Entropy generation of radiation effect on laminar-mixed convection along a wavy surface

The effects of thermal radiation on laminar-forced and free convection along the wavy surface are studied. The optically thick limit approximation for the radiation flux is assumed. A modified form for the entropy generation equation is derived. The effect of geometry (e.g. flat surface, wavy surface), fluid friction and heat transfer (e.g. convection and radiation effects) are all included in the modified entropy generation form. Prandtl’s transposition theorem is used to stretch the ordinary coordinate system in certain directions. The wavy surface can be transformed into a calculable planar coordinate system. The governing equations are derived from the complete Navier–Stokes equations. A simple transformation is proposed to transform the governing equations into boundary layer equations for solution by the cubic spline collocation method.     

Effect of a scaffold fabricated thermally from acetylated PLGA on the formation of engineered cartilage

A MHDS has been employed to fabricate 3D scaffolds from PLGA with acetyl endgroups to achieve in vivo regeneration of cartilage tissue. The fabricated acetylated-PLGA scaffold showed open pores and interconnected structures. Rabbit chondrocytes were seeded on the PLGA scaffolds and transplanted immediately into subcutaneous sites of athymic mice. Chondrocytes transplantation with untreated PLGA scaffolds served as a control. Histological analysis of the implants at 4 weeks with H&E staining and alcian blue staining revealed higher extracellular matrix and GAG expression at the neocartilage in the PLGA-6Ac scaffolds than that of the PLGA-6OH scaffold group. This endgroup-modified scaffold may be useful for successful cartilage tissue engineering in orthopedic applications.     

Recent advances in the studies on luotonins

Luotonins are alkaloids from the aerial parts of Peganum nigellastrum Bunge. that display three major skeleton types. Luotonins A, B, and E are pyrroloquinazolino-quinoline alkaloids, luotonins C and D are canthin-6-one alkaloids, and luotonin F is a 4(3H)-quinazolinone alkaloid. All six luotonins have shown promising cytotoxicities towards selected human cancer cell lines, especially against leukemia P-388 cells. Luotonin A is the most active one, with its activity stemming from topoisomerase I-dependent DNA-cleavage. Such intriguing biological activities and unique structures have led not only to the development of synthetic methods for the efficient synthesis of these compounds, but also to interest in structural modifications for improving the biological properties. Recent progress in the study of luotonins is covered.     

Discovery of the serum biomarker proteins in severe preeclampsia by proteomic analysis

Preeclapsia (PE) is a severe disorder that occurs during pregnancy, leading to maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. PE affects about 3-8% of all pregnancies. In this study, we conducted liquid chromatography- mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to analyze serum samples depleted of the six most abundant proteins from normal and PE-affected pregnancies to profile serum proteins. A total of 237 proteins were confidently identified with <1% false discovery rate from the two groups of duplicate analysis. The expression levels of those identified proteins were compared semiquantitatively by spectral counting. To further validate the candidate proteins with a quantitative mass spectrometric method, selective reaction monitoring (SRM) and enzyme linked immune assay (ELISA) of serum samples collected from pregnant women with severe PE (n = 8) or normal pregnant women (n = 5) was conducted. α2- HS-glycoprotein (AHSG), retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) and α-1-microglobulin/bikunin (AMBP) and Insulin like growth factor binding protein, acid labile subunit (IGFBP-ALS) were confirmed to be differentially expressed in PE using SRM (P<0.05). Among these proteins, AHSG was verified by ELISA and showed a statistically significant increase in PE samples when compared to controls.     

A new class of multivariate counting processes and its characterization

In this paper, we suggest a new class of multivariate counting processes which generalizes and extends the multivariate generalized Polya process recently studied in Cha and Giorgio [On a class of multivariate counting processes, Adv. Appl. Probab. 48 (2016), pp. 443–462]. Initially, we define this multivariate counting process by means of mixing. For further characterization of it, we suggest an alternative definition, which facilitates convenient characterization of the proposed process. We also discuss the dependence structure of the proposed multivariate counting process and other stochastic properties such as the joint distributions of the number of events in an arbitrary interval or disjoint intervals and the conditional joint distribution of the arrival times of different types of events given the number of events. The corresponding marginal processes are also characterized.     

脉冲爆震发动机尾焰温度测量与数值模拟

本文采用新型研制的脉冲温度和水蒸气浓度测量仪测量了吸气式脉冲爆震发动机多循环工作过程中的尾焰温度,结果表明该测量仪不仅能够很好地捕捉每一个脉冲温度,与热成像仪测量的结果比较证明其测量温度在误差范围内.并采用了三阶TVD迎风格式和 Strang-splitting 算子分裂法,C3H8/air单步反应机理对混合物爆震燃烧进行了二维数值计算.与测量结果对比,说明采用本文的计算方法能够很好地捕捉到爆震波的点火和传播过程.     

声速测量中换能晶片的反射对超声脉冲时延的影响

超声传播速度和衰减值的测量,作为超声基本量的测量和超声技术的一些应用,都有着重要的意义。多次脉冲反射法是目前超声测声速、声衰减等工作中最常用的方法,尤其对体积不大的固体材料的测量中,用得更多。用这类方法测声速时,都需要测定超声脉冲在被测样块内在返一次所经历的时间。而对这一时延值的确定,目前来说,有着两种方案,即当超声脉冲往返一次反射后,或者依据它的包络的相应时延直接确定;或者依据它的射频相位的比较来推算确定。前者测量方法和设备较简单,后者测量结果的精度较高。     

Electronic Structure Manipulation of the Mott Insulator RuCl3 via Single-Crystal to Single-Crystal Topotactic Transformation

The core task for Mott insulators includes how rigid distributions of electrons evolve and how these induce exotic physical phenomena. However, it is highly challenging to chemically dope Mott insulators to tune properties. Herein, we report how to tailor electronic structures of the honeycomb Mott insulator RuCl₃ employing a facile and reversible single-crystal to single-crystal intercalation process. The resulting product (NH₄)_0.5RuCl₃⋅1.5 H₂O forms a new hybrid superlattice of alternating RuCl₃ monolayers with NH₄⁺ and H₂O molecules. Its manipulated electronic structure markedly shrinks the Mott–Hubbard gap from 1.2 to 0.7 eV. Its electrical conductivity increases by more than 10³ folds. This arises from concurrently enhanced carrier concentration and mobility in contrary to the general physics rule of their inverse proportionality. We show topotactic and topochemical intercalation chemistry to control Mott insulators, escalating the prospect of discovering exotic physical phenomena.     

Amyloid Against Amyloid: Dimeric Amyloid Fragment Ameliorates Cognitive Impairments by Direct Clearance of Oligomers and Plaques

Amyloid-β (Aβ) in the form of neurotoxic aggregates is regarded as the main pathological initiator and key therapeutic target of Alzheimer's disease. However, anti-Aβ drug development has been impeded by the lack of a target needed for structure-based drug design and low permeability of the blood–brain barrier (BBB). An attractive therapeutic strategy is the development of amyloid-based anti-Aβ peptidomimetics that exploit the self-assembling nature of Aβ and penetrate the BBB. Herein, we designed a dimeric peptide drug candidate based on the N-terminal fragment of Aβ, DAB, found to cross the BBB and solubilize Aβ oligomers and fibrils. Administration of DAB reduced amyloid burden in 5XFAD mice, and downregulated neuroinflammation and prevented memory impairment in the Y-maze test. Peptide mapping assays and molecular docking studies were utilized to elucidate DAB-Aβ interaction. To further understand the active regions of DAB, we assessed the dissociative activity of DAB with sequence modifications.