Numerical Simulation and Experimental Study of the Tube Receiver's Performance of Solar Thermal Power Tower

AbstractA water-vapor tube receiver is a significant component in the solar thermal power tower plant. However, the tube flow performance is much different from others. Because semi-circumference of the tube is heated with an uneven heat flux, which is into a Gaussian distribution in this paper, and the other semi-circumference is insulated. A 5kW- Xe-arc lamp was used to simulate a solar light source. In this study, the effect of different entrance velocity on the flow performance and thermal efficiency of the tube receiver are investigated with numerical and experimental methods. The results of experiment and simulation agree well. The results show that the temperature distribution of water and tube wall are very uneven both in the axial and radial directions. The thermal efficiency of the tube receiver increases with the increase of entrance velocity

Clinical value of miR-23a-3p expression in early diagnosis of diabetic kidney disease

Introduction: The objective was to observe the expression of miR-23a-3p in the serum of patients with type 2 diabetic nephropathy (T2DN) and to explore its clinical significance. Materials and methods: 112 patients with type 2 diabetes were divided into a simple diabetes mellitus (NON) group, T2DN microalbuminuria (MIC) group, and T2DN macroalbuminuria (MAC) group, according to the urinary protein-creatinine ratio (uACR). Clinical data were collected, miR-23a-3p levels in serum were measured by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and clinical parameters were measured by an automatic biochemical analyser; the influencing factors of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and the correlation between miR-23a-3p expression and clinical parameters were analysed. Results: The expression of miR-23a-3p in the serum of the DKD group was lower than that of the normal control (CON) and NON groups. Correlation analysis showed that miR-23a-3p was positively correlated with urinary albumin (Albu), glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c), total cholesterol (CHOL), glycated albumin (GA-L), serum creatinine (Scr), fasting blood glucose (GLU), and uric acid (UA), negatively correlated with uACR and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), but not correlated with urinary creatinine (CREA). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of miR-23a-3p for the diagnosis of DKD was 0.686 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.599–0.773], with a sensitivity of 64.5% and a specificity of 71.2%; the AUC for differentiating NON from DKD was 0.700 (95% CI: 0.598–0.802), with a sensitivity of 61.8% and a specificity of 77.8%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that serum miR-23a-3plevels were not associated with the development of DKD after adjusting for other levels of influence and were not significant for the differentiation of NON and DKD. Conclusion: Serum miR-23a-3p levels are decreased in T2DN patients, and this change becomes more significant with the severity of the disease, which may be a marker for the early diagnosis and progression of T2DN

Structural Health Monitoring for Composite Materials

Computer networking & communication

A van der Waals antiferromagnetic topological insulator with weak interlayer magnetic coupling.

Magnetic topological insulators (TI) provide an important material platform to explore quantum phenomena such as quantized anomalous Hall effect and Majorana modes, etc. Their successful material realization is thus essential for our fundamental understanding and potential technical revolutions. By realizing a bulk van der Waals material MnBi4Te7 with alternating septuple [MnBi2Te4] and quintuple [Bi2Te3] layers, we show that it is ferromagnetic in plane but antiferromagnetic along the c axis with an out-of-plane saturation field of ~0.22 T at 2 K. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements and first-principles calculations further demonstrate that MnBi4Te7 is a Z2 antiferromagnetic TI with two types of surface states associated with the [MnBi2Te4] or [Bi2Te3] termination, respectively. Additionally, its superlattice nature may make various heterostructures of [MnBi2Te4] and [Bi2Te3] layers possible by exfoliation. Therefore, the low saturation field and the superlattice nature of MnBi4Te7 make it an ideal system to investigate rich emergent phenomena

Antigen-Sparing and Enhanced Efficacy of Multivalent Vaccines Adjuvanted with Immunopotentiators in Chickens

We previously described that immunopotentiators, CVCVA5, increased the efficacy of H5 and H9 subtype avian influenza vaccines in chickens, ducks, and geese. In this study, we further investigated the effects of the CVCVA5 for improving the efficacy of other univalent or multivalent inactivated vaccines. The immune response administrated with half-dose of monovalent vaccine plus CVCVA5 were higher than those of one dose of monovalent vaccine without immunopotentiators as measured by levels of antibodies from serum, tears and bronchoalveolar lavage fluids, and cytokines of IFNγ and IL-4 from serum. Vaccines included the univalent vaccine of Newcastle Disease virus (ND), Egg Drop Syndrome virus (EDS), Infectious Bronchitis virus (IB), and Infectious Bursal Disease virus (IBD). The CVCVA5 also improved the immune response of both ND and IBD vaccines with less dosage. The sterile protective immunity was monitored with one- or a half-dose of adjuvanted ND vaccine or one dose of adjuvanted IBD vaccine, respectively. The improved immune efficacy was observed in a half-dose of adjuvanted bivalent vaccines compared to one dose of vaccines without CVCVA5 as measured by the antibody levels, including bivalent vaccine of ND-H9, ND-IB, and ND-IBD. The CVCVA5 also boosted the immune efficacy of the tetravalent vaccine (ND-IB-EDS-H9). A half-dose of adjuvanted commercial vaccine or 75% antigen-sparing adjuvanted vaccine elicited similar antibody levels to those of one dose non-adjuvanted commercial vaccines. The CVCVA5 improved the effect of a booster vaccination as measured by the antibody levels against H5 or H9 virus antigens, in which chickens primed with the adjuvanted ND-IB vaccines given a booster with H5–H9 bivalent vaccines without CVCVA5 using 5-day intervals. The inflammatory response may contribute to these additional effects by increasing the levels of IFNγ and IL-4 after the injection of the adjuvanted ND-IB vaccines. Results indicated that the CVCVA5 improved the serum and mucosal antibody levels, cytokine levels of the chickens given the univalent vaccine, and also improved serum antibody titers in bivalent and tetravalent vaccines. This has a potential as an improve vaccine