Creep behaviour of an Al–Si–Al2O3 composite based on phase evolution at 1300oC

An Al–Si–Al₂O₃ composite was prepared with corundum, aluminium powder and silicon powder. A creep test was carried out at 1300°C under 0.2 MPa for 50 h in air. The results show that the Al–Si–Al₂O₃ composite performs a low constant creep rate and remain until the end of the 50-h test. This is attributed to the in-situ formation of the tough non-oxide reinforcements, whisker-like (AlN)_x(Al₂OC)_1-x solid solution and granular β-SiC, by reactions of Al and Si during creep test. The whisker-like (AlN)_x(Al₂OC)_1-x solid solution and granular β-SiC reinforcements are evenly filled in the pores, which play the role of bridging and pinning reinforcement, forming a strong network structure with corundum aggregates. Moreover, these non-oxide phases are not wetted by the liquid phases, which impel the liquid phase shrinks in the network structure in isolation during creep test. Thus, the adverse effect of the liquid phase on the high-temperature strength of the composites is eliminated, so the composites with strong network structure quickly get a stationary low-creep state. A creep mechanism model is established.     

Two Methods,One Goal: Structural Differences between Cocrystallization and Crystal Soaking to Discover Ligand Binding Poses

In lead optimization, protein crystallography is an indispensable tool to analyze drug binding. Binding modes and non-covalent interaction inventories are essential to design follow-up synthesis candidates. Two protocols are commonly applied to produce protein–ligand complexes: cocrystallization and soaking. Because of its time and cost effectiveness, soaking is the more popular method. Taking eight ligand hinge binders of protein kinase A, we demonstrate that cocrystallization is superior. Particularly for flexible proteins, such as kinases, and larger ligands cocrystallization captures more reliable the correct binding pose and induced protein adaptations. The geometrical discrepancies between soaking and cocrystallization appear smaller for fragment-sized ligands. For larger flexible ligands that trigger conformational changes of the protein, soaking can be misleading and underestimates the number of possible polar interactions due to inadequate, highly impaired positions of protein amino-acid side and main chain atoms. Thus, if applicable cocrystallization should be the gold standard to study protein–ligand complexes.     

基于数据运营安全的个人信息保护

个人信息因其自身携带隐私特性,与每个个体息息相关。个人信息保护不当,影响公众权益、企业利益以及社会秩序。在互联网、大数据、5G万物互联的时代,个人信息被广泛收集和使用,必须妥善解决个人信息保护问题,才能保障整个数据产业健康发展。而现有的个人信息保护方法或技术,不足以应对新形势下的保护诉求。基于数据运营安全的个人信息保护,针对当前个人信息保护的新形势和新诉求,提出结合人工智能,通过数据运营安全对结构化、半结构化、非结构化的个人信息流动的保护,涵盖从生产到运维,从采集、传输、存储、处理、分析、共享、销毁全生命周期保护,深入数据运营中内嵌防护,同时与业务解耦,达到保护个人信息安全的目标。     

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.     

Chemical Bonding by the Chemical Orthogonal Space of Reactivity

The fashionable Parr–Pearson (PP) atoms-in-molecule/bonding (AIM/AIB) approach for determining the exchanged charge necessary for acquiring an equalized electronegativity within a chemical bond is refined and generalized here by introducing the concepts of chemical power within the chemical orthogonal space (COS) in terms of electronegativity and chemical hardness. Electronegativity and chemical hardness are conceptually orthogonal, since there are opposite tendencies in bonding, i.e., reactivity vs. stability or the HOMO-LUMO middy level vs. the HOMO-LUMO interval (gap). Thus, atoms-in-molecule/bond electronegativity and chemical hardness are provided for in orthogonal space (COS), along with a generalized analytical expression of the exchanged electrons in bonding. Moreover, the present formalism surpasses the earlier Parr–Pearson limitation to the context of hetero-bonding molecules so as to also include the important case of covalent homo-bonding. The connections of the present COS analysis with PP formalism is analytically revealed, while a numerical illustration regarding the patterning and fragmentation of chemical benchmarking bondings is also presented and fundamental open questions are critically discussed.     

Comments on “Study and application of discharge calibration for submerged radial gates” by Guo X., Guo Y., Wang T., Fu H., Li J. Flow Meas. Instrum. 78 (2021) 101912, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.flowmeasinst.2021.101912

This paper discusses the capability of Guo et al.'s (2021) equations to determine the discharge of radial gates under submerged flow conditions. It was concluded that Guo et al.'s (2021) equations are associated with error reduction compared to the Incomplete Self-Similarity (ISS) theory and the calibration method. However, it does not have a significant advantage over Energy-Momentum (E-M) approach. Employing E-M principles, new equations were proposed to determine the discharge of radial gates, which has some advantages compared to Guo et al. (2021), such as (1) error reduction under partially and fully submerged flow conditions, (2) least dependence on the empirical constants, (3) uniformity of form over the entire submerged condition, and (4) no need to classify the submerged flow. Field calibration showed that the proposed equations in the present study for a single gate predict the discharge of parallel radial gates with a mean absolute error of less than 4.5% subject to the submerged operation of all open gates.     

Bioinspired Triboelectric Soft Robot Driven by Mechanical Energy

A sustainable power source is a key technical challenge for practical applications of electrically responsive soft robots, especially the required voltage is over several thousand volts. Here, a practicable new technology, triboelectric soft robot (TESR) system with the primary characteristics of power source from mechanical energy, is developed. At its heart is TESR with bioinspired architectures made of soft-deformable body and two triboelectric adhesion feet, which is driven and accurately controlled through triboelectric effect, while reaching maximum crawling speeds of 14.9 mm s⁻¹ on the acrylic surface. The characteristics of the TESR, including displacement and force, are tested and simulated under the power of a rotary freestanding triboelectric nanogenerator (RF-TENG). Crawling of TESR is successfully realized on different materials surfaces and different angle slopes under the driven of RF-TENG. Furthermore, a real-time visual monitoring platform, in which TESR carries a micro camera to transmit images in a long narrow tunnel, is also achieved successfully, indicating that it can be used for fast diagnosis in an area inaccessible to human beings in the future. This study offers a new insight into the sustainable power source technologies suitable for electrically responsive soft robots and contributes to expanding the applicability of TENGs.     

Nonlinear phase dynamics of ideal kink mode in the presence of shear flow

We investigate nonlinear phase dynamics of an ideal kink mode, induced by E × B flow. Here the phase is the cross phase(θ_c) between perturbed stream function of velocity■ and magnetic field ■, i.e. θ_c= θ_φ-θ_ψ. A dimensionless parameter, analogous to the Richardson number,■(γ_(kink): the normalized growth rate of the pure kink mode; ■: normalized E × B shearing rate) is defined to measure the competition between phase pinning by the current density and phase detuning by the flow shear. When R_i 1, θ_c is locked to a fixed value,corresponding to the conventional eigenmode solution. When R_i≤1, θ_c enters a phase slipping or oscillating state, corresponding to a nonmodal solution. The nonlinear phase dynamics method provides a more intuitive explanation of the complex dynamical behavior of the kink mode in the presence of E × B shear flow.     

基于QoE感知的星地一体化网络公平资源分配策略

星地一体化网络是卫星网络和地面网络互联，实现卫星网络和地面网络优势互补的一体化网络。随着无线通信的快速发展，卫星网络和地面网络的同频复用技术可有效提升资源利用效率，满足日益增长的无线数据业务需求。但由于无线数据业务类型的多样化和频谱资源的稀缺性，如何实现用户数据服务的服务体验质量（Quality of experience， QoE）和公平性提升也成为星地一体化网络亟待解决的关键问题。本文综合考虑信道时变性、服务体验多样性和服务公平性，提出了一种基于QoE感知的星地一体化网络资源分配策略。为此，将目标问题描述为基于时间平均的服务体验质量的网络公平效用最大化，并利用李雅普诺夫优化理论，将复杂的动态原始优化问题进一步转化并分解为3个瞬时优化子问题，每个子问题可以在每个时隙独立求解。同时，由于无线资源分配为典型的非凹混合组合优化问题，推导了一个低复杂度的两步算法来求解第三个资源分配子问题。仿真结果揭示了在不同的公平性参数下用户的长时QoE与公平性之间的折衷情况。