Authenticity green coffee bean species and geographical origin using near-infrared spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

To prevent the adulteration of agricultural resources and provide a solution to enhance the green coffee bean supply chain, authentication using the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique was investigated. Partial least square with discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) models combined with various preprocessing methods were built from NIR spectra of 153 Vietnamese green coffee samples. The model combined with the standard normal variate and the first order of derivative yielded excellent performance in predicting coffee species with the error cross-validation of 0.0261. PLS-DA model of mean centre and first-order derivative spectra also yielded good performance in verifying geographical indication of green coffee with the error of 0.0656. By contrast, the predicting abilities of post-harvest methods were poor. The overall results showed a high potential of the NIRS in online authentication practices.     

Identification of the Primary Factors Determining the Specificity of Human VKORC1 Recognition by Thioredoxin-Fold Proteins

Redox (reduction–oxidation) reactions control many important biological processes in all organisms, both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. This reaction is usually accomplished by canonical disulphide-based pathways involving a donor enzyme that reduces the oxidised cysteine residues of a target protein, resulting in the cleavage of its disulphide bonds. Focusing on human vitamin K epoxide reductase (hVKORC1) as a target and on four redoxins (protein disulphide isomerase (PDI), endoplasmic reticulum oxidoreductase (ERp18), thioredoxin-related transmembrane protein 1 (Tmx1) and thioredoxin-related transmembrane protein 4 (Tmx4)) as the most probable reducers of VKORC1, a comparative in-silico analysis that concentrates on the similarity and divergence of redoxins in their sequence, secondary and tertiary structure, dynamics, intraprotein interactions and composition of the surface exposed to the target is provided. Similarly, hVKORC1 is analysed in its native state, where two pairs of cysteine residues are covalently linked, forming two disulphide bridges, as a target for Trx-fold proteins. Such analysis is used to derive the putative recognition/binding sites on each isolated protein, and PDI is suggested as the most probable hVKORC1 partner. By probing the alternative orientation of PDI with respect to hVKORC1, the functionally related noncovalent complex formed by hVKORC1 and PDI was found, which is proposed to be a first precursor to probe thiol–disulphide exchange reactions between PDI and hVKORC1.     

In Vivo Albumin-Binding of a C-Functionalized Cyclam Platform for 64Cu-PET/CT Imaging in Breast Cancer Model

An improved glucose-chelator-albumin bioconjugate (GluCAB) derivative, GluCAB-2^Mal, has been synthesized and studied for in vivo ⁶⁴Cu-PET/CT imaging in breast cancer mice models together with its first-generation analogue GluCAB-1^Mal. The radioligand works on the principle of tumor targeting through the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect with a supportive role played by glucose metabolism. [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-GluCAB-2^Mal (99 % RCP) exhibited high serum stability with immediate binding to serum proteins. In vivo experiments for comparison between tumor targeting of [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-GluCAB-2^Mal and previous-generation [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-GluCAB-1^Mal encompassed microPET/CT imaging and biodistribution analysis in an allograft E0771 breast cancer mouse model. Tumor uptake of [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-GluCAB-2^Mal was clearly evident with twice as much accumulation as compared to its predecessor and a tumor/muscle ratio of up to 5 after 24 h. Further comparison indicated a decrease in liver accumulation for [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-Glu-CAB-2^Mal.     

Effect of Cu-Rich Phase Precipitation on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of CoCrNiCux Medium-Entropy Alloys Prepared via Laser Directed Energy Deposition

CoCrNiCux (x=0.16,0.33,0.75,and 1) without macro-segregation medium-entropy alloys (MEAs) was prepared using laser directed energy deposition (LDED).The microstructure and mechanical properties of CoCrNiCux alloys with increas-ing Cu content were investigated.The results indicate that a single matrix phase changes into a dual-phase structure and the tensile fracture behaviors convert from brittle to plastic pattern with increasing Cu content in CoCrNiCux alloys.In addi-tion,the tensile strength of CoCrNiCux alloys increased from 148 to 820 MPa,and the ductility increased from 1 to 11％with increasing Cu content.The nano-precipitated particles had a mean size of approximately 20 nm in the Cu-rich phase area,and a large number of neatly arranged misfit dislocations were observed at the interface between the two phases due to Cu-rich phase precipitation in the CoCrNiCu alloy.These misfit dislocations hinder the movement of dislocations during tensile deformation,as observed through transmission electron microscopy.This allows the CoCrNiCu alloy to reach the largest tensile strength and plasticity,and a new strengthening mechanism was achieved for the CoCrNiCu alloy.Moreover,twins were observed in the matrix phase after tensile fracture.Simultaneously,the dual-phase structure with different elastic moduli coordinated with each other during the deformation process,significantly improving the plasticity and strength of the CoCrNiCu alloy.     

Preparation of transparent BaSO4 nanodispersions by high-gravity reactive precipitation combined with surface modification for transparent X-ray shielding nanocomposite films

BaSO₄ nanoparticles as important functional materials have attracted considerable research interests, due to their X-rays barrier and absorption properties. However, most of BaSO₄ nanoparticles prepared by traditional technology are nanopowders with broad size distribution and poor dispersibility, which may greatly limit their applications. To the best of our knowledge, the synthesis of transparent BaSO₄ nanodispersions was rarely reported. Here, we firstly present a novel and efficient method to prepare transparent and stable BaSO₄ nanodispersions with a relatively small particle size around 10 to 17 nm using a precipitation method in a rotating packed bed (RPB), followed by a modification treatment using stearic acid. Compared with the BaSO₄ prepared in a traditional stirred tank, the product prepared using an RPB has much smaller particle size and narrower size distribution. More importantly, by using RPB, the reaction time can be significantly decreased from 20 min to 18 s. Furthermore, the transparent BaSO₄-polyvinyl butyral nanocomposite films with good X-ray shielding performance can be easily fabricated. We believe that the stable BaSO₄ nanodispersions may have a wide range of applications for transparent composite materials and coatings with X-ray shielding performance for future research.     

Effects of Solution Treatment Temperatures on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of TIG–MIG Hybrid Arc Additive Manufactured 5356 Aluminum Alloy

A novel additive manufacturing method with TIG–MIG hybrid heat source was applied for fabricating 5356 aluminum alloy component. In this paper the microstructure evolution, mechanical properties and fracture morphologies of both as-deposited and heat-treated component were investigated, and how these were affected by different heat-treated temperature. The as-deposited microstructure showed dominant equiaxed grains with second phase, and the size of them is coarse in the bottom region, medium in the middle region and fine in the top region owing to different thermal cycling conditions. Compared with as-deposited microstructure, the size of grain becomes large and second phases gradually dissolve in the matrix as heat-treated temperature increase. Different microstructures determine the mechanical properties of component. Results show that average ultimate tensile strength enhances from 226 to 270 MPa and average microhardness increases from 64.2 to 75.3 HV0.1 but ductility decreases from 33 to 6.5% with heat-treated temperature increasing. For all components, the tensile properties are almost the same in the vertical direction (Z) and horizontal direction (Y) due to equiaxed grains, which exhibits isotropy, and the mechanisms of these are analyzed in detailed. In general, the results demonstrate that hybrid arc heat source has the potential to fabricate aluminum alloy component.     

等温退火对8030铝合金导线组织性能的影响

研究了不同等温退火工艺对8030铝合金导线组织及性能的影响。结果表明:等温退火前后合金均由α-Al基体和Al₆Fe相组成。在同一等温温度下,随着等温时间的延长组织逐渐趋于均匀化;同一等温时间下,随着等温温度的升高,组织趋于均匀化的时间缩短。经过等温退火处理后铝合金导线的导电率均有所提高,在470 ℃均匀化退火24 h后再经240 ℃等温4 h,合金导电率达到最高值57.21%IACS,比未经热处理试样的导电率提高了2.4%IACS。经过等温退火处理后铝合金导线的硬度及抗拉强度均有所降低,塑性大幅度提高。在470 ℃均匀化退火24 h后再经260 ℃等温8 h,合金的伸长率最高可达23.64%。热处理前后合金均为塑性断裂。     

新能源实时错误数据辨识与修正深度学习模型

针对新能源电站实时采集数据错误的问题，利用新能源电站历史数据，采用基于数据间模型的方法辨识和修正错误数据，进而利用辨识和修正的结果数据，建立基于决策树分类模型的新能源实时错数辨识模型，以及基于深度神经网路的新能源实时错数修正模型，从而在实时运行过程中，可利用得到的模型对新能源错数进行实时快速辨识和修正，可显著提高错数辨识和修正效率，支撑新能源电站的实时分析应用，保障新能源电站的实时安全稳定运行。通过某典型风电场和光伏电站真实历史数据的算例分析，验证了所提方法的有效性。     

Fault detection and identification for a class of continuous piecewise affine systems with unknown subsystems and partitions

This paper establishes a novel online fault detection and identification strategy for a class of continuous piecewise affine (PWA) systems, namely, bimodal and trimodal PWA systems. The main contributions with respect to the state‐of‐the‐art are the recursive nature of the proposed scheme and the consideration of parametric uncertainties in both partitions and in subsystems parameters. In order to handle this situation, we recast the continuous PWA into its max‐form representation and we exploit the recursive Newton‐Gauss algorithm on a suitable cost function to derive the adaptive laws to estimate online the unknown subsystem parameters, the partitions, and the loss in control authority for the PWA model. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is verified via simulations applied to the benchmark example of a wheeled mobile robot.