Cavitation in a bulb turbine

The flow in a horizontal shaft bulb turbine is calculated as a two-phase flow with a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD-)-code including cavitation model. The results are compared with experimental results achieved at a closed loop test rig for model turbines. On the model test rig, for a certain operating point (i.e.volume flow, net head, blade angle, guide vane opening) the pressure behind the turbine is lowered (i.e. the Thomacoefficient s is lowered) and the efficiency of the turbine is recorded. The measured values can be depicted in a so-called s?break curve or h-s?diagram. Usually, the efficiency is independent of the Thoma-coefficient up to a certain value. When lowering the Thoma-coefficient below this value the efficiency will drop rapidly. Visual observations of the different cavitation conditions complete the experiment. In analogy, several calculations are done for different Thoma-coefficients s and the corresponding hydraulic losses of the runner are evaluated quantitatively. Besides, the fraction of water vapour as an indication of the size of the cavitation cavity is analyzed qualitatively. The experimentally and the numerically obtained results are compared and show a good agreement. Especially the drop in efficiency can be calculated with satisfying accuracy. This drop in efficiency is of high practical importance since it is one criterion to determine the admissible cavitation in a bulbturbine. The visual impression of the cavitation in the CFDanalysis is well in accordance with the observed cavitation bubbles recorded on sketches and/or photographs.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84277/1/CAV2009-final91.pd

Increased Density to Improve Pavement Durability Demonstration Project - NDOT 3716

The fact that Department of Transportation (DOT) specifications always include compaction provisions reflects that asphalt pavement technologists have recognized the impact of in place density on pavement performance for many decades. However, an increase in durability related performance issues in the mid 2010’s placed renewed focus on it. A recent literature review summarized past lab and field work which conservatively showed a 1 percent increase in density improves pavement life by 10 percent. It included information from the WesTrack project in Nevada that showed a 1 percent increase in density resulted in an improvement in rutting performance of 7 to 66 percent and 8 to 44 percent improvement in fatigue performance. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has supported an Increased In-Place Density Initiative since 2015 with focus on communicating and providing education on the benefits of increasing in-place density of asphalt concrete pavements that State DOTs could volunteer to participate in. This report describes a density demonstration project conducted by the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT). The project scope included two test sections for the typical roadway reconstruction under special provisions that increased the NDOT standard specification in-place mat density minimum requirements by one percent and two percent, respectively. A control section was also constructed. The contractor had the flexibility to make operational and equipment changes in the two test sections to improve in place density. Collectively, use of intelligent compactors, additional density QC staff, additional roller coverages and potentially an increase in asphalt content above the JMF target led to increased mat density and improved consistency when compared to the control data.Nevada Department of Transportatio

A Computation of the Maximal Order Type of the Term Ordering on Finite Multisets

We give a sharpening of a recent result of Aschenbrenner and Pong about the maximal order type of the term ordering on the finite multisets over a wpo. Moreover we discuss an approach to compute maximal order types of well-partial orders which are related to tree embeddings

Adaptive Evolution of the Myo6 Gene in Old World Fruit Bats (Family: Pteropodidae)

PMCID: PMC3631194This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

A Myo6 Mutation Destroys Coordination between the Myosin Heads, Revealing New Functions of Myosin VI in the Stereocilia of Mammalian Inner Ear Hair Cells

Myosin VI, found in organisms from Caenorhabditis elegans to humans, is essential for auditory and vestibular function in mammals, since genetic mutations lead to hearing impairment and vestibular dysfunction in both humans and mice. Here, we show that a missense mutation in this molecular motor in an ENU-generated mouse model, Tailchaser, disrupts myosin VI function. Structural changes in the Tailchaser hair bundles include mislocalization of the kinocilia and branching of stereocilia. Transfection of GFP-labeled myosin VI into epithelial cells and delivery of endocytic vesicles to the early endosome revealed that the mutant phenotype displays disrupted motor function. The actin-activated ATPase rates measured for the D179Y mutation are decreased, and indicate loss of coordination of the myosin VI heads or ‘gating’ in the dimer form. Proper coordination is required for walking processively along, or anchoring to, actin filaments, and is apparently destroyed by the proximity of the mutation to the nucleotide-binding pocket. This loss of myosin VI function may not allow myosin VI to transport its cargoes appropriately at the base and within the stereocilia, or to anchor the membrane of stereocilia to actin filaments via its cargos, both of which lead to structural changes in the stereocilia of myosin VI–impaired hair cells, and ultimately leading to deafness

Urban living in healthy Tanzanians is associated with an inflammatory status driven by dietary and metabolic changes

Sub-Saharan Africa currently experiences an unprecedented wave of urbanization, which has important consequences for health and disease patterns. This study aimed to investigate and integrate the immune and metabolic consequences of rural or urban lifestyles and the role of nutritional changes associated with urban living. In a cohort of 323 healthy Tanzanians, urban as compared to rural living was associated with a pro-inflammatory immune phenotype, both at the transcript and protein levels. We identified different food-derived and endogenous circulating metabolites accounting for these differences. Serum from urban dwellers induced reprogramming of innate immune cells with higher tumor necrosis factor production upon microbial re-stimulation in an in vitro model of trained immunity. These data demonstrate important shifts toward an inflammatory phenotype associated with an urban lifestyle and provide new insights into the underlying dietary and metabolic factors, which may affect disease epidemiology in sub-Sahara African countries. Rapid urbanization can be associated with adverse health implications. de Mast and colleagues compare urban and rural Tanzanian populations using multi-omics and observe that urbanization is associated with an elevated but reversible inflammatory state

The Drosophila GIPC Homologue Can Modulate Myosin Based Processes and Planar Cell Polarity but Is Not Essential for Development

Epithelia often show, in addition to the ubiquitous apico-basal (A/B) axis, a polarization within the plane of the epithelium, perpendicular to the A/B axis. Such planar cell polarity (PCP) is for example evident in the regular arrangement of the stereocilia in the cochlea of the mammalian inner ear or in (almost) all Drosophila adult external structures. GIPCs (GAIP interacting protein, C terminus) were first identified in mammals and bind to the Gαi GTPase activating protein RGS-GAIP. They have been proposed to act in a G-protein coupled complex controlling vesicular trafficking. Although GIPCs have been found to bind to numerous proteins including Frizzled receptors, which participate in PCP establishment, there is little in vivo evidence for the functional role(s) of GIPCs. We show here that overexpressed Drosophila dGIPC alters PCP generation in the wing. We were however unable to find any binding between dGIPC and the Drosophila receptors Fz1 and Fz2. The effect of overexpressed dGIPC is likely due to an effect on the actin cytoskeleton via myosins, since it is almost entirely suppressed by removing a genomic copy of the Myosin VI/jaguar gene. Surprisingly, although dGIPC can interfere with PCP generation and myosin based processes, the complete loss-of-function of dGIPC gives viable adults with no PCP or other detectable defects arguing for a non-essential role of dGIPC in viability and normal Drosophila development