徜徉花海

早春三月，花花草草从沉睡中醒来，带给我们无限惊喜，在我们的幻想世界中，人们都佩戴着美丽的首饰，其外表能够与毛莨，勿忘我，矢车菊和其它花朵相媲美，黎明，从花朵到露珠润湿的叶片，无不散发着隐藏的魔力。     

Polyunsaturated monoglycerides and a pregnadiene in defensive glands of the water beetle Agabus affinis

In addition to the C₂₁ steroid 15α-hydroxypregna-4,6-dien-3,20-dione, four 1- or 2-acylated polyunsaturated monoglycerides, 1- or 2-(cis-5,8,11,14-eicosatetraenoyl)-glycerol and 1- or 2-(cis-5,8,11,14,17-eicosapentaenoyl)glycerol were identified as constituents of the prothoracic defensive gland secretion of the dytiscid beetle Agabus affinis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of trimethylsilylated gland extracts. In a feeding assay with minnows, synthetic samples of the two 2-acylated monoglycerides showed only a weak activity as a feeding deterrent. For that reason, other possible functions of the monoglycerides are discussed, such as roles as emulsifiers of cannabimimetics.     

Mass transfer in 3D-printed electrolyzers: The importance of inlet effects

This article investigates the effect of inlet shape, entrance length, and turbulence promoters on mass transfer by using 3D-printed electrolyzers. Our results show that the inlet design can promote turbulence and lead to an earlier transition to turbulent flow. The Reynolds number at which the transition occurs can be predicted by the ratio of the cross-sectional area of the inlet to the cross-sectional area of the electrolyzer channel. A longer entrance length results in more laminar behavior and a later transition to turbulent flow. With an entrance length of 550 mm, the inlet design did no longer affect the mass transfer performance significantly. The addition of gyroid type turbulence promoters resulted in a factor of 2 to 4 increase in mass transfer depending on inlet design, entrance length, and the type of promoter. From one configuration to another, there was a minimal variation in pressure drop (<1600 Pa).     

Real-time hybrid predictive modeling of the Teniente Converter

The Teniente Converter (TC) is an important technology for smelting and converting copper concentrates. Due to the complexities of its autogenous operation, which combines continuous input flows with intermittent product extraction, efforts to model and control this dynamic have only been partially successful. This work presents a model of TC operation that combines phenomenological equations with empirical expressions and includes both continuous and discrete variables. Six different operating modes are described. To improve predictive capabilities, an adaptive compensation technique takes account of changes in concentrate mix characteristics. The model predicts five important variables: white metal copper concentration, slag magnetite concentration, white metal temperature, and white metal and slag levels. It is calibrated and validated with real operating data from Codelco’s Potrerillos smelter. Once the model is implemented, it delivers online estimates of process variables that are measured intermittently.Based on the model, a hybrid predictive controller is developed to control the quantities and characteristics of the TC products as a function of the number of dependent units such as Peirce-Smith converters and slag-cleaning furnaces. The controller’s performance is evaluated via simulation under a variety of operating conditions. It is currently employed in an open-loop configuration to provide suggestions on set points for the local flow controllers and on the product extraction sequences.     

Gas–liquid dynamics at low Reynolds numbers in pillared rectangular micro channels

Most heterogeneously catalyzed gas–liquid reactions in micro channels are chemically/kinetically limited because of the high gas–liquid and liquid–solid mass transfer rates that can be achieved. This motivates the design of systems with a larger surface area, which can be expected to offer higher reaction rates per unit volume of reactor. This increase in surface area can be realized by using structured micro channels. In this work, rectangular micro channels containing round pillars of 3 μm in diameter and 50 μm in height are studied. The flow regimes, gas hold-up, and pressure drop are determined for pillar pitches of 7, 12, 17, and 27 μm. Flow maps are presented and compared with flow maps of rectangular and round micro channels without pillars. The Armand correlation predicts the gas hold-up in the pillared micro channel within 3% error. Three models are derived which give the single-phase and the two-phase pressure drop as a function of the gas and liquid superficial velocities and the pillar pitches. For a pillar pitch of 27 μm, the Darcy-Brinkman equation predicts the single-phase pressure drop within 2% error. For pillar pitches of 7, 12, and 17 μm, the Blake-Kozeny equation predicts the single-phase pressure drop within 20%. The two-phase pressure drop model predicts the experimental data within 30% error for channels containing pillars with a pitch of 17 μm, whereas the Lockhart–Martinelli correlation is proven to be non-applicable for the system used in this work. The open structure and the higher production rate per unit of reactor volume make the pillared micro channel an efficient system for performing heterogeneously catalyzed gas–liquid reactions.     

Fluorinated Phosphorene: Electrochemical Synthesis,Atomistic Fluorination,and Enhanced Stability

Phosphorene has attracted great interest due to its unique electronic and optoelectronic properties owing to its tunable direct and moderate band‐gap in association with high carrier mobility. However, its intrinsic instability in air seriously hinders its practical applications, and problems of technical complexity and in‐process degradation exist in currently proposed stabilization strategies. A facile pathway in obtaining and stabilizing phosphorene through a one‐step, ionic liquid‐assisted electrochemical exfoliation and synchronous fluorination process is reported in this study. This strategy enables fluorinated phosphorene (FP) to be discovered and large‐scale, highly selective few‐layer FP (3?6 atomic layers) to be obtained. The synthesized FP is found to exhibit unique morphological and optical characteristics. Possible atomistic fluorination configurations of FP are revealed by core‐level binding energy shift calculations in combination with spectroscopic measurements, and the results indicate that electrolyte concentration significantly modulates the fluorination configurations. Furthermore, FP is found to exhibit enhanced air stability thanks to the antioxidation and antihydration effects of the introduced fluorine adatoms, and demonstrate excellent photothermal stability during a week of air exposure. These findings pave the way toward real applications of phosphorene‐based nanophotonics.     

Bidirectional NDVI and atmospherically resistant BRDF inversion for vegetation canopy

The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has been widely applied in optical remote sensing. However, it has been demonstrated that NDVI is still partially affected by atmospheric path scattering and bidirectional (illumination and viewing geometry) effects. In this paper we present the benefit of using a bidirectional NDVI, and we discuss the problems in using the maximum NDVI composite method. Based on the assumption that a clear day has a larger NDVI value and a cloudy day has a smaller NDVI value (smaller reflectance in the near-infrared band and larger reflectance in red band due to atmospheric path scattering), the ratio of squared observed NDVI values and calculated NDVI values is used as a weight in our inversion method. The calculated NDVI values are derived from previously inverted bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDFs). The inversion process will loop until all weights converge. Our research on the early Terra/MODIS data using a semiempirical kernel-driven BRDF model (the RossThick-LiTransit model) shows that this new method can improve inversion results whenever some cloudy pixels are not filtered out. As cloud detection and subpixel cloudiness are always a problem, this technique should still be very useful in improving the quality of BRDF inversion.