Jet Vectoring Control Using a Novel Synthetic Jet Actuator

AbstractA primary air jet vectoring control system with a novel synthetic jet actuator (SJA) is presented and simulated numerically. The results show that, in comparison with an existing traditional synthetic jet actuator, which is able to perform the duty of either “push” or “pull”, one novel synthetic jet actuator can fulfill both “push” and “pull” functions to vector the primary jet by shifting a slide block inside it. Therefore, because the new actuator possesses greater efficiency, it has potentiality to replace the existing one in various applications, such as thrust vectoring and the reduction of thermal signature. Moreover, as the novel actuator can fulfill those functions that the existing one can not, it may well be expected to popularize it into more flow control systems

A Sensitive Film Structure Improvement of Reduced Graphene Oxide Based Resistive Gas Sensors

This study was focused on how to improve the gas sensing properties of resistive gas sensors based on reduced graphene oxide. Sol-airbrush technology was utilized to prepare reduced graphene oxide films using porous zinc oxide films as supporting materials mainly for carbon dioxide sensing applications. The proposed film structure improved the sensitivity and the response/recovery speed of the sensors compared to those of the conventional ones and alleviated the restrictions of sensors\u27 performance to the film thickness. In addition, the fabrication technology is relatively simple and has potential for mass production in industry. The improvement in the sensitivity and the response/recovery speed is helpful for fast detection of toxic gases or vapors in environmental and industrial applications

Microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA analysis of the genetic structure of Chinese horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) in southeast China coast

Chinese horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) is a Xiphosura animal of significant commercial importance and in danger of extinction in China. To better estimate how genetic structure can be used to obtain a conservation perspective of the species, genetic variation was examined in nine locations covering its distributing range in the coast of Chinese mainland using ten nuclear microsatellite DNA loci and mitochondrial DNA control region (CR) sequences. Moderate levels of genetic diversity were detected (expected heterozygosity from microsatellites was 0.635, haplotype diversity from mitochondrial DNA was 0.800) as a whole. Significant genetic differentiation was detected only by mitochondrial DNA (FST = 0.0693, P < 0.01), while microsatellite markers indicated nuclear genetic homogeneity of these locations. Probably, nuclear genetic homogeneity was caused by outbreeding among different groups due to artificial transporting. Very weak genetic differentiation indicates that reintroduction programs of the movement and mixing of horseshoe crab from different locations will result in minimal negative genetic effects. Upon four management units were inferred from the results of CR analysis, accordingly four or more nature reserves should be established to conserve this endangered animal along the Chinese coast. Haplotype network pattern indicated that T. tridentatus population in Chinese coast has undergone historic population expansion and very recent historic population recession. Mismatch distributions analysis also revealed existence of historic demographic expansion.Keywords: Tachypleus tridentatus, microsatellites, mitochondrial DNA, population structure, genetic diversityAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(16), pp. 2088-209

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

Deep Neural Network for Robust Speech Recognition With Auxiliary Features From Laser-Doppler Vibrometer Sensor

Recently, the signal captured from a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) sensor been used to improve the noise robustness automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems by enhancing the acoustic signal prior to feature extraction. This study proposes another approach in which auxiliary features extracted from the LDV signal are used alongside conventional acoustic features to further improve ASR performance based on the use of a deep neural network (DNN) as the acoustic model. While this approach is promising, the best training data sets for ASR do not include LDV data in parallel with the acoustic signal. Thus, to leverage such existing large-scale speech databases, a regres- sion DNN is designed to map acoustic features to LDV features. This regression DNN is well trained from a limited size parallel signal data set, then used to form pseudo-LDV features from a massive speech data set for parallel training of an ASR system. Our experiments show that both the features from the limited scale LDV data set as well as the massive scale pseudo-LDV features are able to train an ASR system that significantly outperforms one using acoustic features alone, in both quiet and noisy environments

2,3:6,7-Bis(methyl­enedi­oxy)­phenanthrene

In the title mol­ecule, C16H10O4, all the non-H atoms are coplanar. The crystal structure is stabilized by weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O contacts and π–π stacking inter­actions (the inter­planar distance is 3.43 Å)

DSTYK Promotes Metastasis and Chemoresistance via EMT in Colorectal Cancer

Objective: Tumor metastasis and resistance to chemotherapy are two critical factors that contribute to the high death rate of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Metastasis is facilitated by the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of tumor cells, which has emerged not only as a fundamental process during metastasis, but is also a key process leading to chemoresistance of cancer cells. However, the underlying mechanisms of EMT in CRC cell remain unknown. Here, we aim to assess the role of dual serine/threonine and tyrosine protein kinase (DSTYK) in CRC metastasis and chemoresistance. Methods: To study the role of DSTYK in TGF-β-induced EMT, we employed techniques including Crispr/Cas9 knockout (KO) to generate DSTYK KO cell lines, RT-PCR to detect the mRNA expression, immunofluorescence analyses, and western blots to detect protein levels of DSTYK in the following 4 cell lines: control LS411N-TβRII and LS411N-TβRII/DSTYK KO, control LS513 and LS513/DSTYK KO cells, treated with/without TGF-β. The effects of DSTYK on apoptosis were investigated by MTT assays, flow cytometry assays, and TUNEL assays. The expression of DSTYK in CRC patients and its correlation with EMT markers were determined by bioinformatics analysis. For in vivo analysis, both xenograft and orthotopic tumor mouse models were employed to investigate the function of DSTYK in chemoresistance and metastasis of tumors. Results: In this study, we demonstrate that the novel kinase DSTYK promotes both TGF-β-induced EMT and the subsequent chemoresistance in CRC cells. DSTYK KO significantly attenuates TGF-β–induced EMT and chemoresistance in CRC cells. According to the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, the expression of DSTYK is not only positively correlated to the expression of TGF-β, but proportional to the death rate of CRC patients as well. Evidently, the expression of DSTYK in the metastatic colorectal cancer samples from patients was significantly higher than that of primary colorectal cancer samples. Further, we demonstrate in mouse models that chemotherapeutic drug treatment suppresses the growth of DSTYK KO tumors more effectively than control tumors. Conclusion: Our findings identify DSTYK as a novel protein kinase in regulating TGF-β–mediated EMT and chemoresistance in CRC cells, which defines DSTYK as a potential therapeutic target for CRC therapy

Differential Strategies to Tolerate Flooding in Polygonum hydropiper Plants Originating From Low- and High-Elevation Habitats

In species that occur over a wide range of flooding conditions, plant populations may have evolved divergent strategies as a consequence of long-term adaptation to local flooding conditions. In the present study, we investigated the effects of a flooding gradient on the growth and carbohydrate reserves of Polygonum hydropiper plants originating from low- and high-elevation habitats in the Dongting Lake wetlands. The results indicated that shoot length did not differ, whereas the total biomass and carbohydrate reserves were reduced under flooded compared to well-drained conditions for plants originating from both habitat types. However, shoot length, shoot mass, rhizome mass, and total biomass were lower in plants from low-elevation habitats than in those from high-elevation habitats in the flooded condition. Soluble sugar and starch contents in belowground biomass were higher in plants from low-elevation habitats than in those from high-elevation habitats independently of the water level. Therefore, P. hydropiper plants from low-elevation habitats exhibit a lower growth rate and more conservative energy strategy to cope with flooding in comparison with plants from high-elevation habitats. Differential strategies to cope with flooding among P. hydropiper populations are most likely a response to the flooding pressures of the habitat of origin and may potentially drive ecotype differentiation within species along flooding gradients

Bostrycin inhibits proliferation of human lung carcinoma A549 cells via downregulation of the PI3K/Akt pathway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bostrycin is a novel compound isolated from marine fungi that inhibits proliferation of many cancer cells. However, the inhibitory effect of bostrycin on lung cancers has not been reported. This study is to investigate the inhibitory effects and mechanism of bostrycin on human lung cancer cells in vitro.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used MTT assay, flow cytometry, microarray, real time PCR, and Western blotting to detect the effect of bostrycin on A549 human pulmonary adenocarcinoma cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We showed a significant inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis in bostrycin-treated lung adenocarcinoma cells. Bostrycin treatment caused cell cycle arrest in the G0/G1 phase. We also found the upregulation of microRNA-638 and microRNA-923 in bostrycin-treated cells. further, we found the downregulation of p110α and p-Akt/PKB proteins and increased activity of p27 protein after bostrycin treatment in A549 cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study indicated that bostrycin had a significant inhibitory effect on proliferation of A549 cells. It is possible that upregulation of microRNA-638 and microRNA-923 and downregulaton of the PI3K/AKT pathway proteins played a role in induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in bostrycin-treated cells.</p