Numerical Simulation on Heat Transfer Performance of Silicon Carbide/ Nitrate Composite for Solar Power Generation

KNO3 was used as the phase change material (PCM), but its thermal conductivity is too low to transfer heat between the PCM and conduction oil efficiently. In this thesis, on the basis of the previous studies (Yong Li, 2015), the solar power generation efficiency is enhanced with high temperature interval (280℃—400℃), and the new composite which are composed by the SiC honeycomb (SCH) frame and infiltrated KNO3 is simulated by using Fluent software. The results show that the new composite of the KNO3 +30%SCH suit for the requirement of the charging time and capacity in the design of the thermal energy storage units (TESU); The comparable simulation for the long and short pipe models supplies the evidences that the long pipe simulation can be substituted by the short pipe simulation relatively, which reduces the 3-D simulation time enormously; The comparable simulation of the radial dimensions supplies some theory foundations for the design of the module thermal energy storage tank (MTEST) . These simulation results have important guidance on the design of the thermal energy storage unit and the module thermal energy storage tank

A Numerical Study on the Temperature Field of a R290 Hermetic Reciprocating Compressor with Experimental Validation

A numerical model to predict the temperature field in a R290 hermetic reciprocating compressor is presented in this work. The control volume method and the lumped parameter method are used in the simulation. The compressor is divided into 6 control volumes, including the suction muffler, the cylinder, the discharge chamber, the discharge muffler, the discharge pipe and the shell. The system of non-linear equations is formed of the energy balance equations of every control column. The temperature field is derived by solving the equations. To valid the numerical model accurately, temperature experiment has been carried out in 3 same-type hermetic reciprocating compressors using R290 as working fluid. The simulation result shows a good agreement compared with the experiment

Spatially Weighted Principal Component Analysis for Imaging Classification

The aim of this paper is to develop a supervised dimension reduction framework, called Spatially Weighted Principal Component Analysis (SWPCA), for high dimensional imaging classification. Two main challenges in imaging classification are the high dimensionality of the feature space and the complex spatial structure of imaging data. In SWPCA, we introduce two sets of novel weights including global and local spatial weights, which enable a selective treatment of individual features and incorporation of the spatial structure of imaging data and class label information. We develop an e cient two-stage iterative SWPCA algorithm and its penalized version along with the associated weight determination. We use both simulation studies and real data analysis to evaluate the finite-sample performance of our SWPCA. The results show that SWPCA outperforms several competing principal component analysis (PCA) methods, such as supervised PCA (SPCA), and other competing methods, such as sparse discriminant analysis (SDA)

Superconductivity in the cobalt-doped V3Si A15 intermetallic compound

The A15 structure of superconductors is a prototypical type-II superconductor that has generated considerable interest since the early history of superconducting materials. This paper discusses the superconducting properties of previously unreported V3-xCoxSi alloys. It is found that the lattice parameter decreases with increasing cobalt-doped content and leads to an increased residual resistivity ratio (RRR) value of the V3-xCoxSi system. Meanwhile, the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) cobalt-doped content. Furthermore, the fitted data show that the increase of cobalt-doped content also reduces the lower/upper critical fields of the V3-xCoxSi system. Type-II superconductivity is demonstrated on all V3-xCoxSi samples. With higher Co-doped content, V3-xCoxSi alloys may have superconducting and structural phase transitions at low-temperature regions. As the electron/atom (e/a) ratio increases, the Tc variation trend of V3Si is as pronounced as in crystalline alloys and monotonically follows the trend observed for amorphous superconductors.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

Fixed and Random Effects Selection in Mixed Effects Models

We consider selecting both fixed and random effects in a general class of mixed effects models using maximum penalized likelihood (MPL) estimation along with the smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) and adaptive LASSO (ALASSO) penalty functions. The maximum penalized likelihood estimates are shown to posses consistency and sparsity properties and asymptotic normality. A model selection criterion, called the ICQ statistic, is proposed for selecting the penalty parameters (Ibrahim, Zhu and Tang, 2008). The variable selection procedure based on ICQ is shown to consistently select important fixed and random effects. The methodology is very general and can be applied to numerous situations involving random effects, including generalized linear mixed models. Simulation studies and a real data set from an Yale infant growth study are used to illustrate the proposed methodology

Bayesian Lasso for Semiparametric Structural Equation Models

There has been great interest in developing nonlinear structural equation models and associated statistical inference procedures, including estimation and model selection methods. In this paper a general semiparametric structural equation model (SSEM) is developed in which the structural equation is composed of nonparametric functions of exogenous latent variables and fixed covariates on a set of latent endogenous variables. A basis representation is used to approximate these nonparametric functions in the structural equation and the Bayesian Lasso method coupled with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm is used for simultaneous estimation and model selection. The proposed method is illustrated using a simulation study and data from the Affective Dynamics and Individual Differences (ADID) study. Results demonstrate that our method can accurately estimate the unknown parameters and correctly identify the true underlying model

Superconductivity in the high-entropy ceramics Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx with possible nontrivial band topology

Topological superconductors have drawn significant interest from the scientific community due to the accompanying Majorana fermions. Here, we report the discovery of electronic structure and superconductivity in high-entropy ceramics Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx (x = 1 and 0.8) combined with experiments and first-principles calculations. The Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx high-entropy ceramics show bulk type-II superconductivity with Tc about 4.00 K (x = 1) and 2.65 K (x = 0.8), respectively. The specific heat jump is equal to 1.45 (x = 1) and 1.52 (x = 0.8), close to the expected value of 1.43 for the BCS superconductor in the weak coupling limit. The high-pressure resistance measurements show that a robust superconductivity against high physical pressure in Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2C, with a slight Tc variation of 0.3 K within 82.5 GPa. Furthermore, the first-principles calculations indicate that the Dirac-like point exists in the electronic band structures of Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2C, which is potentially a topological superconductor. The Dirac-like point is mainly contributed by the d orbitals of transition metals M and the p orbitals of C. The high-entropy ceramics provide an excellent platform for the fabrication of novel quantum devices, and our study may spark significant future physics investigations in this intriguing material.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures,The manuscript with the same title will be published by Advanced Scienc

Clinical application of SPHARM-PDM to quantify temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis

The severe bone destruction and resorption that can occur in Osteoarthritis of the Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) is associated with significant pain and limited joint mobility. However, there is no validated method for the quantification of discrete changes in joint morphology in early diagnosis or assessment of disease progression or treatment effects. To achieve this, the objective of this cross-sectional study was to use simulated bone resorption on cone-beam CT (CBCT) to study condylar morphological variation in subjects with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) osteoarthritis (OA). The first part of this study assessed the hypothesis that the agreement between the simulated defects and the shape analysis measurements made of these defects would be within 0.5mm (the image’s spatial resolution). One hundred seventy-nine discrete bony defects measuring 3mm and 6mm were simulated on the surfaces of 3D models derived from CBCT images of asymptomatic patients using ITK-Snap software. SPHARM shape correspondence was used to localize and quantify morphological differences of each resorption model with the original asymptomatic control. The size of each simulated defect was analyzed and the values obtained compared to the true defect size. The statistical analysis revealed very high probabilities that mean shape correspondence measured defects within 0.5mm of the true defect size. 95% confidence intervals (CI) were (2.67,2.92) and (5.99,6.36) and 95% prediction intervals (PI) were (2.22,3.37) and (5.54, 6.82), respectively for 3mm and 6mm simulated defects. The second part of this study applied shape correspondence methods to a longitudinal sample of TMJ OA patients. The mapped longitudinal stages of TMJ OA progression identified morphological variants or subtypes, which may explain the heterogeneity of the clinical presentation. This study validated shape correspondence as a method to precisely and predictably quantify 3D condylar resorption

Mechanical Strain Regulates Osteoblast Proliferation through Integrin-Mediated ERK Activation

Mechanical strain plays a critical role in the proliferation, differentiation and maturation of bone cells. As mechanical receptor cells, osteoblasts perceive and respond to stress force, such as those associated with compression, strain and shear stress. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of this process remain unclear. Using a four-point bending device, mouse MC3T3-E1 cells was exposed to mechanical tensile strain. Cell proliferation was determined to be most efficient when stimulated once a day by mechanical strain at a frequency of 0.5 Hz and intensities of 2500 µε with once a day, and a periodicity of 1 h/day for 3 days. The applied mechanical strain resulted in the altered expression of 1992 genes, 41 of which are involved in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Activation of ERK by mechanical strain promoted cell proliferation and inactivation of ERK by PD98059 suppressed proliferation, confirming that ERK plays an important role in the response to mechanical strain. Furthermore, the membrane-associated receptors integrin β1 and integrin β5 were determined to regulate ERK activity and the proliferation of mechanical strain-treated MC3T3-E1 cells in opposite ways. The knockdown of integrin β1 led to the inhibition of ERK activity and cell proliferation, whereas the knockdown of integrin β5 led to the enhancement of both processes. This study proposes a novel mechanism by which mechanical strain regulates bone growth and remodeling