, insect pathogenic strains of the bacterium have been isolated, characterised, and some activities patented. Two isolates, Bl 1821L and Bl 1951, exhibiting pathogenicity against the diamondback moth and mosquitoes, are under development as a biopesticide in New Zealand. However, due to the suspected activity of putative antibacterial proteins (ABPs), the endemic isolates often grow erratically. Various purification methods including size exclusion chromatography, sucrose density gradient centrifugation, polyethylene glycol precipitation, and ammonium sulphate precipitation employed in this study enabled the isolation of two putative antibacterial proteins of ~30 kD and ~48 kD from Bl 1821L and one putative antibacterial protein of ~30 kD from Bl 1951. Purification of the uninduced cultures of Bl 1821L and Bl 1951 also yielded the protein bands of ~30 kD and ~48 kD on SDS-PAGE which indicated their spontaneous induction. Disc diffusion assay was used to determine the antagonistic activities of the putative ABPs. Subsequent transmission electron microscope (TEM) examination of purified putative antibacterial protein-containing solution showed the presence of encapsulin (~30 kD) and polysheath (~48 kD) like structures. Although only the ~30 kD protein was purified from Bl 1951, both structures were seen in this strain under TEM. Furthermore, while assessing the antibacterial activity of some fractions of Bl 1951 against Bl 1821L in size exclusion chromatography method, population of Bl 1821L persister cells was noted. Overall, this work added a wealth of knowledge for the purification of the HMW proteins (bacteriocins) of the Gram-positive bacteria including Bl.

This paper describes research on a unique propulsion system design for a low-speed Biomimetic Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (BUUV). It is biomimetic in the sense that it mimics the movement of aquatic organisms. The undulating propulsion system has numerous advantages over the rotary impeller and is becoming more popular in underwater robotics. The analysis of an artificial seal’s propulsion system with two tail fins is described here. The contrast between the previous undulating propulsion system and the new one is detailed using mathematical analysis and experimental data. The experimental comparison was carried out on a laboratory test stand equipped with specialist sensor equipment to determine the energy efficiency of various types of propulsion systems. Due to a patent procedure, the innovative propulsion system presented in this work has never been published previously. The fins have extra joints, which is the subject of patent claims. The extra joint is intended to improve energy efficiency and reduce fatigue wear on the fins.

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) has two main histologic variants: classical-PTC (CL-PTC) and follicular variant PTC (FV-PTC). Recently, due to its similar features to benign lesions, the encapsulated FV-PTC variant was reclassified as noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features (NIFTP). Nonetheless, specific molecular signatures are not yet available. It is well known that telomere-related genome instability is caused by inappropriate DNA repair of dysfunctional telomeres and that mechanisms involved in the damaged telomere repair processing may led to detrimental outcomes, altering the 3D nuclear telomere and genome organization in cancer cells. This pilot study aimed to evaluate whether a specific nuclear telomere architecture might characterize NIFTP, potentially distinguishing it from other PTC histologic variants. Our findings demonstrate that 3D telomere profiles of CL-PTC and FV-PTC were different from NIFTP and that NIFTP more closely resembles follicular thyroid adenoma (FTA). NIFTP has longer telomeres than CL-PTC and FV-PTC samples and telomere length overlaps in NIFTP and FTA. There was no association between BRAF expression and telomere length in all tested samples. Our data showing that 3D nuclear telomere organization is altered differently in thyroid cancer variants, suggest that this parameter might guide clinical management of NIFTP. Although further investigations in a larger cohort of patients are necessary to corroborate our observations, telomere-related genomic instability might be of value in the diagnosis of NIFTP and allow for a more appropriate selection of the correct treatment.

Human detection from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) is gaining popularity in the field of disaster management, crowd counting, people monitoring. Real time human detection from UAV is a challenging task, because of many constraints involved. This study proposes a system for real time detection of humans on videos captured from UAVs addressing three of these constraints namely, flying height, computation time and scale of viewing. The proposed method integrated an android application with a binary classifier based on Haar-features to automatically detect human / non-human class from UAV images. The video frames were parsed and detected humans from image frames were geo-localized and visualized on Google Earth. The performance was evaluated for geo-localization accuracy, computation time and detection accuracy, considering human coverage – pixel size relationship for various heights and scale factor. Based on flying height - human size relationship and tradeoff between detection accuracy vs computation time, the study came up with optimal parameters for OpenCV’s cv2.cascadeClassifier. detectMultiScale function. This paper establishes a strong ground for further research relating to real time human detection from UAV.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs, also called seven-transmembrane or heptahelical receptors) are a superfamily of cell surface receptor proteins that bind to many extracellular ligands and transmit signals to an intracellular guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G protein). When a ligand binds, the receptor activates the attached G-protein by causing the exchange of Guanosine-5'-triphosphate (GTP) for guanosine diphosphate (GDP). They play a major role in many physiological functions as well as in the pathology of many diseases including cancer progression and metastasis. Only a few GPCR members have been exploited as targets for developing drugs with therapeutic benefit in cancer. Present review deals with the Prostaglandin E receptor EP4, a member of the EP family of GPCR, as a promising newer therapeutic target for treating breast cancer. We show that aberrant over-expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, an inflammation-associated enzyme, occurring in 40-50% of breast cancer patients leads to tumor progression and metastasis due to multiple cellular events resulting from an increased prostaglandin (PG) E2 production in the tumor milieu. They include inactivation of host anti-tumor immune (NK and T) cells, increased immuno-suppressor function of tumor-associated macrophages, promotion of tumor cell migration, invasiveness and tumor-associated angiogenesis (due to upregulation of VEGF-A), lymphangiogenesis (due to upregulation of VEGF-C/D) and a stimulation of stem-like cell (SLC) phenotype in cancer cells. All these events were primarily mediated by activation of the PGE receptor EP4 on tumor or host cells. We show that selective EP4 antagonists (EP4A) could mitigate all these events tested with cells in vitro as well as in vivo in syngeneic COX-2 expressing mammary cancer bearing mice or immune-deficient mice bearing COX-2 over-expressing human breast cancer xenografts. We suggest that EP4A can avoid thrombo-embolic side effects of long term use of COX-2 inhibitors by sparing cardio-protective roles of PGI2 via IP receptor activation or PGE2 via EP3 receptor activation. Furthermore, we identified two COX-2/EP4 induced oncogenic and SLC-stimulating microRNAs - miR526b and miR655, one of which (miR655) appears to be a potential blood biomarker in breast cancer patients, for monitoring SLC-ablative therapies such as with EP4A. We suggest that EP4A will likely produce the highest benefit in aggressive breast cancers such as COX-2 expressing triple-negative breast cancers, when combined with other newer agents such as PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors.

Aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of integral membrane proteins that selectively transport water and glycerol across the cell membrane. Because AQPs are involved in a wide range of physiological functions and pathophysiological conditions, AQP-based therapeutics may have broad potential for clinical utility, including disorders of water and energy balance. However, AQP modulators have not yet been developed as suitable candidates for clinical applications. In this study, to identify potential modulators of AQPs, we screened 32 natural products by measuring the water and glycerol permeability of mouse erythrocyte membranes using a stopped-flow light scattering method. None of the tested natural compounds substantially affected osmotic water permeability. However, several compounds considerably affected glycerol permeability. Stichoposide C increased the glycerol permeability of mouse erythrocyte membranes, whereas rhizochalin decreased it at nanomolar concentrations. Immunohistochemistry revealed that AQP7 was the main aquaglyceroporin in mouse erythrocyte membranes. We further verified the effects of stichoposide C and rhizochalin on aquaglyceroporins using human AQP3 expressing keratinocyte cells. Stichoposide C, but not stichoposide D, increased AQP3-mediated transepithelial glycerol transport, whereas the peracetyl aglycon of rhizochalin was the most potent inhibitor of glycerol transport among the tested rhizochalin derivatives. Collectively, stichoposide C and the peracetyl aglycon of rhizochalin might function as modulators of AQP3 and AQP7, and suggest the possibility of these natural products as potential drug candidates for aquaglyceroporin modulators

Thermally-induced moisture flow in unsaturated soils is a complex coupled thermal-hydro process involving moisture flow both in vapor and liquid phases. Thermally-induced moisture flow in unsaturated sands is usually less pronounced than fine soils due to their low field capacity. It is affected by many factors, including soil density, particle size, moisture content, and gravity-induced flow. Besides, soil moisture sensors need to be highly accurate and calibrated for temperature effects in order to monitor the thermally induced moisture flow accurately. A silty sand with 35% non-plastic fines was selected to study the coupled thermo-hydro processes in a closed heat cell. The heat cell consists of two temperature-controlled heat exchanger plates at the top and bottom, heat flux sensors, moisture sensors, thermocouples, and heat conductivity sensors. The soil was prepared at various initial moisture content and tested under a constant 1-D temperature gradient. The soil moisture sensors were first calibrated in the test soil at room temperature and then at elevated temperatures. The soil moisture redistribution, temperature and thermal conductivity profiles were determined. The critical moisture content, corresponding to maximum moisture movement, was also determined. The results offer new insights into coupled moisture-heat flow in unsaturated sands.

Exercise-induced muscle injury is one of the most common types of sports injuries. Skeletal muscle troponin I (skTnI) serves as an ideal biomarker in assessing such injuries, facilitating timely detection and evaluation. In this study, we develop a fluorescent sandwich lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) combined with a desktop analyzer for rapid detection of skTnI. Through optimizing the reaction system, the assay achieves a satisfying detection performance, reaching a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.5 ng/mL with a turnaround time of 15 minutes. The proposed de-tection platform offers portability, ease of use, and high sensitivity, which facilitates the moni-toring of exercise-induced muscle injuries at the point of care. This feature is particularly advan-tageous for end-users, enabling timely detection of sports-related injuries and ultimately en-hancing prognosis and sports life.

Aiming at the problem that dynamic targets in indoor environments lead to low accuracy and large errors in the localization and position estimation of visual SLAM systems and the inability to build maps containing semantic information, a semantic visual SLAM algorithm based on the semantic segmentation network DeepLabV3+ and LK optical flow is proposed based on ORB-SLAM2 system. First, the dynamic target feature points are detected and rejected based on the lightweight semantic segmentation network DeepLabV3+ and LK optical flow method. second, the static environment occluded by the dynamic target is repaired using the time-weighted multi-frame fusion background repair technique. Lastly, the filtered static feature points are used for feature matching and position calculation. Meanwhile, the semantic labeling information of static objects obtained based on the lightweight semantic segmentation network DeepLabV3+ is fused with the static environment information after background repair to generate dense point cloud maps containing semantic information, and the semantic dense point cloud maps are transformed into semantic octree maps using the octree spatial segmentation data structure. The localization accuracy of the visual SLAM system and the construction of the semantic maps are verified using the TUM RGB-D widely used dataset and real scene data, respectively. The experimental results show that the proposed semantic visual SLAM algorithm can effectively reduce the influence of dynamic targets on the system, has a higher localization accuracy, and compared with other advanced algorithms, such as DynaSLAM, has the highest performance in indoor dynamic environments while considering both localization accuracy and real-time performance. In addition, semantic maps can be constructed so that the robot can better understand and adapt to the indoor dynamic environment.

Emphasizing the importance of acoustic attenuation in maintaining compliance with stringent noise regulations and enhancing workplace safety, the analysis covers the theoretical and practical aspects of sound attenuation in a turboengine testing stand. This paper presents a preliminary analysis and also an evaluation of a procedure for projecting a noise attenuator for industrial application and especially for turboengine test stands. While primarily focusing on the static acoustic behavior of the attenuator, considerations were also made regarding flow dynamics, Mach number-dependent attenuation, pressure drop, and self-generated noise aspects to provide a comprehensive perspective in selecting the optimal design configuration. The study investigates different calculation methods for assessment of the noise reduction for linear and staggered baffles, applied on a scaled reduced model of attenuator. Thus, the critical parameters and projecting requirements necessary for effective noise reduction in high-performance turboengine testing environments will be evaluated in a down-scaled model. Key factors examined include the selection of design parameters and configurations from various options. Advanced computational methods, like analytic and finite element analysis (FEM) are utilized to predict the acoustic performance and identify potential design optimizations. Experimental validation is performed to corroborate the simulation results, ensuring the reliability and efficiency of the attenuator. The findings indicate that a well-designed sound attenuator module can significantly reduce noise levels without compromising the operational performance of the turboengine inside a test cell.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to determine the association between umbilical venous blood flow (UVBF) to placental pulsatility index (PPI) ratio and gestational age (GA) in women undergoing prenatal assessments and adverse pregnancy outcome (APO) screening Methods: Between January and December 2022, sonographic examinations were conducted to assess the fetal umbilical cord insertion site in singleton fetuses, and hemodynamic indices of the umbilical artery, umbilical vein, and uterine artery were computed. Through regression analysis, we derived the optimal regression equation to elucidate the UVBF/PPI ratio parameters based on GA. Results: Among 492 singleton fetuses between 21+0 and 40+6 weeks of gestation in the final study. The average fetal UVBF/PPI ratio was 180.45±119.32. Correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between the UVBF/PPI ratio and GA(p = .000). Using regression analysis, the best-fit regression equation was the linear function model, which explains the value of UVBF/PPI ratio parameters based on GA. Lower UVBF/PPI ratio revealed a positive relationship in the low birth weight fetuses (p=0.021) and higher preterm delivery rate (p=0.034). Cerebroplacental ratio (CPR) showed a high correlation with the UVBF/PPI ratio (r=0.471, p=0.000). Conclusions: The findings of our analyses revealed that contribute to our understanding of fetal hemodynamics and highlight the potential of UVBF/PPI ratio as a predictive marker for adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm birth, low birth weight, or potential fetal hypoxemia. It might be useful for prenatal counseling and clinical purposes.

This paper investigates the impact of debt financing on dividend payments when they face the agency costs of free cash flow. Focusing on a sample of 120 firms listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange during the period 2011-2021. The study found a negative association between agency cost of free cash flow and dividend payment. More importantly, our research highlights the significant role of long-term debt in making more prudent use of free cash flow. The obligation to meet interest and principal payments acts as an incentive for them to steer clear of unprofitable expenses and risky investments. Concurrently, long-term debt imposes restrictive clauses in debt contracts, such as minimum dividend distribution requirements, which further encourage higher dividend payments. Since interest and debt repayments are fixed obligations, using free cash flow for dividend disbursement is considered a more profitable and beneficial approach for shareholders in the context of Saudi Arabia.

This study innovatively assesses the Mun River flow components in Thailand, integrating Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Isotopic (18O) End-Member Mixing Analysis (IEMMA). It quantifies the contributions of the Upper Mun River (UMR) and Chi River (CR) to the overall flow, revealing a discrepancy in their estimated contributions. ANN predicts the UMR and CR contribute approximately 70.1% and 29.5% respectively, while IEMMA indicates a more pronounced disparity with 84% from UMR and 16% from CR. This divergence highlights the distinct perspectives of ANN, focusing on hydrological data patterns, and IEMMA, emphasizing isotopic signatures. Despite discrepancies, both methods validate UMR as a significant contributor to the overall flow, highlighting their utility in hydrological research. The findings underscore the complexity of river systems and advocate for an integrated approach of river flow analysis for a comprehensive understanding, crucial for effective water resource management and planning.

This study examined the impact of differences in fruit load of olive trees on the rate of stem refilling. The experiment was conducted in a commercial olive orchard over the consecutive years of 2021 and 2022, during which the biennial bearing cycle of olive trees resulted in minimal fruit production in 2021 and maximal production in 2022. The rate of stem refilling was determined by quantifying the differences in water volume traversing the apex and base of the principal branches of experimental trees using sap flow sensors. Concurrent measurements of tree water status were also conducted using psychrometers, while soil moisture content dynamics were continuously recorded. Results indicate that alternate bearing significantly influences the stem refilling process, while soil moisture availability also plays a pivotal role. Water reserves were more intensively utilized during the year of full production (“ON” year) primarily to fulfill the water demands of developing fruits. This replenishment occurred in various periods during the day, including early morning, afternoon, and night, when stomatal conductance measurements indicated stomatal closure. The study suggests a more intense replenishment of reserves during the night in "ON" year trees, irrespective of soil moisture, water vapor pressure deficit, or phenological fruit development stage.

Hemodynamics is the eternal theme of the circulatory system. Abnormal hemodynamics and cardiac and pulmonary development intertwine to form the most important features of children with congenital heart diseases (CHDs), thus determining these children’s long-term quality of life. However, due to the lack of neonatal rodent models of CHDs, it is unclear how CHD-associated hemodynamics shape postnatal cardiac and pulmonary development. Here, we review the varieties of hemodynamic abnormalities that exist in children with CHDs, the recently developed neonatal rodent models of CHDs, and the inspirations these models have brought us in the areas of cardiomyocyte proliferation and maturation, and in alveolar development. Furthermore, current limitations, future directions, and clinical decision-making based on these inspirations are highlighted. Understanding how CHD-associated hemodynamic scenarios shape postnatal heart and lung development may provide a novel path to improving the long-term quality of life of children with CHDs, transplantation of stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes, and cardiac regeneration.

The COVID-19 pandemic over the past years has shown a great need for rapid, low-cost and on-site detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In this paper, an aptamer-based colloidal gold nanoparticle lateral flow test strip was well developed to realize the visual detection of wild type SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (SP) and multiple variants. Under the optimal reaction conditions, a low detection limit of SARS-CoV-2 S protein of 0.68 nM was acquired, and the actual detection recovery was 83.3% to 108.8% for real world samples. This suggests a potential tool for the prompt detection of SARS-CoV-2 with good sensitivity and accuracy, and a new method for the development of alternative antibody test strips for the detection of other viral targets.

The goal of this study was to develop a rapid diagnostic kit for rheumatic disease and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) screening. A novel rapid vertical flow assay (VFA) was engineered and used to assay anti-nuclear (ANA) and anti-dsDNA (αDNA) autoantibodies from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients and healthy controls (HC). Observer scores and absolute signal intensities from the VFA were validated by ELISA. The rapid ten minute point of care VFA test engineered demonstrated a limit of detection of 0.5 IU/ml for ANA and αDNA autoantibodies in human plasma with inter-operator CV of 19% for ANA and 12% for αDNA. Storage stability was verified over a three-month period. When testing anti-dsDNA and ANA levels in 22 SLE and 18 HC serum samples, the duplex VFA revealed 95% sensitivity, 72% specificity and 84% accuracy in discriminating disease groups, comparable to the gold standard, ELISA. The rapid αDNA/ANA duplex VFA can potentially be used in primary care clinics for evaluating patients or at-risk subjects for rheumatic diseases and for planning follow-up testing. Given its low cost, ease and rapid turnaround, it can also be used to assess SLE prevalence estimates.

The availability of multi-rotor UAVs with lifting capacities of several kilograms, allows for a new paradigm in atmospheric measurement techniques, i.e. the integration of research-grade sonic anemometers for airborne turbulence measurements. With their ability to hover and move very slowly, this approach yields an unrevealed flexibility compared to mast-based sonic anemometers, for a wide range of boundary layer investigations that require an accurate characterization of the turbulent flow. For an optimized sensor placement, potential disturbances by the propeller-induced flow (PIF), as well as the potential impact of the sensor weight and angular momentum on the flight performance in the case of a boom-mounted sensor, have to be considered.

The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a shift in processing methods for small-scale production (250-1000 kg/a), leading to an increased focus on continuous production research. Various concepts were developed to overcome challenges in small-scale crystallization for the production of high-quality products. However, further optimization is needed to enhance the industrial applicability of these concepts. This study aims to demonstrate the practical applicability of the Slug Flow Crystallizer (SFC) in the pharmaceutical industry by extending its use to a wider range of substance systems for small-scale API production. Employing an experimental strategy, the research seeks to rapidly assess the SFC's potential for achieving uniform, high-purity product yields, emphasizing the importance of factors such as slug flow stability, residence time distribution, and substance-specific crystallization criteria. This, coupled with our previously published model-based strategy, forms a comprehensive methodology to explore crystallization behavior and modeling for a variety of substance systems within the SFC. The ultimate goal of this study is to showcase the practicality of the SFC in the pharmaceutical industry, enabling the way for its reliable use in long-term, small-scale continuous crystallization and the production of high-quality pharmaceutical products.

This paper provides the numerical investigation of two-dimensional stochastic Navier-Stokes equation driven by additive white noises. The vorticity-stream function method is presented to calculate the incompressible fluid flow. In order to solve the formulation of steam function equation, we propose a Crank-Nicolson Fourier pseudo-spectral method. Numerical results obviously show that the presence of stochastic forcing can have an impact upon the shapes of vortex in fluid flow. To a certain extent, the phenomenon of eddy shedding and the formation of some new vortex in a random medium can be observed, which make it possible for us to conduct optimal control experiments in the development of vortex structures.

An integrated approach to active flow control is proposed by finding both the drooping leading edge and the morphing trailing edge for flow management. This strategy aims to manage flow separation control by utilizing the synergistic effects of both control mechanisms, which we call the Combined Morphing Leading Edge and Trailing Edge (CoMpLETE) technique. This design is inspired by a bionic porpoise nose and the flap movements of the cetacean species. The motion of this mechanism achieves a continuous, wave-like, variable airfoil camber. The dynamic motion of the airfoil's upper and lower surface coordinates in response to unsteady conditions is achieved by combining the thickness-to-chord (t/c) distribution with the time-dependent camber line equation. A parameterization model was constructed to mimic the motion around the morphing airfoil at various deflection amplitudes at stall angle of attack and morphing actuation start times. The mean properties and qualitative trends of the flow phenomena are captured by the transition-SST (Shear Stress Transport) model. The effectiveness of the dynamically morphing airfoil as a flow control approach is evaluated by obtaining the flow field data, such as velocity streamlines, vorticity contours, and aerodynamic forces. Different cases are investigated for the CoMpLETE morphing airfoil, which evaluates the airfoil’s parameters, such as its morphing location, deflection amplitude, and morphing starting time. The morphing airfoil’s performance is analyzed to provide further insights into the dynamic lift and drag force variations at pre-defined deflection frequencies of 0.5 Hz, 1 Hz, and 2 Hz. The findings demonstrate that adjusting the airfoil camber reduces streamwise adverse pressure gradients, thus preventing significant flow separation. Although the trailing edge deflection and its location along the chord influence the generation and separation of the Leading-Edge Vortex (LEV), these results show that the combined effect of the morphing leading edge and trailing edge has the potential to mitigate flow separation. The morphing airfoil successfully contributes to the flow reattachment and significantly increases the maximum lift coefficient (c_(l,max))). This work also broadens its focus to investigate the aerodynamic effects of a dynamically morphing leading and trailing edge, which seamlessly transitions along the side edges. The aerodynamic performance analysis is investigated across varying morphing frequencies, amplitudes, and actuation times.

This study empirically analyzes how R&D expenditures affect firm value using a regression model for listed firms in Shandong Province, China. The dependent variable is measured by To-bin Q, which measures firm value, and the experimental variable among the independent varia-bles is R&D expenditure. In addition, financial leverage and firm size, which have been found to have a significant impact on firm value in previous studies, were selected as control variables. The study sample consisted of 554 data points analyzed over a nine-year period from 2010 to 2018. Without controlling for variables that affect firm value, the correlation analysis shows that R&D expenditures of listed firms in Shandong Province, China have a significant positive impact on firm value at the 1% level. For a more precise analysis, we ran a multivariate regression analysis controlling for other variables that affect firm value and found that R&D expenditure has a significant positive impact on firm value at the 1% level. These findings suggest that man-agers of listed companies in Shandong Province, China, need to actively engage in R&D activi-ties to increase firm value. Companies in Shandong Province, China, are currently experiencing very strong growth, and this study, which shows that R&D is the key to increasing the value of these companies, can help companies in Shandong formulate their business strategies.

A mathematical model that comprehensively captures the real behavior of riverbed deformation, encompassing all pertinent effects, is developed. The underwater slope reformation process, with the generatrix aligned along the flow velocity in the model, is considered. A numerical model is introduced to calculate the flow involving a deformable bottom, and the model's validation is established through rigorous analysis of experimental findings. The research firmly confirms the suitability of the proposed mathematical and numerical model for describing deformations in uneven and unsteady river flows, including the movement of dredging slots and channel quarries. The model's minimal equation count and reliance on empirical constants demonstrate the model's efficiency. The model's predictions align strongly with experimental data, although optimal values of empirical coefficients vary slightly across different experiments. Hence, there is a call for further investigation to derive more universally applicable closure relationships for the model. The importance of validating the model with reliable field data and its potential extension to accommodate hydraulically diverse soils is emphasized. Such an extension is feasible due to the concentration transfer equation, enabling independent calculations for particle fractions of varying sizes as long as the total particle concentration in the stream remains within reasonable limits. This dedicated research contributes significantly to understanding riverbed deformations and advancing accurate modeling and management of riverine environments.

Small submersible drainage pumps discharge leaking water and rainwater in buildings. In an emergency (e.g., heavy rain or accident), monitoring the flow rate in advance is necessary to enable optimal operation, considering the point where the pump operates abnormally when the water level increases rapidly. In another, pump performance optimization is crucial for energy saving policy. Therefore, it is necessary to meet the challenges of submersible pump systems, including sustainability and pump efficiency. The final goal of this study is to develop an energy-saving, high-efficiency submersible drainage pump capable of responding to emergencies. In particular, this paper targeted the hydraulic performance improvement of a submersible drainage pump model. Before the development of driving mode-related technology capable of emergency response, we first tried to find a way to improve the performance characteristics of the existing submersible drainage pump. Rather than designing a new pump, we disassembled the current pump and reverse engineering. Then, numerical simulation was performed to analyze the flow characteristics and efficiency of the pump. Then, the pump test was carried out to obtain the performance and validated with numerical results. Results revealed that changing the cross-sectional shape of the impeller reduced the flow separation and enhanced velocity and pressure distributions. Also, it reduced the power and increased efficiency. Results also showed that the pump's efficiency increased to 5.56% at a discharge rate of 0.17 m3/min, and overall average efficiency increased to 6.53%. In addition, the submersible pump design method could be suitable for the optimized pump's impeller and casing numerically. This paper can provide insight and information on the design optimization of pumps.

Redox-flow batteries are rechargeable batteries that store energy in two liquid electrolytes, separated by a membrane. During charging and discharging, the electrolytes flow through the membrane and undergo chemical reactions that generate or consume electrical energy. These batteries are known for their scalability and long cycle life and are versatile energy storage technologies developed to enhance efficiency and lower costs. Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) are eco-friendly alternatives to traditional electrolytes, and their properties have been studied to improve the performance of redox-flow batteries. We investigated choline chloride/ethylene glycol (ChlCl/Eg) mixtures with LiPF6 salt at four concentrations through experimental and MD simulations. The thermophysical and transport properties of the mixture, including density, diffusion coefficient, viscosity, and ionic conductivity, were calculated across a temperature range of 298.15–398.5 K. Our findings indicate that an increase in salt concentration leads to a decrease in diffusion coefficients and ionic conductivity, while increasing the viscosity of the deep eutectic solvent. This research provides valuable insights into the behavior of DES mixtures and can aid in the design and optimization of DES-based processes for use in redox-flow batteries.

In order to balance the conflicts among mass flow rate, total pressure ratio, adiabatic efficiency and stall margin in a low-bypass transonic fan, the optimization of the rotor blade is implemented in this study. An advanced 3D optimization design system is adopted, and flow diagnostic methods based on vorticity dynamics are employed to discuss the flow field. Results indicate that by controlling the blade camber line curvature, significant improvements in the aerodynamic performance for the fan stage are achieved, the total pressure ratio is increased by 1.90%, while the adiabatic efficiency and mass flow rate are increased by 4.45% and 5.82%, respectively. Vorticity diagnosis suggest that there exists a close link between performance parameters and vorticity parameters in the axial fan/compressor, both azimuthal vorticity and boundary vortex flux have significant influences on the stage performance. Moreover, the boundary layer separation is accompanied by the spike of entropy and static pressure, while the derivation/gradient of these flow parameters would also suffer drastic changes under the effect of shock wave. The vorticity parameters could provide detailed flow information about the on-wall flow with high accuracy, which provides the researchers with a novel method for the turbomachinery aerodynamic design and analysis.

Mechanical circulatory support has proven effective in managing postcardiotomy cardiogenic shock by stabilizing patients' hemodynamics and ensuring adequate organ perfusion. Among the available device modalities, the combination of extracorporeal life support and a microaxial flow pump for left ventricular unloading has emerged as a valuable tool in the surgical arma-mentarium. In this publication, we provide recommendations for the application and weaning of temporary mechanical circulatory support in cardiogenic shock patients, derived from a con-sensus among leading cardiac centers in German-speaking countrie

We present a mixing length based algebraic turbulence model calibrated to pipe flow; the main purpose of the model is to capture the increasing turbulence production-to-dissipation ratio observed in connection with the high Reynolds number transition region. The model includes the mixing length description by Gersten and Herwig which takes the observed variation of the von Kármán number with Reynolds number into account. Pipe wall roughness effects are included in the model. Results are presented for area-averaged (integral) quantities which can be used both as a self-contained model and as initial inlet boundary conditions for computational fluid dynamics simulations.

This research delves into the impact of complex low-speed wake flow structures on the aerodynamic characteristics of objects downstream. It employs the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method and the domain precursor simulation method to compare traditional methods and validate this approach. The study generates several flow structures of parallel dual-cylinder wakes with different scales and spacing. The variations in the aerodynamic coefficient of three downstream objects at various times passing through wakes of varying scales are appropriately compared and analyzed. The study establishes that the wake with a cylinder spacing of G=1.5 has a more compact and concentrated modal structure than that with a cylinder spacing of G=0.35. Smaller objects are more responsive to the wake flow structure with a spacing of G=1.5, whereas larger objects respond more to the flow structure with a spacing of G=0.35. The achieved results also reveal that the aerodynamic force coefficients of objects passing through the wakefield at different times are closely related to the temporal characteristics of the wake flow structure with different scales.

It is a challenging and meaningful task to carry out drone-based livestock monitoring in high-altitude and cold regions. The purpose of AI is to execute automated tasks and to solve practical problems in actual applications by combining the software technology with the hardware carrier to create integrated advanced devices. Only in this way, the maximum value of AI could be realized. In this paper, a real-time tracking system with dynamic target tracking ability is proposed. It is developed based on the tracking-by-detection architecture using YOLOv7 and DeepSORT algorithms for target detection and tracking, respectively. To address the existing problems of the DeepSORT algorithm, the following two optimizations are made: (1) Optical flow is used to compensate the Kalman filter for improvement of the prediction accuracy; (2) A low-confidence trajectory filtering method is adopted to reduce the influence of unreliable detection on target tracking. In addition, an visual servo controller for the UAV is designed to enable the automated tracking task. Finally, the system is tested using the Tibetan yaks living in the Tibetan Plateau as the tracking targets, and the results reveal the real-time multiple tracking ability and the ideal visual servo effect of the proposed system.

N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a sulfhydryl-containing compound, is mainly used as a mucolytic and as an antidote for acetaminophen overdose. Flow injection and sequential injection systems were designed and optimized with the aim of providing precise, accurate and reliable flow methods for NAC determination in pharmaceuticals with very low sample and reagent consumption. Proposed methods are based on a redox reaction wherein NAC reduces a complex of Cu(II) and bathocuproine disulfonate (BCS) to orange [Cu(BCS)2]3– complex, which absorption was measured at λmax = 483 nm. The optimized FIA and SIA configuration yielded a linear calibration curve with correlation coefficients (R2 = 0.9999 and R2 = 0.9996) in the concentration range of 3.0 × 10–7 – 3.0 × 10–5 mol L–1 and analytical frequency of 120 h–1 for the FIA method and 4.0 × 10–7 – 4.0 × 10–5 mol L–1, at sampling rate 60 h–1 for the SIA method. The proposed flow methods were successfully applied for the determination of NAC in pharmaceutical products, as the results showed good agreement with the standard method prescribed by Pharmacopoeia. Recoveries were in the range from 98.4% to 101.9% for the FIA method and from 97.2% to 101.8% for the SIA method.

This study investigates the Hagen–Poiseuille pipe flow of viscoplastic fluids, focusing on analytical predictions of concrete pumping using the shear-stress-dependent parabolic model. Research highlights encompass solving the steady laminar pipe flow for viscoplastic fluids described by the parabolic model, extending analytical studies to a nonlinear rheological model with easily accessible experimental parameters, presenting detailed results for the two-fluid parabolic model, and introducing computational apps implementing theoretical findings. The parabolic model outperforms linear models, such as the Bingham model, in accuracy by accounting for the nonlinearity in the shear stress and shear rate relations. The influence of rheological parameters on these relations is analyzed, and their versatility is demonstrated by a Wolfram Mathematica-based application program. This approach is adaptable for other models with shear stress as the independent variable, offering valuable insights into viscoplastic fluid flows.

The growing production and application of carbon-based nanomaterials (CNMs) represent possible risks for aquatic systems. However, the variety of CNMs with different physical and chemical properties, and different morphology complicated the understanding of their potential toxicity. This paper aims to evaluate and compare the toxic impact of four most common CNMs, namely multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs), fullerene (C60), graphene (Gr), and graphene oxide (GrO) in marine microalgae Porphyridium purpureum. The microalgae cells were exposed to the CNMs for 96 h and measured by flow cytometry. Based on the obtained results, we determined no observed effect level (NOEL), calculated EC10 and EC50 concentrations for growth rate inhibition, esterase activity, membrane potential, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation changes for each tested CNMs. According to the sensitivity (growth rate inhibition) of P. purpureum, the used CNMs can be listed in following order: CNTs &gt; GrO &gt; Gr &gt; C60. The toxicity of CNTs was significantly higher than the toxic effect of the other used CNMs and only this sample caused increase of ROS generation in microalgae cells. This effect caused by trace metal residuals in CNTs and high affinity between particles and microalgae associated with the presence of exopolysaccharide coverage on P. purpureum cells.

An exact solution for the Nagel-Schreckenberg model for v_max = 1 is known since the 90s, yet for v_max > 1 it remains an open question. It is conjectured here that this general solution can be generated from the basic solution (for v_max = 1) by a linear coordinate transformation, the shear mapping, which requires no additional parameters in the deterministic case, and two additional parameters otherwise. The proposed solutions show remarkable agreement with existing numerical solutions, except in the congested regime where the Monte Carlo data shows more concavity than the more linear congested branches predicted by the theory. More research is needed to investigate this bias.

We consider a class of density-driven flow problems. We are particularly interested in the problem of the salinization of coastal aquifers. We consider the Henry saltwater intrusion problem with uncertain porosity, permeability, and recharge parameters as a test case. The reason for the presence of uncertainties is the lack of knowledge, inaccurate measurements, and inability to measure parameters at each spatial or time location. This problem is nonlinear and time-dependent. The solution is the salt mass fraction, which is uncertain and changes in time. Uncertainties in porosity, permeability, recharge, and mass fraction are modeled using random fields. This work investigates the applicability of the well-known multilevel Monte Carlo (MLMC) method for such problems. The MLMC method can reduce the total computational and storage costs. Moreover, the MLMC method runs multiple scenarios on different spatial and time meshes and then estimates the mean value of the mass fraction. The parallelization is performed in both the physical space and stochastic space. To solve every deterministic scenario, we run the parallel multigrid solver ug4 in a black-box fashion. We use the solution obtained from the quasi-Monte Carlo method as a reference solution.

The main target of this study was to evaluate the impact of future climate change on the available surface water resources in the Dhidhessa Sub-basin, Abbay Basin, Ethiopia. For the prediction, high-resolution Regional Climate Models (RCMs) from multiple climate models with data from Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) prepared by the CCAFS were used. The predictions of future discharge (stream flow) were based on climate scenarios data of baseline period of 1991 to 2020 and for the future with two time windows, 2044 (2030–2059) and 2084 (2070–2099), on a monthly time step after bias correction was conducted to both precipitation and temperature in the future climate under each RCP scenario. After sensitivity analysis, calibration (1994–2011), and validation (2012–2020) of the model for the Dhidhessa Sub-basin with the SUFI-2 program in the SWAT-CUP model, the SWAT model was used to determine water balance and stream flow from the SWAT model system. The SWAT model performed well in predicting stream flow in the Dhidhessa Sub-basins, with a coefficient of determination (R2) ranging from 0.8 to 0.94 and a Nash Sutcliffe value (NSE) ranging from 0.76 to 0.89. The percent decrease in mean annual stream flow from 2044 and 2084 were 10 %, in 2044, and 6.3% in 2084 respectively. The seasonal result under short-term 2044 of stream flow present change significantly decreased in spring, winter, and autumn with 20.2%, 67.4%, and 67.4% respectively. While summer season increased by 43.1%, under short-term 204. In long-term 2084 percent change declined except summer seasons, with 14.7%, 58.1%, and 3.3%, change in spring, winter, and autumn, respectively, and summer, with 51.1% increased and With RCP4.5 (1.64%) and RCP8.5 (2.1%) changed. In the future Dhidhessa stream flow increases and decreases from the baseline era. The decreasing stream flow in 2044 and 2084 will negatively affect agricultural production. This study revealed that any effect on this river resulting in a drop in flow will have a direct impact on ongoing water resource development and socio-economic development of the area.

In the diagnosis of olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB), the presence of S-100–positive sustentacular cells surrounding the tumor is important; however, these are also present in normal nasal sinus epithelium. Although ONB often has a different final diagnosis, complete resection of the tumor has a good prognosis and minimally affects the patient's treatment plan. When the tumor extends around the internal carotid artery (ICA), complete resection is difficult due to the high risk of vascular injury; revascularization using a high-flow bypass can avoid this complication. In the present case, the tumor was located in the left sphenoid sinus and extended around the ICA. Preoperative biopsy tissue was positive for neuroendocrine markers and slightly positive for S-100 protein, leading to a diagnosis of ectopic ONB. High-flow bypass revascularization with trapping of the ICA allowed complete tumor resection. The postoperative histopathological diagnosis was neuroendocrine carcinoma, showing no S-100 protein–positive cells. There was no sign of recurrence two and a half years after surgery without additional treatment. This case demonstrates that the presence of S-100 protein–positive cells in ONB may be misleading. Although misdiagnosis of ectopic ONB should be anticipated, a complete resection of the tumor is an effective treatment strategy.

In this paper after introducing a model of binary data matrix (BDM) for physical parameters of an evolving system (of particles), we develop a Hilbert space as an ambient space to derive induced metric tensor on embedded parametric manifold identified by associated joint probabilities of particles observables (parameters). Parameter manifold assumed as space-like hypersurface evolving along time axis, an approach that resembles 3+1 formalism of ADM and numerical relativity. We show the relation of endowed metric with related density matrix. Identification of system density matrix by this metric tensor, leads to the equivalence of quantum Liouville equation and metric compatibility condition while covariant derivative of metric tensor has been calculated respect to Wick rotated time or spatial coordinates. After deriving a formula for expected energy per particles, we prove the equality of this expected energy with local scalar curvature of related manifold. We show the compatibility of BDM model with Hamilton-Jacobi formalism and canonical forms. On the basis of the model, I derive the Ricci flow like dynamics as the governing dynamics and subsequently derive the action of BDM model and Einstein field equations. Given examples clarify the compatibility of the results with well-known principles such as equipartition energy principle and Landauer’s principle. This model provides a background for geometrization of quantum mechanics compatible with curved manifolds and information geometry. Finally, we conclude a “bit density principle” which predicts the Planck equation, De Broglie wave particle relation, , Beckenstein bound and Bremermann limit.

As a consequence of the increasing share of renewable energies and sector coupling technologies, new approaches are needed for the study, planning, and control of modern energy systems. Such new structures may add extra stress to the electric grid, as is the case with heat pumps and electrical vehicles. Therefore, the optimal performance of the system must be estimated considering the constraints imposed by the different sectors. In this research, a dispatch optimization method with an iterative grid constraint generation, decoupled from the linear unit commitment problem, is employed. From the considered scenarios, it was found that in a typical German neighborhood with 150 households, PV penetration of ∼5kWp per household can lead to curtailment of ∼60MWh per year due to line loading. Furthermore, the proposed method eliminates grid violations due to the addition of new sectors reducing the curtailment up to 60%. With the optimization of the heat pump operation, an increase of 7% of the self-consumption was achieved with similar results for the combination of battery systems and electrical vehicles. In conclusion, a safer and optimal operation of a complex energy system is fulfilled. Safer control strategies and more accurate plant sizing could be derived from this work.

Autonomous systems require identifying the environment and it has a long way to go before putting it safely into practice. In autonomous driving systems, the detection of obstacles and traffic lights are of importance as well as lane tracking. In this study, an autonomous driving system is developed and tested in the experimental environment designed for this purpose. In this system, a model vehicle having a camera is used to trace the lanes and avoid obstacles to experimentally study autonomous driving behavior. Convolutional Neural Network models were trained for Lane tracking. For the vehicle to avoid obstacles, corner detection, optical flow, focus of expansion, time to collision, balance calculation, and decision mechanism were created, respectively.

According to the Water Framework Directive, the Ecological Flow (Eflow) is assumed to be the minimum water discharge required to achieve and maintain the environmental objectives of “good quality status” in a natural water body. It is highly recognized that, the hydrological regime of natural flow plays a primary and crucial role influencing the physical conditions of habitats, which in turn determines the biotic composition and sustainability of aquatic ecosystems. Furthermore, the simple assumption to supply a minimum instream during dry periods is not enough any longer in order to protect the river environment. The recent hydro-ecological understanding states that all flow components might be considered as operational targets for water management, starting from base flows (including low flows) to high and flood regimes in terms of magnitude, frequency, duration, timing and rate of change. Several codes have been developed and applied on different case studies in order to define common tools to be implemented for the Eflow assessment. The study proposes the application of the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration methodology (IHA by TNC) coupled to the valuation of the Index of Hydrological Regime Alteration (IARI by ISPRA) as an operative tool to define the ecological flow in each monitoring cross section to support the sustainable water resources management and planning. The case study of Agri River, in Basilicata (Southern Italy) is presented. The analyses have been carried out on monthly discharge data derived applying the HEC-Hydrological Modelling System at the basin scale using the daily rain data measurements obtained by the regional rainfall gauge stations and calibrated through the observed inlet water discharge registered at the Lago del Pertusillo reservoir station.

The building sector is the largest consumer of energy and there are still major scientific challenges in this field. The façade, being the interface between the exterior and interior space, plays a key role in the energy efficiency of a building. In this context, this paper focuses on a ventilated bioclimatic wall for NZEB zero energy buildings. The objective of this study is to investigate an experimental set-up based on a Hot Box allowing characterizing the thermal performances of the ventilated wall. A specific ventilated prototype and an original thermal metrology has been developed. This paper presents the ventilated prototype, the experimental set-up and experimental results on the thermal performances of the ventilated wall. The influence of the air space thickness and the air flow rate on the thermal performances of the ventilated wall is studied.

Beta-glucan-stimulated mammalian macrophages show an increased responsiveness to secondary stimulation in a nonspecific manner. This phenomenon is known as trained innate immunity. Our study aimed to explore training of primary chicken monocytes. We hypothesized that primary chicken monocytes, similar to their mammalian counterparts, can be trained with β-glucan resulting in increased responses of these cells to a secondary stimulus. Primary blood monocytes of white leghorn chickens were primary stimulated with β-glucan microparticulates (M-βG), LPS, recombinant chicken interleukin-4 (IL-4) or combinations of these components for 48 h. On day 6, the primary stimulated cells were secondary stimulated with LPS. Nitric oxide (NO) production levels were measured as an indicator of pro-inflammatory activity. In addition, the cells were analysed by flow cytometry to characterize the population of trained cells and to investigate the expression of surface markers associated with activation. After the secondary LPS stimulation, surface expression of CSF1R and the activation markers CD40 and MHC-II was higher on macrophages that were trained with a combination of M-βG and IL-4 compared to unstimulated cells. This increased expression was paralleled by enhanced NO production. In conclusion, this study showed that trained innate immunity can be induced in primary chicken monocytes with β-glucan, which is in line with previous experiments in mammalian species. Innate immune training may have potential to improve health and vaccination strategies within the poultry sector.

Transition between free-surface and pressurized flows is an crucial phenomenon in many hydraulic systems, including water distribution systems, urban drainage systems, etc. During the transition, the force exerted on the structures changes drastically, thus it is meaningful to simulate this process. However, severe numerical oscillations are widely observed behind filling-bores, causing unphysical pressure variations and even computation failure. In this paper, some oscillation-suppressing approaches are reviewed and evaluated on a benchmark model. Then a new oscillation-suppressing approach is proposed to admit numerical viscosity when the water surface is at proximity of conduct roof which has first order accuracy. This approach adds numerical viscosity when water surface is at the proximity of conduct roof. It can sufficiently suppress numerical oscillations under an acoustic wave speed of 1000m/s and is simple to apply. In comparison with two experiments, the simulation results of this method show good agreement and little numerical oscillations. The results in this paper can help readers to choose an appropriate oscillation-suppressing method to improve the robustness and accuracy of flow regime transition simulations.

A review of influence of drag-reducing agents on curved pipe flows is presented in this work. In addition, this review outlined proposed mechanism, friction factor and fluid flux models for drag-reducing agents in curved pipe flows. Our finding reveals that drag reduction by additives in curved pipes is quite significant but generally lower than the corresponding drag reduction in straight pipes. It decreases with increase in curvature ratio and more pronounced in the transition and turbulent flow regimes. Drag reduction strongly depends on the polymers and surfactants’ concentrations as well as the bubble fraction of micro-bubbles. It is also reported that drag reduction in curved pipes depends on temperature and existence of dissolved salts in the fluids. Maximum drag reduction asymptote differed between straight and curved pipes and between polymer and surfactant. No definite conclusion could be drawn as regards drag reduction for two-phase flow in curved pipes due to the limited studies in this area. Many questions such as the mechanism of drag reduction in curved pipes and how drag-reducing agents interact with secondary flows still remained unanswered. Hence, some research gaps have been identified with recommendations for areas of future researches.

In this article, we describe an immunochromatographic test system developed for rapid serodiagnostics of cattle brucellosis using two markers: gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and quantum dots (QDs). The test system was compared with immunochromatographic serodiagnostics systems that use only one marker. The approbation of the test system was conducted on samples of cattle sera with low, but diagnostically significant titers of specific antibodies. We show that when two conjugates are used, the intensity of the detectable signal increases by 2–3 times compared with the test system using the QD conjugate and by more than 9 times compared with the system using the GNP conjugate.

This work aims to develop an integrated fault location and restoration approach for microgrids (MGs). This work contains two parts. Part I presents the fault location algorithm, and Part II shows the restoration algorithm. The proposed algorithms are implemented by particle swarm optimization (PSO). The fault location algorithm is based on network connection matrices, which are the modifications of bus-injection to branch-current and branch-current to bus-voltage (BCBV) matrices, to form the new system topology. The backward/forward sweep approach is used for the prefault power flow analysis. After the occurrence of fault, the voltage variation at each bus is calculated by using the Zbus modification algorithm to modify Zbus. Subsequently, the voltage error matrix is computed to search for the fault section by using PSO. After the allocation of the fault section, the multi-objective function is implemented by PSO for optimal restoration with its constraints. Finally, the IEEE 37-bus test system connected to distributed generations is utilized as the sample system for a series simulation and analysis. The outcomes demonstrated that the proposed optimal algorithm can effectively solve the fault location and restoration problem in MGs.

Present study offers mathematical calculations of the roll-coating procedure lubricated with upper Convected Maxwell Fluid. An incompressible isothermal viscoelastic fluid is considered with roll and the porous web having uniform velocities. By employing Lubrication Approximation Theory, the desired equations of motion for the fluid concerned over porous web are modelled and analyzed. The suction rate on the web and injection rate at the roll surface are anticipated proportionate. Results for velocity profile and pressure gradient are obtained analytically. Fluid parameters of industrial significance i.e. detachment point, pressure, sheet /roll separating force, power contribution and coating thickness are also calculated numerically. Substantial and monotonic increase is witnessed in these quantities with the increase of flow parameters.

Flow field based methods are becoming increasingly popular for the analysis of interfacial shear rheology data. Such methods take properly into account the subphase drag by solving the Navier-Stokes equations for the bulk phases flows, together with the Boussinesq-Scriven boundary condition at the fluid-fluid interface, and the probe equation of motion. Such methods have been successfully implemented at the double wall-ring (DWR), the magnetic rod (MR), and the bicone interfacial shear rheometers. However, a study of the errors introduced directly by the numerical processing is still lacking. Here we report on a study of the errors introduced exclusively by the numerical procedure corresponding to the bicone geometry at an air-water interface. In our study we directly input a preset the value of the complex interfacial viscosity and we numerically obtain the corresponding flow field and the complex amplitude ratio for the probe motion. Then we use the standard iterative procedure to obtain the calculated complex viscosity value. A detailed comparison of the set and calculated complex viscosity values is made upon changing different parameters such as real and imaginary parts of the complex interfacial viscosity and frequency. The observed discrepancies yield a detailed landscape of the numerically introduced errors.

Lean is one of the systematic approach to achieve higher value for organizations through eliminate non-value-added activities. It is an integrated set of tools, techniques, and principles designed to optimize cost, quality and delivery while improving safety. In Vietnam, industry waste management and treatment has become serious issue. The aim of this research is to present the effective of Lean application for industrial wastes collecting and delivery improvement. Through a case study, this paper showed the way of Lean tools and principles applied for wastes management and treatment such as Value Stream Mapping, Pull system, Visual Control, and Andon.... to get benefit on both economic and environment. In addition, the results introduced a good experience for Vietnamese enterprises in cost saving and sustainable development in waste management.

In this study, regression analyses were used to find a relationship between the rain gauge rainfall rate R and radar reflectivity Z for the urban catchment of the Służewiecki Stream in Warsaw, Poland. Rainfall totals for 18 events which were measured at two rainfall stations were used for these analyses. Various methods for determining calculational values of radar reflectivity in reference to specific rainfall cells with 1-km resolution within an event duration were applied. The influence of each of these methods on the Z-R relationship was analyzed. The correction coefficient for data from the SRI (Surface Rainfall Intensity) product was established, in which the values of rainfall rate are calculated based on parameters a and b determined by Marshall and Palmer. Relatively good agreement between measured and estimated rainfall totals for the analyzed events was obtained using the Z-R relationships as well as the correction coefficient determined in this study. Rainfall depths estimated from radar data for two selected events were used to simulate flow hydrographs in the catchment using the SWMM (Storm Water Management Model) hydrodynamic model. Different scenarios were applied to investigate the stream response to changes in rainfall depths, in which the data both for 2 existing as well as 64 virtual rain gauges assigned to appropriate rainfall cells in the catchment were included.

The increasing use of renewable energies as a source of electricity has led to a fundamental transition of the power supply system. The integration of fluctuating weather-dependent energy sources into the grid already has a major impact on the load flows of the grid. As a result, the interest in forecasting wind and solar radiation with a sufficient accuracy over short time horizons grew. In this study the short-term forecast of the effective cloud albedo based on optical flow estimation methods are investigated. The optical flow method utilized here is TV-L¹ from the open source library OpenCV. This method uses a multi-scale-approach to capture cloud motions on various spatial scales. After the clouds are displaced the solar surface radiation will be calculated with SPECMAGIC NOW which computes the global irradiation spectrally resolved from satellite imagery. Due to a high temporal and spatial resolution of satellite measurements the effective cloud albedo and thus solar radiation can be forecasted from 5 minutes up to 4 hours with a resolution of 0.05°. In the following there will be a brief description of the method for the short-term forecast of the effective cloud albedo. Subsequently evaluation results will be presented and discussed. Finally an outlook of further developments will be given.

A computational methodology for the hydrodynamic analysis of horizontal axis marine current turbines is presented. The approach is based on a boundary integral equation method for inviscid flows originally developed for marine propellers and adapted here to describe the flow features that characterize hydrokinetic turbines. To this purpose, semi-analytical trailing wake and viscous-flow correction models are introduced. A validation study is performed by comparing hydrodynamic performance predictions with two experimental test cases and with results from other numerical models in the literature. The capability of the proposed methodology to correctly describe turbine thrust and power over a wide range of operating conditions is discussed. Viscosity effects associated to blade flow separation and stall are taken into account and predicted thrust and power are comparable with results of blade element methods that are largely used in the design of marine current turbines. The accuracy of numerical predictions tend to reduce in cases where turbine blades operate in off-design conditions.

In this work modeling and analysis of an integrated opto-fluidic sensor, with a focus on achievement of single mode optical confinement and continuous flow of micro particles in the microfluidic channel for Lab-on-a Chip (LOC) sensing application is presented. This sensor consists of integrated optical waveguides, microfluidic channel among other integrated optical components. A continuous flow of micro particles in a narrow fluidic channel is achieved by maintaining the two sealed chambers at different temperatures and by maintaining a constant pressure of 1Pa at the centroid of narrow fluidic channel geometry. The analysis of silicon on insulator (SOI) integrated optical waveguide at an infrared wavelength of 1550nm for single mode sensing operation is presented. The optical loss is found to be 0.0005719dB/cm with an effective index of 2.2963. The model presented in this work can be effectively used to detect the nature of micro particles and continuous monitoring of pathological parameters for sensing applications.

We present an analysis of high-resolution, near-infrared (NIR) spectra relative to the solar transit of Venus of 5-6 June 2012, as observed with the Facility Infrared Spectropolarimeter (FIRS) at the Dunn Solar Telescope in New Mexico. These observations offer the unique opportunity to probe the upper layers (between ∼84 and 150 km in altitude) of a thick, CO2-dominated atmosphere with the transmission spectroscopy technique – a proxy for future studies of highly-irradiated atmospheres of Earth-sized exoplanets. We were able to visually identify absorption lines from the two most abundant CO2 isotopologues, and from the main isotopologue of CO in the retrieved spectrum of Venus. Furthermore, we perform a cross-correlation analysis of the transmission spectrum using transmission templates generated with petitRADTRANS. With the cross-correlation technique, it was possible to confirm detections of both CO2 isotopologues and CO. Additionally, we retrieve a cross-correlation signal for O3 on Venus. We demonstrate the feasibility of high-resolution, ground-based observations to study the chemical inventory of planetary atmospheres, employing techniques commonly used in exoplanet characterization.

Vaccine antigens must present the correct conformation of viral fusion glycoproteins to elicit effective immune responses. Virus-like particles (VLPs) serve as promising vaccine platforms because they mimic the membrane-embedded conformations of fusion glycoproteins on native viruses. Here, we employed SARS-CoV-2 VLPs (SMEN) presenting ancestral, Beta, or Omicron spikes to identify the variant that elicits potent and cross-protective immune responses in the highly sensitive K18-hACE2 mouse model. A combined intranasal and intramuscular administration regimen of the SMEN vaccine generated effective immune responses and was predominantly mediated by antibodies with minor contributions from T cells. Immunization with SMEN presenting an ancestral spike resulted in 100, 75, or 0% protection against ancestral, Delta or Beta VOC-induced mortality, respectively, whereas SMEN presenting the most divergent Omicron spike provided only limited protection (50%, 0%, and 25%) against ancestral, Delta, and Beta variants, respectively. By contrast, SMEN with a Beta spike offered 100% protection against the variants used in this study. Thus, the Beta variant not only overcame the immunity produced by other variants, but also elicited diverse and effective immune response. Our findings suggest that leveraging the Beta variant spike protein can enhance SARS-CoV-2 immunity, potentially leading to a more comprehensive vaccine against emerging variants.

Parkinson-like events are side effects that may persist for an extended period even after drug administration is discontinued. Although these events can be triggered by various drugs, the mechanisms underlying their diverse symptoms remain largely unclear. To investigate this, we used the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Reporting Database, which is maintained by the Phar-maceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, to analyze the risk factors associated with Parkinson-like events along with associated drug trends and characteristics. Our findings indicate that similar to　Parkinson’s disease, age-related differences affect the onset of these events, with older individuals being more susceptible. Hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis revealed that the mechanisms triggering these Parkinson-like events are consistent across reports, suggesting a common underlying cause. However, even with a consistent mechanism, side effects can vary depending on the site of action. These insights underline the importance of swift identification of the drugs suspected of causing these events and implementation of measures to reduce their side effects.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by resting tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, postural instability, that also includes non-motor symptoms such as mood dysregulation. Dopamine (DA) is the primary neurotransmitter involved in this disease, but cholinergic imbalance has also been implicated. Current intervention in PD is focused on replenishing central DA, which provides remarkable temporary symptomatic relief but does not address the neuronal loss and the progression of the disease. It has been well established that neuronal nicotinic cholinergic receptors (nAChRs) can regulate DA release and that nicotine itself may have neuroprotective effects. Recent studies have identified nAChRs in nonneuronal cell types including glial cells, where they may regulate inflammatory responses. Given the crucial role of neuroinflammation in dopaminergic degeneration, and the involvement of microglia and astrocytes in this response, glial nAChRs may provide a novel therapeutic target in prevention and/or treatment of PD. In this review, following a brief discussion of PD, we focus on the role of glial cells and specifically their nAChRs in PD pathology and/or treatment.

Novel segmented tick-borne RNA viruses belonging to the group of Jingmenviruses (JMVs) are widespread across Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. In this work, we obtained whole-genome sequences of two Kindia tick virus (KITV) isolates and performed modeling and functional annotation of the secondary structure of 5’ and 3’ UTRs from JMV and KITV viruses. UTRs of various KITV segments are characterized by: (1) polyadenylated 3’ UTRs; (2) 5’ DAR and 3’ DAR motifs; (3) a highly conserved 5’-CACAG-3’ pentanucleotide; (4) a La protein binding site; (5) multiple UAG sites providing interactions with the MSI1 protein; (6) three homologous sequences in the 5’ UTR and 3’ UTR of segment 2; (7) the segment 2 3’ UTR of a KITV/2017/1 isolate comprises two consecutive 40 nucleotide repeats forming a Y-3 structure; (8) a 35-nucleotide deletion in the second repeat of the segment 2 3’ UTR of KITV/2018/1 and KITV/2018/2 isolates, leading to a modification of the Y-3 structure; (9) two pseudoknots in the segment 2 3’ UTR; (10) the 5’ UTR and 3’ UTR are represented by patterns of conserved motifs; (11) the 5’-CAAGUG-3’ sequence occurs in early UTR hairpins. Thus, we identified regulatory elements in the UTRs of KITV, which are characteristic of orthoflaviviruses. This suggests their functional significance for the replication of JMVs and the evolutionary similarity between orthoflaviviruses and segmented flavi-like viruses.

Nonlinear compression of narrow-band (Δ ≈ 0.2 cm-1) 20 ns KrF laser pulses in SF6 at 10 atm and CH4 at 50 atm pressure was studied. Both SBS and SRS optically phase conjugated backward reflected radiation was registered with energy reflectivity 10−14% in SF6 and CH4. In SF6 SBS pulses gradually shortened from 10 ns to 2−3 ns with pumping decrease to the SBS threshold ~ 10 mJ, while the SRS pulse had the shortest length of 30−60 ps for the maximal pumping of 120 mJ and broadened near the SRS threshold of ~30 mJ. For the SRS pulse energy ~ 2 mJ peak power 5×107 W was tenfold higher than the pump power. The theoretical model predicted a soliton-like SRS pulse compression to a temporal length of the order of vibrational relaxation time. There was no pulse compression of backward SBS and SRS radiation in CH4, while in the forward direction SRS pulses shortened to 3−4 ns at reduced pumping.

Respiratory viral infections (RVI) are common reasons for healthcare consultations. The inpatient management of RVI consumes significant resources. From 2009-2014, we assessed the costs of RVI management in 4776 hospitalized chil-dren aged 0-18 years participating in a quality improvement program, where all ILI patients underwent virologic testing at the National Reference Centre followed by de-tailed recording of their clinical course. The direct (medical or non-medical) and indirect costs of inpatient management outside the ICU (“non-ICU”) versus management requiring ICU-care (“ICU”) added up to 2,767.14€ (non-ICU) vs. 29,941.71€ (ICU) for Influenza, 2,713.14€ (non-ICU) vs. 16,951.06€ (ICU) for RSV infections, and 2,767.33€ (non-ICU) vs. 14,394.02€ (ICU) for human rhinovirus (hRV) infections, respectively. Non-ICU inpatient costs were similar for all 8 RVI studied: Influenza, RSV, hRV, ade-novirus (hAdV), metapneumovirus (hMPV), parainfluenzavirus (hPIV), bocavirus (hBoV) and seasonal coronavirus (hCoV) infections. ICU-costs for Influenza however, ex-ceeded all other RVI. At the time of the study, Influenza was the only RVI with antivi-ral treatment options available for children, but only 9.8% of Influenza patients (non-ICU) and 1.5% of ICU-patients with Influenza received antivirals; only 2.9% were vac-cinated. Future studies should investigate the economic impact of treatment and pre-vention of Influenza-, COVID-19-, and RSV post vaccine introduction.

Recent media reports commented about a possible antidiabetics’ misuse issue related to molecules promoted as a weight-loss treatment in non-obese people. We evaluated here available pharmacovigilance misuse/abuse signals related to semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue, in comparison to other GLP-1 receptor agonists (albiglutide; dulaglutide; exenatide; liraglutide; lixisenatide; tirzepatide) and the phentermine-topiramate combination. To that aim, we analysed the Food and Drug Administration-FDA Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS) dataset, performing a descriptive analysis of adverse event reports (AER) and calculating related pharmacovigilance measures, including the reporting odds ratio (ROR) and the proportional reporting ratio (PRR). During January 2018-December 2022, a total of 31,542 AER involving the selected molecules were submitted to FAERS; most involved dulaglutide (n=11,858; 37.6%) and semaglutide (n=8,249; 26.1%). In comparing semaglutide vs the remaining nolecules, the AER ‘drug abuse’, ‘drug withdrawal syndrome’, ‘prescription drug used without a prescription’ and ‘intentional product use issue’ respective PRR values were 4.05, 4.05, 3.60 and 1.80 (all<0.01). The same comparisons of semaglutide vs the phentermine-topiramate combination were not associated with any significant differences. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study documenting the misusing/abusing potential of semaglutide in comparison with other GLP1 analogues and the phentermine-topiramate combination. Current findings will need to be confirmed by further empirical investigations to fully understand the safety profile of those molecules.

In a p-uniformly convex and uniformly smooth Banach space, let the pair of variational inequality and fixed point problems (VIFPPs) consist of two variational inequality problems (VIPs) involving two uniformly continuous and pseudomonotone mappings and two fixed point problems implicating two uniformly continuous and Bregman relatively asymptotically nonexpansive mappings. This article designs two parallel subgradient-like extragradient algorithms with inertial effect for solving this pair of VIFPPs, where each algorithm consists of two parts which are of symmetric structure mutually. Under mild registrations, we prove weak and strong convergence of the suggested algorithms to a common solution of this pair of VIFPPs, respectively. Lastly, an illustrative example is furnished to verify the applicability and implementability of our proposed approaches.

Recent media reports commented about a possible antidiabetics’ misuse issue related to molecules promoted as a weight-loss treatment in non-obese people. We here evaluated available pharmacovigilance misuse/abuse signals related to semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue, in comparison to other GLP-1 receptor agonists (albiglutide; dulaglutide; exenatide; liraglutide; lixisenatide; tirzepatide) and the phentermine-topiramate combination. To that aim, we analysed the Food and Drug Administration-FDA Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS) dataset, performing a descriptive analysis of adverse event reports (AER) and calculating related pharmacovigilance measures, including the reporting odds ratio (ROR) and the proportional reporting ratio (PRR). During January 2018-December 2022, a total of 31,542 AER involving the selected molecules were submitted to FAERS; most involved dulaglutide (n=11,858; 37.6%) and semaglutide (n=8,249; 26.1%). In comparing semaglutide vs the remaining antidiabetics, the AER ‘drug abuse’, ‘drug withdrawal syndrome’, ‘prescription drug used without a prescription’ and ‘intentional product use issue’ respective PRR values were 4.05, 4.05, 3.60 and 1.80 (all<0.01). The same comparisons of semaglutide vs the phentermine-topiramate combination were not associated with any significant differences. To our best, this is the first study documenting the misusing/abusing potential of semaglutide in comparison with other novel antidiabetics and the phentermine-topiramate combination. Current findings will need to be confirmed by further empirical investigations to fully understand the safety profile of those molecules.

Almost contact complex Riemannian manifolds, known also as almost contact B-metric manifolds, are in principle equipped with a pair of mutually associated pseudo-Riemannian metrics. Each of these metrics is specialized here as a Yamabe almost soliton with a potential collinear to the Reeb vector field. The resulting manifolds are then investigated in two important cases with geometric significance. The first is when the manifold is of Sasaki-like type, i.e. its complex cone is a holomorphic complex Riemannian manifold (also called a Kähler–Norden manifold). The second case is when the soliton potential is torse-forming, i.e. it satisfies a certain recurrence condition for its covariant derivative with respect to the Levi-Civita connection of the corresponding metric. The studied solitons are characterized. In the three-dimensional case, an explicit example is constructed and the properties obtained in the theoretical part are confirmed.

Lung cancer is a common malignant tumor of the lung and the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80%–85% of lung cancer, 40% of NSCLCs will have spread beyond the lungs by the time it is diagnosed. Long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) prostate androgen-regulated transcript 1 (PART-1) was reported that promote the development of several cancers. In the current study, we conducted experiments to investigate the role of PART-1 in the proliferation, invasion, and migration of NSCLC. The expression level of the PART-1 gene increased significantly in the NSCLC cell lines, including A549, H1229, H1650, H1975, and PC9. Knocking down of PART-1 inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and migration of A549 cells, moreover, decreased the tumor proliferation in nude mice. We confirmed that PART-1 targeted miR-204-3p directly, and miR-204-3p targeted the insulin-like growth factor binding protein 2 (IGFBP-2) directly. Furthermore, we discovered that PART-1 involved the NSCLC progression by regulating the miR-204-3p-targeted IGFBP-2 pathway. LncRNA PART-1 might be a target for treating NSCLC, and a warning sign of diagnosis of early lung cancer.

According to current guidelines, growth hormone (GH) therapy is strongly recommended in children and adolescents with GH deficiency (GHD) in order to accelerate growth rate and attain normal adult height. The diagnosis of GHD requires demonstration of decreased GH secretion in stimulation tests, below the established threshold value. Currently, GHD in children is classified as secondary insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) deficiency. Most of children diagnosed with isolated GHD presents with normal GH secretion at the attainment of near-final height or even in mid-puberty. The most important clinical problems, related to the diagnosis of isolated GHD in children and to optimal duration of rhGH therapy include: arbitrary definition of subnormal GH peak in stimulation tests, disregarding factors influencing GH secretion, insufficient diagnostic accuracy and poor reproducibility of GH stimulation tests, discrepancies between spontaneous and stimulated GH secretion, clinical entity of neurosecretory dysfunction, discrepancies between IGF-1 concentrations and results of GH stimulation tests, significance of IGF-1 deficiency for the diagnosis of GHD, a need for validation IGF-1 reference ranges. Many of these issues have remained unresolved for 25 years or even longer. It seems that finding solutions to them should optimize diagnostics and therapy of children with short stature.

Insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) are critical modulators of the metabolism. In adults, IGFBPs are associated with obesity and insulin resistance but the association of IGFBPs with metabolic homeostasis in children and adolescents is not fully characterized. In this study we investigated the association of plasma IGFBPs (IGFBP-1, 3 and 7) with weight status, central adiposity and cardiovascular disease markers Hs-CRP and Ox-LDL. A total of 420 adolescents (age 11-14 years) were randomly recruited from public middle schools in Kuwait. IGFBPs were measured using bead-based multiplexing while Hs-CRP and Ox-LDL were measured using ELISA. IGFBP-1 levels were significantly lower in obese and overweight participants compared to normal weight children. Only IGFBP-1 was negatively associated with waist circumference to height (WC/Ht) ratio. IGFBP-1 was negatively correlated with Hs-CRP while IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-7 were negatively correlated with Ox-LDL. These data demonstrate a robust negative association of IGFBP-1, but not IGFBP-3 or -7, with overweight and obesity, and the inflammation marker Hs-CRP. Central adiposity (WC/Ht ratio) was a stronger predictor of IGFBP-1 than BMI-for-age z-score. IGFBP-1 could thus be used as a sensitive predictive diagnostic tool for obesity and its subsequent effects in screening and monitoring of obesity-related metabolic complications in adolescents.