Combined finite element and multi-body dynamics analysis of effects of hydraulic cylinder movement on ploughshare of horizontally reversible plough

Abstract: Hydraulic Cylinder (HC), one of the key components of Horizontally Reversible Plough (HRP), takes the responsibilities for the commuting soiltillage of HRP. The dynamic behaviors of HC surely affectthe tilling performances of HRP. Based on our previously related work, this paper further addresses the effects of HC movements during tillage on ploughshare, especially at share-point, of HRP. For HC, uniform motion was considered in this study. A combined finite element and multi-body dynamics analysis (MDA) was implemented to assess both tillage kinematics and kinetics of the ploughshare. These numerical predictions were primarily involved in five different HC movement velocities and two actual HRP tilling scenarios, respectively, where loading data due to the HC movements were obtained from an MDA and applied to load a finite element modal of the ploughshare. Our results show that the importance of performing MDA as a preliminary step FEA to obtain an insight into the actual stress and strain variations at the share-point. Our findings demonstrate that the different movements of HC have no adverse effects on the service life of the ploughshare though they result in the maximum stress and strain at the sharepoint during HRP tillage

Numerical investigation of scale effect of various injection diameters on interaction in cold kerosene-fueled supersonic flow

Abstract: The incident shock wave generally has a strong effect on the transversal injection field in cold kerosene-fueled supersonic flow, possibly due to its affecting the interaction between incoming flow and fuel through various operation conditions. This study is to address scale effect of various injection diameters on the interaction between incident shock wave and transversal cavity injection in a cold kerosene-fueled scramjet combustor. The injection diameters are separately specified as from 0.5 to 1.5mm in 0.5mm increments when other performance parameters, including the injection angle, velocity and pressure drop are all constant. A combined three dimensional Couple Level Set & Volume of Fluids (CLSVOF) approach with an improved K-H & R-T model is used to characterize penetration height, span expansion area, angle of shock wave and sauter mean diameter (SMD) distribution of the kerosene droplets with/without considering evaporation. Our results show that the injection orifice surely has a great scale effect on the transversal injection field in cold kerosene-fueled supersonic flows. Our findings show that the penetration depth, span angle and span expansion area of the transverse cavity jet are increased with the injection diameter, and that the kerosene droplets are more prone to breakup and atomization at the outlet of the combustor for the orifice diameter of 1.5mm. The calculation predictions are compared against the reported experimental measurements and literatures with good qualitative agreement. The simulation results obtained in this study can provide the evidences for better understanding the underlying mechanism of kerosene atomization in cold supersonic flow and scramjet design improvement

Effects of spray angle variation on mixing in a cold supersonic combustor with kerosene fuel

Abstract: Effective fuel injection and mixing is of particular importance for scramjet engines to be operated reliably because the fuel must be injected into high-speed crossflow and mixed with the supersonic air at an extremely short time-scale. This study numerically characterizes an injection jet under different spray angles in a cold kerosene-fueled supersonic flow and thus assesses the effects of the spray angle on the mixing between incident shock wave and transverse cavity injection. A detailed computational fluid dynamics model is developed in accordance with the real scramjet combustor. Next, the spray angles are designated as 45º, 90º, and 135º respectively with the other constant operational conditions (such as the injection diameter, velocity and pressure). Next, a combination of a three dimensional Couple Level Set & Volume of Fluids with an improved Kelvin-Helmholtz & Rayleigh-Taylor model is used to investigate the interaction between kerosene and supersonic air. The numerical predictions are focused on penetration depth, span expansion area, angle of shock wave and sauter mean diameter distribution of the kerosene droplets with or without evaporation. Finally, validation has been implemented by comparing the calculated to the measured in literature with good qualitative agreement. Results show that no matter whether the evaporation is considered, the penetration depth, span-wise angle and expansion area of the kerosene droplets are all increased with the spray angle, and most especially, that the size of the kerosene droplets is surely reduced with the spray angle increase. These calculations are beneficial to better understand the underlying atomization mechanism in the cold kerosene-fueled supersonic flow and hence provide insights into scramjet design improvement

Electroacupuncture Inhibition of Hyperalgesia in Rats with Adjuvant Arthritis: Involvement of Cannabinoid Receptor 1 and Dopamine Receptor Subtypes in Striatum

Electroacupuncture (EA) has been regarded as an alternative treatment for inflammatory pain for several decades. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the antinociceptive effect of EA have not been thoroughly clarified. Previous studies have shown that cannabinoid CB1 receptors are related to pain relief. Accumulating evidence has shown that the CB1 and dopamine systems sometimes interact and may operate synergistically in rat striatum. To our knowledge, dopamine D1/D2 receptors are involved in EA analgesia. In this study, we found that repeated EA at Zusanli (ST36) and Kunlun (BL60) acupoints resulted in marked improvements in thermal hyperalgesia. Both western blot assays and FQ-PCR analysis results showed that the levels of CB1 expression in the repeated-EA group were much higher than those in any other group (P=0.001). The CB1-selective antagonist AM251 inhibited the effects of repeated EA by attenuating the increases in CB1 expression. The two kinds of dopamine receptors imparted different actions on the EA-induced CB1 upregulation in AA rat model. These results suggested that the strong activation of the CB1 receptor after repeated EA resulted in the concomitant phenomenon of the upregulation of D1 and D2 levels of gene expression

MIMO-DoAnet: Multi-channel Input and Multiple Outputs DoA Network with Unknown Number of Sound Sources

Recent neural network based Direction of Arrival (DoA) estimation algorithms have performed well on unknown number of sound sources scenarios. These algorithms are usually achieved by mapping the multi-channel audio input to the single output (i.e. overall spatial pseudo-spectrum (SPS) of all sources), that is called MISO. However, such MISO algorithms strongly depend on empirical threshold setting and the angle assumption that the angles between the sound sources are greater than a fixed angle. To address these limitations, we propose a novel multi-channel input and multiple outputs DoA network called MIMO-DoAnet. Unlike the general MISO algorithms, MIMO-DoAnet predicts the SPS coding of each sound source with the help of the informative spatial covariance matrix. By doing so, the threshold task of detecting the number of sound sources becomes an easier task of detecting whether there is a sound source in each output, and the serious interaction between sound sources disappears during inference stage. Experimental results show that MIMO-DoAnet achieves relative 18.6% and absolute 13.3%, relative 34.4% and absolute 20.2% F1 score improvement compared with the MISO baseline system in 3, 4 sources scenes. The results also demonstrate MIMO-DoAnet alleviates the threshold setting problem and solves the angle assumption problem effectively.Comment: Accepted by Interspeech 202

Effect of p21Waf1 and p27Kip1 on centrosome replication and proliferation of breast cancer cell

Aberrant centrosome numbers are detected in virtually all cancers，increasing the risk for cell division errors and chromosomal instability. Deregulation of the centrosome duplication cycle is considered as the major contributing factor for abnormal amplification of centrosomes. p21Waf1 and p27Kip1, general CDK inhibitors by inhibiting cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2)/cyclin E and cyclin A complexes, controlled the initiation and progress of centrosome duplication . We transfected p21 Waf1, p27 Kip1 or p21 Waf1- p27 Kip1 genes into MCF-7 cells by lipofection to explore the effect of the genes on centrosome duplication and proliferation of breast cancer cell. The result shows that the cell growth was obviously inhibited after being transfected, resulting in an accumulation of cells in G1 and the proportion of cells which contained abnormal centrosomes was obviously decreased. Comparing with p21 Waf1or p27 Kip1, the effects of p21Waf1- p27 Kip1 genes are more significative. These results suggest that p21Waf1 and p27Kip1 genes could inhibit the growth of human breast cancer cells and reverse abnormal duplication of centrosomes. p21Waf1 and p27Kip1 cooperate to regulate centrosome duplication and cell cycle progress, indicating p21 Waf1- p27 Kip1 combined gene might be potential therapeutic agents of breast cancer which reveals suppressed p21Waf1 and p27Kip1 expression

Deficiency of Mkrn2 causes abnormal spermiogenesis and spermiation, and impairs male fertility.

Although recent studies have shed insights on some of the potential causes of male infertility, new underlining molecular mechanisms still remain to be elucidated. Makorin-2 (Mkrn2) is an evolutionarily conserved gene whose biological functions are not fully known. We developed an Mrkn2 knockout mouse model to study the role of this gene, and found that deletion of Mkrn2 in mice led to male infertility. Mkrn2 knockout mice produced abnormal sperms characterized by low number, poor motility, and aberrant morphology. Disruption of Mkrn2 also caused failure of sperm release (spermiation failure) and misarrangement of ectoplasmic specialization (ES) in testes, thus impairing spermiogenesis and spermiation. To understand the molecular mechanism, we found that expression of Odf2, a vital protein in spermatogenesis, was significantly decreased. In addition, we found that expression levels of Odf2 were decreased in Mkrn2 knockout mice. We also found that MKRN2 was prominently expressed in the sperm of normal men, but was significantly reduced in infertile men. This result indicates that our finding is clinically relevant. The results of our study provided insights into a new mechanism of male infertility caused by the MKRN2 downregulation

Antiviral Activities of Several Oral Traditional Chinese Medicines against Influenza Viruses

Influenza is still a serious threat to human health with significant morbidity and mortality. The emergence of drug-resistant influenza viruses poses a great challenge to existing antiviral drugs. Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) may be an alternative to overcome the challenge. Here, 10 oral proprietary Chinese medicines were selected to evaluate their anti-influenza activities. These drugs exhibit potent inhibitory effects against influenza A H1N1, influenza A H3N2, and influenza B virus. Importantly, they demonstrate potent antiviral activities against drug-resistant strains. In the study of mechanisms, we found that Xiaoqinglong mixture could increase antiviral interferon production by activating p38 MAPK, JNK/SAPK pathway, and relative nuclear transcription factors. Lastly, our studies also indicate that some of these medicines show inhibitory activities against EV71 and CVB strains. In conclusion, the 10 traditional Chinese medicines, as kind of compound combination medicines, show broad-spectrum antiviral activities, possibly also including inhibitory activities against strains resistant to available antiviral drugs