• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.373-390
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• 2020

Hybrid simulation (HS) is a versatile tool for structural performance evaluation under dynamic loads. Although real structural responses are often multiple-directional owing to an eccentric mass/stiffness of the structure and/or excitations not along structural major axes, few HS in this field takes into account structural responses in multiple directions. Multi-directional loading is more challenging than uni-directional loading as there is a nonlinear transformation between actuator and specimen coordinate systems, increasing the difficulty of suppressing loading error. Moreover, redundant actuators may exist in multi-directional hybrid simulations of large-scale structures, which requires the loading strategy to contain ineffective loading of multiple actuators. To address these issues, lately a new strategy was conceived for accurate reproduction of desired displacements in bi-directional hybrid simulations (BHS), which is characterized in two features, i.e., iterative displacement command updating based on the Jacobian matrix considering nonlinear geometric relationships, and force-based control for compensating ineffective forces of redundant actuators. This paper performs performance validation and application of this new mixed loading strategy. In particular, virtual BHS considering linear and nonlinear specimen models, and the diversity of actuator properties were carried out. A validation test was implemented with a steel frame specimen. A real application of this strategy to BHS on a full-scale 2-story frame specimen was performed. Studies showed that this strategy exhibited excellent tracking performance for the measured displacements of the control point and remarkable compensation for ineffective forces of the redundant actuator. This strategy was demonstrated to be capable of accurately and effectively reproducing the desired displacements in large-scale BHS.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.23-38
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• 2016

Batch adsorption of methyl orange (MO) from aqueous solution using three kinds of anion exchange membranes BI, BIII and DF-120B having different ion exchange capacities (IECs) and water uptakes ($W_R$) was investigated at room temperature. The FTIR spectra of anion exchange membranes was analysed before and after the adsorption of MO dye to investigate the intractions between dye molecules and anion exchange membranes. The effect of various parameters such as contact time, initial dye concentration and molarity of NaCl on the adsorption capacity was studied. The adsorption capacity found to be increased with contact time and initial dye concentration but decreased with ionic strength. The adsorption of MO on BI, BIII and DF-120B followed pseudo-first-order kinetics and the nonlinear forms of Freundlich and Langmuir were used to predict the isotherm parameters. This study demonstrates that anion exchange membranes could be used as useful adsorbents for removal of MO dye from wastewater.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권5호
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• pp.1686-1704
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• 2021

This study addresses the numerical simulation of the shield building of an AP1000 nuclear power plant (NPP) subjected to a large commercial aircraft impact. First, a simplified finite element model (F.E. model) of the large commercial Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft is established. The F.E. model of the AP1000 shield building is constructed, which is a reasonably simplified reinforced concrete structure. The effectiveness of both F.E. models is verified by the classical Riera method and the impact test of a 1/7.5 scaled GE-J79 engine model. Then, based on the verified F.E. models, the entire impact process of the aircraft on the shield building is simulated by the missile-target interaction method (coupled method) and by the ANSYS/LS-DYNA software, which is at different initial impact velocities and impact heights. Finally, the laws and characteristics of the aircraft impact force, residual velocity, kinetic energy, concrete damage, axial reinforcement stress, and perforated size are analyzed in detail. The results show that all of them increase with the addition to the initial impact velocity. The first four are not very sensitive to the impact height. The engine impact mainly contributes to the peak impact force, and the peak impact force is six times higher than that in the first stage. With increasing initial impact velocity, the maximum aircraft impact force rises linearly. The range of the tension and pressure of the reinforcement axial stress changes with the impact height. The perforated size increases with increasing impact height. The radial perforation area is almost insensitive to the initial impact velocity and impact height. The research of this study can provide help for engineers in designing AP1000 shield buildings.

• Animal Bioscience
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• 제34권3_spc호
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• pp.443-448
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• 2021

Objective: Astaxanthin is a natural super antioxidant. The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of astaxanthin rich Phaffia rhodozyma (PR) supplementation in diets on laying production performance, egg quality, antioxidant defenses and immune defenses in laying hens. Methods: A total of five hundred and twelve 60-week-old Lohmann Brown laying hens (2,243±12 g) were randomly assigned to four groups, each including 4 replicates with 32 birds per replicate. Astaxanthin rich PR was added to corn-soybean meal diets to produce experimental diets containing 0 (Control), 800 mg/kg, 1,200 mg/kg, and 1,600 mg/kg PR, respectively. The astaxanthin content in the diet was 0.96 mg/kg, 1.44 mg/kg and 1.92 mg/kg respectively. Results: Results showed that dietary PR supplementation tended to increase daily feed intake (p = 0.0512). There was no effect of astaxanthin rich PR on Haugh units, albumen height, egg shape index, eggshell strength, and eggshell thickness at weeks 6 (p>0.05). However, egg yolk color was significantly improved (p<0.05). In addition, astaxanthin rich PR supplementation significantly increased serum glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activity (p<0.05), increased serum immunoglobulin G content (p<0.05), and reduced malondialdehyde content (p<0.05) in laying hens. Conclusion: In conclusion, astaxanthin rich PR can improve the color of egg yolk, enhance the antioxidant defenses, and regulate the immune function.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권3호
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• pp.763-775
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• 2021

The thermal hydraulic performances of Steam Generator (SG) under both steady and transient operation conditions are of great importance for the safety and economy in nuclear power plants. In this paper, based on our self-developed SG thermal hydraulic analysis code STAF (Steam-generator Thermalhydraulic Analysis code based on Fluent), an improved new version STAF-CT (fully Coupling and Transient) is developed and introduced. Compared with original STAF, the new version code STAF-CT has two main functional improvements including "Transient" and "Fully Three Dimensional Coupling" features. In STAF-CT, a three dimensional energy transferring module is established which can achieve energy exchange computing function at the corresponding position between two sides of SG. The STAF-CT is validated against the international benchmark experiment data and the results show great agreement. Then the U-shaped SG in AP1000 nuclear power plant is modeled and simulated using STAF-CT. The results show that three dimensional flow fields in the primary side make significant effect on the energy source distribution between two sides. The development of code STAF-CT in this paper can provide an effective method for further SG high fidelity research in the nuclear reactor system.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제31권7호
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• pp.912-920
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• 2021

SOS response is a conserved response to DNA damage in prokaryotes and is negatively regulated by LexA protein, which recognizes specifically an "SOS-box" motif present in the promoter region of SOS genes. Myxococcus xanthus DK1622 possesses a lexA gene, and while the deletion of lexA had no significant effect on either bacterial morphology, UV-C resistance, or sporulation, it did delay growth. UV-C radiation resulted in 651 upregulated genes in M. xanthus, including the typical SOS genes lexA, recA, uvrA, recN and so on, mostly enriched in the pathways of DNA replication and repair, secondary metabolism, and signal transduction. The UV-irradiated lexA mutant also showed the induced expression of SOS genes and these SOS genes enriched into a similar pathway profile to that of wild-type strain. Without irradiation treatment, the absence of LexA enhanced the expression of 122 genes that were not enriched in any pathway. Further analysis of the promoter sequence revealed that in the 122 genes, only the promoters of recA2, lexA and an operon composed of three genes (pafB, pafC and cyaA) had SOS box sequence to which the LexA protein is bound directly. These results update our current understanding of SOS response in M. xanthus and show that UV induces more genes involved in secondary metabolism and signal transduction in addition to DNA replication and repair; and while the canonical LexA-dependent regulation on SOS response has shrunk, only 5 SOS genes are directly repressed by LexA.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제32권6호
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• pp.349-358
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• 2023

Real-Time Hybrid Testing (RTHT) requires the numerical substructure calculations to be completed within the defined integration time interval due to its real-time loading demands. For solving the problem, A Real-Time Hybrid Testing based on Restart-Loading Technology (RTHT-RLT) is proposed in this paper. In the proposed method, in case of the numerical substructure calculations cannot be completed within the defined integration time interval, the experimental substructure was returned back to the initial state statically. When the newest loading commands were calculated by the numerical substructure, the experimental substructure was restarted loading from the initial state to the newest loading commands so as to precisely disclosing the dynamic performance of the experimental substructure. Firstly, the methodology of the RTHT-RLT is proposed. Furthermore, the numerical simulations and experimental tests on one frame structure with a viscous damper are conducted for evaluating the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed RTHT-RLT. It is shown that the proposed RTHT-RLT innovatively renders the nonreal-time refined calculation of the numerical substructure feasible for the RTHT. The numerical and experimental results show that the proposed RTHT-RLT exhibits excellent performance in terms of stability and accuracy. The proposed RTHT-RLT may have broad application prospects for precisely investigating the dynamic behavior of large and complex engineering structures with specific experimental substructure where a restarting procedure does not affect the relevant hysteretic response.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.2517-2522
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• 2014

Background: Several recent studies have explored associations between pre-mir-218 polymorphism (rs11134527) and cancer risk. However, published data are still inconclusive. To obtain a more precise estimation of the relationship in the Chinese population, we carried out a meta-analysis for the first time. Materials and Methods: Through retrieval from the PubMed, Medline, Embase, Web of Science databases, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and the Chinese BioMedical Literature Database, a total of four studies were analyzed with 3,561 cases and 3,628 controls for SNP pre-mir-218 rs11134527. We calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) to explore the strength of associations. Results: The results showed that the rs11134527 polymorphism was associated with decreased cancer risk in GG versus AA and GG versus AA+AG models tested ( GG vs AA: OR=0.82, 95%CI: 0.71-0.94; GG vs AA+AG: OR=0.84, 95%CI: 0.74-0.96), and significantly decreased cervical cancer risk was observed in GG versus AA and GG versus AA+AG models (GG vs AA: OR=0.79, 95%CI: 0.66-0.94; GG vs AA+AG: OR=0.80, 95%CI: 0.68-0.94). However, no significant association between the rs11134527polymorphism and hepatocellular carcinoma risk was observed in all comparison models tested (AG vs AA: OR=0.94, 95%CI: 0.79-1.11; GG vs AA: OR=0.88, 95%CI: 0.70-1.10; GG+AG vs AA: OR=0.92, 95%CI: 0.79-1.08; GG vs AA+AG: OR=0.91, 95%CI: 0.75-1.11). Conclusion: The findings suggest that pre-miR-218 rs11134527 polymorphism may have some relation to cancer development in Chinese. However, well-designed studies with larger sample size and more detailed data are needed to confirm these conclusions.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.287-292
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• 2013

Background: Low tyrosine-protein phosphatase nonreceptor type 12 (PTPN12) expression may be associated with breast cancer growth, proliferation, and metastasis. However, the prognostic value of PTPN12 in breast cancer has not been clearly identified. Patients and Methods: 51 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients and 83 non-TNBC patients with a histopathology diagnosis from October 2001 to September 2006 were included in this study. Immunohistochemical staining for PTPN12 on tissue microarrays was conducted. Results: High PTPN12 expression was seen in 39.2% of TNBC and 60.2 % of non-TNBC cases. Low PTPN12 expression was associated with lymph node status (p = 0.002) and distant metastatic relapse (p = 0.002) in TNBC patients. Similarly, low PTPN12 expression in non-TNBC patients was significantly correlated with lymph node status (p = 0.002), stage (p = 0.002) and distant metastatic relapse (p = 0.039). The high PTPN12 expression group was associated with longer DFS and OS compared with low PTPN12 expression group only in TNBC cases (p = 0.005, p = 0.015), according to univariate Cox regression analysis. Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that low expression of PTPN12 is associated with worse prognosis and may be used as a potential prognostic biomarker in TNBC patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권10호
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• pp.5675-5680
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• 2013

Background: Preexisting type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) affects the prognosis and mortality of patients with some cancers. Insulin like growth factor (IGF) and insulin receptor (IR) signaling axes play important roles in both cancer and diabetes development. We aimed to explore the expression characteristics of proteins in IGF/IR axis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases with preexisting T2DM. Methods: Fifty-five NSCLC patients with preexisting T2DM were retrospectively included and matched by 55 NSCLC without diabetes at a 1:1 ratio. The expression of proteins in IGF/IR axis was detected by immunohistochemical staining. Clinicopathological data were collected to analyze their relationship with the protein expression. Results: Both IGF 1 receptor (IGF-1R) and insulin receptor substrate 2 (IRS-2) showed higher expression in the NSCLC with T2DM group, compared with those without T2DM. The high expression of IGF-1R and IRS-2 were found to be negatively associated with lymph node metastases and T staging in the T2DM group, respectively, and IRS-2 expression was also found more in the subgroup whose T2DM duration was more than 4 years. No difference was detected in the expression of IRS-1, IGF-1, IGF-2, IGFBP3, IR and mTOR between groups with or without T2DM. Conclusion: Our study found higher expression of IGF-1R and IRS-2 proteins in NSCLC patients with preexisting T2DM, and that there was an association with early stage NSCLC, which suggested that IGF signaling may play an important early event in development of NSCLC associated with diabetes.