Capsiate Intake with Exercise Training Additively Reduces Fat Deposition in Mice on a High-Fat Diet,but Not without Exercise Training

While exercise training (ET) is an efficient strategy to manage obesity, it is recommended with a dietary plan to maximize the antiobesity functions owing to a compensational increase in energy intake. Capsiate is a notable bioactive compound for managing obesity owing to its capacity to increase energy expenditure. We aimed to examine whether the antiobesity effects of ET can be further enhanced by capsiate intake (CI) and determine its effects on resting energy expenditure and metabolic molecules. Mice were randomly divided into four groups (n = 8 per group) and fed high-fat diet. Mild-intensity treadmill ET was conducted five times/week; capsiate (10 mg/kg) was orally administered daily. After 8 weeks, resting metabolic rate and metabolic molecules were analyzed. ET with CI additively reduced the abdominal fat rate by 18% and solely upregulated beta-3-adrenoceptors in adipose tissue (p = 0.013) but did not affect the metabolic molecules in skeletal muscles. Surprisingly, CI without ET significantly increased the abdominal fat rate (p = 0.001) and reduced energy expenditure by 9%. Therefore, capsiate could be a candidate compound for maximizing the antiobesity effects of ET by upregulating beta-3-adrenoceptors in adipose tissue, but CI without ET may not be beneficial in managing obesity.     

A Complexing Agent to Enable a Wide-Temperature Range Bromine-Based Flow Battery for Stationary Energy Storage

Bromine-based flow batteries (Br-FBs) are considered one of the most promising energy storage systems due to their features of high energy density and low cost. However, they generally suffer from uncontrolled diffusion of corrosive bromine particularly at high temperatures. That is because the interaction between polybromide anions and the commonly used complexing agent (N–methyl–N–ethyl–pyrrolidinium bromide [MEP]) decreases with increasing temperatures, which causes serious self-discharge and capacity fade. Herein, a novel bromine complexing agent, 1–ethyl–2–methyl–pyridinium bromide (BCA), is introduced in Br-FBs to solve the above problems. It is proven that BCA can combine with polybromide anions very well even at a high temperature of 60 °C. Moreover, the BCA contributes to decreasing the electrochemical polarization of Br⁻/Br₂ couple, which in turn improves their power density. As a result, a zinc–bromine flow battery with BCA as the complexing agent can achieve a high energy efficiency of 84% at 40 mA cm⁻², even at high temperature of 60 °C and it can stably run for more than 400 cycles without obvious performance decay. This paper provides an effective complexing agent to enable a wide temperature range Br-FB.     

Inductive effect in Mn-doped ZnO nanoribon arrays grown on Ni foam: A promising key for boosted capacitive and high specific energy supercapacitors

Transition metal oxides have been explored in supercapacitor applications owing to their safety, low cost, high specific capacitance and high electrochemical activity. Among all transition metal oxides, zinc oxide based materials show remarkable response for designing the supercapacitors with high electrochemical activity. Here in, Mn doped ZnO (Zn_1-xMn_xO₃ with x = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1) was synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. Doping of Mn into the ZnO increased the surface area and decease the charge transfer resistance for the Zn_0.5Mn_0.5O₃. All the synthesized materials were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy SEM), BET, electrochemical tests and other various analytical techniques to confirm the structural, morphological, textural and suprcapacitive properties. The synthesized material Zn_0.5Mn_0.5O₃ having the porous nanoribons structure with BET surface area (2490 cm²/g). The electrochemical studies showed significantly enhanced response toward pseudocapacitive nature. The synthesized material exhibited the excellent specific capacitance (515F/g), specific energy (28.61 Wh/kg) and specific power (1000 W/kg) at current density of 2 mA/g. Such impressive and superior properties make the MnZnO₃ material as promising candidate for new generation supercapacitor applications.     

Microstructure,tribological behavior and magnetic properties of Fe−Ni−TiO2 composite coatings synthesized via pulse frequency variation

The Fe−Ni−TiO₂ nanocomposite coatings were electrodeposited by pulse frequency variation. The results showed that the nanocomposite with a very dense coating surface and a nanocrystalline structure was produced at higher frequencies. By increasing the pulse frequency from 10 to 500 Hz, the iron and TiO₂ nanoparticles contentswere increased in expense of nickel content. XRD patterns showed that by increasing the frequency to 500 Hz, an enhancement ofBCC phase was observed and the grain size of deposits was reduced to 35 nm. The microhardness and the surface roughness were increased to 647 HV and 125 nm at 500 Hz due to the grain size reduction and higher incorporation of TiO₂ nanoparticles into the Fe−Ni matrix (5.13 wt.%). Moreover, the friction coefficient and wear rate values were decreased by increasing the pulse frequency;while the saturation magnetization and coercivity values of the composite deposits were increased.     

Rapid synthesis of garnet-type Li7La3Zr2O12 solid electrolyte with superior electrochemical performance

Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂-based garnet-type solid electrolytes are promising candidates for use in all-solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLBs). However, their potential in large-scale commercial applications is largely hindered by the time/energy-consuming and lithium-wasting synthetic method which typically needs a long-duration high temperature solid state reaction process. Herein we invent a fast preparation route that involves a short-period thermal reaction (1100 °C for 10 min) in laboratory muffle furnaces following by conventional hot pressing technique to get almost fully dense (Al, Ga, Ta, Nb)-doped garnet-type electrolytes with high phase purity (>99.9 %). The large and compact grains, low porosity and high phase purities of garnet ceramic electrolytes synthesized in this study ensure superior electrochemical performance. Particularly, Ga-doped cubic Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ shows extremely low E_a values (0.17?0.18 eV) and record-high lithium ionic conductivities (>2 × 10^?3 S cm^-1 at 25 °C).     

基于组合双向拍卖的云资源调度方法

针对跨数据中心的资源调度问题，提出了一种基于组合双向拍卖（PCDA）的资源调度方案。首先，将云资源拍卖分为三个部分：云用户代理报价、云资源提供商要价、拍卖代理组织拍卖；其次，在定义用户的优先级及任务紧迫度的基础上，在拍卖过程中估算每一个工作发生的服务等级协议（SLA）违规并以此计算云提供商的收益，同时每轮竞拍允许成交多项交易；最终达到根据用户等级合理分配云资源调度的效果。仿真实验结果表明该算法保证了竞拍成功率，与传统一次拍卖成交一项的组合双向拍卖方案相比，PCDA在竞拍时间段产生的能耗降低了35.00%，拍卖云提供商的利润提高了约38.84%。     

Potential of renewable energy system utilisation at decentralised level in the state of Uttarakhand in India

ABSTRACT

Design and implementation of an effective dissemination programme for decentralised renewable energy system necessitate an accurate estimate of its utilisation potential. Hence, in this study, an attempt has been made to develop frameworks to estimate the utilisation potential of decentralised renewable energy systems in the state of Uttarakhand in India. Estimations imply large resource, technical and economic potentials of the domestic solar water heater, solar home system, solar lantern, family size biogas plant and improved biomass cookstove in Uttarakhand. With higher impact on the purchasing power of households, prevailing soft loan scheme has been found to be more appropriate than a capital subsidy for promoting the usage of decentralised renewable energy systems.     

煤磨热风管道改造的效果

中联万基水泥有限公司4500t/d熟料生产线采用SCLW4-12×13.4第四代篦冷机,煤磨热风取风口和余热发电AQC热风取风口在篦冷机同一对称位置,煤磨与余热发电系统存在争风现象,开停煤磨对余热发电系统影响较大。通过从废气管道处开孔,加装管道和电动阀,与热风管道汇合通往煤磨沉降室,调整相应阀门开度,可以控制入煤磨烟气温度,这样不但提高了余热发电量,而且提高了煤磨产量,同时也降低了窑头排风机的负荷,降低了熟料生产电耗。     

Coupling in situ experiments and modeling – Opportunities for data fusion,machine learning,and discovery of emergent behavior

This paper reviews recent studies, that not only includes both experiments and modeling components, but celebrates a close coupling between these techniques, in order to provide insights into the plasticity and failure of polycrystalline metals. Examples are provided of studies across multiple-scales, including, but not limited to, density functional theory combined with atom probe tomography, molecular dynamics combined with in situ transmission electron miscopy, discrete dislocation dynamics combined with nanopillars experiments, crystal plasticity combined with digital image correlation, and crystal plasticity combined with in situ high energy X-ray diffraction. The close synergy between in situ experiments and modeling provides new opportunities for model calibration, verification, and validation, by providing direct means of comparison, thus removing aspects of epistemic uncertainty in the approach. Further, data fusion between in situ experimental and model-based data, along with data driven approaches, provides a paradigm shift for determining the emergent behavior of deformation and failure, which is the foundation that underpins the mechanical behavior of polycrystalline materials.     

Levelized cost of energy definition – An economic paradox

Using mean value theorem for integrals we show that the well-known LCOE definition is incorrect.