Lattice Boltzmann methods for multiphase flow and phase-change heat transfer

Over the past few decades, tremendous progress has been made in the development of particle-based discrete simulation methods versus the conventional continuum-based methods. In particular, the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method has evolved from a theoretical novelty to a ubiquitous, versatile and powerful computational methodology for both fundamental research and engineering applications. It is a kinetic-based mesoscopic approach that bridges the microscales and macroscales, which offers distinctive advantages in simulation fidelity and computational efficiency. Applications of the LB method are now found in a wide range of disciplines including physics, chemistry, materials, biomedicine and various branches of engineering. The present work provides a comprehensive review of the LB method for thermofluids and energy applications, focusing on multiphase flows, thermal flows and thermal multiphase flows with phase change. The review first covers the theoretical framework of the LB method, revealing certain inconsistencies and defects as well as common features of multiphase and thermal LB models. Recent developments in improving the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic consistency, reducing spurious currents, enhancing the numerical stability, etc., are highlighted. These efforts have put the LB method on a firmer theoretical foundation with enhanced LB models that can achieve larger liquid-gas density ratio, higher Reynolds number and flexible surface tension. Examples of applications are provided in fuel cells and batteries, droplet collision, boiling heat transfer and evaporation, and energy storage. Finally, further developments and future prospect of the LB method are outlined for thermofluids and energy applications

Biological roles of crop NADP-malic enzymes and molecular mechanisms involved in abiotic stress

The abiotic stress tolerance of plants is very important for plant growth, development, survival and functional performance. NADP-ME is one of the most important enzymes in plants. Studying the role that NADP-malic enzyme plays in many metabolisms may help researchers improve the plant abiotic tolerance. The studies on NADP-ME in plants focus on its activity under different stresses. The regulation of NADP-ME gene expression in transgenic plants and the mechanism about abiotic stress resistance are less. In this paper, we reviewed the characteristics of the activity and genes expression of NADP-ME under drought, salt and temperature stresses. We also focused on the role of NADP-ME when it resists these varying stresses and the mechanism on how it performs.Key words: Plant NADP-malic enzyme, abiotic stress, gene expression, molecular mechanism

Cerebellar defects in Pdss2 conditional knockout mice during embryonic development and in adulthood

PDSS2 is a gene that encodes one of the two subunits of trans-prenyl diphosphate synthase that is essential for ubiquinone biosynthesis. It is known that mutations in PDSS2 can cause primary ubiquinone deficiency in humans and a similar disease in mice. Cerebellum is the most often affected organ in ubiquinone deficiency, and cerebellar atrophy has been diagnosed in many infants with this disease. In this study, two Pdss2 conditional knockout mouse lines directed by Pax2-cre and Pcp2-cre were generated to investigate the effect of ubiquinone deficiency on cerebellum during embryonic development and in adulthood, respectively. The Pdss2 f/-; Pax2-cre mouse recapitulates some symptoms of ubiquinone deficiency in infants, including severe cerebellum hypoplasia and lipid accumulation in skeletal muscles at birth. During early cerebellum development (E12.5-14.5), Pdss2 knockout initially causes the delay of radial glial cell growth and neuron progenitor migration, so the growth of mutant cerebellum is retarded. During later development (E15.5-P0), increased ectopic apoptosis of neuroblasts and impaired cell proliferation result in the progression of cerebellum hypoplasia in the mutant. Thus, the mutant cerebellum contains fewer neurons at birth, and the cells are disorganized. The developmental defect of mutant cerebellum does not result from reduced Fgf8 expression before E12.5. Electron microscopy reveals mitochondrial defects and increased autophagic-like vacuolization that may arise in response to abnormal mitochondria in the mutant cerebellum. Nevertheless, the mutant mice die soon after birth probably due to cleft palate and micrognathia, which may result from Pdss2 knockout caused by ectopic Pax2-cre expression in the first branchial arch. On the other hand, the Pdss2 f/-; Pcp2-cre mouse is healthy at birth but gradually loses cerebellar Purkinje cells and develops ataxia-like symptoms at 9.5months; thus this conditional knockout mouse may serve as a model for ubiquinone deficiency in adult patients. In conclusion, this study provides two mouse models of Pdss2 based ubiquinone deficiency. During cerebellum development, Pdss2 knockout results in severe cerebellum hypoplasia by impairing cell migration and eliciting ectopic apoptosis, whereas Pdss2 knockout in Purkinje cells at postnatal stages leads to the development of cerebellar ataxia. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.postprin

Effect of 2-(3-carboxy-1-oxopropyl) amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose on human esophageal cancer cell line

Aim: To determine whether 2-(3-carboxy-1-oxopropy1) amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose (COPADG), a derivative of D-amino-glucose, inhibited the growth of human esophageal cancer cell line Eca-109. Methods: Effects of COPADG on Eca-109 cells cultured in RPMI 1640 medium were examined by a tetrazolium-based colorimetric assay (MTT assay). Results: COPADG inhibited the growth of Eca-109 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner; the maximum inhibition rate was 83.75%. Conclusion: COPADG can directly inhibit the proliferation of Eca-109 cells, which may serve as the experimental evidence for development of new drugs for esophageal cancer therapy. Copyright © 2004 by The WJG.published_or_final_versio

Microstructures and resistivity of cuprate/manganite bilayer deposited on SrTiO3 substrate

Thin Yba[SUB2]Cu[SUB3]O[SUB7-δ/La[SUB0.67]Ca[SUB0.33]MnO[SUB3] (YBCO/LCMO) films were grown on SrTiO[SUB3](STO)substrates by magnetron sputtering technique. The microstructures of the bilayers were characterized and a standard four-probe technique was applied to measure the resistivity of the samples. The interdiffusions at the YBCO/LCMO and LCMO/STO interfaces formed two transient layers with the thickness of about 3 and 2 nm, respectively. All the bilayers were well textured along the c axis. At low temperature, the superconductivity can only be observed when the thickness of YBCO is more than 25 nm. When the thickness of YBCO is less than 8 nm, the bilayers show only ferromagnetism. The superconductivity and ferromagnetism perhaps coexist in the bilayer with the YBCO thickness of 12.5 nm. These interesting properties are related to the interaction between spin polarized electrons in the manganites and the cooper pairs in the cuprates. © 2003 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Trapped lipopolysaccharide and LptD intermediates reveal lipopolysaccharide translocation steps across the Escherichia coli outer membrane

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a main component of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, which is essential for the vitality of most Gram-negative bacteria and plays a critical role for drug resistance. LptD/E complex forms a N-terminal LPS transport slide, a hydrophobic intramembrane hole and the hydrophilic channel of the barrel, for LPS transport, lipid A insertion and core oligosaccharide and O-antigen polysaccharide translocation, respectively. However, there is no direct evidence to confirm that LptD/E transports LPS from the periplasm to the external leaflet of the outer membrane. By replacing LptD residues with an unnatural amino acid p-benzoyl-L-phenyalanine (pBPA) and UV-photo-cross-linking in E.coli, the translocon and LPS intermediates were obtained at the N-terminal domain, the intramembrane hole, the lumenal gate, the lumen of LptD channel, and the extracellular loop 1 and 4, providing the first direct evidence and “snapshots” to reveal LPS translocation steps across the outer membrane

Designer Multimode Localized Random Lasing in Amorphous Lattices at Terahertz Frequencies

Random lasers are a special class of laser in which light is confined through multiple scattering and interference process in a disordered medium, without a traditional optical cavity. They have been widely studied to investigate fundamental phenomena such as Anderson localization, and for applications such as speckle-free imaging, benefitting from multiple lasing modes. However, achieving controlled localized multi-mode random lasing at long wavelengths, such as in the terahertz (THz) frequency regime, remains a challenge. Here, we study devices consisting of randomly-distributed pillars fabricated from a quantum cascade gain medium, and show that such structures can achieve transversemagnetic polarized (TM) multi-mode random lasing, with strongly localized modes at THz frequencies. The weak short-range order induced by the pillar distribution is sufficient to ensure high quality-factor modes that have a large overlap with the active material. Furthermore, the emission spectrum can be easily tuned by tailoring the scatterer size and filling fraction. These “designer” random lasers, realized using standard photolithography 2 techniques, provide a promising platform for investigating disordered photonics with predesigned randomness in the THz frequency range, and may have potential applications such as speckle-free imaging

Quarkonium dissociation by anisotropy

We compute the screening length for quarkonium mesons moving through an anisotropic, strongly coupled N=4 super Yang-Mills plasma by means of its gravity dual. We present the results for arbitrary velocities and orientations of the mesons, as well as for arbitrary values of the anisotropy. The anisotropic screening length can be larger or smaller than the isotropic one, and this depends on whether the comparison is made at equal temperatures or at equal entropy densities. For generic motion we find that: (i) mesons dissociate above a certain critical value of the anisotropy, even at zero temperature; (ii) there is a limiting velocity for mesons in the plasma, even at zero temperature; (iii) in the ultra-relativistic limit the screening length scales as $(1-v^2)^\epsilon$ with \epsilon =1/2, in contrast with the isotropic result \epsilon =1/4.Comment: 39 pages, 26 figures; v2: minor changes, added reference

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

Analysis of Risk Factors of Sarcopenia in Patients with Maintenance Hemodialysis and Its Correlation with Emotional Status and Quality of Life

Yong-Yao Wu,1,&ast; Jun-Yuan Li,1,&ast; Qiao-Jing Xia,1 Yi-Yi Gao,1 Chao Zhang,1 Peng-Jie Xu,1 Jiang Liu,1 Hao-Jie Zhang,1 Ri-Zhen Yu2 1Department of Nephrology, Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, 315099, People’s Republic of China; 2Urology & Nephrology Center, Department of Nephrology, Affiliated People’s Hospital, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 310014, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hao-Jie Zhang, Department of Nephrology, Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, No. 1111 Jiangnan Road, Yinzhou District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, 315099, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected] Ri-Zhen Yu, Urology & Nephrology Center, Department of Nephrology, Affiliated People’s Hospital, Hangzhou Medical College, No. 158 Shangtang Road, Gongshu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310014, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 571-85893889, Fax +86 571-85131448, Email [email protected]: Sarcopenia is more common in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients, and the aim of this study is to analyze the risk factors associated with sarcopenia in MHD patients, along with its correlation to emotional status and quality of life.Methods: This is a cross-sectional cohort study. A total of 111 MHD patients who were treated in the Department of Nephrology of our hospital were selected as the study subjects by convenience sampling. The quality of life and emotional status were evaluated by health survey scale (SF-36), self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS). Regression analysis was used to explore the influencing factors of sarcopenia. Correlation analysis was used to investigate the correlation between sarcopenia and quality of life and emotional status.Results: The prevalence of sarcopenia was 59.8%. The results showed that age, gender, body mass index (BMI), dialysis time, economic status, marital status and pre-dialysis creatinine were significant factors affecting the development of sarcopenia in hemodialysis patients (p< 0.05). The SF-36 total score was significantly lower in the sarcopenia group (72.05± 12.28 vs 78.03± 10.55) than in the non-sarcopenia group, but the anxiety scale score (52.97± 4.67 vs 36.2± 3.36) and depression scale score (57.67± 4.58 vs 38.71± 3.77) were significantly higher than those in the non-sarcopenia group (p< 0.001). Correlation analysis showed that sarcopenia was positively correlated with SAS and SDS scores and negatively correlated with SF-36 total score (p < 0.05).Conclusion: The risk of sarcopenia was higher among MHD patients who were older, male, single, with a longer MHD duration, lower economic status, lower BMI, comorbid diabetes and lower levels of creatinine.Keywords: maintenance hemodialysis, sarcopenia, quality of life, risk factors, cross-sectional studie