Search results for: airy stress function

Authors: Javier A. Dominguez Caballero, Graeme A. Manson, Matthew B. Marshall

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Cutting tools with ceramic inserts are often used in the process of machining many types of superalloy, mainly due to their high strength and thermal resistance. Nevertheless, during the cutting process, the plastic flow wear generated in these inserts enhances and propagates cracks due to high temperature and high mechanical stress. This leads to a very variable failure of the cutting tool. This article explores the relationship between the continuous wear that ceramic SiAlON (solid solutions based on the Si3N4 structure) inserts experience during a high-speed machining process and the evolution of sparks created during the same process. These sparks were analysed through pictures of the cutting process recorded using an SLR camera. Features relating to the intensity and area of the cutting sparks were extracted from the individual pictures using image processing techniques. These features were then related to the ceramic insert’s crater wear area.

Keywords: ceramic cutting tools, high speed machining, image processing, tool condition monitoring, tool wear

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Authors: Tatiana V. Raudina, Sergey P. Kulizhskiy

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A large part of Russia is located in permafrost areas. These areas are widely used because there are concentrated valuable natural resources. Therefore to explore of cryosols it is important due to the significant increase of anthropogenic stress as well as the problem of global climate change. In the north of Western Siberia permafrost phenomena is widespread. Permafrost as a factor of soil formation and cryogenesis as a process have a great impact on the soil formation of these areas. Based on the research results of permafrost-affected soils tundra landscapes formed in the central part of the Tazovskiy Peninsula in cryogenic conditions, data were obtained which characterize the morphological features of soils. The specificity of soil cover distribution and manifestation of soil-forming processes within the study area are noted. Permafrost features such as frost cracking, cryoturbation, thixotropy, movement of humus are formed. The formation of these features is increased with the development of the territory. As a consequence, there is a change in the components of the environment and the destruction of the soil cover.

Keywords: gleyed and nongleyed soils, permafrost, soil cryogenesis (pedocryogenesis), soil-forming macroprocesses

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Authors: Ezzat Mohamed El-Amin

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Mapping the earthquake-size distribution in various tectonic regimes on a local to regional scale reveals statistically significant variations in the range of at least 0.4 to 2.0 for the b-value in the frequency-magnitude distribution. We map the earthquake frequency–magnitude distribution (b value) as a function of depth in the Reservoir Triggered Seismicity (RTS) region in Kalabsha region, in south Egypt. About 1680 well-located events recorded during 1981–2014 in the Kalabsha region are selected for the analysis. The earthquake data sets are separated in 5 km zones from 0 to 25 km depth. The result shows a systematic decrease in b value up to 12 km followed by an increase. The increase in b value is interpreted to be caused by the presence of fluids. We also investigate the spatial distribution of b value with depth. Significant variations in the b value are detected, with b ranging from b 0.7 to 1.19. Low b value areas at 5 km depth indicate localized high stresses which are favorable for future rupture.

Keywords: seismicity, frequency-magnitude, b-value, earthquake

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Authors: Sergey Svita, Valeriy Astapenko

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The study is devoted to theoretical analysis of ultrashort electromagnetic pulses (USP) absorption on gold nanospheres. Dependencies of USP energy absorption on nanospheres placed in various matrix are compared. The results of calculation of absorbed energy on gold nanospheres as a function of ultrashort electromagnetic pulse carrier frequency and number of pulse cycles of carrier frequency show strong non-linear dependence of absorbed energy on number of cycles of carrier frequency, but for relatively large number of cycles on USP carrier frequency it goes to linear dependence.

Keywords: ultrashort electromagnetic pulses, absorption, nanospheres, theoretical research

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Authors: B. Selma, S. Chouraqui

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The pancreas is an elongated organ that extends across the abdomen, below the stomach. In addition, it secretes certain enzymes that aid in food digestion. The pancreas also manufactures hormones responsible for regulating blood glucose levels. In the present paper, we propose a mathematical model to study the homeostasis of glucose and insulin in healthy human, and a simulation of this model, which depicts the physiological events after a meal, will be represented in ordinary humans. The aim of this paper is to design an algorithm which regulates the level of glucose in the blood. The algorithm applied the concept of expert system for performing an algorithm control in the form of an "active" used to prescribe the rate of insulin infusion. By decomposing the system into subsystems, we have developed parametric models of each subsystem by using a forcing function strategy. The results showed a performance of the control system.

Keywords: modeling, algorithm, regulation, glucose-insulin, blood, control system

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Authors: Mohaddeseh Ahmadnezhad, Shahrbano Oryan, Mahmoud Bahmani, Mohammadd Sayad Bourani

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Changes in abundance and size of skin ionocytes were investigated in two larval stage of Caspian sea zander, Sander lucioperca, before and after yolk sac absorption, at 96h after transfer from fresh water (FW; <0.5‰) to 7‰ (estuary) and 12‰ (Caspian sea water=CW) salinity. Survival rate in the stage of after yolk sac absorption were more than larval pre-absorbed yolk sac in condition of salinity (p<0.05). Ionocyte abundance increased significantly in 7 and 12‰ salinity (p<0.05), but not about ionocyte size. The results of this study suggest that development of skin Ionocyte osmoregulatory function and osmoregulation capability of Caspian Sea zander larvae increased with growth of the larvae.

Keywords: Caspian Sea, larvae, Sander lucioperca, salinity, skin ionocyte

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Authors: Katerina Krizova, Inigo Molina

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The ongoing climate change affects various natural processes resulting in significant changes in human life. Since there is still a growing human population on the planet with more or less limited resources, agricultural production became an issue and a satisfactory amount of food has to be reassured. To achieve this, agriculture is being studied in a very wide context. The main aim here is to increase primary production on a spatial unit while consuming as low amounts of resources as possible. In Europe, nowadays, the staple issue comes from significantly changing the spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation. Recent growing seasons have been considerably affected by long drought periods that have led to quantitative as well as qualitative yield losses. To cope with such kind of conditions, new techniques and technologies are being implemented in current practices. However, behind assessing the right management, there is always a set of the necessary information about plot properties that need to be acquired. Remotely sensed data had gained attention in recent decades since they provide spatial information about the studied surface based on its spectral behavior. A number of space platforms have been launched carrying various types of sensors. Spectral indices based on calculations with reflectance in visible and NIR bands are nowadays quite commonly used to describe the crop status. However, there is still the staple limit by this kind of data - cloudiness. Relatively frequent revisit of modern satellites cannot be fully utilized since the information is hidden under the clouds. Therefore, microwave remote sensing, which can penetrate the atmosphere, is on its rise today. The scientific literature describes the potential of radar data to estimate staple soil (roughness, moisture) and vegetation (LAI, biomass, height) properties. Although all of these are highly demanded in terms of agricultural monitoring, the crop moisture content is the utmost important parameter in terms of agricultural drought monitoring. The idea behind this study was to exploit the unique combination of SAR (Sentinel-1) and optical (Sentinel-2) data from one provider (ESA) to describe potential crop water stress during dry cropping season of 2019 at six winter wheat plots in the central Czech Republic. For the period of January to August, Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images were obtained and processed. Sentinel-1 imagery carries information about C-band backscatter in two polarisations (VV, VH). Sentinel-2 was used to derive vegetation properties (LAI, FCV, NDWI, and SAVI) as support for Sentinel-1 results. For each term and plot, summary statistics were performed, including precipitation data and soil moisture content obtained through data loggers. Results were presented as summary layouts of VV and VH polarisations and related plots describing other properties. All plots performed along with the principle of the basic SAR backscatter equation. Considering the needs of practical applications, the vegetation moisture content may be assessed using SAR data to predict the drought impact on the final product quality and yields independently of cloud cover over the studied scene.

Keywords: precision agriculture, remote sensing, Sentinel-1, SAR, water content

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Authors: Guillermo Manuel Flores Figueroa, Juan Alejandro Vazquez Feijoo, Jose Navarro Antonio

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A continuous nonlinear system response may be obtained by an infinite sum of the so-called Volterra operators. Each operator is obtained from multidimensional convolution of nth-order between the nth-order Volterra kernel and the system input. These operators can also be obtained from the Associated Linear Equations (ALEs) that are linear models of subsystems which inputs and outputs are of the same nth-order. Each ALEs produces a particular nth-Volterra operator. As linear models a unitary impulse response can be obtained from them. This work shows the relationship between this unitary impulse responses and the corresponding order Volterra kernel.

Keywords: Volterra series, frequency response functions FRF, associated linear equations ALEs, unitary response function, Voterra kernel

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Authors: G. Rosaz, V. Semblanet, S. Calatroni, A. Sublet, M. Taborelli

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We report in this paper the design and qualification of a cylindrical unbalanced magnetron source. The dedicated magnetic assemblies were simulated using a finite element model. A hall-effect magnetic probe was then used to characterize those assemblies and compared to the theoretical magnetic profiles. These show a good agreement between the expected and actual values. The qualification of the different magnetic assemblies was then performed by measuring the ion flux density reaching the surface of the sample to be coated using a commercial retarding field energy analyzer. The strongest unbalanced configuration shows an increase from 0.016 A.cm^-2 to 0.074 A.cm^-2 of the ion flux density reaching the sample surface compared to the standard balanced configuration for a pressure 5.10^-3 mbar and a plasma source power of 300 W.

Keywords: ion energy distribution function, magnetron sputtering, niobium, unbalanced, SRF cavities, thin film

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Authors: André Jesus, Yanjie Zhu, Irwanda Laory

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Structural health monitoring is one of the most promising technologies concerning aversion of structural risk and economic savings. Analysts often have to deal with a considerable variety of uncertainties that arise during a monitoring process. Namely the widespread application of numerical models (model-based) is accompanied by a widespread concern about quantifying the uncertainties prevailing in their use. Some of these uncertainties are related with the deterministic nature of the model (code uncertainty) others with the variability of its inputs (parameter uncertainty) and the discrepancy between a model/experiment (systematic uncertainty). The actual process always exhibits a random behaviour (observation error) even when conditions are set identically (residual variation). Bayesian inference assumes that parameters of a model are random variables with an associated PDF, which can be inferred from experimental data. However in many Bayesian methods the determination of systematic uncertainty can be problematic. In this work systematic uncertainty is associated with a discrepancy function. The numerical model and discrepancy function are approximated by Gaussian processes (surrogate model). Finally, to avoid the computational burden of a fully Bayesian approach the parameters that characterise the Gaussian processes were estimated in a four stage process (modular Bayesian approach). The proposed methodology has been successfully applied on fields such as geoscience, biomedics, particle physics but never on the SHM context. This approach considerably reduces the computational burden; although the extent of the considered uncertainties is lower (second order effects are neglected). To successfully identify the considered uncertainties this formulation was extended to consider multiple responses. The efficiency of the algorithm has been tested on a small scale aluminium bridge structure, subjected to a thermal expansion due to infrared heaters. Comparison of its performance with responses measured at different points of the structure and associated degrees of identifiability is also carried out. A numerical FEM model of the structure was developed and the stiffness from its supports is considered as a parameter to calibrate. Results show that the modular Bayesian approach performed best when responses of the same type had the lowest spatial correlation. Based on previous literature, using different types of responses (strain, acceleration, and displacement) should also improve the identifiability problem. Uncertainties due to parametric variability, observation error, residual variability, code variability and systematic uncertainty were all recovered. For this example the algorithm performance was stable and considerably quicker than Bayesian methods that account for the full extent of uncertainties. Future research with real-life examples is required to fully access the advantages and limitations of the proposed methodology.

Keywords: bayesian, calibration, numerical model, system identification, systematic uncertainty, Gaussian process

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Authors: A. Newman-Tancredi, R. Depoortère, P. Gruca, E. Litwa, M. Lason, M. Papp

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The N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor antagonist, ketamine, can elicit rapid-acting antidepressant (RAAD) effects in treatment-resistant patients, but it requires parenteral co-administration with a classical antidepressant under medical supervision. In addition, ketamine can also produce serious side effects that limit its long-term use, and there is much interest in identifying RAADs based on ketamine’s mechanism of action but with safer profiles. Ketamine elicits GABAergic interneuron inhibition, glutamatergic neuron stimulation, and, notably, activation of serotonin 5-HT1A receptors in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Direct activation of the latter receptor subpopulation with selective ‘biased agonists’ may therefore be a promising strategy to identify novel RAADs and, consistent with this hypothesis, the prototypical cortical biased agonist, NLX-101, exhibited robust RAAD-like activity in the chronic mild stress model of depression (CMS). The present study compared the effects of a novel, selective 5-HT1A receptor-biased agonist, NLX-204, with those of ketamine and NLX-101. Materials and methods: CMS procedure was conducted on Wistar rats; drugs were administered either intraperitoneally (i.p.) or by bilateral intracortical microinjection. Ketamine: 10 mg/kg i.p. or 10 µg/side in PFC; NLX-204 and NLX-101: 0.08 and 0.16 mg/kg i.p. or 16 µg/side in PFC. In addition, interaction studies were carried out with systemic NLX-204 or NLX-101 (each at 0.16 mg/kg i.p.) in combination with intracortical WAY-100635 (selective 5-HT1A receptor antagonist; 2 µg/side) or muscimol (GABA-A receptor agonist, 12.5 ng/side). Anhedonia was assessed by CMS-induced decrease in sucrose solution consumption; anxiety-like behavior was assessed using the Elevated Plus Maze (EPM), and cognitive impairment was assessed by the Novel Object Recognition (NOR) test. Results: A single administration of NLX-204 was sufficient to reverse the CMS-induced deficit in sucrose consumption, similarly to ketamine and NLX-101. NLX-204 also reduced CMS-induced anxiety in the EPM and abolished CMS-induced NOR deficits. These effects were maintained (EPM and NOR) or enhanced (sucrose consumption) over a subsequent 2-week period of treatment. The anti-anhedonic response of the drugs was also maintained for several weeks Following treatment discontinuation, suggesting that they had sustained effects on neuronal networks. A single PFC administration of NLX-204 reversed deficient sucrose consumption, similarly to ketamine and NLX-101. Moreover, the anti-anhedonic activities of systemic NLX-204 and NLX 101 were abolished by coadministration with intracortical WAY-100635 or muscimol. Conclusions: (i) The antidepressant-like activity of NLX-204 in the rat CMS model was as rapid as that of ketamine or NLX-101, supporting targeting cortical 5-HT1A receptors with selective, biased agonists to achieve RAAD effects. (ii)The anti-anhedonic activity of systemic NLX-204 was mimicked by local administration of the compound in the PFC, confirming the involvement of cortical circuits in its RAAD-like effects. (iii) Notably, the effects of systemic NLX-204 and NLX-101 were abolished by PFC administration of muscimol, indicating that they act by (indirectly) eliciting a reduction in cortical GABAergic neurotransmission. This is consistent with ketamine’s mechanism of action and suggests that there are converging NMDA and 5-HT1A receptor signaling cascades in PFC underlying the RAAD-like activities of ketamine and NLX-204. Acknowledgements: The study was financially supported by NCN grant no. 2019/35/B/NZ7/00787.

Keywords: depression, ketamine, serotonin, 5-HT1A receptor, chronic mild stress

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Authors: W. Oudad, H. Fikirini, K. Boulenouar

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Material fracture by opening (mode I) is not alone responsible for fracture propagation. Many industrial examples show the presence of mode II and mixed mode I + II. In the present work the three-dimensional and non-linear finite element method is used to estimate the performance of the bonded composite repair of metallic aircraft structures by analyzing the plastic zone size ahead of repaired cracks under mixed mode loading. The computations are made according to Von Mises and Tresca criteria. The extension of the plastic zone which takes place at the tip of a crack strictly depends on many variables, such as the yield stress of the material, the loading conditions, the crack size and the thickness of the cracked component, The obtained results show that the presence of the composite patch reduces considerably the size of the plastic zone ahead of the crack. The effects of the composite orientation layup (adhesive properties) and the patch thickness on the plastic zone size ahead of repaired cracks were analyzed.

Keywords: crack, elastic-plastic, J integral, patch, plastic zone

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Authors: Duhania O. Mahara, Santi W. Purnami, Aulia N. Fitria, Merissa N. Z. Wirontono, Revina Musfiroh, Shofi Andari, Sagiran Sagiran, Estiana Khoirunnisa, Wahyudi Widada

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For assessing interventions in numerous disease areas, the use of multiple time-to-event outcomes is common. An individual might experience two different events called bivariate time-to-event data, the events may be correlated because it come from the same subject and also influenced by individual characteristics. The bivariate time-to-event case can be applied by copula-based bivariate Cox survival model, using the Clayton and Frank copulas to analyze the dependence structure of each event and also the covariates effect. By applying this method to modeling the recurrent event infection of hemodialysis insertion on chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, from the AIC and BIC values we find that the Clayton copula model was the best model with Kendall’s Tau is (τ=0,02).

Keywords: bivariate cox, bivariate event, copula function, survival copula

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Authors: N. Philipova

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The influence of the geometric parameters of trapezoidal labyrinth channel on the emitter discharge is investigated in this work. The impact of the dentate angle, the dentate spacing, and the dentate height are studied among the geometric parameters of the labyrinth channel. Numerical simulations of the water flow movement are performed according to central cubic composite design using Commercial codes GAMBIT and FLUENT. Inlet pressure of the dripper is set up to be 1 bar. The objective of this paper is to derive a mathematical model of the emitter discharge depending on the dentate angle, the dentate spacing, the dentate height of the labyrinth channel. As a result, the obtained mathematical model is a second-order polynomial reporting 2-way interactions among the geometric parameters. The dentate spacing has the most important and positive influence on the emitter discharge, followed by the simultaneous impact of the dentate spacing and the dentate height. The dentate angle in the observed interval has no significant effect on the emitter discharge. The obtained model can be used as a basis for a future emitter design.

Keywords: drip irrigation, labyrinth channel hydrodynamics, numerical simulations, Reynolds stress model.

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Authors: Tunjo Perič, Marin Fatović

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In this paper a new methodology for vendor selection and supply quotas determination (VSSQD) is proposed. The problem of VSSQD is solved by the model that combines revised weighting method for determining the objective function coefficients, and a multiple objective linear programming (MOLP) method based on the cooperative game theory for VSSQD. The criteria used for VSSQD are: (1) purchase costs and (2) product quality supplied by individual vendors. The proposed methodology is tested on the example of flour purchase for a bakery with two decision makers.

Keywords: cooperative game theory, multiple objective linear programming, revised weighting method, vendor selection

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Authors: Naureen Naeem, M. S. Aslam

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Chia seeds found to be a rich source of dietary fiber contain oil which is high in omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids and helpful in the control of cardiovascular diseases. Owing to its spectacular significance, present research had been designed to explore its effect on cholesterol level of the individuals after consumption of chia seed oil supplemented ice cream. The project was designed in such a manner that fat of ice cream was replaced with chia seed oil in different proportions i.e., 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%. After physico-chemical and sensory evaluation of ice cream, best treatment was selected and used for efficacy trials. After baseline line study and thorough inclusion criteria 10 individuals were selected and divided into two groups. One group treated as control and the other was given chia seed oil supplemented l(50%) ice cream. Significant decrease in cholesterol level was observed in the treated group. 18% decrease in cholesterol level was observed at 40th day followed by 8% at 20th day. Similarly 20% decrease in LDL cholesterol with 14% increase in HDL cholesterol. It was recommended that further trials be conducted with sophisticated techniques to completely replace saturated fat in ice cream with unsaturated fats and to study its effect in hyperglycemia and oxidative stress.

Keywords: hypercholesterolemia, chia seed oil, HDL, triglycerides

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Authors: Hamad Rafique

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The bioactive peptide RDFPITWPW (RW-9) identified from oat protein has been reported to be positive in memory deficits. However, no clarity on the mechanisms responsible for the neuroprotective effects of RW-9 peptide against AD-like symptoms. Herein, it found that RW-9 intervention showed various improving effects in cognitive-behavioral tests and alleviated oxidative stress and inflammation in the scopolamine-induced mice model. The hippocampus proteomics analysis revealed the upregulation of memory-related proteins, including Grin3a, Ppp2r1b, Stat6, Pik3cd, Slc5a7, Chrm2, mainly involved in cAMP signaling, PI3K-Akt signaling, and JAK-STAT signaling pathways. The administration of RW-9 significantly upregulated the neurotransmitters, including 5-HT, DA, and Arg, in mice brains. Moreover, it regulated the serum metabolic profile and increased the expression levels of ABC transporters, biosynthesis of amino acids, and Amino acyl-tRNA biosynthesis, among others. The 16s-rRNA results illustrated that the RW-9 restored the abundance of Muribaculaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Lactobacillus, Clostridia and Bactericides. Taken together, our results suggest that the RW-9 may prevent the AD-like symptoms via modulation of the gut-serum-brain axis.

Keywords: oat protein, active peptide, neuroprotective, gut-brain axis

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Authors: Talha A. Taj, Talha A. Khan, M. Imran Khalid

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Optimization techniques attract researchers to formulate a problem and determine its optimum solution. This paper presents an Enhanced Harmony Search (ENHS) algorithm for solving optimization problems. The proposed algorithm increases the convergence and is more efficient than the standard Harmony Search (HS) algorithm. The paper discusses the novel techniques in detail and also provides the strategy for tuning the decisive parameters that affects the efficiency of the ENHS algorithm. The algorithm is tested on various benchmark functions, a real world optimization problem and a constrained objective function. Also, the results of ENHS are compared to standard HS, and various other optimization algorithms. The ENHS algorithms prove to be significantly better and more efficient than other algorithms. The simulation and testing of the algorithms is performed in MATLAB.

Keywords: optimization, harmony search algorithm, MATLAB, electronic

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Authors: Y. Lasbet, A. L. Boukhalkhal, K. Loubar

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The study of mixed convection is, usually, focused on the straight channels in which the onset of the mixed convection is well defined as function of the ratio between Grashof number and Reynolds number, Gr/Re. This is not the case for a complex channel wherein the mixed convection is not sufficiently examined in the literature. Our paper focuses on the study of the mixed convection in a complex geometry in which our main contribution reveals that the critical value of the ratio Gr/Re for the onset of the mixed convection increases highly in the type of geometry contrary to the straight channel. Furthermore, the accentuated secondary flow in this geometry prevents the thermal stratification in the flow and consequently the buoyancy driven becomes negligible. To perform these objectives, a numerical study in complex geometry for several values of the ratio Gr/Re with prescribed wall heat flux (H2), was realized by using the CFD code.

Keywords: complex geometry, heat transfer, laminar flow, mixed convection, Nusselt number

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Authors: Indra Gonzalez Ojeda, Tatiana Quinones, Manuel Rosario, Igor Lednev, Juan Lopez Garriga

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Amyloid fibrils are stable aggregates of misfolded protein associated with many neurodegenerative disorders. It has been shown that hydrogen sulfide (H2S), inhibits the fibrillation of lysozyme through the formation of trisulfide (S-S-S) bonds. However, the overall mechanism remains elusive. Here, the concentration dependence of H2S effect was investigated using Atomic force microscopy (AFM), non-resonance Raman spectroscopy, Deep-UV Raman spectroscopy and circular dichroism (CD). It was found that small spherical aggregates with trisulfide bonds and a unique secondary structure were formed instead of amyloid fibrils when adding concentrations of 25 mM and 50 mM of H2S. This could indicate that H2S might serve as a protecting agent for the protein. However, further characterization of these aggregates and their trisulfide bonds is needed to fully unravel the function H2S has on protein fibrillation.

Keywords: amyloid fibrils, hydrogen sulfide, protein folding, raman spectroscopy

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Authors: Zuzana Tatarkova, Ivana Pilchova, Michal Cibulka, Martin Kolisek, Peter Racay, Peter Kaplan

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Introduction: Normal functioning of mitochondria is crucial for cardiac performance. Mitochondria undergo mitophagy and biogenesis, and mitochondrial proteins are subject to extensive post-translational modifications. The state of mitochondrial homeostasis reflects overall cellular fitness and longevity. Perturbed mitochondria produce less ATP, release greater amounts of reactive molecules, and are more prone to apoptosis. Therefore mitochondrial turnover is an integral aspect of quality control in which dysfunctional mitochondria are selectively eliminated through mitophagy. Currently, the progressive deterioration of physiological functions is seen as accumulation of modified/damaged proteins with limiting regenerative ability and disturbance of such affected protein-protein communication throughout aging in myocardial cells. Methodologies: For our study was used immunohistochemistry, biochemical methods: spectrophotometry, western blotting, immunodetection as well as more sophisticated 2D electrophoresis and mass spectrometry for evaluation protein-protein interactions and specific post-translational modification. Results and Discussion: Mitochondrial stress response to reactive species was evaluated as electron transport chain (ETC) complexes, redox-active molecules, and their possible communication. Protein-protein interactions revealed a strong linkage between age and ETC protein subunits. Redox state was strongly affected in senescent mitochondria with shift in favor of more pro-oxidizing condition within cardiomyocytes. Acute myocardial ischemia and ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury affected ETC complexes I, II and IV with no change in complex III. Ischemia induced decrease in total antioxidant capacity, MnSOD, GSH and catalase activity with recovery in some extent during reperfusion. While MnSOD protein content was higher in IR group, activity returned to 95% of control. Nitric oxide is one of the biological molecules that can out compete MnSOD for superoxide and produce peroxynitrite. This process is faster than dismutation and led to the 10-fold higher production of nitrotyrosine after IR injury in adult with higher protection in senescent ones. 2D protein profiling revealed 140 mitochondrial proteins, 12 of them with significant changes after IR injury and 36 individual nitrotyrosine-modified proteins further identified by mass spectrometry. Linking these two groups, 5 proteins were altered after IR as well as nitrated, but only one showed massive nitration per lowering content of protein after IR injury in adult. Conclusions: Senescent cells have greater proportion of protein content, which might be modulated by several post-translational modifications. If these protein modifications are connected to functional consequences and protein-protein interactions are revealed, link may lead to the solution. Assume all together, dysfunctional proteostasis can play a causative role and restoration of protein homeostasis machinery is protective against aging and possibly age-related disorders. This work was supported by the project VEGA 1/0018/18 and by project 'Competence Center for Research and Development in the field of Diagnostics and Therapy of Oncological diseases', ITMS: 26220220153, co-financed from EU sources.

Keywords: aging heart, mitochondria, proteomics, redox state

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Authors: Michael Zaidman, Naum Simanovsky

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The most of brachial birth palsies are transient. Children with incomplete recovery almost always develop an internal rotation and adduction contracture. The muscle imbalance around the shoulder results in glenohumeral joint deformity and functional limitations. Natural history of glenohumeral deformity is it’s progression with worsening of function. Anteversion glenoid osteotomy with latissimus dorsi and teres major tendon transfers could be an alternative procedure of proximal humeral external rotation osteotomy for patients with severe glenohumeral dysplasia secondary to brachial plexus birth palsy. We will discuss pre-operative planning and stepped operative technique of the procedure on clinical example.

Keywords: obstetric brachial plexus palsy, glenoid anteversion osteotomy, tendon transfer, operative technique

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Authors: Parminder Kaur Heer, Alexei Lapkin

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Due to global challenges of increased competition and demand for more sustainable products/processes, there is a rising pressure on the industry to develop innovative processes. Through Process Intensification (PI) the existing and new processes may be able to attain higher efficiency. However, very few PI options are generally considered. This is because processes are typically analysed at a unit operation level, thus limiting the search space for potential process options. PI performed at more detailed levels of a process can increase the size of the search space. The different levels at which PI can be achieved is unit operations, functional and phenomena level. Physical/chemical phenomena form the lowest level of aggregation and thus, are expected to give the highest impact because all the intensification options can be described by their enhancement. The objective of the current work is thus, generation of numerous process alternatives based on phenomena, and development of their corresponding computer aided models. The methodology comprises: a) automated generation of process options, and b) automated generation of process models. The process under investigation is disintegrated into functions viz. reaction, separation etc., and these functions are further broken down into the phenomena required to perform them. E.g., separation may be performed via vapour-liquid or liquid-liquid equilibrium. A list of phenomena for the process is formed and new phenomena, which can overcome the difficulties/drawbacks of the current process or can enhance the effectiveness of the process, are added to the list. For instance, catalyst separation issue can be handled by using solid catalysts; the corresponding phenomena are identified and added. The phenomena are then combined to generate all possible combinations. However, not all combinations make sense and, hence, screening is carried out to discard the combinations that are meaningless. For example, phase change phenomena need the co-presence of the energy transfer phenomena. Feasible combinations of phenomena are then assigned to the functions they execute. A combination may accomplish a single or multiple functions, i.e. it might perform reaction or reaction with separation. The combinations are then allotted to the functions needed for the process. This creates a series of options for carrying out each function. Combination of these options for different functions in the process leads to the generation of superstructure of process options. These process options, which are formed by a list of phenomena for each function, are passed to the model generation algorithm in the form of binaries (1, 0). The algorithm gathers the active phenomena and couples them to generate the model. A series of models is generated for the functions, which are combined to get the process model. The most promising process options are then chosen subjected to a performance criterion, for example purity of product, or via a multi-objective Pareto optimisation. The methodology was applied to a two-step process and the best route was determined based on the higher product yield. The current methodology can identify, produce and evaluate process intensification options from which the optimal process can be determined. It can be applied to any chemical/biochemical process because of its generic nature.

Keywords: Phenomena, Process intensification, Process models , Process options

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Authors: Munir Tasdemir

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Polymer/clay composites have received great attention in the past three decades owing to their light weight coupled with significantly better mechanical and barrier properties than the corresponding neat polymer resins. An investigation was carried out on the effects of red mud powder size and ratio on the mechanical and thermal properties of polypropylene /red mud polymer composites. Red mud, in four different concentrations (0, 10, 20 and 30 wt %) and three different powder size (180, 63 and 38 micron) were added to PP to produce composites. The mechanical properties, including the elasticity modulus, tensile & yield strength, % elongation, hardness, Izod impact strength and the thermal properties including the melt flow index, heat deflection temperature and vicat softening point of the composites were investigated. The structures of the composites were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and compared to mechanical and thermal properties as a function of red mud powder content and size.

Keywords: polypropylene, powder, red mud, mechanical properties

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Authors: Changyin Zhou

Abstract:

Ba constructions are a special type of constructions in Chinese. Their syntactic behaviors are closely related to their event structural properties. The existing study which treats the semantic function of Ba as causative meets difficulty in treating the discrepancy between Ba constructions and their corresponding constructions without Ba in expressing causativity. This paper holds that Ba in Ba constructions is a functional category expressing affectedness. The affectedness expressed by Ba can be positive or negative. The functional category Ba expressing negative affectedness has the semantic property of being 'expected'. The precondition of Ba construction is the boundedness of the event concerned. This paper, holding the parallelism between motion events and change-of-state events, proposes a syntactic model based on the notions of boundedness and affectedness, discusses the transformations between Ba constructions and the related resultative constructions, and derivates the various Ba constructions concerned.

Keywords: affectedness, Ba constructions, boundedness, event structure, resultative constructions

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Authors: Yuanqing Li, Changyi Lei, Zhaopeng Xue, Zhuo Zheng, Yanbo Long

Abstract:

In agricultural production and breeding, implementing automatic picking robot in orchard farming to reduce human labour and error is challenging. The core function of it is automatic identification based on machine vision. This paper focuses on apple detection and counting in orchards and implements several deep learning methods. Extensive datasets are used and a semi-automatic annotation method is proposed. The proposed deep learning models are in state-of-the-art YOLO family. In view of the essence of the models with various backbones, a multi-dimensional comparison in details is made in terms of counting accuracy, mAP and model memory, laying the foundation for realising automatic precision agriculture.

Keywords: agricultural object detection, deep learning, machine vision, YOLO family

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Authors: Yassa Nacera, Badji Abderrezak, Saidoune Abdelmalek, Houassine Hamza

Abstract:

Several kinds of faults can occur in a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) systems: bearing faults, electrically short/open faults, eccentricity faults, and demagnetization faults. Demagnetization fault means that the strengths of permanent magnets (PM) in PMSM decrease, and it causes low output torque, which is undesirable for EVs. The fault is caused by physical damage, high-temperature stress, inverse magnetic field, and aging. Motor current signature analysis (MCSA) is a conventional motor fault detection method based on the extraction of signal features from stator current. a simulation model of the PMSM under partial demagnetization and uniform demagnetization fault was established, and different degrees of demagnetization fault were simulated. The harmonic analyses using the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) show that the fault diagnosis method based on the harmonic wave analysis is only suitable for partial demagnetization fault of the PMSM and does not apply to uniform demagnetization fault of the PMSM.

Keywords: permanent magnet, diagnosis, demagnetization, modelling

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Authors: Natalia Kajka, Agnieszka Kulik

Abstract:

The aim of the study is to present the results regarding differences in perception of cognitive progress of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by adults and children themselves. The experiment was attended by 45 children with ADHD, their parents and teachers. The children attended the 3-month metacognitive training. Both children and adults were examined before and after joining this project. In order to show significant differences between the first and second measurement of the test, non-parametric Wilcoxon tests were performed. The analysis showed statistically significant differences in the change of cognitive functioning in children with ADHD participating in metacognitive training, this was also confirmed by the results of the parents' research. There were no significant differences in the teachers' assessment of these children.

Keywords: ADHD, executive function, Golem effect metacognitive training

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Authors: Emdad K. Z. Balanji, M. Neaz Sheikh, Muhammad N. S. Hadi

Abstract:

This paper presents results of an experimental investigation on the behaviour of Hybrid Steel Fibre Reinforced High Strength Concrete (HSFR-HSC) cylinder specimens (150 mm x 300 mm) under uniaxial compression. Three different combinations of HSFR-HSC specimens and reference specimens without steel fibres were prepared. The first combination of HSFR-HSC included 1.5% Micro Steel (MS) fibre and 1% Deformed Steel (DS) fibre. The second combination included 1.5% MS fibre and 1.5% Hooked-end Steel (HS) fibre. The third combination included 1% DS fibre and 1.5% HS fibre. The experimental results showed that the addition of hybrid steel fibres improved the ductility of high strength concrete. The combination of MS fibre and HS fibre in high strength concrete mixes showed best stress-strain behaviour compared to the other combinations and the reference specimens.

Keywords: high strength concrete, micro steel fibre (MS), deformed steel fibre (DS), hooked-end steel fibre (HS), hybrid steel fibre

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Authors: Mohd Anuar Awang Idris, Muhammad Nubli Abdul Wahab, Nora Yusma Mohamed Yusoff

Abstract:

Wudu’ (Ablution) and Zikr are amongst some of the spiritual tools which may help an individual control his mind, emotion and attitude. These tools are deemed to be able to deliver a positive impact on an individual’s psychophysiology. The main objective of this research is to determine the effects of Wudu’ (Ablution) and Zikr therapy using the biofeedback emWave application and technology. For this research, 13 students were selected as samples from the students’ representative body at the University Tenaga National, Malaysia. The DASS (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale) questionnaire was used to help with the assessment and measurement of each student’s ability in controlling his or her emotions before and after the therapies. The biofeedback emWave technology was utilized to monitor the student’s psychophysiology level. In addition, the data obtained from the Heart rate variability (HRV) test have also been used to affirm that Wudu’ and Zikr had had significant impacts on the student’s success in controlling his or her emotional pressure.

Keywords: biofeedback EmWave, emotion, psychophysiology, wudu’, zikr

Procedia PDF Downloads 206