Boundary shear flow past a cylinder near a wall

An investigation on boundary shear flow past a circular cylinder near a wall is numerically performed via a stabilized finite element method. The main focus is to uncover its major difference with the flows corresponding to the symmetry boundary, and to two identical circular cylinders in a side-by-side arrangement. In particular at Reynolds number extensive simulations are made for different gaps between the cylinder and wall. It is noted that in the wake of the cylinder the vortex contour lines shift upwards. At the flow behind a cylinder near the wall may be time dependent. With a reduction of the gap spacing to a magnitude in (0.75,1), the vortex shedding nearly vanishes. For the flow behind two identical circular cylinders side and side, the flow may change from periodic flow to totally irregular one. The drag force CD, lift force CL,rms and Strouhal number St of the circular cylinder near the wall vary differently with the gap, compared with those in the other two cases. When the cylinder is located in the boundary layer, the boundary shear flow has strong effect on the hydrodynamic quantities. Extensive simulations are also made for 400, 600 and 800. It is found that the Reynolds number has strong effect on the flow and force on the cylinder, not only through the variation of Re itself but also the boundary layer of the wall. Withe Re increasing, strong vortex shedding from the near-wall cylinder at starts above a Re in (200, 300)

Molecular characterization of HbEREBP2, a jasmonateresponsive transcription factor from Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.

Transcription factors of AP2/ERF superfamily are generally involved in defense responses of plants to biotic and abiotic stresses. Although, defense proteins are present in abundance in laticifers of rubber tree, little is known about their transcriptional regulation. In this study, a full length cDNA, referred to as HbEREBP2 was characterized by means of bioinformatic analysis and quantitative real-time RT-PCR. The HbEREBP2 was 786-bp in length and contained a 480-bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a protein of 159 amino acid residues. Bioinformatic analysis showed that the deduced amino acid sequence of HbEREBP2 had a specific domain of AP2 superfamily and shared relative high identity with members of CBF/DREB subfamily from different plant species. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR revealed that methyl jasmonate was more effective than ethylene and rapidly than mechanical wounding on upregulating HbEREBP2 expression. The results suggest that HbEREBP2 may be involved in the regulation of jasmonate-mediated defense responses in laticifers of rubber tree.Key words: Hevea brasiliensis, Laticifer, defense proteins, AP2/ERF transcription factor, Methyl jasmonates, Ethephon, mechanical wounding

Exercise-Induced Changes in Exhaled NO Differentiates Asthma With or Without Fixed Airway Obstruction From COPD With Dynamic Hyperinflation.

Asthmatic patients with fixed airway obstruction (FAO) and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) share similarities in terms of irreversible pulmonary function impairment. Exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) has been documented as a marker of airway inflammation in asthma, but not in COPD. To examine whether the basal eNO level and the change after exercise may differentiate asthmatics with FAO from COPD, 27 normal subjects, 60 stable asthmatics, and 62 stable COPD patients were studied. Asthmatics with FAO (n = 29) were defined as showing a postbronchodilator FEV(1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) ≤70% and FEV(1) less than 80% predicted after inhaled salbutamol (400 μg). COPD with dynamic hyperinflation (n = 31) was defined as a decrease in inspiratory capacity (ΔIC%) after a 6 minute walk test (6MWT). Basal levels of eNO were significantly higher in asthmatics and COPD patients compared to normal subjects. The changes in eNO after 6MWT were negatively correlated with the percent change in IC (r = −0.380, n = 29, P = 0.042) in asthmatics with FAO. Their levels of basal eNO correlated with the maximum mid-expiratory flow (MMEF % predicted) before and after 6MWT. In COPD patients with air-trapping, the percent change of eNO was positively correlated to ΔIC% (rs = 0.404, n = 31, P = 0.024). We conclude that asthma with FAO may represent residual inflammation in the airways, while dynamic hyperinflation in COPD may retain NO in the distal airspace. eNO changes after 6MWT may differentiate the subgroups of asthma or COPD patients and will help toward delivery of individualized therapy for airflow obstruction

Demonstration of astrocytes in cultured amniotic fluid cells of three cases with neural-tube defect

We have investigated the origin of rapidly adhering (RA) cells in three cases of neural tube defects (two anencephali, one encephalocele). We were able to demonstrate the presence of glial fibrillary acidic (GFA) protein in variable percentages (4–80%) of RA cells cultured for 4–6 days by use of indirect immunofluorescence with GFA antiserum. Cells cultured from amniotic fluids of normal pregnancies and fetal fibroblasts were completely GFA protein negative. GFA protein is well established as a highly specific marker for astrocytes. Demonstration of astrocytes may prove to be a criterion of high diagnostic value for neural tube defects. The percentage of astrocytes decreased with increasing culture time, while the percentage of fibronectin positive cells increased both in amniotic fluid cell cultures from neural tube defects and normal pregnancies

Differential hepatic features presenting in Wilson disease-associated cirrhosis and hepatitis B-associated cirrhosis

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved. BACKGROUND Cirrhosis is a chronic late stage liver disease associated with hepatitis viruses, alcoholism, and metabolic disorders, such as Wilson disease (WD). There are no clear markers or clinical features that define cirrhosis originating from these disparate origins. We hypothesized that cirrhosis is not one disease and cirrhosis of different etiology may have differential clinical hepatic features. AIM To delineate the liver features between WD-associated cirrhosis and hepatitis Bassociated cirrhosis in the Chinese population. METHODS In this observational study, we reviewed the medical data of consecutive inpatients who had WD-associated cirrhosis or hepatitis B-associated cirrhosis from January 2010 to August 2018, and excluded patients who had carcinoma, severe heart or pulmonary diseases, or other liver diseases. According to the etiology of cirrhosis, patients were divided into two groups: WD-associated cirrhosis group (60 patients) and hepatitis B-associated cirrhosis group (56 patients). The liver fibrosis degree, liver function indices, and portal hypertension features of these patients were compared between the two groups. RESULTS No inter-group differences were observed in the diagnostic liver fibrosis markers, however, clinical features clearly defined the origin of cirrhosis. WD-associated cirrhosis patients (16-29 years) had lower levels of alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, and bilirubin, lower prothrombin time, lower incidence of hepatic encephalopathy, and lower portal vein diameter (P < 0.05), compared to cirrhosis resulting from hepatitis B in older patients (45-62 years). Importantly, they had decreased risks of progression from Child-Pugh grade A to B (odds ratio = 0.046, 95% confidence interval: 0.006-0.387, P = 0.005) and of ascites (odds ratio = 0.08, 95% confidence interval: 0.01-0.48, P = 0.005). Conversely, WDassociated cirrhosis patients had a higher risk of splenomegaly (odds ratio = 4.15, 95% confidence interval: 1.38-12.45, P = 0.011). CONCLUSION WD-associated cirrhosis presents a higher risk of splenomegaly associated with leukopenia and thrombocytopenia, although revealing milder liver dysfunction and portal hypertension symptoms, which recommends WD patients to be monitored for associated complications

Preparation and identification of monoclonal antibodies against humanin

To generate and characterize a monoclonal antibody (mAb) against humanin (HN), BALB/c mice were immunized with the purified pet-44a-HN in adjuvant and their splenic lymphocytes were fused with myeloma SP2/0 cells. The hybridoma cell lines were screened for HN-specific antibodies by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and anti-HN mAb-producing hybridoma clones were obtained using a limiting dilution assay. The specificity and affinity of the antibodies were characterized by western blot assays and indirect ELISA. Following fusion, screening and cloning, four hybridoma clones were obtained, and the clone 5A8H3 was demonstrated to stably produce anti-HN IgG2a. Further characterization of 5A8H3 revealed that this mAb specifically recognized HN, the fusion proteins of pet- 44a-HN protein and pGEMEX-1-HN, but not control (Escherichia coli proteins). This mAb interacted with HN at an affinity constant (Ka) of 2.0 × 108 M–1 The HN-specific IgG2a mAb was successfully generated. It interacted with HN specifically and sensitively, providing a valuable tool for further study of the biological functions of HN.Key words: Humanin, monoclonal antibodies, characterizatio

Effects of different annealing gases on pentacene OTFT with HfLaO gate dielectric

Pentacene organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) with HfLaO high-kappa gate dielectric were fabricated. The dielectric was prepared by a sputtering method and then annealed in N2,NH3,O2, or NO at 400°C. The carrier mobility of the NH3-annealed OTFT could reach 0.59 cm2/V̇s, which is higher than those of the other three devices. Moreover, the NH3-annealed OTFT obtained the smallest subthreshold swing of 0.26 V/dec among them. Furthermore,1/f noise measurement indicated that the NH3-annealed OTFT achieved the smallest 1/f noise. All these should be attributed to the improved interface between the gate dielectric and the organic semiconductor associated with the passivation effects of the NH3 annealing on the dielectric surface. © 2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

N = 2 SCFTs: An M5-brane perspective

Inspired by the recently discovered holographic duality between N=2 SCFTs and half-BPS M-theory backgrounds, we study probe M5-branes. Though our main focus is supersymmetric M5-branes whose worldvolume has an AdS_n factor, we also consider some other configurations. Of special mention is the identification of AdS_5 and AdS_3 probes preserving supersymmetry, with only the latter supporting a self-dual field strength.Comment: 27 page

A New 2d/4d Duality via Integrability

We prove a duality, recently conjectured in arXiv:1103.5726, which relates the F-terms of supersymmetric gauge theories defined in two and four dimensions respectively. The proof proceeds by a saddle point analysis of the four-dimensional partition function in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit. At special quantized values of the Coulomb branch moduli, the saddle point condition becomes the Bethe Ansatz Equation of the SL(2) Heisenberg spin chain which coincides with the F-term equation of the dual two-dimensional theory. The on-shell values of the superpotential in the two theories are shown to coincide in corresponding vacua. We also identify two-dimensional duals for a large set of quiver gauge theories in four dimensions and generalize our proof to these cases.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, minor corrections and references adde

Form factors of chiral primary operators at two loops in ABJ(M)

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