Evaluation of half wave induction motor drive for use in passenger vehicles

Research performed at the University of Missouri-Columbia to devise and design a lower cost inverter induction motor drive for electrical propulsion of passenger vehicles is described. A two phase inverter motor system is recommended. The new design is predicted to provide comparable vehicle performance, improved reliability and a cost advantage for a high production vehicle, decreased total rating of the power semiconductor switches, and a somewhat simpler control hardware compared to the conventional three phase bridge inverter motor drive system. The major disadvantages of the two phase inverter motor drive are that it is larger and more expensive than a three phase machine, the design of snubbers for the power leakage inductances produce higher transient voltages, and the torque pulsations are relatively large because of the necessity to limit the inverter switching frequency to achieve high efficiency

The impact of climate change on water and energy security

The interdependent fundamental systems, water and energy, face abundant challenges, one of which is climate change, which is expected to aggravate water and energy securities. The hydropower industry’s benefits have led to its development and growth around the world. Nonetheless, climate change is expected to disturb the future performance of hydropower plants. This study looks at the Seimareh Hydropower Plant to assess the potential vulnerability of hydropower plants to climate change. Results indicate that climate change will affect the area’s hydrological variables and suggest an increase in temperatures and decrease in precipitation during a 30-year future period (2040–2069). It is predicted that Seimareh Dam’s inflow will decrease by between 5.2% and 13.4% in the same period. These hydrological changes will affect the Seimareh plant’s performance: current predictions are that the total energy produced will decrease by between 8.4% and 16.3%. This research indicates the necessity of considering climate change impacts in designing and maintaining hydraulic structures to reach their optimal performance

A new approach for trapezoidal approximation of fuzzy numbers using WABL distance

In this paper, we present a new approach to obtain trapezoidal approximation of fuzzy numbers with respect to weighted distance proposed by Nasibov [5] which the main property of this metric is flexibility in the decision maker's choice. Also, we prove some properties of the proposed method such as translation invariance, scale invariance and identity. Finally, we illustrate the efficiency of proposed method by solving some numerical examples

Cancer cells exploit an orphan RNA to drive metastatic progression.

Here we performed a systematic search to identify breast-cancer-specific small noncoding RNAs, which we have collectively termed orphan noncoding RNAs (oncRNAs). We subsequently discovered that one of these oncRNAs, which originates from the 3' end of TERC, acts as a regulator of gene expression and is a robust promoter of breast cancer metastasis. This oncRNA, which we have named T3p, exerts its prometastatic effects by acting as an inhibitor of RISC complex activity and increasing the expression of the prometastatic genes NUPR1 and PANX2. Furthermore, we have shown that oncRNAs are present in cancer-cell-derived extracellular vesicles, raising the possibility that these circulating oncRNAs may also have a role in non-cell autonomous disease pathogenesis. Additionally, these circulating oncRNAs present a novel avenue for cancer fingerprinting using liquid biopsies

First Evidence of Genetic Association Between AKT2 and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

OBJECTIVE—Insulin resistance has been reported in up to 70% of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Physiologic and genetic data currently implicate post–insulin receptor signaling defects in substrates such as glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β). The AKT2 gene was chosen as a candidate for PCOS because its product affects glucose metabolism and mitogenic signaling, interacts with GSK3β, and mediates cell survival in the ovary

Onset of human preterm and term birth is related to unique inflammatory transcriptome profiles at the maternal fetal interface.

BackgroundPreterm birth is a main determinant of neonatal mortality and morbidity and a major contributor to the overall mortality and burden of disease. However, research of the preterm birth is hindered by the imprecise definition of the clinical phenotype and complexity of the molecular phenotype due to multiple pregnancy tissue types and molecular processes that may contribute to the preterm birth. Here we comprehensively evaluate the mRNA transcriptome that characterizes preterm and term labor in tissues comprising the pregnancy using precisely phenotyped samples. The four complementary phenotypes together provide comprehensive insight into preterm and term parturition.MethodsSamples of maternal blood, chorion, amnion, placenta, decidua, fetal blood, and myometrium from the uterine fundus and lower segment (n = 183) were obtained during cesarean delivery from women with four complementary phenotypes: delivering preterm with (PL) and without labor (PNL), term with (TL) and without labor (TNL). Enrolled were 35 pregnant women with four precisely and prospectively defined phenotypes: PL (n = 8), PNL (n = 10), TL (n = 7) and TNL (n = 10). Gene expression data were analyzed using shrunken centroid analysis to identify a minimal set of genes that uniquely characterizes each of the four phenotypes. Expression profiles of 73 genes and non-coding RNA sequences uniquely identified each of the four phenotypes. The shrunken centroid analysis and 10 times 10-fold cross-validation was also used to minimize false positive finings and overfitting. Identified were the pathways and molecular processes associated with and the cis-regulatory elements in gene's 5' promoter or 3'-UTR regions of the set of genes which expression uniquely characterized the four phenotypes.ResultsThe largest differences in gene expression among the four groups occurred at maternal fetal interface in decidua, chorion and amnion. The gene expression profiles showed suppression of chemokines expression in TNL, withdrawal of this suppression in TL, activation of multiple pathways of inflammation in PL, and an immune rejection profile in PNL. The genes constituting expression signatures showed over-representation of three putative regulatory elements in their 5'and 3' UTR regions.ConclusionsThe results suggest that pregnancy is maintained by downregulation of chemokines at the maternal-fetal interface. Withdrawal of this downregulation results in the term birth and its overriding by the activation of multiple pathways of the immune system in the preterm birth. Complications of the pregnancy associated with impairment of placental function, which necessitated premature delivery of the fetus in the absence of labor, show gene expression patterns associated with immune rejection

HNRNPA2B1 Is a Mediator of m6A-Dependent Nuclear RNA Processing Events

SummaryN6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant internal modification of messenger RNA. While the presence of m6A on transcripts can impact nuclear RNA fates, a reader of this mark that mediates processing of nuclear transcripts has not been identified. We find that the RNA-binding protein HNRNPA2B1 binds m6A-bearing RNAs in vivo and in vitro and its biochemical footprint matches the m6A consensus motif. HNRNPA2B1 directly binds a set of nuclear transcripts and elicits similar alternative splicing effects as the m6A writer METTL3. Moreover, HNRNPA2B1 binds to m6A marks in a subset of primary miRNA transcripts, interacts with the microRNA Microprocessor complex protein DGCR8, and promotes primary miRNA processing. Also, HNRNPA2B1 loss and METTL3 depletion cause similar processing defects for these pri-miRNA precursors. We propose HNRNPA2B1 to be a nuclear reader of the m6A mark and to mediate, in part, this mark’s effects on primary microRNA processing and alternative splicing.PaperCli

MicroRNA-203 predicts human survival after resection of colorectal liver metastasis.

BackgroundResection of colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) can be curative. Predicting which patients may benefit from resection, however, remains challenging. Some microRNAs (miRNAs) become deregulated in cancers and contribute to cancer progression. We hypothesized that miRNA expression can serve as a prognostic marker of survival after CRLM resection.ResultsMiR-203 was significantly overexpressed in tumors of short-term survivors compared to long-term survivors. R1/R2 margin status and high clinical risk score (CRS) were also significantly associated with short-term survival (both p = 0.001). After adjusting for these variables, higher miR-203 expression remained an independent predictor of shorter survival (p = 0.010). In the serum cohort, high CRS and KRAS mutation were significantly associated with short-term survival (p = 0.005 and p = 0.026, respectively). After adjusting for CRS and KRAS status, short-term survivors were found to have significantly higher miR-203 levels (p = 0.016 and p = 0.033, respectively).Materials and methodsWe employed next-generation sequencing of small-RNAs to profile miRNAs in solid tumors obtained from 38 patients who underwent hepatectomy for CRLM. To validate, quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed on 91 tumor samples and 46 preoperative serum samples.ConclusionsAfter CRLM resection, short-term survivors exhibited significantly higher miR-203 levels relative to long-term survivors. MiR-203 may serve as a prognostic biomarker and its prognostic capacity warrants further investigation