• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.2
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• pp.169-180
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• 2019

The underlying mechanism of the wind-induced vibration of the hangers of the suspension bridges is still not fully understood at present and hence is comprehensively examined in this study. More specifically, a series of field measurements on the No. 2 hanger of the Xihoumen Bridge was first carefully conducted. Large amplitude vibrations of the hanger were found and the oscillation amplitude of the leeward cable was obviously larger than that of the windward cables. Furthermore, the trajectory of the leeward cable was close to an ellipse, which agreed well with the major characteristics of wake-induced vibration. Then, a theoretical model for the wake-induced vibration based on a 3-D continuous cable was established. To obtain the responses of the leeward cable, the finite difference method (FDM) was adopted to numerically solve the established motion equation. Finally, numerical simulations by using the structural parameters of the No. 2 hanger of the Xihoumen Bridge were carried out within the spatial range of $4{\leq}X{\leq}10$ and $0{\leq}Y{\leq}4$ with a uniform interval of ${\Delta}X={\Delta}Y=0.25$. The results obtained from numerical simulations agreed well with the main features obtained from the field observations on the Xihoumen Bridge. This observation indicates that the wake-induced vibration might be one of the reasons for the hanger oscillation of the suspension bridge. In addition, the effects of damping ratio and windward cable movement on the wake-induced vibration of the leeward cable were numerically investigated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.615-626
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• 2019

Inerter-based damping devices (IBBDs), which consist of inerter, spring and viscous damper, have been extensively investigated in vehicle suspension systems and demonstrated to be more effective than the traditional control devices with spring and viscous damper only. In the present study, the control performance on cable vibration reduction was studied for four different inerter-based damping devices, namely the parallel-connected viscous mass damper (PVMD), series-connected viscous mass damper (SVMD), tuned inerter dampers (TID) and tuned viscous mass damper (TVMD). Firstly the mechanism of the ball screw inerter is introduced. Then the state-space formulation of the cable-TID system is derived as an example for the cable-IBBDs system. Based on the complex modal analysis, single-mode cable vibration control analysis is conducted for PVMD, SVMD, TID and TVMD, and their optimal parameters and the maximum attainable damping ratios of the cable/damper system are obtained for several specified damper locations and modes in combination by the Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm. Lastly, optimal design of PVMD is developed for multi-mode vibration control of cable, and the results of damping ratio analysis are validated through the forced vibration analysis in a case study by numerical simulation. The results show that all the four inerter-based damping devices significantly outperform the viscous damper for single-mode vibration control. In the case of multi-mode vibration control, PVMD can provide more damping to the first four modes of cable than the viscous damper does, and their maximum control forces under resonant frequency of harmonic forced vibration are nearly the same. The results of this study clearly demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of PVMD in cable vibration control.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.253-273
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• 2016

Ice accretions on stay cables may result in the instable vibration of galloping, which would affect the safety of cable-stayed bridges. A large number of studies have investigated the galloping vibrations of transmission lines. However, the obtained aerodynamics in transmission lines cannot be directly applied to the stay cables on cable-stayed bridges. In this study, linear and nonlinear single degree-of-freedom models were introduced to obtain the critical galloping wind velocity of iced stay cables where the aerodynamic lift and drag coefficients were identified in the wind tunnel tests. Specifically, six ice shapes were discussed using section models with geometric scale 1:1. The results presented obvious sudden decrease regions of the aerodynamic lift coefficient for all six test models. Numerical analyses of iced stay cables associated to a medium-span cable-stayed bridge were carried out to evaluate the potential galloping instability. The obtained nonlinear critical wind velocity for a 243-meter-long stay cable is much lower than the design wind velocity. The calculated linear critical wind velocity is even lower. In addition, numerical analyses demonstrated that increasing structural damping could effectively mitigate the galloping vibrations of iced stay cables.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.245-251
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• 2015

Objectives: Intrahepatic recurrence is the major cause of death among patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after curative surgical resection. Several approaches have been reported to decrease the recurrence rate. The objective of our study was to compare the clinical effects of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with interferon-alpha (IFN-${\alpha}$) therapy on recurrence after hepatic resection in patients with HBV-related HCC with that of TACE chemotherapy alone. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data from 228 patients who were diagnosed with HBV-related HCC and underwent curative resection between January 2001 to December 2008. The patients were divided into TACE (n = 126) and TACE-IFN-${\alpha}$ (n = 102) groups for postoperative chemotherapy. The TACE regimen consisted of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), cisplatin (DDP), and the emulsion mixed with mitomycin C (MMC) and lipiodol. The recurrence rates, disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), and risk of recurrence were evaluated. Results: The clinicopathological parameters and adverse effects were similar between the 2 groups (P > 0.05). The median OS for the TACE-IFN-${\alpha}$ group (36.3 months) was significantly longer than that of the TACE group (24.5 months, P < 0.05). The 3-and 5-year OS for the TACE-IFN-${\alpha}$ group were significantly longer than those of the TACE group (P < 0.05) and the recurrence rate was significantly lower (P < 0.05). The TACE and IFN-${\alpha}$ combination therapy, active hepatitis HBV infection, the number of tumor nodules, microvascular invasion, liver cirrhosis, and the BCLC stage were independent predictors of OS and DFS. Conclusions: The use of the TACE and IFN-${\alpha}$ combination chemotherapy after curative hepatic resection safely and effectively improves OS and decreases recurrence in patients with HBV-related HCC who are at high risk. Our findings can serve as a guide for the selection of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with HBV-related HCC who are at high risk of recurrence.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.81-96
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• 2020

Wind measurements were made on the Canton Tower at a height of 461 m above ground during the Typhoon Vincente, the wind-induced accelerations and displacements of the tower were recorded as well. Comparisons of measured wind parameters at upper level of atmospheric boundary layer with those adopted in wind tunnel testing were presented. The measured turbulence intensity can be smaller than the design value, indicating that the wind tunnel testing may underestimate the crosswind structural responses for certain lock-in velocity range of vortex shedding. Analyses of peak factors and power spectral density for acceleration response shows that the crosswind responses are a combination of gust-induced buffeting and vortex-induced vibrations in the certain range of wind directions. The identified modal frequencies and mode shapes from acceleration data are found to be in good agreement with existing experimental results and the prediction from the finite element model. The damping ratios increase with amplitude of vibration or equivalently wind velocity which may be attributed to aerodynamic damping. In addition, the natural frequencies determined from the measured displacement are very close to those determined from the acceleration data for the first two modes. Finally, the relation between displacement responses and wind speed/direction was investigated.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1016-1026
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• 2017

An adaptive extended Kalman filter based on the maximum likelihood (EKF-ML) is proposed for detecting voltage sag in this paper. Considering that the choice of the process and measurement error covariance matrices affects seriously the performance of the extended Kalman filter (EKF), the EKF-ML method uses the maximum likelihood method to adaptively optimize the error covariance matrices and the initial conditions. This can ensure that the EKF has better accuracy and faster convergence for estimating the voltage amplitude (states). Moreover, without more complexity, the EKF-ML algorithm is almost as simple as the conventional EKF, but it has better anti-disturbance performance and more accuracy in detection of the voltage sag. More importantly, the EKF-ML algorithm is capable of accurately estimating the noise parameters and is robust against various noise levels. Simulation results show that the proposed method performs with a fast dynamic and tracking response, when voltage signals contain harmonics or a pulse and are jointly embedded in an unknown measurement noise.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.368-378
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• 2020

In the paper, corrosion behavior of T91 steel in different concentrations of NaHSO₃ solution was studied in combination with scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electrochemical measurements. The results showed that the steel exhibited active anodic dissolution characteristics in the solution, and NaHSO₃ concentration affected both cathodic and anodic behaviors. The steel surface was covered by intact corrosion products in the solutions, but the compactness and mechanical properties of the corrosion products degraded with the increase of NaHSO₃ concentration. In low-concentration NaHSO₃ solution the steel tended to undergo uniform corrosion with slight corrosion pits, but its corrosion mode gradually transited to localized corrosion as the NaHSO₃ concentration increased. The mechanical property degradation of the corrosion products caused by sulfur compounds and the pH decrease of the solution are the important factors to accelerating its corrosion process.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.24
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• pp.10937-10941
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• 2015

Pathogenesis of lung cancer is a complicated biological process including multiple genetic and epigenetic changes. Since cigarette smoking is confirmed as the most main risk factor of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the aim of this study was to determine whether tobacco exposure plays a role in gene methylation. Methylation of the RAR-${\beta}$ gene were detected using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction in DNA from 167 newly diagnosed cases with NSCLC and corresponding 105 controls. A significant statistical association was found in the detection rate of the promoter methylation of RAR-${\beta}$ gene between NSCLC and controls ($x^2$=166.01; p<0.01), and hypermethylation of the RAR-${\beta}$ gene was significantly associated with smoking status (p=0.038, p<0.05). No relationship was found between RAR-${\beta}$ gene methylation and pathologic staging including clinical stage, cell type, gender and drinking (p>0.05), and the methylation of RAR-${\beta}$ gene rate of NSCLC was slightly higher in stages III+IV (80.0%) than in I+II (70.8%). Similar results were obtained for methylation of the RAR-${\beta}$ gene between squamous cell carcinoma (77.9%) and other cell type lung cancer (73.9%). These results showed that the frequency of methylation increased gradually with the development of clinical stage in smoking-associated lung cancer patients, and tobacco smoke may be play a potential role in RAR-${\beta}$ gene methylation in the early pathogenesis and process in lung cancer, particularly squamous cell carcinoma. Aberrant promoter methylation is considered to be a promising marker of previous carcinogen exposure and cancer risk.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.13
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• pp.5233-5237
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• 2014

Epigenetic modifications of tumour suppressor genes are involved in all kinds of human cancer. Aberrant promoter methylation is also considered to play an essential role in development of lung cancer, but the pathogenesis remains unclear.We collected the data of 112 subjects, including 56 diagnosed patients with lung cancer and 56 controls without cancer. Methylation of the FHIT, RASSF1A and RAR-${\beta}$ genes in DNA from all samples and the corresponding gene methylation status were assessed using the methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR, MSP). The results showed that the total frequency of separate gene methylation was significantly higher in lung cancer compared with controls (33.9-85.7 vs 0 %) (p<0.01).Similar outcomes were obtained from the aberrant methylation of combinations of any two or three genes (p<0.01). There was a tendency that the frequency of combinations of any two or three genes was higher in stage I+II than that in stage III+IV with lung cancer. However, no significant difference was found across various clinical stages and clinic pathological gradings of lung cancer (p>0.05).These observations suggest that there is a significant association of promoter methylation of individual genes with lung cancer risk, and that aberrant methylation of combination of any two or three genes may be associated with clinical stage in lung cancer patients and involved in the initiation of lung cancer tumorigenesis. Methylation of FHIT, RASSF1A and $RAR{\beta}$ genes may be related to progression of lung oncogenesis.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.619-629
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• 2020

Solar towers, which often has a large aspect ratio and low fundamental natural frequency, were extremely prone to large amplitude of wind-induced vibrations, especially Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV). A tiny Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) with conveniently adjustable eddy current damping was specially designed and manufactured for elastic wind tunnel tests of a solar tower. A series of numerical simulations by using the COMSOL software were conducted to determine three key parameters, including the thickness of the back iron plate and the conductive plate (T_b and T_c), the distance between the magnet and the conductive plate (T_d). Based on the results of numerical simulations, a tiny TMD was manufactured and its structural parameters were experimentally identified. The optimized values of the tiny TMD can be conveniently realized. The tiny TMD was installed at the top of the elastic test model of a 243-meter-high solar tower, and a series of wind tunnel tests were carried out to examine the effectiveness of the TMD in suppressing wind-induced responses of the test model. The results showed that the wind-induced responses could be obviously reduced by the TMD, especially in the cross-wind direction. The cross-wind RMS and peak responses at the critical wind velocity can be reduced by about 86% and 75%, respectively. However, the maximum reduction of the responses at the design wind velocity is about 45%, obviously less than that at the critical wind velocity.