A Role for Human Renal Tubular Epithelial Cells in Direct Allo-Recognition by CD4+ T-Cells and the Effect of Ischemia-Reperfusion

Direct allorecognition is the earliest and most potent immune response against a kidney allograft. Currently, it is thought that passenger donor professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) are responsible. Further, many studies support that graft ischemia-reperfusion injury increases the probability of acute rejection. We evaluated the possible role of primary human proximal renal tubular epithelial cells (RPTECs) in direct allorecognition by CD4+ T-cells and the effect of anoxia-reoxygenation. In cell culture, we detected that RPTECs express all the required molecules for CD4+ T-cell activation (HLA-DR, CD80, and ICAM-1). Anoxia-reoxygenation decreased HLA-DR and CD80 but increased ICAM-1. Following this, RPTECs were co-cultured with alloreactive CD4+ T-cells. In T-cells, zeta chain phosphorylation and c-Myc increased, indicating activation of T-cell receptor and co-stimulation signal transduction pathways, respectively. T-cell proliferation assessed with bromodeoxyuridine assay and with the marker Ki-67 increased. Previous culture of RPTECs under anoxia raised all the above parameters in T-cells. FOXP3 remained unaffected in all cases, signifying that proliferating T-cells were not differentiated towards a regulatory phenotype. Our results support that direct allorecognition may be mediated by RPTECs even in the absence of donor-derived professional APCs. Also, ischemia-reperfusion injury of the graft may enhance the above capacity of RPTECs, increasing the possibility of acute rejection.     

Operation principles for hydrogen spark ignited direct injection engines for passenger car applications

The sustainable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from road transport requires solutions to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, in addition to vehicles with electrified powertrains, such as those implemented in battery electric of fuel cell vehicles, internal combustion engines fueled with e-fuels or biofuels are also under discussion. An e-fuel that has come into focus recently, is hydrogen due to its potential to achieve zero tank-to-wheel and well-to-wheel carbon dioxide emissions when the electrolysis is powered by electricity from renewable sources. Due to the high laminar burning velocity, hydrogen has the potential for engine operation with high cylinder charge dilution by e.g. external exhaust gas recirculation or enleanment, resulting in increased efficiency. On the other hand, the high burning velocity and high adiabatic flame temperatures pose a challenge for engine cooling due to increased heat losses compared to conventional fuels. To further evaluate the use of hydrogen for small passenger car engines, a series production 1 L 3 cylinder gasoline engine provided by Ford Werke GmbH was modified for hydrogen direct injection. The engine was equipped with a high pressure external exhaust gas recirculation system to investigate charge dilution at stoichiometric operation. Due to limitations of the turbocharging system, very lean operation, which can achieve nitrogen oxides raw emissions below 10 ppm, was limited to part load operation below BMEP = 8 bar. Thus, a reduction of the nitrogen oxides emission level at high loads compared to stoichiometric operation was not possible. At stoichiometric operation with external exhaust gas recirculation engine efficiency can be increased significantly. The comparison of stoichiometric hydrogen and gasoline operation shows a reduced indicated efficiency with hydrogen with significant faster combustion of hydrogen at comparable centers of combustion. However, higher boost pressures would allow to achieve even higher indicated efficiencies by charge dilution compared to gasoline engine operation.     

Effects of Winding Attachment Positions on Output Characteristics of Flux‐Modulating Synchronous Machines

The flux‐modulating synchronous machine (FMSM) is a new type of multipole SM with nonoverlapping concentrated armature and field windings on the stator. This paper compares the output characteristics of two FMSMs through finite element analysis (FEA) and experiments. In both of the FMSMs, the attachment positions of the armature and field windings are swapped. To determine the reason for the discrepancies in their output characteristics, unsaturated inductances were calculated using a d‐‐q equivalent circuit. In addition, the calculated results of the inductances were confirmed through a visualization of the leakage fluxes using FEA. The results of the study show that the synchronous inductance can be reduced by attaching the armature winding to the air‐gap side of the stator teeth and that the reduction leads to an increase in output power.     

Friction compensation controller for load varying machine tool feed drive

The load applied to a machine tool feed drive changes during the machining process as material is removed. This load change alters the Coulomb friction of the feed drive. Because Coulomb friction accounts for a large part of the total friction the friction compensation control accuracy of the feed drives is limited if this nonlinear change in the applied load is not considered. This paper presents a new friction compensation method that estimates the machine tool load in real time and considers its effect on friction characteristics. A friction observer based on a Kalman filter with load estimation is proposed for friction compensation control considering the applied load change. A specially designed feed drive testbed that enables the applied load to be modified easily was constructed for experimental verification. Control performance and friction estimation accuracy are demonstrated experimentally using the testbed.     

教师修正性反馈对高职理科学生写作中冠词使用的影响

本研究检测了直接和间接两种修正性反馈与国内高职理科学生写作水平的关系。本实验持续五周,将150名学习者分为直接反馈组、间接反馈组及控制组,共安排了一次预先测试,,一次即时后测和一次延时后测,并分别对各组进行考察,结果显示两个实验组进步显著,且直接反馈效果最明显。     

面向草莓抓取的气动四叶片软体抓手研制

农林业中果蔬的自动化采摘需求日趋强烈,末端抓手是实现无损采摘的关键。传统的末端抓手以刚性结构居多,现有的各种柔性抓手也存在抓取力不足、包覆性不佳等缺点。本文以草莓的无损采摘为研究对象,提出将草莓外部轮廓曲线作为设计曲线,设计了一种新型气动四叶片软体抓手。首先,对软体抓手的结构做仿真优化,提出一种安全地附着在目标物表面的设想。然后,在进行草莓表面的最小破坏应力试验的基础上,测试了软体抓手的末端力,验证了其实现无损抓取的可行性。再次,利用动态捕捉技术,研究了软体抓手叶面的弯曲变形规律。最后,选择使用弧线型气体通道的软体抓手进行了草莓抓取测试,结果证明了气动四叶片软体抓手可以实现草莓的无损抓取,抓取成功率达90%,破损率为2%,表明所研制的四叶片软体抓手用于草莓抓取时具有良好的稳定性和实用性,可用于草莓采摘的末端执行器。本研究也可为其他易损果蔬的采摘技术提供理论基础和技术支撑。     

Controlled Secure Direct Communication Protocol via the Three-Qubit Partially Entangled Set of States

In this paper, we first re-examine the previous protocol of controlled quantum secure direct communication of Zhang et al.’s scheme, which was found insecure under two kinds of attacks, fake entangled particles attack and disentanglement attack. Then, by changing the party of the preparation of cluster states and using unitary operations, we present an improved protocol which can avoid these two kinds of attacks. Moreover, the protocol is proposed using the three-qubit partially entangled set of states. It is more efficient by only using three particles rather than four or even more to transmit one bit secret information. Given our using state is much easier to prepare for multiqubit states and our protocol needs less measurement resource, it makes this protocol more convenient from an applied point of view.     

应用膨胀算法提取目标的直接定位算法

为了解决被动雷达系统中的多发射源定位问题，提出了一种基于多重信号分类(MUSIC)算法和图像膨胀(IE)算法的直接定位方法。该方法结合了谱分析中的MUSIC思想，通过对接收量测协方差矩阵进行特征分析求解目标的位置。首先，在目标个数未知的前提下，利用Akaike信息准则(AIC)来确定模型阶数；然后，推导了基于MUSIC的定位代价函数；之后，利用图像膨胀算法处理得到的代价函数平面；最后，膨胀处理后的输出为目标个数及目标位置的估计值。提出的算法有效地解决了目标检测及提取的问题，能够确定多个目标的位置坐标，为后续的定位性能分析提供可能性，也保证了算法的完整性。进一步地分析了多个临近目标情况下影响目标提取性能的主要因素。