Numerical Simulation of Dynamic Response of Fiber Reinforced Ceramic Matrix Composite Beam with Matrix Cracks Using Multiscale Modeling

AbstractA multiscale method for simulating the dynamic response of ceramic matrix composite (CMC) with matrix cracks is developed. At the global level, the finite element method is employed to simulate the dynamic response of a CMC beam. While at the local level, the multiscale mechanical method is used to estimate the stress/strain response of the material. A distributed computing system is developed to speed up the simulation. The simulation of dynamic response of a Nicalon/CAS-II beam being subjected to harmonic loading is performed as a numerical example. The results show that both the stress/strain responses under tension and compressive loading are nonlinear. These conditions result in a different response compared with that of elastic beam, such as: 1) the displacement response is not symmetric about the axis of time; 2) in the condition of small external load, the response at first order natural frequency is limited within a finite range; 3) decreasing the matrix crack space will increase the displacement response of the beam

A Quadrilateral Element-based Method for Calculation of Multi-scale Temperature Field

AbstractIn the analysis of functionally graded materials (FGMs), the uncoupled approach is used broadly, which is based on homogenized material property and ignores the effect of local micro-structural interaction. The higher-order theory for FGMs (HOTFGM) is a coupled approach that explicitly takes the effect of micro-structural gradation and the local interaction of the spatially variable inclusion phase into account. Based on the HOTFGM, this article presents a quadrilateral element-based method for the calculation of multi-scale temperature field (QTF). In this method, the discrete cells are quadrilateral including rectangular while the surface-averaged quantities are the primary variables which replace the coefficients employed in the temperature function. In contrast with the HOTFGM, this method improves the efficiency, eliminates the restriction of being rectangular cells and expands the solution scale. The presented results illustrate the efficiency of the QTF and its advantages in analyzing FGMs

A Crucial Role of IL-17 and IFN-γ during Acute Rejection of Peripheral Nerve Xenotransplantation in Mice

Nerve injuries causing segmental loss require nerve grafting. However, autografts and allografts have limitations for clinical use. Peripheral nerve xenotransplantation has become an area of great interest in clinical surgery research as an alternative graft strategy. However, xenotransplant rejection is severe with cellular immunity, and Th1 cells play an important role in the process. To better understand the process of rejection, we used peripheral nerve xenografts from rats to mice and found that mononuclear cells expressing IFN-γ and IL-17 infiltrated around the grafts, and IFN-γ and IL-17 producing CD4+ and CD8+ T cells increased during the process of acute rejection. The changes of IL-4 level had no significant difference between xenotransplanted group and sham control group. The rejection of xenograft was significantly prevented after the treatment of IL-17 and IFN-γ neutralizing antibodies. These data suggest that Th17 cells contribute to the acute rejection process of peripheral nerve xenotransplant in addition to Th1 cells

Synthesis and Antioxidant Activity of Cationic 1,2,3-Triazole Functionalized Starch Derivatives

In this study, starch was chemically modified to improve its antioxidant activity. Five novel cationic 1,2,3-triazole functionalized starch derivatives were synthesized by using "click" reaction and N-alkylation. A convenient method for pre-azidation of starch was developed. The structures of the derivatives were analyzed using FTIR and H-1 NMR. The radicals scavenging abilities of the derivatives against hydroxyl radicals, DPPH radicals, and superoxide radicals were tested in vitro in order to evaluate their antioxidant activity. Results revealed that all the cationic starch derivatives (2a-2e), as well as the precursor starch derivatives (1a-1e), had significantly improved antioxidant activity compared to native starch. In particular, the scavenging ability of the derivatives against superoxide radicals was extremely strong. The improved antioxidant activity benefited from the enhanced solubility and the added positive charges. The biocompatibility of the cationic derivatives was confirmed by the low hemolytic rate (<2%). The obtained derivatives in this study have great potential as antioxidant materials that can be applied in the fields of food and biomedicine

Synthesis and anticancer activities of diquinazoline diselenides compounds

A series of novel diquinazoline diselenide compounds was designed and synthesized with substituted 4-chloroquinazoline and sodium diselenide. Their structures were confirmed by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and elemental analyses.The antitumor activity of the new compounds was evaluated by MTT method. Compound 1a, 1c, 1h and 1i were found to have activities against MDA-MB-435, A549,MDA-MB-231, SiHa, and HeLa cells. Moreover, compared with the commercial anticancer drugs Gefitinib, Oxaliplatin,Taxol, 10-Hydroxycamptothec in, and Epirubicin Hydrochloride,1a exerted better antitumor effects on corresponding cell lines at 10 μM

Multiple speech source separation using inter-channel correlation and relaxed sparsity

In this work, a multiple speech source separation method using inter-channel correlation and relaxed sparsity is proposed. A B-format microphone with four spatially located channels is adopted due to the size of the microphone array to preserve the spatial parameter integrity of the original signal. Specifically, we firstly measure the proportion of overlapped components among multiple sources and find that there exist many overlapped time-frequency (TF) components with increasing source number. Then, considering the relaxed sparsity of speech sources, we propose a dynamic threshold-based separation approach of sparse components where the threshold is determined by the inter-channel correlation among the recording signals. After conducting a statistical analysis of the number of active sources at each TF instant, a form of relaxed sparsity called the half-K assumption is proposed so that the active source number in a certain TF bin does not exceed half the total number of simultaneously occurring sources. By applying the half-K assumption, the non-sparse components are recovered by regarding the extracted sparse components as a guide, combined with vector decomposition and matrix factorization. Eventually, the final TF coefficients of each source are recovered by the synthesis of sparse and non-sparse components. The proposed method has been evaluated using up to six simultaneous speech sources under both anechoic and reverberant conditions. Both objective and subjective evaluations validated that the perceptual quality of the separated speech by the proposed approach outperforms existing blind source separation (BSS) approaches. Besides, it is robust to different speeches whilst confirming all the separated speeches with similar perceptual quality

Multiple Speech Source Separation Using Inter-Channel Correlation and Relaxed Sparsity

In this work, a multiple speech source separation method using inter-channel correlation and relaxed sparsity is proposed. A B-format microphone with four spatially located channels is adopted due to the size of the microphone array to preserve the spatial parameter integrity of the original signal. Specifically, we firstly measure the proportion of overlapped components among multiple sources and find that there exist many overlapped time-frequency (TF) components with increasing source number. Then, considering the relaxed sparsity of speech sources, we propose a dynamic threshold-based separation approach of sparse components where the threshold is determined by the inter-channel correlation among the recording signals. After conducting a statistical analysis of the number of active sources at each TF instant, a form of relaxed sparsity called the half-K assumption is proposed so that the active source number in a certain TF bin does not exceed half the total number of simultaneously occurring sources. By applying the half-K assumption, the non-sparse components are recovered by regarding the extracted sparse components as a guide, combined with vector decomposition and matrix factorization. Eventually, the final TF coefficients of each source are recovered by the synthesis of sparse and non-sparse components. The proposed method has been evaluated using up to six simultaneous speech sources under both anechoic and reverberant conditions. Both objective and subjective evaluations validated that the perceptual quality of the separated speech by the proposed approach outperforms existing blind source separation (BSS) approaches. Besides, it is robust to different speeches whilst confirming all the separated speeches with similar perceptual quality