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At least 343 records · Page 19

Differential and Integral Data Evaluation for Titanium: An Application to Criticality Safety

The intent of this work is to highlight the role of differential and integral data evaluation to address issues in connection with criticality safety applications. Demonstration is made by using, as an example, differential data measurements and evaluation, and the benchmark integral experiments for titanium. Energy differential data are measured analyzed and evaluated to produce nuclear data libraries for criticality safety applications. Alternatively, integral experiments are performed at critical facilities, small experimental reactors, and play an important part in the validation of the differential nuclear data. The demonstration provided here for titanium gives its importance to criticality safety. Titanium is an effective neutron absorber that serves as baseline material for chemical separation in high-activity waste solutions in US. Titanium has not been considered for use in nuclear applications such as reactor design and analysis. Rather, it appears as a structural material that may be present in fuel cycle facilities or canisters for transport and disposition of nuclear waste. Criticality safety evaluations of systems in which titanium is present require an understanding of the nuclear data and its uncertainty.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Fully differential rail-to-rail output amplifier with inverter-based input pair

A fully differential rail-to-rail-output amplifier includes a differential input inverter pair, folded cascode pair, class AB control pair, and class AB output rail-to-rail pair. A drain associated with the folded cascode pair is operatively coupled to the class AB control pair, and the drain associated with the folded cascode pair is unconnected to the current source associated with the class AB control pair. A method of providing fully differential rail-to-rail-output amplification includes coupling a folded cascode pair operatively to a differential input inverter pair, coupling a drain associated with the folded cascode pair operatively to a class AB control pair, and coupling a class AB output rail-to-rail pair operatively to the class AB control pair.

Dabrowski, Mieczyslaw M.↗

Whose Gas is it anyway? Differentiating the Source of a Large Soil Vapor Plume beneath Two Adjacent Waste Sites - 20487

DOE contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company is currently responsible for conducting groundwater contamination monitoring at several RCRA treatment, storage, and disposal units located on the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington State. The Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill treatment, storage, and disposal unit presents a distinct groundwater monitoring problem because of a large multi-contaminant soil vapor plume beneath it that is a likely source of low-level volatile organic compound groundwater contamination. Adjacent to Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill is the Solid Waste Landfill. Volatile organic compounds are inventory components of both the Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and the Solid Waste Landfill. Therefore, it is possible that both sites could be contributing to the soil vapor plume. For regulatory purposes, it is important to differentiate which site is the primary contributor of volatile organic compounds to the plume. An approach was developed to identify the primary volatile organic compound source of the soil vapor plume beneath Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and Solid Waste Landfill. The site conceptual model hypothesis of vapor-phase volatile organic compound transport to the dissolved phase in groundwater was tested by a simple mathematical model of vapor/liquid equilibrium concentrations at the groundwater/air interface. Once it was shown that vapor-phase volatile organic compound transport to groundwater was a valid conceptual model for Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and Solid Waste Landfill, spatial and statistical methods were used to determine the primary site contributing to the majority of volatile organic compounds to the soil vapor plume. Average groundwater chloroform, tetrachloroethene, and trichloroethene concentrations from Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and Solid Waste Landfill monitoring network wells were plotted on maps of the facilities and immediate vicinities and compared to soil vapor sampling probe locations. Principal component analysis and mixing ratios were used to identify source contributions of each treatment, storage, and disposal unit to the plume. Results of the vapor/liquid equilibrium concentrations mathematical model showed that transport phenomena outweigh steady-state equilibria. Estimated vapor/liquid equilibrium concentrations were considerably lower than soil vapor measurements. The results indicate that dynamic vadose zone and groundwater factors such as decreased vapor concentrations with depth, vapor dilution from dispersion in the vadose zone, and advective and diffusional volatile organic compound dilution in groundwater result in groundwater volatile organic compound concentrations much less than would be measured under steady-state equilibrium conditions. Site source contribution differentiation by principal component analysis and mixing ratios was inconclusive using actual soil gas data because of the similarity in concentration values in both datasets for Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and Solid Waste Landfill. Similar data populations suggest mixing of the vapor contributions from both sites by dispersion through the soil matrix pore spaces. However, when groundwater volatile organic compound data were compared between the Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and Solid Waste Landfill monitoring networks, Solid Waste Landfill mean concentrations were higher, suggesting more vapor-phase volatile organic compound transport to groundwater at those locations. Simulated volatile organic compound soil vapor and groundwater datasets created to test the methods developed for this study show that the method can be successful in source differentiation when significantly different datasets are compared. This paper will describe a method of testing a conceptual model for vapor-phase contaminant transport to groundwater and for differentiating site sources of contaminants comprising a mixed-constituent soil vapor plume. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Development of the multi-purpose Cologne Compact Differential Plunger (CoCoDiff) for the measurement of nuclear level lifetimes with the Recoil Distance Doppler-shift method

Here, a new 3-foil plunger device, the Cologne Compact Differential (CoCoDiff) plunger has been built and commissioned. Due to its compact size, it can be used together with many different spectrometers and auxiliary detectors. As a commissioning experiment, level lifetimes of the $2^{+}_{1}$ and the $4^{+}_{1}$ excited states of 50 Cr have been measured, using the Differential Decay Curve method (DDCM). A derivation is given on how this method can be applied to a differential plunger measurement, in order to measure distances for lifetimes from two different regions of sensitivity at the same time. The commissioning experiment took place at the Cologne FN tandem accelerator, using the reaction 24 Mg( 32 S,4p2n) 50 Cr. Lifetimes, deduced from this measurement, agree well with literature values from earlier measurements.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Cysteine Rich Intestinal Protein 2 is a copper-responsive regulator of skeletal muscle differentiation and metal homeostasis

Copper (Cu) is essential for respiration, neurotransmitter synthesis, oxidative stress response, and transcription regulation, with imbalances leading to neurological, cognitive, and muscular disorders. Here we show the role of a novel Cu-binding protein (Cu-BP) in mammalian transcriptional regulation, specifically on skeletal muscle differentiation using murine primary myoblasts. Utilizing synchrotron X-ray fluorescence-mass spectrometry, we identified murine cysteine-rich intestinal protein 2 (mCrip2) as a key Cu-BP abundant in both nuclear and cytosolic fractions. mCrip2 binds two to four Cu + ions with high affinity and presents limited redox potential. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of mCrip2 impaired myogenesis, likely due to Cu accumulation in cells. CUT&RUN and transcriptome analyses revealed its association with gene promoters, including MyoD1 and metallothioneins, suggesting a novel Cu-responsive regulatory role for mCrip2. Our work describes the significance of mCrip2 in skeletal muscle differentiation and metal homeostasis, expanding understanding of the Cu-network in myoblasts. Copper (Cu) is essential for various cellular processes, including respiration and stress response, but imbalances can cause serious health issues. This study reveals a new Cu-binding protein (Cu-BP) involved in muscle development in primary myoblasts. Using unbiased metalloproteomic techniques and high throughput sequencing, we identified mCrip2 as a key Cu-BP found in cell nuclei and cytoplasm. mCrip2 binds up to four Cu + ions and has a limited redox potential. Deleting mCrip2 using CRISPR/Cas9 disrupted muscle formation due to Cu accumulation. Further analyses showed that mCrip2 regulates the expression of genes like MyoD1, essential for muscle differentiation, and metallothioneins in response to copper supplementation. This research highlights the importance of mCrip2 in muscle development and metal homeostasis, providing new insights into the Cu-network in cells.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

State elimination for mixed‐integer optimal control of partial differential equations by semigroup theory

Abstract Mixed‐integer optimal control problems governed by partial differential equations (MIPDECOs) are powerful modeling tools but also challenging in terms of theory and computation. We propose a highly efficient state elimination approach for MIPDECOs that are governed by partial differential equations that have the structure of an abstract ordinary differential equation in function space. This allows us to avoid repeated calculations of the states for all time steps, and our approach is applied only once before starting the optimization. The presentation of theoretical results is complemented by numerical experiments.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A taxonomy of automatic differentiation pitfalls

Automatic differentiation is a popular technique for computing derivatives of computer programs. While automatic differentiation has been successfully used in countless engineering, science, and machine learning applications, it can sometimes nevertheless produce surprising results. In this paper, we categorize problematic usages of automatic differentiation, and illustrate each category with examples such as chaos, time-averages, discretizations, fixed-point loops, lookup tables, linear solvers, and probabilistic programs, in the hope that readers may more easily avoid or detect such pitfalls. We also review debugging techniques and their effectiveness in these situations.

Autodiff↗

Continuous Dependence on Translations of the Independent Variable for Solutions of Boundary-Value Problems for Differential-Difference Equations

We consider boundary-value problems for differential-difference operators with perturbations in translations of the independent variable. We prove that the family of differential-difference operators is positive definite uniformly with respect to translations of the independent variable. Solutions of such problems depend continuously on these translations. We consider the coercivity problem for differential-difference operators with incommensurable translations of the independent variable and study the approximation of such operators by rational operators.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

On a Reduction of the Order in a Differential-Algebraic System

The conditions of solvability and the structure of a generalized Green operator of the Cauchy problem for a linear differential-algebraic system are found. The sufficient conditions of reducibility of a differential-algebraic equation to a sequence of systems joining differential and algebraic equations are constructed. An original classification and a single scheme of construction of the solutions of differentialalgebraic equations are proposed.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Human attitude analysis based on fuzzy soft differential equations with Bonferroni mean

In this paper, we model a system of fuzzy soft differential equations to analyze the behavior over the time of an individual depending on their companion’s actions under any particular situation against some decision. The Bonferroni mean (BM) is a very useful tool for group decision-making problems when arguments are interrelated to each other as Bonferroni mean can capture the interrelationship of the individual arguments. Using this ability of BM, we define Bonferroni fuzzy soft matrix (BFSM) and weighted Bonferroni fuzzy soft matrix (WBFSM) for data representation. WBFSM is a decision matrix and provide the optimum fuzzy soft constant (OFSC) which is the key element of fuzzy soft differential equation. By utilizing the OFSC, we develop a system of fuzzy soft differential equations to study a dynamical process with nonlinear uncertain and vague data. Second, we present a novel efficient technique for analyzing the future attitude of people due to their present decisions. To illustrate the practicality and feasibility of proposed technique an illustrative example is also discussed with the help of phase portrait and line graphs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

On the numerical algorithms of parametrization method for solving a two-point boundary-value problem for impulsive systems of loaded differential equations

A linear two-point boundary value problem for a system of loaded differential equations with impulse effect is investigated. Values in the previous impulse points are taken into consideration in the conditions of impulse effect. The considered problem is reduced to an equivalent multi-point boundary value problem for the system of ordinary differential equations with parameters. A numerical implementation of parametrization method is offered using the Runge–Kutta method of 4th-order accuracy for solving the Cauchy problems for ordinary differential equations. The constructed numerical algorithms are illustrated by examples.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Continuous solutions to a class of first-order fuzzy differential equations with discontinuous coefficients

In this paper, we study the continuity of solution functions to a class of fuzzy differential equations (FDEs) in the form y{sup ′}(t)=((φ(t))/((t−α){sup p}))⊙y(t)+ψ(t), where the coefficient function ((φ(t))/((t−α){sup p})) is a discontinuous function at the point t=α and α is an inner point of the interval under study. At first, the continuity of solutions for the crisp case of the problem is investigated and those results are extended to the fuzzy case of the problem from the view point of strongly generalized differentiability (G-differentiability). Next, we obtain explicit formulas of solutions and the conditions of their existence for a special class of these problems. Finally, the results are illustrated by solving some examples.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Antagonism of cysteinyl leukot-riene receptor 1 (cysLT1R) by montelukast regulates differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells under overloaded mechanical environment

Long-term exposure to overloaded mechanical environment induces bone fatigue damage symptoms and osteoblast damages. Montelukast is a selective cysteinyl leukot-riene receptor 1 (cysLT1R) antagonist, which has been used for the treatment of bronchial asthma in clinics. In the current study, we have identified a novel pharmacological role of montelukast by finding that it has protective properties against overload damage in osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells. Firstly, our results show that CysLT1R is expressed in MC3T3-E1 cells. Mechanical tensile strain of 5000–7000 με resulted in a significant upregulation of CysLT1R in osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells in an intensity dependent manner. Secondly, MTT assay indicates that loading with 5000 με mechanical strain inhibited cell proliferation, which was suppressed by montelukast treatment. Furthermore, montelukast promotes cell differentiation by increasing the expression of ALP and RUNX2. Alizarin Red S staining assay showed that montelukast abolished the inhibitory effects of overload mechanics on osteoblast mineralization. Mechanistically, the effect of montelukast on osteoblastic differentiation acted by activating the extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK) pathway. The obtained results suggested that montelukast promotes proliferation and differentiation in osteoblasts exposed to overload mechanics.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

C/EBPβ contributes to transcriptional activation of long non-coding RNA NEAT1 during APL cell differentiation

Emerging evidences have shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in cancer development and cancer therapy. LncRNA Nuclear Enriched Abundant Transcript 1 (NEAT1) is indispensable during acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) cell differentiation induced by all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA). However, the precise mechanism of NEAT1 upregulation has not been fully understood. In this study, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation and luciferase reporter assays to demonstrate that C/EBP family transcription factor C/EBPβ bind to and transactivate the promoter of lncRNA NEAT1 through the C/EBPβ binding sites both around −54 bp and −1453 bp upstream of the transcription start site. Moreover, the expression of C/EBPβ was increased after ATRA treatment, and the binding of C/EBPβ in the NEAT1 promoter was also dramatically increased. Finally, knockdown of C/EBPβ significantly reduced the ATRA-induced upregulation of NEAT1. In conclusion, C/EBPβ directly activates the expression of NEAT1 through binding to the promoter of NEAT1. Knockdown of C/EBPβ impairs ATRA-induced transcriptional activation of NEAT1. Our data indicate that C/EBPβ contributes to ATRA-induced activation of NEAT1 during APL cell differentiation. Our results enrich our knowledge on the regulation of lncRNAs and the regulatory role of C/EBPβ in APL cell differentiation.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

MicroRNA-425 facilitates pathogenic Th17 cell differentiation by targeting forkhead box O1 (Foxo1) and is associated with inflammatory bowel disease

Highlights: • MiR-425 expression is significantly increased in patients with IBD. • MiR-425 promotes pathogenic Th17 cell differentiation. • Foxo1 is a novel target of miR-425. • In vivo inhibition of miR-425 alleviates TNBS-induced colitis in mice. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic autoimmune disease, and its pathogenesis remains mostly unknown. MicroRNAs (miRs) has drawn much attention as a crucial regulator of autoimmune diseases. In this study, we demonstrated, for the first time, that miR-425 was significantly up-regulated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and mucosa of patients with IBD. In note, T helper (Th) 17 cells were found to be the major source of miR-425 expression. Using gain-of-function approaches, we demonstrated that miR-425 could facilitate the differentiation of CD4{sup +} T cells into Th17 lineage. In addition, forkhead box O1 (Foxo1) was identified as a novel target gene of miR-425, which was able to inhibit Th17 cell differentiation, and it was observed to be markedly decreased in PBMC and mucosa of patients with IBD. Notably, in vivo inhibition of miR-425 significantly alleviated the disease severity of TNBS-induced colitis in mice, with down-regulated levels of IL-17A. Our data reveal a novel mechanism in which the elevated miR-425 in IBD mediates pathogenic Th17 cell generation through down-regulation of Foxo1. In vivo blockade of miR-425 may serve as a novel therapeutic approach in the treatment of IBD.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

CTLA-4 regulates T follicular regulatory cell differentiation and participates in intestinal damage caused by spontaneous autoimmunity

Highlights: • CTLA-4 deficiency leads to spontaneous humoural autoimmune intestinal injury. • CTLA-4 deficiency leads to differentiation obstacles in Tfr cells. • A Tfr shortage leads to non-specific humoural immunity enhancement. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) is a co-inhibitory molecule expressed by T cells and is required for immune regulation and inflammation prevention. In clinical patients, the CTLA-4 mutation causes spontaneous immune-related early-onset Crohn's disease; however, its potential mechanism is still unknown. In the current study, we found that defects in CTLA-4 in CD4 cells lead to limited differentiation of T follicular regulatory (Tfr) cells and relatively increased T follicular helper (Tfh) cells and spontaneous B cell germinal centres (GCs) responses that trigger the accumulation of autoantibodies in intestinal epithelial cells. In addition, the deficiency of Tfr cells caused by defects in CTLA-4 causes these cells to lose their function of inhibiting the non-specific immune response produced during the specific humoural immune response induced by MCMV (mouse cytomegalovirus), resulting in acute intestinal injury and death in mice. The lack of Tfr cells may be responsible for the immunosuppressive disorder of inflammatory bowel disease caused by CTLA-4 deficiency. In conclusion, we verified that CTLA-4 may be required for Tfr cell differentiation and production. Tfr cells inhibit B cell responses and prevent humoural autoimmune-mediated intestinal damage by regulating Tfh-dependent GC responses.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Non-intrusive data-driven model reduction for differential–algebraic equations derived from lifting transformations

In this paper we present a non-intrusive data-driven approach for model reduction of nonlinear systems. The approach considers the particular case of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) that form systems of partial differential–algebraic equations (PDAEs) when lifted to polynomial form. Such systems arise, for example, when the governing equations include Arrhenius reaction terms (e.g., in reacting flow models) and thermodynamic terms (e.g., the Helmholtz free energy terms in a phase-field solidification model). Using the known structured form of the lifted algebraic equations, the approach computes the reduced operators for the algebraic equations explicitly, using straightforward linear algebra operations on the basis matrices. The reduced operators for the differential equations are inferred from lifted snapshot data using operator inference, which solves a linear least squares regression problem. The approach is illustrated for the nonlinear model of solidification of a pure material. The lifting transformations reformulate the solidification PDEs as a system of PDAEs that have cubic structure. The operators of the lifted system for this solidification example have affine dependence on key process parameters, permitting us to learn a parametric reduced model with operator inference. Numerical experiments show the effectiveness of the resulting reduced models in capturing key aspects of the solidification dynamics.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Learning subgrid-scale models with neural ordinary differential equations

We propose a new approach to learning the subgrid-scale model when simulating partial differential equations (PDEs) solved by the method of lines and their representation in chaotic ordinary differential equations, based on neural ordinary differential equations (NODEs). Solving systems with fine temporal and spatial grid scales is an ongoing computational challenge, and closure models are generally difficult to tune. Machine learning approaches have increased the accuracy and efficiency of computational fluid dynamics solvers. In this approach neural networks are used to learn the coarse- to fine-grid map, which can be viewed as subgrid-scale parameterization. We propose a strategy that uses the NODE and partial knowledge to learn the source dynamics at a continuous level. Our method inherits the advantages of NODEs and can be used to parameterize subgrid scales, approximate coupling operators, and improve the efficiency of low-order solvers. Numerical results with the two-scale Lorenz 96 ODE, the convection-diffusion PDE, and the viscous Burgers' PDE are used to illustrate this approach.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗