A Relative Reliability Approach for Direct Displacement-Based Seismic Design of Partially Prestressed Reinforced Concrete Frame Structures

A relative reliability approach for Direct Displacement-Based Design (DDBD) is first proposed in this paper, which is based on the average reliability level implicit in current Chinese design codes. By introducing a relative reliability coefficient , the determination of reliability from DDBD is transformed to the calculation of its ratio to the average reliability of current Chinese codes. This approach not only follows the reliability principle of current Chinese codes, but also avoids the complex calculation of reliability in general. The calculation of reliability at any performance level can be transformed to the nominal reliability of frequent earthquake for the expected earthquake risk level. Meanwhile, based on the assumption of elasticity, it is shown that, under frequent earthquake risk, the calculated base shear derived from DDBD theoretically equals that from force-based design (FBD). Therefore, a revised calculation of section bearing capacity for DDBD, which follows the expression in current Chinese codes, is advised, according to the numerical study of 24 examples of Partially Prestressed Reinforced Concrete (PPRC) frame structures. Finally, this proposed approach is verified to be effective and superior by a comparative analysis of 10 examples of PPRC frames

Polysaccharides from Enteromorpha prolifera Improve Glucose Metabolism in Diabetic Rats

This study investigated the effects of polysaccharides from Enteromorpha prolifera (PEP) on glucose metabolism in a rat model of diabetes mellitus (DM). PEP (0, 150, 300, and 600 mg/kg) was administered intragastrically to rats for four weeks. After treatment, fasting blood glucose (FBG) and insulin (INS) levels were measured, and the insulin sensitivity index (ISI) was calculated. The morphopathological changes in the pancreas were observed. Serum samples were collected to measure the oxidant-antioxidant status. The mRNA expression levels of glucokinase (GCK) and insulin receptor (InsR) in liver tissue and glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT-4) and adiponectin (APN) in adipose tissue were determined. Compared with the model group, the FBG and INS levels were lower, the ISI was higher, and the number of islet β-cells was significantly increased in all the PEP groups. In the medium- and high-dose PEP groups, MDA levels decreased, and the enzymatic activities of SOD and GSH-Px increased. The mRNA expression of InsR and GCK increased in all the PEP groups; APN mRNA expression increased in the high-dose PEP group, and GLUT-4 mRNA expression increased in adipose tissue. These findings suggest that PEP is a potential therapeutic agent that can be utilized to treat DM

Diagnosis of post-neurosurgical bacterial meningitis in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage based on the immunity-related proteomics signature of the cerebrospinal fluid

IntroductionPost-neurosurgical bacterial meningitis (PNBM) is a serious complication for patients who receive neurosurgical treatment, but the diagnosis is difficult given the complicated microenvironment orchestrated by sterile brain injury and pathogenic infection. In this study, we explored potential diagnostic biomarkers and immunological features using a proteomics platform.MethodsA total of 31 patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) who received neurosurgical treatment were recruited for this study. Among them, 15 were diagnosed with PNBM. The remaining 16 patients were categorized into the non-PNBM group. Proteomics analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was conducted on the Olink platform, which contained 92 immunity-related molecules.ResultsWe found that the expressions of 27 CSF proteins were significantly different between the PNBM and non-PNBM groups. Of those 27 proteins, 15 proteins were upregulated and 12 were downregulated in the CSF of the PNBM group. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that three proteins (pleiotrophin, CD27, and angiopoietin 1) had high diagnostic accuracy for PNBM. Furthermore, we also performed bioinformatics analysis to explore potential pathways and the subcellular localization of the proteins.ConclusionIn summary, we found a cohort of immunity-related molecules that can serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers for PNBM in patients with aSAH. These molecules also provide an immunological profile of PNBM

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

A Relative Reliability Approach for Direct Displacement-Based Seismic Design of Partially Prestressed Reinforced Concrete Frame Structures

A relative reliability approach for Direct Displacement-Based Design (DDBD) is first proposed in this paper, which is based on the average reliability level implicit in current Chinese design codes. By introducing a relative reliability coefficient α, the determination of reliability from DDBD is transformed to the calculation of its ratio to the average reliability of current Chinese codes. This approach not only follows the reliability principle of current Chinese codes, but also avoids the complex calculation of reliability in general. The calculation of reliability at any performance level can be transformed to the nominal reliability of frequent earthquake for the expected earthquake risk level. Meanwhile, based on the assumption of elasticity, it is shown that, under frequent earthquake risk, the calculated base shear derived from DDBD theoretically equals that from force-based design (FBD). Therefore, a revised calculation of section bearing capacity for DDBD, which follows the expression in current Chinese codes, is advised, according to the numerical study of 24 examples of Partially Prestressed Reinforced Concrete (PPRC) frame structures. Finally, this proposed approach is verified to be effective and superior by a comparative analysis of 10 examples of PPRC frames

Upper bounds for the spread of a matrix

AbstractIn this paper, we exhibit new and sharper upper bounds of the spread of a matrix

Methodology for estimation of CO2 storage capacity in reservoirs

The CO2 storage in reservoirs is one of the most effective ways of reducing the greenhouse gas emission, which is based on the mechanisms of structural and stratigraphic trapping, residual gas trapping, dissolution trapping and mineral trapping. The CO2 storage capacity in oil reservoirs includes theoretical, effective, practical and matched storage capacities. In the estimation of the CO2 storage capacity in both waterflooding and CO2 flooding oil reservoirs, theoretical and effective storage capacities can be obtained by the material balance and analogy methods. The theoretical storage capacity represents the physical limit of what the reservoir system can accept. The effective storage capacity represents a subset of the theoretical capacity and is obtained by applying a range of technical cut-off limits to a storage capacity assessment which incorporate the cumulative effects of reservoir and fluid parameter. When the material balance method is used, the amount of CO2 dissolution is not negligible. In using the analogy method, the key is to determine CO2 utilization factor. Examples show that the method is simple and convenient for the estimation of the CO2 storage capacity in China. Key words: carbon dioxide, storage, waterflooding, carbon dioxide flooding, dissolution, algorith

More money, better performance? The effects of student loans and need-based grants in China's higher education

The goal of this study is to examine the effect of student loans and need-based grants on financially disadvantaged student academic performance in China's higher education. We used a large sampled data from 101 universities to conduct our study. By employing different matching methods, we found that receiving a student loan did not improve student academic performance, but slightly increased students' likelihood of doing a part-time job. Likewise, receiving a need-based grant had no significant effect on student academic performance. We argue that current financial aid programs do not yield any measurable improvement on student performance. Reform and more rigorous evaluations are needed to design an effective financial aid program to promote the development of higher education in China