Temperature adaptability of the soluble lead flow battery using different solutions of fluoborate,perchlorate, methanesulfonate and trifluoromethanesulfonate

The evaluation of cell's weatherability is of practical interest. To further improve the soluble lead flow battery's weatherability, physiochemical properties of electrolytes containing fluoborate, perchlorate, methanesulfonate and trifluoromethanesulfonate are investigated from ?60 to 50 °C. Activities of CF₃SO₃H and HClO₄ are poor in trifluoromethanesulfonate and perchlorate solutions due to common anion effect. The solubility of lead salt can be improved by increasing temperature, but worsened by increasing acid's content. With the temperature increasing, the conductivity is enhanced, and the viscosity is lowered for four solutions. The same results have been found by increasing acid's content except for CF₃SO₃H. The high energy efficiency can be achieved for cells over ?40–0 °C using fluoborate and perchlorate solutions, 73.2% at ?40 °C and 78.1% at ?30 °C respectively. Over the temperature range of 20–50 °C, the cells with methanesulfonate and trifluoromethanesulfonate solutions have good performance, 77.4% and 73.7% at 50 °C respectively.     

车用复合材料板簧性能的有限元分析

为了初步验证所设计复合材料板簧的结构性能,利用有限元分析方法对复合材料板簧结构的静载力学和动态疲劳进行了研究。计算得到空载工况加载过程中的载荷—位移曲线,板簧刚度为373 N/mm。当两端施加载荷为64.7 kN时,板簧达到最大压缩应力。结合复合材料的S—N曲线对板簧寿命进行了估算,循环次数最低处位于板簧下表面靠近卷耳部分,循环次数为33万次。对比复合材料板簧的设计刚度和疲劳寿命,与有限元分析处理方法计算所得结果较为接近,该板簧结构基本符合使用要求。     

Towards a Better Prediction of Cell Settling on Nanostructure Arrays—Simple Means to Complicated Ends

Vertical arrays of nanostructures (NSs) are emerging as promising platforms for probing and manipulating live mammalian cells. The broad range of applications requires different types of interfaces, but cell settling on NS arrays is not yet fully controlled and understood. Cells are both seen to deform completely into NS arrays and to stay suspended like tiny fakirs, which have hitherto been explained with differences in NS spacing or density. Here, a better understanding of this phenomenon is provided by using a model that takes into account the extreme membrane deformation needed for a cell to settle into a NS array. It is shown that, in addition to the NS density, cell settling depends strongly on the dimensions of the single NS, and that the settling can be predicted for a given NS array geometry. The predictive power of the model is confirmed by experiments and good agreement with cases from the literature. Furthermore, the influence of cell‐related parameters is evaluated theoretically and a generic method of tuning cell settling through surface coating is demonstrated experimentally. These findings allow a more rational design of NS arrays for the numerous exciting biological applications where the mode of cell settling is crucial.     

Fundamental Evaluation of Power Supply and Rectifiers for Wireless Power Transfer Using Magnetic Resonant Coupling

This paper provides a fundamental analysis of a power supply and rectifiers for wireless power transfer using magnetic resonant coupling (MRC). MRC enables efficient wireless power transfer over middle‐range transfer distances. MRC for wireless power transfer should operate at a high frequency in the industry science medical band, such as 13.56 MHz, because the size of the transfer device decreases at higher transfer frequencies. Therefore, the output frequency of the power supply on the transmitting side should be 13.56 MHz. In addition, the rectifier on the receiving side is operated at a high frequency. This paper focuses on the reflected power in the power supply and rectifiers. Thus, the parametric design method is clarified for the power supply, including a low‐pass filter to match the output, the impedance of the power supply with the characteristic impedance of the transmission line. In addition, the effects on the rectifiers of silicon carbide and gallium nitride diodes are confirmed by performing an experiment and a loss analysis.     

In Silico Analysis and Experimental Validation of Active Compounds from Cichorium intybus L. Ameliorating Liver Injury

This study aimed at investigating the possible mechanisms of hepatic protective activity of Cichorium intybus L. (chicory) in acute liver injury. Pathological observation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection and measurements of biochemical indexes on mouse models proved hepatic protective effect of Cichorium intybus L. Identification of active compounds in Cichorium intybus L. was executed through several methods including ultra performance liquid chromatography/time of flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-TOF-MS). Similarity ensemble approach (SEA) docking, molecular modeling, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation were applied in this study to explore possible mechanisms of the hepato-protective potential of Cichorium intybus L. We then analyzed the chemical composition of Cichorium intybus L., and found their key targets. Furthermore, in vitro cytological examination and western blot were used for validating the efficacy of the selected compounds. In silico analysis and western blot together demonstrated that selected compound 10 in Cichorium intybus L. targeted Akt-1 in hepatocytes. Besides, compound 13 targeted both caspase-1 and Akt-1. These small compounds may ameliorate liver injury by acting on their targets, which are related to apoptosis or autophagy. The conclusions above may shed light on the complex molecular mechanisms of Cichorium intybus L. acting on hepatocytes and ameliorating liver injury.     

A practical reliability assessment approach and its application for pile-stabilized slopes using FORM and support vector machine

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - Many uncertainties exist in pile-stabilized slopes which make their design substantially complicated. In this paper, a first-order reliability...     

Characteristics of tiger nut milk: effects of milling

A standard method for the extraction of tiger nut milk has been introduced. It has been shown that, although milling duration improves the yield of tiger nut milk solids and its nutrient composition, there is a quantifiable loss of nutrient in the pressing residue during milk extraction. Milling duration improved the colloidal stability of the milk against creaming during 16 h of storage. A higher milling intensity resulted in the aggregation of biological polymers which resulted in colloidal destabilisation. Milling improved the lightness and stability and reduced browning rate of the tiger nut milk during storage. This report is important for the production of tiger nut milk of consistent and comparable characteristics. Milling has been introduced as a processing method for the qualitative and quantitative modulation of the properties of tiger nut milk. It is recommended to develop further strategies to improve the colloidal stability of tiger nut milk as a beverage.     

A Student's t-based density peaks clustering with superpixel segmentation (tDPCSS) method for image color clustering

Image color clustering is a basic technique in image processing and computer vision, which is often applied in image segmentation, color transfer, contrast enhancement, object detection, skin color capture, and so forth. Various clustering algorithms have been employed for image color clustering in recent years. However, most of the algorithms require a large amount of memory or a predetermined number of clusters. In addition, some of the existing algorithms are sensitive to the parameter configurations. In order to tackle the above problems, we propose an image color clustering method named Student's t-based density peaks clustering with superpixel segmentation (tDPCSS), which can automatically obtain clustering results, without requiring a large amount of memory, and is not dependent on the parameters of the algorithm or the number of clusters. In tDPCSS, superpixels are obtained based on automatic and constrained simple non-iterative clustering, to automatically decrease the image data volume. A Student's t kernel function and a cluster center selection method are adopted to eliminate the dependence of the density peak clustering on parameters and the number of clusters, respectively. The experiments undertaken in this study confirmed that the proposed approach outperforms k-means, fuzzy c-means, mean-shift clustering, and density peak clustering with superpixel segmentation in the accuracy of the cluster centers and the validity of the clustering results.