JUSTIFICATION OF FILLERS USING IN THE BEARING STRUCTURES COMPONENTS OF FREIGHT CARS

To reduce the load on the freight cars frames under operational conditions, it has been suggested that to use fillers in their components. Fillers using is advisable in the most loaded elements of the bearing structure, namely, the spine beam. Therefore, a necessary condition for filler using in the spine beam is the creation of its closed structure. The dynamic load of railcars was carried out, taking into account the proposed provisions. Calculations have shown with filler using, the maximum accelerations acting on the bearing structures of wagons are 4% lower than those accelerations obtained for bearing structures without fillers. The results of determining the main strength indicators of bearing structures of freight cars are presented, taking into account the fillers using in their components. It has been established that the strength of the frames of the considered types of wagons under the main operating conditions is ensured. At the same time, the maximum equivalent stresses in the bearing structures of wagons are 4-9% lower than those in typical frame structures. The conducted research will contribute to the creation of innovative structures of rolling stock and reduce the cost of its maintenance work in operation.

Case not closed: the mystery of the origin of the carpel

The carpel is a fascinating structure that plays a critical role in flowering plant reproduction and contributed greatly to the evolutionary success and diversification of flowering plants. The remarkable feature of the carpel is that it is a closed structure that envelopes the ovules and after fertilization develops into the fruit which protects, helps disperse, and supports seed development into a new plant. Nearly all plant-based foods are either derived from a flowering plant or are a direct product of the carpel. Given its importance it’s no surprise that plant and evolutionary biologists have been trying to explain the origin of the carpel for a long time. Before carpel evolution seeds were produced on open leaf-like structures that are exposed to the environment. When the carpel evolved in the stem lineage of flowering plants, seeds became protected within its closed structure. The evolutionary transition from that open precursor to the closed carpel remains one of the greatest mysteries of plant evolution. In recent years, we have begun to complete a picture of what the first carpels might have looked like. On the other hand, there are still many gaps in our understanding of what the precursor of the carpel looked like and what changes to its developmental mechanisms allowed for this evolutionary transition. This review aims to present an overview of existing theories of carpel evolution with a particular emphasis on those that account for the structures that preceded the carpel and/or present testable developmental hypotheses. In the second part insights from the development and evolution of diverse plant organs are gathered to build a developmental hypothesis for the evolutionary transition from a hypothesized laminar open structure to the closed structure of the carpel.

Coherence for bicategorical cartesian closed structure

We prove a strictification theorem for cartesian closed bicategories. First, we adapt Power’s proof of coherence for bicategories with finite bilimits to show that every bicategory with bicategorical cartesian closed structure is biequivalent to a 2-category with 2-categorical cartesian closed structure. Then we show how to extend this result to a Mac Lane-style “all pasting diagrams commute” coherence theorem: precisely, we show that in the free cartesian closed bicategory on a graph, there is at most one 2-cell between any parallel pair of 1-cells. The argument we employ is reminiscent of that used by Čubrić, Dybjer, and Scott to show normalisation for the simply-typed lambda calculus (Čubrić et al., 1998). The main results first appeared in a conference paper (Fiore and Saville, 2020) but for reasons of space many details are omitted there; here we provide the full development.

The Emerging Roles of circFOXO3 in Cancer

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of endogenous non-coding RNAs which are mainly formed by reverse splicing of precursor mRNAs. They are relatively stable and resistant to RNase R because of their covalently closed structure without 5’ caps or 3’ poly-adenylated tails. CircRNAs are widely expressed in eukaryotic cells and show tissue, timing, and disease specificity. Recent studies have found that circRNAs play an important role in many diseases. In particular, they affect the proliferation, invasion and prognosis of cancer by regulating gene expression. CircRNA Forkhead box O3 (circFOXO3) is a circRNA confirmed to be abnormally expressed in a variety of cancers, including prostate cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, glioblastoma, bladder cancer, and breast cancer, etc. At present, the feature of circFOXO3 as a molecular sponge is widely studied to promote or inhibit the development of cancers. However, the diverse functions of circFOXO3 have not been fully understood. Hence, it is important to review the roles of circFOXO3 in cancers. This review has summarized and discussed the roles and molecular mechanism of circFOXO3 and its target genes in these cancers, which can help to enrich our understanding to the functions of circRNAs and carry out subsequent researches on circFOXO3.

Closed Structure

According to the structured theory of propositions, if two sentences express the same proposition, then they have the same syntactic structure, with corresponding syntactic constituents expressing the same entities. A number of philosophers have recently focused attention on a powerful argument against this theory, based on a result by Bertrand Russell, which shows that the theory of structured propositions is inconsistent in higher order-logic. This paper explores a response to this argument, which involves restricting the scope of the claim that propositions are structured, so that it does not hold for all propositions whatsoever, but only for those which are expressible using closed sentences of a given formal language. We call this restricted principle Closed Structure, and show that it is consistent in classical higher-order logic. As a schematic principle, the strength of Closed Structure is dependent on the chosen language. For its consistency to be philosophically significant, it also needs to be consistent in every extension of the language which the theorist of structured propositions is apt to accept. But, we go on to show, Closed Structure is in fact inconsistent in a very natural extension of the standard language of higher-order logic, which adds resources for plural talk of propositions. We conclude that this particular strategy of restricting the scope of the claim that propositions are structured is not a compelling response to the argument based on Russell’s result, though we note that for some applications, for instance to propositional attitudes, a restricted thesis in the vicinity may hold some promise.

Total Analysis of the Major Secoiridoids in Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Validation of an UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS Method

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), one of the key foods of the Mediterranean diet, is distinguished by its high content of nutritional and antioxidant compounds compared to other vegetable oils. During EVOO production, the major secoiridoids of EVOO, oleacein, oleocanthal, ligstroside, and oleuropein aglycones, undergo a series of transformations to open- and closed-structure forms. The resulting mixture of compounds can become more complex during the analytical procedure, due to the keto-enol tautomerism of the open forms and their interaction with polar solvents, and therefore more challenging to analyze. Employing the same extraction method used to analyze the other EVOO phenolic compounds, we report here a simple UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS procedure for the quantification of those secoiridoids that is able to co-elute the different isomers of each compound. The method was validated following AOAC guidelines, and the matrix effect and recoveries were within satisfactory limits.

State-of-the-art ultrasonic sensor designed to improve longwall production rates and operation safety

The article describes issues related to the development of a sensor measuring the distance from the end of the shield support canopy to the face of the longwall panel. The sensor's task is to detect rock falls because in such a case, empty spaces in the coal seam below the roof are generated. The sensor is a part of the system which task is to predict unfavourable behaviour of the longwall roof affecting the continuity of mining. Due to an untypical workplace and difficult conditions prevailing there, it was not possible to use a typical sensor. The ultrasonic technique was used for this purpose. The next research stages related to the development of the sensor were described. Tests of various types of ultrasonic transducers, working at different parameters, were described. Only transducers with a closed structure were considered because they can operate in the presence of high dustiness and humidity. The sensor casing was adapted to a specific type of shield support. The installation location should not be accidental, as an additional hinged shield is mounted at the end of the canopy, which is an obstacle in the measuring track and can even completely cover it, making measurements impossible. The sensor is mounted close to the side edge of the shield support canopy using small free space, enabling a measurement. Structural elements of the canopy are obstacles in the measuring track and are a source of interference of the received signals. The ultrasonic transducers are built-in tubes, which direct the ultrasonic wave and amplify the received signals. The results of laboratory tests of the model of the path measurement sensor are presented. They describe the impact of analysed aspects, i.e. the type of transducers used, the structure of the surface that the wave is reflected from and the mechanical solutions on the quality of received signals. A prototype of a sensor installed on shield support is presented.

Methodological approaches to optimization of agroecosystems

Within the framework of the article, the methodology of the energy assessment of the functioning of the social ecological-economic system is considered, using the example of a specific agroecosystem as a self-organizing, operationally closed structure; its energy analysis is carried out. A model for the development of the studied agroecosystem was formed, suggesting three options, taking into account the characteristics of land use. The index of sustainability of the agro-ecosystem was calculated; guidelines for the transformation of the structure of the agroecosystem are proposed.; The parameters of the ecological capacity of the soil of the agroecosystem were investigated; revealed the specific weight of ecologically stabilizing lands in the group of lands “arable land-forest-meadows and pastures-water”. The prospects for the development of the agroecosystem on the basis of the formation of a comprehensive technical and technological long-term plan for the functioning and development of the agroecosystem are assessed.