Abstract
Carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced as a countermeasure against global warming. A gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine is known for its high fuel economy, but there are more ...particulate emissions. To trap these particulates, a gasoline particulate filter (GPF) is needed. In this study, numerical simulations of the flow field in the GPF have been performed using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Three types of filters were tested by our proposed approach, named as a digital material technique, where virtual materials are created by the simulation. Focusing on the pore characteristics of the filters, we used filters with the same pore size but different porosity. For comparison, the real internal structures of the actual GPF were detected using an X-ray CT method. The simulated flow field and the pressure drop across the filter wall were investigated, comparing with those of the actual GPF. As a result, it was found that the larger the porosity, the smaller the pressure drop. By setting the pore size and porosity to the same values as the actual GPF, a similar flow field was obtained, and the value of the pressure drop was close to that of the actual GPF.
Following the first attempt at producing gas from a naturally occurring methane hydrate (MH) deposit in the Daini-Atsumi Knoll in the eastern Nankai Trough area off Honshu Island, Japan in 2013, a ...second attempt was made in April to June of 2017 at a nearby location using two producer wells sequentially and applying the depressurization method. The operation in the first borehole (AT1-P3) continued for 12 days with a stable drawdown of around 7.5 MPa and 41 000 m
3
of methane gas being produced despite intermittent sand-production events. The operation of the other borehole (AT1-P2) followed, with a total of 24 days of flow and 222 500 m
3
of methane gas being produced without sand problems. However, the degree of drawdown was limited to 5 MPa because of a higher water production rate than expected in the second hole. The pressure and temperature sensors deployed in the two producers, along with the two monitoring holes drilled nearby, gathered reservoir response data and information about the long-term MH dissociation processes in the vicinity of the production holes in the temporal and spatial domains. Although the ratio of energy return to the input was considerably larger than that for the depressurization operation, some observations (
e.g.
, the high contrast in the production rates between the two holes and the almost constant or slightly reduced gas production rates) were not predicted by the numerical models. This failure in prediction raises questions about the veracity of the reservoir characteristics modeled in the numerical simulations. This paper presents the operation summaries and data obtained with thought-experiment based-anticipated production behaviors and preliminary analysis of the obtained data as the comparison with expected behaviors. Detailed observations of gas and water production, as well as the pressure and temperature data recorded during the gas flow tests, indicate that the heterogeneous MH distribution within the reservoir was mainly responsible for the discrepancies observed between the anticipated and actual behaviors. Furthermore, the motion of the water that does not originate from MH dissociation introduces complexity, such as the occurrence of concentrated water-producing intervals and unexpected gas production responses to decreases in pressure, into the production behavior. The influence of heterogeneity should be clearly understood for the accurate prediction of gas production behavior based on MH reservoirs.
The second gas production attempt from a methane hydrate (MH) deposit in the eastern Nankai Trough area was made in 2017 with the intensive data acquisition program, and it revealed effects of reservoir characters on the MH dissociation behaviors.
This paper presents a new constitutive model that simulates the mechanical behavior of methane hydrate‐bearing soil based on the concept of critical state soil mechanics, referred to as the “Methane ...Hydrate Critical State (MHCS) model”. Methane hydrate‐bearing soil is, under certain geological conditions, known to exhibit greater stiffness, strength and dilatancy, which are often observed in dense soils and also in bonded soils such as cemented soil and unsaturated soil. Those soils tend to show greater resistance to compressive deformation but the tendency disappears when the soil is excessively compressed or the bonds are destroyed due to shearing. The proposed model represents these features by introducing five extra model parameters to the conventional critical state model. It is found that, for an accurate prediction of ground settlement, volumetric yielding plays an important role when hydrate soil undergoes a significant change in effective stresses and hydrate saturation, which are expected during depressurization for methane gas recovery.
Key Points
A new constitutive model for hydrate‐bearing soil was presented
The model incorporates volumetric yielding and degradation of hyrate effects
The model also considers stress relaxation due to hydrate dissociation
This paper formulates the maximal output admissible (MOA) set of a capture point (CP) feedback controller for adaptive humanoid balancing. In previous studies where the MOA set was employed, an ...adaptive strategy-switching control was proposed. In general, the MOA set requires iterative computation; however, this study has proven that the MOA set of the CP feedback controller can be obtained analytically. This result was applied to a continuous switching feedback gain, which was regarded as a time-variant feedback controller realizing an adaptive response to external disturbances. The validity of the proposed time-variant controller was verified by a whole-body dynamics simulation.
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) include ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. The immune response in ulcerative colitis is different from the Crohn's disease. Accumulating evidence suggests that ...IBD results from an inappropriate inflammatory response to intestinal microbes in a genetically susceptible host. Several immunoregulatory abnormalities have been reported in patients with IBD, including the ratio of proinflammatory (tumor necrosis factor alpha, IL-6, IL-1-β) to immunoregulatory cytokines (IL-10, TGF-β, IL-35) and selective activation of T-helper (Th) lymphocyte subsets (Th1, Th2, Th9, Th17, and regulatory T cells). The purpose of this review is to show the immunoregulatory pathways (regulatory cells and cytokines) involved in IBD published in recent years.
Pilot-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) was operated at a short hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3 h for the treatment of hospital wastewater. The removals of eleven pharmaceutical compounds in MBR ...operated at different mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) level were investigated during which nitrification degree was differed. The results experiments revealed the importance of immediate adsorption onto the colloidal particles in supernatant of MBR sludge and subsequently removed by membrane filtration for the recalcitrant pharmaceutical compounds. Nevertheless, the removals through biodegradation during short HRT were also found significant for some compounds. DGGE profile revealed the development of pharmaceutical degrading microorganisms in MBR.
•MBR operated at short HRT of 3 h was effective for pharmaceutical removals.•Majority of pharmaceuticals was removed by adsorption onto colloidal particles.•Biodegradation of DCF, IBP and GFZ was significant under short HRT.•MLSS concentration and compound properties influenced pharmaceutical removals.•Pharmaceutical degrading microorganisms were developed after short term operation.
Role of cytokines in inflammatory bowel disease Fausto Sanchez-Munoz Aaron Dominguez-Lopez Jesus K Yamamoto-Furusho
World journal of gastroenterology : WJG,
07/2008, Volume:
14, Issue:
27
Journal Article
Open access
Inflammatory bowel disease （IBD）, which includes Crohn’s disease （CD） and ulcerative colitis （UC）, rep- resents a group of chronic disorders characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal ...tract, typically with a relapsing and remitting clinical course. Mucosal mac- rophages play an important role in the mucosal im- mune system, and an increase in the number of newly recruited monocytes and activated macrophages has been noted in the inflamed gut of patients with IBD. Activated macrophages are thought to be major con- tributors to the production of inflammatory cytokines in the gut, and imbalance of cytokines is contributing to the pathogenesis of IBD. The intestinal inflammation in IBD is controlled by a complex interplay of innate and adaptive immune mechanisms. Cytokines play a key role in IBD that determine T cell differentiation of Th1, Th2, T regulatory and newly described Th17 cells. Cytokines levels in time and space orchestrate the development, recurrence and exacerbation of the inflammatory process in IBD. Therefore, several cyto- kine therapies have been developed and tested for the treatment of IBD patients.
Upon binding of cortisol, the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) regulates the transcription of specific target genes, including those that encode the stress hormones corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) ...and adrenocorticotropic hormone. Dysregulation of the stress axis is a hallmark of major depression in human patients. However, it is still unclear how glucocorticoid signaling is linked to affective disorders. We identified an adult-viable zebrafish mutant in which the negative feedback on the stress response is disrupted, due to abolition of all transcriptional activity of GR. As a consequence, cortisol is elevated, but unable to signal through GR. When placed into an unfamiliar aquarium ('novel tank'), mutant fish become immobile ('freeze'), show reduced exploratory behavior and do not habituate to this stressor upon repeated exposure. Addition of the antidepressant fluoxetine to the holding water and social interactions restore normal behavior, followed by a delayed correction of cortisol levels. Fluoxetine does not affect the overall transcription of CRH, the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), the serotonin transporter (Serta) or GR itself. Fluoxetine, however, suppresses the stress-induced upregulation of MR and Serta in both wild-type fish and mutants. Our studies show a conserved, protective function of glucocorticoid signaling in the regulation of emotional behavior and reveal novel molecular aspects of how chronic stress impacts vertebrate brain physiology and behavior. Importantly, the zebrafish model opens up the possibility of high-throughput drug screens in search of new classes of antidepressants.
This paper proposes a concept of center of gravity (COG) viscoelasticity to associate joint viscoelasticity with the inverted pendulum model of humanoid dynamics. Although COG viscoelasticity is ...based on the well-known kinematic relationship between joint stiffness and end-effector stiffness, it provides practical advantages for both analysis and control of humanoid motions. There are two main contributions. The first is that the COG viscoelasticity allows us to analyze fall risk. In a previous study, the author proposed a fall detection method based on the maximal output admissible (MOA) set, which is computed from feedback gain of the inverted pendulum model. The COG viscoelasticity associates joint viscoelasticity with the feedback gain and allows us to compute the corresponding MOA set when an arbitrary joint viscoelasticity is given. The second contribution is that the COG viscoelasticity can be also utilized in motion control. After we design a feedback gain in the inverted pendulum model utilizing the control theory, the COG viscoelasticity can directly transform it to the joint viscoelasticity. The validity of the COG viscoelasticity is verified with whole-body dynamics simulations.
Despite the remarkable progress of 3D graphics technology, the Evans index has been the most popular index for ventricular enlargement. We investigated a novel reliable index for the MR imaging ...features specified in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus, rather than the Evans index.
The patients with suspected idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus on the basis of the ventriculomegaly and a triad of symptoms underwent the CSF tap test. CSF volumes were extracted from a T2-weighted 3D spin-echo sequence named "sampling perfection with application-optimized contrasts by using different flip angle evolutions (SPACE)" on 3T MR imaging and were quantified semiautomatically. Subarachnoid spaces were divided as follows: upper and lower parts and 4 compartments of frontal convexity, parietal convexity, Sylvian fissure and basal cistern, and posterior fossa. The maximum length of 3 axial directions in the bilateral ventricles and their frontal horns was measured. The "z-Evans Index" was defined as the maximum z-axial length of the frontal horns to the maximum cranial z-axial length. These parameters were evaluated for the predictive accuracy for the tap-positive groups compared with the tap-negative groups and age-adjusted odds ratios at the optimal thresholds.
In this study, 24 patients with tap-positive idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus, 25 patients without response to the tap test, and 23 age-matched controls were included. The frontal horns of the bilateral ventricles were expanded, with the most excessive expansion being toward the z-direction. The CSF volume of the parietal convexity had the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.768), the z-Evans Index was the second (0.758), and the upper-to-lower subarachnoid space ratio index was the third (0.723), to discriminate the tap-test response.
The CSF volume of the parietal convexity of <38 mL, upper-to-lower subarachnoid space ratio of <0.33, and the z-Evans Index of >0.42 were newly proposed useful indices for the idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus diagnosis, an alternative to the Evans Index.
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