Extracellular Vesicles in CNS Developmental Disorders

The central nervous system (CNS) is the most complex structure in the body, consisting of multiple cell types with distinct morphology and function. Development of the neuronal circuit and its function rely on a continuous crosstalk between neurons and non-neural cells. It has been widely accepted that extracellular vesicles (EVs), mainly exosomes, are effective entities responsible for intercellular CNS communication. They contain membrane and cytoplasmic proteins, lipids, non-coding RNAs, microRNAs and mRNAs. Their cargo modulates gene and protein expression in recipient cells. Several lines of evidence indicate that EVs play a role in modifying signal transduction with subsequent physiological changes in neurogenesis, gliogenesis, synaptogenesis and network circuit formation and activity, as well as synaptic pruning and myelination. Several studies demonstrate that neural and non-neural EVs play an important role in physiological and pathological neurodevelopment. The present review discusses the role of EVs in various neurodevelopmental disorders and the prospects of using EVs as disease biomarkers and therapeutics.     

Low-cost and two-cycle hardware structures of PRINCE lightweight block cipher

In this paper, low-cost and two-cycle hardware structures of the PRINCE lightweight block cipher are presented. In the first structure, we proposed an area-constrained structure, and in the second structure, a high-speed implementation of the PRINCE cipher is presented. The substitution box (S-box) and the inverse of S-box (S-box⁻¹) blocks are the most complex blocks in the PRINCE cipher. These blocks are designed by an efficient structure with low critical path delay. In the low-cost structure, the S-boxes and S-boxes⁻¹ are shared between the round computations and the intermediate step of PRINCE cipher. Therefore, the proposed architecture is implemented based on the lowest number of computation resources. The two-cycle implementation of PRINCE cipher is designed by a processing element (PE), which is a general and reconfigurable element. This structure has a regular form with the minimum number of the control signal. Implementation results of the proposed structures in 180-nm CMOS technology and Virtex-4 and Virtex-6 FPGA families are achieved. The proposed structures, based on the results, have better critical path delay and throughput compared with other's related works.     

Hybrid solar parabolic dish power plant and high‐temperature phase change material energy storage system

In this study, a conventional steam power plant with two regenerative boilers is considered, and one of its boilers is replaced with parabolic solar dish collectors and storing the produced thermal energy by the phase change material (PCM) in a storage tank. The results show the necessity of the existence of an auxiliary fired‐gas boiler to provide constant load during the whole 24 hours. The performance of the proposed hybridized system is evaluated through energy and exergy analyses. It was demonstrated that substituting solar collectors with one of the boilers marginally lowers the energy efficiency but increases the exergy efficiency of the whole power plant up to 41.76%. Moreover, it is found out that this hybridization decreases the total irreversibility of the power plant in comparison with the base case, from 51.1 to 47.2 MW. The parametric analysis states that raising the mass flow rate of the heat transfer fluid in the solar collectors not only enhances the system performance but also increases the volume of the PCM tank.     

A benzoate coprecipitation route for synthesizing nanocrystalline GDC powder with lowered sintering temperature

Electrolyte powders with low sintering temperature and high-ionic conductivity can considerably facilitate the fabrication and performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Gadolinia-doped ceria (GDC) is a promising electrolyte for developing intermediate- and low-temperature (IT and LT) SOFCs. However, the conventional sintering temperature for GDC is usually above 1200 °C unless additives are used. In this work, a nanocrystalline powder of GDC, (10 mol% Gd dopant, Gd_0.1Ce_0.9O_1.95) with low-sintering temperature has been synthesized using ammonium benzoate as a novel, environmentally friendly and cost-effective precursor/precipitant. The synthesized benzoate powders (termed washed- and non-washed samples) were calcined at a relatively low temperature of 500 °C for 6 h. Physicochemical characteristics were determined using thermal analysis (TG/DTA), Raman spectroscopy, FT-IR, SEM/EDX, XRD, nitrogen absorptiometry, and dilatometry. Dilatometry showed that the newly synthesized GDC samples (washed and non-washed routes) start to shrink at temperatures of 500 and 600 °C (respectively), reaching their maximum sintering rate at 650 and 750 °C. Sintering of pelletized electrolyte substrates at the sintering onset temperature for commercial GDC powder (950 °C) for 6 h, showed densification of washed- and non-washed samples, obtaining 97.48 and 98.43% respectively, relative to theoretical density. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis for the electrolyte pellets sintered at 950 °C showed a total electrical conductivity of 3.83 × 10^?2 and 5.90 × 10^?2 S cm^?1 (under air atmosphere at 750 °C) for washed- and non-washed samples, respectively. This is the first report of a GDC synthesis, where a considerable improvement in sinterability and electrical conductivity of the product GDC is observed at 950 °C without additives addition.     

Minimizing torque ripple in a brushless DC motor with fuzzy logic: applied to control rod driving mechanism of MNSR

A permanent magnet BLDC(brushless direct current) motor is used to move the control rod of a miniature neutron source reactor(MNSR). The BLDC motor drive is modeled using MATLAB/SIMULINK. Two main parts of the modeling are the inverter switching and the current control. Current control with chopping used to minimize the torque ripple of the MNSR control rod drive. Fuzzy logic current control together with soft chopping control shows the best response of all the three strategies. The prototype drive mechanism has an ATmega32 controller and power MOSFET switches. The simulation results are compared with experimental drive mechanism.     

Improving quantum state transfer efficiency and entanglement distribution in binary tree spin network through incomplete collapsing measurements

We propose a mechanism for quantum state transfer (QST) over a binary tree spin network on the basis of incomplete collapsing measurements. To this aim, we perform initially a weak measurement (WM) on the central qubit of the binary tree network where the state of our concern has been prepared on that qubit. After the time evolution of the whole system, a quantum measurement reversal (QMR) is performed on a chosen target qubit. By taking optimal value for the strength of QMR, it is shown that the QST quality from the sending qubit to any typical target qubit on the binary tree is considerably improved in terms of the WM strength. Also, we show that how high-quality entanglement distribution over the binary tree network is achievable by using this approach.     

Pre-aging time dependence of microstructure and mechanical properties in nanostructured Al-2wt%Cu alloy

This work is focused on the effect of pre-aging time on the properties of Al-2wt%Cu alloy processed by accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process. Following aged at 190 °C for 10 or 30 min, the samples were deformed up to a strain of 4.8 by the ARB process. The microstructure evolution was investigated by transmission electron microscope and electron backscattering diffraction analyzes. The results showed that the Al₂Cu precipitates were formed with different sizes due to the different pre-aging times and the finer precipitates were more effective on the formation of high angle grain boundaries during the ARB process. The grain size of Aged-10 min and Aged-30 min specimens decreased to 400 nm and 420 nm, respectively, after 6 cycles of the ARB process. Also, the final texture after 6 cycles of the ARB process, shown in the {111} pole figure, were different depending on the starting microstructures. The mechanical properties of specimens were investigated by the Vickers microhardness measurements and the tensile tests. The results showed that the mechanical properties are affected by the starting microstructure. The mechanical properties of Aged-10 min specimen were different compared to Aged-30 min specimen due to the different size of the pre-existing precipitates. Although by continuing process, the precipitates were probably dissolved due to the heavy deformation.     

Magnetic field effect on fluid flow characteristics in a pipe for laminar flow

The influence of a magnetic field on the skin friction factor of steady fully-developed laminar flow through a pipe was studied experimentally. A mathematical model was introduced and a finite difference scheme used to solve the governing equations in terms of vorticity-stream function. The model predictions agree favourably with experimental results. It is observed that the pressure drop varies in proportion to the square of the product of the magnetic field and the sine of the magnetic field angle. Also, the pressure drop is proportional to the flow rate. This situation is similar to what applies in the absence of a magnetic field. It is found that a transverse magnetic field changes the axial velocity profile from the parabolic to a relatively flat shape. At first, the radial velocity rises more rapidly and then gradually decreases along the pipe until falling to zero. A numerical correlation can be written for the considerable distance required for the new axial velocity profile to establish. Owing to the changes taking place in the axial velocity profile, it exhibits a higher skin friction factor. The new axial velocity profile asymptotically approaches its limit as the Hartmann number becomes large.