Western Canadian dairy farmers' perspectives on the provision of outdoor access for dairy cows and on the perceptions of other stakeholders

The provision of pasture and outdoor access for dairy cattle differs around the globe. For example, in Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, dairy farms are largely pasture based, whereas dairy farms in the United States and Canada are largely confinement based. There is a high level of public support for pasture and outdoor access for dairy cows, and the available evidence shows that dairy cattle are highly motivated to access pasture, especially at night. The decision as to whether to provide outdoor access is typically made by farmers, but little is known about dairy farmers' perspectives on this topic. We investigated perspectives of Western Canadian dairy farmers on outdoor access, as well as how they believe different stakeholders (i.e., the dairy industry, the dairy cows, and the general public) regard outdoor access for dairy cows. Data were collected via (1) 11 focus group discussions with a total of 50 Western Canadian dairy farmers, and (2) semi-structured individual interviews with an additional 6 dairy farmers of Hutterite colonies. Data were analyzed using template analysis. Although most participants in this study did not provide outdoor access on their farms, or only provided outdoor access to certain cow groups, participants generally mentioned that they enjoyed seeing cows on pasture or outdoors. However, participants shared that the Canadian supply management system (including processors) required a consistent flow of production, which was thought to be easier and more economically realized with indoor housing of lactating cows. Participants believed that pasture or outdoor access for dairy cows was desired by the public. Some participants believed that dairy cows prefer to spend time outside under favorable weather conditions, but others felt that cows preferred to stay indoors in modern, ventilated freestall barns. The results of this study describe the perspectives of dairy farmers regarding the views of dairy industry stakeholders as they relate to outdoor access, helping to inform conversations around the provision of outdoor access for dairy cattle.     

还原温度对氧化石墨烯的湿度-甲醛交叉敏感性能的影响

以氧化石墨烯溶胶为前体，通过旋涂工艺制备薄膜型气敏元件，在低温80～180℃下进行热处理，获得系列不同还原程度的还原氧化石墨烯气敏元件，采用XRD、AFM、FT-IR、XPS对样品的层结构、薄膜厚度及含氧官能团变化属性进行表征，将气敏薄膜元件在相对湿度为11.3%～93.6%的范围内进行预湿处理，并测定元件对甲醛气氛的敏感性能。结果表明：随热还原处理温度的升高，氧化石墨烯的结构逐渐向类石墨结构转变，含氧官能团逐渐脱失，缺陷增多，薄膜的方块电阻呈数量级地减小，从41 MΩ减小至928 Ω；经不同湿度预处理的气敏元件置于甲醛气氛中产生了水分子与甲醛分子的竞争吸附，从而导致电阻的明显变化；在10^?4甲醛气氛下，未还原或热还原温度较低的气敏元件适用于低、高湿环境下甲醛气氛的气敏测试，最大灵敏度为69.1%，而还原温度适中的元件则适用于中湿环境的甲醛测试，最大灵敏度为80.3%。     

Enhancing the Photovoltaic Performance of Ladder-Type Heteroheptacene-based Nonfullerene Acceptors by Incorporating Halogen Atoms on Their Ending Groups

Ending group halogenation is an effective strategy for modulating the energy levels, bandgaps, and intermolecular interactions of nonfullerene acceptors. Understanding the influence of different halogen atoms on the acceptor properties is of great importance for designing high-performance nonfullerene acceptors. Here, three acceptor–donor–acceptor (A-D-A) type nonfullerene acceptors (M5, M6, and M7), which are constructed by using a ladder-type heteroheptacene core without the traditional sp³ carbon-bonded side chains as the electron-rich core, and 2-(3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-ylidene)malononitrile without or with halogen atoms as the ending groups. The nonfullerene acceptors with chlorinated (M6) and brominated (M7) ending groups exhibit broadened absorption spectra, down-shifted energy levels, and enhanced molecular ordering compared to the counterpart without any halogenated ending groups (M5). Among the nonfullerene acceptors, M6 has the strongest intermolecular π π interaction with its shortest π π interaction distance and the longest coherent length which are beneficial for enhancing the charge transport and therefore boosting the photovoltaic performance. An excellent power conversion efficiency of 15.45% is achieved for the best-performing polymer solar cell based on M6. These results suggest that the halogenated ending groups are essential for high-performance heteroheptacene-based nonfullerene acceptors considering their simultaneous enhancements in both the light-harvesting and the charge transport.     

以风化煤为底物制取生物甲烷的潜力分析

我国拥有丰富的风化煤储量,因其高度被氧化的独特性质,可应用的领域极为有限,目前主要被作为改善土壤性质的肥料和制取腐殖酸的来源。以风化煤为底物制取生物甲烷是一种具有探索性的全新生物发酵工艺,探究其可行性及模拟实验过程中风化煤的物性特征变化有利于拓宽风化煤的资源利用和环境改善,并可以进一步丰富煤生物产气理论。实验选取内蒙古乌海和山西晋城两地不同风化程度煤样,以煤层矿井水为菌种来源,在适宜环境条件下开展模拟产气实验,通过生物产气模拟和红外光谱测试,分析不同风化程度煤的生物产气能力及其内在因素,以揭示其产气潜力及物性变化特征。结果表明:①随着煤的风化程度加深,可燃基CH 4产气量明显增加,两组煤样中可燃基CH 4生成量最高分别达到7.13,4.20 mL/g;②不同风化程度的煤样均出现了产气高峰,时间基本都出现在15~30 d,各组中随着煤样风化程度不断加深,产气高峰出现时间也越来越早;③随着煤的风化程度加深,煤中芳环被不断打开,大分子结构被破坏,同时煤中羟基、氨基等基团含量趋于降低,脂碳结构逐渐解体,含氧官能团成为主要结构,氧含量比例不断增高,更容易被微生物降解;④菌群鉴定表明风化煤不仅含有大量产生生物气所需的第1阶段和第2阶段细菌,更含有甲烷杆菌属、甲烷球菌属等多种类型的产甲烷菌群,具有把风化煤转化为生物甲烷的环境条件。实验结果最终反映了风化煤具有转化为生物甲烷的潜力,并有利于提高我国风化煤的资源利用率。     

羟基(—OH)对煤自燃侧链活性基团氧化反应特性的影响

针对煤结构及其氧化反应机理不明等问题,以羟基(—OH)和煤自燃侧链活性基团—OCH,—CHOHCH 3和—OCH 3为研究对象,采用密度泛函理论(DFT)的B3LYP-311G(d,p)方法,构建出了羟基(—OH)处于侧链活性结构邻位的小分子结构模型。基于前线轨道理论和量子化学理论,采用Gaussian 16软件对小分子模型的静电势、前线轨道的能级和电荷分布及煤氧复合反应过程中的热力学参数进行了模拟计算,探究了侧链活性基团的低温氧化特性和羟基(—OH)对其的影响。计算结果显示,在侧链活性结构中,氢原子周边呈强正电势,为亲核反应活性位点,而氧原子附近呈强负电势,为亲电反应活性位点。当羟基(—OH)处于侧链活性基团邻位时,会削弱侧链活性基团的亲电反应能力,增加—CHO和—CHOHCH 3的亲核反应能力,而使—OCH 3的亲核反应能力消失;通过分析各活性基团最高占据轨道(HOMO:Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital)和最低未占轨道(LUMO:Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital)可知,侧链活性基团的稳定性与其前线轨道的成键能力并不一致,而活性基团与氧气发生复合反应的难易程度主要取决于该基团前线轨道中LUMO的成键能力,成键能力越强,复合反应越容易发生;由于羟基(—OH)改变了侧链活性基团前线轨道上的电子特性,故当其与侧链基团共存时,会使—CHO和—CHOHCH 3与氧气的复合反应更容易发生,而使—OCH 3与氧气的复合由自发的放热反应转变为非自发的吸热反应。该研究成果可为揭示煤自燃微观作用机理和研发煤自燃新型高效阻化材料提供参考。     

松木颗粒热解与高温蒸汽气化半焦产率及形貌特征分析

以成型松木颗粒为原料，进行低温热解，研究了热解温度和升温速率对生成的松木半焦产率及官能团的影响。以试验得到的松木半焦进行蒸汽气化试验，对比分析了温度对半焦重整气化形貌特征、比表面积和平均孔径的影响。研究表明：随着热解温度升高，松木半焦脂肪族结构峰消失转化为烃等小分子物质及气化气，进而降低半焦产率。升温速率升高，半焦产率呈先下降后升高的趋势，在800℃升温速率为30K/min时半焦产率最低。不同温度热解和蒸汽气化对比试验表明，温度相对较低时（500℃）热解和蒸汽气化半焦孔隙结构相近，随着温度的升高，蒸汽气化半焦结构发生明显变化，900°C时出现了更小的孔道结构且比表面积增加明显。蒸汽引入使松木半焦和水蒸气发生热解反应的同时发生了脱氢反应，气化半焦形貌出现熔融和烧结现象。     

Polystyrene latex particles bearing primary amine groups via soap‐free emulsion polymerization

Polystyrene latexes were prepared in the presence of an amino‐containing functional comonomer, N‐(3‐aminopropyl)methacrylamide hydrochloride (APMH), via soap‐free batch emulsion polymerization initiated by the cationic initiator 2,2′‐azobis(2‐amidinopropane) dihydrochloride. These latexes were characterized by studying the influence of the ionic comonomers on the polymerization kinetics, particle size, surface charge density and colloidal properties. The synthesized latexes were monodisperse with a final size between 100 and 600 nm depending on the APMH concentration. The initial polymerization rate and the particle number increased in accordance with the Smith–Ewart theory for soap‐free styrene emulsion polymerization with a hydrophilic functional comonomer. The final functionalization rate of the particles has been particularly studied with the intention of fitting the prepared latexes to be used in the immobilization of biological molecules for biological sample preparation and diagnostic applications. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry     

Transformation of the reabsorption characteristics of lignite treated by low and high temperature drying process

Abstract

The reabsorption characteristics of the lignite treated by low and high temperature drying process were addressed in the paper. The information about the moisture form, functional groups, effective water-filled porosities and equilibrium moisture content of the lignite before and after the drying process was investigated using Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and a self-made reabsorption device, respectively. The results show that the low drying temperature (140, 190, 230?°C, 10?min, N₂) has little impact on the effective water-filled porosities of the resulted samples, whereas it has a great influence on the main oxygen-containing functional groups, which amount firstly decreases and then increases with the drying temperature increasing. In the case of the lignite samples dried under high-temperature (600, 700, 800?°C, 30?s, N₂), the amount of the effective water-filled porosity of the sample decreases and the amount of oxygen-containing functional groups increases as the temperature increasing. The reabsorption capability of the high temperature dried sample is much lower than that of the sample treated under low drying temperature. The reabsorption characteristics of the low-temperature dried samples are affected by the amount of the oxygen-containing functional groups, while the effective water-filled porosity is main factor for the lignite samples derived from high temperature drying process. Moreover, the work gives a good evidence that the high-temperature drying process is an effective choose for lignite upgrading.     

Designing e-Coordinator for improved teams collaboration in graduation projects

The work presented in this paper describes the design for Graduation Project eCoordination System in our department. The proposed eCoordinator provides effective team–team, supervisor–team and coordinator–supervisors–teams collaboration. eCoordinator is an attribute based framework that serves evolving an object oriented software system into agent oriented software system. Nowadays, agent-oriented software development technologies have evolved rapidly; it is emerging as a new paradigm for constructing intelligent more autonomous software systems. Therefore, several methodologies are available and it is difficult to determine the most appropriate methodology for specific project within different domains. This is especially occurs when re-engineering current object oriented software system. The case study is going to be rebuilding a virtual graduation project coordinator in Information Technology Department at King Saud University.     

负载羧基化球状介孔纳米颗粒TFN膜的研究

在薄层复合膜(thin-film composite membrane, TFC膜)中引入无机纳米颗粒，形成薄层纳米复合膜(thin-film nanocomposite membrane, TFN膜)，近几年作为反渗透膜开始应用于水处理研究。但是无机纳米颗粒在TFC膜中的性能的不稳定性和膜的机械强度等变成了突出问题。合成制备了粒径约为110 nm修饰羧基的介孔氧化硅球状纳米颗粒(MSN—COOH)，并将其成功地化学键合在TFC膜的表面功能层交联网络中。与TFC膜相比，键合有MSN—COOH的TFN膜，水通量提高了56.2%，保持高脱盐率；由于单分散介孔纳米颗粒表面亲水官能团的引入，使膜表面的亲水性有很大程度提高，单分散介孔纳米颗粒在基体中的有序排列，使膜表面粗糙度降低，提高了膜的抗污染能力。与普通TFN膜相比较，具有更好的稳定性和柔韧性，可以在长时间高压过滤操作下保持稳定。