Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Fragrance Compounds from Stearic Acid

Fatty acids are versatile precursors for fuels, fine chemicals, polymers, perfumes, etc. The properties and applications of fatty acid derivatives depend on chain length and on functional groups and their positions. To tailor fatty acids for desired properties, an engineered P450 monooxygenase has been employed here for enhanced selective hydroxylation of fatty acids. After oxidation of the hydroxy groups to the corresponding ketones, Baeyer–Villiger oxidation could be applied to introduce an oxygen atom into the hydrocarbon chains to form esters, which were finally hydrolyzed to afford either hydroxylated fatty acids or dicarboxylic fatty acids. Using this strategy, we have demonstrated that the high-value-added flavors exaltolide and silvanone supra can be synthesized from stearic acid through a hydroxylation/carbonylation/esterification/hydrolysis/lactonization reaction sequence with isolated yields of about 36 % (for ω−1 hydroxylated stearic acid; 100, 60, 80, 75 % yields for the individual reactions, respectively) or 24 % (for ω−2 hydroxylated stearic acid). Ultimately, we obtained 7.91 mg of exaltolide and 13.71 mg of silvanone supra from 284.48 mg stearic acid.     

The 3-dimensional morphology of dendrite during equiaxed solidification of an Al-5 wt.% Cu alloy

In a sample quenched during equiaxed solidification of an Al-5 wt.% Cu alloy, the multi-scales 3-dimensional morphology of equiaxed dendrite was observed. The slim primary stem and secondary branches constitute the frame of dendrite, and rows of dense tertiary branches further divide the 3-dimensional space. In the divided space, the quartic branches grow further. The dendritic branches,which are perpendicular to each other, can change their growth directions and coalesce into a whole. In the tertiary branches and quartic branches, the formation of double branch structures is induced by competitive growth. The branch that wins in the competitive growth will produce a cabbage-like structure by wrapping the failed branches. In addition, the side branch can also wrap the original parent branch to produce cabbage-like structures. Depending on the historical growth direction, the dendritic arms can form vein-like and spicate structures, and the shapes of single dendritic arm may be the cylinder, plate and trapezoid platform. According to the compositions and etching morphology, the single dendritic arm in the final solidification structures should coalesce from a fine porous structure. The porous structures at different length-scales are principally induced by the preferential growth. Based on 3-dimensional morphology of equiaxed dendrite, a new research object for the investigation of microsegregation was suggested.     

基于多视图立体视觉的沙堆三维尺寸测量研究

利用从运动中恢复结构方法(SFM),提出了一种基于多视图立体视觉的沙堆三维重建及三维尺寸测量方法。首先根据SFM方法的求解不稳定特点,结合光束平差法对SFM求解过程进行分析及优化;其次针对SFM重建结果为稀疏点云的问题,利用基于面片的稠密重建算法重新生成稠密的三维点云,再利用泊松算法对密集点云进行三维曲面重建;最后获得模型的三维尺寸信息。对某建筑工地的沙堆进行了三维尺寸的测量实验,实验结果验证了该方法的有效及可行性,提高了重建能力及精度,同时考虑了目标实际测量误差与重建误差,能够满足实际智能测量的应用需求。     

基于EFEN-SP3方法的pin-by-pin中子动力学计算方法研究

为能直接给出安全分析所需的最热棒功率而不引入组件均匀化近似和精细功率重构近似，本文研究了基于栅元均匀化的pin-by-pin中子动力学计算方法。通过全隐式向后差分对多群时空中子动力学方程组的时间变量进行离散，采用指数函数展开节块-SP₃（EFEN-SP₃）方法求解含裂变介质的多群中子固定源方程组，通过高阶源展开技术消除了中子源分布与缓发中子先驱核分布形状不一致的问题。采用Ks因子、LW外推和粗网再平衡等加速技术提高计算效率。三维pin-by-pin中子动力学问题的数值结果表明：pin-by-pin中子动力学计算能直接给出单棒功率密度分布；高阶源展开技术可有效抑制计算偏差随时间步的累加效应；加速技术可将SP₃动力学计算的求解速度提高134.9倍。     

Eye movements and visual discomfort when viewing stereoscopic 3D content

The visual brain fuses the left and right images projected onto the two eyes from a stereoscopic 3D (S3D) display, perceives parallax, and rebuilds a sense of depth. In this process, the eyes adjust vergence and accommodation to adapt to the depths and parallax of the points they gazed at. Conflicts between accommodation and vergence when viewing S3D content potentially lead to visual discomfort. A variety of approaches have been taken towards understanding the perceptual bases of discomfort felt when viewing S3D, including extreme disparities or disparity gradients, negative disparities, dichoptic presentations, and so on. However less effort has been applied towards understanding the role of eye movements as they relate to visual discomfort when viewing S3D. To study eye movements in the context of S3D viewing discomfort, a Shifted-S3D-Image-Database (SSID) is constructed using 11 original nature scene S3D images and their 6 shifted versions. We conducted eye-tracking experiments on humans viewing S3D images in SSID while simultaneously collecting their judgments of experienced visual discomfort. From the collected eye-tracking data, regions of interest (ROIs) were extracted by kernel density estimation using the fixation data, and an empirical formula fitted between the disparities of salient objects marked by the ROIs and the mean opinion scores (MOS). Finally, eye-tracking data was used to analyze the eye movement characteristics related to S3D image quality. Fifteen eye movement features were extracted, and a visual discomfort predication model learned using a support vector regressor (SVR). By analyzing the correlations between features and MOS, we conclude that angular disparity features have a strong correlation with human judgments of discomfort.     

Structure and electrical properties of Zn-doped BiFeO3 films

BiFe_1−xZn_xO₃ (x = 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 mol%) (BFZO) films were prepared on ITO/glass substrates by a sol-gel method. The effects of different Zn contents on the structures and electrical properties of the BFZO films were investigated. From X-ray diffraction (XRD), microstructure and X-ray spectroscopy (XPS) results, the BFZO films with a Zn content of 1 mol% showed a better crystal structure and grain development, and the Fe²⁺ and oxygen vacancy concentrations in this sample were the lowest among all the evaluated BFZO films. The P-E hysteresis loop indicated that the BFZO films with 1 mol% Zn had the highest remanent polarization (2Pr), which was 82.4 μC/cm², along with a coercive field (2E_c) of 887 kV/cm at the tested electric field of 857 kV/cm. The BFZO film with 1 mol% Zn had the lowest leakage current density, which was 3.54 × 10⁻⁷ A/cm² at the tested electric field of 200 kV/cm. Both at high and low electric fields, the space charge-limited current (SCLC) conduction mechanism was the main leakage mechanism. When the test frequency was 10⁵ Hz, the dielectric constant was 133, and the dissipation factor was 0.015.     

超高强7055铝合金铸锭均匀化工艺优化

采用光学显微镜、扫描电镜、差热分析及透射电镜等手段,对一种航空用超高强7055铝合金大尺寸铸锭的均匀化工艺进行分析与优化。提出分级提高均匀化温度的方法,在确保不发生过烧的情况下,最大限度改善铸锭质量。结果显示:低温预均匀化时,铸锭中析出大量的Al₃Zr相,能够大幅度降低对后续挤压变形的再结晶比例;对铸锭采用400 ℃×4 h+465 ℃×16 h+474 ℃×8 h的分级均匀化处理工艺,能够显著消除铸锭中低熔点相的含量,提高铸锭质量,同时相比于原工艺节省约13 h。新的均匀化处理工艺,不仅提高了生产效率,还能够为后续工艺提供良好的铸锭。