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Glandular trichomes (GTs) are outgrowths of plant epidermal cells that secrete and store specialized secondary metabolites that protect plants against biotic and abiotic stresses and have economic importance for human use. While extensive work has been done to understand the molecular mechanisms of trichome organogenesis in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), which forms unicellular, nonglandular trichomes (NGTs), little is known about the mechanisms of GT development or regulation of secondary metabolites in plants with multicellular GTs. Here, we identified and functionally characterized genes associated with GT organogenesis and secondary metabolism in GTs of cucumber (Cucumis sativus). We developed a method for effective separation and isolation of cucumber GTs and NGTs. Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses showed that flavonoid accumulation in cucumber GTs is positively associated with increased expression of related biosynthesis genes. We identified 67 GT development–related genes, the functions of 7 of which were validated by virus-induced gene silencing. We further validated the role of cucumber ECERIFERUM1 (CsCER1) in GT organogenesis by overexpression and RNA interference transgenic approaches. We further show that the transcription factor TINY BRANCHED HAIR (CsTBH) serves as a central regulator of flavonoid biosynthesis in cucumber GTs. Work from this study provides insight into the development of secondary metabolite biosynthesis in multicellular GTs.

Glandular trichomes (GTs), specialized structures formed by the differentiation of plant epidermal cells, are known to play important roles in the resistance of plants to external biotic and abiotic stresses. These structures are capable of storing and secreting secondary metabolites, which often have important agricultural and medicinal values. In order to better understand the molecular developmental mechanisms of GTs, studies have been conducted in a variety of crops, including tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), sweetworm (Artemisia annua), and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). The MYC transcription factor of the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor family has been found to play an important role in GT development. In this study, a total of 13 cucumber MYC transcription factors were identified in the cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) genome. After performing phylogenetic analyses and conserved motifs on the 13 CsMYCs in comparison to previously reported MYC transcription factors that regulate trichome development, seven candidate MYC transcription factors were selected. Through virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS), CsMYC2 is found to negatively regulate GT formation while CsMYC4, CsMYC5, CsMYC6, CsMYC7, and CsMYC8 are found to positively regulate GT formation. Furthermore, the two master effector genes, CsMYC2 and CsMYC7, are observed to have similar expression patterns indicating that they co-regulate the balance of GT development in an antagonistic way.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer disease accompanied by the death of dopaminergic neurons and brain nigrostriatal mitochondrial damage in the elderly population. The features of the disease include tremor, rigidity, postural instability, and motor retardation. The pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease is complex, and abnormal lipid metabolism resulting in ferroptosis due to the excessive accumulation of free radicals from oxidative stress in the substantia nigra of the brain was thought to be one of the factors causing the disease. Morroniside has been reported to have significant neuroprotective effects, although it has not been studied in PD. Therefore, this study focused on determining the neuroprotective effects of morroniside (25, 50, and 100 mg/kg) on 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP, 30 mg/kg)-induced mice models of PD and explored 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium MPP+-induced ferroptosis in PC12 cells. Morroniside restored the impaired motor function in the PD mice models while reducing neuronal injury. The activation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2/antioxidant response elements (Nrf2/ARE) by morroniside promoted antioxidation, the content of reducing agent glutathione (GSH) increased, and the level of the lipid metabolite malondialdehyde (MDA) decreased. Notably, morroniside inhibited ferroptosis in substantia nigra of the brain and PC12 cells, reduced iron levels, and upregulated the expression of the iron-regulated proteins glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), solute carrier family 7 member 11 (SLC7A11), ferritin heavy chain 1 (FTH-1), and ferroportin (FPN). More importantly, morroniside repaired the mitochondrial damage, restored the mitochondrial respiratory chain, and inhibited the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These data indicated that morroniside could activate the Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway to increase the antioxidant capacity, thereby inhibiting abnormal lipid metabolism and protecting dopaminergic neurons from ferroptosis in PD.

Distinguishing pancreatic cancer from nonneoplastic masses is critical and remains a clinical challenge. The study aims to construct a deep learning-based artificial intelligence system to facilitate pancreatic mass diagnosis, and to guide EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) in real time.This is a prospective study. The CH-EUS MASTER system is composed of Model 1 (real-time capture and segmentation) and Model 2 (benign and malignant identification). It was developed using deep convolutional neural networks and Random Forest algorithm. Patients with pancreatic masses undergoing CH-EUS examinations followed by EUS-FNA were recruited. All patients underwent CH-EUS and were diagnosed both by endoscopists and CH-EUS MASTER. After diagnosis, they were randomly assigned to undergo EUS-FNA with or without CH-EUS MASTER guidance.Compared with manual labeling by experts, the average overlap rate of Model 1 was 0.708. In the independent CH-EUS video testing set, Model 2 generated an accuracy of 88.9% in identifying malignant tumors. In clinical trial, the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for diagnosing pancreatic masses by CH-EUS MASTER were significantly better than that of endoscopists. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were respectively 93.8%, 90.9%, 100%, 100%, and 83.3% by CH-EUS MASTER guided EUS-FNA, and were not significantly different compared to the control group. CH-EUS MASTER-guided EUS-FNA significantly improved the first-pass diagnostic yield.CH-EUS MASTER is a promising artificial intelligence system diagnosing malignant and benign pancreatic masses and may guide FNA in real time.NCT04607720.

Background Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a dominant tumor with high morbidity and mortality. In spite of innovations in surgery, chemotherapy, and targeted therapies, the prognosis for patients with LUAD remains unsatisfactory. Therefore, it is particularly important to study the biological markers of the occurrence, development, and prognosis of this disease. Methods In this study, 3 datasets were selected from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to screen differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Then, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed using Database Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID). In addition, a protein-protein interaction network was performed and 10 key genes were analyzed. Gene and protein expression were analyzed using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and The Human Protein Atlas (HPA) databases, respectively. Then, overall survival (OS) rate was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier plotter database. The chemical components were downloaded from the HERB database. Finally, the chemical constituents were docked with 10 targets by molecular docking. By using in vitro studies, we evaluated the effects of curcumin and trans-resveratrol on the proliferation of LUAD cells. Results A total of 122 upregulated and 434 downregulated genes were identified. Then, 10 key genes (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), interleukin-1 beta (IL1B), von Willebrand factor (VWF), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9), CD44 antigen (CD44), transcription factor Jun (JUN), platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule (PECAM1), hematopoietic progenitor cell antigen CD34 (CD34), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG), and collagen alpha-1(I) chain (COL1A1)) were obtained. TCGA results showed that GAPDH, MMP9, and COL1A1 were upregulated, while IL-1B, VWF, CD44, JUN, PECAM1, CD34, and PPARG were downregulated in cancer tissues. Kaplan-Meier plotter analysis also showed that high expression of GAPDH, PPARG, and COL1A1, and low expression of VWF, PECAM1, CD34, PPARG, and COL1A1 were associated with poor prognosis in LUAD. Combined with gene expression, staging, immunohistochemistry, and OS prognostic analysis, the results showed that COL1A1 was a potential target for the occurrence and prognosis of LUAD. In addition, 2 key components (curcumin and trans-resveratrol) had good docking effect with COL1A1. We found that curcumin and trans-resveratrol significantly inhibited the proliferation of LUAD cells and significantly decreased the expression of COL1A1 and MMP9. Conclusion In conclusion, our study identified the potential target of LUAD and the main traditional Chinese medicine components (curcumin and trans-resveratrol) for LUAD treatment. This study provides potential therapeutic targets and treatment strategies for the treatment of LUAD.

Despite tremendous efforts devoted to research in pancreatic cancer (PC), the mechanism underlying the tumorigenesis and progression of PC is still not completely clear. Additionally, ideal biomarkers and satisfactory therapeutic strategies for clinical application in PC are still lacking. Accumulating evidence suggests that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) might participate in the pathogenesis of diverse cancers, including PC. The abnormal expression of lncRNAs in PC is considered a vital factor during tumorigenesis that affects tumor cell proliferation, migration, invasion, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and drug resistance. With this review of relevant articles published in recent years, we aimed to summarize the biogenesis mechanism, classifications, and modes of action of lncRNAs and to review the functions and mechanisms of lncRNAs in PC. Additionally, the clinical significance of lncRNAs in PC was discussed. Finally, we pointed out the questions remaining from recent studies and anticipated that further investigations would address these gaps in knowledge in this field.

Water insolubility poses a significant challenge in the clinical applications of many small molecule drugs. To improve the drug delivery efficiency, two branched amphiphilic peptides (BAPs) were designed in a computer-aided manner, for drug-loading through peptide self-assembling. The structures of the two BAPs, bis(LVFFA)-K-RGD (PepV-1) and bis(FHF)-K-RGD (PepV-2), were inspired by phospholipids, containing the RGD sequence as the hydrophilic head and two hydrophobic sequences as the hydrophobic tails. PepV-1 could self-assemble into nano-fibrils with a hydrophobic core and the RGD moiety on the surface. Its drug-loading efficiency (DE%) of three small molecule anticancer drugs (doxorubicin, camptothecin and curcumin) ranged from 9.90% to 11.74%, and entrapment efficiency (EE%) ranged from 37.30% to 43.00%. Pep-V2 could self-assemble into bilayer delimited nano-vesicles. The DE% of PepV-2 for these drugs ranged from 15.87% to 18.55%, and the EE% ranged from 60.45% to 73.23%. Both BAP carriers could prolong the release of the small molecule drugs, and the PepV-2 vesicles also showed pH-triggered increase of drug release due to the histidine residues. Bothe BAP carriers could increase the cytotoxicity against cancer cells, which might be due to the targeting on the cancer overexpressed integrins. The designed BAP carriers represent promising functional drug carriers for targeted drug delivery, and will be useful for improving the clinical use of small molecule drugs, especially for those with poor water solubility.

Ceramic-based packed bed solutions are becoming more common in the energy fields as both thermal energy storage and heat exchanger. Such solutions are usually designed for the working temperature ranges above600 ◦C, thus thermal radiation becomes significant and even acts as the dominant heat transfer mechanism. Therefore, applying high-temperature coatings with different thermal properties could be an efficient way in enhancing the performance of these applications. In this work, the high-temperature long residency and cyclic thermal stability of six inorganic coatings applied on a ceramic substrate are investigated. Both qualitative and quantitative assessments are performed. The results show that HIE-Coat 840MX and Pyropaint 634 ZO exhibit excellent thermal stability performance both at high-temperature testing (1000 ◦C) and under thermal cycle testing (400 ◦C–800 ◦C). TiO2 based coatings could be a viable solution if the powder is pre-treated to avoid polymorph transition during the operation. Stainless steel 304 powder-based coating could also be a possible solution, since the adhesive curbs the oxidation and hinders the coating from deterioration. Contrarily, Pyromark2500 and MgO-based coating show different degradation problems that limit their exploitation in high-temperature applications undergoing thermal cycles. The investigated coatings show a wide range of thermal emissivity (between 0.6 and 0.9), with stable or decreasing trends with temperature. This enables a potential20% change of the effective thermal conductivity for the packing structure. This work is a stepping-stone towards further detailed experimental studies on the influence of coatings on various packed bed thermal storage systems, and thus offer a new option in improving the performances of the energy equipment with packed bed systems. QC 20220502

Ceramic particles-based packed bed systems are attracting the interest from various high-temperature applications such as thermal energy storage, nuclear cooling reactors, and catalytic support structures. Considering that these systems work above 600 ◦C, thermal radiation becomes significant or even the major heat transfer mechanism. The use of coatings with different thermal and optical properties could represent a way to tune and enhance the thermodynamic performances of the packed bed systems. In this study, the thermal stability of several metallic (Inconel, Nitinol, and Stainless Steel) based coatings is investigated at both high temperature and cyclic thermal conditions. Consequently, the optical properties and their temperature dependence are measured. The results show that both Nitinol and Stainless Steel coatings have excellent thermal stability at temperatures as high as 1000 ◦C and after multiple thermal cycles. Contrarily, Inconel (particularly 625) based coatings show abundant coating degradation. The investigated coatings also offer a wide range of thermal emissivity (between0.6 and 0.9 in the temperature range of 400–1000 ◦C), and variable trends against increasing temperature. This work is a stepping-stone towards further detailed experimental and modelling studies on the heat transfer enhancement in different ceramic-based packed bed applications through using metallic coatings. QC 20211103

Enhancing the operating temperature of concentrating solar power systems is a promising way to obtain higher system efficiency and thus enhance their competitiveness. One major barrier is the unavailability of suitable solar absorber materials for operation at higher temperatures. In this work, we report on a new high-temperature absorber material by combining Ti

The concentric-tube internal loop airlift reactor is a typical reactor configuration which has been adopted for a myriad of chemical and biological processes. The reactor hydrodynamics (including mixing) and the mass transfer between the gas and liquid phases remarkably affect the operational conditions and thus are crucial to the overall reactor performance. Hence, this study aims at providing a thorough description of the basic concepts and a comprehensive review of the relevant reported studies on the hydrodynamics and mass transfer of the concentric-tube internal loop airlift reactors, taking microalgae cultivation as an exemplary application. In particular, the reactor characteristics, geometry, CFD modeling, experimental characterization, and scale up considerations are elucidated. The research gaps for future research and development are also identified.

The cavity wall is an important part of a cavity receiver in determining the receiver efficiency. Using solar selective reflector (SSR) materials with low solar absorptivity and high thermal emissivity for the cavity wall design is one efficient way to improve the receiver efficiency. In this work, we present a systematic study of the optical and high-temperature stability performances of six different SSR materials: one refractory ceramic fiber-based substrate material (Fiberfrax 140) and five metallic oxide coatings which are prepared by mixing metallic oxide powders of alumina, magnesium oxide and titanium dioxide with commercial inorganic adhesives. The thermal stability was studied by heating up and keeping the six candidate materials in atmospheric conditions at a temperature of 1250 ◦C for 200 h. The spectrum of hemispherical reflectance in the spectrum band 0.25–25 μmwas measured for analyzing the optical performance of the candidate materials. The obtained results show that all the six materials studied have good solar selective reflection characteristics, i.e, low solar absorptivity and relatively high thermal emissivity. Especially, the alumina-coated substrate material shows excellent performances both for thermal stability and solar selective reflection. The solar reflectivity can reach 94.6%. QC 20210623

Introduction: As one of the most prominent public health and medical problems, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has a serious impact on the quality of life of participants and may even be life-threatening. While modern medicine has worked well to alleviate the symptoms of COPD, the current situation with this chronic disease is not encouraging. Lung-spleen qi deficiency syndrome is one of the common forms of COPD and the traditional Chinese medicine formula Modified Shenling Baizhu Powder is very frequently used in the treatment of this syndrome. However, no direct evidence is available to support the efficacy and safety of Modified Shenling Baizhu Powder for COPD treatment. Methods: The study is a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial in which 270 eligible participants will be randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group in a 1:1 ratio. Both groups will receive the standard Western medication. Meanwhile, participants in the experimental group will undergo Modified Shenling Baizhu Powder, while those in the control group will undergo a matched placebo. The course of treatment is 6 months with 12 months of follow-up. Primary outcome is the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) after bronchodi-lator use. The secondary outcomes include the declines and the between-group difference in the change from baseline to 18 months in FEV1 before bronchodilator use; the forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV1/FVC, FEV1%pred after bronchodilator use, modified British medical research council, COPD Assessment Test, St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ); frequency, interval, duration and severity of COPD exacerbations; time to first COPD exacerbation; administration of rescue medication and a cost-effectiveness analysis; Smoking status. A safety assessment will also be performed during the trial. Discussion: The results of this trial will provide comprehensive evidence of the efficacy of Modified Shenling Baizhu Powder for early-stage COPD and the potential mechanism by which Modified Shenling Baizhu Powder acts, which may provide reference for the treatment plan of COPD participants. Trial registration: ChiCTR2000037873, Registered 2 September 2020

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a multifactorial disease with gene-environment interaction leading to airflow limitation through the respiratory tract. Reports on the association of matrix metalloproteinase 12 (MMP-12) polymorphisms with COPD have been controversial. A new systematic evaluation which could examine whether MMP-12 mutations are associated with the susceptibility to COPD is needed. Methods: We will search PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Google Scholar to obtain eligible case-control studies for meta-analysis. The time is limited from the construction of the library to July 2020. Two investigators systematically will extract relevant data within those included studies. The odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals will be used to assess the genetic association between the allelic, dominant and recessive models of MMP-12 gene polymorphisms and COPD risk. Stata 12.0 software and Revman 5.3 will be adopted for statistical analysis. This protocol reported under the Preferred Reporting ltems for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols statement. Results: This study will provide a better understanding of the association between MMP-12 polymorphisms and COPD risk. Conclusion: Publishing this protocol will minimise the possibility of bias due to post hoc changes to the analysis protocol.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Salmonella spp. strains used in this study. Table S2. Serratia genus strains used in this study. Table S3. Other strains used in this study. Table S4. Real-time qPCR primer pairs and probes used in this study. Table S5. Reproducibility and stability test of the duplex real-time PCR. Table S6. Parameters comparison between duplex real-time PCR and single real-time PCR.

The present work performs a techno-economic analysis of a purely solar driven combined cycle composed of a solar air receiver directly connected to a topping gas turbine coupled to a bottoming packed bed thermal energy storage atthe gas turbine exhaust, which runs in parallel to a bottoming steam cycle. Capacity factor, capital expenditure, and Levelized Cost of Electricity have been considered to assess the plant performance. A sensitivity analysis has been performed in order to understand the influence of solar multiple, energy storage capacity and gas turbine expansion ratio over the plant key performance indicators. The results show that the studied solar driven combined cycle is more costly than conventional ones, and therefore it leads to higher Levelized Cost of Electricity. However, it enables a complete reduction of CO2 emissions and increased flexibility in the system with the help of the introduction of an intermediate packet bed thermal energy storage. Furthermore, large solar multiple, medium storage capacity and complete expansion ratio through the gas turbine enable enhanced system performance. Finally, further works including optimized dispatch algorithms could enable a proper evaluation of the economic profit given by the flexibility offered by the storage unit and by a potential control of the Brayton cycle recuperation level in the modified plant layouts. QC 20210831

An axial type impinging receiver has been developed for a solar dish-Brayton system. By using selective reflection cavity surfaces as a secondary concentrator, the solar irradiation is reflected an ...

Towards latent heat storage in the low-to-medium temperature range (70–250 °C), screening of sugar alcohols and their binary eutectic mixtures as potential phase change materials was carried out by focusing on the non-isothermal melting and crystallization behaviors. A preliminary screening shortened the long list of isomers from common four-carbon to six-carbon sugar alcohols to only six affordable candidates, i.e., xylitol, d-sorbitol, erythritol, d-mannitol, d-dulcitol and inositol (ordered with increasing the melting point). Based on the six pre-screened sugar alcohols, a total of 15 binary eutectic mixtures were prepared to manipulate the melting points for more flexible match with real applications. Non-isothermal tests were then performed on a differential scanning calorimeter at various ramping/cooling rates up to 10 °C/min. In addition to determination of the melting point and latent heat of fusion, a special attention was paid to the crystallization behaviors by undertaking consecutive melting-crystallization cyclic tests. It was found that the two candidates with the lowest melting points (both below 100 °C), i.e., xylitol and d-sorbitol, as well as the nine binary eutectic mixtures containing at least one of them, are unable to crystallize from the melt during cool-down at any cooling rates tested (down to 0.5 °C/min). Four other binary eutectic mixtures, i.e., erythritol (84 mol%) + d-mannitol, erythritol (95 mol%) + d-dulcitol, erythritol (96 mol%) + inositol and d-dulcitol (69 mol%) + inositol, were also shown to be unable to crystallize upon cooling, with the crystallization occurring during the reheating process instead, referred to as cold crystallization. The rest four pure sugar alcohols with relatively high melting points (110–230 °C), i.e., erythritol, d-mannitol, d-dulcitol, inositol, and two mixtures, i.e., d-mannitol (70 mol%) + d-dulcitol and d-mannitol (82 mol%) +inositol, were found to be able to crystallize upon cooling, although they all suffer from severe supercooling (e.g., up to over 100 °C for erythritol). The affordable pure and mixture sugar alcohols were deemed to have desirably high latent heat storage density, especially for those with higher melting points. However, they all face specific issues associated with crystallization, which must be addressed before they can really be utilized in real applications. In addition, it may not worth making eutectic mixtures, although this is deemed to be an effective way of manipulating the melting points of sugar alcohols.

This work presents the experimental evaluation of a novel pressurized high-temperature solar air receiver for the integration into a micro gas-turbine solar dish system reaching an air outlet tempe ...

The impinging receiver is a new member of the cavity solar receiver family. In this paper, the transient performance of a prototype impinging receiver has been studied with the help of a Fresnel le ...

The effects of B2O3–LiF addition on the phase composition, microstructures, and microwave dielectric properties of (Mg0.95Cu0.05)2SiO4 ceramics fabricated by a wet chemical method were studied in detail. The B2O3–LiF was selected as liquid-phase sintering aids to reduce the densification sintering temperature of (Mg0.95Cu0.05)2SiO4 ceramics. The B2O3 6%–Li2O 6%-modified (Mg0.95Cu0.05)2SiO4 ceramics sintered at 1200°C possess good performance of εr ∼ 4.37, Q×f ∼ 36,700 GHz and τf ∼ −42 ppm/°C.

Solar simulators are key facilities for conducting solar research and certification tests under a well-controlled environment. This study presents the optical design optimization of a modular low flux solar simulator to improve solar technology qualification testing. The optical system was designed as a multi-lamp array of 26 subunits. Each subunit consists of a 575 W e metal halide lamp and a parabolic reflector. The Monte Carlo ray tracing technique was used for analyzing the optical performances of the proposed design. Reflector design parameters were analyzed in detail for optimizing the uniformity of the flux distribution on the target. Results show that an average flux of 1198 W/ m 2 over a target area of 2000 mm × 1000 mm, with a conversion efficiency of 25.7% and a sustained non-uniformity of only 1.4% was numerically achieved, predicting a Class A solar simulator for large target areas. A shutter curtain was modeled and introduced between the light source and the target for flux regulation, achieving average flux levels ranging from 1162 to 105 W/ m 2 with a resolution of approximately 100 W/ m 2 . The modular nature of this design has the great advantage that it could be easily scaled according to the test requirements of potential solar systems.

This paper presents the characterization of the first Fresnel lens-based High-Flux Solar Simulator (HFSS) showing the evaluation of the total thermal radiative power dependent on the aperture radiu ...

The dynamics and heat transfer characteristics of flow boiling bubble train moving in a micro channel is studied numerically. The coupled level set and volume of fluid (CLSVOF) is utilized to track interface and a non-equilibrium phase change model is applied to calculate the interface temperature as well as heat flux jump. The working fluid is R134a and the wall material is aluminum. The fluid enters the channel with a constant mass flux (335 kg/m2 ∗ s), and the boundary wall is heated with constant heat flux (14 kW/m2). The growth of bubbles and the transition of flow regime are compared to an experimental visualization. Moreover, the bubble evaporation rate and wall heat transfer coefficient have been examined, respectively. Local heat transfer is significantly enhanced by evaporation occurring vicinity of interface of the bubbles. The local wall temperature is found to be dependent on the thickness of the liquid film between the bubble train and the wall.

In this paper, the effects of cavity surface materials on the radiative flux distribution of solar cavity receivers have been studied with the help of a ray-tracing methodology. Three metallic substrate materials (Inconel 600, austenitic stainless steel 253 MA and Kanthal APM) and two coating materials (Pyromark® 2500 coating and YSZ TBC coating) were selected as the candidate cavity surface materials. The results show that the flux distribution and the total optical efficiency are much more sensitive to the absorptivity on the cylindrical surface than on the bottom. By using high absorptivity coating on the cylindrical surface and low absorptivity coating on the bottom, the radiative flux on the bottom can be controlled at a low level, and it can help to reduce the cavity length for an impinging receiver with jets on the cylindrical surface. Furthermore, the radiative flux distribution on the cylindrical surface can also be tailored to meet various design requirements by applying different coating designs on the cylindrical surface. QC 20170103

In this paper, a Fresnel lens based high flux solar simulator (HFSS) is developed for concentrating solar power research and high temperature material testing. In this design, each commercially ava ...

Multi bubbles interaction and merger in a micro-channel flow boiling has been numerically studied. Effects of mass flux (56, 112, 200, and 335 kg/m2 ∗ s), wall heat flux (5, 10, and 15 kW/m2) and s ...

A numerical study on the transition from slug flow (or elongated flow) to annular flow of convective boiling under high heat flux in a micro-channel with diameter of 0.4 mm is conducted. A constant ...

In the modern rapidly changing battlefield, the resources of multiple radars are usually limited for multiple objects multiple missions. Moreover, the amount of target information acquired by different radars at different time index is different. Thus, as to target tracking, it is important to reasonably and dynamically allocate radars’ resources. In the study, based on information theory, the entropy is utilised to quantitatively measure the amount of target information observed from multiple radars. Corresponding, the lower bound (LB) of the given entropy is also derived. The smaller the value of the entropy, the more accurate the estimate of target motion state is. So based on minimising the entropy LB of target information acquired from radars at different times, a new fusion tracking method is proposed to dynamically adaptively choose radars with high amount of target information for target tracking. The simulation results show that the proposed method has higher tracking accuracy than the fusion tracking without optimal choice of radars.