Crystalline phase of TiO2 nanotube arrays on Ti–35Nb–4Zr alloy: Surface roughness,electrochemical behavior and cellular response

An investigation was made into the electrochemical, structural and biological properties of self-organized amorphous and anatase/rutile titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanotubes deposited on Ti–35Nb–4Zr alloy through anodization-induced surface modification. The surface of as-anodized and heat-treated TiO₂ nanotubes was analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), revealing morphological parameters such as tube diameter, wall thickness and cross-sectional length. Glancing angle X-ray diffraction (GAXRD) was employed to identify the structural phases of titanium dioxide, while atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to measure surface roughness associated with cell interaction properties. The electrochemical stability of TiO₂ was examined by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and the results obtained were correlated with the microstructural characterization. The in vitro bioactivity of as-anodized and crystallized TiO₂ nanotubes was also analyzed as a function of the presence of different TiO₂ polymorphic phases. The results indicated that anatase TiO₂ showed higher surface corrosion resistance and greater cell viability than amorphous TiO₂, confirming that TiO₂ nanotube crystallization plays an important role in the material's electrochemical behavior and biocompatibility.     

The Age-Sensitive Efficacy of Calorie Restriction on Mitochondrial Biogenesis and mtDNA Damage in Rat Liver

Calorie restriction (CR) is the most efficacious treatment to delay the onset of age-related changes such as mitochondrial dysfunction. However, the sensitivity of mitochondrial markers to CR and the age-related boundaries of CR efficacy are not fully elucidated. We used liver samples from ad libitum-fed (AL) rats divided in: 18-month-old (AL-18), 28-month-old (AL-28), and 32-month-old (AL-32) groups, and from CR-treated (CR) 28-month-old (CR-28) and 32-month-old (CR-32) counterparts to assay the effect of CR on several mitochondrial markers. The age-related decreases in citrate synthase activity, in TFAM, MFN2, and DRP1 protein amounts and in the mtDNA content in the AL-28 group were prevented in CR-28 counterparts. Accordingly, CR reduced oxidative mtDNA damage assessed through the incidence of oxidized purines at specific mtDNA regions in CR-28 animals. These findings support the anti-aging effect of CR up to 28 months. Conversely, the protein amounts of LonP1, Cyt c, OGG1, and APE1 and the 4.8 Kb mtDNA deletion content were not affected in CR-28 rats. The absence of significant differences between the AL-32 values and the CR-32 counterparts suggests an age-related boundary of CR efficacy at this age. However, this only partially curtails the CR benefits in counteracting the generalized aging decline and the related mitochondrial involvement.     

基于改进SOA-VMD的磁声发射信号去噪算法

磁声发射（MAE）是铁磁性材料磁化过程中产生的声发射信号，在构件应力检测和微观损伤检测中有着广泛的应用。针对MAE信号非稳态、复杂性、衰减性等特点，提出海鸥算法结合变分模态分解（SOA-VMD）的去噪方法，为克服海鸥算法求解过程中易陷入局部最优解问题，利用柯西变异算子产生随机迭代过程，使改进算法即柯西变异海欧算法（CVSOA）跳出早熟收敛。采用以幅值谱熵为适应度函数，优化VMD算法中分解模态个数K和二次惩戒因子α两个参数，将含噪声的MAE信号进行VMD分解重构。经仿真信号和实际检测信号分析表明，改进后的CVSOA-VMD算法全局寻优能力和去噪性能优于传统的SOA-VMD算法，降噪后的MAE信号特征值对于不同应力下均方根、偏斜度特征值的重复性更好，可靠性更高。     

Description of the thermodynamic properties and fluid-phase behavior of aqueous solutions of linear,branched, and cyclic amines

The SAFT-γ Mie group-contribution equation of state is used to represent the fluid-phase behavior of aqueous solutions of a variety of linear, branched, and cyclic amines. New group interactions are developed in order to model the mixtures of interest, including the like and unlike interactions between alkyl primary, secondary, and tertiary amine groups (NH₂, NH, N), cyclic secondary and tertiary amine groups (cNH, cN), and cyclic methine-amine groups (cCHNH, cCHN) with water (H₂O). The group-interaction parameters are estimated from appropriate experimental thermodynamic data for pure amines and selected mixtures. By taking advantage of the group-contribution nature of the method, one can describe the fluid-phase behavior of mixtures of molecules comprising those groups over broad ranges of temperature, pressure, and composition. A number of aqueous solutions of amines are studied including linear, branched aliphatic, and cyclic amines. Liquid–liquid equilibria (LLE) bounded by lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) have been reported experimentally and are reproduced here with the SAFT-γ Mie approach. The main feature of the approach is the ability not only to represent accurately the experimental data employed in the parameter estimation, but also to predict the vapor–liquid, liquid–liquid, and vapor–liquid–liquid equilibria, and LCSTs with the same set of parameters. Pure compound and binary phase diagrams of diverse types of amines and their aqueous solutions are assessed in order to demonstrate the main features of the thermodynamic and fluid-phase behavior.     

Performance evaluation of basalt fiber-reinforced geopolymer composites with various contents of nano CaCO3

High carbon footprint of cement production is the major drawback of plain cement concrete resulting in environmental pollution. Geopolymer composites paste can be effectively used as an alternative to Portland cement in the construction industry for a sustainable environment. The demand for high-performance composites and sustainable construction is increasing day by day. Therefore, the present experimental program has endeavored to investigate the mechanical performance of basalt fiber-reinforced fly ash-based geopolymer pastes with various contents of nano CaCO₃. The content of basalt fibers was fixed at 2% by weight for all specimens while the studied contents of nano CaCO₃ were 0%, 1%, 2%, and 3%, respectively. The compressive strength, compressive stress-strain response, flexural strength, bending stress-strain response, elastic modulus, toughness modulus, toughness indices, fracture toughness, impact strength, hardness, and microstructural analysis of all four geopolymer composite pastes with varying contents of nano CaCO₃ using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were evaluated. The results revealed that the use of 3% nano CaCO₃ in basalt fiber-reinforced geopolymer paste presented the highest values of compressive strength and hardness while the use of 2% nano CaCO₃ showed the highest values of flexural strength, impact strength, and fracture toughness of composite paste. The SEM results indicated that the addition of nano CaCO₃ improved the microstructure and provided a denser geopolymer paste by refining the interfacial zones and accelerating the geopolymerization reaction.     

Relationships of tensile strength with crosslink density for the high-carbon black-filled EPDM compounds with various softeners

Equilibrium swelling and rheological tests were adopted to systematically investigate the effects of softener type and dosage on the crosslink densities. The results turned out that the chemical crosslink density could be distinguished from the physical crosslink density by comparing the results of equilibrium swelling and rheological tests. The liquid butadiene (LB) as a softener leads to the greatest reduction in crosslink density, followed by polyethylene wax (PW) and paraffinic oil (PO). The tensile strength decreases with increasing PO content while shows peak values with increase of LB and PW contents. The dependencies of chemical crosslink density on the aging time under 150°C are quite different for the three softeners, which can be expected from the double crosslinking networks consisting of small softener and large main crosslinking networks. Further investigation has been performed to correlate the tensile strength with chemical crosslink density of ethylene propylene diene monomer elastomer vulcanizates. Three different linear relationships can be obtained for the softeners independent of the aging time. It can now be expected from this study that the role of some new softeners in rubber compounds is not only confined to plasticization but also forms crosslinking networks in the peroxide-cured rubbers.     

异种铁素体耐热钢接头界面组织及其影响

综述了铁素体与铁素体异种金属焊缝（dissimilar metal welds，DMWs）接头界面组织及其影响。结果表明，在焊后热处理或运行温度下的铁素体钢DMWs接头的不均匀界面组织中，通常会形成脱碳层和增碳层。在铁素体钢DMWs焊接接头界面组织影响因素中，焊缝金属的化学成分有重要影响；焊后热处理规范（温度和时间）、工作温度下运行时间的影响较为突出；焊接工艺参数的影响亦不可忽略。异种钢接头界面处近缝区裂纹的产生，以及接头的蠕变强度随Larson Miller 参数增大而下降等不利影响，均为异种钢界面碳迁移行为所导致。焊缝成分控制法是接头界面组织控制或改善的必要条件，而脱碳层部位转移法能有效防止裂纹发生，亦是接头安全运行的重要工艺措施之一。     

Charge source and the charging mechanism of the contact electrification of polymer powder

The charge sources, as well as the charging mechanism of the contact electrification (CE) of polymers, are still debatable. Since CE is accompanied by destruction, it is considered that “hard contacting” via ball milling can induce covalent bond scission and produce naked-activated-charge sources. Regarding “soft contacting” via nano-scale sliding, which does not induce covalent bond scission, a frontier-electron, “f-electron,” of the naked-activated-charge source is crucial to electron transfer among the naked-activated-charge sources. Here, we configure naked-activated-charge-source models, naked-activated-mechano-anion, and naked-activated-mechano-cation, which are produced by mechanical energy induced heterogeneous covalent bond scission, as well as naked-activated-mechano-radicals that are produced by homogeneous covalent bond scission. Regarding “soft contacting” among naked-activated-charge sources in a vacuum, f-electron can be transferred from a donor to an acceptor if the energy level of the donor is higher than that of the acceptor. The net amount of the normalized transferred-f-electrons is obtained by adopting settings in which the average energy level of the naked-activated-charge sources (as the donors) is higher than that of the sources employed as acceptors. Thus, the surfaces comprising the donors and acceptors will exhibit positive and negative net surface charges, respectively. We conclude that net surface charges depend on the average energy level of naked-activated-charge sources. Further, we observe that the alignment of polyethylene (PE)-polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to the average energy level is identical to that of the triboelectric series.