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Inflammation leads to systemic osteoporosis or local bone destruction, however, the underlying molecular mechanisms are still poorly understood. In this study, we report that PRL2 is a negative regulator of osteoclastogenesis and bone absorption. Mice with PRL2 deficiency exhibit a decrease in bone volume and an increase in osteoclast numbers. PRL2 negatively regulates RANKL-induced reactive oxygen species production through the activation of RAC1, thus PRL2 deficient osteoclast precursors have both increased osteoclast differentiation ability and bone resorptive capacity. During inflammation, oxidized PRL2 is a selected substrate of HSC70 and conditions of oxidative stress trigger rapid degradation of PRL2 by HSC70 mediated endosomal microautophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy. Ablation of PRL2 in mouse models of inflammatory bone disease leads to an increase in the number of osteoclasts and exacerbation of bone damage. Moreover, reduced PRL2 protein levels in peripheral myeloid cells are highly correlated with bone destruction in a mouse arthritis model and in human rheumatoid arthritis, while the autophagy inhibitor hydroxychloroquine blocked inflammation-induced PRL2 degradation and bone destruction in vivo. Therefore, our findings identify PRL2 as a new regulator in osteoimmunity, providing a link between inflammation and osteoporosis. As such, PRL2 is a potential therapeutic target for inflammatory bone disease and inhibition of HSC70 mediated autophagic degradation of PRL2 may offer new therapeutic tools for the treatment of inflammatory bone disease.

Adhesive bonding is a promising joining method for composite materials. This article focuses on the use of modal content-based damage indicators to improve the sensitivity of guided waves to disbonds in the adhesive. Wave-defect interaction is modeled using frequency-domain finite element analysis in order to identify modes sensitive to adhesive degradation in joints between carbon fiber–reinforced polymer laminates. Phased array transducers and multielement array sensors designed for structural health monitoring are employed to enable preferential mode excitation and modal content extraction, respectively. The domains in dispersion curve space predicted to have good, intermediate, and no sensitivity to disbond were experimentally found to have good, intermediate, and limited sensitivity using a feature of the received signals associated with the modal amplitude or a modal amplitude ratio. Furthermore, the modal amplitude was found to decrease monotonically with increasing disbond size, demonstrating that it has potential to quantitatively size disbonds.

Unpiggable buried gas pipes need to be inspected to ensure their structural integrity and safe operation. The CIRRIS XITM robot, developed and operated by ULC Robotics, conducts in-line nondestructive inspection of live gas pipes. With the no-blow launching system, the inspection operation has reduced disruption to the public and by eliminating the need to dig trenches, has minimized the site footprint. This provides a highly time and cost effective solution for gas pipe maintenance. However, the current sensor on the robot performs a point-by-point measurement of the pipe wall thickness which cannot cover the whole volume of the pipe in a reasonable timeframe. The study of ultrasonic guided wave technique is discussed to improve the volume coverage as well as the scanning speed. Circumferential guided wave is employed to perform axial scanning. Mode selection is discussed in terms of sensitivity to different defects and defect characterization capability. To assist with the mode selection, finite element...

We demonstrate acoustic tweezers used for disposable devices. Rather than forming an acoustic resonance, we locally transmitted standing surface acoustic waves into a removable, independent polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-glass hybridized microfluidic superstrate device for micromanipulation. By configuring and regulating the displacement nodes on a piezoelectric substrate, cells and particles were effectively patterned and transported into said superstrate, accordingly. With the label-free and contactless nature of acoustic waves, the presented technology could offer a simple, accurate, low-cost, biocompatible, and disposable method for applications in the fields of point-of-care diagnostics and fundamental biomedical studies.

Lamb waves have proven to be a valuable tool for structural health monitoring (SHM) of plate-like structures susceptible to degradation and failure. It is well-known that their multi-modal propagation characteristic could be both a challenge and an opportunity. Piezoelectric transducers are widely used in SHM applications because of their low cost, small profile and high electromechanical coupling. Properly designing a piezoelectric transducer to excite a particular mode is of great importance to successful SHM practice. Mode tuning capability of piezoelectric transducers has been studied both theoretically and experimentally in the literature for exciting A0 and S0 modes. However, the higher order Lamb waves are not fully studied for their tuning capability. Also, the transducer is usually modeled separately from the waveguide and their coupling is through the in-plane surface traction. This assumption may induce inaccuracy if the dynamics of the actuator are not negligible. Additionally, the driving cir...

Thin-film PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) transducers are appealing as low cost, light weight, durable, and flexible sensors for structural health monitoring applications in aircraft structures. However, due to the relatively low Curie temperature of PVDF, there is a concern that it’s performance will drop below acceptable levels during elevated-temperature operating conditions. To verify acceptable performance in these environmental operating conditions, temperature history data were collected between 23-60 °C. The effect of temperature on the thin-film PVDF was investigated and a temperature-independent damage feature was assessed. The temperature dependence of the signal’s peak amplitude was investigated in both the time domain and the spectral domain to get two damage features. It was found that the measurement of the incident guided wave by the thin-film PVDF transducer had a temperature dependence that varied with frequency. A third damage feature, the mode ratio, was also calculated in the spectral ...

This study compared three broadband emissivity (BBE) datasets from satellite observations. The first is a new global land surface BBE dataset known as the Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) BBE. The other two are the North American ASTER Land Surface Emissivity Database (NAALSED) BBE and University of Wisconsin Global Infrared Land Surface Emissivity Database (UWIREMIS) BBE, which were derived from two independent narrowband emissivity products. Firstly, NAALSED BBE was taken as the reference to evaluate the GLASS BBE and UWIREMIS BBE. The GLASS BBE was more close to NAALSED BBE with a bias and root mean square error (RMSE) of −0.001 and 0.007 for the summer season, −0.001 and 0.008 for the winter season, respectively. Then, the spatial distribution and seasonal pattern of global GLASS BBE and UWIREMIS BBE for six dominant land cover types were compared. The BBE difference between vegetated areas and non-vegetated areas can be easily seen from two BBEs. The seasonal variation of GLASS BBE was more reasonable than that of UWIREMIS BBE. Finally, the time series were calculated from GLASS BBE and UWIREMIS BBE using the data from 2003 through 2010. The periodic variations of GLASS BBE were stronger than those of UWIREMIS BBE. The long time series high quality GLASS BBE can be incorporated in land surface models for improving their simulation results.

Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of adhesively bonded joints requires a technique that is sensitive to adhesive defects without direct access to the bonded region. The intrinsic advantages of ultrasonic guided waves, an ability to inspect for different types of defects and travel through a structure having nonuniform cross section, make them a powerful tool for NDE of adhesive joints. An adhesive defect that exists at the interface between the skin and adhesive layer of a laminated composite skin–stringer structure is considered. Guided wave modes of interest have relatively large in-plane displacement at the interface indicating high shear stress there. However, the two geometry transitions in a skin–stringer configuration result in mode conversion and make it more challenging to generate sensitive modes for inspection. A wave structure based correlation coefficient is defined to predict the mode conversion at the geometry transition. An effectiveness index is calculated as a product of in-plane displacement at the interface and the correlation coefficients at the transitions. Based on the effectiveness index, two high-index incident modes are selected for simulation and experiments; mode 6 at 0.75 MHz and mode 7 at 0.95 MHz. Finite element analysis shows that both modes have relatively large in-plane displacement at the interface and that the shear stress is near a local maximum there as well. The experimental results show that both modes are sensitive to adhesive defects by either frequency content or amplitude ratio.

Ultrasonic guided wave inspection of structures containing adhesively bonded joints requires an understanding of the interaction of guided waves with geometric and material discontinuities or transitions in the waveguide. Such interactions result in mode conversion with energy being partitioned among the reflected and transmitted modes. The step transition between an aluminum layer and an aluminum-adhesive-aluminum multi-layer waveguide is analyzed as a model structure. Dispersion analysis enables assessment of (i) synchronism through dispersion curve overlap and (ii) wavestructure correlation. Mode-pairs in the multi-layer waveguide are defined relative to a prescribed mode in a single layer as being synchronized and having nearly perfect wavestructure matching. Only a limited number of mode-pairs exist, and each has a unique frequency range. A hybrid model based on semi-analytical finite elements and the normal mode expansion is implemented to assess mode conversion at a step transition in a waveguide. The model results indicate that synchronism and wavestructure matching is associated with energy transfer through the step transition, and that the energy of an incident wave mode in a single layer is transmitted almost entirely to the associated mode-pair, where one exists. This analysis guides the selection of incident modes that convert into transmitted modes and improve adhesive joint inspection with ultrasonic guided waves.

Assessing the structural integrity of PVP systems entails a hierarchical process to detect, locate, classify, and size damage in order to predict the remaining useful life of the system. Technologies to detect and locate damage have been researched intensely over the years, but classification and sizing of damage remains a challenging problem. In this work advanced sensing technology is employed to send and receive Lamb waves in plates. The receiver is a 16-element linear array that is made from PVDF; thus it is lightweight, low profile, flexible, inexpensive, and has minimal cross talk. The receiver has two novel capabilities that open new opportunities in diagnostics and prognostics: measurement of group velocity and determination of modal content. The actuator and receiver are intended to stay in place and function in a pitch-catch mode. The use of modal content to classify the type of damage as well as to size the defect is demonstrated.

Fracture critical structures need structural health monitoring (SHM) to improve safety and reliability as well as reduce downtime and maintenance costs. Lamb waves provide promising techniques for on-line SHM systems because of their large volumetric coverage and good sensitivity to defects. Extensive research has focused on using features derived from time signals obtained at sparse locations distributed across the structure. Commonly used features are wave amplitude, energy, and time of arrival. However, the modal content of received Lamb waves contains valuable information about the existence and characteristics of defects, but cannot be determined from these signal features. Wave scattering at a defect often results in mode conversions in both transmitted and reflected waves. Features like change in time of arrival or amplitude reduction can be interpreted as being a result of mode conversion. This work is focused on the design of a 1D array sensor such that received wave signals at equally spaced locations are available for modal analysis in the wavenumber-frequency domain. PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) is selected as the active material of the sensor because of its low interference with wave fields in structures. The PVDF array sensor is fabricated to have 16 independent channels and its capability to detect and characterize different types of defects is demonstrated experimentally.

Guided waves have been extensively studied and widely used for structural health monitoring because of their large volumetric coverage and good sensitivity to defects. Effectively and preferentially exciting a desired wave mode having good sensitivity to a certain defect is of great practical importance. Piezoelectric discs and plates are the most common types of surface-mounted transducers for guided wave excitation and reception. Their geometry strongly influences the proportioning between excited modes as well as the total power of the excited modes. It is highly desirable to predominantly excite the selected mode while the total transduction power is maximized. In this work, a fully coupled multi-physics finite element analysis, which incorporates the driving circuit, the piezoelectric element and the wave guide, is combined with the normal mode expansion method to study both the mode tuning and total wave power. The excitation of circular crested waves in an aluminum plate with circular piezoelectric discs is numerically studied for different disc and adhesive thicknesses. Additionally, the excitation of plane waves in an aluminum plate, using a stripe piezoelectric element is studied both numerically and experimentally. It is difficult to achieve predominant single mode excitation as well as maximum power transmission simultaneously, especially for higher order modes. However, guidelines for designing the geometry of piezoelectric elements for optimal mode excitation are recommended.

The characteristics of Lamb waves, which are multimodal and dispersive, provide both challenges and opportunities for structural health monitoring (SHM). Methods for nondestructive testing with Lamb waves are well established. For example, mode content can be determined by moving a sensor to different positions and then transforming the spatial-temporal data into the wavenumber-frequency domain. This mode content information is very useful because at every frequency each mode has a unique wavestructure, which is largely responsible for its sensitivity to material damage. Furthermore, mode conversion occurs when the waves interact with damage, making mode content an excellent damage detection feature. However, in SHM, the transducers are typically at fixed locations and are immovable. Here, an affixed polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) multielement sensor is shown to provide these same capabilities. The PVDF sensor is bonded directly to the waveguide surface, conforms to curved surfaces, has low mass, low profile, low cost, and minimal influence on passing Lamb waves. While the mode receivability is dictated by the sensor being located on the surface of the waveguide, both symmetric and antisymmetric modes can be detected and group velocities measured.

Composite structures are gaining popularity as load-bearing components in aerospace and civil engineering due to their high specific strength and stiffness. However, the initiation and development of defects like disbond and delamination could severely compromise the integrity and performance of the structures. Ultrasonic guided waves are promising for active sensing because they propagate long distances, reach inaccessible regions and are sensitive to different defect types. However, the multimodal nature of guided waves usually causes difficulty in analyzing time signals but could be extremely valuable because defects generally induce mode conversions. Light weight and low profile piezoelectric fiber composite phased array transducers and PVDF array sensors are used to control the modal content of excited waves and extract modal content from received waves. Sensitive modes are identified by frequency domain finite element analysis and the behavior of wave-defect interaction is studied. Two damage indicators, modal amplitude and wave modal composition, are proposed to make full use of the multimodal nature of guided waves. Experiments verify the detection and characterization of the disbond using the proposed damage indicators. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/238

Composite materials are widely used in aircraft structures due to their high specific stiffness and strength. The laminated nature of composite structures makes them subject to disbond and delamination. These types of defects will compromise the integrity of the structure and therefore need to be monitored. To monitor aircraft structures, light weight transducers capable of large area coverage are beneficial. Ultrasonic guided waves are able to travel long distance and are sensitive to localized defects. The multi-modal characteristic of propagating guided waves requires optimal mode selection and excitation. Phased array transducers provide good versatility for optimal mode excitation since they can excite different guided wave modes preferentially. Phased array transducers designed for structural health monitoring (SHM) applications are employed in this work to study the interaction between adhesive defects and guided wave modes. Amplitude ratios and wave packet composition are utilized as defect indicators that are uniquely available due to the phased array transducers.

Remote sensing is primary data source for eco-geological environment information extraction and assessment. In this paper, we extracted the eco-geological environment information of Datong Basin from Landsat5 TM images of 2010 and conducted the eco-geological environment assessment with the extracted eco-geological information and in-situ measurements. We firstly introduced the basic theoretical background and a specific approach for extracting the eco-geological environment information. Then this approach was used to extract the eco-geological environment information of Datong Basin. Finally, we presented the status of eco-geological environment for Datong Basin. Although the eco-geological environment quality of Datong Basin was improved as a whole, land salinization areas of some countries was enlarged, such as Shanyin and Yingxian counties. Industrial and colliery lands are distributed in the edge region of Datong Basin, which will bring potential disaster risks and inevitably impact the environmental quality of Datong Basin.

This article describes the use of the frequency domain finite element (FDFE) technique for guided wave mode selection in inhomogeneous waveguides. Problems with Rayleigh-Lamb and Shear-Horizontal mode excitation in isotropic homogeneous plates are first studied to demonstrate the application of the approach. Then, two specific cases of inhomogeneous waveguides are studied using FDFE. Finally, an example of guided wave mode selection for inspecting disbonds in composites is presented. Identification of sensitive and insensitive modes for defect inspection is demonstrated. As the discretization parameters affect the accuracy of the results obtained from FDFE, effect of spatial discretization and the length of the domain used for the spatial fast Fourier transform are studied. Some recommendations with regard to the choice of the above parameters are provided.

Nondestructive evaluation of adhesive joints in metal plate-like structures can be performed with ultrasonic guided waves. The key is to generate a mode that is sensitive to defects in the adhesive. This mode typically must be generated by mode conversion that occurs at a transition in the waveguide associated with the edge of the adhesive. Transmissibility, through mode conversion, is analyzed by a simple modeling method to quantitatively match wave structures in the continuous portion of a waveguide cross-section. The existence of mode pairs that have nearly identical wave structures in the continuous portion of the waveguide is shown; and more importantly, we show that incident modes having high transmission coefficients are converted to these mode pairs.

Land surface emissivity is a key parameter in estimating the land surface radiation budget. The validation of the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) land sur- face emissivity with field measurements is rarely performed.In this study, a field measurement was performed over the central part of the Taklimakan Desert for the validation of the MODIS land surface emissivity products (MOD11B1) Version 4 (V4.1) and Version 5 (V5). The homogeneity of two validation sites was verified using the advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) land surface temperature and emissivity acquired closely before and after the overpass of MODIS. MOD11B1 V4.1 and V5 emissivity data for bands 29, 31, and 32 were compared to the emissivity calculated from the field measured emissivity spectra convolved with the filter function of the MODIS bands 29 (8.52 μm), 31 (11.03 μm), and 32 (12.04 μm). The comparison results indicate that the V4.1 emissivity data agree well with the fieldmeasurements, with meanabsolute differences of 0.017 and 0.007 for site 1 and site 2,respec- tively, and the mean absolute differences of the V5 emissivity data were 0.034 and 0.033 for site 1 and site 2, respectively. The data version used must be considered when MOD11B1 is used in real applications, especially for time series analysis. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI. (DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.8.083675)