Effect of the Number of Injectors on the Mixing Process in a Rapidly Mixed Type Tubular Flame Burner

Three-dimensional simulations are performed to study the non-reactive mixing process in a rapidly mixed type tubular flame burner (RTFB). The current work examines the effect of the number of injectors (N= 2, 4 and 6) on the mixing process by focusing on three criterions (Flow structure, local swirl intensity and mixing layer thickness). The Discrete Phase Model (DPM) is used to track the particle trajectories. Validation of the numerical results is carried out by comparing the predicted particle trajectories, central recirculation zone (CRZ) and tangential velocity results to the experimental data. It is concluded that the model offers a satisfactory prediction of the flow field in a RTFB. Numerical results show that, for the same geometrical swirl number (Sw) and the same Reynolds number (ReT), the increasing of the number of injectors enhances the mixing process by generating a larger reverse flow and reducing the mixing layer thickness. It is also concluded that the local swirl intensity along of the RTFB can be correlated in terms of geometric swirl number and number of injectors

Polymorphic variants of SCN1A and EPHX1 influence plasma carbamazepine concentration, metabolism and pharmacoresistance in a population of Kosovar Albanian epileptic patients

Aim The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of gene variants in key genes influencing pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic of carbamazepine (CBZ) on the response in patients with epilepsy. Materials & Methods Five SNPs in two candidate genes influencing CBZ transport and metabolism, namely ABCB1 or EPHX1, and CBZ response SCN1A (sodium channel) were genotyped in 145 epileptic patients treated with CBZ as monotherapy and 100 age and sex matched healthy controls. Plasma concentrations of CBZ, carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide (CBZE) and carbamazepine-10,11-trans dihydrodiol (CBZD) were determined by HPLC-UV-DAD and adjusted for CBZ dosage/kg of body weight. Results The presence of the SCN1A IVS5-91G>A variant allele is associated with increased epilepsy susceptibility. Furthermore, carriers of the SCN1A IVS5-91G>A variant or of EPHX1 c.337T>C variant presented significantly lower levels of plasma CBZ compared to carriers of the common alleles (0.71±0.28 vs 1.11±0.69 μg/mL per mg/Kg for SCN1A IVS5-91 AA vs GG and 0.76±0.16 vs 0.94±0.49 μg/mL per mg/Kg for EPHX1 c.337 CC vs TT; PG showed a reduced microsomal epoxide hydrolase activity as reflected by a significantly decreased ratio of CBZD to CBZ (0.13±0.08 to 0.26±0.17, pT SNP and SCN1A 3148A>G variants were not associated with significant changes in CBZ pharmacokinetic. Patients resistant to CBZ treatment showed increased dosage of CBZ (657±285 vs 489±231 mg/day; P<0.001) but also increased plasma levels of CBZ (9.84±4.37 vs 7.41±3.43 μg/mL; P<0.001) compared to patients responsive to CBZ treatment. CBZ resistance was not related to any of the SNPs investigated. Conclusions The SCN1A IVS5-91G>A SNP is associated with susceptibility to epilepsy. SNPs in EPHX1 gene are influencing CBZ metabolism and disposition. CBZ plasma levels are not an indicator of resistance to the therapy

A Unified HW/SW Interface Refinement Approach for MPSoC Design

We introduce the service based component model as a unifying concept to specify and refine the HW/SW interface in MPSoC designs. The model allows encompassing the intricate dependencies between hardware components and low level system software in a structured, component based approach. Based on this model, we propose a method and tools to automate the refinement of abstract HW/SW interfaces using a predefined component library. The main benefit of such refinement methodology is a seamless HW/SW integration allowing efficient customization of the HW/SW interface. The approach was successfully applied to the design of an MPEG-4 video encoder

Service Based Component Design Approach for Flexible Hardware/Software Interface Modeling

ISSN: 1074-6005This paper describes a service-based model enabling systematic design and global simulation environments for SoC design. This model, called Service Dependency Graph (SDG) allows modeling of complex, customized (application-specific) interfaces. We also present a model generator that can automatically build hardware/software interfaces based on service and resource requirements described by the SDG. This approach has been applied successfully on the design of a Software Defined Radio application. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in modeling complex interfaces. Additionally the SDG seems to be an excellent intermediate representation for the design automation of hardware software interfaces

Service Dependency Graph, an Efficient Model for Hardware/Software Interfaces Modeling and Generation for SoC Design

ISBN: 1-59593-161-9Complex systems-on-chip are designed by interconnecting predesigned hardware and software components. During the design cycle, a global model of the SoC may be composed of hardware and software models at different abstraction levels. Designing hardware/software interfaces to interconnect SoC component is a source of design bottlenecks. This paper describes a service-based model enabling systematic design and co-simulation of hardware/software interfaces for SoC design. This model, called Service dependency graph (SDG) allows modeling of complex, customized (application-specific) interfaces. We also present a model generator that can automatically build hardware/software interfaces based on service and resource requirements described by the SDG. This approach has been applied successfully on the design of an MPEG-4 encoder. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in modeling complex interfaces. Additionally the SDG seems to be an excellent intermediate representation for the design automation of hardware software interfaces

Application of multi-domain and multi-language cosimulation to an optical MEM switch design

This paper addresses the applicability of a cosimulation methodology to multi-domain and multilanguage systems design. This methodology starts with a system model given as a netlist of heterogeneous components and enables the systematic generation of simulation models for multi-domain and multi-language heterogeneous systems. For experiments, we used a complex multi-domain application: an optical MEM switch