Reducing treatment of coppersmelting slag: Thermodynamic analysis of impurities behavior

A thermodynamic mathematical model, describing behavior of Pb, Zn, and As during reducing slag cleaning in the Vanyukov furnace has been developed. Using a developed model, the influence of different factors, such as temperature, oxygen partial pressure, the ratio of the formed phases on the behavior of impurities, was analyzed. It was found that arsenic can significantly move to the bottom phase, and zinc can be significantly vaporized under conditions in the Vanyukov furnace.     

Study of the transport properties of organic semiconductors based on europium diphthalocyanine and bi-tris-phthalocyanine complexes with <Emphasis Type=Italic>ortho</Emphasis>-bis(oxymethyl)phenyl bridge and based on erbium and europium dinaphthalocyanine complexes

The transport properties of organic semiconductors based on europium diphthalocyanine and bitris-phthalocyanine complexes with ortho-bis(oxymethyl)phenyl bridge and based on europium and erbium dinaphthalocyanine are studied. The temperature dependences of the dc conductivity for all types of the structures under study are obtained; it is shown that all dependences include two activation portions. For high-temperature portions, the activation energies are determined as 0.85 eV for europium diphthalocyanine with the ortho-bis(oxymethyl)phenyl bridge, 1.135 eV for europium bi-tris-phthalocyanine with the orthobis(oxymethyl)phenyl bridge, 0.98 eV for europium dinaphthalocyanine, and 1.18 eV for erbium dinaphthalocyanine. For the low-temperature activation portion, it is shown that lanthanide ions and their bond with a ligand make the dominant contribution to the conductivity of the structures under study.     

Possibilities of production of nanopowders with high power ELV electron accelerator

Electron-beam evaporation of various natural and industrial materials in the atmosphere of different gases at atmospheric pressure can be used for the synthesis of nanosize powders. These powders are characterized by high purity and may exhibit unusual properties. In particular, nanopowders of silicon dioxide and oxide (SiO₂, SiO), magnesia (MgO), alumina (Al₂O₃), titania (TiO₂), gadolinium oxide (Gd₂O₃), various metals (tantalum, molybdenum, nickel, aluminium, copper, silver), semiconductor (Si), nitrides (AlN, TiN), and some other substances had been produced. The process of nanopowder synthesis is highly effective; in particular, the yield of oxides can exceed ten kilograms per hour.     

Thermally Stable, Latent Olefin Metathesis Catalysts

Highly thermally stable N-aryl,N-alkyl N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ruthenium catalysts were designed and synthesized for latent olefin metathesis. These catalysts showed excellent latent behavior toward metathesis reactions, whereby the complexes were inactive at ambient temperature and initiated at elevated temperatures, a challenging property to achieve with second generation catalysts. A sterically hindered N-tert-butyl substituent on the NHC ligand of the ruthenium complex was found to induce latent behavior toward cross-metathesis reactions, and exchange of the chloride ligands for iodide ligands was necessary to attain latent behavior during ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). Iodide-based catalysts showed no reactivity toward ROMP of norbornene-derived monomers at 25 °C, and upon heating to 85 °C gave complete conversion of monomer to polymer in less than 2 hours. All of the complexes were very stable to air, moisture, and elevated temperatures up to at least 90 °C, and exhibited a long catalyst lifetime in solution at elevated temperatures.     

Ultrasound velocity and adiabatic compressibility of molten GdCl<Subscript>3</Subscript> and its solutions in potassium chloride

The ultrasound velocity in the melts of gadolinium chloride and its mixtures with potassium chloride is measured as a function of the temperature and composition, and their adiabatic compressibilities are calculated. A relation is established between the relative deviations of these properties from their values for hypothetic ideal solutions.     

Range-only measurements based target following for wheeled mobile robots

We consider the problem of navigation and guidance of a wheeled mobile robot towards a maneuvering target based on the measurements concerning only the distance from the robot to the target. We propose a sliding mode controller that drives the robot to the predefined distance from the target and makes the robot follow the target at this distance. Mathematically rigorous proof of convergence and stability of the proposed guidance law is presented. Simulation results confirm the applicability and performance of the proposed guidance approach.     

A novel clipping technique for filtering FM signals embedded in intensive noise

A novel adaptive clipping technique for filtering a constant amplitude frequency modulated (FM) signal embedded in non-Gaussian noise is proposed. It is based on the analysis and processing of the estimate of probability density function of a FM signal realization. As a result, modifications of two robust estimators of FM signal amplitude are proposed. It is shown that these estimators can be used for Gaussian and non-Gaussian heavy-tail environments. The proposed clipping technique can exploit one or another obtained robust estimate of the signal amplitude for adaptive setting a threshold. Analysis of signal estimate accuracy for different noise environments is carried out. Comparative analysis of the obtained methods and known approaches based on scanning window nonlinear filtering and optimal robust L-DFT form is performed. It is demonstrated that the usage of clipping-based technique leads to the considerable improvement of the FM signal filtering efficiency in comparison to the aforementioned known approaches for different noise environments and a wide range of input SNR values.     

Beyond Hemostasis: Platelet Innate Immune Interactions and Thromboinflammation

There is accumulating evidence that platelets play roles beyond their traditional functions in thrombosis and hemostasis, e.g., in inflammatory processes, infection and cancer, and that they interact, stimulate and regulate cells of the innate immune system such as neutrophils, monocytes and macrophages. In this review, we will focus on platelet activation in hemostatic and inflammatory processes, as well as platelet interactions with neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages. We take a closer look at the contributions of major platelet receptors GPIb, α_IIbβ₃, TLT-1, CLEC-2 and Toll-like receptors (TLRs) as well as secretions from platelet granules on platelet–neutrophil aggregate and neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation in atherosclerosis, transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) and COVID-19. Further, we will address platelet–monocyte and macrophage interactions during cancer metastasis, infection, sepsis and platelet clearance.