155 research outputs found

    ¿Cómo atraer lectores a la divulgación científica cuando Wikipedia ya lo explica todo?

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    Hace un mes, quería crear una entrada en Wikipedia. sabía que era difícil encontrar algo que aún no existía en Wikipedia y pensé: “Bueno, pensaré un concepto sobre el espíritu del confucianismo que se llama piedad filial. Es la actitud devota que tienen los hijos a sus padres. Seguro que en Wikipedia español todavía no hay.” Lo busqué y ya hay esta explicación. Es curioso que muchas cosas que casi nadie conoce ya se encuentran en la Wikipedia. No pude evitar preguntarme, cómo atraer a lectores la divulgación científica cuando Wikipedia ya lo explica todo. Este articulo nos puede aconsejar desde el punto de vista del mercado chino a través de analizar el medio electrónico más popular ahí

    Reliability Evaluation of Line Switching Operations and Investigations into Incomplete Data Issues

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    Research in this dissertation is mainly focused on two topics: reliability evaluation of line switching operations and the investigation into incomplete data issues observed in reliability evaluation. A method is proposed for studying the reliability implications of line switching operations in power systems. This method is designed to explore previously overlooked areas, study objectives and study measures, in reliability evaluation of line switching operations. Line removal test is proposed to obtain simulation data of the system, and then with risk analysis and impact analysis, six reliability indices are used to evaluate reliability performance of each transmission line in the system. Weibull distribution is used to reconstruct distributions of reliability indices which provide variance analysis and worst-case scenario comparisons. Eventually, with results obtained, categorization for line switching operations is introduced to classify all transmission lines based on their reliability performance. The categories provide reliability implications of line switching operations and can be used for guidance in actual operations. This method is tested in two case studies: IEEE Reliability Test System (RTS) and IEEE 118-bus system. Both case studies validate the effectiveness of this method. A contingency ranking (CR) method is introduced as a pre-selection method to create a hybrid reliability evaluation method. The objective is not only to speed up the simulation but also to provide analytical analysis of state space. The differences between event-based and yearly-based indices are analyzed to better understand the results of the proposed method. Two case studies on IEEE RTS and IEEE 118-bus system conclude that this method have high accuracy in identifying critical lines with a significant improvement in calculation speed. To resolve incomplete data issues observed in reliability evaluation, mathematical conditions are derived for the probabilities obtained from the Markov model using transition rates to be identical with those obtained from the state residence times. This research provides guidance on building or recovering transition rate matrix in the absence of complete data. This research also shows equivalent transition rates with implicit assumption of exponential distribution is not affected by the probability distribution of state residence times in steady state analysis

    Effects of Arterial Strain and Stress in the Prediction of Restenosis Risk: Computer Modeling of Stent Trials

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    Purpose — In-stenting restenosis is one of the major complications after stenting. Clinical trials of various stent designs have reported different restenosis rates. However, quantitative correlation between stent features and restenosis statistics is scant. In this work, it is hypothesized that stress concentrations on arterial wall caused artery injury, which initiates restenosis. The goal is to assess the correlation between stent-induced arterial stress and strain and the documented restenosis rates. Methods — Six commercially available stents, including balloon-expandable stents and self-expanding stents, were virtually implanted into the arteries through finite element method. The resulted peak Von Mises stress, principal stress, principal logarithm strain, as well as percentage of intimal area with abnormal higher stress were monitored. Results — Positive correlation between arterial stress and strain after stent implantations and the documented restenosis rates from the corresponding clinical trials was found regardless of stent types. No statistical significant difference was observed for various stress or strain parameters serving as indicators of artery injury. Conclusions — In-stent restenosis are less likely to occur as arterial mechanics are least altered by stent implantations. Optimization of stent designs to minimize the stent-induced arterial stresses and strains can reduce the arterial injury, and thus reduce the occurrence of restenosis. This work improved our understanding of the stent-lesion interactions that regulate arterial mechanics and demonstrated that arterial stress and strain could predict the risk of instent restenosis

    Biomimetic Polymer Film with Brilliant Brightness Using a One‐Step Water Vapor–Induced Phase Separation Method

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    The scales of the white Cyphochilus beetles are endowed with unusual whiteness arising from the exceptional scattering efficiency of their disordered ultrastructure optimized through millions of years of evolution. Here, a simple, one‐step method based on water vapor–induced phase separation is developed to prepare thin polystyrene films with similar microstructure and comparable optical performance. A typical biomimetic 3.5 µm PS film exhibits a diffuse reflectance of 61% at 500 nm wavelength, which translates into a transport mean free path below 1 µm. A complete optical characterization through Monte Carlo simulations reveals how such a scattering performance arises from the scattering coefficient and scattering anisotropy, whose interplay provides insight into the morphological properties of the material. The potential of bright‐white coatings as smart sensors or wearable devices is highlighted using a treated 3.5 µm film as a real‐time sensor for human exhalation

    Efficient Procedures of Sensitivity Analysis for Structural Vibration Systems with Repeated Frequencies

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    Derivatives of eigenvectors with respect to structural parameters play an important role in structural design, identification, and optimization. Particularly, calculation of eigenvector sensitivity is considered when the eigenvalues are repeated. A relaxation factor embedded in the combined approximations (CA) method makes it effective to the structural response at various modified designs. The proposed method is feasible after overcoming the defection of irreversibility of the characteristic matrix. Numerical examples show that it is easy to implement the computational procedure, and the method presented in this paper is efficient for the general linear vibration damped systems with repeated frequencies

    Generalized bioinspired approach to a daytime radiative cooling "skin"

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    Energy-saving cooling materials with strong operability are desirable towards sustainable thermal management. Inspired by the cooperative thermo-optical effect in fur of polar bear, we develop a flexible and reusable cooling skin via laminating a polydimethylsiloxane film with a highly-scattering polyethylene aerogel. Owing to its high porosity of 97.9% and tailored pore size of 3.8 +- 1.4 micrometers, superior solar reflectance of 0.96 and high transparency to irradiated thermal energy of 0.8 can be achieved at a thickness of 2.7 mm. Combined with low thermal conductivity of 0.032 W/m/K of the aerogel, the cooling skin exerts midday sub-ambient temperature drops of 5-6 degrees in a metropolitan environment, with an estimated limit of 14 degrees under ideal service conditions. We envision that this generalized bilayer approach will construct a bridge from night-time to daytime radiative cooling and pave the way for economical, scalable, flexible and reusable cooling materials.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, of which another version has been accepted by ACS ami but not published ye

    Migration resistance of esophageal stents: The role of stent design

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    Objective: Stenting is one of the major treatments for malignant esophageal cancer. However, stent migration compromises clinical outcomes. A flared end design of the stent diminishes its migration. The goal of this work is to quantitatively characterize stent migration to develop new strategies for better clinical outcomes. Methods: An esophageal stent with flared ends and a straight counterpart were virtually deployed in an esophagus with asymmetric stricture using the finite element method. The resulted esophagus shape, wall stress, and migration resistance force of the stent were quantified and compared. Results: The lumen gain for both the flared stent and the straight one exhibited no significant difference. The flared stent induced a significantly larger contact force and thus a larger stress onto the esophagus wall. In addition, more migration resistance force was required to pull the flared stent through the esophagus. This force was inversely related to the occurrence rate of stent migration. A doubled strut diameter also increased the migration resistance force by approximately 56%. An increased friction coefficient from 0.1 to 0.3 also boosted the migration resistance force by approximately 39%. Summary: The mechanical advantage of the flared stent was unveiled by the significantly increased contact force, which provided the anchoring effect to resist stent migration. Both the strut diameter and friction coefficient positively correlated with the migration resistance force, and thus the occurrence of stent migration

    Migration resistance of esophageal stents: The role of stent design

    Get PDF
    Objective: Stenting is one of the major treatments for malignant esophageal cancer. However, stent migration compromises clinical outcomes. A flared end design of the stent diminishes its migration. The goal of this work is to quantitatively characterize stent migration to develop new strategies for better clinical outcomes. Methods: An esophageal stent with flared ends and a straight counterpart were virtually deployed in an esophagus with asymmetric stricture using the finite element method. The resulted esophagus shape, wall stress, and migration resistance force of the stent were quantified and compared. Results: The lumen gain for both the flared stent and the straight one exhibited no significant difference. The flared stent induced a significantly larger contact force and thus a larger stress onto the esophagus wall. In addition, more migration resistance force was required to pull the flared stent through the esophagus. This force was inversely related to the occurrence rate of stent migration. A doubled strut diameter also increased the migration resistance force by approximately 56%. An increased friction coefficient from 0.1 to 0.3 also boosted the migration resistance force by approximately 39%. Summary: The mechanical advantage of the flared stent was unveiled by the significantly increased contact force, which provided the anchoring effect to resist stent migration. Both the strut diameter and friction coefficient positively correlated with the migration resistance force, and thus the occurrence of stent migration

    The Impact of Wire Stent Fabrication Technique on the Performance of Stent Placement

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    Braided wire stents demonstrate distinct characteristics compared to welded ones. In this study, both braided and welded wire stents with the same nominal dimensions were crimped inside a sheath and then deployed into a stenosed artery using finite element analysis. The braided wire stent was generated by overlapping wires to form crisscross shape. A welded wire stent was created by welding the intersection points of wires to avoid sliding between wires. The effect of fabrication technique on mechanical behavior of Nitinol wire stents was evaluated. The results showed that relative sliding between wires reduced the deformation of the braided stent, which led to less radial strength than the welded one; therefore, the deployed braided stent was more conformed to the anatomic shape of the lesion and much less efficient for restoring the patency of the stenotic artery. Post balloon-dilation was commonly used to improve its performance in terms of lumen gain and deployed shape of the stent. On the contrary, the welded wire stent exhibited a high capacity for pushing the occlusion outward. It reached an approximately uniform shape after deployment. The welded joints caused larger deformation and high strain on the stent struts, which indicate a potential earlier failure for the welded stent. In addition, higher contact pressure at the stent-lesion interface and higher arterial stresses were observed in the artery supported by the welded stent. The peak stress concentration may increase the occurrence of neointimal hyperplasia
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