Acoustic transmission enhancement through a periodically-structured stiff plate without any opening

We report both experimentally and theoretically that the enhanced acoustic transmission can occur in the subwavelength region through a thin but stiff structured-plate without any opening. This exotic acoustic phenomenon is essentially distinct from the previous related studies originated from, either collectively or individually, the interaction of the incident wave with openings in previous structures. It is attributed to the structure-induced resonant excitation of the non-leaky Lamb modes that exist intrinsically in the uniform elastic plate. Our finding should have impact on ultrasonic applications.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Object-oriented implementation of 3D DC adaptive finite-element method

In this paper, we introduced a clear object-oriented framework to implement the complicated adaptive procedure with C ++ programming language. In this framework, it consisted of the unstructured mesh generation, a-posterior error estimating, adaptive strategy, and the postprocessing. Unlike the procedure-oriented framework, which is commonly used in DC resistivity modeling with FORTRAN language, the object-oriented one, which is famous for its characteristic of encapsulation, could be used for a class of problems that would be executed by only making some changes on the user interface. To validate its flexibility, two synthetic DC examples were tested her

The compensation incentive effect of athletes: A structural equation model

This study explores the compensation incentive effect of athletes. Based on the related literature, we proposed theoretical hypotheses on the compensation incentive effect and established an assessment index system of the compensation incentive effect for athletes. A structural equation model was used to test the survey data of 352 athletes in six provinces to discover the truth of the compensation incentive effect. The results suggested that direct economic compensation satisfaction, direct non-economic compensation satisfaction, and indirect non-economic compensation satisfaction had significant positive effects on the compensation incentive effect of athletes, while indirect economic compensation satisfaction showed no significant effect. Moreover, the evaluation results of athletes’ compensation incentive effect showed that direct economic compensation satisfaction contributed the most to the influence factor of the compensation incentive effect. Therefore, the evaluation of athletes’ compensation incentive effect should focus on variables of direct economic compensation satisfaction, i.e., basic compensation satisfaction, bonus income satisfaction, and subsidy satisfaction. Finally, some strategies and recommendations were suggested to improve the compensation design for athletes

Vortex gap solitons in spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates with competing nonlinearities

The formation and dynamics of full vortex gap solitons (FVGSs) is investigated in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-orbit coupling (SOC), Zeeman splitting (ZS), and competing cubic and quintic nonlinear terms, while the usual kinetic energy is neglected, assuming that it is much smaller than the SOC and ZS terms. Unlike previous SOC system with the cubic-only attractive nonlinearity, in which solely semi-vortices may be stable, with the vorticity carried by a single component, the present system supports stable FVGS states, with the vorticity present in both components (such states are called here full vortex solitons, to stress the difference from the half-vortices). They populate the bandgap in the system's linear spectrum. In the case of the cubic self-attraction and quintic repulsion, stable FVGSs with a positive effective mass exist near the top of the bandgap. On the contrary, the system with cubic self-repulsion and quintic attraction produces stable FVGSs with a negative mass near the bottom of the bandgap. Mobility and collisions of FVGSs with different topological charges are investigated too.Comment: 14 pages,9 figures, 77 references. Communication in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, in pres

Unraveling the Effects of Acute Inflammation on Pharmacokinetics: A Model-Based Analysis Focusing on Renal Glomerular Filtration Rate and Cytochrome P450 3A4-Mediated Metabolism

Background and Objectives Acute inflammation caused by infections or sepsis can impact pharmacokinetics. We used a model-based analysis to evaluate the effect of acute inflammation as represented by interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels on drug clearance, focusing on renal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4)-mediated metabolism. Methods A physiologically based model incorporating renal and hepatic drug clearance was implemented. Functions correlating IL-6 levels with GFR and in vitro CYP3A4 activity were derived and incorporated into the modeling framework. We then simulated treatment scenarios for hypothetical drugs by varying the IL-6 levels, the contribution of renal and hepatic drug clearance, and protein binding. The relative change in observed area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) was computed for these scenarios. Results Inflammation showed opposite effects on drug exposure for drugs eliminated via the liver and kidney, with the effect of inflammation being inversely proportional to the extraction ratio (ER). For renally cleared drugs, the relative decrease in AUC was close to 30% during severe inflammation. For CYP3A4 substrates, the relative increase in AUC could exceed 50% for low-ER drugs. Finally, the impact of inflammation-induced changes in drug clearance is smaller for drugs with a larger unbound fraction. Conclusion This analysis demonstrates differences in the impact of inflammation on drug clearance for different drug types. The effects of inflammation status on pharmacokinetics may explain the inter-individual variability in pharmacokinetics in critically ill patients. The proposed model-based analysis may be used to further evaluate the effect of inflammation, i.e., by incorporating the effect of inflammation on other drug-metabolizing enzymes or physiological processes

Seroprevalence Survey of Avian influenza A (H5) in wild migratory birds in Yunnan Province, Southwestern China

BACKGROUND: Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) is a highly contagious disease which is a zoonotic pathogen of significant economic and public health concern. The outbreaks caused by HPAIV H5N1 of Asian origin have caused animal and human disease and mortality in several countries of Southeast Asia, such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. For the first time since 1961, this HPAIV has also caused extensive mortality in wild birds and has sparked debate of the role wild birds have played in the spread of this virus. Other than confirmed mortality events, little is known of this virus in wild birds. There is no report on the seroprevalence of avian influenza H5 infection in wild migratory birds in Yunnan Province. In this study we examined live wild birds in Yunnan Province for H5 specific antibody to better understand the occurrence of this disease in free living birds. METHODS: Sera from 440 wild birds were collected from in Kunming and Northern Ailaoshan of Yunnan Province, Southwestern China, and assayed for H5 antibodies using the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays. RESULTS: The investigation revealed that the seroprevalence of avian influenza H5 was as following: Ciconiiformes 2.6%, Strigiformes 13.04%, Passeriformes 20%, Cuculiformes 21.74%, Gruiformes 0%, Columbiformes 0%, Charadriiformes 0% and Coraciiformes 0%. Statistical analyses showed that there was a significant difference of prevalence between the orders (P < 0.01). Specific avian influenza H5 antibodies were detected in 23 of 440 (5.23%) sera. Mean HI titer 23 positive sera against H5 were 5.4 log(2). CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present survey indicated that the proportion of wild birds had previously infected AIV H5 at other times of the year. To our knowledge, this is the first seroprevalence report of avian influenza H5 infection in wild migratory birds in China’ s southwestern Yunnan Province. The results of the present survey have significant public health concerns