Search

Chronic alcoholism has become a major public health problem. Long-term and excessive drinking can lead to a variety of diseases. Chronic ethanol exposure can induce neuroinflammation and anxiety-like behavior, and this may be induced through the Toll-like receptor 3/nuclear factor-κB (TLR3/NF-κB) pathway. Animal experiments were performed using healthy adult male C57BL/6 N mice given 10 % (m/V) or 20 % ethanol solution as the only choice of drinkable fluid for 60, 90 or 180 d. In cell culture experiments, H4 human glioma cells were treated with 100 mM ethanol for 2 d, with the TLR3 gene silenced by RNAi and NF-κB inhibited by ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC, 10 μM). After treatment with ethanol solution for a specific time, the anxiety-like behavior of the mice was tested using the open field test and the elevated plus maze test. Western blotting was used to detect the expression of TLR3, TLR4, NF-κB, IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α in the mouse hippocampus and H4 cells. The expression of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in the supernatant of cell culture medium was detected by ELISA. The open field test showed a decrease in time spent in the central area, and the elevated plus maze test showed a decrease in activity time in the open arm region. These behavioral tests indicated that ethanol caused anxiety-like behavior in mice. The expression levels of TLR3, TLR4, NF-κB, IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α increased after ethanol exposure in both the hippocampus of mice and H4 cells. Silencing of the TLR3 gene by RNAi or inhibition of NF-κB by PDTC attenuated the ethanol-induced increase in the expression of inflammatory factors in H4 cells. These findings indicated that chronic ethanol exposure increases the expression of TLR3 and NF-κB and produces neuroinflammation and anxiety-like behavior in male C57BL/6 mice and that ethanol-induced neuroinflammation can be caused through the TLR3/NF-κB pathway.

Two-phase Taylor flow in microchannels as a critical way to enhance heat dissipation has attracted extensive attention due to the high integration and miniaturization development of electronic devices. To further elucidate the pressure drop and development process of heat transfer characteristics in Taylor flow, a 2-D planar T-junction microchannel with a width of 1 mm was investigated numerically by using the fixed frame computational domain method. The local Nusselt number distribution is divided into four parts for analysis, and the effects of mixture velocity and void fraction on the heat transfer coefficient are also discussed. The results indicate that the injection of gas-phase leads to an increase in pressure gradient, and the flow-pattern related model has a better predictive result. Strong evidence of internal circulation was found when the shear stress in Y direction is not equal to zero in Taylor flow. The investigation of Nusselt number has shown that the mixture velocity and the void fraction affect the temperature field distribution and heat absorption capacity in the liquid slug, respectively. Together these simulation data, nearly 1.8 times higher of the Nusselt number was observed compared to pure water flow.

TAR DNA binding protein (TDP-43) is a DNA/RNA binding protein whose pathological role in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontal temporal lobe dementia (FTLD) via formation of protein aggregates is well established. In contrast, knowledge concerning its interactions with other neuropathological aggregating proteins is poorly understood. Human α-synuclein (HASN) elicits dopaminergic neuron degeneration via protein aggregation in Parkinson's disease. HASN protein aggregates are also found in TDP-43 lesions and colocalize in Lewy Body Dementia (LBD). To better understand the interactions of TDP-43 and HASN, we investigated the effects of genetic deletion of tdp-1, the Caenorhabditis elegans ortholog of human TDP-43, as well as overexpression of TDP-43, in transgenic models overexpressing HASNWT and HASNA53T. Tdp-1 deletion improved the posture, movement, and developmental delay observed in transgenic animals pan-neuronally overexpressing HASNA53T, and attenuated the loss and impairment of dopaminergic neurons caused by HASNA53T or HASNWT overexpression. Tdp-1 deletion also led to a decrease in protein level, mRNA level and aggregate formation of HASN in living animals. RNA-seq studies suggested that tdp-1 supports expression of lysosomal genes and decreases expression of genes involved in heat shock. RNAi demonstrated that heat shock proteins can mediate HASN neuropathology. Co-overexpression of both human TDP-43 and HASNWT resulted in locomotion deficits, shorter lifespan, and more severe dopaminergic neuron impairments compared to single transgenes. Our results suggest TDP-1/TDP-43 potentiates HASN mediated neurodegeneration in C. elegans. This study indicates a multifunctional role for TDP-1/TDP-43 in neurodegeneration involving HASN.

Porous dysprosium-stabilized zirconia (DySZ) based abradable coatings were fabricated on DD5 superalloy by atmospheric plasma spraying technique (APS). The residual stress of the porous coating after thermal aging at 1100 °C was characterized using Raman spectroscopy and Photoluminescence piezo-spectroscopy (PLPS) techniques. The results indicated that the residual stress of the porous topcoat was smaller than the theoretically predicted due to a large number of pores and cracks inside the coating. Based on the stress evolution behavior of the porous coating exposed to thermal aging, a rational failure threshold stress was suggested. In addition, the effect of coating depth, pores and monoclinic ZrO2 phase on the stress distribution were analyzed on the polished cross-section specimens. Meanwhile, the stress distribution along the TGO direction showed a strong correlation with the local geometry, and the number of points showing tensile stress increased with prolongation of thermal exposure. Evidence revealed that the initiation and propagation of micro-cracks prefer to occur at locations with high curvature and tip edge of the convex area. The research in this paper provides enlightenment for life prediction and structural optimization.

Gromov and Sormani conjectured that sequences of compact Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature and area of minimal surfaces bounded below should have subsequences which converge in the intrinsic flat sense to limit spaces which have nonnegative generalized scalar curvature and Euclidean tangent cones almost everywhere. In this paper we prove this conjecture for sequences of rotationally symmetric warped product manifolds. We show that the limit spaces have $H^1$ warping function that has nonnegative scalar curvature in a weak sense, and have Euclidean tangent cones almost everywhere., 27 pages

The present study was performed to investigate the association between interleukin-17 (IL-17) and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) gene polymorphisms and the risk and prognosis of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in a Chinese population. A total of 210 Chinese patients with ARDS were selected as the study group, 210 individuals who were identified as at-risk patients but did not meet criteria for ARDS were recruited as the control group. Three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of IL-17, including rs763780 (A>G), rs2275913 (G>A), rs8193036 (C>T) and NF-κB1 gene rs3774934 (G>A) loci were examined by Sanger sequencing technique in the peripheral blood of all subjects. Patients were followed for 30-day survival. The IL-17 rs763780 and NF-κB1 rs3774934 SNPs had no impact on ARDS risk and prognosis of ARDS (P>0.05). Compared with individuals carrying the wild-type GG genotype of rs2275913 at IL-17, the AA-homozygous and GA- heterozygous individuals were protected from the development of ARDS. Consistently, a decreased 30-day mortality risk was found among A-allele carriers of rs2275913 at IL-17 (p

Stamp-pad ink seals are often placed on important documents, and determining the dating of stamp-pad ink seal is important to assess the authenticity of a document. In this study, 20 different brands and types of stamp-pad inks were classified by ultraviolet visible spectrophotometer. Six different brands and types of papers were classified by micro-Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and visual spectral comparator 6000. Three different brands of stamp-pad inks and two different types of paper were used to make diachronic samples of the seals. A method was employed to date the stamp-pad seals by comparing absorbance ratios and inks of known age. Curves were created to show the relationship between the absorbance ratio of ink and the age of the seals. The experimental results showed that the absorbance ratio method was applicable for the relative dating of stamp-pad ink seals in some cases where the seal was placed on the document within 10 weeks.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in female population. Breast cancer chemotherapy using doxorubicin (DOX) is well illustrated. However, a significant obstacle for successful chemotherapy with DOX is multidrug resistant (MDR) in breast cancer cells. Targeted nanocarriers have emerged as frontier research for the improvement of cancer chemotherapy.Bombesin (Bn)-modified, DOX-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (Bn-DOX/SLNs) were constructed. Doxorubicin-resistant MCF-7/MDR human breast cancer cells and the cancer animal models were applied for the evaluation of the in vitro and in vivo anti-tumor effect of Bn-DOX/SLNs.Bn-conjugated lipids were synthesized. DOX was then loaded into Bn-modified SLNs. The physicochemical properties of the Bn-DOX/SLNs were investigated by particle size and zeta potential measurement, drug loading and drug-entrapment efficiency, and in vitro drug release behavior. In vitro cytotoxicity against MCF-7/MDR cells was investigated, and in vivo anti-tumor of SLNs was evaluated in human breast cancer mice models.Bn-DOX/SLNs showed an excellent in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo anti-tumor effect both in MCF-7/MDR breast cancer cells and breast cancer animal model.The results demonstrated that Bn-DOX/SLNs reversed the resistance of doxorubicin, suggesting that chemotherapy using this kind of targeted nanocarriers may benefit human breast MDR cancer therapy.

The effect of the depressant galactomannan (KGM) on the depression of talc and the flotation of a nickel–copper sulfide ore have been investigated through microflotation, batch flotation and industrial flotation tests, zeta potential and infrared spectrum measurements. The flotation results indicated that KGM had a straining influence on the depression of talc while had little effect on nickel minerals flotation. Compared with the depressant carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and guar gum, the KGM increased the nickel recovery dramatically, it not only negated the need for a talc removal process, but also achieved a significant decrease in the depressant consumption by half. Zeta-potential and infrared spectrum measurements illustrated that chemical adsorption was seen between KGM and talc, and a possible weak physical adsorption was seen between KGM and pentlandite. This was the reason why KGM had high depression selectivity for talc and little depression effect on nickel minerals.

It has been identified that chronic ethanol exposure damages the nervous system, particularly neurons. There is scientific evidence suggesting that neuronal loss caused by chronic ethanol exposure has an association with neuron apoptosis and intracellular calcium oscillation is one of the primary inducers of apoptosis. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the inductive effects of intracellular calcium oscillation on apoptosis in SK-N-SH human neuroblastoma cells and the protective effects of the N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, memantine, on SK-N-SH cell apoptosis caused by chronic ethanol exposure. SK-N-SH cells were treated with 100 mM ethanol and memantine (4 µM) for 2 days. Protein expression of NR1 was downregulated by RNA interference (RNAi). Apoptosis was detected by Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) double-staining and flow cytometry and cell viability was detected using an MTS kit. Fluorescence dual wavelength spectrophotometry was used to determine the intracellular calcium concentration and the levels of NR1 and caspase-3 were detected using western blotting. NR1 mRNA levels were also detected using qPCR. It was found that chronic ethanol exposure reduced neuronal cell viability and caused apoptosis of SK-N-SH cells, and the extent of damage in SK-N-SH cells was associated with ethanol exposure concentration and time. In addition, chronic ethanol exposure increased the concentration of intracellular calcium in SK-N-SH cells by inducing the expression of NMDAR, resulting in apoptosis, and memantine treatment reduced ethanol-induced cell apoptosis. The results of the present study indicate that the application of memantine may provide a novel strategy for the treatment of alcoholic dementia.

Chronic ethanol intake can induce neuronal apoptosis, leading to dementia. We investigated the protective effects of memantine on spatial memory impairment induced by chronic ethanol exposure in mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were administered 10% (m/V) or 20% (m/V) ethanol as the only choice of drinking water. Mice were treated for 60 d, 90 d, or 180 d. Mice were treated with memantine for the same duration (daily 10 mg/kg oral). The Morris water maze and radial arm maze test were used to measure spatial memory. Mice were sacrificed after the behavioral tests. Brains were removed to prepare for paraffin sections, and hippocampi were isolated for protein and RNA extraction. 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining and immunohistochemical staining of cleaved caspase-3 were performed. Western blot analysis was used to detect the expression of cleaved caspase-3 and calcium-related proteins, including N-methyl- d -aspartic acid receptor 1 (NR1), 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor 1 (IP3R1), and sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium adenosine triphosphatase 1 (SERCA1). The changes of NR1, IP3R1 and SERCA1 mRNA were detected using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The results revealed that chronic ethanol exposure induced spatial memory impairment in mice, as well as increasing the expression of NR1, IP3R1 and SERCA1, the activation of caspase-3 and apoptosis in hippocampus. The effect was particularly prominent in the 20% ethanol group after 180 d exposure. Memantine decreased ethanol-induced spatial memory impairment, caspase-3 activation and apoptosis in the mouse hippocampus. These results suggest that disruption of intracellular calcium balance by ethanol can induce caspase-3 activation and apoptosis, which underlies subsequent spatial memory impairment in mice.

Brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) are the primary component of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Tight junction (TJ) proteins, including claudin, occludin and zonula occludens (ZO)-1, ZO-2 and ZO-3, maintain the structural integrity of BMECs. Ethanol activates the assembly and disassembly of TJs, which is a process that is regulated by protein kinase C (PKC). In addition, ethanol treatment leads to the loss of structural integrity, which damages the permeability of the BBB and subsequently affects central nervous system homeostasis, thus allowing additional substances to enter the brain. However, the mechanisms underlying ethanol-induced loss of BBB structure remain unknown. It has been hypothesized that long-term exposure to ethanol reduces the expression of claudin-5, occludin and ZO-1 via the PKC signaling pathway, thereby affecting BBB structural integrity. In the current study, the human cerebral microvascular endothelial cell line, HCMEC/D3, was treated with 50, 100, 200 and 400 mM ethanol for 24, 48 and 72 h. Cell viability was determined using an MTS assay. The expression of claudin-5, occludin and ZO-1 protein and mRNA was measured using western blot analysis and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, respectively. Following the pretreatment of HCMEC/D3 cells with the PKCα-specific inhibitor, safingol (10 µmol/l), the expression of claudin-5, occludin, ZO-1 and phosphorylated (p)-PKCα was measured using western blot analysis, and PKCα localization was determined by immunofluorescence. With increasing concentrations of ethanol, the expression of claudin-5, occludin and ZO-1 protein decreased, while the expression of claudin-5, occludin and ZO-1 mRNA increased. Exposure to ethanol significantly increased the expression of p-PKCα, whereas no significant effect on the expression of PKCα was observed. Following 48 h treatment with 200 mM ethanol, the expression of claudin-5, occludin and ZO-1 protein was significantly decreased when compared with the control. By contrast, the expression of p-PKCα was increased, and increased translocation of PKCα from the cytoplasm to the nuclear membrane and nucleus was observed. In addition, the results demonstrated that safingol significantly reversed these effects of ethanol. In conclusion, long-term exposure to ethanol downregulates the expression of claudin-5, occludin and ZO-1 protein in HCMEC/D3 s, and this effect may be mediated via activation of PKCα.

In this paper, we develop the theory of Perelman's $W$-functional on manifolds with isolated conical singularities. In particular, we show that the infimum of $W$-functional over a certain weighted Sobolev space on manifolds with isolated conical singularities is finite, and the minimizer exists, if the scalar curvature satisfies certain condition near the singularities. We also obtain an asymptotic order for the minimizer near the singularities.

Summary Supersonic-swirling-separation technology is an innovative gasconditioning technology that separates heavy hydrocarbon and water vapor from natural gas. The Laval nozzle, where the condensation occurs, is used to generate supersonic flow and achieve a high degree of supersaturation in this natural-gas dehydration unit. Therefore, the nozzle shape has a strong impact on the nonequilibrium phase transition and plays a decisive role in distribution of nucleation and growth rate. To optimize the structure of the Laval nozzle and achieve higher separation efficiency, numerical simulation plays an important role in accelerating development cycles and cutting down the cost of experiment. To avoid the complexity of using the multiphase model and real-gas model, a quick and efficienct method is validated and used to determine the location of the nucleation zone and the droplet-growth zone in this paper. On the basis of the Fluent software, this paper presents a numerical-simulation method for condensing flow using user-defined function (UDF). This method itself is an extension of Fluent software for simulating condensing flow by adding a condensation model. The corrected internally-consistent-classical-theory (ICCT) model and Gyarmathy model (gya82) are employed to prescribe this phase transition. Actually, this problem is solved by coupling the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equation and condensate mass equation. Condensing flow in a Laval nozzle is simulated at different nozzle-pressure ratios (NPRs) and initial supersaturations. The results show that high cooling rate results in a high value of supersaturation and nucleation rate in a supersonic expansion Laval-nozzle flow. When condensation occurs, the flow is affected by the latent heat released and the total temperature is increased. This method can accurately predict the distribution of the condensing flow parameters, find an optimized flow state to obtain larger droplets, and ensure that the latent heat released is moderate to maintain a steady flow. Finally, this method is applied to the numerical simulation of a full-scale supersonic-swirling-separator flow field under different work conditions.

A scheduling approach using genetic algorithms (GA) was presented to optimize multiple projects for quality project period performance with resource constraints. The model of the approach and key parameters of the algorithm including chromosome encoding and decoding, fitness computation, initial population, selection and crossover were conducted. A precedence feasible list was used in the chromosome encoding and decoding operation to reduce search space. An efficient crossover method was developed to avoid the procedure of chromosome recovery. A comparison was made between the algorithm and a heuristic scheduling method with an example. The result validates the superiority of the approach.

The cyclic oxidation of NiCrAlY + YSZ coating exposed to NaCl vapor has been investigated under atmospheric pressure at 1050 °C, 1100 °C and 1150 °C. The result showed that the cyclic oxidation life of NiCrAlY + YSZ coating in the presence of NaCl vapor was shortened compared with that in air. The failure of the TBC exposed to NaCl vapor occurred within the top coat and close to the YSZ/thermal growth oxide (TGO) interface. A finite element analysis was employed to analyze the stress distribution in the coatings. The computed result showed that maximum stresses occurred at the interface between the bond coat and TGO near the edge of the sample and the increased thickness of TGO caused the value of stress in TGO/YSZ interface to increase. The comparison of the maximum stresses indicated that the spinel TGO resulted in significantly higher stresses than Al 2 O 3 TGO. This implies that the formation of spinel plays a dominant role in shortening the coating cycling lifetime.

A Ni–24Cr–6Al–0.7Y (NiCrAlY) coating was deposited on a nickel-base superalloy by low-pressure plasma spraying, and the top coating, ZrO2 partially stabilized with Y2O3 (7.5 wt%), was deposited on the NiCrAlY coating by air-plasma spraying. The cyclic-oxidation behavior of the NiCrAlY + YSZ coating exposed to NaCl vapor was investigated under atmospheric pressure at 1,050 °C, 1,100 °C and 1,150 °C. The cyclic-oxidation life of the NiCrAlY + YSZ coating in the presence of NaCl vapor was shortened compared with that in air. The higher the temperature is, the shorter the cyclic oxidation life. The oxide scale formed at the interface between the bond coat and the ceramic layer after exposure to NaCl vapor consisted of voluminous and non-protective NiO, Al2O3 and NiCr2O4 spinel. The failure of the TBC exposed to NaCl vapor occurs within the top coat and close to the YSZ/thermal growth oxide interface. The failure mechanism has been discussed based on the experimental results and thermodynamics.

Ovarian cancer remains a dismal disease with diagnosing in the late, metastatic stages, therefore, there is a growing realization of the critical need to develop effective biomarkers for understanding underlying mechanisms. Although existing evidences demonstrate the important role of the single genetic abnormality in pathogenesis, the perturbations of interactors in the complex network are often ignored. Moreover, ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment still exist a large gap that need to be bridged. In this work, we adopted a network-based survival-associated approach to capture a 12-gene network module based on differential co-expression PPI network in the advanced-stage, high-grade ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma. Then, regulatory genes (protein-coding genes and non-coding genes) direct interacting with the module were found to be significantly overlapped with cell death genes. More importantly, these overlapping genes tightly clustered together pointing to the module, deciphering the crosstalk between network-based survival-associated module and cell death in ovarian cancer.

Synthetic biologists have developed DNA/molecular modules that perform genetic logic operations in living cells to track key moments in a cell's life or change the fate of a cell. Increasing evidence has also revealed that diverse genetic logic gates capable of generating a Boolean function play critically important roles in synthetic biology. Basic genetic logic gates have been designed to combine biological science with digital logic. SynBioLGDB (http://bioinformatics.ac.cn/synbiolgdb/) aims to provide the synthetic biology community with a useful resource for efficient browsing and visualization of genetic logic gates. The current version of SynBioLGDB documents more than 189 genetic logic gates with experimental evidence involving 80 AND gates and 16 NOR gates, etc. in three species (Human, Escherichia coli and Bacillus clausii). SynBioLGDB provides a user-friendly interface through which conveniently to query and browse detailed information about these genetic logic gates. SynBioLGDB will enable more comprehensive understanding of the connection of genetic logic gates to execute complex cellular functions in living cells.

The cyclic oxidation of thermal barrier coating (TBC) specimens consisting of nickel-base superalloy, low pressure plasma sprayed Ni-24Cr-6Al-0.7Y (wt.%) bond coatings and air plasma sprayed 7.5 wt.% yttria stabilized zirconia top coatings was studied at 1050°C in air, (air + 5%H2O), O2 and (O2 + 5%H2O) respectively. The oxidation kinetics of the TBC in each test environment accords with parabolic law at the initial stage and obeys almost liner law at the final stage. The cyclic oxidation life of the TBC is 500h (1h/cyc) in O2 and (O2 + 5%H2O) and 900 h in air and (air + 5%H2O). The SEM observations indicated the oxide formed along the bond coat and top coat interface after failure at 1050°C in different environments are all consisted of Al2O3, Ni(Al,Cr)2O4, NiO and Cr2O3.

Cip1-interacting zinc finger protein 1 (CIZ1) is a nuclear protein that was observed to bind to p21Cip1/Waf1. p21Cip1/Waf1 regulates the cell cycle and is associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) progression. However, the effect of CIZ1 on CRC cells remains unclear. In the present study, CIZ1 was observed to be highly expressed in RKO human CRC cells. Silencing of CIZ1 using small interfering RNA (siRNA) suppressed RKO cell proliferation. Flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that knockdown of CIZ1 decreased the percentage of cells in the S phase and increased the ratio of cells in the G0/G1 phase in parallel with upregulated cell apoptosis. Moreover, the number and size of RKO cell colonies was repressed by knockdown of the CIZ1 gene. These results suggested that CIZ1 may be involved in colon cancer progression by regulating cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis and colony formation. Furthermore, CIZ1‑siRNA may provide a novel tool for CRC investigation and therapy.

Riemannian manifolds with non-zero Killing spinors are Einstein manifolds. Klaus Kr\"{o}ncke proved that all complete Riemannian manifolds with imaginary Killing spinors are (linearly) strictly stable in \cite{Kro15}. In this paper, we obtain a new proof for this stability result by using a Bochner type formula in \cite{DWW05} and \cite{Wan91}. Moreover, existence of real Killing spinors is closely related to the Sasaki-Einstein structure. A regular Sasaki-Einstein manifold is essentially the total space of a certain principal $S^{1}$-bundle over a K\"{a}hler-Einstein manifold. We prove that if the base space is a product of two K\"{a}hler-Einstein manifolds then the regular Sasaki-Einstein manifold is unstable. This provides us many new examples of unstable manifolds with real Killing spinors., Comment: Final version, introduction revised, references added

Supersonic swirling separation technology is an innovative gas conditioning technology to separate heavy hydrocarbon and water vapor from the natural gas. The Laval nozzle, where the condensation occurs, is used to generate supersonic flow and achieved a high degree of supersaturation in natural gas dehydration unit. Therefore, the nozzle shape has a strong impact on the non-equilibrium phase transition and plays a decisive role to the distribution of the nucleation and the growth rate. To optimize the structure of the Laval nozzle and achieve higher separation efficiency, numerical simulation plays an important role in accelerating development cycles and cutting down the cost of experiment. In this paper, to avert the complexity of using the multiphase models and real gas model, a quick and efficiency method is validated and used to determine the location of the nucleation zone and the droplet growth zone. The corrected Internally Consistent Classical Theory (ICCT) model and Gyarmathy model (gya82) were employed to the numerical simulation of a condensing Laval nozzle flow by coupling the N-S equation and condensate mass equation at different nozzle pressure ratios (NPR) and initial supersaturations. The results show that, in a supersonic expansion Laval nozzle flow, high cooling rate results in a high value of supersaturation and nucleation rate. When condensation occurs, the flow is affected by the latent heat released and the total temperature is increased. This method can accurately predict the distribution of the condensing flow parameters, find an optimized flow state to obtain larger droplet, and assure the latent heat released is moderate to maintain a steady flow. Finally, this method is applied to the numerical simulation of a full-scale supersonic swirling separator flow field under different work conditions.

IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) provides data-intensive access to complement the existing Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). However, few literatures focus on the simulation platform integrating UMTS and WLAN. This paper uses OPNET™ to implement a system level simulation platform to allow researchers to study the quality of service (QoS) provisioning issues in UMTS/WLAN interworking. The platform handles different classes of service defined for UMTS, also allows for the study of user mobility, as well as radio resource management (RRM) schemes such as handoffs and call admission control (CAC). This paper mainly presents the architecture of the simulation platform and the realization of UW_AP and UWE node models, and then proposes a CAC scheme based on velocity and service type. The performance of the proposed scheme is proven better than WLAN-First scheme through simulation in the platform.