Calculation of Mixed Evacuation of Stair and Elevator Using EVACNET4

AbstractElevator mode in EVACNET4 is used for mixed evacuation of stair and elevator in a high-rise building. It is shown that EVACNET4 always produces an optimal evacuation of the building. Each evacuation is optimal in the sense that it minimizes the total evacuation time and makes good balance of the usages between stairwells and elevators. Calculations in several scenarios are carried out to study the influences of different amounts of people on the evacuation time and usage percentages between these two escape methods. It is shown that elevator is a better choice due to its faster movement, while there are only a few people to be evacuated. When evacuees increase, the more evacuees are, the bigger costs of elevator usages are. Mixed evacuation is competitive. Double deployment is also considered to show potential abilities of elevators in safety evacuations

Controllable electromechanical stability of a torsional micromirror actuator with piezoelectric composite structure under capillary force

Various types of micro/nano functional devices are being widely designed as optical switches, micro scanners, micromirrors and other core optical devices. The continuing miniaturization of the functional devices makes the size dependence of electromechanical property significant in micro/nano scale due to the sharp increase of surface interactions such as capillary force from liquid bridge, van der Waals and Casimir forces from quantum fluctuations. The surface interactions can cause the pull-in instability, adhesion between parts, and even failure of device. This work provides an active control method to avoid the pull-in instability of an electrostatically driven circular micromirror by applying voltage on a torsional piezoelectric composite structure. The influences of the three types are compared of dispersion forces on the electromechanical stability of the micromirror actuator. A comprehensive electromechanical model of a torsional piezoelectric beam was established to numerically investigate the electromechanical coupling of the micromirror. The results show that the influence of capillary force on the stability of the micromirror is as significant as van der Waals force and Casimir force. By introducing piezoelectric nanoplates into the laminated torsional structure, the micromirror stability can be controlled based on the piezoelectric effect of the torsional piezoelectric composite structure. This work can contribute to the structural optimization design and manufacture of micromirror systems.Cited as: Liu, M., Chen, Y., Cheng, W., Chen, S., Yu, T., Yang, W. Controllable electromechanical stability of a torsional micromirror actuator with piezoelectric composite structure under capillary force. Capillarity, 2022, 5(3): 51-64. https://doi.org/10.46690/capi.2022.03.0

Novel frequency chirp compensation scheme for directly modulated SG DBR tunable lasers

The authors demonstrate a compensation scheme to reduce the frequency chirp associated with directly modulated sampled grating distributed Bragg reflector tunable lasers. Experimental results obtained show that the direct modulation of the laser's gain section results in a large frequency chirp of 25 GHz. However, by simultaneous modulation of the laser's phase section this large frequency chirp can be significantly reduced

Two-element interferometer for millimeter-wave solar flare observations

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a two-element interferometer working in the millimeter wave band (39.5 GHz - 40 GHz) for observing solar radio emissions through nulling interference. The system is composed of two 50 cm aperture Cassegrain antennas mounted on a common equatorial mount, with a separation of 230 wavelengths. The cross-correlation of the received signals effectively cancels the quiet solar component of the large flux density (~3000 sfu) that reduces the detection limit due to atmospheric fluctuations. The system performance is obtained as follows: the noise factor of the AFE in the observation band is less than 2.1 dB, system sensitivity is approximately 12.4 K (~34 sfu) with an integration time constant of 0.1 ms (default), the frequency resolution is 153 kHz, and the dynamic range is larger than 30 dB. Through actual testing, the nulling interferometer observes a quiet sun with a low level of output fluctuations (of up to 50 sfu) and has a significantly lower radiation flux variability (of up to 190 sfu) than an equivalent single-antenna system, even under thick cloud cover. As a result, this new design can effectively improve observation sensitivity by reducing the impact of atmospheric and system fluctuations during observation

Application of toxicology data reliability assessment method, a toxicological data reliability evaluation tool, in the neurotoxic hazard assessment of glutamate acid and its salts

Objective This paper aims to evaluate data reliability of the neurotoxic hazard assessment of glutamate and its salts and provide recommendations, as well as to improve toxicology data reliability assessment method (TRAM) via trial application. Methods TRAM was used to evaluate the reliability of 60 articles which were selected by the method of systematic review documentation retrieval. The evaluation was based on types of toxicological data involved in each paper (laboratory animal data or human data) and they were scored by reliability criteria. The quality percentage was obtained via calculations to judge reliability categories and give recommendations. It’s necessary to note that the evaluation of each paper was independently completed by two persons in related fields. Results After three rounds of evaluation, the reliability of 12 articles were evaluated as "high" and recommended for priority use. The reliability of 43 articles was rated as "moderate" and can be used. The reliability of 5 articles was evaluated as "low" and not recommended to use. Conclusion TRAM takes both reporting quality and methodological quality into consideration, especially including human data reliability evaluation method which is absent in the other toxicology data reliability assessment tools. TRAM is more suitable for food safety risk assessment. It provides a better objective and scientific guarantee for hazard identification and risk assessment

TLR3 Regulated Poly I:C-Induced Neutrophil Extracellular Traps and Acute Lung Injury Partly Through p38 MAP Kinase

Acute lung injury (ALI) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have been well documented in the ALI model of bacterial infection. In the present study, we demonstrated that poly I:C could induce pulmonary NETs. Upon poly I:C intratracheal inoculation, neutrophil infiltration in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was significantly increased. Furthermore, the inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α in the lung were also significantly elevated. Neutrophil depletion abolished NETs and decreased both neutrophil infiltration and IL-1β in the lung. As expected, DNase I, an inhibitor of MPO and NADPH, decreased pulmonary inflammation and NETs. Blocking of the poly I:C receptor TLR3 reduced lung inflammation and NETs. The MAPK kinase inhibitor p38 diminished the formation of NETs and restored the expression of the tight junction protein claudin-5 in the mouse lung when challenged with poly I:C. In summary, poly I:C induced the formation of pulmonary NETs and ALI, which may be associated with the activation of p38 MAPK and the decreased expression of claudin-5

Cancer-specific survival after diagnosis in men versus women: A pan-cancer analysis.

Comprehensive understanding of cancer-specific survival differences in gender is critical for cancer prevention and treatment. Based on the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database, we included data from the most prevalent cancers (lung, esophageal, liver, pancreatic, stomach, colorectal, kidney, and bladder cancer). Cox proportional hazards regression models were constructed to estimate hazard ratios, simultaneously adjusting for demographic, clinical, and treatment factors. Overall, male patients had a worse cancer-specific survival than female patients. After adjustment for cancer prevalence with 1:1 matching, gender remained a significant factor in cancer-specific survival. Among the included cancer types, female patients showed survival benefit in lung, liver, colorectal, pancreatic, stomach, and esophageal cancer, and male patients showed better survival in bladder cancer. Except for kidney cancer, the gender disparity was consistent between cancer patients with nonmetastatic and metastatic disease. Overall, gender appears to be a significant factor influencing cancer-specific survival, and the prognosis of female patients is better than male patients in most cancers. This work might inspire the development of strategies for gender-specific precision cancer prevention and treatment

The Impact of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Externalizing Tendencies on Neural Responsivity to Reward and Punishment in Healthy Adolescents

Both externalizing behavior and callous-unemotional (CU) traits in youth are precursors to later criminal offending in adulthood. It is posited that disruptions in reward and punishment processes may engender problematic behavior, such that CU traits and externalizing behavior may be linked to a dominant reward response style (e.g., heightened responsivity to rewards) and deficient punishment-processing. However, prior research has generated mixed findings and work examining both the sole and joint contribution of CU traits and externalizing problems related to functional brain alterations is lacking. In this pilot functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we measured externalizing behavior and CU traits in a community sample of adolescents (n = 29) and examined their impacts on brain activity associated with anticipation and receipt of reward and punishment using the Modified Monetary Incentive Delay task. We found that CU traits were associated with greater activation of the ventral striatum (VST) during reward anticipation. However, this effect became non-significant after controlling for externalizing behavior, indicating substantial overlap between the CU and externalizing measures in explaining VST activation when anticipating reward. In addition, externalizing behavior (but not CU) was significantly negatively associated with amygdala activation during punishment receipt, even after controlling for CU traits. The present findings extend previous evidence of hyper-responsivity to reward and hyporesponsivity to punishment in relation to psychopathic traits and antisocial behavior to non-clinical, non-incarcerated youths