VIRTUE : integrating CFD ship design

Novel ship concepts, increasing size and speed, and strong competition in the global maritime market require that a ship's hydrodynamic performance be studied at the highest level of sophistication. All hydrodynamic aspects need to be considered so as to optimize trade-offs between resistance, propulsion (and cavitation), seakeeping or manoeuvring. VIRTUE takes a holistic approach to hydrodynamic design and focuses on integrating advanced CFD tools in a software platform that can control and launch multi-objective hydrodynamic design projects. In this paper current practice, future requirements and a potential software integration platform are presented. The necessity of parametric modelling as a means of effectively generating and efficiently varying geometry, and the added-value of advanced visualization, is discussed. An illustrating example is given as a test case, a container carrier investigation, and the requirements and a proposed architecture for the platform are outlined

Extensive alterations of the whole-blood transcriptome are associated with body mass index: results of an mRNA profiling study involving two large population-based cohorts

Background: Obesity, defined as pathologically increased body mass index (BMI),is strongly related to an increased risk for numerous common cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. It is particularly associated with insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and systemic oxidative stress and represents the most important risk factor for type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying these associations are still not completely understood. Therefore, in order to identify potentially disease-relevant BMI-associated gene expression signatures, a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) on BMI was performed. Methods: Whole-blood mRNA levels determined by array-based transcriptional profiling were correlated with BMI in two large independent population-based cohort studies (KORA F4 and SHIP-TREND) comprising a total of 1977 individuals. Results: Extensive alterations of the whole-blood transcriptome were associated with BMI: More than 3500 transcripts exhibited significant positive or negative BMI-correlation. Three major whole-blood gene expression signatures associated with increased BMI were identified. The three signatures suggested: i) a ratio shift from mature erythrocytes towards reticulocytes, ii) decreased expression of several genes essentially involved in the transmission and amplification of the insulin signal, and iii) reduced expression of several key genes involved in the defence against reactive oxygen species (ROS). Conclusions: Whereas the first signature confirms published results, the other two provide possible mechanistic explanations for well-known epidemiological findings under conditions of increased BMI, namely attenuated insulin signaling and increased oxidative stress. The putatively causative BMI-dependent down-regulation of the expression of numerous genes on the mRNA level represents a novel finding. BMI-associated negative transcriptional regulation of insulin signaling and oxidative stress management provide new insights into the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome and T2D

Ein Berechnungsverfahren zur Behandlung von Profilströmungen mit lokalen Ablösezonen und offenen Totwassergebieten

Ein Berechnungsverfahren zur Behandlung von Profilströmungen mit lokalen Ablösezonen und offenen Totwassergebieten Es wird ein integrales Grenzschichtrechenverfahren in expliziter und impliziter Formulierung zur Behandlung anliegender und abgelöster laminarer als auch turbulenter 2-dimensionaler Strömungen vorgestellt. Die Theorie berücksichtigt den Einfluß von Wandkrümmungen. Das Verfahren wird zur Untersuchung von Tragflügelströmungen mit Ablösungserscheinungen eingesetzt. Vergleiche der Berechnungsergebnisse sowohl mit als auch ohne Wandkrümmung mit experimentell ermittelten Daten zeigen, daß das Verfahren in einem weiten, technisch relevanten Bereich einsetzbar ist. Zudem werden Beispiele zur Beurteilung des Einflußes der Krümmung angegeben

2-dimensionales, differentielles Grenzschichtberechnungsverfahren nach Cebeci

2-dimensionales, differentielles Grenzschichtberechnungsverfahren nach Cebeci Beschreibung und Berechnungsbeispiel

A Holistic Approach to Ship Design: Tools and Applications

The present article introduces a holistic approach to ship design, as it is being developed in the Horizon 2020 EU project HOLISHIP (www.holiship.eu). The project deals with the development of design and virtual prototyping simulation platforms, which integrate software tools for all major ship design disciplines and optimization objectives, namely, building and operational cost, energy efficiency, safety, environmental footprint, and life cycle cost/impact assessment. It enables the seamless mathematical multi-objective optimization of ship design with governing design constraints and the exploration of the huge design space by parametric modeling of the ship design system and its components. The article outlines the integration of the essential software tools into the software platform and demonstrates the functionality and benefits of the HOLISHIP approach by brief presentations of typical case studies

Associations of carotid intima media thickness with gene expression in whole blood and genetically predicted gene expression across 48 tissues.

Carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) is a biomarker of subclinical atherosclerosis and a predictor of future cardiovascular events. Identifying associations between gene expression levels and cIMT may provide insight to atherosclerosis etiology. Here, we use two approaches to identify associations between mRNA levels and cIMT: differential gene expression analysis in whole blood and S-PrediXcan. We used microarrays to measure genome-wide whole blood mRNA levels of 5647 European individuals from four studies. We examined the association of mRNA levels with cIMT adjusted for various potential confounders. Significant associations were tested for replication in three studies totaling 3943 participants. Next, we applied S-PrediXcan to summary statistics from a cIMT genome-wide association study of 71 128 individuals to estimate the association between genetically determined mRNA levels and cIMT and replicated these analyses using S-PrediXcan on an independent genome-wide association study on cIMT that included 22 179 individuals from the UK Biobank. mRNA levels of TNFAIP3, CEBPD, and METRNL were inversely associated with cIMT, but these associations were not significant in the replication analysis. S-PrediXcan identified associations between cIMT and genetically determined mRNA levels for 36 genes, of which six were significant in the replication analysis, including TLN2, which had not been previously reported for cIMT. There was weak correlation between our results using differential gene expression analysis and S-PrediXcan. Differential expression analysis and S-PrediXcan represent complementary approaches for the discovery of associations between phenotypes and gene expression. Using these approaches, we prioritize TNFAIP3, CEBPD, METRNL, and TLN2 as new candidate genes whose differential expression might modulate cIMT