Entire Operation Process Research Articles

Microfluidic Chip-Based Automatic System for Sequencing Patient-Derived Organoids at the Single-Cell Level.

Genetically sequencing patient-derived organoids (PDOs) at the single-cell level has emerged as a promising method to infer cell-level heterogeneity of original organs and improve cancer precision medicine. Unfortunately, because of the limited starting quantity and uncontrolled establishing process of PDOs, the existing single-cell sequencing technologies, either manual-operation-based or microfluid-based, are inefficient in processing PDOs originating from clinical tissue samples. To address such issues, this study presents a microfluidic chip-based automatic system for sequencing organoids at the single-cell level, named as MASSO. By performing all required procedures, including PDO establishment/culturing/digesting and single-cell isolation/lysis/whole-genome amplification, in a single microfluidic chip, the possible loss of precious PDO is avoided, and the high quality of on-chip whole-genome amplification of a single PDO cell is ensured. By automating the entire operation process, possible human error is eliminated, and the data repeatability is improved, therefore bridging the technical gap between laboratorial proof-of-concept studies and clinical practices. After characterizing the organoid single-cell whole-genome amplification chip (named as OSA-Chip) and the MASSO, the first successful attempt, to the best of our knowledge, on whole-genome sequencing lung cancer PDO at the single-cell level was performed by MASSO. The results reveal that the MASSO is capable of not only identifying common cancer-related mutations but also discovering specific mutations that affect drug responses, therefore laying the technical foundation for efficiently understanding the cell-level heterogeneities of PDOs and corresponding original organs.

Publisher's Note: “Investigation of the aerodynamic characteristics of the entire operation process of the car–counterweight system within the annular flow field of ultra-high-speed elevators” [Phys. Fluids 36, 085203 (2024)

Publisher's Note: “Investigation of the aerodynamic characteristics of the entire operation process of the car–counterweight system within the annular flow field of ultra-high-speed elevators” [Phys. Fluids <b>36</b>, 085203 (2024)

A dynamic hybrid model of supercritical once-through boiler-turbine unit including recirculation mode and once-through mode

Supercritical once-through boiler-turbine units play a paramount role in maintaining grid stability owing to their exceptional efficiency and flexibility. Nevertheless, achieving precise modeling of this device under various operational conditions remains a significant challenge. This study conducts modeling and simulation of an actual supercritical once-through coal-fired power plant. The findings signify that the hybrid model proposed herein adeptly encompasses all operational modes of supercritical once-through units, including start-up recirculation mode and once-through mode. To bolster model precision, an optimization algorithm grounded on weighted mean of vectors (INFO) has been employed for parameter identification, while the INFO-XGBoost was utilized to fashion a machine learning model for static parameters. It has been validated that the developed model accurately captures the dynamic characteristics of the unit. Furthermore, the utilization of the INFO-XGboost to model static parameters has been proved to enable the errors in principal outputs of coordinated control system to be within 0.35 % of MAPE across the entire operational process, thus facilitating the design of more refined and intelligent control systems.

Investigation of the aerodynamic characteristics of the entire operation process of the car–counterweight system within the annular flow field of ultra-high-speed elevators

The ultra-high-speed elevator car–counterweight system will experience substantial aerodynamic effects when operating at high speeds in the annular flow field, particularly at the moment of intersection. These effects will have a considerable impact on the stability of the elevator's operation. This study utilized the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes approach to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of the car–counterweight system's entire operation process. The ultra-high-speed elevator three-dimensional transient model is created using dynamic layering mesh technology and then validated through experiments. We investigate the impact of three crucial factors—acceleration, car height, and contact ratio—on the aerodynamic characteristics of the car and the ventilation effect in the hoistway. Specifically, we analyze the instantaneous variations in the aerodynamic force of the car during the intersection process. The results indicate a rapid change in the car's drag and lift at the moment of intersection, with a greater magnitude of change observed in the pressure drag. The acceleration increases gradually, while the drag peak at the intersection time decreases by 1.8%, 3.0%, and 3.6%, respectively. Additionally, the hoistway exhaust volume ratio decreases by 0.9%, 1.5%, and 2.0%. Compared to the drag peak, the lift peak is more responsive to variations in car height. The contact ratio exhibits a sequential increase, but the lift peak demonstrates an uneven upward pattern with increments of 3.07%, 10.35%, and 16.88%. This study greatly enhances the investigation of the aerodynamic characteristics of ultra-high-speed elevators and offers a crucial point of reference for optimizing elevator design in engineering.

Optimization and influence of oil supply parameters on oil capture characteristics of radial oil scoop for high-speed bearings

Radial under-race lubrication technology offers an innovative solution for high-speed bearings in aero-engines, aiming to minimize oil flow rate and engine power loss. This study, through experimental and CFD simulation methods, evaluates the entire operational process of radial under-race lubrication — capturing, delivering, and expelling oil. It elucidates the mechanisms through which oil supply parameters, particularly the orifice diameter, affect both oil capture efficiency and flow rate, while identifying the optimal range of orifice diameters under various oil supply conditions. An improper orifice diameter can reduce oil capture efficiency by up to 45 %. In engineering applications, achieving a higher oil capture flow rate may necessitate sacrificing a portion of oil capture efficiency. Optimized oil capture efficiency consistently exceeds 80 %, with a significant improvement of over 20 %. Owing to the competitive relationship between the relative error of oil supply and capture efficiency, it is necessary to reconcile these factors to achieve optimal performance.

Fast cooling miniature Joule-Thomson cryocooler with improvement of energy recovery and thermal mass distribution

Open-cycle conical miniature J-T cryocoolers are favored for applications in the infrared detection field, due to their fast cooling and compact lightweight features. In this type of cryocooler, the regenerative heat exchanger for energy recovery plays a vital role in both its miniaturization and fast cool-down, because its geometry greatly determines the distribution of its heat transfer area and thermal mass. To examine and optimize the effects of the geometry on its fast-cooling performance, a validated transient analysis model, being capable of simulating the entire operating process of an open-cycle miniature J-T cryocooler, was applied to analyze and compared the transient heat transfer and flow characteristics, and then the cooling performance under different operating conditions for one cylindrical and three different cone-angle J-T cryocoolers in this study. Researches show that in terms of geometry, it is advisable to increase the heat transfer area near the cold end of heat exchanger while ensuring a relatively small thermal mass for the entire cryocooler. By analysis, a novel structure of heat exchanger with reduced volume and mass was proposed to enhance the fast-cooling performance and miniaturize cryocooler. Studied results indicate that the performance of this novel cryocooler is improved in terms of reducing the cool-down time by 28% and the volume by 50%. Additionally, this optimized structure exhibits excellent fast-cooling performance under broader operating conditions.

Adaptive fixed-time neural consensus control for a class of uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems with full state constraints

This paper is concerned with the fixed-time consensus control problem for non-strict feedback multi-agent systems with asymmetric output constraints and full state constraints. Considering the feasibility of controlling execution, a novel practical virtual control signal is developed utilizing both saturation function and hyperbolic tangent function to ensure that this signal can remain within the same restricted range as the corresponding state variable throughout entire operation process. In backstepping steps, the design of ideal virtual control signal also adopts a different form of piecewise function than before, introducing high-order polynomial functions to avoid singularity problems in the derivation process. In addition, function approximation ability of radial basis function neural networks technique is applied to estimate uncertainties derived from the system functions and controller design procedure. Moreover, universal barrier Lyapunov function approach is improved for constructing an adaptive constrained synchronization control scheme. By fixed-time stability theory, it is shown that the tracking errors of the MAS converge to an adjustable region around the origin in a fixed time and the state variables always obey their constraints. And the upper bound of the settling time is merely dependent on design parameters, which is not affected by the initial states of MAS. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is shown by a numerical simulation example at last. Two scenarios are provided to demonstrate the advantages of the control protocol proposed in this paper.

Modified Single–Working Portal Technique Using Percutaneous Spinal Needle Suture Passing in Arthroscopic Subscapularis Repair

The main method for arthroscopic repair of the subscapularis is repair with suture anchors. The surgeon generally establishes the anterior and anterolateral operation portals to complete anchor implantation and suture passing, respectively. The single–operation portal technique has been developed recently. However, in the traditional single–operation portal technique, the suture device and grasper are difficult to operate simultaneously. In addition, with the traditional rotator cuff suture device, it is easy to cause further iatrogenic injury to the rotator cuff because of its larger diameter. Therefore, we describe a modified single–operation portal technique for suture passing percutaneously with a spinal needle taking into account the shortcomings of existing techniques. Our modified technique avoids the use of traditional suturing devices and effectively avoids further damage to the rotator cuff. The use of a single operation portal makes the operation more minimally invasive and simple and effectively avoids the problem of interference between the suture device and grasper in the same portal. The entire operational process does not require the use of costly consumables, resulting in increased cost-effectiveness and a significantly reduced operating time. In conclusion, our modified technique achieves the use of a single operation portal to suture the subscapularis through spinal needle suture passing, which has good clinical value.

The Effects and Driving Factors of Low-Carbon Transition of International Oil Companies: Evidence from a Super-SBM Model

As the main source of energy supply and carbon emissions, the oil and gas industry has entered the comprehensive low-carbon transition stage driven by various factors. Since different oil companies possess distinct understandings of transition paths, the effect of low carbon transition varies greatly. Obviously, it is necessary to evaluate the performance of low-carbon transitions within the oil and gas industry. Therefore, in this paper, 10 major international oil companies are taken as examples, and a super-efficiency slack-based measurement (super-SBM) model is applied in the present study to analyze the efficiency of low-carbon transitions. Furthermore, the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) is used to decompose the driving factors of carbon emissions and analyze their impact on the low-carbon transition of international oil companies. The obtained results reveal that although major oil companies have taken different measures in low-carbon transition and achieved a year-on-year reduction in carbon emissions, from the perspective of the efficiency of the entire production and operation process, these oil companies are inefficient in carbon emissions and need to adopt more effective low-carbon transition strategies; Moreover, after the further decomposition of the carbon emission driving factors of the 10 companies, it is found that improving the energy consumption intensity and development level of oil companies can effectively improve the effect of low-carbon transition of international oil companies. Drawing on the above findings, this paper puts forward suggestions for the low-carbon transition of energy companies, thus providing theoretical support and guidance for energy companies in different countries to implement low-carbon transition and green development strategies.

Error resilient wireless video transmission via parallel processing using puncturing rule enabled coding and decoding

The innovation in wireless video transmission lies in the methodology's holistic approach, which combines parallel processing, puncturing rule-enabled coding, comprehensive error correction, and focused video frame reconstruction. The methodology includes several stages, including video frame processing, channel coding, error simulation, and Viterbi decoding, all of which are optimized for improved performance. Parallel processing is used at each stage to improve computational efficiency. Convolutional encoding is used concurrently, with a puncturing rule to tailor the encoding process for individual packets. Following that, a binary symmetric channel model is used to simulate bit errors, allowing the system's error-resilient characteristics to be evaluated. Beyond the analysis performed on previously studied videos, the proposed approach is thoroughly evaluated across three distinct video datasets. Furthermore, the study delves into BER analysis, encompassing various error probabilities and employing incremental redundancy. This investigation sheds light on the system's robustness in correcting errors in a variety of error scenarios. Throughput measurements provide important information about the achieved data transmission rate during successful receptions, whereas the elapsed time metric measures the overall efficiency of the transmission process. Furthermore, the proposed method assesses Mean Squared Error (MSE) at 0.48 and Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) at 51.30 dB across the entire operational process. The combined findings highlight the proposed approach's superiority, positioning it as a promising solution for robust and efficient wireless video communication. This results in a more stable and efficient gearbox system, distinguishing it from existing system.

Field-scale zero liquid discharge of coking wastewater - Operating efficiency and environmental impact

Coking wastewater is typical industrial wastewater produced in the process of coal coking. The notion of Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) presents a paradigm aimed at mitigating waste generation and optimizing resource recovery. However, the implementation of ZLD in the realm of industrial wastewater treatment remains inadequately investigated and researched. We undertook an investigation into a ZLD treatment system applied to coking wastewater within a steel plant, which had been in operation for a span of four years, where the core steps are membrane concentration separation and thermal crystallization. The treatment efficiency of each unit was studied using the method of on-site sampling and detection. In comparison to the initial phase, the separation effectiveness of NF unit on different valence ions demonstrated sustained stability, the average rejection rate of SO42− was approximately 96%, whereas the rejection rate of Cl− was near 0. Conversely, under the influence of long-term operation and membrane fouling, the efficiency of the membrane concentration unit had a downward trend, with problems such as the deterioration of membrane, loss of ion rejection capability, and degradation of reclaimed water. The water recovery rate has decreased to 48.9% and the average ion retention rate has decreased to 85% in the membrane concentration unit. Nonetheless, the resultant by-products continued to align with the steel plant's recycling requirements. In addition, the Life cycle Assessment (LCA) method was used to assess environmental impact during operation. Subsequent analysis led to that reagents and electricity consumed in pretreatment and advanced treatment had a significant impact for negative EI. The impact of pretreatment on ODP accounted for 27.64%, and the impact on ADP accounted for 20.72%. The impact of advanced treatment on ADP accounted for 16.25%, the impact on EP accounted for 21.74%, and the impact on ET accounted for 27.06%. Meanwhile, the recovered water and salt during operation generate considerable environmental benefits and dominate the evaluation of the entire operating process. This work furnishes a valuable point of reference for pertinent ZLD investigations, while unveiling the pronounced capacity of ZLD to contribute substantially to waste management and the betterment of environmental consequences.

Analysis of the aerodynamic characteristics of the entire operation process of an ultra-high-speed elevator under the influence of high blockage ratio, hoistway, and car height parameters

Ultra-high-speed elevators are affected by various factors during operation, resulting in complex airflow disturbances and significant piston effects. To explore the aerodynamic characteristics and ventilation effects of the car at different stages of operation under multiple parameters, this paper first establishes a multi-parameter numerical model for the elevator system and verifies the numerical model through elevator experiments, and then analyzed the general variation characteristics of the pneumatic load during the car's acceleration, constant speed, and deceleration phases. On this basis, the influence of blockage ratio, hoistway and car height, and operating acceleration on multiple types of aerodynamic loads and hoistway ventilation was studied, with a special analysis of the viscous drag and pressure drag of the car. The results show that increasing the blockage ratio significantly increases the ventilation of the hoistway, with an increase in 1 and 0.7 factors in the acceleration and constant velocity stages, respectively. In the deceleration stage, the drag changes the most, with an increase in 3.1 factors, which hinders the ventilation of the hoistway. Meanwhile, the average lateral lift increased by 0.6 factors and the fluctuation increased, exacerbating the lateral vibration of the car. Viscous drag and pressure drag exhibit similar trends at each stage, but pressure drag is much higher than viscous drag. The height of the hoistway has a significant impact on the total drag of the car by increasing the pressure drag. In contrast, car height has the most significant effect on lateral lift and viscous drag.

Research and application of box type substation operation safety management and control system based on three-dimensional modeling and UWB positioning

This paper proposes a box type substation operation safety management and control system based on GIM modeling technology and UWB positioning technology to address the current challenges of personnel and vehicle control, single control methods, difficult information exchange, and blind spots in on-site substation operations. This system integrates safety control measures throughout the entire operation process of the substation before, during, and after operation, achieving closed-loop control of operation safety. Firstly, laser point cloud and power system GIM technology are used for three-dimensional modeling of substation environment and equipment. Then, UWB positioning technology is used for indoor positioning. Combined with various business systems such as substation work tickets and SCADA, the qualification review of station personnel and vehicles before substation operation is achieved, real-time monitoring of personnel status and movement trajectory during operation, and real-time monitoring of on-site environment after operation are achieved. The system has been deployed and applied to a 35kV box type substation in Guizhou, and through a period of actual operation, it has effectively controlled the operation site.

Issues Related to Power Supply Reliability in Integrated Electronic Security Systems Operated in Buildings and Vast Areas

The article presents basic issues associated with the power supply of integrated electronic security systems (IESS) operated in various facilities. Ensuring the reliability of an IESS power supply is an important issue associated with the operation of these systems that are responsible for the safety of people, accumulated property, natural environment, and cooperating structures—e.g., storage facilities. IESSs are operated under harsh external or internal environmental conditions. In such a case, we are dealing with processes of beneficial or adverse impact, which actively affects IESS operation. The IESS operation process is also associated with ensuring power supply continuity under normal operating conditions. This also means ensuring transition to backup power supply systems in the event of failures. Therefore, an IESS should exhibit high reliability related to the power supply process. To this end, the article presents two representative IESSs operated in buildings and in a vast area. The analysis covered the processes of power supply from basic energy sources (BES) and backup sources in cases of failures. The further segment of the article describes developed models of these power systems with acceptable and unacceptable technical states associated with an IESS power supply. The last section of the article defines a model and graph of a selected IESS operation process and describes a conducted computer simulation associated with operational safety. Such an operation process analysis enabled drawing conclusions that can be utilized throughout the entire IESS operation process.

Evaluation of hydraulic behavior of water distribution network varying reservoirs levels, roughness, and diameters with the use of R and EPANET

Disorderly use of water resources has led to depletion, causing environmental and social issues. A relevant aspect to be observed in water supply systems is physical losses which occur during the system’s entire operational process. Many different software packages allow simulations of pressures and flow in water networks. The most used is EPANET. The epanet2toolkit is a recently developed R package that performs the interaction between EPANET and R. Based on this tool, a set of functions is developed to study and evaluate a theoretical network. The objective is to find an ideal network configuration (design) mainly for pressure management which simultaneously reduces physical losses. Water network parameters, such as roughness, reservoir levels, and diameters are used as parameters. A Monte Carlo simulation is generated, based on random values of these network parameters. From these, an ideal pressure scenario is found, resulting in a reduction of 11.6% in the occurrence of physical losses concerning the base case.&#x0D; Keywords: epane2toolkit, hydraulic evaluation, water distribution networks.

Design and Conception of Will Notarization System Based on Ethereum

It is crucial to use blockchain to notarization system. Although a notarized will has the highest legal effect, the notarization process is cumbersome, the notary agency has heavy responsibilities and high costs, which has become a drawback of notarized wills, and which makes many people give up notarized wills. This research will design a will notarization system based on blockchain technology to solve the problem of difficult will notarization. Through demand analysis and scenario analysis, this paper builds the overall architecture of the will notarization system based on blockchain technology and the Ethereum platform. The architecture consists of three parts: the client used by the user, the server provided by the notary office, and the blockchain module. Based on the Truffle framework provided by Ethereum, it will involve multiple links such as HTML front-end development, JavaScript development, solidity smart contract development, Ethereum interface call, network construction, etc., to design the entire system deployment and operation process.

Application of posture-aware surgical tool assisted screw placement in orthopedic surgery of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

ObjectiveThis study summarized and analyzed the clinical data, preoperative preparation, surgical process and postoperative recovery of patients, to explore the clinical effect of posture-aware surgical tool in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis orthopedic surgery. MethodsThis study demonstrated the whole process of using posture-aware surgical tools to assist the placement of screws in orthopedic surgery of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. A 14-year-old and 8-month-old male with height 166 ​cm and weight 60 ​kg was diagnosed as Lenke type 1A adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. The preoperative X-ray films of the patients showed that the Cobb angle was 66°, CSVL-C7PL (Central Sacral Vertical Line -C7 plumb line) was 4 ​mm, SVA (sagittal vertical axis) was 5 ​mm. The operative fixed segment was T5∼L3 vertebral body. Renaissance and other three-dimensional software were utilized for screw placement angle, entry point and other related information before operation. The use of posture-aware surgical tools during surgery can accurately select screw length, type and screw placement angle, as planned by using three-dimensional software before operation. ResultsThe entire operation process was smooth. The intraoperative blood loss was about 600 ​ml, and the operation time was about 445 ​min. A total of 18 screws were placed during the whole operation.The patient's Cobb Angle was 8.94°, CSVL-C7PL was 2 ​mm, and SVA was 3 ​mm on postoperative radiographs. ConclusionThe implantation of pedicle screw assisted by posture-aware surgical tool is safe and effective with a smooth operation process and favorable patient outcomes.

Research on Non-Contact Electricity Inspection Technology of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The airborne non-contact electroscope developed in this paper does not need to touch the tower and can be remotely controlled to complete the electroscope. It can be widely used in the maintenance operation of various voltage levels, and the entire operation process is in line with the State Grid Corporation of China Electric Power Safe work regulations (power line part) regulations. The application of the device can effectively reduce the labor intensity of the operators, improve the operation efficiency, and ensure the safety of the operation.

Risk analysis of collision accidents during underway STS berthing maneuver through integrating fault tree analysis (FTA) into Bayesian network (BN)

Ship to ship tanker maneuvering operation, which take place while both ships are underway and in open sea circumstances, present a number of unique challenges in terms of collision that differ from conventional port berthing maneuvers. Given the flammable quality of the commodities transported and the limited access to emergency response vehicles owing to the operation's distance from the land, risk analysis of these berthing maneuvers is critical. Therefore, the fundamental purpose of this research is to conduct a probabilistic risk analysis of collision incidents by integrating fault tree analysis with bayesian network analysis using a fuzzy method. Initially, the fault tree analysis (FTA) was utilized to determine critical events and their logical structure. Expert opinion and fuzzy theory is used to deal effectively with uncertainty in probabilities of basic events. Considering the constraints of FTA in terms of conditional dependencies and static nature, a Bayesian network mapping from FTA is developed to overcome this limitation. BN is utilized to simulate the risk associated with the entire operating process by probability updating and sensitivity analysis. The results indicated that the “mooring line breakdown”, “main engine failure” and “steering system failure” root nodes are the most contributing factors to the STS collision accidents. The findings show that this research technique is realistic and reasonable, and makes an important contribution to the literature by combining FTA-BN as a dynamic risk assessment methodology to the improvement of STS operation.

Battery voltage fault diagnosis for electric vehicles considering driving condition variation

AbstractTo ensure the real‐time operation safety of electric vehicles (EVs), it is essential to diagnose the fault in a battery pack timely and accurately. In this paper, with considering driving condition, a battery voltage fault diagnosis method is proposed based on the real‐world operation data of EVs with a high sampling frequency. Firstly, based on driving behaviour, the driving condition of EVs is classified into four categories, and accordingly, the operation process is divided into four segments. The influencing mechanism of driving condition on battery voltage is revealed by detailed analysis on extracted operation segments. Secondly, four BP neural network (BPNN)‐based voltage prediction models are developed, respectively, for the four kinds of driving conditions. Based on the statistical analysis of prediction error and the comparison with other voltage prediction models, the superiority and stability of the four well‐trained BPNN models are verified. Thirdly, the voltage abnormity levels and thresholds for fault diagnosis are set considering driving condition differences. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified using the actual operational data. The verification results show that the proposed method can achieve good voltage prediction and fault diagnosis for EVs under various driving conditions during the entire operation process.