Müller cells are activated in response to retinal outer nuclear layer degeneration in rats subjected to simulated weightlessness conditions

A microgravity environment has been shown to cause ocular damage and affect visual acuity,but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.Therefore,we established an animal model of weightlessness via tail suspension to examine the pathological changes and molecular mechanisms of retinal damage under microgravity.After 4 weeks of tail suspension,there were no notable alterations in retinal function and morphology,while after 8 weeks of tail suspension,significant reductions in retinal function were observed,and the outer nuclear layer was thinner,with abundant apoptotic cells.To investigate the mechanism underlying the degenerative changes that occurred in the outer nuclear layer of the retina,proteomics was used to analyze differentially expressed proteins in rat retinas after 8 weeks of tail suspension.The results showed that the expression levels of fibroblast growth factor 2(also known as basic fibroblast growth factor)and glial fibrillary acidic protein,which are closely related to Müller cell activation,were significantly upregulated.In addition,Müller cell regeneration and Müller cell gliosis were observed after 4 and 8 weeks,respectively,of simulated weightlessness.These findings indicate that Müller cells play an important regulatory role in retinal outer nuclear layer degeneration during weightlessness.

Frontogenesis and Frontolysis of a Cold Filament Driven by the Cross-Filament Wind and Wave Fields Simulated by a Large Eddy Simulation

The variations of the frontogenetic trend of a cold filament induced by the cross-filament wind and wave fields are studied by a non-hydrostatic large eddy simulation. Five cases with different strengths of wind and wave fields are studied.The results show that the intense wind and wave fields further break the symmetries of submesoscale flow fields and suppress the levels of filament frontogenesis. The changes of secondary circulation directions—that is, the conversion between the convergence and divergence of the surface cross-filament currents with the downwelling and upwelling jets in the filament center—are associated with the inertial oscillation. The filament frontogenesis and frontolysis caused by the changes of secondary circulation directions may periodically sharpen and smooth the gradient of submesoscale flow fields.The lifecycle of the cold filament may include multiple stages of filament frontogenesis and frontolysis.

Evolution of Biofilm and Its Effect on Microstructure of Mortar Surfaces in Simulated Seawater

To explore the role of biofilm formation on the corrosion of marine concrete structures, we investigated the attachment of biofilm on mortar surfaces in simulated seawater and the influence of biofilm on the microstructure of mortar surfaces. The results show that the evolution of biofilm on mortar surfaces in simulated seawater is closely related to the corrosion suffered by the mortar, and the process of biofilm attachment and shedding is continuous and cyclical. It is found that the specimens in the absence of biofilm attachment are more severely eroded internally by the corrosive medium in simulated seawater than those in the presence of biofilm attachment. For the specimens without biofilm attachment, after 60 days, gypsum forms,and after 120 days, the number of pores in the mortar is reduced. In contrast, for the specimens in the presence of biofilm attachment, gypsum could only be detected after 90 days, and fewer pores are filled. Therefore, the formation of biofilm could delay the invasion of the corrosive medium into the interior of mortar during the evolution of biofilm on mortar surfaces, mitigating the corrosion of mortars in seawater.

Models to Simulate Effective Coverage of Fire Station Based on Real-Time Travel Times

In recent years,frequent fire disasters have led to enormous damage in China.Effective firefighting rescues can minimize the losses caused by fires.During the rescue processes,the travel time of fire trucks can be severely affected by traffic conditions,changing the effective coverage of fire stations.However,it is still challenging to determine the effective coverage of fire stations considering dynamic traffic conditions.This paper addresses this issue by combining the traveling time calculationmodelwith the effective coverage simulationmodel.In addition,it proposes a new index of total effective coverage area(TECA)based on the time-weighted average of the effective coverage area(ECA)to evaluate the urban fire services.It also selects China as the case study to validate the feasibility of the models,a fire station(FS-JX)in Changsha.FS-JX station and its surrounding 9,117 fire risk points are selected as the fire service supply and demand points,respectively.A total of 196 simulation scenarios throughout a consecutiveweek are analyzed.Eventually,1,933,815 sets of valid sample data are obtained.The results showed that the TECA of FS-JX is 3.27 km^(2),which is far below the standard requirement of 7.00 km^(2) due to the traffic conditions.The visualization results showed that three rivers around FS-JX interrupt the continuity of its effective coverage.The proposed method can provide data support to optimize the locations of fire stations by accurately and dynamically determining the effective coverage of fire stations.

Shallow Convection Dataset Simulated by Three Different Large Eddy Models

Shallow convection plays an important role in transporting heat and moisture from the near-surface to higher altitudes,yet its parameterization in numerical models remains a great challenge,partly due to the lack of high-resolution observations.This study describes a large eddy simulation(LES)dataset for four shallow convection cases that differ primarily in inversion strength,which can be used as a surrogate for real data.To reduce the uncertainty in LES modeling,three different large eddy models were used,including SAM(System for Atmospheric Modeling),WRF(Weather Research and Forecasting model),and UCLA-LES.Results show that the different models generally exhibit similar behavior for each shallow convection case,despite some differences in the details of the convective structure.In addition to grid-averaged fields,conditionally sampled variables,such as in-cloud moisture and vertical velocity,are also provided,which are indispensable for calculation of the entrainment/detrainment rate.Considering the essentiality of the entraining/detraining process in the parameterization of cumulus convection,the dataset presented in this study is potentially useful for validation and improvement of the parameterization of shallow convection.

Understanding Simulated Causes of Damaging Surface Winds in a Derecho-Producing Mesoscale Convective System near the East China Coast Based on Convection-Permitting Simulations

A mesoscale convective system(MCS) occurred over the East China coastal provinces and the East China Sea on 30April 2021, producing damaging surface winds near the coastal city Nantong with observed speeds reaching 45 m s^(–1). A simulation using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with a 1.5-km grid spacing generally reproduces the development and subsequent organization of this convective system into an MCS, with an eastward protruding bow segment over the sea. In the simulation, an east-west-oriented high wind swath is generated behind the gust front of the MCS. Descending dry rear-to-front inflows behind the bow and trailing gust front are found to feed the downdrafts in the main precipitation regions. The inflows help to establish spreading cold outflows and enhance the downdrafts through evaporative cooling. Meanwhile, front-to-rear inflows from the south are present, associated with severely rearward-tilted updrafts initially forming over the gust front. Such inflows descend behind(north of) the gust front, significantly enhancing downdrafts and near-surface winds within the cold pool. Consistently, calculated trajectories show that these parcels that contribute to the derecho originate primarily from the region ahead(south) of the east-west-oriented gust front, and dry southwesterly flows in the low-to-middle levels contribute to strong downdrafts within the MCS. Moreover, momentum budget analyses reveal that a large westward-directed horizontal pressure gradient force within the simulated cold pool produced rapid flow acceleration towards Nantong. The analyses enrich the understanding of damaging wind characteristics over coastal East China and will prove helpful to operational forecasters.

A Unique Modelling Strategy to Dynamically Simulate the Performance of a Lobe Pump for Industrial Applications

The performance of a newly designed tri-lobe industrial lobe pump of high capacity is simulated by using commercial CFD solver Ansys Fluent. A combination of user-defined-functions and meshing strategies is employed to capture the rotation of the lobes. The numerical model is validated by comparing the simulated results with the literature values. The processes of suction, displacement, compression and exhaust are accurately captured in the transient simulation. The fluid pressure value remains in the range of inlet pressure value till the processes of suction and displacement are over. The instantaneous process of compression is accurately captured in the simulation. The movement of a particular working chamber is traced along the gradual degree of lobe’s rotation. At five different degrees of lobe’s rotation, pressure contour plots are reported which clearly shows the pressure values inside the working chamber. Each pressure value inside the working chamber conforms to the particular process in which the working chamber is operating. Finally, the power requirement at the shaft of rotation is estimated from the simulated values. The estimated value of power requirement is 3.61 BHP FHP whereas the same calculated theoretically is 3 BHP FHP. The discrepancy is attributed to the assumption of symmetry of blower along the thickness.

Simulated patient methodology as a“gold standard”in community pharmacy practice:Response to criticism

The simulated patient methodology(SPM)is considered the“gold standard”as covert participatory observation.SPM is attracting increasing interest for the investigation of community pharmacy practice;however,there is criticism that SPM can only show a small picture of everyday pharmacy practice and therefore has limited external validity.On the one hand,a certain design and application of the SPM goes hand in hand with an increase in external validity.Even if,on the other hand,this occurs at the expense of internal validity due to the trade-off situation,the justified criticism of the SPM for investigating community pharmacy practice can be countered.

Molecular simulation study of the microstructures and properties of pyridinium ionic liquid[HPy][BF_(4)]mixed with acetonitrile

The microstructures and thermodynamic properties of mixed systems comprising pyridinium ionic liquid[HPy][BF_(4)]and acetonitrile at different mole fractions were studied using molecular dynamics simulation in this work.The following properties were determined:density,self-diffusion coefficient,excess molar volume,and radial distribution function.The results show that with an increase in the mole fraction of[HPy][BF_(4)],the self-diffusion coefficient decreases.Additionally,the excess molar volume initially decreases,reaches a minimum,and then increases.The rules of radial distribution functions(RDFs)of characteristic atoms are different.With increasing the mole fraction of[HPy][BF_(4)],the first peak of the RDFs of HA1-F decreases,while that of CT6-CT6 rises at first and then decreases.This indicates that the solvent molecules affect the polar and non-polar regions of[HPy][BF_(4)]differently.

Extraction of Soil Organic Matter Information by Multi-spectral Remote Sensing Based on Diverse Landforms

Based on diverse landforms, the correlation between soil organic matter content and multi-spectral band of remote sensing image was analyzed in this pa- per. In addition, the inversion models were built for the soil organic matter content in different landforms. The results showed that the spectral reflectance was nega- tively related to soil organic matter content; linear regression analysis of remove was performed throughout the bands using SPSS. When the inversion models were built based on all the bands, better fitting effect was obtained. The precision of in- version models built based on different landforms was higher than those built re- gardless landforms. Compared with the actual value, the identification level of soil organic matter content was 91 65% under the allowable error was 7%. It indicated that the extraction of soil organic matter with inversion model that was built based on different landforrrs was feasible with higher precision.

Low-dimensional multi-spectral space for color reproduction based on nonnegative constrained principal component analysis

In order to overcome the shortcomings that the reconstructed spectral reflectance may be negative when using the classic principal component analysis （PCA）to reduce the dimensions of the multi-spectral data, a nonnegative constrained principal component analysis method is proposed to construct a low-dimensional multi-spectral space and accomplish the conversion between the new constructed space and the multispectral space. First, the reason behind the negative data is analyzed and a nonnegative constraint is imposed on the classic PCA. Then a set of nonnegative linear independence weight vectors of principal components is obtained, by which a lowdimensional space is constructed. Finally, a nonlinear optimization technique is used to determine the projection vectors of the high-dimensional multi-spectral data in the constructed space. Experimental results show that the proposed method can keep the reconstructed spectral data in [ 0, 1 ]. The precision of the space created by the proposed method is equivalent to or even higher than that by the PCA.

Web services composition with QoS bound based on simulated annealing algorithm

In order to enable quality-aware web services selection in the process of service composition,this paper first describes the non-functional requirements of service consumers and the quality of elementary service or composite service as a quality vector,and then models the QoS（quality of service）-aware composition as a multiple criteria optimization problem in extending directed graph.A novel simulated annealing algorithm for QoS-aware web services composition is presented.A normalizing for composite service QoS values is made,and a secondary iterative optimization is used in the algorithm.Experimental results show that the simulated annealing algorithm can satisfy the multiple criteria and global QoS requirements of service consumers.The algorithm produces near optimum solution with much less computation cost.

Effect of forced lamina flow on microsegregation simulated by phase field method quantitatively

The influence of supercooled melt forced lamina flow on microsegregation was investigated. The concentration distribution at solid-liquid boundary of binary alloy Ni-Cu was simulated using phase field model coupled with flow field. The microsegregation, concentration maximum value, boundary thickness of concentration near upstream dendrite and normal to flow dendrite, and downstream dendrite were studied quantitatively in the case of forced lamia flow. The simulation results show that solute field and flow field interact complexly. Compared with melt without flow, in front of upstream dendrite tip, the concentration boundary thickness is the lowest and the concentration maximum value is the smallest for melt with flow. However, in front of downstream dendrite tip, the results are just the opposite. The zone of poor Cu in upstream dendrite where is the most severely microsegregation and shrinkage cavity is wider and the concentration is lower for melt with flow than that without flow.

Corrosion and leaching behaviors of Sn-based alloy in simulated soil solutions

The corrosion and leaching behaviors of Sn-0.75Cu solders and joints in NaCl-Na2SO4 and NaCl-Na2SO4-Na2CO3 simulated soil solutions were investigated compared with those in NaCl solution, aiming to assess the potential risk from the electronic-waste disposed in soil. The leaching kinetics of Sn reveals that the leaching amount of Sn increases with increasing the time. The amount of Sn leached from the joint is the largest in NaCl solution.SO4^2- and CO3^2- inhibit the leaching of Sn from the joints, but accelerate that from the solders. Meanwhile, the corrosion layer of the joint in NaCl solution is more porous, and those immersed in NaCl-Na2SO4 and NaCl-Na2SO4-Na2CO3 solutions are compact. The XRD results indicate that the main corrosion products on the solders and joints surfaces are comprised of tin oxide, tin chloride and tin chloride hydroxide. The potentiodynamic polarization measurements for the solders were discussed in the simulated soil solutions.

The Effects of Simulated Acid Rain on Photosynthetic Characteristics of Spring Wheat Leaves at the Jointing Stage

In order to investigate the effect of acid rain on photosynthetic characteristics of spring wheat,spring wheat at the jointing stage was sprayed with simulated acid rain at different pH levels of 1.5,2.5,3.5,4.5 and 5.6,and then,the photosynthetic parameters of spring wheat leaf was monitored.The results indicated that the pH value of simulated acid rain was positively and very significantly correlated with the net photosynthetic rate,stomata conductance,transpiration rate,water use efficiency and the chlorophyll relative content,whereas very significantly and negatively correlated with intercellular CO2 concentration.Due to acid rain,the net photosynthetic rate,stomata conductance,transpiration rate and the chlorophyll relative content decreased by 4.08%-67.04%,17.44%-58.44%,12.08%-48.08% and 12.16%-37.23% respectively,while intercellular CO2 concentration increased by 9.01%-14.29%.After simulated treatment with acid rain,the net photosynthetic rate had high significant positive correlation with stomata conductance,transpiration rate,water use efficiency,and the chlorophyll relative content,but high significant negative correlation with intercellular CO2 concentration.At the same time,transpiration rate was observed to be very significantly and positively correlated to stomata conductance and chlorophyll relative content,being significantly and positively correlated with water use efficiency,and very significantly and negatively correlated with intercellular CO2 concentration.In a word,the influence of simulated acid rain on photosynthetic characteristics of spring wheat leaf became more and more obvious with the increase of hydrogen ion concentration.

Study on the Water Balance in Three Dominant Plants with Simulated Precipitation Change in Maowusu Sandland

The distribution pattern and productivity of Maowusu sandland terrestrial ecosystem are greatly affected with the future severe global change, especially global precipitation change. Considering the predicative global precipitation change and the appropriate relevant strategy for the sustainable development of the China dry territory, the authors have investigated the response of water balance to global precipitation change by creating an artificial control of four levels of water supply treating 3 dominant plants in Mauwusu sandland. The results showed that the seasonal changes of water storage and moisture of different sandland layer depths were affected by different water supply treatments and different plants. The water storage of the three plant growing sandlands and the moisture of different sandland layer depths increased as water supply was increased. The moisture of different water supply treatments and plants increased with the increase of sandland layer depth. The water storage and moisture of the same layer depth of Hedysarum mongolicum Turcz. growing sandland were larger than that of Salix psammophila C. Wang et Ch. Y. Yang growing sandland, which were in turn higher than that of Artemisia ordosica Krasch. growing sandland in the same water supply treatment. Water supply significantly affected the seasonal changes of evaporation and transpiration of the three plant growing sandlands. With the increased levels of water supply, viz. 157.5 mm, 315.0 mm, 472.5 mm and 630.0 mm, the total evaporation was 123.66 mm, 258.68 mm, 376.30 mm, 458.57 mm, respectively, and the total transpiration of A. ordosica was 50.80 mm, 68.93 mm, 108.39 mm, 163.36 mm, respectively, and that of S. psammophila , 47.37 mm, 68.17 mm, 93.65 mm, 135.97 mm, respectively, and that of H. mongolicum 46.73 mm, 67.37 mm, 86.07 mm, 109.64 mm, respectively. Evaporation was significantly higher than transpiration in the experiment.

Direct Tunneling Effect in Metal-Semiconductor Contacts Simulated with Monte Carlo Method

Considering the tunneling effect and the Schottky effect,the metal semiconductor contact is simulated by using self consistent ensemble Monte Carlo method.Under different biases or at different barrier heights,the investigation into the tunneling current indicates that the tunneling effect is of great importance under reverse biases.The Schottky barrier diode current due to Schottky effect is in agreement with the theoretical one.The barrier lowering is found a profound effect on the current transport at the metal semiconductor interface.

Extracting Feature Bands for Damaged Rice Leaves by Planthoppers Using Multi-spectral Imaging Technology

[Objective] The aim of this study was to extract effective feature bands of damaged rice leaves by planthoppers to make identification and classification rapidly from great amounts of imaging spectral data. [Method] The experiment, using multi-spectral imaging system, acquired the multi-spectral images of damaged rice leaves from band 400 to 720 nm by interval of 5 nm. [Result] According to the principle of band index, it was calculated that the bands at 515, 510, 710, 555, 630, 535, 505, 530 and 595 nm were having high band index value with rich information and little correlation. Furthermore, the experiment used two classification methods and calcu-lated the classification accuracy higher than 90.00% for feature bands and ful bands of damaged rice leaves by planthoppers respectively. [Conclusion] It can be con-cluded that these bands can be considered as effective feature bands to identify damaged rice leaves by planthoppers quickly from a large scale of crops.

A SIMULATED ANNEALING METHOD FOR FAULT TREE ANALYSIS

This paper presents an approximate algorithm based on simulated annealing to achieve the maximum probability of the minimal cut sets for a fault tree. Near optimal minimal cut sets and important sequence of the basic events are also solved by the method. Computer simulations show that the algorithm performs very well.

基于Process Simulate的焊装工位虚拟调试技术应用

针对国内焊装生产线应用较少的技术,提出Tecnomatix虚拟调试解决方案,并在Process Simulate进行虚拟仿真,实现了智能组件的创建,对常用的传感器进行逻辑化处理,智能装备进行了Logic Block验证,对Smart Component信号和机器人信号进行了通信,在虚拟环境中验证了自动化设备,减少现场调试时间。