Analytical and numerical assessment of the effect of highly conductive inclusions distribution on the thermal conductivity of particulate composites

Highly conductive composites have found applications in thermal management, and the effective thermal conductivity plays a vital role in understanding the thermo-mechanical behavior of advanced composites. Experimental studies show that when highly conductive inclusions embedded in a polymeric matrix the particle forms conductive chain that drastically increase the effective thermal conductivity of two-phase particulate composites. In this study, we introduce a random network three dimensional (3D) percolation model which closely represent the experimentally observed scenario of the formation of the conductive chain by spherical particles. The prediction of the effective thermal conductivity obtained from percolation models is compared with the conventional micromechanical models of particulate composites having the cubical arrangement, the hexagonal arrangement and the random distribution of the spheres. In addition to that, the capabilities of predicting the effective thermal conductivity of a composite by different analytical models, micromechanical models, and, numerical models are also discussed and compared with the experimental data available in the literature. The results showed that random network percolation models give reasonable estimates of the effective thermal conductivity of the highly conductive particulate composites only in some cases. It is found that the developed percolation models perfectly represent the case of conduction through a composite containing randomly suspended interacting spheres and yield effective thermal conductivity results close to Jeffery's model. It is concluded that a more refined random network percolation model with the directional conductive chain of spheres should be developed to predict the effective thermal conductivity of advanced composites containing highly conductive inclusions

STUDY OF THE FILTRATION PROCESS THROUGH A CERAMIC CANDLE FILTER

ABSTRACT Ceramic candle filters have been developed for cleaning high-temperature high-pressure (HTHP) gas streams. They meet environmental and economical considerations in Combined cycle power plant, where gas turbine blades can be protected from the erosion that occurs due to using HTHP exhaust from the fluidized bed. Ceramic candle filters are the most promising hot gas filtration technology, which has demonstrated high collection efficiencies at high-temperature high-pressure conditions. This paper reports a computational fluid dynamics (CF)) investigation of a candle filter. Constant filtration velocity boundary models have been used to investigate the filter in cross flow conditions using the CFI) code FLUENT. Different approach (inlet) velocity to filter faze velocity ratios and different face velocities (ranging from 2 to 5 cm(s) are used in the CF) calculation. Particles in the diameter range 1 to 100 microns are tracked through the domain. The radius of convergence (or the critical trajectory) is compared and plotted as a function of many parameters. The deposition process and the factors that affect the build up of the filter cake have also been studied

Preparation of H3PO4 modified Sidr biochar for the enhanced removal of ciprofloxacin from water

In this study, biochar was prepared from Sidr plant leaves and used for the treatment of ciprofloxacin (CIP)-contaminated water. CIP is important class of emerging water pollutants from pharmaceutical industries. The biochar showed 65% adsorption efficiency and 43.48 mg/g adsorption capacity of CIP. Adsorption efficiency as well as adsorption capacity were improved to 91% and 62.50 mg/g, respectively, by phosphoric acid (H3PO4) modified biochar. Removal of CIP by the prepared biochar was due to different surface functional groups of CIP and biochar as revealed from the study of different characterization analyses. The presence of PO43- group in modified biochar led to maximum binding of CIP. Also, the modified biochar showed higher reusability potential and less leaching of ions when compared to the raw biochar. Removal of CIP was affected by concentrations of CIP, the amount of biochar and different pH\u27s; the maximum removal of CIP was achieved at pH 4. The Freundlich and pseudo-first-order models best fitted the removal of CIP by modified biochar. Advanced characterization techniques were applied to investigate surface and physiological characteristics of the biochar and modified biochar. The modification showed high impact on the performance and stability of biochar. The study showed significant impacts of modification on the potential of the biochar for treatment of CIP-contaminated water

Effect of mist/steam uniformity on heat transfer characteristics in unconfined jet impingement

This paper presents the numerical investigations of the injection of mist into an unconfined cooling steam jet to analyze the effects on the corresponding heat transfer characteristics. The infusion of mist into an confined cooling steam jet demonstrates a remarkable improvement in the heat transfer specifications as described in numerous previous studies. Therefore, the current research contributes to the knowledge by focusing on the uniformity configurations of the injected second phase to the unconfined regions and the influence of the surrounding environment on the mist injected. Several variables govern the physical model of the mist concentration and jet to plate distance, which is included in three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes flow with the discrete phase model for the multiphase flow regime. The simulation was conducted over a range of common working Reynolds numbers. The results show that controlling the uniformity of the injected mist will redefine the cooling characteristics. The accumulated mist near the edge leads to the heat transfer enhancement at H/D = 2, 4, and 6. The surrounding environment had a significant influence on the droplet behavior at H/D = 8, thus causing a heat transfer reduction of 8%. The droplet Stock number can determine the droplet performance on the target wall and introducing mist generates a third heat transfer peak that results in an average increase of 38% for 1% mist

An efficient algorithm for systematic analysis of nucleotide strings suitable for siRNA design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The "off-target" silencing effect hinders the development of siRNA-based therapeutic and research applications. Existing solutions for finding possible locations of siRNA seats within a large database of genes are either too slow, miss a portion of the targets, or are simply not designed to handle a very large number of queries. We propose a new approach that reduces the computational time as compared to existing techniques.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The proposed method employs tree-based storage in a form of a modified truncated suffix tree to sort all possible short string substrings within given set of strings (i.e. transcriptome). Using the new algorithm, we pre-computed a list of the best siRNA locations within each human gene ("siRNA seats"). siRNAs designed to reside within siRNA seats are less likely to hybridize off-target. These siRNA seats could be used as an input for the traditional "set-of-rules" type of siRNA designing software. The list of siRNA seats is available through a publicly available database located at <url>http://web.cos.gmu.edu/~gmanyam/siRNA_db/search.php</url></p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In attempt to perform top-down prediction of the human siRNA with minimized off-target hybridization, we developed an efficient algorithm that employs suffix tree based storage of the substrings. Applications of this approach are not limited to optimal siRNA design, but can also be useful for other tasks involving selection of the characteristic strings specific to individual genes. These strings could then be used as siRNA seats, as specific probes for gene expression studies by oligonucleotide-based microarrays, for the design of molecular beacon probes for Real-Time PCR and, generally, any type of PCR primers.</p

Methodological quality of a systematic review on physical therapy for temporomandibular disorders: influence of hand search and quality scales

The validity of a systematic review depends on completeness of identifying randomised clinical trials (RCTs) and the quality of the included RCTs. The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of hand search on the number of identified RCTs and of four quality lists on the outcome of quality assessment of RCTs evaluating the effect of physical therapy on temporomandibular disorders. In addition, we investigated the association between publication year and the methodological quality of these RCTs. Cochrane, Medline and Embase databases were searched electronically. The references of the included studies were checked for additional trials. Studies not electronically identified were labelled as “obtained by means of hand search”. The included RCTs (69) concerning physical therapy for temporomandibular disorders were assessed using four different quality lists: the Delphi list, the Jadad list, the Megens & Harris list and the Risk of Bias list. The association between the quality scores and the year of publication were calculated. After electronic database search, hand search resulted in an additional 17 RCTs (25%). The mean quality score of the RCTs, expressed as a percentage of the maximum score, was low to moderate and varied from 35.1% for the Delphi list to 54.3% for the Risk of Bias list. The agreement among the four quality assessment lists, calculated by the Interclass Correlation Coefficient, was 0.603 (95% CI, 0.389; 0.749). The Delphi list scored significantly lower than the other lists. The Risk of Bias list scored significantly higher than the Jadad list. A moderate association was found between year of publication and scores on the Delphi list (r = 0.50), the Jadad list (r = 0.33) and the Megens & Harris list (r = 0.43)

Mutations in the RNA Granule Component TDRD7 Cause Cataract and Glaucoma

The precise transcriptional regulation of gene expression is essential for vertebrate development, but the role of posttranscriptional regulatory mechanisms is less clear. Cytoplasmic RNA granules (RGs) function in the posttranscriptional control of gene expression, but the extent of RG involvement in organogenesis is unknown. We describe two human cases of pediatric cataract with loss-of-function mutations in TDRD7 and demonstrate that Tdrd7 nullizygosity in mouse causes cataracts, as well as glaucoma and an arrest in spermatogenesis. TDRD7 is a Tudor domain RNA binding protein that is expressed in lens fiber cells in distinct TDRD7-RGs that interact with STAU1-ribonucleoproteins (RNPs). TDRD7 coimmunoprecipitates with specific lens messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and is required for the posttranscriptional control of mRNAs that are critical to normal lens development and to RG function. These findings demonstrate a role for RGs in vertebrate organogenesis

Environmental and Genetic Preconditioning for Long-Term Anoxia Responses Requires AMPK in Caenorhabditis elegans

Article on environmental and genetic preconditioning for long-term anoxia responses requires AMPK in Caenorhabditis elegans

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the United Arab Emirates : results from the PAROS study

Batt, AM ORCiD: 0000-0001-6473-5397Background The Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) chain of survival, requires five elements to be acted upon to improve a patient’s chance of survival from cardiac arrest: Immediate recognition of cardiac arrest & activation of the emergency response system; early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with an emphasis on high-quality chest compressions; early defibrillation (ideally through public access defibrillators); early advanced life support and integrated post-cardiac arrest care. Methods National Ambulance introduced services to the Northern Emirates in February 2014 providing for each of these links in the chain of survival to be implemented. Results Over a one year period National Ambulance clinical staff in Northern Emirates attended 384 cardiac arrest incidents. Of these, 30% (n=115) had bystander CPR performed. An overall ROSC rate of 3.1% in the prehospital setting was observed (n=12) with a further 2.1% (n=9) ROSC gained on admission to Emergency Department. Utilisation of BLS measures was good among National Ambulance personnel with AED, LUCAS-2 and iGel applied in 100%, 71% and 84% application rates respectively. Conclusion The relatively low prehospital ROSC rate is attributable to low bystander CPR performance and the low availability of public access defibrillators. The rate of interventions performed by National Ambulance staff demonstrated overall good compliance