Blends of Bio-Based Poly(Limonene Carbonate) with Commodity Polymers

In this study, blends of the bio-based poly(limonene carbonate) (PLimC) with different commodity polymers are investigated in order to explore the potential of PLimC toward generating more sustainable polymer materials by reducing the amount of petro- or food-based polymers. PLimC is employed as minority component in the blends. Next to the morphology and thermal properties of the blends the impact of PLimC on the mechanical properties of the matrix polymers is studied. The interplay of incompatibility and zero-shear melt viscosity contrast determines the blend morphology, leading for all blends to a dispersed droplet morphology for PLimC. Blends with polymers of similar structure to PLimC (i.e., aliphatic/aromatic polyester) show the best performance with respect to mechanical properties, whereas blends with polystyrene or poly(methyl methacrylate) are too brittle and polyamide 12 blends show very low elongations at break. In blends with Ecoflex (poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)) and Arnitel EM400 (copoly(ether ester)) with poly(butylene terephthalate) hard and polytetrahydrofuran soft segments) a threefold increase in E-modulus can be achieved, while keeping the elongation at break at reasonable high values of ≈200%, making these blends highly interesting for applications.     

Corrosion behaviors of carbon steel induced by life activities of Phaeodactylum tricornutum in a marine environment

Microbiologically influenced corrosion induced by bacteria has been studied for many years. Corrosion is known to be sensitive to the presence of microalgae, such as Phaeodactylum tricornutum. However, the life activity of P. tricornutum that influences the general and localized corrosion of carbon steel is not fully understood. The current study uses a combination of immersion tests and electrochemical experiments with a detailed surface characterization to reveal the naturally formed corrosion products with/without the presence of P. tricornutum. The results show that samples suffer from pitting corrosion and the averaged pit depths are approximately 15 μm under a light–dark cycle condition or a 24-h constant light condition. Meanwhile, the corrosion products are mainly comprised of γ-FeOOH and Fe₃O₄ in a constant light condition. However, γ-FeOOH, Fe₃O₄, and FeCO₃ are found in a light–dark cycle. This study proposes the fundamental mechanisms of the effect of P. tricornutum life activities on the corrosion performance of Q235 carbon steel, to fulfill the knowledge gaps of the presence of microalgae inducing the general and pitting corrosion of carbon steel.     

Effect of in-flight particle behavior on the morphology of flame sprayed Er2O3 splats

The morphology and microstructure of splats impact the comprehensive capability of a new coating methodology called chelate flame spraying (CFS). This study addresses the quantitative characterization of the spread morphologies of flame sprayed Er₂O₃ splats directly deposited under different spray conditions on aluminum alloy substrates with a mirror finish. The influence of the in-flight particle temperature and velocity, carrier gas type, and carrier gas ratio on the solidification mechanism of molten droplets was investigated. Image analysis methods were employed to identify single splats from the morphology observed with field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). In addition, Er₂O₃ films were synthesized on an Al–Mg alloy (A5052) substrate using N₂ or O₂ as the carrier gas. When O₂ was used as the carrier gas, 109-μm-thick films were deposited on the A5052 substrate. The cross-sectional porosity of the films was 3.8%. In contrast, films with 101-μm thickness were synthesized on the A5052 substrate when N₂ was used as the carrier gas. The cross-sectional porosity of these films was 13.8%. The results showed that the carrier gas type (N₂) and carrier gas ratio had a significant effect on the flattening behavior of the molten droplets. A spraying method combined with multidimensional modes is proposed to control the morphology of the splats.     

不同细颗粒含量甲烷水合物沉积物三轴剪切试验研究

海域试开采区域含水合物沉积物的粒度分析结果表明水合物沉积物骨架由粗、细颗粒混合构成,通过开展多组低温、高压三轴排水剪切试验研究细颗粒含量和密度对含甲烷水合物沉积物和无水合物沉积物的强度和变形特性的影响。试验结果表明,含水合物沉积物抗剪强度及剪胀性都随细粒含量提高而显著增强。这是由于细颗粒含量增加改变了颗粒间水合物的样貌和分布特征,形成了由水合物包裹着粗颗粒-细颗粒的团簇状集合体。然而,细颗粒含量对无水合物沉积物的强度和变形特性的影响却表现出相反趋势。另外,含水合物沉积物的剪胀关系可以使用修正剑桥模型中的剪胀关系式进行描述。结果表明,剪胀关系的拟合曲线依赖于水合物饱和度的大小。通过对比研究发现,天然水合物和实验室合成水合物试样在较高饱和度时的峰值摩擦角大小及其伴随水合物饱和度的增长趋势存在差异,这种差异主要来源于水合物在沉积物骨架颗粒孔隙中不同的赋存模式及分布特征。     

天然气水合物储层泥质细粉砂挡砂介质堵塞规律与微观挡砂机制

中国南海海域部分天然气水合物储层中地层砂为高泥质含量细粉砂，开采防控砂难度较大。针对高泥质细粉砂挡砂机制问题，使用粒度中值为10.13 μm的泥质细粉砂样品，模拟单向气液携砂流动条件，使用绕丝筛板、金属烧结网、金属纤维、预充填陶粒4类挡砂介质在20~80 μm挡砂精度下进行挡砂模拟实验，采用显微成像系统观察挡砂介质内部及表面砂粒沉积与堵塞动态，分析介质流通性能和挡砂性能变化，总结堵塞规律、微观挡砂机制与形态及其控制因素。研究结果表明，不同类型和精度的挡砂介质对泥质细粉砂的堵塞总体呈现堵塞开始、堵塞加剧和堵塞平衡3个阶段。随着驱替进行，挡砂介质渗透率逐渐降低，幅度会高达90%以上；同时过砂速度减缓，最终过砂率为5%~10%。根据堵塞规律和微观图像分析，提出了粗组分分选桥架、局部砂团适度挡砂、整体砂桥阻挡等挡砂介质对泥质细粉砂的3种微观挡砂机制。以粗组分分选桥架挡砂机制为主的挡砂工况下，挡砂介质堵塞渗透率较高，但过砂率超过15%，挡砂效果较差；以整体砂桥挡砂机制为主时，过砂率在10%以下，挡砂性能较好，但各类挡砂介质的堵塞渗透率不足1 D，流通性能较差。局部砂团适度挡砂机制为主时介质挡砂性能及流通性能介于两者之间。挡砂介质对天然气水合物储层泥质细粉砂的微观挡砂机制和形态受挡砂介质类型、精度、地层砂特征以及流动条件等因素控制，其规律对于水合物泥质细粉砂防控砂优化有指导意义。     

Morphological study of thin films: Simulation and experimental insights using horizontal visibility graph

We studied the morphological nature of various thin films such as silicon carbide (SiC), diamond (C), germanium (Ge), and gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon substrate Si(100) using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method and Monte Carlo simulation. We, for the first time, systematically employed the visibility algorithm graph to meticulously study the morphological features of various PLD grown thin films. These thin-film morphologies are investigated using random distribution, Gaussian distribution, patterned heights, etc. The nature of the interfacial height of individual surfaces is examined by a horizontal visibility graph (HVG). It demonstrates that the continuous interfacial height of the silicon carbide, diamond, germanium, and gallium nitride films are attributed to random distribution and Gaussian distribution in thin films. However, discrete peaks are obtained in the brush and step-like morphology of germanium thin films. Further, we have experimentally verified the morphological nature of simulated silicon carbide, diamond, germanium, and gallium nitride thin films were grown on Si(100) substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at elevated temperature. Various characterization techniques have been used to study the morphological, and electrical properties which confirmed the different nature of the deposited films on the Silicon substrate. Decent hysteresis behavior has been confirmed by current-voltage (IV) measurement in all the four deposited films. The highest current has been measured for GaN at ～60 nA and the lowest current in SiC at ～30 nA level which is quite low comparing with the expected signal level (μA). The HVG technique is suitable to understand surface features of thin films which are substantially advantageous for the energy devices, detectors, optoelectronic devices operating at high temperatures.     

Comparison of Bougainvillea spectabilis and Bougainvillea glabra species inhibited in Pakistan based on microscopic studies: Light microscope and scanning electron microscope

The anatomical variations of two plants from the Nyctaginaceae family, Bougainvillea spectabilis and Bougainvillea glabra, were studied using light and scanning electron microscopy methods in this work. Bougainvillea is a dicotyledonous with defensive traits that can withstand extreme (hot and dry) settings; according to the findings, crystal inclusions in cells, woody spines, and an abnormal development pattern are all features that help them survive against predators and are unique to this species. The Bougainvillea plant's leaves are arranged in simple pattern, alternate to each other along stem having an undulate leaves edge and an oval form. The xylem and phloem, palisade, parenchyma midrib, spongy mesophyll, raphide crystal bundles, and trichomes were all visible when bracts and leaves were transversally sectioned and dyed with toluidine blue O (TBO). The presence of crystals was confirmed by a detailed examination of the transverse leaves by using bright-field and cross-polarizing microscopy. Dissecting microscopic examination showed that all the leaves revealed leaves venation pattern that had midvein, lateral veins areoles, and trichomes. Although trichomes have been identified on both sides, a closer look at a cleaned leaf dyed with TBO showed multicellular abundant trichomes on adaxial surface. Stomata complexes were typically found on the abaxial surface of the leaf according to epidermal peels. Present studies also showed that on adaxial side, stomata were lesser in number or were absent and also showed that the morphologies of the pavement cells on the adaxial and abaxial sides of the leaf differed.     

Dilated and soft attention-guided convolutional neural network for breast cancer histology images classification

Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in women, and histopathological imaging is considered the gold standard for its diagnosis. However, the great complexity of histopathological images and the considerable workload make this work extremely time-consuming, and the results may be affected by the subjectivity of the pathologist. Therefore, the development of an accurate, automated method for analysis of histopathological images is critical to this field. In this article, we propose a deep learning method guided by the attention mechanism for fast and effective classification of haematoxylin and eosin-stained breast biopsy images. First, this method takes advantage of DenseNet and uses the feature map's information. Second, we introduce dilated convolution to produce a larger receptive field. Finally, spatial attention and channel attention are used to guide the extraction of the most useful visual features. With the use of fivefold cross-validation, the best model obtained an accuracy of 96.47% on the BACH2018 dataset. We also evaluated our method on other datasets, and the experimental results demonstrated that our model has reliable performance. This study indicates that our histopathological image classifier with a soft attention-guided deep learning model for breast cancer shows significantly better results than the latest methods. It has great potential as an effective tool for automatic evaluation of digital histopathological microscopic images for computer-aided diagnosis.     

Structure-dependent activity and stability of Al2O3 supported Rh catalysts for the steam reforming of n-dodecane

Steam reforming of liquid hydrocarbon fuels is an appealing way for the production of hydrogen. In this work, the Rh/Al₂O₃ catalysts with nanorod (NR), nanofiber (NF) and sponge-shaped (SP) alumina supports were successfully designed for the steam reforming of n-dodecane as a surrogate compound for diesel/jet fuels. The catalysts before and after reaction were well characterized by using ICP, XRD, N₂ adsorption, TEM, HAADF-STEM, H₂-TPR, CO chemisorption, NH₃-TPD, CO₂-TPD, XPS, Al²⁷ NMR and TG. The results confirmed that the dispersion and surface structure of Rh species is quite dependent on the enclosed various morphologies. Rh/Al₂O₃-NR possesses highly dispersed, uniform and accessible Rh particles with the highest percentage of surface electron deficient Rh⁰ active species, which due to the unique properties of Al₂O₃ nanorod including high crystallinity, relatively large alumina particle size, thermal stability, and large pore volume and size. As a consequent, Rh/Al₂O₃-NR catalyst exhibited superior catalytic activity towards steam reforming reactions and hydrogen production rate over other two catalysts. Especially, Rh/Al₂O₃-NR catalyst showed the highest hydrogen production rate of 87,600 mmol g_fuel^?1 g_Rh^?1min^?1 among any Rh-based catalysts and other noble metal-based catalysts to date. After long-term reaction, a significant deactivation occurred on Rh/Al₂O₃–NF and Rh/Al₂O₃-SP catalysts, due to aggregation and sintering of Rh metal particles, coke deposition and poor hydrothermal stability of nanofibrous structure. In contrast, the Rh/Al₂O₃-NR catalyst shows excellent reforming stability with negligible coke formation. No significantly sintering and aggregation of the Rh particles is observed after long-term reaction. Such great catalyst stability can be explained by the role of hydrothermal stable nanorod alumina support, which not only provides a unique environment for the stabilization of uniform and small-size Rh particles but also affords strong surface basic sites.     

Quantification of Dendritic Spines Remodeling under Physiological Stimuli and in Pathological Conditions

Numerous brain diseases are associated with abnormalities in morphology and density of dendritic spines, small membranous protrusions whose structural geometry correlates with the strength of synaptic connections. Thus, the quantitative analysis of dendritic spines remodeling in microscopic images is one of the key elements towards understanding mechanisms of structural neuronal plasticity and bases of brain pathology. In the following article, we review experimental approaches designed to assess quantitative features of dendritic spines under physiological stimuli and in pathological conditions. We compare various methodological pipelines of biological models, sample preparation, data analysis, image acquisition, sample size, and statistical analysis. The methodology and results of relevant experiments are systematically summarized in a tabular form. In particular, we focus on quantitative data regarding the number of animals, cells, dendritic spines, types of studied parameters, size of observed changes, and their statistical significance.