Microgravity and bone cell mechanosensitivity.

The capacity of bone tissue to alter its mass and structure in response to mechanical demands has long been recognized but the cellular mechanisms involved remained poorly understood. Bone not only develops as a structure designed specifically for mechanical tasks, but it can adapt during life toward more efficient mechanical performance. Mechanical adaptation of bone is a cellular process and needs a biological system that senses the mechanical loading. The loading information must then be communicated to the effector cells that form new bone or destroy old bone. The in vivo operating cell stress derived from bone loading is likely the flow of interstitial fluid along the surface of osteocytes and lining cells. The response of bone cells in culture to fluid flow includes prostaglandin (PG) synthesis and expression of prostaglandin G/H synthase inducible cyclooxygenase (COX-2). Cultured bone cells also rapidly produce nitric oxide (NO) in response to fluid flow as a result of activation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (ecNOS), which enzyme also mediates the adaptive response of bone tissue to mechanical loading. Earlier studies have shown that the disruption of the actin-cytoskeleton abolishes the response to stress, suggesting that the cytoskeleton is involved in cellular mechanotransduction. Microgravity, or better near weightlessness, is associated with the loss of bone in astronauts, and has catabolic effects on mineral metabolism in bone organ cultures. This might be explained as resulting from an exceptional form of disuse under near weightlessness conditions. However, under near weightlessness conditions the assembly of cytoskeletal elements may be altered since it has been shown that the direction of the gravity vector determines microtubular pattern formation in vivo. We found earlier that the transduction of mechanical signals in bone cells also involves the cytoskeleton and is related to PGE2 production. Therefore it is possible that the mechanosensitivity of bone cells is altered under near weightlessness conditions, and that this abnormal mechanosensation contributes to disturbed bone metabolism observed in astronauts. In our current project for the International Space Station, we wish to test this hypothesis experimentally using an in vitro model. The specific aim of our research project is to test whether near weightlessness decreases the sensitivity of bone cells for mechanical stress through a decrease in early signaling molecules (NO, PGs) that are involved in the mechanical loading-induced osteogenic response. Bone cells are cultured with or without gravity prior to and during mechanical loading, using our modified in vitro oscillating fluid flow apparatus. In this "FlowSpace" project we are developing a cell culture module that is used to provide further insight in the mechanism of mechanotransduction in bone.     

SiC颗粒强韧化MoSi2复合材料研究

本文通过对热压合成制备的SiC MoSi2 复合材料显微组织及其断口形貌分析 ,结合硬度、抗弯强度、断裂韧度等力学性能和孔隙率、晶粒度的测试 ,初步探讨了SiC颗粒强韧化MoSi2 复合材料的效果和机制。     

盘形锥齿轮的横向振动特性分析

本文分析了盘形锥齿轮的横向振动特性,分析指出此种齿轮小端齿槽底横向振动周向拉应力最大,故易在此处首先出现疲劳源。对此种齿轮振动的共振条件提出了新的理论。理论分析和试验实例表明两者结果十分一致。     

Extended PGA for range migration algorithms

The phase gradient autofocus (PGA) algorithm is extended to work for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) spotlight images processed with range migration (w-k) algorithms. Several pre-processing steps are proposed for aligning the range-compressed phase-history data needed for successful autofocusing of the data. The proposed algorithm gave good results for both data with large point targets and data without point targets.     

Hard Limiting and Sequential Detection Applied to Loran-C

The combination of an antenna, a 100 kHz bandpass filter, a hard limiter, and a sequential detector can supply highly accurate Loran-C data to a digital processor, even under low signal-to-noise-ratio conditions. For such a simple, low-cost receiver, calculations are given for the accuracy of the envelope and phase tracking of the Loran-C signal as a function of the signal-to-noise (Gaussian and atmospheric) ratio, averaging time, and radian speed of the observer with respect to the transmitter. Mentioned are the quasi-noise censoring effects of the hard limiter. Besides the Loran-C application, the hard limiter-sequential detector system can in general be applied for low-cost, synchronous signal detection under poor signal-to-noise ratio.     

Process of establishing design requirements and selecting alternative configurations for conceptual design of a VLA

In this study, a process for establishing design requirements and selecting alternative con-figurations for the conceptual phase of aircraft design has been proposed. The proposed process uses system-engineering-based requirement-analysis techniques such as objective tree, analytic hier-archy process, and quality function deployment to establish logical and quantitative standards. Moreover, in order to perform a logical selection of alternative aircraft configurations, it uses advanced decision-making methods such as morphological matrix and technique for order prefer-ence by similarity to the ideal solution. In addition, a preliminary sizing tool has been developed to check the feasibility of the established performance requirements and to evaluate the flight perfor-mance of the selected configurations. The present process has been applied for a two-seater very light aircraft (VLA), resulting in a set of tentative design requirements and two families of VLA configurations: a high-wing configuration and a low-wing configuration. The resulting set of design requirements consists of three categories: customer requirements, certification requirements, and performance requirements. The performance requirements include two mission requirements for the flight range and the endurance by reflecting the customer requirements. The flight performances of the two configuration families were evaluated using the sizing tool developed and the low-wing configuration with conventional tails was selected as the best baseline configuration for the VLA.     

The influence of microgravity on invasive growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

This study investigates the effects of microgravity on colony growth and the morphological transition from single cells to short invasive filaments in the model eukaryotic organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Two-dimensional spreading of the yeast colonies grown on semi-solid agar medium was reduced under microgravity in the Σ1278b laboratory strain but not in the CMBSESA1 industrial strain. This was supported by the Σ1278b proteome map under microgravity conditions, which revealed upregulation of proteins linked to anaerobic conditions. The Σ1278b strain showed a reduced invasive growth in the center of the yeast colony. Bud scar distribution was slightly affected, with a switch toward more random budding. Together, microgravity conditions disturb spatially programmed budding patterns and generate strain-dependent growth differences in yeast colonies on semi-solid medium.