Prediction of Cavitation Performance of Radial Flow Pumps

Cavitation is a major problem in pump design and operation because this phenomenon may lead to various types of instabilities, including hydraulic performance loss and catastrophic damage to the pump material caused by bubble collapse. Therefore, it is critical to predict the cavitation performance of the pump in the design phase itself. The motivation of this study is to develop a systematic methodology to calculate the cavitation performance of radial flow pumps. In the first step of the present work, a cavitating nozzle flow case for which the bubble dynamic behavior is accurately resolved in literature is studied numerically. Subsequently, the capabilities of three cavitation models, implemented in the commercial code Fluent, are evaluated for three radial flow pumps designed at specific speeds ns = 10.4, 22.4, and 34.4. The numerical results are validated with global quantities based on net positive suction head (NPSH) measurements. The results led to the determination of reasonably accurate NPSH values for the defined range of specific speeds

Animal models of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: A machine-assisted systematic review and meta-analysis

We report a systematic review and meta-analysis of research using animal models of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). We systematically searched 5 online databases in September 2012 and updated the search in November 2015 using machine learning and text mining to reduce the screening for inclusion workload and improve accuracy. For each comparison, we calculated a standardised mean difference (SMD) effect size, and then combined effects in a random-effects meta-analysis. We assessed the impact of study design factors and reporting of measures to reduce risks of bias. We present power analyses for the most frequently reported behavioural tests; 337 publications were included. Most studies (84%) used male animals only. The most frequently reported outcome measure was evoked limb withdrawal in response to mechanical monofilaments. There was modest reporting of measures to reduce risks of bias. The number of animals required to obtain 80% power with a significance level of 0.05 varied substantially across behavioural tests. In this comprehensive summary of the use of animal models of CIPN, we have identified areas in which the value of preclinical CIPN studies might be increased. Using both sexes of animals in the modelling of CIPN, ensuring that outcome measures align with those most relevant in the clinic, and the animal's pain contextualised ethology will likely improve external validity. Measures to reduce risk of bias should be employed to increase the internal validity of studies. Different outcome measures have different statistical power, and this can refine our approaches in the modelling of CIPN

Building a Systematic Online Living Evidence Summary of COVID-19 Research

Throughout the global coronavirus pandemic, we have seen an unprecedented volume of COVID-19 researchpublications. This vast body of evidence continues to grow, making it difficult for research users to keep up with the pace of evolving research findings. To enable the synthesis of this evidence for timely use by researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders, we developed an automated workflow to collect, categorise, and visualise the evidence from primary COVID-19 research studies. We trained a crowd of volunteer reviewers to annotate studies by relevance to COVID-19, study objectives, and methodological approaches. Using these human decisions, we are training machine learning classifiers and applying text-mining tools to continually categorise the findings and evaluate the quality of COVID-19 evidence

Numerical Calculation of the Three-Dimensional Swirling Flow Inside the Centrifugal Pump Volutes

The flow inside the volute of a centrifugal pump is threedimensional and, depending upon the position of the inlet relative to the cross-section center line, a single or double swirling flow occurs. The purpose of this study was the calculation of the three-dimensional swirling flow inside the centrifugal pump volute