The Fifty Percent Machines—A Short History of Influence Machines and an Elementary Theory of Their Efficiency: An Attempt

Presenting the devices invented by Toepler, Holtz, Wimshurst, and Wommelsdorf, the history of the influence machines, the progress made, and the remaining deficits are discussed. The theoretical considerations published in the literature lack generalizable statements on the efficiency. Based on R. W. Pohl's model (1927), an elementary analysis is made, with the result that the upper limit of the theoretically achievable efficiency of influence machines is only 50%.     

On the numerical solution of ill‐conditioned linear systems by regularization and iteration

We propose to reduce the (spectral) condition number of a given linear system by adding a suitable diagonal matrix to the system matrix, in particular by shifting its spectrum. Iterative procedures are then adopted to recover the solution of the original system. The case of real symmetric positive definite matrices is considered in particular, and several numerical examples are given. This approach has some close relations with Riley's method and with Tikhonov regularization. Moreover, we identify approximately the aforementioned procedure with a true action of preconditioning.     

Development of an improved divergence‐free‐condition compensated coupled framework to solve flow problems with time‐varying geometries

In this article a coupled version of the improved divergence‐free‐condition compensated method will be proposed to simulate time‐varying geometries by direct forcing immersed boundary method. The proposed method can be seen as a quasi‐multi‐moment framework due to the fact that the momentum equations are discretized by both cell‐centered and cell‐face velocity. For simulating time‐varying geometries, a semi‐implicit iterative method is proposed for calculating the direct forcing terms. Treatments for suppressing spurious force oscillations, calculating drag/lift forces, and evaluating velocity and pressure for freshly cells will also be addressed. In order to show the applicability and accuracy, analytical as well as benchmark problems will be investigated by the present framework and compared with other numerical and experimental results.     

The impact of insecticides containing deltamethrin and cyfluthrin on the composition of surface compounds in the larvae,females and males of Tenebrio molitor

This paper presents the effect of insecticides on the composition of the surface compounds of one of the most harmful insects, Tenebrio molitor, by analysis using GC–MS. As a result of the use of insecticides, the composition of the chemical compounds on the surface of insects changes, depending on the insecticides used. The most numerous groups of the marked compounds were fatty acids, alkanes, esters and sterols. The content of the identified compounds in the larvae increased at both 24 and 48 h after the application of insecticides, in comparison with the control samples. The content of identified compounds in the samples taken from the females increased 24, 48 and 72 h after the application of insecticides in comparison with the control samples. By contrast, in samples prepared from males, the content of identified compounds decreased 24 h after the application of insecticides, compared with the control samples. The highest content of chemical compounds was for fatty acids and alkanes after the use of insecticides. The content of fatty acids after the application of the insecticide with deltamethrin was 62.1 ± 3.3–466.9 ± 5.9 μg/g, and after the application of the insecticide with cyfluthrin was 49.9 ± 1.9–458.3 ± 4.2 μg/g. However, the content of alkanes after the use of deltamethrin was 115.6 ± 4.2–4672.0 ± 32.1 μg/g, and after the use of cyfluthrin was 189.4 ± 3.8–3975.0 ± 10.2 μg/g.     

LC-MS-based multi-omics analysis of brain tissue for the evaluation of the anti-ischemic stroke potential of Tribulus terrestris L. fruit extract in MCAO rats

This study aimed to investigate the chemical composition of Tribulus terrestris L. fruit (TT) extract named TT15 and its protective effect against ischemic stroke (IS) as well as corresponding mechanisms. The chemical composition of TT15 was analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and the compound identification was conducted via searching the in-house database. The LC-MS-based multi-omics approach was applied to search the differential metabolites and differential proteins in rat brain tissue and to explore the biomarker and molecular mechanism of TT15 against middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). A total of 20 compounds were identified from TT15, mainly including alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, quinones, and esters. These 20 compounds significantly affected the metabolism of 44 metabolites and the expression of 51 proteins. Joint pathway analysis showed that these metabolites and proteins were mainly involved in the response to elevated platelet cytosolic Ca²⁺ and platelet activation, which inferred that TT15 may exert a protective effect against cerebral ischemic injury via regulating platelet function. This study provides useful information for further exploration of the mechanisms of TT extract against IS.     

模糊选择函数半序合理的充分条件

在G?del t-模下,研究了模糊选择函数的半序合理性.首先给出了模糊选择函数的合理性条件FA1.然后研究了该条件与模糊选择函数半序合理性之间的关系,得到了半序合理的一个充分条件.     

Imposing accurate wall boundary conditions in corrective‐matrix‐based moving particle semi‐implicit method for free surface flow

Corrective matrix that is derived to restore consistency of discretization schemes can significantly enhance accuracy for the inside particles in the Moving Particle Semi‐implicit method. In this situation, the error due to free surface and wall boundaries becomes dominant. Based on the recent study on Neumann boundary condition (Matsunaga et al, CMAME, 2020), the corrective matrix schemes in MPS are generalized to straightforwardly and accurately impose Neumann boundary condition. However, the new schemes can still easily trigger instability at free surface because of the biased error caused by the incomplete/biased neighbor support. Therefore, the existing stable schemes based on virtual particles and conservative gradient models are applied to free surface and nearby particles to produce a stable transitional layer at free surface. The new corrective matrix schemes are only applied to the particles under the stable transitional layer for improving the wall boundary conditions. Three numerical examples of free surface flows demonstrate that the proposed method can help to reduce the pressure/velocity fluctuations and hence enhance accuracy further.     

Optimization of Transducer Location for Novel Non-Intrusive Methodologies of Diagnosis in Diesel Engines

The health monitoring has been studied to ensure integrity of design of engine structure by detection, quantification, and prediction of damages. Early detection of faults may allow the downtime of maintenance to be rescheduled, thus preventing sudden shutdown of machines. In cylinder pressure developed, vibrations and noise emissions data provide a rich source of information about condition of engines. Monitoring of vibrations and noise emissions are novel non-intrusive methodologies for which positioning of various transducers are important issue. The presented work shows applicability of these diagnosis methodologies adopted in case of diesel engines. The effects of changing various fuel injection parameters was analyzed. Scope of using non-intrusive technique has been analyzed by changing locations of microphone. Novelty of this worklies in exploring signal processing methods for various locations around the engine test set up. Various frequency ranges of contributing noise and vibration sources were identified. Time-Frequency analysis showed the onset of various cyclic. Based on the identification of various frequency bands, it is possible to device suitable filters in order to extract more information.     

Versatile Near-Infrared Super-Resolution Imaging of Amyloid Fibrils with the Fluorogenic Probe CRANAD-2

CRANAD-2 is a fluorogenic curcumin derivative used for near-infrared detection and imaging in vivo of amyloid aggregates, which are involved in neurodegenerative diseases. We explore the performance of CRANAD-2 in two super-resolution imaging techniques, namely stimulated emission depletion (STED) and single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM), with markedly different fluorophore requirements. By conveniently adapting the concentration of CRANAD-2, which transiently binds to amyloid fibrils, we show that it performs well in both techniques, achieving a resolution in the range of 45–55 nm. Correlation of SMLM with atomic force microscopy (AFM) validates the resolution of fine features in the reconstructed super-resolved image. The good performance and versatility of CRANAD-2 provides a powerful tool for near-infrared nanoscopic imaging of amyloids in vitro and in vivo.     

Optimisation of the ultrasound-assisted extraction of betalains and polyphenols from Amaranthus hypochondriacus var. Nutrisol

The present study optimised the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of bioactive compounds from Amaranthus hypochondriacus var. Nutrisol. Influence of temperature (25.86–54.14 °C) and ultrasonic power densities (UPD) (76.01–273.99 mW/mL) on total betalains (BT), betacyanins (BC), betaxanthins (BX), total polyphenols (TP), antioxidant activity (AA), colour parameters (L*, a*, and b*), amaranthine (A), and isoamaranthine (IA) were evaluated using response surface methodology. Moreover, betalain extraction kinetics and mass transfer coefficients (K_La) were determined for each experimental condition. BT, BC, BX, TP, AA, b*, K_La, and A were significantly affected (p < 0.05) by temperature extraction and UPD, whereas L*, a*, and IA were only affected (p < 0.05) by temperature. All response models were significantly validated with regression coefficients (R²) ranging from 87.46 to 99.29%. BT, A, IA, and K_La in UAE were 1.38, 1.65, 1.50, and 29.93 times higher than determined using conventional extraction, respectively. Optimal UAE conditions were obtained at 41.80 °C and 188.84 mW/mL using the desired function methodology. Under these conditions, the experimental values for BC, BX, BT, TP, AA, L*, a*, b*, K_La, A, and IA were closely related to the predicted values, indicating the suitability of the developed quadratic models. This study proposes a simple and efficient UAE method to obtain betalains and polyphenols with high antioxidant activity, which can be used in several applications within the food industry.