• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.1330-1338
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• 2018

High-density UMo/Zr monolithic nuclear fuel plates have a promising application prospect in high flux research and test reactors. The solid state welding method called co-rolling is used for their fabrication. Hot co-rolling simulations for the composite blanks of UMo/Zr monolithic nuclear fuel plates are performed. The effects of coupon sizes and mechanical property parameters on the contact pressures between the to-be-bonded surfaces are investigated and analyzed. The numerical simulation results indicate that 1) the maximum contact pressures between the fuel coupon and the Zircaloy cover exist near the central line along the plate length direction; as a whole the contact pressures decrease toward the edges in the plate width direction; and lower contact pressures appear at a large zone near the coupon corner, where de-bonding is easy to take place in the in-pile irradiation environments; 2) the maximum contact pressures between the fuel coupon and the Zircaloy parts increase with the initial coupon thickness; after reaching a certain thickness value, the contact pressures hardly change, which was mainly induced by the complex deformation mechanism and special mechanical constitutive relation of fuel coupon; 3) softer fuel coupon will result in lower contact pressures and form interfaces being more out-of-flatness.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.265-272
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• 2024

In this paper, the problem of static bending of axially functionally graded (AFG) nanobeam is formulated with the local stress(Lσ)- and strain-driven(εD) two-phase local/nonlocal integral models (TPNIMs). The novelty of the present study aims to compare the size-effects of nonlocal integral models on bending deflections of AFG Euler-Bernoulli nano-beams. The integral relation between strain and nonlocal stress components based on two types nonlocal integral models is transformed unitedly and equivalently into differential form with constitutive boundary conditions. Purely LσD- and εD-NIMs would lead to ill-posed mathematical formulation, and Purely εD- and LσD-nonlocal differential models (NDM) may result in inconsistent size-dependent bending responses. The general differential quadrature method is applied to obtain the numerical results for bending deflection and moment of AFG nanobeam subjected to different boundary and loading conditions. The influence of AFG index, nonlocal models, and nonlocal parameters on the bending deflections of AFG Euler-Bernoulli nanobeams is investigated numerically. A consistent softening effects can be obtained for both LσD- and εD-TPNIMs. The results from current work may provide useful guidelines for designing and optimizing AFG Euler-Bernoulli beam based nano instruments.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.863-870
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• 2012

Rhodopsin, a dim light photoreceptor, has been regarded as one of the model systems for the structural and functional study of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Constitutively active mutant GPCRs leading to the activation of heterotrimeric GDP/GTP-binding protein signaling in the absence of ligand binding are of interest for the study of the activation mechanism in GPCRs. The present study focused on the opsin mutant E134Q/M257Y, which showed a moderate level of constitutive activity and the formation of two distinct rhodopsin chromophores with absorption maxima of 500 nm and 380 nm, depending on the presence of an inverse agonist, 11-cis-retinal, and an agonist, all-trans-retinal, respectively. Reconstitution of the mutant rhodopsin upon incubation with different ratios of 11-cis-retinal and the all-trans-retinal, as well as upon sequential binding of the two retinals, indicated its preferential binding to 11-cis-retinal. The thermal stability of the 11-cis-retinal-bound form of the E134Q/M257Y mutant was lower than that of the mutants containing a single replacement but higher than that of the all-trans-retinal-bound forms. The mutant also showed a lower stability in its opsin state as compared with that of the wild-type opsin but had little effects on the binding affinity to 11-cis-retinal. Information obtained in this study will be helpful for analyzing the structural changes associated with the activation of rhodopsin and GPCRs.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.127-139
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• 2004

Laccases are multicopper-containing enzymes which catalyze the oxidation of phenolic and nonphenolic compounds with the concomitant reduction of molecular oxygen. They often occur as isoenzymes, either constitutive or inducible, that oligomerize to multilateral complexes, what allow for penetration to the woody cell wall structure. White rot basidiomycete fungi may produce a number of laccase isoenzymes, some constitutively and others after induction. Fungal laccase is commonly induced by many ions, such as $Cu^{2+}$, $Cd^{2+}$ $Ca^{2+}$, $Li^+$, $Mn^{2+}$, $Ag^+$, $Hg^{2+}$, Mn and $Fe^{3+}$, phenolic compounds, some organic compounds, such as ethanol, isopropanol, cAMP, caffeine, p-anisidine, viscosinamide and paraquat, and nitrogens and even heat shock. A combination of Cu and pHB (p-hydroxybenzoic acid) made it possible to extend the inducible laccase activities over 30-fold. But the most effective inducer of laccase in the basidiomycete and other higher fungi is 2,5-xylidine, over 160-fold stimulation of laccase activity. The laccases are frequently encoded by gene families, as e.g. in Pycnoporus cinnabarinus, from which the lcc3-1 or the allelic form lac1 and lac3-2 have been cloned and sequenced. In the case of inducible forms the post-inductional laccase formation depends upon the synthesis of mRNA and the induction is due to the synthesis of a new protein.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.519-532
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• 2018

In this work, two dimensional (2D) and quasi three-dimensional (quasi-3D) HSDTs are proposed for bending and free vibration investigation of functionally graded (FG) plates using hyperbolic shape function. Unlike the existing HSDT, the proposed theories have a novel displacement field which include undetermined integral terms and contains fewer unknowns. The material properties of the plate is inhomogeneous and are considered to vary continuously in the thickness direction by three different distributions; power-law, exponential and Mori-Tanaka model, in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The governing equations which consider the effects of both transverse shear and thickness stretching are determined through the Hamilton's principle. The closed form solutions are deduced by employing Navier method and then fundamental frequencies are obtained by solving the results of eigenvalue problems. In-plane stress components have been determined by the constitutive equations of composite plates. The transverse stress components have been determined by integrating the 3D stress equilibrium equations in the thickness direction of the FG plate. The accuracy of the present formulation is demonstrated by comparisons with the different 2D, 3D and quasi-3D solutions available in the literature.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.18 no.1 s.91
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• pp.37-46
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• 2006

The principal objective of this study is to assess the hierarchical effects of defects on the elastic stiffness properties at different levels of observation. In particular, quantitative damage measures which characterize the fundamental mode of degradation in the form of elastic damage provide quite insightful meanings at the level of constitutive relations and at the level of structures. For illustration, a total of three model problems of increasing complexity, a 1-D bar structure, a 2-D stress concentration problem, and a heterogeneous composite material made of a matrix with particle inclusions. Considering a damage scenario for the particle inclusions the material system degrades from a composite with very stiff inclusions to a porous material with an intact matrix skeleton. In other damage scenario for the matrix, the material system degrades from a composite made of a very stiff skeleton to a disconnected assembly of particles because of progressive matrix erosion. The trace-back and forth of tight bounds in terms of the reduction of the lowest eigenvalues are extensively discussed at different levels of observation.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4A
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• pp.287-293
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• 2011

This paper investigates the applicability of a piezoelectric cantilever for energy supply of wireless sensor node used in structural health monitoring of bridges. By combining the constitutive equation of piezoelectric material and the dynamic equation of cantilever structure, the coupled governing equation for cantilever equipped piezoelectric patches has been addressed in matrix form. Forced excitation tests were carried out to validate the numerical model and to investigate the power output characteristics of the energy harvester. From the numerical simulation based on the measured bridge accelerations under KTX, Saemaul, Mugunghwa trains, the peak powers generated from the device were found to be 28.5 mW, 0.65 mW, 0.51 mW respectively. It is revealed from the results that bridge vibrations caused by moving loads is not a practical source for energy harvesting because of its low acceleration level, low frequency and short duration.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.997-1016
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• 2015

The contribution of tensioned concrete between cracks (tension-stiffening) cannot be ignored when analysing deformation of reinforced concrete elements. The tension-stiffening effect is crucial when it comes to adequately estimating the load-deformation response of steel reinforced concrete and the more recently appeared fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforced concrete. This paper presents a unified methodology for numerical modelling of the tension-stiffening effect in steel as well as FRP reinforced flexural members using the concept of equivalent deformation modulus and the smeared crack approach to obtain a modified stress-strain relation of the reinforcement. A closed-form solution for the equivalent secant modulus of deformation of the tensioned reinforcement is proposed for rectangular sections taking the Eurocode 2 curvature prediction technique as the reference. Using equations based on general principles of structural mechanics, the main influencing parameters are obtained. It is found that the ratio between the equivalent stiffness and the initial stiffness basically depends on the product of the modular ratio and reinforcement ratio ($n{\rho}$), the effective-to-total depth ratio (d/h), and the level of loading. The proposed methodology is adequate for numerical modelling of tension-stiffening for different FRP and steel reinforcement, under both service and ultimate conditions. Comparison of the predicted and experimental data obtained by the authors indicates that the proposed methodology is capable to adequately model the tension-stiffening effect in beams reinforced with FRP or steel bars within wide range of loading.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.576-581
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• 2005

Phytase improves the bioavailability of phytate phosphorus in plant foods to humans and animals, and reduces the phosphorus pollution of animal waste. We have engineered the cell surface of the yeast. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, by anchoring active fungal phytase on its cell wall, in order to apply it as a dietary supplement containing bioconversional functions in animal foods and a whole cell bio-catalyst for the treatment of waste. The phytase gene (phyA) of Aspergillus niger with a signal peptide of rice amylase 1A (Ramy1A) was fused with the gene encoding the C-terminal half (320 amino acid residues from the C-terminus) of yeast ${\alpha}-agglutinin$, a protein which is involved in mating and is covalently anchored to the cell wall. The resulting fusion construct was introduced into S. cerevisiae and expressed under the control of the constitutive glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD) promoter. Phytase plate assay revealed that the surface-engineered cell exhibited a catalytically active opaque zone which was restricted to the margin of the colony. Additionally, the phytase activity was detected in the cell fraction, but was not detected in the culture medium when it was grown in liquid. These results indicate that the phytase was successfully anchored to the cell surface of yeast and was displayed as its active form. The amount of recombinant phytase on the surface of yeast cells was estimated to be 16,000 molecules per cell.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.317-323
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• 2008

In the current study, A model for the flow analysis of fresh and highly flowable concrete has been developed using a particle method, the moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method. The phenomena on the flow of concrete has been considered as a visco-plastic flow problem, and the basic governing equation of concrete particle dynamics has been based on the Navier-Stokes equation in Lagrangian form and the conservation of mass. In order to formulate a visco-plastic flow constitutive law of fresh concrete, concrete is modeled as a highly viscous material in the state of non-flow and as a visco-plastic material in the state of flow after reaching the yield stress of fresh concrete. A flow test of fresh concrete in the L-box was simulated and the predicted flow was well matched with the experimental result. The developed method was well showed the flow motion of concrete particles because it was formulated to be based on the motion of visco-plastic fluid dynamics.