Feasibility of an electrostatic energy harvesting device for CFCs aircraft

A novel energy harvesting concept is proposed for treating local electrostatic energy produced on flying composite aircrafts. This work focuses on the feasibility research on collecting static charges with capacitive collectors. The existing energy harvesting system and the electrification of the typical carbon fibre composites (CFCs) aircraft has been reviewed. The detailed model experiments were then designed to characterize different configurations for electrostatic energy harvesting on aeroplane. In the lab, the static charge was produced by a corona discharging device, and a capacitor or a metal sheet was put in the electric field to collect the charges under four different configurations. After that, the rest results for these configurations were analysed, which is followed by the discussion about the results application on the aircraft. This work has proved that it is feasible to collect the local static electricity on flying aircraft, and it could provide a new direction of energy harvesting system in aviation field

Miniature Multi-Sensor Array (mini-MSA) for Ground-to-Stratosphere Air Measurement, Phase II

There are numerous college research groups doing high altitude ballooning and working with drones. Many of these are making air quality measurements. Those measurements are effectively random. We are designing an inexpensive and easy to build assembly that others can build for under $500 with the goal of having a uniform data set that can be compared. This will provide more useful data for atmospheric studies. Our first version had too many noise issues and the gas sensor signals were unstable. In December 2020 Winsen Sensors (China) came out with a “multi-in-one sensor module,” the ZPHS01B. At a price point of approximately$150 we decided to completely revise our design

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

A Miniaturized Multi Sensor Array for Balloon-Borne Air Measurements, Phase II

Weber State University’s High-Altitude Ballooning team, HARBOR, is developing a lightweight, flexible, expandable sensor array for both high-altitude balloon flight and low-altitude drone flight. The system will have the following capabilities: 1.Gas sensor and air quality board/chamber: a. Gases: CO, CO2, NO2, NH3, SO2, O3, VOCs b. Particulates: PM1, PM2.5, PM10. 2. Metrological data measurement suite: a.Temperature, pressure (with two sensors), %RH. b. Wind by proxy for balloon flights via the GPS. 3. Flight dynamics and geolocation suite: a. High altitude GPS b. 9-axis inertial measurement: acceleration, gyroscope, and magnetometer. 4. Onboard data logging to a microSD card. 5. Live data downlink via 900 MHz XBee to two matching ground stations (one fixed, one mobile). 6. Onboard user interface with removable OLED display. The goal is to create a uniform data set that can be used by balloon and air measurement teams that will save the data in a basic csv format. A separate program will add metadata related to the fight conditions and save the complete dataset in the NASA standard ICARTT file format. Once we have the system optimized, we’ll share it with other balloon teams nationally and internationally. The goal is to create a standard data set that will make college and high school high altitude balloon flights more consistent and thus more useful for atmospheric research

Capacity Sizing Method and Economic Analysis of Energy Storage in Substations Meeting N-1 Criterion of Main Transformers

[Introduction] In order to solve the problem of the short-term heavy load of main transformers in substations caused by the high peak load of the power grid with the relatively reasonable average-load-rate and increasing utilization hours of the substations, delay the construction investment of the power grid and ensure the economic operation of the power grid, a capacity sizing method of energy storage in substations is proposed in this paper, which meets the power supply requirements with N-1 main transformers. [Method] Firstly, a capacity sizing mathematical model of energy storage was built for peak load shaving of the load operation curve and reducing the maximum load rate of the transformer. Then, the capacity sizing economic objective function of lithium ion electrochemical energy storage was constructed to compare the construction investment of lithium ion electrochemical energy storage and main transformer expansion and analyze the economy of energy storage capacity sizing. Finally, in combination with the actual condition of substations, the energy storage capacity and its feasible construction cost in economy is proposed. [Result] Through analysis, with the decreasing of unit cost of lithium ion electrochemical energy storage in the future, the energy storage power can be considered in accordance with the substation capacity of 15% and charging and discharging time of 2 hours. When the unit cost of the energy storage system is decreased to about RMB 1 200/ kWh, the economic advantage of energy storage construction is obvious. [Conclusion] The capacity sizing method of energy storage proposed can solve the problem of short-term heavy load in substations effectively, and has better economy than conventional power transmission and transformation projects

SurrealDriver: Designing Generative Driver Agent Simulation Framework in Urban Contexts based on Large Language Model

Simulation plays a critical role in the research and development of autonomous driving and intelligent transportation systems. However, the current simulation platforms exhibit limitations in the realism and diversity of agent behaviors, which impede the transfer of simulation outcomes to the real world. In this paper, we propose a generative driver agent simulation framework based on large language models (LLMs), capable of perceiving complex traffic scenarios and providing realistic driving maneuvers. Notably, we conducted interviews with 24 drivers and used their detailed descriptions of driving behavior as chain-of-thought prompts to develop a `coach agent' module, which can evaluate and assist driver agents in accumulating driving experience and developing human-like driving styles. Through practical simulation experiments and user experiments, we validate the feasibility of this framework in generating reliable driver agents and analyze the roles of each module. The results show that the framework with full architect decreased the collision rate by 81.04% and increased the human-likeness by 50%. Our research proposes the first urban context driver agent simulation framework based on LLMs and provides valuable insights into the future of agent simulation for complex tasks.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

16S Next-generation sequencing and quantitative PCR reveal the distribution of potential pathogens in the Liaohe Estuary

The existence of potentially pathogenic bacteria seriously threatens aquatic animals and human health. Estuaries are closely related to human activities, and the detection of pathogens is important for aquaculture and public health. However, monitoring only indicator microorganisms and pathogens is not enough to accurately and comprehensively estimate water pollution. Here, the diversity of potentially pathogenic bacteria in water samples from the Liaohe estuary was profiled using 16S next-generation sequencing (16S NGS) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis. The results showed that the dominant genera of environmental pathogens were Pseudomonas, Vibrio, Mycobacterium, Acinetobacter, Exiguobacterium, Sphingomonas, and Legionella, and the abundance of enteric pathogens was significantly less than the environmental pathogens, mainly, Citrobacter, Enterococcus, Escherichia-Shigella, Enterobacter, Bacteroides. The qPCR results showed that the 16S rRNA genes of Vibrio were the most abundant, with concentrations between 7.06 and 9.48 lg copies/L, followed by oaa gene, fliC gene, trh gene, and uidA gene, and the temperature and salinity were the main factors affecting its abundance. Variance partitioning analysis (VPA) analysis of spatial factors on the potential pathogen’s distribution (19.6% vs 5.3%) was greater than environmental factors. In addition, the co-occurrence analysis of potential pathogens in the estuary revealed significant co-occurrence among the opportunistic pathogens Testosteronemonas, Brevimonas vesicularis, and Pseudomonas putida. Our findings provide an essential reference for monitoring and occurrence of potentially pathogenic bacteria in estuaries

Over-expression of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4 gamma 1 correlates with tumor progression and poor prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of the present study was to analyze the expression of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4 gamma 1 (<it>EIF4G1</it>) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its correlation with clinicopathologic features, including patients' survival time.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using real-time PCR, we detected the expression of <it>EIF4G1 </it>in normal nasopharyngeal tissues, immortalized nasopharyngeal epithelial cell lines NP69, NPC tissues and cell lines. <it>EIF4G1 </it>protein expression in NPC tissues was examined using immunohistochemistry. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier method. The effect of <it>EIF4G1 </it>on cell invasion and tumorigenesis were investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The expression levels of <it>EIF4G1 </it>mRNA were significantly greater in NPC tissues and cell lines than those in the normal nasopharyngeal tissues and NP69 cells (<it>P </it>< 0.001). Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the expression of <it>EIF4G1 </it>protein was higher in NPC tissues than that in the nasopharyngeal tissues (<it>P </it>< 0.001). In addition, the levels of <it>EIF4G1 </it>protein in tumors were positively correlated with tumor T classification (<it>P </it>= 0.039), lymph node involvement (N classification, <it>P </it>= 0.008), and the clinical stages (<it>P </it>= 0.003) of NPC patients. Patients with higher <it>EIF4G</it>1 expression had shorter overall survival time (<it>P </it>= 0.019). Multivariate analysis showed that <it>EIF4G1 </it>expression was an independent prognostic indicator for the overall survival of NPC patients. Using shRNA to knock down the expression of <it>EIF4G1 </it>not only markedly inhibited cell cycle progression, proliferation, migration, invasion, and colony formation, but also dramatically suppressed <it>in vivo </it>xenograft tumor growth.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data suggest that <it>EIF4G1 </it>can serve as a biomarker for the prognosis of NPC patients.</p

Transcriptional patterns, biomarkers and pathways characterizing nasopharyngeal carcinoma of Southern China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a complicated process involving genetic predisposition, Epstein-Bar Virus infection, and genetic alterations. Although some oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes have been previously reported in NPC, a complete understanding of the pathogenesis of NPC in the context of global gene expression, transcriptional pathways and biomarker assessment remains to be elucidated.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Total RNA from 32 pathologically-confirmed cases of poorly-differentiated NPC was divided into pools inclusive of four consecutive specimens and each pool (T1 to T8) was co-hybridized with pooled RNA from 24 normal non-cancerous nasopharyngeal tissues (NP) to a human 8K cDNA array platform. The reliability of microarray data was validated for selected genes by semi-quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Stringent statistical filtering parameters identified 435 genes to be up-regulated and 257 genes to be down-regulated in NPC compared to NP. Seven up-regulated genes including CYC1, MIF, LAMB3, TUBB2, UBE2C and TRAP1 had been previously proposed as candidate common cancer biomarkers based on a previous extensive comparison among various cancers and normal tissues which did not, however, include NPC or NP. In addition, nine known oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, MIF, BIRC5, PTTG1, ATM, FOXO1A, TGFBR2, PRKAR1A, KLF5 and PDCD4 were identified through the microarray literature-based annotation search engine MILANO, suggesting these genes may be specifically involved in the promotion of the malignant conversion of nasopharyngeal epithelium. Finally, we found that these differentially expressed genes were involved in apoptosis, MAPK, VEGF and B cell receptor signaling pathways and other functions associated with cell growth, signal transduction and immune system activation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study identified potential candidate biomarkers, oncogenes/tumor suppressor genes involved in several pathways relevant to the oncogenesis of NPC. This information may facilitate the determination of diagnostic and therapeutic targets for NPC as well as provide insights about the molecular pathogenesis of NPC.</p