Experimental study on the microstructure and nanomechanical properties of the wing membrane of dragonfly

Detailed investigations on the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the wing membrane of the dragonfly are carried out. It is found that in the direction of the thickness the membrane was divided into three layers rather than a single entity as traditionally considered, and on the surfaces the membrane displays a random distribution rough microstructure that is composed of numerous nanometer scale columns coated by the cuticle wax secreted. The characteristics of the surface structure are measured and described. The mechanical properties of the membranes taken separately from the wings of live and dead dragonflies are investigated by the nanoindentation technique. The Young's moduli obtained here are approximately two times greater than the previous result, and the reasons that yield the difference are discussed.

Microstructure and nanomechanical properties of the wing membrane of dragonfly

Detailed investigations on the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the wing membrane of the dragonfly were carried out. It was found that in the direction of the thickness the membrane was divided into three layers rather than as traditionally considered as a single entity, and on the surfaces the membrane displayed a random distribution rough microstructure that was composed of numerous nanometer scale columns coated by the cuticle wax secreted. The characteristics of the surfaces were accurately measured and a statistical radial distribution function of the columns was presented to describe the structural properties of the surfaces. Based on the surface microstructure, the mechanical properties of the membranes taken separately from the wings of living and dead dragonflies were investigated by the nanoindentation technique. The Young's moduli obtained here are approximately two times greater than the previous result, and the reasons that yield the difference are discussed. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Shape Optimization for Hypersonic Arc-Wing Missiles

National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO.90916013)

Gender effect on the right-left discrimination task in a sample of heroin-dependent patients

Rationale: Discriminating right from left is an everyday cognitive ability. Repeated exposure to certain drugs, such as heroin, can produce poor performance on many cognitive tasks. However, it is yet unclear whether drug abuse impairs the ability of right-left discrimination. Objectives: The aim of the present study is to examine whether the spatial ability measured by the right-left discrimination task can be affected by heroin abuse and whether such drug effect, if it exists, is gender related. Methods: A paper-and-pen test was used. The test consists of line drawings of a person with no arm, one arm, or both arms crossing the vertical body axis of the figure. The line drawings are viewed from the back, from the front, or randomly alternating between the back and front drawings. The subjects task is to mark which is the right or left hand in the figure as fast as possible. Results: A main finding in this study was that the ability to discriminate between left and right in visual space was impaired in heroin-dependent patients. Especially, heroin-dependent females performed poorer than control females in all conditions but heroin-dependent males only performed poorly in part of conditions. Conclusions: Recent heroin abuse impairs the ability of right-left discrimination and such impairment is gender related: heroin-dependent females demonstrated greater performance deficits than males.

Fish-Specific Duplicated dmrt2b Contributes to a Divergent Function through Hedgehog Pathway and Maintains Left-Right Asymmetry Establishment Function

Gene duplication is thought to provide raw material for functional divergence and innovation. Fish-specific dmrt2b has been identified as a duplicated gene of the dmrt2a/terra in fish genomes, but its function has remained unclear. Here we reveal that Dmrt2b knockdown zebrafish embryos display a downward tail curvature and have U-shaped somites. Then, we demonstrate that Dmrt2b contributes to a divergent function in somitogenesis through Hedgehog pathway, because Dmrt2b knockdown reduces target gene expression of Hedgehog signaling, and also impairs slow muscle development and neural tube patterning through Hedgehog signaling. Moreover, the Dmrt2b morphants display defects in heart and visceral organ asymmetry, and, some lateral-plate mesoderm (LPM) markers expressed in left side are randomized. Together, these data indicate that fish-specific duplicated dmrt2b contributes to a divergent function in somitogenesis through Hedgehog pathway and maintains the common function for left-right asymmetry establishment.

Characteristics of band structures in 1D photonic crystals containing alternate left-right handed materials

This work investigated analytically the band structure of photonic crystals (PCs) with alternate layers of left and right-handed materials in one-dimension. It was found that, under certain conditions, new peculiar band structures not seen in all right-handed material PCs appeared. We transformed the analytic dispersion relation into two cosine terms, and obtained an interesting band structure using the new form of dispersion equation. Conditions for obtaining such peculiar band structure were given. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Propulsion characteristics of wing-in-ground effect dual-foil propulsors

Propulsion characteristics of wing-in-ground effect propulsors were investigated using a comparative analysis of thrust and powering characteristics between wing-in-ground (WIG) effect thrusters and traditional screw propellers. WIG thrusters were found to have constant thrust production and efficiency, nearly independent of speed of advance, as contrary to screw propellers, whose optimum efficiency occurs at only one speed point. To produce the same amount of thrust as equivalent screw propellers, WIG thrusters have to work under heavily loaded operating conditions. WIG thrusters were also found to produce a relatively lower but nearly constant efficiency and thrust, independent of speed. Another distinguishing propulsion characteristic revealed for WIG thrusters is that they are capable of operating at much higher speeds, in a range of three to six times that of screw propellers of the same size. While the speed range of screw propellers is mainly limited by their geometric pitch, the speed range of WIG thrusters has no speed limit in ideal fluid. In reality, the speed range is only limited by viscous drag and cavitation, or compressibility, in water or air, respectively. This suggests a potential for WIG thrusters of higher speed application than screw propellers. An experimental investigation and validation of the propulsion system is warranted. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.