Differential gene expression of the healthy conjunctiva during the day

PurposeTo determine if there is diurnal variation in gene expression in normal healthy conjunctival cells.MethodsBulbar conjunctival swab samples were collected from four healthy subjects in the morning and evening of the same day. The two swab samples were taken from one eye of each participant, with a minimum of five hours gap between the two samples. RNA was extracted and analysed using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq).ResultsA total of 121 genes were differentially expressed between the morning and the evening conjunctival samples, of which 94 genes were upregulated in the morning, and 27 genes were upregulated in the evening. Many of the genes that were upregulated in the morning were involved in defence, cell turnover and regulation of gene expression, while the genes upregulated in the evening were involved in signalling and mucin production.ConclusionsThis study has identified several genes whose expression changes over the course of the day. Knowledge of diurnal variations of conjunctival gene expression provides an insight into the regulatory status of the healthy eye and provides a baseline for examining changes during ocular surface disease.     

Fluid sloshing thermo-mechanical characteristic in a cryogenic fuel storage tank under different gravity acceleration levels

Fluid sloshing usually causes serious safety issues on the dynamic stability and propellant thermal management during the powered-flight phase of launch vehicle. With the wide using of cryogenic propellants, the coupled thermo-mechanical performance during fluid sloshing becomes more prominent. In the present study, one numerical model is established to simulate fluid sloshing by using the VOF method coupled with the mesh motion treatment. The phase change occurring within the tank is considered. Both the experimental validation and mesh sensitivity analysis are made. It shows that present numerical model is acceptable. Based on the developed numerical model, the effect of different super gravity accelerations on fluid sloshing hydrodynamic characteristic is numerically researched. The fluid pressure variation, the sloshing force and sloshing moment, the interface dynamic response and the interface shape variation are investigated, respectively. It shows that the gravity acceleration has caused obvious influences on fluid sloshing characteristic. When the gravity acceleration is higher than 4g₀, fluid sloshing becomes more obvious and must be paid enough attention. With some valuable conclusions obtained, the present work is of great significance for in-depth understanding of fluid sloshing mechanism.     

Analytical Modeling for Translating Statistical Changes to Circuit Variability by Ultra-Deep Submicron Digital Circuit Design

This paper presents a physics-based compact gate delay model that includes all short-channel phenomena prevalent at the ultra-deep submicron technology node of 32 nm. To simplify calculations, the proposed model is connected to a compact α-power law-based (Sakurai-Newton) model. The model has been tested on a wide range of supply voltages. The model accurately predicts nominal delays and the delays under process variations. It has been shown that at lower technology nodes, the delay is more sensitive to threshold voltage variations, specifically at the sub-threshold operating region as compared with effective channel length variations above the threshold region.     

一种基于全变分技术和Lp伪范数的椒盐噪声去除方法

针对传统各向同性全变分（Isotropy total variation，ITV）去噪算法容易导致图像边缘模糊、不易保持图像细节信息等问题，提出一种基于L _p 伪范数和各向同性全变分的图像去噪方法。该方法将L _p 伪范数代替ITV模型中的L ₁范数，利用交替方向乘子算法（Alternating direction method of multipliers, ADMM）将能量泛函拆解成若干个子问题，并将差分算子视为卷积算子；然后引入卷积定理和快速傅里叶变换(Fast Fourier transform, FFT)提高算法运算效率；最后通过Matlab进行仿真实验，运用图像质量的客观和主观评价方法进行评价分析。结果表明，本文方法能够较好地保留图像的边缘特性，有效提升去噪效果。     

纵轴式掘进机截割头载荷影响因素的仿真分析

针对现有掘进机截割头载荷特性研究方法采用单一影响因素不能全面反映截割头载荷及其波动变化规律的问题,通过分析截割头瞬时载荷,确定了纵轴式掘进机在水平截割工况下截割头载荷的主要影响因素有截割岩石特性、截割头掏槽深度、截割头吃刀深度、截割头转速和截割臂摆速。针对某纵轴式掘进机水平截割工况,采用Matlab对影响截割头载荷的多种因素进行仿真分析,得到了各向载荷及其波动随各因素的变化规律:截割头载荷随着岩壁普氏系数的增大而增加,其中横向阻力增加尤为明显,横向阻力波动程度高于其他方向载荷,且随着岩壁普氏系数的增大呈减小趋势;随着截割头掏槽深度的增加,截割头各向载荷近似呈线性增加,其中升力增加幅度最大,各向载荷波动则随着截割头掏槽深度的增大而减小;随着吃刀深度的增加,截割头载荷总体呈增大趋势,载荷波动程度则随之减小;在截割头转速一定的情况下,截割头载荷均随着截割臂摆速的增加而增大,在同一摆速下,截割头载荷随着截割头转速的减小而增大,横向阻力波动明显高于升力和推进阻力波动,横向阻力和推进阻力波动按截割头载荷规律变化,升力波动则与之相反。截割头载荷波动变化规律与截割头载荷变化规律不尽一致,有时甚至相互冲突。因此,掘进机作业过程中应合理选择截割头掏槽深度、吃刀深度等操作参数和截割头转速、截割臂摆速等运动参数,使各参数相互匹配,以减小掘进机振动,延长使用寿命。     

库水位变动下庄屋滑坡变形与稳定性分析

库水位变动是三峡库区滑坡等地质灾害频发的重要原因之一。为研究库水位变动对库岸涉水滑坡变形和稳定性的影响,以庄屋滑坡为例,结合GPS位移监测数据和数值模拟分析,探讨了该滑坡在库水升降过程中变形和稳定性的响应规律。结果表明,庄屋滑坡受库水影响滑坡后缘变形大于前缘,为推移式滑坡。水位变动过程中,滑坡渗流和稳定性变化具有动水压力型滑坡特点,即在水位上升时滑体内地下水浸润线呈内凹趋势,水位下降时滑体内地下水浸润线呈外凸趋势,且具有一定的滞后性;库水位上升时滑坡稳定性系数增大,水位下降时减小;当库水位保持在恒定水位时,稳定性系数也逐渐趋于稳定。     

Structure variation and energy storage properties of acceptor-modified PBLZST antiferroelectric ceramics

Energy storage capacitors with high recoverable energy density and efficiency are greatly desired in pulse power system. In this study, the energy density and efficiency were enhanced in Mn-modified (Pb_0.93Ba_0.04La_0.02)(Zr_0.65Sn_0.3Ti_0.05)O₃ antiferroelectric ceramics via a conventional solid-state reaction process. The improvement was attributed to the change in the antiferroelectric-to-ferroelectric phase transition electric field (E_F) and the ferroelectric-to-antiferroelectric phase transition electric field (E_A) with a small Mn addition. Mn ions as acceptors, which gave rise to the structure variation, significantly influenced the microstructures, dielectric properties and energy storage performance of the antiferroelectric ceramics. A maximum recoverable energy density of 2.64 J/cm³ with an efficiency of 73% was achieved when x = 0.005, which was 40% higher than that (1.84 J/cm³, 68%) of the pure ceramic counterparts. The results demonstrate that the acceptor modification is an effective way to improve the energy storage density and efficiency of antiferroelectric ceramics by inducing a structure variation and the (Pb_0.93Ba_0.04La_0.02)(Zr_0.65Sn_0.3Ti_0.05)O₃-xMn₂O₃ antiferroelectric ceramics are a promising energy storage material with high-power density.     

Looking into the TESSERACT: Time-drifts in event streams using series of evolving rolling averages of completion times

Business processes are dynamic and change due to diverse factors. While existing approaches aim to detect drifts in the process structure, Tesseract looks for temporal drifts in activity interim times. This orthogonal view on the process extends the traditional data cube of events – case id, activities and timestamps – by a fourth dimension and improves the operational support by a visualization of temporal drifts in real-time.Insights about temporal deviations lead to an augmented awareness of imminent failures or improved service times. The detection of related structural concept drifts can be improved by early warning, as operation times of critical parts often increase before they catastrophically fail.