Geopolymer concrete-filled pultruded composite beams – Concrete mix design and application

The limited research on the geopolymer concrete mix design for targeting a specific strength is identified an obstacle for their effective design and wide use. In this paper, a mix design procedure has been proposed for fly-ash based geopolymer concrete and its use as infill hybrid composite beam is investigated. Then, the structural performance of geopolymer concrete filled hybrid composite beam is investigated to determine their possible application in civil infrastructure. Firstly, a detailed procedure of mix design for fly-ash based geopolymer concrete is presented. Secondly, three hybrid beams filled with geopolymer concrete were prepared and tested in a four-point bending setup to evaluate their flexural modulus and modulus of rupture. Numerical and analytical evaluation of the behaviour of hybrid beam were performed and results showed a good agreement with the experimental investigation. Thirdly, the suitability of the beam for a composite railway sleeper is evaluated and compared with existing timber and composite sleepers. Finally, the beams’ performance in a ballast railway track is analysed using Strand7 finite element simulation software and the results showed that the new concept of using geopolymer concrete as infill to pultruded composite section satisfied the stiffness and strength requirements for a railway sleeper.     

Effect of in-app components,medium, and screen size of electronic textbooks on reading performance,behavior, and perception

Although many app-based textbooks are available for students, reading have not been thoroughly outlined. This study aimed to understand how changes from paper to electronic textbooks have affected the academic reading task, investigate student users’ perceptions of in-app components and screen sizes, and identify issues affecting in-app components and task requirements. A mixed factorial design experiment was employed. Results showed that there were no significant changes in comprehension and time spent reading between print text and the iPad. Yet, student highlighting, notetaking, and reading behavior and perception significantly changed based on condition. In addition, students struggled to use in-app components and found them frustrating especially when accounting for sentence splitting. The findings presented can assist in understanding the changes in student reading behavior, which can be used to improve interface design of future e-textbooks.     

古建筑木结构透榫节点力学模型研究

为研究古建筑木结构透榫节点的M-θ力学模型，在分析透榫节点构造特征与受力机理的基础上，建立其数值模型，用透榫节点的试验数据验证了该数值模型的正确性，并分析了节点缝隙、木材横纹弹性模量和大榫头长度对透榫节点受弯承载力的影响。根据受力分析结果，建立以弹性点、屈服点与极限点为特征点的三折线多参数M-θ力学模型，其结果与多数的试验结果基本吻合，并将该力学模型应用于木构架的受力分析。研究结果表明：透榫节点的滞回耗能能力强，节点的变形主要集中在榫头处。当榫头与卯口之间的缝隙增大时，节点的受弯承载力降低。随木材横纹弹性模量的提高和大榫头长度的增加，节点的受弯承载力有一定提高。文章建立的M-θ力学模型能较好反映透榫节点的受力过程，适用于木构架的受力分析，其荷载 位移骨架曲线与试验结果基本吻合。研究成果可为古建筑木结构的维修与保护提供参考。     

Aqueous One-pot Synthesis of Glycopolymers by Glycosidase-catalyzed Glycomonomer Synthesis Using 4,6-Dimetoxy Triazinyl Glycoside Followed by Radical Polymerization

Glycopolymers have attracted increased attention as functional polymeric materials, and simple methods for synthesizing glycopolymers remain needed. This paper reports the aqueous one-pot and chemoenzymatic synthesis of four types of glycopolymers via two reactions: the β-galactosidase-catalyzed glycomonomer synthesis using 4,6-dimetoxy triazinyl β-D-galactopyranoside and hydroxy group-containing (meth)acrylamide and (meth)acrylate derivatives as the activated glycosyl donor substrate and as the glycomonomer precursors, respectively, followed by radical copolymerization of the resulting glycomonomer and excess glycomonomer precursor without isolating the glycomonomers. The resulting glycopolymers bearing galactose moieties exhibited specific and strong interactions with the lectin peanut agglutinin as glycoclusters.     

超高效液相色谱串联质谱法测定烟草中的噁霉灵残留

为降低烟草中噁霉灵检测中的基质干扰，提高检测灵敏度和和稳定性，通过试验建立了以QuEChERS为样品前处理方法、液相色谱串联质谱仪为检测仪器的烟草中噁霉灵残留检测方法。样品加水浸润后，经丙酮提取、盐析试剂包除水、石墨化炭黑除杂后，采用Agilent ZORBAX 300SB-C8液相色谱柱（2.1 mm×100 mm，1.8 μm）分离，甲醇-水程序洗脱，ESI雾化，串联质谱MRM检测。结果发现，该方法在0.0025~0.0500 mg/L范围内线性良好，决定系数r²=0.9996，定量检测限1.06 μg/L，回收率在90.8%~92.0%之间，相对标准偏差为5.1%。运用该方法测定烟草中的噁霉灵，操作简单，检测精度高，满足CORESTA对烟草农残检测的要求。     

高密度聚乙烯/铅硼复合材料屏蔽性能和力学性能研究

研究了高密度聚乙烯/铅硼复合材料的屏蔽性能和力学性能，通过屏蔽仿真比较了密度及碳化硼（B4C）含量对屏蔽性能的影响，通过试验比较了B4C含量对屏蔽性能、弯曲强度及冲击强度的影响。仿真结果表明,随聚乙烯/铅硼复合材料密度升高，快中子屏蔽性能下降，热中子屏蔽性能和γ屏蔽性能提高；保持聚乙烯/铅硼复合材料密度不变，随B4C含量的提高，中子屏蔽性能提高而γ屏蔽性能下降;实验数据表明,随B4C含量的升高，高密度聚乙烯/铅硼材料的快中子屏蔽性能、热中子屏蔽性能升高，γ屏蔽系数下降，冲击强度和弯曲强度下降明显，屏蔽性能测试结果和仿真结果规律性相符；综合仿真结果和实验数据表明，含B4C 2 %左右的高密度聚乙烯/铅硼复合材料同时具有较好的屏蔽性能和力学性能。     

Formation of ST12 phase Ge nanoparticles in ZnO thin films

In this work, we focus on the Ge nanoparticles (Ge-np) embedded ZnO multilayered thin films. Effects of reactive and nonreactive growth of ZnO layers on the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) induced formation of Ge-np have been specifically investigated. The samples were deposited by sequential r.f. and d.c. sputtering of ZnO and Ge thin film layers, respectively on Si substrates. As-prepared thin film samples have been exposed to an ex-situ RTA at 600 °C for 60 s under forming gas atmosphere. Structural characterizations have been performed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Raman scattering, Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) techniques. It has been realized that reactive or nonreactive growth of ZnO layers significantly influences the morphology of the ZnO: Ge samples, most prominently the crystal structure of Ge-np. XRD and Raman analysis have revealed that while reactive growth results in a mixture of diamond cubic (DC) and simple tetragonal (ST12) Ge-np, nonreactive growth leads to the formation of only DC Ge-np upon RTA process. Formation of ST12 Ge-np has been discussed based on structural differences due to reactive and nonreactive growth of ZnO embedding layer.     

基于改进人工蜂群算法的多目标绿色柔性作业车间调度研究

针对多目标绿色柔性作业车间调度问题（MGFJSP）的特点，提出从碳排放量、噪声和废弃物这3个指标来综合评定环境污染程度，建立了以最小化最大完成时间和环境污染程度为优化目标的MGFJSP模型，并提出了一种改进的人工蜂群算法来求解该模型。算法的具体改进包括：设计了一种三维向量的编码和对应解码方案，在跟随蜂搜索阶段引入一种有效的动态邻域搜索操作来提高算法的局部搜索能力，在侦查蜂阶段提出产生新食物源的策略用于增加种群的多样性。最后进行了实验研究与算法对比，以验证所建模型和所提算法的有效性。     

Antitumor Effects of Vitamin D Analogs on Hamster and Mouse Melanoma Cell Lines in Relation to Melanin Pigmentation

Deregulated melanogenesis is involved in melanomagenesis and melanoma progression and resistance to therapy. Vitamin D analogs have anti-melanoma activity. While the hypercalcaemic effect of the active form of Vitamin D (1,25(OH)₂D₃) limits its therapeutic use, novel Vitamin D analogs with a modified side chain demonstrate low calcaemic activity. We therefore examined the effect of secosteroidal analogs, both classic (1,25(OH)₂D₃ and 25(OH)D₃), and novel relatively non-calcemic ones (20(OH)D₃, calcipotriol, 21(OH)pD, pD and 20(OH)pL), on proliferation, colony formation in monolayer and soft-agar, and mRNA and protein expression by melanoma cells. Murine B16-F10 and hamster Bomirski Ab cell lines were shown to be effective models to study how melanogenesis affects anti-melanoma treatment. Novel Vitamin D analogs with a short side-chain and lumisterol-like 20(OH)pL efficiently inhibited rodent melanoma growth. Moderate pigmentation sensitized rodent melanoma cells towards Vitamin D analogs, and altered expression of key genes involved in Vitamin D signaling, which was opposite to the effect on heavily pigmented cells. Interestingly, melanogenesis inhibited ligand-induced Vitamin D receptor translocation and ligand-induced expression of VDR and CYP24A1 genes. These findings indicate that melanogenesis can affect the anti-melanoma activity of Vitamin D analogs in a complex manner.     

Systematic convergence of nonlinear stochastic estimators on the Special Orthogonal Group SO(3)

This paper introduces two novel nonlinear stochastic attitude estimators developed on the Special Orthogonal Group with the tracking error of the normalized Euclidean distance meeting predefined transient and steady‐state characteristics. The tracking error is confined to initially start within a predetermined large set such that the transient performance is guaranteed to obey dynamically reducing boundaries and decrease smoothly and asymptotically to the origin in probability from almost any initial condition. The proposed estimators produce accurate attitude estimates with remarkable convergence properties using measurements obtained from low‐cost inertial measurement units. The estimators proposed in continuous form are complemented by their discrete versions for the implementation purposes. The simulation results illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed estimators against uncertain measurements and large initialization error, whether in continuous or discrete form.