Lunar Astronomical Observatories: Design Studies

The best location in the inner solar system for the grand observatories of the 21st century may be the Moon. A multidisciplinary team including university students and faculty in engineering, astronomy, physics, and geology, and engineers from industry is investigating the Moon as a site for astronomical observatories and is doing conceptual and preliminary designs for these future observatories. Studies encompass lunar facilities for radio astronomy and astronomy at optical, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Although there are significant engineering challenges in design and construction on the Moon, the rewards for astronomy can be great, such as detection and study of Earth‐like planets orbiting nearby stars, and the task for engineers promises to stimulate advances in analysis and design, materials and structures, automation and robotics, foundations, and controls. Fabricating structures in the reduced‐gravity environment of the Moon will be easier than in the zero‐gravity environment of Earth orbit, as Apollo and space‐shuttle missions have revealed. Construction of observatories on the Moon can be adapted from techniques developed on the Earth, with the advantage that the Moon's weaker gravitational pull makes it possible to build larger devices than are practical on Earth.     

ARTreat Project: three-dimensional numerical simulation of plaque formation and development in the arteries

Atherosclerosis is a progressive disease characterized by the accumulation of lipids and fibrous elements in arteries. It is characterized by dysfunction of endothelium and vasculitis, and accumulation of lipid, cholesterol, and cell elements inside blood vessel wall. In this study, a continuum-based approach for plaque formation and development in 3-D is presented. The blood flow is simulated by the 3-D Navier-Stokes equations, together with the continuity equation while low-density lipoprotein (LDL) transport in lumen of the vessel is coupled with Kedem-Katchalsky equations. The inflammatory process was solved using three additional reaction-diffusion partial differential equations. Transport of labeled LDL was fitted with our experiment on the rabbit animal model. Matching with histological data for LDL localization was achieved. Also, 3-D model of the straight artery with initial mild constriction of 30% plaque for formation and development is presented.     

Towards sustainability of energy systems: A primer on how to apply the concept of energy services to identify necessary trends and policies

Virtually all goods and services that characterize modern societies’ welfare depend on the provision of commercial energy. The core objective of this paper is to identify necessary changes in trends for achieving a transition towards more sustainable energy systems and development paths. The major conclusions of this analysis are (i) a rigorous rethinking process has to take place to identify which level of energy services per capita lead to enhancing human welfare and quality of life; (ii) a significant increase in energy conversion efficiency has to be triggered to finally provide energy services with far less input of energy than today; (iii) a continuous increase in the share of renewable energy sources and other low-emission options has to be brought about; (iv) however, as history has shown this process of technological learning has to be accompanied by proper energy price and regulatory policies. Otherwise, it is very likely that energy conservation gains due to technical efficiency improvements will be outweighed again by increases in energy service demand and, straightforward, energy consumption and CO₂ emissions.     

In situ time-resolved characterization of novel Cu–MoO2 catalysts during the water–gas shift reaction

A novel and active Cu–MoO₂ catalyst was synthesized by partial reduction of a precursor CuMoO₄ mixed-metal oxide with CO or H₂ at 200–250 °C. The phase transformations of Cu–MoO₂ during H₂ reduction and the water–gas shift reaction could be followed by in situ time resolved XRD techniques. During the reduction process the diffraction pattern of the CuMoO₄ collapsed and the copper metal lines were observed on an amorphous material background that was assigned to molybdenum oxides. During the first pass of water–gas shift (WGS) reaction, diffraction lines for Cu₆Mo₅O₁₈ and MoO₂ appeared around 350 °C and Cu₆Mo₅O₁₈ was further transformed to Cu/MoO₂ at higher temperature. During subsequent passes, significant WGS catalytic activity was observed with relatively stable plateaus in product formation around 350, 400 and 500 °C. The interfacial interactions between Cu clusters and MoO₂ increased the water–gas shift catalytic activities at 350 and 400 °C.     

The Pt(S-pr-thiosal)2 and BCL1 Leukemia Lymphoma: Antitumor Activity In Vitro and In Vivo

B cell malignancies are, despite the development of targeted therapy in a certain percentage of the patients still a chronic disease with relapses, requiring multiple lines of therapy. Regimens that include platinum-based drugs provide high response rates in different B cell lymphomas, high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and devastating complication of CLL, Richter’s syndrome. The aim of this study was to explore the potential antitumor activity of previously synthetized platinum(IV) complex with alkyl derivatives of thyosalicilc acid, PtCl2(S-pr-thiosal)2, toward murine BCL1 cells and to delineate possible mechanisms of action. The PtCl2(S-pr-thiosal)2 reduced the viability of BCL1 cells in vitro but also reduced the growth of metastases in the leukemia lymphoma model in BALB/c mice. PtCl2(S-pr-thiosal)2 induced apoptosis, inhibited proliferation of BCL1 cells, and induced cell cycle disturbance. Treatment of BCL1 cells with PtCl2(S-pr-thiosal)2 inhibited expression of cyclin D3 and cyclin E and enhanced expression of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p16, p21, and p27 resulting in cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase, reduced the percentage of BCL1 cells in the S phase, and decreased expression of Ki-67. PtCl2(S-pr-thiosal)2 treatment reduced expression of phosphorylated STAT3 and downstream-regulated molecules associated with cancer stemness and proliferation, NANOG, cyclin D3, and c-Myc, and expression of phosphorylated NFκB in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, PtCl2(S-pr-thiosal)2 reduces STAT3 and NFκB phosphorylation resulting in inhibition of BCL1 cell proliferation and the triggering of apoptotic cell death.     

An advanced physics-based sub-circuit model of a punch-trough insulated gate bipolar transistor

An advanced sub-circuit model of the punch-trough insulated gate bipolar transistor (PT IGBT) based on the physics of internal device operation has been described in this article. The one-dimensional physical model of low-gain wide-base BJT is employed based on the equivalent non-linear lossy transmission line, whereas a SPICE Level 3 model is used for the diffused MOST part. The influence of voltage dependent drain-to-gate overlapping capacitance and the conductivity modulated base (drain) ohmic resistance are modelled separately. The main advantages of novel PT IGBT model are a small set of model parameters, an easy implementation in SPICE simulator and the high accuracy confirmed by comparing the simulation results with the electrical measurements of test power circuit.     

Machine learning tuning by diversity oriented firefly metaheuristics for Industry 4.0

The progress of Industrial Revolution 4.0 has been supported by recent advances in several domains, and one of the main contributors is the Internet of Things. Smart factories and healthcare have both benefited in terms of leveraged quality of service and productivity rate. However, there is always a trade-off and some of the largest concerns include security, intrusion, and failure detection, due to high dependence on the Internet of Things devices. To overcome these and other challenges, artificial intelligence, especially machine learning algorithms, are employed for fault prediction, intrusion detection, computer-aided diagnostics, and so forth. However, efficiency of machine learning models heavily depend on feature selection, predetermined values of hyper-parameters and training to deliver a desired result. This paper proposes a swarm intelligence-based approach to tune the machine learning models. A novel version of the firefly algorithm, that overcomes known deficiencies of original method by employing diversification-based mechanism, has been proposed and applied to both feature selection and hyper-parameter optimization of two machine learning models—XGBoost and extreme learning machine. The proposed approach has been tested on four real-world Industry 4.0 data sets, namely distributed transformer monitoring, elderly fall prediction, BoT-IoT, and UNSW-NB 15. Achieved results have been compared to the results of eight other cutting-edge metaheuristics, that have been implemented and tested under the same conditions. The experimental outcomes strongly indicate that the proposed approach significantly outperformed all other competitor metaheuristics in terms of convergence speed and results' quality measured with standard metrics—accuracy, precision, recall, and f1-score.     

Platinum and Palladium Monolayer Electrocatalysts for Formic Acid Oxidation

Topics in Catalysis - The direct formic acid fuel cell holds great promise as a next generation portable power source. Here we report an experimental study on Pt and Pd monolayer (Pt* and Pd*) atop...