Local Balance Research Articles

Energy-guided synapse coupling between neurons under noise.

From a physical viewpoint, any external stimuli including noise disturbance can inject energy into the media, and the electric response is regulated by the equivalent electric stimulus. For example, mode transition in electric activities in neurons occurs and kinds of spatial patterns are formed during the wave propagation. In this paper, a feasible criterion is suggested to explain and control the growth of electric synapse and memristive synapse between Hindmarsh-Rose neurons in the presence of noise. It is claimed that synaptic coupling can be enhanced adaptively due to energy diversity, and the coupling intensity is increased to a saturation value until two neurons reach certain energy balance. Two identical neurons can reach perfect synchronization when electric synapse coupling is further increased. This scheme is also considered in a chain neural network and uniform noise is applied on all neurons. However, reaching synchronization becomes difficult for neurons in presenting spiking, bursting, and chaotic and periodic patterns, even when the local energy balance is corrupted to continue further growth of the coupling intensity. In the presence of noise, energy diversity becomes uncertain because of spatial diversity in excitability, and development of regular patterns is blocked. The similar scheme is used to control the growth of memristive synapse for neurons, and the synchronization stability and pattern formation are controlled by the energy diversity among neurons effectively. These results provide possible guidance for knowing the biophysical mechanism for synapse growth and energy flow can be applied to control the synchronous patterns between neurons.

Be positive: customized reference databases and new, local barcodes balance false taxonomic assignments in metabarcoding studies.

In metabarcoding analyses, the taxonomic assignment is crucial to place sequencing data in biological and ecological contexts. This fundamental step depends on a reference database, which should have a good taxonomic coverage to avoid unassigned sequences. However, this goal is rarely achieved in many geographic regions and for several taxonomic groups. On the other hand, more is not necessarily better, as sequences in reference databases belonging to taxonomic groups out of the studied region/environment context might lead to false assignments. We investigated the effect of using several subsets of a cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) reference database on taxonomic assignment. Published metabarcoding sequences from the Mediterranean Sea were assigned to taxa using COInr, which is a comprehensive, non-redundant and recent database of COI sequences obtained both from BOLD and NCBI, and two of its subsets: (i) all sequences except insects (COInr-WO-Insecta), which represent the overwhelming majority of COInr database, but are irrelevant for marine samples, and (ii) all sequences from taxonomic families present in the Mediterranean Sea (COInr-Med). Four different algorithms for taxonomic assignment were employed in parallel to evaluate differences in their output and data consistency. The reduction of the database to more specific custom subsets increased the number of unassigned sequences. Nevertheless, since most of them were incorrectly assigned by the less specific databases, this is a positive outcome. Moreover, the taxonomic resolution (the lowest taxonomic level to which a sequence is attributed) of several sequences tended to increase when using customized databases. These findings clearly indicated the need for customized databases adapted to each study. However, the very high proportion of unassigned sequences points to the need to enrich the local database with new barcodes specifically obtained from the studied region and/or taxonomic group. Including novel local barcodes to the COI database proved to be very profitable: by adding only 116 new barcodes sequenced in our laboratory, thus increasing the reference database by only 0.04%, we were able to improve the resolution for ca. 0.6-1% of the Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs).

Pengaruh Ukuran Pemerintah Daerah, Leverage Dan Dana Perimbangan terhadap Kinerja Keuangan Pemerintah Daerah (Suatu Kajian Studi Literatur Manajemen Keuangan Daerah)

Writing previous and appropriate scientific papers has an important role for writing subsequent scientific papers, especially regarding the influence of each variable or other variables. This scientific paper reviews the subject of a literature study on factors that affect local government financial performance, namely the size of local government, leverage, and balance funds. This scientific work is written by researchers so that they can determine hypotheses in determining hypotheses that result in variables so that they are useful for subsequent writing. The results obtained, such as: 1) The size of the local government has a positive and quite important impact on the financial performance of the local government; 2) Leverage has a positive and significant impact on the financial performance of local governments; 3) Balancing funds have a positive and significant impact on the financial performance of local governments; 4) The size of the local government, leverage, and balance funds have a positive and crucial effect simultaneously on the financial performance of the local government.

Assessing the variations of evapotranspiration and its environmental controls over a subalpine wetland valley in China

Dynamics in long-term evapotranspiration (ET) and its controlling variables are essential for understanding how a high-altitude wetlands ecosystem responds to climate change. The rising temperature is expected to agitate the regional hydrological cycle and water balance, particularly in the subalpine wetland valley of Jiuzhaigou, located in the transition zone between the northeast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Sichuan Basin, Southwest China. Here, we used growing season multi-year (2013–2021) Bowen ratio data to assess the variability in ET and its key controlling parameters at different timescales in Jiuzhaigou valley. This study also explored the ratio of ET to precipitation (P). The wetland daily mean ET varied from 0.06 to 6.77 mm d−1, with a mean value of 2.64 mm d−1 for the nine years. Fluctuations in daily ET were primarily driven by available energy (net radiation, Rn), explaining 86 % of the variation. Seasonal patterns in ET were largely similar to environmental parameters, i.e., Rn, air temperature (Ta), and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), peaking in August with an interannual monthly mean value of 3.48 mm d−1. Interannual monthly mean ET had a strong positive linear relationship with Rn, Ta, and VPD, while there was no significant correlation with P on a growing season basis. Furthermore, monthly ET was shown to be regulated by Ta largely in high-temperature months and minimally in low-temperature months. The growing season ET varied interannually, and the ET to P ratio (i.e., ET/P) ranged between 0.52 and 1.16. Interannual variation in annual ET was controlled by Ta and P, which individually explained 73 and 61 % of the variation, respectively. The multiple regression model indicated that Ta and P together elucidated 92 % of the variation in annual ET. The increased sensitivity (e.g., regression slopes) of ET to P over 2014–2021 indicates that ET consumed most of P, which leads to decreasing runoff and streams drying up. This study clarifies the temporal dynamics in ET for wetlands and its environmental controls at multiple timescales. It is demonstrated that the proportion of ET could increase in response to increasing temperature without an associated increase in P, affecting local water balance. These results could potentially contribute to sustainable water management in high-altitude wetlands and environmental planning under future climate change.

Local Own-source Revenue and Balance Fund on Economic Growth: Remaining Budget Surplus, and Capital Expenditure as an Intervening Variable

This study aimed to determine and analyze local own-source revenue and balance funds on economic growth mediated by the remaining budget surplus and capital expenditure. The sample was taken from the reports of Local Own-Source Revenue (LOSR) realization, Balance Fund (BF) realization, Remaining Budget Surplus (RBS) realization, Capital Expenditure (CE) realization, and Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) in 34 regencies/cities of North Sulawesi Province, Central Sulawesi Province, and Gorontalo Province for five years from 2015 to 2019. The statistical analysis tool used was path analysis with Lisrel application to test the effect of Local Own-Source Revenue (LOSR) and Balance Fund (BF) on economic growth mediated by the Remaining Budget Surplus (RBS) and Capital Expenditure (CE) as a mediation variable. This study showed that local own-source revenue, balance fund, remaining budget surplus, and capital expenditure simultaneously or partially had a positive effect on economic growth. However, the balance fund variable had a negative effect on the remaining budget surplus, while capital expenditure and remaining budget surplus were able to mediate the relationship between local own-source revenue and balance funds to economic growth.

TCRαβ+NK1.1-CD4-CD8- double-negative T cells inhibit central and peripheral inflammation and ameliorate ischemic stroke in mice.

Background: Excessive immune activation leads to secondary injury and impedes injured brain recovery after ischemic stroke. However, few effective methods are currently used for equilibrating immune balance. CD3+NK1.1-TCRβ+CD4-CD8- double-negative T (DNT) cells which do not express NK cell surface markers are unique regulatory cells that maintain homeostasis in several immune-related diseases. However, the therapeutic potential and regulatory mechanism of DNT cells in ischemic stroke are still unknown. Methods: Mouse ischemic stroke is induced by occlusion of the distal branches of the middle cerebral artery (dMCAO). DNT cells were adoptively transferred intravenously into ischemic stroke mice. Neural recovery was evaluated by TTC staining and behavioral analysis. Using immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, and RNA sequencing, the immune regulatory function of DNT cells was investigated at different time points post ischemic stroke. Results: Adoptive transfer of DNT cells significantly reduces infarct volume and improves sensorimotor function after ischemic stroke. DNT cells suppress peripheral Trem1+ myeloid cell differentiation during the acute phase. Furthermore, they infiltrate the ischemic tissue via CCR5 and equilibrate the local immune balance during the subacute phase. During the chronic phase, DNT cells enhance Treg cell recruitment through CCL5, eventually developing an immune homeostatic milieu for neuronal recovery. Conclusions: DNT cell treatment renders the comprehensive anti-inflammatory roles in specific phases of ischemic stroke. Our study suggests that the adoptive transfer of regulatory DNT cells may be a potential cell-based therapy for ischemic stroke.

Active foam: the adaptive mechanics of 2D air-liquid foam under cyclic inflation.

Foam is a canonical example of disordered soft matter where local force balance leads to the competition of many metastable configurations. We present an experimental and theoretical framework for "active foam" where an individual voxel inflates and deflates periodically. Local periodic activity leads to irreversible and reversible T1 transitions throughout the foam, eventually reaching a reversible limit cycle. Individual vertices displace outwards and subsequently return back to their approximate original radial position; this radial displacement follows an inverse law. Surprisingly, each return trajectory does not retrace its outbound path but encloses a finite area, with a clockwise (CW) or counterclockwise (CCW) direction, which we define as a local swirl. These swirls form coherent patterns spanning the scale of the material. Using a dynamical model, we demonstrate that swirl arises from disorder in the local micro-structure. We demonstrate that disorder and strain-rate control a crossover between cooperation and competition between swirls in adjacent vertices. Over 5-10 cycles, the region around the active voxel structurally adapts from a higher-energy metastable state to a lower-energy state, locally ordering and stiffening the structure. The coherent domains of CW/CCW swirl become smaller as the system stabilizes, indicative of a process similar to the Hall-Petch effect. Finally, we introduce a statistical model that evolves edge lengths with a set of rules to explore how this class of materials adapts as a function of initial structure. Adding activity to foam couples structural disorder and adaptive dynamics to encourage the development of a new class of abiotic, cellularized active matter.

Distribution locational marginal price based hierarchical scheduling framework for grid flexibility from virtual energy storage systems

• VESS's are modeled using residential air-conditioners for DSM. • Local ancillary services TSO-DSO coordination scheme for cooperative management in grids. • Hierarchical framework for scheduling aggregated VESS. • Network constrained optimal VESS participation in ancillary service markets. • DSM based practical market model for SOs, maximizing overall market benefits. Maintaining generation and demand equilibrium under large scale renewable energy integration is challenging. Conventional flexibility providers such as grid-scale Energy Storage Systems (ESS) have potential but are costly solutions. With evolving smart grid scenario, aggregated demand response from Thermostatically Controlled Loads (TCLs) is utilized as Virtual Energy Storage Systems (VESS) and considered as innovative and cost efficient solution to provide fast response reserves. VESS units are often scheduled and controlled in a centralized manner considering limited distribution system constraints. However, accurate operational flexibility potential of diversified VESS units for various grid services needs to consider distribution network constraints. It can be fully utilized when Distribution System Operators (DSO) coordinate with Transmission System Operators (TSO) to transfer grid services from VESS of its area. Local ancillary service TSO-DSO coordination scheme ensures in this perspective significant flexibility of TSO and allows both TSO and DSO to access VESS flexibility. For such controlling of diversified VESS units where DSO is responsible for aggregate flexibility and local area balancing, a hierarchical scheduling framework is more practical. In this context, this paper proposes a two-stage hierarchical approach for optimal scheduling of TCLs as VESS to optimize energy and provide grid flexibility. At the lower stage, TCLs are scheduled based on Distribution Locational Marginal Price (DLMP) provided by DSO, while ensuring consumers’ comfort. At the upper level, DSO provides additional flexibility to TSO through optimal scheduling of aggregated VESS considering local ancillary services TSO-DSO coordination scheme. The simulation results indicate that VESS scheduling improves system flexibility by maintaining a generation-demand balance.

Research on Ecological Ladder Retaining Wall in Lhasa City

With the continuous improvement of the level of economic and social development and the continuous growth of the population, the degree of human exploitation and utilization of resources has deepened, resulting in a series of serious environmental pollution and destruction. It has threatened the normal life and production activities of local residents. In order to maintain the local ecological balance, we must take effective measures to ensure its healthy development, which is an urgent problem to be solved. In view of the special environment of Lhasa, this paper comprehensively analyzes different types of ecological retaining walls by using a variety of literature and field investigations, in order to find an effective way that not only meets the requirements of environmental protection, but also contributes to the sustainable economic development of Lhasa. Through the comparative analysis of several typical retaining wall structural forms common in Lhasa, the ecological stepped retaining wall structure forms suitable for Lhasa City are proposed, and the applicability of the stepped retaining wall is evaluated by qualitative analysis method, and it is concluded that the stepped ecological retaining wall has good adaptability and meets the construction requirements of Lhasa.

Particle Swarm–Grey Wolf Cooperation Algorithm Based on Microservice Container Scheduling Problem

In recent years, microservices have been very widely used as a new application development technology in edge computing, IoT, and cloud computing. Application containerization technology is one of its core technologies, which allows multiple containers to be deployed within the same physical node. Then a single physical node could provide different services to user. How to rationally deploy containers on a cluster of physical nodes is one of the main research directions nowadays. Although a number of researchers have modeled the microservice container scheduling problem and proposed effective solutions, there are still shortcomings, for example, the slow speed of finding the optimal solution and the tendency of the algorithm to fall into local optimality. This paper propose a Particle Swarm - Grey Wolf Cooperation Algorithm based on Microservice Container Scheduling Problem (PS-GWCA) by using particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) and grey wolf algorithm (GWO) in a multi-core parallel way, which enables the two algorithms to complement each other in the whole search process through the information exchange between populations. In the early of the search stage, the GWO can use its global search capability to guide the PSO to jump out of the local optimum to avoid premature convergence, and in the late of the search stage, the PSO can enhance the search capability of the GWO on the pareto optimal frontier. The experimental results show that compared with the other three algorithms, the algorithm optimizes 18.07% in network transmission cost, 14.67% in local load balancing, 20.66% in global load balancing, and 7.5% in search speed, and 5.69% in service reliability.

Computational intelligence based PEVs aggregator scheduling with support for photovoltaic power penetrated distribution grid under snow conditions

• A snow loss-aware deep learning-based short-term PV yield predictor is developed. • Stochastic day-ahead scheduling of an independent PEVs aggregator is investigated. • A novel local balancing service offered by the PEVs aggregator to DSO is proposed. • The service benefits PEV owners through providing extra energy demand of the grid. This paper addresses the issue of optimal day-ahead scheduling of a plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) aggregator that participates in the electricity market and offers an out-of-market balancing service to the local renewable power penetrated distribution system in a snow-prone area. The proposed balancing service provides a reliable source of flexibility for the extra real-time energy demand of the distribution system operator (DSO) which originates from the difference between its day-ahead bids and the actual demand. The problem is investigated on a snowy day when the DSO's day-ahead decisions encounter more uncertainty due to the considerable effect of snow loss on the DSO's photovoltaic plant performance. The aggregator's scheduling is formulated as two-stage stochastic programming which minimizes the PEVs’ charging cost. Monte Carlo simulation and K-means clustering are implemented to generate scenarios of driving patterns and real-time energy market prices, respectively. Offering the balancing service requires day-ahead predictions of the photovoltaic power and the grid load demand which are modeled using long short-term memory networks. The problem is formulated as mixed-integer linear programming. The results show that the proposed scheduling approach reduces the PEVs’ charging cost by 53% and guarantees the grid normal operation. Moreover, the balancing service can reduce the expected PEVs’ charging cost and the DSO's real-time cost by 12% and 14%, respectively. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A dataset of UAV multispectral images for the grassland-livestock balance

The grassland-livestock balance system plays an important role in reconciling the protection of grassland resources with the sustainable development of animal husbandry. The accurate estimation of the grassland-livestock balance is the basis for the implementation of the grassland-livestock balance system. In order to explore the accurate calculation method of the important parameter, i.e. livestock grass demand in the calculation system, in this study, we set up an experimental area in the natural grassland of Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, to simulate a real grazing scene, and conducted 4 grazing experiments controlling the sheep number and grazing time. We obtained multispectral images of the experimental area before and after grazing were with the help of the UAV remote sensing, and carried out a quadrat survey. After data sorting and preprocessing, we produced this dataset of high spatial resolution image data and accurate quadrat investigation data. It can be applied to the research on the daily grass demand of grazing sheep on Hulunbuir meadow steppe in autumn. This dataset provides data support for the accurate estimation of local grassland-livestock balance, and is of great significance for the adaptive dynamic management of grass and livestock.

Environmental Regulation Competition and Carbon Emissions.

To clarify the relationship between environmental regulatory competition and carbon emissions and provide a theoretical basis for carbon emission reduction governance, this paper explores the strategic interaction behavior of environmental regulatory competition by constructing a three-way evolutionary game model based on the perspective of the fusion of environmental federalism and local government competition theory. On this basis, the specific forms of carbon emission reduction competition are tested using the spatial Durbin model, and the mechanism of the effect of environmental regulation competition on carbon emissions is analyzed. The evolutionary game model shows that local governments make strategic choices based on the costs and benefits of environmental regulation, and there are strategic equilibria of "race to the bottom", "race to the top", and "differentiation of competition". The empirical results show that the competition for environmental regulations as a whole after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a "race to the top", and the increase in the intensity of environmental regulations has an inhibitory effect on carbon emissions, which remains valid after a series of robustness tests. There is heterogeneity in environmental regulatory competition, and the effect of emissions reduction is most obvious in the central region. Mechanism analysis shows that environmental regulatory competition affects carbon emissions mainly through the effect of political performance assessment, the effect of industrial structure optimization, and the effect of low-carbon technology capability improvement. Therefore, the central government should follow the local government interest function and balance the interests of all parties, appropriately increase the proportion of environmental performance assessment and optimize the performance assessment system, and consider regional development differences to find the right carbon emissions reduction path.

On the joint use of scattering and damping models to predict X-band co-polarized backscattering from a slick-covered sea surface

In this study, sea surface scattering with and without surfactants is predicted using the two-scale boundary perturbation model (BPM) and the advanced integral equation model (AIEM) augmented with two different damping models, i.e., the Marangoni one and the model of local balance (MLB). Numerical predictions are showcased for both mineral oil and biogenic slicks. They are contrasted with actual satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) measurements collected at X-band by the German TerraSAR-X sensor over mineral oil and plant oil slicks of known origin. Experimental results show that the two-scale BPM augmented with the Marangoni damping model is more suitable for predicting the normalized radar cross section and the damping ratio of plant oil (biogenic) slicks. In contrast, the AIEM combined with the damping MLB results in a better agreement with SAR measurements collected over mineral oil slicks.

Simulation of a Cellular Energy System including hierarchies and neighborhoods

The massive use of small energy resources and storage units causes a transition from a traditionally centralized to a decentralized energy system. To structure and coordinate the emerging changes in the energy system, the concept of Energy Cells (ECs) was developed. Several ECs can be combined to form a hierarchically superordinate EC. These hierarchically superordinate ECs can in turn be combined and thus form a complex hierarchy. An EC encapsulates coherent parts of an energy system and can communicate as well as exchange energy with other ECs at a different or the same level. It follows the idea of local balance of energy provision and demand. A network of ECs forms a Cellular Energy System (CES). In this paper, we develop a concept for modeling and simulating a CES. We accomplish this by beginning with atomic components like consumers, producers, and storage units and aggregating them with Hierarchical Controllers (HCs). Such a hierarchically structured energy system is part of various proposals. However, we are able to add neighborhood relations by introducing Local Controllers (LCs). This is more realistic and also opens many degrees of freedom for control strategies in such a system. Following the recursive structure of the CES itself, we define recursive functions for visiting the CES architecture and realizing various control strategies. We evaluate our approach in a series of partially randomized scenarios, showing notable differences in the performance of the CES regarding different control strategies in a larger example. We also provide a theoretical analysis of the computational complexity of the suggested approach.

Exact computation of heat capacities for active particles on a graph

The notion of a nonequilibrium heat capacity is important for bio-energetics and for calorimetry of active materials more generally. It centers around the notion of excess heat or excess work dissipated during a quasistatic relaxation between different nonequilibrium conditions. We give exact results for active random walks moving in an energy landscape on a graph, based on calculations employing the matrix-tree and matrix-forest theorems. That graphical method applies to any Markov jump process under the physical condition of local detailed balance.

Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Solid-Fluid Interaction

We propose a novel solid-fluid coupling method to capture the subtle hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions between liquid, solid, and air at their multi-phase junctions. The key component of our approach is a Lagrangian model that tackles the coupling, evolution, and equilibrium of dynamic contact lines evolving on the interface between surface-tension fluid and deformable objects. This contact-line model captures an ensemble of small-scale geometric and physical processes, including dynamic waterfront tracking, local momentum transfer and force balance, and interfacial tension calculation. On top of this contact-line model, we further developed a mesh-based level set method to evolve the three-phase T-junction on a deformable solid surface. Our dynamic contact-line model, in conjunction with its monolithic coupling system, unifies the simulation of various hydrophobic and hydrophilic solid-fluid-interaction phenomena and enables a broad range of challenging small-scale elastocapillary phenomena that were previously difficult or impractical to solve, such as the elastocapillary origami and self-assembly, dynamic contact angles of drops, capillary adhesion, as well as wetting and splashing on vibrating surfaces.

A clinical and immunological rationale for ultrasonic cavitation use in the complex treatment of infertility in chronic endometritis

Aim.To prove the safety and efficacy of using the ultrasonic cavitation of saline to restore the endometrial receptivity, local immune balance, and antioxidant status in females with chronic endometritis (CE) and a history of reproductive losses.
 Materials and methods. Fifty females aged 29.957.65 years (range 2338 years) with histologically and immunohistochemically confirmed CE were examined. The control group included 45 female patients aged 28.989.9 years (range 2338 years) with infertility of tubal-peritoneal genesis without histochemical studies confirming CE and with no history of reproductive losses. Transvaginal pelvic ultrasound was used in the study. All the patients had histological, immunohistochemical examination of endometrial scrapings, including quantification of CD138+, CD20+, CD56+, progesterone receptors (PR), and estrogen receptors (ER) in the stroma and glands. The following cytokines were measured in protein-free fractions of uterine cavity contents by ELISA: interleukin (IL)-2, IL-10, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor-, IL-1, interferon-, interferon-. The activity of lipoperoxidation factors and antioxidant system enzymes (catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase) was detected by spectrophotometry. As a part of the treatment, irrigation of the uterine cavity with sonicated 0.9% sodium chloride solution was applied twice in 6 sessions consecutively within three months.
 Results. According to transvaginal pelvic ultrasound, the endometrial thickness before treatment was 6.541.2 mm. An increase in endometrial thickness up to 9.02 (7.6210.42) mm in the luteal phase of the next cycle and up to 9.34 (8.1210.56) mm in the two subsequent luteal phases was observed within three months after irrigation of the uterine cavity with sonicated normal saline. The normalization of the ЕR/PR ratio and decrease in CD138+, CD20+, and CD56+ cells in the endometrial stroma and glands were noted. Mature pinopods were revealed in 71.25 (67.2974.46)% of patients, which is 2.95 times more than the respect value before the treatment, 24.55 (21.4327.75)%. After treatment, a recovery of cytokine production was noted: IL-2, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-, IL-8, IL-1, interferon-, interferon-; concentration of primary, secondary and tertiary products of lipoperoxidation decreased; superoxide dismutase enzyme activity increased by 36.98 (32.8841.18)%, catalase by 15.32 (14.1316.51)%, glutathione peroxidase by 12.32 (11.1214.2)%; р0,005. Reduced colonization rate of Streptococcus spp, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, elimination of Mycoplasma genitalium, Ureaplasma urealyticum, and increased of Lactobacillus spp. were reported.
 Conclusion. Using the cavitated normal saline restores the endometrium structure, normalizes the ЕR/PR ratio, reduces the colonization by opportunistic and pathogenic microorganisms in the uterine cavity and normalizes the cytokine balance and the content of pro-oxidative and anti-oxidative factors. High clinical and immunological efficacy supports cavitated solutions in the complex treatment of infertility in females with CE.

Convergence of second-order in time numerical discretizations for the evolution Navier-Stokes equations

We prove the convergence of certain second-order numerical methods to weak solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations satisfying, in addition, the local energy inequality, and therefore suitable in the sense of Scheffer and Caffarelli–Kohn–Nirenberg. More precisely, we treat the space-periodic case in three space dimensions and consider a full discretization in which the classical Crank–Nicolson method (θ-method with theta =1/2) is used to discretize the time variable. In contrast, in the space variables, we consider finite elements. The convective term is discretized in several implicit, semi-implicit, and explicit ways. In particular, we focus on proving (possibly conditional) convergence of the discrete solutions toward weak solutions (satisfying a precise local energy balance) without extra regularity assumptions on the limit problem. We do not prove orders of convergence, but our analysis identifies some numerical schemes, providing alternate proofs of the existence of “physically relevant” solutions in three space dimensions.

Microscale THMC Modeling of Pressure Solution in Salt Rock: Impacts of Geometry and Temperature

Pressure solution, a mechanism that involves tight coupling between the geometry and thermal-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes, plays an important role in diagenesis. In this study, we make the first attempt to conduct microscale THMC modeling to understand and quantify the impacts of geometry and temperature on pressure solution, taking natural salt rock as an example. This modeling capability is achieved by expanding a novel MC code that we developed previously (Hu et al. J Geophys Res: Solid Earth 126:e2021JB023112, 2021) to include temperature effects. We first conduct a simulation of an example that involves a single brine inclusion within a single halite grain and find that the temperature impact is limited for that case. We then extract geometry from an image of a natural salt rock and conduct simulations with different cases: (A) only temperature and no stress, (B) only stress and no temperature, and (C) with both stress and temperature. These different cases result in quite different phenomena. In case A, dissolution and precipitation occur across the entire system due to isolated pore space reaching a localized mass balance between dissolution, precipitation, and diffusion. In case B, intense geometric features (e.g., major asperities, inclusions) in one area undergo stress concentration, thus dominating pressure solution in that area. In case C, pressure solution is spread out at contacting highly stressed geometric features close to the hotter side. We conclude that geometric features dominate stress distribution, thus dominating pressure solution in a natural salt rock that may be affected by the temperature if a sufficient temperature gradient is applied.