Acquisition of amino acids by Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus 2038 when grown in the presence of casein

The acquisition of amino acids by Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus 2038 (Lb. bulgaricus 2038) when grown in the presence of bovine casein, the major protein in bovine milk, was investigated by examining the expression of genes related to proteolysis and amino acid biosynthesis. To support the growth on bovine casein, Lb. bulgaricus 2038 has to synthesise five kinds of amino acids de novo, as proteolysis from casein does not provide these. The incomplete hydrolysis in combination with amino acids biosynthesis may explain the slow growth of Lb. bulgaricus 2038 in a casein environment. Meanwhile, it was determined that Lb. bulgaricus 2038 uses different intracellular peptidases when grown in casein or whey medium, and initially yields the important amino acid glutamate from the C-terminal or N-terminal end of peptides imported into the cell.     

Fabrication and characterization of Li3TaO4 ceramic pebbles by wet process

Lithium-containing ceramics have long been recognized as the tritium breeding materials in the fusion–fission or fusion reactor blanket. Li₃TaO₄ (lithium orthotantalate) pebbles, with high melting point (～1406 °C), good thermal stability, and high thermal conductivity, were fabricated by wet process (freeze–drying) as a new potential candidate of tritium breeder. The diameter of ceramic pebbles is 0.7–1.0 mm, density is over 90% (TD), pore diameter is 1.86 μm (a.v), grain size is 15 μm (a.v), crush load is up to 46.7 N (a.v).     

TiO2 ALD decorated CuO/BiVO4 p-n heterojunction for improved photoelectrochemical water splitting

Bismuth vanadate (BiVO₄) is a promising photoanode material owing to the narrow bandgap, appropriate band position, and excellent resistance against photocorrosion, however, the performance of photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is largely limited by the poor carrier separation and transport ability. To address these issues, for the first time, we fabricate BiVO₄ film/CuO nanocone p-n junctions as photoanodes by combing a facile spin-coating process and water bath reaction. This structure strengthens the light harvesting and promotes the charge separation and transport ability. The surface defects states are passivated by coating conformally ultrathin TiO₂ onto CuO surface through atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. Benefiting from the favorable morphology, energy band, and surface treatment, the BiVO₄/CuO/TiO₂ heterojunction generates an improved photocurrent that is much higher than pure BiVO₄. The detailed mechanism investigations indicate that the synergetic optimization of charge separation and injection efficiency in the bulk and surface of photoelectrodes can significantly improve the performance of PEC cells.     

机载光电稳瞄平台的线性自抗扰控制

为了提高机载光电稳瞄平台的抗扰动能力和动态响应特性,在平台上进行了基于线性自抗扰控制的改进控制方法研究。改进的线性自抗扰控制器采用模型辅助的降阶线性扩张状态观测器以及采用系统输出量和输出量微分来产生控制量,不仅可以减小观测器的相位滞后和观测负担,提高观测器对扰动的估计能力,还可以减小观测器滞后和估计误差对控制律的影响。仿真实验结果表明:改进的线性自抗扰控制器在低中频段具有更好的频域特性,阶跃响应实验中表现出更好的动态响应特性,在系统输入为零的条件下,给系统施加幅值为、频率为2.5 Hz的正弦波力矩扰动和正弦波角速度扰动,基于线性自抗扰控制器的系统输出残差峰值分别为0.175（）/s与0.566（）/s,基于改进的线性自抗扰控制器的系统输出残差峰值分别为0.155（）/s与0.030（）/s,实验结果验证了改进方法的有效性。     

Optimization of content of components over activated carbon catalyst on CO2 reforming of methane using multi-response surface methodology

To accurately and efficiently optimize the component content of the catalyst is one important strategy to fabricate robust catalysts. By multi-response surface methodology (RSM), this study chose promising metal components (Co, Ce, and W) supported over activated carbon as a catalyst to investigate the catalytic activity of CO₂–CH₄ reforming. First, the center point of the center-complex design (CCD) based on RSM was determined by single-factor experiment, Co, W and Ce were loaded with 10.1 wt%, 9.7 wt%, and 9.2 wt%, respectively. Then, the three-factor and five-level CCD was exhibited. Four well-matched quadratic regression models (R² is close to 1) were developed to gain a better understanding of the effects of the individual component content and their interactions on CH₄ conversion, CO₂ conversion, H₂ yield, and CO yield. The results showed that W content was the most important negative parameter affecting the conversion of CH₄ and CO₂, while the Co and Ce content played a significant positive role in the catalyst performance. The interactive effects of all different component content imposed a significant effect on the CO₂ conversion and CO yield. At last, the content optimization suggested that the optimal catalytic activity was achieved at the content of Co, W, and Ce of 10.6 wt%, 6.5 wt%, and 8.6 wt%, respectively, which was validated by a mean error of less than 2.2%.     

Radiation effects in SiC for nuclear structural applications

Silicon carbide has enjoyed both fundamental study and practical application since the early days of nuclear materials science. In the past decade, with the increased interest in increasing efficiency, solving the real issues of waste disposal, and the constant mission to improve safety of nuclear reactors, silicon carbide has become even more attractive. The purpose of this paper is to discuss recent research that not only strives to understand the remarkable radiation stability of this material, but also the practical application of silicon carbide as waste form and for fission and fusion power applications.     

Fast algorithm based on the sole- and multi-depth texture measurements for HEVC intra coding

In High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), intra coding plays an important role, but also involves huge computational complexity due to a flexible coding unit (CU) structure and a large number of prediction modes. This paper presents a fast algorithm based on the sole- and multi-depth texture measurements to reduce the complexity from CU size and prediction mode decisions. For the CU size decision, evaluation results in the CU coding with one and multiple depths are utilized to classify CUs into heterogeneous, homogeneous, depth-prominent and other ones. Fast CU size decisions are made for different kinds of CUs. For the prediction mode decision, the tendencies for different CU sizes are detected based on multiple depths. The number of searching modes is decreased adaptively for the CU size with fewer tendencies. Experimental results show the proposed algorithm by off-line training reduces 53.32% computational complexity, with 1.47% bit-rate increasing.     

Mechanical reinforcement while remaining electrical insulation of glass fibre/polymer composites using core–shell CNT@SiO2 hybrids as fillers

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been widely used as mechanical reinforcement agents of composites. However, their aggregations, weak interfacial interaction with polymer, as well as high electrical conductivity limit their use in some especial applications. In this paper, the silicon oxide (SiO₂)-coated (CNT@SiO₂) core–shell hybrids with different SiO₂ thickness were prepared and employed to reinforce glass fibre-reinforced bismaleimide–triazine (BT) resin (GFRBT) composites. The results indicated the mechanical properties, including tensile strength and Young’s modulus increased with the increase of SiO₂ thickness and CNT@SiO₂ loading. Such enhanced mechanical properties were mainly attributed to the intrinsically nature of CNTs, homogeneous dispersion of the hybrids, as well as improved interfacial interaction. Meanwhile, the composites remained high electrical insulation (9.63 × 10¹² Ω cm) due to the existence of SiO₂ layer on CNT surface. This study will guide the design of functionalized CNTs and the construction of high-performance composites.     

Construction of heterostructured g-C3N4@TiATA/Pt composites for efficacious photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Construction of heterostructured photocatalysts is a feasible method for improving hydrogen production from water splitting because of its good charge transport efficiency. Herein, we coupled the Ti-MOFs (TiATA) with metal-free graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) to synthesize composites, g-C₃N₄@TiATA, in which a heterostructure was formed between g-C₃N₄ and TiATA. The establishment of heterojunctions not only broadens the light absorption range of g-C₃N₄@TiATA (490 nm) by contrast with g-C₃N₄ (456 nm), but also greatly accelerates charge migration. Photocatalytic studies present that the construction of heterostructure steering the charges flow from g-C₃N₄ to TiATA and then delivery to the cocatalyst of Pt nanoparticles, exhibiting an impressively photocatalytic hydrogen production rate (265.8 μmol·h⁻¹) in assistance of 300 W Xenon lamp, which is about 3.4 times as much as g-C₃N₄/Pt.     

Development of a rapid magnetic bead-based immunoassay for sensitive detection of zearalenone

Here we demonstrate a novel magnetic bead-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (MB-ELISA) for zearalenone (ZEN) detection. Firstly, an anti-ZEN monoclonal antibody (mAb) was prepared by hybridoma technique, and immobilized on carboxyl modified MBs to obtain mAb-MBs. In addition, the biotinylated ZEN-BSA was labelled by streptavidin-HRP for use as competitor. Based on the mAb-MBs and streptavidin-HRP labelled ZEN-BSA, a MB-ELISA which contains only one 20 min antigen-antibody reaction step and takes no more than 45 min for dozens of samples analysis was developed. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) and limit of detection (LOD) of the MB-ELISA are 1.78 ng/mL and 0.13 ng/mL, respectively. And the MB-ELISA working range for corn samples analysis is from 5.0 μg/kg to 255.2 μg/kg. The recoveries for ZEN spiked corn samples ranged from 82.3 to 110.5% with coefficient of variation (CV) under 8.9%. For natural corn samples analysis, the results of MB-ELISA showed good agreement with the results of conventional direct competitive ELISA (R² = 0.9742).