Effects of Vitamin K-1 and Menaquinone-7 on Vascular Function and Blood Pressure in Warfarin-Induced Calcification-Model in Rats

Given that vascular calcification is inversely correlated with the clinical intake of menaquinone, a rat model of warfarin-induced calcification may be useful for testing menaquinone and vitamin K-1 potential effects on vascular function. The aim of the present study was to investigate effects of vitamin K-1 and menaquinone-7 treatments on blood pressure and vascular function in warfarin-induced vascular calcification model during five-week intervention in normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats. Blood pressure was measured weekly, and at the end of the intervention in vitro vascular reactivity measurements were done. Alizarin Red S and von Kossa stainings were used to record possible calcification of aortic sections. Routine clinical chemistry was done from serum and urine samples. Vascular calcification was seen only in a few warfarin-treated animals in histological staining. Warfarin-treatment did not change significantly blood pressure of the rats. Warfarin-treatment increased slightly the endothelium-dependent relaxation of aorta after the L-type calcium channels were blocked. Also the vascular relaxation improved after NOS inhibition in the aorta of the healthy controls and menaquinone-7 treated animals, indicating that the relaxation in those groups was not totally dependent on NO. Clinical chemistry from serum showed some differences in urea, creatinine as well as lipid and glucose metabolism between the healthy controls and warfarin-treated rats.

Numerical Investigation of Vortex-induced Vibrations for Flow past a Circular Cylinder

The objective of the present investigation is to study the vortex-induced vibrations （VIV） for flow past a circular cylinder. The turbulent flow is simulated by using a 2-D standard k-ε model incorporating the finite volume method （FVM） and the Semi-Implicit Method for the Pressure Linked Equations （SIMPLE） algorithm on non-orthogonal boundary-fitted collocated grids. The wall boundaries are approximated with wall functions. In the numerical cases, the turbulent wake patterns are studied by plotting the streamlines and the turbulent kinetic energy contours. The pressure distributions are investigated. Analyses of the vortex-induced force coefficients and the structural vibrations are carried out. The variations of the Strouhal number with the Reynolds number and of the vortex-induced force coefficients with the reduced velocity are obtained. The results show that this numerical approach is feasible and efficient in investigating the VIV problem for a circular cylinder.

Precise output loads control of load-diffusion components with topology optimization

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel topology optimization approach to control precisely the output loads under static loads and harmonic excitations.We introduce the Artificial Bar Element(ABE)at the designated output positions,where the output loads are equivalently measured and constrained with the nodal displacements of ABE.Optimization model is then formulated considering the output load constraints as well as the minimization of strain energy and dynamic displacement responses respectively under the static and dynamic conditions.The influences of the ABEs stiffness,different material usages of the design domain,widths of the output loads constraint intervals and variation ratios of output loads are discussed in detail.The proposed method is verified with several numerical examples with clear and reasonable load transfer paths.