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The effect of geometric characteristics of castings on the linear contraction of sand casting Mg–9Gd–3Y– 0.5Zr alloy (VW93) was studied. The dimensions of free and restrained structure castings were precisely extracted by a 3D scanner and then used for the calculation of the contraction coefficient. The ratio of sand core volume to enveloping volume of casting (γ), was introduced to quantify the degree of constraint caused by sand cores. According to the statistical distribution of free contraction coefficients and the evolution of restrained contraction coefficients against γ, it is indicated that the free contraction coefficient of VW93 alloy equals 1.96%, and the restrained contraction coefficient declines linearly with the increasing γ, which supplies support on predicting the contraction of VW93 alloy through the geometric characteristic of castings.

The sample representativeness, spectral acquisition conditions, and modeling process would affect the practical application value and application range of a model. To establish an applicative online evaluation model for soluble solids content (SSC) of Leibo navel orange, transmittance spectra with the wavelength of 650–950 nm were collected under different sample placement postures and transmission speeds using an online system with four parallel spectrometers. These samples were gathered from three production points at three harvest times and contained four grades with single fruit weight ranging from 133.8 to 645.0 g. Considering the heterogeneity of navel orange and the practical application of online detection, all spectra of the same sample were used to join in modeling, and a series of models for SSC were established. The models by average spectra of four parallel spectrometers got better results than anyone. The accuracy of the model was the best when samples were placed horizontally on the sample tray, followed by stem upward, and stem downward worst. The regression model for SSC by using spectra with horizontal orientation and speed of 0.5 m/s got the best performance in terms of root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) and residual predictive deviation (RPD), with values of 0.442% and 2.77, respectively. The overall results showed that the research method and system can be applied to the online detection of navel orange quality.

Periodic orbits are crucial in facilitating the understanding of the dynamical behavior of elongated asteroids. As a specific type of periodic orbit, resonant orbits can enrich the orbit design method of deep-space exploration missions. Herein, a dipole segment model for investigating the orbital dynamics of elongated asteroids is briefly introduced. A new numerical algorithm named the modified path searching method for identifying spin-orbit resonant orbits is proposed. Using the modified path searching and pseudo-arclength continuation methods, four spin-orbit resonant families for asteroid 2063 Bacchus are obtained. The distribution of eigenvalues and stability curves for the four resonant families are presented. In particular, some critical points corresponding to period-doubling and tangent bifurcations appear in the stability curves.

Pregnane X receptor (PXR) is a xenobiotic receptor that can be activated by numerous chemicals including endogenous hormones, dietary steroids, pharmaceutical agents, and environmental chemicals. PXR has been established to function as a xenobiotic sensor to coordinately regulate xenobiotic metabolism by regulating the expression of many enzymes and transporters required for xenobiotic metabolism. Recent studies have implicated a potentially important role for PXR in obesity and metabolic disease beyond xenobiotic metabolism, but how PXR action in different tissues or cell types contributes to obesity and metabolic disorders remains elusive. To investigate the role of adipocyte PXR in obesity, we generated a novel adipocyte-specific PXR deficient mouse model (PXRΔAd). Notably, we found that loss of adipocyte PXR did not affect food intake, energy expenditure, and obesity in high-fat diet-fed male mice. PXRΔAdmice also had similar obesity-associated metabolic disorders including insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis as control littermates. PXR deficiency in adipocytes did not affect expression of key adipose genes in PXRΔAdmice. Our findings suggest that adipocyte PXR signaling may be dispensable in diet-induced obesity and metabolic disorders in mice. Further studies are needed to understand the role of PXR signaling in obesity and metabolic disorders in the future.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe authors demonstrate that deficiency of adipocyte pregnane X receptor (PXR) does not affect diet-induced obesity or metabolic disorders in mice and infers that adipocyte PXR signaling may not play a key role in diet-induced obesity. More studies are needed to understand the tissue-specific role of PXR in obesity.

AbstractTunnel construction may induce ground deformations and affect the adjacent pile foundations. Up to now, few studies have investigated the soil-tunnel-pile interaction in structured clay. In this study, an anisotropic structured clay model is implemented in the finite-difference code FLAC3Dto investigate the effects of tunnelling on existing piles in structured clay. The model is first calibrated based on the oedometer and undrained triaxial tests for Shanghai structured clay. Then the numerical model and the modelling procedure are introduced and validated by simulating the centrifuge model tests of tunnelling adjacent to piles in remoulded kaolin clay. Thereafter, influences of clay anisotropy and structure on the existing piles due to tunnelling are investigated using the calibrated parameters for Shanghai structured clay. It is observed that the influence of clay structure on the shape of the deflection and bending moment of the pile is not significant. However, the introduction of the anisotropy and the adhesive mean stress may reduce the ground settlement while increasing the lateral soil movement at the tunnel axis depth, whereas the introduction of the bonding ratio may have the opposite effect. Moreover, introducing both the anisotropy and the soil structure will lead to the increase of pile moment.

When tunnels are constructed in coastal cities, they will inevitably undercross a river. Exploring the influence of rivers on tunnelling-induced deformation in costal soft soil is of great significance for controlling excessive settlement and protecting surrounding buildings. This paper presents a case study of twin tunnels undercrossing a river in soft soil in Hangzhou, China. The soft soil of Hangzhou refers to cohesive soil in a soft plastic or fluid plastic state with high natural water content, high compressibility, low bearing capacity, and low shear strength. Considering the influence of the river, the research region was divided into two parts, inside and outside the river-affected area, based on monitoring data of the Zizhi Tunnel. The development law of surface settlement is divided into three stages. In the first and second stages, the surface settlement within and outside the river-affected area showed a similar trend: the settlement increased and the growth rate of settlement in the second stage was smaller within the river-affected area. In the third stage, the surface settlement continued to increase within the river-affected area, while it converged outside the river-affected area. Within the river-affected area, there was an asynchronization of the sinking rate and stability of vault settlements and surface settlements. A numerical model was established by simulating different reinforcements of the tunnel. The numerical model revealed that the ground movement is influenced by the distribution and amount of the excess pore water pressure. The excess pore pressure was concentrated mostly in the range of 1.0Ht–3.0Ht(Htis the tunnel height) before the tunnel face, especially within the river-affected area. Inside the river-affected area, the dissipation of excess pore water pressure needs more time, leading to slow stabilization of surface settlement. When undercrossing a river, a cofferdam is necessary to reduce excessive ground deformation by dispersing the distribution of excess pore water pressure.

In quantum materials, the Fermi surface and physical behaviors are particularly sensitive to the crystal quality and composition, while it is difficult to obtain a large quantity of quasi-continuous stoichiometric ratio high-quality single crystals quickly, which seriously restricts the research efficiency and scientific achievement transformation. In the past decade, the rise of high-throughput technologies has brought new opportunities to the exploration and mechanism cognition of topological quantum materials. Taking Nb1–xTaxSb2(NTS) topological semimetals as an example, here we propose a high-throughput single-crystal growth and design method based on chemical vapor transport (CVT) for high-melting-point transition-metal dichalcogenide materials, which intends to accelerate the crystal synthesis and the research efficiency by the influence of different proportions on the properties of the quantum systems. We have successfully grown Nb1–xTaxSb2single crystals of various proportions (x= 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1) in one pot at one time with the help of a CVT-based high-throughput method. Then, we systematically study the effect of composition on its crystallographic and magnetotransport properties. First, the excellent crystallographic quality and element uniformity of the produced NTS were verified via X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Later, we performed temperature- and angle-dependent resistivity measurements on the as-grown NTS crystals under magnetic fields up to B= 9 T and found the following. (1) The resistivity of all NTS crystals decreases monotonically with decreasing temperature from T= 300 K under zero magnetic field and displays resistivity plateaus below T= 10 K. (2) Upon application of a magnetic field larger than 3 T the resistivity shows a significant upturn in the low-temperature regions for NbSb2and TaSb2. This resistivity upturn, however, is rapidly suppressed with an increase in xfrom 0 to 0.5, completely disappears for x= 0.5, and recovers with a further increase in xfrom 0.5 to 1. (3) All NTS crystals show anisotropic parabolic-like magnetoresistance behaviors with no sign of saturation. (4) The magnetoresistance highly depends on the Nb:Ta ratio and reaches a minimum value when the Nb:Ta ratio is 1. An analysis of the results reveals that the degree of Nb:Ta atomic disorder and the electron–hole compensation could account for the doping-dependent magnetotransport behaviors. In conclusion, our method does have high-throughput characteristics, and the results not only provide further insight into the electronic transport properties of the NTS family but also give a reliable reference for other similar systems, which may promote the opening of a new chapter of a high-throughput research mode in quantum materials.

This paper revisits the planar periodic motions around libration points in circular restricted three-body problem based on invariant manifold technique. The invariant manifold technique is applied to construct the nonlinear polynomial relations between ξ-direction and η-direction of a small celestial body during its periodic motion. Such direct nonlinear relations reduce the dimension of the dynamical system and facilitate convenient approximate analytical solutions. The nonlinear directional relations also provide terminal constraints for computing periodic motions. The method to construst periodic orbits proposed in this study presents a new point of view to explore the orbital dynamics. As an application in numerical simulations, nonlinear relations are adopted as topological terminal constraints to construct the periodic orbits with differential correction procedure. Numerical examples verify the validity of the proposed method for both collinear and triangular libration cases.

Obtaining the classification of urban functions is an integral part of urban planning. Currently, public bicycle systems are booming in these years. It conveys human mobility and activity information, which can be closely related to the social function of an urban region. This paper discusses the potential use of public bicycle systems for recognizing the social function of urban regions by using one year's rent/return data of public bicycles. We found that rent/return dynamics, extracted from public bicycle systems, exhibited clear patterns corresponding to the urban function classes of these regions. With seven features designed to characterize the rent/return pattern, our method based on Smooth support vector machine (SSVM) is proposed to recognize social function classes of urban regions. We evaluate our method based on the large-scale real-world dataset collected from the public bicycle system of Hangzhou. The results show that our method can efficiently recognize different types of urban function areas. Classification results using the proposed SSVM achieved the best classification accuracy of 96.15%.

A porous electrode model, incorporating particle stress effects, is developed for the electrode kinetic processes in the positive Li(Ni1/3Mn1/3Co1/3)O2 or NMC111 electrode. The model is used to analyze experimental data from galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) during charging at the beginning of life. The equilibrium potential accounts for the influence of mechanical stress in the electrode particles. While the standard Newman-based model proves unable to capture the dynamic performance of NMC111, the extended model with stress allows good fits of the GITT responses for NMC half cells for a voltage range from 3.7-4.1 V vs Li/Li+ at 10degC, 25degC and 40degC. Four physical parameters are extracted to analyze the underlying diffusive, kinetic, thermodynamic and stress phenomena from polarization to relaxation during a GITT transient. Strong dependencies of the kinetic rate constant k, slope of the open-circuit potential curve dEconc/dxpos and stress proportionality factor Ustress with lithium concentration are found. The effective diffusion coefficients Ds,eff are [?]10[?]14 - 10[?]13 cm2/s across voltages and temperatures. Diffusion limitation and particle surface stress are more profound at higher voltages and at higher temperatures. This leads to large lithium concentration gradient near particle surface, requiring longer relaxation time during GITT.

This study focused on the microbiota and chemical compounds of the fermented Pinelliae Rhizomaproduced in Longchang (LC), Zizhong (ZZ) and Xindu (XD), in Sichuan Province (China). High-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the microbiota. GC-MS and LC-MS were used to detect the compounds produced during the three different Pinelliae Rhizomafermentation processes. The bacteria and fungi of the three fermented Pinelliae Rhizomadiffered substantially, with the bacterial content mainly composed of the Bacillusgenus, while the common fungi were only included in four OTUs, which belong to three species of Eurotiomycetesand Aspergillus cibarius. 51 volatile compounds were detected; they varied between LC, XD, and ZZ fermented Pinelliae Rhizoma. C10 and C15 terpenes were most frequently detected, and only curcumene and β-bisabolene were detected in the three fermented Pinelliae Rhizoma. 65 non-volatile compounds were detected by LC-MS, most were of C16, C18, C20, C21 and C22 structures. Cluster analysis showed more similarity between LC and XD fermented Pinelliae Rhizomawith regards to volatile compound content, but more similarity between the XD and ZZ fermented Pinelliae Rhizomafor non-volatiles. Moreover, no correlation between geographical distance and microflora or compounds of fermented Pinelliae Rhizomawas observed. These results showed that hundreds of compounds are produced by the natural mixed fermentation of Pinelliae Rhizoma, and may mostly relate to the microorganisms of five species.

The clinical treatment of gastric cancer is hampered by the development of anticancer drug resistance as well as the unfavorable pharmacokinetics, nontarget toxicity, and inadequate intratumoral accumulation of current chemotherapies. The polyphenol epigallocatechin gallate in combination with doxorubicin exhibits synergistic inhibition P-glycoprotein efflux pump activity and cancer cell growth. This study evaluated a potential activated nanoparticle delivery system comprising a hyaluronic acid complex with polyethylene glycol-conjugated gelatin containing encapsulated epigallocatechin gallate and low-dose doxorubicin, which may facilitate targeted drug administration to gastric cancer cells. We confirmed successful delivery of bioactive combination drugs and internalization into gastric cancer cells through CD44 ligand recognition and ensuing inhibition of cell proliferation via caspase-induced apoptosis and G2/M phase cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, the targeted nanoparticles significantly suppressed gastric tumor activity and reduced both tumor and heart tissue inflammatory reaction in vivo compared to systemic combination treatment.

Stability for the non-autonomous bicircular four-body model is analytically investigated in this study. The governing equation is derived from Newton's law of gravity. When the distance between the infinitesimal mass and the third primary is expanded as Taylor expansions, the governing equation can be regarded as two parts: the unperturbed conservative system and the small periodically parametric excitations. The unperturbed system's natural frequency and parametric frequency are analyzed for the possibility of principal parametric resonances. The method of multiple scales is applied directly to the governing equation. The stability conditions are obtained analytically for the principal parametric resonance. Numerical method demonstrates the efficiency of the analytical results.

Quasi-periodic orbits in the Earth–Moon system are highly sensitive and even small errors in position and/or velocity have strong influence on the trajectory. These types of trajectories are unstable and must be controlled to maintain the corresponding orbits. This paper investigates the stationkeeping strategy for quasi-periodic orbits near the translunar libration point with full consideration of the contribution from the Sun’s gravity and the Moon’s eccentricity, in which the continuous low-thrust is preformed to enforce the probe following several onboard decided target points on the baseline. A new high-fidelity model is derived to describe motions of the quasi-periodic orbits by using the standard ephemerides. Based on the improved multiple-shooting method and the proposed model, a baseline trajectory is obtained. Then, a new continuous low-thrust-based stationkeeping strategy is proposed. Specifically, by employing Gauss pseudospectral method in the stationkeeping algorithm and by introducing the maximal excursion and fixed time interval, the target points on the baseline trajectory are chosen onboard based on real-time data. Simulation results show that the unstable quasi-periodic orbit can be maintained effectively with the low-energy consumption.

Abstract: The same amount of mixture ratio of cement, replacing a part of fly ash with a certain amount of mud to research about the workability of fresh concrete and the effect of the mechanical and shrinkage properties of hardened concrete. Test's results show: The different kinds of mud lead that the fluidity of the fresh concrete and the strength of hardened concrete are different. The influence of sand mud is lighter than planting mud on the fluidity and strength of concrete. The compressive strength of concrete decreases and the early shrinkage increase with an increase of mud replaced the fly ash.

The basic composition and working principle of the turret punch press were analyzed, the recent distance method and genetic algorithm optimize method of holes machining path of NC turret punch press was put forward, the corresponding mathematical model and optimization algorithm was respectively given, these two kinds of optimization methods aiming at different types of holes are compared with the examples, put forward a kind of the integrated holes machining path optimization.

This paper uses dust, with particle size less than 0.08mm, produced by crushing limestone to replace the same amount of cement in different proportions and studies the performance of cement mortar. The result shows that limestone dust has water reducing effect and does not reduce strength of the mortar when its dosage is less than 12%, meanwhile, it can improve the shrinkage property and the durability resisting sulfate, which explains that limestone dust is not the inert material, but has a certain activity,.

This paper use dust particles which is produced by crushing limestone to replace the same amount of cement in different proportions, study the performance of cement mortar, and determine the best dosage of limestone dust. Its size is less than 0.08mm. The result shows that limestone dust has water-reduce effect and does not reduce the strength of the mortar when the dosage of limestone dust is less than 12%. Meanwhile the addition of limestone powder can improve the shrinkage property and the durability of sulfate. It explains that limestone dust has a certain activity, not the inert material.

Nonlocal elastic shell model based on the semi-moment theory is developed and applied to investigate the small scale effect on the bending problem of the cantilever carbon nanotube (CNT) with a vertical concentrated load applied at its tip. The small-scale effect is taken into account and is incorporated in the formulation. Analytical expressions of the stress are derived for the nonlocal elastic bending problem. It is obvious to observe significant small-scale effects on the stress resultants. The smaller the radius is, the more obvious the scale effect appears. The numerical results show that the scale effect cannot be ignored for CNTs of small radius.

By using the High-performance water-reducing agent to do a series of technical demonstration test, and using the local raw materials, mixing with large numbers of mineral admixture, this paper makes up the cost lower C80 high strength and high performance concrete successfully. The test results show that the High-performance water-reducing agent can improve construction of concrete and physical and mechanical performance and durability after hardening

In this paper, the influence of recycled aggregates volume fraction (Fra) on chloride induced permeability of recycled aggregates concrete (RAC) was investigated. Finite element analyses of single modeled RAC with regular aggregate arrangements were performed. The recycled aggregate fraction (Fra ) was varied between 0.38 and 0.63. The finite element method (FEM) were based on a mass diffusion approach in which RAC were simplified as three-phase cylindrical inclusions with 1 mm thickness. The analysis results were interpreted by change of permeability. The results show that the chloride concentration on the corresponding boundary vary wavely in a wide range from from 0.00196603 (mg/mm3) to 0.00238315 (mg/mm3) and increase entirely with the increasing Fra due to the influence of old adhered mortar. The effective chloride diffusivities of RAC and the value of chloride amount increase linearly with the increasing Fra.

Proposed is a simple analytic model that can simulate the chloride diffusion distribution in a modeled recycled aggregates concrete (RAC). In this paper, on the one hand, the RAC is divided into three phases such as normal aggregates, new mortar and old attached mortar; on the other hand, a single aggregates RAC model was built, finite element method (FEM) is used to simulate chloride diffusion process based on the parameters of diffusivities summarized or derived from other literatures. It is found that the chloride concentration distribution in the RAC shows a band-like profile instead of a smooth curve for a homogeneous medium by ten years diffusion, with the bandwidth undulating and narrowing as the diffusion depth increases. The concentration of chloride distribution can be indicated by the different colors and, therefore, the proposed model allows more accurate realization of diffusion process.

AbstractThe preferences of Bemisia tabaciGennadius for five host plants: poinsettia, tomato, cabbage, sweet potato and flowering Chinese cabbage, was tested using a Y‐tube olfactometer and a desiccator in the laboratory. The results show that B. tabaciadults were attracted by the odors of the five plants. The order of preference was poinsettia > flowering Chinese cabbage > sweet potato > cabbage > tomato. Preference was extremely significant between poinsettia and the other four plants, and between flowering Chinese cabbage, cabbage and tomato. There was no significant difference in preference for flowering Chinese cabbage and sweet potato, sweet potato, cabbage and tomato or between cabbage and tomato.

In order to explore the influence of combined gyroscopic coupling effect on the gyroscopic system, the dynamics of a beam undergoing both rotating and spinning motions as a bi-gyroscopic system is studied. The natural frequencies, modes, and stability of such a bi-gyroscopic system have been studied by the standard eigenvalue problems. The bifurcation series of frequencies and corresponding modal motions have been presented to show the gyroscopically coupled motions. The complex modes of the proposed bi-gyroscopic systems, such as whirling motions and in-plane reeling motions, have been illustrated.

The mammalian CNS does not regenerate after injury due largely to myelin-specific inhibitors of axonal growth. The PNS, however, does regenerate once myelin is cleared and myelin proteins are down-regulated by Schwann cells. Myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), a sialic acid binding protein, is a potent inhibitor of neurite outgrowth when presented to neurons in culture. Here, we present additional evidence that strongly supports the suggestion that MAG contributes to the overall inhibitory properties of myelin. When myelin from MAG−/− mice is used as a substrate, axonal length is 100 and 60% longer for neonatal cerebellar and older DRG neurons, respectively, compared to MAG+/+ myelin. The converse is true for neurites from neonatal DRG neurons, which are twice as long on MAG+/+ relative to MAG−/− myelin, consistent with MAG's dual role of promoting axonal growth from neonatal DRG neurons but inhibiting growth in older DRG and all other postnatal neurons examined. Furthermore, desialylating neurons reverses inhibition by CNS myelin by 45%. Contrary to previous reports, under these conditions PNS myelin is also inhibitory for axonal regeneration. Importantly, results using PNS MAG−/− myelin as a substrate suggest that MAG contributes to this inhibition. Finally, when Schwann cells not expressing MAG and permissive for axonal growth are induced to express MAG by retroviral infection, not only is axonal outgrowth greatly inhibited by these cells but so also is neurite branching. This suggests for the first time that MAG not only affects axonal regeneration but may also play a role in the control of axonal sprouting.

Myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) is a potent inhibitor of axonal regeneration from both cerebellar neurons and adult dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. In contrast, MAG promotes axonal growth from newborn DRG neurons. Here, we show that the switch in response to MAG from promotion to inhibition of neurite outgrowth by DRG neurons occurs sharply at Postnatal Day 3. To date, of all the neurons tested a postnatal switch in response is only observed for DRG neurons; MAG inhibits axonal growth from retinal, superior cervical ganglion, spinal, and hippocampal neurons of all postnatal ages. Furthermore, MAG binds to neurons from which it promotes and from which it inhibits outgrowth, in a sialic-acid-dependent manner. Now we show this binding is also trypsin-sensitive. Hence, the interaction is via a sialoglycoprotein. Binding of MAG to all the neurons tested here was also sialic-acid-dependent. Importantly, both inhibition and promotion of neurite outgrowth by MAG are reduced, or abolished completely, either by desialyation of the neurons prior to the outgrowth assay or by including small sialic-acid-bearing sugars in the cultures. These results suggest that MAG is likely to contribute to the lack of regeneration observed throughout the nervous system. Also, it is likely that MAG is exerting its effect, either directly or indirectly, on both promotion and inhibition of neurite outgrowth via a neuronal sialoglycoprotein.

Myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) is a potent inhibitor of axonal regeneration when used as a substrate for growth. However, to be characterized definitively as inhibitory rather than nonpermissive, MAG must also inhibit axonal regeneration when presented in solution. Here, we show that soluble dMAG (extracellular domain only), released in abundance from myelin and foundin vivoand chimeric MAG-Fc, can potently inhibit axonal regeneration. For both dMAG and MAG-Fc, inhibition is dose-dependent. If myelin-conditioned medium is immunodepleted of dMAG, or if a MAG antibody is included with MAG-Fc, inhibition is completely neutralized. Together with MAG's ability to induce growth cone collapse, these results demonstrate that MAG is an inhibitory molecule and not merely nonpermissive. The results also suggest that MAG binds to a specific receptor and initiates a signal transduction cascade to effect inhibition. Importantly, these results indicate that soluble dMAG detectedin vivocould contribute to the lack of regeneration in the mammalian CNS after injury.

To date, the accurate prediction of tunnel boring machine (TBM) performance remains a considerable challenge owing to the complex interactions between the TBM and ground. Using evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR) and random forest (RF), this study develops two novel prediction models for TBM performance. Both models can predict the TBM penetration rate and field penetration index as outputs with four input parameters: the uniaxial compressive strength, intact rock brittleness index, distance between planes of weakness, and angle between the tunnel axis and planes of weakness (α). First, the performances of both EPR- and RF-based models are examined by comparison with the conventional numerical regression method (i.e., multivariate linear regression). Subsequently, the performances of the RF- and EPR-based models are further investigated and compared, including the model robustness for unknown datasets, interior relationships between input and output parameters, and variable importance. The results indicate that the RF-based model has greater prediction accuracy, particularly in identifying outliers, whereas the EPR-based model is more convenient to use by field engineers owing to its explicit expression. Both EPR- and RF-based models can accurately identify the relationships between the input and output parameters. This ensures their excellent generalization ability and high prediction accuracy on unknown datasets.

The Pacific Walker circulation (PWC) was weak in the20th century, but its strength increased in an interdecadal scale in the late 1990s. Previous studies have suggested that it could be caused by the warming of the tropical Atlantic Ocean, or induced by the warming of the tropical Indian Ocean. The tropical Atlantic Ocean would not only directly affect the PWC through the equatorial east Pacific to the west, but also produce an indirect effect to the east through the equatorial west Indian Ocean. Using a coupled general circulation model, we designed a series of tropical Atlantic Heating and Heating_Shut experiments with different heating rates, to detect the mechanism of the impact of tropical Atlantic warming on the PWC. Results show that the tropical Atlantic heating weakens the Atlantic Walker circulation but strengthens the PWC. Diagnostics of multiple physical variables with coherent lower–upper troposphere structure show the responses of the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic heating play a critical role in the strengthening of the PWC. The Atlantic–linked atmosphere over the tropical Indian Ocean exerts a significantly positive heat flux onto the ocean there, greatly warming the tropical Indian Ocean, especially on the west part. This produces strong convectively ascending at the equatorial West Indian Ocean, but descending at the East-central Indian Ocean, corresponding to a ‘Walker’ circulation and an ‘anti–Walker’ circulation situated at the West and East equatorial Indian Ocean respectively. Meanwhile, the convergence (divergence) of the lower (upper) troposphere over the Indo‒Pacific region is also strengthened. In this way, the tropical Atlantic heating is linked to the PWC through the circulation over the equatorial Indian Ocean. This study serves as a preliminary step to understand the impact of tropical Atlantic warming on the PWC, more Atlantic heating sensitivity studies with multi-model experiments are required to further reveal the linkage of the Pacific and Atlantic.

The forced vibration of gyroscopic continua is investigated by taking the pipes conveying fluid as an example. The nonlinear normal modes and a numerical iterative approach are used to perform numerical response analysis. The nonlinear nonautonomous governing equations are transformed into a set of pseudo-autonomous ones by using the harmonic balance method. Based on the pseudo-autonomous system, the nonlinear normal modes are constructed by the invariant manifold method on the state space and substituted back into the original discrete equations. By repeating the above mentioned steps, the dynamic responses can be numerically obtained asymptotically using such iterative approach. Quadrature phase difference between the general coordinates is verified for the gyroscopic system and traveling waves instead of standing waves are found in the time-domain complex modal analysis.

The nonlinear dynamics of rotors suspending in the active magnetic bearings (AMBs) with eight pole pairs are investigated. The nonlinear governing equations of two degree-of-freedom (2DOF) are obtained considering the rotor with proportional–derivative (PD) controller. By studying the conservative free vibrations of the general 2DOF nonlinear systems, three types of motions are found, namely, in-unison modal motions, elliptic modal motions, and quasi-periodic motions. The method of multiple scales is used to obtain the amplitude-phase portrait to demonstrate the three types of motions by introducing the energy ratios and phase differences. It is found that in-unison modal motions do not exist due to the symmetry feature of the rotors in the AMBs. The effect of the PD controller and damping to the vibration suppression is discussed by the idea of the rolled-up amplitude-phase portrait.

Transforming Growth Factor β (TGF-β) is a myelosuppressive cytokine that has been implicated in the ineffective hematopoiesis seen in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Overactivation of TGF-β signaling in this disease was demonstrated immunohistochemically by significantly higher nuclear SMAD2 phosphorylation observed in 20 MDS bone marrows when compared with 7 non MDS anemic controls (P < 0.0001, 2 Tailed T Test, Image Pro Plus software). This data along with high levels of membrane-bound and plasma TGF-β observed in MDS patients in previous studies support the development of therapeutics targeting the TGF-β signaling pathways in this disease. SD-208 is a novel, potent and specific inhibitor of TGF-β Receptor I (TGFβ-RI) kinase. We demonstrate that SD-208 blocks the phosphorylation of SMAD2 in hematopoietic progenitors which are at the colony forming unit-erythroid (CFU-E) stage of differentiation. SD-208 also abrogates the G0/G1 cell cycle arrest induced by TGF-β in bone marrow progenitors. SD-208 treatment leads to reversal of the myelosuppressive effects of TGF-β on erythroid and myeloid colony formation from primary human CD34+ cells. Selectivity of SD-208 in inhibiting TGF-β-mediated effects on hematopoiesis was supported by similar results observed with siRNAs targeting SMAD2, a major component of the TGF-b signaling pathway. Finally, the efficacy of SD-208 in MDS was evaluated by treating bone marrow mononuclear cells from 15 patients with early low grade MDS. SD-208 treatment led to dose-dependent increases in erythroid and myeloid colonies after 14 days of in vitro culture. The effect was most notable in patients with high levels of activated SMAD-2, as assessed by immunohistochemical staining of bone marrow biopsies. Stimulation of hematopoiesis in MDS-derived marrow culture by SD-208 demonstrates a novel concept and potential therapeutic role for TGFβ-RI inhibition in this disease. Supported by VISN-17 grant, Harris Methodist Foundation Grant and ASCO YIA to AV

Transforming Growth Factor β (TGF-β) is a myelosuppressive cytokine that has been implicated in the ineffective hematopoiesis seen in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Overactivation of TGF-β signaling in this disease was demonstrated immunohistochemically by significantly higher nuclear SMAD2 phosphorylation observed in 20 MDS bone marrows when compared with 7 non MDS anemic controls (P< 0.0001, 2 Tailed T Test, Image Pro Plus software). This data along with high levels of membrane-bound and plasma TGF-β observed in MDS patients in previous studies support the development of therapeutics targeting the TGF-β signaling pathways in this disease. SD-208 is a novel, potent and specific inhibitor of TGF-β Receptor I (TGFβ-RI) kinase. We demonstrate that SD-208 blocks the phosphorylation of SMAD2 in hematopoietic progenitors which are at the colony forming unit-erythroid (CFU-E) stage of differentiation. SD-208 also abrogates the G0/G1 cell cycle arrest induced by TGF-β in bone marrow progenitors. SD-208 treatment leads to reversal of the myelosuppressive effects of TGF-β on erythroid and myeloid colony formation from primary human CD34+cells. Selectivity of SD-208 in inhibiting TGF-β-mediated effects on hematopoiesis was supported by similar results observed with siRNAs targeting SMAD2, a major component of the TGF-b signaling pathway. Finally, the efficacy of SD-208 in MDS was evaluated by treating bone marrow mononuclear cells from 15 patients with early low grade MDS. SD-208 treatment led to dose-dependent increases in erythroid and myeloid colonies after 14 days of in vitroculture. The effect was most notable in patients with high levels of activated SMAD-2, as assessed by immunohistochemical staining of bone marrow biopsies. Stimulation of hematopoiesis in MDS-derived marrow culture by SD-208 demonstrates a novel concept and potential therapeutic role for TGFβ-RI inhibition in this disease. Supported by VISN-17 grant, Harris Methodist Foundation Grant and ASCO YIA to AV