Optimizing Power Consumption of Freight Railroad Bearings Using Laboratory Experimental Data

Based on projected freight truck fuel efficiency, freight railroad and equipment suppliers need to identify, evaluate and implement technologies and/or operating practices to maintain traditional railroad economic competitiveness. The railway industry uses systems that record the total energy efficiency of a train but not energy efficiency or consumption by components. Lowering the energy consumption of certain train components will result in an increase in its overall energy efficiency, which will yield cost benefits for all the stakeholders. One component of interest is the railroad bearing whose power consumption varies depending on several factors that include railcar load, train speed, condition of bearing whether it is healthy or defective, and type of defect. Being able to quantify the bearing power consumption, as a function of the variables mentioned earlier, would make it possible to obtain optimal operating condition ranges that minimize energy consumption and maximize train energy efficiency. Several theoretical studies were performed to estimate the power consumption within railroad bearings, but those studies lacked experimental validation. For almost a decade now, the University Transportation Center for Railway Safety (UTCRS) at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) has been collecting power consumption data for railroad bearings under various loads, speeds, ambient temperatures, and bearing condition. The objective of this ongoing study is to use the experimentally acquired power consumption to come up with a correlation that can be used to quantify the bearing power consumption as a function of load, speed, ambient temperature, and bearing condition. Once obtained, the model can then be used to determine optimal operating practices that maximize the railroad bearing energy efficiency. In addition, the developed model will provide insight into possible areas of improvement for the next generation of energy efficient railroad bearings. This paper will discuss ongoing work including experimental setup and findings of energy consumption of bearings as function of railcar load, train speed, condition of bearing whether it is healthy or defective, and type of defect. Findings of energy consumption are converted into approximations of diesel gallons to quantify the effect of nominal energy consumption of the bearings and show economic value and environmental impact

In silicoAnalysis of the Structural Properties of PSMA and its Energetic Relationship with Zn as Cofactor

The prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a 100 kDa type II transmembrane glycoprotein with enzymatic activity similar to the family of zinc-dependent exopeptidases. This protein is of great medical and pharmacological interest as overexpression in prostate cells is related to the progression of prostate cancer; therefore, it represents an important target for the design of radiopharmaceuticals. The presence of two Zn2+ ions in the active site is crucial to the enzymatic activity and the design of high-affinity inhibitors. The amino acid residues coordinating these ions are highly conserved in PSMA orthologs from plants to mammals, and site-mutagenesis assays of these residues show a loss of enzymatic function or reduction of the kinetic parameters. In the present work, we performed molecular dynamics simulation of PSMA with the purpose of characterizing it energetically and structurally. We elucidated the differences of PSMA with its two Zn+2 ions as cofactors and without them in the free energy profile, and in four structural parameters: root mean square deviations and root mean square fluctuations by atom and amino acid residue, radius of gyration, and solvent accessible surface area

The Influence of Algal Exudate on the Hygroscopicity of Sea Spray Particles

We examined the effect of organic matter released by four different algal species on the hygroscopic growth and droplet activation behaviour of laboratory-generated marine aerosol particles. Hygroscopic growth factors and dry diameters for activation were reduced by less than 10%, compared to that of sodium chloride or of artificial seawater that was devoid of marine surfactants. Concentration-dependent nonideal behaviour was observed for the artificial seawater. But within measurement uncertainty, the measured hygroscopic growth and droplet activation behaviour for the samples that contained organic matter were consistent with a hygroscopicity parameter that was constant between the sub- and supersaturated measurement points. Also, the hygroscopic growth measured for hydrated particles after 3 and after 10 seconds was similar, which implies that in this time range no kinetic effects were detected

Examinig the mediating role of coping and emotion regularion in stress models in adolescents

The aim of this research was to analyze the relationship between stressful events, coping, and emotion regulation in adolescents from marginalized settings. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 523 adolescents aged 13 to 15 years. The Global Scale of Perceived Stress for Adolescents, the Coping Scale for Adolescents, and the Multidimensional Scale of Emotion Regulation for Adolescents, were used. Several mediation models were tested considering whether coping mediated the relationship between stressful events and emotion regulation responses, or, on contrary, emotion regulation assumes a mediating role between stressful events and coping. Data indicate significant direct and indirect effects in all models, with the highest explained variance in the models which included emotion regulation as a mediating variable. Results are discussed considering the role of coping and emotion regulation as mediating variables, and their relationship with diverse stressful events. In this research, emotion regulation strategies lead to adolescent coping

Properties of iron-modified-by-silver supported on mordenite as catalysts for nox reduction

A series of mono and bimetallic catalysts based on a Fe-Ag mixture deposited on mordenite was prepared by ion-exchange and evaluated in the catalytic activity test of the de-NOx reaction in the presence of CO/C3H6. The activity results showed that the most active samples were the Fe-containing ones, and at high temperatures, a co-promoter effect of Ag on the activity of Fe catalysts was also observed. The influence of the order of cation deposition on catalysts formation and their physicochemical properties was studied by FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) of adsorbed NO, XANES (X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure), and EXAFS (Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure) and discussed in terms of the state of iron. Results of Fe K-edge XANES oscillations showed that, in FeMOR catalysts, iron was present in a disordered state as Fe3+ and Fe2+. In FeAgMOR, the prevailing species was Fe3+, while in the AgFeMOR catalyst, the state of iron was intermediate or mixed between FeMOR and FeAgMOR. The Fe K-edge EXAFS results were characteristic of a disordered phase, the first coordination sphere being asymmetric with two different Fe-O distances. In FeAgMOR and AgFeMOR, coordination of Fe-O was similar to Fe2O3 with a few amount of Fe2+ species. We may conclude that, in the bimetallic FeAgMOR and AgFeMOR samples, a certain amount of tetrahedral Al3+ ions in the mordenite framework is replaced by Fe3+ ions, confirming the previous reports that these species are active sites for the de-NOx reaction. Based on the thermodynamic analysis and experimental data, also, it was confirmed that the order of deposition of the components influenced the mechanism of active sites’ formation during the two steps ion-exchange synthesis

Detection violent behaviors: A survey

Violence detection behavior is a particular problem regarding the great problem action recognition. In recent years, the detection and recognition of violence has been studied for several applications, namely in surveillance. In this paper, we conducted a recent systematic review of the literature on this subject, covering a selection of various researched papers. The selected works were classified into three main approaches for violence detection: video, audio, and multimodal audio and video. Our analysis provides a roadmap to guide future research to design automatic violence detection systems. Techniques related to the extraction and description of resources to represent behavior are also reviewed. Classification methods and structures for behavior modelling are also provided.European Structural and Investment Funds in the FEDER component, through the Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Programme (COMPETE 2020) [Project n ∘ 039334; Funding Reference: POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039334]. This work has been supported by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through project UIDB/04728/202

Randomized Clinical Trials of obesity treatments in Mexican population. Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Mexicans and Mexican Americans share similar culture, genetic background, and predisposition for obesity and diabetes. Randomized clinical trials (RCT) assessing obesity treatments (ObT) are reliable to assess efficacy. To date, there is no systematic review to investigate ObT tested by RCT in Mexican adults. Methods: We conducted systematic searches in Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science to retrieve ObT RCT from 1990 to 2019. The ObT included alternative medicine, pharmacological, nutritional, behavioral, and surgical interventions. The analyzed RCT were at least three months of duration, and reported: BMI, weight, waist circumference, triglycerides, glucose and blood pressure. Results: We found 634 entries; after removal of duplicates and exclusions based on eligibility criteria, we analyzed 43 and 2 multinational-collaborative studies. Most of the national studies had small sample sizes, and did not have replications from other studies. The nutrition/behavioral interventions were difficult to blind, and most studies had medium to high risk of bias. Random effects meta-analysis of nutritional/behavioral interventions and medications showed effects on BMI, waist circumference, and blood pressure. Simple measures like plain water instead of sweet beverages decreased triglycerides and systolic blood pressure. Participants with obesity and hypertension had beneficial effects with antioxidants, and the treatment with insulin increased weight in those with T2D. Conclusions: The RCT’s in Mexico reported effects on metabolic components despite small sample sizes and lack of replication. In the future we should analyze ObT in population living on the U.S.-Mexico border; therefore, bi-national collaboration is desirable to disentangle cultural effects on ObT response

Decoherence and entanglement degradation of a qubit-qutrit system in non-inertial frames

We study the effect of decoherence on a qubit-qutrit system under the influence of global, local and multilocal decoherence in non-inertial frames. We show that the entanglement sudden death can be avoided in non-inertial frames in the presence of amplitude damping, depolarizing and phase damping channels. However, degradation of entanglement is seen due to Unruh effect. It is shown that for lower level of decoherence, the depolarizing channel degrades the entanglement more heavily as compared to the amplitude damping and phase damping channels. However, for higher values of decoherence parameters, amplitude damping channel heavily degrades the entanglement of the hybrid system. Further more, no ESD is seen for any value of Rob's acceleration.Comment: 16 pages, 5 .eps figures, 1 table; Quantum Information Processing, published online, 5 July, 201

Looking for Crumbs in the Obesity Forest: Anti-obesity Interventions and Obesity-Associated Cardiometabolic Traits in the Mexican Population. History and Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses

Mexicans and Mexican Americans share culture, genetic background, and predisposition for chronic complications associated with obesity and diabetes making imperative efficacious treatments and prevention. Obesity has been treated for centuries focused-on weight loss while other treatments on associated conditions like gout, diabetes (T2D), and hypertriglyceridemia. To date, there is no systematic review that synthesizes the origin of obesity clinics in Mexico and the efforts to investigate treatments for obesity tested by randomized clinical trials (RCT). We conducted systematic searches in Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science to retrieve anti-obesity RCT through 2019 and without an inferior temporal limit. The systematic review included RCT of anti-obesity treatments in the Mexican adult population, covering alternative medicine, pharmacological, nutritional, behavioral, and surgical interventions reporting metabolism-associated traits such as BMI, weight, waist circumference, triglycerides, glucose, among others. Only the studies with at least 3 months of treatment were included in the meta-analyses in order to reduce placebo effects. We found 634 entries, after removal of duplicates and screening the studies based on eligibility criteria, we analyzed 43 national, and 2 multinational-collaborative studies. Most of the national studies had small sample sizes, and the implemented strategies do not have replications in the population. The nutrition/behavioral interventions were difficult to blind, and most studies have medium-to-high risk of bias. Nutritional/behavioral interventions and medications showed effects on BMI, waist circumference, and blood pressure. Simple measures like pure water instead of sweet beverages decrease triglycerides and systolic blood pressure. Dark chocolate showed the highest effect for BMI and high blood pressure, and treatment with insulin increased weight in those with T2D. The study of obesity in Mexico has been on-going for more than four decades, the interest on RCT just increased until this millennium, but with small sample sizes and lack of replication. The interventions affect different cardiometabolic associated traits, which should be analyzed in detail in the population living near the Mexico-U.S. border; therefore, bi-national collaboration is desirable to disentangle the cultural effects on this population\u27s treatment response

DESARROLLO DE UN PROTOCOLO DE MULTIPLICACIÓN DE BAMBÚ GUADUA ANGUSTIFOLIA USANDO BIORREACTORES DE INMERSIÓN TEMPORAL BITS, CON FINES DE REFORESTACIÓN

The Bamboo Guadua angustifolia has great economic and environmental importance, but its traditional methods of propagation are inefficient. The objective of the study was to develop an efficient micropropagation protocol for Guadua, using Temporary Immersion Bioreactors BITs. For the establishment, disinfected nodal segments and Murashige & Skoog MS medium + 2 mg L-1 of benzylaminopurine BAP were used. For micropropagation, 5 doses of BAP 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 mg L-1 were tested. In the multiplication phase in BITs, MS was used with 3 doses of BAP 3, 4, 5 mg L-1 and immersion frequencies every 3, 6 and 8 hours. For rooting in BITs, MS + 2.5 mg L-1 of adenine sulfate was used. The results showed that using 2 mg L-1 of BAP, one shoot per explant was obtained, while with 3, 4, 5 and 6 mg L-1 of BAP, 2 shoots were obtained. In BIT multiplication, 3.5, 7.5 and 10.4 shoots per explant were obtained with doses of 3, 4 and 5 mg L-1 of BAP, respectively. Using immersion frequencies every 3, 6, and 8 hours, 7.5, 8.7, and 13.6 shoots per plant were obtained, respectively. The number of roots was 11.3, 4.0 and 4.3 with immersion frequencies of 3, 6 and 8 hours. The best results in BITs were obtained using 3 mg L-1 of BAP and immersion frequency every 3 hours The results show significant advances in bamboo micropropagation and applicable to other species.El Bambú Guadua angustifolia posee gran importancia económica y ambiental, pero sus métodos tradicionales de propagación son ineficientes. El objetivo del estudio fue desarrollar un eficiente protocolo de micropropagación para Guadua, utilizando Biorreactores de Inmersión Temporal BITs. Para el establecimiento se utilizaron segmentos nodales desinfectados y medio Murashige & Skoog MS + 2 mg L-1 de bencilaminopurina BAP. Para la micropropagación se ensayaron 5 dosis de BAP 2, 3, 4, 5 y 6 mg L-1. En fase de multiplicación en BITS se utilizó MS con 3 dosis de BAP 3, 4, 5 mg L-1 y frecuencias de inmersión cada 3, 6 y 8 horas. Para enraizamiento en BITs se utilizó MS + 2.5 mg L-1 de sulfato de adenina. Los resultados mostraron que usando 2 mg L-1 de BAP, se obtuvo un brote por explante, mientras que con 3, 4, 5 y 6 mg L-1 de BAP se obtuvieron 2 brotes. En multiplicación BIT se obtuvieron 3.5, 7.5 y 10.4 brotes por explante con dosis de 3, 4 y 5 mg L-1 de BAP, respectivamente. Usando frecuencias de inmersión cada 3, 6 y 8 horas, se obtuvieron 7.5, 8.7 y 13.6 brotes por plantas, respectivamente. El número de raíces fue de 11.3, 4.0 y 4.3 con frecuencias de inmersiones de 3, 6 y 8 horas. Los mejores resultados en BITs se obtuvieron usando 3 mg L-1 de BAP y frecuencia de inmersión cada 3 horas. Los resultados muestran avances significativos en micropropagación de bambú y aplicable a otras especies