Carbon dioxide capture by a droplet plays a fundamental role for reducing atmospheric greenhouse effect stemming from anthropogenic activities. To recognize the CO
2 capture dynamics by a quiescent ...water droplet, a theoretical analysis on the mass transfer of CO
2 from the gas phase to the liquid phase is performed in this work, with emphasis on the effect of acoustic excitation upon the absorption process. The dimensionless fluctuated amplitude and frequency of the acoustic wave are in the ranges of 0.1–0.99 and 0.1–1000, respectively. The analyses suggest that an acoustic wave with smaller amplitude and higher frequency leads to a more significant energy decay in the droplet due to the role of damping played by the droplet. In contrast, pressure excitation along with larger amplitude and lower frequency has a pronounced effect on the mass transfer process, as a result of higher efficiency of energy penetrating into the liquid phase. From the perspective of achieving carbon capture and storage (CCS), the acoustic excitation with the dimensionless frequency of unity is recommended to capture CO
2 by a droplet and the exposure time of the droplet should be controlled at the dimensionless aqueous diffusion time (
τ
l
) between 0.31 and 0.36. The present study has provided a useful insight into the design and application of scrubbers for enhancing CO
2 capture by sprays.
► A theoretical analysis on CO
2 captured by a droplet is performed. ► The dimensionless amplitude and frequency of acoustic wave are in the ranges of 0.1–0.99 and 0.1–1000, respectively. ► An acoustic wave with smaller amplitude and higher frequency leads to a more drastic energy decay in the droplet. ► The acoustic excitation with the frequency of 1 is suggested to capture CO
2 by a droplet. ► The exposure time of the droplet should be controlled at 0.31–0.36
τ
l
.
Thermoelectric (TE) devices can provide clean energy conversion and are environmentally friendly; however, little research has been published on the optimal design of air-cooling systems for ...thermoelectric generators (TEGs). The present study investigates the performance of a TEG combined with an air-cooling system designed using two-stage optimization. An analytical method is used to model the heat transfer of the heat sink and a numerical method with a finite element scheme is employed to predict the performance of the TEG. In the first-stage optimization, the optimal fin spacing for a given heat sink geometry is obtained in accordance with the analytical method. In the second-stage optimization, called compromise programming, decreasing the length of the heat sink by increasing its frontal area (WHSHf) is the recommended design approach. Using the obtained compromise point, though the heat sink efficiency is reduced by 20.93% compared to that without the optimal design, the TEG output power density is increased by 88.70%. It is thus recommended for the design of the heat sink. Moreover, the TEG power density can be further improved by scaling-down the TEG when the heat sink length is below 14.5 mm.
► The performance of a TEG with an air-cooling system is studied numerically. ► Two-stage optimization is employed to obtain a better design of TEG. ► In the first-stage optimization, the analytical method is used. ► In the second-stage optimization, the compromise programming is utilized. ► The power density of TEG can be further improved by scaling-down it.
In this study, the effect of substrate on the spatial resolution of Potential Seebeck Microprobe apparatus, which is aimed to determine the distribution of local Seebeck coefficients on a sample ...surface, has been investigated for thermoelectric film measurements. The objective is to improve the spatial resolution by using the combination of ANSYS coupled-field numerical simulation and Digital Signal Processing. The results showed that the heat flow into the substrate causes a significant distortion of captured Seebeck coefficients, leading to a low resolved performance. However, we found that the characteristic of Potential Seebeck Microprobe system is similar to a low-pass filter and an equivalent width of original and captured signals can be used for predicting the Seebeck signal width. By only selecting the values of transfer function within the half power point, the correct Seebeck coefficients can be successfully predicted by the inverse method. The spatial resolution of Potential Seebeck Microprobe can be thus improved on the thermoelectric film measurements.
The characteristics of a bacteriocin from Ruminococcus albus 7 and its potential as an antibiotic alternative were examined in this study. The addition of 3 μM 3-phenylpropanoic acid (PPA) and 0.2% ...Tween 80 to the culturing medium improved bacteriocin production by 2.5-fold. Native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the antagonistically active gel filtration fraction established that the molecular weight of the R. albus 7 bacteriocin was approximately 36 kDa. The bacteriocin was sensitive to pepsin, protease, and pancreatin, and was inactivated by heating at 65 °C for 1 h. Simulating in vitro avian digestion decreased the antagonistic activity by 74.7%, but the addition of 1% bovin serum albumin restored 13% of the lost antagonistic activity. Following ion-exchange purification, the bacteriocin had sufficient antagonistic activity against five tested pathogenic strains, but the addition of a protectant is necessary for utilization of bacteriocin of R. albus 7 as an antibiotic alternative in animal feed.
► Performances of miniature thermoelectric coolers are investigated numerically. ► Influences of scaling effect and Thomson effect on cooling performance are addressed. ► Three different ...thermoelectric cooling modules are analyzed. ► Miniature TEC is a desirable device to achieve thermoelectric cooling with high performance. ► The cooling power of a TEC module with Thomson effect can be improved by 5–7%.
Miniature thermoelectric cooler (TEC) has been considered as a promising device to achieve effective cooling in microprocessors and other small-scale equipments. To understand the performances of miniature thermoelectric coolers, three different thermoelectric cooling modules are analyzed through a three-dimensional numerical simulation. Particular attention is paid to the influence of scaling effect and Thomson effect on the cooling performance. Two different temperature differences of 0 and 10K between the top and the bottom copper interconnectors are taken into account. In addition, three different modules of TEC, consisting of 8, 20 and 40 pairs of TEC, are investigated where a single TEC length decreases from 500 to 100μm with the condition of fixed ratio of cross-sectional area to length. It is observed that when the number of pairs of TEC in a module is increased from 8 to 40, the cooling power of the module grows drastically, revealing that the miniature TEC is a desirable route to achieve thermoelectric cooling with high performance. The obtained results also suggest that the cooling power of a thermoelectric cooling module with Thomson effect can be improved by a factor of 5–7%, and the higher the number of pairs of TEC, the better the improvement of the Thomson effect on the cooling power.
When identifying differentially expressed (DE) genes from high-throughput gene expression measurements, we would like to take both statistical significance (such as P-value) and biological relevance ...(such as fold change) into consideration. In gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), a score that can combine fold change and P-value together is needed for better gene ranking.
We defined a gene significance score π-value by combining expression fold change and statistical significance (P-value), and explored its statistical properties. When compared to various existing methods, π-value based approach is more robust in selecting DE genes, with the largest area under curve in its receiver operating characteristic curve. We applied π-value to GSEA and found it comparable to P-value and t-statistic based methods, with added protection against false discovery in certain situations. Finally, in a gene functional study of breast cancer profiles, we showed that using π-value helps elucidating otherwise overlooked important biological functions.
http://gccri.uthscsa.edu/Pi_Value_Supplementary.asp
xy@ieee.org, cheny8@uthscsa.edu
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Objective. To investigate the change of loperamide-induced prostate relaxation in rats fed with high-fat diet (HFD). Materials and Methods. Adult male Wistar rats were divided into 2 groups: (1) ...control rats fed with normal chow and (2) rats fed with HFD for 6 months. The prostate was removed for histology study. Isolated prostate strips were hung in organ bath and precontracted with 1 μmol/L phenylephrine or 50 mmol/L KCl. The relaxation responses to loperamide 0.1 to 10 μmol/L were recorded. Western blotting analyses were performed for prostate μ-opioid receptors (MOR) and ATP-sensitive potassium ( K ATP ) channel proteins: sulfonylurea receptor (SUR) and inwardly rectifying potassium channel (Kir) 6.2 subunits. Results. Body weight, prostate weight, plasma levels of glucose, insulin, triglyceride, and cholesterol, as well as systolic blood pressure, were significantly increased in the HFD rats. Histology showed prostatic hyperplasia in the HFD rat prostate. Prostatic relaxation induced by loperamide was markedly reduced in HFD when compared to the control. Protein expressions of MOR, SUR, and Kir 6.2 were decreased in HFD-fed rats. Conclusion. Loperamide-induced prostate relaxation is decreased in HFD rats due to reduced MOR and K ATP channel expressions.
Abstract
The recent accumulation of cancer genomic data provides an opportunity to understand how a tumor’s genomic characteristics can affect its responses to drugs. This field, called ...pharmacogenomics, is a key area in the development of precision oncology. Deep learning (DL) methodology has emerged as a powerful technique to characterize and learn from rapidly accumulating pharmacogenomics data. We introduce the fundamentals and typical model architectures of DL. We review the use of DL in classification of cancers and cancer subtypes (diagnosis and treatment stratification of patients), prediction of drug response and drug synergy for individual tumors (treatment prioritization for a patient), drug repositioning and discovery and the study of mechanism/mode of action of treatments. For each topic, we summarize current genomics and pharmacogenomics data resources such as pan-cancer genomics data for cancer cell lines (CCLs) and tumors, and systematic pharmacologic screens of CCLs. By revisiting the published literature, including our in-house analyses, we demonstrate the unprecedented capability of DL enabled by rapid accumulation of data resources to decipher complex drug response patterns, thus potentially improving cancer medicine. Overall, this review provides an in-depth summary of state-of-the-art DL methods and up-to-date pharmacogenomics resources and future opportunities and challenges to realize the goal of precision oncology.
Gasification has played an important role in the development of clean coal technology. To seek appropriate operations for synthesis gas (syngas) formation, the present study developed an optimization ...analysis procedure of the gasification process in an entrained-flow gasifier through the application of the Taguchi method in conjunction with a simulation method. The effects of the wall temperature, O/F ratio, feed type and pressure on the performance of cold gas efficiency (CGE) were investigated. An orthogonal array was used to arrange the CFD experimental plan for the above factors. Analysis of the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ratio) was used to evaluate the calculation results. Results suggest that the optimum conditions are a wall temperature of 1500 K, an O/F ratio of 0.6, coal feed type and a gasifier pressure of 3 MPa. The influence strength order of each control condition is feed type>O/F ratio>wall temperature>pressure. The value of the S/N ratio for the optimum case is 13.40, which is the highest value compared to other cases. Findings show that the Taguchi method is able to investigate the gasification process well and can therefore be applied in future studies conducted in various fields.
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