•Exergy and exergoeconomic analyses are presented for direct steam generation plant.•Both non-reheating and reheating by steam–steam heat exchanger are considered.•The contribution of each component ...to the total exergy destruction is determined.•The cost associated with exergy destruction and production cost are evaluated.•The effect of degree of reheating on the performance is presented.
Solar direct steam generation is considered as a promising technology for steam production in thermal power generation due to high temperature levels that can be achieved compared to other technologies that use indirect steam generation. This paper demonstrates exergy and exergoeconomic analysis of commercial-size direct steam generation parabolic trough solar thermal power plant. For steam power cycles, reheating might be necessary to avoid great wetness of steam which shortens the lifetime of the turbines. Therefore, two configurations have been considered in this study; the non-reheating configuration as well as reheating by steam–steam heat exchanger. For each component, exergy and exergy-costing balance equations have been formulated based on a proper definition of fuel–product–loss. Exergy results show that particular attention should be paid to solar field, condenser, low pressure turbine and high pressure turbine (in a descendant order) as they constitute the major sources of exergy destruction. Results from exergoeconomic analysis, however, show that the condenser should be the fourth component in the order of importance after the solar field and low/high pressure turbines. Increasing the temperature at the inlet of the low pressure turbine by 100K using steam–steam reheating is shown to result in 9.1% increase in the vapor fraction at the exit of turbine. This increase in steam quality, however, would be achieved by drop less than 1.5% in thermal and exergetic efficiencies, and about 2% increase in cost of electricity. Moreover, the effect of degree of reheating on exergetic exergoeconomic parameters has been investigated. The results revealed that there is a specific value of degree of reheating for which the exergetic efficiency would be on it’s lowest value. This point would be of importance during optimization procedure of reheating direct steam generation solar plants.
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This report describes five patients with treatment-resistant focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and positive B7-1 immunostaining who had a response to abatacept (CTLA-4–Ig), a costimulatory inhibitor ...that targets B7-1 (CD80).
The renal glomeruli are highly specialized structures that ensure selective ultrafiltration of plasma, by which most proteins are retained in the blood.
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The glomerular filtration barrier consists of the glomerular capillary endothelium, the glomerular basement membrane, and specialized cells, the podocytes, that serve as a final barrier to urinary loss of plasma proteins.
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Disrupted podocyte function damages the kidney filtration mechanism, resulting in proteinuria and, in some circumstances, the nephrotic syndrome.
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Proteinuria is common to a heterogeneous group of kidney diseases, including minimal-change disease, FSGS, membranous nephropathy, and diabetic nephropathy, all of which affect millions of persons worldwide and often . . .
Signal generation techniques for visual detection of analytes have received a great deal of attention in various sensing fields. These approaches are considered to be advantageous when ...instrumentation cannot be employed, such as for on-site assays, point-of-care tests, and he althcare diagnostics in resource-constrained areas. Amongst various visual detection approaches explored for non-invasive quantitative measurements, ratiometric fluorescence sensing has received particular attention as a potential method to overcome the limitations of intensity-based probes. This technique relies on changes in the intensity of two or more emission bands (induced by an analyte), resulting in an effective internal referencing which improves the sensitivity of the detection. The self-calibration, together with the unique optophysical properties of nanoparticles (NPs) have made the ratiometric fluorescent nanoprobes more sensitive and reliable, which in turn, can result in more precise visual detection of the analytes. Over the past few years, a vast number of ratiometric sensing probes using nanostructured fluorophores have been designed and reported for a wide variety of sensing, imaging, and biomedical applications. In this work, a review on the NP-based ratiometric fluorescent sensors has been presented to meticulously elucidate their development, advances and challenges. With a special emphasis on visual detection, the most important steps in the design of fluorescent ratiometric nanoprobes have been given and based on different classes of analytes, recent applications of fluorescent ratiometric nanoprobes have been summarized. The challenges for the future use of the technique investigated in this review have been also discussed.
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•Ratiometric fluorescent nanoprobes are known as promising sensing tools.•Ratiometric probes provide distinguishable color changes for visual detection.•The internal referencing in ratiometric probes greatly enhances their sensitivity.•Visual detection is helpful for onsite monitoring in resource-constrained areas.•Ratiometric design requires rational manipulation of nanostructured fluorophores.
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Many interesting but practically intractable problems can be reduced to that of finding the ground state of a system of interacting spins; however, finding such a ground state remains computationally ...difficult. It is believed that the ground state of some naturally occurring spin systems can be effectively attained through a process called quantum annealing. If it could be harnessed, quantum annealing might improve on known methods for solving certain types of problem. However, physical investigation of quantum annealing has been largely confined to microscopic spins in condensed-matter systems. Here we use quantum annealing to find the ground state of an artificial Ising spin system comprising an array of eight superconducting flux quantum bits with programmable spin-spin couplings. We observe a clear signature of quantum annealing, distinguishable from classical thermal annealing through the temperature dependence of the time at which the system dynamics freezes. Our implementation can be configured in situ to realize a wide variety of different spin networks, each of which can be monitored as it moves towards a low-energy configuration. This programmable artificial spin network bridges the gap between the theoretical study of ideal isolated spin networks and the experimental investigation of bulk magnetic samples. Moreover, with an increased number of spins, such a system may provide a practical physical means to implement a quantum algorithm, possibly allowing more-effective approaches to solving certain classes of hard combinatorial optimization problems.
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•Mycoremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, challenges, and strategies to overcome.•Role of the fungi in eradicating heavy metal contamination from the polluted sites.•Mycoremediation of ...agricultural wastes including pesticides, herbicides, and cyanotoxins.•Pharmaceutical wastes and strategies for its remediation using white-rot and ligninolytic fungus.
The ever-increasing population, rapid rate of urbanization, and industrialization are exacerbating the pollution-related problems. Soil and water pollution affect human health and the ecosystem. Thus, it is crucial to develop strategies to combat this ever-growing problem. Mycoremediation, employing fungi or its derivatives for remediation of environmental pollutants, is a comparatively cost-effective, eco-friendly, and effective method. It has advantages over other conventional and bioremediation methods. In this review, we have elucidated the harmful effects of common pollutants on public health and the environment. The role of several fungi in degrading these pollutants such as heavy metals, agricultural, pharmaceutical wastes, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, is enumerated. Future strategies to improve the rate and efficiency of mycoremediation are suggested. The manuscript describes the strategies which can be used as a future framework to address the global problem of pollution.
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As in many other methods that have integrated nanoparticles (NPs), the chemical nose/tongue strategy has also progressed greatly since the entrance of NPs into this field. The fascinating tunable ...physicochemical properties of NPs have made them powerful candidates for array-based sensing platforms and have enabled the development of real-time, sensitive and portable systems that are able to target complex mixtures of analytes. In particular, the unique optical properties of NPs have a key role in providing promising array-based sensing approaches. This review will describe the main aspects and processes of most common NP-based optical sensor arrays. The fundamental steps in the design of a sensor array together with details of each step would be provided. The review begins with the principles of optical sensor arrays and presents the concept of cross-reactivity as the main criterion in the selection of sensing elements. Changes in the absorption and emission properties of the assembled sensing elements are categorized into two main classes of optical signals (colorimetric and fluorometric). Popular chemometric methods used for analyzing the data acquired by a sensor array have also been briefly introduced. On the basis of the objective and the desired application, different types of plasmonic and fluorescent NP that possess unique opto-physical properties have been presented as available choices in the design of sensing elements. The vast number of applications of NP-based optical sensor arrays published throughout the literature have then been reviewed according to their mechanism of interaction and the type of optical signal. Finally, the remaining challenges and future directions in this topic have been highlighted.
Recent progress in nanoparticle-based optical sensor arrays toward the detection and discrimination of a wide range of analytes.
The medium-frequency power transformer (MFPT) is one of the key elements of an isolated bi-directional dc-dc converters in applications such as future all-dc offshore wind farms, traction, and solid ...state transformers. This paper describes a design methodology taking into account loss calculation, isolation requirements, and thermal management. Incorporating this design methodology, an optimization process with a wide range of parameter variations is applied on a design example to find the highest power density while the efficiency, isolation, thermal, and leakage inductance requirements are all met.
•Computer vision for modal analysis.•Architecture independent of image pre-processing.•Results superior to conventional vibration measurement techniques.
The conventional modal analysis involves ...physically-attached wired or wireless sensors for vibration measurement of structures. However, this method has certain disadvantages, owing to the sensor’s weight and its low spatial resolution, which limits the analysis precision or the high cost of optical vibration sensors. Besides, the sensor installation and calibration in itself is a time consuming and labor-intensive process. Non-contact computer vision-based vibration measurement techniques can address the shortcomings mentioned above. In this paper, we introduce CNN-LSTM (Convolutional Neural Network, Long Short-Term Memory) deep learning based approach that can serve as a backbone for computer vision-based vibration measurement techniques. The key idea is to use each pixel of an image taken from an off the shelf camera, encapsulating the Spatio-temporal information, like a sensor to capture the modal frequencies of a vibrating structure. Non-contact “pixel-sensor” does not alter the system’s dynamics and is relatively low-cost, agile, and provides measurements with very high spatial resolution. Our computer vision-based deep learning model takes the video of a vibrating structure as input and outputs the fundamental modal frequencies. We demonstrate, using reliable empirical results, that “pixel-sensor” is more efficient, autonomous, and accurate. Robustness of the deep learning model has been put to the test by using specimens of a variety of materials, and varying dimensions and results have shown high levels of sensing accuracy.
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A new glucosyl flavone, 5,7,2',5'-tetrahydroxyflavone 7-
-β-d-glucopyranoside, named loeflingiin, together with apigenin 6-
-glucoside (isovitexin), coumarins citropten and isompinellin, ...triterpenoids betulin and betulinic acid, and a mixture of phytosterols β-sitosterol, stigmasterol and campesterol were isolated for the first time from the leaves of wild
L. (
) collected in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. The plant is used by local people to treat wounds and as a vulnerary remedy. The structures of isolated compounds were determined by spectroscopic analysis. The activities of isovitexin and loeflingiinon the viability of breast (MCF7), ovarian (BG-1), endometrial (Ishikawa), and mesothelioma (IST-MES1) human cancer cells and two normal cell lines were determined with an MTT assay. Notably, the new 7-
-glucosyl flavone showed effects higher than cisplatin against the Ishikawa and IST-MESI cell lines. The significant biological activities exhibited by all the compounds isolated from
provided scientific evidence to support the use of the plant in the Kurdish traditional medicine.
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