3,209 research outputs found
Polydispersity Effects in the Dynamics and Stability of Bubbling Flows
The occurrence of swarms of small bubbles in a variety of industrial systems
enhances their performance. However, the effects that size polydispersity may
produce on the stability of kinematic waves, the gain factor, mean bubble
velocity, kinematic and dynamic wave velocities is, to our knowledge, not yet
well established. We found that size polydispersity enhances the stability of a
bubble column by a factor of about 23% as a function of frequency and for a
particular type of bubble column. In this way our model predicts effects that
might be verified experimentally but this, however, remain to be assessed. Our
results reinforce the point of view advocated in this work in the sense that a
description of a bubble column based on the concept of randomness of a bubble
cloud and average properties of the fluid motion, may be a useful approach that
has not been exploited in engineering systems.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, presented at the 3rd NEXT-SigmaPhi International
Conference, 13-18 August, 2005, Kolymbari, Cret
A thermodynamical fiber bundle model for the fracture of disordered materials
We investigate a disordered version of a thermodynamic fiber bundle model
proposed by Selinger, Wang, Gelbart, and Ben-Shaul a few years ago. For simple
forms of disorder, the model is analytically tractable and displays some new
features. At either constant stress or constant strain, there is a non
monotonic increase of the fraction of broken fibers as a function of
temperature. Moreover, the same values of some macroscopic quantities as stress
and strain may correspond to different microscopic cofigurations, which can be
essential for determining the thermal activation time of the fracture. We argue
that different microscopic states may be characterized by an experimentally
accessible analog of the Edwards-Anderson parameter. At zero temperature, we
recover the behavior of the irreversible fiber bundle model.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure
Higher-order conservative interpolation between control-volume meshes: Application to advection and multiphase flow problems with dynamic mesh adaptivity
© 2016 .A general, higher-order, conservative and bounded interpolation for the dynamic and adaptive meshing of control-volume fields dual to continuous and discontinuous finite element representations is presented. Existing techniques such as node-wise interpolation are not conservative and do not readily generalise to discontinuous fields, whilst conservative methods such as Grandy interpolation are often too diffusive. The new method uses control-volume Galerkin projection to interpolate between control-volume fields. Bounded solutions are ensured by using a post-interpolation diffusive correction. Example applications of the method to interface capturing during advection and also to the modelling of multiphase porous media flow are presented to demonstrate the generality and robustness of the approach
Effect of energy density and virginiamycin supplementation in diets on growth performance and digestive function of finishing steers.
ObjectiveThis study was determined the influence of virginiamycin supplementation on growth-performance and characteristics of digestion of cattle with decreasing dietary net energy value of the diet for maintenance (NEm) from 2.22 to 2.10 Mcal/kg.MethodsEighty crossbred beef steers (298.2±6.3 kg) were used in a 152-d performance evaluation consisting of a 28-d adaptation period followed by a 124-d growing-finishing period. During the 124-d period steers were fed either a lesser energy dense (LED, 2.10 Mcal/kg NEm) or higher energy dense (HED, 2.22 Mcal/kg NEm) diet. Diets were fed with or without 28 mg/kg (dry matter [DM] basis) virginiamycin in a 2×2 factorial arrangement. Four Holstein steers (170.4±5.6 kg) with cannulas in the rumen (3.8 cm internal diameter) and proximal duodenum were used in 4×4 Latin square experiment to study treatment effects on characteristics of digestion.ResultsNeither diet energy density nor virginiamycin affected average daily gain (p>0.10). As expected, dry matter intake and gain efficiency were greater (p<0.01) for LED- than for HED-fed steers. Virginiamycin did not affect estimated net energy value of the LED diet. Virginiamycin increased estimated NE of the HED diet. During daylight hours when the temperature humidity index averaged 81.3±2.7, virginiamycin decreased (p<0.05) ruminal temperature. Virginiamycin did not influence (p>0.10) ruminal or total tract digestion. Ruminal (p = 0.02) and total tract digestion (p<0.01) of organic matter, and digestible energy (p<0.01) were greater for HED vs LED. Ruminal microbial efficiency was lower (p<0.01) for HED vs LED diets.ConclusionThe positive effect of virginiamycin on growth performance of cattle is due to increased efficiency of energy utilization, as effects of virginiamycin on characteristics of digestion were not appreciable. Under conditions of high ambient temperature virginiamycin may reduce body temperature
Influence of ruminal degradable intake protein restriction on characteristics of digestion and growth performance of feedlot cattle during the late finishing phase.
Two trials were conducted to evaluate the influence of supplemental urea withdrawal on characteristics of digestion (Trial 1) and growth performance (Trial 2) of feedlot cattle during the last 40 days on feed. Treatments consisted of a steam-flaked corn-based finishing diet supplemented with urea to provide urea fermentation potential (UFP) of 0, 0.6, and 1.2%. In Trial 1, six Holstein steers (160 ± 10 kg) with cannulas in the rumen and proximal duodenum were used in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square experiment. Decreasing supplemental urea decreased (linear effect, P ≤ 0.05) ruminal OM digestion. This effect was mediated by decreases (linear effect, P ≤ 0.05) in ruminal digestibility of NDF and N. Passage of non-ammonia and microbial N (MN) to the small intestine decreased (linear effect, P = 0.04) with decreasing dietary urea level. Total tract digestion of OM (linear effect, P = 0.06), NDF (linear effect, P = 0.07), N (linear effect, P = 0.04) and dietary DE (linear effect, P = 0.05) decreased with decreasing urea level. Treatment effects on total tract starch digestion, although numerically small, likewise tended (linear effect, P = 0.11) to decrease with decreasing urea level. Decreased fiber digestion accounted for 51% of the variation in OM digestion. Ruminal pH was not affected by treatments averaging 5.82. Decreasing urea level decreased (linear effect, P ≤ 0.05) ruminal N-NH and blood urea nitrogen. In Trial 2, 90 crossbred steers (468 kg ± 8), were used in a 40 d feeding trial (5 steers/pen, 6 pens/ treatment) to evaluate treatment effects on final-phase growth performance. Decreasing urea level did not affect DMI, but decreased (linear effect, P ≤ 0.03) ADG, gain efficiency, and dietary NE. It is concluded that in addition to effects on metabolizable amino acid flow to the small intestine, depriving cattle of otherwise ruminally degradable N (RDP) during the late finishing phase may negatively impact site and extent of digestion of OM, depressing ADG, gain efficiency, and dietary NE
Evaluation of Synapse Density in Hippocampal Rodent Brain Slices.
In the brain, synapses are specialized junctions between neurons, determining the strength and spread of neuronal signaling. The number of synapses is tightly regulated during development and neuronal maturation. Importantly, deficits in synapse number can lead to cognitive dysfunction. Therefore, the evaluation of synapse number is an integral part of neurobiology. However, as synapses are small and highly compact in the intact brain, the assessment of absolute number is challenging. This protocol describes a method to easily identify and evaluate synapses in hippocampal rodent slices using immunofluorescence microscopy. It includes a three-step procedure to evaluate synapses in high-quality confocal microscopy images by analyzing the co-localization of pre- and postsynaptic proteins in hippocampal slices. It also explains how the analysis is performed and gives representative examples from both excitatory and inhibitory synapses. This protocol provides a solid foundation for the analysis of synapses and can be applied to any research investigating the structure and function of the brain
Spontaneous Symmetry Breakdown in non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics
The advantages and disadvantages of some pedagogical non-relativistic
quantum-mechanical models, used to illustrate spontaneous symmetry breakdown,
are discussed. A simple quantum-mechanical toy model (a spinor on the line,
subject to a magnetostatic interaction) is presented, that exhibits the
spontaneous breakdown of an internal symmetry.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:1111.1213. Equations (30) and (31) have been corrected. Other minor
correction
- …