Xiaowan Hydropower station’s dam located in south west of China is the second highest arch dam in the world (h = 292 m), its foundation is based on brittle rocks of biotite granite gneiss and amphibolites plagioclase gneiss. A largescale excavation around the foundation of the dam was conducted, near to 90 meters horizontal depth excavation and 130 meters vertical depth excavation, so the found...

Phloem unloading plays a pivotal part in photoassimilate transport and partitioning into sink organs. However, it remains unclear whether the unloading pathway alters to adapt to developmental transitions in sinks, especially in fleshy fruits accumulating a high level of soluble sugars. Using a combination of electron microscopy, transport of the phloem-mobile symplasmic tracer carboxyfluoresce...

Cardiac transverse (t)-tubules are altered during disease and may be regulated by stretch-sensitive molecules. The relationship between variations in the degree and duration of load and t-tubule structure remains unknown, as well as its implications for local Ca(2+)-induced Ca(2+) release (CICR). Rat hearts were studied after 4 or 8 weeks of moderate mechanical unloading [using heterotopic abdo...

Introduction Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) is used to adapt mechanical ventilation to patient demand while unloading respiratory muscles. Titration methods are focused on sustained unloading of the diaphragm while maintaining a stable tidal volume [1]. It is hypothesized that the activity of accessory respiratory muscles can supply extra information about muscle unloading and pati...

the pseudo-elastic behavior of shape memory alloy (sma) truss and cantilever beam are investigated. brinson’s one-dimensional material model, which uses the twinned and detwinned martensite fractions separately as internal variables, is applied in the algorithm to establish the sma stress-strain characteristics. this material model also incorporates different young’s modulus for austenitic and ...

This paper presents the design and implementation of class unloading in an embedded Java Virtual Machine. Even though the Java Language specification states explicitly when a given class must be unloaded there is a surprising lack of papers on a systematized and step-by-step explanation of when and how a class becomes available for unloading. This paper presents a more formalized approach to Ja...

In agricultural harvesting processes, the infield logistics of transporting the crop from the harvesters' tanks to a street transporter at the field border with an unloading vehicle is challenging. The harvesters have to be unloaded while driving and in time to prevent the loss of expensive process time. The path planning for the unloading vehicle has to consider the unharvested area as a dynam...

Transcranial magnetic brain stimulation (TMS) was used to assess the influence of the corticospinal system on motor output during forearm unloading in humans. Unloading was obtained either "passively" by the experimenter, or "actively" with the subjects' own contralateral arm. Anticipatory postural adjustments consisted of changes in the activity of a forearm flexor muscle prior to active unloa...

We examined whether the combination of isoflavone and milk basic protein both are reported to be effective for bone metabolism, prevents bone loss induced by skeletal hind-limb unloading in mice. Female ddY strain mice, aged 8 weeks, were divided into six groups (n = 6-8 each): (1) normally housed group, (2) loading group, (3) hind-limb unloading group fed a control diet, (4) hind-limb unloadin...

The effects of intermittent hypergravity on gait alterations and hindlimb muscle atrophy in rats induced by 2 weeks of simulated microgravity were investigated. Rats were submitted to hindlimb unloading for 2 weeks (unloading period), followed by 2 weeks of reloading (recovery period). During the unloading period, animals were subjected to the following treatments: (1) free in cages (Control); ...