An Investigation of the Dimensional Changes of Polymer Mixture Tablets Containing a Soluble Drug, Using an Image Analysis Method. Influence of These Characteristics on Drug Release and Its Mechanism

The properties and characteristics of the polymer used for the preparation of matrix drug delivery systems considerably influence their performance and the extent of drug release and its mechanism. The objective of this research was to examine the dimensional changes, and gel evolution of polymer matrices consisting of three different polymers Polyox, sodium alginate (hydrophilic) and Ethocel (hydrophobic), using an image analysis method. Furthermore to explore how these changes influence the release rate of a soluble drug namely, venlafaxine. All tablets displayed marked dimensional expansion and gel growth particularly those consisting of two hydrophilic polymers Polyox/sodium alginate (POL/SA/V) compared to those consisting of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic Polyox/Ethocel (POL/ET/V). Similarly the thickness of the gel layer in POL/SA/V matrices increased considerably with time up to 8 hours. In general our findings show that the POL/SA/V matrices, due to their thicker gel layer produced a more effective barrier which results in a more pronounced sustained release delivery. This accounts for the slower and smaller overall drug release observed with the POL/SA/V matrices compared to those containing POL/ET/V and indicates that the formation of a thick and durable gel barrier is a characteristic necessary for the preparation of sustained drug release systems. Moreover the solubility of venlafaxine in combination with the polymer’s properties appears to play an important role on the extent of drug release and the release mechanism. Overall the polymer mixtures examined comprise a useful and promising combination of materials for the development and manufacture of sustained release preparations based on these polymers.

The Selection of Proper Auxiliary Parameters in the Homotopy Analysis Method. A Case Study: Uniform Solutions of Undamped Duffing Equation

The present paper is concerned with two novel approximate analytic solutions of the undamped Duffing equation. Instead of the traditional perturbation or asymptotic methods, a homotopy technique is employed, which does not require a small perturbation parameter or a large parameter for an asymptotic expansion. It is shown that proper choices of an auxiliary linear operator and also an initial approximation during the implementation of the homotopy analysis method can yield uniformly valid and accurate solutions. The obtained explicit analytical expressions for the solution predict the displacement, frequency and period of the oscillations much more accurate than the previously known asymptotic or perturbation formulas.

A Review on Sources,Extractions and Analysis Methods of a Sustainable Biomaterial:Tannins

Condensed and hydrolysable tannins are non-toxic natural polyphenols that are a commercial commodity industrialized for tanning hides to obtain leather and for a growing number of other industrial applications mainly to substitute petroleum-based products.They are a definite class of sustainable materials of the forestry industry.They have been in operation for hundreds of years to manufacture leather and now for a growing number of applications in a variety of other industries,such as wood adhesives,metal coating,pharmaceutical/medical applications and several others.This review presents the main sources,either already or potentially commercial of this forestry by-materials,their industrial and laboratory extraction systems,their systems of analysis with their advantages and drawbacks,be these methods so simple to even appear primitive but nonetheless of proven effectiveness,or very modern and instrumental.It constitutes a basic but essential summary of what is necessary to know of these sustainable materials.In doing so,the review highlights some of the main challenges that remain to be addressed to deliver the quality and economics of tannin supply necessary to fulfill the industrial production requirements for some materials-based uses.

Generalized nth-Order Perturbation Method Based on Loop Subdivision Surface Boundary Element Method for Three-Dimensional Broadband Structural Acoustic Uncertainty Analysis

In this paper,a generalized nth-order perturbation method based on the isogeometric boundary element method is proposed for the uncertainty analysis of broadband structural acoustic scattering problems.The Burton-Miller method is employed to solve the problem of non-unique solutions that may be encountered in the external acoustic field,and the nth-order discretization formulation of the boundary integral equation is derived.In addition,the computation of loop subdivision surfaces and the subdivision rules are introduced.In order to confirm the effectiveness of the algorithm,the computed results are contrasted and analyzed with the results under Monte Carlo simulations(MCs)through several numerical examples.

Dynamic Coupling Analysis of Semisubmersible Platform Float-over Method for Docking Case

In this paper,the multi-body coupled dynamic characteristics of a semisubmersible platform and an HYSY 229 barge were investigated.First,coupled hydrodynamic analysis of the HYSY 229 barge and the semisubmersible platform was performed.Relevant hydrodynamic parameters were obtained using the retardation function method of three-dimensional frequency-domain potential flow theory.The results of the hydrodynamic analysis were highly consistent with the test findings,verifying the accuracy of the multifloating hydrodynamic coupling analysis,and key hydrodynamic parameters were solved for different water depths and the coupling effect.According to the obtained results,the hydrodynamic influence was the largest in shallow waters when the coupling effect was considered.Furthermore,the coupled motion equation combined with viscous damping,fender system,and mooring system was established,and the hydrodynamics,floating body motion,and dynamic response of the fender system were analyzed.Motion analysis revealed good agreement among the surge,sway,and yaw motions of the two floating bodies.However,when the wave period reached 10 s,the motion of the two floating bodies showed severe shock,and a relative motion was also observed.Therefore,excessive constraints should be added between the two floating bodies during construction to ensure construction safety.The numerical analysis and model test results of the semisubmersible platform and HYSY 229 barge at a water depth of 42 m and sea conditions of 0°,45°,and 90° were in good agreement,and the error was less than 5%.The maximum movement of the HYSY 229 barge reached 2.61 m in the sway direction,whereas that of the semisubmersible platform was 2.11 m.During construction,excessive constraints should be added between the two floating bodies to limit their relative movement and ensure construction safety.

Simplified quantitative analysis method and its application in the insitu synthesized copper-based azide chips

Copper-based azide(Cu(N_(3))2 or CuN_(3),CA)chips synthesized by in-situ azide reaction and utilized in miniaturized explosive systems has become a hot research topic in recent years.However,the advantages of in-situ synthesis method,including small size and low dosage,bring about difficulties in quantitative analysis and differences in ignition capabilities of CA chips.The aim of present work is to develop a simplified quantitative analysis method for accurate and safe analysis of components in CA chips to evaluate and investigate the corresponding ignition ability.In this work,Cu(N_(3))2 and CuN_(3)components in CA chips were separated through dissolution and distillation by utilizing the difference in solubility and corresponding content was obtained by measuring N_(3)-concentration through spectrophotometry.The spectrophotometry method was optimized by studying influencing factors and the recovery rate of different separation methods was studied,ensuring the accuracy and reproducibility of test results.The optimized method is linear in range from 1.0-25.0 mg/L,with a correlation coefficient R^(2)=0.9998,which meets the requirements of CA chips with a milligram-level content test.Compared with the existing ICP method,component analysis results of CA chips obtained by spectrophotometry are closer to real component content in samples and have satisfactory accuracy.Moreover,as its application in miniaturized explosive systems,the ignition ability of CA chips with different component contents for direct ink writing CL-20 and the corresponding mechanism was studied.This study provided a basis and idea for the design and performance evaluation of CA chips in miniaturized explosive systems.

Reliability analysis of carbon fiber rod-reinforced umbilical cable under tension using an improved sampling method

The umbilical cable is a vital component of subsea production systems that provide power,chemical agents,control signals et al.,and its requirement for reliability is exceedingly high.However,as the umbilical cable is a composite structure comprising multiple functional units,the reliability analysis of such cables involves numerous parameters that can impact calculation efficiency.In this paper,the reliability analysis of a new kind of umbilical cable with carbon fiber rod under tension is analyzed.The global dynamic analytical model is first established to determine the maximum tension load,then the local analytical model of umbilical cable including each unit are constructed by finite element method(FEM).Based on the mechanical analytical model,the reliability of umbilical cable under tension load is studied using response surface method(RSM)and Monte Carlo method.During the calculation process,a new tangent plane sampling method to calculate the response surface function(RSF)is proposed in this paper,which could make sampling points faster come close to the RSF curve,and it is proved that the calculation efficiency increases about 33%comparing with traditional method.

AHermitian C^(2) Differential Reproducing Kernel Interpolation Meshless Method for the 3D Microstructure-Dependent Static Flexural Analysis of Simply Supported and Functionally Graded Microplates

This work develops a Hermitian C^(2) differential reproducing kernel interpolation meshless(DRKIM)method within the consistent couple stress theory(CCST)framework to study the three-dimensional(3D)microstructuredependent static flexural behavior of a functionally graded(FG)microplate subjected to mechanical loads and placed under full simple supports.In the formulation,we select the transverse stress and displacement components and their first-and second-order derivatives as primary variables.Then,we set up the differential reproducing conditions(DRCs)to obtain the shape functions of the Hermitian C^(2) differential reproducing kernel(DRK)interpolant’s derivatives without using direct differentiation.The interpolant’s shape function is combined with a primitive function that possesses Kronecker delta properties and an enrichment function that constituents DRCs.As a result,the primary variables and their first-and second-order derivatives satisfy the nodal interpolation properties.Subsequently,incorporating ourHermitianC^(2)DRKinterpolant intothe strong formof the3DCCST,we develop a DRKIM method to analyze the FG microplate’s 3D microstructure-dependent static flexural behavior.The Hermitian C^(2) DRKIM method is confirmed to be accurate and fast in its convergence rate by comparing the solutions it produces with the relevant 3D solutions available in the literature.Finally,the impact of essential factors on the transverse stresses,in-plane stresses,displacements,and couple stresses that are induced in the loaded microplate is examined.These factors include the length-to-thickness ratio,the material length-scale parameter,and the inhomogeneity index,which appear to be significant.

Superconvergence of Direct Discontinuous Galerkin Methods:Eigen-structure Analysis Based on Fourier Approach

This paper investigates superconvergence properties of the direct discontinuous Galerkin(DDG)method with interface corrections and the symmetric DDG method for diffusion equations.We apply the Fourier analysis technique to symbolically compute eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the amplification matrices for both DDG methods with different coefficient settings in the numerical fluxes.Based on the eigen-structure analysis,we carry out error estimates of the DDG solutions,which can be decomposed into three parts:(i)dissipation errors of the physically relevant eigenvalue,which grow linearly with the time and are of order 2k for P^(k)(k=2,3)approximations;(ii)projection error from a special projection of the exact solution,which is decreasing over the time and is related to the eigenvector corresponding to the physically relevant eigenvalue;(iii)dissipative errors of non-physically relevant eigenvalues,which decay exponentially with respect to the spatial mesh sizeΔx.We observe that the errors are sensitive to the choice of the numerical flux coefficient for even degree P^(2)approximations,but are not for odd degree P^(3)approximations.Numerical experiments are provided to verify the theoretical results.

A novel box-counting method for quantitative fractal analysis of threedimensional pore characteristics in sandstone

Fractal theory offers a powerful tool for the precise description and quantification of the complex pore structures in reservoir rocks,crucial for understanding the storage and migration characteristics of media within these rocks.Faced with the challenge of calculating the three-dimensional fractal dimensions of rock porosity,this study proposes an innovative computational process that directly calculates the three-dimensional fractal dimensions from a geometric perspective.By employing a composite denoising approach that integrates Fourier transform(FT)and wavelet transform(WT),coupled with multimodal pore extraction techniques such as threshold segmentation,top-hat transformation,and membrane enhancement,we successfully crafted accurate digital rock models.The improved box-counting method was then applied to analyze the voxel data of these digital rocks,accurately calculating the fractal dimensions of the rock pore distribution.Further numerical simulations of permeability experiments were conducted to explore the physical correlations between the rock pore fractal dimensions,porosity,and absolute permeability.The results reveal that rocks with higher fractal dimensions exhibit more complex pore connectivity pathways and a wider,more uneven pore distribution,suggesting that the ideal rock samples should possess lower fractal dimensions and higher effective porosity rates to achieve optimal fluid transmission properties.The methodology and conclusions of this study provide new tools and insights for the quantitative analysis of complex pores in rocks and contribute to the exploration of the fractal transport properties of media within rocks.

Numerical Analysis of Bacterial Meningitis Stochastic Delayed Epidemic Model through Computational Methods

Based on theWorld Health Organization(WHO),Meningitis is a severe infection of the meninges,the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.It is a devastating disease and remains a significant public health challenge.This study investigates a bacterial meningitis model through deterministic and stochastic versions.Four-compartment population dynamics explain the concept,particularly the susceptible population,carrier,infected,and recovered.The model predicts the nonnegative equilibrium points and reproduction number,i.e.,the Meningitis-Free Equilibrium(MFE),and Meningitis-Existing Equilibrium(MEE).For the stochastic version of the existing deterministicmodel,the twomethodologies studied are transition probabilities and non-parametric perturbations.Also,positivity,boundedness,extinction,and disease persistence are studiedrigorouslywiththe helpofwell-known theorems.Standard and nonstandard techniques such as EulerMaruyama,stochastic Euler,stochastic Runge Kutta,and stochastic nonstandard finite difference in the sense of delay have been presented for computational analysis of the stochastic model.Unfortunately,standard methods fail to restore the biological properties of the model,so the stochastic nonstandard finite difference approximation is offered as an efficient,low-cost,and independent of time step size.In addition,the convergence,local,and global stability around the equilibria of the nonstandard computational method is studied by assuming the perturbation effect is zero.The simulations and comparison of the methods are presented to support the theoretical results and for the best visualization of results.

A vector sum analysis method for stability evolution of expansive soil slope considering shear zone damage softening

Slope stability analysis is a classical mechanical problem in geotechnical engineering and engineering geology.It is of great significance to study the stability evolution of expansive soil slopes for engineering construction in expansive soil areas.Most of the existing studies evaluate the slope stability by analyzing the limit equilibrium state of the slope,and the analysis method for the stability evolution considering the damage softening of the shear zone is lacking.In this study,the large deformation shear mechanical behavior of expansive soil was investigated by ring shear test.The damage softening characteristic of expansive soil in the shear zone was analyzed,and a shear damage model reflecting the damage softening behavior of expansive soil was derived based on the damage theory.Finally,by skillfully combining the vector sum method and the shear damage model,an analysis method for the stability evolution of the expansive soil slope considering the shear zone damage softening was proposed.The results show that the shear zone subjected to large displacement shear deformation exhibits an obvious damage softening phenomenon.The damage variable equation based on the logistic function can be well used to describe the shear damage characteristics of expansive soil,and the proposed shear damage model is in good agreement with the ring shear test results.The vector sum method considering the damage softening behavior of the shear zone can be well applied to analyze the stability evolution characteristics of the expansive soil slope.The stability factor of the expansive soil slope decreases with the increase of shear displacement,showing an obvious progressive failure behavior.

An inverse analysis of fluid flow through granular media using differentiable lattice Boltzmann method

This study presents a method for the inverse analysis of fluid flow problems.The focus is put on accurately determining boundary conditions and characterizing the physical properties of granular media,such as permeability,and fluid components,like viscosity.The primary aim is to deduce either constant pressure head or pressure profiles,given the known velocity field at a steady-state flow through a conduit containing obstacles,including walls,spheres,and grains.The lattice Boltzmann method(LBM)combined with automatic differentiation(AD)(AD-LBM)is employed,with the help of the GPU-capable Taichi programming language.A lightweight tape is used to generate gradients for the entire LBM simulation,enabling end-to-end backpropagation.Our AD-LBM approach accurately estimates the boundary conditions for complex flow paths in porous media,leading to observed steady-state velocity fields and deriving macro-scale permeability and fluid viscosity.The method demonstrates significant advantages in terms of prediction accuracy and computational efficiency,making it a powerful tool for solving inverse fluid flow problems in various applications.

Hybrid Strategy of Partitioned and Monolithic Methods for Solving Strongly Coupled Analysis of Inverse and Direct Piezoelectric and Circuit Coupling

The inverse and direct piezoelectric and circuit coupling are widely observed in advanced electro-mechanical systems such as piezoelectric energy harvesters.Existing strongly coupled analysis methods based on direct numerical modeling for this phenomenon can be classified into partitioned or monolithic formulations.Each formulation has its advantages and disadvantages,and the choice depends on the characteristics of each coupled problem.This study proposes a new option:a coupled analysis strategy that combines the best features of the existing formulations,namely,the hybrid partitioned-monolithic method.The analysis of inverse piezoelectricity and the monolithic analysis of direct piezoelectric and circuit interaction are strongly coupled using a partitioned iterative hierarchical algorithm.In a typical benchmark problem of a piezoelectric energy harvester,this research compares the results from the proposed method to those from the conventional strongly coupled partitioned iterative method,discussing the accuracy,stability,and computational cost.The proposed hybrid concept is effective for coupled multi-physics problems,including various coupling conditions.

Application of Isogeometric Analysis Method in Three-Dimensional Gear Contact Analysis

Gears are pivotal in mechanical drives,and gear contact analysis is a typically difficult problem to solve.Emerging isogeometric analysis(IGA)methods have developed new ideas to solve this problem.In this paper,a threedimensional body parametric gear model of IGA is established,and a theoretical formula is derived to realize single-tooth contact analysis.Results were benchmarked against those obtained from commercial software utilizing the finite element analysis(FEA)method to validate the accuracy of our approach.Our findings indicate that the IGA-based contact algorithmsuccessfullymet theHertz contact test.When juxtaposed with the FEA approach,the IGAmethod demonstrated fewer node degrees of freedomand reduced computational units,all whilemaintaining comparable accuracy.Notably,the IGA method appeared to exhibit consistency in analysis accuracy irrespective of computational unit density,and also significantlymitigated non-physical oscillations in contact stress across the tooth width.This underscores the prowess of IGA in contact analysis.In conclusion,IGA emerges as a potent tool for addressing contact analysis challenges and holds significant promise for 3D gear modeling,simulation,and optimization of various mechanical components.

Stability Analysis and Performance Evaluation of Additive Mixed-Precision Runge-Kutta Methods

Additive Runge-Kutta methods designed for preserving highly accurate solutions in mixed-precision computation were previously proposed and analyzed.These specially designed methods use reduced precision for the implicit computations and full precision for the explicit computations.In this work,we analyze the stability properties of these methods and their sensitivity to the low-precision rounding errors,and demonstrate their performance in terms of accuracy and efficiency.We develop codes in FORTRAN and Julia to solve nonlinear systems of ODEs and PDEs using the mixed-precision additive Runge-Kutta(MP-ARK)methods.The convergence,accuracy,and runtime of these methods are explored.We show that for a given level of accuracy,suitably chosen MP-ARK methods may provide significant reductions in runtime.

The Adjustment Analysis Method of the Active Surface Antenna Based on Convolutional Neural Network

Active surface technique is one of the key technologies to ensure the reflector accuracy of the millimeter/submillimeter wave large reflector antenna.The antenna is complex,large-scale,and high-precision equipment,and its active surfaces are affected by various factors that are difficult to comprehensively deal with.In this paper,based on the advantage of the deep learning method that can be improved through data learning,we propose the active adjustment value analysis method of large reflector antenna based on deep learning.This method constructs a neural network model for antenna active adjustment analysis in view of the fact that a large reflector antenna consists of multiple panels spliced together.Based on the constraint that a single actuator has to support multiple panels(usually 4),an autonomously learned neural network emphasis layer module is designed to enhance the adaptability of the active adjustment neural network model.The classical 8-meter antenna is used as a case study,the actuators have a mean adjustment error of 0.00252 mm,and the corresponding antenna surface error is0.00523 mm.This active adjustment result shows the effectiveness of the method in this paper.

Evaluation of the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete structures with flat slab-column gravity frame and shear walls through nonlinear analysis methods

This paper presents an investigation of the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete(RC)structures in which shear walls are the main lateral load-resisting elements and the participation of flat slab floor systems is not considered in the seismic design procedure.In this regard,the behavior of six prototype structures(with different heights and plan layouts)is investigated through nonlinear static and time history analyses,implemented in the OpenSees platform.The results of the analyses are presented in terms of the behavior of the slab-column connections and their mode of failure at different loading stages.Moreover,the global response of the buildings is discussed in terms of some parameters,such as lateral overstrength due to the gravity flat slab-column frames.According to the nonlinear static analyses,in structures in which the slab-column connections were designed only for gravity loads,the slab-column connections exhibited a punching mode of failure even in the early stages of loading.However,the punching failure was eliminated in structures in which a minimum transverse reinforcement recommended in ACI 318(2019)was provided in the slabs at joint regions.Furthermore,despite neglecting the contribution of gravity flat slab-column frames in the lateral load resistance of the structures,a relatively significant overstrength was imposed on the structures by the gravity frames.

Sensitivity Analysis of Electromagnetic Scattering from Dielectric Targets with Polynomial Chaos Expansion and Method of Moments

In this paper,an adaptive polynomial chaos expansion method(PCE)based on the method of moments(MoM)is proposed to construct surrogate models for electromagnetic scattering and further sensitivity analysis.The MoM is applied to accurately solve the electric field integral equation(EFIE)of electromagnetic scattering from homogeneous dielectric targets.Within the bistatic radar cross section(RCS)as the research object,the adaptive PCE algorithm is devoted to selecting the appropriate order to construct the multivariate surrogate model.The corresponding sensitivity results are given by the further derivative operation,which is compared with those of the finite difference method(FDM).Several examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for sensitivity analysis of electromagnetic scattering from homogeneous dielectric targets.

Nonlinear Flap-Wise Vibration Characteristics ofWind Turbine Blades Based onMulti-Scale AnalysisMethod

This work presents a novel approach to achieve nonlinear vibration response based on the Hamilton principle.We chose the 5-MW reference wind turbine which was established by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL),to research the effects of the nonlinear flap-wise vibration characteristics.The turbine wheel is simplified by treating the blade of a wind turbine as an Euler-Bernoulli beam,and the nonlinear flap-wise vibration characteristics of the wind turbine blades are discussed based on the simplification first.Then,the blade’s large-deflection flap-wise vibration governing equation is established by considering the nonlinear term involving the centrifugal force.Lastly,it is truncated by the Galerkin method and analyzed semi-analytically using the multi-scale analysis method,and numerical simulations are carried out to compare the simulation results of finite elements with the numerical simulation results using Campbell diagram analysis of blade vibration.The results indicated that the rotational speed of the impeller has a significant impact on blade vibration.When the wheel speed of 12.1 rpm and excitation amplitude of 1.23 the maximum displacement amplitude of the blade has increased from 0.72 to 3.16.From the amplitude-frequency curve,it can be seen that the multi-peak characteristic of blade amplitude frequency is under centrifugal nonlinearity.Closed phase trajectories in blade nonlinear vibration,exhibiting periodic motion characteristics,are found through phase diagrams and Poincare section diagrams.