A study is considered to a steady, two-dimensional boundary layer flow of an incompressible MHD fluid for the Blasius and Sakiadis flows about a flat plate in the presence of thermo-diffusion (Dufour) and thermal-diffusion (Soret) effects for variable parameters. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations using similarity variables. The transformed systems are solved numerically by Runge-Kutta Gills method with shooting techniques. The variations of the flow velocity, temperature and concentration as well as the characteristics of heat and mass transfer are presented graphically with tabulated results. The numerical computations show that thermal boundary layer thickness is found to be increased with increasing values of Eckert number (Ec), Prandtl number (Pr) and local Grashof number (Gr_x) for both Blasius and Sakiadis flow. The Blasius flow elevates the thickness of the thermal boundary layer compared with the Sakiadis flow. The local magnetic field has shown that flow is retarded in the boundary layer but enhances temperature and concentration distributions.

The deposition characteristics of lead ions (Pb2+) in the presence of silicon powders (SPs) were investigated in water seepage in a long one-dimensional sand column experiment. The injected SPs possess a very wide particle-size distribution (PSD). The concentrations of deposited Pb2+ and SPs and the migration distance along the water flow direction were measured by sampling. The PSDs of the deposited SPs in different sections were obtained by laser diffraction after transport test completion, and microstructure photos were also acquired through metallographic microscopy. Test results show that the presence of SPs may promote or inhibit Pb2+ migration, which is closely related to the concentration of injected Pb2+, particle size and concentration of injected SPs, seepage velocity, and change in the absolute zeta potential in the surface charge. Larger SPs are first deposited within a relatively short distance from the injection surface of the sand column compared with smaller SPs. The median diameter of the deposited SPs near the injection end is larger than that of the injected SPs and gradually decreases with increasing distance, which represents a clear particle-separation characteristic due to the flowing water.

Complementarity in resource use leading to increased resource partitioning is the most commonly proposed mechanism for explaining the positive relationship between plant diversity and productivity. However, we still have a poor understanding of the relationship between plant diversity and root biomass. We used molecular method to identify tree species and to estimate the biomass of fine root (≤ 2 mm in diameter) for each tree species in soil cores sampled from the plots along a tree species gradient elaborated in subtropical forests. Our objectives were to examine whether spatial resource partitioning and symmetric proliferation are responsible for the relationship between aboveground tree species richness (SRA) and fine root biomass. We found that increasing SRA led to higher fine root biomass and a support for symmetric proliferation strategies, but this pattern only appeared in nutrient-rich upper soil layer. Structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that stand density was the dominant factor to mediate SRA effects on fine root biomass. Specifically, fine root biomass depended on the SRA × stand density interaction, with lower biomass at lower density and low richness, and this effect disappeared in higher density forests. Overall, we found inconsistent support for the vertical niche partitioning, indicating that greater soil volume filling is not the reason for belowground overyielding pattern. Alternatively, density-dependent biotic interactions affecting tree recruitment are an important driver affecting productivity in diverse subtropical forests but the usual root distribution patterns in line with the resource partitioning hypothesis are unrealistic in contexts where soil nutrients are heterogeneously distributed.

Accurate cooling crystallization is vitally important in the production of highly specialized fine chemicals and pharmaceutical engineering, etc. Herein, a novel hollow fiber membrane-assisted cooling crystallization (MACC) was developed to achieve precise nucleation and self-seeding process control. Poly-tetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyethersulfone (PES) membrane with diverse interfacial induced nucleation and thermal conduction properties were introduced to accelerate the nucleation and then transfer the automatically detached crystal seed into the crystallizer. Polymeric membrane can dominate the nucleation kinetic and hinder the secondary nucleation, which was validated from the theoretical model and on-line detective experiments. The crystal product manufactured by MACC possessed better morphology, larger mean size (>1.35 mm), higher purity (>99.5 wt%) and narrower size distribution than the conventional cooling crystallization. Space-time process decoupling between nucleation and crystal growth can be realized via auto-screening uniform nuclei in the membrane modules and controllable growth in the crystallizer during MACC.

High temperature stress increasingly threatens plant development and survival. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in plant stress responses, but their functions in the complex stress-responsive network remain elusive. Poplar is one of the most widely planted trees in the world and contributes to terrestrial ecological stability. In this study, we identified 261 high temperature-responsive lncRNAs in poplar (Populus simonii). These lncRNAs were predicted to target a total of 353 target genes of which 163 are cis-targets and 190 trans-targets. To determine the function of select heat-responsive lncRNAs, transient overexpressed and repressed lncRNA were implemented in poplar leaves and roots. As expected, the abundance of lncRNA target transcripts were altered. One such lncRNA TCONS_00202587 binds to upstream sequences of targets via its secondary structure and interfere with the target gene transcription. Another lncRNA TCONS_00260893 could enhance Ca2+ influx in response to high-temperature treatment by interfering with a specific variant/isoform of the target gene. Two lncRNA targets overexpressed experiment revealed heat tolerance in Arabidopsis. These results revealed lncRNAs could regulate their targets genes by acting as potential RNA scaffolds or through RNA interference pathway. It is indicated a new layers of highly complex RNA-based gene regulation in heat tolerance of perennial plants.

Trehalose protects and stabilizes the reaction center and improves photosystem II (PS II) activity. However, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Cyclic electron flow is an important mechanism to protect PS II under stress. This study focused on the effects of exogenous trehalose on the activity of PS II, D1 protein content, the plastoquinone (PQ) pool, and ATP synthase activity in wheat seedlings under heat and drought stress to explore the relationship between trehalose and cyclic electron flow (CEF). Our experimental results indicated that heat and drought stress decreased the maximal photochemical efficiency of PS II (Fv/Fm) and the electron transport rate of PS II (EFR(II)), whereas the trehalose pretreatment improved photochemical efficiency and the electron transport rate of PS II. The trehalose pretreatment stimulated CEF under heat and drought stress. Furthermore, the proton gradient (ΔpH) across the thylakoid membrane and ATPase activity increased. The higher ΔpH and ATPase activity played a key role in protecting PS II under stress. Inhibition of the oxidized PQ pool caused by heat and drought stress was alleviated by the trehalose pretreatment. Thus, our results show that photoinhibition of heat and drought-stressed plants was alleviated by the trehalose pretreatment. Our findings further reveal that this effect was mediated by CEF and the PQ pool.

Enzyme immobilization enhances the catalytic activity and stability of the enzyme, and also improves reusability. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs), which possess diversified structures and porosity, have been used as excellent carriers for enzyme immobilization. Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase (PFL) has been successfully immobilized onto MOFs by covalent cross-linking to obtain a series of immobilized lipase (PFL@MOFs). PFL@MOFs are used for catalytic enantioselective hydrolysis of 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl) propionic acid ethyl ester enantiomers (2-HPPAEE) in aqueous medium and transesterification of 4-methoxymandelic acid enantiomers (4-MMA) in organic medium. The experimental results indicated that PFL@Uio-66(Zr) exhibits excellent enzymatic catalysis performances and high enantioselectives. In addition, to increase catalytic activity and reusability, PFL is modified by the polyethylene glycol (PEG) to prepare PEG-modified lipase (PFL-PEG), then PFL-PEG is immobilized onto Uio-66(Zr) to prepare PFL-PEG@Uio-66(Zr), demonstrating better reusability and catalytic activity compared with PFL@Uio-66(Zr).

Microalgae are known for their ability to purify wastewater and at the same time to be able to produce biofuels. The development of microalgal biofilms has received attention in recent years, as the growth of microalgae on a substrate facilitates their separation from water. In the present study, we compared 6 different materials (cork, spongue towel, denim, plexiglass, stainless steel and silicone rubber) as substratum to examine their capability on the attachment of algae. Biomass attachment on the various materials was monitored for 16 days of cultivation. Different physico-chemical surface properties such as contact angle, surface energy, point of zero charge (pzc) were examined in order to elucidate materials properties role on algal attachment. Plexiglass succeeded the greatest increase in biomass (up to 35 g/m2), while stainless steel and sponge towel came in the second place both with 21 g/m2. Based on the results, the contact angle and pzc alone, are not sufficient for explaining the selectivity of algal cells to get attached on a surface.

Removal of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from air is essential due to health issues. An industrial cyclic temperature swing adsorption (TSA) unit is investigated over activated carbon. The comparison of industrial data with that of model showed good agreement between them. The results showed that ethanol is more adsorbed on activated carbon than diethyl ether and outlet concentration of diethyl ether exceeds its inlet concentration due to its partial replacement by ethanol. Performance of the TSA unit is measured through calculating diethyl ether and ethanol recoveries. Moreover, an energy requirement is also added into the model and multi-objective optimization has been carried out. High model accuracy of 99.98 % is obtained for objectives indicating a good fitting. The suggested optimum variables wereduration of heating stepas 30min, duration of cooling stepas 20 min, regeneration flow rate of 400 kmol/h and humidity of 0.001 in air.

Rationale, aims and objectives: In emergency cesarean section, time from decision to delivery should be within 30 minutes. This study aims to compare decision-to-delivery interval (DDI) in emergency cesarean section before and after the implementation of a specific care process improvement protocol (“code blue”). Methods: 300 women underwent emergency cesarean section were included. Study and comparison group were 150 women before and 150 women after “code blue” protocol implementation. Medical records were reviewed for clinical information. Timing of decision-to-delivery process was compared. Results: Maternal age, parity, and GA at delivery were comparable between the 2 groups. The most common indication was abnormal FHR in NICHD category III in both groups. Median DDI was significantly shorter in study than comparison group (22 vs. 52.5 minutes, p<0.001). In addition, median decision-to-room and decision-to incision intervals were also significantly shorter (8 vs. 25 minutes and 18 vs. 45 minutes, p<0.001, respectively). Women in study group had significantly higher rate of DDI ≤30 minutes than in comparison group (80% vs. 8%, p<0.001). Similar significant differences of each time interval and rate of DDI ≤30 minutes between the 2 groups were observed regardless of decision time. Only 5 (3.3%) of women in study group had DDI >75 minutes compared to 13 cases (25%) in comparison group (p<0.001). Pregnancy and neonatal outcomes were comparable between the 2 groups. Conclusion: The implementation of “code blue” protocol for emergency cesarean section results in significantly shorter DDI and other time intervals.

Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3∆9,12,15) and γ-linolenic acid (GLA, 18:3∆6,9,12) are important trienoic fatty acids which are beneficial for human health in their own right, or as precursors for the biosynthesis of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. ALA and GLA in seed oil are synthesized from linoleic acid (LA, 18:2∆9,12) by the microsomal ω-3 fatty acid desaturase (FAD3) and ∆6 desaturase (D6D), respectively. Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) seed oil composition was modified by transforming with a FAD3 gene from Brassica napus and a D6D gene from Echium plantagineum, resulting in approximately 30% ALA and 20% GLA, respectively. The total oil content in transgenic seeds remained unaltered relative to parental seeds. Despite the use of a seed-specific promoter for transgene expression, low levels of GLA and increased levels of ALA were found in non-seed cotton tissues. At low temperature the germinating cottonseeds containing the linolenic acid isomers elongated faster than the untransformed controls. ALA-producing lines also showed higher photosynthetic rates at cooler temperature and better fibre quality compared to both untransformed controls and GLA-producing lines. The oxidative stability of the novel cottonseed oils was assessed, providing guidance for potential food, pharmaceutical and industrial applications of these oils.

The Arctic marine ecosystem has experienced extensive changes in sea ice dynamics, with significant impacts on ice-dependent species such as polar bears (Ursus maritimus). We used abundance estimates, age/sex structure, and body condition data to estimate population energy density and storage energy in Western Hudson Bay polar bears from 1985 to 2018. We examined intra-population variation in energetic patterns, temporal energetic trends, and the relationship between population energetics and sea ice conditions. Energy metrics for most demographic classes declined over time in relation to earlier sea ice breakup, most significantly for solitary adult females and yearlings, demonstrating their vulnerability to nutritional stress. Population energy metrics declined significantly over time in relation to earlier breakup and longer lagged open water periods, suggesting multi-year effects of sea ice decline. This study provides insights into ecological mechanisms linking population responses to sea ice decline and highlights the utility of long-term bioenergetics research.

La ricerca presenta un approccio di valutazione integrato per la definizione della sostenibilità ambientale dei WWTPs, con l'obiettivo di fornire uno strumento utile per la caratterizzazione e l'aumento della sostenibilità, attraverso l'identificazione e la quantificazione degli elementi critici. La procedura si basa sul concetto di miglioramento continuo, che può essere implementato sulla filosofia del ciclo di deming il quale consente l’ottimizzazione dei processi e il miglioramento della qualità e dell’efficienza.  L'approccio viene discusso considerando tre dimensioni di valutazione (aree tematiche): ubicazione, impianto e gestione.

The brain is one of the largest and most complex organs in the human body. Some abnormal and uncontrolled growth of tissue taking place in human brain called “brain tumor”. The objective of biomedical image processing is that the image will be enhanced to support doctors more easily in diagnosing and treating. The detection of brain tumor can be performed by using various image processing techniques like brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computer Tomography (CT), Positron Emission Tomography(PET), Electroencephalography (EEG) etc. Among these techniques the brain MRI is widely adopted in the world due to its significant features. Its correct detection and identification at an early stage is the only way to get cure. Brain tumor tissues may become malignant (cancerous) if not diagnosed. This paper deals with the various aspects of the brain tumor detection. The paper discusses the significant researches which are meant for the brain tumor detection through MRI quality enhancement.

The advancement in new technology like fuel cells, wind turbines, and photovoltaic cells and new innovations in power electronics to satisfy customer demands for better power quality and reliability are forcing the power industry to shift to distributed generations (DGs). Hence DG has recently gained a lot of popularity in the power industry due to market deregulations and environmental concerns. Islanding take place when a portion of the distribution system becomes electrically isolated from the rest of the power system yet continues to be energized by DGs. The main problem of interconnecting a DG to power distribution system is islanding. Failure to trip islanded generators can lead to a number of problems to these generators and the connected loads. All DGs must be disconnected immediately after the occurrence of islanding. Typically, this disconnection should be occurred within 100 to 300 ms after the loss of the main supply. To achieve such a goal, each DG must be equipped with any islanding detection method. In this paper, active methods have been introduced to overcome this problem especially the method of Active Frequency Drift (AFD) as it can detect islanding easily and has a small Non-Detection Zone, but unfortunately it degrades the power quality of the system. MATLAB/SIMULINK is used to simulate the output response of AFD method.

This research work has analyzed the geotechnical characteristics of two borrow pits around Afe babalola university. The research work was carried out by collection of soil samples from borrowpit 1 (beside Federal polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria) and borrowpit 2 (along Afe Babalola farm, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria) and taken to the laboratory for soil test. The particle size analysis shows that the percentages passing number 200 British Standard sieve are 22.18% and 13.02% for borrowpits 1 and 2 respectively. Atterberg limit results show that borrow pit 2 has sandy particle sizes predominating. Hence the soil sample as a result of its particle size composition happens to be a cohesionless soil with no plasticity while pit 1 has liquid limit of 32.5%, plastic limit of 27.77%, plasticity index of 5% and shrinkage limit of 5.8%. The natural moisture content for the soil samples are 5% and 9.7% for borrowpit 1 and borrowpit 2 respectively. The specific gravity for borrowpit 1 and borrowpit 2 are 2.67 and 2.60 respectively. The soaked CBR value for the soil samples are 70% and 66%. The maximum dry density for the soil samples are 1.82Mg/m3 and 2.0Mg/m3 for borrowpit 1 and borrowpit 2 respectively. While that of Optimum moisture content are 16.24% and 13.5% for borrowpit 1 and borrowpit 2 respectively. The unconfined compressive strength (qu) for borrowpit 1 soil sample is 91.5kN/m2. The unconfined compressive strength of borrowpit 2 could not be obtained as it is a sandy material. Hence borrowpit 1 can be classified as A-2-4 material (silty or clayey gravel and sand) while borrowpit 2 can be classified as A-3 material (fine sand).

The main goal of this study is to determine the aerodynamic performance and to characterize unsteady flows in a high-speed high-reaction pre-whirl axial flow fan. The pressure waves’ main diametrical modes where two blades interact with two vanes and their sequences are predicted. There are mainly two mechanisms of IGV-rotor interactions identified; the first is attributed to the potential effect whereas the second is due to the wake-blade interaction and the advection of wake mixing into the blades’ passages. Both effects are dependent on the circumferential positions of blades and the axial inter-distance between IGV and rotor. The time mode analyses of pressure fluctuations recorded from different monitor points are determined and the frequencies of prevailing modes and those related to the vortical flow structure through the components are also identified. The understanding of vanes and blade rows interactions at various axial inter-distances is an important step in determining the beneficial and detrimental effects on the design of high performance axial fan stage.

The recent trend to upgrade the mechanical properties of the low alloy structure steel is to generate the well known acicular ferrite morphology by addition of special alloying element as Micro-alloying to affect nano-size substructure. It was agreed that the key point for developing the oxide metallurgy technology is to continuously explore the potential oxides which can induce ferrite formation. Moreover, much attention had been paid to study the nucleation mechanisms of IAF nucleated on different inclusions. However, the IAF nucleation mechanisms are poorly understood. The intention of the present work is to help to a deeper understanding of the mechanism of acicular ferrite nucleation in some microallyed steel such as Ti, Al, and Mg-microalloyed steel, which were investigated by the Author and others, aimed to optimize strength and toughness of the structure steel based on the mechanism of acicular ferrite formation.

Objective: Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) stands for an ideal therapy for patients with intermediate stage HCC. This study was carried out to observe the effect of gelatin sponge microparticles-transarterial chemoembolization (GSMs-TACE) on the immune function of patients with liver cancer by detecting the proportion of Treg cells in the peripheral blood of HCC patients before and after the treatment of GSMs-TACE, and to determine whether GSMs-TACE has a positive regulatory effect on the immune function of patients with liver cancer. Methods: 28 HCC patients treated with GSMs-TACE were enrolled. Flow cytometry was used to determine the Treg cell proportion in peripheral blood in all patients with HCC 1 day before GSMs-TACE, 10 days and 30 days after GSMs-TACE, respectively. Results: The Tregs cell proportion in peripheral blood of primary HCC patients was significantly higher than that of the healthy controls and was associated with various clinical indicators of HCC. The Treg cell proportion in the peripheral blood of patients with BCLC stage C liver cancer was higher than that of stage B patients; The Treg cell proportion at 10 days postoperatively was 8.85 ± 1.23%, which was significantly lower than that before the GSMs-TACE. The Treg cell proportion at 30 days postoperatively was 10.27 ± 1.28%, which remained in the low range. Conclusion: These results indicated that GSMs-TACE could exert a positive regulatory effect on the anticancer immune function of HCC patients, which may be used in combination with immune adjuvant therapies to enhance the treatment efficacy of HCC.

Tunnels had been undergone accidental and intentional blast in the past. An analysis of a rock tunnel when subjected to internal blast loading has been presented in this paper. A three-dimensional finite element model of a huge rock mass comprising the tunnel has been developed in Abaqus/CAE. Diameter of the tunnel has been kept constant to a two-lane transportation tunnel. However, liner thickness of the concrete, overburden pressure on the tunnel has been varied to observe the response in different possible conditions. To incorporate the elastoplastic response of rock mass, Mohr-Coulomb constitutive material model has been considered. For modelling of trinitrotoluene (TNT), Jones-Wilkins-Lee material model has been adopted. Concrete Damage Plasticity material model has been adopted for tunnel lining. For the blast loading, Coupled-Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) model has been considered. Results highlight the importance of tunnel lining thickness and overburden depth while designing the tunnel in rocks. Under any amount of explosive, deep tunnels have been found to be safer than shallow tunnel.

High duty engineering component life is usually demonstrated through extensive testing and statistical analysis applied to empirical curve-fit equations. Because of this, the extent of the testing required is huge and costly: it must consider the load cycle range and test to high numbers of cycles. Furthermore, this testing must be repeated for every material, method of manufacture, and subsequent post-processing. Additive Manufacturing (AM) for high duty components has brought to the fore the question of the effect of porosity and surface roughness on fatigue life. Because there is relatively little service life experience, it is possible that the testing approach could also fail to represent conservatively the true life of a critical component. The authors propose the development of a fatigue model based on well-established engineering physics principles, by creating computational specimens with modelled surface roughness and porosity, and subjected to cyclic loading using Finite Element Analysis. They show that the combination of roughness features and sub-surface pores leads to an equivalent plastic strain distribution pattern that suggests an emergent physical process. Such a phenomenological understanding of the fatigue failure process should lead to improved life prediction techniques, more cost effective test procedures, and the development of better AM methods.

In this manuscript, a two-port semi-circular patch antenna with Koch curve fractals is presented as a suitable candidate for portable UWB communication systems. The proposed fractal array is engraved on a 1.57 mm thick FR-4 substrate with an overall array size of 30.5 × 47 × 1.64 mm3. The upper substrate layer consists of two microstrip-line fed semi-circular patches combined with two Koch curve fractals (optimized up to 2nd order of iteration) separated by a distance of λ/2. To mitigate the effect of mutual coupling between the radiating elements, the lower substrate layer consists of a reduced ground plane with a funnel-shaped decoupling structure. To achieve a high degree of isolation (S21/S12 ≤ -16.8 dB) between the ports of the proposed array, two rectangular and L-shaped slots (mirror images of each other) are etched from the upper surface of the reduced ground. The design and simulation of the proposed antenna array is implemented in CST MWS’18. The optimized fractal array covers the simulated frequency band from 4.395-10.184 GHz with a fractional bandwidth of 79.4 % (at a center frequency of 5.789 GHz) and provides a peak radiation efficiency of 88.8% (at 6.2 GHz frequency). The antenna diversity performance is analyzed in terms of envelope correlation coefficient (ECC ≤ 0.0021), diversity gain (DG ≥ 9.989), mean effective gain (MEG ≥ -3.7 dB), channel capacity loss (CCL ≤ 0.4 bits/s/Hz) and total active reflection coefficient (TARC ≤ -10 dB). The experimentally measured S-parameter results show a good match with the simulated ones.

The synthetic rubber industry is of great importance and it is present in the daily life of world society. BR (butadiene rubber or polybutadiene) is one of the most used polymers in this field, mainly in tire production. Therefore, the control of operational conditions and final properties of the polymer formed are important points to be studied as they are a challenge for the industry. Thus, the present work focus in simulate the batch polymerization of polybutadiene using the Aspen Plus software, where 1,3-butadiene, titanium tetrachloride, triethylaluminium and hexane were used as monomer, catalyst, co-catalyst and solvent, respectively. Four cases were simulated changing the number of catalyst sites in order to predict and compare the final properties of polybutadiene resins including the average molecular weights, the molecular weight distribution and the evolution of operation conditions that are used at plant to monitor the course of the reaction like the reaction temperature and pressure.

Unique combinations of geographic and environmental conditions make quantifying the importance of factors that influence forest productivity difficult. We aimed to model the height growth of dominant Nothofagus alpina trees in Chile, as a proxy for forest productivity, by building a dynamic model that consider topography, habitat type, and climate conditions. We used growth data of 169 dominant trees sampled throughout south-central Chile (36°-41° S). After accounting for the interaction between aspect, slope, and elevation, as well as the effect of habitat type, we found that the precipitation in the driest month and annual mean temperature are the most critical climatic drivers of forest productivity. We predict a reduction of approximately 1m in the maximum height of dominant trees given the course of future climate conditions. Our research demonstrates a consequence of climate change in N. alpina-dominated forests: a reduction of tree height growth rates, suggesting a decrease in carbon sequestration too.