Renal-related perinephric fluid collections: MRI findings

We retrospectively reviewed MR studies on 10 patients with renal-related perinephric fluid collections who underwent MRI in three institutions between January 2001 and August 2004. All patients underwent MRI of the abdomen and T1-weighted, T2-weighted and serial contrast-enhanced images, including delayed-phase contrast-enhanced images 10-12 min after contrast injection, were obtained. Perinephric fluid collections in 5 patients revealed MRI findings of simple fluid content (i.e., hypointense on T1-weighted images and hyperintense on T2-weighted images). In another 5 patients, a complex perinephric fluid content (i.e., mixed hyper/hypointense on T1-weighted images and mixed hypo/hyperintense on T2-weighted images compatible with blood breakdown products and pus) was observed. In 5 patients, contrast extravasation on late-phase images that was compatible with urine leak was demonstrated. Our results suggest that MRI may determine the content of perinephric fluid collections on noncontrast T1-weighted and T2-weighted images and that contrast extravasation on late-phase images is associated with urine extravasation from renal collecting systems.     

Differential inhibition of postnatal brain,spinal cord and body growth by a growth hormone antagonist

Background  

Growth hormone (GH) plays an incompletely understood role in the development of the central nervous system (CNS). In this study, we use transgenic mice expressing a growth hormone antagonist (GHA) to explore the role of GH in regulating postnatal brain, spinal cord and body growth into adulthood. The GHA transgene encodes a protein that inhibits the binding of GH to its receptor, specifically antagonizing the trophic effects of endogenous GH.     

M-shaped asymmetric nonlinear oscillator for broadband vibration energy harvesting: Harmonic balance analysis and experimental validation

Over the past few years, nonlinear oscillators have been given growing attention due to their ability to enhance the performance of energy harvesting devices by increasing the frequency bandwidth. Duffing oscillators are a type of nonlinear oscillator characterized by a symmetric hardening or softening cubic restoring force. In order to realize the cubic nonlinearity in a cantilever at reasonable excitation levels, often an external magnetic field or mechanical load is imposed, since the inherent geometric nonlinearity would otherwise require impractically high excitation levels to be pronounced. As an alternative to magnetoelastic structures and other complex forms of symmetric Duffing oscillators, an M-shaped nonlinear bent beam with clamped end conditions is presented and investigated for bandwidth enhancement under base excitation. The proposed M-shaped oscillator made of spring steel is very easy to fabricate as it does not require extra discrete components to assemble, and furthermore, its asymmetric nonlinear behavior can be pronounced yielding broadband behavior under low excitation levels. For a prototype configuration, linear and nonlinear system parameters extracted from experiments are used to develop a lumped-parameter mathematical model. Quadratic damping is included in the model to account for nonlinear dissipative effects. A multi-term harmonic balance solution is obtained to study the effects of higher harmonics and a constant term. A single-term closed-form frequency response equation is also extracted and compared with the multi-term harmonic balance solution. It is observed that the single-term solution overestimates the frequency of upper saddle-node bifurcation point and underestimates the response magnitude in the large response branch. Multi-term solutions can be as accurate as time-domain solutions, with the advantage of significantly reduced computation time. Overall, substantial bandwidth enhancement with increasing base excitation is validated experimentally, analytically, and numerically. As compared to the 3 dB bandwidth of the corresponding linear system with the same linear damping ratio, the M-shaped oscillator offers 3200, 5600, and 8900 percent bandwidth enhancement at the root-mean-square base excitation levels of 0.03g, 0.05g, and 0.07g, respectively. The M-shaped configuration can easily be exploited in piezoelectric and electromagnetic energy harvesting as well as their hybrid combinations due to the existence of both large strain and kinetic energy regions. A demonstrative case study is given for electromagnetic energy harvesting, revealing the importance of higher harmonics and the need for multi-term harmonic balance analysis for predicting the electrical power output accurately.     

Nanoscale flexoelectric energy harvesting

One of the most tantalizing applications of piezoelectricity is to harvest energy from ambient mechanical vibrations for powering micro and nano devices. However, piezoelectricity is restricted only to certain materials and is severely compromised at high temperatures. In this article, we examine in detail, the possibility of using the phenomenon of flexoelectricity for energy harvesting. The flexoelectric effect is universally present in all dielectrics and exhibits a strong scaling with size. Using a simple beam-based paradigmatical design, we theoretically and computationally examine flexoelectric energy harvesting under harmonic mechanical excitation. We find that the output power density and conversion efficiency increase significantly when the beam thickness reduces from micro to nanoscale and flexoelectricity-based energy harvesting can be a viable alternative to piezoelectrics. Specifically, the conversion efficiency in flexoelectric transduction at sub-micron thickness levels is observed to increase by two orders of magnitude as the thickness is reduced by an order of magnitude. The flexoelectric energy harvester works even for a single layer beam with a symmetric cross section which is not possible in piezoelectric energy harvesting. Our results also pave the way for exploration of high temperature energy harvesting since unlike piezoelectricity, flexoelectricity persists well beyond the Curie temperatures of the high electromechanical coupling ferroelectrics that are often used.     

A numerical scheme for the solution of viscous Cahn–Hilliard equation

In this paper, we present a numerical scheme for the solution of viscous Cahn–Hilliard equation. The scheme is based on Adomian's decomposition approach and the solutions are calculated in the form of a convergent series with easily computable components. Some numerical examples are presented. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2008     

Comparison of wide and compact fourth‐order formulations of the Navier–Stokes equations

In this study the numerical performances of wide and compact fourth‐order formulation of the steady 2D incompressible Navier–Stokes equations will be investigated and compared with each other. The benchmark driven cavity flow problem will be solved using both wide and compact fourth‐order formulations and the numerical performances of both formulations will be presented and also the advantages and disadvantages of both formulations will be discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.