Numerical investigation of oil injection in a Roots blower operated as expander

The adoption of positive displacement machines as expanders in Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) is increasingly common, especially in the low to medium power range. At the same time, these devices often serve as compressor in Vapor-Compression Refrigeration Systems. In both cases, the application of Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to optimize such machines has become an integrated tool in the design process. As a consequence, several challenges associated with the numerical simulation have to be taken into account. For example, the modeling of the gap represents a challenge for the stability of the numerical analysis. The dynamic of the process, combined with deformations of the clearances and of the working chamber has to be considered with extra care. To raise the efficiency of the machine, oil is typically injected. Its numerical modeling imply an extra challenge in the simulation of the actual operation of the machine. The present work is mainly focused on the multi-phase nature of the flow, with a particular analysis of the lubricant oil injected. In this work, a two-lobe Roots blower operated as expander has been simulated with the open-source software OpenFOAM-v1812, using the SCORG-V5.2.2. This analysis highlights the areas that are affected the most by the oil presence in order to highlight the sealing effect it provides

Prenatal exposure to recreational drugs affects global motion perception in preschool children

Chakraborty, A. et al. Prenatal exposure to recreational drugs affects global motion perception in preschool children. Sci. Rep. 5, 16921; doi: 10.1038/srep16921 (2015).Prenatal exposure to recreational drugs impairs motor and cognitive development; however it is currently unknown whether visual brain areas are affected. To address this question, we investigated the effect of prenatal drug exposure on global motion perception, a behavioural measure of processing within the dorsal extrastriate visual cortex that is thought to be particularly vulnerable to abnormal neurodevelopment. Global motion perception was measured in one hundred and forty-five 4.5-year-old children who had been exposed to different combinations of methamphetamine, alcohol, nicotine and marijuana prior to birth and 25 unexposed children. Self-reported drug use by the mothers was verified by meconium analysis. We found that global motion perception was impaired by prenatal exposure to alcohol and improved significantly by exposure to marijuana. Exposure to both drugs prenatally had no effect. Other visual functions such as habitual visual acuity and stereoacuity were not affected by drug exposure. Prenatal exposure to methamphetamine did not influence visual function. Our results demonstrate that prenatal drug exposure can influence a behavioural measure of visual development, but that the effects are dependent on the specific drugs used during pregnancy.This research was supported by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse grants 2RO1DA014948 and RO1DA021757 and the Auckland Medical Research Foundation

Results from an interlaboratory comparison of areal surface texture parameter extraction from X-ray computed tomography of additively manufactured parts

This paper presents the results of the CT-STARR (CT-Surface Texture for Additive Round Robin) interlaboratory comparison. The study compares the results obtained for the extraction of areal surface texture data per ISO 25178-2 from five X-ray computed tomography (XCT) volume measurements from each of four laboratories. To reduce the number of process variables, all participants utilise a Nikon XCT machine, either an XT H 225 industrial CT or an MCT225 metrology CT. Measurement process parameters, such as physical X-ray filtering, acceleration voltage and filament current, are set at similar values for all machines. All data processing and computation to extract, align, crop, filter and generate surface texture parameter information and deviation analysis results from the measurement volumes is performed by one participant. Two Ti6Al4V ELI (extra low interstitial) components are included in each of the XCT acquisitions. The first component is an additively manufactured cube built on an Arcam Q10 electron beam melting machine. Surface texture data is extracted from XCT scans of this part. The second component is a machined artefact designed for XCT scaling and surface determination analysis and verification. The data extracted from XCT measurements of these components is compared with measurements from coordinate measuring machine, focus variation and stylus instruments. The effect of scaling correction and XCT surface determination on extracted surface texture data, as well as measurement repeatability and reproducibility, are discussed

Foot-and-mouth disease virus genome replication is unaffected by inhibition of type III phosphatidylinositol-4-kinases

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes economically-damaging infections of cloven-hooved animals, with outbreaks resulting in large financial losses to the agricultural industry. Due to the highly contagious nature of FMDV, research with infectious virus is restricted to a limited number of key facilities worldwide. FMDV subgenomic replicons are therefore important tools for the study of viral translation and genome replication. The type III phosphatidylinositol-4-kinases (PI4K) are a family of enzymes that play a key role in the production of replication complexes (viral factories) of a number of positive-sense RNA viruses and represents a potential target for novel pan-viral therapeutics. Here, we have investigated whether type III PI4Ks also play a role in the FMDV lifecycle, using a combination of FMDV subgenomic replicons and bicistronic IRES-containing reporter plasmids. We have demonstrated that replication of the FMDV replicon was unaffected by inhibitors of either PI4KIIIα or PI4KIIIβ. However, PIK93, an inhibitor previously demonstrated to target PI4KIIIβ, did inhibit IRES-mediated protein translation. Consistent with this, cells transfected with FMDV replicons did not exhibit elevated levels of PI4P lipids. These results are therefore supportive of the hypothesis that FMDV genome replication does not require type III PI4K activity and does not activate these kinases

Species-level functional profiling of metagenomes and metatranscriptomes.

Functional profiles of microbial communities are typically generated using comprehensive metagenomic or metatranscriptomic sequence read searches, which are time-consuming, prone to spurious mapping, and often limited to community-level quantification. We developed HUMAnN2, a tiered search strategy that enables fast, accurate, and species-resolved functional profiling of host-associated and environmental communities. HUMAnN2 identifies a community's known species, aligns reads to their pangenomes, performs translated search on unclassified reads, and finally quantifies gene families and pathways. Relative to pure translated search, HUMAnN2 is faster and produces more accurate gene family profiles. We applied HUMAnN2 to study clinal variation in marine metabolism, ecological contribution patterns among human microbiome pathways, variation in species' genomic versus transcriptional contributions, and strain profiling. Further, we introduce 'contributional diversity' to explain patterns of ecological assembly across different microbial community types

14-3-3 Proteins Interact with a Hybrid Prenyl-Phosphorylation Motif to Inhibit G Proteins

Signaling through G proteins normally involves conformational switching between GTP- and GDP-bound states. Several Rho GTPases are also regulated by RhoGDI binding and sequestering in the cytosol. Rnd proteins are atypical constitutively GTP-bound Rho proteins, whose regulation remains elusive. Here, we report a high-affinity 14-3-3-binding site at the C terminus of Rnd3 consisting of both the Cys241-farnesyl moiety and a Rho-associated coiled coil containing protein kinase (ROCK)-dependent Ser240 phosphorylation site. 14-3-3 binding to Rnd3 also involves phosphorylation of Ser218 by ROCK and/or Ser210 by protein kinase C (PKC). The crystal structure of a phosphorylated, farnesylated Rnd3 peptide with 14-3-3 reveals a hydrophobic groove in 14-3-3 proteins accommodating the farnesyl moiety. Functionally, 14-3-3 inhibits Rnd3-induced cell rounding by translocating it from the plasma membrane to the cytosol. Rnd1, Rnd2, and geranylgeranylated Rap1A interact similarly with 14-3-3. In contrast to the canonical GTP/GDP switch that regulates most Ras superfamily members, our results reveal an unprecedented mechanism for G protein inhibition by 14-3-3 proteins

S-wave Meson-Meson Scattering from Unitarized U(3) Chiral Lagrangians

An investigation of the s-wave channels in meson-meson scattering is performed within a U(3) chiral unitary approach. Our calculations are based on a chiral effective Lagrangian which includes the eta' as an explicit degree of freedom and incorporates important features of the underlying QCD Lagrangian such as the axial U(1) anomaly. We employ a coupled channel Bethe-Salpeter equation to generate poles from composed states of two pseudoscalar mesons. Our results are compared with experimental phase shifts up to 1.5 GeV and effects of the eta' within this scheme are discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

The UK Crop Microbiome Cryobank: a utility and model for supporting Phytobiomes research

Plant microbiomes are the microbial communities essential to the functioning of the phytobiome—the system that consist of plants, their environment, and their associated communities of organisms. A healthy, functional phytobiome is critical to crop health, improved yields and quality food. However, crop microbiomes are relatively under-researched, and this is associated with a fundamental need to underpin phytobiome research through the provision of a supporting infrastructure. The UK Crop Microbiome Cryobank (UKCMC) project is developing a unique, integrated and open-access resource to enable the development of solutions to improve soil and crop health. Six economically important crops (Barley, Fava Bean, Oats, Oil Seed Rape, Sugar Beet and Wheat) are targeted, and the methods as well as data outputs will underpin research activity both in the UK and internationally. This manuscript describes the approaches being taken, from characterisation, cryopreservation and analysis of the crop microbiome through to potential applications. We believe that the model research framework proposed is transferable to different crop and soil systems, acting not only as a mechanism to conserve biodiversity, but as a potential facilitator of sustainable agriculture systems

Identification and validation of oncologic miRNA biomarkers for Luminal A-like breast cancer

Introduction: Breast cancer is a common disease with distinct tumor subtypes phenotypically characterized by ER and HER2/neu receptor status. MiRNAs play regulatory roles in tumor initiation and progression, and altered miRNA expression has been demonstrated in a variety of cancer states presenting the potential for exploitation as cancer biomarkers. Blood provides an excellent medium for biomarker discovery. This study investigated systemic miRNAs differentially expressed in Luminal A-like (ER+PR+HER2/neu-) breast cancer and their effectiveness as oncologic biomarkers in the clinical setting. Methods: Blood samples were prospectively collected from patients with Luminal A-like breast cancer (n=54) and controls (n=56). RNA was extracted, reverse transcribed and subjected to microarray analysis (n=10 Luminal A-like; n=10 Control). Differentially expressed miRNAs were identified by artificial neural network (ANN) data-mining algorithms. Expression of specific miRNAs was validated by RQ-PCR (n=44 Luminal A; n=46 Control) and potential relationships between circulating miRNA levels and clinicopathological features of breast cancer were investigated. Results: Microarray analysis identified 76 differentially expressed miRNAs. ANN revealed 10 miRNAs for further analysis ( miR-19b, miR-29a, miR-93, miR-181a, miR-182, miR-223, miR-301a, miR-423-5p, miR-486-5 and miR-652 ). The biomarker potential of 4 miRNAs ( miR-29a, miR-181a , miR-223 and miR-652 ) was confirmed by RQ-PCR, with significantly reduced expression in blood of women with Luminal A-like breast tumors compared to healthy controls (p=0.001, 0.004, 0.009 and 0.004 respectively). Binary logistic regression confirmed that combination of 3 of these miRNAs ( miR-29a, miR-181a and miR-652 ) could reliably differentiate between cancers and controls with an AUC of 0.80. Conclusion: This study provides insight into the underlying molecular portrait of Luminal A-like breast cancer subtype. From an initial 76 miRNAs, 4 were validated with altered expression in the blood of women with Luminal A-like breast cancer. The expression profiles of these 3 miRNAs, in combination with mammography, has potential to facilitate accurate subtype- specific breast tumor detection