Structural and Functional Characterization of 4-Hydroxyphenylacetate 3-Hydroxylase from Escherichia coli

The hydroxylation of phenols into polyphenols, which are valuable chemicals and pharmaceutical products, is a challenging reaction. The search for green synthetic processes has led to considering microorganisms and pure hydroxylases as catalysts for phenol hydroxylation. Herein, we report the structural and functional characterization of the flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-dependent 4-hydroxyphenylacetate 3-monooxygenase from Escherichia coli, named HpaB. It is shown that this enzyme enjoys a relatively broad substrate specificity, which allows the conversion of a number of non-natural phenolic compounds, such as tyrosol, hydroxymandelic acid, coumaric acid, hydroxybenzoic acid and its methyl ester, and phenol, into the corresponding catechols. The reaction can be performed by using a simple chemical assay based on formate as the electron donor and the organometallic complex [Rh(bpy)Cp*(H₂O)]²⁺ (Cp*: 1,2,3,4,5-pentamethylcyclopentadiene, bpy: 2,2′-bipyridyl) as the catalyst for FAD reduction. The availability of a crystal structure of HpaB in complex with FAD at 1.8 Å resolution opens up the possibility of the rational tuning of the substrate specificity and activity of this interesting class of phenol hydroxylases.     

[学科发展]机构学中机构重构的理论难点与研究进展——变胞机构演变内涵、分岔机理、设计综合及其应用

生产力发展与工程技术革新要求机构具备可自重组与可重构及“一机多用”的功能，以满足复杂工况需求。可重构机构具有可变活动度和可变构态，可以满足多任务、多工况与多功能的要求，然而，决定其设计方法的演变内涵与分岔机理的研究目前仍不为学者们充分了解。从变胞机构的演变与分岔机理的角度，以旋量理论、李群与李代数及微分流形为主要工具，揭示了机构演变内涵及运动与约束空间的内在关联关系；探究了机构演变中的分岔机理与可控奇异位形，回顾了变胞机构与折纸及折展机构的历史渊源，综述了变胞机构的构型设计、性能综合与新型设计理念及其创新应用。     

随车起重机伸缩臂截面多目标优化

为了提高某火箭炮弹药装填车随车起重机伸缩臂的结构刚度,减轻结构质量,建立了随车起重机伸缩臂参数化模型,并对伸缩臂在水平受载状态下进行仿真分析。以伸缩臂截面尺寸参数为设计变量,借助最优拉丁超立方试验设计建立样本空间,构造响应面多项式函数近似模型。在此基础上,利用NSGA-Ⅱ型遗传算法对伸缩臂自身重量、挠度进行多目标优化。优化结果表明:伸缩臂质量减轻了24.5%,减重效果明显。文中所采用的将参数化建模、有限元分析和数值寻优相结合的优化方法,可为起重机伸缩臂截面优化提供一定的参考。     

一种多功能液压试验台的设计

设计了一种多功能液压试验台,介绍了其工作原理、系统组成及主要技术参数。结合企业产品设计研发需要,试验台能满足液压阀、液压缸等多项测试。通过对试验台数据测试和数据采集系统的集成设计,设计开发了适合该试验台的数据分析软件。     

Predicting visual similarity between colour palettes

This work is concerned with the prediction of visual colour difference between pairs of palettes. In this study, the palettes contained five colours arranged in a horizontal row. A total of 95 pairs of palettes were rated for visual difference by 20 participants. The colour difference between the palettes was predicted using two algorithms, each based on one of six colour-difference formulae. The best performance (r² = 0.86 and STRESS = 16.9) was obtained using the minimum colour-difference algorithm (MICDM) using the CIEDE2000 equation with a lightness weighing of 2. There was some evidence that the order (or arrangement) of the colours in the palettes was a factor affecting the visual colour differences although the MICDM algorithm does not take order into account. Application of this algorithm is intended for digital design workflows where colour palettes are generated automatically using machine learning and for comparing palettes obtained from psychophysical studies to explore, for example, the effect of culture, age, or gender on colour associations.     

基于斯特林制冷机的文物恒湿展柜设计及实验研究

博物馆文物保存过程中相对湿度对文物的影响尤其重要，因此针对目前小型展柜广泛采用的半导体制冷存在制冷量小的缺点，结合斯特林制冷机制冷量大、寿命长、安全可靠等优点，设计并搭建了一台基于斯特林制冷的文物恒湿展柜装置，实现对微环境中相对湿度的精确调节。将斯特林制冷机的冷头置于优化设计的水槽中用于控制水温，采用空气与水直接接触的方式控制展柜内空气湿度。结果表明：使用散热片以及小型循环水泵可以大幅提升冷头与水之间的换热效率；合理的风机控制策略可以有效提升展柜湿度调节速度，维持湿度稳定，降低系统能耗；展柜内的相对湿度在45.0%～65.0%之间连续可调，并能保持稳定。     

BIM-to-IGA: A fully automatic design-through-analysis workflow for segmented tunnel linings

Both planning and design phase of large infrastructural project require analysis, modelling, visualization, and numerical analysis. To perform these tasks, different tools such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and numerical analysis software are commonly employed. However, in current tunnel engineering practice, there are no systematic solutions for the exchange between design and analysis models, and these tasks usually involve manual and error-prone model generation, setup and update. In this paper, focussing on tunnelling engineering, we demonstrate a systematic and versatile approach to efficiently generate a tunnel design and analyse the lining in different practical scenarios. To this end, a BIM-based approach is developed, which connects a user-friendly industry-standard BIM software with effective simulation tools for high-performance computing. A fully automatized design-through-analysis workflow solution for segmented tunnel lining is developed based on a fully parametric design model and an isogeometric analysis software, connected through an interface implemented with a Revit plugin. The IGA-Revit interface implements a reconstruction algorithm based on sweeping teachnique to construct trivariate NURBS lining segment geometry, which avoids the burden to deal with trimmed geometries.     

Integrated rough VIKOR for customer-involved design concept evaluation combining with customers’ preferences and designers’ perceptions

Customer-involved design concept evaluation (DCE) allows customers to take part in evaluating the design alternatives to get more popular design concept. Traditional customer-involved DCE methods still focus on the collection of customer responses and only consider cost and benefit characteristics of design criteria in multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) based evaluation process. Few studies have customized the decision-making algorithms specifically aimed at customers’ preferences. This paper further explores the customers’ influences in the early stages of the product design development, and proposes a new rough number based MCDM model (i.e., VIKOR) incorporating customers’ preferences for design specifications along with designers’ perceptions for the characteristics of design criteria (cost and benefit) to perform concept evaluation under subjective environment, and this proposed method is named as integrated rough VIKOR (IR-VIKOR). The objective of this study is to identify the best design concept which maximizes the satisfactions of expectations from most customers as well as conforms to the characteristics of design criteria. Firstly, Shannon entropy is used to obtain the weightings and relative importance ratings of design criteria from the customers’ preferences. Secondly, the customers’ preferences for design attribute values, the importance ratings of design criteria and the characteristics of design criteria are combined together to define the ideal solutions to calculate the rough evaluation index of each design alternative in IR-VIKOR, and finally the ranking result is provided by IR-VIKOR to determine the best design concept. A practical design example is introduced to illustrate the evaluation process of this proposed method, and the empirical comparisons are further carried out to validate its superiority for DCE. Through the sensitivity analysis experiments including i) inside IR-VIKOR, and ii) between IR-VIKOR and other classical MCDM methods, the proposed method is proved to be a reliable and feasible customer-involved DCE approach.     

Probabilistic tree-based representation for solving minimum cost integer flow problems with nonlinear non-convex cost functions

The minimum cost flow problem (MCFP) is the most generic variation of the network flow problem which aims to transfer a commodity throughout the network to satisfy demands. The problem size (in terms of the number of nodes and arcs) and the shape of the cost function are the most critical factors when considering MCFPs. Existing mathematical programming techniques often assume the cost functions to be linear or convex. Unfortunately, the linearity and convexity assumptions are too restrictive for modelling many real-world scenarios. In addition, many real-world MCFPs are large-scale, with networks having a large number of nodes and arcs. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic tree-based genetic algorithm (PTbGA) for solving large-scale minimum cost integer flow problems with nonlinear non-convex cost functions. We first compare this probabilistic tree-based representation scheme with the priority-based representation scheme, which is the most commonly-used representation for solving MCFPs. We then compare the performance of PTbGA with that of the priority-based genetic algorithm (PrGA), and two state-of-the-art mathematical solvers on a set of MCFP instances. Our experimental results demonstrate the superiority and efficiency of PTbGA in dealing with large-sized MCFPs, as compared to the PrGA method and the mathematical solvers.