Influence of applied voltage and conductive material in DIET promotion for methane generation

The utilization of biological-, electrode- and conductive material-mediated direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) between exoelectrogenic bacteria and methanogenic archaea for enhancing methane productivity is widely reported in the literature. However, two cardinal questions are still controversial, i.e., which applied voltage value would be more recommended to enhance methane generation? and how the DIET over IIET has the upper hand in enhancing methane productivity? Herein, the influence of different applied voltages to promote biological-, conductive- and electrode-mediated DIET was investigated in MEC-AD reactors with conductive material. Polarized bioelectrodes induced electrode-mediated DIET (eDIET) and biological DIET (bDIET), in addition to cDIET (conductive material-mediated DIET), improved the methane yield to 315.40 mL/g COD_r with an applied voltage of 0.9 V. Whereas further increase of applied voltage 1.2 V, lessened methane production efficiency due to high-voltage inhibition and adverse effect on DIET promotion. The anaerobic digestion coupled microbial electrolysis cells with optimal electric potential selectively promotes the DIET through polarized electrodes were confirmed through microbial analysis. As the contribution of DIET increased to 80%, the methane yield increased, and the substrate residue decreased, resulting in a significant improvement in methane production.     

Magnetic properties,phase evolution,hollow structure and biomedical application of hematite (α-Fe2O3) and QUAIPH

We investigate synthesis, phase evolution, hollow and porous structure and magnetic properties of quasi-amorphous intermediate phase (QUAIPH) and hematite (α-Fe₂O₃) nanostructure synthesized by annealing of akaganeite (β-FeOOH) nanorods. It is found that the annealing temperature determines the phase composition of the products, the crystal structure/size dictates the magnetic properties whereas the final nanorod morphology is determined by the starting material. Annealing of β-FeOOH at ～300 °C resulted in the formation of hollow QUAIPH nanorods. The synthesized material shows low-cytotoxicity, superparamagnetism and good transverse relaxivity, which is rarely reported for QUAIPH. The QUAIPH nanorods started to transform to porous hematite nanostructures at ～350 °C and phase transformation was completed at 600 °C. During the annealing, the crystal structure changed from monoclinic (akaganeite) to quasi-amorphous and rhombohedral (hematite). Unusually, the crystallite size first decreased (akaganeite → QUAIPH) and then increased (QUAIPH → hematite) during annealing whereas the nanorods retained particle shape. The magnetic properties of the samples changed from antiferromagnetic (akaganeite) to superparamagnetic with blocking temperature T_B = 84 K (QUAIPH) and finally to weak-ferromagnetic with the Morin transition at T_M = 244 K and high coercivity H_C = 1652 Oe (hematite). The low-cytotoxicity and MRI relaxivity (r₂ = 5.80 mM^?1 s^?1 (akaganeite), r₂ = 4.31 mM^?1 s^?1 (QUAIPH) and r₂ = 5.17 mM^?1 s^?1 (hematite)) reveal potential for biomedical applications.     

基于平均飞行航迹的CCO减噪效用研究

近年来，通过优化飞行程序降低机场飞机噪声影响成为机场环境保护的重要研究方向。文章首先建立了基于飞机“噪声-功率-距离”数据的噪声计算模型，介绍了平均飞行航迹以及连续爬升运行(Continuous Climb Opera-tion, CCO)离场程序的相关理论，最后以大型国际机场为实例，使用飞机平均飞行航迹进行噪声预测，运用综合噪声模型计算出噪声影响面积并绘制噪声影响等值线图，比较了CCO离场相对常规的标准仪表离场(Standard Instru-ment Departure, SID)的降噪效果。结果表明，CCO离场程序可有效降低机场噪声影响，在高噪声级影响区域的降噪效果更佳。     

MP PFGun脉冲爆燃压裂技术在阿曼SSM-XX井的应用

简要叙述了MP PFGun技术工作原理、系统结构特点以及PropFrac脉冲压裂模拟器软件基本功能,并对SSM-XX井的模拟计算P-T曲线和井下压力仪实测曲线进行了对比。结果表明:SM-XX井采用MP PFGun电缆输送工艺安全,脉冲压裂持续时间长,且利用PropFrac模拟软件指导施工设计,取得了较好的应用效果。     

Real time power management strategy for fuel cell hybrid electric bus based on Lyapunov stability theorem

The fuel cell/battery durability and hybrid system stability are major considerations for the power management of fuel cell hybrid electric bus (FCHEB) operating on complicated driving conditions. In this paper, a real time nonlinear adaptive control (NAC) with stability analyze is formulated for power management of FCHEB. Firstly, the mathematical model of hybrid power system is analyzed, which is established for control-oriented design. Furthermore, the NAC-based strategy with quadratic Lyapunov function is set up to guarantee the stability of closed-loop power system, and the power split between fuel cell and battery is controlled with the durability consideration. Finally, two real-time power management strategies, state machine control (SMC) and fuzzy logic control (FLC), are implemented to evaluate the performance of NAC-based strategy, and the simulation results suggest that the guaranteed stability of NAC-based strategy can efficiently prolong fuel cell/battery lifespan and provide better fuel consumption economy for FCHEB.     

Green Measurements for Software Product Based on Sustainability Dimensions

Software is a central component in the modern world and vastly affects the environment’s sustainability. The demand for energy and resource requirements is rising when producing hardware and software units. Literature study reveals that many studies focused on green hardware; however, limited efforts were made in the greenness of software products. Green software products are necessary to solve the issues and problems related to the long-term use of software, especially from a sustainability perspective. Without a proper mechanism for measuring the greenness of a particular software product executed in a specific environment, the mentioned benefits will not be attained. Currently, there are not enough works to address this problem, and the green status of software products is uncertain and unsure. This paper aims to identify the green measurements based on sustainable dimensions in a software product. The second objective is to reveal the relationships between the elements and measurements through empirical study. The study is conducted in two phases. The first phase is the theoretical phase, where the main components, measurements and practices that influence the sustainability of a software product are identified. The second phase is the empirical study that involved 103 respondents in Malaysia investigating current practices of green software in the industrial environment and further identifying the main sustainability dimensions and measurements and their impact on achieving green software products. This study has revealed seven green measurements of software product: Productivity, Usability, Cost Reduction, Employee Support, Energy Efficiency, Resource Efficiency and Tool Support. The relationships are statistically significant, with a significance level of less than 0.01 (p = 0.000). Thus, the hypothesised relationships were all accepted. The contributions of this study revolve around the research perspectives of the measurements to attain a green software product.     

Cracking behavior and delamination mechanism of lamellar structured TBC with localized mixed oxides

Mixed oxide (MO) with localized growth feature and high growth rate remarkably affects the lifetime of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs), which indicates that clarifying the ceramic cracking mechanism induced by MO is critical for developing new coatings with high durability. Two kinds of TBC models involving spherical and layered mixed oxides are created to explore the influence of MO growth on the local stress state and crack evolution during thermal cycle. The growth of α-Al₂O₃ is also included in the model. The undulating interface between ceramic coat and bond coat is approximated using a cosine curve. Dynamic ceramic cracking is realized by a surface-based cohesive interaction. The ceramic delamination by simulation agrees with the experimental observation. The effects of MO coverage ratio and growth rate on the TBC failure are also discussed. The results show that the MO growth causes the local ceramic coat to bear the normal tensile stress. The failure mode of coating is turned from α-Al₂O₃ thickness control to MO growth control. Once the mixed oxide appears, local ceramic cracking is easy to occur. When multiple cracks connect, ceramic delamination happens. Suppressing MO formation or decreasing MO growth can evidently improve the coating durability. These results in this work can provide important theoretical guidance for the development of anti-cracking TBCs.     

A modified Kozeny–Carman equation for predicting saturated hydraulic conductivity of compacted bentonite in confined condition

Kozeny–Carman (KC) equation is a well-known relation between hydraulic conductivity and pore properties in porous material. The applications of KC equation to predicting saturated hydraulic conductivities of sands and non-expansive soils are well documented. However, KC equation is incapable of predicting saturated hydraulic conductivity of expansive soil (e.g. bentonite) well. Based on a new dual-pore system, this study modified KC equation for improving the prediction of saturated hydraulic conductivities of bentonites. In this study, an assumption that inter-layer space (micropore) has limited effect on fluid flow performance of compacted bentonite was adopted. The critical parameters including total porosity and total tortuosity in conventional KC equation were replaced by macroporosity and tortuosity of macropore, respectively. Macroporosity and microporosity were calculated by basal spacing of compacted bentonite, which was estimated by assuming that specific surface area is changeable during saturation process. A comprehensive comparison of bentonite's saturated hydraulic conductivity predictions, including modified KC equation proposed in this study, conventional KC equation, and prediction method based on diffuse double layer (DDL) theory, was carried out. It was found that the predicted saturated hydraulic conductivity of bentonites calculated using modified KC equation fitted the experimental data better than others to a certain extent.