Nondestructive determination of subsurface grain morphology

Recent progress in experimental and numerical methods enables to scrutinize simulated polycrystal surface micromechanics at high spatial resolution. For the correct interpretation of similarities and deviations between experiment and simulation, the consideration of subsurface grain morphology is imperative because of its significant impact on the surface layer boundary condition. A novel method is presented that coarsely scans a relatively large area for subsurface crystallite orientation up to depths of ~0.2 mm by means of differential aperture X-ray microscopy. The resulting point set is categorized into grains according to proximity in physical and orientation space. Reconstruction of the subsurface grain structure starts with a Voronoi tessellation using the categorized set as seed points. Progressive smoothing of the resulting ragged grain boundary surfaces is achieved through mean curvature flow. As it turns out that the reconstruction quality of the bulk and on the surface are related, the latter can serve as guidance for optimum subsurface reconstruction

Taxifolin increased semen quality of Duroc boars by improving gut microbes and blood metabolites.

peer reviewedTaxifolin (TAX), as a natural flavonoid, has been widely focused on due to its strong anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, anti-virus, and even anti-tumor activity. However, the effect of TAX on semen quality was unknown. The purpose of this study was to analyze the beneficial influences of adding feed additive TAX to boar semen in terms of its quality and potential mechanisms. We discovered that TAX increased sperm motility significantly in Duroc boars by the elevation of the protein levels such as ZAG, PKA, CatSper, and p-ERK for sperm quality. TAX increased the blood concentration of testosterone derivatives, antioxidants such as melatonin and betaine, unsaturated fatty acids such as DHA, and beneficial amino acids such as proline. Conversely, TAX decreased 10 different kinds of bile acids in the plasma. Moreover, TAX increased "beneficial" microbes such as Intestinimonas, Coprococcus, Butyrivibrio, and Clostridium_XlVa at the Genus level. However, TAX reduced the "harmful" intestinal bacteria such as Prevotella, Howardella, Mogibacterium, and Enterococcus. There was a very close correlation between fecal microbes, plasma metabolites, and semen parameters by the spearman correlation analysis. Therefore, the data suggest that TAX increases the semen quality of Duroc boars by benefiting the gut microbes and blood metabolites. It is supposed that TAX could be used as a kind of feed additive to increase the semen quality of boars to enhance production performance

Gene expression changes induced by the tumorigenic pyrrolizidine alkaloid riddelliine in liver of Big Blue rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are probably the most common plant constituents that poison livestock, wildlife, and humans worldwide. Riddelliine is isolated from plants grown in the western United States and is a prototype of genotoxic PAs. Riddelliine was used to investigate the genotoxic effects of PAs via analysis of gene expression in the target tissue of rats in this study. Previously we observed that the mutant frequency in the liver of rats gavaged with riddelliine was 3-fold higher than that in the control group. Molecular analysis of the mutants indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the mutational spectra from riddelliine-treated and control rats.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Riddelliine-induced gene expression profiles in livers of Big Blue transgenic rats were determined. The female rats were gavaged with riddelliine at a dose of 1 mg/kg body weight 5 days a week for 12 weeks. Rat whole genome microarray was used to perform genome-wide gene expression studies. When a cutoff value of a two-fold change and a <it>P</it>-value less than 0.01 were used as gene selection criteria, 919 genes were identified as differentially expressed in riddelliine-treated rats compared to the control animals. By analysis with the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis Network, we found that these significantly changed genes were mainly involved in cancer, cell death, tissue development, cellular movement, tissue morphology, cell-to-cell signaling and interaction, and cellular growth and proliferation. We further analyzed the genes involved in metabolism, injury of endothelial cells, liver abnormalities, and cancer development in detail.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The alterations in gene expression were directly related to the pathological outcomes reported previously. These results provided further insight into the mechanisms involved in toxicity and carcinogenesis after exposure to riddelliine, and permitted us to investigate the interaction of gene products inside the signaling networks.</p

The Intelligent Vehicle Coordination of the Cybernetic Transportation System

Cybernetic Transportation System (CTS) is a new branch of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), which is a solution to the urban transportation problem. The coordination of intelligent vehicles is critical for the operation of the Cybernetic Transportation System. We present a distributed coordination approach for the intelligent vehicles of the Cybernetic Transportation System, which is based on an agent-based framework. Each vehicle agent generates intention independently by considering its and other agents' shared status and intentions in the coordination. Typical coordination scenes, including platoon and overtaking, have been demonstrated in the two-lane, two-way traffic situation and the effectiveness of the proposed coordination approach has been validated

The Intelligent Vehicle Coordination of the Cybernetic Transportation System

Cybernetic Transportation System (CTS) is a new branch of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), which is a solution to the urban transportation problem. The coordination of intelligent vehicles is critical for the operation of the Cybernetic Transportation System. We present a distributed coordination approach for the intelligent vehicles of the Cybernetic Transportation System, which is based on an agent-based framework. Each vehicle agent generates intention independently by considering its and other agents' shared status and intentions in the coordination. Typical coordination scenes, including platoon and overtaking, have been demonstrated in the two-lane, two-way traffic situation and the effectiveness of the proposed coordination approach has been validated

The Intelligent Vehicle Coordination of the Cybernetic Transportation System

Cybernetic Transportation System (CTS) is a new branch of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), which is a solution to the urban transportation problem. The coordination of intelligent vehicles is critical for the operation of the Cybernetic Transportation System. We present a distributed coordination approach for the intelligent vehicles of the Cybernetic Transportation System, which is based on an agent-based framework. Each vehicle agent generates intention independently by considering its and other agents' shared status and intentions in the coordination. Typical coordination scenes, including platoon and overtaking, have been demonstrated in the two-lane, two-way traffic situation and the effectiveness of the proposed coordination approach has been validated

Stability Control for a Walking-Chair Robot with Human in the Loop

In this paper, a human-machine shared stability control strategy is proposed for a walking-chair robot with human in the loop. We consider the human in the loop as the torso of the robot and human movement as disturbance control to the system stability. Then the safe input regions for joints are given based on the zero moment point(ZMP) criterion. The control inputs to the system are defined according to the safe input regions. When the system state stays in the safe region, the control input select the human input. When the system state leaves the safe region, a safe control is determined according to the safe input set and the human input, which changes with the different system states. The control input is determined to be the combination of the human input and the safe control. Smooth transition from human input to snapped safe input is achieved so as to guarantee the rubust of the stabilitiy control. Simulation is done to analyze the influence of human input on system stability. The results show that the strategy increase the system stability with human in the loop

Stability Control for a Walking-Chair Robot with Human in the Loop

In this paper, a human-machine shared stability control strategy is proposed for a walking-chair robot with human in the loop. We consider the human in the loop as the torso of the robot and human movement as disturbance control to the system stability. Then the safe input regions for joints are given based on the zero moment point(ZMP) criterion. The control inputs to the system are defined according to the safe input regions. When the system state stays in the safe region, the control input select the human input. When the system state leaves the safe region, a safe control is determined according to the safe input set and the human input, which changes with the different system states. The control input is determined to be the combination of the human input and the safe control. Smooth transition from human input to snapped safe input is achieved so as to guarantee the rubust of the stabilitiy control. Simulation is done to analyze the influence of human input on system stability. The results show that the strategy increase the system stability with human in the loop

Porous polyurethane hydrogels incorporated with CMC for eliminating methylene blue from water

ABSTRACTHere, a series of polyurethane porous hydrogels (PUF-s) loaded with different sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) were successfully prepared by one-step foaming method. The physio-chemical properties and morphologies were characterized. The effects of CMC content, adsorbent dosage, temperature, pH value and other factors on the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) dye in water by CMC-PUF-s were also investigated through static adsorption experiments. The results showed that CMC-PUF-10 had excellent adsorption performance for MB solution with removal rate of 81.47%, and the maximum adsorption capacity was 27.5 mg/g. In addition, the study of adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms showed that the adsorption of MB by CMC-PUF was more consistent with Langmuir isotherm adsorption model and pseudo second-order kinetic model. The adsorption thermodynamics study suggested that the adsorption process of MB by CMC-PUF-10 was spontaneous and exothermic at room temperature. The results of cyclic adsorption experiment demonstrated that the removal rate of MB reached above 70% after five cycles, indicating the foams with excellent recyclability. Finally, a low-cost, environmentally friendly and recyclable MB adsorbent was synthesized in this study. As polyurethane foam was synthesized by one-step foaming method, this adsorbent can be prepared on site in practical application and reduce the transportation cost