Wind speed inference from environmental flow–structure interactions. Part 2. Leveraging unsteady kinematics

This work explores the relationship between wind speed and time-dependent structural motion response as a means of leveraging the rich information visible in flow–structure interactions for anemometry. We build on recent work by Cardona, Bouman and Dabiri (Flow, vol. 1, 2021, E4), which presented an approach using mean structural bending. Here, we present the amplitude of the dynamic structural sway as an alternative signal that can be used when mean bending is small or inconvenient to measure. A force balance relating the instantaneous loading and instantaneous deflection yields a relationship between the incident wind speed and the amplitude of structural sway. This physical model is applied to two field datasets comprising 13 trees of 4 different species exposed to ambient wind conditions. Model generalization to the diverse test structures is achieved through normalization with respect to a reference condition. The model agrees well with experimental measurements of the local wind speed, suggesting that tree sway amplitude can be used as an indirect measurement of mean wind speed, and is applicable to a broad variety of diverse trees.

Analysis of Factors Affecting the Rheological Properties of Muddy Flow and Their Measurement Method

Abnormal weather phenomena debris damage has recently been increasing worldwide. As primary rheological properties, the yield stress and plastic viscosity of muddy materials affect the flow distance and velocity. Therefore, in this study, direct and indirect measurement test methods for rheological properties and factors affecting the these properties were analyzed. Measurement methods utilize rheometers, shear creep, fall cones, inclined planes, direct shear, and ring shear, with each method having its respective advantages and disadvantages. Factors that affect rheological properties are water content, liquidity index, and the size of soil particles. This study enables determination of the best test and rheological properties suitable for the selected range and selected object.

Atmospheric Pressure Change Measurement: An Observational Study

Introduction: The aim of the study was to show an atmospheric pressure change by indirect measurement in hermetically closed vessels during four years of follow-up.Methods: Study design: an observational study. In hermetically sealed elastic bottles with different liquids were measured differences in liquid and air volumes from baseline to final follow-up period. The physical law of flotation was used to measure liquid and air volume above liquid in bottles. To measure liquid and air (above liquid) volumes in each bottle was used the physical law of buoyancy. The follow-up period was four years.Results: The volumes of liquid and air in all bottles were decreased after the follow-up period to 14.38±2.40 and 36.25±3.37 ml, respectively. Air volume in comparison to liquid volume decreased more than two times significantly (P=0.0007) after the follow-up period.Conclusions: Thus, atmospheric pressure increased during the last 4-year follow-up period. Further investigations are needed.

The Soil heat flow sensor functioning checks, imbalances’ origins and forgotten energies

Soil heat flux is an important component of the Surface Energy Balance (SEB) equation. Measuring it require an indirect measurement. Every used technique may present some possible errors tied with each specific technique, soil inhomogeneities or physicals phenomenon such as latent heat conversion beneath the plates especially in a desiccation cracking soil or vertisol. The installation place may also induce imbalances. Finally, some errors resulting from the physical sensor presence, vegetation presence or soil inhomogeneities may occur and are not avoidable. For all these reasons it is important to check the validity of the measurements. One quick and easy way is to integrate results during one year. The corresponding integration should be close to zero after a necessary geothermal heat efflux subtraction which should be included into the SEB equation for long term integrations. However, below plate evaporation and vegetation absorbed water or rainfall water the infiltration may also contribute to the observed short scale or/and long scale imbalance. Another energy source is usually not included in the SEB equation: the rainfall or irrigation. Yet its importance for a short- and long-term integration is notable. As an example, the most used sensors: Soil Heat Flux Plates (SHFP), is given.

Proposed multidimensional pain outcome methodology to demonstrate analgesic drug efficacy and facilitate future drug approval for piglet castration

Castration of male piglets in the United States is conducted without analgesics because no Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved products are labeled for pain control in swine. The absence of approved products is primarily due to a wide variation in how pain is measured in suckling piglets and the lack of validated pain-specific outcomes individually indistinct from other biological responses, such as general stress or inflammation responses with cortisol. Simply put, to measure pain mitigation, measurement of pain must be specific, quantifiable, and defined. Therefore, given the need for mitigating castration pain, a consortium of researchers, veterinarians, industry, and regulatory agencies was formed to identify potential animal-based outcomes and develop a methodology, based on the known scientific research, to measure pain and the efficacy of mitigation strategies. The outcome-based measures included physiological, neuroendocrine, behavioral, and production parameters. Ultimately, this consortium aims to provide a validated multimodal methodology to demonstrate analgesic drug efficacy for piglet castration. Measurable outcomes were selected based on published studies suggesting their validity, reliability, and sensitivity for the direct or indirect measurement of pain associated with surgical castration in piglets. Outcomes to be considered are observation of pain behaviors (i.e. ethogram defined behaviors and piglet grimace scale), gait parameters measured with a pressure mat, infrared thermography of skin temperature of the cranium and periphery of the eye, and blood biomarkers. Other measures include body weight and mortality rate. This standardized measurement of the outcome variable's primary goal is to facilitate consistency and rigor by developing a research methodology utilizing endpoints that are well-defined and reliably measure pain in piglets. The resulting methodology will facilitate and guide the evaluation of the effectiveness of comprehensive analgesic interventions for 3- to 5-day-old piglets following surgical castration.

The Release of Inflammatory Mediators from Acid-Stimulated Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Favours Tumour Invasiveness and Metastasis in Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is the most frequent primary malignant bone tumour with an impressive tendency to metastasise. Highly proliferative tumour cells release a remarkable amount of protons into the extracellular space that activates the NF-kB inflammatory pathway in adjacent stromal cells. In this study, we further validated the correlation between tumour glycolysis/acidosis and its role in metastases. In patients, at diagnosis, we found high circulating levels of inflammatory mediators (IL6, IL8 and miR-136-5p-containing extracellular vesicles). IL6 serum levels significantly correlated with disease-free survival and 18F-FDG PET/CT uptake, an indirect measurement of tumour glycolysis and, hence, of acidosis. In vivo subcutaneous and orthotopic models, co-injected with mesenchymal stromal (MSC) and osteosarcoma cells, formed an acidic tumour microenvironment (mean pH 6.86, as assessed by in vivo MRI-CEST pH imaging). In these xenografts, we enlightened the expression of both IL6 and the NF-kB complex subunit in stromal cells infiltrating the tumour acidic area. The co-injection with MSC also significantly increased lung metastases. Finally, by using 3D microfluidic models, we directly showed the promotion of osteosarcoma invasiveness by acidosis via IL6 and MSC. In conclusion, osteosarcoma-associated MSC react to intratumoural acidosis by triggering an inflammatory response that, in turn, promotes tumour invasiveness at the primary site toward metastasis development.

MLP-Based Model for Estimation of Methane Seam Pressure

One of the principal indicators of the methane hazard in coal mines is gas pressure. This parameter directly affects the methane content in the seam as well as the rate of its release resulting from mining operations. Because of limitations in the existing methods for methane seam pressure measuring, primarily technical difficulties associated with direct measurement and the time-consuming nature of indirect measurement, this parameter is often disregarded in the coal and gas outburst forecasts. To overcome the above-mentioned difficulties, an attempt was made to estimate the methane seam pressure with the use of artificial neural networks. Two MLP-based models were developed to estimate the average and maximum methane seam pressure values, respectively. The analyses demonstrated high correlation between the values indicated by the neural models and the reference values determined on the basis of sorption isotherms. According to the adopted fit criterion, the prediction errors for the best fit were 2.59% and 3.04% for the average and maximum seam pressure values, respectively. The obtained determination coefficients (exceeding the value of 0.99) confirmed the very good predictive abilities of the models. These results imply a great potential for practical application of the proposed method.

Improved Non-Piezoelectric Electric Properties Based on La Modulated Ferroelectric-Ergodic Relaxor Transition in (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-Ba(Ti, Zr)O3 Ceramics

The characteristic transition from ferroelectric (FE) to ergodic relaxor (ER) state in (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3 (BNT) based lead-free ceramics provides an efficient approach to bring a highly ordered phase back to a disordered one. It would be rational to utilize this transition to improve relevant non-piezoelectric properties based on domain decomposition. In this work, different La contents were introduced to 0.93(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-0.07Ba(Ti0.945Zr0.055)O3 ceramics (BNT-BZT-xLa) to induce evolution of ergodic degree. The results reveal that with increasing La content, both the FE-ER transition temperature TF-R and depolarization temperature Td shift towards room temperature, implying a deepened ergodic degree. By modulation of ergodic degree, thermally stimulated depolarization current experiment shows a higher current density peak, and corresponding pyroelectric coefficient increases from 2.46 to 2.81 μC/(cm2∙°C) at Td. For refrigeration, the indirect measurement demonstrates the ΔT maximum increases from 1.1 K to 1.4 K, indicating an enhanced electrocaloric effect. Moreover, the optimized energy storage effect is observed after La doping. With appearance of “slimmer” P-E loops, both calculated recoverable energy storage density Wrec and storage efficiency η increase to 0.23 J/cm3 and 22.8%, respectively. These results denote La doping conduces to the improvement of non-piezoelectric properties of BNT-based ceramics in a certain range. Therefore, La doping should be an adopted modification strategy for lead-free ceramics used in areas like refrigerator and pulse capacitors.