Linear and Nonlinear Stability Analysis of Double Diffusive Convection in a Maxwell Fluid Saturated Porous Layer with Internal Heat Source

The onset of double diffusive convection is investigated in a Maxwell fluid saturated porous layer with internal heat source. The modified Darcy law for the Maxwell fluid is used to model the momentum equation of the system, and the criterion for the onset of the convection is established through the linear and nonlinear stability analyses. The linear analysis is obtained using the normal mode technique, and the nonlinear analysis of the system is studied with the help of truncated representation of Fourier series. The effects of internal Rayleigh number, stress relaxation parameter, normalized porosity, Lewis number, Vadasz number and solute Rayleigh number on the stationary, and oscillatory and weak nonlinear convection of the system are shown numerically and graphically. The effects of various parameters on transient heat and mass transfer are also discussed and presented analytically and graphically

Review of mendelian randomization studies on age at natural menopause

Menopause marks the end of the reproductive phase of life. Based on epidemiological studies, abnormal age at natural menopause (ANM) is thought to contribute to a number of adverse outcomes, such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. However, the causality of these associations remains unclear. A powerful epidemiological method known as Mendelian randomization (MR) can be used to clarify the causality between ANM and other diseases or traits. The present review describes MR studies that included ANM as an exposure, outcome and mediator. The findings of MR analyses on ANM have revealed that higher body mass index, poor educational level, early age at menarche, early age at first live birth, early age at first sexual intercourse, and autoimmune thyroid disease appear to be involved in early ANM etiology. The etiology of late ANM appears to be influenced by higher free thyroxine 4 and methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase gene mutations. Furthermore, early ANM has been found to be causally associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis, fracture, type 2 diabetes mellitus, glycosylated hemoglobin, and the homeostasis model of insulin resistance level. In addition, late ANM has been found to be causally associated with an increased systolic blood pressure, higher risk of breast cancer, endometrial cancer, endometrioid ovarian carcinoma, lung cancer, longevity, airflow obstruction, and lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. ANM is also a mediator for breast cancer caused by birth weight and childhood body size. However, due to the different instrumental variables used, some results of studies are inconsistent. Future studies with more valid genetic variants are needed for traits with discrepancies between MRs or between MR and other types of epidemiological studies

A facile approach to fabricate highly sensitive, flexible strain sensor based on elastomeric/graphene platelet composite film

This work developed a facile approach to fabricate highly sensitive and flexible polyurethane/graphene platelets composite film for wearable strain sensor. The composite film was fabricated via layer-by-layer laminating method which is simple and cost-effective; it exhibited outstanding electrical conductivity of 1430 ± 50 S/cm and high sensitivity to strain (the gauge factor is up to 150). In the sensor application test, the flexible strain sensor achieves real-time monitoring accurately for five bio-signals such as pulse movement, finger movement, and cheek movement giving a great potential as wearable-sensing device. In addition, the developed strain sensor shows response to pressure and temperature in a certain region. A multifaceted comparison between reported flexible strain sensors and our strain sensor was made highlighting the advantages of the current work in terms of (1) high sensitivity (gauge factor) and flexibility, (2) facile approach of fabrication, and (3) accurate monitoring for body motions

Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Prognostics and Health Management of Lithium-Ion Batteries

For Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) of Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, many models have been established to characterize their degradation process. The existing empirical or physical models can reveal important information regarding the degradation dynamics. However, there are no general and flexible methods to fuse the information represented by those models. Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) is an efficient tool to fuse empirical or physical dynamic models with data-driven models. To take full advantage of various information sources, we propose a model fusion scheme based on PINN. It is implemented by developing a semi-empirical semi-physical Partial Differential Equation (PDE) to model the degradation dynamics of Li-ion batteries. When there is little prior knowledge about the dynamics, we leverage the data-driven Deep Hidden Physics Model (DeepHPM) to discover the underlying governing dynamic models. The uncovered dynamics information is then fused with that mined by the surrogate neural network in the PINN framework. Moreover, an uncertainty-based adaptive weighting method is employed to balance the multiple learning tasks when training the PINN. The proposed methods are verified on a public dataset of Li-ion Phosphate (LFP)/graphite batteries.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

Functional assessment and structural basis of antibody binding to human papillomavirus capsid

Persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is linked to cervical cancer. Two prophylactic virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccines have been marketed globally for nearly a decade. Here, we review the HPV pseudovirion (PsV)-based assays for the functional assessment of the HPV neutralizing antibodies and the structural basis for these clinically relevant epitopes. The PsV-based neutralization assay was developed to evaluate the efficacy of neutralization antibodies in sera elicited by vaccination or natural infection or to assess the functional characteristics of monoclonal antibodies. Different antibody binding modes were observed when an antibody was complexed with virions, PsVs or VLPs. The neutralizing epitopes are localized on surface loops of the L1 capsid protein, at various locations on the capsomere. Different neutralization antibodies exert their neutralizing function via different mechanisms. Some antibodies neutralize the virions by inducing conformational changes in the viral capsid, which can result in concealing the binding site for a cellular receptor like 1A1D-2 against dengue virus, or inducing premature genome release like E18 against enterovirus 71. Higher-resolution details on the epitope composition of HPV neutralizing antibodies would shed light on the structural basis of the highly efficacious vaccines and aid the design of next generation vaccines. In-depth understanding of epitope composition would ensure the development of function-indicating assays for the comparability exercise to support process improvement or process scale up. Elucidation of the structural elements of the type-specific epitopes would enable rational design of cross-type neutralization via epitope re-engineering or epitope grafting in hybrid VLPs.The authors acknowledge the funding support from the Chinese government: National 863 Program of China (2014AA021302), National Natural Science Fund of China (81373061 and 81471934) and Fujian Provincial Program for Construction Plan of Science and Technology Innovation Platform (2014Y2101). This work was also supported by a Senior Research Fellowship from the Welcome Trust, grant number 101908/Z/13/Z, to Y.M.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rmv.186

Functional assessment and structural basis of antibody binding to human papillomavirus capsid.

Persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is linked to cervical cancer. Two prophylactic virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccines have been marketed globally for nearly a decade. Here, we review the HPV pseudovirion (PsV)-based assays for the functional assessment of the HPV neutralizing antibodies and the structural basis for these clinically relevant epitopes. The PsV-based neutralization assay was developed to evaluate the efficacy of neutralization antibodies in sera elicited by vaccination or natural infection or to assess the functional characteristics of monoclonal antibodies. Different antibody binding modes were observed when an antibody was complexed with virions, PsVs or VLPs. The neutralizing epitopes are localized on surface loops of the L1 capsid protein, at various locations on the capsomere. Different neutralization antibodies exert their neutralizing function via different mechanisms. Some antibodies neutralize the virions by inducing conformational changes in the viral capsid, which can result in concealing the binding site for a cellular receptor like 1A1D-2 against dengue virus, or inducing premature genome release like E18 against enterovirus 71. Higher-resolution details on the epitope composition of HPV neutralizing antibodies would shed light on the structural basis of the highly efficacious vaccines and aid the design of next generation vaccines. In-depth understanding of epitope composition would ensure the development of function-indicating assays for the comparability exercise to support process improvement or process scale up. Elucidation of the structural elements of the type-specific epitopes would enable rational design of cross-type neutralization via epitope re-engineering or epitope grafting in hybrid VLPs.The authors acknowledge the funding support from the Chinese government: National 863 Program of China (2014AA021302), National Natural Science Fund of China (81373061 and 81471934) and Fujian Provincial Program for Construction Plan of Science and Technology Innovation Platform (2014Y2101). This work was also supported by a Senior Research Fellowship from the Welcome Trust, grant number 101908/Z/13/Z, to Y.M.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rmv.186

Lensless polarimetric coded ptychography (pol-CP) for high-resolution, high-throughput birefringence imaging on a chip

Polarimetric imaging provides valuable insights into the polarization state of light interacting with a sample. It can infer crucial birefringence properties of bio-specimens without using any labels, thereby facilitating the diagnosis of diseases such as cancer and osteoarthritis. In this study, we introduce a novel polarimetric coded ptychography (pol-CP) approach that enables high-resolution, high-throughput birefringence imaging on a chip. Our platform deviates from traditional lens-based polarization systems by employing an integrated polarimetric coded sensor for lensless diffraction data acquisition. Utilizing Jones calculus, we quantitatively determine the birefringence retardance and orientation information of bio-specimens from four recovered intensity images. Our portable pol-CP prototype can resolve the 435-nm linewidth on the resolution target and the imaging field of view for a single acquisition is limited only by the detector size of 41 mm^2. The prototype allows for the acquisition of gigapixel birefringence images with a 180-mm^2 field of view in ~3.5 minutes, achieving an imaging throughput comparable to that of a conventional whole slide scanner. To demonstrate its biomedical applications, we perform high-throughput imaging of malaria-infected blood smears, locating parasites using birefringence contrast. We also generate birefringence maps of label-free thyroid smears to identify thyroid follicles. Notably, the recovered birefringence maps emphasize the same regions as autofluorescence images, indicating the potential for rapid on-site evaluation of label-free biopsies. The reported approach offers a portable, turnkey solution for high-resolution, high-throughput polarimetric analysis without using lenses, with potential applications in disease diagnosis, sample screening, and label-free chemical imaging