• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.24-28
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• 2007

Alumina coated SiC whiskers were prepared by homogeneous precipitation of aluminum sulfate. The Si3N4 composites reinforced with coated SiC whiskers were fabricated by hot-pressing at $1800^{\circ}C$ for 2 h under an $N_{2}$ atmosphere of 0.1 MPa to examine the effects of coated whiskers on the mechanical properties of SiC whisker reinforced $Si_{3}N_{4}$ composite. By the addition of alumina coated SiC whiskers instead of as received ones, the fracture toughness of composite was about 6.7 $MPam^{1/2}$ which was slightly lower than as received SiC whisker reinforced composite. This result seems to be caused by the fact that the crack deflection and whisker pull-out were decreased. Thus, alumina coated SiC whiskers were considered to form relatively strong interface bond with $Si_{3}N_{4}$ matrix.

• BMB Reports
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.666-672
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• 2014

The Wnt signaling pathway is well known to play major roles in skeletal development and homeostasis. In certain aspects, fracture repair mimics the process of bone embryonic development. Thus, the importance of Wnt signaling in fracture healing has become more apparent in recent years. Here, we summarize recent research progress in the area, which may be conducive to the development of Wnt-based therapeutic strategies for bone repair.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.117-126
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• 2008

In this paper, a new reactor core design is proposed on the basis of a mixed core concept consisting of a thermal zone and a fast zone. The geometric structure of the fuel assembly of the thermal zone is similar to that of a conventional thermal supercritical water-cooled reactor(SCWR) core with two fuel pin rows between the moderator channels. In spite of the counter-current flow mode, the co-current flow mode is used to simplify the design of the reactor core and the fuel assembly. The water temperature at the exit of the thermal zone is much lower than the water temperature at the outlet of the pressure vessel. This lower temperature reduces the maximum cladding temperature of the thermal zone. Furthermore, due to the high velocity of the fast zone, a wider lattice can be used in the fuel assembly and the nonuniformity of the local heat transfer can be minimized. This mixed core, which combines the merits of some existing thermal SCWR cores and fast SCWR cores, is proposed for further detailed analysis.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.395-399
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• 2005

From $70\%$ ethanol extract of the roots of Smilax bockii warb., seven flavonoids, kaempferol (1), $kaempferol-7-O-\beta-D-glucopyranoside$ (2), quercetin (3), isorhamnetin (4), (+)-dihydro­kaempferol (5), engeletin (6), isoengeletin (7), and $n-butyl-\beta-D-fructopyranoside$ (8), caffeic acid n-butyl ester (9) were isolated and identified by means of chemical and spectroscopic. Compounds 2, 4, and 6-9 were isolated for the first time from the roots of S. bockii and compounds 2, 8, and 9 were firstly isolated from the genus Smilax. In addition, using the SEAP (Secreted alkaline phosphatase) assay system, we investigated the in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of the $70\%$ ethanol extract of the roots of S. bockii, which showed moderate activity in inhibiting $TNF-\alpha-induced NF-{\kappa}B$ activation with an $IC_{50}$ value of $166.6 {\mu}g/mL$.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.722-732
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• 2014

The power-voltage (P-V) curve of photovoltaic (PV) arrays connected in parallel to bypass diodes would have several local maximum power points (LMPP) under partial shading conditions (PSC). Conventional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods fail to search for the global maximum power point (MPP) because the searched peak point may remain at the LMPP on the P-V curve under PSC. This study proposes an improved MPPT algorithm to ensure that PV arrays operate at global maximum power point (GMPP) under PSC. The proposed algorithm is based on a critical study and a series of observations of PV characteristics under PSC. Results show the regularity of voltage interval between LMPPs. The algorithm has the advantages of rapidly reaching GMPP, maintaining stability, and recovering GMPP quickly when the operating condition changes. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1683-1696
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• 2018

Under the conventional control strategy, the asymmetry of arm impedances may result in the poor operating performance of modular multilevel converters (MMCs). For example, fundamental frequency oscillation and double frequency components may occur in the dc and ac sides, respectively; and submodule (SM) capacitor voltages among the arms may not be balanced. This study presents an enhanced control strategy to deal with these problems. A mathematical model of an MMC with asymmetric arm impedance is first established. The causes for the above phenomena are analyzed on the basis of the model. Subsequently, an enhanced current control with five integrated proportional integral resonant regulators is designed to protect the ac and dc terminal behavior of converters from asymmetric arm impedances. Furthermore, an enhanced capacitor voltage control is designed to balance the capacitor voltage among the arms with high efficiency and to decouple the ac side control, dc side control, and capacitor voltage balance control among the arms. The accuracy of the theoretical analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed enhanced control strategy are verified through simulation and experimental results.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.74-86
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• 2014

The optimization techniques are explored in the direction of arrival (DOA) estimation based on single acoustic pressure gradient vector sensor (APGVS). By analyzing the working principle and measurement errors of the APGVS, acoustic intensity approaches (AI) and the minimum variance distortionless response beamforming approach based on single APGVS (VMVDR) are deduced. The radius to wavelength ratio of the APGVS must be not bigger than 0.1 in the actual application, otherwise its DOA estimation performance will degrade significantly. To improve the robustness and estimation performance of the DOA estimation approaches based on single APGVS, two modified processing approaches based on single APGVS are presented. Simulation and lake trial results indicate that the performance of the modified approaches based on single APGVS are better than AI and VMVDR approaches based on single APGVS when the radius to wavelength ratio is not bigger than 0.1, and the two modified DOA estimation methods have excellent estimation performance when the radius to wavelength ratio is bigger than 0.1.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.1080-1099
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• 2019

A better tradeoff between robustness and invisibility will be realized by using the just noticeable (JND) model into the quantization-based watermarking scheme. The JND model is usually used to describe the perception characteristics of human visual systems (HVS). According to the research of cognitive science, HVS can adaptively extract the structure features of an image. However, the existing JND models in the watermarking scheme do not consider the structure features. Therefore, a novel JND model is proposed, which includes three aspects: contrast sensitivity function, luminance adaptation, and contrast masking (CM). In this model, the CM effect is modeled by analyzing the direction features and texture complexity, which meets the human visual perception characteristics and matches well with the spread transform dither modulation (STDM) watermarking framework by employing a new method to measure edge intensity. Compared with the other existing JND models, the proposed JND model based on structural regularity is more efficient and applicable in the STDM watermarking scheme. In terms of the experimental results, the proposed scheme performs better than the other watermarking scheme based on the existing JND models.

• Mycobiology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.421-433
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• 2021

Morchella is a genus of fungi with the ability to concentrate Cd both in the fruit-body and mycelium. However, the molecular mechanisms conferring resistance to Cd stress in Morchella are unknown. Here, RNA-based transcriptomic sequencing was used to identify the genes and pathways involved in Cd tolerance in Morchella spongiola. 7444 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by cultivating M. spongiola in media containing 0.15, 0.90, or 1.50 mg/L Cd²⁺. The DEGs were divided into six sub-clusters based on their global expression profiles. GO enrichment analysis indicated that numerous DEGs were associated with catalytic activity, cell cycle control, and the ribosome. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the main pathways under Cd stress were MAPK signaling, oxidative phosphorylation, pyruvate metabolism, and propanoate metabolism. In addition, several DEGs encoding ion transporters, enzymatic/non-enzymatic antioxidants, and transcription factors were identified. Based on these results, a preliminary gene regulatory network was firstly proposed to illustrate the molecular mechanisms of Cd detoxification in M. spongiola. These results provide valuable insights into the Cd tolerance mechanism of M. spongiola and constitute a robust foundation for further studies on detoxification mechanisms in macrofungi that could potentially lead to the development of new and improved fungal bioremediation strategies.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.746-758
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• 2022

This paper focuses on a mobile edge-computing-enabled heterogeneous network. A battery level-aware task-scheduling framework is proposed to improve the energy efficiency and prolong the operating hours of battery-powered mobile devices. The formulated optimization problem is a typical mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem. To solve this nondeterministic polynomial (NP)-hard problem, a decomposition-based task-scheduling algorithm is proposed. Using an alternating optimization technology, the original problem is divided into three subproblems. In the outer loop, task offloading decisions are yielded using a pruning search algorithm for the task offloading subproblem. In the inner loop, closed-form solutions for computational resource allocation subproblems are derived using the Lagrangian multiplier method. Then, it is proven that the transmitted power-allocation subproblem is a unimodal problem; this subproblem is solved using a gradient-based bisection search algorithm. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves better energy efficiency than other frameworks. Additionally, the impact of the battery level-aware scheme on the operating hours of battery-powered mobile devices is also investigated.