205 research outputs found
Numerical and experimental study of particle deposition in a tangential inlet cyclone separator
Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is an industrial process which converts high-molecular-weight hydrocarbons to lower-molecular-weight products of high value. With the rise of a much heavier fraction in feed, unwanted build-up of carbonaceous deposits onto the surface of the process equipment has been a key process limitation to achieving the economic benefits of longer run length.
Hard deposits tend to appear on the outer surface of vortex finder of the secondary cyclones in FCC unit. Literatures have reported that deposits formation is related to the gas flow field. In this study, gas phase flow field in a tangential inlet cyclone was simulated by Large Eddy Simulation, and its effect on deposits buildup was studied by analyzing the forces and secondary flow near the vortex finder wall. The simulated results showed the relationship between flow field and deposits formation. Meanwhile, particle deposition experiment system is setup to investigate the influence of velocity, particle concentration, surface adhesion and length of time on the deposits pattern. Among these experiments, oil-brushed vortex finder wall was studied to imitate an industrial condition in FCC approximately. The experiments offered a more comprehensive study about particle deposition in cyclones.
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Pseudogap, Superconducting Energy Scale, and Fermi Arcs in Underdoped Cuprate Superconductors
Through the measurements of magnetic field dependence of specific heat in
in zero temperature limit, we determined the nodal slope
of the quasiparticle gap. It is found that has a very
similar doping dependence of the pseudogap temperature or value
. Meanwhile the virtual maximum gap at () derived from
is found to follow the simple relation upon
changing the doping concentration. This strongly suggests a close relationship
between the pseudogap and superconductivity. It is further found that the
superconducting transition temperature is determined by both the residual
density of states of the pseudogap phase and the nodal gap slope in the zero
temperature limit, namely, , where
is the extracted zero temperature value of the normal state
specific heat coefficient which is proportional to the size of the residual
Fermi arc . This manifests that the superconductivity may be formed by
forming a new gap on the Fermi arcs near nodes below . These observations
mimic the key predictions of the SU(2) slave boson theory based on the general
resonating-valence-bond (RVB) picture.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
The Long Noncoding RNA HEAL Regulates HIV-1 Replication through Epigenetic Regulation of the HIV-1 Promoter.
A major challenge in finding a cure for HIV-1/AIDS is the difficulty in identifying and eradicating persistent reservoirs of replication-competent provirus. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs, >200 nucleotides) are increasingly recognized to play important roles in pathophysiology. Here, we report the first genome-wide expression analysis of lncRNAs in HIV-1-infected primary monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs). We identified an lncRNA, which we named HIV-1-enhanced lncRNA (HEAL), that is upregulated by HIV-1 infection of MDMs, microglia, and T lymphocytes. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells of HIV-1-infected individuals show elevated levels of HEAL Importantly, HEAL is a broad enhancer of multiple HIV-1 strains because depletion of HEAL inhibited X4, R5, and dual-tropic HIV replications and the inhibition was rescued by HEAL overexpression. HEAL forms a complex with the RNA-binding protein FUS, which facilitates HIV replication through at least two mechanisms: (i) HEAL-FUS complex binds the HIV promoter and enhances recruitment of the histone acetyltransferase p300, which positively regulates HIV transcription by increasing histone H3K27 acetylation and P-TEFb enrichment on the HIV promoter, and (ii) HEAL-FUS complex is enriched at the promoter of the cyclin-dependent kinase 2 gene, CDK2, to enhance CDK2 expression. Notably, HEAL knockdown and knockout mediated by RNA interference (RNAi) and CRISPR-Cas9, respectively, prevent HIV-1 recrudescence in T cells and microglia upon cessation of azidothymidine treatment in vitro Our results suggest that silencing of HEAL or perturbation of the HEAL-FUS ribonucleoprotein complex could provide a new epigenetic silencing strategy to eradicate viral reservoirs and effect a cure for HIV-1/AIDS.IMPORTANCE Despite our increased understanding of the functions of lncRNAs, their potential to develop HIV/AIDS cure strategies remains unexplored. A genome-wide analysis of lncRNAs in HIV-1-infected primary monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) was performed, and 1,145 differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified. An lncRNA named HIV-1-enhanced lncRNA (HEAL) is upregulated by HIV-1 infection and promotes HIV replication in T cells and macrophages. HEAL forms a complex with the RNA-binding protein FUS to enhance transcriptional coactivator p300 recruitment to the HIV promoter. Furthermore, HEAL knockdown and knockout prevent HIV-1 recrudescence in T cells and microglia upon cessation of azidothymidine treatment, suggesting HEAL as a potential therapeutic target to cure HIV-1/AIDS
Numerical Analysis of Flow Characteristics of Upper Swirling Liquid Film Based on the Eulerian Wall Film Model
The Upper Swirling Liquid Film (USLF) phenomenon that occurs in the upper cylinder of the Gas–Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC) separator is the direct cause of the low separation efficiency of the liquid phase. In this study, first, the USLF formation and development were simulated by an improved Eulerian-EWF coupled simulated method. By introducing a profile-defined inlet boundary and considering entrainment droplet size distributions, the Eulerian-EWF method got reasonable results which agreed well with the experimental. Then, the flow characteristics and changing laws of the USLF including film thickness, film axial velocity, and film tangential velocity were analyzed by this method under different gas–liquid flow rates. It suggested that the liquid film thickness often reaches a maximum at the aspect ratio (z-z0)/D=(1.2–3.9) above the tangential inlet, and the film thickness appears to be more sensitive to the gas flow than to the liquid flow. For the film axial velocity, the direction of film velocity on the front and back sides seems to be generally opposite. Finally, typical distributions of the aforementioned USLF variables were presented and corresponded accordingly, and two obvious rules were found. One is that the position where the thickest liquid film is located always corresponds to the position where the axial film velocity turns from positive to negative for the first time. The other is that the tangential film velocity has a strong synchronous relationship with the film thickness. This research might provide somewhat valid information for the future LCO-prevented measurement in GLCC separators
Optimization of a Fuel Assembly for Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor CSR1000
As one of the Generation IV nuclear reactors, the SCWR (supercritical water-cooled reactor) has high economy and safety margin, good mechanical properties for its high thermal efficiency, and simplified structure design. As the key component of nuclear reactor, the fuel assembly has always been the main issue for the design of the SCWR. The design of the fuel assembly for CSR1000 proposed by the Nuclear Power Institute of China (NPIC) has been optimized and presented in this study, which is composed of four subassemblies welded by four filler strips and guide thimbles arranged close together in the cross-shaped passage. Aiming at improving the hydraulic buffer performance of the cruciform control rod, the scram time and terminal velocity of control rod assembly were calculated to assess the scram performance based on the computational fluid dynamics and dynamic mesh method, and the mechanical property and neutronic performance of assemblies were also investigated. It has been demonstrated that the optimized fuel assembly had good feasibility and performance, which was a promising design for CSR1000
Momentum matching and band-alignment type in van der Waals heterostructures: Interfacial effects and materials screening
Momentum-matched type II van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) have been
designed by assembling layered two-dimensional semiconductors (2DSs) with
special band-structure combinations - that is, the valence band edge at the
Gamma point (the Brillouin-zone center) for one 2DS and the conduction band
edge at the Gamma point for the other [Ubrig et al., Nat. Mater. 19, 299
(2020)]. However, the band offset sizes, band-alignment types, and whether
momentum matched or not, all are affected by the interfacial effects between
the component 2DSs, such as the quasichemical-bonding (QB) interaction between
layers and the electrical dipole moment formed around the vdW interface. Here,
based on density-functional theory calculations, first we probe the interfacial
effects (including different QBs for valence and conduction bands, interface
dipole, and, the synergistic effects of these two aspects) on band-edge
evolution in energy and valley (location in the Brillouin zone) and the
resulting changes in band alignment and momentum matching for a typical vdWH of
monolayer InSe and bilayer WS2, in which the band edges of subsystems satisfy
the special band-structure combination for a momentum-matched type II vdWH.
Then, based on the conclusions of the studied interfacial effects, we propose a
practical screening method for robust momentum-matched type II vdWHs. This
practical screening method can also be applied to other band alignment types.
Our current study opens a way for practical screening and designing of vdWHs
with robust momentum-matching and band alignment type
Search for Quasi-Periodical Oscillations in Precursors of Short and Long Gamma Ray Bursts
The precursors of short and long Gamma Ray Bursts (SGRBs and LGRBs) can serve
as probes of their progenitors, as well as shedding light on the physical
processes of mergers or core-collapse supernovae. Some models predict the
possible existence of Quasi-Periodically Oscillations (QPO) in the precursors
of SGRBs. Although many previous studies have performed QPO search in the main
emission of SGRBs and LGRBs, so far there was no systematic QPO search in their
precursors. In this work, we perform a detailed QPO search in the precursors of
SGRBs and LGRBs detected by Fermi/GBM from 2008 to 2019 using the power density
spectrum (PDS) in frequency domain and Gaussian processes (GP) in time domain.
We do not find any convinced QPO signal with significance above 3 ,
possibly due to the low fluxes of precursors. Finally, the PDS continuum
properties of both the precursors and main emissions are also studied for the
first time, and no significant difference is found in the distributions of the
PDS slope for precursors and main emissions in both SGRBs and LGRBs.Comment: submitte
Observation of GRB 221009A early afterglow in X/-ray energy band
The early afterglow of a Gamma-ray burst (GRB) can provide critical
information on the jet and progenitor of the GRB. The extreme brightness of GRB
221009A allows us to probe its early afterglow in unprecedented detail. In this
letter, we report comprehensive observation results of the early afterglow of
GRB 221009A (from +660 s to +1860 s, where is the
\textit{Insight}-HXMT/HE trigger time) in X/-ray energy band (from 20
keV to 20 MeV) by \textit{Insight}-HXMT/HE, GECAM-C and \textit{Fermi}/GBM. We
find that the spectrum of the early afterglow in 20 keV-20 MeV could be well
described by a cutoff power-law with an extra power-law which dominates the low
and high energy bands respectively. The cutoff power-law is
30 keV and the power-law photon index is 1.8 throughout the early
afterglow phase. By fitting the light curves in different energy bands, we find
that a significant achromatic break (from keV to TeV) is required at +
1246 s (i.e. 1021 s since the afterglow starting time =+225 s), providing compelling evidence of a jet break. Interestingly,
both the pre-break and post-break decay slopes vary with energy, and these two
slopes become closer in the lower energy band, making the break less
identifiable. Intriguingly, the spectrum of the early afterglow experienced a
slight hardening before the break and a softening after the break. These
results provide new insights into the understanding of this remarkable GRB.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters on 19-Jan-2024, 11 pages, 7
figures and 2 table
Lampreys, the jawless vertebrates, contain three Pax6 genes with distinct expression in eye, brain and pancreas
10.1038/s41598-019-56085-8Scientific Reports911955
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